Don’t Pay Your Taxes!!!

I will be the first to admit that I was not happy about Barak Obama being elected as our new President.  While others spoke of change and hope, all I could see was more government regulation, bigger government and intrusiuon into our lives.  As I watched bits and parts of the Inauguration, or as I disdainfully referred to it, a love fest,  I bemoaned what was going to become of our great country for the next four to eight years.  While others celebrated President Obama’s victory and their deliverance from the oppression of all the tyrannies of capitalism, war, social injustice, and work, another social injustice that so many have been subjected to  raised it’s head about the same time….paying your taxes.

While many of my friends and associates are running around gathering receipts and wondering if they should cough up $60 or $70 for a tax program or tough it out and stand in line at the library for all the bewildering forms from good ‘ol Uncle Sam, I am not worrying.  While ads are bombarding me with TURBO TAX promotions or H&R BLOCK, I simply ignore them and pour another glass of pinot grigio. 

 You see, my friends, I have embraced the change that President Obama espoused in all the speeches that he gave as he ran for office.  And he is now backing up that rhetoric by endorsing Timothy Giethner as the Secretary of Treasury.  Timothy Giethner who owed over $48K in back taxes to the very agency he now oversees.  President Obama continued to stand by Tom Daschle even while evidence continued to come in that Daschle owed over $140,000 in back taxes.  That’s a lot of money folks.  Some how I find it hard to believe you just don’t forget to pay that much money.  Although Daschle has withdrawn from being considered for Health and Human Services director, the excuse that “nobody’s perfect” seems a little lame for owing that much in back taxes.  I hardly think I or you would get such a pass….but then maybe we will. 

Barack Obama is far closer to Daschle than he is to Geithner.  Obama knew that Daschle had failed to pay taxes on Monday, and he knew that Daschle had failed to pay taxes on Tuesday. If Obama doesn’t want to send the message that there are “two sets of rules”–one for members of his administration and one for ordinary citizens–then why did Daschle have to go if Geithner got to stay? When Charles Gibson asked Obama this question  on ABC NEWS on Tuesday, the president dodged, saying, “Well, as I said, I think everybody makes mistakes. Tim owned up to them. And I think I’ve been very clear of the fact that this was a bad mistake.” 

After all, this is the dawn of a new era.  A time for setting aside the past and looking to the future.  A time for hope and reconciliation.

It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I Remember Rain

The soft pitter patter of rain on my windows, the rivlets  running down the panes, the puddles in the drive way has eluded my life for months now.  Gone are the days of snuggling down into my sofa reading while listening to the rain, a pot of soup simmering on the stove or sipping a cup of hot tea.  It has been too long since  I have been able   to  lie in bed while the thunder rolls and listen to  the rain pelt the windows.  The trees around here have taken on an eery thick beige coating of dust.  Everything is brown.  There may not be any wildflowers this year.  Wildflowers need rain in the winter.  
Whoever heard of Easter without wildflowers?  That’s just wrong!  Each cold front promises rain, but doesn’t deliver.  It only brings a red flag warning of “High fire danger” because of the low humidity and dry conditions. It’s as if the weathermen were snake-oil salesman.  Promising desperate people a 20% chance of showers that never comes.  We believe them because we want to, we must; but in our heart we know we have heard the prediction before and been left high and dry.

Read This-Save a life!

Mr. D-You have cancer.  With those words my husband was initiated into a fraternity he never wanted to join.  Approximately 3 months ago he went for his annual physical and  the requisite blood work.  Part of the blood work was a PSA (Prostate specific antigen). If you are not familiar with this forgive me for going into details that some may not know.  The PSA is a test to see if the Prostate is giving off too much of specific antigens and in the past, anything below a “4″ on the test was considered “normal”.  Little did we know that my husband’s had been climbing from a 2.7, to a 3.5 to a now 4.7.  After the “call” from the physician and recommendation to see an urologist so we wouldn’t be his problem any more, we began research and found out that the  American Cancer Society and  M.D.Anderson both recommend now a safer 2.5 level for the PSA.

