Police State Over-Steppng ... again

I just received an email from babies-R-Us, which is supposed to be doing some big trade-in program ... in the email it stated two new guidelines they are going to enforce regarding car seats --- totally asinine if you ask me ....

1. Children should remain in rear-facing car seats until the age of 2 years old!!!!

2. Children should remain in Booster car seats until they are 12 years old

While I understand that the American academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has children's safety in mind (as well as all that study money they get from the car-seat manufacturers) in mind ... Have you ever tried to get a toddler to want to sit backwards in the car? Can you imagine the number of kids who are going to suffer from motion-sickness as they try to look out the side windows while the car is going? I'm sorry but as a mother and having a degree in Child Psychology from one of the leading colleges in the field ... I have to say ... BULLOCKS!

Now about those boosters - when my kids turned four (before the law changed) they couldn't WAIT to get out of those damned things ... My youngest missed the new "boosters until 8yrs" by one month, you try to tell an 8 yr old that they have to sit in a booster like some baby after having nearly 4 hrs of freedom! Now you are going to have to plug them in until they are 12? BULLOCKS!!!

What will happen when these kids start school? Will the school districts require parents to send Booster seats with their kids in order to ride the school bus? Oh wait that can't happen because they somehow have convinced the government that it is safer NOT to belt kids in on the buses ... when I talked to the transportation dept at our old school district, and probably got the most honest answer I've ever heard:

they won't do it because the belts could be used as a weapon against the driver but more probably against another student, and since the district cut funding for bus aides to watch the kids they felt that the driver could not control an over-crowded bus of children

I'm surprised that they haven't recommended that anyone with a child under the age of 15 ness to drive a vehicle with third-row seating so that children will be better protected from front impacts.

Actually I'm really shocked that the Feds aren't dictating that no vehicles that hold more than 4 passengers can be sold because they have too big of a carbon-footprint (gag gag gag wretch) ... This will force people to have fewer children because they wont have room for them in their cars ... Else it will force people to use public transportation - which already have sky-rocketing pricing to cover operating costs because NOBODY WANTS TO RIDE IT as it is now ... then they can dictate that cars be made thinner so that people won't be able to fit in them unless they are as skinny as one of those 14 year old models who have been starving themselves since age 5 and don't even register in a size of the ladies department ...

Sorry ... Government over stepping their boundaries just gets my dander up!

Here's an idea ... LOWER THE SPEED LIMITS ... As speed limits go up, the number of & degree of injuries have increased ... limits were increased as people became overly confident of their cars equipment - air bags & anti-lock brakes led to speed limits on roads of 70 mph and above! Car seat or not, of you get in an accident at that speed someone is going to get hurt ... and the majority of hospital visits after an accident are going to be children who can not adequately describe any injuries they might have.

The House is Fighting Back

I am so sore .... and I have learned several different things in about 2 seconds...

1. Rubber feet on step stools do not assure that they will not move


2. Time slows down if floors are coming up to meet you


3. Concrete does not give (alright, I already figured but now I have 'concrete' proof)


4. You will not bounce back up if you have big boobs


5. Tears will well up faster if someone is around to give you compassion

As some of you may recall from an earlier post, my son is recovering from Type A flu (same strand as H1N1) and one of the things I did to make him feel better was to sick next to the cot he sleeps on when sick - that way we can isolate him from the floor where all the kids sleep (even though he has his own room now since his sister loves to play in his mostly empty room now) ...

Well he was feeling a bit bored yesterday so while the other kids were in school and it was just the two of us at home, I turned his cot so he could watch the tv in our room w/o having to get the bed full of germs ... so today, once the kids got off to school I did it again - hey it worked so well.

But I forgot to slide the step stool I sit on under the new position of the cot = dumb move.

I was talking to my husband tonight and not walking were I was putting my foot and stepped down on the stool by accident and my momentum took over.

SPLAT!

As Maxwell Smart would say - I missed it by that much, whacking my head on the concrete wall that is. Instead I took out a knee and a forearm, screwed up my hip and jarred every muscle down the left side of my body ... somehow I managed to bang up the toes on the right foot too.

The house must be getting jealous -- I haven't spent enough time with it lately between the eye surgery and the flu ... I'm just glad it didn't decide to take it out on the kid.

(just so you understand - I'm joking about the house ... right?)

Investment Tidbits

Interesting fact that you may not know (courtesy of Fox News tv)

1. If its too good to be true it probably is (no, duh)
2. If you invested directly you were protected from losing all your money, but if you go thru some "feeder fund" or your pension fund or state/municipality - you are S.O.L. - SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) will not protect you.

This is because it does not cover fraud .... however, you only have until July 2, 2009 to file a claim to see if you are protected == hey, the least they will do is turn you down.

Go to the SIPC site to get more information.

Do I Laugh or Do I Cry??

Well....I am just about done fixing that sock. It wasn't supposed to take this long but every time I get going something seems to happen.

Here's the latest problem....my daughter, whom we call Bubble Butt...hubby is on a business trip so she was very excited when we set up a video call with him...in the bedroom where there was plenty of room for everyone to take a turn chatting.

Well I was knitting on the bed waiting for the connection when it came. My daughter was so excited that she hopped on the bed as I was moving my work out of the way and this is what happened:
At first I had to chuckle, I thought she just got poked....until she got up and I had to pull it out!

Yes she got skewered!! Luckily not deeply...but it did break the skin and it looks like she's got a cute little mole there.

Now does anyone know how to straighten this thing out without damaging the metal? I started to use my jewelry pliers but the needle is heavtier than I thought...and the pliers that will bend it are marring the metal which, as any knitter knows, is the worse thing for the yarn.

Poor baby!

My daughter that is, not me. UGGGHHH....I swear someone has cursed these socks.