Fall City Horses

Well, I was shocked by this: Yesterday, several horse riders passed my house, coming down from the trails that begin at the end of my street. As usual, my two dogs ran to the gate, barking and jumping against the fence. It happens that they do that almost every time anyone passes by, either on foot, bicycle, horse or even in cars and trucks. The shocking part was that one of the horse riders called in to my friend and me, "Can't you control your dogs?!" My dogs were fenced in and on my own property. The horse riders were outside on a public street. My dogs WERE under control! If people want to ride on a street with no possibility of being disturbed by dogs, they can just ride somewhere else and leave me alone. It's not that I like listening to my dogs barking but I don't like navigating my car around the piles of horse shit all along the road either. I also don't like listening to the VERY LOUD conversations of bicycle and horse riders coming and going all day. It seems they all feel it's necessary to shout to each other all the time. Anyway, as I mentioned, if people don't want to hear my dogs...they can just go somewhere else. I live here!

Social Security Benefit Cuts???

I live in a little house in Fall City and collect some Social Security,
while I still have a job that provides almost no income. Every month, I
have to take more money from my meager savings to pay my bills as it
is.

Now! Now I hear they're considering a decrease in my Social
Security benefits. I've been paying into Social Security for more than
forty-five years and now it seems they won't be able to live up to
their side of the bargain. It's just too expensive to conduct THREE
WARS, bail out Wall Street, bail ou the insurance companies, bail out
the Auto Industry and countless other corporate entities all while
cutting taxes for the rich. It's such a great burden to hand over
billions of our dollars to so many other nations every year. It's no
wonder there's nothing left for me (and millions of others in my
situation).

Probably in every city, the largest, most
expensive buildings are owned by banks and insurance companies. Where
do we suppose all the money for such filthy extravagances comes from?
The same can be said for the most lavish homes and lifestyles all
around the country. It all comes from the little people...us. We pay
and they collect. Our government and business leaders are draining us
dry.

What is this all about? What happened to the Democrat we elected
as our President? What happened to the Democratic-controlled congress?
Why do we keep spending our money for everyone but our own people? Why
have we allowed our jobs to be shipped overseas?

When John
McCain comes out in support of Obama's war in Libya, doesn't that tell
us something? Doesn't that tell us there's very little difference in
the performance of our so-called leaders, regardless of their political
parties? Of course I'd expect the Republicans to conduct as many wars
as they can get their hands in but the Democrats!? Why are we still
giving all those billions away? Why are we still fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan...and now Libya?

Enough! That's enough!

It's time to focus on the United States...on our own citizens...on our
own needs . I can't speak for anyone but myself. However, I'm
relatively confident that most Americans would prefer to have decent
health care and a dependable retirement income. We have nothing! Our
"Leaders" are squandering away all that we've all worked so hard to
achieve.

I suppose our "Leaders" don't really care.
After all, their own pensions are not in danger and their health care
is far superior to that of the masses. Even the "Snake-in-the Grass"
losers like Weiner can cheat and lie, then resign, and still collect
our tax dollars afterwards.

It's all wrong!

We
need accountability in government, a FLAT TAX system, universal health
care, term limits (ONE TERM) for all political office holders.
Corporations should not be viewed under the law as people. There should
be no corporate influence over our government employees (elected or
otherwise). NO CORPORATE POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. NO PACS. Government
employees should have no benefits beyond what the average citizen
receives. NO CAREER POLITICIANS AND NO CAREER MILITARY. It should be an
unpaid (almost) civic duty to serve the country in any capacity.

I've just plain had it! A cut in my Social Security will end up costing
me my home while the Rich Just Get Richer, the politicians keep raking
it off the top and my hard-earned money is thrown to Nation-building
efforts, wars, corporations...

Anybody have any solutions?

TWO NEW HIPS!

I had a hip replaced on April 11th and the second one on June 1st. This is the third day after surgery but they sent me home the day after. That turned out to be an extremely challenging and painful day. I wasn't able to put any weight at all on the new hip that day. However, I can walk without even using a cane now (almost). There's some swelling and numbness on my thigh, apparently because the surgeons spent some extra effort making sure my leg was lengthened sufficiently. (After the first hip was replaced, that leg was 3/4" longer...so now they're the same.) Both operations involved two, minimally-invasive incisions of about 3" lengths. It's just amazing! There were no stitches...just Super Glue.