Saturday, July 12, 2008

Change?

Another weekend has arrived. The roofer guy said he would like to work Saturday if we had no objections. Since I didn’t know of any plans for the day, there were no objections. He hopes to finish the project early next week.

What that does mean, though, is that we won’t be getting a visit from our daughter and her dog on Saturday, but they are planning to come over Sunday. We don’t have any plans for the day, so we’ll probably just enjoy a nice lunch and the ladies will do a little work outside. I’m not sure if that’s because there’s a little work needed or if they know the two dogs play much better when they’re outside, too.

A little water works wonders. Friday afternoon WG headed outside to tour her vegetable gardens. A second planting of beans had taken place a while back and she was particularly interested to see if they were making progress. There was no sign of them, but she did learn by feeling the ground that the garden was bone dry. So she put a sprinkler on that garden for an hour or so. In just that little time she discovered when she went back to shut the sprinkler off, those darn beans had sprouted and were already more than an inch above the ground. Gardens love water.

So Friday night we turned the irrigation system on and made sure all the gardens and the whole yard got a much needed drink.

Democrat Party chairman Howard Dean was in Maine proclaiming that the country needs change. He was in the state lending support to the candidacies of Chellie Pingree for the House of Representatives and Tom Allen for the U.S. Senate. Dean’s theme was that the country needs change. I’m not sure anyone has defined “change” as it applies to this campaign. Barack Obama has been proclaiming a need for change for months. Has he defined what he means? I guess I missed it.

Seems to me four years ago the Democrats called for change and got themselves elected to the majority of seats in both houses of Congress. Nothing changed so they again called for change two years ago. Again they won the majority in Congress. Did that result in any changes? I’ve heard a lot of talk and seen a lot of posturing; but change? I guess I missed it.

Of course even though they were the majority party in both houses, it was President Bush that kept change from taking place. Many Democrats blame the Republican minority in the Senate to block any meaningful action. I guess the Republicans learned the delay lesson well that was taught to them by the Democrats.

Now that I think of it, there has been change over the last four years. We’re now paying more for oil and gas. We’re paying more for food. The housing industry has tanked. But I guess we can place the blame on the White House. After all, it’s a whole lot easier to say “We intended … but…” than to actually accomplish something.

Another election approaches and for the third time, the call is for “change.” We’re never told what was changed the last two times, but by repeating the theme over and over, the American public will buy into it once again. We’ll hear the cry again in two years, and again I’ll be wondering, “What changed?”

I hope you have a great weekend, and I’ll be back again Monday.

GiM

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