Can you believe that lady….She proposes that her fellow democrats “deem and pass” the health care bill….That way, she says, no one will know how you voted and come November you can still be elected…You see, the majority of Americans do not want this health care bill passed, but Miss Nancy wants to pull a sneaky and do it this way…Nancy, Nancy, Nancy….what won’t you do….They say the health care bill will benefit 15% of American and hurt 85% of us…That is not good Ms. Pelosi, not good…Tell you what, Nancy,  work on the economy for a while, just let the health care rest for another decade or so and then we will see if we can afford it at that time….ok?…

Well, my brackets are all set… by my heart… and when a fellow does that usually he does not do very well. I have to go with New Mexico,  San Diego State, UNLV and BYU from the Mountain West and with New Mexico State from WAC conference. And from the Big Ten I have to go with Wisconsin and from the Big 12 the Baylor Bears…Those are just some personal favorites, who I am pulling for and if things go as the past few years have gone, as my teams get beat I go with those teams that win me over during tournament play. I like UTEP also from Conference USA and I remember Siena, a 13 seed, but what the heck, I hope they play well and I will pull for them also. It’s a good time of the year for me and the other house hold member here…we will watch a lot of basketball, both men and women, and have a good time doing it…Since the Lady Lobo’s are going to the WNIT, we will be watching that also….Busy, busy time, huh? …I’ll bet the final four will not be Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and Duke this year….Two of those may make it….only two though…..What do you think?

Last evening was a little different Sunday evening…My body temperature sensor is different from the “other household member” for one thing and for the other thing, we never seem to want to watch the same tv programs (other than lobo basketball, we both love that). So, I said, “I’m chlly tonight, how about you?” “No”, she says, “I think the temperature is fine.” “Oh, ok.” I said…Then I said “why don’t we watch America’s Funniest Videos”. “No,” she says,” let’s watch something educational, like Sixty Minutes.” “Oh, ok.”… Between educational and humor, I usually take humor….So, I take my PM medication, get in my PJ’s, get under the covers to watch AFV on our tv in the bedroom. I fall asleep while watching AFV and wake in time to see the winners. I search the channels for another program and fall asleep again somewhere in the switching. I wake up in the middle of the night, 10:30pm as a matter of fact, and remembered that we had some left over cornbread from supper and we have some buttermilk in the frig…I was poor growing up, but we never went hungry, we had plenty of biscuits and gravy and buttermilk and cornbread. Did the cornbread and buttermilk ever taste good…uhmm, you bet….And to top off the middle of the night snack, I grabbed my Bible and turned to The Gospel of John, Chapter One and read, seemingly for the first time, And the Word became Flesh…..The Word became Flesh…Wow, kind’a of puts new meaning to the Word of God, especially in the Gospel accounts of the Bible…Why is it that we read things many times but  miss the true meaning for years and then over a bowl of buttermilk and cornbread God says “how have you been missing this”….I had always thought the Bible was the inspired word of God, but it is not inspired, but  it is His Word, still giving us direction for our life on earth and directions to reach our Heavenly Home, our eternal REAL LIFE…I feel better today, thanks to God’s Word and  in part to my late night …. buttermilk and cornbread….

Well, our investments are back in the news again. We paid this fellow 2 Million dollars for telling someone that New Mexico had about 400 million to invest. Heck, I would have told them for a lot less, but then I don’t have any friends up around the state capital….None of our people who oversee such knows how this happened and say they do not know this fellow and had never heard of him….Now, I’m not all that smart, but someone at the state wrote a check for 2 million, someone had to sign the check and someone had to turn in an approved requistion for 2 million for payment to this fellow…If they don’t have these procedures in place either you or me can just go up and ask for a couple of mill for whatever…But the things about it is all those who “don’t know anything” had to know something…As bad as our state government is we just don’t write 2 million dollar checks without someone’s approval…..Do we????

