There is a tranquil beauty in the outskirts of York, Pennsylvania. There in York was the annual Harley Davidson Open House. They have a plant, in fact now a new one and for three days people are allowed in where the bikes are made. However, it's also one of those... been there, done that and now we spend our time doing other things.

There was a poker run. The entire ride was through country. Eighty two miles through country roads and since I just sit on the back, it's a peaceful serene ride for me. Unfortunately, the camera was at the hotel for that ride. There was one gas station on the route and it was out of gas. Luckily I started this journey off the right way and told my husband to get off the wrong exit. For some reason he thought it prudent to gas up at that stop. Good thing or we'd be stuck out in the boondocks of Pennsylvania somewhere.

There was shopping to be done. When you go to several bike functions a year you basically start running in to the same things.. just different year. Only this year, I had managed to save some money aside for him to get a few of those things I knew he'd been wishing he could get.

One, he wanted something to break up the black on his bike and he got some old school tribal design painted on. I thought it was going to be decals given on most things there are two different sides. To get it as close as they do, they surely must use decals. Nope. They get paint and a brush and with one stroke they are off. Their work was awesome in it's perfection. Yeah, yeah.. the design was cool too but I was most fascinated with the process of painting, and having two sides appear to match perfectly. Because it's hand done, no two are really the same.

There's been some other things he wanted and of course we have a slew of kids to get something for. Usually we wait for Sunday when things they wanted to get rid of went on sale but that didn't much happen. These events seem to have a lifespan. After so many years it seems as if they all start to dwindle and this one is no different. I swear it seems as if there was not the business there once had been, not as many bikes, not as many vendors..just.. less. Before we give up on this one we are going to assume that possibly the hurricanes affected the participation in this.

However, we love that area and go often. Lancaster, Bird In Hand, Intercourse, Paradise and OH OH.. How can I forget the model train set up they have. There are soldiers marching, there is a house that starts to catch fire complete with a firetruck that leaves the station, rides to the house and firemen climb off the truck and go to put the fire out. A barn raising with a bunch of Amish men on top of the roof all swinging hammers. A road accident, circus, wedding AND funeral.. it was all there.. including day and night. The trains were awesome and it was only five bucks.

Business entertainment on Saturday night with some of those he works with since one of the companys he contracts from is out of York, and of course the business meeting at breakfast hoping to fix ..or rather make known a few problems without pointing fingers.

There was the bike tipping. A matter of some child that my husband waited and watched this family next to us and nothing deterred them or made them move so he started out moving carefully and keeping an eye on a particular child that jumped out [in front of him?] and my husband tried to brake fast. The bike started to tip and he was getting it back up, only I never stopped sliding and fell off, tugging the bike part way over with me. I was helped off the ground and two men helped him get the bike completely upright and when he looked back to make sure the child was okay? They'd split. Didn't hang around to make sure we were okay, just... vanished. So, my husband is left to hope the kid is okay. The little girl I presume was okay as he never said anything about her moving. It's good to take your kids out but take proper precautions for their sake or the safety of others. You might not think your son will move but it's a risk you don't take. You just have to hold his hand. I saw the family and remember before my husband finally started to pull out thinking it odd they didn't take the kids' hands and the next thing I knew I was headed toward the ground. Allow me to explain.. it.. HURT!! But, only until about 12 Motrins later and if I don't move odd I'm okay.

Other than that, we figured out there is a Mexican restaurant we won't go to again but we ate far too good. I hate throwing food away but was eating myself sick! The food was good and there was enough in one meal to feed both of us. Around the Clock Diner has the best chicken pot pie, or macaronni and cheese but it's way too much. We normally ate at Outback, but this diner was better. Yes.. a diner. There is a diner in Lancaster that I loved. In fact my husband took me there one day for dinner. The last time we were there I noticed it wasn't nearly as crowded, new menu's were given to us and we should have just left then. New management just changed the place. Anyway, it was an eventful last five days. Probably our next trip will be to South Carolina.. who knows. Maybe we'll take a trip and leave the bikes behind. We've been known to do that but he still manages to hit up every bike shop he can... I know..! A cruise! I love our trips but it's becoming repetitive and honestly only a reason to take off for the weekend. Mostly, I love the time away from here and alone with my husband. So.. guess it doesn't matter what or how we go just that we go.

