Day 2 Day radishes

January 28/ Myra at the courthouse

For two and a half days Myra has been in the King County Court House in Seattle on a jury.

The defendant was a young very articulate black man. He had been booked for possession of cocaine. Both the prosecuting attorney and the Public Defender were in agreement on the facts. The police had searched the defendants car . The young man was okay with having the trunk searched, but when the police found a jacket, the man suddenly became upset with the jacket being there, especially when a bag of cocaine was pulled from the pocket. He was booked. Only later in the court room did the defendant say it was not his jacket. 

Now obviously, I was not there, so the details here could be askew. This trial took two and a half days. At three o’clock of the first day, the case went to the jury about three. Deliberation that day was 2 hours and the final verdict was on Wednesday before noon after spending day two sequestered. It was a hung jury. Three voted guilty, and nine voted not guilty.

Myra was in the group of three which also included an old lady who had to ride the bus in from a long away to the court house those three days.

The rational for not convicting was first, that the defendant said that he was not guilty. Two, why had the attorney not brought in the man who the defendant said that jacket belonged to. Three, if this was the third strike for the man, it would ruin his life forever. Four, the man had likely had a hard life. Myra and the old lady said that the defendant was guilty, they would not change their vote. Myra explained that it was not her job to decide if the man had a hard life. Her job was to convict or not. Myra said that she was self employed, and this was costing her money, she could stay forever, but the man was guilty.

This hung jury case will not be retried, which is good because there is no room in the jail.

january 28/ Thin happenings

I forget when I started Paul McKenna’s I Can Make You Thin program, but it is late in the second week. I have no idea if I have lost weight, but my husband has lost a few pounds even though he is not on the program. I have not stepped on a scaled before I started, or since. I listen to the CD every night, and although now I am falling asleep, Paul says it still works. But here is what I have noticed. My posture has improved. I am moving more during the day. And I am no longer an active Clean the Plate club member.

January 28/ stimulus package

One really has to take this new Obama proposed stimulus package which Congress is considering to your own examination.

Does it in fact stimulate?

To whom will the money go? How do you know that?

Do you know what is in the bill? 

How soon will it stimulate? We know here in Seattle the replacement of our Viaduct has not even been started after many years because there is no agreement on the plan. We have been taxed a gas tax all those years and yet nothing has happened except millions of dollars on study. Infrastructure would take years to get new bridges started?

What is the price to us of the package?

There is the fiscal price of repayment a trillion dollars which is expected to be taken care of by our children, our grandchildren and maybe our great grandchildren? Do you believe this to be fair? Does the end justify the means?

Are you ready to have the government making the decisions for the businesses, organizations, and groups because the parties to whom the government gave the money are now indebted? For example, if General Motors takes money from the government, the government can suggest what kind of car should be built.

Are there alternatives to this stimulus package?

I think there are. I think big tax cuts to businesses to hire more people, reducing some government restriction and letting creativity fly is good. One could ask, is this how we got into this mess? No it is not how we got in this mess.

But I do believe that there are a lot of great entrepreneurs in our country, people who like to work, want to work and most importantly would like to hire other people. But the cost of doing business in this country is so taxed making employing others  impossible.

January 26/ Nancy Pelosi's brings forth a new economic strategem

What a piece of work Queen Nancy Pelosi is! She has stated that nothing would surpass her satisfaction more that being a Mom five times. So now she feels that cutting back on our population with more birth control would help us out of our current economic crisis. No Nancy, what would have helped us out of our economic crisis is Congress having been more mindful of spending money on programs, not encouraging the lending of money to people who could never repay, or having repaired Social Security, or closing the borders, etc.

Zero population is BACK. While I might agree, we do not need anymore stupid people, I do not think that is what she is has in mind. For me stupid people could be improved with no television except the obligatory Sunday football game, better parenting, and better schools, and while I am at it, earlier bedtimes for kids.

Does not Nancy get that many countries would love our current population ratio. When I was in Italy five years ago, their population growth was way down, and it is not good for the economy. Having something like a 1.6 repopulation rate, the government was having to start spending money to make parenting popular again, they were thinking of better tax breaks for parents.

But the bigger issue is, if Zero Population is here, how soon do we have Zero Gray Hairs where we knock off the old guys. This is not a stretch. The easiest way for this to happen is for the government to limit Medicare funds as well as medical insurance.

