January jottings

First post of the year, so it could go long.

1) New Year's resolutions

  I really didn't make any resolutions this year. I tend to break them anyway. That doesn't mean there is no room for improvement..... there definitely is. Losing weight is one thing I want to concentrate on, and I am going to attempt to be less political. That may mean un-following more people on Facebook (I un-followed pretty much anyone who posts too much pro-Trump stuff and/or harassed me about Trump)......and it also may mean un-following most or all political Facebook groups.

2) Reading.

 I came in 3 books shy of my goal of 125 books for 2017. I set a goal of 130 for 2018 and am going to try harder to reach that goal. I finished my second book of the year already, so I am off to a good start.

My pile of to read and review books:

3) Golfing presidents    

  When Obama was in office, he was highly criticized by conservatives for golfing so much.......and rightly so. I criticized him a lot myself. One person who is not conservative who highly criticized him was Donald Trump. He promised if he was president, he would be different.......but he has golfed 86 days at last count. I posted about it recently, and of course the Trump apologists came out in full force. After I pointed out the double standard, I had some suddenly defend all presidents' rights to golf a lot.

 I disagree. These men work hard to get that job. It is not a 9-5 job. They hold the highest position in  the country and have a lot of responsibility. They should not have that much time to golf.......no one forced them to be president.....so I say leave the golf clubs outside of the job and do your job.

4) 50 Shades of Perversion

  I am still disgusted at the 50 shades phenomena. From what I have seen and heard, the movies should be classified as porn and should not be viewed by anyone decent...nor should it be carried by Walmart and other such stores. Occasionally when I go into Walmart, I'll hide all the 50 Shades movies behind others....... and occasionally I do it with the stupid Shack movie also. And yes, it makes me feel good to do it. :)

5) The Shack

  I am also still disgusted at the amount of Christians who love The Shack book and movie. There is clear heresy in it, and they are happy to ignore it because it makes them feel good........ a popular sentiment today. If I could ever find a copy of the book at Goodwill, I'd burn it and video the burning. Seriously.

6) A gay president

 I am going to dare to voice something I have thought for several months: Could it be that conservatives would vote in a gay president if one ran against a Democrat? And would they have any moral right to stand against a gay president?

 Stay with me:

Donald Trump owns strip clubs (or the hotels they are in, so that makes it OK according to a friend.....)

He is a serial adulterer who bragged about it

He bragged about assaulting women

He promised to further gay rights

  Now how can anyone pull their righteous robes around them and oppose a gay candidate if they support and defend this man?

I am one of those who say Republicans have lost their right to moral outrage after nominating, defending, and supporting Donald Trump. We have spent years screaming about Bill Clinton, gay people, and other immoral people......and then pick the likes of Donald Trump as our candidate.

There is a question I'd like to ask Trump's supporters and have them answer 100% honestly: Do they truly hold Donald Trump to the same standards they held Democrats to?

And yes, I know not all Trump voters are the same. Many voted for him reluctantly to stop Hillary......I get that, even though I couldn't.

7) Christmas    

 I took down my Christmas tree and most of my decorations on New Year's Eve. I still need to take the lights out of my windows and also take the tree and lights down on the front porch......on a warmer day.

 I bought a pencil tree to keep up all year around, and plan on putting clear lights around my ceiling to replace the colored ones that I put up for Christmas. I found it very enjoyable to sit in my living room with just the lights from the tree and ceiling, so I did the same for the rest of the year.

8) Colored vs white lights

  I have always liked colored lights at Christmas. Clear/white ones seem so every day. I am the only person in my family who puts colored lights on a tree, and I am certainly not going to change. Colored lights are for Christmas. Clear ones for the rest of the year. And yes, that is my not so humble opinion, but I AM correct. :)

9) Christmas 2

  I had a very nice Christmas, and got more gifts than I deserved. I got numbers 2-5 in a series of books I wanted - I already had #1, my nieces got me a large stuffed Snoopy, I got a stuffed Captain America shield that is really cool, a much needed crock pot, and several other things. My family is big on gag gifts......something I am credited with (or blamed for) starting, and I got a lot of those also.

10) New Year's

   On New Year's Eve, I went to my parents' and we had BBQ ham sandwiches and some snacks, then played  Scrabble. I got home around 9:30, read while, then took down my tree. I missed the clock turning to midnight as I was taking the tree down at that point. A new year doesn't excite me much anymore, and I would have stayed up anyway since I was off the next day.

 On New Year's Day, I went to my parents' for sauerkraut and pork, hit Walmart for a few things, then spent the rest of the day at home.

