Things past and present...

With the death of Neil Armstrong this past week, many memories flooded my mind.  I remember so well when JFK stated that the USA would be the first on the moon after Russia's Sputnik launched successfully. The space race had begun.  Bob and I watched as NASA sent up the Gemini missions, and then the Apollo missions. When Gus Grissom and his crew were killed on a pre-warmup test in Apollo 1, we were stunned.  When Apollo 11 was launched we were glued to the television and listening to Walter Cronkite and the NASA officials.  When the Eagle landed on the moon, and Neil Armstrong stepped on to the lunar soil, and made his famous comments, tears were running down both Bob's and my eyes. Bob immediately got an old white sheet, and painted on it - THE EAGLE HAS LANDED - and hung it out from our second floor for everyone to see.  It was quite a moment for us, for our nation, and for history.  We have lost a hero.

This morning around 6AM I could hear the quail talking to each other as they came through outside of my bedroom window.  They are so cute, mostly traveling in bunches.  At the Bosque you will see fifty or more running along.  They do not walk in a slow sedate manner!  I also heard our resident donkey braying.  I don't know where he lives, but in the quiet of the early morning, his "hee-haw" can be heard quite clearly.  

Several times in the past few weeks, young steers have escaped from the herd, and I see them running down the road, or through Virginia's back yard.  Pretty soon a four wheeler or a cowboy on horseback comes riding along.  They manage to turn the steers around, or get them into wagons and back to the grazing fields.  I wonder what goes through their minds..."I'm free at last!"  "They're not going to cut my balls off!"  "Those other steers are getting on my nerves."  Hmmmm!

I returned from Colorado on a Friday.  Saturday I cleaned out the closet in the extra bedroom, as well as the bottom of the hall closet.  I wrapped up many of Anne's family pictures which could not fit in the plastic container where I had put all the smaller ones.  I put the plastic container in the closet, with the wrapped pictures on top.  Then I removed everything on the floor of the hall closet, and left it in the hall to be sorted and put away on Sunday morning.  

That night we had a terrible storm - a male storm as the Indians say - terrific lightening swept the sky, deafening thunder, gale force winds, and heavy rain.  I hunkered down in my bed and read, afraid to see if water had come into Serenidad's back door.  The winds were from the northeast or northwest which bodes no good for my back door.  Sure enough, when I got up around seven AM, water had come in and soaked the old rug in the hall almost to the bathroom, and also the rugs in the hall and the extra bedroom closet.  I went back to bed!!!!  

Later I soaked up as much as I could, took everything out of the bedroom closet, and set up a fan in the hall. I put my space heater in the bedroom closet.  I must say it was like a sauna in there.  But I was too frustrated and mad to even think about that at the time.  And guess what?  I have not put anything back yet!

Until I come up with a solution for the water problem, I will be getting water there, if there are high winds coming from the north.  Otherwise I do not get any.  We had quite a bit of rain last week, over a half an inch here and no water inside, because it wasn't blowing rain, it was a "female rain" - soft and soaking, the kind that does the most good.  Fortunately for me, but not for the area, the Western monsoon season is nearly over.

On a political note, I am so glad that I do not have television.  I would have broken it by now, what with all the expensive nasty ads hitting the airwaves.  Most of you know that I am a Democrat.  I am becoming very concerned with the words "Christian values" being thrown around.  If people don't listen to what is being said, and read about the candidates and about the issues, we will find ourselves in a theocracy.  And what women have achieved will be swept away. 

The USA population is an amalgam of many ethnic and religious groups.  The Christian Right fails to understand that Christ was a Jewish rabbi, and was never a Christian.  He preached love and caring.  He was non-judgmental.   He believed that "government" had no place in houses of worship.  While listening to Native America Calling on NPR last week, I heard a Native American man say that he was tired of all the names and tags placed on people.  He said that we all come from the same creator, and that we are all the same, no matter the color of our skin. That is how he lives his life.  And I say, Amen to that.  

When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were people, I really thought they had lost their ability to reason and think rationally.  The millions and billions of dollars being spent in this election season boggles the mind.  I say to myself, all that money could help to put people back to work, to be able to feed their families, to have homes.  It is such a waste when our infrastructure needs improvement, when our educational systems need help, when our poor and elderly need proper care.  Think about where all that political money could be used.  It truly sickens me.  And I say shame on the corporations - excuse me, the "people" - who give and accept that money for political gain.

These are my thoughts.  Thank God I live in a country where I can say what I think.  But sometimes I wonder how long that particular freedom will last.

Life is good, but also hard.
I love you all,
Sally