Cap and Trade

I might have been wrong about how carbon offset taxes would come about (July 2007), but it looks like it is going to happen much sooner than I expected. The government is already talking about giving the poorest families $400 a year to help pay the taxes levied against them for their energy use. Those of us in the middle class will be looking for creative ways to make more money and use less energy so we can pay our cap and trade taxes and pay the taxes for TARP, the economic stimulus package, and the new budget. The rich will continue to use much more energy than the average American citizens because they will be able to afford it. Congress will probably exempt themselves from the tax. We'll see. In the meantime, eyes wide open!

Go Rest High On That Mountain

In April we took my father's and brother's ashes home and spread them on the mountain. The ashes that looked so white in the urns were almost black against the new snow. And we laid three red roses there--dark red, like three gaping wounds.

Kevin Kent Kekich
March 6, 1963 to April 2, 2008

Jack Milovan Kekich
November 6, 1941 to April 3, 2007

What Equals a Productive Day?

A day when you do what God has lead you to do.

A day when you let those you love know that you love them.

A day when you create something with your hands, learn something with your head, move something with your body, feel something with your heart.

A day when you help others and allow them to help you as well.

A day when what needs done is done, people who need love are loved, and the balance of work and rest is what you need that day.

Gosh, I astonish myself with my own profundity! Actually, a day when you manage to post on the blog sounds pretty productive to me...

=) Kk.

NoroBlues

I finished Penny's YellowSocks (I'll get them in the mail soon!) and have started a new pair called NoroBlues, using Noro Kureyon Sock in S40 (aqua, teal, lime, purple, pink, orange). The colors are fabulous. The texture is nubby and uneven and has some drag. It knits into a nice fabric.

I've decided to stick with simple patterns until I learn the ins and outs of sock making, so I'm using Caryn Lantz's Simple Socks for Ladies on Two Circular Needles , but I'm using the magic loop method with a size 2 Addi Lace needle.

I didn't get much done today: What did I do all day?

1) knitted almost an inch of one sock
2) learned a little bit about black liberation theology
3) drove two teenagers to work
4) watched my neighbor girl and put her on the school bus (and started her on a new scarf)
5) took photos of Penny's socks and loaded them onto Ravelry.com.
6) did a lesson of math with Z
7) talked with DH, DD, and both DS's
8) e-mailed friends
9) snuggled with the dog
10) snuggled with the cat

Yeah, I definitely have to stretch to make this look like a productive day. But....the day is not over. I can still read several pages of Tore Janson's A Natural History of Latin and do a couple loads of laundry. = )

Moving On

Well, Penny and I are beginning new journeys this year. I am not sure either of us expected to be, but God directs our steps.

I have quit my job teaching Rhetoric and Latin. I will miss the students and the teaching, but I will continue studying Rhetoric and Latin.

Penny is taking some new personal strides, which I will let her describe as she wishes. (hint, hint)

So, what am I doing instead? I am trying to get more done at home, and I'm spending more time knitting. Yes, knitting! I learned a little over a year ago. Now I have to force myself to do almost anything else.

I met a lady, the other day, who can knit and read at the same time! I am not there yet, but I can get through a lot of audio books, movies, and podcasts (Welcome to Latinum!) while knitting. It's great! Double duty. And if I throw in a load of laundry, triple productivity. = )

Oh, and I'm knitting Penny some socks. shhhh

Pete

Carbon Offsets

Caveat: The following is a major rant! I will leave it here, because it is a record of what I was thinking that day, like a journal entry. I am all for conserving our environment; I just don't buy into Gore's brand of environmentalism.

Purchasing carbon offsets is, for now, a trendy option for the rich and famous, but it is only a matter of time before we are all required to offset our own carbon emissions or pay taxes for that purpose. The ultra wealthy will become quite self-righteous as they contemplate their roles as saviors of the environment. They will begin to think that such good works ought to be required of all Americans. The wealthy politicians will jump on the bandwagon, because after all, who can be against the environment? And, besides, it will justify their own carbon-offset purchases. They can keep living in their multi-million dollar homes, vacationing on their yachts, flying their airplanes, etc., etc. And, by requiring all Americans to pay for carbon offsets, they will be doing an even greater good for the environment.

Meanwhile, those of us who were keeping our carbon-emissions pretty low anyway will bring them even lower because we will no longer have money to buy anything but the smallest of houses; we will be lucky to afford the low-end Toyotas and Hondas. The poorest of us may have to leave off motorized vehicles altogether.

And the liberals will once again have widened the gap between the rich and the poor while claiming to care.

