In defense of unfinished basements...

For the most part, I grew up in a 1920's Beaux Arts stone home. You did your living upstairs, a big living room, separate dining room, sun porch and roomy kitchen...and there were servants quarters for back when servants quartered.
It was a civilized home and the basement was a basement. Not a game room, or family room, it was a basement.

The close it ever would come to being "finished" was painted block walls and a tiled floor.

It was a great place for winter storage of sports gear, patio furniture,  and tons of canned tomatoes. There were crates and boxes in our basement that I  never looked into until my mother passed away, and to my surprise, lots of orphaned Christmas decorations that didn't look at all familiar, had my mother been hoarding Christmas decorations? ...we really didn't know much about the basement and it's contents...

Most people my age (somewhere lingering in the 50 range) grew up with that kind of basement. The basement was the laundry room, the freezer room, the work bench room. It was the garage's wealthy cousin... the best place to store wine.
The laundry room was large enough to hang unmentionables up to dry on a line,  put a big freezer up against the wall and there was room to do a cartwheel if so inclined. Hell, rollerskating in the basement was a time honored tradition among baby boomers.

Sometimes while I was waiting for the last minute or so of the dryer cycle, I would sneak over to explore the mysteries of the work bench....

Ahhh, the work bench. The one place in the house, where you could rightly create a mess and use a hammer and make loud noise without censorship...the best attempt of organization was a judicious use of peg board and there was always a faint smell of turpentine. The sharpest most deadly things in the house laid casually on the work bench, and the saw dust on the floor meant something had been fixed at some point dontcha know.

We had a cat once that lived in the basement and would never come out, the only evidence that it was alive, was a full kitty litter and food that was eaten and most important of all, the absence of rodents.

Today, the thought of not having a finished basement is harrowing to young home buyers...where do we put the kids, where do we put the bar, where do we hang the Steelers banner? They want drywall, carpeting, granite on something, recessed lighting and wainscoting somewhere next to builtin shelves plus a full bath. Well in my house, we call that "upstairs".

In our home now, we have an unfinished basement...much to the chagrin of our real estate agent who is  chomping at the bit to put our house on the market....maybe it's because we live in an old 1930's Craftsman and the basement feels like it should be A BASEMENT... I love the high wood rafters and the cinder block. I love the coolness of it in the summer and the behemoth soapstone 600 lb laundry sink, and the steps that open to big Bombay doors.

There is no rec room, no Rumpus room, no man cave, no game room, no wainscoting ...just a work bench, laundry room, a freezer and canned tomatoes.

Sound familiar? Okay Dr.Freud, yes, I have re-created the basement of my childhood into my adulthood, and I'm not sure what that means other than, heck yeah, I liked the basement of my childhood....and  maybe one of these days, I'll find that cat.

Comfort from long ago...

From our first president, a gentle reminder of our responsibilities as citizens of this great country...and why, we have such a distinctive onus to keep it great...here's an excerpt from his inaugural address...

"I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."


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Evil In, Evil Out.

What are we putting into our minds on a daily basis? I can't help asking this after the horrific news out of Aurora Co. yesterday.

I remember a strange incident back in 2008. It was right after the release of The Dark Knight , and the death of Heath Ledger was still hanging in the air. I was driving south on a main thoroughfare, when a speeding small black car pulled up next to me with the passenger window open and a young man dressed exactly as Heath Ledger Joker. He was hanging out the window practically reaching into my car , gesturing maniacally at me...I tried not to look as unnerved as I felt. They sped down the road with him hanging out the window flailing about.
It scared the snot out of me...because it was so aggressive and direct and terroristic in it's intent.

I grew up with the TV Batman and was sad to see it go so dark. I stopped watching Batman movies because of that....then one night, watching TV alone in the den (no kids in the room) I came upon the creepy movie Joker from The Dark Knight while scrolling channels...I took about a minute of it and concluded "I don't need that rolling around in my mind..." and obviously neither did Heath Ledger.

