I can remember the last presidential election there was a big spirited discussion when my brother-in-law wore a ron paul shirt to the family Thanksgiving dinner. I’m not sure if the high emotions amuse me or scare me, but one thing is for certain, my family takes their politics very seriously and if you do not support their candidate of choice you can be deluged with muck raking information about your own candidate. I’m always glad when the elections are over!

If you go to  direct tv lexington  watch the news and take notice of how large our population has become.  You hear all of the statistics about our country’s increasing waist size especially in relation to the rise of weight-related health issues like diabetes and heart disease.  Driving down the interstate the other day, I was surprised to see billboards with young children on them advertising that words like “chubby” and “thick” aren’t cute but are dangerous.  These public service announcements seem harsh, but clearly they are necessary.  The number of young children who are clinically obese is nothing short of alarming.  Our world today does nothing but encourage this problem either.  We are a society dependent on fast meals due to our busy lifestyles.  Outdoor play has been replaced with video games, computers, and televisions.  When kids have to be reminded to “get out and play for an hour a day,” we are in real trouble.  Kids innately should want to play.  They should want to imagine and run and jump and climb.  Their fresh bodies shouldn’t be dumping grounds for food that is lesser in nutrition and quality than that which we feed to our animals.

I could not believe it when I went to Wal-Mart to buy a few things, and when I went back to the car it would not start. I think that the gas line was frozen, so I went into Wal-Mart and bought a can of dry gas. I put the dry gas into the gas tank, and the car still didn’t start. Well, I decided it was time to buy a new battery, so I went back inside the Wal-Mart and went to the automotive department and told the employee that I needed to buy a new battery and have them put the battery into the car. I explained that the car was in the parking lot and that they needed to go out to it because the battery in the car had died. The employee told me that they would only install the battery for me if I brought the car inside their garage. Well, I had no way to move the car into the garage, so I told them that they had lost the sale, and I would just get a jump start for now and buy the new battery someplace else.

So out to the parking lot I went. I popped the hood of my car, got my jumper cables out and started to hook them up to the dead battery. There was a nice young man just getting out of his car parked right in front of my car (talk about great timing!) I asked him if he could help me out with a jump start, and he did. He hooked up the cables, and started my car no problem. I offered to pay him for his trouble and he refused. So I gave him a big ol’ hug and thanked him so much.  Then I drove home and told my hubby what had happened. He used to work in that Wal-Mart in that automotive department. He told me that he was going to call the store manager and raise some cain.  Come to think of it, I didn’t hear that phone call; I’ll have to ask him if he ever made it! One thing is for sure, that Wal-Mart will not be selling me a new battery – we will buy it elsewhere.

I’d like to shop local, but I don’t want to pick up every item on the shelf and turn it over to see where it was made. I figure that if I look online first for the product itself, then I can go to the local store to buy it. If you have any suggestions about where to find items that are Made in USA, please let me know, I’m interested!