I've been trying to decide what kind of Christmas decorations I'm going to do outside my house this year. We normally do a trim around our home of multicolored icicle lights. I'm so far off the road that no one would be able to see it, and I don't really have any desire to pay the big electric bill either. I can't put a wreath on my door because then we wouldn't be able to close the storm door. Closing the storm door where I live is an absolute necessity, I don't want to heat the great outdoors. I spent sometime outside this afternoon walking around my house looking at what I have to work with and have decided on tying greenery and bows onto the outside in a few strategic places. I may not be visible from the road, but I'd like my guests to enjoy some holiday trim when they come to visit.

We have 2 solar lights on the front of the home. They are at opposite ends of a piece of trim that cuts the wall into sections just below the kitchen window. I'm thinking of some kind of decorative garland that can fit across between the two lights and then add big red bows to the lights themselves. This would be very visible to anyone that pulls into our driveway. The solar lights provide a very soft glow and are on from dusk to dawn, if I use light catching whites and silvers on the garland it should provide sufficient interest, and won't be adding numbers to the electric meter.

I am finding this time of year very poignant, very bittersweet, and yet I am looking forward with some joy to the holidays this year. This will be the first holiday season that doesn't include hospital visits for either of my parents. I didn't realize how consuming that really was until just a few minutes ago. One of the nurses said to me that when you have close family members that experience long term illnesses you create a mindset which allows you to become a caretaker of sorts. You constantly have something you need to do for that person. You organise your time around the illness and the needs of the loved one. When they're gone you don't know what to do with the time you have. The daily trip to the hospital or nursing home along with the stops one makes to pick up this or that for the loved one can add up to a great deal of time. It's time you don't notice until other things you want to do seem not to get done until the last minute and some not at all.

Since 2004 the holidays have been for me a time of worry and stress. Stress that I didn't really feel because I was functioning. Worry happened because when you looked at how sick they really were you had to ask yourself if they were going to make it or would there be a funeral before Christmas that you had to attend. I was getting things accomplished that were absolutely necessary, but not all of what I planned on doing. There were Christmases throughout those years when I was still wrapping presents on December 24th. I opted not to do the Christmas gifts for work this year because I need to spend time on me. Which includes doing all the things I used to enjoy doing at Christmas. I can plan my shopping and decorating and actually have the time to pick up what I need in order to actually finish the job the way I want to. Two trips to Heliotropehome.com and I'm all ready a third of the way to a fantastic Christmas.

This year, in my new surroundings, I'm going to have a home that is warm and inviting. One that is full of the sights and scents of the holidays. Spice candles, pinecones, cinnamon sticks and rich deep burgundy color accents in most rooms of my home. A fire in the woodstove, plenty of egg nog, hot chocolate and popcorn. Maybe even a party depending on Hubby's work schedule. Invite my gal pals for lunch, dinners for my family, the kind of entertaining that hasn't happened in my home for a very long time. I'm planning on filling my holiday season with love and laughter, family and friends. Now all I need is some...snow.

This morning on the Today Show there was a segment on a 13 year old that committed suicide last year. She was a victim of depression and ADD, and apparently there were difficulties finding the right medicines to help her. It takes awhile, even in adults, to accomplish some sort of balance which allows the sufferer to feel normal. Or what passes for normal under the circumstances. The reason the family was appearing on the Today Show was not because of her suicide and her problems, but because they feel she was driven to commit suicide by what appears to have been a very cruel Myspace hoax.

She was a member at Myspace, and had found a friend...she thought. Her Dad said she had begun to perk up after meeting someone named Josh Evans online. He claimed to have been born in Florida and had recently moved to a neighboring town. The problem is...Josh didn't exist. He was a character made up by adult neighbors of this family. Just for fun. Just to play a joke on a 13 year old with clinical depression and ADD who was trying to hang on to her life by a thread. It seems that this family has as it's member a former friend of Meghan's. This was not just one 13 year old trying to get even with another 13 year old for bruised egos, this was that girl and her parents. This disgusts me on so many levels.

After 6 weeks of friendship, "Josh" told Meghan that he didn't want any contact with her anymore because he heard she was cruel to her friends. Meghan was upset and hung herself in her bedroom the next day. Although the case has not been closed, the local authorities can't find a law that allows them to charge this family with any crime. It wasn't a sexual predator situation, it was a hoax. It was most likely not the intent of the perpetrators of the hoax to cause the suicide of this 13 year old. I should hope that adults would not want to see another child seriously injured because of a fight with a child of their own. What in the world would have allowed responsible adults to victimize a 13 year old in this manner?

