AMERICA - The Right Way!! (Day 279) [Remember the Trade Center!!!]

There a lot of stuff to get everyone up to speed this morning, so I'm breaking the opening rant into sections.

Another confirmed case of pneumonic anthrax - the postal worker in Sterling, VA, is diagnosed with the malady.

Another possibly tainted envelope was reported at the New York Post, though it is likely "collateral mail".

Several suburban mail facilities in Washington, DC, are undergoing tests for anthrax.

CDC has changed policy regarding treatment of anthrax: exposed people should get 60 days of antibiotics, not the current 10 they are receiving. Pneumonic victims to receive multiple antibiotics - Cipro and at least two others.

US warplanes and Northern Alliance troops step up attacks around Mazer-e-Sharif, though it is uncertain when the city will be captured.

Northern Alliance would like the United States to step up its attacks. The United States bombs Kabul and Kandahar.

Uzbekistan agreed to open some of its river ports to allow relief supplies to go to Afgoneistan.

The Senate overwhelmingly (98-1) approves anti-terrorism legislation. The President to sign it today.

A $1.4 billion package for emergency preparedness has been introduced in the Senate.

The UNITED WE STAND postage stamp will be available November 1 in Post Offices in Washington, DC, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

I learned this morning that another worker in my building - someone whom I've known almost since the first day I worked here, 14 years ago now - had her mother pass yesterday. I would ask for your prayers for her.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY EVENING.

I left about an hour and a half ago to go pick up my darling daughter from work. She asked if we could stop at a grocery store on the way home. While I was waiting for her to make her purchases, I sat in the car & watched people go by. We are nearing the end of a two-day wind storm and it's still quite breezy. It seems to have had the effect of invigorating everybody. I watched a daddy push his little son in the grocery cart....running REALLY FAST all the way to their car, vroom-vroom.....the little boy was laughing & having a ball....two guys came literally jumping out the door with big grins on their faces. My daughter came out a bit disoriented;didn't remember where the car was at first. It gave me a few extra minutes to think about how beautiful she is (She got her hair cut today & it's-she's-gorgeous.) Then she came trotting over with her bag. It was so good to see people laughing & enjoying themselves.

When we were a couple of miles from her house I noticed that there were fireworks to the south. I could NOT figure out where they were coming from. As we got closer to her school I thought maybe that's where they were; sure enough, as we came off the De Pere bridge, I saw a big sign announcing that her college was having some type of Halloween event; I guess the fireworks were part of the celebration. I dropper her off and sat in the car & watched them for awhile. It was so good to hear big BOOMS and not have to be scared of them.

I was feeling a bit hungry, due to the fact that the grilled burgers my hubby had promised as a treat for son #2, who came home for the weekend, never materialized, as son #2 just discovered that A.)A good friend has been ill with seizures and several strokes and has not been diagnosed, and B.)another friend has been in jail since yesterday, when he and another friend(who, unfortunately, IMHO, was not caught) thought it would be really funny to set off a "flour-bomb", scattering white powder all over a....yes....U.S. Postal Service Mailbox. Son #2 figured it was time to hunker down with his homeys and spend some quality time with friend A, and try to determine just how STUPID friends B & C are. Hence, no burgers. Instead, hubby & b.i.l. are enjoying some shrimp (yick.)

So after the fireworks, I thought, hmmmm, what to eat, what to eat, and then, remembering that girlchild has just paid me back some $$$$ I loaned her a few weeks ago so that she could get out, out OUT of town and visit her buddies in St. Paul, I decided to take myself to McDonald's and get a Happy Meal. So that's what I did, and I now am the proud owner of my very own Ronald McDonald Trick-or-Treat bucket.:)And it's so good to do something silly & frivolous & forget about all of.....IT........if even for a short time.

p.s. I'm still lurking.

Except for occasional aberrations.

Like this one.

:^)

Sounds like a delightful, lighthearted evening. One thing that has happened as a result of 9/11 is that I think all of us notice the little things more ..... the stuff we used to take for granted. Hubby and I were talking on our trip a couple of weeks ago about how even drivers seem to be a little bit more courteous. I find myself talking more to people at the grocery store or the drugstore ....... commenting on a flag pin or patriotic shirt they're wearing ... not real conversations but just an exchange of pleasantries.

It's really sad that it took something so awful to bring about this kind of change ..... but at least there is some good coming from those terrible events. I just hope it lasts a while.

Do you know how to find the list of FReepers who are flying their state flags?

Click on your own name at the end of a post (right clicking allows you to open in a new window), then click on your own state flag. On the page you get to from there, up near the top, it says Other Locations. Click on that and all the states are listed. You can then click on any state and see who is listed there. And a number of them have their city or area listed. It's really a lot easier than it sounds like here ..... :-)

Doggie ~~~ can you help CONSERVE out? Do you know any FReepers in that area?

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