Such a great week of nice weather. We have enjoyed the nice, warm days and the beautiful sunshine. Such a great joy to awake every morning and hear the birds and view the blue sky, the smell of fresh grass and the bountiful and magnificent flowers. What a tremendous time in the evenings to swing in the hammock and ....and then the phone rang and the dream ended The dang snow and ice was still hanging around the window, the gas was running thru the heater like water thru a fire hose, the old cat would look out the door, shake his head and head for a flower pot to use as his box.

Oh well maybe it won’t be long.

***

Sometimes it just hard to handle us after we reach that senior age and senior wisdom. Tom and Pat Mathews tells us this story. They tell that it happened to someone else but we would not be surprised the sharp and quick thinking lady was not Pat. The story goes like this....

We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the 'seniors' special' was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $2..99.

“Sounds good,” my wife said. “But I don't want the eggs.”

“Then, I'll have to charge you three dollars and forty-nine cents because you're ordering a la carte,” the waitress warned her.

“You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?” my wife asked incredulously.

“YES!!” stated the waitress.

“I'll take the special then,” my wife said.

“How do you want your eggs?” the waitress asked.

“Raw and in the shell,” my wife replied. She took the two eggs home and baked a cake..

***

Did you happen to catch Glenn Beck's show recently? He had a graph up that showed past presidents and the percentage of each president's cabinet appointees who had previously worked in the private sector. You know a real life business, not a government job? Remember what that is? A private business???

Roosevelt - 38%

Taft - 40%

Wilson - 52%

Harding - 49%

Coolidge - 48%

Hoover - 42%

FDR - 50%

Truman - 50%

Eisenhower - 57%

Kennedy - 30%

LBJ - 47%

Nixon - 53%

Ford - 42%

Carter - 32%

Reagan - 56%

GHWB - 51%

Clinton - 39%

GWB - 55%

And the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner is. . .

Obama - 8%

YEP, EIGHT PERCENT! And these are the guys holding the job summit, running the auto business, telling the banks what to do, and spending your tax dollars.

***

We know we are pushing but you just have to figure this one.

Our Government’s Math

Think of it this  way -

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800  gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25  mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers  transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per  year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per  year.

That equates to a bit  over 5 million barrels of  oil.

5 million  barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, 5  million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million  dollars

So, the  government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars (cost of the cash for clunkers program) to save $350  million.

We spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.

I'm  pretty sure they will do a great job with health care though...

***

Some great news stories...

While reporting on Britain's oldest newlyweds in November (husband 94, wife 87), the Daily Telegraph also noted that in 2008, Bertie Wood and her husband, Jessie, of Falmouth had decided to end their 36-year marriage, evidently at a point where they felt they needed a fresh start. Both were 97 years old at the time.

Afghanistan's national game, buzkashi, is attempting a marketing transformation inspired by pro football's and basketball's growths in the United States over the last several decades, according to a November USA Today dispatch. The main hindrance is that buzkashi is often little more than violent anarchy. A team of 12 men on horseback tries to carry a goat carcass the length of a field, around a goal and back, through an opposing team "defense" that includes almost any tactic short of murder. Spectators are often trampled by riders disregarding boundaries, and horses have dropped dead on the field from abuse or fatigue. The head of the Buzkashi Federation said he aims to present the game for consideration to the International Olympic

People With Issues

Sara Foss, 39, the mother of 13 in Derby, England, who is scheduled to deliver No. 14 in March, told the Daily Mail in November of her vow to continue getting pregnant until she fulfills her desire to have twins. Her longtime, live-in boyfriend works as a boat-builder, but their main income is government benefits worth the equivalent of about $80,000 annually. (Foss, apparently also a fan of literature and movies, has kids named Artemus, Morpheus, Voorhees, Baudelaire, Blackbird, Echo, Malachai and Frodo.

Three men were convicted in August in Kansas City, Mo., of having convinced "numerous" customers to buy 3-inch-by-4-inch laminated "diplomat" cards that, promoters said, would legally free them from ever having to pay taxes or being arrested for any crime. According to the FBI, customers ponied up fees ranging from $450 to $2,000 to get the cards.

Oops! In an October incident, an off-duty Jacksonville, Fla., sheriff's deputy forgot to leave her service weapon outside when accompanying her mother to Shands Jacksonville hospital for an MRI. The powerful magnet sucked her Glock away in a flash, trapping the deputy's hand between the machine and the gun. Repairs, plus the lengthy powering-down and re-powering of the machine, was said to have cost the hospital $150,000.

William Evans, 57, on trial in St. Augustine, Fla., in August for a sex crime that occurred nearly 30 years ago (but not erased by the statute of limitations), committed suicide while away from the courthouse, awaiting the jury's decision. Without knowing that, the jury came back and declared him not guilty

Engineering student Ken Kitamura, 19, drowned in the Yodogawa River in Osaka, Japan, in August. He and several colleagues had constructed a prototype canoe made of concrete, and Kitamura was the first to try it out.

Have a good week and may your snow soon melt and your bird chirp loudly