Food And A Celebration

Sunday's ribs turned out wonderful. It was a four-pound rack and I pulled off 1/3 for my ribs, leaving a bit more than 2 pounds for DH's portion. That went into the crockpot at 11:00 am with water and bar-b-que sauce, and when I pulled them out at 4:00 pm, they were falling off the bone. He ate all of them, along with a veggie and a salad. 

My ribs were very different than the tomato-based sauces I've 
been used to. I used a dry rub and oven-cooked them. They 
turned out really tasty, but the rub was a completely different 
look. Still, it's the taste that matters and I was quite happy. 

My ribs were marinated in olive oil overnight, then plastered with a dry rub and put into a 250F oven for 2-hours, turned over for another hour, and then 'finished' by turning back around for another 30 minutes. I could have left it in 30 minutes more, but I was fine with the ribs as they were. They separated from the bone beautifully. I boiled/steamed fresh asparagus and had a small bowl of coleslaw and I still had half of the ribs and the asparagus left over for another meal. Score! 

I always look forward to the azaleas at Augusta National 
Golf Club, especially here at Hole 13. It's always such 
a beautiful and colorful sight, since we're usually just 
starting to come out of winter when the Tournament is 
being held.  

We watched The Masters Golf Tournament for most of the afternoon, interspersed by baseball for an hour or two. We were watching the last few holes of the golf tournament, though, so able to see Hideki Matsuyama's marvelous win on the 18th. Great tournament, great golf. As always, it was a joy to see the course at Augusta in the early Spring. I've had times when I've watch The Masters and there's been snow on the ground up here. This year we've had an early Spring and we actually have green grass starting to grow and some small leaves on the trees. But this week last year brought an unexpected blizzard that dropped more than a foot of snow on us. I remember driving through that on my way home from work. It was rather frightening because the roadway was hidden by the snow and it was coming down so hard the wipers were having a tough time keeping things visible. I'm hoping we won't have a repeat this year. 

I thought I had every tool, but I actually don't have 
these precision tweezers. I'll probably have to order 
a set because I can see a ton of uses for them. The tech 
was using one of the two tweezers at the left to clean 
out my charging port and WOW, it makes a huge 
difference. When I plug in my charging cord, it 
clicks into place now, and doesn't wiggle around at 
all. I'm delighted. 

So that was my Sunday - laid back and quiet. I did take my cellphone to be looked at by Batteries Plus - I have been having problems charging it. Although they couldn't replace the charging socket (they've ordered a new part for me), the tech did spend 15 minutes or so cleaning out the socket with a set of extra fine pointed tweezers. It works really well now! He said the charging sockets can get a build-up of dirt packed into them over time, but I'm just impressed. I don't think it's worked this well for charging since it was new. I'll still get the replacement socket installed when it arrives, but I'm VERY happy. 

Celebrate your life today. Enjoy the sunrise, feel the 
wind in your face, smell the rain if there is any, listen 
to the birds. Celebrate the diversity of life and be 
amazed at your good fortune to be in the middle of it. 

So, not much to report. Sometimes that's a great thing. I'm still loving life, and really, isn't that the most important thing? We have this precious thing called life and it's important to not lose sight of that wonderful gift. Have an excellent day and please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Flying Into the Sun - Just Watch Me Burn

Tomorrow DH will drop me off at the airport before he heads to the shop. I'll be in South Dakota by early afternoon, pick up my rental car and head southwest to Chadron, Nebraska, the closest town to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, that has hotels. I have a reservation there at a hotel and then will figure out my next steps. It's going to be a rough 24 hours, being pulled into the mess that will accompany my attendance at the wake and funeral of my brother. Family dynamics are always interesting. I'll fly back home on Sunday in the late morning. 

I feel as if I will be flying into the sun. The emotional tornado
I'll be walking into with eyes wide shut frightens me a bit. I don't
think I would be doing this at all if my sister Maja hadn't come into
town and if she wasn't going to be there at my side. 

