by James Glaser
March 25, 2005

We Americans have it so nice. Almost all of us were born with indoor plumbing and what a blessing that is, even if we forget that now and then. Billions of people the world over don't have that and many don't have clean water, so we are doing very good. We should do all we can to make sure our water supply stays at least as good as it is now.

I removed my old kitchen sink two days ago and this morning Dennis came to hook the new one up. Dennis is my neighbor and a plumber. I could have done it myself, but this is an all new installation and I wanted everything to look real nice. I know the "golden rule" of plumbers, about everything flowing down hill and I know how to do compression fittings, but Dennis makes everything look right, because he is a plumber and he has the tools to make the bends perfect and the angles just so.

Now that I have most of the cabinets installed in my new kitchen I can start cleaning up the house. It has always remained clean, but the last few weeks it has been messy. You take everything out of the cabinets and start trying to find places to set things and very soon you run out of places and you have things every where. Now I can start putting things away and really it is fun. I have found so many things I misplaced and found lots of things I didn't even know I had and then there are all the things I have found where I had to ask myself. "what is this?" and "what do I need this for?"

It did my heart good to read today, "Even Evangelicals Oppose Bush, Congress on Schiavo."

The Associated Press wrote, "More than two-thirds of people who describe themselves as evangelicals and conservatives disapprove of the intervention by Congress and President Bush in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a national debate."

80% of all people polled opposed federal intervention, with levels of disapproval among groups supporting the GOP almost that high. I like that, because it tells me that most Americans still believe in States Rights and want Government out of there lives where ever possible.

Here in the Northland I think it must be close to 100% against the federal government sticking its nose in a purely local State decision.

Up here people talk politics a lot, I think that is why we have voting turnouts of at least 97%. If you don't vote, people ask what was wrong, were you sick? Here at the polls you can have coffee and a homemade cookie or bar to eat after you vote and yes, we have many from both parties and lots of people up here cross over and vote for the man or woman and not straight party line votes.

I heard the lake making noise today and it has been silent for months. It has warmed up some the last few days, but I didn't think it was enough to get the lake groaning. It might be making a pressure ridge and in the morning I will look out to see if any popped up.

The lake still looks very white and when it starts to lose ice, it usually starts looking kind of gray. Soon the eagles will be out there looking for any minnows or perch left on the ice by fishermen. Usually they come in big groups of immature young ones, with only a couple having white heads. When I first moved here I had to call a neighbor and tell them to look out at the lake and tell me what these big birds were. It is kind of neat, everyone living on the lake focuses on the lake and you can be talking on the phone about something going on out there and people around the lake can see what you are looking at from a different angle. Most times you can figure out what something is, by talking to other cabin owners.

When you drive down our road now it is still snow/ice covered, but now your wheels are making grooves in it. Soon it will be slush and then one day it will turn to mud. Mud is a sure sign of spring.

Tonight it is supposed to get down to 10 degrees, but they are talking 50s by Sunday and we haven't seen 50s in many months. People hear reports like that and they start getting upbeat, like we made it through another one and life will be good again.

The Gas Company stopped to fill my tank this week. If spring comes soon I will be sitting on several hundred gallons of LP gas until next spring. I guess they tell their drivers to start filling everyone up as this will be there last big sale until next season.

I have to think that gas prices are going to hurt our tourist trade this summer. It is $2.13 per gallon right now and the White House asked for a paper on what it would be like if it went to four dollars a gallon. I can tell them it would be like, stay at home. Gas is well over three dollars in California right now.

30 miles west of here is the Red Lake Indian Reservation where they had the terrible shooting this week where 10 school children were killed and many wounded. Our community is pretty upset about it. There are people on my road with relatives over there. Our prayers go out to those who have lost a loved one or had one wounded. There isn't much one can do for them right now, except let them know that you care for their loss.