Humbug
Mood:  on fire
Now Playing: "Is That All There Is?"
Topic: Such Waste!
What is it that makes us go so far over the top to live up to some artificial version of how things should be for a given day out of 365?

Here I sit alone in my humbug corner refusing to do what I'm told by Hallmark and Wallstreet to perform my part in the play. I am content With my year-round Christmas Bear windsock indoors until the storms pass, and my token Calico tree stuffed behind the pictures on the mantle so nobody feels sorry for me and kills a real one in my name to bring it to me, (A lesson I learned too late to spare one tree one year). I stand apart and watch friends and family literally making themselves sick this glorious season as they try to live up to whatever they are taught, told and sold is expected of them. From spending way more than they have to staying up all night because they must "put the bows on all the packages" I hear reports of behavior that most of these same good folks would call nuts any other time of the year.

I think what amazes me most though is the process we follow to set ourselves up for such disappointment at holiday time. What is this scripting we do in advance of events wherein we create the whole scene in our minds ahead of time in such detailed expectation it cannot possibly satisfy in reality? A good friend is taking his son to learn to snowboard this week-end. In telling me of their plans he was relating the schedule in such detail as to tell me what they'd be ordering for breakfast from McDonald's on their way to the slopes and how the kids would feel when they stood up after lunch to what would be said on the ride home. Now there's no way on earth that the reality of this week-end is going to match his plan. And I'm afraid he's going to miss the reality of it watching for what he's decided it's going to be in advance. I realize this is an extreme case, but we all do it to one degree or another. While watching for our expectations we miss our reality. Why?

Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Such Waste!
I can't believe the waste in this world! I am too overwhelmed right now to talk about it, so will go to my favorite place and just withdraw from it all for awhile.

Aunt Donna Comes to Sequim
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Donna and Paul
Topic: Family

I never would have recognized Donna if she hadn't been with the boys. It's been over 30 years since I've seen her. What fun for the families to be able to get together for the afternoon!

Long Time No See
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Tom and John Lewicki
Topic: Family

Seems to me the last time I saw these guys was in 1973 when I was in Illinois on my way to New York City. Kind of fun to realize relative banter is genetic. We talked and teased and had a fine visit.

About Time


It's about time people realize life isn't fair. I don't know where that idea even came from. This morning New Orleans is under water. I woke up and phoned my son in Atlanta to wake him for work and drag him through his narcoleptic wakening to get on his way. My phone worked. His phone worked. He got up and got off to work and his car worked and his yard wasn't flooded or his stream overflowing its banks. Now by tonight when he comes home, these things could be different. But for now, he is well and his property safe, his dog dry and cozy in the dog run with the refuge of a nice dog house under a shelter should the rains coe, and all the trees still standing.

Here in Washington state and we didn't even make the weather report on the Weather Channel this morning because things are so calm here, all is peaceful and beautiful.If it rains here everyone will smile and be glad for the dormant lawns to green up again.

As I got up and going today I was aware of everything I was able to do. I flushed the toileet. I turned on the stove and boiled water forinstant coffee. I made phone calls, got my email via wireless connection on my Voicenote, fed the cat, and came to write email. It's a huge awakening to realize these simple morning tasks couldn't be done in New Orleans this morning. People were lucky to draw breath in the tops of their attics hoping to be rescued by others in little boats navigating a city under water. I rarely recognize the good deal it is to be able to flush the toilet in the morning. We have so much! We can lose so much! Not a bad thing to stop and appreciate the good and take into account the power of nature.

About Time
TT: Accessibility

I fine myself totally irritated and tired of waiting for accessibility to come about in some of the simplest of ways. It particularly makes me angry when retailers take backwards steps to make things more difficult rather than moving forward and making things better. Today's growls go to Safeway. In 2000 Safeway here in Port Angeles had perfectly accessible Credit/Debit card machines with buttons you could feel and push without assistance or difficulty. When they updated their computer system, they also downdated their equipment to mere touch screens which are totally unusable by those with low vision or who are totally blind. I have been working with our store for well over a year trying to get them to do something about this problem. Repeatedly they say something is in the works, but repeatedly nothing is done.

I must say they once came through with Braille templates which took real power of forethought to design with Braille being a touch language. Touching anything on this template triggers whatever is below it on the screen. Of course, the template comes nowhere near matching up to what is actually printed on the screen. I fear I found this more offensive than no effort at all.

Why is it that people must make things more difficult and create problems that they had the solution to once?

Mood:  irritated
Topic: ABOUT TIME
Well, it's about time!
About time I get around to doing something with this blog.
About time accessibility gets around to being important.
About time I figure out what I'm going to do about any of this.
And about time to see if this posting even works.

POWER
Now Playing: Realto Beach, Olympic Peninsula, Washington State