TRIGGERS

I have recently read some things that have triggered reactions in my thinking.  For a long time now, since the publication and the film of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH I have wondered at the hypocrisy of certain Liberals regarding the use of energy and their advice to the "Little People" they would dearly love to control via taxation and other means on their use of energy.   It apparently does not apply to them however.

In today's FORUM (Saturday 7-26) there is a most cogent and articulate letter by Steve Strege taking to task those in the U.S. Congress who are trying to get a bill passed that would severely restrict energy use in ordinary American households.  Referencing Barack Obama's dictum that we Americans "...can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes at 72 degrees at all times..."    Mr. Strege makes the following observations about U.S. Congress-persons:  "Let's assume for a moment that what government should dictate what  we drive, how much we eat and the thermostat settings in our homes.  Congress could show us the way and provide leadership by forfeiting its normal August recess.  It could stay in session during that hot sticky month in Washington.  But its members must turn off their air conditioning in the Capitol, in their office buildings and their homes.  They must also park their own limos, SUVs and cars.  Walk or bicycle around town for that month instead.  And all go on a 1200 calorie per day diet."  

I heartily agree with Mr. Strege's suggestions for the members of Congress.  It might change a lot of their benighted minds on the subject of becoming energy independent by approving a bill for  drilling for more oil and  building more nuclear energy plants  and building more oil refineries in the United States.  If they suffered without their high energy usages, perhaps they would be singing a different tune instead of making nutty suggestions that only the Little People should follow.

I also checked out the energy usage in Al Gore's Tennessee mansion again since Gore has made himself the "Green Guru" over the past few years, even copping a Hollywood Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize for his "work".   According to the Tennesse Center For Policy Research, in a June 17, 2008 release, Gore's home, in the year since he took steps to make his home more energy efficient, has instead had the costs of his energy use surge by more than 10 %.    "A man's commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his home," said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research.  "Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption."   

 After the Tennessee  Center For Policy Researchn exposed Gore's high energy use, just a few days after he won the Hollywood Oscar for the film based on AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH,  Mr. Gore had to face the public notification of his own "Inconvenient Truth" and began to scramble to make changes in his mansion sized home.  In spite of installing solar panels, a geothermal heating system, changing incandescent lightbulbs for more efficient  new ones and overhauling the ductwork and windows in his home,  Gore still consumes more electricity than before his "green overhaul".   In June 2007 after the environmental overhaul, Gore's energy use still stood at 17,768 kilolowatt hours per month which is still 1,638 kwHours than the monthly usage in the average American home. (occupied by Little People)

Since Al Gore won his Oscar and other prizes for being such a supreme environmentalist, he has increased his personal wealth by over $100 million dollars thanks to his speaking fees and investments supposedly related to Global Warming. 

Drew Johnson again on Gore's energy/environmental hypocrisy:   "Actions speak louder than words and Gore's actions prove that he views climate change not as a serious problem but as a money-making opportunity.  Gore is exploiting the public's concern about the environment to line his pockets and enhance his profile."

Assuming, by the sum of his increased personal wealth, there are still environmental loonies who  have not lost faith in their fraudulent Green Guru who seems to be leading them down a Primrose Path into a fantasy land all their own.

Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 7/26/2008 at 3:42 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

FRIENDS ARE BRANCHES WE ADD TO OUR FAMILY TREE

I only get one magazine subscription...."Mary Englebreit's Home Companion"..but one page in each issue is worth the entire subscription.  It is the page called "Heartbeats" and this current issue is about friendship.  It includes quotes from people both well known and not so well known. 

The first quotation is from non other than Muhammad Ali, the aging former boxer now suffering from the devastations of Parkinson's Disease.  Ali's quote says "Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.  It's not something you learn in school but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you haven't learned anything at all."

Little children have a gift for friendship from the earliest times in their lives.  You see babies in shopping carts in stores reacting when they see another baby. They smile and make sounds and reach out for each other.  They feel an instant bond with other babies.  Then later friendships form between young children...in their neighborhoods and in school

when they began to attend to their educational careers as 5 or 6 year olds.  Sometimes the bonds formed in grade 1 are firm all through their adult lives; sometimes friends move in and out of your life but you do not forget their friendships if it has been a good one.  I still think of Sonja, who moved into my life when I was about 8 years old and left my life when I was about 15 years old.  We lived in the same block for those years and were instant playmates and friends til her family moved away when we were young teenagers.  I still keep in touch with many of the friends I made in first grade who were with me all the way through our El-Hi years in a small town.   That is one of the good traits of small towns....you know all the kids and they know you and you are often a big cheerful family that sticks together through ups and downs we encounter in our lives.