I did this painting from a photo I took down around Rogers, NM several years ago. It is surprising what you do paint, but I really enjoyed painting this, but why would anyone want to paint a milo field….You got me

As long as I have been out in this country, I still become amazed at the trouble water brings…Maybe I should say the lack of water brings…But we have to have it and in order for any city to grow out here they need a good supply of water…Once someone has water rights it is a real fight to get it away from them or to infringe on their usage…One thing though, it is use it or lose it, per state water laws. So some farms on the east side of the state are selling some of their water rights…The latest news, the owner of some wells in the Lake Sumner aquifer, who bought the rights down around Lake Sumner, near Fort Sumner, wants to sells its water to the city of Santa Fe, who needs it for the city usage. They would build a 150 mile pipeline which will rise in elevation over 4000 feet in that distance…  But now, the Carlsbad Irrigation District says, no, the water under the ground in the Pecos River Run Off area belongs to us and if Santa Fe gets it, it will short us on irrigation water and so they filed a law suit trying to stop the sell. (Texas is due a lot of the Pecos River water as well, but I have not heard what they are saying at this point). Carlsbad says Santa Fe needs to get its water from the Rio Grande River runoff area, since that is where they are located…..It is over my head, it is complicated, it has for years been certain ways, but  now with the growth of our New Mexico cities it is becoming more and more critical in having sufficient water to take care of its citizens. Albuquerque bought water from the San Juan River in the Famington area and it is currently being injected into our aquifer here….Sales of water rights do happen, it has happened and it is legal….But a whole lot of people have a whole lot to say about it…Do the folks in Alabama and Mississippi have any problems with water?…Maybe too much water at times, huh?

We just got back from  a few days over on the state’s east side. I was surprised at how busy they are over that way….Cannon is still in the growing mode as they continue with their new mission and more civilian personnel will be added soon…So they are building in both cities getting ready for the new influx of people..The dairies are going full blast as is the cheese factory….And that is good to have the steady business for employers and employees…Tractors are rolling all across the flat farm land around Floyd, Portales and Cannon… We came by one farm that had four new looking John Deere tractors parked and maybe a older one or two as well…And that is good, purchasing new equipment to get the job done and the factories up north have to get geared up to produce even more…Makes the world go round…I went to Wal Mart a couple of times while in Portales…They have a young lady greeter who wears a big bow or something in her hair, has a very big smile and a very big voice….She greeted me with a big wave and a cheerful and loud, HELLO BUD D D E E..At first I was a little shocked, but before I could return the greeting, another person coming in was getting the same loud and cheerful, hello buddie, and she drug out that buddie  also…She was warm and cheerful and got my shopping off to a good start….Enjoyable trip…..Good folks over that way…

Is it the duty of our elected officials to vote on bills, any bills before the House or Senate. Let me answer…Yes, yes, yes,  it is a duty….On a recent tax vote, four of our elected officials were excused from voting. One did claim sickness.  All four stated they were against the tax increases, yet they did not vote…It does not matter how I feel about the bill, if I am either for it or against it, but it certainly matters how our elected officials feel about it. So, Senators and Congressmen, do your job…. VOTE…Vote for the bill, vote against the bill, but go on record one way or the other….If you are going to set on the fence you might as well be out here with the rest of us citizens who have no vote…When you don’t vote, you do not represent anyone…You are worthless, a vote was wasted on you….It blows me away that you think you have done some good by not voting….WHAT A WASTE OF VOTERS EFFORTS…..Please do your job and vote on the issues, and always on the tough issues…..Pete Hester

My nephew is convalescing from by-pass surgery. I also went through that several years ago and it was during that time that I took up painting and writing. I’m not real good at either, however, it does satisfy something down deep inside me and as I continue to both write and paint, I believe I do see some improvements. So, I wanted to show you my very first painting, which I call “Contrail”. Our skies are continually streaked with contrails of  jet aircraft criss crossing. One late afternoon on the way home from work I counted 17 contrails in the afternoon sky. I have given this painting to number 3 grandson…It was one of his favorites.

So, nephew, you might want to consider becoming an art – tist…….You were always good at drawing as I recall….Well, just a thought….Uncle

How ’bout them Lobos….28 – 3 and conference champs… They  should be seeded pretty high in the NCAA tourney, huh? We’ll see and we will keep you posted….Go Lobo’s….March 6, 2010….I erred and I have made the correction to 28 – 3….You will recall I had shown 27 – 3….but it is 28 and 3 my friends…this is to help make up for 1 – 11 football season, which will be much better this coming season….By the way, our Lobo baseball team is worth watching also, I think they are 8 and 3 now, thanks to Coach Birmingham…You are doing a good job coach….