Exploring

I get much further afield in the average week than little Dora, seeing as I'm an adult, can drive, and have a job that requires me to travel to meet clients from the (Grand) Strand to Savannah, from Beaufort to the Blue Ridge, & rather a lot of places in between. Today I arrived a bit early for my final appointment of the day, only to find the client I was to see hadn't yet arrived from school & wasn't due to be home for another hour. After killing time in several local stores, I found myself wandering a side road to see where it'd take me. I didn't find anything unexpected, but it was nice to know where this particular road meandered off to.

Having spent a good bit of my early childhood in cars traversing any of many routes between Queens & Connecticut, I've got a certain amount of wanderlust in my veins. This probably accounts for my willingness to drive down unfamiliar roads just to find out where they end, to follow woodland paths where they lead, & to travel both within the USA & abroad. How else could I possibly account for my not feeling terribly homesick during three years in England & willingly following my husband to the "terra incognita" of Dixie?

Keep exploring, Dora! It's good for you.

Attitude of Gratitude vs Dying With The Most Toys

A friend posted a cartoon on Facebook questioning Black Friday. One of the two characters asks, "Don't you think it's ironic that Americans spend the most money on new things the day after they say they're grateful for what they already have?" His partner in stick figure crime replies, "No."

Personally, I'm left wondering where the heck this entire country's "attitude of gratitude" is; not to mention where any semblance of it demonstrated on Thanksgiving Day disappeared to in a matter of a scant few hours. As a nation on Thursday, most people were off to celebrate God's blessings on us as individuals & on the country as a whole. Parades marched through NYC & Chicago, families gathered for feasting, friends met to catch up with their fellows whom they hadn't seen in a while. Positive activities all, one would suppose.

Enter corporate greed.

Because of the state of this nation's economy, this year retailers expanded their so-called Black Friday shopping specials to the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Too many to enumerate began their so-called Black Friday sales in the late evening hours of Thursday (10:00 p.m. or later) & remained open during the overnight hours so people could shop at 2:00, 3:15, or 4:35 a.m. By the time Friday dawned on the East Coast, some greedy slob on the West Coast had coated a crowd of people with pepper spray in a San Fernando Valley Wal-Mart, all to facilitate her grab of an X-Box (which she may or may not have paid for) ahead of other shoppers.

THIS is THANKFULNESS? For what, precisely? For a gadget that will be largely ignored by about July 2012 because that woman's kids are "bored" with it? An attitude of gratitude is NOT what I've ever seen demonstrated by "shoppers" who made national headlines for this act & others as criminal to other human beings, such as the snatching of a new television set from the shopping cart of an elderly woman, which she, presumably on a fixed income, likely had come to buy at a sale price to replace an old non-DTV model.

Note to the materialistic folks: the person who dies with the most accumulated stuff (purchased on Black Friday or not) still DIES someday--and they CAN'T take all that stuff along!

Armistice Day (better known as Veterans Day)

History tells us that this day became a noteworthy one due to the cessation of hostilities between the parties involved in World War I (also known as "The Great War"). Troops on all sides silenced their weapons on 11/11/18, quite poetically "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918, though the Treaty of Versailles which "officially" ended the war was not officially signed until June 28, 1919. The United States Congress recognized this on June 4, 1926 and in 1938 11/11 became an official Federal holiday. Bells were rung each year at 11:00 a.m. on 11/11 in honor of the Armistice; it has been described by the author Kurt Vonnegut, who was a POW during World War II, thus:

When I was a boy all the people of all nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Armistice Day has become Veteran's Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veteran's Day is not... Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

On June 1, 1954, after cessation of hostilities in the "police action" known to us in the USA as the Korean War, President Eisenhower amended the holiday from "Armistice Day" to "Veterans Day." I am inclined to believe as Vonnegut did that the day should be made sacred once again--and never should have lost as much of its symbolism as it evidently has since the early 1950s.

Peyton

Having a dog who blends in with the autumn's auburn scenery makes things interesting when I roll up in the yard every evening. She & the needles shed by the loblolly pines in our yard (commonly referred to around here as "pine straw") are roughly the same shade of orangey-red, so were it not for her barking, whining, & carrying of much darker pine cones in her mouth to greet me, it'd be challenging to find her in the yard. Fortunately, she's not foolish enough (usually!) to jump into the path of the car, so she's safe.

Now that nights here are getting down toward freezing, she wants to go out more often, whereas her buddy Taco the ten pound wonder chihuahua is happy to curl up in his kennel & hide in it until it gets hot outside. (Like THAT'S going to happen on our schedule!) She also likes the snow, which Taco will tentatively tiptoe out into just long enough to do what he has to, sort of like an awkward canine ballerina on pointe.

