I started writing this in February and forgot to finish it so here it is now.

How sad it is that we live in a world where profits trump saving the Earth for future generations.  I know many of these people have children and grandchildren, yet they don't seem to care what kind of suffering that their actions will inflect on them or those who follow them, they have no compassion. Why is it that you think it is OK to rake in billions of dollars, yet refuse to spend a few million to keep your business from killing everything that we need to survive.  I don't think they realize that all the money in the world will not save you if you kill the planet you live on, unfortunately  I don't think they will really get it until their multi-million dollar beach homes are sitting under several feet of water, then it is too late.

It amazes me how many ways people can delude themselves, like climate changes is a myth or that Earth goes through these changes all of the time.  The changes Earth goes through are usually gradual, over thousands or millions of years, not such a dramatic change over 20 years or so.

I was born and raised in the Tri-Cities in SE Washington State, which is highland desert (believe it or not, only the Western halves of Washington and Oregon are green and wet, the East sides are mostly high-land desert) and  can remember 20-30 years ago that the sky was blue and clear of pollution.  When you drove to Portland along the Columbia River it was beautiful, then as you neared Mt. Hood, you could see in the distance the haze that set in over the city.  It was like a curtain that you could see ahead of you then all at once you were in it.  You could still see the sky but it wasn't as vibrant as back home.  Over the years you noticed that the curtain was closer and closer to Mt. Hood, then it was East of The Cascade Mountains, until it covered the area where I grew up.  It isn't as bad on the East side but it is there and getting worse.  I was just there a couple of months ago and went to Prosser, about 30 miles East of Richland and there is a hill top viewpoint.  It was a beautiful day in May and you could hardly see the other side of town, a small town of 5700.


I now live in the Portland Metro area and have a view of the West hills.  It was a beautiful day when I first started this post, above average temperature for early February at 60 degrees, except as i look toward the hills,  the haze is so thick that all detail is lost, it is between 5 and 10 miles as the crow flies.  The haze is even noticeable just looking at the bottom of the hill I live on, the mini marts on the corner about 6 blocks away are even behind some haze.  I know it is worse in other places than it is here, but we don't have the industrial factories that some of them have.  I am sure that much of it is from the traffic that has become as bad or worse than the LA traffic I remember from visiting a cousin in LA in the early 90s.  Today July 30, 2016 it is 80 degrees and clear skies with winds at 14mph from WNW and still there is a low haze between our house and the West Hills.

The population of the Portland Metro Area which includes Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill and Clackamas Counties in Oregon and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington was 1,523,741 in 1990, in 2014 it was  2,348247.  Many of these people live 10-30 miles or more from where they work.  I used to drive from Vancouver to Hillsboro Oregon, which is 35 miles from my home and the last major town along HWY 26 before you hit the Coast Range.  When working graveyard it took me 35-45 minutes to get there, during evening rush about an hour to 90 minutes, this was in 2006.  Now during rush hour which starts about 3pm, it takes between 1 1/2 and 3 hours to make that drive, just the 10 miles from downtown Portland to Vancouver takes 30-60 minutes depending on if there are accidents, and if they block the road it takes much longer.

Portland has excellent public transportation, including Max Trains that run from North Portland to Hillsboro to Clackamas County and to Gresham and everywhere between, with bus service that goes everywhere else.  Many people use the system, many more should.

The population explosion is mainly due to the tech boom, Intel and other tech companies have moved in along with many supporting companies.  The problem is they keep drawing in more and more business which brings in more and more people, yet they give these businesses tax breaks to come here, no property taxes, income taxes etc. so that they drain resources from the government entities, while raking in the money while not contributing by paying taxes.   Yes it provides jobs, but most of the people in those jobs were brought in too.  We are running out of space to put these people.  In the 1980s once you got to the top of the West hills there was nothing along HWY 26 until you got to the beach, now it is solid cities until the base of the mountains, same going South, it won't be long before Portland Metro and Salem become one big city.  The same is happening on the Vancouver side, when I move here in 1996, there were empty miles between Vancouver, Washougal and Camas, now they butt up to each other.  If we don't stop bringing in people, we will destroy the reason that people loved the area in the first place.

Greedy people and corporations are destroying this country and the planet, while whining that they can't afford to do things that reduces pollution while raking in billions every year, while trying to convince people that climate change is a liberal fallacy. All the money in the world won't help them when there is no water or food and no chance there will be for centuries.

Corporate Advertising Is Out Of Hand

 The last straw is when a show does a commercial for a product as part of the show. People from Storage Wars stopping for sandwiches at Subway and then talking about how you can get it anyway you want it etc.  I was watching Hot in Cleveland and Valerie Bertinelli's character feeds the dog, saying that the dog loves a particular flavor of Cesar's dog food.

Now they put in outtakes or a tidbit of information in the middle of the show so they can add more commercials.  They run 4-5 minutes worth of commercials then the tidbit, about 15-30 seconds, then another 4-5 minutes of commercials, during 1 hour shows they do it twice, so you have a 8-10 minute block of commercials divided by a 15-30 second cut-in.

In the 1960's a one hour show had 9 minutes worth of commercials, now it is 19-21 minutes minimum.  On top of that, they are adding a minute or two of run time to shows so that they run past the hour or 1/2 hour, interfering with shows you are trying to record on other networks.  This means I have to manually program the DVR to cut off the extra time, sometimes missing the important ending.  I have stopped watching a lot of shows that do this on a regular basis.

