WOE IS US! The Blizzard of 09--will we EVER thaw out?

These are just a few shots of my backyard and the neighbor's yard too after the Blizzard of 09 rolled through here yesterday! Terrible, isn't it?

My poor puppy didn't know how to act. She ate some snow, she rolled in the snow and then she trotted back inside with a look of "are you people crazy sending me out in that stuff' look on her face. Silly dog!

I know I have friends who live in places like International Falls, MN and family in Vermont who will laugh their hineys off at seeing what I call a 'blizzard', but they forget, winter in North Carolina is sort of like SUMMER to them. So you have YOUR blizzard and I'll take MY VERSION! Thank you VERY MUCH! LOL

Here's my deck--see how DEEP it was?? Those are kid unit footie prints and furbaby ones too!

SO, until I have something interesting to say again or I get another wild hair...

Have a good one..stay WARM...enjoy the day!

Laine

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT--A thrilling ride from start to finish!

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT, the second installment in Marta Stephens’ Sam Harper series is a thrilling read!!

The bodies of teenagers in Chandler, Massachusetts are turning up in the bay and homicide detective Sam Harper has been assigned to the case. What Sam and his partner, Dave Mann, do not know is that not only are those cases related, but there is more to this than a serial killer on the loose. This case reaches from the jungles of South America all the way to Rome and has ties to the Vatican that can change the lives of everyone and not in a good way!

As if the end of the world wasn’t complication enough, Sam finds himself trying to out-pace and protect a reporter for the local newspaper, Jenny Blake, who is dead-set on making a name for herself and using this case to do it.

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT is an incredibly entertaining, completely enthralling, and masterfully written novel. Ms. Stephens grabbed my attention from page one and never let it go! This story had me gasping for breath and left me begging for more! I can’t wait for the next installment in the Sam Harper series. And if anyone in Hollywood is paying attention, this one would make a great feature film as well!

Trying to wrap my brain around this concept...

If anyone, anywhere, can actually explain to me HOW in the world anyone would ever think it was perfectly acceptable for a Girl Scout troop to have a cookie booth outside of a HOOTER'S restaurant, I would greatly appreciate the effort!!

I just do not think, and cannot be convinced, that the image of Girl Scouts will ever mesh with the image of Hooter's. Why bring little girls to that type of establishment and have them outside selling cookies to raise money for troop activities, when the girls inside are dressed like a bunch of skanky low-rent hookers serving a big plate of false hope to a bunch of drunken men who should have better things to do? Any ideas?? Anyone??

And before anyone wants to tell me that they are a family restaurant and have good food there, let me tell you this, if their food was so great, they would be willing to clothe their wait staff. They would be willing to hire a man to wait tables. They might even hire a flat-chested girl or, now here's a novel idea--a fat chick or two! If Hooter's did any of that, I MIGHT be able to give them a shot at being called a family restaurant.

For those who want to argue it is a LEGAL business, so is a strip club, but I won't want to associate Girl Scouts with that either. Of course, there isn't much difference if you ask me. I see a very short walk from 'having nothing left to imagine' and 'leaving nothing TO the imagination' because Hooter's uniforms are so tight and so short, they fall firmly within that latter category.

For those who say that the GIRLS who work at Hooter's put themselves there by choice. No one is exploiting them without their permission, that is true. However, hookers on the street are their by their own choice too. That doesn't mean I want to set up a cookie booth in front of a brothel either--even in areas where that is also legal!

Any business (legal or otherwise) that objectifies women in any way in order to line their own coffers should NEVER been seen as aligning with Girl Scouts!! Girl Scouts is a wonderful organization, but sometimes, a few people within it really need to pull their heads out from the dark recesses of their lower extremities and think in the light of day!! They may find it refreshing!!

That's my take on it. Tossing it out to you now. Tell me what YOU think!

Until something else crawls across my wild hair,
Laine

What is racism?

I'm a member of a 'debate' group in one of those online social networking sites we all read so much about these days. The discussions in this group are usually triggered by odd news reports, a flippant remark made by someone in line at the grocery store, or one of those things that makes you go, "Hmmmm..."

