Chronicles of Nani - More Vaccine

We start off with a little bit baseball! Actually, a whole bunch of baseball. Then I wheel onto my accessible soapbox to talk about Covid, changes in vaccination for immunocompromised and questions that can't be answered about the selfish people who are afraid to be vaccinated and are possibly helping the pandemic get worse.

 

The Chronicles of Nani-Sports in 2020

Middle-aged Grumblings

When I turned 50 I made the declaration that “now that I am over 50 years old, I never have to be wrong again." In the years moving towards 50, I heard so many people that seemed to believe people younger than them couldn't possibly be doing something right because it was different then they do it. I looked forward two having that superiority.

Okay, that proclamation really was a tongue-in-cheek joke on my part. I personally think people that are that close minded and refuse to continue to grow are both people that should be avoided and pitied. My mom always told me that's the day you stop growing is the day you start dying. But the fun part of the joke is it's a joke that never ends. But sometimes I really have to wonder if complaining about what seems to be change for the sake of change is really a joke.

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My first complaint today, as a 52-year-old woman, is one that I'm a little suspicious might be something that's the fault of someone, or a gang, my age or older. When did it become the custom for hospitals to call patients a couple of days before a surgical procedure and press them for money? This happened with a different hospital and a different procedure a couple weeks ago too. It's something that never happened to me before. In the past, I schedule a procedure, the hospital and my doctors have all of my ID and insurance information, the procedure is done and a few weeks later I received the bill for the portion I owe. Now twice two different hospitals have called me just a couple days before the procedure disguising the call as if it's a courtesy call to be sure you're ready for the upcoming procedure and if you have any questions. Then they tell you that you have a patient responsibility of “X” amount of dollars and can you pay that right now? Wow. It's not enough if I have insurance? Both times I said I'd like to be billed and they said okay and that was really the end of the phone call, leading me to believe that that was the only purpose of the phone call. I haven't been into the emergency room in a while. Do they still treat people in an emergency even without insurance?

I have to be honest, I was both insulted and unsettled by the phone call, especially the one I got today. I'm having a surgical procedure done on Monday and, believe it or not, I’ve made it 52 years having never been under anesthesia. I'm nearing the end of the week where I haven't been able to take vitamins, half of my prescriptions or even drink herbal tea. I'm nervous and frankly, scared. The last thing in the world that I want is for the hospital to be calling me about money days before my surgery. Are they suspicious of something I fear? If I die on the operating table how will they ever get paid?

I don't truly believe that my impending death is the motivation for the phone call. Personally, I’d hate to be the person given a list of phone numbers and money that's not owed yet because services haven't been rendered, and be told that I needed to make phone calls to shake the patients up for their lunch money.

Yeah, it's business, right? It's no different than your favorite baseball player on the home team will probably not finish his career with your team and will probably be playing for someone else's team when he becomes a free agent. If I'm not so important to athletes or teams as a paying fan why should I expect hospitals to give a damn about me as a patient? Surely there are more hospital patients than fans of any particular team which makes us even more expendable.

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My other current social complaint truly is about the whippersnapper generation. I don’t, for the life of me, understand how Dr. Seuss and PG ever end up in the same advertisement. But there's a Grinch movie out this month that's computer-animated and rated PG.

I haven't seen the movie, nor do I have any intention of seeing it. That is actuallyone of the cool things about being 52. I am completely fine with the animated version of the Grinch on TV that's been out every year during the holidays since I was a child. I also don't actually have to see it to criticize it.

A bad guy with a network TV rating 

Oh, but work with me here. Those of you that cyber-know me and especially that know me in person or on the phone, know that I'm not going to criticize something I haven't seen. But what I'm criticizing, what I'm questioning, is what part of a movie that is made to attract young children makes it a PG rather than a G movie?

How is making a Dr. Seuss based movie with a PG rating incredibly different than marketing cigarettes in a way that’s attractive to children? Candy and bubble gum cigarettes don't exist anymore unless you find them in an "Old Timey" Candy store. I used to love the bubble gum cigarettes especially because if you blew on them they puffed smoke like a real cigarette. I think the fact that adults in my world smoked and I wanted to emulate them had a lot more to do with what ultimately made me try cigarette smoking than the fact that I occasionally indulged in the sugary puff. That's especially true since when I was a kid I was more likely to spend 15 cents on a pack of baseball cards or big pickle in a plastic bag with lots of pickle juice.

What did they do to a children's story to earn the PG rating? Does the Grinch say something like"Christmas sucks. I don't care if I'm an ass?" Or does the new version have him deciding to steal Christmas as a result of a drug trip? I just want to know what do you have to do to make a children's story a PG movie? And couldn't that have ended up on the cutting room floor so it's still a family movie that you can take young children to see?

I may be disabled and not working now, but as part of the greater entertainment media field, I'm truly disappointed that my former industry would create this.

Coffee Crankiness

I’m finally starting to hear some good news! Yesterday when I called in to see what the status is of my new power chair I was told it's done and in shipping. That means it maybe at Reflection Medical today or the beginning of next week! When I told Rick, my rep there, that I really wanted the chair in time to go to my niece's graduation next weekend, he told me if there was anything left to be assembled when it got there, he'd make sure it was done so I have it in time. SQUEE!!!

I’m really ready to have the new chair to move around the house and get out of the house. I'm starting to get cabin fever and I do notice that is really starting to tax my personality. I mean that I'm crabby. Things seem to bug me and set me off much quicker than they have in the past. For instance…


I scrap project life a little differently than everybody else. I journal a few lines about the day every day and when I scrap it I add photos if I take them or other random things that add to the character of the days. For the past two years I done my pages in quadrants with each day getting a quarter page. This year I’ve changed up a little bit and I'm doing a 2-page spread for each week, putting the journaling bits on one page and assorted supporting visuals in block form on the other page. Here's an example of what the 2-pager looks like:

I don't post my project 365/52 layouts in the forums or anything so I don't keep track of exactly what elements from what kits I'm using. BTW, I also use images from the Internet, which is completely legal under fair use since I'm not profiting from the use of publicly distributed material. But that explains why I don't have credits listed under my week 11 layout. If you scrap and you see anything about that layout that you just HAVE to know where they came from, drop me an email and I'll see if I can get that info for you.


I showed week at 11 as an example but I am caught up all the way to the present. That is, I’m working on scrapping week 19 today. Part of weak 19 was Mothers Day, My comments for Sunday included that the kids asked me to text daddy at work and ask him to bring me home a fat free latte from Starbucks for Cat-Moms Day. It was a wonderful latte that the kids gave me but I didn't take picture of it. So to include an image representation of that wonderful latte on the page for week 19, I did an image search for Starbucks latte. I found myself irritated by, in my crabby brain," idiots who are irritated for the sake of being irritated." No, I don't miss the irony of that statement. But this is my blog and therefore I'm irritated buy things that are REAL.

Starbucks is very good coffee to those who consider it very good coffee. If you don't consider it very good coffee don't buy it and shut up and let people who consider it good coffee enjoy it as good coffee. It is not necessary to create or forward, because you don't have the mind or talent required to form and promote your own opinion, cute little anonymous memes to place yourself in some place of authority to belittle people who have a different opinion than yours. Free trade agreements and corporate decisions to obtain materials and labor from outside of the US make pretty much everything some percentage of not an American product. Nobody is a bad person for choosing a product that they like because the cup is manufactured with materials from outside the country. You are not a good person because you choose to invest your money in other products with portions made in another country.

Also anyone who is so terrified that there might be something in their coffee or anything else that they get at a restaurant has no business ordering anything already made. In America restaurants are required to supply nutritional information and ingredients for food that they serve. You have a choice of asking for it, not giving your business to establishments that don't produce it without asking or not caring about the content of items that you consume. If you choose to consume products with high sodium or lots of sugar, fat or artificial flavoring that is your choice and you are NOT a bad person for making that choice. The only person that you potentially harm with that choice is yourself and that is only a potential harm because every person is different and every body reacts to different things is differently. In moderation or even in excess, you may very well be harming no one at all. If you personally have made the choice to not consume all product you are NOT a better person for attempting to insist that anyone else should be just like you.

