Saturday, November 8, 2008

2008 Ram 1500 -- RAM tough

I recently went to look at the new Dodge Ram trucks. I looked specifically at the RAM 1500. It is quite a beauty, let me tell you all about it!

Engine: The basics here: 5.7 liter HEMI V-8 to generate more horsepower and torque. What this means is that there is a lot of power under that hood. If you need to pull, say a horse trailer like my friend Debbie, or a camping trailer like me, this truck will do it without a problem. It is not a girly girl truck. When the commercials on TV say Dodge trucks are RAM tough, they are definitely talking about this baby.

The Looks of the Truck: The Dodge Ram 1500 has 4 bed lengths. Can you imagine that ? FOUR. And the cab sizes, but each cab comes with its own specific bed length, except for the regular cab. You can get a regular cab and a short bed (6’4”) or a standard bed at 8’.

Cab Size:The Quad and Crew cabs come either with a 6.4” bed, but you loose a little space in the rear seats, or you can get the Crew 15000get a little more room in that rear passenger seating area, but you lose close to a foot on bed size (comes in at 5’7”).

Paint Colors: I’ve not seen all of the colors of this truck, but the AUSTIN Tan Pearly is kind of ugly. I know I have changed poopy diapers with that color in it. I personally don’t like Sunburst orange pearl wither. I know someone who did purchase a RAM 1500 in this color. It doesn’t look RAM tough! My fav is Detonator Yellow and next I really like the metalics.

Storage: They call this thinking inside the box, with their variety of stroage and cargo management systems. For the bed of the truck, , you can get two locking weatherproof, lit, drainable storage bins, that work together with a cargo bed divider (which also can doable as a bed extender for those really long pieces of wood or drywall,. On the inside, that are in floor stage bins, a two-tier glove box, and a center console. Pretty cool.

Engine: I surely don’t claim to be a gear head, but here is what I know about the engine. It looks pretty complicated, as most do these days. There is a 5.7 liter HEMI V-8, which has better torque and horsepower, which translates into a lot of pulling power in this baby. It is easily enough to pull my friend Debbie’s horse trailer without feeling the strain.

What I think: I wouldn’t purchase one of these simply because I can’t afford it. It is a really awesome truck though. It really fit’s the Ram tough image. The truck is huge, taller than my mini-van, but about the same length. I had a hard time climbing into it; if I were to purchase one of these, I would have to get the optional side step thingy. Once in though, it is amazing. I love the new car smell in the first place, and to be in something up so high was really cool for me. Once out on the roads, the truck drove like a charm. I was surprised at how smooth the ride was. We used to own a Ford F-150, and it's ride wasn't nearly as smooth as the Dodge Ram 1500. A quick run down the highway convinced me that if I could afford this baby, I would definitely purchase.

Contact Information: You can check out at any dodge dealer or online at dodge.com/ram.

Friday, November 7, 2008

11-7-08 attitude of gratitude

I am grateful for:
my son who turned 14 two days ago.
my friend, Sheila, who supports me always.
my friend, Marti, who loves me.
my husband, who even though he is so tired, still listens to me and works hard to provide for our family.
my insurance that it is so good and allows me to go to therapy each day.
my house.
living in Missouri where I get to see all four seasons.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

OBAMA: He's My Man!

I don't think I can express just how happy I am with the turnout of people for the elections yesterday. It wasn't just in my St. Louis either. There were record numbers of voters all over the country. How awesome is that? That is how is should be for each and every election. People should realize just how powerful that their opinions and ideas are. We must stop this mentality of thinking we don't count and we can't make a difference! We do -- and we can.

Take me for example, one month ago, I was ready to end my life. I was in a lot of pain spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I was lost with my direction of life. Now, I am acting proactively with my health to try to get it together. I am working on the spiritual and emotional parts too. For the first time in my life -- did you get that one -- for the first time in my life, I am doing what I want to do and what I think I need to do. I am in therapy working furiously on issues. I would like to leave -- it is so hard some days, but I still go, chipping away at all that is not me. A rebirth, of sorts, exposing the new, vulnerable, but true self. It has taken so long to get to the point where I could even do this. I am still not 100% honest about things. I guess that sort of trust takes time. I don't know. But I am working on it.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden won the election because they took a leap of faith. I made a huge leap of faith that this will all turn out right, as did my family. You can do it too. The time is at hand.

