An update and a New Toy

Thank you, dear friends, for the good wishes you offered in the comment section of my last post.  You do make me feel good and have boosted my spirits during this time of healing.  By the way, the recovery is coming along nicely.  A bar room brawl wouldn't produce a shiner as big as mine and my eye would make a good ad for the 'red eye' night flight; other than that, I am doing just peachy keen.

My daughter arrived at 11 pm Sunday night (poor girl) and was here to take me to the surgery center the next morning.  We hadn't been home very long when the new Apple laptop that I had ordered arrived.  Timing is everything because my tech savvy daughter immediately went to work installing all the software and setting me up with a wireless system.  She finished the job, along with a few other chores, on Wednesday afternoon when she had to head back to California.  She needed to be at work on Friday so it was 'no rest for the weary' for her.  In between being my 'Techie' and errand girl she kept me busy putting the peas on my eye (20 minutes every hour) and making me comfortable.  I do love being pampered.

If you are used to using Windows and then switch to a Mac you know the systems are very different.  I have a very slow learning curve now so I fear it is going to take me a long time to learn how to use the Apple.  I will be reading your blogs and will try to catch up, but I may not take the time to comment unless I need to put in my 2 cents worth.  

With that in mind, here are some computer jokes for your amusement:

Minor Surgery and a Giggle

I will not be on line for a few days.  I am having an 'eye tuck' tomorrow.  It is not for cosmetic enhancement, but because that dratted droopy eyelid is interfering with my vision.  My daughter is coming to pamper me (lucky me) and I expect her momentarily. 

I think we all need a laugh after the week's depressing news so I will leave you with this.

The Best Smart Ass Answers of 2009!! 

 
SMART ASS ANSWER #6
 
It was mealtime during an airline flight. 
'Would you like dinner?', the flight attendant asked John, seated in front.. 
'What are my choices?' John asked. 
'Yes or no,' she replied.

 

SMART ASS ANSWER #5
 
A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. 
Without missing a beat, she said, 'Sir, I need to see your ticket, not your stub.'

 

SMART ASS ANSWER #4
 
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, ' Do these turkeys get any bigger?' 
The stock boy replied, 'No ma'am, they're dead.'

 

SMART ASS ANSWER #3
 
The police officer got out of his car as the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. 'I've been waiting for you all day,' the officer said. 
The kid replied, Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could.' 
When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

 

SMART ASS ANSWER #2
 
A truck driver was driving along on the freeway and noticed a sign that read: Low Bridge Ahead. Before he knows it, the bridge is right in front of him and his truck gets wedged under it. Cars are backed up for miles. 
Finally a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, 'Got stuck, huh?' 
The truck driver says, 'No, I was delivering this bridge and I ran out of gas.'

 

SMART ASS ANSWER OF THE YEAR 2009!!
 
A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam. 'Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!' 
A smart-ass student in the back of the room raised his hand and asked, 'What would you say if tomorrow I said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?' 
The entire class is reduced to laughter and snickering. When silence was restored, the teacher smiled knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said, 'Well, I guess you'd have to write the exam with your other hand.'

 

A BONUS EXTRA
 
A woman is standing nude looking in the bedroom mirror. She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband, 'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' 
The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.

---

Aftershock

The aftershock I am referring to is not the terrible ones in Haiti, but the mood I am in the day after the bluest state filled Ted Kennedy's seat with a man who vowed to defeat health care reform.


My emotional rant yesterday may have been over the top.   (After all, I do have an award for being so.)   Today I will try to take a more measured look at what happened. 



Blame has to fall on the Democrats for this loss and the success goes to the Tea Party for seeing an opportunity and seizing it for all it's worth.  Massive amounts of money from the 'right' poured into Massachusetts at the last minute.  Money still talks very loud.

I think the New York Times said it best in an article in this morning's paper.  Following is an excerpt from that article:


 It is indisputable that the Republicans have settled on a tactic of obstruction, disinformation and fear-mongering, but it is equally indisputable that the Democrats have not countered it well.

And:

“To be honest, we kind of looked at it and said, this is a long shot,” said Brendan Steinhauser, the director of state campaigns for FreedomWorks, which has become an umbrella for Tea Party groups. But the group was impressed by the determination of organizers in this decidedly Democratic state and was intrigued by the notion that this could be a way to effectively derail federal health care legislation.  (Emphasis mine.)


