Just a short post with a couple of links.  One that that is amazing about the internet is the pure volume of information available.  There are important nuggets that can be found, but seem to get overlooked… for example…

How the…. heck is oil below $35 a barrel and gas prices are up?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090212/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

How the… hell can a $550 BILLION run on banks go on?

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2009/02/september-15-2008-secret-bank-run-and.html

How the… heck to you conceptualize a trillion (1,000,000,000,000)

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2009/how-much-is-a-trillion-dollars-p1.php

I am sure there are more…

1OR

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/autos.ceo.jets/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

You know, sometime you just got to say what’s on your mind.  The above link is to a video of the CEO of General Motors asking for his portion of a 25 billiondollar bailout.  I would just like to call this out as pure horse manure.  It is a sad commentary when, for once a politician asks a direct question and gets the side-step boogy in response; and it infuriates him.  While I have no wonderful solutions for all of the issues that face us today, I do wish that we could step back from all of the double speak and issue avoidance.  When our elected officials speak (especially during election times) we hear a finely polished speeches that really drive at no hard points, corporate executives that their primary concern is there personal wealth well before the base of persons that allow that wealth and the pure fact we allow it.  Bottom line, if it looks like horse manure, smells like horse manure, feels like horse manure (and for an extra bonus, we see it come out of the back side of the horse), well, it must be horse shit.

Love,

1OR

When I started this blog a few months ago, I had illusions of great content and discussion, but that really hasn’t happened.  Some of this is due to may lack of time to dedicate to posting, some due to this being a drop in the internet ocean of “stuff” and some to the issues I wish to discuss.

I had used the front page of this blog to leave thought provoking lyrics from songs I find moving. Music is my muse and the poetry that other musicians use helps me verbalize much of the feelings I cannot describe, but I am going to change that.  For the time being, I am going to use the front page of this blog as the place for me to attempt to spark conversation, we’ll see how it goes.

Today’s Post: Homeless Kits

My son is 12 years old and like young men of his age, anything in a can or package is considered, “food”.  Likewise, anything that does not come out of a can or package is questionable, fresh veggies primarily.  So one of the items we would buy for him to snack on after school was these “Tuna Kits”.  On the off chance you have never used/eaten one of these, they really are quite ingenious.  There is a package of crackers, mayonnaise, relish, a can of tuna and the package works as a mixing bowl.  You dump your ingredients, mix, slather on crackers and “VIOLA!” a meal. While staring at a stack of these “kits” in the pantry, the thought struck me, I could keep one of these in the car for someone who could really use this.  So I grabbed one, put it in my console… instant homeless kit.

The first time I gave one out, they guy looked at me like, “What the heck is this?!”, he examined it, thanked me and took off to eat.  Since then, we (my wife and I) have given several out and my we try to keep 1-2 kits in our cars at all times.  From there we started carrying a couple of bottles of water, then we decided to actually create a “Kit” which currently is; 

• 1 gallon zip lock bag to hold everything
• One Tuna kit
• 1 bottle of water
• toothbrush and small tooth paste
• 2 – pair of socks

When we run into someone that we see is in need, we’re ready. The great part about this is, it’s with us when we generally run into folks in need.  It’s easy to give, the bag and water bottle are reusable and it’s easy to carry. Most importantly, it’s a great way to make the world a little more comfortable for someone else..

I challenge YOU to carry one or two with you. 

Love,

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