Today's the last day of the Wolf Moon, January.  It's 10:30 a.m. and only 6 deg. below zero.  Spring is almost here now.  I count winter as beginning mid-Nov. and ending mid-Mar., so we have only about 6 weeks of winter left, but I am pushing it a bit.  Yes, winter is a struggle, but I have been outside for awhile every day and have enjoyed it; biting cold, freezing fingers, squeaking snow underfoot, muffled breathing. 

My chicken is making it.  Having 4 tarps over her with a light layer of snow between each one, her 25 watt lightbulb, plenty of straw to nestle in, warmed water to drink and plenty of variety in her diet, including dirt, and she seems to be happy, although bored.  When she can come out and hear the wild birds all around, get some sunlight on her feathers, then she doesn't mind winter at all.  Of course, now I don't know how old she is, but if I can, I'll find her a companion in spring. 

I don't turn on the tv in the daytime, except if the weather is bad, then the Weather Channel comes on.  I haven't been writing on my novel lately, I've reached a critical point where I need to develop the plot a bit more.  Otherwise, the story might become  dull and documentary-like.  Until I find that thread, I'll continue baking, cooking, cleaning out places in the house, and emptying boxes. 

Woke up at 8:30, and it was 22 deg. below zero, and the wind is blowing 30 to 40 miles per hour, gusty.  It roared all night.  I am not even going to open the chicken's house this morning until the sun has had a chance to warm things up to minus 2 by noon, perhaps.  The dogs ran out and ran back in in 2 minutes, that's for sure.  John went out at 4:30 a.m. to check on the chicken and see that she was still covered up and secure.  John stays up most of the night, tending the fire and making sure things are not getting out of control.  So far, the water lines have not frozen up, but every night, I save a bucket of water for flushing and a gallon jug of water for making coffee.  And of course, all my plans to go to town today, NOT. 

Yesterday, I baked 4 loaves of bread and made Hamburger Soup.  Today, I want to make cranberry sauce and apple sauce.  But I want to bake something again, just to use the oven.  I got two boxes cleaned out and thrown away.  One contained old baking dishes that I put through the dishwasher and they look a lot better.  Another washing and I'll be able to use them again.  I had given a couple of new baking pans to my daughter, who makes lasagna a lot.  Yes, little by little, the boxes are getting emptied and contents rearranged or given away or thrown out.  Maybe I'll be able to make it to town on Friday. 

My chiropractor has been sick, and today is the day I finally get back there to see him and get an adjustment.  It's been quite some time, and my back has slipped off its trolley again, I fear.  It seems that life is not possible without lifting things, at least for me.  I get very discouraged with it.  Note:  I just got a call from his office, and he won't be in again, so I'll be seeing his assistant.  Hmm. 

The weather has warmed up to a seasonal winter temperature, and that has brought happiness to my chicken.  She hears the wild birds, like crows, jays, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers.  She responds most often to the crows, so maybe they know the same language. 

I had been using my left hand for my "mouse" hand instead of the right, and eventually I developed a sore spot on the palm of my left hand.  So yesterday, I moved the mouse back over to the right side.  I was eating my supper last night, and the right hand suddenly went numb.  I was scared that this meant a heart attack, but after calming myself down a bit and taking aspirin and various other supplements, I felt that the numbness was caused by moving back to the right hand mouse position. 

I am doing well on my New Year's resolutions and go for walks with Pepper if the weather is fair and not below zero.  I finally got my Christmas tree down, so there's a lamp on that table now, and the lighting is great.  My brother called me to tell me he had received mom's memoirs and sat down immediately to read them.  Now he is taking them over to a friend's house to share them.  My other brother also got his, called me to thank me, but won't have time to read them for awhile.  I haven't heard from my sister yet, so I'll call her today.  

I was at a gas station, somewhere in Kansas, perhaps.  It was remarkably pristine and all white.  There must have been 8 or 10 gas pumps, all in white, with a white cement block building for the cashier and snack foods, etc.  There was a white roof cover over the whole place, and I noticed that the cement floor was also clean and white, with no oil or gas spills marring the surface.  Every car at the pumps was also white, including mine.  People came and went into the building to pay for their gas.  Domestic bliss. 

