IF A POLITICAL PARTY INVESTIGATES A POLITICIAN, WHO PAYS?

Who remember Ken Starr? Nice suit he's wearing, yeah?



Good morning everyone.  I feel like going on a rant. Want to come along?

I remember when Bill Clinton was president. One thing I can agree on was that he was a man who had trouble keeping it in his pants.  Apparently he is not the only elected official with this type of problem, (or person) but since the press finally decided (or were told)  they could print anything they heard or knew, he was probably of the first presidents to be treated to this type of exposure. That could be a pun, or double entendre.

 

It didn't matter that the job that he was doing as a public official was good. It happened because of our delightful two party system. 

Where does that term come from? Party?  Maybe, like when you're a teen and you have lots of friends, and like three of them are having a party on the same night and oh my God, you have to decide which one to go to. Oh no. Who do I like best? or. Where will I be seen by more people, or maybe, I have to find out where the person I want to hook up will be?

So, I have to choose a party. So.  I choose,  Me.  I'm so overwhelmed, I stay home.  Most people are not like me. At least I like to think so.

 I am not in the mood to do research, so you can ,or you can just be as annoyed as I am, at what has become essentially a two party system of self serving politic rats, who seem to believe that they are serving their country by tearing it apart.

It isn't just the US. The whole world seems to be going crazy. Well, going broke which caused them to go crazy. In the past, when a country went broke, it used to go to war so it could steal resources from its enemies or anyone they could beat up. Or possibly conquer. That worked for ages, right up to this common era.  All the way up to Viet Nam.  Then things changed. War had been, well sort of civilized. There had been rules of combat. Certain conditions had been in place since the beginning of time and although there were always exceptions to those rules, you had some sense of what was okay and what wasn't. Idiotic as it may have been, it was.

Then comes the War on Terror. There are no longer rules, although we still seem to expect the "enemies" to adhere to some of them. That too should be another post, so I'll stop here.

People say that wars are fought for Religion, but really, it's always about money and power.

In my opinion, Muslim extremists want the power to keep their women in Birkas and control everything in their homes and lives. After seeing what they have of Western culture, I can't say that I blame their ideas about it. Their tactics, well, no thanks.

my train went off the track. get used to it.

I suppose I should first wonder how a country goes broke. Regardless of how many political parties, or how few, countries do have faltering economies.  Again. I am not doing any research.

However, my title at least gives us a clue on some of what the USA has been spending my tax dollars on.

I am sure that the Democrats are no better. It's just that these are the two law suits and investigations I'm familiar with, so I've use these as examples.

At this point it doesn't matter. It seems that each party is going for broke. Ha Ha Ha! They use their dollars to sling mud at the other candidates. Another good use of money. And, another good reason to DVR everything. We had some bitter fights here last year, and every other minute there was a political commercial. Do you have that in England and France? I've no idea. I'm so, provincial.

 WHEN THE PARTIES GO AFTER EACH OTHER.......

For starters, When Bill was in office, the Republicans weren't happy. PS* He was the only president who balanced the budget, but why should that matter?* another digression. 
 So, they wanted dirt. They looked under a lot of rocks and they found dirt. Who doesn't have dirt? I do. I can't keep up with the cleaning and I admit, I have made some doozy mistakes in my life.  Thank God no one cares. That's why I keep a low profile. I mean like, if 50 people have looked at this blog, that's low. Right?

So, Ken Starr was the appointed independent council to investigate the Clintons. I think it was related to White Water, Paula Jones and Vince Foster. It doesn't matter. They would have found something.  What matters was that Mr. Starr had a huge hard on for Bill. (I'm glad he didn't go after Nixon.+ That would have been too gross even for me to write. but you can think it). +if you don't recall, his nickname, was tricky Dick.

So, if memory serves, he did get to impeach Clinton which was annoying and didn't really change anything. Except maybe lots of lost hours and 40 million dollars over the course of two years.

That's right. I remember the joke. Ken Starr got $40 million dollars and all he ended up with was a lousy suit. Probably, that's not quite the quote, but is the shoe fits.






I did look up whose money it was. On this I felt I needed to fact check. This is how the independent counsel was explained in an old CNN article. I consider them to be a very reliable source.  The expenses by the ind. counsel are governed by the federal courts and then passed to the justice department for payment. I stopped there.  Basically, the counsel spends money, then hands it over to other officials who pass them on to other officials to pay. Nice.

maybe we should pay our soldiers the $20.5 million for risking their lives.

