Other peoples creativity

Ok, I want to admit to a silly but fun pastime. After visiting some of your blogs I click on the note in the upper left side on next blog and am taken to the blogs of total strangers. Many of them I can't read because I don't speak the language, and many of them are private so I don't read them even if I do speak the language but lots of them are fun fun fun and very public. I saw one once with collections of high end fashion dolls - very chic. I see a lot that are just beautiful photographs. I love photos. I did this for a while one evening before bed and found 5 different blogs on the same twin brothers. The photos were often repeated and looked more like they were all done by a mom rather than by 5 different people. Kooky huh! And of course I find a few that are about someone else's garden, and those are very fun for me. Try it, you might like it too!

Of two minds

I just want to remind my (few) readers of the name of my blog - "Of two Minds". The point of that name was that on most subjects I see two sides, and usually agree to some extent, with both sides. On the drug wars blog you will notice that I have three segments stating why I don't like drugs before the one statement where I say how we go about fighting drug use incorrectly in my opinion.

Throw 'em all in the clink!

So, I am entirely anti-drug but still I can’t say I am in favor of legalizing drug use, the pain they bring into the world is too great.

On the other hand I really don’t like the way our nation fights drugs. Using the law to go after big time drug cartels in one thing, putting all our police force time and money onto arresting users is another. The federal government spends about $600 per second on the drug war. State governments spend ½ again more. We fill our jails with people who were only trying to feel good when they don’t feel good. We give someone guilty of ‘possession’ more punishment than someone who steals the retirement fund of all his employees. We often give them more punishment than child abusers. Sometimes we even punish them more severely than murderers.

I don’t want people to take drugs. I don’t think any good will ever come of such behavior. However, a better way to keep that from happening might be education. Lets spend some of the money we waste arresting and punishing users on teaching them the truth about drug use.

Punish people for illegal acts committed while on drugs, such as robbing stores or hurting others. Those things are already against the law. The idea of someone sitting quietly in their house smoking pot may be a sleazy and rather disgusting thought, but it certainly doesn’t bring the same depth of disgust as someone going out and robbing another at gunpoint, running over someone while drunk, or beating someone up to prove they can.

Helping people get off of an addiction without punishment would bring more results than punishing them when it is discovered that they use.

stroke, stroke

I so want my own swimming pool! I don't swim really, I work out in the water. I have a lot of aches and pains and have had arthritis for more than 20 years and it was 20 years ago that I started dreaming about having my own pool. I'm still dreaming! It can be very small, I'm thinking 10x20 feet, and needs to be chest height on me. That way I can do the exercises with all the water pressure I need on me. Oh, and I want it to be an indoor pool so I can use it in the winter, and not have to constantly clean leaves out of it.
We have memberships in the community recreation center. It has been updated since we last lived here and attracts far more kids now with water slides and spray areas. They don't open the main pool, which is deep enough for me to exercise in until after lessons, about noon. Then they close for lessons again at 5:30. Since I work out in the yard till nearly noon every day, and then try to avoid being out in the sun until about 4pm I am not left with much time to go work out. I also seem to be the only adult in the water. There are hundreds of kids and teens all of whom I think look at my too big body and think, "yuck!"
See, I need my own, private pool to work out in. Maybe I'd even learn to swim.

Conspiring men in the last days

At one time I thought any time you were ill the best thing you could do was visit the doctor who would help you get well. I no longer think doctors will do that.

Now I am even leery of prescription drugs. There are too many side effects. Nearly all prescription drugs are based on the way some natural plant affects the body. However, there is no profit in something natural, so they make a chemical version in order “that they can control the dosage” (really so that they can patent their version) and charge us a fortune for it. Drugs that cost 2-3 cents a dose to manufacture cost the public 2-3 dollars to use. I have no problem with a reasonable profit, but this is highway robbery!!! Drug companies are not our friends!

I may sound paranoid to some of you but I really believe most of the diseases we treat could be cured. Drugs could be made that actually got rid of nearly everything. They probably have already been invented. Many problems can be treated or cured with proper nutrition.

The problem there for the medical community is that, well, obviously, they can’t actually cure us! The money is made in treating problems, not in getting rid of them! So they are gleeful when they find that we have heart disease, or diabetes, or malaria, or depression or any other disease they can treat and monitor. We have to come in, and keep coming in forever.

Doctors will experiment on finding the reason for one single symptom until they see we are catching on to what they are doing, then they will say that they think these two things might be related, when they knew all along that all your symptoms are from one single cause. They will drag out a diagnosis for as long as they can. In fact, they are taught to do this in med school!

Health care is all about profit and not at all about health.