When will companies learn that when you piss off the customer, they will stop watching the shows, thus losing opportunities to advertise their product.  It is the same as corporations need to realize that if America loses the middle class, who is going to be able to buy what they have to sell?  One percent of the population isn't enough buying power to support all of the corporations in this country.

You can't go anywhere without some companies name on the stadiums etc.  I get so frustrated watching sports on TV and everything has a sponsor ie. "The play of the day is sponsored by" or the kickoff, halftime, pretty soon it will be this commercial is brought to you by some other companies product.  This Pepsi commercial break is sponsored by Mazda.

Let's go back to a time when the people ran this country and the corporations were happy for us to see a commercial for their product, not the shows being taken over by them.

Wasteful America

I like to watch HGTV, DIY and other home channels and shows, but it shows how wasteful people are in this country.



The shows have influenced people who used to be happy to have a working kitchen, bathroom etc, into thinking that they need to remodel them so they look the way they want it to look. I see people on the house buyer shows on these networks, looking at brand new remodels I would die for, then say "This is a total gut job".



One realtor impressed me on one of the shows. The house was Victorian, I believe, and it had a huge bathroom, as big as my whole house. It was original to the home and was beautiful old tile etc. They had an open house and some of the people were saying that this bathroom needed to be gutted right away. The realtor and owner refused to sell it to anyone who they thought would tear out the bathroom or other original details that were in beautiful shape.



If you don't like the place keep looking, unless it is damaged or void of anything special, like my house, move on and find one you like as it is. I live in a 1940s small ranch with nothing special. My kitchen is tiny, about 10'x4', and has the original non-descript cabinets that are falling apart. We inherited the house from my husband's grandfather 12 years ago. It has a beautiful view which is value of the place. The only item I liked was the bathroom which had a built-in vanity, but my mother-in-law was living here taking care of her father and she had it torn out along with the wall that enclosed the toilet which I am glad is gone, it was way too small.  My bathroom is actually larger than the kitchen.



My kitchen really needs a remodel, which we can’t afford now.  It was fine with me until it stated falling apart.  We have a plumbing leak somewhere that is swelling the floors, but we don’t have the money to even have that fixed.  This is a reason to put in a new kitchen, not because you don’t like the style even if it is up-to-date.  Ten years from now styles will change and people will be again tearing out perfectly good rooms.



The improvement shows think it is great TV to go in and destroy the whole room and throw it all in a dumpster to be hauled to the dump.  They should be taking cabinets, sinks etc. out carefully so they can be taken to a salvage place, or ask someone to come in and do so before they start.  The latest trick is to put a large mirror I the dumpster then throw a perfectly fine sink, tub or toilet into the mirror to break both, I saw it on at least 2 shows this week.  What a waste of resources besides the fact we don’t have room to be putting this crap into landfills.  I find it ironic that HGTV has a contest every year to give away a “green” built house, while the rest of the time they don’t follow that line of thought.



I think contractors should, by law¸ have to remove and recycle anything that can be reused by anyone.  Contractors should either remove it themselves or contract with someone who will do so before they start the remodel. 



The show Rehab Addict is a great example for others to follow.   Nicole buys old homes and restores them to be authentic of their era, then sells them to people who appreciate the beauty of the original look.  She shops in home restoration shops, buying things like old cabinets rather than putting in new ones.  She reuses everything she can and finds or makes what she needs to rehab the home.  If she tears out a 70s kitchen from a arts and craft home, she saves it or takes it to a rehab shop so that it can be used in a 70s era home by someone else and gets something that will look good in and Arts and Crafts home.



I know that sometimes old tiles often have to be broken to get them up, if it is necessary, there are many crafters etc that would love to have these broken tile and mirror pieces, especially if they are free.  They buy pieces or whole tiles in stores, and then break the whole tiles for their purposes.  Put them in a bucket and put them at the roadside and someone will take them.  I have put out things like new berry shoots that were overtaking my garden and I didn’t need since I had plenty and a old damaged small pickup canopy and each time they were gone by the next day.



Old lumber can also be reused, instead they cut a new piece of lumber the same size to use and throw the other in the dumpster.  They should be pulling the walls apart so as to re-use the lumber, instead of cutting down our forests.  It takes more time, but it would save the cost of new lumber.  If it can’t be used on the project, then give or sell it to a home salvage business.  There are people who try to find out when buildings are going to be torn down or changed.  They contact the owner, requesting to salvage anything that is going to be torn out.  They save mantles, corbels, doors, cabinets and any other item that can be used again.  They do what they can to save historical pieces from being destroyed.



There needs to be an incentive to recycle construction material and to charge companies who don’t do it.

Why do networks block their shows with graphics?

I've had enough of networks covering half of my TV screen with their logo and now ads for upcoming shows, right in the middle of the picture.

I am watching Body of Evidence on HLN in the lower right hand corner is their logo which is now a 3.5" x 4.5" on my 42" TV screen.  This logo is manila files with HLN in the middle of it.  This logo isn't the usual transparent one but solid so it hides anything of importance that might be on the show.

HLN is hosting the Daytime Emmys this weekend so they have placed a 12.5" x 3.5" advertising the Emmys, 4" off of the left side and about half way up the screen, this is also opaque.  They are covering up about 1/4 of the TV with this crap, while blocking important parts of the show.

Networks wonder why viewers are leaving in droves, this is the reason.  I can watch shows online, which may have 30 to 60 seconds of commercials every 10-15 minutes, less than if it is viewed on TV, and not have the program blocked with this crap.

If I am going to take the time to watch your show, don't make it impossible for me to do so.