I turned my attention to the surrounding countryside, while the gas slowly nozzled its way into my tank.  All around the gas station were green rolling hills, gently undulating into the distant horizon.  There were no buildings, very few trees in the distance.  A black ribbon of road snaked its way back out to a distant highway.  The sky was clear blue.  Not a cloud in that sky, except for one little cloud on the horizon. 

As I watched the cloud, it grew larger, and I ascertained that the cloud was coming this way at a rapid speed.  When it came closer, I saw that it was not a cloud, but a flock of geese, perhaps.  The geese approached and landed at the gas station.  These were no ordinary geese, each weighing about 100 lbs. and snow white, with long curling feathers.  They had human faces, and milled around me.  They began to speak.

One of them addressed me directly.  He told me they were angelic geese, this band of angelic geese had come for me, come to carry me home, he said.  I was done pumping gas, and removed the nozzle and shut up the gas tank on my car.  Did this mean, I asked, that I was to die right now?  He cleared his throat and nodded,  That's affirmative.  Well, I said, I have my dog with me, my Pepper, and what was to become of her, so far away from home, amid strangers, and me leaving her behind?  I said I didn't mind dying so much, I had lived a long time, but it would be cruel to leave my dog stranded so far from home in a strange place.  And besides, I was planning to walk her around so she could relieve herself.  Couldn't my death be postponed, I wondered, until I had made arrangements for her? 

Umm, no, he said, I don't think so.  What do you mean, I asked, what's the big hurry?  It's not like I'm asking for something unreasonable.  Failing that, I said, clutching her to my bosom, could I bring my dog with me?  Uh, no, no, you can't bring your dog, he said, staring at her.  If it's her black fur you object to, I said, I can put a white shirt on her...I have one in the car.  And I reached into the car, whipped out the shirt, and pushed her arms into it.  Now just her black furry head, paws and little tail stuck out.  The other geese began to laugh and shake their heads.  It's not that we object to her black fur, insisted the head angelic goose.  It's that, um, well, you don't get to make decisions like that...  Well, I said stubbornly clutching her closer, I'm not going without my dog!

It seemed that we were at an impasse, and we stared at each other.  One or the other was going to have to blink.  The other geese began to wander around the gas pumps.  Hey guys, look over here, one of them said.  The angelic geese waddled off to see.  You see it?  Oh, yeah, they said.  Hey, yelled one of the geese back to the head goose, who was still staring at me with a puzzled look on his face.  Over here!  I think this is the one, not her.  I, too, looked over there.  There was a woman pumping gas at her white car, and she leaned heavily against the car, then she slumped to her knees.  Oh yeah, they all said, this is the one, not her with the dog.

I looked back at the head angelic goose, who continued to look at me, nodding his head.  Well, he said, not this time, not this time.  I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.  I was ready, I said, I was pumped.  It's just my dog, you know, I don't want her to suffer.  He smiled philosophically, nodding.  Don't forget to pay for your gas, he admonished, and walked over to the other geese.  The woman was now lying flat on the cement next to her car.  One of the geese had returned the nozzle to the pump before any spillage could occur.

I was alone with my dog.  I could now pay for my gas and take my Pepper for her walk.  And I could even drive away, continuing on my way to wherever it was I was going.  I almost felt lost, regretful that I wasn't going with these lovely angels.  But I still have time, a little more  time, I thought.  So I just went about my normal activities, and the dream ended. 

I watched the Republican "debate" last night, and it is pretty obvious their instructions were "don't look like those rabble Democrats and argue about anything."   Smiles, congeniality, light-hearted humor and even warm compliments were the order of the evening.  And don't they do such a nice job of it?  What a pleasant debate, as our country sinks into "recession."  What nice fellows.

