Oops! Winter Already!

Apparently I am not as into blogging as I thought I might be. My last post was in October, and now it is Dec. 22. My bad. Still, it is an indication that either life's been horrid or it's been fine, and for me it is the latter. We had a good Thanksgiving and now are preparing for Christmas with all the family in Seattle. Thankfully, the weather for us is almost 180 degrees different than last year, so no travel woes to speak of for the kids. Unlike the East and the Midwest, Seattle is wonderfully temperate right now. Whew.

In case anyone in the world even reads this, here's hoping your holidays are full of family and fun and that 2010 brings you good fortune and health. :-)

Fall Falls

Seattle has gone from months of bright sunshine and warmth to alarming dark and chilling showers. It's as if Mother Nature suddenly realized she had played with our heads long enough and she'd better put things back to normal. For a brief time, however, the crisp air was dry and the colors were as magnificent as any Midwest or New England Fall could ever be. An abnormal and gorgeous Autumn.

I think the extra doses of sunshine infused me with more than my share of vitamins or whatever it is that makes you seasonally happy, because I still seem to have residual energy after darkness falls; I can actually move myself out of the house and venture into the night to attend a play, a forum, or choir. How much longer this will last is questionable. I am a serious sufferer of SADD (well, undiagnosed, but still pretty sure I suffer). When the sun goes down, my brain tells me it's time to jammy up and knock off for the night. I may stay awake reading or watching TV, but under no circumstances do I consider continuing my social activities after 6 PM.

I am an anti-vampire. An unundead. Give me daylight or give me bed. The beauty of retirement is that I can totally enable this lifestyle: I arise with the sun if at all possible. I haven't quite mastered the "no steps beyond my threshold after dark," but I try hard. Hibernating animals know what life's about, and since I've layered my body with the extra fat needed to survive hibernation, I think I ought to at least try to follow-through.

Healthcare

This is not an essay or an op-ed piece or even an interesting note. It's a simple statement of FACT: THE US NEEDS GUARANTEED HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE. SINGLE-PAYER COVERAGE WOULD BE THE BEST OPTION, BUT AN OPTIONAL GOVERNMENT PLAN WOULD BE THE NEXT-BEST SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS. Plain and simple.

When a Heatwave is REALLY a Heatwave

Seattle has long been considered a home of whiners by those who live in inclement weather zones. Having spent the first 20 years of my life in Evanston, Illinois, I fully understand what real winter snow and cold is, and I truly appreciate sweat-producing heat and humidity. Seattle has a temperate climate, and I have enjoyed the benefits of this for almost 40 years.

Even so, I know when a heatwave is really a heatwave. Getting above 90 degrees even for a day or two is nearly unheard of in the Puget Sound region. We have the water to protect us (unlike Portland which usually reaches 10 degrees higher or lower than us). Today, when I looked at the weather around the world and noticed that some of the only places hotter than parts of my area are Yuma, Arizona and Baghdad, Iraq, I knew this was the real deal.

Thankfully, we have a basement, and it is probably 20 degrees cooler than the main floor of our house and 30 degrees cooler than the second floor, and it is down here that Bill and I will spend the better part of today (and every other 90-102 degrees day). We have all the creature comforts in our subterranean locale, and except for quick food runs, we have no earthly reason to venture above ground level. We braved our own bed last night, but if it gets unbearable tonight, we can always camp out on the queen-sized futon down here. This is supposed to ease up in a week, so hopefully by the time we have family here in mid-August we'll be back to our gorgeous, mid-70s to 80s typical summer weather. Hopefully.

No News is Celebrity News

After returning from a wonderful trip in NYC and Chicago, I looked forward to returning to my daily routine of morning coffee and the Seattle Times. Although gone for less than two weeks, I felt out of touch with national and international events since I had avoided TV and newspapers for most of the trip. Given all the important issues of the day (two wars, gay rights, economic recovery, etc), I felt confident that I would need time to catch up on life. How wrong I was.

Not to disparage the dead, but the barrage of "breaking news" of Michael Jackson's death in print and on screen seems almost grotesque. The poor man was a near pariah in recent years, yet suddenly every A-, B-, and D-list celebrity has jumped on his "dearest friend" band wagon now that he has died. Filling in the spaces were the stories on Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays. Celebrities have filled the headlines for over a week now.

In case anyone thought that media attention would finally revert to more serious issues, along comes Sarah Palin, just in time for the fireworks, as she cryptically announces she is not going to finish her gubernatorial term. For all the Republicans' snide claims that President Obama is a "celebrity," no one beats old "Gotcha" Palin for idol status. She's Hanna Montana and the Messiah all rolled into one package for the religious right-wing conservatives, and the amount of coverage she received on the 3rd of July on both FOX News and MSNBC was truly absurd. Yes, it was real news, but the follow-up sessions with every pundit from either side of the aisle speculating on her reasons for abruptly bailing on her duties as an elected official became ridiculous.

Naturally, we shut off the boob tube and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine to relax and reconnect with our neighbors. No news really is good news sometimes.