Some of us old guys want there still to be young people to empty the bed pans. Oh wait, I forgot, the Mexicans can do this. This is because while we are not interested in having more Americans, we are totally okay with illegals and spending money on them. The reality will be, it will be made too difficult to be old. The government will start by having all the old people sign 20 fine print documents a day and you will be offed if you make an honest mistake.

I say dear Nancy, forget making it too difficult for the oldies to get on, I do not want to be like a old squaw leaving the campground to die by the river, just shoot me.
And thanks to you, the stock market is a mess, and our homes have no resale value; sooner, rather than later, might be okay for a sling shot pop to the heart.

January 25/ Coins

January 24/ Doing something well

Recently I was explaining to my niece my new approach to eating. I was reprogramming my brain to eat only when hungry, eat what I liked, and to be conscious of my eating each bite. My niece said that it could work because the brain could do a lot of the willpower work. She had been reading on the subject of the wonders of the brain. She said that you should always be working your brain and trying something new. I asked if playing Spider Solitaire counted, but she said that it was very likely that I had already mastered Spider. I would have to try something new, such as a foreign language.

When making my New Year’s resolutions, I was waffling around, not finding the right thing exactly. I wanted a resolution to have something to do with photography. My husband gave me a very nice lens for Christmas. As I have written previously about resolutions, it is important to pick something small and do it every day. I stated that I would take a photo a day. This I have more or less done. I will continue to do so.

Then I happened across an article where a woman stated that she had decided she wanted to learn something, but in particular she wanted to do it well. She wanted to excel at something, and she had done it with Yoga over the last seven years. Now she was going to learn the salsa, and she was going to learn the twirls , the rhythm, and especially the hip movement. She also wanted her shoes to be shiny and glitter with her movement.

This was more of what I had in mind, but still not exactly what I wanted. Becoming proficient at something? I am a slip shod person and about most things I say, “This is good enough for government work”. Sometimes for me the flavor is enough. Good is good enough.

Today I went to Barnes and Noble as I needed a book fix. The bad weather simply forced it on me. I did not go the cookbook section however; I went straight to Photography. I saw a book entitled, Take Your Photography to the Next Level, by George Barr.

This title went straight to my heart. Just to the next level. Now I do not have to worry about competing with Ansel Adams. Fear of failure is removed. But wait, what level am I? Well, it turns out that of six levels, I am a two. This means that over the next year I can likely get myself to level three.

January 23/ Real Charity

Well okay I do admit that I am a jerk for not outright giving the money to the young man who needed the money  for a green card. The Lord says to freely give with a joyful heart. $1,500 was donated to him.  Minus my $60.00 where I asked that he work three hours.

I went to dinner last night with some lovely people, at the home of my friend Kathy and her husband, and in general conversation she mentioned some of their givings.  Working at the Food Bank for years, chairman of the Festival at church,   working on Curciello, and other time consuming volunteer events.  Believe me when I say she is not a goody two shoes.

Here is a story based on facts.  Around September a woman named from the congregation, Adele started showing up at my church with a girl, named Summer, of about 12,  who was dressed sweetly, yet appropriate for the age, and as I am personally impressed with haircuts, a darling haircut.  I assumed that the girl was the next door neighbor of my friend. I was also surprised  to learn last night that she had befriended the child on the beach, a sort of waif.  I learned last night that Adele had taken the girl for the haircut, and had bought her the clothes for church and other clothes.
Several months  later another girl started coming with Adele and Summer, and I imagined that the second girl was a friend who had maybe spent the night with the girl.  Then Summer sometimes came in her pretty clothes and sometimes in rags.  The second girl was always in rags. 

These girls are adopted girls, after being foster children, and are in fact are not sisters.  Their adopted mother then married, and she and her husband had a boy.  Around 12 the boy had a serious accident and nearly died.  Now he is left with the maturity of a four year old.  The step father is in prison from a serious crime, but he is about to get out of prison. Lately the mother has gone to take care of a sick sister. I do not know where the boy is, but the girls are living for the time being  with the Adele.  Adele is in her mid- seventies. 

Kathy last night  lamented not having done more with the waif on the beach last August/September, although she did  assure Summer that her granddaughters on the beach would play with her.  Then when Kathy found that Adele had purchased the hair cut and the clothes for Summer, Kathy and her husband decided to buy the boy and the sister, Maggie, clothes, and Kathy took them out shopping on a budget.  In addition Kathy invites the family to events such as New Year’s.  The girls are still coming to church and Maggie is singing in the choir. 