They all lined up on the policy of making the tax cuts permanent.  They all claimed to have lowered taxes umpteen times.  They see nothing wrong with exporting manufacturing overseas.  They all want to continue the war in Iraq indefinitely, claiming that we can and must win it.  They all say that sure, the present policies are spending way too much money on domestic programs.  They are all for deregulation, so nobody can track business practices, and nobody can do anything about those practices.  They all worship Ronald Reagan.  And none of them probably knows how much we owe to other countries to continue the present policies.  Perhaps they see our country continuing to borrow from other countries to continue the war in Iraq.  All their policies amount to a recipe for bankruptcy.  Is that what they want?  Do they not care that we are on the verge of disaster because of these very policies? 

What we need to find out is exactly how much is owed to foreign governments right now to fund the war.  We need to find out how much the monthly payments are every month, even as we continue at breakneck speed to our credit limit.  Our children and grandchildren will be making those payments, or we will lose our country.  It works the same way as the mortgage lending scam we are experiencing right now.  What we need in office is a money manager, not a nicely groomed charming fellow.  A law-abiding citizen who will work diligently to reverse the greedy big-business way of spending us into the poorhouse.     

It's 20 deg. below zero right now, and the sun is shining brightly, so I expect and hope it will warm up by noon.  I want to visit my daughter today, we plan to have lunch at the little restaurant half-way between our houses.  That's if our vehicles will start, which by noon, they should. 

Winter is always a struggle; I guess it's meant to be that way.  In six months, I'll be dying of heat.  Which is worse, the cold or the heat?  I've always believed, you can always warm up (just get under the covers), but sometimes it's hard to cool down (just take a cool shower or bath).  However, after you're out of the bath, you get hot again right away, whereas, just staying snuggled in bed keeps you warm.  My everyday wear now is boots and big socks,  big flannel shirt worn over all my other clothes, day and night, and crocheted hat.  And that's just in the house.  When the temp. reaches 70 deg. in here, then I can bathe, but not until it's warm enough.  If I need to bathe sooner than that, I use a hair dryer to warm up the bathroom.  I also need to use the hair dryer for about 20 minutes tucked in next to my dishwasher before I can start it up.  Seems it freezes a bit next to the wall.   I won't even open the chicken's door until it gets warmer in the daytime.  But enough of the weather in here.  It's still a beautiful day. 

I finally got around to a thorough cleaning out and washing inside the refrigerator yesterday.  I love it when the frig is so organized and spotless.  Is it frig or frij?  Whatever.  I need to bake bread again, seems like every other day.  I made 4 loaves last time, oh was that 3 days ago?  Guess there is not much to say, dogs are fine, and I get to see my girl today. 

I usually insist that I like cold weather, or at least winter weather, but it has been very cold lately, mostly below zero, and not much above in the daytime, either.  I am cold in the house and must bundle up.  The other night our chimney plugged up and the smoke backed up into the house, then the fire went out.  John climbed up on the roof at 3:30 a.m. with a long stick and whacked around in there, then the fire started blazing up again.  It was a mess cleaning up the scrapings from the bottom of the chimney.  We thought that would do it, but this morning, the fire is having trouble again.  At least I don't smell smoke, but I can see the fire is just not working. 

I finally finished typing my mother's memoirs - 79 pages in all, and got 4 copies printed on my Lexmark printer, with no problems.  Then they had to be resorted 1-79, I had to find big envelopes, clip the pages together, address and seal the packages up.  To the post office yesterday afternoon (it was actually 9 deg. above zero), but I couldn't send them via media mail, because of some stupid logic by the post office, so each one cost $4.50 to mail out to my brothers and sister.  That, and a gallon of milk, has to be it for the rest of this month - I'm broke now.  I had to use all my change saved for the past six months just to mail them out. 

January has been quite a difficult month to get through, financially and now with this chimney problem, the house is so cold.  I can't afford to call in a chimney sweep.  The good news is that it is supposed to warm up soon.  At least I got the first part of my property taxes paid.  My chicken is hanging in there, what with all the tarps covering her house, her water doesn't even freeze up.  Now I have found out that these chickens were not young when I got them, and that may be why the first chicken died.  I don't know what their life expectancy is.  My black hen has stopped laying eggs, but what can I expect, with this cold weather? 

