Wondering Wanderings

Today I'm wondering why I never wrote that book, traveled to far away places, saw the movie because the title fascinated me and so on and so on . . .

As I round the bend to full retirement I begin to wonder what on earth do I do to finish my work here? Maybe I am finished already. I married twice had 7 children by four different men, adopted a daughter, endured all that was required of me as a parent and am now a grandparent and great-grandparent.

I found eternal happiness in my second marriage and look forward to spending my last years on earth with the love of my life, Tony. The focus of our lives has changed drastically in the past two years. Until then we were content taking care of children, grandchildren and friends and other family. Now we are foot-loose and fancy free. Well, almost. We have a huge mortgage on a monstrously huge home - debt that is crippling and the desire to continue to serve in our church here. Now we probably won't have anything to look forward to except selling our home for next to nothing, retaining only enough to pay it off and our bills and to rent an apartment to live in for the next twenty years. What a life!

We planned so carefully for our retirement, financially that is. We have enough to live on, but no nest egg to fall back on, no extra money to buy the 'rose covered cottage' in the dale. That was what the equity in our home was to provide. But now the economy has collapsed, and there are not enough years to recoup our losses.

I know this has happened to other people in the past - but it wasn't supposed to happen to us. In 1929 my paternal grandparents lost all their savings in a bank that collapsed in the 'crash'. Oh, well I remember them telling us to be so careful about our savings, not to trust the banks. So we decided to invest in property, you know, the land will always be there, etc. Beside that, the FDIC doesn't insure moneys more than $100,000, and now I heard on the news yesterday that many banks are about to default on their FDIC insurance for their investors.

Here's where I really whine! Tony and I have always been at the airport when our ship came in. We've missed out on three huge real estate investment deals in our lifetime, both of which would provide us with a very good living to the end of our days. We forwent the profit bearing deals because we wanted to keep our home(s) in order to keep our family safe. We should have sold our homes and moved on, our choice of family first always trumped doing that because we believed our homes would save us financially - they never did. In fact every time we've sold our homes we've lost money. Okay, whining done.

So now the next era of our lives is tainted with a home that won't save us financially - again. Partly I am publishing this because I'm hopping mad at being caught in this web of financially insecurity, the other reason is that hopefully you, the readers can learn something from this to use in your lives.

I want my children to know they were always worth more than anything else in the whole world to me, so I'm not really sorry for anything we did in trying to get ahead in this life for them and ourselves. Just never put all your eggs in one basket like we did.

Don't think we don't have enough money to live on in our retirement, we do. We will just not have our hearts' desires, i.e., travel and other perks.

Thank goodness we have each other. Ha! I think of a funny line we always use in regard to money --

We started out with nothing and still have most of it left!

Really, Really Good Hamburgers

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to make hamburgers and fries for dinner, and I have invited Miguel and Greg to come. I'm going to make some gorgeous gourmet burgers I saw made on the Food Network. I can't wait to try the recipes. I hope everyone enjoys the food. It's still going to be warm enough to cook outdoors tomorrow, we'll have to eat indoors though.

Here's the recipe -

* 2 1/2 pounds ground beef
* 1 small shallot, finely chopped
* 2 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon Neely's Dry Rub seasoning
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
* 2 teaspoons salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Butter
* 6 brioche buns
* 6 slices pepper jack cheese
* 12 slices smoked apple wood bacon, fried crisp
* 1/2 cup Neely's "Secret Sauce", recipe follows
* 1 pint cole slaw (recommended: Neely's Cole Slaw)
* 2 beef steak tomatoes, sliced


Directions:
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.

In a large mixing bowl, break up the meat with your hands. Add the chopped shallot, garlic, Neely's Dry Rub, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper, to taste. Mix with a wooden spoon until thoroughly incorporated. Using your hands, divide the meat into 6 equal balls. Flatten them into patties and use your thumb to create an indent in the center of each burger. Cook's Note: This indent will help the burgers from puffing up while you grill them.