Message to all thinking Americans: if Al Gore really thought our environment was in trouble, and that all his dire predictions were founded in fact, he would sell his mansions and move into one smaller house. He is like a crooked televangelist who tells his audience that God will bless them for giving all their money to the poor, but then turns around and keeps all the money for himself. Demand that he practice what he preaches before you decide to trust him.

Somehow it's just not fair

One pound equals 3500 calories.

To lose a pound a week, eat 500 calories fewer a day.

Since the average person needs around 2000 calories a day, it is impossible to eat 3500 calories fewer a day (or to exercise 3500 calories extra in a day).

It is, however, possible to eat 3500 calories extra in a given day.

=/ Kk.

There but for the grace of God...

I never used to understand why so many people liked to go shopping. Hopping in the car and going to the mall just wasn’t something I could ever seem to enjoy. Yard sales? That’s a different story!

But now I’m a stranger in a new place. (Well, fairly new… I have a few acquaintances, but no friends.) And all of a sudden, I’ve discovered a dormant love for shopping! OK, well, not really a love of shopping, but a big desire to get out of the house and go somewhere, anywhere, and do something other than unpack boxes and discipline children.

Yard sales are still my predominant form of shopping, and now auctions as well, but I also find myself just wandering up and down Wal-Mart’s aisles. And even as I unpack boxes and boxes of junk (both my own and some inherited from my mother), I’m out hunting yard sales and auctions for more stuff! Some of it is justifiable (I really did need those diapers from Wal-Mart), but I am doubtful that I really need to be doing so much shopping.

Why, I ask myself, am I doing this? Mostly, as above, to get out of the house with its overwhelming piles of work and a solitude shared only by two-year-olds. I’ve met a homeschooling mom at a yard sale. I’ve made side deals with people at auctions. I’ve had real conversations, even if only a few minutes long, with other adults. In addition, I’ve become vastly more familiar with the roads of my area and found some great deals.

Once again I realize I have been guilty of being judgmental. I used to think less of people who seemed to like shopping for the sake of shopping, but now I realize that I am no different. Instead of condemning others’ behavior, I should have been sympathetic, whether they loved shopping because of boredom, loneliness, stress, or just the love of the hunt coupled with the blessing of having enough money to pursue shopping as a hobby. There are many worse things shopaholics could be doing with their time and money than shopping!

=)

Guest Blogger: Subaico Now

Here is a guest blog by Periwinkle Percival:

I was reading our local paper during break at work. I read two things of interest: Oprah Winfrey is heralded as a great spiritual leader, a "hip, materialistic version of Mother Teresa." The other was an advertisment for the "best seller" in junvenille literature: Walter the Farting Dog II: Walter Goes on Cruise.

I am glad that the author of the article on Ms. Winfrey had the discernment to verify that hip and materailistic are not descripters of the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta. After that, the analogy breaks down for me I think, much in the same way that someone might try to decribe to me a sunlit night or a moonlit day.

Wow. I am stunned at my incomplete childhood, having missed out on the the epic of Walter the Farting Dog. Superman, the Lone Ranger, Batman, and any other hero figure from my youth or my parents youth just cannot begin to compare with the uncomparable Walter. Seeing as how this is the SECOND book of this inestimatable series, I forcast that a movie will come of it, if it has not been already cast. A line of toy accessories is sure to follow that. I am reserving my place in line at Toys R Us now.

This must be a small glimmer of what St Benedict, and the other fathers/mothers of the monasticism must have seen and felt as they surveyed the world around them. To be sure, the world ALWAYS was evil and depraved; at absolute rock bottom. It also appears that having hit rock bottom, the world has begun to dig.

Get to It, Stick to It

While listening to a book on tape about setting goals I heard a story about one of the greatest self-help books ever written. It was written at the end of the 19th century, in long-hand. The story goes that the writer spent a year writing it, then went out for a bite to eat. When he returned, the stable he lived above was engulfed in flames.

Undeterred, the author, Orison Swett Marden, sat down and took another year to write it again. Then he tried to sell his book to a publisher. Since the nation was in the midst of a depression, it was quite a while before he found a publisher willing to print his book. Once printed, however, his book became a 19th century best seller, and influenced some of the greatest men of the 20th century including Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan.

The main point of his book? That great success does not depend on brains, connections, or money. That all of the great successful people in history have two traits in common: "get-to-it-iveness" and "stick-to-it-iveness." That what is most needed for success is to not just dream, but get started, and once started, to not quit.

Now if I could only apply that to my diet!

=)