Spring has Sprung

Daffodils are the BEST! Jon planted rows of them in front of our blue house with white shutters in Terre Haute--I love the memories still; while I was a Girl Scout Director of Education, the Daffodil Society sponsored troops of daffodil planters all over the Cincinnati area: "toss the bulbs randomly on any hillside" they directed.

And does anyone remember the thousands of daffodils planted in NYC after 9/11? I think I'll search the net for "where are they now?" Or inspire Mellen to inspire a GMA feature--or Tariq or Juliet to do a YouTube--it's all about the spring thing!

The iris photo comes from my brother Bob's collection of delights he and Marilyn encounter on their walks in Winton Woods, or from his yard, or maybe he took a trip back to Greendale to check and see if there are yet remnants of Grandmother Cole's glorious garden.

Yesterday we sat on the bleachers in Davidson to watch Sam the starting pitcher get 8 Little Leaguers out before giving up a great hit by the opposition kid. Next play, a pony tailed girl named McKenna scooped up the grounder to her at second, flipped it to first for the 9th out. Meanwhile, on offense, Sam struck out with the bases loaded (but hey, he doesn't get paid to hit or run!) did finally get on with a grounder, scored the third run, made an in-the sun catch at third later in the game. The Cornelius team did fight back, eventually tied the game--and that's how it ended. EVERYBODY was a winner! That's spring....

Oh, and then there's all this basketball.

All of this, and sunshine. Except in Washington where the fury and righteous indignation over bonuses seems like such perfect political b*#* S##*! posturing to prevent education and healthcare and energy reform as the Mostly Old White Guy fat pigs without lipstick can continue to complain about those horrible deficits--while corporate crooks continue to earn 400% higher salaries than their workers.

Maybe when the cherry blossoms come out, everyone will stop yelling, calm down and remember that gifts from Japan were given to the US in the Asian tradtion of appreciation of simple, natural beauty overcoming the most horrible of pain. We can learn from the world. Media plea, listen to more women...get Hillary on the air! Spring forward!

Wizard of Id

Thanks to my smart and sometimes smart-alec brother Bill for the cartoon that inspired a response to the Krider-Okeefe yahoo group site--he felt things on our site were too quiet and Margaret accused him of stirring the pot! I'm posting here because I do love pots--and stirring!

Yes, we do all have a "job" just going about multi-tasking, doing the day-to-day-chores of working class folks, cleaning up after the fat-cats whose lingering stench in the House & Senate left us with broken education systems, crooks and liars in insurance companies, and the most expensive healthcare delivery system in the world. Oh yeah, the CEO was the Bushy-tailed-cat who was spraying his macho "mist" in Iraq. There's not enough litter in the world to clean up his mess--however, some heavy duty long term renovation, long term thinking, intelligence, patience and responsibility is in order! The "party" thing is over, let's clean up, freshen the air, call off the dogs and move on!  

Today's Charlotte Observer had a 3/4 page spread about a family that has cut back by now choosing to do their own housekeeping! I think Congress and the financial services segment of our economy is going to have to do the same thing.  

AIG=Arrogance, Ignorance & Greed. The hearings today included looking for "sound bites" and feeding the media frenzy for those "fancy feasts" for the felines scratching in their own litter boxes. One woman asked, "if labor unions have been renegotiating contracts because the company's losing money--what is different for the 'contracts' of management?

AHHHH- but hooray for having a contract. I called off today--teacher fatigue, tired of musty, frustrated, marginalized, angry African-American teenage boys telling me I'm racist, and not being allowed to walk outside and breathe fresh air, and who have been lied to, promised fairness and been locked up for months while the overloaded system figures out if they have enough evidence to proceed. I'm tired of having to listen to school administrators earning 300% as much as I do -- blaming teachers for low achievement scores based on a "corporate testing industry" that if summarily eliminated could provide free healthy lunches and breakfast at IHOP for everyone! Geez, wonder if those "fat cats" running the ACT/SAT/State testing giants could pass the poop test?

Stirring the pot? Right now, it's more like a cauldron.

Obama has only just begun. We elected the smart guy who was willing to step up and go for the open shots, get back on defense, or pass off to others on the team for at least 4 years. We barely survived 8 years of the dumb guy with the team skills of an overweight lazy 6th grader--because that's the way it works here in the USA. Presidents get 4 years, Representatives get 2 years, Senators 6 and for the majority of the rest of us, it's one day at a time and/or employment at will.

But speaking of pot let's legalize it, and then the 90% who ARE working will relax, have the option to enjoy the "less" that we have, and fly!

k.k.s. (that would be Kate Kan Stir!)

P.S. My question of the day yesterday was "what's an antonym for racist" ? Any ideas what was the response?

Barbara Boxer, Meet Megann!