Finally, Starbucks is a product sold for profit. If it was overpriced, it would fail. From the consistent lines I've seen when I've been in a Starbucks, it’s not failing. There are many people who like Starbucks coffee who consider it to be very good coffee and not overpriced. Many can afford to drink Starbucks coffee every day and they do. There are people, like me, who consider Starbucks coffee to be very good coffee and something I choose to have as a treat, even a couple of times a week. There is NOTHING wrong with that. If the coffee you prefer is less expensive there's nothing wrong with your taste either. But to criticize Starbucks and belittle their customers for their choice is wrong. It makes you sound either jealous because you'd like to be drinking Starbucks coffee or just a judgmental idiot.

Again I do realize the irony of judgmentally calling out judgmental idiots.


See what I mean about grumpy? I think maybe next weekend on Saturday I should see if I can get Tori and Rina for an hour, carjack the van from David and the three of us can go to Starbucks. hehehe


I know this has a lot to do with being stuck in the house. As we head into all of the major political crap it brings out the absolute ugliest of people. I try to stay away from Facebook, which is rich and political poison, and I try to avoid TV news. I like reading the paper because then I can ignore the political stuff. We're not a country that's politically polarized. We've become a country of selfish individuals, at least the loudest people are selfish individuals. But that includes everybody that forwards “Information” without verification or context. That's also known as gossip and that's been dangerous since the playground. Personally my opinions and my political opinions are not necessarily the same. Oftentimes they are, but when I think of casting a vote or encouraging someone else to I can't think about just me. I'm voting on issues or candidates to represent an entire constituency that I'm part of. What might be perfect for me may have devastating consequences in general if it becomes a law. The political process might be smoother and less violent if people could step out of their own egos long enough to realize that they aren't alone. None of us are.


I’d better stop now before my cyber coffee shop becomes as empty as the Folgers crowd wishes Starbucks was. Have a great day and be kind to everyone - you never know how long they’ve been cooped up!

Outdated Tradition: Another Way PC Is Justified.

It’s my annual grumble and maybe it’s heightened by the fact that 2015 has actually been a rough year for me. In a year where I’ve been pushed out of the social world by control that’s been taken away from me by MS, wheelchair trouble and complications that keep seeming to push a solution farther away, I’m feeling a little nonexistent. That feeling deepened when we received a stack of cards yesterday and exactly half of them make that same observation; that I’m unimportant.

I understand that there is an ancient tradition that dictates that a woman takes on the identity of a man’s additional appendage and gives up her existence when she marries, but come on, it’s 2015. I took my husband’s last name by choice. I gave up my middle name to took my father’s last name as my new middle name because that was my last name for 42 years. I did that by choice too. It wasn’t the choice of marrying David that changed my last name. It was MY choice to change my middle and last names. I didn’t change my first name and I didn’t change my gender when I got married. (And if I did change my gender I’d have come up with something a lot more creative than changing my name to the same as my husband and my brother.) Yet half of those cards were addressed as if my name had become David or as if I just don’t exist.

I do realize that referring to the couple as “Mr. and Mrs. (man’s first name) (man’s last name)” was how cards were addressed 100+ years ago. Then in 1919 women got their pretty pink voting cards so they could ask their husbands what they should do when they go vote after they wash the breakfast dishes if there was time in between laundry loads. Because why would Mrs. Mike Smith have any thoughts that were different than Mr. Mike Smith? There is only one letter different in their identities.

When women having some rights was new there were a lot of people that weren’t used to women being respected as humans. It’s appalling that there are customs that demean women that are still accepted in 2015. In 2015 “Mr and Mrs. Mike Smith” not only disregards Lisa but it assigns her a new identity as a meaningless extension of Mike. Oh, by the way, Lisa Jones became Lisa Smith when she married Mike Smith. She’s still Lisa; pretty much all that changed was her marital status and last name. She’s even still Ms. Jones professionally. The 2015 greeting card should be addressed to Mr. and Mrs Smith, The Smith Family, Mike and Lisa Smith, just Mike and Lisa or just the Smiths, but in 2015, don’t address it to Mr. and Mrs. Mike Smith! Notice the “Mrs. Mike” sex change in there?

There are social situations where David has friends that don’t remember my name. That’s okay. Casual friends he only sees once in a while and not always with me aren’t expected to remember me. They greet me as “Mrs. David" and in person that’s a compliment because they may not remember my name, but they remember WHO I am to them in that social situation. I have friends I’ve met through my husband that occasionally greet me that way as more a term of endearment. In scrapbook forums where friends have never met him, I often refer to my husband as “Mr. Nani.” But I wouldn’t be pleased to see a “formally addressed” greeting” card that reads “Mrs. and Mr. Nani” any more than I appreciate seeing “Mr. and Mrs. David.” They are exactly the same thing and both are wrong. Calling it “formal” and ducking behind an outdated custom to insult someone is not special or upscale for the holidays. If you want to be special and upscale, give Godiva chocolates or use a gold seal to close the envelopes. Don’t generously hand out unsolicited gender modifications.

I Need To Vent

I really hope that things can get moving on replacing the seat of my wheelchair. That's been “in the works” since May. The company that's in charge of that project keeps dropping the ball and letting it sit there. Don't think that that's not gotten to the point really getting under my skin. They did the measuring and put the order together for the new seat around the end of May. When all the paperwork is completed and filed for the insurance company, I’ll have a new seat on the existing base. Except for the dust on the bottom, it’ll be a whole new chair. But the company isn’t having problems with brain-burps. They are having out and out loud brain BELCHES.

When I call to get an update of what's going on from the sales rep, because my therapist told me that's the only way I'm going to get them off their butts is to call her a couple times a week, I get to listen to her whine about how hard her job is and how difficult doctors are to work with. Personally, I think she's in the wrong line of work if it's that tough for her.

Life without the new seat for my chair is becoming even tougher for me. I've been worried for the last couple months that some of my advancing physical problems I've got are related to the MS taking a new turn for the worse. The pain in my legs has become almost constant, losing muscle control of my hips, pain in my back and the incessant sore feet have become very difficult to exist with and very stressful with me thinking that the disease is worsening. After doing some reading I found out that these issues I'm having are issues that result from being in an improperly fitted wheelchair all the time. In May, when this process started, the rep who did the order and measuring told me my wheelchair wasn't fitted properly for someone who is in it all the time. Five months later I still don't have a chair and all the things that are hurting worse are hurting worse because I still don't have a chair. I don't know. I think my job being someone who needs a wheelchair who's experiencing worse pain every day because I don't have the right wheelchair is WAY HARDER then a sales rep who doesn't like calling doctors.

I've talked to lots of people about this and there is a timeline with the date this coming soon where all the paperwork that's been done will be outdated and have to be redone. It was suggested to me, when I asked about switching vendors, that at this point in the game too much paperwork has already been done to start over but if that time where the paperwork becomes void happens before I have a chair we will definitely switch vendors. I honestly kinda hope that they screw up and we have to start over so they don't get the business because I've already been given more business from them than I should have to endure. Mobility-care is a big business, but it's still a niche market.

Political Profanity

I pay attention to news and politics because I like to entertain the idea that my thoughts and my votes matter in the greater scheme of things. But reading political stuff, interviews, polls and opinions, gets me mad or frightened or both. I’m concerned that Donald Trump is ahead in polls for the Republican presidential polls. (Which by the way is an election in 2016 and why are we even reading about it yet?) Oh, if we ever needed a confirmation that political contests are all about money and elections are bought… But I wanted to see his take on the issues. Why is this man who is so ugly in his opinions about immigrants getting such support in the polls? If you go to the Trump website and click “Positions” you will find a tab for “Immigration Reform.” That’s it. He officially has no other positions. This leaves me more confused and more concerned.

