In my opinion -

When I woke up this morning I looked out the window to see that the world had gone white again - covered with a thick blanket of shimmering snow.

When I was a youngster I would have jumped up and down but not this morning.

After the 26 inches we had here a few weeks ago - some of which is still mounded on the right corner of my front yard - I am not thrilled. All right, so it is pretty.  And it is fairly harmless compared to what I am thinking about - Ice. Please don't freeze. Ice is a whole different can of worms isn't it?

Everybody is dealing with weather somehow. That's how it is. Today it is snow here in the Washington, DC area - my daughter says the wonderful and beautiful warm days in northern California are different this year because they are a daily surprise. Sun and warm breezes sound good to me but I get what she means. Things are changing.

The world around us is changing. And, its not just the weather.

I don't usually talk about politics on my blog having decided it might be better to keep my thoughts to myself these days. But I think about what's happening in our world. How could I not be thinking about what is blared out through radio and television 24/7.

I don't like having my opinions formed by entertainers and arguments between quasi commentators who report and talk about most anything in order to fill their time. So I watch Hallmark Movies.

I stopped the newspaper shortly after Jim died four years ago because I was not reading them. One  morning I decided I did not want to pay for the pile-ups of unread newspapers collecting near my back door or carry them to the trash.  When I need  to catch up on obits I stop by the near-by library.

But I pay attention. Follow the news, read a bit and talk with people whose opinions I value.

 Now the words are piling up behind my teeth pushing because they are ready to burst out.

I hate what has and is happening to politics and the election going on in our country. I was raised to respect the office of the President of the United States and to expect decent leadership from Congress. I cannot relate to the ideas being strewn around and to the loss of decorum and intelligence in the debates and comments from one candidate or commentator to another.  In my opinion the individuals who are candidates are not showing themselves as anyone I would be proud to have representing our country.

Are you as boggled by and ashamed of them as I am?

But maybe its hard to notice now after the past 7 years when many of the legislators elected to Capitol Hill seem to have lost their sense of what governing means to the point that they don't or can't provide any leadership for the country. .. other than how to bully each other like in the good old days in junior high school.

Today feels like a sad and barren time here.  I keep hoping someone will offer something better.

It feels cold - and its not just the snow or ice, is it?

PS: Someone took the time to write a comment which I appreciated - and it gives me a heads-up that I may not have said what I mean clearly enough.

I am not afraid - for myself. Although as an aging widow who is watching my husband's pension  dwindle before me daily  thanks to financial games - and who feels vulnerable in today's health care system - I guess I should be.  I am angry - that a group of like-minded folks who seem to me to have little interest in anything except their own agenda have landed in Washington and stalled governing and government because they are too partisan to mediate compromises on important issues = and they don't appear to care who they hurt as they play their games.

This is what I fear most - each citizen has one vote - it is precious and it is powerful.  Will the voters use their vote to really solve problems - in a way that takes care of the needs of all of the people in the United States.  This is not reality TV - this is real life - and the United States needs the best person for the job -