Uber-Liberal Feeds Needs with Humor

Whenever I watch Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's cable-tv shows, I am struck by how dead-on they are in their political commentaries. I am also struck by how sad it is that the best place to get in-depth reasonable political information is on Comedy Central. Apparently the major networks feel the need to issue information in tweets (short, ill-researched knee-jerk blurbs) and the so-called 24-hour "news" stations prefer inflammatory rhetoric repeated ad nauseum, encased by myriad unreadable ticker tape banners. (PBS is the only serious provider of truly fair news coverage with the Lehrer report.)

I am an uber-liberal, but I really appreciate hearing the stimulating discussions that often occur on Stewart's program when he has a guest with decidedly different views than mine. Intelligent conservatives have a chance to discuss their beliefs with Jon Stewart, who has a better grasp of issues and deeper knowledge of their history than most political commentators. He has often caught guests off-guard with his ability to use facts to refute statements thrown out at him. The conversations are lively, sometimes combative, but never defamatory. The respect for the person is always obvious. Rarely have I heard slanderous put-downs from Stewart or a guest (though sometimes witticisms carry stinging barbs). And when time has necessitated editing a heated conversation, the show provides the complete interview online.

Stewart keeps himself grounded; he is on an entertainment channel doing a comedy show, but much like David Frost's marvelous "That Was The Week That Was," Jon Stewart's program has the ability to use humor to cut through the political detritus.

I watch Obermann and Maddow at times on MSNBC, but they can obsess on topics, and Chris Matthews, bless his liberal little heart, gets too excited with his own voice and won't shut up to let his guests speak. These three are certainly more intelligent, intellectual, and informative than their conservative counterparts (Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh), but histrionics or cuteness sometimes take over their programs. A little bit goes a long way, and I have to switch to the Food Network, the Discovery Channel, or HGTV for escapist entertainment and relief from bombastic personalities. Thank heavens for Iron Chef America.

And so, four nights a week I watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from 11 PM to midnight to feed my need for honest political commentary. My daily newspaper keeps me in the loop and provides me with enough information to form many of my political opinions. Comedy Central gives me programs to challenge or strengthen my opinions. Ironic, isn't it?

Too Much Tech Tires Retiree

Never wanting to be left too far behind in the dust of technological advances, I have recently join two of the tech crazes: FaceBook and Twitter. Why? More out of curiosity than anything else. I couldn't stand hearing all the jaw-flapping about these fads and not explore their attraction.

Now that I've jumped onto the bandwagons, I'm dismayed to discover that these rather redundant applications require constant nurturing. This, of course, I'm bemoaning as I sit here writing on my never-read-by-ANYONE blog. I feel like I'm back in high school, trying so hard to be accepted, and facing the pains of constant rejection. No one reads my little essays here on my blog. No one follows my tweets (except Barack Obama, and I have a strong feeling that he might not ACTUALLY be reading them, maybe, perhaps, you think?).

Only my FaceBook seems to be an active forum for friends. Slowly but surely I'm seeing a growing number of family, friends, and wierdos viewing and commenting on my "wall." The friends and family I invite in; the weirdos (who must have set their pages to post on every single new account) I quickly reject. Ewwwww.

Oh, well, having spent two hours pouring over these latest techie trends, I now realize that they are just complicating my life and distracting me from more healthy pursuits. It's May Day: I need to get out in the sun.

Engaged!

It's official: Will and Vanessa are engaged. No wedding plans for now, but this is a big step, and everyone is quite happy. I know Vanessa is the perfect mate for our son, and naturally we know Will is ideal for Vanessa. They've been together for over four years, so this is a well-thought-out decision. Woo-hoo!

Another Great road Trip

A short but sweet posting: Bill and I managed to survive another extended road trip in our trusty little Scion xB with no SNAFUs, glitches, surprises, or traumas. Whew. These days, coming home in one piece seems to be a primary concern for me; I suppose it's the presence of horrific news stories about the sudden deathly incidents that occur in normal situations that does it.

We left in early March and stayed away for three weeks. During that time we enjoyed sunny, warm, and even hot weather in Sonoma, California and Death Valley. As we basked in the beauty and balminess, Seattle suffered more snow, rain, and icky weather. Woo-hoo for retirement!

Now Bill and I are once again home and back into our daily routines. Even $500 poorer a week later (a 45K Scion check-up required brake pad replacements) but certainly still happy. We helped stimulate the economy as well as our lives, and we tasted some darn good wines while doing so.

Self-Aggrandizement Disguised as Self-Deprecation

Recently, for a book club, I read a couple of books I would not normally select: first-person narrative journals by two female authors. Both books include heightened religious experiences, rocky interpersonal relations, and an over-abundance of introspection.

Obviously, I came at these books with a bias: I do not suffer easily the overblown melodramatic whining of others, particularly when it includes hand-on-forehead descriptions of the emotional traumas of romances gone awry. I just want to slap these women and say, "Get over yourselves!" Well, maybe not literally, but my tone would carry the figurative slap.