His, mostly debunked, stand on immigrants and loud support of unsubstantiated “stats” is frightening. I know he is attacking immigrants from Mexico, for now, but he doesn’t seem to discern documented and undocumented immigrants in his onslaught. Several Republicans have been using the term “anchor baby” in attacking each other and voters concerning immigration reform. I hadn’t really heard the term and I was born to a married couple; a US citizen and a green card documented immigrant. I needed to find out the root of the term because I actually didn’t know if my brother and I are anchor babies.

The term was coined in the 1980s to describe Southeast Asian teens who came to America to get a financial foothold and sponsor family members to come over. As it morphed into that foothold being established by the citizenship granted babies born in this country, regardless of their parents’ nationality, it became thought of as a child citizen who could anchor the parents into the country. That, by the way, is false. A child born in this country is American but may sponsor their parents to enter the country after they are 21. There is no guarantee that the parents can legally remain because they have a child that was born here. The term came to prominence again in 2006 as congressional Republicans  used it in a derogatory way to pass legislation to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico.

The thing is it’s always been a derogatory term. It’s just like terms I remember hearing as a kid that were “just sayings.” But to a kid whose great-grandparents were born in Poland, I knew “dumb pollack” was meant as something mean to the people who said it and meant it as an ugly stereotype; it wasn’t just a saying. Anchor baby became used retroactively to describe any child born in the US that the person using the term deemed to be only born here to keep alien parents in the country. It was never an actual term to describe someone’s status, but a term used with disdain to describe anyone based on assumption. As a term that means a baby born to an immigrant mother, or one who is not legitimately here, calling someone an anchor baby is the same as calling someone a bastard; it’s the accusation that they come from illegitimate parentage. It’s pretty sad that we allow people who claim they want to lead us throw that term around so casually.

Oh, and as far as whether or not my brother and I are anchor babies, we’re not. If my dad had been the US citizen and mom had been the one with the green card it could be different. Women getting married to a US citizen and making babies to anchor themselves in the country is an acceptable suspicion but notsomuch for men. You see “anchor baby” is not just rooted in racism, but it’s rooted in sexism too. There are no anchor babies; you don’t choose where you are born. If you are an American, you are an American and deserve all the rights of an American citizen.

What’s The Difference Between A Latte and A Mocha?

I asked David if he’d bring me home a latte when he left the casino. I’ve been to that casino and they served up a great latte to enjoy while I read after donating my roll of quarters. Since he’s not a latte drinker he couldn’t find the coffee place I’d been to and I asked for a McLatte from the drive through on the way home. He obliged and ordered me a fat-free latte at the McDonald’s drive through. What he brought home was NOT a latte.

McDonald’s makes an acceptable latte and I’ve gotten McLattes for my drink on many occasions. A plain fat-free latte is coffee and a serving of fat-free milk. I like the taste and it’s a dairy serving and even a power-food on the Weight Watchers plan. What I don’t like the flavor of at all is equal parts hot chocolate and coffee with nothing else. That’s a mocha and a bad one. It’s also not a dairy serving and carries the calories of the half hot chocolate. But that is the monstrosity they gave David instead of the latte he paid for yesterday. I’ve gotten that horrid drink on more than one occasion instead of a fat-free latte and from more than one McDonalds in more than one state. What’s up with that?

This one is not just me. A plain fat-free latte is my go-to coffee drink. I’ve never gotten a grotesquely warped mocha when I’ve ordered latte at Starbucks or Panera. I’ve ordered it and David and Kelly have both ordered it for me from different McDonalds, seen it on the view screen that is supposed to “guarantee” that a customer’s order isn’t screwed up, and gotten the same screw-up. It must be a corporate-accepted proper way to McFAIL.

I support raising the minimum wage and I have to say that as a consumer this makes me support it even more. If you have to have a second job to pay your bills you likely spread yourself mentally too thin and even if you are trying to get by just on one minimum wage job you’re likely not getting paid enough to buy your “give a damn” about the job. Either way, the customers suffer. Once they’ve left that drive-through window how many people back track to complain? The franchise owner and corporate make the sale without paying for the employees loyalty to the job or providing customer satisfaction.

In the end I poured out the 20-ounces of bad mocha. I’ve poured out more bad mochas than I returned from various McDonalds. When I do return the bad mocha and get the latte I ordered I don’t feel like it’s making much more of a difference than to get the drink I want and occasionally a coupon for the next coffee on them. To me it’s obvious that employees aren’t being trained correctly. How is it that the SAME improper directions are spread corporate-wide? Is McDonalds failing to give proper instructions to franchise owners? Folks, this is really how the trickle-down stuff works; the money stays at the top and poor quality goes corporate-viral.

So, Define "Religious"

Short grumble, well maybe not so much a grumble as an I’m a little hurt and don’t understand. I don't like to talk about religion a lot and I try very hard not to judge, but I don't like to be hurt either.

I was the victim of a slight by a friend a while back. I’m not naming names because it’s not important. I was told by that friend about the conversation between the friend and a stranger to us both. The friend was talking about me having MS and my struggles with it. I have no problem with that; I’m all for awareness and my having MS is not a private secret for that very reason. What bothered me is this part of the conversation the friend told me about:

Stanger: “Is she religious?”
Friend: “Well no, but I am.”
Stranger: “Then I’ll pray for your friend.”

There are a couple of things I find hurtful here. My friend is Christian. I am Unitarian Universalist. The main difference is that I believe that all prayers go to the same place no matter what the religion of the person praying or to what deity the prayer is addressed. The core of my beliefs is respect for all beliefs and compassion for all people, regardless of those beliefs. My immediate self-righteous thought is that it would be much easier to consider myself right and regard anyone who thinks different than me to be wrong, pray for those that agree and I’m done. I work hard within my beliefs and honestly, I’m offended when someone says “she’s not religious” because we don’t say the same prayers. And by the way, I was raised Catholic, so if I say a prayer, it’s likely a Christian prayer. Someone is not “not religious” just because their beliefs are different than yours.

The other hurtful thing is the stranger asking if I’m religious in the first place. When it’s so easy to say “I’ll pray for you” to someone if you find out they are an atheist as a jab at them why is it impossible to actually pray for a stranger unless you know they believe like you do? Isn’t your own belief enough to pray for someone? Even if my friend wasn’t a fellow Christian it doesn’t mean the stranger couldn’t pray for me.

That part of the conversation that was told to me never should have happened. The stranger should have just prayed without boasting about doing it. My beliefs never should have been questioned because they are irrelevant. If you believe in the power of prayer it doesn’t matter if the person for whom you’re praying does. My friend never should have made a judgement about my beliefs because they are different from theirs and offering that “they’ll sponsor me” by saying “no, but I am” is another judgment that I’m “not worthy” of being prayed for because we don’t have identical beliefs.

I’m not going to keep stewing about this now. I realize that the idea that no other beliefs could possibly be right is part of most religions. The fact that I view that as "necessary to fill the holy buildings on the holy days even if it causes more war than peace" is just me doing the same thing. I don’t think my friend or the stranger were hurting me on purpose but I needed to get it out of my head and air it in a pubic(ish) forum to get it to quit grating on me.

Thanks for reading and may God, or however you address the supreme power, bless you every day.

Why is it so hard to say “Happy Holidays?”

We had a very nice group meeting last night with our MS Self Help Group. Everyone was invited to bring holiday cookies to share and we enjoyed cookies, a game and our usual conversation. At the end of the evening even I said “Merry Christmas” because it had become evident over the course of the evening that everyone present in our modestly-sized group celebrates Christmas. That makes it okay. If anyone had not been forthcoming about Christmas traditions at home or had mentioned honoring a holiday that wasn’t Christmas at this time of year I would have said “Happy Holidays.” This is not a new practice for me and I don’t understand how it can be offensive.

I’ve mentioned before that when I was 6 I made the decision to become a nun when I grew up. I think I also mentioned that by age 9 I decided Catholicism wasn’t for me. I consider myself a Universal Unitarian now and those years of “studying” to become a nun pretty much made me a Unitarian. It’s the concept of “studying” religion in elementary school. It never occurred to my very young self that if I wanted to learn how to be a good nun, “ask a nun.” I was in Catholic school; it’s not like finding a nun was difficult. But I listened and learned in class when we had our religion lessons and I watched my first-grade teacher and aware that there would be tougher things to learn when I was older but the most important thing I had to start doing was learn how to love everyone. An important part of that was understanding.