I'm home finally and will update soon.

I just heard the news and I hope if anyone reading this is anywhere near the Gulf Coast will be safe, will evacuate as needed AHEAD of time, and that local governments, as well as each other will help others out to safety before the hurricane. It's not only cheaper but it is so much safer! Please stay safe as they are predicting a Cat 4..

There is a valid reason for having children when you are in your twenties. Your endurance level is MUCH higher, if they are your own children you most likely have made your home child proof.

Why they call it child proof is beyond me because all it really does is tend to lend some adult into a peaceful state of believing the child is safe. Your house will not be safe until you've had a few kids. Each one will find new and hidden dangers you will fix and protect them from.

Then, they get old enough you don't have to do this for anymore. Cleaning supplies slowly start to make their way under the kitchen sink again. Medicine bottle caps are replaced with the ones that not only can children open but so can adults. Eventually, outlets are no longer covered, nicknacks begin to adorn your rooms and just when you have everything the way you actually like it, [you've waited all their lives to live just the way you want to right?] Then, like a practical joke, as you are enjoying your living room with your things down at eye level... daring to have shelves low enough to reach since nobody is there to climb them, one of your grown children will come and burst your bubble of pleasure with just a few words.

"Mom, can you babysit?"
For the next twenty four hours, [it's a stayover babysit mind you] you will be reminded of one other thing. Just why you fit in size ten or smaller jeans when you had children without the need of stationary bikes, treadmills and other means of torture, which mind you, two year olds find fascinating too.

They run. Walking is not in the child's vocabulary and since your house is no longer child proof one can't even so much as rest. My husband is a big help ... when he's not laughing his arse off watching me try to chase after a two year old and take back from her some item she's absconded with, her giggles mingling with his laughter almost melt me but instead I did what every good grand mother does... change the time on the clocks to read my favorite word... "BEDTIME!"

By all means, insert maniacal laughter here. I just thought it was bedtime, I was too hopeful. She's two.. she's a demon spawn I'm sure of it! Almost three hours later, my husband is asleep, she's finally asleep and now, I'm just watching this little angel I've been so very lucky to be blessed with and thank God she'll go home in the morning!

If a psychiatrist was the one who told adoptive parents to keep 11 children in cages then WHY are we not arresting the fucking psychiatrist? Further more, when are we going to realize that psychiatry is a psuedo-science and demote it to the same level as voodoo and witch doctors? How many more children will we let them destroy?

WARNING NOTE: I kept going off on tangents.. sorry.

Garrison's question above came from his request, pick a question from his blog and answer it on your own blog. I have an opinion on everything. This does not mean my opinion happens to match the majority of people as I tend to have quirky views on life but I chose the above question from his blog.

When I heard this story on the news I was, at first, appalled yet oddly not suprised. The reason for my lack of suprise is years behind me now and I'm not going to delve into that. Suffice it to say I don't speak with complete ignorance of this type of topic.

As the story was unfolding I was at first feeling so badly for the children. Remember, these children already started out being adopted. I can't imagine, yes I can, sitting in a cage and wondering why my own mother or father didn't want me and is this what they wanted for me?

I never knew what motivated any parent to be this way but further listening to the story I really wished I could have heard more from the "supposed" psychiatrist that made this suggestion. Was this indeed advice a psychiatrist gave or was it made up? Maybe even something taken out of context.

Even IF one did give this advice, can't an ADULT, a parent type adult, figure out he/she is an idiot and not follow through on such advice? Ultimately does it matter what advice some type of doctor gave, if it's wrong isn't the parent ultimately accountable and wholly responsible? This is not like a doctor prescribing medication ... this is cages. Most of us don't cage our pets in the house why on God's Green Earth would ANYONE think it truly acceptable to cage children just because a doctor said so?

That said, the parents hadn't even been arrested yet. I'm assuming if indeed this was factual then all the children will be taken into protective custody immediately and parents arrested. I also think that the psychiatrist should be arrested for contributing to this if one actually did.