A question was posed recently regarding racism and whether or not it is racist for the African American community to have their own colleges, pageants, magazines and television networks. The poster also mentioned that her place of employment gives African-American employees MLK Day off with pay while refusing to give the same benefit to white employees. I'm sure that has been a cause for many discussions at her workplace. Being that she is by no means a racist individual, my guess is she is trying to wrap her brain around the concepts she may have been overhearing at work. (I explain that for the benefit of folks who are not members of that particular group and may not understand or appreciate how these types of conversations may come about. And for no other reason.)

My response to her debate question was:

I think you have to look back to when those particular institutions you mentioned were started. They came from a need in the community to show non-white people in a different light--as REAL people, not just the maid or the thug. Times are changing, but slowly because some folks want to dig in their heels and scream NO! all the way.

MLK Day is not a religious holiday, so any company who only wants to pay some employees and not all to have that day off is missing the mark! Martin Luther King, Jr. did a great thing for ALL people, it just so happened that the Black community benefited the most (perceived as 'most' anyway) from his efforts, and the efforts of THOUSANDS of others because they were the focus of it and had the farther to come, just to be treated equally.

Don't you remember your history? Even as late as the 1960's, Black American CITIZENS were forced to sit in the back of the bus, couldn't drink from the same water fountains, had to cross the street if a white person was heading their way. Black men and boys were murdered for something as small as smiling at a white woman, or complimenting her on her hair or dress, regardless of their intention or how polite they were when they said it. And all without white people batting an eyelash against it!

So if I were going to be upset at anyone in a company where only some got to celebrate a day in honor of a great man like Dr. King, I'd put the blame where it belongs--firmly on the shoulders of the idiot who made the policy! Not those who have been made to seem to be taking advantage of it. Do you have any Jewish people working there? Do they get upset when their religious holidays are not recognized with the same excitement as yours?

I think it is most definitely racist to expect there to be WHITE ONLY establishments, colleges, pageants, etc., because for so many CENTURIES in this great country of ours, that is exactly how it was! Now we are a little more enlightened--or I certainly HOPE we are--and it may SEEM to some that the rights of whites are being trampled, but that is just not the case. This is simply what a more equal society looks like. Not being held above another simply on the basis of your skin tone is NOT the same as being discriminated against. It just means you have to play by the same rules as everyone else.

We aren't THERE yet. In a perfect world there would be no NEED for BET or predominately Black colleges or the Miss Black America Pageant because none of us would see ourselves as (Fill-in-the-Blank)-Americans, but simply AMERICANS and we could actually be proud of that alone!! Until that day arrives, we just have to keep on keepin' on and hoping the light will eventually reach everyone and not be taken up by the lucky who were born paler than the others.

That's my plugged nickel's worth on the topic. These are just my opinions. Others may vary. Void where prohibited by law.

Let me know what you think....

Until next time,
Laine

New year...same old attitude?

I am unable to sleep tonight. No clue as to the why of that, but I was trying to come up with something productive and QUIET to do and a thought struck me (no it did not hurt, in case you were wondering).

Does the new year ever change a person's attitude? I don't think it does. It has never changed mine. Turning over a new calendar is not life altering enough to change much more than the scenery.

If the new year doesn't bring a change in attitude, what does? I think only a change in attitude can provide that. It has to come from a desire to change, not from simply waking up in a new year.

Will I change my attitude this year? I certainly hope I have a reason to feel more optimistic about life and our nation's economy and our position in the world. I'm thrilled with the way the national election turned out. I have great hopes for what President-elect Obama can bring to this nation, IF he is given the chance to do so. For the first time in a long time, I can say I support my President and feel good about it.

There may be fair seas ahead, but I fear the turmoil will come from inside the boat! I want to be proven wrong on that count. Please?

Time will tell I guess.

Wishing you and yours a very happy and prosperous 2009!

Laine...if this doesn't make any sense, just chalk it up to lack of sleep and the writer being decaffeinated.