Thinking of you

The popular idiom "absence makes the heart grow fonder" will hopefully make you feel kindly toward me because I have not been blogging on a regular basis lately. As you can tell, I have been absent not only in spirit, but my heart just hasn't been in the mood to blog. I'm not depressed and I'm not tired of blogging. I just find myself wanting to keep my thoughts to myself.

That's what I've been doing quite a bit lately. Thinking.

It's an awful thing to have your mind always racing, always going, night and day. Some of the things I have been thinking of are:

• Life and death -- How tenuous and fragile are our lives? My blogging friend Susie just lost her dear grandpa who was almost 100 years old. She loved him dearly and I am so sad for her. I, too, miss my dearly departed loved ones and would give anything to spend just one day with them again and to tell them how much I love them.
• Politics -- How can we, the people, stand the rest of the year listening to the endless politicking? This campaigning process began with an unusual excitement not seen since the 1960s and with some of the candidates inspiring us to get involved. When I see what has come down to the wire, I am more turned off than turned on with all the dirty politics and endless rhetoric. Do they think we are idiots? Do they think we will buy into their lies and false promises? We were told change is in the air but all I can smell is the same old crap coming down the pike. Poor U.S.
  
• Economy -- Are we, the people, headed for a depression the likes of which this country hasn't seen since the 1930s? I thought that when husband and I retired we would continue to live our lives as we had done for years. When we both worked, we had enough discretionary funds to purchase whatever we wanted, to go where we wanted, and to do what we wanted. We didn't live like the high and mighty, or our rich relatives, but we weren't doing too badly either. Now, thanks to our current lame duck, we are all in a terrible mess economically. And, it isn't comical in the least. Husband and I now find ourselves living month to month and our fingers are crossed that catastrophe isn't lurking around the nearest corner. We were almost on the brink with our recent ice storm and loss of power for a week, but fortunately we bounced back with no major problems, thank you very much. We now appreciate the usefulness of candlepower.
  
• The price of eggs -- How much more can our food budgets stand? This is the richest nation in the world but we almost can't afford to buy groceries anymore. There are only two of us in the house, and we don't eat steak very often, but we now find that you can't walk into the grocery store anymore without spending $250.00 or more on a week's worth of food. The economists are predicting $4.00 per gallon gasoline by this summer and our lame duck says that he didn't know that. How stupid can an oil man from Texas get?
• Chop suey -- What has happened to goods Made In America? My dishwasher, which was purchased less than a year ago and is still under warranty, started making a funny noise in the last two weeks or so. I called the repairman and he promptly determined that I not only needed a new pump, but also a new spray arm. When asked where the parts to my fabulous, relatively new stainless steel G.E. dishwasher came from, the answer was CHINA (of course). Is anything manufactured in America anymore? I don't dare purchase toys for my grandkids because they may be contaminated. I don't dare take heparin because it may be contaminated. I don't dare feed my kitties canned cat food anymore because it may be contaminated. I suspect all my medicines are counterfeit and contaminated. Why? Because greedy American businesses have sold out, because of trade agreements, and have sent all our manufacturing plants to China, or India, or Mexico, or any place other than in the good, old U.S.A. There is no government oversight anymore for the products we purchase. There is no control over anything coming into our ports. There is no control over any ingredients that are put into our food. We are doomed.
• Our enemies --

Politics is war without bloodshed,
while war is politics with bloodshed.
Mao Tse-Tung

I really must stop thinking or I will get a headache.