I can hardly wait to watch her greet the guys when they get here in two weeks...

Standard time again

Woke up just before 7 a.m. "new" time (after all, the clocks "fell back" overnight!) & am now cozy at the computer with the chihuahua on my lap, shivering in the 70-ish degree house. The 12 year old is also up & watching a video in her room pending my preparation of our breakfast, which I really should get going on if we're to be on time for church.

This afternoon will be busy for me, what with paperwork to be caught up for work (the perpetual project!) & then attendance at a bonfire/hayride with said 12 year old early this evening (right about the time hubby is due to arrive home from his extended field trip with his students).

I'm grateful that with the early rise, I've already run a load of laundry that will be folded & put away before noon (possibly before church if it dries soon enough) & will be able to have the daughters complete the relatively few household chores for me while I'm working later. 16 & 12 can both handle vacuum cleaners, so it's THEIR turn!

Fawkes, Fires, & Frost

I'm sure folks in my native environs recall the summertime TV commercials for the now-defunct Crazy Eddie chain, during which their screaming mimi announcer went on about how the air was hot & sweltering & that meant it was time for their Christmas sale. (Their catch phrase was that their prices were "IN-SANE!") I'm approximately that energized today because, it being Guy Fawkes' Day (a British minor holiday with its own poem I'll share in a moment), it's FINALLY cool enough to NOT be humid, to NEED a little heat in the car early in the morning & in the house during the overnight hours, AND to be able to mow the lawn once in a several week period WITHOUT melting in the process. Hooray for frost!

This is perfect weather for an evening bonfire...which I hope they have on the other side of the Atlantic so all those "pennies for the guy" went into making a proper effigy for each village's celebration. Tonight is the night our British friends launch aerial spectacles to rival our 4th of July; cold outside, yes--but still fun (they tend to serve hot chocolate & other warm beverages at these events). Guy Fawkes himself is best described as a scapegoat, the poor slob who was caught trying to light fuses in executing the s0-called Gunpowder Plot attack on the house of Parliament in London back in 1605 (when James I was to be present to preside at the opening). He & a few other conspirators, after not lighting the fuses & blowing the place to smithereens, were hanged for their crimes, but only "the guy" is burned in effigy every November as a reminder:

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason & plot.

I know no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

In lieu of a bonfire here, my 16 year old has decided to have friends over for a viewing of V for Vendetta, a more appropriate observance for this side of "the pond."

Attitude of Gratitude & praying for others

Tonight I want to thank my husband, he who through the "accident" of his military posting to our current town of residence, ended up buying our home & getting us to a more moderate climate than the one we left behind. (Much as I grumble about it at times, especially when it's so HOT & HUMID that even if you're in the nude you're overdressed!)

Now that the gratitude's out of the way, time for a word of prayer.

Dear Lord: PLEASE enable those with the skills to do so to restore electric service to those in New Fairfield, Connecticut & other similarly suffering towns up in the Northeast where the power has been out since the storm last Saturday. Give Connecticut Light & Power the ability to make repairs with all possible speed & dispatch so that everyone's lives can return to some sense of "normal," possibly with assistance from their colleagues at United Illuminating & other utility companies in the adjoining states/Canada. Let everyone return to their jobs, see to their daily routines, & address needs left unattended during the storm's aftermath. Let those who have the ability to do so add copiously to their wood stove supplies from the downed trees and limbs that they may not freeze later on. Be with those who need support in this time of trial and help them to patiently bear whatever burden is upon them. Amen

As recently as this morning, I was told that the ENTIRE TOWN had no power; in reading news reports online later in the morning, I found New Fairfield wasn't alone, but had plenty of company in that circumstance (e.g. Seymour). I am grateful to not be there for this adventure in indoor camping, but at the same time my heart goes out to those who are, because I HAVE done it in the past.

Ten Years On

I was tearful yesterday; small wonder as it was a somber anniversary (and I indirectly lost someone--my sister's then-boyfriend; later we also learned that the brother of a high school classmate, he a FDNY first responder, had perished in the World Trade Center).

Today, however, my mood has shifted out of the murky gray of mourning to vivid sky blue as I've reflected over the past day or two on the events of the intervening decade. So today, the day after it all plus ten years, I'm going to recount blessings rather than curses and losses. Most important of all, I begin with my brother-in-law, whom my sister would likely never have met had it not been for that dark day. On a grander scale, there was also the following:

1) Those New Yorkers who were thankfully NOT in harm's way, in Greenwich Village and points north, though on the day of the thing nobody knew that they were. In this number I include not only people, but such landmarks as the older skyscrapers that still grace the New York skyline (one worked on by my grandfather during its construction), such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the circa 1920 Met Life building downtown, etc.

