Glory Days

I had a nice weekend. I slept in Saturday morning and lounged in the sun on the deck watching the horses eat their breakfast and the cats playing in the yard. We have about umpteen cats now and I will spend a small fortune getting them "fixed". Hard to believe they all originated from one dumped off mama cat we took pity on and named "Snip". She soon gave birth to 1 kitten - "Sally" and the rest is history. I had all the males fixed, but need to focus on the females - good grief, they can get out of control before you know it! Sheesh...needless to say, we don't seem to have a problem with mice. Like Forrest Gump says...one less thing.

I made chili, cornbread and pumpkin bars with cream cheese/maple frosting to take to the potluck at our Harvest party Saturday night. I took a bunch of pictures with the new camera too. I seem to be having a little trouble (imagine that!?) with getting our computer to recognize the camera or the chip without installing the Kodak software (which kind of sucks), but will continue working through the bugs. The camera itself is pretty straight forward. Pictures are good and the zoom is awesome - I love that!!

We took a leisurely drive through the mountains and ended up at the beach Sunday afternoon. BEAUTIFUL!!! Not a cloud in the sky, not a wisp of a breeze and the temperatures had to be near 70. Perfect, t-shirt weather. We drove to our old beach and checked out "our" old beach and house. It looks good - hard to believe that we actually lived there. The little pasture across the road where the goaties lived is now home to two horses and no goaties. And the growth is astounding - housing market slump?? Hard to believe when you look at the hill above and behind where our old house is!! New McMansions everywhere with freaking awesome views to die for!!! What is it with people building huuuge McMansions everywhere??? Why do people think they have to live in huge, fancy mausoleum-type beasts instead of the cozy, quaint cottage-style beach houses that I remember and admire? I just don't get it. I think it's very sad that people all think that bigger is better. They all seem so ostentatious to me - maybe that's because I can't afford to build a huge house, but even if I were rich and had money to throw away - I don't ever see myself wanting to live in a big, fancy, un-friendly, look-at-how-big-I-am over-bearing house!! What is the point unless, a) you hate your spouse or, b) you have a dozen or so kids???
Is everybody really so caught up in keeping up with the Jones' that they all think they NEED a McMansion??? I don't think so!! And...I think that is one very big part of why we are in the financial mess that we are in today!! People - and I use this term very loosely, because I realize not everybody is this way, get their wants confused with their needs. It's that simple. People are trying to find happiness and personal contentment with their little plastic cards. Well...get a flipping clue folks!! It ain't ever gonna happen!! You will never be able to buy peace or joy or fulfillment - it comes from inside. So, just get over it already and buy your kids clothes from Walmart or something... whew, I need to remember to breath when I do that! I feel kind of dizzy now...and the feeling ain't half bad.

I'm dismounting now - from my 14 carat gold, diamond and ruby-encrusted soap box (which is waaay bigger than yours, by the way...neener neener neener...

I feel much better now.

Maybe there will be some pictures tomorrow.

Bye-bye