Soaked

Lawns are like TV's. Everyone has a lawn, because everyone else has a lawn and always will have a lawn. No one questions 'lawn-ness'.

In light of the dwindling water supply and that fact that people are supposed to be conserving our precious commodity, why is no one thinking about natural landscaping?

Now, before you get me wrong and think natural means wild and untamed, I saw a natural landscape around a house in Sarasota, Florida that was 'manicured' and gorgeous! Beds of native flowers, pathways of seashells and gravel, a charming pond and shady pergola..but no lawn.

Because the plants were native, they flourished without any help from sprinklers or fertilizers. No one had to 'water', mow, thatch or fertilize. There were no hoses, rakes, spreaders, edgers, mowers or chemicals...and the 'garden' was lush and thriving.

If your lawn takes gallons of water, tons of chemicals and hours of mowing and care, it's because its not natural. Think about taking out the sod, (sell it to someone else who desperately wants to spend all of their free time maintaining it!) and put in pathways, ponds, and natural shrubs and flowering plants.

Then sit back, enjoy and marvel at just how well nature can take care of itself! No high water bills, no dangerous chemicals, and no effort!

Sicko Health Care

It's been interesting to read comments about the 'Sicko' movie. Some people are shocked to find that their insurance won't always cover them. Others want our government to fix it all and be their new safety net. Others have avoided insurance as well as doctors by being careful in their food and lifestyle choices and vow to steer clear of someone dictating to them about their own bodies.

There certainly seem to be two camps: one that wants someone to care for them, and the other that feel responsible for themselves. I'm of the latter group as I know I won't cheat myself, overcharge myself, or refuse to approve of my own treatment. I may misdiagnose myself, but I won't overmedicate myself. I also won't recommend extensive and expensive testing to prove all the things that are not wrong with me so I won't sue myself for negligence.

Think of all the time that I won't sit in waiting rooms. Think of all the diseases that I won't catch from germ ridden hospitals. Imagine all the old magazines that I won't have to read and all the money that I won't pay to specialists, insurance companies, HMO's, labs, technicians, hospitals and nursing facilities.

Socialized medicine? I lived in a country that had it. The doctors got very good at doing extensive procedures that would pay them the most, whether you needed it or not. Cheap? Taxes were high to pay for it all. Nothing is free....except freedom to choose to not let someone else be in charge of how you feel, and what is done to you.

I mean, being sick is bad enough, without someone charging you for it too!