Making friends continues throughout your entire life.  You have friends from college or workplaces or the Military....friends from the different places you have lived;  friends who come back every now and then and visit you and surprise you when they ring your doorbell...you are so delighted to see them again and get renewed and updated on their lives and families.

Emily Dickinson said this about friendship:  "My friends are my estate."   True friendships are more precious than any material things you might accumulate.  Another quote from the "Heartbeat " page is this one:   "The real test of friendship is, can you literally do nothing with the other person?  Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?" (Eugene Kennedy)

I am reminded of the many times in childhood when my good neighborhood friends and I spent whole days sitting in a sandbox, building things but mostly conversing.  I remember all of us sitting on swings or standing on the swing set supports...talking and talking about the things that mattered at that time to 9 and 10 year olds.  We told each other stories, we discussed important matters, we plotted how to build a "spookhouse" and charge admission so we could earn some money.  We made decisons about what we would play that day...would it be "Tarzan and Jane?"   Would it be "Ranchhouse and cowboys"???   Would we play World War 2 and crouch in our foxhole, a heap of clay in my backyard dug out of a basement- making project that my Dad was working on at nights???   Those friends and I learned the fine art of conversation, decision making and compromise from our talks in the sandbox and on the swings.  Those friends could sit down together today and reminisce and update each other with complete ease.   Class reunions are built on friendships and the renewing of them.  Same thing with family reunions.

I spent the day with friends.  One of them is a long term friend, with the components of camraderie forged in the frontlines of an elementary school with all its varied students and situations that were so common to us.  I still have many friendships with other teachers who were my colleagues years ago.  The other friends today were two I met recently but we discovered that our interest in the Arts was such a binding thing....today I met another new friend, who is a "mentor" to my artist friend whose painting I bought at an art show in the spring.  All 5 of us sat down together for lunch in a most pleasant setting.  Three of us had our first taste of Indian cuisine at "Passage To India".  Our converstaion and our friendship and common bonds flowed so easily.  It was a satsifying time.  

Plutarch, who lived in ancient times, had this to say about friendship:  "A constant friend is a thing rare and hard to find."     The sort of friendships that really matter in our lives are like that....rare and hard to find. 

But when you do find it, what a gift it is.

Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 7/25/2008 at 6:13 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

THE SNORING ROOM

Quite a few years ago, when I was an elementary school librarian, one of my favorite books for read-alouds was a wonderful picture book done by a husband and wife writer/artist team, Don and Audrey Wood.  It was called THE NAPPING HOUSE and had a neat story about a rainy afternoon when a "Granny" and her little grandson took a nap during the rainshower. Granny was clad in a long nightgown and nightcap, the little boy was asleep in his play clothes and a huge hairy dog and a pet cat were part of the Napping House also.  The kids absolutely loved the book and once when we were "dressing up" for some special days that featured books and reading, I wore a pink flannel nightgown my mother had made and even found a nightcap (saved one of my old lacy curler caps from the 1970's. )   As each primary class came in to storytime, I was on top of one of the tables in my Granny Garb, and went out of my way to make loud snores for the entertainment of the little students who were almost totally baffled at finding the "Library Lady" seemingly asleep on a table.  I had my good right hand, library assistant, Sue, in on it and she hushed them and said we had to wake up the Librarian very carefully or she might be really crabby.  We had a lot of fun that day and I remember it well.

At the present time, because I no longer "pretend" I am snoring, I have put myself under a self- imposed banishment to a special "Snoring Room".    I always used to tell my family members that I DID NOT snore when they told me they had heard me in the night... (Grandkids are especially honest about matters like that) and then one of them.... I won't name HIM but HE recorded my snores on a small cassette tape recorder one night when I had my head thrown back in the recliner....I was sleeping in the recliner for some health reason at the time...probably had a bad bronchial or sinus cold or some such thing.   When I heard the tape played back, I was horrified at the noise that was my snoring.  It truly sounded like  someone pulling a wet rope through a small hole in a wooden barrel!

I remembered then, hearing my mother snore....she was a prodigous snor-er and her fame was well known among HER family.... both immediate and extended.  Once when she was still quite a young girl, her widowed mother, who was in charge of the farm animals, woke on a summer night, and leaped out of bed because she could heard the bull making noises outside in the yard.  She ran out to discover that the terrible noises were coming from an open upstairs bedroom in which my young-girl mother was  sleeping.  I guess I come by my bad snoring honestly.