DH remarked last night that I'll be seeing a lot of people I haven't seen for decades. True, that. It's rather intimidating in some respects. Emotions always tend to run high at gatherings like this, but I'll just have to focus hard on why I'm there and try to stay out of the emotional blackmail issues that are certain to crop up. 

I've been a box turtle for more than fifteen years now, staying
away from the Reservation since Grandmother's death in the
early 2000's. It's going to feel odd being back there once more.
I'm going to pull my "elder status" around me like a blanket. My
bald head will be my protection. 

Of course, I'm arriving back home too late to attend the event where I was scheduled as speaker on Sunday. It's unfortunate, because I had really been looking forward to speaking to the group. I phoned the other speaker yesterday and explained that I had a death in the family and had to miss my talk. She, graciously, offered to read my talk to the group if I email the text to her. It was very kind of her, and I'll get that text out to her today. 

It was extremely kind for the primary speaker to volunteer
to read my speech on my behalf. I'm taking her up on
her offer and will send her the text today. 

I'll pack tonight, catch a plane tomorrow, and return on Sunday, emotionally drained. One of my e-friends commented on yesterday's post that I should remember that I'm there for my brother - to focus on that while the maelstrom occurs around me. Great advice, and I'll be doing my very best to keep that focus. I owe this much to a man who meant a great deal to me. Attending his funeral will allow me to finally end that part of my life and move on to my next goals without baggage. It'll be good. 

I'll be leaving my emotional baggage behind
me on the Rez. I have a life ahead of me that
won't include visits back to Pine Ridge for any
foreseeable reason. 

So, I'll be back tomorrow with a post, but then I'll be on "radio silence" until Monday morning. Have a great day! 

Garage Door Blues and A Happy Ending

Yesterday was already a very busy day, starting out by driving out to the far YMCA, then the Chiropractor, breakfast, a quick stop at Target, then off to work. Best laid plans, etc., and even though everything did get done, roadblocks of a more serious nature opened up. 

The concept of automatic garage door openers is pretty simple. A
signal is received by the ceiling-mounted motor which
activates a chain attached to the center of the door. As the
chain retracts, the door moves up curved side railings until it is
fully retracted. Today's doors have to have safety sensors at
the bottom rails and a few other safety features to protect
children and animals from getting pinned or crushed. 

There's nothing like opening up the garage door at 4:40 am, backing the car out, clicking the garage door opener to close the door, and having nothing happen. Nothing! I had put a new battery into the opener on Sunday because it wasn't working well when I picked up our Pizza for dinner. A new battery seemed to resolve the problem, so I didn't mention it to DH. But this ... well this was WAY more of a problem. I had to wake DH up and we had to figure out if it was my opener, the garage door itself, or what. We finally got my opener to work, so I headed off and did my YMCA and Chiropractor, arriving home to see DH just picking up the morning paper. When I clicked my opener, the door didn't budge once again. 

The idea, of course, is that clicking the appropriate
clicker will open and close the garage door, eliminating
lifting the heavy door manually. Our first house up
here in the Frozen Northlands had a manually-operated
garage door, and the homes I grew up with also did. I happen
to be a great fan of the automatic garage door opener. 

DH set up a ladder and we pulled off the housing, checking the motor which seemed to have finally died. We're talking about an original garage door opener from 1960, and it was tired and said "The hell with it, I'm tired and I quit!" I couldn't blame it, but DH still had to get over to the Chiropractor and then come to the office to work for the day. A non-functional garage door wasn't going to cut it. 

We decided to work with the door manually, and I would contact the guys who had fixed it in the past (replacing broken chains and rails for us in prior years). Their operation didn't open until 8:00 am, so I left a message and headed out to breakfast. DH texted me that the door handle broke off when he was pulling the door open to get his truck out, but he managed to work with the lock instead and got it open. 

I opted for the backup power too, so that we can still open and
close the door easily even if our power is out. Our door is old,
wooden, and very heavy and I'm not sure I could lift it on my own. 

