Neighbor is crazy!

I knew it would come to this one day. I deferred it by cutting her some slack. However, she pushed me to the my limit and I went for it. I had the audacity to ring her doorbell and asked nicely for her to get her dog off my property. She responds by screaming at me, with obscenities and saying everyone in the neighborhood hates me and I should move. Also, saying that if I ever get on her property again she will call the police etc etc. (This was just seconds after her dog had peed and shat on our property.) I said nothing and walked to the sidewalk, and she came and yelled some more. I went into the garage and she was yelling obscenities some more. So I called the police. Meanwhile, she walks by our house and flips it off. Ooh! The cop shows up and we tell him what happened. He asked that did we mind if he talked to her, worried about starting a war. We said no! He goes over to her house and she responds as she did to me, of course. He yells, I've arrested you before! Ha! He gave me his card for future reference. Really, when you buy a house they are supposed to tell you about lead, mold, radon, but not the wacko neighbor? I would rather deal with lead and radon any day, they do not scream at you. Besides stress is a bigger killer than those two put together. Darla

Why Obama appeals to younger crowd

I agree with where there's a Will, there's a way about this. That is one of the reasons I hope Obama makes it all the way. None of the old BS, WWII, Vietnam, 60's garbage. Obama is a modern cosmopolitan intellectual.
Poor me, supposedly on the tail end of the boomer generation, but not that allied with them. More of an eco punk x er something. The year I came of age to vote was the first time Reagan won. Wow, for the next 8 years he was in. Talk about disheartening, although as bad as the Reagan presidency was, it doesn't hold a candle to the evil regime we have now. GO OBAMA! Darla

Goodbye Chief, Finally!!!!

Hallelujah! So long to such a racist baloney junk tradition. Yes, I am an alumnus of University of Illinois at Champaign and many members of my current and ancestral family have attended University of Illinois at Champaign including the time before the "tradition" arose. I have been so disgusted about this thing for decades. Each time I thought about it, I just could not believe it was an issue, as to me it was a non issue. Duh, just a symbol of the oppressors over the vanquished. Would a caricature of a rabbi have worked? A catholic priest? I would like to have seen the chief supporters defend that, not that they would have had a chance. Those symbols would have never been adopted. I am proud to say I never owned one piece of anything with the chief symbol on it and only once attended any over rated corrupt sports event. At half time at that game, I was repulsed by the so called chief tradition. Corrupt sports event? I knew some so called U of I athletes back in the day, football and basketball. Flunkies, druggies, sex crazed ding dongs. Also they got off with all their bad and illegal behavior. This is my true story and long term belief. Darla, thrilled silly.

Day after the BIG SNOW

Wow, have not seen drifts like this in a very long time. It also takes a pretty big snow to close down U of I in CU. The National Weather Service nailed this one. There was a front end loader out here clearing our street last night during the time the city crews were supposedly resting. Contractor?

There are two kinds of people, those who dig the snow, and those than don't. People today were either enjoying it or bitching about it. Also, either shoveling it or blowing it.

I saw one car stuck in an unplowed intersection blocking traffic, and the snowplow. Darla

Kuntzi beats Post Office UPDATE

Our mailman came through, when the storm was at its worst. So Kuntzi did not beat the Post Office today. Our mail was snow encrusted though. BTW, Brady Kuntzi was also in the Voice today, saying he was too busy to date seriously, with sports etc, but he failed to mention that he gets up before dawn every day! Darla

Kuntzi beats Post Office

Brady Kuntzi always comes through. Brady is our newspaper delivery person. Our paper came today, it is buried in the snow in this picture, near lower center and and below left corner of flag.

Day after the March tornadoes, we got our paper but no mail. November Ice Storm, we got our paper but no mail. We got our paper today, we will see if we get our mail. Also, our paper comes early, very early.

Congratulations to Brady and his driver. Darla

Doggone it!

Sally runs free, so fast, so happy, so beautiful. Bounding with joy, a blur whizzing around. I have never known a dog that could run so fast and jump so high. The problem is, she is not my dog. Yet she thinks that my yard and the entire neighborhood is her territory. Her freedom of course is not her fault. It is the fault of her irresponsible owner, my neighbor.

Today I spent nearly an hour trying to corral Sally and had to go over to her house twice as Sally was running loose, chasing all the wildlife, harassing the mailman, upsetting all the other neighborhood dogs stuck behind fences, causing them to bark. I should add that we and many neighbors have not received our mail on occasion as the mailman felt too threatened by Sally. She can be perceived as threatening; barking insanely, growling, baring her teeth, approaching aggressively.

In our immediate neighborhood, there are to my knowledge, some 15+ dogs. Most are little house dogs or are kept inside a fence. One can hear a dog barking usually at anytime when outside around here. Two of my other neighbors have been attacked by dogs while working in their yards, and the mailman has been attacked also by the dog that used to live in our house. Several people in the greater neighborhood carry bats or sticks to defend against roaming dogs when out taking a walk.

There are laws against dogs being unrestrained in the city, the entire county, and the whole state. But ignoring such laws is a problem everywhere apparently. I see loose dogs nearly everywhere I go. There have been several stories this last year in Springfield about people being attacked by dogs, including a barber and a child. Of course, if you see someone letting their dogs run loose and you say something to one of these law breakers, you usually get cursed, threatened, or accused of being a dog hater. I am hoping the dog fad of recent years fades away. Darla

Night Nurse

Night Nurse, just two words my sister breathed out with disgust over the phone. Night Nurse, in my mind I had never associated those two words together before. Sounds exotic, sexy, and dangerous even.
Apparently I am not original here as a simple Google search of Night Nurse gathered up several interesting items, including this Marvel( Night Nurse, from Doctor Strange: The Oath #1 (2006).
Marcos Martin, artwork) cartoon version to the right.

