Smoke.............and mirrors.

I know better than to watch news first thing in the morning. But, hubs is a news junkie so it is often forced upon me. And then my blood pressure gets all spiky, my heart gets all racy and my tongue gets wicked.

I am APPALLED at the lack of concern by a certain Congressman in helping a little widow woman find out what really happened to her husband. She has remained faithful to him since he never came home from WWII and has apparently received conflicting reports regarding him that are too numerous to mention. Only when a concerned relative took to the internet and did what you and I do everyday by searching around was she able to get closure. And from what I understand it didn't take much looking.

Imagine her pride in knowing that to a certain village in France - her husband died a hero, crashing his plane and managing to avoid their village. For decades they maintained a grave for him in their local cemetery and then when he was moved to the one at Normandy, maintained that one as well. His name is etched on that beautiful white cross in a field of others. HIS NAME. There is a yearly ceremony honoring him and they named a street for him. HIS NAME.

All this time, strangers have been honoring an American while his wife quietly honored him faithfully at home. Requesting information from the only people she knew to ask. Receiving form letters with erroneous information.

Apparently this story first was told on the anniversary of D-Day but today it aired on CBS. I take issue with various news organizations on occasion as I believe they all have an agenda. But this story is difficult to spin, especially given the Congressman's statements and releases since. After this morning, the Congressman in question's Facebook page began to "blow up" with criticism regarding his handling of this sad situation. And, unlike his handling of that sad situation, the response was swift and surgical.

Comments started disappearing as if they were never posted. No one was able to "like" a comment and, for some - like me, soon the ability to comment just went away....like smoke......and mirrors. And for the record, I tried to be reasonably courteous in my comment. I, at least, did not call him profane names (I just thought them). Sir Congressman continues to "stand" by his packaged apology, which for some,may be adequate. I find it shockingly inadequate. And now the Facebook page has come down entirely, allowing no one else to even view.

For me.................my belief is he needs to personally pay for as many trips to France as Mrs. Harris cares to make in the time she has left on earth to visit and pay tribute to the man she loved enough to remain faithful to all these years. And further, all those flowers she sends regularly to adorn his grave should not be at her expense either. She feels she has years to make up for because she had no knowledge. I feel our Government has much to make up for because the knowledge was there and the means were there to know, they just couldn't be bothered.

And, as for you Mr. Congressman..........you may silence some of the people, some of the time but you cannot hide from this one. This horse has gone galloping out of the gate and there will be no putting it back in the barn no matter how much smoke you blow or how many mirrors you use. The one you look into every morning as you shave will show your true face.

HEART

Few words in the English language have as many different meanings. Coupled with adjectives, HEART can range the whole spectrum of the human condition. KIND HEART, TENDER HEART, SOFT HEART, BIG HEART, COLD HEART, HARD HEART, BROKEN HEART, BLACK HEART. HEARTS can sing, HEARTS can ache, and sometimes a HEART just simply breaks. Even when a HEART breaks, it can mend and often becomes a stronger instrument for the breaking. The ability to push through difficult times is to have HEART. The talent for identifying with others and their struggles is to have HEART for their plight. One cannot live without HEART - either in the real physical sense or in the more intangible social sense. Sometimes we must guard our HEART, sometimes we give our HEART away and often we have to take a moment and heal our HEART. No one can tell us how long it takes a HEART to heal, for they are unique to each individual. So, the next time someone says, "Oh, have a HEART!" Remember you already do, but you might need to exercise it a little.