It seems to me sometimes that some people online feel that they don't have to be careful about their behavior. They can say and do anything they want, and they can't be held responsible. They manipulate others by posing as someone to entice attention and then they play with their victims in a way that causes pain. I have always thought that maybe these people are by nature bullies, or just feeling powerful because they're anonymous. Maybe they just hate themselves so much they don't care who they hurt, or how badly?

We warn our children about the dangers of social networking online. We try to make sure that sexual predators don't intrude into our lives. Yet, this was a case where a 13 year old with mental problems was victimized by adult neighbors just for the fun of it. She should never have been allowed a Myspace profile to start out with because their minimum age is supposed to be 14. She had one, and she didn't lie about her birthdate to get it.
Her parents monitored her online activities, read the profiles of all the young people that networked with her, and they couldn't keep her safe from their own neighbors. Adult neighbors at that.

This was a child that needed love and understanding to get through her very real problems. The perpetrators knew this, and yet they descended into a behavior designed to get even with her for nothing more than a childhood disagreement between friends. Too bad there isn't a law that will force them to pay for that. I'm sure they didn't learn anything from this behavior, people like that seldom do. No matter what happens, nothing will bring Meghan back. She will become nothing more than another shameful online tragedy.

Not long ago someone said to me that the 60's and 70's produced some of the best music ever. I believe that for those of us who came of age in the 60's the music was a safe haven from the turmoil we experienced throughout that decade. It was a time of war. It was a time of protest, sometimes violent sometimes not. Mostly it was a time of change. It was a time when good men died for what they believed in. In some ways it was a time of death. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy all gunned down in the prime of their lives, too soon for them to have realized their dreams of a better world. One in which all men really were created equal and all had the same rights.



Those of us starting out on the path to adulthood wanted a world of peace, love and rock and roll. What we had was Viet Nam, The Weathermen and young people being abused in the streets of our southern states because of their color and their desire to have a say in the running of the country through the right to vote. The riots in many of our nations cities gave birth to a mental disorder that afflicted children residing in apartment buildings not so fondly called "Projects". It was a time when 8 year old black children didn't feel safe.



Churches were burned, white young men and women were beaten and sometimes murdered for consorting with black people. Timothy Leary advocated that we "tune in, turn on and drop out" through the use of marijuana and a new psychedelic drug called LSD. Some of us did that. We escaped. Some became Krishna's, some moved to communes and got back to nature. Some went to Viet Nam and died, or came back seriously maimed. Some fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Bra's and draft cards were burned while some of us entered the world of jobs and responsibilities. Maybe the 60's was a time of innocense lost, but through it all there was music.

Christmas is coming and like most folks I'm wondering what to give those people on my list that really don't need anything. I decided to surf around online to see if I could come up with something different, something unique. I suppose I could have ordered possum fur underwear from that site that Bella found a few days ago. Thing is, none of my recipients are really big on fur unless it's in it's original condition covering the animal for which it's intended. While they're making that kind of demand they take it one step further and require that said animal still be breathing. Such nerve! Makes life so much harder for me because I'm the one that has to buy the gift.

I'm surfing along minding my own business when I see what looks like a leopard to me. It's on a leash and just sitting there minding it's business. I didn't think that owning exotic pets was legal in the U.S. so I stopped to read. I discovered that it's a specially bred hybrid. It's name is The Ashera, and it's the latest in designer cats. Just the thing for that hard to buy for person on my Christmas list.



This cat is said to have been produced by cross-breeding an African Serval and an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic feline. While Lifestyle Pets admits this type hybrid breeding has been done before, genetic monitoring is used to standardize breeding and ensure that the defining features and size of the cat remain consistent. Like
most other super-luxury items, the company says it will sell only 100 Asheras per year worldwide, with only 50 being sold to U.S. customers. The price? Try $22,000 with an additional $6000 for personal delivery that will include the person accompanying the cat staying around for 6 weeks until they're sure your happy with your new animal. And, that additional $6000 expenditure gets your order moved up the list so that you don't have to wait for 2 years for delivery.

