***Very OT*** CHRISTMAS ***OT***

Ee-e-e-um-um-a-weh Ee-e-e-um-um-a-weh Wemoweh, wemoweh, wemoweh, wemoweh (4X)

In the jungle, the mighty jungle The lion sleeps tonight In the jungle, the quiet jungle The lion sleeps tonight

I think that's an excellent idea, but solar-powered lights need solar power. At this time of year, a lot of places are under cloud cover (or, in this area, heavy fog), and solar-powered Christmas lights might only stay lit for a few minutes without sufficient daytime solar exposure to power them.

However, since TiaMary is a Christmas light freak, and her DH is an engineer, I will point the finger toward her -- tell DH to figure this out and send me and Brenda a prototype next year.

Several of my friends here in Florida have solar panels on their roof to heat their pools. Unfortunately the hurricane force winds we had for the past two years pulled the panels away from the roofs and slammed them back and forth and created much more damage than they were worth.

One friend's roof collapsed completely when the panel acted like a sledge hammer and destroyed the furniture in that room.

Lucille

As I said, stupid song has the most stupid lyrics ! Let's not even begin to discuss which lions sleep in jungles ?

A local radio station does a "lunch theme" - today's was songs with unintelligible lyrics. I didn't catch the whole thing, but the last one I heard as "there I was just walking down the street, singing do-wa-ditty,dum-ditty do!"

If some one could explain the lyrics to "Shock the Monkey", please do.

Cheryl

Read "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout, Ph.D., to understand this desperate need to verbally abuse people. According to Dr. Stout,

4% of the population have no conscience and see nothing wrong in being nasty to others.

That said, Victoria is right, someone who is more severely affected than I really could exhaust themselves simply with a round of applause. Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote "Seabiscuit" had phases where she was so debilitated by CFS that she could not even roll over in bed without assistance.

However, take these nasty comments in light of Victoria *claiming* she also has CFS, but also bragging about her physical ability to spend hours on end in heavy manual labor in her garden. The experts will tell you that the physical exertion she is capable of precludes a diagnosis of CFS; someone who truly has CFS could not do what she does without landing in bed for weeks (or months or years).

After I was diagnosed, I was able to work full-time for 12 years, but I have not, at any point since being diagnosed in 1988, been capable of what Victoria brags she can do. Obviously, I'm more severely affected than Victoria, just as Laura Hillenbrand has phases of being more severely affected than I.

However, someone claiming to be more severely affected than you (when there is documentation of patients being fully bedridden for years) does not mean that person is lying or faking. Only that the person accusing them of lying has no conscience to stop them from verbally abusing someone who simply has a different experience than theirs. A different experience is not a lie ... it is a different experience. More severe effects are just that, a more advanced case of the disease, not necessarily a lie or an exaggeration.

83-84?? Were you eating Pablum then?? dash-it-all, you make me feel OOLLDD!!

Gillian

Brenda Lewis wrote:

I have fibromyalgia, MPS and RLS. All three are syndromes, not diseases. Ahem, none of which are degenerative. I haven't gardened in years, so what you are talking about is something I am not familiar with. You have selective memory, and you are a chronic complainer who is in need of reading some books which elevate you out of your funk, not maintain your status of being unable to get to the bathroom four feet away. We create our own chaos and sustain it however we must to enable ourselves to remain victims. I choose to read the books about how not to complain. I have far worse illness than all of your illness combined. I rarely, if ever, complain.

Go applause yourself back to bed.