I went to different vacation bible schools, my parents were quite pleased that I wanted to go to bible school in the summer, and more than one week of it! I went to Bible School and youth events in various Christian churches and found them to be pretty much the same. It didn’t matter what you called your religion; if you love God and love people, God is pleased. Also the “golden rule” at home from the time we were kids agreed with that thought. It was was simple to our child-minds and it grew more immense and a little more challenging as we got older but it never changed. Mom’s rule was “Stay straight with God and stay straight with man.” How wonderfully simple. It was basically if you have self-respect and respect for other people, you’re okay. I still find that simple rule, although as an adult it's more difficult, to be a good golden rule.

When I was 7 or 8 my world got a little bigger. I wasn’t in Catholic School or Baptist and Methodist bible school and field trips. I was bowling now. Our bowling league wasn’t a religious event, it was just fun. Don’t ever think for a moment that kids don’t have serious discussions just like adults do. At bowling was the first time I asked someone else, “You mean you don’t celebrate Christmas?” Imagine a Catholic kid having a theological discussion with a Jewish kid at a bowling alley. That happened with no adults, no one insisting the other was wrong, respect and genuine interest in hearing about each others holidays. My fiends' idea of what Jesus did, a great rabbi and teacher, was different, but the stories and morals were the same. Over the course of a few months 2 things happened to me. First I formed the opinion that if God was able to make all things possible, why wouldn’t he have different ways to reach everyone? I mean if he made us all different wouldn’t he be what would make us comfortable with him adjusted for how he made us? Yes, as a child I REALLY deviated from the becoming a nun plan with that opinion. Your religious practices don’t matter if you’re a good person. I also never said “Merry Christmas” to people I didn’t know again. “Happy Holidays” included Hanukkah and that was nicer to my friends who were Jewish than to wish them to enjoy a holiday they don’t even celebrate. I still said “Merry Christmas” to family, friends I knew had Christmas, people in church, but never to someone I didn’t know. I thought of that as bringing my Christmas happiness to everyone not as anyone taking my holiday away from me.

I still say “Happy Holidays” to people I don’t know unless they’re wearing a Santa hat or a t-shirt that says something about Christmas. That’s still respect; sharing my holiday spirit rather than pushing my practices on someone I don’t even know. I don’t really know when erring on the side of respect became offensive to anyone. If anything in the holiday season, that becomes more anti-people every year, has or is still steering me away from the beliefs and traditions of my young childhood it’s not the people who aren’t me that want to respect and be respected, it’s the people who celebrate the same as I do that refuse to respect others.

If a stranger says “Happy Holidays” to you don’t say “You mean Merry Christmas” to them which essentially says their greeting isn’t good enough for you. Just smile and say “have a great holiday” back to them sharing whatever holiday spirit you hold in your heart. If respect is offensive to you maybe you’re the one “ruining Christmas.”

My Christmas wish is that everyone has a safe and joyful holiday season!

War On What Now?

In the very first chapter of George Orwell’s 1984 it speaks of the ongoing war. In fact it’s one of the ways the people are controlled. They are always at war. Who with changes and allies become enemies, enemies become allies and more troops are sent to the front lines. It distresses me how familiar that sounds and I checked references to make sure I wasn’t confusing today’s news with the book. Alas, that scenario matches both.

But I’m not writing today to lament how Orwell’s fiction from the mid-20th Century, which should have been a warning to governments, seems to be used as a manual. I’m writing to talk about war, my personal issue with a war that I’ve been troubled by for a good 20 years or more; The War on Thanksgiving.

I’m not talking about the stores that are open on the holiday or the insanity of the start of holiday shopping season which was dubbed “Black Friday” by Philadelphia police in the early 60’s because the mad shopping day made it an awful work day. It’s relatively recent that advertisers have turned the name around to make it more positive and a sales tool. It's still means an awful work day to hourly workers. Like the Winston, the main character in Orwell’s book, I think there’s always been a war on Thanksgiving. I remember a time when that must not have been true because there was a year when it was shocking that someplace had put out Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, but that was so long ago.

You see, Thanksgiving was always the big family holiday to me, even more so as I got older. First off Thanksgiving was the meal my parents hosted. My aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents from both sides of the family came to our house for the feast. I remember the traditional turkey with our family stuffing, the pickle and olive plates and pumpkin pie dessert to celebrate the American holiday plus the breaded chicken and pork chops from Mom’s side of the family, a first course of cappelletti soup and espresso with dessert from Pop’s side. As adults with the cousin tier starting to marry off the dinner tradition changed, the numbers of people and the times they were at dinner changed,

Thanksgiving dinner became Grandma’s dinner after she and Papa retired and moved “up north.” Then Thanksgiving Dinner became a trip “over the freeway and through the woods by the lake.” That’s when the war really started for me. Grandma asked me to bring paper plates and napkins for the dessert table. I realized it was getting harder and harder to find paper Thanksgiving supplies. In the late 1990s I became obsessed with a quest for a paper turkey centerpiece. You know, the full unfurling turkey tail in tissue paper on a cardboard turkey frame? I remembered seeing them in tons of places with the Thanksgiving party supplies when I was a kid. I tried CVS, K-Mart, even a couple of Hallmark shops. It was two weeks before Thanksgiving and there was no turkeys anywhere, just Christmas decorations. I finally found my paper turkey at a party supplies store in a little display nestled into aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff.

 

Tissue turkey tail opened

 I guess I get it; Christmas is a bigger money holiday than Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving has always been the most special holiday to me because there are no church obligations, no presents, no imaginary symbols to protect the children from hearing truths about for another year, Thanksgiving is just a holiday for time with the family, it’s food and togetherness, being thankful for having enough of the things that really matter and nothing else. It’s a true American holiday too. Seriously, Christmas is a federal holiday because the majority Christians way back all took Christmas off or just didn’t work. Christmas is a federal holiday to keep it from being a federal disaster day. Thanksgiving is a real American holiday, perhaps the most important one because it doesn’t celebrate our nation’s independence, it recognizes the abundance that independence affords us; it recognizes peace over destruction of people.

 

Maybe that’s what happened to Thanksgiving. We’re at war with everything. War on drugs, war on women, war on poverty, war on Wall Street and of course the war on Christmas which claimed a commercial war on Thanksgiving long ago. The war on Thanksgiving is not a new retail thing. Stores are just opening on Thanksgiving now because were letting Commercial Christmas win the war on Thanksgiving it has always been fighting. We’ve abused the word war so much that it means nothing anyway. The things we're "at war" as meaningful as what you do when you "keep calm." Thanksgiving, thanks for our people, for abundance, recognizes that we gain more from peace within our shores than we do from war. We do need to figure out how to make “war” a mean word again but all I’m asking for right now is a paper turkey and peppermint mocha to wait a few weeks so there’s a little more pumpkin spice coffee to have with pie.

For three more weeks, Happy Thanksgiving!

Beware of The Chair

It’s been a busy week with doctor appointments and all including my semiannual visit to Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday. When I schedule my May visit David and I always check the area baseball schedules so we can plan our day. For this year’s first trip we’d checked the Indians schedule while we were at the Mellen Center in November and upon realizing the Tigers were in town about 6 months later, we made a point of scheduling my appointment for one of the days in the series.

As it ended up we saw the middle game of the Indians sweeping the Tigers but as I always say “A bad day at the ballpark is better than a good day somewhere else!” It was a fun evening and the seats I picked on the computer were as great as they looked like they should be!

