Duh!

The first operators employed by the Bell Telephone Company were young boys who worked standing up. Only after several years did it occur to anybody to provide them with chairs.

Confession

Contrary to what you might think based on recent activities, I do not like confrontation. It can make me physically sick to argue, debate, and get angry. This is the main reason I didn't go to law school even though I wouldn't have been a trial lawyer but would have gone into Constitutional law and worked for the ACLU, a judge, or taught law. Right now my stomach is upset and my blood pressure feels high and I feel like crying.

There are people who thrive on arguing and debating everything. I'm not one of them. Usually I speak out where and when I feel safe and to people who won't attack me or will like me anyway. It used to feel that way on my blog. Now not so much. This is where I want to rant, blow off steam, entertain, be Cliff and Bernice, teach, and babble. I should be able to do this on my own blog without so much drama. If you don't like what I write, don't read it. That's what I do.

Fortunately, I have a snuggly cat to pet when she's not being a blonde diva.

Not My Life

Only 16 Concordes were ever made, the last in 1980. On New Year’s Eve 1994, one Concorde plane carried wealthy revelers on a 32-hour trip to nowhere. These travelers, who paid $23,000 apiece for the trip, rang in the New Year twice because they crossed the International Date Line.

Some of You Know This

In Web site addresses on the Internet, "http" stands for "hypertext transfer protocol."

Lee Atwater Documentary

If you haven't seen Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story and want to understand more about American politics, be sure to watch this excellent documentary. He was the consummate spin doctor and mentor of Karl Rove. Atwater was the founding father of the Attack Ads, the Negative Ads, and the general Smear and Slime based political campaign. At the age of 39, he was at the top of the game, having led Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. both to victory. By the age of 40, he was dead from a brain tumor. He had it all, and just as suddenly lost it all.

Atwater was from Aiken, South Carolina, lived from 1951 to 1991, and first worked for Strom Thurmond. He was disliked by people in both parties. Bob Dole said in a speech on the Senate floor, "This is not politics. This is garbage."

He apologized on his death bed and asked for forgiveness, but some people close to him speculated that he was still spinning right till the end. "My campaign-honed strategies of political warfare were simply no match for this dogged opponent," he wrote in Life, in a sad echo of the old flipness of his past. "Cancer is no Democrat."


Website HERE. Obituary in the NY Times HERE.

Let me know if any of you watch it. Thanks!

Reunion

My high school class has big reunions every five years, and we meet for lunch at Montgomery Bell State Park every year on the third Saturday in August. Sue does a great job sending reminders for this. We had our annual lunch Saturday with around 24 class members there, 38 total with spouses. I've been to all of them but one dinner one and one lunch meeting. Our class had 81 in our graduating class, and several have died. I'm not sure how many, but Sue, Jill, and maybe Ree and Gwen probably know. The first one to die was murdered near an Army base in North Carolina. Her murder was written about in one of those crime magazines. Do those even exist any more?


Since we went to school in a small town, we all knew each other. Our reunions are low-key with just a bit of reminiscence but mostly catching up on what happened since we saw each other last. Some of us met before lunch to work on plans for the next big one, and this will definitely be a biggie - 50 years in 2011. Yikes! How did this happen so fast? The months seem to go by like weeks!

(click to enlarge)

Several years ago we decided to have this annual lunch reunion which is a good idea. Do any of you go to your class reunions?

Retirement

I'm having retirement euphoria today! I've been smiling ever since I woke up knowing I get to stay home! I've earned it, too!

I taught school for 37 years and was a single parent most of that time since I got a divorce when Brian was five. That meant I had full responsibility for him, the house, the car, finances, cooking, cleaning, and everything. Child support was sporadic and so were visits. I knew I was exchanging one set of problems for another but also realized that those were things I could deal with. There were many times I didn't have enough money, worked several jobs at a time, and struggled. Thank goodness for my parents for babysitting and helping out many ways, including buying some clothes and shoes for Brian - especially my mother! Daddy died when Brian was eight, and I still miss him, but he would have continued to help out.


