Yesterday my neighbor, J, and I went to CVS and stood in line for quite a while to get our flu shots. It is the first time I'd had one not in my doctor's office. Like all long lines, it is a challenge to me to interact with people and stir up some friendliness and fun. A very heavy, though short, woman was in line in front of me, holding onto a shopping cart. She had a clip board from the front desk which she was using to fill in the Medicare form. When I realized I was struggling to fill my form without something to rest it on, I asked her if she was through with hers. She was and handed it to me graciously, starting a conversation about her health, her daughter the nurse, The little lady announced she was 85 years old and a survivor of both breast and colon cancer. We began chatting and the people around us had no way to avoid hearing what we talked about.
After i had filled in my form I gave the clipboard to J who used it, then gave it back to me. I looked down the line, saw a man struggling as I had been and asked if he would like the board. He thanked me with a pleasant smile. who needed one. When I realized the shopping cart helped the lady in front of me but she really needed a chair, I flagged down a clerk and told her that there should be come chairs for some of the elderly in line, especially the lady in front of me. She immediately agreed and came back with a chair. Once again, I noticed people in the line looking at me with what seemed to me a bit of surprise.
I said, not too softly to J, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." This brought some more smiles from people nearby, though they tried to be tactful and not blatant. When the little lady decided to give up the chair, J asked for it as she is in great pain from standing too long, herself.
Shortly, the manager came and moved us all away from the prescription desk where we were making it difficult for people to get to the pharmacists. Now a display of books was beside me. One of them was titled: How to Deal with Impossible People
I laughed and told my friend I didn't need a book for that. It was easy, I just got them out of my life. There were a lot of How-To books and some religious ones. As I was feeling good and talking a running commentary to my friend, she and I seemed to be the only ones doing much talking and I realized I was being viewed as a source of entertainment. No one likes standing in a boring line just waiting...certainly not I, and apparently not lots of others. Shyness has never been a part of my nature and I didn't mind if other people listened to the conversation between J and me. We have known each other a long time. She was an only child and said she doesn't really like people and loved solitude. I told her I had never been alone for any length of time until my husband passed away many years after all the children had grown up and gone away. Even then, my front door was somewhat like the entrance to Grand Central Station. We chatted about the self-help books about how to be to our inane conversation, I can understand why we had so many direct looks from people though none seemed disapproving. It felt as comfortable. Happiness and relaxation seems to rub off on others who allow themselves to feel.
The forms filled out, Medicare card shown, then finally seated as the nurse told me my long white pony tail was really lovely, as i was removing layers to offer my bare left shoulder. I made my usual comment, "Thanks, I'm too cheap to go to a hairdresser so I usually where it in a bun when I want to look grown-up." By now people seemed more relaxed behind us and more open with their obvious attention to the dialogues my friend and I were having with each other and others around us.
The nurse was kind and wished us a happy, healthy year after the shot that hurt about as much as a mosquito bite might have, we left. I was so pleased at the number of smiles at us as we walked away. I thought to myself, "How easy it is to be happy about just being alive and, especially when realizing how much better off I am than so many people I see." I know that being relaxed and carrying a running dialogue of observations, jokes, and anecdotes made the time pass more quickly for us and the direct looks and smiles from the others in line was gratifying. We had made the time pass for others as well.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
DEJA MOO
You can find'DEJA MOO'defined in the urban dictionary as: The feeling that you have heard this bull before.
Today Susan Molinari appeared on the Chris Matthews MSNBC show, Hardball. She kept the lying mantra of the Republican party: Obama will raise your taxes. That is true for about 4% of the population as compared with the 96% who has enjoyed high income and lowered taxes during the Bush administration. Do Republican senators not realize that they make themselves look deceitful when they perpetuate the McCain/Palin lies?
That they have never failed to twist the truth or cast aspersions made up outright lies seems to be no part of their consciousness. Interestingly, to asperse has two meanings: asperse
PRONUNCIATION:
(a-SPURS)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To spread false and malicious charges against someone.
2. To sprinkle with holy water.
The sprinkle with Holy Water part amuses me. Since Holy Water becomes such when it is blessed by a mortal who has no greater direct access to God than any of the rest of us, it makes me want to get religion out of politics only more strongly.
