GOOD LUCK, BAD LUCK, SMART THINKING AND STUPIDITY

These conditions (good luck, bad luck, smart thinking, and stupidity) play and: fight for supremacy.  The mess up my life.  In my mind, they are like two sets of good and bad twins).  For example, I locked myself out of my house the other day with nothing but the sleeveless blouse and pair of shorts I was wearing.  (bad luck or stupidity?)  Fortunately I  keep a Hide-a-Key in its little magnetic box on the porch (smart thinking).  However, my office key,not my front door key (stupidity). I had to buy a new lock a couple of weeks ago; old key doesn't work.

The air had gill-breathing humidity and oven-hot temperature.  Naturally my cell phone, iTouch with all  phone numbers, and computer with email addresses were all locked in the house.  A kindly neighbor took me in (smart thinking)and kept me from becoming dehydrated but, at least, offering a phone and a place to sit and some ice water to drink..His son overheard me describe my light and asked what happened.  He then asked if there was an unlocked window in my house.  It happened there was. (stupidity, good luck, or both).  He insisted on driving the half block to my house, found the window with as step ladder conveniently leaning against that side of the house.  (stupidity and good luck).  He was able to reach up to get me into the house.  (his smart thinking and my good luck)

Breaking and entering into your own home is not a misdemeanor.  (good luck or smart thinking, that we broke into my home though learning a how-to in case of other needs) You never know where and when you may need to pick a lock. You may just need to get into your house or car, or you may be captured by insurgents in a foreign nation. Whatever the case may be, this is the Beginners Guide To Lock Picking. With practice and time, your skills will improve.  In the unlikely event that history repeats itself, I point my readers to this site in the unlikely event that my history repeats itself,. Finding this site=good luck; using tools of this site illegally=stupidity; adding another skill you may sometime need=smart thinking.

WHEN DANGER CATCHES UP WITH YOU

Sometimes things take a long time to work themselves up to real danger.  Today I heard about the two and a half million wild boars that are being caught and eaten in Germany.  Chernobyl had scattered radiation which has gotten into the earth and has contaminated the meat of the boars which is then eaten by humans. The boars are rampaging.  They usually have litters of six to eight.piglets.  Listen to the story on NPR.

These are mutant wild boars and are plaguing Germany as their litters have again or double the litters in other countries. Read more here

The Spiegel report also says that German government payments compensating hunters for lost income due to radioactive wild boar meat have quadrupled since 2007. Last year , about $555,000 was paid to hunters who found themselves with inedible boar meat, due to its radioactivity. The hunters would have otherwise sold the meat, but it was deemed unfit for human consumption. 
The report also explained that wild boars are specially susceptible to radioactive contamination due to their predilection for chomping on mushrooms and truffles, which are particularly efficient at absorbing radioactivity. Experts are predicting the problem of radioactive wild boars will plague Germany "for at least the next 50 years."  More here.

We have politicians pushing for more nuclear power stations. The wild boars in Germany don't make me feel more attracted to the idea than allowing BP to dig more oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.  The potential for major catastrophic harm ultimately to humans loom too greatly for me to feel comfortable about the idea.  So far, energy produced pretty much solely by Nature, such as water, wind, solar, seems safer.  These elements for power require no toxic waste storage such as spent radioactive material.

The idea of using radioactive material was seen as a 'glowing' success (pun intended) but like the Valdez and BP oil spills among others. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and a few more we could mention, if I could think of them, just as a straight line is the shortest route between two points, the simplest way with no toxic residue is the way to go with our power needs for the future...keeping it as renewable energy...very green!

E-WASTE

The term "e-waste" is loosely applied to consumer and business electronic equipment that is near or at the end of its useful life. There is no clear definition for e-waste; for instance whether or not items like microwave ovens and other similar "appliances" should be grouped into the category has not been established. See more here.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle became a mantra    Click here for detail.  There was an electronic waste management Act of 2003 passed.  There is a Department  of Toxic Substances Control.  Its function seems to be regulating disposal and setting fees.  Read more about it..

