More Controversy In The Squeak

Something from this week's issue of The Squeak (our local small town newspaper) has me all fired up, again.
Here's what's going on:

WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE - It is a hot topic in rural Sheboygan County near Oostburg. A Muslim doctor and several others are looking for a permanent place to worship. Some people in the area are not happy about having a Muslim Mosque in their community.

Manitowoc Dr. Mansoor Mirza and several others living in Sheboygan County have purchased a building off Sauk Trail Rd. near Oostburg in the Town of Wilson and want to turn it into a Muslim mosque. "The closest place to Appleton...We wanna place to teach out children for social gatherings, so it's important to us."

While Christian leaders FOX6 spoke with in Oostburg realize there is a freedom of religion in our country, they have safety concerns when it comes to the practicing Islam in rural Sheboygan County. Rev. Wayne Devrou said, "There's some people that are afraid and their afraid for a good reason, because Islamic philosophy and ideology starts in a mosque and throughout the world Islamic terrorism comes from its roots and worship in the mosque."

Muhammad Isa Sadlon is the CEO and Executive Director of the Islamic Center of Milwaukee. He says while this is a unique situation, patience and acceptance is needed. "Neighbors have questions. People in the community wanna know somethings about us. It will take a little bit of time. It will be a process, but god willing it will move forward."

FOX6 has been told small groups have been holding worship services in the building for about a month. Wilson town leaders decided to extend the conditional use permit time for another two months, a decision is expected then. The area is currently zoned highway commercial.

A former Muslim turned Christian is scheduled to speak at the First Reform Church about Islam in the coming weeks.

I figured there would be some people who don't understand and have a hard time recognizing that religions other than the many flavors of Christianity exist and are practiced right here in our community, but calling another religious group the Anti-Christ and carrying on about terrorism is completely over the top. This isn't some rogue Islamic group straight out of the Middle East looking to set up a tire and monkey bar obstacle course to carry out extremist views. No, this is a doctor trying to create a place of worship that is within a reasonable distance for his family and others in the community.

It wasn't even me that saw the ad and muttered "what the fuck?" The Gardener, a former Catholic and altar boy during High School turned agnostic in recent years was enraged to read such bigotry while scanning the pages looking for a deal on a used roto-tiller. Of course he handed me the paper and said "here's a number I think you should call." (The Squeak requires all people placing classified ads to include either their name or phone number.) I didn't call because I know I can't change the mind of someone so opposed to religious diversity. Just makes my skin crawl that in the US, a nation with religious freedom, people can be so disrespectful to their neighbors.

I know not all local Christians feel this way and I do not intend to irritate anyone by posting this. I just feel that we should be respectful to all religious beliefs as long as they aren't infringing on the rights of others.

What do you think about this?

We're Not Jewish

Today was Mae's follow-up blood draw down at Children's Hospital. Last week the nurse practitioner from the Immunologist's office called to tell me that one of Mae's blood tests a month ago was abnormal. Something called the Alternative Pathway. She said that the doctor thought this could have been a lab error so he wanted to re-run the blood test today while we were there for the follow-up test anyway. She sent out the orders to us to give to the lab today. Then on Thursday she called back again and said that they wanted to make that sure some other associated immune levels were also not off although they were normal last time but could be testing as normal on a low day. Anyhow, off we went for our jaunt through the metro area, although not before successfully dropping off our stash of old IV antibiotics!

Every time we go down there I feel pretty emotional. The clinic and lab is right inside the hospital entrance so we walk through the same halls and doors that we did when Mae was a patient there back in May. Today there was a mom taking her daughter home from what I can guess was a lengthy hospital stay. She was pushing a big stroller, carrying her beautiful baby girl and also hefting a big duffel bag. The little girl had a feeding tube in her nose and the woman looked exhausted. As we walked past them, I took notice of how healthy and strong Mae is today. We aren't done yet and still have many unanswered questions like why in the heck does she get these serious infections, but I think we're in good hands with her immunologist and nurse practitioner. They really seem to be keeping her case on the fronts of their minds, which is very reassuring.

The lab techs seemed to be a little thrown off by all of the changes that had been made since the orders had been changed twice. Once they finally had all of the paperwork straightened out Mae was called back. She rolled up her sweater sleeves and plopped herself in the chair and swung the armrest around in front of her. The phlebotomist looked at me for approval of Mae's arrangement and I assured her that Mae could handle it. I stood next to Mae and put my right hand on her shoulder as she grabbed my left with her free hand. She closed her eyes for the poke but opened them up and let go of my hand as soon as the needle was in. No tears, no anxiety, no problem, and also no sticker or prize by the way. Usually those people have a stack of stickers to choose from and a drawer full of cheap toys and treats. Mae didn't notice and besides we had big plans for the rest of the day.

On the way out of the parking garage, I called my brother and we stopped to pick him up to go out for lunch. He was ready to go when we arrived so we didn't get a chance to visit his compartment but I'm sure it was just as well. He suggested a Thai restaurant in the area and off we went. Mae had mentioned that she wanted noodles for lunch so this was perfect. The restaurant didn't open till noon and we were a bit early so we browsed around the hippie boutique next door for a few minutes. The smell of incense was enough to induce a headache but Mae had fun trying on hats and looking at the cases full of glass figurines. By the time we walked out of the shop, the restaurant was open. Mae had stir fried egg noodles with vegetables and chicken and I had tofu vegetable curry. Delicious! My brother also had tofu and curry but his was much spicier than mine yet very delicious!