The most recent investigation also took two years. I wonder if there's a time limit. Anyway, it has been reported that the Republicans spent, get this, 20.5 million dollars to probe into what happened in Benghazi.

This figure came from  an online paper called "Politic USA" and was corroborated by another paper called the Observer.

I'M SURE YOU'LL BE HAPPY TO KNOW THIS FIGURE EXCEEDS THE ENTIRE BUDGET FOR THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE. No wonder they can't get anything done. They are underfunded.

Much to their disappointment, they found out that Hillary didn't do anything wrong. Wow. If we'd only listened to the initial hearings, we might not have had to spend so many millions of dollars.

um. did anyone remember to close the window?


 

WHAT ELSE DO GOVERMENTS WASTE OUR MONEY ON?

My favorite American trick, is that we call "the Federal Reserve Bank".
That makes it sound like it's owned by the USA.  It's not. It's a private bank. And if you think about it, they set the interest rates. The are the ones who are asked for predictions about the economy. Mm.  Any time we get money from the Federal Reserve, we are borrowing it. That's right. We have to borrow our own money. Well, we don't have our own money I guess, except then what happens to all the money they, the government, collects? Oh, I guess we have to pay it back the Fed. And anyone else we have borrowed from .

What is the Federal Reserve Bank?

A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.^[1] The banks are jointly responsible for implementing the monetary policy set forth by the Federal Open Market Committee, and are divided as follows:  I left that out. Who cares.  This part I had to search for.

How much does it cost the US to get money from the Feds?

Cost per denomination$1 & $2 notes= 5.2 cents per note
$5 & $10 notes = 8.5 cents per note
$20 & $50 notes =9.2 cents per note        $100 note = 7.7 cents per note    

*This information came from a site called, well read it yourself.

 *G.Lee Inc. Presents "The Hidden Truth".

If that's not a coincidence of really weird proportion, I don't know what it. Even though it's not quite my real name. Still.  Sorry. I have to dash.

It's 24 hours later, but you don't know that. I want to finish this, but I am fuming. We had a heavy downpour last evening and this morning I went out to post a birthday card and our huge cacti was falling over, really badly. I thought  I could  right them  myself, but alas, I'm a lass and made it worse. So I asked my husband for emergency help.

These are 3 trunks semi propped up

this is near the bottom where I tried to put them back in and keep them from toppling. Oy.

He did come out. I was frantic. I had an extra support I thought would work. He helped me out. Somewhat. You know, when you know, when someone's reluctant to be doing something. Right? So, I thought I'd gotten a handle on it and said" Thank you very much". I meant it sarcastically, but he left. And boom. The third trunk fell over and I didn't know what to do. Long story short, I jury rigged it with some hose protectors. I don't know what they're called. You stick them in the ground so when you water, your hose doesn't trample the flowers.

So. I am pissed. I told him I was upset. So he said, "well you said thank you and I wanted to get back to my coffee and morning routine."  I said something about knowing where I stood on that list. He told me I let him know he was done. So what was I bitching about? I just walked away.  I don't want to say anything I'll regret. They say that's important in marriage. Never say mean things. Like you're a selfish *(&^!.  I wouldn't want to hear it, so I won't say it.

WHERE THE HELL WERE WE?

At this juncture, I'm sure you get the point. Our governments spend money they don't really have, keep borrowing to pay the bills that are due, tax us to pay their debts, raise interest rates to pay more debts. No, they ask the Fed to raise interest rates. And then. They blame everyone else.

it's a bit small to read, but I wouldn't believe it anyway.

It's exactly like a parent and child. They model bad behavior and when the child does the same thing, the parent punishes the child. My dad used to love to say, "Do as I say, not as I do".  Pearls of wisdom. Thankfully, I didn't do as he did nor as he said.


THEORY:  the rich get rich and the poor get poorer. THE RICH SET IT UP SO WE FIGHT EACH OTHER AND NOT THEM.

None of this is new, or news. I've lived long enough to know that. I have also studied history. In this year of a presidential election, they are saying, "let's make this country great again".  Did they not read the classic "The Rise and Fall of the Roman  Empire"?

I can't tell anyone what to do or what will help. I keep waiting for someone from the European/Anglo nations to revolt. Not that in the past it has really done much. So, if what has worked in the past comes again, there will be scape goats.

