WHEN THINGS STOP WORKING

There are various categories of things that 'work' for us in our life.  Mechanical, electrical, technical, utilitarian articles are all supposed to work.  We rely on them.  When they stop working we can only grumble if we can't get them replaced immediately.  In today's world, an exact replacement is rarely possible.  Companies change the model every three minutes.  You will see this if you ever try to get an exact replacement of a printer.  Likely, if it is five years or older, as my HP Laser Jet 1250 purchased in 2005, it is no longer mentioned on the usual list for drivers. In March I was told a fix would be available in May.  Not being able to be without a printer I, of course, had to buy another.  I have yet to try to get the 'fix' for my 1250 which has a perfectly good toner cartridge, cost $140 or so and is nearly new.  I believe when that marketing ploy was invented, it was known as planned obsolescence....and probably still is.

When you have to replace a car, stove, or many other appliances, be prepared to give up some features you liked and get some new ones you may and some you  may not like.  Having to start from scratch finding new service people is equally frustrating; changing doctors, dentists, plumbers, electricians, etc should go very high on the priority scale of stressors.  They have a way of changing professions, moving away, retiring, or even dying!  Replacement parts don't come from a warehouse that can cheerfully say, "Oh, we no longer stock those parts."  Of course they don't.  When parts change  every fifteen minutes they couldn't make a warehouse big enough to fit them all.

However, worst of all is when personal coping skills no longer work.  People who smoke to calm themselves, alcoholics who drank to numb themselves or manics who drank to slow their brains down, people who use denial but things eventually can no longer be denied or put off, those lying awake when sleep used to be best calmer, all these can fail.  Those who use drugs to tune out, miss opportunities for resolving rather than ignoring problems. 

It is not difficult to realize that having to give up alcohol, drugs, exercising, lose a beloved pet, or any of the things that kept stress level low, necessarily have their stress level rise (not a healthy thing) until a new coping mechanism can be found and put into place.  In the event of a death of a beloved, divorce or other breakup, it is not as simple as purchasing a replacement.  For alcoholics it often means changing total lifestyle and friends.

For someone who lived on the endorphin kicks from jogging or stress exercise, who suffers a physical restraint to continuing, it is not easy to find a replacement that is not addictive.

People do not seem to understand that replacements can be on a physical or psychological level.  When some casually say, "Get a life" or "Get on with your life"they  are oblivious to the uselessness of their advice.  Prescribing a result rather than a means to reach it is the only thing that can be helpful but most people don't think that way. If a friend describes a relationship dilemma, the frequent reply giving is "dump him/her', "get a divorce", "move away" or similar advice,  impossible to achieve.a desired result.

Does it mean we should never listen to advice.  Not really.  It means we should be our own advocates and feel gifted if we have the mental capacity and inquiring minds to do so.  Too many peolple are ill-equipped to take care of themselves and cope with the strain of today's life.  When things stop working they go into 'stun' mode.  People have asked me what they should do and , most of the time, I know they will not follow my advice.  If they were capable of my reasoning, they would probably have thought of the cure themselves.  Actually, as a therpist for years, I refrain from giving advice and solutions that I might have made.  The friends  who ask get tired of my making them talk through their problems to reach their own solutions.when what they want is a 'quick fix' that they can then say they didn't follow because they'd decided it just wouldn't work for them.

Life survival is not contained in one do-it-yourself ' book.  Coping skills are developed through experience ,  often painful ones.  When they work more often than fail, we have reached a comfortable place in '  I don't pray; I just wait, watch parameters, and make moves when I find them.

THE ENTHUSIASM GAP

Obama is finally speaking to the American public directly.  He appeals to the people who voted for him two years ago to maintain a correct perspective about how the country got into the shape it is in and that the responsibility for that sad condition preceded his two years in office.  It is about time he comes to speak directly to his voters.  He is truly the only one who can speak to the issues in a way that most people can understand.