Thank God for remote controls and off buttons.

I don't need Paranormal Activity one ,two ,three ad nausea-um , or Saw or Hostel , or The Orphan/Ring/Whatever ... any of that horrible imagery...
I also don't need the imagery of yesterday's massacre...
but maybe those images need each other, to keep the evil going.
That is something to think about.

Free speech is our right, and a great responsibility for those so inclined to step up to the microphone, keyboard, news desk,movie screen etc. Yet somewhere in the mix,we have lost our way, we have lost our moral code... we speak with the wrong tongues, to the tweaked minds and  worst of all , to our children, and the sad thing is,we don't see our hand in it.

When you fill a vessel with water without thought to the capacity of the vessel, it overflows...when you over fill a mind with evil and violent images, it has nowhere to go but out to the world.

Our  new society has been raised by television and movies, we should know better than to be such lazy stewards. If your argument would be, "Hey, just 'cause there's a few crazies out there, we shouldn't have to tone it down", then it would be a good indication that you are desensitized and affected yourself.
If you can't see the unhealthy turn we have taken, then there is little I can say to you, especially if you allow your children to watch this stuff.

We have molded a new society so far removed from the dreams of our fore-fathers..to live in a safe free country with a strong moral foundation. We feed on an entertainment plate of violence, blood, foul words and garbage behavior.

Is that who we really  are?

Or are we the country who abolished slavery, defeated Hitler and cured polio?

Think about it.

What do you want as your daily diet to fuel your walk in this world?

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Don't Come Home Without a Deal

We are all trying to find ways to make the recession and the cost of gas work for us. We are using coupons, Giant Eagle fuelperks, creating recipes that last three days…etc.

So when the perfect storm of appliance breakdowns happened this month, I became Recession Master (really mistress, but it sounds so wrong). I decided to buy all things reconditioned, on sale , or scratch and dent.

First I bought a scratch and dent $1600.00 refrigerator on sale for $812.00…I did the bargain dance on that one…Sears Outlet, the most amazing assembly of appliances per square feet I have ever seen…I even eyed up a chainsaw, just because.

Next, I found a reconditioned lawn mower on the sidewalk at Lowe’s … I sent my husband to inspect it and buy it , using our fuelperks gift cards (we never purchase without them ) …we got it home and it wouldn’t start…hubby heads back to Lowe’s…they tell him since we used a Giant Eagle gift card we can only get a Lowe’s gift card in exchange for the mower….hubby does what hubby should always do in a retail pickle…

…he calls the Recession Master

…and it goes like this:

Hubby, “Hey I’m here at Lowes and they will only give me a Lowes gift card back on the mower”.

RM, “Really? Who sez?”.

Hubby, “The woman at the customer service desk”.

RM, “Do they have any mowers on sale?”

Hubby, “No…but there’s a nice..”

RM cuts him off like a bad spot on an apple…

“Well then, you go find the manager, tell him or her that the purchase with gift card return policy wasn’t explained to you and that your wife has eyed up a Craftsman mower at Sears (yes, I did) ON SALE.”

Hubby, “Okay, but… “

RM cuts him off again,

“Honey, don’t come home without a deal.”

Hubby proceeds to find the manager, wrangle him back to lawn mowers, and explain his position on gift card refunds.

The manager, a pleasant fellow named Scott, explains the refund policy, again…hubby makes it clear that it wasn’t made clear by the sales people or at purchase…

The sky parts, the rainbow appears, and the lawn mower sales guy who had been listening in, does the best drive by affirmation ever…”Wow, I didn’t know that was our policy either”.

Manager Scott gives him an I –wish-I-could-fire-you-right-here-right-now-look, then turns to my husband and says, “So what do you want to do?”

Hubby, “I want you to make me a deal on a lawn mower, and did you notice none of your mowers are on sale? My wife has already eyed up a Craftsman at Sears…”

Manager Scott, “Which one do you want?”

