Snoskred - Life in the Country

Sometimes movies and television can be an excellent teacher. Watching The West Wing, I have learnt more about American Politics than I knew I wanted to know. I don’t live in America so to me, the politics there aren’t vital information. But watching these final two seasons of The West Wing, I have also learnt a lot about politics everywhere - and taking sides. There are a vast range of issues which fall into the domain of any elected leader - whether it be the US, Australia or any country. Therefore a leader has to be educated on many issues, many problems and potential solutions. No episode demonstrated it better than Episode 7 of Season 7 - The Debate. The series had taken a very interesting turn during season 6. We began to get *both* sides of the story. The Democratic nomination has gone to Matthew Santos, played by Jimmy Smits. The Republican nomination has gone to Arnold Vinnick, played by Alan Alda. I don’t know how anyone else feels about it, but I feel these two actors have been responsible for two of the most loved characters in television history - not just US television history, because surprise, we Australians get a lot of US TV shows here. Did you know that? I grew up watching MASH reruns. Who knows if they were in order or not.. Alan Alda played Hawkeye in Mash and I loved that character. NYPD Blue was not a show I loved when it first ran on Australian TV, but I got into it later when it ran on cable and Jimmy Smits played Detective Bobby Simone. The West Wing has taken two actors I love, and put them on opposing sides, one democratic, one republican. Suddenly it is easier to see both sides of the coin. It is easier to understand the issues and how both parties feel the issues can be dealt with. No episode waves that in your face like a big red flag than The Debate. People say TV is bad, it rots your brain. But every now and then a show comes along which proves this theory incorrect. A show that makes you think, that makes you go to the internet and look up things you ordinarily would not care about - like the US constitution for example. A show that teaches you more about yourself at the same time as teaching you about the bigger picture. A show that makes you care about the characters. My West Wing journey is over, for now. About this time last week I watched the final episode of Season 7. How they ended the series was just right but it was also an emotional experience for any fan of the show. I am so grateful I was lucky enough to see a couple of episodes on pay TV which made me decide to start buying the seasons. It has made me see things differently, made me think more, made me *care* more about politics and see what is important - or what SHOULD be important to all of us. I’ll be watching the next elections both here and in the US with greater interest. For now, I simply say thank you for everything, West Wing. Losing you is like losing a much loved friend. I’ll remember you and the good times we had, and mourn your loss..

As well as mourning the loss of John Spencer, who died after a heart attack during the filming of season 7. His character on the show, Leo McGarry, was unflinchingly loyal, brave and always tried to do what he thought was best regardless of what people were saying. Your acting was always incredible, you made me a fan of yours John, and I’ll never forget you.

Looking through my Google Reader, I see a few blogs I’m not feeling a connection with anymore. Yes, it’s time to clear out the reader. I’ll be working on this over the next week. It feels like a harsh thing to do. I don’t enjoy doing it however I am reading a lot of blogs now and I have a few projects I want to focus on so I will have a little less time for reading. I won’t be deleting anyone who’s linked to me, just so you know. Today we went shopping. I had a voucher for Dusk. I find either you love Dusk or you hate it. I love it. They make these great tea light candles which actually throw their scent around so it’s not like burning a candle just for the sake of burning it. I was going to buy several packets of 6, then I spotted they had a bulk bag of 50 scented tealights for just under $25. These will last me ages. w00t! I also wanted to check out their essential oils and was surprised that they didn’t have very many of them but they DID have lemongrass which is the one I wanted. Yay! And the bottle is beautiful, that cobalt blue color. Aussies and US people alike, keep an eye out for this Lander product. I got it at Woolworths a couple of weeks ago and I’m crazy about it. I used to use Palmers Cocoa Butter but it doesn’t absorb into the skin very well and tends to leave a residue on your keyboard. The Lander stuff absorbs fast, you only need a tiny amount and it has this scent that I’m nuts about, because it contains coconut oil. Even The Other Half likes this stuff. It’s made in the USA so I’m guessing you can get it there too.
I picked up the final season of The West Wing which was released in Australia a couple of days ago. I now have the full collection and I’m feeling pretty happy about that. Yay, we got cookies too!
Here’s all my essential oils.

I was telling Josh Lyman about a friend who just got his pilot’s license. He told me the most remarkable thing. He said a new pilot will fly into cloud cover. There’ll be no visibility. And they’ll check their gauges, they’ll look at the artificial horizon, it’ll show them level, but they won’t trust it. So, they’ll make an adjustment and then another and another… He said the number of new pilots who fly out of clouds completely upside-down would knock you out. You keep your eyes on the horizon, Mr. President.
Senator Stackhouse - The West Wing - Season 4 Episode 3 - The Red Mass

(This is completely true, by the way - pilots really do this, usually in early training to become an instrument pilot. When you’re in the clouds your instruments are all you have to rely on and you have to know they’re telling you the truth, no matter how much a pilot might feel otherwise.)

I got a phone call about 2:30pm. I was actually in the middle of a West Wing episode at the time. The caller said “10 Minutes” and I hung up the phone and raced off to get ready because I knew what that meant. 10 minutes later, my Dad pulled into the driveway for the last time in his old car. Well, not like old, it was only 3 years old. But today was the day it was going back to the dealer, never to be “ours” again.

During the time he had it I had only driven it twice and both times broke speed limits but fortunately for me did not get caught. It was a Ford XR8, and it had the power. That’s why I didn’t drive it more often, because it could have tempted me into being a very bad individual while driving on the back roads. Or any road, really.

Saying goodbye to a car is not an easy thing. The Other Half and I have recently talked about the possibility of saying goodbye to our car, and that car has been many places with us. The side mirror is a very good friend of mine. We’ve only driven 50,000kms in it, over three years, but when I close my eyes I can see images of many travels from the perspective of looking out my side mirror. I feel like I’d want to keep that part of the car. I know that sounds utterly insane.

However, saying hello to a new car is a very easy thing. This new car is *beautiful*. It truly is a work of art. It’s sitting in Dad’s garage as I type this. It is very low to the ground, and the car dealer said to us that it’s inevitable that the front of the body kit will scrape and get cracked. The old one on the XR8 did. He’s got a guy who fixes it easily if you want it fixed, but he figures it’s a fact of life, live with it.

That is the one thing holding me back from saying to the other half yes, let’s get the new car. The person I was when we first got our car wasn’t the nicest of people. I get pretty angry over anyone careless enough to even look at it the wrong way, let alone go near enough to it to scratch it. When they really damaged our side door as I wrote about here (my side door, so each time I get in the car I am reminded) the more I think about it, the more I realize I probably would have really damaged that person who left the dent in my door if I had turned up when they were doing it. It still manages to fill me with such a rage. I’m not sure I’m meant to be such an angry person.

In other news, today is the first day of the school holidays, and please can everyone pray for rain for the next 2 weeks so those people across the road won’t interrupt my peace. This afternoon the kids across the road started up with a soccer ball on the road in front of my house and I have just realized, it’s two weeks of school holidays with them constantly out there making noise, and I’m still stuck in this house. I had hoped we would have moved by now.

The idea of watching one West Wing each day was dead in the water on day one, as the first episode meant the second had to be watched, and the second definitely meant the third had to be watched. I was in the middle of Episode 3, and I’m going to finish it now, and then off to bed.