Holiday Tree? Nonsense!

Boston "holiday tree" stirs controversy - Yahoo! News

Oh dear. The City of Boston is making a mistake, I think.

I think Christmas trees, are well, CHRISTMAS TREES, not HOLIDAY trees. Jews don't put up "Hannuka Trees," after all. And I've never seen a "Kwanza Tree," so why on earth would anyone be paranoid enough, concerned that other faiths would feel excluded, to change the name of a Christmas tree to a "Holiday" tree? I would think if the city of Boston is THAT sensitive, that the act of putting a Christmas tree up in a public place would be banned; after all, we all KNOW it is still a Christmas tree deep down, not a Holiday tree.

I love the logger's quote in this:

The Nova Scotia logger who cut down the 48-foot (14-meter) tree was indignant and said he would not have donated the tree if he had known of the name change.

"I'd have cut it down and put it through the chipper," Donnie Hatt told a Canadian newspaper. "If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter."

N.O. Wireless

PE.com | Big Easy launches free wireless system

Yahoo!

I hope I have a new laptop by the time we get to New Orleans so I can try out the city's free service. This is a great idea to help get the city back on its feet, and Mayor Nagin is right on this point:

In case of another storm, the network will be able to connect telephone calls via the Internet.

"What we learned is a network like this is important as a backup in case all other communications fail."

I wonder why nobody thought about backup communications until now...hm. Anyway--we found out when we'll be heading south. We should be there two weeks from today. There has been a lot of "three month anniversary" coverage of New Orleans lately; it doesn't look good, to be honest. I'm alternately anxious and extremely curious to go and see just what in the heck is going on with my own two eyes. From Rita Cosby to Rachel Maddow, it seems that everyone suddenly has a N.O. update.

My husband and I are going to help out my mother-in-law with some real estate she owns there. From what she has told us, here are a few things that are really going on in N.O.:

--You can't get a rental car to save your life, period. If you fly in, you're taking a taxi. Everywhere.

--Wendy's is offering an $11,000 signing bonus to new employees because they can't find any. Anywhere.

--It will take ten years to rebuild the city (she's in the construction business, she would know).

--Her property was not damaged; however, some work is needing to be finished and there are no contractors to do little odd jobs. They are all working on big jobs for big money. NOBODY is availble to repair minor damage. Nobody.

I wish I was in more of a writing mood; I've not been real excited to sit and write lately. I have a lot on my mind, from our upcoming adventure south to actually moving to a whole new place, hopefully before next spring. I'll endeavor to check in more often. As I am fond of saying...we'll see.

France sucks lately.

JOHNNY DEPP CAN'T STAY IN RIOT-RAVAGED FRANCE

Poor Johnny Depp. He seems genuinely distraught by all the civil unrest in his dear, beloved, "simple" French countryside. Says Depp:

"I went there (to France) to live because it seemed so simple. Now it's anything but. I don't know how they'll recover from this."

I don't know, but Goodland, Kansas seems like a pretty "simple" place; where I live is pretty "simple" if you just live here and don't run a business or aren't on city council or are involved in anything. I cannot imagine by any stretch of the imagination that France is "simple."

I was talking to an English friend about the French rioting, and he said he would not be surprised if the riots spread to other countries in Europe. He says immigrants and people that aren't white, in general, are discriminated against constantly in European countries. And in France, they are just fed up. With unemployment so high there really isn't anything else to do, and certainly nothing for disenfranchised folks to lose, by setting a bunch of cars on fire, causing trouble, and beating people up.

I just hope France can settle their problems before Johnny Depp jumps ship...what a tragedy that would be.

Hey there.

If anyone is reading this blog, I apologize for being out of pocket for so long (as I recall, I took a three-month blog break about this time last year). A few things kept me away from the computer, like my non-existent internet service. It is fixed now, but I was without reliable access to the www for almost two weeks. Then I was out of town. Then we got home and immediately went camping since the weather has been so great here. So tonight I'm finally in the mood to write!

My husband and I rescued three stray kittens in town; two of the three were simply left at the post office--I suppose so that anyone wanting a cat could just pick one up with the mail. The third cat was found on my neighbor's porch, very sick. I fell in love with that cat, the sick one. He was orange with gray feet. *sigh* When we went out of town we took them all to the Humane Society and I was very depressed for several days over having to turn over the orange kitten. We already have three grown cats that we took into our home years ago, and we couldn't take another cat right at this moment. It truly broke my heart. Anyway...rural Utahns treat cats like freaking dog food, literally, and I cannot abide the attitude. And it's not just cats. Here, all pets are disposable. If one dies, just get another one, blah blah. It's disgusting, and it's one the main reasons I really hate Utah.

Interesting news on the New Orleans front...my husband and I will be going there next month on a working vacation. We think we may be there for about ten days to two weeks. It should be interesting. We're not sure when we are going, but rest assured, I will be blogging from the Big Easy. I don't know if I can download pictures as I blog. I may have to wait until I get home, as my laptop is really outdated. It's good enough to get online, but that's about it. I'm sure we'll be taking lots of pictures. If there is an internet cafe there, maybe I can do the picture thing. We'll see. We'll be staying in a mansion on St. Charles, and I was greatly discouraged to read today that the streetcar line will not be running for some time. *sigh* Oh well. I need a new laptop. Ours is almost ten years old.

Our camping trip was glorious and the weather was divine. We hiked in some canyons way down on the desert, saw some new points of interest, and decided that we may want to offer camping trips next year as part of the guide service. WE WILL SEE! If there is one thing that can ruin a good hiking trip it's an unhappy camper. Some people don't know they hate camping until they are camping. And that sucks, not just for them but for everyone else on the trip. Well, who knows right now. Frankly, now that our season is over I would rather not think about work. But there are a few loose ends to tie up before we travel this winter, which also includes a trip to KC in January.

Anyway, I'll get back into opining about current events with the next blog entry. I just had to sit here and write something to get the writing thing going again. I often wonder if my weird life is more interesting to read than my opinions. Hm. I'll consider refocusing the blog, I guess. The point of this thing is to keep me writing. It's mostly for me, in fact. If anyone else reads it, then wonderful. And thank you. I promise there is a book inside of me fighting to get out.