Skywatch - Friday Morning Sunrise

Each Friday on our way to our regularly scheduled Friday morning breakfast with friends, we pass this view out over the Kent Valley looking east to the Cascades and Mt. Rainier. While the time stays the same, the seasons and the weather change the view. As our days shorten, we are now witnessing the sunrise.

This morning we stopped to capture the scene with the camera.

For more Skywatch Photos go here.

Paying Taxes

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. - Preamble to the Constitution ( emphasis mine) The words of the preamble have been the cause of many debates as to the meaning of "promote the general welfare". Is it the role of the federal government? Federalists say no. Is it the role of state and local governments? Libertarians say no. But it is clear to me that it is our role as the "people of the United States", and that those collective terms in the preamble make it clear that we are to do it together. We are not alone in this. The term "welfare", as applied to giving financial aid to those living in deep poverty, comes from this preamble. Some call it "spreading the wealth". Some call it "socialism". Some call it "unconstitutional". I call it the right thing to do. Ruth Marcus, whose column gave me impetus to write these ideas, quoted a man she met in Virginia. "I make over $250,000 a year, between my wife and I. I don't want to share it with anybody." Does this man drive on roads and highways? Does he use the Internet? Did he get a public school education? Does he expect police and fire protection? When he flies, does he expect to take off and land safely due to air traffic control? Does he expect safe food from the supermarket and restaurants? Does he want homeless families camping in his local park? Does he "support our troops"? I could go on and on. There are so many things that we do for and with each other collectively, through government, that we cannot do on our own. That is the purpose of government. We pay taxes to provide those things named in the preamble. And when we run up a big debt through carelessness and poor judgement, then we should expect to have to raise revenue to pay that debt. That means paying taxes. We have always had a progressive tax code in this country because we have believed that those with more can pay more, and thus secure the general welfare. I am very tried of hearing the voice of the tax haters. For them, no tax is a good tax. But dare to suggest that services they use might be cut, and they cry foul. Suggest we might need more government regulation and they shout "socialism" or even "communism", but then see what they expect when they get in trouble. BAIL OUT! No, we are all in this together. That man got rich because people like me educated his children, others built his highways and communication systems, and we paid him good money for his products or services. In return, he pays his taxes, and should be grateful that he can. Taxes are, as Oliver Wendall Holmes said, the price of a civilized society.

Picture Tag

Lin, I'm finally getting to this. I will go to the fourth photo folder and select the fourth photo in that file. Let's see what I get.

Well, there you are. My fourth folder is my Christmas 2007 file, and the star of this photo is my granddaughter. She is enjoying adding sprinkles to our cut out cookies - generously!

It has become a tradition for Tom and me and our son Jake to travel to Fort Morgan, CO for a family Christmas. Usually the first evening we are there is cookie time. It is quite a scene, with arms of big and little kids alike reaching in and adding their touches to the "masterpieces". My job is to roll the dough, and it keeps me busy. This is a small kitchen, so there is lots of bumping and maneuvering as well as laughing and talking and barely controlled chaos.

Here are some examples of the action.

We have our airline tickets secured for our trip this Christmas, when we will repeat the family fun. But first, we're heading for Fort Morgan for Halloween. First on the agenda - pumpkin carving!

Sunday Morning

Sun day? Not so much, at least not yet. Forty and foggy. But we know the sun is up there, working hard to burn through. For my trip to get the paper this morning, I decided to grab my camera. I got pulled into the foggy garden, the stillness and muted beauty attracting me to the far corners.

The maple in the front yard is beginning to color up, or light up, as we say. I watch it from the top down from my bedroom window.

Out at the street, watch out before crossing to the paper box. The street disappears down hill into a valley full of fog.

Paper safely deposited on the kitchen counter, I went exploring in the garden.

Peace be with you.

Ballots!

They arrived in the mail Thursday, the day after the last debate. I can vote!

I will need to do some studying of the Voters Pamphlet on a few of the issues, like judges and county charter amendments.

But no more studying is required for this one! I've had more than enough input, thank you very much.

We signed up for absentee ballots quite some years ago. We like this option because we can sit down with the voters guide and study, take our time, and not have to wait in lines. Four years ago, when we tried to elect John Kerry, we happened to be in New Orleans on Election Day. This year we will just make it back from Colorado. So it is also convenient for those of us who don't stay home or stay put like we're expected to.

I don't remember ever feeling this excited about getting a ballot. I hope and believe we will be making history with this election, and it is a precious right we have to be able to participate in that decision.

I can vote, NOW!

Skywatch - Good Morning, Moon. Why are you still up?

I expected rain this morning, but was instead greeted with this pleasant surprise when I walked out to get the paper this morning.

For more sky picks go here.

It's Debatable......