Well, I see that my fire is going out, and this just isn't a good thing at all.  I will have to call John and ask him to go up on the roof again with his long stick.  This is not good. 

I suppose I should moan about the Packers' loss last Sunday to the Giants, but it's not going to affect global warming, increase pollution, save the polar bears, etc. etc. etc.  We have bigger problems to moan about.  Don't get me started.   

I have about 3 more chapters to type and Mom's Memoirs will be finished.  Then I can print them out and send them to my brothers and sisters, and we will be a step closer to understanding what happened to us, why we are so, I don't know, disturbed?  It started out being a very happy childhood, and now it is becoming a depressing litany, and I suppose the Great Depression didn't help any either.  Oy!  But I think that all of our ancestral problems stem from sexual repression.  Of course, my thought is that without sexually repressed women  and men running around creating havoc, we would all be Polynesian gods and goddesses of love.  And that just wouldn't do for our up-tight ancestors, now would it?  What then, is the secret of having happy families?  I do not know.  I will be glad when the typing is over and I can send all these copies of the manuscript out to my siblings for their edification. 

It is snowing, snowing, snowing out under leaden skies, and I love it.  Let it snow.  There's a fire in the stove, things are baking and cooking between typings, and all seems to be well.  Now they are saying my truck will be ready on Friday (I brought it in on Monday).  But they got backlogged with a couple of sticky transmissions.  I'll just bet they came in after my truck did.  I certainly hope I get it back tomorrow.  I need to pick up my mail, for one thing.  And the woodpeckers, who had all but disappeared for awhile there, are back in force, and the suet is going fast.  My chicken seems to be happy, dogs happy, me happy, except for the headache I've developed over all the typing I am doing now.   

My daughter came over to see me for a rare change, and we had lunch here.  She liked all the food I had prepared, and we had a good time.  The reason she had to come all the way over here, is because my truck is still not ready - in fact, hasn't been worked on at all.  If I had known that, I could have kept it for a few days and gotten stuff done.  But it is supposed to be ready on Friday.

We are prepared to get hit by a snowstorm this evening and all through tomorrow.  Then the temperature plunges to below zero.  Just think about the Packer game being played on Sunday in near zero weather again!  I was worried about it, but my daughter says that Brett Favre loves the winter weather, so that's good. 

John cut up another dead oak tree today, so we are prepared for the very cold weather coming.  Everytime I walk with Pepper, I am keeping my eye out for dead trees I can spot on my property.  We do have enough dead wood here to get through the winter, but it is such hard work, that next year I am hoping to be able to get a pellet stove or corn burner.  I don't like the sound of  "corn burner" as I feel there must be a better fuel than to burn food that is already in short supply because of ethanol production.  But I heard from my son that pellet stoves are going to be outlawed in the next year or so.  I wonder why?  Are these using wood that has been treated with dangerous chemicals?  I will have to look into my options for next heating season. 

So all is well, housework is done, except for two loads of laundry, soup has been made, bread has been baked, and I am ready for the evening.  I watched the Democratic debate last night again, and I like it that the field is narrowing.  The Democrats seem to me to have the better ideas this time, and I think I like the idea of having a woman president for the first time.  Black men had the vote before women were allowed to vote (or so I've heard), so maybe this time, we should have a woman president before we have a black man be president.  I am getting to like Hillary more now.   

I reread that article posted from Saturday?  What a grouch I was.  Today, I am taking my truck in to have it fixed, then home again, home again, jiggedy jig.  My chicken had been looking unhappy, moping in a corner, and even molting for a few days, and I was worried about her.  So I decided that maybe she needed dirt!  That's right, dirt.  I happen to have a big container of dirt left over from a harvested basil plant, so I started putting dirt in her cage alongside her food.  She jumped on it, and now I give her dirt every day in the afternoon.  She loves it and I can tell she's healthier and happier already.  I also have been giving her spinach.  I get a bag of spinach at Aldi's for 99 cents and it lasts quite some time.  I've also been opening cans of vegetables that I don't particularly like, such as French-cut green beans and creamed corn, and giving her some of these every feeding time.  Actually, I like these vegetables, but if they have been in the cupboard for some time without being eaten, why not give them to one who appreciates them.  Of course, she still gets her laying mash, oats and sunflower seeds, and bread torn up into small pieces. 

