Window Shopper

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For years, I have been on a quest to lose weight. Well, that is not exactly true. Some of those years, I was trying to leave well enough alone. But the rest of them, I was definitely trying to get rid of bulges and bulk. And I have done a crappy job of it because I always focused on the diet and the dreaded exercise. I do hate diets. All they do is make you focus squarely on the losing. That does not work for long. But lifestyle. That’s another animal. Hey, I know that I have to change my lifestyle. That is usually the problem for everyone. When one likes the lifestyle they are in, it is extremely difficult to change it. Why? I thought that was incredibly obvious. They like it too much to give it up.

So, a person has to find a way to WANT to change. And it cannot just be about the weight. Know why? Because if that is your focus, sooner or later it will blow up in your face. You will hit the point that you don’t like what you are doing and that will be the end of it. Well, not really. Because once SOME weight is lost and you give up, more weight comes back. More than you started with. Believe me, I know that one.

I think the only thing I really have not tried are the diet pills. You know, things like Phentermine. It’s a prescription drug designed to take the weight off. I know they work. And they should be used with care and a doctor. The only thing my doctor ever tried with me, other than the usual weight loss diet sheets that NEVER work…ever…..were those all liquid diets. Those things are nasty. You get to sit and drink your drink while everyone around you eats all your favorite foods. Yeah, that one works….if you are a hermit it might.

Well, that’s great about those drugs but what happens when the prescription runs out? You do have to change the lifestyle but I think that you have to want to change it enough to change it for the right reasons. Health comes to mind. Not weight, HEALTH. Everyone knows that you cannot lose weight because someone else wants you to do it. Never works. But if you want to lose it for the sake of your family, that works. Not because they expect it of you but because you want to for them. You must want it badly enough so that you will be around to see your children grow up, to see your spouse for long years ahead. You must want it because it’s the right thing to do.

Take the time to seek out why you want to lose the weight. Find the best reasons, then find the helps that will guide you along. Maybe the help comes in the form of a new hobby or a new career. Okay, it could be a new someone in your life too. There are as many reasons to lose weight as there are not to do so. Go shopping!!! NO, do not max the credit cards out. Not that kind of shopping. Find friendly foods that are going to help you on your way to a better you!! It does work when you want it badly enough. Now, I just have to take my advice and work it.

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Despite the media coverage, the housing market still steadily declines and people are still losing their homes due to the way they got their mortgage loans a few years ago. The problem is that they should not have gotten the loans like that in the first place. Who knew?? The repercussions are going to be felt for a long time, I do believe. Even if the government steps in, so many have already lost their homes to foreclosure. It’s a shame that there could not have been someone there to say how it wasn’t a good idea to do that. That would have been someone who could see the future.

But now, with the housing market still shaky and the gas prices going up and up, it is definitely going to be a rocky road ahead for the United States regardless of who becomes President. There will be a lot of mopping up to do to fix this dilemma our country is currently in if, indeed, it can actually be fixed. Maybe not. And the truth is, there is no help coming from the middle east oil rich sheiks. They will placate us with a few barrels every now and then after our President begs for it but they are not interested in our well being. With gas prices going up, stands to reason that the goods and food will also rise in price. It already is. We have seen a huge rise in prices of all sorts of things in the last couple of months. And it is unlikely to change.

The future is dismal, that is for sure. Foreclosures will continue until congress gets a handle on that particular problem. See, the problem I have is that one foreclosure doesn’t rock anyone’s boat. And a few didn’t either. Plenty of people have to suffer the consequences before anyone takes action against all that. Yet, there are some who should not have bought a home in the first place. They could not afford it. Someone talked them into it. Others had their circumstances change due to the economy or whatever else. We need to have a halt to the bleeding. For those who are having foreclosure problems, it is time to seek help before the worst happens!

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I have actually had three computers in my life that I owned, four if you count the one that my husband owned before we got married. It was a old CoCo. He still has it. It still runs. But I wanted something that I could actually understand and use. The old computer was good for online email lists but not for graphics at all. You had to know the computer language it spoke. My husband knows that, I don’t. Makes me dizzy.

When we got our next computer, it was a nice one, brand new…..we thought. We got it from a guy in business who said that he would build us a new computer. What he did not tell us was that many of the parts were older, used. We paid through the nose to learn that lesson. Next we got one online. It was used but very nice. By this time, we were buying them one for each of us. The only rub was that sometimes the video card did not match up with the computer. It was a major hassle until we were able to find the right one.

Since then, we have bought several used computers. My husband has assembled several himself. At this time, we have three in the house. One is an older computer that I had. Now it is used by our niece. She uses it for school work and, of course, for lots of games. Mine is a much better one than I have ever had before. Despite the fact that it’s older and probably out of date already, I do like it. My husband’s is one that he bought online and has had a problem with the motherboard. He had to replace that last year. Now, it’s a really good computer although it, too, is older and probably out of date. We do not care about that.

