TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN'

So much is happening on our planet right now, it is hard to choose a topic. Close to home, we are barraged with news of the Primary elections taking place. No matter what political party you support or which candidate, you have to admit this is a unique historical event in our country. We have running for the highest office in our land three people from the most discriminated against groups in the United States. An African-American, a woman, and a senior citizen (yes, they are discriminated against, in case you haven’t tried to gain employment lately). My apologies to the distinguished Senator from Arizona, but the last I heard, the decade of one’s seventies is definitely considered “senior”. There was a time not too many years ago that someone in his 50s would also be considered “senior”. And you know what? One of them will be our next President.

Ah, yes, the times they are a’changin’! They say that age 50 is now the new 40. I guess that makes us 60-somethings really 50-somethings, right?

My stepfather used to tease me a lot when I would make a statement starting with “they say”. “Wait a minute, Marilyn”, he’d say. “Back up there. Who are these people you call ‘they’?” Of course, I rarely ever could quote my source, but I soon learned to back up such statements with a name when I approached him with some supposedly valid fact or statistic. (I now have to admit that the “they” I quoted in the above paragraph was the Oprah Winfrey Show!) Once he jokingly asked me (after one of my job changes) what I was going to be when I grew up. I quickly replied I wanted to be one of “they” that everyone quotes! (Seems at that time “actuaries” who compiled statistics held the highest paid positions in the country.)

Glenn Smith took cousin Pat Smith Mullins to lunch at Chili's in Brownwood this week. Pat and her husband James are planning a trip to the west coast around the end of April to spend time with two of their daughters.

Nancy Thompson Baker's husband Jake had a pacemaker successfully implanted this past week. Nancy said the doctor told them that no, Jake would not be able to communicate with aliens with his new device. Darn! When Nancy was telling me this, she had some interesting stories about the times folks from around here, Jake included, have witnessed what they believe to have been UFOs! She said that Mike and Virginia Harral Egan also witnessed one. Hey! Those would be great stories to share with us.

If any of you read this in time, you might be interested in participating in the tonight's “black out”. I’m going to light one of my great-grandmother’s kerosene lamps and use a lot of candles during this time. I copied this from the Google Web Page, which is already black to show their support.

“On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.”

Next month we will again celebrate Earth Day. Mark it on your calendar -- April 22nd. I'm still trying to add beauty to the world by pulling weeds in my back yard! I have a way to go. However, the grape hyacinths are still blooming and the honeybees are responding with gratitude. I have been carefully following the reports of the vanishing bees, so seeing them in "my back yard" was a special delight. If you look closely in the following photo you can see two of them.

I will post the photos from Peg's (Branham) vacation in the next blog entry. I wanted to get this one in a little before the 1st of April. I didn't want it to be an April Fool's entry... but then, maybe it is?

Remember good stuff really does happen!

Marilyn