So, that's out, I can't afford it, but wait a minute here. There's another one of these unique, specially bred, genetically monitored cats. It too stands 4 feet tall on it's hind legs and is called a Savannah. Of course, it doesn't include the cross breeding with the Asian Leopard. It's a hybrid breed of African Serval and domestic cat. I suppose in the hybrid cat world this one would be a B list compared to the A list Ashera. It's not quite as expensive either. You can own one of these beauties for a mere $15,000.



Admittedly I'm an old fuddy duddy with some antiquated notions. Would somebody please educate me as to why, with thousands of unwanted cats being euthanised annually, someone will spend this much on a pet? While they're at it, I wonder if they've considered that with a cat that stands 4 foot tall on it's hind legs it can pretty much use anything it wants as a scratching post? Shoot, if I'm going to spend that much money on a cat, I'd keep it myself.



Can I have this one in Red, please?

When blogging we're giving an opinion on a topic, or we're telling the folks that read us something about ourselves. Quite possibly we're working through a problem or a situation in life that has us stymied. Sometimes we're looking for something, or the illusion of something we feel we lack in life. Some of us have a wicked sense of humor that we bring to our posts. Some of us just do it to create fun. Some of us are practicing our writing skills in hopes to become good enough to appeal to publishers and the people who buy books. Some of us write simply because we can.

I try to stay away from topics that are overly controversial, like religion for one. I'm a Christian and feel that in that regard my beliefs are mine, and I have no need to force others to listen or comply with them. Once in awhile an opinion escapes me, but it is my opinion, it is not meant as a challenge to the beliefs of anyone else. I don't believe that abortions are necessary, yet, at the same time, I don't believe there should be laws preventing them. What any woman does with her body should be between her and her conscience, and I have no need to tell her she's wrong. I don't even know that she's wrong. I just know that it would never have been a path I chose for me. I could have said between her and God, but not everyone believes in God, so conscience will have to suffice.

No matter where I go online I see a marked tendency on the part of nonbelievers to treat believers as if they're idiots. I also see Christians treating nonbelievers as if they're idiots. That's human nature. In my opinion, we justify our own behaviors based on what we believe is truth. Excuse me, I should say some of us, because most of us have a conscience, and no matter which side of the divide you're on, your conscience will tell you when you're uncomfortable with something. Unfortunately I have the kind of conscience that will not allow me to keep my mouth shut sometimes when I'd be farther ahead if I did.

Whether you're a believer or not, there has always been a natural order to the creation of a living being. You might believe in the Creationism theory or Evolutionary Theory, but either way, mans role in the conception of a human being has always been fairly straighforward. That is, until Science created life in a test tube, which led to fertility clinics and to cloning. It now works on monkeys, which means it will work on humans. How long will it be before we can custom order humans to our own specifications? When things don't turn out exactly right, what happens to the created being?

Believers claim that Scientists are playing God, and Scientists claim they're helping mankind. I have some very serious questions here. Are we looking to cure birth defects, AIDS, cancer, Parkinsons Disease or any of the myriad other fatal illnesses that humans are prone to through genetics? If that's the case, what's to stop people from producing Hitlers Aryan race in a test tube? Can we trust science to stop at the curing of diseases without attempting to create a superior human?

There are scientists and others out there that feel that the arguments against human cloning are irrational. I'm against it, so I'm probably being irrational. However, what is rational about exploring a theory when you have no good idea what to do in the case of mistakes or failure? Might I point out that I believe Science brought about the technologies that are essentially contributing to the destruction of our planet?

Science created the Atom Bomb, and then gave it to humans who used it in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The effects of those bombs are being visited on human beings, that weren't even alive then. The atom bomb led to nuclear energy which is great, except that no one really knows (nor did they think of this) what to do with the wastes created during the process. What exactly did we learn from Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl? I have a theory that we created it but never figured out how to control it in the event of a mistake. Science keeps creating new ways to make our lives better, faster and easier, but at what cost?

How many medicines are being pulled from the market because in the rush to manufacture them certain information that indicated they might not be as safe as they should be got lost? How much evidence do we have in our daily lives that not all scientists have a conscience? Pesticides and defoliants were created that were deemed safe and it was years before it was discovered that they weren't. Last nights news segment on the cloning of a monkey embryo ended with the statement that no one wants to clone humans. Somehow I don't believe that. History has shown me that there are scientists out there willing to explore their own theories at any expense to human lives. You may not be able to spell conscience without the word science in it, but when does science get a conscience?