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Cabin Fever

It's overcast and cold which is to be expected of February.

Imagining myself outside flying a kite under a warm, blue sky, I think of things I want to do, need to do, could and should do. They range from going through mail to shopping for new clothes to (re)learning French, German, and Spanish because I want to travel, to redesigning my websites. Yesterday, I tried a couple of color schemes.

Reconnecting with a past president of my former writers group whose memoir chapbook is scheduled to be published next year, reminded me that I need to learn how to use the aids I've acquired to market my own books which I have to actually finish writing first in order to get published.

The horse goes before the cart.

Honestly, I have so much to do, I don't see how I'll ever die.

If only life worked that way for everyone.

James 4:
13. Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Snow Days

Now that the worst of the snow days have passed, it's time for a recap.

Since I checked my emergency food kit last fall and had plenty of groceries for regular daily use, the day before the big storm hit two weeks ago, I looked for what last minute items I'd need to see me through the rest of the week and, not needing anything, decided to be snowed in with a pan pizza from Pizza Hut. The pizza lasted two days.

Although I stayed in for the most part, there were a few times that I went outside just to get out. I've never had problems in fresh snow, but after it melts and refreezes overnight, walking gets dicey. I easily pulled the YakTrax Walkers onto my rain boots for the first time since I bought them in 2009 and really like how they bit into the icy snow and secured my footing. My appreciation tripled after hearing another woman slipped and fell, breaking a leg in two places. She's due to have surgery next week.

After the roads were cleared of the worst, I went to buy a few perishables such as bread, cheese, and bananas. Either I was too early and the store hadn't been restocked or other customers had already purchased the same items I wanted preparatory to the following week's snow storm that turned out to be a lot milder. I lucked out on bread probably only because I wanted wheat; all the white bread was gone.

Another store had bananas so green, I decided to buy grapes instead.

While unloading my few groceries, I visited with a woman who said she and her sister went to the store to stock up the day before the big snow storm hit and found it such a madhouse, they put their children in the shopping carts to protect them from the other customers' pushing and shoving. She said all the bottled water was gone.

I gave my report and was secretly glad I was able to skip buying groceries until after the big storm when the store was a lot calmer.

Being prepared is well worth it!

The only glitch was that a book I want to read is more expensive as an ebook than as a discounted paperback. Since buying the paperback was a spur-of-the-moment impulse, and I wasn't sure of the title, I didn't get it thinking there were enough copies on the rack for me to get it when I returned after the next snow storm if it was the one I hadn't yet read.

Surprise, surprise! Not only was "The Brass Verdict" by Michael Connelly completely sold out when I returned after last week's snow storm, there was only one copy of his "Nine Dragons" left. Obviously, other people had the same idea about reading through the snow storms that I had.

I passed the time during the snow storms and waiting for the roads to reopen by watching TV, downloading an MP3 Bible, reading several ebooks including "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Bronte and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables" and playing Solitaire on my Kindle.

Death of a Liar

I feel odd.

Over five years ago, my ringing phone awakened me from a nap. It was an attorney in another state dunning me to pay on my credit card.

Being sleepy, my first reaction was fear that I had forgotten to make my payment on time. Then, I realized that the company would have added a late payment fee onto my next statement and wouldn't have sicced a collector onto me until I missed several payments. That this was an attorney meant the situation was serious.

Gradually more alert as minutes ticked away, I began arguing with the attorney. I wasn't the one she was after. She had the right phone number, but the wrong location, wrong occupation, wrong Social Security number, wrong spousal information, and wrong everything else because she was talking to the wrong person. I didn't even have the credit card she was calling about.

After she apologized for disturbing me and hung up, I started pulling pieces together from things I recalled seeing on the Internet about a person fitting what the attorney said was supposed to have been about me. Spending a few minutes to verify my memory and find a phone number, I used my Caller-ID to call the attorney back and gave her the other person's phone number saying, "Try this number."

She thanked me and was curious as to why I tracked it down for her and from where I got it.

I replied, "Because I hate lying deadbeats and remembered I saw it before on Yahoo."

The reason I feel odd now is because while searching for something else on Google, I discovered that the person who had apparently given out my phone number to avoid collection calls back then was a member of the First Baptist Church in her town. From her photo, she was a nice, responsible woman like my deadbeat aunt who also attends church albeit Lutheran in a different state.

The sad part is that I ran across the information about her being a member of the Baptist church in her obituary online. I wish I could ask her, as a Christian, whatever in the world made her think she could put my phone number on her credit card account as if it were her own and get away with it? It wasn't a mistake. The numbers are much too different for it to have been a typographical error.

I hope she repented.

Psalms 37:21. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again

Revelation 21:8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Does H.R. 3 Redefine Rape?

There's a lot of noise going around about how H.R. 3 "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," sponsored by House Reps. Christopher H. Smith (R) of New Jersey and Daniel Lipinski (D) of Illinois and 175 mostly Republican cosponsors, redefines rape.

The noise-makers are trying to rouse opposition to the bill by saying things like federally-funded abortions will no longer be available to rape victims unless the victim is battered and suffers broken bones. They say rapes occurring to women who are incapacitated by alcohol or drugs will no longer be considered rape if the bill becomes law because force will no longer be a factor. They say statutory rape will no longer be rape, either. They say a lot of things.

The actual text at the heart of the controversy is:

''SEC. 309. TREATMENT OF ABORTIONS RELATED TO RAPE, INCEST, OR PRESERVING THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.

The limitations established in sections 301, 302, 303, and 304 shall not apply to an abortion-

(1) if the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest; or

(2) in the case where the pregnant female suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the pregnant female in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself."

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook (2004), which is used by local, state, colleges for crimes on campus, and other federal agencies when submitting data to the National Incident Based Reporting System states:

"Forcible Rape-Rape by Force

Definition: The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.

'Against her will' includes instances in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (or because of her youth)."

In United States v. Bright, the decision includes that "the force involved in penetration will suffice." United States v. Torres and United States v. Sargent say that force can be subtle and psychological, and need not be overt or physically brutal.

Therefore, H.R. 3 is merely closing loopholes left open by other federal rules, many temporary, prohibiting our tax dollars from being used for the abortions chosen by women wanting to limit the size of their families who eschew the options of contraceptives, abstinence, or adoption.

Please encourage your Members of Congress to support this bill and encourage your Representative to cosponsor it if s/he hasn't already.

Happy 3rd Blogiversary!

Today is my third blogiversary!

Thanks to my readers and visitors who encourage me by continuing to stop by, I produced 61 posts over the past 52 weeks, a slight increase over previous years.

Since a celebration calls for some type of refreshment, please help yourself to the Red Velvet Pancakes.

Happy Blogiversary!