Mark, from Hamline Garage Door, contacted me when he opened. He remembered us and also remembered my Father-in-law (everyone knew my FIL - he was a very outgoing and engaging guy). He said he could be out in early afternoon and he would phone before he headed over. So, DH came to work for a couple of hours, then was away from the shop for a couple of hours, and then returned long enough to load up the truck with the next bunch of equipment we were taking home to the new studio workspace. 

I'm totally smiling now. I have a new, reliable garage door
opener in place before our next winter, and that's one more
think off my "possible problems" mental list. Yippee! 

I now have a new garage door opener that's up to code, works like a dream, and has a outside panel so that we don't have to carry openers along with us when we're cutting the lawn or working in the patio area. I had been thinking, just a few days ago, "I wonder how the door will work this coming winter?" Now I know - it wouldn't work at all, but now, I'm suddenly very happy. One less worry on my plate. 

On that note, have a wonderful Tuesday. I'm plugging in photos and getting out of here to the gym. I have to work off the last of my Sunday night pizza binge. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Laughing At Life - My "Perils of Pauline"

Sometimes I just have to laugh about how ridiculous my life can get. As an example, yesterday I had several errands to do, among which was laminating an insurance card so that it wouldn't disintegrate while I was carrying it in my card carrier. Although I have a laminating machine (I use it for my etchings and enamel work), I really didn't feel like digging it out for one item when I could go to my nearby FedEx Office store and use their equipment for less than $2. 

My local FedEx Office store is quite close to the house, only a few
minutes away by car. It was a convenient option for getting my
card laminated. 

I picked out the correctly sized plastic pocket, inserted my card, and turned on the machine, feeding the packet into the laminating machine. I heard the gears operate and my card was pulled into the machine. It was creating heat, and I patiently waited for my card to come out of the other end. And waited. And waited. Nothing was happening. I shut down the machine and called one of the staff over for help. 

The laminating machine I used was quite similar to this
style, with all of the interior workings closed away to keep
people from burning themselves. Laminators get VERY
hot. They had to remove both side panels and then
remove screws from the rolling mechanism
 to finally get to my card. 

Ooops! Apparently, according to the instructions nearby that I hadn't even seen, I was supposed to have put the packet into a carrier sheet. I didn't do that. My card, my IRREPLACEABLE card, was stuck in the gears of the laminating machine. 

By the time I finally was able to get my laminated card out of the machine, three sales associates were clustered around me, helping me. They had to unscrew the side casing to remove the top, and then release and unscrew several layers of gears to get down to the final level. By the time of suddess, they had used three different screw drivers, with three different people wielding said screw drivers with varying force, and finally inserted a needle-nosed pliers to pull the card from the gates of hell. What was supposed to have been a 5-minute pop in/pop out errand, had turned into a 30-minute comedy of errors. Oy! My life! Think "Keystone Cops", because that's rather like it seemed as I look back on it. All it needed was a faster film speed and a sprightly soundtrack. 

The fact that I had three staff people helping remove ten screws
from the laminating machine reminded me of the old silent
"Keystone Cops" films. Haven't seen the classic silent films?
I think some of them might be on You-Tube. 

Tonight is the next episode of Project Runway, so if all goes well, I'll write down my thoughts as I watch the episode, and upload them along with photos and results tomorrow morning. I'll be exhausted today since I was too into my current book last night to go to sleep on time - bad me! I hope your day is less eventful than my day was yesterday, and that all of your errands go smoothly. Happy Thursday to all, and I'll be back with fashion tomorrow. 

Getting Back Up - The Roly-Poly Toy of Life

I woke up this morning in a bit of a panic - just a bit, though. Nothing really hits me into a true panic mode, I guess because I seem to always land on my feet, at least I have in more than 60 years walking this earth. I've made good decisions and some really poor ones, and somehow have stumbled onward. 