About every third day or so, I need to cook for the dogs, too.  I've got things down to a science now.  I start cooking the rice (brown and white) together in one pan with plenty of water.  In a frypan, I pour 2 tblspns. canola oil, and add the meat to brown.  The meat can be ground turkey, hamburger or ground venison, sliced beef liver, or chicken (cooked in the crockpot).  I season the meat a little bit with Season-All or Lawry's Seasoned Salt, a pinch of thyme, and either garlic salt or onion salt.  I add to the meat 1 stalk of celery, chopped.  When the meat is browned and/or cut up into small pieces, I add the rice and water altogether, 1 big fistful of oatmeal, stir, cover and cook for about 1/2 hour.  The doggies are all lying there in patient reverence with their noses on their paws.  When it's done, I take some of it out so it will cool faster.  When I can stick my finger in it and it doesn't burn, I know it won't be too hot for them.  I add this as a side to their Canidae dry dog food, a dog cookie, a dog biscuit and a few tiny pieces of Beef Roll, a new 60% meat treat I get at Farmers Feed Store now.  Sometimes I add a few pieces of Hillshire Farm summer sausage, beef stick, or even liver sausage.  Each of these treats is small, so they won't get fat.  When I set their bowls in front of them, they check out every little treat, going from one thing to the other, smelling them before eating.  I have the distinct feeling that they enjoy their meals this way a lot. 

Typing, typing on mom's memoirs - I have only completed 5 chapters now, they are very long.  This is turning out to be quite a story, fascinating to me, even though I heard many of them from mom over the years.  The memoirs only deal with her childhood up to the age of 18 or so.  I haven't worked on my novel at all for the past week.  I am eager to get back to working on it. 

The weather is just great now.  I love winter, and it has been snowing so gently for days, yet the accumulations are negligible.  Just enough to make everything seem magical out there.      

How about those Packers!?  What a great team we have this year, and doesn't Brett look good for a grizzled old man?  He has all my admiration, as does everyone else on our team.  And since the Cowboys lost to the Giants yesterday (whew!), the Giants will be playing Green Bay at Lambeau Field next Sunday.  I don't understand how or why the Packers have always meant so much to me, that I get emotional over them and the games.  Even when they were having bad years, my agony was supreme.  But this year!  I am enjoying the games so much.  Best year ever! 

I have begun to type up my mother's memoirs that I found in her cabinet.  I've been typing for two days (not full time, to be sure) and I'm only in the middle of Chap. 4.  It is very interesting reading, as she grew up in Chicago it the early part of the 20th century, before just about everything we now take for granted.  I definitely need to learn more about this blog thingie so I can make a category for her memories. 

The Packers play today, and I surely do hope they win, because it will/might be the last time Brett Favre plays this year or forever, who knows. 

I have a dead mouse to find.  I spent yesterday afternoon, deplaning stuff off the couch, which had become a catch-all for all the things taken down from the attic (wasn't that last year?).  These things are now stashed everywhere around in the house, temporarily, to be sure.  Then I pulled the couch away from the wall (not supposed to be doing that) and searched everywhere underneath and behind, but could not find the creature.  I now fear that it is somewhere within the couch itself.  So the couch is going outside onto the porch.  That means I have to deplane all the boxes of glassware and treasures stored in boxes out there to make room for the couch, which will have to be stored on end. 

