I have found a group who are at least attempting to do something about the mess that is our 'government.' Take a look, you might find them interesting, and then again you might not, particularly if you are a lifetime politician: http://www.fixcongressfirst.org/
Perhaps you might find this interesting: http://www.democracymeetup.com/
Or this: http://www.callaconvention.org/
And I found this one very interesting: http://www.leftyblogs.com/
But then, I like my mother before me, am something of a Progressive (or even Radical)

I would love to see a complete overhaul of Congress, with all Congresspeople on Social Security, and made to go home after serving a definite number of terms (or years), and not allowed to sign on as lobbyists for any corporations. Perhaps this is only possible with a convention... so let us call for a convention and rewrite or amend the Constitution, which was written for an agricultural nation. We are no longer that... life changes, therefore government should change.

We seem to have come to an impasse, with two do-nothing parties simply fighting each other instead of what they were elected to do... make laws and serve us, the people, as our representatives, then leave Washington and return to his/her 'job.' For I would like to see no more lifetime 'politicians' -- but instead actual 'representatives' of the people who voted for them. I am sick of labels. I want to see a Senator being a Senator, a Representative being a Representative, not merely a party hack, but serving The People and actually working at being In Congress daily, actually there, working at doing the tasks of our government, reading and understanding the bills brought before them, and assisting in the task of getting them through Congress, or defeated... but doing either in short order, with televised, not only speeches, but also a sweep of the entire 'audience' of a speech, so we can identify our representatives at work.

Is this all a dream. I sincerely hope not, for if it is, and nothing can be done quickly and well, perhaps the next thing is what also was done before: Revolution. I'm all for it. Perhaps it is up to me to form the next group. Revolution Now.

Messed up once more...

I often wonder if anyone else has as many mess-ups as I when it comes to adding things to my blog. I hope I can fix the last video, as I loved it and would like to continue to play it.

At least I have managed to add Ms.Katt to the blog. She who after all owns not only this apartment with an extra large window looking out over Dolores, and everything in it, but also we acolytes who come and go from it. She is one of the smartest animals I have ever known, and has trained me in keeping her food and water bowls filled at all times, and her litter box cleaned out at all times... all by simply coming and announcing her wants during the day, and by jumping on me every hour of the night if I haven't done my duties before going to bed. She has taught me how to play 'fetch'... something I hadn't done since my dog Minnie was young... and how to put up with a remarkably long, heavy, warm, furry animal lying from my hip to shoulder all night long, snoring in my ear. But who would I have to talk to without Sylvia... or play games with... or eat dinner with... or laugh at when she is acting silly and leaping from chair back to chair back, then up to the middle of the window to run up and down... or to give me a kiss anytime I ask for one... or love unconditionally on my part... maybe a bit conditionally on hers. Sylvia, a Bengal, is only a few generations from a wild cat... and she came to me... whom my daughter terms: "A Wild and Wacky Woman" on the doormat she bought for me... so we go together Sylvia and I, and I am very glad that she chose me when she was a little kitten... as her brothers all scampered off, she climbed on my shoulder and purred in my ear.... it was immediate love!

Yes, I Guess It Does!

I do hope I have done this right... for someone who has been working on Macs since 1984, one would think I could manage things like putting videos on this... I did it once, let's hope I got it:

Guess not, so for a fun one, go to this address, down to the bottom of the blog, and play the video that is there... I absolutely love it, for the Cole Porter song, and for the great snips of movies...

http://handmadebymother.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-heaven-knows-anything-goes.html

Thank you so much Handmade Guru... one of these days, this blog is going to spill over to my craft experiences and perhaps patterns, ancient (and I have many of those) and modern.

At Last... a Change...

So... finally I was given a chance to change the look of my blog. It now looks like 'home'... after all, I am surrounded by books... too bad they had no pics of my pig collection or the Buddah and frogs on top of my monitor, but perhaps someday I shall discover how to add them. In the meantime, the books will have to do. Here I sit, playing on the computer once more instead of getting my apt put into PERFECT shape for the HUD inspection. I shall undoubtedly be told to pack up and get out, but I'll call my lawyer nephew, Tom, who was an Asst.State's Atty to 'get me off.' Ye gods... does anyone know an old lady who doesn't have too much STUFF... an idiot in my building got 3 different sets of 'inspectors' to come to see my apt... all three asked me why someone had called and gave me a pass... two of them asked me how long I had lived her... when I told them 13 years, one said, "Well, for goodness sake... you are amazing, my mother has only lived in her place for about six years, and hers is twice as full of stuff as yours."

Enough of complaining... I am an optimist and cheerful, so I guess the best I can say is , so what! I do have to clean off my desk, as I need to find the nail clipper to do Sylvia's nails. She caught me with a sharp nail twice using me as a 'ladder' to get up on the back of my chair. Oh, face it... I need to find all sorts of things and get rid of all sorts of things that cover the desk. Happily my dear Elvira found my last ream of paper, so I again have paper for the printer. I will be able to put my latest work on good paper. The Poetry Group will be reading in Yerba Buena Gardens on June 29th, so I have to have everything typed for for that. Mel and I are doing a sort of 'comic turn.' I am glad as I think the old one they have been doing for years is a bit tired. He and I always do well together and enjoy playing off each other. Old George called me tonight and he agrees with the Pell scholars at UC that I should write and do an act in a compedy club. I would kinda like to do something for the Fringe Festival... if I could get in... but I do need people to work with. Colin and Pat would be great. I'd better start working on it now, while I can still stand up and move... getting worse and worse on my feet. That Tuesday for our reading is getting close, but I am good to go when the time comes...