Somewhere in there I took art courses so I'd be certified to teach it and got my Master's degree in gifted education and reading. I taught high school English, US History, art, speech/drama, creative writing, and ACT prep for over half of my career. I taught gifted students in an academic enrichment pull-out program the rest of the time. Then there were the after-school tutoring, course recovery classes, GED classes, and homebound students I taught for extra money. I was busy most of the time with work and a social life.


I will be forever grateful for the wonderful relationship my son Brian and I have. We've always gotten along so well, and he is fabulous! Icing on the cake is my daughter Kathy's and my reunion eight years ago that brought her and three grandchildren into my life! I am blessed!

My life isn't that different from others I know. There are quite a few of us around. I hope they are enjoying their retirement as much as I am and that they are relaxing with good books, visiting with friends, playing with their grandchildren, writing blogs, watching movies and TV, traveling, and celebrating life however they choose to do it! That's what I'm doing - others are tending their gardens, feeding their chickens, writing novels, performing in community theater, embarking on a second career, and anything else that strikes their fancy! I LOVE it and am so glad I made it to this stage of life!

Drug Update

I don't want to speak too soon and jinx myself, but so far so good with Evista. My internist and I had a discussion last week about my reaction to Actonel and causes for bone loss. He asked if I'd heard of Evista, and I told him I hadn't. He said he thought I should try it since it goes about this in an entirely different way. I don't understand what I've read about it, but it has something to do with hormone receptors. I do like the packaging since each tablet has a day of the week under it. This really helps since sometimes I can't remember if I took a pill or not. There are side-effects which I hope I don't have, but for now, it seems OK.


Info HERE.

Ronni Bennett Again!

This is from Ronni Bennett's excellent blog Time Goes By. Her posts are always well-researched, inspiring, informative, and well-written. She did this for a living as a journalist in NYC before she retired. This excerpt is from her post This Week in Elder News – 15 August 2009.

Desperation of the Uninsured So many people showed up for the first day of week-long, free health clinic in California that hundreds were turned away. Fifteen-year-old Ayana Kleckner slept on the sidewalk overnight to be sure to get an appointment:

“"This is a miracle, but people shouldn't have to sleep on the street to get medical care,' Ayana said while waiting for an eye exam. 'It was adventurous, if you could put it that way, but I don't think I should have to go through that to make sure I'm healthy.'"

A key point about this free health clinic is that it is run by the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps which, for 25 years, has provided health care services to third world countries.

Read more about the free health clinic in Inglewood here and here.

Compare International Medical Bills

Countries with governments and economies similar to the United States have come up with a variety of methods to make sure that all of their citizens receive health care. While residents in Europe and Japan may pay higher insurance premiums or taxes than Americans, in the end, when all costs are added up, Americans spend more money on health care per person with fewer people covered. Pull-down charts HERE that are informative.

Not Harry Potter Kitties but Terribly Cute

Countdown to Heidi

I'm so ready for Project Runway to begin that I'm posting this picture of Heidi Klum as Jessica Rabbit!

I Like This

After being forced by church officials to state in public that the earth does not rotate, Galileo is said to have muttered under his breath, "But it does move."

Childhood Memories

Writing about the dolls gave me good memories of my childhood. Not only did I play with dolls, but we played outside whenever we could in the neighborhood and stayed out until we were called inside. We played touch football, basketball, and baseball in the yard. We climbed trees, rode our bicycles, and saw pictures in the clouds. The girls who lived on each side of our house were three years older than I and used to taunt me by telling me I hadn't lived until I could ride a bicycle, go to school, wear make-up, date, and anything else they could do before I could. They didn't do that often but just at the stage where they first got to do those things.

My favorite doll was my Toni doll. I also spent a lot of time reading, and so did my son, who also played outside with neighbors. He had Transformers, Star Wars models, Tonka toys, Hot Wheels, and a ton of comic books. What toys did you play with as a child? What activities did you do? Did anyone else turn over your swing set by swinging too high and let it "buck" too far besides me? I used to hang by my knees on those side bars and on the swing part made for that.