My newest quest is for a brand new laptop…NOT from that guy though. After a good deal of searching, I feel that the one I want is an Acer. I really like what people say about them. They have few bad reviews, it seems to be exactly what I want and isn’t too expensive. Now all I need is the money to pay for one!!!

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Much of the time, when people go to the dentist, they do not ask where the products going into their mouths come from. Might be a good idea to do so from now on. It seems that a good deal of the products that go in the mouth are coming from China. But the real problem is that the bridges and crowns that the dentist puts in your mouth may be tainted with large amounts of lead.

Now, if you have not been watching the news about China and the toys that were tainted with lead because you didn’t have kids, you might just want to pay a bit more attention this time. China has been sending us many items that were tainted or incredibly imperfect. The worst things were the tainted pet foods, heparin and the toys containing lead. Now, the dental products are also containing and tainted with lead. And this is what you put into your mouth. Are you aware what lead can do to a body? It will affect the kidneys, heart, eyes, immune system and your abilities in cognitive functions.

I guess that one of the worst problems here is that you will not know that the item, like a crown or bridge, was made in China. For instance, dentists will buy crowns from China for about $30-$50 and sell them to the patient for about $1200. The big problem comes when the things simply do not fit right. When that happens, bacteria will come in. Eventually, you would need root canal work done. Often, the contamination is not in the metal, like you would think, but in the porcelain parts of the crown and usually at quite high levels.

To put this into perspective, the Congress is trying to put a limit on the level of lead in toys at 90 ppm. One lady who had some serious problems with the lead in her dental work had 490 parts per million, much higher than the Congress wants for toys. And this is IN YOUR MOUTH!!!! Now the CDC does not think that this level of lead would actually pose a threat to health. Also they are not recommending anyone get previous work redone or delay getting dental work done because of this.

I will say that not everyone was experiencing this sort of thing but it does make one stop and think about what is happening at the dentist. Perhaps it is time to see that doctors and dentists are sometimes in it for the money too. For now, it would be best if, when you are getting crowns or bridgework done, ask where the product is coming from. If it’s China, I would say “No thanks, maybe next time when you have products from the US.”

My only question now is…..WHEN ARE WE GOING TO see that China is trying to take us down from within? China is trying to say that they are innocent. One item that comes here that has problems, okay, that could be a mistake. BUT, we have had product after product coming from China that is dangerous for us and for our children. When is enough…enough???? I want you to know that I am mad as hell and I do not want to take it anymore!!!! Chinese products MUST be inspected and rejected if they are tainted or dangerous in any way. And then, we must stop trade with them. I realize that it would be diplomatically bad to do this but when can we afford to lose our citizens just because we want to make nice with a foreign country??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

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I do not have to tell you this. You already know the pain that is going on at the pumps. The problem is that we could have a few solutions but the congress will not deal with this like the American public needs. They seem to have stopped doing anything about this. Maybe I am wrong about that. But the last thing I heard was when the senators were a bit indignant that the CEOs wanted more tax breaks after having posted record profits last year. Unbelievable that they had the gall to want that.

One of the solutions to this problem is more economical cars. Want a laugh? As I started driving some years ago….ah hem…many years ago, the cars then were getting somewhere between 25-35 miles to the gallon. We had heard of test cars that were getting above 45 miles to the gallon. Yep. Then somewhere along the line, and here I would check out 1972 when the lines at the gas station were huge, they stopped trying for economy.

Lately, the car companies are seeing that big oil is turning against them (who would have seen that coming? Anyone with a brain) so they are scrambling to get more gallons per mile out of those new cars. The wonder is that they are thinking that 30 miles to the gallon is great. Uh no!!! All we need to do is go back to the older cars that get more mpg than today’s cars and we have it made. Well, see there’s the rub.

What’s the problem? When those cars were getting that great gas mileage, they were using actual gasoline. I know the difference. You could smell good gasoline at the pump. It had a distinct smell. Now, the gas smells funny and not good funny. They have changed the gas of today so much so that it took out most of the good fuel economy away.

And lets talk about using up our food to put in our tanks. Doesn’t anyone see a problem here???? We are not planting enough food to get us by for the rest of the year as a country. Yet, we are growing a vast majority of food plants to refine into fuel. Does NO ONE SEE????? What kind of stupid does it take to make this the solution to the problem? We are sacrificing our food for fuel!! COME ON!!! Get a clue, someone!!!

For the record, I have no intentions in using ethanol unless and until there is no other way. I refuse to be part of the massive stupidity that has come out of this so-called solution. NO, NO, NO!!! Someone please get a grip on reality here. If we use up our resources to make fuel, we don’t eat, our kids don’t eat, massive famine. What happens then? We start looking like a third world country. Hey, I do know we could get our belts tighter because most of us need to lose some weight anyway but not at the sacrifice of our children. Someone PLEASE think!!!! Stop the insanity!!!

