Watergate

 There have been a lot of Watergate specials on TV lately. That's because it's been 50 years since the break-in. A 50-year anniversary will always mean a lot of TV specials. Since I didn't pay much attention to it when it happened, and since history interests me more than it did in school when I failed and had to repeat US History in summer school, I have been watching some of these documentaries. What has surprised me is not what these men did, but how civilly it was handled after it happened.

In case you don't know, in 1972, several men broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel in Washington D.C. (I don't think anyone has definitively said what they were looking for, but it must have been information on the Democrat's strategy in the upcoming presidential election. It never really mattered what they were there for.) A lot of stuff happened and, eventually, the Republican President, Richard Nixon, was forced to resign due to it having been proven that he knew all about it and was trying to cover it up. If you want more details, click on this link to the Watergate Scandal page on Wikipedia.

As I watched the shows about Watergate, it amazed me at how civil everyone was to each other. Today politicians rarely get along if they're not in the same party, and often even politicians in the same party don't get along. There's a lot of ugliness and hostility in politics today. The idea of coming together "across the aisle" to compromise on something is extremely rare. Many politicians won't support anything that wasn't proposed by someone in their own party. Doesn't matter what it's about.

I'm a Democrat-leaning Independent. A liberal. So you're going to cite that whenever I say something negative about Republicans.  So be it. But so many Republicans are working so hard to block anything the Democrats propose. Health care? Blocked. Recession relief? Blocked. Teaching historical truth? Blocked. Voting rights? Blocked. Affordable prescriptions, especially insulin? Blocked. I could go on, but you can find information about this elsewhere. (Here's an informative article about it.)

I wonder what has happened over the years to make so many people so defiant and so angry. It amazes me. It scares me. 

I live in a "red state" and most of the people who live in my little town are Trump supporters. Well, they were. There's no telling anymore. But still, a lot of these people would continue to support Trump even if he was raping their grandma. I firmly believe that. When a new neighbor moved in and hung a Trump flag on his front porch I was visibly shaken.

Scenario: Someone's raping grandma.  Get the gun and then run to grandma to save and protect her. Aim the gun at the rapist. Wait. What? Oh, it's Trump? Sorry, grandma.

No, this would never happen. Grandma's too old and wrinkly for Trump. But maybe your sister or your daughter. Hmmm? He did say he likes to grab them by the pussy.

So anyway, back to Watergate. As I watched the documentaries, I watched all these Democrat and Republican politicians being nice to each other. Even the Nixon-loving Republicans thought he had gone too far and wanted to impeach him. Amazing! These documentaries usually end with Nixon climbing into Marine One to leave the White House for the last time. 

As I watch the end of the documentary, tears came to my eyes. It's was so fantastically awesome how these (mostly) men came together to do the right thing. What happened between then and now? Why are we so hateful and hurtful when it comes to political opinions. We used to be able to discuss our differences. We can't do that anymore and that's just a sad commentary on our country.

Thanks for visiting.

Sue

Money. Fucking money.

I don't know where it's going.

I was having serious money problems so I changed some things. I canceled my cable TV which saves me slightly over $100 per month. I completely quit making payments on all but one of my credit cards, which saves me several hundred dollars per month. Even with these debts "gone" each month, I'm still in the red and bouncing checks (at $20 per bounced check, btw).

Every month I try to cut back, but every month I'm in the red, and I just don't understand it. I'm only paying the things I have to pay, but I'm still fucked. I just don't get it.

My Venmo is @SueWacvet

My CashApp is $wacvet

My PayPal is sme617@gmail.com or scan this:

Dear Delivery Drivers,

 Please use your head. Don't put my food on the ground. I have a chair and a table on my front porch, so when I select "contact-free delivery," you should leave the food there.

Tonight my delivery driver not only wanted to hand me the food, but when I asked him to put the food down and pointed to the chair (through a closed storm/screen door), he put it on the ground. 

