Roche Harbor 2010

Survival of the Fittest

   We got back from our Vacationorama, none the worst for wear. We had a really good time. The two smallest troopers brought colds on board, which immediately affected the oldest and the largest of the troops. The amazing thing was that the medium-sized troops, who are 9 and 11, were not infected in the slightest, and the one of us who teaches 5th grade was least affected.
   I think that this might actually be significant.
   All of these efforts to remain germ free that we have invented, like these hand wipey things, may actually be keeping us from charging up our immune systems.
   Really there are worst things than cold germs. Our two middle-sized troops spend most of their lives around other middle-sized troops. This age of person is not known for cleanliness. They touch each other and forget to wash their hands and rub their noses and do all sorts of other things that we have come to think of as disgusting. But these two little buggers were super immune to this lovely cold that knocked us all flat.
   HMMMMMM.

My Mother, an Honorable LOL if I ever knew one... she wanted this published.

READERS, BELOW IS A POST WRITTEN BY MY MOTHER. I HAVE NOT CHANGED OR EDITED IT IN ANYWAY.
I was born in a boxcar without doctor in attendance in a raging blizzard. I was the fifth in a family of eight. When I was six we were fortunate enought to move to a three bedroom house just about 4 months before the eighth and last of my brothers and sisters was born. We thought we had hit the big time. I only had to sleep with one sister and in a separate bedroom from the 3 brothers who had always slept in the next bed.


We had a real basement, not a dug out where things were kept cool under the boxcar set up on a cement foundation. We did not know we had been the poorest family in the little town of 50 where we lived. When Dad got a regular job, finally, he was close to 40 and the depression was finally over.......thanks to WW II. He worked in a canning/freezing factory for the rest of his years, retiring at 65 and dying from a heart attack at 67.

I never knew whether my parents were democrats or republicans because it was not polite to discuss those things in front of others. The political leanings of people were considered private and separate from social life.

My parents were prejudiced against blacks and mexicans...............mostly because they lived in MN which had very few of them. Only some Jamaicans came in by truck at corn harvest and lived in the barracks which were by the factory where Dad ran the big engines. When I left for college I met my first blacks and people of other races, ethnicities, and religious belief. It was an education in itself but I attended college to be a teacher, having a great affinity for children and teaching. I got to know some of them and lo and behold! They were normal people with the same problems and aspirations I had!

I worked every summer, after school, and after classes when I was in college in order to pay for my education or I could not have gotten a degree. There were no college loans, grants or other opportunities at that time. I value that education. It has supported me for about 50 years and given me a background of understanding I might never have gained in a town of 50. By the way, the town is still there and since we lived a block from a lake, it is now a recreation spot with cabins, boat decks and rental places around the edge. There is also a hydroelectric plant on the opposite end of the lake that provides electricity these days. The boxcar was used by a retiree for several years and then taken away and the place where I was born is a vacant, grassy lot.

Anyway, I also resent paying a living for people such as the lady who sat in a house with 2 TV's, a Satin housecoat, 2 house pets, varnished wood floors, and was talking to the TV camera about how she had worked a year out of her welfare years and didn't care for working so went back on welfare and was angry she had been in a flood and they refinished her floors afterwards.......but they were the wrong shade of brown so she wants us to pay for her to have them redone.....She deserves it! She said. Why she deserves that as an able bodied person is beyond my understanding.



I resent having to have a translator for many of the things that are done for me..........at a very good price! Most of the things are well done but if they aren't, I have to get the translator back to describe the short comings! Is that right? Perhaps at 73, it is time for me to finally learn Spanish or Mexican or whatever so I know what they are saying as they grin at the stupid, rich Gringo. Is it too much to ask that people who come into become workers, Americans, or whatever should learn enough English/American to communicate with me? It should be slightly easier for a young person to learn my language than the revers, but that is just my opinion!



I approve of the message below and I am Virginia, running for no office, trying to improve myself as always, and happy to be an evengelical American.............hoping it will remain a free place to say that.

The Sound and the Fury - a blatant Rant

I am fed up with noise.
But I must define for everyone what I mean by that. I am sick of sounds emanating from televisions that offend me. I am sick of Comedy Central, Tosh 2.0 or whatever it is called. I don't want to ever watch Zoey 101 or Hannah Montana or Spongebob again. But more than any of those things, I HATE cage fighting.
Who invented this sport? Can we even call it a sport. You get in a cage and pummel, kick and bite and pull hair and anything else you want to do to another human being until they can no longer fight back. All of this is done in a chain link fenced in box. It's bloody, violent and loud. The announcers never say anything in a normal voice, they are always yelling and the crowds scream horrible cheers to egg on the near death experience by these obviously brilliantly intelligent and trained fighters.
I HATE IT, did I mention that I HATE IT?
I have always assumed that the person who wants quiet should be the one that prevails, not the noisemakers, but my family, and I use the word loosely, is convinced that it is their right to invade my ears, my brain, and my soul with this noise.
I am fed up with noise.

Officially Summer

When most people in the Pacific NW say it's officially summer they are referring to the fabulous sunshine that doesn't bother to show until after the Fourth of July... I am implying that it is the time of year in which people stop wanting to sit in front of computers, they buy houses, they sit on their patios, jump into their boats and will run through any manner of running water to cool down.
I am an official hater of all things air-conditioned, well except cars, cars can be torture chambers if not ac'd. So I spend as much of this glorious time of year outside. And luckily for me, that's easy doing what I do.
So this summer, we are engaging in a ritual that is growing each and every summer... the "family vacation." The first summer we truly did it was really last summer. We grabbed Steve's grandson and my daughter, and we took off for the San Juan Islands on his boat. It was a really good time. The kids fished, kayaked, designed hats for all of us, and of course, the traditional all-time family favorite --- bickering.
I was semi-patient with this, Steve was angelic.
This summer, we are stepping up the game. One boat, three grandchildren, three daughters, at least one husband, maybe two, one mother and one father/grandfather.
The whole sleeping thing will be interesting, two cribs, one blow up mattress and 6 bunks... 1.5 bathrooms... is a whole other issue!!!
I've started to figure this out, it's all about logistics.
1 yacht, 2 refrigerators, 1 freezer, one drawer per person, one towel per person, two storage boxes for toys, 10 hats to be decorated, 8 chairs for sitting, 2 high chairs for toddlers, 10 life vests, 2 kayaks, 1 dingy, 1 outboard, 2 generators... I can do THIS!!!! 7 dinners, 7 lunches, 7 breakfasts, time 10 people oh my GOD 210 meals, 7 bags of chips, I don't even want to think about the amount of water, beer, wine and juice... 5 fishing poles, and now I feel that I must add and a partridge in a pear tree....
Believe it or not, we're looking forward to this!!!
More later on Family Cruiseorama 2010.