Hubby eyes up a nice rear propelled mower that costs well over $100 than the returned mower…”That one, what can you do on that one?”

Manager Scott, “Give me a dollar, over that return of the other mower and we’ll call it even…”

Hubby is happy and relieved, he can now go home having acquired a deal and he can’t wait to call the Recession Master to relay his story of retail victory…when Manager Scott leans in to him and says…

“And tell to your wife I don’t want her to go to Sears…”

So now, Lowes has built in brand loyalty, by showing us fairness and giving us the service of a mom and pop operation, and I am writing this for all to read….mission accomplished on all fronts.

Don’t you love when it all works out?

A Better Way to Say Goodbye

The passing of Joe Paterno gives us pause for many reasons...as we try to engineer his legacy into something we can all live with, I find my self reflecting on decisions made in my own life.

Would I have done things differently and made other choices if I knew they could possibly be my last?

Of course I would...and watching the Penn State scandal unfold has been one of the best lessons out there for doing the right thing.

We all look back on our own decisions in life, we all wish for do-overs, especially those that involve a lack of moral turpitude.

Unfortunately, Joe Paterno lived under the assumption that his legacy was intact and he had control over it. Yet, there are too many "free radicals" out there to ever assume such a thing.

One of them was Jerry Sandusky.

Paterno and others thought they had him under control and contained...

but you can never contain someone with an addiction, they will find a way to maintain their addiction even if it means destroying you...and that's what Sandusky did to Penn State ...and those in power were just as addicted to their own positions, which blinded them to the truth of the situation.

Paterno would have passed away a hero if he had done one simple thing from the very beginning of this mess.

He should have used his power to expunge Sandusky from the world of Penn State, rather than be part of a long time cover up that runs deep and disturbing.

His power was used many times to protect execrable players that had no right to be on the Penn State gridiron.

Paterno's powers ran deep and quite far, which some of us know all too well.

His own words "I should of done more." rang empty for me, as I know he had the power to do more and didn't.

Whistle-blowers usually come from powerless places and are crushed by the very machine they are trying to unmask. ...but in this case Paterno was the machine, he not only had the capacity to speak up, he had the efficacy to see Sandusky brought to justice.

The public at large would have hailed him a hero, for jettisoning a child molester from the grounds of Penn State.

End of story, legacy intact.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it best...“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

The beginning of the end started with the truth about Jerry Sandusky and now has ended with all of us examining the misguided silences in our own lives.

Joe Paterno leaves this life, with a conflicted ending...and most of us searching for a better way to say goodbye.

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Odds and Evergreens.

I suppose it's time to say a few things about Christmas...Invisi-Gal loves Christmas waaay too much and most likely for all the wrong reasons.

1) It's always been a "given" that the amount of decorations adorning your yard are in direct correlation to your economic status...the less you make, the more you decorate...and now with the advent of inflatables , it's even more expensive to adorn your yard...so none ... none of this makes sense.

2) Have you noticed that the ubiquitous white holiday lights have been replaced by white hot blue lights with shooting stars? Is China deciding what color Christmas will be?

3) I saw an ol' timey retro lighted Santa on the roof of an ol' timey house and wondered who scampered up the ladder for their grandparents to do that, must be good kids.

4) Now that most of the Greatest Generation has passed, who will give out fruitcake?

5) How can I dislike Nicholas Cage yet, absolutely love The Family Man...

6) I refuse to use the words "war on Christmas"...because I refuse to acknowledge those who would disallow my joy. I shall re-word it "Victory of Christmas"... I live in victory everyday and it all began with Christmas!

7) It's okay to say "Baby Jesus" repeatedly during Christmas and not sound like Ricky Bobby.

8) Have wrapping paper sales diminished because more people give gift cards?

9) Apparently myrrh (as in 3 Kings gift list) can lower LDL levels of cholesterol ...