Just Another Saturday

I was going through things that I have written and found this. I had totally forgotten about the event. I thought you might enjoy reading it.

Just Another Saturday
Mar 09 '03

Yesterday there was a fire in my next door neighbor's yard. It burned 90% of their yard. The following began as a letter to my friends, but I thought it would be a great thing to share here with my epinions friends too.

I was in my kitchen when I smelled smoke -- like leaves burning, but we live in a no open fire area. I checked my house first (because my husband had been doing wood working earlier and you know men and their power tools), but I didn't find anything. So I went out on the deck and saw smoke coming from the side of my neighbor's house. I thought he was burning leaves. I came back in the house, and just happened to look out the front window -- all I saw was smoke. I ran outside to find my neighbor's yard on fire and him trying to put it out. I yelled for Alicia and we grabbed trash can lids to try to beat it out, which only fanned the flames. Then I saw our water hose, which I turned on and started spraying. The weird thing about the fire was that my neighbor thought he had it completely out beside his house, but when I went over there with the hose, there were flames licking at the side of his house. It was so windy that areas kept coming back to life.

Anyway, the fire department came and emptied their 500 gallon truck and put out the fire. Then they refilled it and sprayed everything down again to get the hot spots out.

We all calmed down and talked about the blessings that came as a result. It could have been so much worse. My neighbors were home and were on top of it quickly. I was home so my step-daughter and I were able to help. If the wind had been blowing in any other direction, the fire would have spread to multiple yards, but it didn't. It was so windy that there was a lot of trash blowing yesterday; I saw paper blowing around two connecting yards, but it didn't blow into the fire. Although flames licked the neighbors house, the force of water from the fire department's water cannon washed the blackened part off. My neighbors have spent lots of money beautifying their yard, and none of their plants, etc., caught fire. The neighbors had their windows open due to the unseasonably warm weather, but no water got into their house, and although both of our houses smelled horribly of smoke at first, it didn't last. I got to use this as a lesson on giving help even when you are afraid to my children. And finally, this shows how the Lord can take something bad and just turn it around.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Voting and Therapy for today

I voted today, did you? I surely hope so. It is such an important responsibility that we accept as being and claiming citizenship to our country. I am excitedly watching election returns tonight.

I went to therapy today. I know I missed blogging about a couple of sessions, and I don't want to get too far behind. So -- we have been talking a lot about Human growth and development. I really am liking my therapist, S. She is so together and so smart. She seems to be able to pick my brain.

I am wrapping my head around the fact that a lot of my problems stem from being co-dependent. You know, I have been that way for so long that I can't pin point where self begins or ends and the sickness of being overly codependant starts and ends. I just about have myself talked into going to group recovery for CODa. I don't know for sure yet. Shit, I could spend all of my evenings going to support meetings. There is Al-Anon. I have never been to one of those, but I am really thinking strongly about it also. In addition there is Adult Children of Alcoholics that I would like to try also.

One thing I haved learned in therapy is that I don't know what my triggers for depressive behavior are. That is a real problem, as I can't begin a recovery plan when I am not even sure of the triggers. I am going to work on that really hard for the rest of the week. I am realizing that I really don't want to feel this way for the remainder of my life. I have spent my entire adult life not knowing what or whoe I am -- always wrapping my life around someone else's. Not a good thing if you allow yourself to suffer and fall to the wayside in the process.

Some good things came out of today; at least I think a lot of good things came out of it. Happy election day to you all.

VOTE CHANGE!

Please vote today. Please consider voting for Barack Obama as he has the most effective plans for middle class America to pull our nation out of the slump that has been affected by the Republican party and George W. Bush. If you live in Missouri, I encourage you to vote no on Prop A. Prop A does not add funding to the schools, it takes it away from one source and allows the money to be given from another -- there is no additional funding to schools in this bill. In addition, it allows the current gambling casinos to create a monopoly. Monopolies are never good for the economy. It also lifts the current loss limits for individuals, meaning that an individual could potentially gamble away their life savings in one event. My attitude of gratitude for today is that I am so happy that I live in a country that allows me the freedom to express my opinion without fear of retribution.