2) Those New Yorkers who WERE in harm's way, but had the good fortune to get to safety without injury. The father of a friend who managed to board the last ferry to Staten Island to sail that day comes to mind here, but there were innumerable others who walked to the outer boroughs, escaped in the "boatlift" to New Jersey & other locations, or stayed in midtown or Harlem locations until mass transit was operating again.

3) Friends (in the tri-state area and elsewhere) with whom we've since reconnected, in part as a direct result of that horrible day.

4) The joys of having had the victims/first responders who perished on this earth with their loved ones for as long as they WERE alive (too short a time, yes--but better those shortened times than never!).

May it never happen again anywhere in the world.

9/11 ten years later

I was very glad to hear the work crews at Ground Zero got the memorial together in time for today's ceremonies. It looks beautiful and I look forward to my next trek north, with plans to see it firsthand (as well as the teardrop sculpture given by the Russian people that's now in New Jersey).

After all this time, however, I feel we need to wind down some of the observances. Yes, it was a tragedy, and no, nobody who lost someone in it will ever let the matter be forgotten. But with all respect, most of the survivors have moved on with their lives in the intervening decade. The children have grown up, many of the widows have remarried, and all of the bereaved have altered their paths to reflect new directions forced upon them. At this point, all the commemorations do is reopen old wounds. It's time to let the victims rest in peace. Maybe now that Osama bin Laden is no longer among the living, they may.

RIP MPK & CJB

Goodbye, Irene

Glad to see her heading out to sea, but I feel for everyone who was in her path. It was a relief to learn that she was downgraded to a tropical storm as she arrived ashore in Brooklyn (specifically at Coney Island--she brought her own cyclones & didn't need to ride the wooden roller coaster of the same name). She certainly left behind a huge mess; I'm just grateful not to have the flooding in my little corner of the world, despite our local need for a bit more rain.

Now the potential tropical storm (hurricane?) Katia is blowing far out in the Atlantic south of the Cape Verde islands this morning. I fervently pray that IF she hits the USA she's relatively minor AND that she goes into the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, simply because they need rain more desperately than the Carolinas do.

Algebra

Most definitely NOT my favorite subject in school, which I've not kept a secret from my children.

Fortunately, this evening's homework time doubled as bonding time for my two daughters over this very subject. The seventh grader is in an advanced class preparing to potentially take Algebra in the eighth grade. The eleventh grader is currently taking Algebra II, so when the younger one had questions, her big sister was able & willing to assist (much to this writer's everlasting relief!).

Sometimes it pays to let the kids be the mercifully wise ones!

Evacuating a Chrysalis

The perpetually wise Mr. Webster, whose dictionary is one of my most oft used resources, defines a chrysalis thus:

1) The pupa of a butterfly (any of numerous slender bodied diurnal lepidopteran* insects including one superfamily, Papillonoidea, with broad often brightly colored wings).

*Lepidoptera is the order of insects encompassing moths, butterflies, & skippers, specifically the brightly colored ones that start life as caterpillars. (I didn't know either!)

2) a sheltered state or stage of being or growth, from the Latin chrysallid-, chrysallis (gold colored pupa of butterflies); from the Greek chrysos (gold).

Today's project is to find the contents of the golden chrysalis among the butterflies at the end of the rainbow (me). The reason for the search is that I was recently been diagnosed as "low thyroid," or hypothyroid, which according to my physician may be stress-related, and according to friends with similar problems, is likely to be lifelong.

Because the thyroid gland is butterfly-shaped, I've adopted the insect as a personal mascot. Where I now live, Sulfur butterflies abound (so called for their yellow color, the same as the nasty smelling stuff most of us recall from high school chemistry). They're small, not much larger than the actual gland that resembles them, so they seem an appropriate mascot--to say nothing of my efforts to emerge from a chrysalis I feel like I've been in since starting college. Contributing to this are, of course, my own tendency to not take the best care of myself at all times, but also other factors I'm now learning are potential hazards to the thyroid; to wit:

-exposure to a microwave tower only a mile from the house where I grew up in Connecticut, which seems to have been implicated in numerous episodes of thyroid cancer in several of my peers at a relatively young age. (It's still there, though no longer a microwave tower.)

-a diagnosis of mononucleosis when I was 16, possibly as a result of (or contributing to) what's known as adrenal fatigue & is rather difficult to diagnose, much less to treat until it's identified (a quest all its own, from what I've read).