Maybe you just need the extra money. Maybe you're not bright enough to qualify for a well-paying, steady job. Whatever it is, help me to think the former, not the latter, by not putting my food on the ground. 

Thanks.

(For those of you who might be wondering if they are repaying my frugality, they're not. I tip as generously as possible for someone who doesn't make much money herself.)

Imagine

 Imagine a happy, healthy woman who has no serious worries. This woman has a "normal," fulfilling life. She also has pets. She has a couple of cats who are her companions. She really loves these cats that have been with her for several years. Now imagine that one of her cats dies and, a few days later, another one disappears. Imagine how she will feel. She will be sad, of course. She might even go into a temporary state of depression, but she carries on. And she'll eventually come out of it.

Now imagine a woman who already has chronic depression. She has been depressed for several years. She takes anti-depressants that help her a little bit. She sleeps way more than she should and yet she still manages to get out of bed - eventually - so she can take care of her other pets. But, honestly, if there were no pets she would sleep a lot more. She has chronic fatigue along with her depression that makes it nearly impossible for her to do most normal things, like housework, bathing, shopping, going to medical appointments, etc. Now imagine that this woman loses not one, but two cats in the space of two weeks. One gets sick and dies. One just disappears. Imagine how this woman will feel. The mild state of depression felt by the otherwise-healthy woman will be added to the burden of this woman's chronic depression.

I haven't felt suicidal for quite some time, so that's not an issue. But damn it hurts. Ziva died a couple of weeks ago and now Himz has gone missing. Himz is a big cat - bigger than any other cat I've owned. I got him as sort of a trade for a dog. Long story. Forgive me for not going into it right now. Himz has been missing for four days. It's very unusual. 

 Before you go blaming me, let me explain that I have a cat door in my front window so cats can go in and out as they please. And I have a doggy door in my back door, and they can use that - and do - as well. Himz has used both doors and knows they're open all the time for him. I still feel guilty whenever a cat goes missing. I do believe in keeping cats indoors, but when you have several cats, a few dogs, and a job, that isn't easy to do. When I worked, I would rush home at lunch to let the dogs out. Eventually I got the doggie door so I wouldn't have to do that. But there was no way to keep the cats from using it, as well. And that's how my cats became indoor-outdoor cats. A few of them chose to stay indoors most of the time. Some of them went outdoors a lot, but came inside, too. Himz mostly stayed outside, but never ventured too far from the front of the house. He was extremely affectionate. When he came inside he liked to sit on my lap in front of the TV. A wonderful cat.

I hope he comes back. 🙏

Sue

UPDATE: Himz came back yesterday. He seemed a little confused, which makes me wonder where he was. But he's home now and doing great!!! ❤️

Meaningless Phrases

I love finding phrases that are supposed to be effective in advertising or whatever, but that really have no logical meaning when you really think about them. Look at this label.

"Up to 100% protection." That means there can be very little protection, but on some occasions you might get 100% protection. Maybe you can make a game of it and post a congratulatory note on the company's Twitter feed or Facebook account if you ever get 100% protection. So how good are these pads, really? And what if you don't get 100% protection and you want to complain to the company? "But we only guarantee up to 100%, not actual 100% all the time." So if you're hoping for 100% protection 100% of the time, these pads probably aren't for you. Meaningless.

Another advertising phrase I laugh at is "baked fresh daily." So what? The important thing, I would think, would be how long from the day it's baked until it reaches the consumer? If you baked my bread (or whatever) two weeks ago it still could have been "baked fresh daily," but not shipped until days later. I think "shipped fresh daily" might be a little better, but not much. Meaningless.

How many commercials do you expect when watching a movie on a regular television network? One every five minutes? One every ten minutes? How many commercials if they announce "limited commercial interruptions"? Doesn't that apply to every show? Because the opposite would be "unlimited" commercial interruptions. And, as much as you like the show, you probably wouldn't watch it if there were unlimited commercial interruptions. Or you might do what I do with most of the shows I watch: you'd record it and watch it later, fast forwarding through the commercials.