 Even though there is a ban, it is difficult to monitor as countries hide their waste inside containers, surrounded by acceptable materials.

On the Internet, an ad for e-waste disposal focuses on the security of information which it destroys before disposal but does not describe where or how the toxic material is disposed. Sites like this demonstrate that people write about and care more about the money it will cost than the effect the waste will have on our lives. Click here

LIVING BY NUMBERS

People have oft written about the importance of numbers in one's life.  The numbers are pretty irrelevant to me as they never seem to fit.  I was passing for twenty one when I was fourteen and being carded when I was thirty,  Becoming a mother for the first time when I was twenty four seemed a real landmark.  Thirty nine years later I became a grandparent to the adult grandchild who, through no effort on my part, is turning me into a great grandparent!  

Finding the real landmarks to getting old is pretty easy.  The first set of babies is thrilling but frightening because that little life is totally your responsibility.  After I brought my first baby home from the hospital, I almost went into shock when I heard a cry and suddenly realized I was not alone in the house and had gone into total denial that I was a mother, alone in the house with this little being whom I needed to keep alive!

Becoming a grandmother was much easier. I just gave out advice (which was totally ignored) and occasionally baby sat to relieve the parents, fed, burped, changed diapers, paced floors and rocked until the parents came back to pick the little darlings up.  As they all grew older I just bought out Toys R Us to keep them out of my things and cleaned up the residue when they left. When they finally were old enough to follow some commands and directions, we talked and I bribed.  Having worked with a behavior therapist for a time, I learned that positive reinforcement was a good thing.  Manipulation is not all bad!

As the grandchildren grew up, the inevitable happened.  They began to think of repeating that draining life cycle of reproduction.  Fine for them, it being a first for them, foolish though it may seem, I was never given a thought as to what it would do to me!  What next, would I be put out on the ice float next winter?  After all, how old can you get and still function?  But wait, I knew a woman who was a grandmother at 32.  She could be a great grandmother at 47 if that pattern kept up.  I may be considerably advanced in years from forty seven but it isn't the number that is important.  For once the label really has no expiration date, one just has to exist.  I can guarantee that I will not fight to hold, feed, burp, diaper change, rock or pace the floor with yet another generation.

Instead, I will marvel at Nature's new creation, check all the parts, and offer my services like the now 8th away from the throne.  I will probably be the last on the babysitter list...as in, "Call when you run out of other bodies who will agree" and will never let on that I will thoroughly enjoy the closeness, never forgetting the adage, 'Whenever you have the urge to have a baby, borrow someone else's and hold it until the urge passes'.

THINGS SOME MIGHT NEVERR HEAR FROM OUR PRESS AND MEDIA

 Two men were convicted of planning to bomb fuel storage tanks at JFK Airport in NY.  Russell Defreitas, 66, and Abdul Kadir, 58, were facing life in prison after the jury's verdict in a Brooklyn court on Monday, a spokesman for the US attorney's office said.

"On tape, Defreitas, a naturalized US citizen from Guyana, talked about punishing the US with an attack that would "dwarf 9/11".  He told the informant his US citizenship gave him cover. "They don't expect nobody in this country to do something like this," he said.
"They have their eyes on foreigners, not me." "For the complete story which appeared on the front page opf Al Jazeera, click here.

Newsweek Magazine has been sold to Sidney Harmon, 91 years old,  hi-fi billionaire.. Though it has been owned by Washington Post since 1933, it has significantly lost money recently and was put up for sale in May 2010.  Jon Meacham will step down as Editor.  To read more, click here.

It will be interesting to see the new course set by the new owner.  With Rupert changing the course of local news on his local stations, we can only wonder how far we will have to travel in the world to understand what is happening under our very noses....or was it better before we knew.?