To Patent or Not to Patent - Early Oil in Pennsylvania

Edwin Drake, (inventor and oil industry pioneer) was hired by the Seneca Oil Company to investigate suspected oil deposits in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Oil in the area was causing problems for salt well drillers because of the contamination factor to their product. The oil company chose Drake, a retired railway man partly because he had free use of the rail which meant he could travel the area at no expense to them. They tacked a phony “Colonel” title in front of his name to give him some respect and authority and sent him prospecting. Native Americans had long been aware of crude oil and used it as “black medicine” for sprains and cuts. They also found it effective in driving away flies. They called it “antonotons” meaning “Oh, how much there is!” Even early settlers tried to make use of crude but quickly learned it would not work in their oil lamps. Because it burned with a black smoke and smelled horribly, it was basically not fit for anything. Eventually, someone discovered a way to process out the impurities making it usable in oil lamps and for other more genteel uses. Nothing like a good bottle of (snake oil) for what ails you. The ability to process the crude oil caused an “ah ha” moment for James Townsend, the President of Seneca Oil, and he decided it was time to get that crude out of the ground. His plans were to extract, process, sell and get rich! Edwin Drake settled on Oil Creek as a drilling site and decided to drill in the manner of the salt well drillers. He purchased a steam engine in Erie, Pennsylvania, to power the drill and began digging on an island. It took quite some time for the drillers to get through the many layers of gravel. At 16 feet, the sides of the hole began to collapse and those helping him began to despair, but not Drake. It was at this point he devised the idea of a drive pipe. This cast iron pipe consisted of 10-foot-long joints that were driven down into the ground. At 32 feet they struck, bedrock. Drilling tools were lowered through the pipe and steam was used to drill through the bedrock. The going was slow at a rate of just three feet per day. All the difficulty associated with the process resulted in the well being dubbed "Drake's Folly." Crowds gathered to jeer at the apparently unproductive operation which was also going broke. Seneca Oil had abandoned Drake, leaving him to rely on friends to back the enterprise. On August 27, the drill bit had reached a total depth of 69.5 feet, hit a crevice and the crew packed up for the day. The next morning Drake’s driller, Billy Smith, looked into the hole in preparation for another day’s work. He was surprised and delighted to see crude oil rising up in the hole. Drake was summoned and the oil was brought to the surface with a hand operated pitcher pump from a local kitchen and collected in a bath tub. Previous methods for collecting oil had been limited. Ground collection of oil consisted of gathering it from natural occurrences, such as oil seeps or shallow holes dug into the ground. Alternative methods of digging large shafts into the ground also failed, as collapse from water seepage almost always occurred. Drake is now famous for pioneering a new method for producing oil from the ground by using pipe to prevent borehole collapse. The principle behind this idea is still employed today by many companies drilling for hydrocarbons. Unfortunately, Drake failed to patent his drilling invention. Subsequently, after losing all his money in oil speculation, the state of Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1,500 to the “crazy man” who founded the oil industry. Edwin Drake died in 1880, impoverished after pioneering an industry that made others fabulously wealthy.

Life was just a bowl of cherries.

Sooooooooo imagine my surprise to learn - after all these years - I was one of the "popular" girls in high school. Who knew?! Certainly not me. Had I have been apprised of that fact 45 years ago, I.Would.Have.Never.Sat.Home. on a Saturday night. I also probably would have never gone without lunch because someone must have been dying to buy my lunch and were just too shy to say so, because I was sooo intimidating - again, because I.Was.Popular. I say this with apologies to BR who actually did feed me lunch every day when we were dating. But, see I was so popular, I decided he was too good for me and broke up with him. And, he was.....and he still is. But, God isn't quite finished with me yet so I keep working. I sure wish I had known I didn't have to work so hard for things. My goodness.....people were hiding around corners with that silver platter full of good things and I was just too dumb to realize it. My only claim to fame was I hung around the "coolest" girl in school. She really WAS popular and good enough to let me exist in her orbit. You see, she KNEW. She knew what was going on with me and a lot of other people and cared enough to try to make things better. She knew that no one in a small town really knows what goes on behind the walls and windows of houses. So, just so you know. When I attach adjectives to myself, these are the ones I use most.........driven, insecure, impatient, funny, sarcastic, fair and easily hurt. Nope popular didn't come up. Neither did judgmental, narrow minded and vindictive. Just sayin'.

Dependents

Somehow the hubalump and myself are unable to come in contact with living creatures without making them dependent on us. Our dogs can barely function without us - especially since one of them is a stonecold princess who now believes the only way she can eat that horrible dog food is for you to hand feed it to her. We decided we wanted to try to encourage more activity of the winged variety around our homestead so we bought a couple of super cheap bird feeders two weeks ago. 2 birdfeeders $8.00 5 bags of bird seed later $20.00 House finches now too fat to fly - PRICELESS

Randomness

So.......this guy actually resembles a guy I know and of course we ALL know Snow and her band of mine workers. One wonders, how did SHE score 7 guys willing to work like dogs to support her?! If you find the irony here...please comment.