What a beautiful start to this day! The sun is streaming into the yard, the humidity is rather low, and the forecast says it’s going to be a near perfect day. This is the way Maine should be, although personally, I might prefer just a wee sea breeze, which may come later today, and temperatures in the mid to upper 70s. Nevertheless, I’m not complaining about what we’ll have today. Even the birds are out there cheering it on.
I had a great hour at my Senior Fitness place this morning. There is, you know, a direct correlation between workout success and weather. I wasn’t the only one who noticed the difference in the weather, either. The whole group was more active and thus livelier this morning. I came home feeling really good.
The roofer was up on the roof as I drove off around 7 this morning. He is making excellent progress considering he works all by himself. I suspect the main house will be completed by late today or in the first part of tomorrow morning at the latest. He’ll then have just a small breezeway and a small piece of the garage to finish. There’s a very small chance he’ll be done tomorrow, but more likely it’ll be sometime Thursday.
Wife Gator continues her garden work outside. She was outside before I left this morning taking advantage of this weather. She’s trying to get caught up on some weeding. It’s a lonely job for her; as you know, I don’t do outdoors except for a couple of regular chores. I am selfish in that respect though as I freely admit I love the vegetables her efforts bring to the table.
Some items in the news this morning: The wait for the final outcome of the People’s Veto petitions to get an initiative on the November ballot to overturn the massive beverage tax and tax on insurance claims imposed by the last Legislature continues. All the petitions have to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office by Thursday. Petition drive organizers appear confident. The Secretary of State’s office, regardless of the issue or political party involved, has demonstrated a great proficiently for honesty and fairness in its decisions. It may be among the best in State government.
Bulletin: According to a post on As Maine Goes and also on the Press Herald site MaineToday.com, more than 90-thousand signature petitions were turned in today to the Secretary of State's Office. Slightly more than 55-thousand were needed to get the question (See above paragraph) on the November Ballot. More tomorrow.
Just this week, for example, a Superior Court judge has upheld a decision by the Secretary of State’s office that a Maine politician has successfully submitted sufficient petition signatures to appear on the November U.S. Senate ballot as an independent. He would oppose both incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democrat challenger Tom Allen. The Secretary of State is a prominent Democrat and it is the Democrat Party that’s challenging the petition. The party is afraid the Independent will take votes away from Allen.
With a whopping nine percent approval rating, Congress has decided that it’s best for us to continue to suffer with high energy prices. The Democrats in Congress say they will not lift the ban of off-shore drilling or drilling anywhere else, for that matter. It is true that the drilling would not get us less expensive American oil and gas for several years, but at least it would be a start at getting us energy independent. And it just might cause the current oil producers to lower their prices hoping to keep us from drilling.
Why do we need energy independence? I think that’s a no-brainer. Right now much of our oil money is lining the pockets of leaders of the producing countries. Most of those same countries want to use that money to destroy us. I would agree this has the look of a red herring, but just think about what all that money could be doing if it stayed right here in America.
That was the topic of conversation this morning at Senior Fitness. The consensus was that we retired folk are in for a very expensive winter and the only way to even begin to do something about it is to change just about everyone in Congress. Of course that can’t be done as only a third of the Senate members are up for reelection. And, like human nature everywhere, most people believe that none of the people we elect in our districts and states are responsible for the problem. Only those elected elsewhere are and they are the ones that should be replaced.
It’s getting very noisy up on the roof. The guy is currently working directly over my head so I’ll say good-bye for today.
GiM
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