Friday, October 31, 2008

Ghouls, and ghosties, and long legged beasties

I hope everyone had a good day, and has all kinds of ghoulish fun planned for tonight! I anticipate that we'll be watching a scary movie tonight, and next up on our playlist is "Thirteen Ghosts." I hope it's good and creepy. We don't get trick or treaters out here, so we won't need to worry about that. If a stray one shows up, we'll just give them a bottle of wine. We have a little stash.

As Mark would say, I keed, I keed.

Wow, what a gorgeous day! I didn't even have to wear a jacket when I went to the store. I got my errands run, arranged for a delivery, then spent a little time getting some bulbs planted. Some hyacinths and some little ones called...snowdrops? Not sure, but they come up pretty early. I remembered! Glory of the Snow! I don't know if any of them will make it--I should have planted them last year, but for whatever reason didn't get to it. I only planted a couple of dozen, so it wasn't too bad. One year, I got a whole bunch of bulbs free from some bulb catalog and ended up planting 150. That about did me in, so I'll stick with the lower number!

Back to the horror thing. I got an email from my uncle today. (sigh) I love him to pieces, but I'm at a loss. This is the uncle who sent me some stuff a while back about Obama, and I wrote back and responded to some of the erroneous information in the forwarded email, and asked him to not send me that stuff anymore. He seemed okay with that, but I got another one today about...get this...the false story about Michelle Obama chowing down on expensive room service items at the Waldorf-Astoria. I found the Snopes article that debunked that lie (she was in Fort Wayne, Indiana on the day she was supposedly stuffing her face at the Waldorf), and the article included the statement released by the New York Post (always a bastion of truth) that their report was a complete falsehood. I sent the article to him and asked him to read it.

His reply was that he doesn't know what to believe anymore, that he is trying to figure things out, that this election is part of Biblical prophecy, and that Obama is a Muslim. (heavy sigh) I wrote back and said that no, he's not a Muslim, he's an evangelical Christian...just like you. I went on to say that I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, but in the meantime, please don't send me more forwards about this, because I have already cast my vote.

I made the choice to not pursue the subject and not argue with him. I provided the information that it was a false report, I stated how I felt, and if I did pursue it, neither of us would manage to convince the other in the end! Sometimes you just have to let things go, right? It makes me feel sad, though, that there are some who are so ready to believe such lies about a person.

We're getting close to the Big Day. It looks like McCain-Palin are concentrating on Ohio at the moment, and the Governator is with McCain in Columbus right now. He's actually talking about how Obama needs to beef up his scrawny legs and build up his skinny arms. Hahaha! That's pretty stupid. I prefer mental muscle! Okay, I can't listen any longer. Sorry, Governator.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Ohio. Based on what my friend LJ says, and from what I'm reading, things are tough all over, but they're getting really tough in Ohio. She knows people in her city who are getting laid off, and unable to pay for heat, food, and medical bills. It's a fairly industrial state, and industries are suffering right now (but she also says that she knows a lot of people who won't vote for Obama because he's black). Here in Indiana, we're seeing layoffs at places like Whirlpool. Our next-door county, Elkhart, has an economy based mostly on manufacturing, including RV's. As you can imagine, they've taken some huge hits. I heard recently that their unemployment rate is up to 11%. THAT is scary. It's not as bad where we're at, because our county is more service-oriented than manufacturing-oriented, but we're taking hits, too. Ken and I both feel fortunate that his job is secure, and if I ever had to, I know my job would also be a hot commodity. But I think about how it must feel to have that uncertainty hanging over your head...wondering if your hours will be cut, or if you'll come to work one day and find out that your plant is closing down or your job is being eliminated, and to know that hardly anyone is hiring, so your chances of finding another job are not good.

When I was driving home from the store today, I saw that gas was down to under $2.50. I had a moment where I thought, "Cool!" and then I thought about why it's down so much: the economy sucks right now. I know it will recover eventually, but in the meantime, we've got some people who are in dire straits right now. It bothers me greatly, and I hope that we choose the right person to lead us out of this mess, and that those who are struggling can get some help.