MY SINCERE, BUT TO YOUR EARS, PROBABLY RIDICULOUS SOUNDING ADVICE:

1. I do not recommend if you can't fight them, join them. Never join them. They are very wrong.
2. Live your life in your own circle. Create it and live in it. I'm not suggesting a fantasy world. Just a circle of family and friends who you love and enjoy.
3. Try not to listen to the news unless it's the weather and there might be a hurricane or tornado on the way.
4. If you can't change it, ignore it.
5. If you can change it, go for it. Don't be discouraged or disappointed. You did your best.
6.Don't hurt, or take advantage of other people because it's wrong. Do your best to be a moral person.
7. Don't take candy from strangers. Even if it is chocolate .

NEWS HEADLINE ; SUICIDAL TROUT SWIMS STRAIGHT INTO THE JAWS OF A SHARK . NO, I'VE NOT LOST MY MIND. THIS IS ABOUT PREDATORS. And terroism?

 

 

 

Again, I'm reminded of The Little Shop of Horrors dentist. The lyrics are something like, "open wide here I come," patient, " but doctor I'm not numb"!

Gotta love those sadists.

 

So, yesterday my husband came home from fishing.  And as everyone knows, fishermen LOVE telling their stories. So, I love listening. Occasionally I do pick up an interesting piece of information.

 

He was telling me about the snook he caught. What was relevant was that the first cast he threw was in front of the fish, so the fish swam away. He explained, that the predators know that the prey would never be in front of them, so he had to cast behind and to the side. Which he did and then caught a big snook. He was very happy. For those of you who fish, he also caught an 8 pound jack with which he struggled for 15 minutes of bliss.

I backtracked in our conversation, and asked him about the lure not being in front. He explained that even a fish is smart enough to know that the prey would be going the other way. If it's too good to be true, it's not.

I thought, "wow. fish are smarter than people"  Sort of.   I do recall years ago when it was thought that humans were the only kind who killed their own.

That has probably been debunked or changed, but still, I got to thinking about prey and predators. The term that is used, is predatory.

 

The  new dictionary, says that predatory, is capturing and feeding upon other animals. I think after my research it should have stopped there. They added that it is, also, plundering, robbing or exploiting. Since my research, I believe that dictionary used what is only a modern concept for the second half of the definition which doesn't really apply. However, now, I have an image in my head of a chimpanzee holding a gun on another chimp and demanding it's banana.

 

 

 

                                            

 

 

Prey is defined as what is hunted by carnivorous animals for food. Also, a person's dupe or victim.  Ditto for this second part.

 

Again, nothing was listed in my intro to psych text. So, I shall have to further expand my research.  Offhand, I have my own thoughts. However, I believe I owe it to my readers to at least look up someone else's ideas. You know, like people who might actually know something.

 

 So I'll look it up on line and get right back to you. It may take me several hours, but to you, it'll be the next section. Isn't cyberspace amazing?  Time means nothing here.

 

 

 

 

PREDATION: 

 

So far, what I've gathered, is that generally predators, predatory and predation are the words used with the obtaining of food. That's right. Predation, which is the correct term, is related to eating. Not necessarily killing except that everything we eat was living at some time, even wheat, so I take that back.   We are all predators, just not in the sense I was thinking.

 

    Hannibal Lector was on the right track.

 

It would then seem that anything we eat can be considered prey. My nasty mind had some thoughts I will not be sharing.  Not everything we eat was sentient.  Fruits, plants and vegetables were alive, and therefore, also prey.

  

In order to survive, you have to eat. It's a very simple concept. 

 

So maybe predator is not the right word.

 

SURVIVAL OF A SPECIES:

 

And we're back to survival of the fittest. Survival crops up a lot. Evolutionarily speaking, those of us who are here, have managed to survive. And if you read my last post, not necessarily because we had good genes.

 

Many species developed or accidentally mutated so they were able to survive their predators. We now know that this means you didn't get eaten. Those who survived became, you know, better. Better at things like blending into the environment, super eye sight, speed, strength, really, really big teeth, and, the survival instinct. Or I should say, that is something we are born with.

 

 

HUMANS AS PREDATORS:

 

Humans are omnivorous. That means we eat everything.

 

One article said that a "lone, naked human is at a physical disadvantage to other apex predators. (awe, they put us at the top of the pyramid with other predators). Except we lack in speed, bone density, weight and  physical strength."  It goes on to say that without "crafted weapons, society or cleverness" we would  have been dead.

 

So, essentially our brains got us to the top of the food chain. My question is, why do so many of us prey on each other?  Since I've done my research, I have to change my language. Unless you're a cannibal, a human is not a predator, even if you kill or torture another human. I know, it's semantics, but it matters. At least, to me. So: ha ha.