And so FreedomWorks sent out a query to dozens of its best organizers across the country. Within days, the clamoring response made clear that what seemed improbable suddenly seemed very attainable; within weeks, the Tea Party movement had established a beachhead in Mr. Kennedy’s home state.
While conservatives quietly mobilized behind a state senator, Scott Brown, to fill the seat occupied by Mr. Kennedy for nearly 47 years, Democrats paid but slight attention to a contest that by every indication and by history should have been nothing to worry about.


And on Huffington Post I found this editorial that rings true to me.   It is a fair critique of what has gone so terribly wrong.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/obama-finally-gets-his-vi_b_429232.htmll.

I have to hand it to the Republicans.  They ran out the clock and have now effectively killed any hope of real health reform.  I hope people remember this as their premiums. co-pays, and meds go up year after year.  I just got an increase of $20 co-pay for specialists and refilled a prescription at triple last year's cost.

I posted the above yesterday before I knew about the disastrous ruling of the Supreme Court.  The consequences of this unprecedented ruling will destroy what shred of democracy that we have left.  (And the Republicans have the gall to talk about liberal activist judges who legislate from the bench.)  This is outrageous.  Dred Scott was a blot on the history of this country and if we have a country left this will go down in history as another dreadful, shameful ruling.  Unless Congress pass laws to minimize the damage done by the Supreme Court we can kiss our country goodbye.  It is now a country OF the Corporations, BY the Corporations and FOR the Republican Party.

The new Senator

Senator Scott Brown

Massachusetts, meet the Senator you just saddled the country with.  Mr. Sarah Palin, I do believe.

God help us!  As one blogger said, "The inmates are running the asylum."  Beauty before brains.

I truly fear for this country when the majority seem to have lost their minds.  There are as many answers as to why this happened as there are pundits.  Personally I believe that the voters have a shorter attention span than I do.  How quickly they forgot the eight years of the previous administration that ruined the economy, got us into two illegal wars, tortured, ruined our reputation in the world, etc,  etc. ad infinitum.  I am so disgusted that I can't even enumerate the many failures and illegal machinations of the Bush years. 

How quickly the voters fall for the lies and distortions.  I am so upset that I can't write anymore.

A Republican friend just left and he told me that the Democrats had shut the Republicans out and were making deals behind closed doors.  I would weep crocodile tears for them if they hadn't done exactly the same thing for eight years when they were in power. 

A pox on all their houses.

An Award- Over the Top

 Kay, who writes the great blog Kay's Thinking Cap gave me an award.  The title of the award is Over The Top.  The deal is:  you have to answer the questions with one word and then pass on the award to three other blogs. 

Okay, here goes. 

1. Where is your cell phone? none

2. Your hair? white

3. Your mother? dead

4. Your father? dead

5. Your favorite food? chocolate

6. Your dream last night? hmm

7. Your favorite drink? champagne

8. Your dream/goal? longevity

9. What room are you in? den

10. Your hobby? photography

11. Your fear? stroke

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren’t? athletic

15. Muffins? banana

16. Wish list item? nothing

17. Where did you grow up? Colorado

18. Last thing you did? wrote

19. What are you wearing? clothes

20. Your TV? off

21. Your pet(s)? none

22. Your friends? good

23. Your life? quiet

24. Your mood? serene

25. Missing someone? yes

26. Vehicle? scooter

27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes

28. Your favorite store? Internet

29. Your favorite color? Apricot

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? forgotten

32. Your best friend? Kay

33. One place that I go over and over? grocery

34. One person who emails me regularly? George

35. Favorite place to eat? Millie's

And there you have it in one word.  I pass this award on to:

Grannymar, an Irish lass who writes a great blog by the same name.  Grannymar is wise, funny and courageous.  You never know what her subject will be, but you can bet it will be interesting or fun.

Joy of Joy of Six.  Her blog is just super.  Joy is a real sweetheart and she writes poetry and posts it sometimes.   She has a great sense of humor and I always enjoy reading whatever she posts.

Judy who writes the lovely blog Imagine.  She often posts photos of gorgeous floral arrangements.  Her blog is always good no matter what the subject. 

It's fun to leave the heavy subjects of  the Haiti tragedy and politics once in awhile.  I have lightened up today and posted this.  When the cares of the world get you down, take a break. I just did.

Beauty Gone Amok

When I opened the verticals this morning this is the sight that greeted my eyes.  What a beautiful world we live in until nature wreaks havoc, like the terrible earthquake that ravaged Haiti.