But for now, just have fun with faux scary stuff, not genuine scary stuff, and enjoy hearing things that go bump in the night. Watch out for a cold hand reaching up from beneath your bed, caressing your ankle with a bony finger....

12 comments:

  1. I'll be watching Halloween 11 in a while I've seen all the others but that one.

    I was just looking at your playlist, and saw Brian setzer whom I've just discovered on YouTube, his orchestra does a great rendition of Hawaii five o...that brought back some memories.

    Happy Halloween

    Yasmin
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Beth,
    No offense, but your Uncle sounds like the type of person who is suseptible to the ridiculous attacks being launched by McCain and Palin. If he hasn't seen through all that nonsense yet, he's never going to.
    Best,
    Marty

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even in a secure environment, things can get tough. They announced today no raises for us in 2009. In addition, with Unit 1 down, and at $1M per day in losses, any bonuses are in jeopardy as well. Not a complaint, glad to have a secure job and income.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paul just found out there is a hiring freeze in the school he works for...strange that it would effect even that avenue. So far they they're not laying anyone off. Unfortunately he doesn't have tenure yet...so no matter how invaluable he is compared to someone who has tenure, he will be let go of first. I'm crossing my fingers we don't have to worry about that yet. So yeah it's tight all over. (Hugs)Indigo

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so sick of this election and will be glad when it is over.So many lies, and inuendos. I just delete most of what people have sent me about Obama. I think he will be the best choice out of the two of them for our nation.
    I do not comdeme anyone else's choice, and expect the same.
    I liked 13 ghost, and Interview with a vampire is my favorite vampire film.. Brad Pitt was hot back then!
    It is nice to have gas back down again. It was 2.42 here today.
    warm and sunny again, never know what the weather will be like in our state.
    Enjoy your movie...
    xox, Cassie

    ReplyDelete
  6. Our Gas was $2.07 today! I wonder why?
    (Weak Economy, Election time, Holiday Shopping?)

    Peace&Love
    Wes

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hope you enjoyed the movie.

    I, too, will be SO HAPPY when this is all over. I'm so sick of the forwards, the talks, the arguments.....BLAH~

    Yeah, gas was down to $2.34 here, (outside Cincinnati)~I'm loving that $40 almost fills me up, instead of $80!

    have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I cannot wait for this election to be over.
    Gas here is finally down to 2.59 !! Seems like such a bargain.
    Have a great day

    ReplyDelete
  9. have you ever heard of International Harvester or Navistar? They have a major local heavy duty truck facility in my Ohio city. IH (now called Navistar) was THE best job in town for 40 yrs but is going under and taking probably 50% of all middle class jobs with it. Huge downer for my city. My city is dying a slow, terrible death. They try to bring tech jobs here, high tech ones, and have added free Wi-Fi downtown and some big foreign names have come to a super expensive high tech "park" that was built....but probably 75% of my town only has a high school diploma. GM is going down in Dayton, which is a HUGE loss for the Miami Valley.
    Anyone who bases their opinion of Obama on his skin color is a total jackass. I have had IT with the ads, the TV, the CONSTANT, every 15 minute political phone calls....good LORD this election needs to end! My mom also sends me hundreds of those emails...i hit delete.
    XO

    ReplyDelete
  10. playing catchup here; I can't believe a game with 4 overtimes (I read everything I missed and then decided to comment on this one, lucky you :)

    I will be glad when the election is over; like you I early voted

    I have to respectfully disagree with you, but I don't consider Mr. Obama an evangelical Christian, BUT only the Lord knows his heart

    win or lose, it doesn't matter who becomes president next week; I trust in someone much higher up :)

    enjoy your Sunday :)

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  11. Regardless of who wins the election it isn't going to turn around anytime in the near future. I think there are many more months of hard times ahead. For the first time in 35 years we are experiencing a lack of work, our customers are putting big projects on hold and they are not planning on revisiting them anytime in the next year which tells me our economy isn't going to be recovering too soon. I am thankful everyday we can continue our lifestyle and keep all our animals well cared for. I know there are so many others who are not so fortunate and are just barely getting by.

    ReplyDelete

I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?