 I have the power because I'm in charge of this post. And Power may be the word I've been looking for.

 

WHY DO SO MANY HUMANS ACT CRUELLY TO EACH OTHER? JUST WONDERING,  DO ANY OTHER ANIMALS GO TO WAR?

  

If the shoe fits, hit some one with it. Or steal theirs because you want it.  Sorry, I'm off track again. Or not.

 

 

24 HOURS LATER AND I'M BACK: RESEARCHING THIS TOPIC which was DISHEARTENING.

 

I copied over 6 pages of information onto a Word document so I could read the articles and attempt to integrate and absorb them.

 

As I mentioned, the terms used were not the right ones for what I was thinking.  The terms are more likely to be things like maladjusted, sociopathic, disturbed, prejudiced, or anti-social. Hunter would be more accurate than predator.  

 

 

What makes one person purposefully hurt another?

Here are several different theories.

 

 

 

 

 

Freud believed that sadism, or the desire to cause pain to another human being, is the result of a mix of sexual desire and aggression, which have biological and psychological bases and are a natural part of human nature. 

Usually, I like what Freud has to say. I can't say that I agree that it's innate. I do believe that some infants/children are conditioned to combine the two [sex and aggression] if they had parents or nannies who sexually stimulated them while being hurtful. I believe that explains a certain amount of S&M.

Heinz Kohut, a break away Freudian, thought that aggression against another person is always psychologically motivated. He meant that anger, rage and hate always have emotional and psychological meaning, even though it is not always obvious or easily explained. Great. I can agree because it is so nicely vague. Thank God he continued. He went on to say that "without understanding, hatred directed at another person can be a way of holding ourselves together." Something like Descartes, "I hate, therefore I am".  I think he's on to something.

 

 

 

  Kohut thought that rage, anger, and hatred are ways of filling an emptiness.  It is, he suggests, better to feel sadistic than not to feel at all.  This is also relevant to the people who cut themselves.

 At this point I'm going to bring up the horrific shooting at the gay club in Orlando. It pains me, that I live in the town where the shooter was from.  Thankfully,  Saint Lucie is a largely populated, and very physically large area of land, so I don't have to feel 'connected' to him.  Although, my husband and I  have driven by this mosque often enough to know where it is and what it looks like.

MY THEORY ON ORLANDO

Personally, I do not believe this was an act of terror. This was a man who was born into a religious, fundamentalist family who would never, ever accept a gay son. His actions are actually rather classic in a psychological sense.

When a person hates who or what he feels inside, his defense against it is called "reaction formation".  He actively hates those he would like to be.

I don't know if he ever acted on his feelings, but he certainly showed enough interest in this club, two hours away from home, to give one pause to question, why?  We have a gay club here so he didn't need to drive so far away?

 

 

I don't know what made him snap. Something did. All the talk he spouted that was pro ISIS and terror, in my mind was a cover up. When he shot all those innocent people, he was in fact, killing the part of himself he couldn't tolerate being. His calls to 911 and others about ISIS and terrorism were a smoke screen to save face with his family. And perhaps he believed he'd be able to go to Muslim Heaven since he martyred himself. It's twisted. But so is hate and prejudice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

HERE ARE SOME OTHER TAKES ON OUR KILLING PLEASURE.

 

IS IT AGGRESSION?

 

               According to many researchers, predation is not aggression.

It is:

 a response by an individual that delivers something unpleasant to another person. Some definitions include that the individual must intend to harm another person.  Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species may not be considered aggression in the same sense. Hey baby, I'm not angry. I'm hungry.

 

Aggression is meant to harm another person.  The article went on to say, that we have:

a genetic predisposition to cooperate—born not from altruism but from conflict. Primate groups that cooperated gained a competitive edge over rival groups, and their genes survived.

But then........

As long as we consider another human as

 "The Other," we automatically become "The Other" as well. When we have become "The Other," we also fracture the wholeness of our individual selves, so that within us we create an alien, not to be trusted, an aspect of our being.

I'll try to translate. Notice that our cooperation was born from conflict. It follows that old adage that "Politics makes strange bedfellows".  Looking at it that way, we will unite against what we see as a common enemy.  When that conflict is over, we revert back to our individual, group identification, and see anyone outside our own group as  "Others".  If you watched the TV show, LOST, you'll know that term.

 

And, we usually fear the unknown. Others, by the nature of the name, are unknown. Even if we do know them, they are not us, so they are different. We can dislike what they are because they are not us or like us. 