We cannot always control nature, but why must man ruin his environment with war and hatred?  An age old question that has yet to be answered. The Rev. Pat Robertson said that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of God’s wrath at the Haitians for making a pact with the devil to get out from under French colonial rule.   Enough has already been written about this inane statement, but it started me thinking. 

Since man found religion he has executed the most terrible atrocities in it's name.  We all know about the Christian atrocities; the cruelty of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the drowning of the Huguenots, the Salem Witch trials, and so many others.  The tragic part of this is that many of the perpetrators believed they were doing God's work.  To say they were misguided is an immense understatement.  Whether the sanctimonious men  were just plain evil or deluded is irrelevant; the atrocities were done in God's name.  

It hasn't stopped.  In Uganda Homosexuals are beaten, blackmailed, threatened with death and subjected to "correctional rape".  These atrocities were fueled by three Evangelical Christians who teach that homosexuality can be cured.  Their teachings have been disproved here, but are believed by the government in Uganda. 

The three, Scott Lively, Caleb Brundige, and Don Schmeirer have given talks to teachers, the police and politicians claiming that homosexuality is a threat to Bible based family values.  I wonder what kind of families these three hate filled men came from.  Certainly their values are none that my family would recognize.

Their misinterpretation of the Bible's teaching has led to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.  This bill being considered would punish lesbians and gay men with death or life imprisonment.  And this is done in the name of Christianity.   To his credit, the televangelist, Rick Warren, has denounced the bill saying that homosexuality should not be criminalized.

While we piously denounce the Taliban for their extreme interpretation of the Koran we have their version in our midst with the right wing Christians who, through ignorance, preach hatred and the evils of 'their version of sin' on a daily basis.  Like the Taliban, they have an extreme interpretation of the Bible.  What is frightening to me is that so many listen to these charlatans.

New Year's

I certainly stretched that birthday card blog out lone enough, didn't I?    As usual, I have a valid excuse.   Saturday my phone went out and that meant that I didn't have my computer or medical alarm functioning.  I thought it might be an area problem and waited to see if it was fixed.  No luck!   The problem was that I changed providers in December and Quest disconnected my phone when the amount I had prepaid expired.  Cox had not set me up for the phone (although they sure billed me for it).    I just now got back on line.  

I tell you, this technological age is turning my hair white. (Something must be doing it.)

The nice techie just left after spending a lot of time finding and fixing the problem.  He took time to check everything out because I am sure he didn't want to come back.  And I sure didn't want a repeat of this weekend.

Now I can finish with the photos from my trip.  Moving on to New Year's Eve here are a select few of the final pictures I took.  

Gail gives a fondue party every New Years Eve.  We had three generations present.  The little guys were in the family room, the teenagers took over the kitchen and the rest of us gathered around the dining room table.

After a few glasses of the bubbly those crazy glasses don't look so weird.

First we had tender beef cuts, new potatoes and mushrooms to dip in the fondue pots followed by desert fondue.  Fruits and marshmallows were a hit with the younger set.   

 

It's pretty obvious that these guys are enjoying the desert part of the fondue party.

The animals were not left out.  Mark loves his two dogs and this one is Sugar.  I would name her brown sugar, or perhaps burned sugar.  She is so well trained and sweet. she deserves the name.  His other dog is the same size, but black.  They complement each other.

Gail has allowed the girls to add to the menagerie with two Peruvian Guinea Pigs and this sweet little miniature rabbit named Coco.  I spent a lot of time with Coco in my lap petting her.  Her fur is softer than velvet.  

The last day of my trip my oldest daughter, Lynne, drove down to spend the day with us.  And here are my three kids enjoying lots of laughs. And thus endeth my adventure.

Happy Birthday Gail

One snowy Sunday night you came into my life making me the happiest woman on the planet.  The next morning  the rising sun turned the mountains a glorious pink .  I thought they were becoming beautiful just for me. The lovely rose colored Rockies were a symbol of the happiness I felt. It was a magical time when I was blessed with a wonderful, beautiful baby girl.

You were always in a hurry; crawling with lightning speed, walking at nine months, and talking a blue streak in sentences.  No time for baby talk for you.

Then the toddler, Gail, became the very bright school girl excelling in everything she did. 

This is a picture of your first day of school.  I hope you will forgive me for telling the story behind the picture.

