It is easy to sit here and come up with little things to complain about.  But that is not Cantankerous, that is just crabby.  Some days it is hard to find the Cantankerous side of things, especially with a holiday like Christmas staring us in the face.

I recently moved my desk to the other side of my living room in preparation for Christmas decorating.  we have to find a place for the tree.  This move was good though, because now I have a window to stare out of.  I try to justify it to myself as creative thinking when I am staring out the window but I am convinced that most of it is wasting time.

I keep thinking of what I could write about for this site based on what I see out of my window.  I could complain about all fo the leaves that have fallen on my lawn, or the wind that blew them around, or even the rain that will make them harder to rake up, or even the snow that now covers them.

I could complain about the snow plow that keep filling up my driveway approach with snow that I get to shovel out again and again.  Or I could complain more about the TSA, airports in general, or the fact that egg prices have gone up almost double since last month.  Again, mostly not Cantankerous.

Here is what I can wax cantankerous about.  People who don’t do whatever it takes for their kids.  I have seen way too many kids at the elementary school who are outside in the cold wearing 2-3 tshirts or a parents flannel shirt.  It has been running at less than 30 degrees in Salt Lake for a couple of weeks now, this week is the warmest and will barely be in the 40’s.  Now I understand that some people just can’t afford to buy new coats all of the time for their kids.

I get it, times are hard.  But, there are 2 goodwill stores, one Salvation Army and one Deseret Industries within 2 miles of the school.  Coats can be had for cheap at either of these places.  Sometimes even that is too much for people, yet a good portion of the time, these people have a perpetual cigarette in their mouths.  I can’t imagine letting my kids go without anything that they need.  I don’t buy myself stuff most of the time because A-I don’t need it and B- I can use the money for my kids.

2 years ago my daughter had her coat disappear at school.  A few days later we saw another little girl with the coat on, and she was one that needed it.  We never pursued the fact that it was stolen, my daughter had another coat anyway and we figured that this girl needed it worse.  But what are some people doing when they let their kids resort to stealing from other kids just so they can be warm?

This post has gone from a rant to a sad commentary on society.  I don’t know the answer to this problem.  We can donate to all sorts of charities and some people get the help they need but there are others who are not quite poor enough to qualify for some programs but not rich enough to keep their growing kids in clothes that need help too.  Go out and see what you can do in your community to help those who need just a little bit. And it doesn’t need to be coats, some climes do not require them.  I am sure if you looked you could find something that needed to be done.

Consider that your homework for the week, do something for your community.  See we here at the Coots do believe that it is a good thing to help out your fellow man.  We just don’t believe in letting people suck us dry taking advantage of us.  Get ready for the Christmas season, no matter your religion, there are people out there who need you and your support.