The women write at great length about every aspect of their angst-ridden lives. Neither author has suffered deprivation or abuse. Each is a successful author. And for some reason, each woman seems hell-bent on using self-deprecation as a clever ploy in her writing: a way to appear modest and even surprised at any of her success as a writer, when in reality her writing drips of self-aggrandizement. It all reminds me of my favorite Muppets joke.

Kermit: "Miss Piggy, you're pretentious."

Miss Piggy: "Pretentious? Moi??"

My two authors are like Miss Piggy, feigning innocence while exuding egotism.

Publishing essays online for over twelve years has certainly stroked my ego, but I have no false sense of importance or modesty. I know that I can write basic essays and that occasionally they can be entertaining or insightful. I also know that most of my essays are mundane. My publishing is vanity press. What irks me about these books is that they're the real deal: these authors have been paid well for their work. Readers deserve better. Of course, I have some comfort in knowing that I didn't add to their coffers; I get my books from the public library.

I Really Don't Want to See More Snow

I faced fresh snow this morning with about as much enthusiasm as I face the latest news of our economy. Bah. I am not a fan of snow, have never been much for winter sports (except ice-skating as a child growing up in the Midwest), and I truly believe that January 31 should officially mark the end of snowfalls. Yes, it is already nearly all gone, and no, the schools didn't close (just late starts), but I'm sorry: the sight of this much white out my window at 7 AM was more than I could take. They have predicted more possible snow this week. Double bah. I have never wanted to live in a warm climate, but I do take umbrage with these continuous assaults on our temperate zone. Enough.

Let's Get Stimulating

This brief post comes on the heels of several days of stewing about the state of our economy. In a nutshell, it stinks. The situation reminds me of medical emergencies in the Middle Ages.

The economic health of the U.S. is much like the physical health of a sickly nobleman in days of yore. The guy keeps getting worse and worse, but all the old traditional experts keep recommending the same therapy: leeches (read "tax cuts"). Newer, innovative minds suggest alternatives. Some might fail, some might have unexpected results, and all involve taking risks, but at least they are not the same old same old: bleed him with leeches.

Folks, we have tried leeches. In years when the economy stayed healthy, the leeches didn't do as much harm, but for the last eight years those suckers have failed, and they have pushed us further into the abyss. Let's try the change we voted for; let's get stimulating, Senators.

The Luck of the Draw

I am a lucky person. I might not be in the stratosphere of those mentioned in "Outliers," but I do know that because of circumstances, I am a luckier person than many. Naturally, I'd love to have the kind of luck that garners big payouts on the slots or at the race track, but considering how averse I am to gambling, I doubt I would ever be aware of such luck even if it existed.

My luck tends to be the type that increases the intrinsic value of my life. My incredible husband and children, my wonderful friends, and my sense of comfort and security all make my life rich and full. It may sound corny, but I cannot take for granted all the positive aspects of my life: I am lucky.

Of course, even though I have a natural aversion to gambling (not for any moral reasons; I simply hate losing money just to play games), I still consider it my philanthropic duty to contribute to raffles. As long as it's for a good cause and a legitimate non-profit group, I'll shell out the few dollars it takes to buy the tickets for that fabulous:

a)pink and green hand-crocheted afghan
b)3-day stay in a Wenatchee time-share
c)basket of assorted jams and jellies
d)wine-tasting party for four
e)whatever

I do not win these raffles. I never do, and quite frankly, most times I am glad. Today, however, was different. At the Retired Teachers' Association luncheon and meeting I plunked down my $5 for 6 chances and truly wished to win. The basket contained St. Michelle wine and several other equally nice goodies, and I figured this could finally be my lucky day. The guest speaker drew a ticket and I didn't win. BUT WAIT! There was a second lesser prize, and another ticket was drawn: MINE! Of course, this means I have used up my allotment of luck for gambling, and I will have to be content with my one and only "big score" being a large, heart-shaped box of Russell Stover's Valentine chocolates. Not exactly what my figure needs, but hey, I was lucky!

Doing My Part for the Economy

Being an ardent fan of Barack Obama, I embrace his concepts of sacrifice and investing in the community. Apparently I have also embraced his commitment to improving infrastructures as a way to boost our economy. My husband and I now have the best damn sewer pipeline from house to street of anyone in our neighborhood.

Our bailout began with water pooling in our basement by the washtubs. Normally this would not be a concern, since heavy rains often cause run-off water to seep beneath the basement door and flow towards the inside drain. There had been no rain, however, for many days. I had, however, done laundry upstairs, and four people had taken showers. It was time for Roto-Rooter.

Amazingly, we had a person on site, rooting out the sewer line, within the hour. No problems, except we seemed to have too much sludge and very few obstructions. We needed a camera's eye-view. A colonoscopy for our pipeline as it were. This didn't bode well, and it was about as pricey as the real thing, too.

Long story short: our 85 year-old concrete pipeline from the house to the street looked bleak, and it needed surgery. Two days and many thousands of dollars later we emerged with top-of-the-line plumbing. Seamless and impervious to outside influences, we should be safe from intruding roots or extruding crud.

The pain in my checkbook subsides a little each day, and with each flush of the toilet or load of laundry, I have a certain sense of pride that I have done my part to help stimulate the economy.