Later in the day, PBS had a program on US torture of prisoners, especially at Guantanamo. It is a horrible can of worms, legally, in the inhumanity of the treatment of many, and mostly in the fact that the US has now given free license for our military to be treated similarly by the rest of the world!
Will the damages done by this administration ever be erased? Most animals will not defecate in their nest or bed...is it not the greatest inhumanity to force prisoners to do that? However, I was confused by the statement that one man had been held at Guantanamo for 7 years without being charged. I was not aware that we held prisoners there before going to war with Iraq. Was this man, then, from Afghanistan? Will we ever truly learn about the atrocities committed by this administration and will any of them ever be held accountable? If they are not, what will it say to our next generation? Is this what we want America to be all about?
Today Susan Molinari appeared on the Chris Matthews MSNBC show, Hardball. She kept the lying mantra of the Republican party: Obama will raise your taxes. That is true for about 4% of the population as compared with the 96% who has enjoyed high income and lowered taxes during the Bush administration. Do Republican senators not realize that they make themselves look deceitful when they perpetuate the McCain/Palin lies?
That they have never failed to twist the truth or cast aspersions made up outright lies seems to be no part of their consciousness. Interestingly, to asperse has two meanings: asperse
PRONUNCIATION:
(a-SPURS)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To spread false and malicious charges against someone.
2. To sprinkle with holy water.
The sprinkle with Holy Water part amuses me. Since Holy Water becomes such when it is blessed by a mortal who has no greater direct access to God than any of the rest of us, it makes me want to get religion out of politics only more strongly.
Later in the day, PBS had a program on US torture of prisoners, especially at Guantanamo. It is a horrible can of worms, legally, in the inhumanity of the treatment of many, and mostly in the fact that the US has now given free license for our military to be treated similarly by the rest of the world!
Will the damages done by this administration ever be erased? Most animals will not defecate in their nest or bed...is it not the greatest inhumanity to force prisoners to do that? However, I was confused by the statement that one man had been held at Guantanamo for 7 years without being charged. I was not aware that we held prisoners there before going to war with Iraq. Was this man, then, from Afghanistan? Will we ever truly learn about the atrocities committed by this administration and will any of them ever be held accountable? If they are not, what will it say to our next generation? Is this what we want America to be all about?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
THE COUNTDOWN
While the Republicans sulk that the rest of us aren't following the sucker born every minute rule; that we don't really see Joe 'the plumber' as a representative of the 'real America'; that we do not see Sarah Palin as prepared or fit to lead this country; we dare to even speak out about our disbeliefs in the message they are selling.
Obasma's hope is that people will feel that what the Democrats are doing is important. He teases that his white half may be pulling his voting arm away due the Bradley Effect.
My fear is that after the voting is done and counted, winner announced, the collective sigh of all Americans will cause the biggest wind, not sent by Mother Nature, that we will ever have had in the USA. It will be so powerful, it may push Palin's broom off course and right back up to Alaska!
The stock market moods remain extremely labile. The pundits, trying hard to look as though they know whereof they speak, are as wrong as often as they always have been.
Journalist on the Baltimore Sun, David Simon, American author, journalist, and writer/producer of television series said: "It is an American phenonmenon, doing less with more." He says he is a socialist as was Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Colbert quotes, "This land is my land; this land is your land...." and says that is pure Socialism, is it not?
Will the election be, in this season, a trick or a treat?
Obasma's hope is that people will feel that what the Democrats are doing is important. He teases that his white half may be pulling his voting arm away due the Bradley Effect.
My fear is that after the voting is done and counted, winner announced, the collective sigh of all Americans will cause the biggest wind, not sent by Mother Nature, that we will ever have had in the USA. It will be so powerful, it may push Palin's broom off course and right back up to Alaska!
The stock market moods remain extremely labile. The pundits, trying hard to look as though they know whereof they speak, are as wrong as often as they always have been.
Journalist on the Baltimore Sun, David Simon, American author, journalist, and writer/producer of television series said: "It is an American phenonmenon, doing less with more." He says he is a socialist as was Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Colbert quotes, "This land is my land; this land is your land...." and says that is pure Socialism, is it not?
Will the election be, in this season, a trick or a treat?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
ATTEMPTS TO HELP
Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have joined forces in a human rights attempt. Called The Global Initiative,they are trying to limit the data that should be shared with governments as in China. Another speaker, Mike Posner from Human Rights First, believes this to be an important step. Might it be possible to stem the tide the Bush Administration has started here in the USA to turn us into a living model of what was pictured in the novel 1984?