Now would you allow someone like this to take care of your first born infant at night?
According to my sister regarding the mother to be "She just cannot be bothered to get up in the night to bond with her baby?!" This mother to be is my sister in law. My sister in law of just 7 months. My brother married up. Not only up but way out. This arrangement provides endless fodder for gossip of course. My sister who told me this often expresses some disgust at various practices this social group practices. As in an I cannot believe this one manner.

My biggest complaint regarding my brothers marriage is that I never get to talk to him anymore. He never calls and is never home. This class of people he is with now always are on the move, going out, dinners, parties, social hours, brunches. They sure know how to have a good time. My brother and I used to talk on the phone for hours on occasion. I miss my brother. Darla

Just strippin'

Wallpaper that is. God awful pink rosebud wallpaper. With wood chisels. Leaving some gouges in the drywall too. This wallpaper also came with a top border of banal floral design and even more glue. We have been strippin' on and off for 2 weeks now, and are getting there. A big mess right now. Discovered the room had once been a medium dark powdery blue.
Powered up with a late dinner called Penne with Three Cheeses and Porcini Mushrooms, only we used spiral pasta and added garlic and cauliflower. First time we ever used Fontina cheese, good mild stuff with a stealthy ending flavor. Yum! I guess now I have to add Cooking and DIY home decor to my list of subjects. BTW, the coyotes out back are howling and yipping right now. Heard more snow geese and the local Barred Owls earlier on this evening. Darla

More on Sat 10th Obama Love Fest

The Springfield Police agree with estimate of 17,000 attendees at the Obama Presidential Announcement. State Journal Register estimates much lower at around 10,000. I have yet to see an overhead photograph. Maybe one does not exists, though at least one helicopter was buzzing overhead most of the time. From where we were, we could tell the crowd was very large but could not see too far in most directions, even though we could see the stage fairly well. I am not sure how to estimate big numbers of anything without a detailed photo. As an example, we saw a gigantic flock of snow geese today flying west to east over Chatham road. Our conservative estimate was 5-7, 000, but possibly was up to 25, 000. And that includes no hidden agendas in the estimate. I am not sure what agendas possible inflation of the numbers by the police or underestimation of the numbers by the SJR would accomplish. I hope there are no hidden agendas in the estimates.
I enjoyed the interviews of attendees on page 9 of the SJR today, especially that of Deleshia Kinney. Also kind of impressed that several of the people interviewed on page 9 today and also by other press yesterday were from very small to small towns in southern Illinois, such as Ridgeway, IL. Were these just random encounters? I believe one can not underestimate at least the interest in Obama by white people, in fact just about everyone, of any age, sex, race, religion, income,that I know cannot wait to vote for the guy. Granted, perhaps my small sphere of family and associates are somewhere off of standard issue. I have been seeing estimates of how many white people would not support a black presidential candidate. I really do not want to believe that those numbers are true. Those numbers most certainly are not from Illinois. Did they have to go somewhere special to get those numbers or what? I am going to try and find out more about this issue. Of course, I could not believe how many Americans voted for George W. the second time! I do not have my finger on the pulse of mainstream American society for sure. Darla

Obama Love Fest

We went downtown Springfield to see the spectacle of Barack Obama's official public declaration of presidential aspiration. 8 degrees F, smiles, friendliness in general. We arrived at the line to get in at 7:40am or so. Much talk about the very frigid wind. A single black woman with ipod in front of us. Middle age white couple behind us, very friendly. White guy behind them with anti abortion message sign. He was interviewed by some young women of the press. The line inched slowly in compression. Teenager in front continually whining. Tick Tock burr burr. Then at around 8:40am the gates are opened. Cheering, excitement. Line stops, Police car has to get through. Young people handing out some flyers. We go in. Confusion. Blue tickets, red tickets, yellow tickets, no tickets. The important people with red and yellow tickets got front row room, while the commoners were held back a distance. Some disgruntlement. We pile up like sardines, penguins, or lemmings. Many young people, lots of white people, lots of black people, some asian in our area. Small talk, funny talk. Jokes, panicky phone calls. Snipers looking over. Tick Tock burr burr. Some dude shows up periodically to throw out souvenirs. Two ladies leave to watch it on tv, too cold for them. Music blaring (I have sensitive hearing so blaring to me is probably not blaring to others). Pigeons fly around, some seeking sunshine. Medics come in to attend someone. Helicopter(s) fly over. Bumper stickers and signs handed out. We score one of each. Senator Durbin arrives for opening comments. Durbin welcomes the attending politicians, Gov. Blagojevich gets booed in our area. Well, just have to agree with that.

Then finally Obama arrives, crowd goes wild. He works the crowd a bit. Signs waving, yelling, screaming. Obama seems a little flustered by the sight of the bundled up crowd. He gets going with his speech. The crowd murmurs, agrees, jokes, screams, chants. Clapping with mittened hands, produces a muffled sound like bird wings in flight. Obama talks on, quite the lovely speech I may add. Lasts about 25 minutes. When he states he is running for president the crowd really reacts like crazy. When it is over people start streaming out in all directions from us and we are caught in an island like spot for awhile. It took some time to get out to the gate, people dancing to the music, someone lost a glove. Lots of handwarmer packages strewn around. I will probably have a sore throat tomorrow. Darla, Springfield, IL