There are others I've seen but I didn't make a note when I saw them, darn it. What about you?

Cheers,

Sue

I'm Down To Nine Cats, Now

 Ziva, one of my black cats, passed away overnight last night. I found her this morning on the floor of the TV room. I knew it was coming. She was getting worse and worse as days passed. She was so thin. I kept buying canned food to encourage her to eat more. She'd eat dry food, but liked canned food much better. What cat doesn't? How old was she? I don't know. I've had so many cats and my memory is deteriorating so that keeping track is something I can't do mentally. A while back I created a list on my computer of all the cats I accepted responsibility for, including some strays and ferals. That list now has more dead and/or missing cats listed than live cats. A while back I got so sick of myself for what almost amounted to cat-hoarding that I vowed never to "adopt" another cat. And I haven't. Ziva was always a small cat and, in 2018 or 2019, gave birth to three sons, one of which was killed when he wandered into the neighbor's backyard full of dogs. I still have the other two.

Ziva in 2016

Although some would argue, I feel I've always been a responsible pet owner. I've taken all my pets to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated. I take the dogs in annually, but the cats not so much. I only take them to the vet when they're sick or injured. I feel bad about that, but I can't afford to take all the pets in for an annual exam, etc. (Which is another reason I'm not taking in any more cats.) My cats were indoor cats until a few years ago when I put in a doggie door so the dogs could go outside to poo whenever they needed too, and I wouldn't have to make a mad dash home at lunchtime to let them out. I still feel that cats should be indoor, only. That makes me a hypocrite, I know. 

As I do with all of my pets, I'll take Ziva to be cremated and I'll keep her ashes. I hope to have all my pet cremains interred with me when it's my time. I'll find a place where that's allowed. I think it's allowed in most places now, but I want to be interred in a veterans cemetery. 

Not much else going on. I'm just trying to avoid the horrible heat that is Texas in the summer. And procrastinating the thing that I keep telling myself I actually want to do. And I suppose, way back in the corners of my mind I do want to do them (exercise, clean, etc.).

I started an Etsy shop because I realized there were things I could sell that I could create on my computer and offer for downloading. Things like printable stationery, some forms, and even a little artwork. Visit me and buy something (so I can pay for Ziva's cremation). I'm here: Suze Stationery. I plan to add more stuff, but again I procrastinate. If there's something you might want that I could create, let me know.

My shower floor is falling down. I have no better way to describe it. The last time I showered I notice the floor was detaching from the wall on one side. So I've stopped showering and called my insurance company. If they don't pay to fix it I'm going to have to take baths from now on. They've assigned me a case number which, I think, means they're going to pay for it.

UPDATE: June 23, 20222

My insurance will not pay for my damaged shower. They didn't even send out an inspector to see what the problem was. They told me it was mold and and old leak, but there's no fucking way they could know that. I'm going to contact someone more important than my agent and complain forcefully. 

The good news, maybe, is that I checked the paperwork for my home appliance insurance and it does say something in there about covering indoor plumbing and damage. So I've submitted a claim but haven't heard from them. I'm going to wait a few days and resubmit.

Cheers,

Sue

No More Patience 😡

 I have no patience left in my life for anything or anyone. Honestly. Maybe there's a certain amount of patience you're given as a newborn and, the more you use, the less you have when you grow older. I've reached that point. 

A recent example: When I contact Amazon to ask them why I often find ratings for unrelated products on one of their product's pages and they have to ask me three times what product I'm referring to, the first thing I want to do is ask them if they're "special." (Can't use the r-word anymore these days, but you know what I mean. Unless you're "special," I guess.)