"The initiative states that privacy is "a human right and guarantor of human dignity," and the agreement commits the companies to try to resist overly broad demands for restrictions on freedom of speech and the privacy of users.
They will also assess the human rights climate in a country before concluding business deals and make sure their employees and partners follow suit." Maggie Shiels, Technology Reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley)
It distresses me that the phone companies, who have been allowing calls to be listened into by the Bush Administration have been given a free pass. Their monopolistic deals with the government were worth more than standing up for and respecting the Constitution and people's rights to privacy. This information was out there a couple of years ago but the media did not play it up much and people were passive about raising their voices in an outcry.
"The Bill of Rights is the common name for Amendments 1 through 9 (the 10th Amendment is usually included under the heading of "Bill of Rights," since it was ratified with the other nine, but it does not technically recognize any rights)." (U.S. Constitution online)
Since I am not a Constitutional scholar, I find it tedious to try to guess what our forefathers meant. I think the basic intentions should be rewritten into a new document that fits our world today, though I must commend the original writers for a document that has lasted surprisingly well for over two hundred years. No technology has lasted so long with so few modifications other than, perhaps, the human body...and even it can be changed rather easily. As a result, human longevity has, however, with better understanding of the brain, genetics, dna, body chemistry and all the other things we are finding out in addition to homosexuality, mixed racial births, marriage as no longer needing to be forever, the growing number of people who no longer can take religion on 'faith', and all the other prickly posits of our society...somehow the fight for reality and living in the 21st C and not back in the Garden of Eden has to happen. One might suppose more people would want it to happen, but, sadly, that does not seem to be the case.
"The initiative states that privacy is "a human right and guarantor of human dignity," and the agreement commits the companies to try to resist overly broad demands for restrictions on freedom of speech and the privacy of users.
They will also assess the human rights climate in a country before concluding business deals and make sure their employees and partners follow suit." Maggie Shiels, Technology Reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley)
It distresses me that the phone companies, who have been allowing calls to be listened into by the Bush Administration have been given a free pass. Their monopolistic deals with the government were worth more than standing up for and respecting the Constitution and people's rights to privacy. This information was out there a couple of years ago but the media did not play it up much and people were passive about raising their voices in an outcry.
"The Bill of Rights is the common name for Amendments 1 through 9 (the 10th Amendment is usually included under the heading of "Bill of Rights," since it was ratified with the other nine, but it does not technically recognize any rights)." (U.S. Constitution online)
Since I am not a Constitutional scholar, I find it tedious to try to guess what our forefathers meant. I think the basic intentions should be rewritten into a new document that fits our world today, though I must commend the original writers for a document that has lasted surprisingly well for over two hundred years. No technology has lasted so long with so few modifications other than, perhaps, the human body...and even it can be changed rather easily. As a result, human longevity has, however, with better understanding of the brain, genetics, dna, body chemistry and all the other things we are finding out in addition to homosexuality, mixed racial births, marriage as no longer needing to be forever, the growing number of people who no longer can take religion on 'faith', and all the other prickly posits of our society...somehow the fight for reality and living in the 21st C and not back in the Garden of Eden has to happen. One might suppose more people would want it to happen, but, sadly, that does not seem to be the case.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
PEOPLE EXPLAIINING THEMSELVES ?
The other day someone spoke of attending a Sexual Harassment Workshop. I asked if he was learning new harassing techniques, as in, "Are you the harasser or the harassee?" and got a surprised look followed by a frown. When patients, as a few have said over the years, "When I committed suicide....." Logic compels me to let them know they must then be dead. That usually precipitates a somewhat confused look.
Has anyone ever offered to 'make you some eggs' for breakfast? That would be a great trick, even if the offer came from the chicken herself.
While I love it that today men are more involved with their wife's pregnancy, birthing and raising of children...I still want to laugh myself silly when I hear couples say 'We're pregnant." I want to say, "Buddy, when is your due date?"
Whether this is as prevalent in other parts of the country or not, I chuckle when I hear myself referred to as 'youse'. 'With you' becomes 'Witcha', related to 'gotcha', I guess.