Babble aside, I have grown increasingly disappointed with the field of psychiatry. There was a time when I felt they were useful but in the past years I've learned first hand that they, like anyone in any field have good doctors and bad doctors. More and more we aren't parenting we are doctoring. The need is there so the field flourishes and the good doctors get lost among the horrible ones. It is a parent's job to know the difference. It's also the parent's job to know if your child truly needs this.

My oldest daughter threatened suicide once because I didn't let her go shopping. At the time, she had more friends in psych hospitals than I have known in my lifetime to even see a psychiatrist. What was happening is the suicide threat worked. The kid got sent to the hospital for a week or so, and parents were advised on the wisdom of relenting on some of the children's wishes. It worked wonders. Kids played vile games to get what they wanted but sadly, it backfired on some. Children were dying trying to play a game to get over on parents.

My daughter didn't go to one of those hospitals. I dumped my medicine secretly into one bottle then walked into the bedroom and tossed the now empty bottle in to the trash and told her I didn't spend nine months pregnant, give birth and raise her this far to have her take her life but she need not worry about me ruining her life and her plans anymore. The sheer panic that her mother was about to die sent me into fits of giggles but you know, she learned just exactly what it was like, even if only for as long as I could hold out and not laugh, she LEARNED what it was like to think you would lose a loved one over something stupid that day. She never did it again. Never.

This is not to say she didn't try to get over, she was a teenager but she suddenly drew lines. Was it right or wrong of me? I don't know, but if it stopped her from trying to do something to get what she wanted, and risk death, which so many of this kids didn't want, it was worth what I did.

Maybe my point is... we run our children to these doctors who stuff them full of medicines and never actually address the problem. The only behaviour, at least at the time, that was changing was that of the parent's. They didn't want to lose their children so they became more lax in their rules.

My son came to me once and told me his friend's psychiatrist told the mother if she gave him more priveledges the son would do his chores a little more readily. I'm sure you can imagine where I'm headed with this. It worked for his friend but not quite as well for the mother. He got more priviledges, she didn't get any more out of him than before, the kid learned he could push buttons and win. My son tried this and I laughed. I told him in THIS house, you are loved unconditionally but you EARN trust, respect and the right to extra priveledges and one of those privledges will never be simply running the streets with nothing to do because that's when he'd get in the most trouble. Have something constructive to do and he'd be able to do it. He didn't want that. And.. his friend's psych trick didn't work with me.

Our courts are ordering this more and more. In the past few years every child I've heard of in the midst of custody issues has been sent to a psychiatrist and every single one of them "supposedly' have bi-polar illnesses or some other condition that requires a lot of medication. The kid needs his parents to behave like adults he doesn't need medicine. He needs his parents to care about him enough to tolerate each other and not play some of the games I've seen come out of parents. The child NEEDs his parents to behave like adults and not medicate the child.

Psychiatry once had a place that was seldom discussed. Would I relegate it to voodoo practice? Probably not because there is a legitimate need for this practice but I do think it needs to go back to being EXTREMELY selective in what it does. But as I start to conclude this, perhaps it is psychologists that have a place and not psychiatrists. I don't know for sure but this I do know, we are over medicating our children. Our children are more protected ... no, let me end this with an odd thought... I absolutely LOVE That 70's Show. It's a half hour of serious deja vu' that illicits laughter not just because what I see on television is funny but because I've done it.. or, it happened to me. Red ALWAYS tells Eric he'll kick him in the ass. We had our kids watch that when it first came on and to them, that was akin to verbal child abuse. They were suprised to hear a parent talk to their kids like that and to see that it honestly didn't bother anyone.... when all was said and done, they wished they'd been born back then too. None of my friends saw a psychiatrist. I knew only one kid on ritalin my entire school years and yes, he needed it. ONE.

We didn't go to the doctor for every little mental anguish we pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps and kept on trucking. Kept on making life work because we HAD to, were expected to and those few that honestly, honestly couldn't? Those few are the ones that did see a psych... because they simply and honestly couldn't make life work for whatever the reason may be. That is how it should be.

