November 20, 2008: They Just Don't Get It

Beginning of rant.

Three corporate executives fly in three private luxury jets to Washington to beg for tax payers' money.

Astronaut drops $100,000 bag of tools into outer space. OOPS!

Arizona Department of Transportation wide load seen going down the Interstate 10 freeway, accompanied by two pilot cars and 3 (yes, three) Arizona Highway Patrol cars. Is that not overkill?

AIG wasteful spending just goes without saying.

Annie's Granny can make a pound of ground beef feed two people and two dogs two meals, if necessary. Yes she can.

End of rant.

On a lighter note, my daughter called the other day and asked what I wanted for Christmas. I never know what to tell her, as I really have everything I need and I'm too practical to spend much on things I don't deem necessary. I told her to just send a card, but she won't hear of it.

That night I was reading the SFG forum on GardenWeb, the subject being seed swapping. I've never swapped seeds, because I hang on to my leftovers for years and years and use them all up myself. I never save seeds from my garden, either. I always fear they will grow into something other than the parent, and take up valuable garden space to just end up as something we won't eat. This year, however, I have joined the ranks of those who are trying to spend less. To at least cut out the useless spending (unlike those in the above rant). I began by saving seeds from a huge acorn squash, a very large jalapeno pepper, a giant red bell pepper (all grocery store purchases), and three colors of marigolds that I know will stay true because they were from my own volunteers.

But I digress. Back to the Christmas present....it dawned on me that one thing I really want as well as need are garden seeds! I rushed over to the Ed Hume Seeds seed rack, one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in a day dreaming mood, and chose all the varieties of seeds I would like to plant in my 2009 garden. I didn't go overboard, as I still have seeds from 2008, but I didn't hold back, either. My order ended up totaling under $40, including their very reasonable $2 shipping. That was well within the $50 limit we set for Christmas presents, so I emailed daughter and told her what I wanted.

Can you believe I'm actually really excited and looking forward to this gift? It's practical, it will save a ton of money over store purchased produce, it will give me the joy of doing what I really love to do (grow a veggie garden), I will be able to spend the remaining winter days looking at the seed packets and day dreaming about the first day of April 2009, when I'll be back home to begin planting them in my garden. The perfect gift.




Happy one-month birthday to my new granddaughter, Alicyn!


10 comments:

  1. I agree 100%, Granny. These executives just kill me.....i'd let them all go bankrupt. In my opinion, everyone that makes more than $100k/year is overpaid, regardless of what they do for a living....bunch of cry babies....
    Whew! just had to get that out. :)

    I think your seed purchase will be the best present this year! Now all you need is a propagation chamber....hee hee

    Your granddaughter is adorable...thanks for sharing the photo.

    Oh! Don't miss my post on cooking outdoors tomorrow, it's gonna be a good one!

    EG

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  2. There seems to be lots to rant about now a days. You forgot to mention that 'tarp' can't be passed without adding some pork to it.

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  3. I think there are a lot of "rants" left unsaid, Dan. I doubt blogspot would give me enough room to list them all :-(

    I just published another rant...I guess it's just not my day.

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  4. EG, I'm looking forward to your outdoor cooking post!

    Thanks, I think my granddaughter is pretty cute, too. You should see her big sister...she's a beauty!

    I think the government needs to buy every household a brand new Ford, Chevy or Chrysler. That way the "Big Three" could get out of the red for a few months (until they screw their companies up again) and the taxpayers would "get" instead of "give" for once! Or, as a friend of mine said, give us all $300,000.00 and we'll go spend, spend, spend and the economy will flourish!

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  5. Amen to the rant! I'm in the financial services industry and I have the same problems with those folks as you do!

    Sorry about the misleading sales people, that's what they're paid to do, and they know you won't complain enough to get it back! It's a win for them in the short term, long term if you keep paying them next month...

    And what a cute pick of your granddaughter! I love the look too... get that thing out of my face and feed me! hehe

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  6. Oh, I did complain. but it was my word against hers, and I lost. The problem was that she was the end of the line, and I never could get a superior to complain to.

    I snagged that picture from her recent movie clip. The camera was getting closer, then closer, then closer...she kept getting more wide-eyed and uncomfortable looking, then she started howling! It was really cute.

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  7. Adorable photo.

    My mom and I agreed not to send each other gifts last year. Neither of us really need anything, but I hadn't thought about seeds. I can always use more seeds.

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  8. Thank you, Daphne...I think she's pretty cute.

    A gift of seeds is a gift that keeps on giving! I can't think of anything I'd rather have. I hope this becomes a tradition with my daughter.

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  9. Alicyn is absolutely beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing her photo.

    I love your rantings -- they make me feel better! This whole mess the country is in makes me crazy!
    I've had computer issues this week and thought I had lost everything but fortunately we were able to recover -- so this week has been a rough one! Plus, I hate it being totally dark by 5:30pm and temperatures below 32 degrees! Talk about crochety - that's me this week! Spring - where are you???

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  10. bettyinga, is there a full moon or something? It seems I've been crotchety for a couple of weeks now...maybe it's garden withdrawals! Now I'm in a bad mood because my WIFI has been down since Friday night.

    I'm glad to hear you recovered everything, I've had that worry myself, more than once! It's always worked out OK, but someday I'll probably pay for my laziness in backing up my files.

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