Since I no longer trust doctors I think I will always go for the most natural ‘cure’ first from now on. Usually diet, then look for the herbs that will treat. I have friends who think I am crazy, but frankly, from my own experience, those chemical versions of things are horrible to the body!!!

speed demons

The mimosa tree is in bloom, the trumpet vine is in bloom and my hummingbird feeders are full. Nearly everyday I catch sight of at least one of the little guys. I love hummingbirds! Unfortunately, no matter how I try I can never catch one in a picture. (Maybe I should use the better camera?) ps. I took the picture through the window so that doesn't help.

Legal addictive substances

I understand the need to self-medicate pain, including emotional pain. However, I also know from years of experience that illegal drugs are the worst way to treat. Much better to get high on serving others, or on a good book, or on doing something cool with family or friends. People who bring you drugs do so for their own purposes, and their purposes are NOT to help you! Mostly it is to line their own pockets. To some extent it is to “convert you to (their) own bad habits.” (Haywood Smith –Red Hats) As in: misery loves company. We really thought at one time that smoking pot was safer than getting drunk, but it isn’t true. Everyone I know who took hard drugs started with pot, or Valium, or Viverin (a simple upper from the old days. Maybe caffeine?) If you do real research into the problems pot causes, as opposed to ‘how can I justify smoking pot’, you will find it isn’t at all as innocuous as we once thought. (Do you know that the “pot” available now is 3 times as strong as what was available when I was young? Guess why?)

I don’t like the idea of turning control of my body over to anyone else – including the petty crook whose first interest is to get you hooked either to justify his own use or to line his own pockets. Certainly not to the leader of a high powered drug cartel who would kill anyone who got in the way of his profit. I don’t want to turn control of my life over to business people either.

Some of you have heard me talk about an article in National Geographic about caffeine. (early 2005 – you can look it up online) These people, and they are business people, who add caffeine to all kinds of drinks and foods to ‘increase your stamina’ or to ‘boost your metabolism’ are actually doing it entirely for the profit it brings. An effective advertising campaign! Caffeine is addictive and they know it. They will even add it to lemonade so you will buy their brand always. They have gotten a few doctors to endorse the caffeine craze. However, a legitimate doctor who cares about health will tell you that caffeine is associated with infertility, Meniere’s disease, insomnia, sudden infant death syndrome, fibrocystic disease of the breasts and gastrointestinal problems, it elevates stress levels and encourages the problems that lead to diabetes, leads to nutritional deficiencies as well as others I can’t remember and don’t want to look up right now. (see Ensign, July 2008)

To me, the biggest problem there is insomnia. I have enough trouble sleeping without drinking something with caffeine in it. The tiniest bit of caffeine makes me unable to sleep at all. Have you ever read up on the chronic sleep deprivation problem we are facing nowadays?

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs out there, and yet, cigarette manufacturers will add other things to their product to make them even more addictive. There is nothing good about smoking-the only way they would ever sell is if the cigarettes are addictive, so naturally, even if it is well proven that smoking encourages the growth of every kind of cancer and causes many other diseases and even death, they will do all they can to try to sell to everyone. Profit is all to these people.

(Note: legal addictive substances include some over the counter medications.)

Alcohol is also addictive, and certainly leads to overuse and bad choices in many people. If you are one of those people who are genetically disposed towards alcoholism, (and everyone in my family probably is- see ancestor history) then it certainly can topthe ranks of the addictive substances.

I have no desire to make rich those whose whole purpose is to harm me and mine.

summer pleasures

One of the best things about summer is a beautiful sunrise. The sky is deep blue and the clouds begin to look purple in contrast, then they fade to pink, then apricot, then gold. We don't get a lot of clouds here in the desert so every sunrise of color is cherished.
I also love the fireworks. All the little cities around here have their own celebrations. Some have free entertainment and parades, others bring in carnivals. But they all have fireworks. Last Saturday night I was just getting into bed when I heard the fireworks from the city just south of me start. I couldn't see well from the main floor windows because of the trees next door, but from upstairs I had a perfect view. This Saturday the city to the east of me will have fireworks and the Saturday after that is my own city's celebration, and we always have great fireworks - just barely north of my own neighborhood! Yeah!!! It was really sad that on the 4th of July my granddaughter and I had to get up too early the next morning to catch the train and were unable to stay up to see the fireworks. Sorry darlin' maybe next year?!?
I also love a beautiful sunny summer day (if it isn't too, too hot, and it hasn't been for a couple of days here) where you can lay on the grass and watch the clouds tower over your head making pretty pictures for you to find. The trees and the grass are green, the bees are buzzing, and if you just pulled a milkweed plant your fingers are sticky and feel like any minutes you should run through the sprinklers. What fun!

Why I don't take drugs.