You were tall for your age and quite advanced.  Because your birthday fell in January I assumed that you were too young to start first grade and I enrolled you in kindergarten.   You were so excited to be starting school.  When you came home that afternoon I asked you how you liked school.  You replied emphatically, "It's just dumb.  All we did was color and play in the sand box.  I could do that at home.  I wanted to learn to read and write."   You started first grade the next day and I never regretted my decision to advance you.  You were always a jump ahead of me and still are.

With bewilderment  I watched you emerge from childhood into an accomplished teenager.  You were a successful scholar, accomplished musician, and a lovely young lady.  I never knew where your talents came from, but was so proud of them.  (Mother's are entitled to brag.)

The school girl grew into the wonderful woman you have become.  Still very bright and caring, you continue to make me proud.  You are my blessing.

And now you are a mother of teenagers yourself.  You are my daughter and my best friend.

Love,

Mom 

My Holiday Trip (cont.)

 

I am continuing with photos I took at Union Square.   The square is surrounded by upscale department stores.  We were not there to shop, but I would have loved to have had time to go to Macy's just to see the decorations inside.  This first photo is part of Macy's facade and it's obvious they went all out.  The office windows all had wreaths in them as you can see from the following nighttime photos.  And, finally, the piece de resistance.  The very tall tree at night.

I will continue with my holiday with the photos I took on New Year's Eve and Day on the next post.

She's Baaaack

Hello from the sunbelt.  I have returned from my great adventure. While travel may still be enjoyable for some, it is not so for me.  My hearing loss and unsteady gait make it less than fun.  And that is why I call it an adventure.

Someday this will be a funny story that my children will tell to all and sundry about when Mom got off the plane at the wrong airport.  I think I can even laugh about it now, but at the time it was definitely not amusing.

I failed to check my boarding information before I left and, like a typical person who knows all the answers, I failed to ask questions.  I was under the false impression that my flight was a through one and had no stops.  Wrong!   I was en route to Oakland, CA and when the plane arrived at the gate I assumed I was there.  (Bear in mind that I can never hear announcements so I am flying blind.  To be technical I am flying deaf.)  Guess what?  I found myself at the luggage carousel in Los Angeles.  I wondered why the wheel chairs had L. A.. airport on their back.  Ha! Ha! 

Of course this goof meant that I had to get a new ticket, go through the check point again and be patted down once more.  If I think I got a thorough inspection in Tucson, I just didn't know what a real one was.  I must have looked like a gray Granny who was about to blow up the plane because I really got a body search.  Bear in mind that this was before the Christmas day Detroit incident.  I never realized that I must look so menacing.

I made it two hours late and my dear daughter was smiling and assured me that my delay was no problem.  She is such a sweetheart.

And so the Christmas adventure began with the trimming of the tree. Gail is placing the lights before the girls start putting ornaments on it.

After Christmas we went to Union Square in San Francisco where they have their tree and ice rink similar to Rockefeller Center in NYC.  I took this photo as we were crossing the Oakland Bay Bridge.

 

After a lunch of panini sandwiches the girls got skates and took to the rink.  They stopped long enough for me to take their picture.

It was cold and my daughter had brought a throw for me to put over my lap.  No problem there, but it happened to belong to the girls and it had a cartoon dog in the middle.  I was sitting at an outside table waiting while Gail made arrangements for the girls to skate and I pulled the throw up to my chin.  A young man walked by and asked me if this was my blankie.  I had to laugh and decided this might be what is termed 'a second childhood'.

 

This is the tall tree as it looks in the daytime.  I will show a night version later.

 

This pillar dominates the center of Union Square.  You can see that it was not a sunny day.   

From Wikipedia I learned the following information  on Union Square: 

Union Square was built and dedicated by San Francisco's first American mayor John Geary in 1850 and is so named for the pro-Union rallies that happened there before and during the United States Civil War. Since then, the plaza underwent many notable changes with the most significant first happening in 1903 with the dedication of a 97 ft (30 m) tall monument to Admiral George Dewey's victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War. It also commemorates U.S. President William McKinley, who had been recently assassinated. The figurine at the top of the monument, "Victory", was modeled from the likeness of a local heiress, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. The second major significant change happened between 1939-1941 when a large underground parking garage was built under the square that relocated the plaza's lawns, shrubs and the Dewey monument to the garage "roof." It was the world's first underground parking garage and was designed by Timothy Pflueger.

The girls take to the ice. Sarah on the left and Rachel in the striped shirt.  I will continue with the story of my adventure on the next post.