After we dropped off my brother back at his building Mae and I headed out to use some of her Birthday gift cards. She bought a whole outfit at Old Navy complete with a matching sparkly headband. Even though we didn't end up spending much money at all today, it seems that Binny and the Gardener made our purchases look mighty expensive. The gardener saw an ad in this week's Squeak for an auction today. Before we even left this morning he and Binny were off in the truck to go see if they could find a rototiller for the garden. He called me this afternoon to tell me that he and Binny bought an entire truckload worth of miscellaneous items for 50 cents. No rototiller but he did come home with 21 decks of playing cards, 7-1000 piece puzzles, a wooden Chinese checker board, a lint shaver for clothing, an old typewriter and everything else that was on the pile no one would bid on. Basically my husband bought all of the crap that nobody wanted, but it all went for 50 cents so I guess it was worth the trouble of going through everything and throwing out the junk. Among the few good items were piles and piles of stuff that we either threw on the burn pile or into the garbage can. Broken dishes, smelly old lady perfume (Avon, of course) that my husband foolishly dumped out right next to his shed. As soon as I opened the car door upon our arrival home, I could smell his purchase and it was ten times worse than the hippie boutique. "Um dear, are you sure the old lady smell isn't on all of this stuff?" Once he confessed that the smell was his fault, I agreed to let him bring some of his treasures into the house. For the last twenty minutes the gardener has been shaving all of our sweaters and turning our living room lamp on by remote. Who knew that remote outlet converters even existed?

In a box labeled "Holiday" there were ugly X-mas wreaths, Halloween decor and an assortment of bar giveaway St. Patrick's Day beaded necklaces. As I threw the beads into the trash Mae said, "that's okay, were not Jewish anyway." I'm pretty sure she meant Irish but either way it made me laugh.


One more day to enter my Peachy Giveaway!

Here, Irma Irma

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know about my love affair with our little local newspaper, The Squeak.

This week there were two great ads I couldn't pass up.

Here we go...



Yes, I admit that I feel bad that Irma (the fat, gray cat) is missing, but seriously how do you lose a gas powered lawn trimmer? Perhaps the former owner was using it on a Sunday and the neighbors took action. ...Just a thought.

Marriage???

click to enlarge or enrage, you decide.

This full page ad runs in the squeak at least once a year and every time I read it, it makes my skin crawl. I think it's great that the local pastors are trying to keep the rate of divorce down but I really don't think this "Town X Area Marriage Policy" is aimed entirely at the local church going crowd.

You see, we used to live in town X. We bought a beautiful house on a foreclosure sale 4 years ago but only made it one year there and happily paid capital gain taxes to get the hell out of town. The problem and the reason for moving out were crazy rules and nosy neighbors. No work on Sundays for everyone, including heathens like us. No lawn mowing, no gardening, no laundry (at least don't hang it outside) and most certainly no booze on Sundays (or any other day for that matter, recycling day was always fun at our house!). The weekend we moved in, we had a parade of neighbors come over and explain the rules followed by an invitation to their churches. What, do we have horns growing out of our heads? Is it that obvious?

Now don't get me wrong, Town X is a lovely community, but just not for us. We still live very close to this small town, but being out in the country has given us the cushion we need, and no more nosy neighbors stopping by on Sunday to tell us we're doin' it wrong.

This video has made the rounds lately but it goes so well with this post.

Thanks to the bloggers listed below for passing this video on.

Musings of a Wandering Elf

Riot Kitty

True Blue Texan

Grandpa Eddie

This is not meant to ruffle any feathers as I know I have several Christian readers. Stuff like this gets me thinking, and thinking is a good thing!

Ooh, one more thing. This is my 200th post! Hard to believe that I've spilled my guts in 200 posts already.

Something From The Squeak

The Gardener took the kids over to his parents house tonight for egg dyeing and a little Wii, so that means I'm home alone! I was at work and now I'm clean and enjoying a bowl of wild rice soup and some fresh guacamole. Yum!

While I have a minute to blog in quiet (except for the radio on in the background) I thought I would share something I found in our local newspaper "The Squeak." There was a couple that owned our house for many, many years before we bought it in July 2006. They ran this farm until about 15 years ago. From what we can gather, they lived in this house for at least 50 years. The husband died in this house sometime in 2006. (My kids think that is the best thing ever. "So mom, which room to you think he died in?") He was in his nineties. I know the wife went to a nursing home when her husband passed, but I hadn't heard anything about her in over a year and finally stopped getting X-mas cards (with our address) from their family and friends.

Well apparently the wife is still alive and doing well, at 97! This was her ad in the paper this week.

I didn't send her a card, but I was happy to hear that she is doing well. This is one little newspaper that won't be discontinued for an online version... I hope.

More great ads from the Squeak, here and here.

Another Great Ad in the Squeak

Someone's husband is in trouble, I know that because no woman would hoist that heavy thing into the back of the wrong truck.

Very amusing, considering it's not my Bissel carpet steamer. If it happens that any of you reading this discovered it in the back of your truck, let me know and we'll get it back to it's rightful owner. Ha!

Also, thank you to everyone who has posted comments, especially Kathy- it's so nice to hear from family.

I Couldn't Resist

I found this ad in the local newspaper that we call the Squeak.

Almost every week I find something amusing.