Sen.Boxer, meet Meg Powell Herston--a CA constituent--and MY niece!! (OK, Marg & Jack, take another Powell Bow!!!!!)  How cool is this?    The Satchwill-Kaplan-Yashoff connections/Obama sitings in DC seem to be contagious!

Here's what Meg reported about meeting Barbara: 

I was VERY impressed with her. She's even more classy, smart,articulate, assertive, thoughtful, et cetera than I thought she was going to be... and I had some pretty high expectations.. :)

It was a town hall meeting with about 50 other people, so all I got to say to her directly was a big THANK YOU.. but I did make sure to sit front and center. She had a lot to say about the stimulus package and how the CA state government (in general) needs to get their act together!!! She wants to get the money out ASAP to on-the-ground infrastructure projects, but is worried about the state government and their stubborn partisanship. I appreciated how she discussed green energy and rebulding infrastructure as the new mobilizing factor that is going to help us band together and get out of this economic mess...

Quite an experience this week. I met Congressmen Blumenhauer (Oregon) also, who is everyone's favorite alternative transportation advocate. All of my productive meetings were with congressional staff though ... we're just trying to get the message out that communities need the stimulus money for infrastructure, and we needed it yesterday..

Anyways, my feet hurt from wandering the halls of the House & Senate office buildings, and walking all over downtown DC... but I'm feeling extremely optimistic about the stimulus and recovery. No pain, no gain, right??

Saturday Stuff--SPRING FORWARD!

It's a gorgeous day! Yesterday I heard an NPR commentator, an advocate of light therapy, suggest that we have it backwards--we should be maximizing LIGHT when we get up in the morning--so Daylight Savings Time should apply to sunshine mornings in order to maximize feelings of enthusiasm for getting out of bed!! I love it.--sunshine I mean, not getting out of bed unless the sun is up before I am.... How about you?

I also want to share a fun Obama sighting report from our niece Ann Satchwill and her family of Georgetown, DC ( Husband, Ben Kaplan, international legal eagle who used to be the corporate counsel for Seagram's, daughter Alli, a Columbia student and son Nate, a wonderfully articulate & fun 10 year old who is a Sean Nathan look-alike!)

Here's the story she emailed to her mom and her mom cc'd to me:

Guess what? The President & Mrs. Obama came to Sidwell this evening for Sasha's parent-teacher conference! There were temporary no parking-tow away signs all over our street first thing this morning - and then the street was parked up with secret service and other mobiles (like ambulances, police cars, you name it) from about 3:00 p.m. Things got really busy around 3:30 - three men on the roof of Sidwell with binoculars and rifles. Tons of secret service men all over the street. Unbelievable! So I started watching in the front yard, and neighbors walking their dogs stopped to watch (and to meet our new puppy) - and soon there were over 50 people in our front yard! One of the secret service guys asked who the owner of the house was - which was me - and then whether everyone present was a relative, and I said no they were all neighbors though, and then he asked whether they could search us all for weapons. We said sure thing - search away, just let us see the President and tell us how long we would have to wait! (He told us nothing!) The motorcade -- three limosines, motorcycles, huge SUVS, came in through the parking garage under the gym, so we got to see them walk from the garage to the school. Then we all waited for 45 minutes until they came back out - b/c then we would be able to see their faces! Mrs. Obama came out first with secret service guys, and then the President came out with ss guys. Do you think they came out separately for security reasons? Anyway, we clapped for Mrs. Obama and she waved to us - and then we clapped and cheered like mad for the President and he waved, and then he really grinned - he seemed genuinely touched by our cheers. He's had a long week, so maybe we made him feel a little better. Anyway, it was really fun. Nate was with me for the whole thing - I just wish Ben & Allie had been home, too.

Midweek

I'm feeling guilty because the blog thing is blank--but so it goes.  Can't keep up with all the sources for online information as it is.  Opinions and attitudes fly around like popcorn, get a little salty, swallowed, and then--yikes, that cutting kernel cover gets stuck somewhere.

 Jay has a bit of minor surgery today, Sam's trip to DC was awesome and I have "freebies" to collect from him--what a great chat we had.  Carla's better from her flu, Jon is recovering from his serious cold, Su is headed to FL to hang out with her mom, Sean's got a bit of a limp from the broken leg, and Bob & Eva are about to head across the big pond.  

Meanwhile, I'm getting increasingly frustrated at all the "experts" who are suddenly interested in the CMS/MCJN programs (follow the money--duh!) but grateful for the richness of material I'll have to mull over next year when I'm doing something else.  Oh yeah--Bill's finding the cell phone is a reminder that he's still terrific at not forgetting details!  

Betsy & Jerry are in Texas so no doubt having a great time exploring the newly restored Baker house--I'm hoping for photos from Natalie's b'day party, have a babysitting gig on Sat. with Bella & Olivia, and longer range, I'm really excited at the numbers projected for the Kevin/Laura celebration in July. Right now--outta here and off to teach and learn about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with 30 teen agers.