The urologist recommended an immediate biopsy but we were sure that the test was wrong and had it repeated.  It can back lower, but still above the accepted 4.  So we scheduled my sweet heart to have an office biopsy the next week.  He didn’t get the results until the following Monday evening on his way home from work.  Talk about a traffic stopper!  There is nothing like being told you have cancer to change your perspective on everything.  That night we both stayed up crying and surfing the web to try to find everything we could about prostate cancer until we couldn’t focus anymore.  There is more information and misinformation than you could possibly ever read. 

We prayed and we called friends and we had friends call us.  We had so much information I felt as if I was swimming in a sea of books, leaflets, pamphlets, videos and more.  My world had become a world that now was full of experts everywhere I turned.  The thing is they all mean well and are so supportive!  My husband has joined a group of men called Us Two.  It is a group of men that have been diagnosed with Prostate cancer and chosen one form of treatment or another.  They are incredibly supportive!

There were 186, 320 new cases of Prostate cancer in 2008.  There were 182, 460 new cases of breast cancer in 2008.  Each cancer is devastating.  Each deserves the best treatment possible.  But it seems to me, that breast cancer receives a disparate amount of publicity, funding and for lack of a better word “Status”.  Prostate cancer is not nearly as glamorous, yet 28, 660 men died from it last year.  When prostate cancer escapes the prostate, it is incurable.  Prostate cancer is easily cured, IF it is caught early!  But that means men Must have annual physicals and PSA’s.  Starting in their 40’s.  Earlier in they are African American or have a family history of Prostate Cancer. 

My husband is a fortunate one.  Yes, he has been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.  But, he was in the military and in the habit of having a physical every year.  I have talked to wives whose husbands have not had a physical in 10-15 years!  Yet their husbands would be aghast if their wives did not have their annual check ups and mammograms done each year.  Yes, the physical is slightly uncomfortable, as my husband called it in the military “a finger wave”.  But better that, than something much worse. 

Treatments for Prostate cancer include laproscopic robotic surgery for the best results for continence and nerve sparing, radiation either external beam or seed, cryosurgery, hormone therapy and much more.  It depends on the stage of the cancer and the age of the patient.  

We are just beginning on this journey. I am told this diagnosis affects both the husband and the wife.  Of that I am convinced.  I know if I could take this from him for myself I would, but I cannot.  We will walk it together, but we will not walk it alone.  And in a few months, we will run!!

Keeping Christmas

While the rest of the world has packed away most of the decorations and started to receive the bills for Christmas 2008, I am still vowing to celebrate Christmas a little while longer.  Today was Epiphany.  The day traditionally celebrated as the day the Magi visited the infant Jesus.  It is celebrated in Slovakia and other eastern European countries.  Epiphany also means the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something.  I think that is significant in a time when we are just packing up the decorations including the manger set, lights and Christmas tree.  It saddens me each year to put it all away because it brings such joy to get it all out, the sparkle, the shine, the memories.  When we put it all away, the house seems a little less warm, a little more plain.  So, I am keeping up my Christmas lights outside this year. 

Open Your Door

Most people go through life never experiencing and living out what they were designed to do.  We may experience the joys of painting or writing or building things with our hands as a child,  and we get messages, that those are all fine and good, but… some day you’ll have to make a living.   Always the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” 

$$$$ Hence, the talents God planted inside you whether it was designing, or leading others or organization or looking at bugs under a microscope are put on a shelf in your soul’s closet as you pursue higher education that will result in a “career”. 

