I don't feel terribly cohesive so this will probably be a disjointed blog post.
My stupid container garden has failed.
"Why?" I asked my husband last night, miserable.
He immediately launched into a detailed discussion of root mass, nutrients and insecticides.
I love it when he talks produce to me.
Next year I'm investing in larger pots and mixing manure in with the potting soil. And I'm planting cherry tomatoes and other things that naturally grow small. Lots of herbs, that sort of thing.
A year ago this month Keith came back from deployment. It's so incredible to think about. I've completely forgotten the deployment mindset that got me through that year. It feels like Keith and I have always been together, playing, arguing, making up.
"You are my life's companion," I tell him sometimes, fondly.
For most of my life, if you had asked me what emotions this time of year evoke, I would have answered, immediately and with feeling, nostalgia and dread. Nostalgia for the passing of summer and dread of the school year. Those feelings lingered on, even after I graduated, much like the callus on the inside of my right hand middle finger, formed by years and years of gripping a wooden pencil too tightly.
However, it only took one season to completely change my inner landscape; the year Keith came home. (That, and the heat of a Kentucky summer.) Now August comes round and I feel coziness, happy anticipation and a renewed appreciation for the joys of home.
My marinade actually turned out edible. I substituted onion, sweet green pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper for chipotle. It was too hot to grill, so I put a nice crust on it before putting the pork in the oven for a half hour to cook through. (Next time I should remember to use the broiler, it's easier and doesn't involve far flung grease splatter.)
It was pretty tasty, though Keith has been referring to it as "mystery meat." Apparently anything that did not come off a cow is unidentifiable to my corn fed farm boy.
I ordered stuff from overstocked.com yesterday. I ordered an A-line dress with three quarter sleeves and a boat neck, with a graphic black and white print. I'm going to remind myself of some sixties sitcom show if I ever wear that around the house- while vacuuming, for instance. All I'll be missing is a beehive hairdo and a witty housekeeper.
Also, I ordered some work out clothes, since yesterday I was reduced to wearing one of Keith's gym shorts and can I just say, they were not flattering in the least. And I forgot to take them off before he got home, which is how I got full permission to spend whatever I wanted on gender appropriate work out clothing. (Of course, the dress doesn't fit into that category, but it was only thirty six dollars. You can't beat that.)
The cookware drew me in too, but after much research I decided I just don't need a special pot just for braising and stewing. After all, I have a crockpot. I do need a shallow roasting pan, but again, using a shallow baking dish with my cooling rack in the bottom works just as well. One day I'll have a beautifully outfitted kitchen with cobalt blue enameled ironware and thick bottomed pots and cupboards that make very clever use of space, but for now I'll just make do.
I've been seeing more articles lately on repealing Obamacare since MO rejected the insurance mandate by 71 to 29. There's talk of defunding key parts of Obamacare if the GOP get enough seats this November to do it, since it would be impossible to actually repeal it until 2012. I hope this happens, but to be honest, I don't have much faith in the GOP either.
But at least if they can defund it, run a viable candidate in 2012 (earth to GOP: Mitt Romney is not your man.) and then repeal and then replace Obamacare with actual reform, that would be awesome. In the meantime, I hope we get more and more candidates in Congress with integrity, who believe in limited government and who can begin the actual work of reform, which I think begins with term limits.
Get that in place, and then start stripping away all the advantages that incumbents voted into place in order to help secure their position. This is a critical building block when looking at reforming Congress. We need short terms and competitive political races.
Once that is in place, we can start trimming back huge government programs that are wasteful (which are basically all of them, if you ask me.) Replace medicare with cash vouchers that can be redeemed anywhere and privatize social security. In Texas, for example, the residents don't have to pay into social security. Instead, that money is actually kept in banks, and actually accrues interest and will actually be given back out to the same people who paid into their own account over the life of their careers.
Mind blowingly simple, no? I hear a lot about Texas that makes me want to move there after Keith retires.
Anyway, it will probably take more than one generation to reverse the direction our government has been heading in and to restore our Republic, because the current government has incredible power, bulk and momentum.
But it can be stopped, and we can start in November. What we start, maybe our children will be able to finish for us. That, or they and their children will be saddled with paying off our debt.
