Bored or Boring

Yesterday afternoon I reached a point where it was difficult to decide if I was bored or boring. You know, that point where your own boredom becomes contagious. Where you have counted all the flowers on the wall, taken a nap and have no plans to accomplish anything. I have a cold and the resulting cough has my ribs so sore I can't stand to laugh. In spite of my shortcomings, Barb agreed to take me somewhere so in Glen Petty speak, I could "Blow the stink off" A lot of his terms came from his stint in the Navy and I have no idea if that was one of theirs or an old family saying. Whatever the source, a little time outside at least has me less bored.

The one thing here at Rabbit Run we can pretty much count on being different is the view out the window. I looked up yesterday to find a yearling deer about 30 feet from the house trying to decide if it was safe to get closer. This morning there is a pair of doves sifting through the seeds on the ground for a snack to start their day. I can tell the possum was here last night as there is fresh possum scat. For you city folks thats poop in small clumps of seed that looks like mouse size footballs.

Barb's sister asked a good question about baking with whole wheat. I am sure that the source of the grain is important. Bread flour tends to be a higher protein content wheat (Hard white is the highest protein) and better for bread than the "all purpose" flour. I guess 100% of a hard white wheat would be better than others. I would look for a 100% whole wheat bread flour if it is available. We are going to the Merc next week in Lawrence and I'm sure that I'll know more after that trip. I would recommend that anyone considering the conversion to whole wheat try a 50/50 mix to start off with or even a 25/75 (whole to white) blend to get their audience to move that direction. One of the instructors said that at first her kids wouldn't touch the whole grain pasta and she won them over gradually. She said her grand daughter won't touch that whimpy white bread now.

Finally, something the President is doing makes sense to me. For some reason, Congress was fighting the War Against Terrorism off the books, so to speak. It wasn't included in the budget dollars so it really wasn't clear how the entire budget looked without some work. Roll the money up in the big spending and let us know what the entire package costs. On the other hand, I want to be one of the first to tell you that the budget lies, or doesn't tell the entire truth. Congress often tells the States that they want something done and then ignore it in the funding. The money is set by the congress and they control the actual priorities for spending. The spending levels can be changed as they often fund "whatever blows their hair back".

I guess it is a lot like the way we do our home finances. When we start the month we set priorities for what we are going to spend. We spread the money out into the little categories or places for expenditure and start spending. Midway in the month, you blow a tire and must buy a new one. If you had planned for emergencies, that would be in a reserve fund. If not, you must buy it on the credit card or don't buy something else you had on your list. The problem is that most people haven't realized that having a reserve is important and just go out and buy a whole new set of tires on the plastic. This is what congress does when they create deficit spending. Even if they are put on a busget, the Persident claims to only be able to cut their mad spending by 50% to about a half a trillion or 3% of the total spending in two years in the red.

Somewhere in the training of our Congressmen, we didn't set up the training that includes the simple phrases. "Out go cannot exceed income in the long run". If you borrow it, you must have a plan to pay it back. If you legislate it, you should have a plan to pay for it. Don't tell people you are going to pass a bill to make them happy, tell them it is something we can't afford if it costs too much. When you pass a Porkulus bill and build a train from Disneyland to Vegas it will be your legacy on the line. Pelosi Galore and Happy Reid will have that one to explain someday.

Oh well, MUD