It has been an odd weekend. Interesting but different. Moreso because I actually went somewhere... outside without feeling like I'd suffocate.

It's been an unusually hot summer. Okay, I'm from California these east coast summers are fairly unbearable. Well, tolerable. Anyway.. enough babble.

My husband and two sons work out there in the heat. Installing cabinets or interior trim so when they come home they want the house comfortable. It sounds fair but... 69 degrees? It's a refrigerator in here during the summer.

Now, what happens is that I become acclimated to sixty nine degrees. I wear flannel during the summer. It's not a problem until we go somewhere away from the house, 80 degrees is now miserably hot to me. Damn.. take the flannel off. Ninty degrees is not something I tolerate well anymore; I'm not used to that but 100 degrees? Oh puh-lease, even if I take the flannel off you are NOT getting me out there until you've started the car, run the AC till the windows fog up and ... well, you get the idea. To go from the house to outside this summer has been a thirty degree temperature change just with one step out the door.

We have GOT to come up with a better plan for next summer. There has got to be some kind of compromise to them wanting to come home, relax and cool off. I understand the need to do that and don't want to begrudge them that one small thing at the end of a long day.

However, we have time to consider it because the signs of fall are out there. Most people go by the color of the trees or weather but not me...

Football season has begun, Steelers did win their first game.
New television shows are being advertized to start the "Fall Season."
The dogs can stay outside instead of in the laundry room. (they can't have free reign of the house anymore.)
This means I can do laundry any time I want to.. yeah! Summer is almost over.
It also means I can use the treadmill again since it's also in the laundry room.
Quarterly taxes are due
School starts but I don't have kids in school anymore. We do, however, have increased police presence for traffic violations.

The Harley Davidson Plant holds its annual open house and we are going.

The signs of fall are everywhere... not just outside and with those signs it becomes more welcoming to actually go spend time outside.

Are you getting email "from Pay-Pal" stating that your account has been suspended due to fraudulent activity? Just click this link and re-enter your information to fix it..DON'T! It's SPAM! But I must clarify... it is not from Pay Pal.

There is more; banks, credit companies, even now it's Red Cross and likely more charities to follow.

It apparently cannot be said enough as a friend of mine recently fell for one of these or perhaps it was a telephone generated phone call and the next thing she knew, someone else was using her information to shop.

Protect yourself. Do not click on any link received in email. Go to your browser and type in the web address yourself. Don't give out that information over the phone.. make the call yourself using a known phone number not the one they give you. Shred your trash before you throw it out. Protect every tidbit of information you can.

My son's SS number had been obtained by someone and used, he was denied credit but that was much easier to repair because when he found this out was days after his 18th birthday. Whoever used it also used a different name so it was a matter of proving he was the true person that belonged to that SS number.

Does your state or insurance still use your SS number as an ID number? Petition to get them to use different ID numbers.

Once a year, if you choose to do so by mail, you can get your credit reports from the three main credit reporting agencies free or any time you've been turned down for credit. Do so. I did mine and found according to one I have lived in New York but I never have. Thankfully, that was it.

There is insurance for identity theft. Possibly a consideration if you shop online a lot or have business webpages that will of course have your name and address spread all over it. Obviously, you can't do the webpage annonymously to protect your identity, so the insurance becomes a viable option. Credit cards offer their own protection that you might pay for only as long as you carry a balance but actually, I'd check in to that because I always thought there was protection there anyway.

There shouldn't be a need for this reminder but it has hit so close to home...just down the street as a matter of fact so I know it can happen to anyone. It was, for her, something she'd done a thousand times before. Something even I have done many times before but it's, sadly, no longer safe to do.

Protect yourself like only you can do.

Not that anyone wanted my own personal opinion but I really don't think JD should be a part of INXS. And, what's with the Elvis lip he had going on there while singing Kurt Cobain? Hhmm.. oh, yeah.. he was an Elvis impersonator.

Aid Offered to US

I have heard it said and/or read over the past many years the words of some people that do not agree with the United States always intervening or helping other countries. I always just ignored them or at best shook my head in wonder.

