Sweetpea’s Garden

We have, at last, launched the new website. Within the next 24-48 hours, depending on how fast your little piece of the Internet is updating, you should be able to see it.  Feel free to go take a peek. If something doesn’t work, please wait until Monday to tell me.

More later. Right now, there’s some final tweaking to be done, followed by some drinking, and then a serious amount of sleeping.

So parades were a big deal in our household when we were little. Sweetpea and I were both baton twirlers with the “Pink Panthers, Ltd.” (And no, I will not post pictures.) Part of the deal though was worrying about whether the weather would cooperate, since several of the parades were held at less than ideal times in Binghamton’s weather cycle (like the Christmas parade in November, often after the first snow fall; and the St. Patrick’s Day parade in March when its still freezing!) And here is where I am incredulous. This year Binghamton is having their St. Patty’s Day parade tomorrow - Saturday, March 1st.

Why so early, you might ask? According to the story in the local paper, it is because our pipers come from all over and the guys from NYC and Phili have better offers, so we have to be off date. Okay, I kinda get that, but two and a half weeks before? Even if the parade goes off, which I doubt given the winter the folks in Bing have been having, who is going to line the parade route when its freezing cold, with snow and ice all over the place. (Of course, my Mom and Dad would have, along with the Grandparents.) I bet the people of Binghamton would trade fewer piping bands for feeling their fingers and toes!

The other perspective I offer on this is the seven year old little girl, so excited to be in a p a r a d e! And the trauma of watching the weather and realizing that the parade she has been practicing for will be canceled because of the weather (which will still happen in Binghamton from time to time - it’s Binghamton!). And yes, that was me. More than once. Can’t we try to schedule for when we have the best chance of the fewest cancellations?

So to all the little boys and girls waiting and hoping (do they still wait and hope for such simple life pleasures these days as small town America parades?), I hope the March 1st St. Patrick’s Day parade goes off. Oh, and be grateful for those warming packs that you can put in your boots that I didn’t have.

Well, it has been almost another week. Who knew Sweetpea and I would both get swamped at the same time! (Although I am definitely less-swamped than she is.)

It is finally Texas’s turn to participate in the election frenzy that has engulfed 2008. Watching TV here finally feels like watching TV in DC - political ads all the time, including a few not paid for by the candidates themselves. I guess that is the only difference with DC - PAC ads abound, which I do not miss!

Should be interesting to see what happens here, if only because Texas has open primaries, so lots of Republicans are planning to vote in the Democratic primary in the hopes of having some effect on the final selection of candidate. And while I understand this sentiment (I did it when I lived in Virginia) the intent behind it seems less than savory - I’ve heard lots of people saying they are voting for Hillary because she will be easier for McCain to defeat. And that just doesn’t sit right with me. When I crossed parties in VA, I wasn’t thrilled with the presumptive Democratic candidate, and was supporting the one Republican candidate that I thought I could live with at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (My choice lost.)

So I will be interested to see where Texas comes out next Tuesday. And at the same time, I just can’t wait for November so we can stop all the madness (at least temporarily). Cause it won’t stop once we have a Democratic candidate. But maybe, just maybe, we can keep this election out of the gutter? I really could give a crap about theme tearing each other to shreds. I want to know what they are going to do for our country, our infrastructure, our schools, etc. Which makes me wonder - garden friends - what issues really do matter to us? Or don’t matter at all, as the case may be. I’d be curious to know.

BTW, isn’t Ron Paul running for President? I just saw a re-elect Ron Paul to Congress ad…Can you run for election for two posts concurrently? That seems beyond dumb!