I have read that really bad snoring can be debilitating to one's health but I have taken no measures yet to find out if I am debilitating , other than to those who hear me. My good friend, with whom I share a love of books, reading, and other similar pursuits, has suggested I write another childrens' book titled THE SNORING ROOM.  I am thinking I might... just to amuse myself.  It must also contain the tales of the Cat Alarm Clock, or Purr-RING to awaken me.  I do not know if the Princess Kitty is allergic to my snoring, but she does wake me up early in the morning...I think it has more to do with being bored and wanting attention.       She is very effective as a Purr-RING Alarm Clock. however.

Since she gets her attention and runs me around like her personal servant, I have taken to calling her yet another of my names for her...."Lady Catter-ly"   (She was spayed as a young cat so she has not had near as many "adventures "as the real "Lady Chatterly")

I think if I do write that childrens' book, I will have to also consider another title suggested by Friend, Fran....LADY CATTER-LY AND HER MOTHER.     If someone had told me when I was about 21 years old that I would wind up being a cat's mother in my Dotage, I would have laughed them out of the room.   But I fear it is the truth.   A close relation of mine refers to the cat as "Your Slave-Driver".

Now, what AM   I going to call that book I write????

Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 7/22/2008 at 2:20 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink

CHANGES, CHANGES.......

Nothing stays the same no matter if we wish it would. Nationally and in our states, we regularly change our politicians, if we want to do that through voting.  What a priviledge it is to be part of a free nation and be able to make those kinds of changes.  Our option for changes is coming again in November.

We all face personal changes almost on a daily basis, although some of the big changes creep up on one, gradually.  I have had a few of those in the past couple of years.   I have entered a new decade, one that scripture describes as a normal lifespan----3 score and twenty.   That is a sobering thought.  I have begun to think of my end-- even though I do not have any immediate plans for that end....do any of us?       One thing that has irked me for years is the fact that when death invades a family, those remaining are vulnerable to having to spend a huge amount of money just to bury their loved one.  Many years ago I belonged to a study group and one book we read was "THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH" by Jessica Mitford, a British woman.  I have been simmering ever since I read that book and occasionally, it boils up in me.  "The Funeral Industry" has gotten laws passed in most states that you cannot be buried unless your casket is inside a very expensive vault made of concrete.  You also cannot be buried unless your body ahs been embalmed.  That is only the beginning. It is expected that the family will have a "viewing" which I consider kind of barbaric but some say they need that part.       The last time I priced caskets, I was blown away (when my father died in 1991)  I can only imagine the effect of inflation on that particular expense.  I know that cremation has become a mort viable option, but you get charged plenty for that process also and many people do not consider cremation an option on moral or religious grounds.

One of my big changes is that I am considering buying a plain pine coffin which is available from several sources that build them.    I found something called "The Pine Box" site and the coffins are beautiful, looking plain and dignified and very much American pioneer -traditional.  The cost of the Pine Box option is amazingly low compared to what you pay when you purchase one through a Mortuary.  I realize many families WANT to buy the most expensive casket, for whatever reason, but for me, I would advise my family not to do so.  That is why I may order myself the plain Pine Box and have it ready for whenever it is needed!!!!  I am also going to choose the hymns and scriptures for my final departure.....plus a few other instructions to my loved ones about what I want and do NOT want to happen.  If I could truly have my way (and defy all the laws that have been passed about funerals and burials)  I would ask my family to bury me on a certain river bluff that overlooks a valley just east of my home.  Years ago, families had that option but not any more.

Changes, Changes:    I did not go to the Street Fair this past week.  Walking in the heat and on the concrete surfaces has become a real bummer for me and that is a huge change.  I used to enjoy the Street Fair and walk up and down Broadway for more hours than I could keep track of.  I went last year with my husband and we were accompanied by a family of our cousins from  Norway.  They enjoyed it immensely, apparently because there is not a counterpart to the Street Fair in their city.  The teenage son of the cousins went wild over the freshly  squeezed lemonade and drank so many glasses that on the way home, he pleaded for a "potty stop" !!    There is no freshly squeezed lemonade in Norway either, apparently.   I remember drinking "Solo" in Norway, a carbonated lemon-orange drink that was delicious and I know of no counterpart to "Solo" in the U.S.  for that matter also.

Changes, Changes:  This will be my last year of traditional gardening in which I plant seeds in neat rows in the soil in April and May.  Due to the recurring left knee tendinitis when I irritate it in any way, I have decided to switch to Container Gardening and have already laid plans for growing salad lettuce and spinach in my northside flower planter which now holds the annual display of impatiens.  The impatiens will still be there but they will be in 3 huge pots in front of my salad garden planter.  I am also considering raised planters for things like carrots and snap peas and will be investing in patio tomatoes and patio cucumbers as well. My brother in law, a master gardener for many years, saved and used the huge containers that trees come in to grow green peppers.  He has a burgeoning crop ready to harvest already from his "pot gardening".     This decision represents a HUGE change.....I have had a traditonal vegetable garden for so many years I cannot count them.