I bought an item that received four+ stars - a personal air conditioner. After I received it and started using it, I realized it's not that great. It's definitely not four+ stars. So I looked at the ratings and notices several items listed on the page that are definitely not a personal air conditioner. One had pictures so it was painfully obvious that the item being rated was a body pillow. Five stars. So am I supposed to give a fuck that someone's body pillow was five-star-worthy? I found a couple other ratings that had nothing to do with the personal a/c. 

So what's the point? What's the reason these non-applicable ratings are on the wrong page? Clearly they mess with the rating for the actual product on the page - the a/c.

I have an "associate" who is extremely sensitive about everything. I have to be extra cautious whenever I say anything about her. But really I'd rather just say what I'm thinking without having to worry about the affect it might have and then just slap her face if she overreacts. That's not right, though, is it? I've never said anything that (in my opinion) would insult her. Yet, over the years, she has felt insulted by me several times. My fault? No!! This is MY blog and I say it wasn't my fault. Recently she was teasing herself about a personal problem she has. So I teased her about the same thing and, guess what?! I hurt her feelings. Why do I blame her? Because she is the only person I know who reacts the way she reacts. I can tease all my other "associates" without the boo-hooing. They understand that I'm teasing or joking.

Some people need to grow a thicker skin. Instead of instantly accusing me of "hurting their feelings," maybe other people need to think rationally for a minute and realize I'm not trying to hurt someone's feelings. 

When I want to hurt someone's feelings I'll say something like, "You're an idiot." Believe me, it will be obvious if my intention is to hurt you.

I'm going to go look up articles about patience, now. And order some wings from Pizza Hut. They're the only thing I order from Pizza Hut, and I only order them on Wing Wednesday when they're cheaper.

I've Been Sort Of Busy :-D

 The other day I was watching TV, as I usually do, and I heard someone talking about her Etsy shop. She didn't go into much detail except to say that she was making a LOT of money from her shop. She very basically described what she did and I thought, "Hell, I can do that." So I've opened up an Etsy shop and I'm now designing and selling stationery and forms. All my stuff is downloadable, so there's no packing and shipping. That's ideal for me, someone with chronic fatigue and depression. 

It's not easy setting up the shop. I'm still getting the hang of it. I've already made one sale! Unfortunately, I think Etsy took most of that money. That's one of the things I need to learn more about. I'll be adding more stuff to my shop in the future, but I have to design it first. Most of it is still in my head. 

Please visit my shop and, if you see something you like, feel free to purchase it. Because all my stuff is downloadable, it's all pretty cheap. Also, if you want something personalized, I can work with you on that.

Click here to visit Suze Stationery. Thanks!

I Love My Dogs, But Sometimes I Want To Strangle Them

 I used to be a cat person. I had five cats when I finally decided to get a dog. Remember back around 1998, when Taco Bell had that cute chihuahua in all of its commercials? I think that might be what caused me to want a dog. I got a mini Dachshund, Rose, and fell in love. I not only fell in love with Rosie, I also fell in love with dogs, in genera. I mean, I've always loved dogs, but never wanted to own one.

Skip several dogs forward and I have found myself getting torn up on a regular basis. First, about two years ago I adopted Charlie, a black lab mix. I had forgotten how sharp puppies' teeth and toenails are. Being a large breed dog, I was always getting big scratches on my arms and legs from Charlie trying to jump on me to play. It wasn't so bad in the winter when I could wear sweatpants and avoid most of the scratches but, in the summer I looked like I was being frequently attacked by the scratch monster.

Charlie has grown out of that phase (the sharp teeth and claws) and doesn't want to jump up and scratch me most days. He still does jump sometimes, but never causing the injuries he used to cause.

Charlie has a lot of energy so I decided to find a playmate for him. I had forgotten about the teeth/claw issue until finally found a candidate. Enter Benny, a very mixed breed who looks like he will end up being just a little smaller than Charlie who, at last weigh-in weighed 106 pounds. Benny is a very playful puppy (born approx, Nov.1, 2021) and he loves to jump up on me, which results in the same painful scratches I got from Charlie. To show you exactly what I mean, here is one of most recent scratches. It's getting very warm in central Texas so I've been wearing shorts.

