My Happy Bubble

I find it very difficult to stay positive through out the day. I watch the news in the morning, a lighthearted show called the "Today Show". It's not CNN, or BBC World news. My mind isn't blown by stock market facts or intense conversation about the war on terror.

It's simple.... it covers our area, and goes after easy to understand topics.

Simple local news can be bad news... the things that people are capable of... humans... are vile. There was a man that starved his 3 year old daughter in Pennsylvania. They found her dead in her room where she was locked away. Nothing but a curtain to cover her little window. The kicker of all of this is that this little girl had a grandmother that appeared on TV and said that she never saw the little girl. Maybe twice a year. What the hell is wrong with people. My mom immediately was like, "If you starved your kids I would do something about it, that woman must have known there was something wrong" Yes, I'm sure she did, and she did nothing... like so many humans... it's a human trait to sit back and do nothing.

A woman can be screaming for her life getting the shit beat of her by an asshole and people will hide from it. The only time people do anything is if you scream "fire". What does that tell you... what it tells me is that humans are selfish. They will only act to something if it impacts them.

Meanwhile, horses have been known to jump in the path of a cougar to save their owner. Dogs have been known to attack things much larger then themselves to save a human. Cats... well, they will break your computer and never say sorry, pee on your favorite sitting spot, and bring you dead rodents that are half eaten.... They are horrible creatures too.

I am very bothered by this man that could allow this child to starve. People do it all the time... starve their animals, themselves, food is a luxury it seems in today's society. It's abundant, it's cheap, and yet this man couldn't throw a $1 cheeseburger at his kid once in a while? It's not like it's not affordable to feed a child. People starve their animals... leave them in cages and let them rot... just let them out of the house and they would be better off.

I have no solution to all of this... I don't know how I can comfort myself from this terrible information. I can't avoid it yet I must do something.... maybe write a blog about it and beg people to be more aware. If you see something suspicious about a neighbor just call the cops to investigate it. Be more nosey, be more present, be there for your neighbors, look out for the children, take care of animals, and if you see trash on the street, pick it up and throw it away.

My Orchestra teacher had a saying, a quote written on paper that was above the black board, the chairs all faced his podium, and everyday before we played together in the orchestra he would smile, point his baton at the saying and say "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and senseless acts of beauty" Something about that always stuck with me as we played classical music. It was healing... in such an angry environment of teenage hood. It's a great saying that I think more people should follow.

Windows! Glass ones that you can see through.

The minute my mom moved in with us she insisted that we upgrade some things to our very old home. One of the biggest problems we have is the window situation. It was so cold last winter, that I was forced to take bubble wrap, spray my windows with water and stick my bubble wrap to the window to help keep the constant cold breeze from entering our house. It wasn't just the glass. With large winds you could feel air pushing through the frames. The window situation became worse this summer.

The hubster went up to our bedroom after hearing a large thump. Low and Behold our window was sitting on the ground. I have never seen anything like it. The whole bottom sash of the window just plopped out of the frame. The same window shattered just a few weeks ago. The plastic on the windows have started to break off... the handles, the locks... it's a complete mess. Not to mention that I can't see out of the them... the seal broke between the double glass where the gas once was and there is condensation, so it's blurry glass every morning with a touch of frozen ice in the winter. These windows suck.

We took my moms advise and started to call around for free estimates. Along with a free estimate a sales person comes to your house and then forces you to sit at your dining room table for 2-4 hours and educates you about every aspect of the window that they sale. I felt like I was back in design school.... listening to glass ratings, gas's that are in the window, the insulation factors, the plastic they use, a heat lamp was pulled out with a heat meter to show how the glass keeps heat from passing through.... it was all.... overwhelming, and I soon was badgering the poor salespeople to "just give us a price!"

Windows... cost about $500 a window. We needed 19 of them. Talk about a hole in the wallet. My mother thankfully stepped up and helped us out. We don't have thousands of dollars hanging around at the moment.

Last night a sales agent came over for our second interview. A young man of 28, was a father of a two year old, and was constantly distracted from our weird collections of artifacts, and our children. He stayed till 11 pm, and finally we just signed the contract and hopefully found a local to be friends with. Bonus.

I never noticed windows before this... I never realized how critical they were till our windows started to turn into a nightmare. I was raised in a house that had wooden heavy windows with a storm window. You could never trust them to stay up, there was a board or book somewhere to hold them up so you didn't smash your neck or hands as you leaned out to throw water balloons full of paint and pee at the neighbors kids. (I was a lovely child)

Now, the windows that we just spent a small fortune on will stay up, have a screen in them that you can poke holes in and magically fix with a quick rub of the finger, they have child locks on them that keep the windows from opening completely, they can even stop a missile AND an atomic bomb. Well maybe not.... but they should seeing as they are like the Bentley of Windows.

Being a home owner is an adventure. One thing always leads to the next. Instead of a vacation to Disney World, we got windows. Whoopie!

No Donald Duck this year, but at least I won't have windows flying at me during every storm.

Next, is insulation in the crawl space to keep the cold air from blowing up through our floors, and then a new heating and cooling system, and then a new driveway, and then a Tiffany & Co. diamond bracelet, and maybe a new BMW convertible, and then I'm going to grow wings and fly myself to Italy.

It's all a dream, a marvelous dream, that with patience and timing, and lots of hard work will... come true. Even the wings. If they can make artificial hearts, they can make wings, and I'm the first one in line.