I had no problems at the game or with Indians fans as I proudly sported my Tigers logo on my chest. My problem was getting in the park and security. Progressive Field has metal detectors at the gates. All bags, purses etcetera are checked before entering and fans must walk through the metal detectors. It was the first time I’ve seen that much protection to enter a baseball game since the Olympics in 1996. Of course a wheelchair would set off the metal detector so I didn’t have to go through it. In fact, I didn’t have to go through anything. They opened up the area between the metal detectors and I wheeled through onto the stadium’s concourse. They didn’t search me, they didn’t even look in my tote bag that hung on the back of my chair; nothing. And for all the security, no one even asked me to try to stand up thus proving I actually am a “harmless chick in a wheelchair.”

That’s one problem. As someone who uses a wheelchair I am neither harmless nor helpless. Okay, with the manual chair, which we use for out of town trips I need a little more help because my arms, while stronger than my legs, get tired of wheeling the manual chair. It’s not like they get a break at home when I use the power chair, they’re still important for lifting myself and moving when I’m standing so there is a fatigue limit when I’m using the manual chair, but I’m not the only person who goes to baseball games in a wheelchair. There are plenty of people who have increased upper body strength as a result of using the chair. It’s a little offensive to lump us all into a “harmless cripple” category. A disability doesn’t make someone any less of a human being and as the old adage say: where there’s a will, there's a way. Like anyone else, a disabled person isn’t a security risk because that person chooses not to be.

But the insinuation that I pose no danger because of my disability is not my biggest issue. Check out 1800WHEELCHAIR.com . Go ahead, the link opens in a new window. Look at all the chairs for sale! That’s just the easy one to remember; there are tons of sites that sell chairs, even power chairs and scooters. They all do wonderful things for those of us that need them and they have pockets, baskets and different accessories for carrying things. Manual chairs even have under the seat storage pouches available and I always have a tote bag on the handles behind me. You can find all those things online and you know what? A doctors’ prescription is NOT necessary to purchase them. No one cares if you actually need mobility assistance, if you pay the advertised price, they’ll even deliver it to you for free! If you want to commit an act of terror at a crowded event buy a wheelchair and put your contraband materials in one of those handy pockets. Easy peasy.

So don’t automatically treat a person using a mobility assistive device like they couldn’t possibly be a risk. A person in a wheelchair is just that; a person. They should be trusted no more and no less than someone who walks in to an event on their own legs. I would have felt safer if they’d swiped the front of me with the wand and looked in my bag before they let me roll on in.

Bottom 20; Just Stop

On top of the ramp rail. Those slats are 4" high

and that's what stuck in spite of the wind!

Wake up temperature was 10 degrees! It’s been steadily falling since 7:05 this morning and the current temperature is -10 at 4:00PM. It’s sunny, which is unusual for the Midwest the day after it snows as much as it did, and windy which makes for bitter, bitter cold getting worse as the day goes on. It’s beautiful, but it’s beauty I only want to see out my window with a cup of hot tea. We were under a level 3 snow emergency until 2 o’clock today. Level 3 means you can get arrested if you’re on the roads unless you are essential personnel like emergency, medical, infrastructure (like snow removal people) and news media. Yes that means business as usual for my hubby. Our fantastic snow removal people, after some debate as to whether or not they could actually make it in time for David to get the work, got here early and did a great job clearing off our drive, walks and ramp in the blowing snow. I still consider it level “too high to count” for me personally. So I’m staying in.

I’m swiping an idea from Empty Nester today because it is just a great one for letting off some steam and clearing the air for productive thought as we get 2014 going. She did her “Top 20 Things I Do Not Want to Hear in 2014.” I’m doing…

20 Things I’m Done With Going Into 2014

Warning: some people may disagree, some vehemently, with my thoughts. Please let’s respectfully disagree and not argue about it. You’re welcome to blog your bottom 20 on your own blog. :-)

1. Cold. I’m just ready for spring now.

2. Keep calm and… Just stop that; I don’t want to see one more meme, advertisement, scrapbook journal card or card that says “keep calm and” anything. Write something original.

3. “Miley Freaking Cyrus” I completely agree with Empty Nester on this one!

4. “My Bible says the government…” Read the First Amendment. Read the passage that starts “render unto Caesar.” Close the book and step away from the keyboard.

5. “It is what it is.” I’ve been done with that copout for a long time. It is what you let it be; quit making excuses.

6. Updates to Windows 8. If they can’t fix it don’t change it.

7. Arguments about why the minimum wage shouldn’t be raised and tax loopholes for corporations shouldn’t go down. It’s just wrong. That is what’s destroying our economy and anyone who argues for it just looks like a fool.

8. Wardrobe malfunction. I think most “wardrobe malfunction” incidents are either intentional or pointed out by people looking to be offended.

9. Pop up ads that cover what you’re reading even if you have pop-up blocker. It’s like my newspaper is spamming me even when I pay for the paper and actually look at the ads in the print version.

10. Reality TV

11. Facebook games; I get invitations to play them all the time and I have absolutely no interest. It’s like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” when the game players find someone who doesn’t play they call them out so everyone knows and tries to assimilate them.

12. Rising prices on everything. There’s an app for that we just haven’t installed it. (See #7)

13. Retailers stuff your email inbox with spam when you buy one thing.

14. Profit Manasseh Jordan calls; this fake called me incessantly. I actually spent 15 minutes listening to the prerecorded message so I could talk to a real person, accused them of “doing the devil’s work because they get their call lists from public lists of people with financial or health trouble to exploit them and take money” and demanded to be taken off their list. I’m now getting more calls. (Yes I’m keeping track and I’m joining a class action suit.)

15. Off season trades. I kinda long for the old days when a player often retired with the team he was a rookie with. I don't care if I sound old.

16. The photograph with a gun and a Bible that says we should teach them both in schools. If you truly believe the Bible and a gun go together maybe the schools should have a restraining order to keep you out of them.

17. salmon and tilapia; why can’t the fad fishes be flounder and mahi-mahi?

18. “Like us on Facebook to print our free coupon!” I have to accept more advertising to print my own coupon, really?

19. When you mention to someone “I have details about it on my blog,” and they tell you “oh I don’t read blogs.” Even though the same person has no problem delivering the line “I posted on Facebook, didn’t you read it?”

20. Did I mention cold yet? It’s really worth mentioning twice. At 5PM it's -12 here and the wind chill is 40 below. I want to go to Brazil. Right now it’s 88 degrees and the coffee is fresh!

The Spice of Nani

Daily Random

I have commitment issues. Yes, the whole love and marriage thing happened later in life for me and I say that’s commitment issues, but I say that jokingly. That wasn’t a problem committing; that was me staying committed to myself and not settling. Maybe that’s what the current issue is.

I am desperately and probably irrevocably behind on this year’s 365/52 project. After my success last year journaling a few lines every day and scrapping a page for each week I thought writing and scrapping a page a week on different topics would be easy. Not so. It’s been a good year for other goals I’ve wanted to accomplish, but not with the 52 topix idea.

I wondered what made writing 1-3 sentences about whatever in my life every day easy to keep up with that writing a paragraph about an assigned topic every week difficult. That’s easy; randomness! In 2010 I tried photographing something coffee every day. The photos were fun and the pages interesting, but that interest dwindled after about May. Again coffee every day while fun was not random. Real life is random. No matter how hard we may try to structure, it’s the random things we don’t expect that make it interesting.

I am putting away the 52 topix idea. I think I may use those layouts that I have done with the completed coffee layouts from 2010 and the completed layouts from the unfinished Patch 365 from 2009 and add some pages to make a “Nani’s Unfinished Symphony” book. Hmmm, maybe I’ll do it in a softcover and leave some blank pages to add some other unfinished things Smash-style and make it a multimedia art thing. Or maybe I’ll just get the pages printed and assemble it traditional scrap-style. I’ll give this some thought.

What I started doing on August first is adding an image a day to a folder called “Daily OPs.” (Other people's, places, possibilities, etc...)  I’ve done an image search for whatever flashes into my mind at the time and choose an image that inspires me or strikes my fancy on that day at that time. I’m not 100% sure where I’m going with this yet, but maybe for next year I’ll mix up photos I take, a few lines of journaling and a random image to suit my mood each day, any or all of them. I’ve got a few months to decide on next year’s project.