Roly-Poly toys are weighted to return to their upright
positions when pushed or pulled. Babies play with
them, kids play with versions of them, and adults
sometimes feel like them when life hits them over the head. 

In a way, life is rather like the force hitting one of those roly-poly toys, isn't it? You stand up straight and proud, facing each day, and sometimes something or someone comes along and gives you a push. Or they even strike out at you. You fall down. Your reactions can vary then. You can either stay down and weep, crying out against the injustice of it all, or you can get back up, dust off, and face the fray once again. Yes - that's life. 

Of course I couldn't resist showing you these blow-up Minion
kids punching bags. These bottom-weighted punching
bags are the next stage up from the roly-poly toys of
babies. 

Is that a good part of life? It's really hard to say. That getting knocked down and getting back up is inescapable, it's reality, but your personal reactions to this are ... well, they're personal. Everyone will react differently. DH will rant and rage against the universe. He'll mope and sometimes strike out (never actually physically, but certainly on an emotional level at times). Me? I tend to shake myself off like a wet dog, and move to the next area, hoping the next experience will be positive instead of negative. 

Eventually many kids will go on to use actual returning
punching bags - on stands as they are young, or
hanging in gyms. they help arm development and
hand-eye coordination. They're also excellent to
work off a bit of steam on something non-breakable. 

Today's panic was neither negative nor positive, but it was a reminder that I need to do some planning and a bit of thought as well as scheduling. I'm going to make it work - it's what I do. Easy? Feh! Easy isn't what I usually do, but if I can succeed in this, easy is what it will look like at the end. On that note, I'm wrapping this up with photos of various roly-poly or returning toys and actions, because that's life. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll return tomorrow with yet another roly-poly installment in my life. 

Getting My Thoughts In Order - Oh! Look! There's a Butterfly!

Once again my sleep is being interrupted by stress - this time figuring out Medicare, time frames for switching over and changing other things that will have to go along with it, and our new, expanded  drivers license requirements. It's a darned good thing I don't have to do all of these at once, but almost everything is coming within the next six months or so, therefore, my clock is ticking. 

Time to pay attention to my ticking clock. I may not
want to deal with things, but deadlines are firm and
plans have to be in place before then. 

This is a post to allow myself to prioritize - it's not earthshaking, it's not pretty pictures or stuff, it's just getting my thoughts into order which is frustrating enough sometimes. I'm more of an "Let's see, bring out the spreadsheets ... Oh! Wait! Look at the pretty butterfly!" kind of a person. So, I guess this might be a mish-mash, but I'll try. 

Oooooh, A butterfly. Well, why not! I'll populate the rest
of this post with beautiful butterflies because that's a
lot prettier to look at than forms and calendars. 

First is health insurance - Medicare for DH, regular for me for a while longer. That doubles the planning because - two different types of plans, possibly two or more insurance carriers. The only absolute is that we like the clinic we go to and the doctors we see there and would like to stay with their system. Figuring this out is high priority though - plans came live on the first of this month, and actual costs will go live in another nine days. Planning ... planning ... 

This gorgeous butterfly is the Blue Morpho, found in South America.
I love the fabulous iridescent turquoise of its' wings. 

Next will be contacting and talking to some people regarding finances which will have to be moved from one type of account to another. No specifics here - LOL. Look for the bear behind the next tree instead. It's going to take some phone calls and maybe a quick touch of base with our accountant to know exactly what to do here ... so - forest, meet trees, meet chain saw. I need a clear pathway and some clear directions for this one. 

This lovely butterfly from the Carolinas in the USA is obviously
a Denver Broncos fan. Just look at that blue and orange
coloring! 

The driver's license issue will be a total pain for me, much less of one for DH. He's a local boy. Even though he was adopted, he has a birth certificate that doesn't look like a joke, he has adoption papers that are readable, and although his passport is expired, he's got lots of documentation and an uninterrupted history within our area of the city. Me? I'm not so lucky. I'm going to have to check a lot of things out before I get my license renewed. I don't have to do the super spiffy all access license right away - I can push that off for a year or so - but I do have to seriously look into my ridiculous lack of paperwork and start plugging some holes. 