Finally - the final debate! But this one was at least interesting. The format worked, staying seated kept John McCain from wandering around the stage, and the proximity demanded that the candidates look at each other at least occasionally. Bob Schieffer made the candidates address the questions. On the question of what to do about the economy, who knows? The "experts" don't. But there is a philosophical difference in approach between the conservative trickle down, free up the free market point of view and the bottom up, build the middle class, create jobs, care about the people thinking. Obama wins. As for the health care issue, there is no contest. In fact, analysis shows that the McCain plan would actually cost more, not pick up the uninsured, and could undermine employer based coverage due to taxing benefits. Obama wins. John McCain enjoyed ending as many responses as he could with "Senator Obama will raise your taxes". Apparently he thought only people making more than $250,000 were listening. That's the small percentage of voters who would have their tax cut rolled back, tax cuts that contributed immensely to our national debt. Obama wins. On the attacks launched by the campaigns, John McCain insisted in repeating the questions about Obama's association with Bill Ayers. But these questions have been asked and answered many times over. There is no "there" there. Pursuing it had McCain beating a dead horse. As to the charges about ACORN, when I heard the innuendos in the news this last week, I spent five minutes on line and got the full story. There is no fraud, no one will vote who isn't supposed to, and the only victim is ACORN itself. As an organization which strives to represent the under represented, they got ripped off by employees who got paid to register voters but turned in bogus forms instead of doing the work. If it took me five minutes to get this straight, why can't John McCain do the same? Or is it that knowing the truth would ruin a good attack line? This behavior on the part of McCain and his campaign is neither honest nor honorable. Obama wins. The pundits are now scoring the debate. They are discussing strategy. But is it really strategy or basic personality? Barack Obama doesn't have to act calm and deliberative. That's who he is. He believes fighting to be unproductive, not a means of problem solving. That is at the core of his being. John McCain is a warrior. He understands fighting as a means to a desired end, wrapped in his sense of honor. Anger is part of who he is, it shows, and is for him righteous. Emotion is his style. He interrupts, belittles, makes pointed "jokes", frankly seems erratic. Who wins a debate is debatable. Who wins the election hopefully will not be. Then the headline should be OBAMA WINS!

Halloween Season

Even though we won't be home for the actual big day, we have to get into the spirit. I love the decorations for this season: the pumpkins, the corn stalks, the fall foliage, the witches and ghosts and goblins and black cats! Boo!

The porch now had some fall color.

The mantle is decorated with antiques. The old glass jack-o-lantern candy jars are c. 1910-1915, treasures from my mother-in-law's childhood. The cutouts are 1950's finds left in the kindergarten storage room when Tom took over the class about 14 years ago. These are old dime store decorations that were in mint condition. We stole them!

With no freeze yet, our maples are slow to color this year. Usually a blazing mix of maroon, magenta and orange by now, this full moon maple is just beginning to turn.

The good thing about the mild temps is that my dahlias are still producing flowers perfect for a bright arrangement for my kitchen table.

Our grand kids and their mother are getting ready too. While we are keeping up with them through emailed photos for now, we will be there in person for Trick-or-Treats!

Hope you're getting into the spirit too. It's just a fun time of the year.

The Annual Family Apple Squeeze

Each October my brother hosts our family cider making party at his home in Chehalis. He is a teacher and he uses the three day "teacher workshop" weekend to go to Yakima, on the other side of the Cascade Mts, to purchase a thousand pounds of apples and haul them back for cider making. My sister Laurie lives nearby, as do her children and grandchildren, who account for most of the little ones running around. Our Mother enjoys sitting in the middle of the action, taking it all in.

The apples are collected from the bin, washed and cut in half in preparation for crushing.

The cider press we use belonged to my great grandfather, George Washington Hofstetter, my Mother's grandfather, and is a family treasure.

This event is important enough to our son, Jake, here enjoying a coffee break, that he made sure he was back in time to make this the last stop on his two week vacation into the southwest. We were glad to see him, safe and sound, after his solo trip in his old 1977 VW camper bus!

The juice is collected from the press and strained into jugs. The result was about 50 gallons of cider to be shared.

A lot of fun is shared as well. And of course, there is the eating! Arn manned the grills and the corn pot.

There were lots of giggles at this table!

And lots of eating and talking was enjoyed by all. While the state of the economy did come up, we decided not to worry about it, at least not today. Politics was mostly avoided, since even in such a happy family as this, there are strong differences of opinion, and arguing didn't fit into our agenda.

It's Time...

The front porch has been overflowing with the lush growth of the fancy leaf geraniums Tom loves to collect and propagate. But with the last two wind storms causing them to sprawl, the rain, the colder temps, and the fact that very little sun now strikes the front porch, it was time to clear away the look of summer .

There are plenty of cuttings in the greenhouse to supply the plants for next summer. Tom has been busy.

I did feel sort of like a murderer as I ripped out the luscious growth and removed it to the compost heap. Well, it's tidier, but it looks bare now. The porch needs some repair and new paint, but we'll get to that later.

I think it needs some pumpkins and chrysanthemums!

The tomatoes were slow to ripen this year, another effect to the weird weather we had last spring, but they are now racing the first frost and doing their best. It was 40 this morning and our high today is 51, but we could go well into November without a frost here in our maritime climate. You never know. We have been enjoying home grown tomatoes every day since early September. Yum!

The rest of the vegetable garden is shutting down, but I got a few more cucumbers. We have enjoyed sharing our produce with the neighbors. We'll miss this abundance when it's gone.