Life With Marco

It’ll be two weeks tomorrow since Marco came home. He has every bit the spunk Kaline did as a kitten, unfortunately Kaline doesn’t remember being that kitten! But the growling and hissing is already down and the girls are getting somewhat used to him and he to them. The interaction is interesting. Kaline and Carla will get close enough to give him a good sniff when he’s tired. They want nothing to do with him when he’s frisking around the house. When he runs into Carla’s face or jumps on Kaline’s back, that’s when he gets hissed at or swatted, but when he’s mellowed out they’ll ignore him or even let him get close! Believe me, that’s progress in cat relations after only two weeks!

Now he has some habits I love him to let go of including human leg climbing. He attached himself to jeans and climbs up all the way to the shoulder if he can. He usually doesn’t get that chance because in order to do it, he has to anchor his sharp claws into the legs he’s climbing. For David that’s painful and for me, with thinner fabric in pants, it’s awful! My legs and even my chest, to a little lesser degree, look like I’ve beet pelted with buckshot! I look positively broken out from all the little red-mark puncture wounds!

We got the kitten package for Marco that includes all his shots, healthy kitten checkups and his neutering. He gets 2 claw-trimmings in the package too. We decided not do it on his first visit because he wasn’t jumping yet and was climbing to get around. On Kaline’s birthday everyone goes to the vet, I know crappy birthday present, but they’ll get a salmon and crab party that night. Carla and Kaline will get their annual checkups and shots and rest assured Marco will be getting his first claw trimming!


The Cloud Is Raining On My Creative Parade

I was visiting Miss Edna’s Place where Edna mentioned her displeasure with Adobe and their new “Creative Cloud.”  You essentially lease your software instead of owning it. You pay a monthly fee to have the software and updates are automatic instead of buying an upgrade when a new version comes out, just give them your credit card number and they’ll automatically take out the charge every month. If you don’t sign on and let the license be updated monthly on your software, it just quits working. I’ve known about it for a while and I’m beyond “not happy” about it.

I was actually trying to find out if I could buy an additional license for the software I have. It comes with 2 which is one each for David and me, but I wanted to put it on a smaller laptop for travelling. I can’t add a license to PS CS5, but I could get the Cloud and pay for three a month. I did the math and since two licenses came with the old way of doing it and figuring in a student discount, after 2 years I’d have paid for the software and it’s all just monthly profit for Adobe after that.

Photographylife.com review of Creative Cloud

I did find out that I can just keep my Photoshop CS5 but they won’t be updating it. Conceivably that means it won’t work with Windows 9 or 10 someday. Maybe they’ll have changed their ways by then and the average consumer will have a choice of the Creative Cloud or just buying the software. Or maybe there will be a decent competitor with a better offer.

Dark Pondering

The bombs at The Boston Marathon, poison laced letters sent to lawmakers, guns in an elementary school or a maniac in Kevlar at a movie theater, just a few examples in recent headlines of the sickness in our world. I was thinking about this a lot yesterday, As I’ve said before and I will never change my thoughts; I don’t understand how people like this think and I never want to understand it.

So much violence and senseless killing. If the world they live in is that awful suicide is a better answer than killing anyone else. The violence is your problem and yours alone of you have those ideas in your mind. I’m usually the first to say that suicide is not the answer, that those feeling that hopeless need help and support, but if the only alternative they’ll consider is mass murder, by all means, have at it on yourself. Just be kind enough to the people you leave behind to let them know you were probably going to kill innocent people had it not been yourself. Really, it does make it okay.

And “Not guilty by reason of insanity?” Meh, of course your insane! If you kill people you don’t even know, if children are in your line of fire and it’s oaky by you, insanity goes without saying. But is that a reason to consider you “not guilty?” In a premeditated attack you never once thought maybe you were nuts? It never occurred to you that at the very least, what you were planning was considered immoral or at least deviant behavior? At any point in planning you could have sought help instead of following through. If you kept your plan a secret, you knew it was wrong. Why did you CHOOSE not to get help? No, it’s GUILTY by reason of insanity. The insanity plea is no reason to let someone off with being tried for a lesser crime than mass murder when mass murder is what they are guilty of. The defense team of the Aurora movie theater shooter, who will not receive the publicity and humanity of a name here, had considered entering a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea. None of his victims get to enter a “not dead by reason of movie” reversal. If the crime is punishable by death, it’s punishable by death. If the crime warrants life in prison, it warrants life in prison. Every person who has committed the same crime is unquestionably insane but that is not an excuse not to receive the punishment for the crime committed.

Oh, and terrorism? Aside from the fact that religion really has nothing to do with it; it’s power drunk “religious” “leaders” using a religion they don’t believe in to control weak believers with lies about their religion and other religions to cause the violence that gets their rocks off and makes them feel powerful. They do it because they have nothing else in their being that they consider worth anything. And don’t get me wrong here; this includes the likes of Al Qaeda and every “Christian” “leader” who has inspired their followers to bomb an abortion clinic or picket a funeral. It’s all terrorism and about as far from any kind of religious belief as you can get.

If you truly believe your religion wants that much hate and violence from you, you need to look for a new religion because the one you have is making you pretty miserable. I’m not familiar with any religion that encourages you to honor God, by whatever name the creator has in that religion, by being miserable in the life you were given, If you truly believe God wants you to be so hateful and violent, well, you portray God as quite a jerk. I find that kind of offensive, personally. I haven’t come across any holy book that doesn’t say you shouldn’t kill, so if you are killing in the name of your religion, boy are you screwed up.

Today an entire major city is shut down and we don’t even know the root of the hate yet. The 8th Ammendement includes prohibiting the use of cruel and unusual punishment, including torture. Considering that this Amendment was ratified at a time when slavery was still legal in this country, what exactly is “cruel and unusual?” Do we as a society get a pass when the crime is cruel and unusual? Should we? With the exception of slavery, the crimes today are way bigger than they were at that time.

Just sayin’.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone too much. I’ve said before that some of my crime and punishment ideas have made very right, staunch Republicans say “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” I’ve also said that I write to get things of my chest and poison out of my brain. I feel a little better now.

Weekend Things

Things haven’t really quieted down in my world so much as I took a break. The truth is I make myself busy, filling my plate with things I need to get done for myself. It keeps me from going nuts now and it also keeps my energy level in check o that I can eventually get into a paying situation for someone else. It also keeps me with goals and deadlines and keeps good professional skills honed.

I have one more appointment left on the power chair and then it’s in the insurance company’s hands. I’m not going to go into a rant about insurance companies and our second world health care system. Second world because first world nations have health care for everyone, third world health care for no one and second world, health care for the wealthy with a few things for the middle class if they are willing to go broke for it…

Okay, but I didn’t even have to get on a soap box for that.

… Actually after my hospital stay to start the year, which with a payment plan from the hospital I’ll have my part of the rest of my MRI last year and the hospital stay this year completely paid for in October 2014, my “out of pocket: limit was reached and if the insurance company okays the chair, they’ll pay for it 100%. This is why I’m nervous that they won’t approve it. A power chair is considered a luxury item and it’s only approved for in-home use. I’ve been viewed and interviewed by three reps now and my own doctor makes four that the insurance company requires to verify that I really need a power chair and I can’t get by with something cheaper. Remember as far as they are concerned I don’t need to ever leave the house, it’s a luxury if I do. Yeah, I guess getting to my doctor appointments isn’t a need and a job actually is still a luxury right now.

And without a power chair, my arms are too weak to roll up 

onto a soap box, so I'll change the subject!

Let me tell you about Bo and Woodstock. Bo is a small plush toy made in the image of the First Family’s dog. Bo Obama is the President of the furred, scaled and feathered Domestic Companions of the USA; he’s our cats’ president! So when I saw the little plush Bo, I had to get one for the kids. Woodstock is a little pillow of the Peanuts character that came with a Wendy’s kid’s meal. If I feel like hot food when we eat fast food, I get a kids meal. I usually get salad though. So, with the plethora of cat toys in our house, there is a little Woodstock and a little Bo.

