Out My Back Door

As I sit here in the heated comfort of my little RV, drinking my cup of hot coffee at the computer screen.  I look out  my back window.  There is a man I see out this window.  He lives there in the brush under a Yucca Tree in this vacant lot next to the RV Park.  It’s close to a public transportation bus stop which he uses every day to go somewhere.  Still, almost every night he spends it under the Yucca Tree in this lot.  He’s got a shopping cart which he lovingly packs and unpacks every day with his possessions.  I sit here and think just how fortunate I am as compared to this gentleman.  Then as the old saying goes, “for the grace of God”  comes to my mind.

How many people are living like this I wonder at times.  I heard a commercial on TV saying there was 50,000 people living on the streets of Los Angeles.  The talking head on the TV tells me that more people are slipping into poverty than any other time in the last half century.  Then on the presidential debate, I hear a participant state we need to roll back the war on poverty in this country that was started back in the sixties by a democratic president.

I’m not poor, neither am I rich, I live on the edge and I’m sure there is many more just like me in this country.  I don’t go hungry, nor am I cold at night.  Nonetheless, when I can observe it every where I’ve been across this country so far, I start to question the state of our nation.  I know friends and acquaintances who are struggling every day just to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.    Our so called leaders are out of touch, they really should come down from those ivory towers of government and walk the streets of our country.

Maybe I’m too soft, and maybe we should just tell everyone to buck it up, tighten your belt and find a job.  Pull your self up out of poverty, why this country is full of opportunity right?

Oil Spill on the gulf coast and the report this morning from CNN (latest oil spill developments) about workers becoming sick on the job.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/31/gulf.oil.spill.developments/

I worked in Valdez during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.  Many of my friends, including myself, Debbie and others got really sick and many were miles from the contaminated beaches.  I seem to remember everyone being sick, and reporting to the hospital or doctors.  A sort of flu like sickness was rampant in the camps and on the docks among all workers.   Everyone who came in contact with the oil and the dispersants that Exxon used during this period seemed to become sick.  Is there anyone else who remembers this.  I mean every one got sick.

I wonder if this was just a coincident  now just as then, or that the use of these chemicals along with the oil itself causes illness.   The dispersants were labeled as hazardous Bio-Chemicals during shipment, storage and handling.

Snowscoop Headed South

I’m always saying in the chat room, when the old permafrost ranch sells, I’m going to tie this snow scoop onto the front of the pickup truck.  Then we are going to start driving south.  I’ll drive south until someone will ask me what the heck is that on your truck.  Then and then only will I know that I’ve driven far enough south to stop.