Grill the burgers, uncovered, for 3 minutes on the first side. Flip and continue cooking for another 3 minutes for medium-rare, and 4 minutes for medium. Remove from grill and immediately top with the cheese.

Butter the buns and place on the grill. Toast for about 1 minute and remove from grill.

Build your burgers by topping with the bacon, Secret Sauce, coleslaw, and tomatoes. Add onion rings if desired.

I hope you'll try the recipe for your family, because this recipe has a five star rating.

Time Marches On

I thought today I would continue my ramblings about myself in regard to age. I will be 65 on January 13, 2010. I am amazed to have gotten this ripe! I kept thinking I would always be hale and hearty, but age kept creeping up on me. Let me tell you why I am blogging about this. Yesterday I had to have all my upper teeth surgically removed because all the enamel was gone and the teeth kept breaking off into my food bites, etc. I am quite miserable today. The swelling is so uncomfortable, and I have pain because the stitches are constantly being pulled and rubbed by my new upper plate. I was advised by a friend of mine who is a dentist, and lives in another state, to get my dentist to place two implants in and then insert a permanent full upper set of teeth. Lovely thought, except our dental insurance doesn't pay for such work. But after today I can tell you I will be finding a way to earn the money to have the implants placed! The roof of my mouth is completely covered by the plate and I cannot taste my food, nor can I feel the food either. This is barbaric! People have been losing their teeth since Adam and Eve, for Heaven's sake, why can't implants be available to everyone? It would be so much more cost effective and esthetically correct. That is why I hate dentistry! It is still in the Dark Ages for the majority of people; and whoever thought of creating dentures should be SHOT! I HATE mine! I've avoided getting my teeth fixed for years because it is so painful, embarrassing and the dentists and their assistants are so rude and un-caring. With something being so personal why is it still so hard to deal with? I could write a book on the reasons I hate dentistry! I did everything they ever told me to do - even to getting my teeth cleaned and scaled every six months and I still lost them. I do have my lower teeth, but that is little consolation.

You see, now I have to tell you how I now look - because of the loss of teeth you end up with no lips! All the contour of my face has been completely distorted. I hate both how I look and how I feel. That's why I put off getting the work done for so long. We constantly pay the premiums on our insurance and this is what we get for it. Because most all medical care is rendered to people after the age of 65. Maybe I ought to be happy about "Death Panels"! NOT!!!!

To end this horrible banter, I want all of you who read this to save up your money so you can get implants when the time comes to lose your teeth. Currently it cost's more than $26,000 to replace all 32 teeth. That's at the rate of $825 per tooth, and you are not given any breaks - that's considered very reasonable. You need to mortgage your home to get teeth that look and feel real and are useful.

Good luck to you when the time comes for your teeth to be replaced. Perhaps by then there will only be implants and no false teeth.

Prophetic Warnings

In lieu of the Scriptures and the information therein I am declaring the current California situation with the fires as fulfillment of prophecy! Ha! How hard was that to figure out? It's 8:44 AM and it's all dark and yellow outside and I've been smelling the smoke for so many days now that I hardly notice it any longer.

Oh, and not to forget my current Obama rants, please note - our Constitution is now "hanging by a thread." This means only the Priesthood can save our dear Constitution - does that mean Mitt Romney will become the U.S. President in 2012? I certainly hope so.

Now, I want to show you the newest Rainbow Coalition staff member, who has been appointed by Jesse Jackson. If this doesn't worry you I don't know what does:

After you read this, click on the snopes link at the bottom of the email. It does confirm it and has some added facts. Unbelievable. What's next?!!

Where is Nancy Pelosi screaming about the culture of corruption? Mute, eh!

Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member

You can't make up stuff better than this!

Isn't politics grand?

HURRAH FOR THE DEMOCRATS!

Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member

Mel Reynolds

Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat

Congressman Mel to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll.

Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year
federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election Commission. He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving
five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.This is a first in American politics:

An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate...won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate...then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate!

His new job?

Ready for this??




***** YOUTH COUNSELOR *****

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?

CONFIRMED BY:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/reynolds.asp