Facie’s Ramblings

I am fairly certain at one point, I may have written a blog post with that very title. But I am not willing to take the time to find out. Because the main point of my post is that I don't have time to write blog posts anymore. And, as bad, I am missing out on reading so many of my blogging buddy's posts. I long for the days when I would have read posts from 10 blogs and then the next day I would be all, "Why can't these people write more often?!" The truth is that I could make time for this. But once I got the iPhone, the computer took a backseat. And it is fairly annoying trying to write a blog post from an iPhone. That was my last post, and it took me probably an hour. I could spend that time playing Scramble with Friends. ;-) Anyway, let me just throw out a handful or three of updates, in case any of you still happen by these parts. Work has been going pretty well. The busyness comes and goes. It should pick up soon. But overall I'm still happy there...

While on Facebook this morning, I noticed that WTAE-TV Pittsburgh posted a video reporting about a massive brawl that occurred among local high school students and some parents/adults near a school bus stop after school yesterday. At one point there were as many as five different fights going on. Naturally, someone took the video and posted it to You Tube, because that seems to be a requirement anymore anytime something violent happens. Apparently, there were two different videos posted; a brawl actually happened two days in a row. WTAE posted a few snippets of the fights, blurring out the people since some are minors. If you want to view the video, you can find it on the station's website or Facebook page. I am guessing the complete videos, with full-on fighting are still on You Tube. I, however, have little interest in watching the savagery of people anymore than what I already witnessed. And, quite frankly, it is stretch for me to call these fighters "people." As I...

As both a parent and a person who wants life to be fair, I hate that I cannot explain why bad things happen. I think about children who are abused. I think about parents who have lost their child(ren). I think about young widow(er)s. I think of broken marriages and relationships. I think about people lacking health insurance who owe 100k in medical bills. I think about those out of work or underemployed struggling to pay their bills. I think about people suffering from horrible diseases, deformed in some way, or addicted to drugs. I think about countries so poor that some may not eat for days or have clean drinking water. I think about places where war and strife are constant. I think about people right here in the US killing each other. Why? As someone who believes in God, I tell myself that our life on earth is but a brief moment compared to eternity, whatever that is. And that we live in an imperfect world. And that we all have free will. But sometimes those explanations are not eno...

As if having the best holiday this month is not enough, Pittsburgh has experienced some pretty rocking weather the past few weeks. I think I have been to the park with Jordan more times this month than I was in any given month this summer. Saturday, after attending a nice pancake breakfast at a local church, we decided to drive to the North Shore to check out the Nina and the Pinta (no Santa Maria). I figured the kid could use a little relevant history lesson (sans the did Columbus really "discover" America debate), and we could take advantage of the sunny early September day, which just happened to be in mid-November. The area was crowded and none of the lots near the stadium were open yet (I guess in preparation for the Pitt-ND game), but that made no never mind. We were in no hurry on this beautiful day, so I rather enjoyed the long walk and was not the least bit bothered by waiting in line for a ticket. I would like to tell you that I imagined what it would be like to be ...

I spent the past two hours watching CNN and Fox News, preceded by a moment of prayer at church. I hope most of us take some time today to think about what happened eight years ago and how it changed our lives. I was so shaken by those events when they happened. For weeks, I spent hours a day watching CNN and Fox, constantly checking those same sites on the web, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I remember the Saturday or Sunday after, when planes were again allowed to fly. I was doing sit-ups at the gym and saw a plane fly overhead. I stopped cold. For months, I found myself watching planes, almost waiting for them to fly into buildings. I just reread my post from last year and, not surprisingly, I said some of these same things. They just stick with you. I continue to try to watch programs about 9/11. There was just one last week. I especially appreciate hearing about people who were directly affected, those who still mourn the loss of their loved ones. Watching video fro...

I felt so smug, so good about finally getting around to writing and mailing various greetings. Instead, I should have just written them in the first place. I found out this evening that Vera, the woman who babysat my brothers and me for most of our childhood, passed away last Saturday. Unfortunately, she will never know I sent her a card wishing her a recovery to her stroke; I am guessing that card probably did not make it to New Mexico in time. My heart is heavy this evening. George Michael wrote a song called "Praying for Time." It came out about the time of the Gulf War. I really liked it; it was one of those songs that made me cry whenever I listened to it. I caught about 10 minutes of American Idol all season, but 5 of those minutes were of GM singing that song. It still made my eyes well up with tears. And that song is going through my head right now. I think the words are especially fitting in today's time. So I will close with those. But know this: I still have h...

In all my years of presidential voting, I have never really felt strongly about anyone I voted for. In most cases, I was simply choosing the lesser of two evils. In the '92 election, I voted for Perot. Why? Honestly, the only thing I remember about him was that he was not going to take a salary. I hope I had other reasons at that the time, but I am not sure. Similarly, I voted for Tom Ridge for governor the first time because he said he would not give himself (or maybe he said he would not vote for) a pay raise. I seem to recall he did, though. So when Ed Spendell ran for governor five years ago and said he was going to lower property taxes, I did not believe him. And rightly so. Now a year into his second term, I am still waiting for lower property taxes. Probably the only way I, not a senior citizen, will see them is if Spendell raises our income taxes, which he has already done once. A few weeks ago, I was complaining about taxes going up, when one of the bosses happened to be a...

I thought I would write about Britney Spears. Just kidding! No, today's rambling will be about my views on political issues. I have taken a couple of those "find your candidate quizzes" and even when I answer questions differently at different times, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee , and Duncan Hunter tend to end up in my top four, in different orders, though Paul is often first. About the only republicans who never seem to show up as being aligned with my views are Romney and Rudy. I consider myself a moderate conservative, but some would disagree, I am sure. I feel the most strongly about keeping and increasing tax cuts, keeping/getting the economy going, and limiting federal spending. I am a capitalist, and I don't think the rich should have fewer tax cuts, as some people do. But I also don't like caps on things once you make a certain amount, so long as we have the awful tax system we do now. Seriously, where does our money go? PA is pretty bad when it co...