Posts Made By: Christine Canelos Welsh

Hey Poppet, did someone rub a balloon on your head?

I'm going to have to use up some vacation before June, so I'm looking to take a star party trip this Spring somewhere in the midwest. Anybody have any suggestions?

(Yeah, I know, it's Christmas Eve and I'm on Astromart...)

If it's chilly where you are, warm your heart at the following:
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Be sure to read some of the links, especially "Why we track Santa".

Happy Christmas to all and may all your astro-dreams come true!

Best holiday regards from Christine and Mike Welsh

On January 2, Her Serene Felineness, Strawberry the Cat sailed away to the Gray Havens. She was 20 years old. She had clear skies and a beautiful moon to travel by.

Bon Voyage, Strawberry.

I’m clipping this to a new thread so as not to hijack the “flip, flop” thread.

Forrest Heinle said:

Brian, we're not against people having health care, we're against people getting health care for free while someone else foots the bill for them, and that person footing the bill gets NO say whatsoever in the equation.

Does anyone seriously believe that this is not already happening? I guarantee you, that when an uncovered person goes to the emergency room, or gets admitted to the hospital and runs up tens of thousands of dollars or more in care with no hope of paying it off, the hospital writes off most, if not all of it. Do you think those costs are NOT getting passed along to the remaining paying consumers of health care? I’ve got news for you, most of us are already footing this bill without any say in the matter.

Forrest Heinle said:

And while you might think it works pretty good elsewhere, i've seen plenty of horror stories on TV where it didn't work very good at all.

When you have people forced to choose between health care coverage and paying for rent and groceries, as I am personally witnessing here in my job as a health care plan administator, it's already not working very well here. When you have people foregoing health care for minor issues because they can't afford it - minor issues which then become major, requiring the above-mentioned uncovered emergency room and hospitalization, you have a never ending cycle of spiraling health care costs for the rest of us. Something clearly has to give.

Forrest Heinle said:

I guess i'll just have to continue being a "selfish, bad loser Republican"

Woe is me.

Can we perhaps discuss some real, workable solutions? I’d like to do that, but without mockery, blaming, or derision.

Anyone?

It pays to organize your files once in a while - I forgot I had these! This was the Sunday after Thanksgiving on my dad's farm in east central Missouri. We were groaning about having to drive home in this weather, but I thought it was beautiful.

I happen to believe that evidence supports that human activity is contributing to global warming. I also happen to appreciate the skeptical questioning by those who believe otherwise. We need critical thinking on all matters before us, that’s what we hold most dear in science.

However, I find that I don’t much care whether it is or it isn’t human caused. We should be changing the way we live on the planet, not just because of this threat, but because intrinsic value of having a clean environment is that it is good for us, both economically and for our health.

If the threat of global warming, human caused or not, scares people enough to change their ways, frankly, I’m fine with that. We do a lot of things to prevent the “what ifs” in our lives, why not this one? The statistical likelihood of my house burning down is small, for instance, but I still keep smoke detectors and fire extinguishers handy just in case.

If the threat, even the possibility of human-caused global warming causes people to embrace alternative, renewable energy technology and to conserve the amount of energy they use in the first place, I'm fine with that too.

This is a darn small planet overall, by not limiting the emission of man-made greenhouse gases, even if we are not contributing to global warming, we are contributing to the degradation of air quality, water quality, and mucking up a great deal of plant and animal systems, with which we ourselves are symbiotically connected. If the United States doesn’t take the lead on this issue, emerging industrial nations never will. If we ignore this, we are effectively peeing in our own well. Bottoms up, folks.

I am trying to go through my 500 plus photos from a recent trip to the San Francisco area. What a great place. You've got this beautiful city and then only minutes away are beautiful natural areas where you could hike for hours without hearing any man-made sounds. Here's a wild California poppy. They were everywhere. What a beautiful color!

My friend came over with her two Shihtzu-poodles. What funny little dogs! Poppet was happy to have some company. I love those furry faces.

So, this morning it was announced that our new boss was going to stop in and meet everyone, even though he doesn’t start until July 1. Okay good, I’ve been looking forward to this. I glance at the clock and think, okay, I’ve got about 10 minutes, I’ll just pop into the ladies room while I’ve got the chance.

That’s when it happened.

Wardrobe malfunction.

I got to meet my new boss.....totally....unable....to.....zip.....my....pants.

It's really hard to shake hands with someone when you've got yours clasped in front of you. :S