 

AND LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT POWER.

At the junction between pain and power lies cruelty, abject cruelty always is an attempt to exercise power over another.  I think I finally found what I was looking for.

 

THEORY ABOUT HUMAN ON HUMAN VIOLENCE.

When a person feels powerless, he or she will take on power in the form of dominating other beings. The feeling of power must be acted upon, or it does not fill its need. Therefore, people with perceived power, will act continually in order to maintain that feeling. Acting can be the mental process of thinking or planning how to enact their dominance.

 

Since humans are the only animal who can think, we are the only animal who can think of ourselves as being weak, empty or less than.

Therefore, we are the only creatures capable of inflicting purposeful pain and death on our fellow humans and other creatures. This tendency often begins in childhood where dominance over more helpless creatures, like animals and younger children is likely to be acted out.

 

CONCLUSION:

I am very sad to say, that from what I have read, humanity is in a sorry state. Perhaps if I were a more optimistic individual, I would believe that our species is capable of a massive change.

Thankfully, the majority of humans do not feel powerless nor do they desire to dominate so completely. As parents, we attempt to socialize our children so they will be assets to society. When parents fail, or a persons genetics are geared towards violence, there is little to be done.

 

 

Democracy is the best form of government except for its giant loophole. We are unable to prevent terrible people from doing terrible things until after they've done them. Our civil rights protect us as well as put us in grave danger.

 

The only things I can see that might be helpful, would be to recognize those who are mentally disturbed and treat them if possible. If they are not treatable, and pose a threat, they should be put away so they will not cause harm.

Also, the selling of weapons of such destruction boggles my mind. Who on earth but a soldier needs an assault rifle?

That's about it. I am powerless to change these things. I wouldn't want the power. As they say. Power corrupts and Absolute power corrupts completely.

 

SHOPPING AS A HOBBY NO I AM NOT KIDDING. And a possible reason we have hobbies

this was our dining room. we never used it, so we made it a sitting area.
I donated the table and chairs to hospice.

Good morning. I hope your week end has been enjoyable. For me at least, I know today will be better.

Yesterday, after Yoga, I had my hair straightened. 4.5 hours of torture. Not relevant to this post, but that's part of its charm. LOL ?

According to my dear friend Daniel, (God I hope I'm remember the right Webster), a hobby is something that a person like to work at, collect, etc. in his spare time.  For diversity, and to see if it's changed over the millennia, I checked in with my 1927 Pocket edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Current English.

In this ancient book,  it's described as a noun  that is "Favorite occupation not one's main business." It also lists an early type of velocipede. Now I have to look that up. Holy crap. I'm thinking pterodactyl and it's a bicycle or tricycle.  

What's interesting, I think, was that in 1927, people probably did not have spare time. Not that everyone does now, but it's an interesting foot note in history at the very least.

So, this means that shopping is something, a person works at in their spare time. I can live with that.

I have quite a few other hobbies. I can loosely call myself an artist. I don't like to say I paint because there are many other media that I use.   I also do a lot of photography. Thank God one doesn't have to develop their own photos any more. I remember my mother having a dark room and doing her own black and white work. Of course, in my mind, I believe that was really the creative part. ho hum.

Also, I love to read. It sounds silly to say it's a hobby since it's such a huge part of my life, but it is something I have always done in my spare time. I like to sunbathe, decorate my house and collect things. I also love to garden and do flower arrangements.  I am soooo well rounded.

some of the things people do as hobbies.

        

See how organized I am in my painting?

This is in my Woman Cave where I do all my work.
It's not really cluttered. Just full.

 
BACK TO THE TITLE FROM WHICH I ALWAYS WANDER:

As far back as I can recall, I loved to go shopping. My mother hated it, so she would take me along. And later in time, I used to take the train to downtown Brooklyn and window shop in my favorite department store. One might have called it my spare time, after school. I'd now call it my escape from the emptiness in my house when I got home.[Both parent working and Grandma and Janis had died.] I had no money and, at that time was somehow content to just look at all the beautiful things I saw. I wish I could get that back.

As my allowance increased, I began to buy little things. The same applied for my first job. This was fortunately located two blocks up from the huge Macy's in Manhattan.  Eight floors, a basement and it took up the entire city block from sixth to seventh avenue. I'd go to the store at lunch time and wander about. Sometimes I'd buy little nick knacks for my studio apartment. I am one of those fortunate people who doesn't spend more than they earn. Yet, there were always things I would have liked to buy that were out of my salary range.


ah, Louis.