Whitney and Mike are together again... where they should be. I do hope they don't ever take separate jobs again. I am going to have to get a photo of the two of them and put them on the blog along with Mark and family... actually, a new photo of Mark and family should be put on, as that is a very old one. My darling little kidlets are growing up. Pretty soon they will have blogs. They grow too fast and are up to 9, 7 and almost 4, but look much older. I am so lucky in my family... I had great parents, two great children, and now a wonderful daughter-in-law and three gorgeous and bright little grandchildren.

Now I shall end and listen to Craig Ferguson, the mad Scot!

Loudy Doing My Story...

Why? I suppose because I felt I had better write something... I am getting so out of date and one should keep up. Hard when I have so little to say... although I did spend two hours talking to my younger sister on... must have been Tuesday night, as LOST was playing in the background. I might have cut her off, but I knew I could watch it on my computer. Still haven't seen the program that followed (V) but I suppose I will. Strange to have a TV again... I spent a lovely long time not having TV... I got so much done.

I fear I am going through one of my periods of depression again... perhaps because I am not talking to Whitney every other day or so... perhaps just late reaction to the disappearance of Kirk. Add a Who to that Why. I'm sorry they managed to kill off the LOST people and program... I rather liked it... and I despise the horrible 'reality' shows that will replace it and most of the other shows. TV in the summer is not worth watching, although I shall probably continue to watch the news programs, including the BBC... and a couple of other programs on PBS.......

Also seem to have hit the wall in my writing life... my poems, when I can urge them out, do not please me at all. Although Nancy liked the one I did manage for Monday... it was sort of a silly rhyming thing... not at all her type of poem. I must get busy, as we have a reading to do in June and I shall have to have some sort of 'topical' thing... probably about the great oil spill in the Gulf or anything else I can find of a topical nature... another in the nursery rhyme series... or maybe I can find some other style of poem to play with.........

I seem to live in regret... I regret that I have not had a hair cut in -- my god, it must be years... I regret that I have not cleaned out the cupboards and thrown many things away... I regret that I have not learned how to get things onto eBay and gotten rid of them... I guess it is time to rid myself of a lot of things... including all that are causing my depression... I'd better get with it!!

Finally....something...

I guess we should feel joyous about the fact that everyone now can have health care. Ah, but the insurance companies are still there (I always imagine them as Scrooge, rubbing his hands together, gleefully, of course), and still collecting plenty for little. Why didn't the Democrats insist on the single payer option. This is not my fight anymore I suppose. I have Medicare... and I am one of the lucky, as I am old. Now isn't that a weird thing. The wealthy republicans are now angry... not just the trailer trash ones. Let's hope that some of this is good and will help the poor... oh, I hope...

Silliness of the evening... I find that at night my lovely, soft, unlined hands suddenly show all sorts of blue veins under the lamplight... and the left hand has a perfect heart shape of veins... the only mark that shows on that hand, while the other, or right hand has an ugly criss-cross of blue veins. Ah, Peggy... in the evening, under artificial light, always extend your lovely left hand to strangers and friends... well, I said it was silliness! I love the little heart, surrounded by small marks inflicted by Ms.Sylvia Katt, when I was stupid enough to play with her.

And as I mention her Ms. Sylvia leaps ono my lap, carefully turns around so that she can settle in her favorite way, head to my left, the only way she will lie on my lap. A creature of habit this one.

My... 10 million girls were aborted in India. If the first born was a girl, off the mother went to check out the gender of the second. If a girl... gone. Oh, I'm listening to the BBC, and they are full of information... tonight one 'the dead.' According to them, half the world's deaths do not get counted. So all these death statistics are all made up? Including the dreadful ones reported by the anti-abortion nuts? Perhaps. Oh, dear, now we are back to the poor 'good' priests, one of whom said they are in danger if they wear clerical collars because of the reports on 'bad' ones. There is no good news tonight.

However... as I look up to my right, I see a lovely big bunch of daffodills... brilliant ruffled yellow blossoms... Spring is here. We have had the strangest weather... one day of sniveling rain, one of bright sun... and back to the dull day, followed by more warm sunshine, filling my tall window with warm, wonderful sunlight... and a little finch who has a lot of nerve. He comes, sits on a long green shoot now covered with green seed pods he is not interested in. Ah, but he seems to be interested in getting my attention, as he sits there and taps on the glass, over and over. The first time he did this, some days ago, perhaps last week, I ran in from the kitchen to see who was tapping so loud on my window. It sounded like perhaps a person tapping with a key or some metal thing. But no, there was a tiny bird, banging on the window. He left, then came back and tapped some more. Sylvia didn't see him until about his third visit, when she stalked quietly across the room, jumped lightly onto the table by the window, making not a sound, and leaped. I swear he laughed and flew away, only to come back once she had settled down to sleep on her fake fur bed. He woke her up, laughed again and flew away. She is most unhappy about this brave little bird. Everyone tells me to let him in, but I am not interested in having my complete room torn apart by a flying cat.

I can smell the daffodills, and if the day tomorrow there is light rain... I shall go out in the rain and enjoy the Spring... my favorite season.