This lovely butterfly is called the Mexican Bluewing and is found in
northern Mexico and southern Texas. There is concern that it may
be impacted by "The Wall" between the USA and Mexico. 

It's much harder to live in our information age in so many ways. We live in an age of suspicion and anger. Because of that, walls have slammed down and all T's must be crossed and I's must be dotted. In block letters and printed format. My T's are actually crossed and my I's are dotted, but mine are in cursive with spirals and a bit of graffiti. It's all there - just a lot harder for me to get to. 

This spectacular butterfly is called the "Golden Cocoon", although I
couldn't find a lot of info. It's so pretty, though, with all of those
varied shades of purple. 

So there you have it - my thoughts laid out for the day. What a laugh ... what a mess! I think I need a really good swim to get some of the stress out of my life right now. Have an excellent weekend, hug someone special, and start thinking about your Halloween costumes and treats. Samhain is coming up quickly. I'll be back on Monday. 

Acting On A Reward - Food and An Alert

Every once in a while the stars align and I get a treat. Yesterday was one of those rare days when time and circumstances merged and possibilities existed. You may remember when Sharon visited at the end of August/beginning of September to attend the State Fair with me. As always, we kicked our vacation time off with a lovely dinner at Red Lobster - a favorite place to eat. I am a member of their purchase club, even though I only eat there a few times a year. So, I scanned my receipt at the time and received a reward. Huzzah! It's always wonderful to receive an award - LOL. 

I joined the rewards program in the spring, but
since I don't eat there often, hadn't cashed
in my reward until yesterday. It was a
lovely lunch and I enjoyed it a great deal. 

My reward consisted of a choice of three things, but of the three I was only interested in one: a free "Choose Your Own Lunch Combination" meal. There was a deadline by which it had to be redeemed, of course, but that date was in November, so I had plenty of time. Yesterday, the stars and the laundry and the errands all aligned and I decided to indulge. 

I do love their biscuits, and indulged by eating
two of them! I'll have to work extra hard in the
swimming pool today to get the two pounds
back off, and it was worth it! 

It was delightful. I chose grilled shrimp and grilled scallops, I indulged in lobster and cheese mashed potatoes for my veggie, and it also included a side salad and their cheddar-baked biscuits. I added in a glass of iced tea. Total for the meal ... $4.28! Ridiculously inexpensive and oh, so good! I added a nice tip to make the total $10 and considered it well worth it. I even got points for the lunch added to my rewards account for my next reward. Total SCORE! 

The signal for the Presidential Alert was loud and somewhat
obnoxious, but I think it's quieter than that used for Amber
Alerts or tornado warnings. 

While at lunch my phone went off with the Presidential Nationwide Emergency Alert. I had been expecting it, so it was a simple matter of one-two seconds to push my phone screen and silence the tone, but I did find it amusing to hear it from many other phones throughout the restaurant. Did you get your phone emergency noise yesterday? Although it was supposed to have reached all electronic phones, etc., there apparently were some people whose phones did not buzz the alarm. It's an annoying sound, but I have to admit that the Amber and Silver Alert sounds are worse. 

So, with memories of a lovely day behind me, errands and laundry accomplished, plus a wonderful hour-long chat with Aearwen, I called my Wednesday complete. I'm ready to return to the work world now, so Thursday be warned! Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Aren't We Fresh and Clean?

I admit to being mystified. Do we all stink? Do our houses smell bad? Do our cars emit sickly odors whenever we open the doors? Would people 10-15 feet away melt at the stench of each of us as we passed in a hallway without use of cover-up scent? I'm curious, because it seems that odor cover-up scents and air fresheners are starting to dominate our lives. 

Body odor can indicate illness, not just poor hygiene.
Here's a link to a small article about body odor you
might find interesting. 

