Happy Memorial Day

And Do remember...it is important. Today we attended the Memorial Day Parade in town. There were fewer people At the parade and fewer In the parade as well. I was disappointed. I know I don't have lot of room to complain, after all, I Was Not In the parade either. I could have taken one of my antique tractors and participated. Perhaps I should have. That would have made One more unit in the parade.

It was a good parade. There was a good deal of applause as the Veterans marched by. They were stepping it right off too. Our parade route is a fairly long one, a little more than a mile. I am sure that some of the WWII vets were pretty tuckered out by the time they reached the cemetery, they are in their 80's now. It was good to see the ones that are still with us honoring those that had passed before.

I am glad that we attended. It is a good thing to remember.

Update on Car Repairs

We got the water pump fixed on our main car... and found the leak of power steering fluid was coming from the 'rack and pinion', and expensive fix. That we got repaired last week as well. It's only money Honey I kept saying as we paid the bills. Then the 'check engine soon' light on the new car lit. Not good news. That was an O2 sensor malfunction. As repairs go that one was not as costly. I am wondering though just how sensible it is to have cars under the control of computers, after all. The good news is the repairs are all said and done...and there will probably be no more for some time. Like maybe until tomorrow?

Stuff I didn't comment on at McDonald's...

Because I was outnumbered, I decided to save my comments for this Blog...Now you have to understand that I consider myself 'politically' conservative, and 'socially' liberal. I suppose this puts me in the middle of the road sort of. Hopefully I won't get run over.

That being said, this mornings rantings had to do with the job that our President is doing (not doing was actually the comment) in Washington. First, there was anger because he 'tried to be a comedian' last night. I read what he actually said (in USA Today) and thought that it was pretty much OK, but not hilarious.

The second thing that got some people shouting and pounding the table was our slippery slide into socialism as evidenced by the potential health care reforms. The cry was 'Socialized Medicine!' OMG save us from that! I have not seen anything out there that looks like government run insurance or health care. So far the focus seems to be on reforming the private insurance companies. The private insurance companies have almost agreed to not charge women more for insurance, to insure people who have illnesses, and not charge more to people who have used their insurance. This is Not Government run health care. It is an attempt by the insurance companies to appear to be caring for the insured. We know that insurance companies only care about profit, or that has been the case in the past. It seems to me that those changes that should have been made long ago. In fact, they are not enough. There will be still many people who cannot get quality health care because they cannot afford insurance. It is a beginning but only a beginning.

The next complaint was about the stimulus package and how expensive it is... and how this whole economic situation is the fault of Mr. Obama. And once again the word 'socialism' reared it's ugly head. Somehow it has been forgotten that the bank bailout of 700 Billion Dollars was signed into law by Mr Bush, and that the banks failed during that administration. It seemed that it was OK to spend Billions and Billions of dollars to bail out the banks which are private businesses, but not OK to spend money on regular people. In the latter case it is socialism, but in the former it is protecting business. My question is 'What?'. Spending billions on the banks is not socialism, but on the citizens is? Is this logical? Not at all

I farmed for over 30 years. I tried not to get involved with the government payments that were available. I had really bad experiences in dealing with the Department of Agriculture. But really the farm payments are 'socialism'...and I know that most farmers don't think of them that way. Whenever the government pays out money to a group or an individual the label of socialism fits.

The United States has been 'socialized' for years, at least since the Great Depression. Many of the programs in effect today were started back in those days. Today they are a fact of life, many groups of people depend on some government payments to make their endeavors successful. Some depend on them to for their daily nutrition. Somehow or other we seem to forget these 'socialistic' programs, like Social Security, Aid to Dependent Children, farm payments, workers compensation, and unemployment payments to name just some of the government programs being used already today. But these do exist, here and now.

So we are a 'socialized' country. And that is pretty much the way it is, and no one is really complaining about what already is, or at least not very much. Maybe the problem is the capital letter 'S' on 'Socialism' which makes it a political philosophy rather than a program. I don't know for sure about that, but I suspect that is the real problem. I say give it a rest people, or else give up the government payments you already have! That is Not going to happen!

Kevin said, on 'Incoming', John Phipps blogspot, 'socialism is the outcry when you get a gov't check and I don't' Maybe he has it right?

I'm sure that I will have more to say on this subject.

More on Funerals, memorials and so on.

Lori and I attended the memorial for our Friend Roy Fogg yesterday. I was impressed! Roy wanted his memorial to be a celebration rather than a funeral. This was a memorial. The church that Roy attended has lay leaders as well as ministers. The lay leaders that were in charge of the memorial service were both friends of Roy and they did a good job of 'celebrating' his life.

Rather than following a set script as is usual in most church services, this one talked about Roy and his life. There was grief of course, that is normal. But the service was really informal. There was no 'evangelizing', no taking advantage of peoples' grief to get them converted to a Christian way of life. (I know there is a captive audience and it is difficult to not take advantage if that...but really it is not appropriate, I think.) The service was about Roy and his family, and very positive. It was a good good service. I was impressed...and I am difficult to impress. I already said that, I know, but it stands repeating.

Hey Roy, do they play in 'D' where you are now??? I'll bet they do!

Tribute...Roy Fogg

My friend Roy Fogg passed away Monday morning.  He was only 65,  and had not been ill until 10 days ago.

We have been playing music with Roy and his wife, Debani for around 5 years.  In that time Roy impressed me by being one of the most Christian Christians I have known.   Roy loved everybody.  He walked the walk as well as talking the talk.  People were indeed his Brothers and Sisters.   Roy and Debani have always lived their philosophy, thier faith.  I am not easily impressed by the words people use to express their faith.  Roy's actions did impress me .

Roy loved everyone, but he also took care of and loved his family.  He and his wife have added 'at risk' children to their family for as long as they have had a family.  This is another example of him 'walking the walk'.  

Roy loved music, especially Merle Haggard songs.  He loved the old time gospel music.  He was a pretty good musician.  Music comes from the heart and his heart was in his music.

The world has lost a Good Man.  I will miss him.

ARGHHHH!

I try to live my life one day at a time...but, like the old saying, lately 3 or4 of them have been ganging up on me at a time...

Auto repairs are the cause of all this angst.  Our main car has a leaky water pump.  That car has cost a lot of money since last July.  It appears that it is still not over costing us money. Last night, our son called and his vehicle is stranded along the freeway.  We took gasoline but that didn't fix the problem.  So add a towing charge to the cost of repairs.  Bye Bye money again.  

My mother-in-law decided that she didn't need her car anymore, and that we should have it.  That is good news.  However, it seems to have developed a problem in the power steering system somewhere.  I had to add fluid both yesterday and today.  More money is departing.  My outgo is exceeding my income considerably.  I feel like I am still Farming for gosh sake's! Money often left faster than it arrived back in those days.  I was sort of used to that situation.

One vehicle we have is not giving us problems at the present time, my pickup.  I am almost afraid to drive it!  I feel that something will likely go wrong with it as well!  I have to drive it though, it is the only vehicle not in need of repair.

The only solution is to get everything repaired and driveable again.  I will try not to cry too much as the money changes hands.  It is only money after all, and all I need is enough to get there on, however long that takes.  

But still!  ARGHHHHH!