Dianne Lewandowski wrote:

We have 101 homes in our subdivision and there *might* be 2 others who have maybe half the amount of outdoor decorations we have. Saying that "every household" would spend an extra $10 on electricity for holiday decorations isn't really a valid argument. Face it, the amount of money saved on electricity if NONE of the homes in the States put up anything but a single electric candle in a window wouldn't be a drop in the bucket compared to what could be saved by any number of businesses if they actually made an honest effort to conserve (is that a convoluted sentence or what??). And NO -- I don't have any hard data at my fingertips to back up that statement. I do know that there was a question about decorating one of the Malls in Austin, TX. My DSis works there and it was discussed in an employee newsletter type thing. It was decided that the money should be spent on the decorations AND the humongous electricity bill because it would draw in customers. Also, think about the amount of money to be saved if the casinos in Las Vegas turned off just a portion of *their* phantasmagorical lights! The Fremont Street Experience electric bill for one day would probably finance a small independent third world country for several weeks! IMNSHO, there are much more meaningful ways to save and conserve than to ask people not to decorate their homes. I remember one year in the mid 1990's -- I think we were off fighting one of the Middle East wars but I'm not sure. Anyway, a plea was sent out across America to NOT decorate our homes that Christmas in order to conserve energy. A lot of folks paid heed and did their best to conserve including my family. I don't remember what amount of money was saved but the next Christmas the public was told to go ahead and decorate because what had been saved the previous year wasn't as impressive as the Federales had thought it would be. Private residence decorations just don't add up to that much money on a national level. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

In Lizard Land, we kept the thermostat at 82 in the summer and 65 in the winter. I tried it here in magnoliaville and the winter temp is almost OK but the summer temp is NOT good. I asked the A/C repair guy about that because I felt terribly wasteful having to turn the temp down to 78 during the summer because I KNOW how much energy it uses. He said it's because of the much higher humidity here in the south! That had never even entered my mind! It's not the actual temp that is so uncomfortable, it's the moisture in the air that makes it yucky. I guess there's another plus for living in Lizard Land -- just NOT in the city :-)! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Up in the attic! Poor DH has to take it all down, pack it into the appropriate storage containers, schlepp it into the house and up the stairs to the upper floor. Then he has to take all those boxes up the fold down stairs into the attic! He earns his keep, that's for sure :-)!

OH YUCK -- DOG SPIT!!! It's been ages since I had a nice slathering of dog spit -- ever since Suzi (the run away from home to go walk-about and get lost) Dog crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Give your babies a big hug from MOI -- I miss my puppy!!! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

They're also not terribly bright. I have several in my yard and they

*are* pretty but they certainly don't put out much light. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Thank you for Karen for your kind comment !!! Thank you also for the elongated facinating descriptions of your various extra ordinair illnesses , as well as providing us [ in your former letter] with the name of the book by Dr Stout, which you use an excuse your usual behaviour. {Ps Any Dutch reader will have great Fun by the meaning of the Name of Said Dr,]. mirjam

And what about Global warming? Dr Brat ? isn`t THAT worth saving a bit for ? Americans use FAR more energy per person than any other nation !!! We are By law Using Sun Heaters, Are forbidden to wash cars with a hose. public gardening is done with drip pipes that drip only to a plant at a time. A 10 $ raise in electricity is a lot of wasted energy added Heat to the Athmosphere. Would`t it be more in the Festivity mood , to donate those 10 $ to Your Katherine Victims Fund ??? And as to Tia Mary??? what is the point in Making a Display Out side but still use such unkind words ? mirjam Sitting here with a warm house coat , and a big shawl,, no heating.

Bus Stations , and all kinds of Street furniture here are all Solar energized. mirjam

Here Soklar pannels are required by law [ not for pools which very few have] but for our regular showers, and thus they are built into the houses. mirjam

I don`t think it`s so important how much or how little it saves - but all those little savings (not just Christmas lights) all add to the burden that`s put on the environment.

Odd coincidence - I was lying back having my breakfast in bed watching the news/current affairs programme and this very subject was being discussed, and the conclusion was Britain was beginning to resemble Las Vegas (a slight exaggeration!), particularly this year, and how irresponsible it was both on an aesthetic level and an environmental level. (to precis it more than somewhat - it was a much longer discussion than that.)

Heigh-ho (or should that be "ho-ho"?)- I`m just up to the attic to find our fibre optic Christmas tree! ;-))

Pat P