There are scents to add to the washer. I guess it doesn't matter that most detergents already have their own scent, we have to add cap-fulls of crystal scent bombs into each load of laundry. I have a front loading washer, and I do add a VERY SMALL - like itsy-bitsy amount of smell to each load. BUT it's because I have a front loader and I use scent free laundry products. I know that even though I am meticulous about keeping my washing machine aired out and wiped down, it's going to have a slight odor that I really don't want on my clothing. 

There are a LOT of different laundry scent boosters on
the market today. Most of them recommend HUGE amounts
of crystals to mask normal human odors. There are people
I've known who would benefit from huge amounts, but
not very many. To be honest. I use a bare minimum - just
to keep my washer drum and door seal fresh. 

I'm scent sensitive. I have become more and more scent sensitive as I've grown older. Scents on my clothing can cause me to break out in an allergic rash. Heavy scents and perfumes on others can pull me into extreme sneezing fits or, in rare cases, make me nauseous. I rarely wear perfume, and when I do it's an essential oil blend from a local perfumer. I use scent-free detergents and softeners. If I could find a scent-free wash freshener crystal, I'd switch to it, but I'd still use a barely-there amount. 

There are multitudes of different bathroom air fresheners. I do use
one when Sharon visits. I like her to have a bathroom that
smells nice. But I usually let it rest until her next visit. DH has
one specific style that he likes in his bathroom. So I get
that style for him when I see it is available. 

Commercials center around making things smell fresh. To do that, you don't open your windows to get a blast of fresh air. No, you affix a freshener to the air ducts in your car, or you grab a spray can of a freshener and spray it around. You also use scents in the bathrooms because ... well, it's a bathroom and sometimes excrement will stink. 

Fainting students? We really don't hear about it often, not
even in the athletic locker rooms. 

With all of the publicity about how bad teen-aged boys stink, I'd expect to see the halls of any average middle or high school replete with prone bodies as these young men walk past, wafting their stink over the clueless hordes. I haven't seen this happen, even though I haven't been inside of a school building for years. I suspect I would have heard about young Jonathan Hardwick causing the entire geometry class to faint from his stench. 

I saw this Fabreze commercial last night - probably the
inspiration for today's post, as well as the foundation
of my query. That room looks sparkling. Does it really
need a spray air freshener? 

So, I ask once more. Are we really that smelly? Are we unsanitary? Do we not shower or bathe if we are able? Does the key to a wonderful day lie in a can of air freshener that we gleefully spray around our living room before stretching out on the couch with a contented sigh? If an alien race ever wanted control of our modern population, putting chemicals into our air fresheners should do the trick. 

Have a great Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow for the Super Blue Blood Moon. What fun! Enjoy your day. 

Thank Goodness It's TUESDAY????

I'm almost happy that it's Tuesday? OK, I know that sounds weird, so let me roll back a bit and explain. 

I'm actually really happy that it's Tuesday. Maybe I can
get some work done early this morning before I have
to open the shop to the public. 

When I first awakened shortly before 3:00 am, I mentally reviewed my to-do list. I focused on what I needed to do on Thursday, when I needed to go to the bank, and what things I needed to have completed by then. Panic set in. I hadn't accomplished nearly enough on my "needs to be done by the end of the week" list! 

Such a silly goose! I'm so happy that it's only
Tuesday. I have more time to panic before I'm
behind at the end of the week. 

But then I breathed a sigh of relief. "Silly goose," I thought. "It's only Tuesday. You still have two days before you've fallen behind and, if you actually do what you're supposed to do, you might even manage to not fall behind at all." 

I'm falling behind my scheduled goals. Maybe if  I hadn't stopped to help that
little girl wearing the red shoes and carrying that cute little dog? 

Of course, that is unlikely. I'm pretty sure I will still be behind schedule on Thursday morning. But, I probably won't be AS behind schedule as I might have been if today actually was 48 hours from now. So, I'm quite grateful it's Tuesday. What a relief. 