Since Morgan came to live here, she has located many cat toys that had been in corners of the house somewhere, under things, probably even some in the basement. She is an overgrown kitten and loves toys. During the day I often hear the muted meows of a cat with its mouth full walking through the room. Carla does this too and I call it singing “I have a toy, I have a toy, la-la-la…” It’s actually pretty cute. Bo was one of the first toys Morgan became enamored with. Woodstock is one of Carla’s favorites. Carla has carried Woodstock around for a long time and we have often found him sitting on the bed before we turn in for the night. I’m not sure if she was playing with him on the bed or if she is lending him to us as a gift, but she always took him back.

Now remember, that we don’t have cat peace right now and the Morgan-Carla relationship is the one that is the most volatile. During the day Morgan is downstairs and Carla and Kaline stay upstairs. That’s as much their choice as it is that Morgan won’t let them come downstairs. She attacks if she sees Carla half way down the steps. Morgan has roaming privileges during the day, but she sleeps in her room with the door closed art night which gives Kaline and Carla a breather. The worst of their fighting is also at night and can be loud enough to keep us from sleeping too.

During the day I’ll hear Morgan singing as she brings Bo, then Woodstock downstairs. At night, before I quite fall asleep I hear those muffled, my mouth is full meows. It’s Carla carrying Bo or Woodstock upstairs. By morning, they’re always both in the hall or bedroom. It’s totally part of the cat wars, but it’s still funny. Bo was never one of Carla’s favorite toys until he was one of Morgan’s. And I don’t think Morgan even noticed Woodstock until it became apparent how fond of him Carla is. Both Bo and Woodstock are the pawns that both end up upstairs every morning and downstairs by every afternoon.


It’s the cold war part of it, but I’m still living in a cat warzone!

A Hop and an Award

Cluster made with A Book of Me by Aprilisa Designs

 I do know how little of Friday is left compared to everyone else who posted the Friday Fill-In this morning at Feeling Beachie. I’ve been working pretty much all day trying to unlock the secret of getting a video that actually syncs up the way it does in the work-window. In December, I was up until 5 AM the day of Bortrail editing David’s show to make it just so with precision edits, like I’ve always done when I edit video. I was mortified that night as the show played and the edits I’d worked through the night on were so badly out of sync you’d think someone who knew nothing about video opened the software for the first time and threw some stuff in the editor. I’ve tried the executable file, creating a free-standing video, burning a DVD direct from the editor, all out of sync. I spent some time on the phone with tech support. I cleared the cache and cleaned up the program and my file, I rebooted the computer before rendering. Still, out of sync crap. I did a show for Tori and Rina’s Sweet 16 with an editor half the price and it was perfect. So now I’ll be recreating the show on that editor and I’ll find out if it’s the “standard” railfan software or the still new enough that I haven’t done video on it computer. If it’s the software I won’t be at all happy. The newer crappy software is twice the cost. But if is the software, I’ll be singing the praises of Wave Pad to every railfan I know!

So anyway, aside from a day wasted with that software that puts me starting the month off behind on my Sugar Cookie comments at Ginger Scraps and about a half a day late in posting my blog…things aren’t bad. I started today with chocolate hazelnut oatmeal! That’s a nice start. ½ cup of quick oats with a tablespoon dark chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon crushed hazelnuts and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Set the Keurig maker for 8 oz. hot water. Cover the bowl with a plate while you make a cup of coffee in with the Keurig, Free Trade Vermont Blend this morning, and by the time I stirred in a tablespoon of Coffeemate the oats were ready and the chocolate melted. MMM! The oatmeal, which I was too busy loving to photograph, was a little more than I usually have for breakfast, 9 WW points, but every now and then you have to do something special for yourself. It was worth every point. And since the creamer is a point and the apple I had was 0 points, I still strayed in my 10 point target for breakfast anyway.

Okay, now finally the fill-ins, Chatty Nani I am tonight.

This week’s statements:
1. I was probably the only kid in the world who ____
2. ____ is my favorite juice
3. I never thought I would____until I___
4. I have always wanted to_____ but_____

My Answers:

1. I was probably the only kid in the world who liked squid! Tastes change and I am so NOT a calamari fan now, but I liked it as a kid, the fried tentacles were my favorite.

2. Pineapple-orange is my favorite juice.

3. I never thought I would get married until I started talking silly wedding talk with David.

4. I have always wanted to hang glide but now it is the one thing the stupid MS stands in the way of.

I'll be checking out everyone else's fill-ins tonight and tomorrow!



My First Award of 2013!

Okay, on SUNDAY, way back in January, Edna presented me with a wonderful award. I managed to stop by and thank her, but I’m just now posting it. Like I said to her in comments yesterday, good thing it’s not a punctuality award!

But it’s better than a punctuality award. In fact the occasional lack of punctuality is in there because it’s the REALITY award!

Isn’t it sweet?

The rules are pretty easy:

(1) Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.

Did that, even twice thanking again yesterday.

(2) Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back to them.

In case you didn’t put the 2 and 2 together, Edna is my dear friend the owner of Miss Edna’s Place

(3) Answer the five simple questions. See below

(4) Nominate blogs for the award and notify each of them. Also see below

(5) Display the award on your blog somewhere.  See above




Here are the questions:

1. If you could change one thing, what would you change?
2. If you could repeat an age, what would it be?
3. What is one thing that really scares you?
4. What is one dream you have not completed, and do you think you'll be able to complete it?
5. If you could be someone else for one day, who would it be?



1. If you could change one thing, what would you change?

I’d make all diseases that attack people who have done nothing to put themselves at risk disappear. Autoimmune disorders, cancer, diseases of the brain; all gone, poof, those afflicted everything the disease made happen, back to normal.

Okay, and if I can’t have it that way for all diseases, then selfishly, I’ll cure MS first.


2. If you could repeat an age, what would it be?

Edna said she’d stay where she is now, and in many ways I’d say the same. I’ve never had trouble with my age and being happy with my world just as it is right now. I have demons, but I also have wonderful things that have entered into my life.

I could say 28 because it was before my mom got sick and she’d still be with me. But if I look to go back to still have the riches I’ve lost in my life, wouldn’t I want to go back to early 1994 when my grandfather was still with us? But my Papa and my nieces never knew each other. In order to have Papa in my life I’d have to give up Tori and Rina. Even getting Mom back, Mom and David never met.

One time I was asked that question and I said 39 because It was before the MS symptoms got bad, after David and I got together, we’d found Kaline and we had all four cats between us. But Carla hadn’t been born yet. So you see, to pick one age from my past, I’d have to choose who to keep and who to give up. So because I really don’t like decisions, I’ll pick slightly closer to 47 than 46.


3. What is one thing that really scares you?

Stairs. I crawl up the ones at home, but I still have to get to a standing position for the top 2; scares me half to death every time. Fortunately, succeeding without falling thrills me half to life!


4. What is one dream you have not completed, and do you think you'll be able to complete it?

I have always tended to have goals rather than dreams as far as things I want to attain. Current dreams include a job and a new home with David’s train layout taking up the whole basement, a ranch with easy accessibility be it walker or chair, laundry on the main living floor and a modern kitchen with appliances that work and a pantry that’s not in a corner over a corner section of counter. Oh yeah, and smooth no grout countertops. Both are attainable, jut not sure how many months/years down the line.


5. If you could be someone else for one day, who would it be?

Just for a day? As much as I always say I’d give anything for just one day with no pain and the full abilities I used to have, I think I’d choose to be someone with greater physical disabilities than I have so I could better appreciate how good I actually do have it. Bet I’d never say the “I’d give anything” idea again.



Now I would like to pass this award on to:

Kelly at Coffee Cups and Christianity
Debby at Just Breathe
Josanne at A Chocolate Bouquet
Jen at Grown In Southern Ground

As usual, I realize everyone has busy schedules, even me sometimes!  So, this award is a ift without requirements.  I'd love to read your answers, but don't feel obligated to answer the questions, just know you've been acknowledged as one of the blogs I love to visit!

