Frozen lake

A bitter cold lake

What a nut. I stopped on the way back from a school meeting to take a couple of photos of the frozen lake. I am sure that people in the house behind me were thinking I was a bit touched in the head. It was warmer than it has been for a couple of days, but it was still pretty cold.

I had been looking at photos last evening of the lake during the beautiful summertime and I was wondering what it looked like in February. At least the sun was shining.

At the meeting we spoke of the school levies in the area that are NOT passing. "Why?" everyone is asking. Personally, I think people are just plain depressed with the way things are in our country. We have been pinched at the gas pump, pinched at the grocery stores, pinched at the retail stores and pinched in forking over our measly dollars every time we turn around.

Everybody is feeling the pinch. Health insurance is near collapse. They keep taking more out of our paychecks to pay for our health care. We hear about how we have been charged that "luxury" tax on long distance calling that should have stopped years ago. We tire of listening to how many billions of dollars are spent on this war. Just Google The cost of the war in Iraq and choose Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky". Sickening. Small outlying school buildings are closing left and right in our surrounding districts. More and more students are getting bussed to bigger, more crowded buildings.

My niece's ex boyfriend's sister got pregnant with her third child just so she could continue to collect welfare. Her other two children are six and two. She has subsequently kicked each boyfriend out after a while.

Every week we hear a new story about the bird flu. Or, another case of child pornography. Diabetes is on the rise, obesity is an epidemic, and the pharmaceutical companies are ripping us off big time. Autism, is it mercury in the vaccine or is it genetics? Then there is global warming, how dependent we are on fossil fuels, and orange snow falling in Siberia.

I don't know about you, but I want to turn up the heat and cuddle in my warm blanket and watch Disney movies. But, that is simple denial. A defense mechanism. An ostrich burying it's head in the sand. I am tired. It takes energy to deal with life's idiosyncrasies. It is all I can do to deal with a whiny, 15 year old, a full-time job, household chores (inside and out), car maintenance, bill paying, prescription reimbursement papers, tax forms and trying to squeeze in a little "me" time every other week-end or so.