See, the thing is, I did take drugs once. Well 3 times to be exact. I was young, it was the time and place for it (hippy – you know?) and I had much anger and rebellion in me. I pretty much did it to make my dad mad and because he had accused me of it so many times already. Of course, I didn’t tell him I was smoking pot. I also didn’t tell him all the good things I did later to try and please him so there you go!

Smoking pot with friends resulted in - First time: felt kind of mellow and didn’t care about anything. Second time: again, mellow but wondered “what is the big deal?” and Third time: got some “pot” that had been laced with angel dust (or something!). I was dizzy, wobbly, saw weird lights and movement, could barely stand up and felt paranoid and completely out of control!!!

I came to 3 conclusions:

1) Drugs cost money (lots of money) and I don’t like the people you give the money to.

2) You don’t know what you are going to get, but for sure the people you are getting it from don’t care about you or your needs.

3) It is illegal and definitely not worth breaking the law over.

I never smoked pot again and never tried any other illegal drugs. All the people I know who took drugs when they were young feel ashamed of their past actions – none of them feel a sweet nostalgia for it like the movies show you. When I have mentioned such things to others (such as my children) it was to warn them away, not to give them permission to be as stupid as I was. Drugs truly can kill!!!

What I didn’t think about then and certainly should have is how the Lord would feel about my taking drugs. I can get a pretty good clue of what things he does not appreciate me putting into my body from those laws he has specifically stated. Now, what the Lord wants would be my first concern. 1 Cor. 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Wealth

I am rich with raspberries! I have, at times in the past, had 20 cases of berries on my bushes. While last years crop was pathetic, little more than one case, and this years crop is only somewhat better, still I have had enough to share a couple of cups with one friend and a couple with another. My second son came down with his girlfriend today and picked at least half a case, and a few black raspberries to boot. And being able to share - is this not true wealth?
I have, in past years, picked the raspberries that smashed in a windstorm and juiced them and drunk the juice or made jelly. We became so used to being able to do this that even in leaner years we still make jelly. In fact, I have so much old jam and jelly and fruit and vegetables in my pantry that I need to empty bottles into the garden and refill them with new, fresh fruit and vegetables. (My children never liked bottled fruit as much as my siblings and I did when we were children.)
Now that sweet C and I are alone here we don't need as much freezer jam or as many frozen berries, so we can still share. And we really don't do cooked jam anymore. So tonight, I made raspberry juice concentrate that we can add to lemonade or just drink alone.
It's funny though. I always have more harvest than I can use. Yet even though I plant, and water, and weed and care for my garden - I cannot get anyone to share the harvesting. People often tell me that they would like some of my berries, or apricots, or tomatoes, or whatever, but they never come. My only rule is that they pick it themselves, and somehow, no one ever wants to do that. (Picking is the hardest thing for me for some odd reason.) I won't give away food that I had to pick. Well, at least most of the time I won't.

old houses

While in Iowa I worked on some crafts for my granddaughters room, and some pillows for her mother's classroom (sorry, I forgot to take pictures) and I walked around the neighborhood looking at pretty houses. I have a thing for good looking older homes. I thought maybe I would share a few with you. The last few I took were just to show porch swings, I'm showing you one. As anyone has been to my house knows, I love porch swings. I have one on the front porch and one in the rec room. New houses are just boring compared to some of the homes I saw in Iowa!

The great rail adventure

My grand-daughter and I finally got our train ride all the way back to her home in Iowa. At the last minute Amtrak called to say the train ride through Iowa had been reinstated which was good for us as they were going to send us to Denver by train, then to Omaha by bus and then we would have been on our own and would have to have rented a car for the rest of the trip.
It was the first trip that train had taken since it was closed down for flood damage control, and we could see many areas still very wet and showing how high the water had been. We had to go very slow through those areas since there still may have been unseen damage to the track.
My grand-daughter was bored on the journey, even though we had brought books and activities and even movies. I think it was that in a car, strapped into her car seat, she knows she can't move, but in the train she knew she could get up and go to the bathroom, or the dining room and so wanted to move around more than the conductors want you to. She said she was tired of seeing forest, which was my favorite part! The best part of the journey is between Grand Junction, Colorado and Denver, Colorado (incredible views!) although I quite liked the area through Iowa too, since it is so green there.
While I was in Iowa it rained at least 4 more times, and I mean -really rained!, so the trip home was still slow due to wet areas and they had come across two separate trees across the track before I got on. I was supposed to be home in Utah by 10pm and it was closer to 2am. Still, I enjoyed visiting with people and knitting and watching the scenery. I could travel by train. It might be nice if one could afford the sleeping cars though. It is hard to sleep in the seat, even if you do have more room than a plane. And the food in the dining car, though good enough, is hardly worth the high price they charge. So, If you ever go by train, take at least some snacks and try to limit your time in the diner, take a pillow as the ones they give you are inadequate, and take things to do on the journey. It is fun though!