 
 

MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

For some reason my mind seems to be wandering instead of my body, which certainly needs it more..  We used to have parakeets in the house until I reverted to my rule of never buying anything that eats or has moving parts, to simplify my life.  Nevertheless, I used to think about the parakeet who talked to me, sang on my shoulder when I played piano, and never differentiated on what he could relieve himself .  I wondered what will happen to all those birdcages and puppies being trained when there are no longer printed newspapers in people's homes.

Divide and conquer is a long held tactic by many battling.  Unfortunately the Republicans have divided themselves and will be conquered if they don't smarten up...which seems unlikely.

A current description of what it means to be up the creek without a paddle is that a cooling system fault hits the space station.   It is not easy to get parts up there in space.  You can't just look helpless  with the hope that someone will take pity and fix it all for you.  To learn more, click here.

I've tried a mental GPS system and got pretty good at it.  Just as my husband had built sun dials, he became far less rigid in his thinking but always looked at his wristwatch after his sundial...just to be sure.  I wish life offered more things to check against and confirm, but, alas, it will never be.

HOLDING RUDENESS BACK

Basically, at this age, I am an impatient person.  People who think and talk slowly, taking too long to get to the point and or with their editorializing, make me fight to keep from being rude. I feel as some of my friends do (though they don't seem to want to talk about it) that I have a relatively limited time left in my life and it angers me to waste it being bored by people.

We older people seem to find others our age who want to talk about the same things over and over, even when told they have mentioned this before.  It is as though the record has to be played to the end.  If they really want to repeat a story they know is boring me by my spaciness, yawning, and glazed eyeballs, I have the urge to tell them they should talk to a mirror.  Sometimes I forget to whom I have said something and tell my friends to stop me if I am repeating.  I don't want them to be polite when I repeat myself.  In a car as a passenger it is often difficult to see a face to gauge reaction..

Others keep repeating because there is nothing  new in their heads about which to talk.One person rarely phones me because, I'm told, she has nothing to say.  She seemed baffled when I suggested she might just want to call to see how I am!  Generally I listen to such people thinking about all the days of my life I have wasted listening to people who talk to hear themselves, rather than caring whether I am listening, want to hear or not.  While I think it was an amusing comeback, I don't want to respond as the son of a cousin of mine when he said to his father, "Dad, you must mistake me for someone who gives a damn!"  While I don't say that, I think it often.

I tend to chatter at times and am sure I have bored friends and certainly wish they would tell me, especially when we are in a car and I can't see their face to read the emotion.  I wish people could accept that I will not be insulted if they tell me they aren't interested in what I am saying about myself and /or have what I am saying before.  Likewise, when I tell someone I don't wish to hear what they are saying as I have heard it all before, I don't want them on the verge of tears telling me I hurt their feelings.  Nor do I want them to look right through me and continue on with the story.  Sometimes, no matter what I do, it just doesn't work and I'm truly sorry about that. 

DANIEL SCHORR, I'LL MISS YOU!

The Grim Reaper came for Daniel Schorr on 7/23/10.  "Veteran reporter Daniel Schorr, the last of Edward R. Murrow's legendary CBS team still fully active in journalism, currently interprets national and international events as senior news analyst for NPR." -quote from this article.  In 2002, Boston public radio station WBUR and Boston University instituted a Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize of $5,000 for an "individual news work of significance and quality by a young journalist in public radio."

Daniel Schorr, long time writer and on Richard Nixon's 'enemies list' has passed away at the age of 92. 
His death has been reported as a result of a brief illness.  Schorr's career covered more thansix long decades- beginning in print and than leading up to 23 years with ABC".  More of his bio can be found here.

"Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010)[1][2] was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism."  For entire Wikipaedia bio, click here.

If you loved this journalist as I did, go to this site and listen to the entire Fresh Air intervierw.

We have lost a National Treasure, a journalist to be modeled after and admired, a mensch, and one of the rare journalists today whom you could trust...  Unfortunately, as in marketing, the middle man (the producers) get in the way.