Remember I said that sometimes I want to strangle my dog(s)? This is why. Both pix are of my right leg. (I know you can figure that out on your own, but I wanted to save you some time.)

This is Benny.

In case you're wondering, here is Benny's DNA report.

So you can see that Benny, as I said, is a very mixed breed. 😁 I love him very much. 💜

Why Do They Want To Make Us Angry?! 😡

 Have you ever sat in front of your computer for an hour or more filling out forms and answering questions, going through the whole process in order to get an insurance quote only to be told at the end that, "whoops, sorry, we're having a technical issue, call us at 800-nnn-nnnn"?

What do you do? Do you call them? Do you tell them (in your mind) "fuck you, I'll go somewhere else where they, hopefully, won't waste my time"? After all, there are dozens of companies out there.

I called them. The first thing I did was yell at poor little Summer about how much I HATE having my time wasted and how they need new IT people if they're having technical issues. Poor Summer. She tried to help but I ended up hanging up on her. Well, I said goodbye and told her to have a nice day, then I hung up. I did tell her that I'm 68 years old and could "check out" at any moment. I told her to please report to her management and "up the ladder" how much people hate to have their valuable time wasted.

I suspect that they do this on purpose. Yes. They purposely have "technical issues" in order to get you on the phone to try to sell you more stuff. That's what Summer tried to do. I went through the whole online process and at no point before the "pay now" button did anyone ask me "are you sure you don't want [this stuff] on your policy?" But Summer asked me. She couldn't even clearly explain what [this stuff] does and why I would want it, but she wanted to add it to the policy. This is where I hung up. (See the meaning of "hung up" in the previous paragraph.)

As I said, I'm 68 years old. I've survived this long, done some good in the world, served my country for 22 years, worshiped my God, and I think I deserve to go through certain processes without ending up with "technical issues." Bogus technical issues.

I had plans to write a nicer post today. Maybe I will later, but first I need to calm down and maybe drink something (since it's illegal in Texas to "smoke something"). I hope you all are having a nicer day that I am. And it's only 9:00AM. Damn.

 

Just so you know, I turned off commenting on this blog because all I was getting was ad spam. If you comment and it's actually related to the blog, I'll approve it. So don't let the approval thing stop you.

UKRAINE

 Just so you know . . .

Perhaps I'll have more to say about this later, but I wanted to get this out there for now.

The Rainbow Bridge

 There are a lot of things that really annoy me these days. Is it because I'm getting older? Maybe. Anyway, a lot of people, when their beloved pet dies, post that their beloved pet has gone over the Rainbow Bridge. This is because of a sweet poem written by Paul C. Daum*. There are actually two versions. One is more of a poem than the other. Both describe a beautiful place where pets go when they die, a place where they wait for their owners to meet them, and then they cross the Rainbow Bridge together. They cross together. How lovely, and wonderful if it were true.

What annoys me is that, as long as this/these poem(s) has/have been around, you'll still find the majority of people posting, "My [pet] has crossed the Rainbow Bridge."

Can you see why that annoys me? You don't have to look too hard. The poem says the pet goes to the Rainbow Bridge to wait and cross with its owner. So when a pet dies, you don't say it has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. You say it has gone to the Rainbow Bridge.

To me it's not only marginally illiterate to misstate the poem, but it's damned disrespectful, too. I have, in the past, tried to educate by correcting these people, only to be insulted. And that annoys me, too. They insult me because they are wrong. So now I just let it go. Let them be the illiterate buttheads that they are showing themselves to be.

Here, read for yourself. I'll post both versions.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page so you can read all about it.

Now, I want you never, ever, ever to post that your beloved pet has crossed the rainbow bridge, unless you can post it after you die, from the great beyond.