I've decided to use a wooden door that was stored behind the couch to make a big table.  I will wash and set out all the glassware treasures of mine (that mom bought for me) and mom's, call in somebody who has a shop, or some antique dealer maybe, to make me an offer on the whole lot.  Then help that person pack up and take away all the stuff.  If that doesn't work, I may spring for a table at a flea market next spring and try to sell the things myself, separately.  It all has to go.  It would be a shame not to recapture some of the money that has been spent by my mother on all this stuff. 

Just from this, I am telling myself that I am not really living my life, am I?  I'm just coping with all the stuff and such of my mother's life.  Mom's couch, mom's glassware collection, mom's memoirs, mom's furniture, etc.  How did it get like this?  Even the houseplants by the window were hers.  Maybe I need to get a life of my own.   

I was happy to see a pileated woodpecker on the suet yesterday morning.  I just knew if I hung the bulk suet on a tree, it would bring them to it.  They can't cling to the tiny basket of suet cake for the small woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches.  They need something more substantial, like a tree trunk, to hang on to.

I took my truck in yesterday to get an estimate on what it's going to take to fix my exhaust system and the linkage that's been out for months now.  It's going to be a big hit on my credit card again, but the truck is worth fixing; it's still a good truck, though a '91 GMC.

Today, I'm going to 1) bake bread, 2) groom my dogs, 3) write more on my novel, 4) make a huge salad, complete with medallions of hot dog and Colby cheese cubes on the side.  This, and fresh-baked bread will be my food for the day.  And this day, I'm also going to 5) start a new box for filing all my bills and important papers.  The old box is stuffed and I can't get anything more in it.  It also is very confusing when everything is jumbled together, so this should make me feel pretty good to be so paper-organized. 

I'm reasonably well and happy, going for a walk today, and I'm always glad when I don't have to go anywhere.  I should also think about copying my mother's memoirs to send to my sister, who wants to read them.  And I should organize mom's poetry into something that could be published someday.  So I have lots to do. 

I guess I thought I had a really important issue to bring up to Senator Feingold, but when I had spoken about my voting concerns, people told me that there are absentee ballots that you can fill in now, and mail them in, and you don't even have to go to the polls, if you suspect it may be a problem for you.  And your vote will be counted, starting on such-and-such a date.  I admit I never thought of that.  But then, why do we hear such horror stories about voting?  Anyway, Senator Feingold said I brought up some pretty good points about eliminating the possibility of some people cheating in the election, by having same day registration and the use of social security numbers.  Others, though, thought that might be getting into privacy difficulties. 

I'm so glad I went to the listening session.  Besides my own concerns, many, many different topics were discussed.  And now to tune in to the New Hampshire primary results.  See what's happening there. 

Did I mention that I've begun writing a second part to my first novel, continuing the story of the main characters.  I've just finished Chap. 2, and I'm beginning to think I may have become an author in the past year.  I seem to want to write every day now. 

I have been going for walks every day with Pepper.  Yesterday, we could both see a long, black tail waving back and forth over the top of a snowbank.  Followed by a big black Lab puppy, who came bounding over to us, gave me a happy, friendly body slam to say hello.  All the time, I could hear his frantic owner, a new neighbor, I guess, yelling "Pepper!  Pepper!"  And I thought there must be another Pepper here.  I walked that black Lab back and told him he better go home.  He understood what I was saying and ran back home, but we got to meet him, at least. 

It's been raining and warm out, and walking is difficult, due to the rain on top of the ice on the roads.  Also, the snow levels are going right down.  We might get a little snow tonight, though.  There was a tornado already!  South of here, though, so we are lucky. 

Russ Feingold is coming to town tomorrow for a hearing session, so I and two girlfriends are going to go and see him.  This might be the perfect time to bring up my own agenda:  to have voting days extended next November, to Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  The population of our country has increased quite a bit since the founding fathers (or whoever) decided that presidents should be elected just on the first Tuesday in November. 

In my own voting ward, there is no problem, because it's a rural area, and I just go there, to the fire station, park in the lot, go in, jive with the local ladies who are in charge of running things, while they write down my name and address a couple of times, give me my ballot, I go into a booth and mark the ballot, come out and slip the ballot into a machine that counts it (under the watchful eye of another lady) and leave, feeling heroic.  The longest line I've ever been in had me waiting about 5 minutes while I looked at maps of all the wards on the wall. 