While it is mentioned that more than 80% of the nation's wealth rests in the coffers of the top 2% of the wealthiest of the US population, it is not discussed that the power of money is equally disproportionate.  Money talks and has been talking to too many people with their hands stretched out for it.  Too many of them are politicians who have been voted into office by the naive public who puts into fact the saying once said that 'there is a sucker born every minute'.

The Republicans have yet to discover that there is truth in advertising,  They are just not using it.  For those of you who are aware and read more than Rupert Murdoch financed lies, it only points out more clearly the power of the 'snake oil salesman'.  The good con artist, whether he is selling lies, religion, political promises, or whatever, can sway the lazy people who cannot think for themselves.  Unfortunately we must never forget that half the people are below average.  They are especially vulnerable.  They are also the ones most firmly convinced that the truth is being spoken to them.  I'm horrified to realize that ill-equipped-to-judge people are voters.  People with Alzheimer's vote.  People who have little understanding of the politics of this country vote.  People with an IQ of less than 100 vote.  In fact, many people who have had little exposure to truth, vote.  As irreligious as I may be, I agree with the plea, "God Save our Country"

RETURN FROM VACATION

It has always been a memory, oft repeated, that to get ready to go on vacation was tiring, but to return is even more so.  My body had been bruised and battered from inactivity followed by long hours of driving, then a tumble I took (while stiff from a 350 mile drive), stepping backward into a ditch between two concrete driveways.  This gesture was formerly called 'a** over tea kettle).  Waiting for me was a six inch stack of 'white' mail and what seemed like endless pile of stuff to be sorted through, most of which will be filed in the circular file while I am left wondering how many innocent trees were cut down for all that.  I suspect it lowered the number of leaf peepers in Vermont this year.

It is a good feeling to realize that I was missed by neighbors (with whom I rarely speak). However, this is New England and, while people have little to do directly with one another, the neighbors are there if you need them.  My car, actually, was what was missed since they rarely see me!  Nevertheless, the many phone calls received and placed took up almost a whole morning.

Unpacking is always more of a chore than packing.  I suppose that is because packing clean clothes smells fresh and like a new beginning.  Taking out clothes that have been soaked with perspiration and then stuffed into a closed bag is not like coming back to roses and rest.  There is some fun in finding things I thought were lost because I threw them into bags and then forgot where I put them and never found them during the trip.  One such item was my spare pair of prescription glasses.  The thought of replacing that costly set of frames had me wobbling for a minute or two.  They were at the bottom of a bag with soft stuff atop, never allowing me to see or feel them.  I also had a phone call asking me when I needed my keys back.  These were the ones that you point and press...as costly as their weight in gold when you have to have them replaced by the dealer.  They were the keys I was told had been returned and I was somewhat surprised that I had no recollection of that fact.   It was pleasant to learn that IK had not forgotten what I was never given back, after all.

Until I turned on the Cable News (I thought I was in Heaven not to have to watch Fox News) I was crushed to observe that there are still as many ignorant people out there as there were two weeks ago.  Imagine that!?
I promise this will be the last blog on vacations. I plan to become a card carrying sentient being tomorrow after a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow is another day at home!

MORE REPUBLICAN INCONSISTENCIES

Republicans say they want less government intrusion into our lives but their actions are just the opposite.  Forcing women to stop using birth control, the morning after pill, or abortions regardless of whoever made the fetus is as gross an intrusion into someone's life (the mother, as well as the child that would result, unwanted).  These inconsistencies do nothing to foster respect for either their life priorities or ability to govern on the necessary world scale.

The tea partiers come forth as too limited in scope and not at all able to grasp the multitude of issues that a President or, any elected, legislative member needs to understand and cope.  One Senator is talking about 'shutting down the government' simply because he can.  The last time the government was 'shut down' it cost taxpayers $80,000,000.  To prove his power, I would hope people would understand that it should be his last term in office should he deign to do that.