Busy Morning

Credit: Boo-boos and Band Aids by Twin Mom Scraps

I’d have posted earlier today, but my morning was spent in the thralls of the joy of health insurance! I don’t keep my opinion about the need for major improvements in our healthcare system in the US a secret. I applaud the Affordable Healthcare Act as a step in the right direction, but just a baby step. My stance as a great supporter of single-payer healthcare is one about which I'm fairly vocal. That’s the buzz word because so many people consider “socialized" to be some sort of political profanity. Meh, I think there should be an at least partially socialized system. Everyone should have access to healthcare. I say that as a caring person AND as a selfish person. I don’t want to see people suffer but I also don’t want them sharing untreated or undiagnosed diseases with me and I don’t want them driving a car next to me when spasms from untreated physical conditions flare up causing them to lose control of their car You see, everyone’s care affects us all.

One of the big perceptions from opponents of single-payer health care is the wait for care. I’m insured. I wait for care. I’ve been 5 days now without the disease modifying MS medication that really does make a difference in fatigue and cognitive abilities. I’m starting to feel that the medication is out of my system today. Why have I gone without the medication I truly need for almost a week? Because my health insurance company has been “considering” the medication. They hadn’t decided that it was something I could have. Tell me how there is no waiting for care with health insurance. It’s not my first wait for care either, not even the first this year. The doctors wanted me to go into rehabilitation before I went home from the hospital so I could safely function in my own home. I was on hold because the insurance company hadn’t given permission for me to have rehab. After three days of waiting the hospital had to release me because there was no reason for me to stay. I still had the end of the flu when they requested transferring me to rehabilitation. The hospital released me after I had recovered from the virus and the insurance company still hadn’t decided if my doctors actually had a clue about what their patient needed. That was care I waited for and never got. Tell me how great it is to be insured.

So my medication will be here tomorrow, because it took them a week and a half to decide it was okay for me to take, it had to be shipped overnight because I was out of meds. If they’d been little more diligent, it could have sipped standard. I wonder how many people have had to wait and have to have things shipped more expensively? I wonder how much that affects our premium. All this time, as we face the dangers of existing with those who may be insured now, but still go undiagnosed and untreated because they still can’t afford the exorbitant coinsurance. Thank goodness we don’t have any type of socialized medicine to “make us wait.”

Wheeling off soap box now; my soap box has a ramp!


So, yeah, if you read the rant, my medication will be here tomorrow. The rest of the wonderful red tape should be sorted out in the next week.  Yeesh!

So, happy dreary and damp Monday from Ohio! I still like Mondays. Dreary and damp Monday even means David is home today. Remember that Sunday/Monday is his weekend. I’m waiting for him to pull down some soup off the top shelf perfect lunch for a dreary day and something I couldn’t have if he wasn’t home to get it down for me!

I’ve prattled enough. Time to get on with the Monday Quiz About Me, brought to us by Heather at Acting Balanced and Wayne at Touristic.

1. On a long road trip do you prefer to be the driver or a passenger? Or do you prefer to travel a different way all together?

Since I can’t drive, I’ll take the passenger’s seat! But I’ve always preferred the passenger side with David, even when I did still drive. He hated the way I drove and I hated the way he backseat drove when I drove. We were much kidder to each other when he was in the driver’s seat. I wasn’t really fond of driving anyway unless I was alone with bright sun and an empty road. (Camaros drive better when no one is in front of them; they just do.)


2. Do you use a slow cooker? Favorite thing to make?

I use the slow cooker for apple and peach butter! Those would be my favorites. If I had more room to leave it on the counter, I’d use it more.


3. Which type of festival would you rather go to... Wine and Food, Music or Sports?

I’m not a huge festival goer anymore. I went to lots of them when Tori and Rina were little. I guess I really liked to Fall Festivals, which were, cider, food and crafts.


4. What is your favorite fallacy?

David says my favorite fallacy is that he tickles me every time he walks by. I told him "only" nine times out of ten doesn’t make “every” a fallacy because it’s still a gross majority.

So, since his tickling me every time he walks by is NOT a fallacy, I’ll pick a better one.

“If you look for the good in a situation, things will get better.” Looking for the good does not make things better; it makes coping better it easier to cope with. It makes YOU better.


And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

5. Do you consider soup to be a seasonal or year-round food? What’s your favorite soup at this time of year?

For me, it’s totally a year-round food! There are chilled soups that I really only eat in the summer and I prefer heartier potato-based soups in the winter, but I’ll enjoy chicken soup or a bowl of tomato basil any time.

Soap Box Again - Grrrr

A group calling themselves “Preserve Marriage Washington” blocked the law which would make marriage an equal and valid institution rather than a segregated entitlement with signatures from 200,000 insecure and confused people the day before the law creating marriage equality went into effect. The block will send Referendum 74 to a public vote.

You might say, “That’s democracy, it’s good.” But cults have voted to do great harm before and we say it’s bad. It leaves me a little confused. What is good and American about select entitlement, about prejudice and hate? I know our history is peppered with those things, but why are we still fighting those social wars? In 2012, we are still social cliques at war with each other to be recognized as the “superior clique.” Yes, if you read into that as me calling many of the fundamental religious groups “cults” and “cliques,” that’s exactly what I meant. My Bible says “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” I’m seeing a lot of judging of things that have no effect whatsoever on the people doing the judging. I see telling God he made a mistake in bringing two people together to be a far greater sin than loving someone.

The thing that I really don’t understand is the whole “sanctity of marriage” thing when it comes to wanting to keep marriage an entitlement for heterosexual couple only. First off, if we are not going to allow same-sex couples to marry to save the “sanctity of marriage,” we need to outlaw divorce too. That’s a way bigger destroyer of that sanctity. I do realize that if divorce was illegal David would still be married to his ex and her husband and I would still be single. Four happy people would be miserable or lonely, but that “Preserve Marriage” group would be happy and isn’t that all that’s really important?

I’ve had a participant on the occasional debate that sprouts when I post on Facebook that insists that allowing same-sex marriage is a “slippery slope” that next is “marrying your dog.” Aside from the fact that “marrying your dog” is quoted propaganda and not original thought and “slippery slope” is just a desperate catch phrase used when one really has nothing left to present, that argument is the silliest thing I’ve heard. Last I checked dogs can’t give consent and they can’t contract. I don’t think there will ever be a time that a doctor will call your dog when you’re on your death bed but they will call your spouse.

As far as a “slippery slope,” that slope slides both ways. Marriage equality is a plateau. If we can’t reach that plateau, if states keep putting the hate and entitlement language in their constitutions and the hate groups block the states that move towards equality, how soon before the country slides down the way it came?  How soon before laws are put in place to define marriage as “between a man and woman of the same color, same religion and same financial level?” Sanctity of marriage; keep the gold-diggers from destroying the sacred institution! That side of the “slippery slope” makes as much sense as marrying a dog does. 

Allowing same-sex marriage is allowing all couples of consenting adults to legally contract their partnership. That’s all legal marriage is. It has nothing to do with any church; it’s just a contract. I didn’t get married in a church at all and my marriage is still valid and legal and called a marriage. A church that scorns same-sex couples doesn’t have to perform a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple. Churches don’t have to change based on new laws, so why do they want laws to be governed by their rules?

The creation of the United States was greatly based on those fleeing religious tyranny in England. Freedom from the government establishing a single religion is in the Bill of rights. It’s the very first amendment to the constitution. We have the free exercise of any religion so no one religion should be allowed to demand laws reflecting its beliefs be made. One country, one religion, one FAIL. If religious interests take over our government and it becomes necessary to flee from the tyranny again, where will we go?

Get the special interest religious groups out of our government and let them tend to their churches; maybe they can do something about that divorce rate.

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Items in red are sarcasm. It pains me to have to note that.

I’m not really looking to debate, just to get some anger off my chest. Feel free to disagree with me, but please don’t leave a dissertation to me of “why you’re wrong” in comments. It won’t be published. I will publish any “I disagree and here is the link to my blog” comments if you’d like to post a differing opinion. Thank you!