As I sit here on the enclosed porch of the Monger's home in Elkton, on a gloomy and rainy day, I am musing about a number of things. My travels went to a complete stop here after I went to my doctor because of shortness of breath, and learned that I was anemic. I am now on iron pills and have been told to put more beef into my diet. Then I had a tooth bothering me, so I went to my dentist, to be told after an x-ray, that my 55 year old root canal had failed! Also that the area was infected, and needed antibiotics before anything could be done. So, one week from today, I will be sitting in the dentist's chair, having that tooth pulled, and working several miracles of modern day dentistry, he will temporarily put that tooth back in after cutting it down. Then in six months I will come back and have an implant put in, and then in another six months, I will get a crown put on it. Wow!!! And I thought I would be on the road a week ago!!!

Oh, well, as my sister Judy said, "That is life as she is lived!"

So what have I been doing you might ask. Well I emptied out my car into my storage unit, went over the tubs of clothes in there, and was able to take two more bags of clothes to the thrift store. I just asked myself, "Sally, why are you keeping this? It hasn't been on your back for two or three years!" And into the plastic bags all kinds of things went. I also went through other containers, and rearranged papers that I will leave for the time being, and those that I will take with me. And with my "trained" eye, I am pretty certain that I can get everything I need into Matilda next week with no problems. However, that is a wait and see right now.

I saw two good movies, THE HELP, which book I had already read. What a wonderful book and movie. I also say THE DEBT with Helen Mirren. I didn't know anything about the movie, other than the trailers I had seen, but I love Helen Mirren. It was good, but very dark.

I am reading IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS currently. Erik Larson writes incredible non-fiction stories. This is about the U.S. Ambassador, Mr. Dodd, and his family, who came to Berlin in 1933. It is more about Dodd and his daughter, Martha, and their time there. I had never even heard of this man, who was a university history professor in Illinois, and was FDR's 5th choice for the position. Most of it is spellbinding as Germany comes slowly under Hitler, and the rest of the world knows nothing, or chooses to know nothing. The Dodds are naive, and Martha Dodd is entertaining and having affairs with all kinds of men, including Nazi's, unaware of what is coming.

I am not real happy with the Democrats and Obama right now. We need a strong leader who will not back down and cozy up to the Tea Party folks. And the Republican presidential contenders are a scary bunch, with Rick Perry leading the pack. I am glad that Michelle Bauchman (sic) is going down in the polls. I just cannot believe that the American public is not really pissed off at all the rhetoric, Republican and Democratic. How come Congress gets great health insurance, even when they leave office, when so many in the country have no health insurance. Why do they get a pension for the rest of their lives from serving in the Congress? Even if they are already millionaires, which most are??? None of this makes much sense to me. But I just don't believe the claims of some that the American people don't want the rich to pay higher taxes; that the American people don't want their children getting a good education; that the American people want entitlement programs reduced, during a time of high unemployment; that the American people are happy to sit and watch their elected officials act like teenagers, instead of adults, unable to work together for the betterment of all in this country. I DON'T BELIEVE THIS, no matter what the press says.

There is way too much violence and fear in this country and in the world. And thanks to the press, it keeps building and building. What would happen if one day a week, the news agreed to report only good news??? What a concept!

We need to all speak out. We need to all write letters. We need to all get involved in the greater good of our country and the world.

A hui hou,
I love you all.
Sally