Absorbing a small amount of Vitamin D while the sun was out briefly was Sam, looking for worms and special rocks.

The bonnet wasn't quite warm enough for the weather, but Priya's cold was greatly improved by the short walk we took while the sun shone.

Left to her own devices for a few minutes, Anneka helped herself to my eye pencil and decorated herself a few days early. She dressed herself too with the coordinating tank top dress and swimsuit coverup.

a current correlation

Said H.L. Mencken (1880-1965):
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

pumpkin patch

It's ironic that we would go to a place twice in a few days that I probably would never voluntarily pack up my children and visit unless there was another reason to go - like going with the cousins on Saturday or a school field trip on Tuesday.

But the goats were a highlight for Priya at the pumpkin patch.

Anneka liked riding the rubber tire horse.



It's also ironic that at the pumpkin patch where the entrance fee would cover at least a half dozen packets of pumpkin seeds, taking home a pumpkin required an extra fee.



Why are kids so attracted to pumpkins? Mine have been pointing them out of yards near and wide for weeks. And the 6 or 8 of varying sizes we have acquired are certainly not enough.



I hope I remember next May to dig a large patch somewhere and plant about a half dozen packets of all kinds of pumpkins. I will be rich in October after we sell 15 or 2o.

apples

• apples with caramel

• apples with cream cheese caramel dip

• apple slices

"an apple a day keeps the doctor away", as the saying goes, and we'd like to keep our distance.

not broken

We bought our black Grand Prix when it was nearly new with only about 30,ooo miles. We had extra income then and no children. We've added some knicks and scraps and results of some temper fits on the inside and about 150,ooo more miles. On the outside it needs a few fixes too.

But we would be fools to drive it to the junk yard, turn it in for scrap and take out a loan to buy something brand new just because it needs a new gas gauge sensor and the bumper crack fixed or $1500 of .

I can't help but think this applies to quite a few things nationally, not the least of which is health care reform. Having said that, I will disclaim that I am no expert on health care insurance. In the last 9 years, we've had the privilege of using it only for the birth of our children and for their recommended well-baby checks and I count that a huge, gigantic blessing. I seriously shudder to think of having to use it for anything more than that. Many others haven't been blessed in that regard.

But surely, in a country like ours where we have many, many options when we are sick, we shouldn't have to trade in the entire entity where we have lots of choices - some good, some not depending on the person and the situation, for limited - if any choice.

It's like us taking us junking the Grand Prix which has outstanding stability on snow and icy roads and for which we know all of its faults and picking something that each salesman gives us a different story on. One says it came from Florida and had only one owner. The next guys tells us it was a loaner vehicle. While another assures us it was a local trade.

Oh, don't mistake me for saying we don't need improvement in our health care system. Of course, anything created by humans is full of cracks and craters. But why should the whole system be discarded with no regard to its list of good qualities?

There must be some smart people who already have a million good solutions that wouldn't cost us trillions and might even save us at the very least millions.

October 10, 2009
snow and 23 degrees

indecisive and divisive

From Charles Krauthammer weekly column "Young Hamlet's Agony" on the current Commander-in-Chief and his current waffling on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan comes this telling statement:

"Does anything he says remain operative beyond the fading of the audience applause?"

How ironic then, that this morning's news headline is that he is also the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.