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We have a new puppy. She is a little nut but cute, very cute. At the moment, we do not have really good pictures of her and our cat because we have a crappy camera. It’s bad. Sometimes we do get not bad pictures so I will show you a couple that were taken with that camera. I think you will see that it leaves a lot to be desired. You know, I never really got what that phrase meant until just now. Here are two pics of our animals, Gizmo our cat and Misty, our new puppy:

The thing here is..if the camera was any good I would love to have custom picture framing done on our pictures because they would be worth it. Someday soon, we are going to have that good camera (we are currently saving for it as we speak) and get fantastic pics. If not, then I have to beg my bro-in-law, who is by the way an excellent photographer, to take pics of our adorable four footed kids so that we could have the best pictures in those frames. I think we should do that one way or another, don’t you?

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I read about an electric sports car that Tesla has put out there for all to see. The tag on the thing is over $100,000 meaning the average Joe isn’t going to riding in one anytime soon. But electric cars have been around, one way or another, for years. It’s just that up to now, the battery was a problem. It would only be good for so many miles and then needed a plug-in which would be okay if you happen to see an electric station much like a gas station. Now there’s a cool picture. The new electric cars seeking plug-ins at a station near you! There would be big plug-in spots. It only costs you this much to plug yourself in.

At some point, you see that this has it’s moments but in reality that will not work like you might think it should. Some people won’t like the plug’s colors. Some will not appreciate that brand of plug-in. They have to have the fancy ones across town. Costs twice as much but you get seen and that’s the important part. You know what? Someone is going to think we need drug rehab if this becomes a reality. I can see that happening….really.

So, instead of Shell, Texaco, Exxon, BP and all the others….we find ourselves at Electro City, Plug-em Up, Car Jolts, Run All Day and many more. Does any of this sound really strange to you because it certainly does to me. However, I would love to have a car like that if the price tag goes down to reasonable, which I doubt it will anytime soon. But one can dream, right? I dream about so many other things, what’s one more? Sort of like those Reese’s Cups…dream about those, why don’t ya?

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Last year, the doctor told me that I had blood sugar problems. Usually, they call that diabetes but he would not go that far at that time. I got classified as being hyperglycemic which, from what I have read, means diabetic. I was to test my blood sugar every day. Unfortunately, designated as that, I could not get the meter and test supplies paid for by Medicare. The doctor finally did something that allowed me to get them. Then my husband got diagnosed with the same problem. He has yet to get his first supplies because it is stopped by Medicare. Sigh.

With all that going on, I get a bit concerned about what would happen if I’m out shopping somewhere and I start to bottom out or get really high sugar. Someone told me about medical jewelry like a bracelet or a pendant that would have a note about being diabetic. I really think that’s a great idea for anyone who has any type of medical condition. I have noticed that people who have that info on them get faster attention at the hospital if they go there in crisis. The doctors and nurses do not have to guess at the problems that way. It’s a great idea. Now if only the doctor would designate my husband so that he could have his supplies paid for too. Otherwise, he cannot do the testing every day. Sigh.

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After seeing the news again, we needed gas. Gee, I bet you know the next line by now. The price had risen again. Up several cents from a couple of weeks ago. And worse, it’s WAAAAY higher than it was last year at this time. And it isn’t getting any better. Why? For one thing, the oil companies are so greedy that they won’t change the war at the pump.

Personally, I cannot see how the oil companies execs can actually sleep at night. Of course, if they have the cold hearts that it truly looks like, it doesn’t bother them a bit as they rack up more money in salary and perks. Shouldn’t this be a crime? At this point, it is legal theft.

Those execs had the guts to sit in front of congress after having had the biggest profits seen in human history and ask for more tax cuts for themselves. HELLO???? What is wrong here? What’s wrong is that they are so greedy that they want it all, to bleed the American public dry. When that happens, other countries can take over because we will be helpless.

It’s just like the Chinese products that get recalled so much. This is all about bringing the United States to it’s knees and by golly, they are gettin’ ‘er done too. Take a look at the big picture.

Housing is in the pits because of ridiculous loans that any truly sane person should not have entered into. So the market is in trouble. Credit cards are getting ridiculous and not really regulated on fees. You can go broke on a couple hundred dollar charge. How about food prices? Those are sky high because of gas prices, another setback in the US. Should I go on or are you living it like we are?

What is it going to take for the American public to get a clue that all is not well here at home. We are being bled dry by big oil, the car companies, grocery stores, lenders, credit card companies’ fees, banks and the list goes on. How can you tell what you can safely buy these days? I have no idea.

I would say Happy Shopping but I think that statement needs to be retired so this is the last time you will see it here. I am sorry! Times are tough.

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