Should we help our own first? We already DO... we help those that help them selves. We have our own problems with homeless people that we need to address and in fact, over the years, we have tried. Pardon those of us that are a bit cynical after years of hearing such comments as "You don't make enough money at McDonald's." Or.. how about the guy that blamed ME.. ME for his reason for not having a job.

HE was walking past with a bottle of beer on welfare check day and made that comment while I was helping rebuild the awning of his house and those of his neighbors. If he'd done more than drink and whine at me for his unemployment he could have had the same job because some of the roofers needed the help.

I digress some. We as a nation do in fact help ours, maybe not enough to suit everyone but you can't please everyone all the time. We also are right there to help other countries in their time of need without expectation of anything in return. It is our way, it is how everyone should be. And, yeah.. sometimes we seem to go overboard but as evidenced by this article.... no matter what you do.. you are always repaid a thousand fold. It may not be seen in our lifetime (though, in this case it is.. ) but it will happen. We have helped nations one, two or more at a time but look at this list... Even France folks.

It might not show all the time but when push comes to shove we live in a truly wonderful time. Never let the terrible few get you down because this world is filled with people I'd be proud to know.

Thank you for sending the article on..

I am going to step out on a line and say some things I know many will disagree with but please, would people sitting at their computers and bashing the government, especially the President simply ... cease?

I UNDERSTAND that much has gone wrong in the past few days following the hurricane but right now is not the time to bash others but to help others. To hear it said, the president didn't give a good enough speech. Care to hear what mine would have been?

"Uhh.. erm.. Oh My God.. it's worse than Iraq. Uhm.. Oh, .. my .. God how do you fix that?"

I read yesterday, and in hindsight, wish I'd saved the article. Someone blamed the hurricane itself on various republicans. President Bush for not signing something related to taxes. The governer for some stupid assinine thing. The hurricane is a mother nature kind of thing and not brought about for polital reasons.

That said and out of the way, move on to the looting and violence down there. When it was just the food it was semi tolerable. Stealing is stealing though. I know people get taught right from wrong so why take advantage of your neighbors when they are down? Maybe, for whatever reason it's understandable to other people; but to me... no it's not. And I'm not talking stealing food. I'm talking jewelry and televisions. I'm talking shooting guns at the very people trying to save lives. Stick a hand out to help your neighbor not a friggin' gun... or at the very least keep your hands to yourself and Allow those trying to help do so unhindered.

Another thing I find sad is this request for ONLY CASH. So many people in this country and others have big hearts and are willing to help but have no more money than some of the people in the Gulf had. There WAS a time when Toys for Tots was for the donation of used, fixable toys. There WAS a time when places like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, along with a host of others collected blankets, clothing, food and water just for a need such as we have now. How about school supplies for the children that end up lucky enough to start school again within a reasonable time. Or, college books. I've heard of different colleges that will accept students from the Gulf Coast areas but I doubt they have clean, uncontaminated clothes, money, or.. the books they'd already purchased.

Guess what I'm saying is that "in kind" donations used to have a place and they honestly still should. Yes, cash is easier to deal with and I understand that but my oldest children's greatest lessons came from understanding they too could contribute by their donations of toys. And just how many children are now without toys?

Guess this bothers me because I have a daughter I know wants to help but barely makes ends meet right now. For them, it's a temporary adjustment to a terrible situation but even she wished she could help. She'd dig deep in their closets and toyboxes to find things but right now can't afford the money. For her it's a helpless feeling to not be able to see a way to help because they've limited it to simply cash.

There will be lessons learned from this and if people choose to learn the lessons we will be that much further ahead of the game. It is far, far easier to evacuate those that can't evacuate themselves PRIOR to the storm than after. Have needed items in place ahead of time.. food, water, blankets, etc.. Find a way to help yourselves and family as best you can. How many of those people, able to sit on a rooftop for three days could have walked...somewhere? There were enough days to do so... they could block off sections of traffic for pedestrians..no?? When you get in your car, grab others that can't get themselves out and go. Clearly, since I know I couldn't walk.. I know everyone can't walk but I see many that could walk to...somewhere.

The biggest lesson ... never, ever underestimate mother nature.