I am going to be vulnerable and admit something I have only told my best friend. I won't have my parents forever, and I fear someday when they are gone, I won't have anyone for times like these. Being single can be awesome, but it can also be lonely, and I fear I will turn into one of those lonely individuals who fades into obscurity and no one ever thinks about.

11) The weather

   I really and truly hate winter and snow. Every time I say anything about it though, someone chirps up about how beautiful the snow is. That has got to be a mental condition. I am 99.99% sure I have SAD.....Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is an actual thing..... and I had a doctor verify that people tend to be more depressed in the winter....... and I do suffer from depression, so of course it would be worse when everything is cold, dark, and dreary.

It has been so cold lately that I haven't wanted to go anywhere. I planned on staying home all day Friday, but got called into work.

And then today: We had planned a birthday get together for my little sister at my parents'...... but we had to cancel because of  the bad weather. I was looking forward to it, as we don't all get together very often.

 It was very frustrating to see on Facebook a grown adult cheering about the snow and how happy it makes people. Do these immature adults not realize the snow they love cause dangerous roads, increases the likelihood of car accidents and people going into the ditch, and ruins the plans of others? I'll admit it really irritates me. Now I am housebound for the day, instead of spending time with my family. At lease I have milk, TP, and bread.

12)  Living room changes

  I did some minor changes in my living room. I have a lot of books in my "to-read and review" piles, and no where to put them out of the way. I bought a 3 shelf book case at Walmart last week and put it in  the living room, and it will be mostly for books that I need to read and review.

 I have been reading a lot in that room since the library is so cold, so I put a tall lamp I got at Walmart for $5 beside the love seat. I have a chandelier type light that I hate to use too often since it has so many bulbs, plus it doesn't give light where I need to read. I also ordered an ottoman from Amazon that has storage inside it so I have a place to put my feet. Amazon had a different one for around a dollar less that I liked, but you could only buy it if you have Prime......which is stupid.

 It may not be humble of me to say, but I really like how the living room looks.

13) Cooking

 My latest cooking endeavor was beef vegetable soup. I was very happy with the results. I bought a beef roast that I cut up into small pieces, diced tomatoes, a bag of mixed vegetables, a bag of peas and carrots, an onion, potatoes,and beef broth. The only thing I messed up was I forgot about it after I put the potatoes in and they cooked longer than I intended...... but it was really good. I may attempt chili next.

Since I started this blog post, I had another cooking attempt. I love breaded pork chops and my mom makes awesome ones. I found a good deal on pork chops, so I found a recipe for oven breaded pork chops and tried it Saturday. I was pretty happy with them. They were not in the same universe as Mom's, but she is an awesome cook and she also fries hers, which makes them better.

 I discovered I have no rolling pin, so I had to find another method to crush crackers...and it worked quite well.

14) Animals

 I see a lot of posts on Facebook about animals........animal cruelty, posts about not leaving animals out in  the cold, and so forth.......it truly seems people care more about animals than people......especially people in the womb. There are even Christians who seem more concerned with animals than the fact that babies are being ripped a part in the womb daily. Yes, you can care about both, but people do tend to post most about what they care about most. One baby is worth more than any amount of puppies or kitties.

Maybe we have just become calloused to the reality of abortion - murdering and ripping apart an innocent baby...... but I'd like to see less concern for animals and more for human babies.

And by the way.... you don't adopt animals. You own them. You adopt children/babies.

15) The wall    

 So how is that making the Mexicans pay for a wall working out? :)

16) Elvis

I have never liked Elvis or his singing. I recently posted the following meme on Facebook and said "and also better than Elvis", so of course I got people commenting who liked him.

Get real. The guy was a drug addict who died from a drug overdose. He most likely didn't go to heaven - a comment that infuriates his fans more than an anti-God comment - and a big part of the reason I dislike him is because how so many people idolize him.

 And his version of Blue Christmas is just awful.

17) New car color    

 They need to start making cars the color of salt from the roads, and then your car wouldn't look so bad in this weather when it is too cold to wash the salt off.

18) Presidents and the military

 Am I the only person in our country who finds it ludicrous that we have men in charge of our whole military system who never served a day of their life in the military? Trump and Clinton were both draft dodgers and yet controlled our military. Whoever is in office should have to have a certain number of years in the military.

19) Toilet seats

 One advantage of living by myself: I leave the toilet seats up in my bathrooms 24/7.....the way they should be :)

20) Pork chops

 I still have a couple of pork chops left....it was a big pack..I think I am going to try out my new crock pot and do BBQ pork chops in it. Sounds good on an awful snowy winter day that I am house bound.

  And that is all for now