As I earned more and could afford better things, I bought them. But there were still always things out of my reach. Years later, a therapist pointed out that as you got what you'd wanted, and earned more money, your taste would change and you'd always want the next more costly thing. Well, it was true for me. I don't know about you.

When I couldn't afford a Coach bag I wanted one. When I had more than one,  I wanted a Fendi. (which by the way I got at an amazing sale at Macy's years ago. I had it until quite recently and still have the wallet I got on sale at Lord & Taylor).  And then it was a Louis Vuitton. I'm not sure if these things are related to self esteem issue rather than a hobby thing, but it was/is still part of the shopping challenge.

SALE SHOPPING AS A SUB-TOPIC:

I was a slow learner. I didn't discover coupons, and sales or clearance until my early thirties. When I did, it changed my hobby for good. I should have a tattoo that says "never pay full price". Or as it states in one of the songs in Wicked "I don't know if I've been changed for good or for better". That's probably not accurate, but it's close.

It was no longer shopping. I was  hunting. Now there was a challenge involved. What was the lowest price I could get what I wanted for? [never end a sentence with a preposition] sorry, I couldn't rephrase it.

where are the sale signs?

For so many years, in my "spare" time, I shopped.  And since I worked, and lived in a four season climate, and my weight fluctuated, I needed to buy clothes. Lots of clothes. And shoes. Any woman will tell you that your shoes have to be right or the outfit [and you] look bad.





THE DOWNSIDE TO THIS HOBBY  AND OTHERS:

This is our living room. You can't see the TV but we sit on that very comfortable lounge.  See, there are lots of things, but it's not cluttered.
Shakespeare would say the lady doth protest too much. I think I may have to rethink this.

 

Space. Space and more space. Or, really the lack of space.  One has several choices in this matter. One can become a slob, a hoarder or a generous person who donates things to charity or if they have them, poorer relations. In this case, I was the poor relation. Now after rethinking this, since I  put up these pictures, maybe another option is to have a little clutter.



I was re-organizing and this is some of the collectibles we own. Roseville, Royal Doulton, head vases, Stangl birds and assorted items.

I don't like clutter which is funny because if you saw how much "stuff" I have, you'd be shocked. It usually doesn't seem cluttered because I keep things neat, orderly and use my decorating skills to make it appear as if there were fewer things. Maybe I'm delusional, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Or not since I put up the pictures. What do you think?

My closets are tidy. But they do get filled with things I don't wear. Now that I'm retired and living in a place where if a man gets dressed, it means he puts on long pants, I haven't quite adjusted and don't know what kind of clothes I need. 



SHOPPING FOR YOUR OTHER HOBBIES:

Whew. At least I don't feel so bad when I buy art supplies. I use them and have them on hand should I need something in particular. Oh yeah, I also do flower arrangements. They too are all over the house. The shopping again, is not the problem. It's what do I do with the finished products?




One of my arrangements. I bought the vase at a yard sale for three dollars.
 

This is the entrance into the bedroom.

working on a painting from one of my photographs.

 

I have nearly no wall space in my home. My husband would tease me and say that there is not one horizontal space that doesn't have something on it. That sometimes temporarily includes chairs or the washer and drier.  That's when he gets annoyed. 


BUT WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?

I will surmise that those of you reading this, could, and hopefully? will give me a list of other activities. I honestly do not get the buzz I used to get when I shopped. I don't go anywhere shopping as often because, let's face it, I've run out of room and really don't want to spend money on things I don't really need. But of course, in America, overspending and shopping is actually ones duty as a citizen, but you all know how I feel about that.

I used to kid around and say I was saving the economy, one store at a time. I still am. Think of all the jobs I've saved over the course of my lifetime.  Still.
I do give my barely used things to local charities. I like Safe Space which is for women who have fled domestic violence. I give money to charities for animals and veterans and Native Americans mostly.  Please don't suggest that I volunteer for anything. I just don't have it in me.

I just took this pic. I didn't straighten up before.

 

 

So. There it is. All laid out neatly. Like my closet.

THEORY:
The more time one has to spend on survival, the less time one has for hobbies. If getting drunk is your hobby, and you don't only do it in your spare time, you may have a problem. 

Hobbies are things that are truly enjoyed, unless they are time fillers you use to try to give your life meaning when you've lost it. 

Only you can know which is which.

Thanks for reading. And, if you have some suggestions, well you can reach me.