*many people believe the actual author to be unknown; me, I have no idea.

-----

Is It Okay to Post Memes?

 I'm very liberal. VERY liberal. I've stepped away from Facebook for a while. It was bringing me down. But I still go look now and then. Today I saw a meme that I can relate to. Here it is:

This was the problem (and still is, sadly) with that guy who was our president for four years - the one before Biden. It wasn't/isn't a difference of opinion our citizens were having. It was a difference in morality.

Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me? ☹️

 One of my favorite shows on TV right now is The Curse of Oak Island. If you've never seen it, it involves two brothers, Rick and Marty Lagina, and a few friends searching for treasure on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. Here's what you'll see if you google it: 

Oak Island is a tree-covered island on the south shore of Nova Scotia that has intrigued treasure hunters for more than 200 years. It is believed that the island is hiding one of the greatest treasures of all time, but no one has been able to find it. Enter Rick and Marty Lagina, brothers from Michigan who have bought the rights to much of the island to try to solve the mystery. The two use modern technology and good old American know-how to look for the treasure. But it won't be easy as the search is expensive and dangerous -- several people have died trying to strike it rich on Oak Island, inspiring the titular curse. The Laginas hope to avoid the curse long enough to find the treasure before they run out of money... or worse.

Or worse? I guess they're talking about "the curse," which, if you're a big fan and have followed the show since the first season, you suspect doesn't exist and, in fact, is something made up by the press to make the whole thing sound more interesting.

I've followed for the treasure, sure, but I got very interested in the history; namely, the idea that people have been to the area long before Columbus "discovered" America, and many of those people were Templars (or Knights Templar). I read Zina Halpern's book with gusto.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that Rick Lagina, my soul mate (he doesn't know that yet), and his brother Marty, were actually here in central Texas for another show, Beyond Oak Island, in a vague search for something known as the Lost San Saba Mine, which is a Spanish mine that was very productive but had to be hidden when the Spaniards were attacked by local native Americans.

This is Rick Lagina.

 

I want to know why no one told me that Rick was going to be so close. I'm furious. I could have gone to meet him, taken numerous selfies, and we could have started our long and happy life together. But now I'm stuck here in central Texas alone. Well, I have my dogs, which is a very close second to Rick. (Actually Rick is a close second to my dogs.)

If anyone of you ever finds out in advance that Rick will be in central Texas again, you must tell me.

WHERE THE HELL HAVE I BEEN??!!!!

Sleeping a lot. A LOT. Depression. Chronic Fatigue. Both suck and together they are debilitating.

I saw a cartoon today that made me think of something that happened to me at one of my overseas assignments. Here's the cartoon.

I was first stationed in Germany from 1973 to 1976. I was actually at three different places during that short period. At the middle one - a small site near what was the East/West German border - we shared the site with a small contingency of British soldiers, some of whom were accompanied by their wives. 

There were no barracks so all the American soldiers lived "on the economy," which means we lived in German houses and apartments that we rented. When I moved into my little house, I decided to throw a party. I invited everyone - Americans and Brits. I don't remember much about the party - whether I did a good job as host. I want to say that I didn't. (I don't remember food or music, but I remember booze.) But I do remember that a large number of the Brits came and some brought their wives. There was one American. The party lasted a few hours and then everyone went home. In my opinion, it was a great, fun party. I got the impression that the people who attended had a good time, as well.

The next Monday at work, one of my American compatriots asked, in sort of a weird, snide way, how my party had gone. I answered honestly, that it had gone GREAT! That we had a lot of fun. I think I immediately realized that he thought his question was going to hurt me. I realized he knew that almost no Americans showed up, and I think that was the plan. I honestly believe, now, that the American soldiers had decided to not show up hoping that my party would be a huge failure. I'm glad that I was able to respond the way I did. Hopefully I disappointed him (and the others) more than they disappointed me. Those people were bullies, weren't they? Yes. Yes they were.