I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Blue: beautiful pictures.

Thanks so much everyone for your sympathy and kind words.  It means a lot.  You are wonderful friends and you mean so much to me.   I just have to post this last story. Millie made it to the New York Times.  She would be so pleased.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/us/mildred-dalton-manning-nurse-held-as-japanese-pow-dies-at-98.html?_r=0

V. V. Impressive, Sandy - an obit in the NYT! And so beautifully written, too.

Alexandria, enjoyed all the articles about your MIL. She was a special woman indeed! I know she will be missed by many and especially your DH. How proud he must be have her as his mother!

Jackie

Alexandria - what a grand mother-in-law you had. 

Blue, you have a gorgeous family with (as someone said above) the very best of the gene pool!!

Jackie - thanks for posting that great article.  It's good to be reminded on occasion of just how we got into this mess.  We've been staying away from the news lately, so haven't heard as much posturing and posing as normal. 

Pip - I'll warn you, moving SUCKS!!!!!  The good news is that both TV and Internet are indeed available.  The address is an odd one, and it seems that none of the cable companies had it right in their database.  But we chatted with the neighbors and they said they had it.  When armed with that information, I went back to Comcast and finally had success. 

Both hubby and I are thoroughly exhausted, and in major pain.  He's at the chiropractor now, and I'm taking a short break from unpacking.  I really miss our view and of course the immense amount of space I used to have, but the grief is subsiding.  The deal still hasn't closed, so technically could yet fall through - but I doubt that it will and sincerely hope it will not.  I realize that I've been very depressed for a long long time, and part of it was the amount of "stuff" that was clogging up my life.  There are some items that I will keep, but right now we have two storage units plus everything that is in this place - too much stuff.  I have shoes that I haven't worn in years - I will be making multiple trips to the local goodwill/salvation army.  I wanted to do a moving sale, but everything got too frenetic - so will also be taking things to consignment shops over the next few months.  I'll miss many of our things, but certainly not all of them - not even close.  All the pictures are going to be scanned and then uploaded to both the PC and the Internet (to make sure they aren't lost in case of a hard drive failure).  Overall, I believe this will be a freeing experience and really wish we had done it back when I first thought of it!!! 

OK.  Back to work now - if only my back decides to cooperate with me.  I is hurting - badly.

Blue, too heavenly!

Paul Krugman should be required reading in schools so that not all Americans grow up to be economically illiterate conservatives (or C-Span callers, God forbid!) who run for congress and think they can compare federal spending with household spending (stupidity at its peak, in other words):

"Smart fiscal policy involves having the government spend when the private sector won’t, supporting the economy when it is weak and reducing debt only when it is strong. Yet the cyclically adjusted deficit as a share of G.D.P. is currently about what it was in 2006, at the height of the housing boom — and it is headed down.

"Yes, we’ll want to reduce deficits once the economy recovers, and there are gratifying signs that a solid recovery is finally under way. But unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, is still unacceptably high. “The boom, not the slump, is the time for austerity,” John Maynard Keynes declared many years ago. He was right — all you have to do is look at Europe to see the disastrous effects of austerity on weak economies. And this is still nothing like a boom.

"Now, I’m aware that the facts about our dwindling deficit are unwelcome in many quarters. Fiscal fearmongering is a major industry inside the Beltway, especially among those looking for excuses to do what they really want, namely dismantle Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. People whose careers are heavily invested in the deficit-scold industry don’t want to let evidence undermine their scare tactics; as the deficit dwindles, we’re sure to encounter a blizzard of bogus numbers purporting to show that we’re still in some kind of fiscal crisis."

More here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/opinion/krugman-dwindling-deficit-disorder.html?hp&_r=0

Flat earthers think of Keynes like they think of Darwin. That alone tells you what a great thinker Keynes was.

A couple of pages back we were "musing" on why folks still listened to the "watergate reporter" - and then I saw this cover article in Newsweek   http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/11/the-myth-of-bob-woodward-why-is-this-man-an-american-icon.html

It's interesting reading - but I'll say you some time, the "money quote" is the last paragraph - what a giggle:

"Woodward’s recent flap with Gene Sperling would be trivial, and instantly forgettable, except that it reveals a grotesquely swollen ego fed by 40 years of hero worship. Indeed, last weekend, appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Woodward proposed a rather shocking means for resolving his dispute with Sperling: “I am in the business of listening,” he said, “and I’m going to invite him over to my house if he’ll come and hopefully he’ll bring others from the White House, maybe the president himself, and we can—you know, talking really works.” If there was any doubt that Bob Woodward’s ego is out of control, inviting the president to his house should put those doubts to rest."

Wabbit - I was talking to hubby the other night and said I was just coming to realize how depressed I've been - and I'm not really sure for how long.  I was NEVER a pack-rat - always getting rid of stuff, but after my Mom died I had a terrible time divesting myself of any of the things of hers that I received - even though much of it is simply not me - and then it became more and more difficult to rid myself of so many other things.  The same happened with hubby - so even though the house had a bit of an austere look to it, there was still just a lot of STUFF - too many clothes, too many shoes, too many gadgets, just too much.  I think I've just been depressed and in an effort to make myself feel better I'd start a new hobby or buy a new whatever.  That is stopping NOW!! 

I just lost my temper at the real estate lady - the closing date has been pushed out AGAIN - which is just peach for the buyer, as they aren't paying for two places.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to go through at all...  Well, if it doesn't, believe me the house ain't goin' on the market again any time soon!!! 

I've been offline since Friday, so I just now learned about your MIL, Alexandria.  I teared up reading your tribute to her, and then again when I read the NYT obit.  What a beautiful, inspiring person she was.  And how you all must miss her . . . I am so terribly sorry.

Sorry too, Athena, for the job news.  And GG, sorry for the sale/move hassles.  Geez, there seems to be an epidemic of suckage going on right now.

Linda

Woodward...Mr. Cool, come to my house Pres., is not !!!!  Buy yourself a billboard and STHU Woodward.  Ok, my not so very nice at all side is showing.

GG.....I'm with you all the way.  I still suffer from TMS ( too much stuff ) but I got the urge right before my diagnosis to go minimal around the house.   Then took out two years of my life pushing a huge stack of boxes from one side of the living room to the other.....the few times I had enough steam to clean at all.  When I reached a point where I was mending fast.....I realized that I had stalled my overwhelm and was even more un-happy and un-finished.  The boxes that sat in my living room got loaded on a truck, along with many more, and a whole slew of odds and ends.  They all went to a local auction house.  True, the auction guy got 35 % which was a bit on the dicey side since we had to cart everything to the building......but I was getting zero before then.  Couldn't have a yard sale out in on my one lane road to the woods where I live....wouldn't have worked.  Besides....in yard sales you are talked down, in auctions the price is talked up. 

I think we will always be a work in progress.....but it does feel good once you have done it.  I still have too much...but it is put away for the most part....in storage, or dressers or closets. One of these days.....I'll get ruthless again. 

Jackie