A First

The comment battle rages on down there. This, too, shall pass.

TV Trivia

Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Dey, Louis Gossett, Jr., Claude Akins, and David Hasselhoff have one lamentable thing in common: they were the lead cast members for ill-fated TV shows that were cancelled within a scant month’s time. Pfeiffer was in B.A.D. Cats in 1980; Dey was in Loves Me, Loves Me Not in 1977; Gossett starred in The Lazarus Syndrome in 1980; Akins was in Nashville 99 in 1977; and Hasselhoff, long before Baywatch, was in Semi-Tough in 1980.

Dolls

I saw the Bebe Gloton doll on The View and am trying to decide how I feel about it. I'm an advocate of breastfeeding and think it's a good idea to let little girls know that's natural. There are many dolls with baby bottles. I had a Betsy Wetsy doll I fed a bottle of water and then squeezed to make her wet her diaper. What bothers me is the halter with breasts on it for the little girls to wear while they nurse the baby that makes loud sucking sounds. The baby also cries and burps. In some ways it's fine and in other ways sort of creepy. Does it go too far? Is it OK? What do you think?

Read about it HERE.

Watch a demonstration HERE if you want to.

I played with dolls and paper dolls all through my childhood for hours. This would be in the late 40's and 50's. In addition to the Betsy Wetsy, I had a Toni doll, baby dolls, Madame Alexander Cissy doll, a walking doll, Amosandra (a black baby doll who had a birth certificate and all kinds of accessories), and many of those miniature dolls from various countries. I loved them and still have many of them in their original outfits! They are not in pristine condition by any means because I played with them.

My Toni doll (1952) had that original dress. I have a story about mine and will put a picture of her on it.

Isn't Amosandra cute? I loved her smile! (1949)

Link

Sheria at The Examined Life wrote about insurance and made excellent points. Be sure to check out her blog. Here's an excerpt:

Some 47 million people in this country have no health insurance. That number doesn't include the people who are under insured--they have insurance but not enough to cover a major illness. Insurance companies can deny coverage to an insured person who has paid premiums for years, alleging that a treatment is experimental. You can challenge it, but you may be dead by the time a decision is made in the case.

An insurer can refuse to insure an individual with a pre-existing condition unless you are part of a group policy through an employer or your state has a high risk pool plan. Of course, there may still be a waiting period before any treatment connected to your pre-existing condition is covered.

At one point, I was considering going into private practice, so I investigated how much I would have to invest in health insurance. After I dutifully applied online to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, listing that I am a diabetic, have atrial fibrillation, sleep apnea, and congestive heart failure, BCBS informed me that I was classified as uninsurable, but if I was willing to pay $3700 per month, they would provide me with a minimalist insurance policy.

When I was done rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically, I politely declined the policy. In spite of all of my diagnosed problems, I haven't been hospitalized in 10 years. I take my meds, exercise, see my doctors regularly, and eat healthy most of the time (chocolate is health food of a sort). Without insurance, I wouldn't be able to afford my meds or see my doctors, and would certainly cost the system far more with visits to the emergency room. I'm fortunate. I had the choice of taking a state job with health insurance benefits.

However, I know that everyone isn't so fortunate and I do believe that is is my responsibility, our collective responsibility as a society, to ensure that everyone has access to preventive and maintenance health care. That's what the proposed health care reform plan is about. Those of us who understand this have to speak up and serve as a counterpoint to drown out the lies being spouted that threaten to derail this renewed effort to ensure that all of us have access to quality health care. There are people whose lives depend on us.

Egyptian Trivia

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was a lighthouse, the famous Pharos of Alexandria in Egypt. Pharos was the first lighthouse in history, and is still the tallest on record. (It was 450 feet high—about the size of a 45-story skyscraper.)

This is Strict

In ancient Egypt, when a woman’s husband was convicted of a crime, she and her children were punished as well. They were usually enslaved.