I must say that my heart is not this generous.  I think I am fearful. But dinner last night was a pick me up reminder of what God’s work really is:  feed the hungry and cloth the poor. A good pointer for  me in the direction of God’s will.   

January 21/ Diet Outlaw

Running around in the back of my brain was the thought that I had come across something very much like Mr. McKenna’s I Can Make You Thin book.  Then it came to me that I had read a column in the San Francisco Chronicle food section by Marlena Spieler.  She is cookbook author, and sometime she writes special articles for papers. She loves to eat and she loves to cook.  

I had clipped her article out and thought this was a good approach. Then my birthday came with parties and the article was stuffed away.  Today I dug the article out off the Internet.  This woman had lost 150ish pounds.  Her article has recommended reading, of which ICMYT is one, along with the book Why French Women Don't Get Fat.   Should you be interested in losing weight, you might read this article.  I try not to plagiarize all the time. But like any writer, I am sure she enjoys a hit.  

One of the hard things for me  to work out is,when I am hungry? The first principle of all the current theories of weight loss, is that you should eat when you are hungry.  Not eat when you are not hungry.  I like to cook on somewhat of a schedule.  By that I mean breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I also cook at least the evening meal also for my husband.  If a dinner takes two hours to cook, how do I know when I am going to be hungry? When should I start cooking? These are just the details.

January 20/ Reprograming my brain

Anyone that knows me, knows that over the years I have tried diets. But I am hopelessly unsuccessful. I like to cook, eat, drink, and make merry. The list is : Atkin’s, a diet class at Humboldt State, Weight Watchers 4 times, the Zone diet, the Blood type diet, and the last was the diet where you drank olive oil before mealtime. That showed promise, but my stomach became upset with the olive oil after a while. I am convinced that there is something else going on in a diet besides counting calories.

For me boredom sets in after a while. I can do it for three weeks while the novelty still lingers. But if I am eating no carbohydrates, suddenly I want biscuits. If the deal is to eat eight small meals a day, I crave a huge hamburger.

Now I have embarked on a new scheme. This is Paul McKenna’s book, I Can Make You Thin, plus his guided Hypnosis CD. Big book companies are offering substantial discounts on it. I bought this book because everyone I know that is my age, is on the South Beach Diet this month. Also the concept of the book was intriguing, and if nothing else, would make a good post. I can argue my way out of any diet. Most diets including this one, state that it is not a diet, but I life style change. This book advertises that you do not have to believe the program, just do it. The interviewees in the book boast that it is painless. And you are to only eat that which you like. Sounds good. In fact, Paul, as Paul and I are on a first name basis, says to go to your refrigerator and throw everything away that you do not want to eat; remember that you have to like what you eat. Then you have to slow down.

I have listened to the CD once a day for four days. It is amazing. I relax and imagine myself thin, and as a bonus, young. I see myself buying new clothes. I see myself easily tying my shoes. I see myself going faster. My brain is getting reprogrammed to thin.

Usually I want someone to be involved with me on a diet, so we can compare notes. Not this time. I am going to do this. . . or not, myself. I am not going to rough myself up if I fail. But oh my gosh, if it works, what a painless way, and I can’t see anything that I want to argue away. So for $21.50 including shipping and handling, I have a post and at the very least a half hour of relaxation at night.

January 19/ Facebook for dummies

Two of my girls and three grandsons were here for the weekend. Plus my niece with golden retriever also came. We had people filling our upstairs. Winnie was a perfectly behaved dog. She was relaxed and willing to stay where she was put as opposed to the two year old who was naughty but entertaining. I had forgotten how much I love golden retrievers. Dumb but loveable.

Two women traveled with computers which they shared among the three of them. This was the first time that I had encountered FaceBook ever. All three women had FaceBook accounts. By looking at one daughter’s page, I was able to see what two of my other nieces looked like after many years. I saw the date that took Margaret to the prom in High School. So it has its positive side.

I thought the activity took quite a bit of time. Blogging also takes quite a bit of time, so I guess that I should not be critical. First on Facebook, you have to make your own page, then someone finds you and asks if you want to be a friend. If you accept friendship, then you can go and look at their page. I doubt that I will take up Facebooking. It seems too scattered and random for me. It did not look like anyone wrote more than a sentence at a time. Besides, I do not have any 70 year old friends that Facebook, so that is limiting from the start.