My local book discussion was yesterday and this month we did "Beaded Hope" by Cathy Liggett, which most people liked, but I had a few quibbles with. It's about a group of suburban ladies who go on a church group trip to South Africa and end up helping poor village women with a plan to sell their handmade jewelry in America. The villagers are very poor & many of the women have been infected with HIV from unfaithful husbands, so I was skeptical that the price of a few bracelets would bring in enough funds to actually make a difference in the women's lives. One new member of the group insisted that it would help the village women's self esteem, but I pointed out that self esteem didn't fix the leaks in the roof or fill their bellies with food. I pointed out that Jesus's teachings were of a practical nature & cited Matt. 25 in the Bible, which has nothing about self-esteem, but plenty of concrete ways to help people. I get angry at all that "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" that Americans are so fond of. What if a person is too poor to even have bootstraps? A lot of people claiming to be Christians blather about the "deserving" poor and act like capitalism is synonamous with religion. Jesus never talked about the free market (or abortions or gays, either) and he said help the poor, nothing about who was deserving or not. The whole attitude just gets me riled up, as you can see. Grrr!
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After the meeting I did some shopping for my sister, whose birthday is Saturday. She's a nurse, so she actually has to work that day, but we will celebrate another day. I've ordered some stuff online, but one thing won't be here till mid-October, so I wanted some actual presents for her. I'm also picking up some things for my mom to give her, since my mom no longer drives & has trouble getting around. Usually my sister just buys stuff herself & doesn't need anything when her birthday rolls around, but this year she actually gave us some good hints, which was extremely helpful.
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I finished the otter picture the other night and am pleased with it. Now I need to get a mat before sending it to the customer, who lives in Pennsylvania. It's for her granddaughter & they can frame it however best fits her decor.
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It's rained here nearly everyday for about a week. Making up for the dry summer we had, though I'm sure that farmers are not pleased with the timing. It's also cold for this time of year & I've been wearing a jacket when I go out. Sometimes it's so dark in the apartment that I must turn on lights in the afternoon. Doing that reminds me of winter, when darkness falls at 5 pm. I'm hoping the building managers turn on the central heating next week, since it's so cold. I've had 2 blankets on my bed at night. I've got space heaters in various rooms, but I don't like them to run too long, in case their mechanisms overheat. Besides, the room cools off all too soon when they aren't running. I do make certain that Dora is warm enough, I don't want her getting sick from the chill. But maybe with her little fur coat she's warmer than I think?

For people who have been to my page before, don't be alarmed, it's still me. I couldn't get the background to change to an autumn picture, so I decided to try a Theme that someone else made that I found on a page showing various designs for Xanga pages. So far, I like it, but I still miss the original layout I used to have before they disabled it this spring. *sigh* I'm going to try to find themes for the various seasons if I can, so I can change them throughout the year.
I'll be posting a more interesting update soon, but I just wanted to alert you to the new look.

After a sweltering dry summer, we seem to be having a very early fall.The temperatures have dropped drastically in the last 2 weeks, one morning I saw frost on the cars! It's also raining several times a week. It's too bad some of that rain wasn't here a month or so ago. The newspaper has stories of the poor harvests farmers are having. A lot of the trees are already turning yellow at the end of their branches, which usually doesn't happen till the beginning of October. I'm wondering how the weather will affect the fall leaf colors.
This photo is one I took of goldenrod flowers, which are abundant this time of year in the wilder patches along the roads. When I was in elementary school, we had a ruled tablet to practice our letters in and it had a drawing of a goldenrod on the cover. Ever since then, I've had fond feelings for the plant.
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As always, I'm emotionally vested in the presidential election process. As a lifelong liberal Democrat, I am hoping for President Obama to be re-elected. I don't like Mitt Romney, I think he will do or say anything to be elected and his running mate, Paul Ryan has shown that he too, will tell any lie to make himself look better. I used to think Romney was a decent guy who made a Faustian bargain, but I don't think he's so decent anymore. I think his wealth & business experience has given him priorities and a view of the world that is nothing like most Americans, or for that matter, regular people in any country. I am looking forward to the debates in October, which I react to as if they are a soccer game, cheering on my candidate.
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I'm working on a picture of a sea otter for a customer's granddaughter. It's nearly done. I'm using Prismacolor pastel pencils on a royal blue paper. I haven't had a lot of experience with the Prismacolor pencils, so I suspect I'm using them with too heavy a hand. The otter came out a bit dark, so I'm trying to lighten him up, so that he shows up better on the dark paper. I think I can get that to work. I'm pleased with the way the water came out, I even put little waves with foam on top to show the movement of the water. Hopefully, I'll be finished with it within the next week or so.

I hope that, amid all of the picnics, store sales & other activities that people remember the point of Labor Day, which wasn't to celebrate hedge funds, the free market or one's stock portfolio, but the hard working people who actually get things done.