10) By the way, as a child , I always thought the lyrics to "We Three Kings" were: "We three kings of Orient are, tried to light a rubber cigar"...and I have NO idea where that came from.

chew on that for awhile dear reader....

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I am 10 years old, I am Nothing.

I am ten years old....today is the worst day of my life...I am alone in this big building in a shower ...and I am being raped.

This man who treats me special and acts like my best friend is raping me, man-raping me...I can't get away , he is too big and holds me too tight, and it hurts and I am crying to God to please stop him...please let someone walk in and stop him.

I am so scared all I can do is cry.

My prayers are answered....someone is in the building, he is walking this way, oh please, please save me!

He sees us, he will save me, I see him looking right at us...Mister, please help me...

...make him stop doing this to me...save me....why are you looking at us like that, do you know this man?

no, no, no, don't walk away...please help me...Nooooo!

Why are you leaving ?

I am so ashamed, you must think I am dirty and deserve this....I am nothing to you, I am nothing to this man raping me...

I am ten years old, and this is the worst day of my life.

I am nothing.

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You are State Penn

Dear Rioting Penn State Students,

Perhaps your time would be better spent praying for the molested children that were not protected by your precious Jo Pa...better yet, how about spending some time in community service helping abused children get a second chance, so they can be well adjusted functioning humans.

Oh, and if you have time, write down your thoughts today so you can read them in 5 to 10 years when you are grown up and have children of your own...

maybe you'll see that your outrageous show of support for those who failed to alert the proper authorities when a CHILD was being raped on campus was incredibly misguided...

then apologize for your vandalism and for scaring the snot out of the local tax payers and get down on your knees and thank God that Jerry Sandusky never got a hold of you.

Your friend in Pittsburgh,

Invisi-Gal

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Strategy 2012 ..Shoot the messenger and the ones who warned you about the message.

My uncle's daughter ran up a ton of debt on her credit card ( he was a co-signer )...mostly shoes and handbags and quite a few expensive dinners for her friends, ...

rather than reign in his daughter's spending, my uncle called his daughter's boss and asked if he would give her a raise...

her boss laughed and said it wasn't his fault his daughter ran up all that debt, and maybe he should teach her some simple economics.

That went over like a lead balloon on a cold day.

So my uncle called the credit card company and got her credit limit raised.

Then my uncle asked the other members of the family to chip in and help pay off the debt...I said no and he called me unkind...my niece called me selfish and greedy ...I called her a spoiled brat and reminded her that I had always given her money before, but not anymore, gravy train out of gravy baby...and stop trying to live like a Kardashian on a Walmart paycheck... I told her to sell some of her shoes on ebay for some extra cash...

After badgering more family members, my uncle compelled her brothers to agree to pay in until one of the brothers caught my niece charging even MORE things on her card and mapping out daily shopping sprees for the next 2 years.

The word got out and other family members withdrew their support until little Miss Spendy Pants agreed to stop her bad habits.

She wouldn't and didn't.

Now she can't pay her bills and she needs a new car to get to work but can't get a loan because she has bad credit.

When the bank called to tell my uncle that they wouldn’t do the deal, he screamed at them and blamed them for the bad credit rating…he blamed THEM.

I saw him the other day at Starbuck's of all places, and he blamed it on me too, for not being supportive and my negative words, and said I should just keep my mouth shut.

So , I ended that conversation right then and there. One can't argue with idiots,fence posts or drunks...

I just patted my ol' Uncle Sam on the back

and took a sip of my tea and walked away....

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Reasons why I 'd rather see a photo of John Wayne ...

I know , I know , we have waited for this day for a long time, the capture and execution of Usama Bin Laden.

Quite honestly , I never thought it would happen, I was sure he was long dead from his diabetes and left in a grave of stone in the mountains somewhere

After 10 long years (I no longer include the Clinton years , he had him and let him go) the accumulative efforts of so many people , pretty much the same ones through 2 administrations have born fruit.

