How About That Weather?

I swear, the weather forecast for last week was: Weather forecast for the next 24 hours-- 

‘“Uh oh” amounts of rain followed/preceded by “oh crap” amounts of snow, resulting in “really, what did you expect would happen” flooding. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Your elevation may vary.”

We’ve had a LOT of weather lately—and it’s only mid-January. I am reminded that this is the perfect time of year to check in with our neighbors. I saw a post on Facebook recently, a 75-year-old-new-to-Packwood resident needed help with the snow—she needed both driveway plowing and a path way scooped for her puppies. Now, I don’t have a plow, but I can shovel a path for puppies, keep the mailboxes open, shovel a path to the woodshed, etc., pickup items for others when I am out and about. The latter assumes I can get out of my own driveway, however.

One of the things I love best about small town living is the neighbor helping neighbor thing. 

So please—when we have snow/flood/power outages/heat waves—please check on your neighbors. 

I think our hometown is a wonderful source for help—-and I encourage us all to reach out to those around us so they don’t *have* to ask for help. Because some times, asking is HARD.

I encourage us all to be forward thinking in our kindness, and help where we can. 

Good job out there to all those making life “easier“ when the weather gets “harder.” And on a personal note: thanks Neighbors Joe, Joe, and Dene for scooping out the plow-cade—that terrible berm of frozen snow that can form an impenetrable wall if not immediately addressed-- at the bottom of my drive.

 

You are much appreciated!  

When Is Enough Going to Be Enough?

Another week, another mass shooting. 

This is wrong. We can all agree this is wrong. 

We can all agree that the people using guns to kill others in schools, churches, stores, movie theaters, hospitals, synagogues, spas, massage parlors, post offices, music concerts-- dear God where haven’t Americans been gun downed? We can agree that this use/misuse of guns is wrong.

We can agree that we have a RIGHT--“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”-- to be free from being murdered when we are out in our communities; taking care of business; playing on a playground; learning the alphabet; listening to music, practicing our religion; doing our jobs; buying groceries. 

We can agree that the Second Amendment is, in fact, also a part of our Constitution. We can agree that common sense guns laws make sense, and that we can have BOTH. We can have more safety rules, more accountability; we must ensure that people that have guns treat them with the responsibility and respect that gun ownership requires.

We gun owners should be leading the movement to STOP this incredible abuse of our Second Amendment privileges. 

We can choose to stop letting the lies, and the political infighting, get in the way of securing the unalienable RIGHTS enshrined in the heart of our beliefs.

We can agree that enough is FINALLY enough. We can agree to stop living with the acceptance of mass shootings as a cost of “freedom.” We can agree that that is terrorism, not freedom.

We can agree to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Enough. Enough is already too much, too many.

ENOUGH.