Scribblings

It's all turning to dust

Now Little T likes to try and slide off my lap, down my leg (like it?s a slide) and bounce on the end of my foot. Well, I have only myself to blame! One time he was wiggling off my lap and so I pretended to slide him down my leg. He loved it! Of course, he wants the same thing over and over. He still enjoys rocking, too. He is almost always in motion, a very active baby.

He is learning and changing every day. Now he is sticking his fingers on my lips. I think it?s so he can figure out how I talk or how I can stick my tongue out. I blow raspeberries into his hand and he laughs and laughs. Linda says he?s begun noticing when he?s in a different place. He looks around for us. I notice that if he is cranky when he comes in from a day trip with his parents, he cheers up almost immediately as soon as TB or I pick him up. He realizes he?s back home then!

Linda hadn?t seen her cousin Julie?s baby yet so Gram came over and drove them down. It took about two hours one way! I was supposed to have gone too but Kristin was home sick. TB and I haven?t seen Nikolai either. They had a nice visit but it was hot and the drive was long. Nikolai is a very handsome or cute baby, they tell me but I think no one is cuter than my Little T!

On Sunday, the kids and I went to see a movie called The Day After Tomorrow. It was a pretty good disaster movie. We have used up so much of our resources and polluted the planet so much that we?ve brought on this global warming which causes polar caps to melt. All that fresh water pouring into the ocean changes the flow of current in the North Atlantic ? and quite suddenly (a bit unbelievable) we experience a drastic climate change. This big tidal wave nearly drowns all of New York City, tornados blow Los Angeles apart, and a deep freeze sets in over the entire northern hemisphere.

Interestingly, today I read an article online about the world turning to dust. Places that used to be green are becoming arid because of global warming, bringing down the trees, using up all the water, and overpopulation. In the western states, lakes and rivers are drying up. What will people drink? How will they water their crops?

?Most at risk are dry regions on the edges of deserts ? places like sub-Saharan Africa or the Gobi Desert in China, where people are already struggling to eke out a living from the land.

As populations expand, those regions have become more stressed. Trees are cut for firewood, grasslands are overgrazed, fields are over-farmed and lose their nutrients, water becomes scarcer and dirtier.?

It?s really frustrating because scientists have been warning us about this for decades. No one wanted to address the problem. In the movie, the vice president and other government officials scoffed at the theory that another ice age was coming. They were especially unconcerned because the catastrophe wasn?t supposed to happen in our lifetime. I think that is the very kind of thinking going on now.

So how do you get people in power to listen, to believe, and to try and come up with a solution before it?s too late?

In Other Words:

"I don't want to control everything, I just want people and events to mold to my desires!"
-- Tino Tonitini

I don?t want to rule the world but I want everyone to listen to me and do it my way. In one way, it?s funny because you know you can?t get every single person and every single event to go with your way of thinking. On the scary side, though, some people try to make it happen ? like Adolf Hitler.

Tuesday Iffers:

If you could change one thing about your partner (if single, best friend), what would it be?

To be honest I would not change a single thing because if I did, he wouldn?t be the same person I fell in love with!

Tuesday Newsday:

Fifty years ago the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance. Yesterday, the Supreme Court threw out a case to remove them, not because it disagreed, but on a technicality, avoiding having to make an opinion on this issue. This issue has come up over and over during the past decades.

1. Do you think public Christian prayer is acceptable in a country that preaches acceptance of all, or no, religion?

I think it?s acceptable. I also wouldn?t have a problem with public prayers of other cultures. I think that some people are over-reacting and misinterpreting ?separation of church and state?. I don?t think it means that we absolutely cannot have anything religious on public property nor that we absolutely can?t have prayers in public places. Since we supposedly preach acceptance of all religions, why can?t we be exposed to them all? What is the big deal?

2. Do you think the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance overstep the separation of church and state.

NO, I do not. I think the founding fathers came up with the concept of separation of church and state because they didn?t want government run by religion. At the same time, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written by men who were Christians. I think some people just get too nit-picky about what separation of church and state means.

Tuesday Twosome:

Let's go swimming...

1. "Beach, Baby!" or "Pool, please"?

I used to be a beach only baby but now I?ll use a pool. My legs aren?t as strong as they used to be for swimming and resisting an undertow

2. "Check me out!" or "Does anyone have a tent I can wear?"

Make that tent extra large,

3. "Deep end of the pool" or "Floaties are my friend"

I?ll take the deep end of the pool

4. "SPF 45, hat and glasses, please" or "Tan, tan, tan"

Actually SPF 50 because I?ve had several sun damaged skin cells removed. That?s a result of my ?tan, tan, tan? mindset of 30 years ago.

5. "I like to people watch" or "Hand me a book and leave me alone."

Give me a book and I?ll look up and around occasionally.