But I know that my voting experiences are not what most people have to go through in order to vote.  Once, when my mother lived in a nearby city, I took her to her polling place to vote.  It was a zoo!  There were lines of people like A-F, G-L, etc.  Stairs to go up or down, parking spot nightmares, ballots that were difficult to understand, noise, confusion, pandemonium.  Then, when we left, there were nasty young men taking exit polls, who I thought were rather rude to my aged mother.  I was getting ready for a fist fight, but mom got me away from them, smiling benignly. 

Since then, I've heard horror stories of bad weather; polling places that were difficult or impossible to get to; road blocks set up to discourage voters; people being turned away from voting by who-knows-who, claiming they can't vote because of their felony records; hanging chads; votes that have no paper trail; busloads of "voters" being sent around to various polling places; ballot-box stuffing; etc, etc. 

Obviously, we need to get something done about this most fundamental citizen right and privilege.  I think we need a big computer set up in a non-partisan place that contains every social security number in this country and beyond.  With a little circle in front of it.  When a person goes into a polling place, they should have to show their s.s. card to the lady or ladies, and these ladies (or men) punch it in to a computer, which computers will have to be set up in every polling place, and be directly connected to the main one.  It should all be protected from hackers.  When all of you see that your s.s. no. has been correctly entered, it will be sent to the main computer, and a check mark will be placed in the box next to your s.s. no., both at the main computer and at the polling place.  No other votes besides s.s. nos. will be allowed, and no duplicates will be allowed.  Standardized ballots should be made that all or most people can understand.  Local area candidates should be on another ballot.  If there's a problem, perhaps help should be available, but really....just simplifying and advertising how the forms work would be the most help.

But, the main thing is to have voting days extended.  Just think of how difficult it is for a person with an 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. job to then have to get to the polling place on that one day only.  It is an ordeal to have to stand in long lines to vote, and in bad weather, being harrassed by pollsters, and then the polls close before you get in to vote.  We, in this country, could easily and quickly develop a voting system that is safe, assures our right to a fairly private vote, is easy to understand, eliminates fraud and cheating, and makes voting a 4-day event that is done when it is possible, convenient and safe. 

Well, that's what I am going to propose to Senator Feingold tomorrow.  I think I will not stop there, either.  I plan to keep on with this until somebody says, yes, let's do it. 

So there I was, enjoying shrimp egg rolls, and I began to break out in big blotchy hives.  It was last June that I ended up in the hospital with a severe allergic reaction to seafood, but I thought I was over that.  After bathing, I took 3 Benadryls and went to bed.  Though I had an enormous headache and was groggy all the last day of the year, I took a nap in the afternoon and got revitalized.  The hives are gone, but sometimes I feel itchy all over yet.  Then I just take another Benadryl.  I managed to get a lot of housework done anyway. 

And so I've dodged a bullet on that one, and sailed right into the New Year with no problems.  I did go for a walk with Pepper yesterday, too.  Because there has been no sunshine for many, many days, I felt that the chicken needed some Vit. D.  I crushed up a calcium pill with D in it, and fed that to her this morning.  The sun is shining too, for the first time in a long time.  It is so beautiful out, very wintry.  The colors are white, gray, charcoal gray and black.  Snow caps on tops of everything about a foot deep. 

And I'm getting a lot done today, too.  Lots of laundry, dishes, baking bread.  I used a lot of odds and ends of flours in my bread today - wheat bran, flax meal, soy milk and soy flour.  I make the English Muffin Bread.  My brother sent me a recipe for White Castle Dip and says it tastes exactly like White Castle Burgers.  So I made up the recipe yesterday and it tastes more like slumgully to me.  But not too bad.  I've added rice to it and am now feeding it to my dogs (and chicken).  So I need to get going and do my exercises for today.  Don't want to fall down on my New Years Resolutions on the very first day, now, do I?