My goals for the coming year are rather simple, if not so simply achieved:

a) lower weight, including a body weight & BMI within the healthy range

b) improved flexibility & general mobility (I've already been working out most mornings of the past year, so I just need to step that up a bit more)

c) a less stressful career in which I can actually relax on weekends & take vacations that DON'T result in so much backlog as to have hubby & I joke, "no good break goes unpunished."

Advice/counsel much appreciated if you have any to offer!

My Zoo

I have Socks on my lap. (Socks is a two month old Maine Coon-looking kitten, also known as "itty bitty kitty.") It's the first time today I've sat down somewhere other than in the driver's seat of the car and I'm relaxing for five minutes while eating a sandwich before attempting to remove what appears to be mildew spots from the roof of my convertible. I'm sure she won't be happy when I displace her.

When I left the first time this morning, to head to the YMCA for a workout, the two dogs & our two mature cats all greeted me at the porch, looking at me like I was the worst mistress on earth for not feeding them before I left. By the time I returned, everyone had eaten & Peyton (the larger of the two dogs) was eager to have me toss a pine cone for her to "fetch." Taco wanted a ride in the car (he got one for about 25 feet), and the cats were lounging under the dogwood tree, looking at me as if I'd interrupted something important (knowing them, their cat naps!). The only animals that hounded me for food were our three red hens, for whom I scattered some feed. (They at least earn their keep in egg output. It's a joy to go grocery shopping and NOT have to buy eggs except at Easter.)

Older daughter has informed me that the ball python & ruby tarantula (both in secure tanks in her room) are well fed & have water, so that means I only had to dispatch younger daughter to feed her rabbit, who got a treat of timothy hay along with her pellets & water (hope she enjoyed it).

Time to wash the car (before it rains!)--I'm sure the dogs will be right there to play in the water.

"Forever"

FOREVER is the goal of so many components of life; yet often the parts that OUGHT to result in that answer more often DON'T end up a permanent fixture. Far too often this is due to baser elements of human nature in some people, to impediments over which I have little or no control, or to the competing desires of many individuals.

How to fix this? One way is to brainstorm, and I've found that immensely helpful at times. It remains to be seen, however, whether any of the latest ideas will resolve anything. I certainly hope they do!

R U pondering what I'm pondering? I doubt it.

Human nature is a pain. Why is it that, when you have what you've always wanted, you find something more to want? This is likely the reason for religions teaching patience, forebearance, & tolerance--to overcome those baser human instincts. And one has to commend the Founding Fathers of the USA for recognizing (to a point) this tendency in people, while of course there was NO way they could foresee how the country would be technologically & every other way 235 years after declaring our independence from Great Britain.

Happy 4th & I'm going to keep pondering how to conquer that baser side.

Talkin'

Consider this picture for a moment:

You're driving down a busy four-lane street (say, Park Avenue in NYC or Peachtree Street in Atlanta) in heavy traffic at roughly 8:00 a.m. endeavoring to get to your job on time and safely. The traffic stops for a red light. When you begin moving again, everyone in the right lane is making every effort to merge left due to an impediment of some kind. There are no amber flashers or blue or red lights indicating either road work or an accident. So which is it: a road crew patching potholes or a cop diverting traffic around a fender-bender?

Fat chance! In my little corner of the universe, the impediment to traffic is often a moped; and frequently, the offending motor bike is taking up the entire lane because the driver is either too far out into the lane from the shoulder/curb or is weaving dangerously. In these parts, the commonly held perception is that many (if not most or all) moped operators are folks who, for whatever reason (often DUI) have been deprived of their licenses.

The vast majority of the fifty states (& geography has nothing to do with this) require either a permit, a valid driver's license, a motorcycle license in some cases, and often, the wearing of a helmet to operate a moped. That makes sense, as I recall a friend back home who rode one at age 15 got in trouble for NOT having a valid driver's license. It heartened me to observe that some of the more stringent laws governing moped use by licensed drivers crossed regional lines (places ranging from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, & Texas to Colorado, Kansas, & all six New England states).

What makes NO sense whatsoever is the evident practice of allowing an UNLICENSED DRIVER, who has ostensibly been DEPRIVED BY LAW of the PRIVILEGE of driving, to DRIVE a moped! Now isn't THAT sensible--to allow people who couldn't control a potential deadly weapon in the form of a motor vehicle to operate (often badly) a SMALLER motor vehicle?! Does this not strike anyone else as at best moronic and at worst a downright dangerous practice?

I realize that legislating common sense is seldom (if ever) effective, but could we at least THINK before we act--or neglect doing so--in state legislatures around the country?

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