Even more frightening is the insistence that the tax break for the wealthiest should continue.  If 84% of all the wealth in the United States is held by the top 2%, it makes the unevenness quite clear in the classes.  We do not need to breed more Robin Hoods in our current society but that is where we will be headed.  People will no longer stand for being ruled as though we were in France, with a King, prior to their Revolution.  Obama is trying to change all that and is being resisted by those with the wealth within and many outside of our country who, by the grace of a biased Supreme Court, have made possible for people who should be unelectable to be in office without proper credentials to do their job.

BEYOND TIRED

 Having driven 322 miles in blinding rain most of the way, I could only be grateful that I could see the tail lights of the vehicles ahead of me, otherwise I might still be somewhere in New York.  The day before I had driven up from Virginia when it had only sprinkled lightly, making it cooler, hiding the direct sun, and actually making it a better drive for me and my two passengers for the 375 miles or more.

However, my head tells me I reached my limit for the moment.  My blog should be there before noon on 9/29, which might very well be today for you!     With wishes that your day has been great so far.....Yiayia

TRYING TO BE POLITE WHEN YOUR HOSTS ARE POLAR OPPOSITES ON POLITICS

As someone who hates Fox Cable News, I have been subjected to it hours a day for the past 16 days.  Greta Sustern and Newt Gingrich are mouthing off behind me right now and I am powerless to turn them off.  All I can do is sit at this keyboard trying to keep my blood pressure from popping off at the top of my head!

It is remarkable that people can talk about things to which I respond with equal frustration at them as they have towards me.  However, I lose respect when their statistics are all wrong.  When people say they hate Obama because he has raised taxes on the Middle Class, I lose all sense of tact.  I wonder at how people I love can have been so easily mislead.  I'm sure many parents, whose sons and daughters were seduced into cults and brainwashed, are more than similarly enraged.

Since there is sort of, by definition, no truth in propaganda, I have been subjected to much that I know to be bold-faced lies and know that a very susceptible public is the vast majority.  When Politics and Religion are taboo subjects socially and that is all people can talk about, it is not easy to live in peace.

Tomorrow I will be back on my own turf, my head will be screwed on as it was two weeks ago, and the blog will, hopefully, return to a bit more stimulating subjects.  Until then............

NATURE'S BEAUTY PRESERVED

Today I was fortunate enough to be taken to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  It is proof today that people were creative during the great depression of the 1930s.  Over 200 male and female African-Americans were hired a 75 cents a day to plant azaleas on 30 acres of swamp after first making the land arable.  Many wealthy sponsors contributed and many wonderful people volunteered.  Eventfully those acres has grown to 150 and include free tours on a tram for 25 minutes each, boat rides to view through the canals and rivers for $4. memberships that include library, classes, and displays.  For more detail, click here.

There is an eagle cam on for the public to watch the hatching of eaglets until they leave the nest.  While it is no longer on for the rest of the the season, it is of interest to anyone who will put it on again in the spring.  You can bookmark it here.

Another wonderful Garden in the United States are the Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  There are 1050 acres there so it is rarely seen in only one day and one should wear good walking shoes.  Read about it here/ 


Okay, Kew Gardens, you're okay but you're just too far away to go back to often.

DAVINCI GETS ANOTHER LAST LAUGH

An ornithopter is a bird flight with flapping wings.  While they laughed at Da Vinci for his thinking, 'the proof is in the pudding', as they say.  Click here and wait for Priceline to do its ad or the clip wouldn't have been available.

It is a tribute to the tenacity and ingenuity of man that this day has arrived.  Like all inventions that emulate Nature's creatures, mankind has used the study of flight in many ways.  We have used it in normal life and in war.   We have used what we have learned from Nature in medicine, growing food, and man will not stop the learning.  However, many of the greediest mankind are making animals and plants extinct, thus forever effectively throwing away irretrievable, useful information.

Greed should be listed as the greatest sin since it impacts others more than any of the other 'sins'.

This blogger will soon return to home base after a bit more than two weeks away....the fix for homesickness is to be back home!  I'm counting down the days....