Friday, October 3, 2008

The laundry needs to be folded...

so I think I'll post here on my blog. There's always laundry to be folded and I've had something bugging me, so you'll have to bear with me while I vent. As you regular readers know, I usually let my astute and wise husband handle all the political stuff for our house on his blog. (Actually he has posted several really good completely non-political stuff the last couple of days that you should check out). He's much more well read on the topic and can debate on an intellectual level with the best of them. I, on the other hand, tend to think more with my gut. I know what is right, but usually can't explain it or defend it. Well, my gut has been doing loops of frustration the last couple of weeks. I've had two interferences into my life that signify to me the change in our country. One was on a state level and the other on a federal level.

I'll deal with the state level first--I got a call from the school two days ago informing me that they didn't have the dental forms on file for my girls for school. And they didn't have the vision form on file for my 2nd grader. Yep--they have to have proof of both a dental exam and a vision exam for school. And I know from experience with a letter I received last year that if you don't provide proof that the sheriff will show up at your house. It's the law and they mean to enforce it. (As a point of clarification, the sheriff did not show up. It was just threatened. And I am a fairly responsible parent--our school just doesn't do a great job of communicating what is needed each year--especially when you've just moved, but that is for another post.)

The federal level--we don't have cable TV. We don't want cable TV. This is not because we have a moral issue with it. It is because we honestly don't have much time to watch TV and it's expensive for a pastor's family of 6. We also do not have a new TV. I think our TV is probably around 10 years old. All I remember is that we bought it at Sam's Club when we lived in Dallas before we had kids. Needless to say, it's analog with an antenna. Yep, we are impacted by the whole digital TV conversion in February (or is it January...). So we got our $45 converter box so we could watch Sid the Science Kid on PBS once February hits. Yes, I know about the coupon, but who are we kidding--the government provided the coupon. I pay the government. So I paid or will pay the full price for my box and probably someone else's box as well. Then I hooked it up and realized that to watch it correctly we will probably have to invest in a new atenna that has much more power than ours does--not sure how much that will cost but I'm sure at least around $50.

My point: do we truly want a government who will regulate when my child should get their eyes and teeth examined or determine what kind of TV I should watch? On the slippery slope, what is next as it relates to just those two topics? And now I leave you to chew on that food for thought while I go fold my laundry...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The depth of my competitiveness

My husband added a blogroll to his blog (the Bullhorn). When I first glanced at it I was a little miffed that my blog was not at the top of his list. I am, afterall, his wife. Then I realized that blogger put them in order based on the most recently updated blog. So this post is solely for the purpose of being on top of his blogroll. Seriously, how lame is that..even after realizing how competitive it is, I am still, obviously posting. So now you truly know the depth of my competitiveness.