If I have to be perfectly truthful, and I can only speak for myself....without the unmitigated courage in the hearts of Navy Seal Team 6 and their clean precise raid , we would still be chasing ghosts.

But that is NOT why I'm writing this. I'm writing this to flesh out the reasons why I agree with the Obama administration on declining to release the photo of the executed war criminal Usama Bin Laden.

I do disagree ( and you knew there had to be one "disagree" in here) with the reasoning that it would "incite" the Radical Muslim world...one cannot incite the already fanatic. This is a poor measure of perceptive judgement. You can't make someone hate you MORE. There is no sliding scale on loathing.

I don't need to see the photo to prove this really happened. While I do believe that people are capable of doing just about anything to get elected or re-elected (although I think the timing is suspect)...if I choose to believe this is a scam, I have to also believe that Bush caused 911 and blew up the Twin Towers with pre planted explosives...I just can't go there on either theories.

Most of all, and this is reason above all others, I don't want that gruesome photo on the television , on magazines covers and newspapers for our children to see over and over and over again...at the check out counter, on the newstand , on the TV in your family room or kitchen...in places where 6 and 10 years olds and teenagers witness ad nauseum before you have a chance to cover it.

Our children don't need that image in their minds.

They need to know that ultimate boogey man ,UBL is gone, and that's that.

Then we need to show grace and strength , to our own, and stop worrying about how we appear to the rest of the world. We need to turn to ourselves and show that we are the benevolent victor...I have to ask myself this funny question...what would the American-est icon I can think of... John Wayne do? He would've shot UBL, and that would be the end of it, pilgrim.

No bragging, no photos, no bru-haha...the dirty job is done, and let those who did it, have the image in their minds...that's why there are folks like Seal Team 6, they can process that image at a deeper level....I'm pretty sure I can't, and I know for sure our children shouldn't be asked to.

Right now we have over 7 crest points of the Mississippi River ready to flood crops, homes, and devastate our country, let's turn to that (that includes our president) ... let's get on the run to help our own. Each new day has new big challenges, let's get on with that...chalk up one for the Team6 ...and let's move on to the business of tomorrow with one less burden off our backs.

Right now I want the image of my son smiling as he goes to bat for his team, and enjoy this sunny day, because others can handle the truth, and give us tomorrow.

And yeah, I'll quote the Duke:

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

John Wayne

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The new moon is my favorite part of the lunar calendar...it's a time to make plans and begin the next 28 days of craziness.

Last night May 1st, we saw the importance of moon phases in a tactical special ops assault in Pakistan on the compound that housed Usama Bin Laden ... the Navy Seals went in on a new moon because the sky is dark, and they could move undetected and use their night/thermal vision gear.

Folks who love to stargaze make their stargazing plans for new moons because they can see the stars better in their telescopes.

Farmers plant by the moon phases..see the Farmer's Almanac for details...it depends if your crop yeilds it's fruit above or below ground as to what pahse you plant by.

I generally plant by the new moon...pull weeds in the last quarter.

I also cut my hair during the waxing phase of the moon.

If you are going to have elective surgery..do it within 5 days before or after a new moon...if you can help it don't' have surgery anywhere near a Full Moon...too much swelling and hemorrhaging can happen.

Hey now, are you tilting your head and making a face?

Well it's true that the moon controls the tides and we are made of over 60% water, so we feel it...ask any woman who was stuck coinciding her cycle with the lunar cycle...

hell hath no fury.

Full moons are great for howling and capture the flag in the neighbor's yard...on a booga booga note, it's a great time for purging...getting rid of stuff, internal , external just stuff in general.

Of course I had a baby on a full moon, that is serious purging....and the maternity ward was full, they were asking people to leave a day early, they needed the beds...it sounded like a horror chamber all night, all the screaming...all the scared husbands.

So it's a new moon right now, it's a time to start something new ...begin a project...plant the seeds...kill a terrorist...take your pick.

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