Changes, Changes:  I am switching from walking to bike riding.   I used to walk 3-5 miles at 5:00 a.m. in the mornings but I have not done that for a long time...partly because I have discovered the joys of "sleeping in" since I retired 4 years ago.  I also like riding my bike more than I like walking for excercise.  I am just grateful I can still do that......I have contemporaries who are in nursing facilties after having suffered serious illnesses.  I am blessed with extremely good health and do not even have problems sleeping as some my age do.....I sleep like the Proverbial Baby at night  (no, I do not cry all night!!)  Never having smoked or never having drunk much alcohol other than the holiday glass of wine, I find that what my sons say is true, (all in healthcare professions)  Alcohol and smoking take a huge toll on one's body usually showing up big time in one's 5th and 6th decade.  Another thing for which I am grateful---- I have gotten along just fine without those two habits so common to Americans of most ages.

Because most Changes do come gradually we do not notice them til they are already there.  I know it is possible to have a very sudden change brought on by sudden illness but most people can gradually adjust to the changes that are so inevitable in our lives.

Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 7/20/2008 at 7:13 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

BARACK OBAMA'S FLYING CIRCUS!!!

Anyone remember the BBC hit show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus"??   My sons used to beg to stay up past 10:30 on Sunday nights so they would not miss the weekly episode on PBS. Monty Python's flying circus troop has gone their separate ways long ago....Graham Chapman died of AIDS, Michael Palan hosted a travel show on a cable network,  John Cleese starred in "Fawlty Towers" and has done other comedic works, Eric Idle and Terry What's His name-----I do not know what they have done-----but the Pythons of the BBC show are done and gone for some years now.  Not to worry.    Senator Barack Obama is taking his Flying Circus on the road, or should I say, to the airways????

After being taunted by Senator McCain for not visiting Iraq, Obama has scheduled a trip to Iraq and some other Mideastern stops as well as making plans to do a "Rock Star tour" in a few European capitals where he will be adored and fawned over by the people and perhaps the governments, alike.

I really think Obama sees himself as a true Rock Star, only in a political sense.  He has promised to deliver a Rock Star acceptance speech in Denver when the Democrats hold their convention in August.  He gets more Rock and Roll-ey each time you hear one of his major speeches to the crowds that gather to adore him and act like it is the reincarnation of the 1964 Beatles Invasion of the United States.

The crowning touch is that ALL the major news anchors on the non-cable station (CBS, NBC and ABS) are accompanying him on his plane  (note: NOT on the Press Plane that inevitably follows presidential candidates).    No, Brian Williams (he of the low ratings),  Katie (Toothy) Couric, she of the Lowest Ratings Of All, and Charlie Gibson, probably the most sensible anchor on the non-cable news stations-----all of the Head Honchos so to speak are going with Obama  on his plane, to cheer him on and report, no doubt, the most favorable possible coverage of his trip to the Mideast and Europe.

For the first time in our history.....3 major news anchors are openly admitting that they are"in the tank" for Obama and are blatantly going along on this Campaign trip overseas. Do not mistake it for an information-gathering trip...Obama will be traveling in a royal-like entourage of Admirers and Supporters as if he were already the President of the United States.  His adoring Minions (Katie, Brian, and Charlie) will be doing all they can to resist the urge to kow-tow and salaam Obama at every stop he makes on this most bizarre Campaign Trip, ever.

It remains to be seen how the voting public in the United States reacts to this Grande Tour of Europe and the Middle East.  Sensible voters may possibly and most probably, be put off by this blatant campaigning in the European capitals and also in the Mid East where Obama better watch his step and his mouth since he is obviously uninformed about a number of political delicacies, especially in Israel.  

We maybe should be watching for a Major- Foot- In- Mouth- Incident on this trip.   When Obama gets carried away by his perceived Rock Star status, he often inserts his considerably large foot into his mouth and makes a glaring error that is recorded for all to see in the Media that covers the Globe, 24-7.  Of course his Entourage will do all they can to delete it from their reports but other Media people will surely report the truth, even if NBC, ABC, and CBS cannot see it even it hits them in the face.

The most amusing thing about this CAMPAIGN trip of Obama's is that it comes to him, courtesty of the success of The Surge.....the Surge that Obama has denied is working. If it were not working, it would be a very different Iraq to which he would go...probably wouldn't be able to go at all.    I wonder if he might admit he was wrong about the Surge?

It is going to be one interesting CAMPAIGN TRIP!!!!  Stay tuned.

Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 7/18/2008 at 5:48 PM | Comments (6) | Permalink