Me and My Prez

As I watched the debate the other night my heart warmed to know how much the candidates are trying to sound like me, identify with me and ah heck, even shop where I shop!  Just today as I got ready to go do my Saturday errands it was with great anticipation that I would run into Joe Biden at my Home Depot while he was getting a new float for his toilet bowl and I was getting some washers for my  kitchen faucet.  When that didn’t happen, I thought well maybe, just maybe I’ll get lucky and see ol’ Joe when I’m filling up my car at the gas Station, since he is so familiar with filling up and sited “Joey” in his debate speech Thursday night.  However, I struck out again.  Joe’s limo was nowhere to be found.  I couldn’t believe it. I believed everything you said!  All those years in the senate, you must have a really good idea or two.  Otherwise, what else what would keep you in office for twenty nine years?  I know you want to take care of me and that you feel my pain and that chains are coming, I mean, change is coming.   Heck, I’m about as Main street as you come.  Gosh darn it., say isn’t so Joe.

Children- The Ultimate Accesory!

In my most recent employment I have the  had opportunity to observe parents that can afford private education for their children.  However, the amount parents spend on their children doesn’t stop with tuition; in fact that is just one part of the huge industry dedicated to justifying how great a parent you can be.

Call me a cynic, but somehow I just don’t think a six year old needs an ipod with all their favorite songs already downloaded into it for their birthday.  I also don’t think that they need to be in morning care dropped off at 7:00 in the morning and enrolled in Tennis, Archery, Piano and every other extra-curricular program and after care program so Mom/Nanny doesn’t have to pick them up until closing time at 6:00.

Meals are ordered and delivered by a catering service (no lunch boxes here!)  If little junior or missy has a birthday party, forget about the standard cake and ice cream and balloons at home.  This is an EVENT!  Invitations will be sent and usually a “party planner” is involved.  Expectant moms because they are so busy now enlist a “shopper” to go to baby stores to make their list for them for the baby shower.  It’s just too much trouble!  These same moms  enroll their children as soon as they are born, even though the school does not take children until they are two. 

Barack Obama is the Savior of the World

Barack Obama is the perfect candidate for such a time as this. He is charming, educated, and appears to feel “our” pain.  His background is one of  hard work and knowing what the “little guy”is all about.  Heck, just cause he went to Harvard doesn’t mean he can’t connect with us, he’s just smarter.  In fact as the masses have said over and over ” has  there ever been anyone such as him?”  Barack Obama wants change.  He wants change to begin with Health care.  Barack Obama wants to provide National Health care to everyone–no questions asked.  Everyone will be insured, even if they have preexisting conditions.  However the Obama plan will also offer a premium plan, called  National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase a private insurance plan.  Meaning–those that can pay and want good health care will get it. 

Letting go and Grabbing On.

Fear has been part of my DNA as long as can remember.  I think this is because my parents loved me so much and had trouble conceiving me.  Once I arrived to parents with a low sperm count and a tilted uterus that required my mother to spend the last four months of my conception in bed, they did everything to ensure I would be SAFE in life.  This included being sure to not climb high places, swim in water over my head, talk to strangers, ride a bike without training wheels until I was 10 and generally grow up afraid of everything!  Of course I did try my hand at a few stunts that I saw other brave souls doing, but invariably I paid the price of skinned up  and band-aided knees  which seemed to reinforce the message that life was dangerous for Me.

Let’s Get Dirty

    I realize that in my zeal to be prepared for every disease/disaster known to man, I have become a germaphobe. I have been accused (rightly so) of carrying everything but the proverbial kitchen sink in my purse just in case. You never know when you might need a band-aid, tweezers, a wet-wipe, floss, toothpaste, a sewing kit, and so on.  I have always been the one to have wet wipes to clean my hands after pumping gas to get the gas smell off my hands and of course who knows what else????

The path from my front door to the kitchen sink is well worn because it has been  non stop; as that is the first thing I do when I get home is to WASH MY HANDS!!!  I realize that a certain amount of hygiene is necessary and I admit it freaks me out like Seinfeld if I see waitstaff  come out   of a stall and  not wash their hands in the ladies room!  But I am calling a truce on myself.