So that's my crazy Frozen Northlands rant for the day. Have an excellent TUESDAY, and I'll be back tomorrow. Now to find pictures, post, and then off to the pool. 

How Did I Get So Far Behind? Ack!!!

It's crazy, but it's the way things go in my life periodically. I do catch up with my emails, and I interact with customers, download orders, read e-books, etc, but I fall behind on social media. Unfortunately, Live Journal/Dreamwidth is part of my social media. I have to make a point to get a bit more caught up today if we stay slow at work. It's not an excuse, there really is no excuse for letting life get in the way of friends, but it's what's happening in my life right now, so that's it. It's a fact, not an excuse.

I've been falling down on the "friend" job lately, falling behind
on reading LJ/DW posts and commenting. I apologize! 

It's not just LJ/DW that's been pushed back a bit in my life, it's also Facebook and Pinterest, and the other "reach out and touch someone/something" electronic groups. It's at times like this, when I'm keeping busy with other things, that I'm very grateful I don't tweet or do other secondary and tertiary media. My free time is limited to less than three hours in an average day, and that's really not much.

I'm going to try to stay in touch more. At least that's my goal. But please
be patient with me as I try new schedules and efforts. 

So, no excuses, but I'm going to make an attempt to do better, to stay in touch more. I need to find out what the monthly story challenge is for SWG, I need to find out what's going on in the lives of several on-line friends who have posted lately, and I need to pull myself out of the hole I'm finding myself in.

I'm reaching out and asking for patience, but don't be afraid to
contact me directly. 

BUT - if you have something that you really need me to see, or want to say something specifically to me, use the "message" feature, tag me, or email me directly. That way I'll be sure to see it and respond. For those of you who would normally have a response from me within a few hours, I apologize. Right now life is getting in the way. *sigh* Have a wonderful Tuesday and enjoy!

Human Trafficking in Minnesota - Be Kind

It's a rest day for Le Tour, and Chickie is back in town, so I don't need to do any kitty care this morning. Those chortles of glee you are hearing are coming from my area of the USA. But, I still have to work today so I'm not totally home free quite yet.

Lili Huang, age 35, was accused of enslaving and
abusing her 58-year-old Chinese maid. 

One of the leading stories in my overnight news packet this morning was the story of a woman from one of the eastern suburbs of Saint Paul being arrested for human trafficking and slavery. Apparently she had a maid from China whom she kept practically imprisoned, physically abused and severely beaten and starved almost to death. She had taken the maid's passport from her so that she couldn't leave the country, and had starved her down to 88 pounds from her normal 120. All within 40 miles of where I live. I'm appalled!

It was one more instance of how inhumane human beings can be toward other people. Human trafficking occurs throughout the world, in some places on a very large scale. It's not just women and men being forced into prostitution, it's desperate people trying to flee impossible conditions of poverty and exploitation, only to be tricked into situations even worse than those they had left behind. Some of the people exploited through human trafficking are tricked into 'employment', others are sold into slavery or simply kidnapped. People of all ages, even young children, disappear every day and are no longer heard from again. Governments and police are either unable or unwilling to prosecute and investigate, and sometimes the police are just as bad, participating in the crimes themselves.

Many people pushed into slavery are children, exploited for
sexual slaves. Although the statistics above deal with female
victims, boys are also sexually exploited, just under-reported
and often ignored. 

In the USA we reach out to animals which have been abused, mistreated, starved and chained in deplorable conditions, often ignoring the people we walk by every day whose chains may be invisible but are every bit as real. Isn't there something each of us can do to help rescue those who are currently exploited and attempt to eliminate further trafficking? I'm not sure what I, as one individual can do, but I'm sure going to look into it. It makes me weep when I hear about one more instance of the inhumanity of mankind.

Did you know that many states never passed laws against modern-day
human trafficking? Although my state does have laws, they don't seem
to be enacted as often as they should be. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday and please, do something kind for another person today. Let's help tip the scale in favor of humanity, love and peace today.