However, most annoying to me are the people who substitute a noun for a verb, as in those who say, "I have poison ivy and I have to itch myself." Do those people, if they have a pet cat, buy them a scratching post...or do they continue to hunt for an itching post? Nevertheless, to the dismay of the company, Google, we still say "I will google it and let you know what I find." We still tend to 'xerox' though copy is not difficult to say. We blow our noses in 'Kleenex', regardless of the tissue brand we happen to be using.
But the real credit for making things clear should go to the Urban Dictionary, though the words may not last as long as people.
Has anyone ever offered to 'make you some eggs' for breakfast? That would be a great trick, even if the offer came from the chicken herself.
While I love it that today men are more involved with their wife's pregnancy, birthing and raising of children...I still want to laugh myself silly when I hear couples say 'We're pregnant." I want to say, "Buddy, when is your due date?"
Whether this is as prevalent in other parts of the country or not, I chuckle when I hear myself referred to as 'youse'. 'With you' becomes 'Witcha', related to 'gotcha', I guess.
However, most annoying to me are the people who substitute a noun for a verb, as in those who say, "I have poison ivy and I have to itch myself." Do those people, if they have a pet cat, buy them a scratching post...or do they continue to hunt for an itching post? Nevertheless, to the dismay of the company, Google, we still say "I will google it and let you know what I find." We still tend to 'xerox' though copy is not difficult to say. We blow our noses in 'Kleenex', regardless of the tissue brand we happen to be using.
But the real credit for making things clear should go to the Urban Dictionary, though the words may not last as long as people.
Monday, October 27, 2008
FACING SIDE EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES
As a result of the US economy tanking so far, there are fewer dollars available to buy toys for our tots and teen-agers this Christmas. While it hurts the kids, it hurts the toy stores, in turn hurting the shippers, in turn hurting the manufacturers and so it goes. This means that China faces getting richer less quickly. "Most of the world's toys are made in China. But in the last seven months, half the country's toymakers have gone out of business.", the report goes on to say.
Some people just suffer and some people take individual action. Years ago when the trash collectors in New York City went on strike and garbage and trash continued to pile up, it began to smell bad and there was no way for people to get rid of the refuse. One quick-thinking woman took a large box, filled it with her trash, girt wrapped it and tied it with a pretty ribbon. Then she left it in full view on the passenger seat of her unlocked car and toodled off on an errand. She smiled when she returned to her car and found the 'gift' had been stolen.
Watch this video. You may have to watch a couple of sitcom trailers first.
Even Consumer Reports is prognosticating and have launched Tightwad Tod'.
There was a time when one could always count on getting a job which requires only being to move quickly, be reasonably strong, and follow orders. It is not so any more. Those jobs are already taken by workers willing to work under the table, below minimum wage, part-time without benefits, and there are probably many more criteria I cannot think of at the top off my head.
Some people just suffer and some people take individual action. Years ago when the trash collectors in New York City went on strike and garbage and trash continued to pile up, it began to smell bad and there was no way for people to get rid of the refuse. One quick-thinking woman took a large box, filled it with her trash, girt wrapped it and tied it with a pretty ribbon. Then she left it in full view on the passenger seat of her unlocked car and toodled off on an errand. She smiled when she returned to her car and found the 'gift' had been stolen.
Watch this video. You may have to watch a couple of sitcom trailers first.
Even Consumer Reports is prognosticating and have launched Tightwad Tod'.
"With the launch of Tightwad Tod, we’re kicking that mission into overdrive. Every day, I’ll be posting on the news that affects your pocketbook, sniffing around for great buys, challenging offers that sound too good to be true, and heaping shame on the scams and ripoff artists that abound out there. I’m also asking for your help. We’re looking for your best tip on how to save money, and also for help in identifying any really bad deals that should be exposed. If you’ve got an idea, please write to me at tightwad at cro.consumer.org. If we publish your tip, or develop a posting from your idea, we’ll send you a nifty “I’m a Tightwad” T-shirt – by the cheapest possible mail, of course – that you can wear to impress your friends or hide away forever, as you choose."
It shows that this is an act in which everyone of us will participate.
There was a time when one could always count on getting a job which requires only being to move quickly, be reasonably strong, and follow orders. It is not so any more. Those jobs are already taken by workers willing to work under the table, below minimum wage, part-time without benefits, and there are probably many more criteria I cannot think of at the top off my head.
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