Trickle Down

This summer I have noticed so many things that I believe speak to the drastic turn in our economy. Budget cuts and job cuts are starting to really surface in our mental health and welfare in ways you might not imagine.

I was eating in a once beautiful hospital cafeteria. The atrium had faded artificial silk flowers that had turned an ugly bluish color. The soothing fountain near the dining tables was no longer flowing. The windows were cloudy and streaked. All probably reflecting someone’s maintenance job that was phased out no doubt.

Even a trip to the local grocery store has changed. The store used to have daily window washers and workers out in lot picking up paper and trash and getting the store ready for the day at 6:00 a m. Now, you see trash everywhere and carts strewn about in the rain rusting so when you use them they are hard to operate and noisy. Their squeak another reminder the quality of our life is being affected in subtle ways. The thing I really miss is the complimentary coffee while you shop.

Even Mother Nature has contributed to our depression. No rain and drought conditions have us under water restrictions. Once manicured lawns look bleak and brown. Waterfalls and fountains outside of developments are only working on weekends. In some areas it reminds me of the old movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Senior citizens are on budgets that require deciding between electric bills and medications. People are using credit cards to buy food, pay mortgages, doctor bills, car repairs and going deeper in debt. It is so sad.

This week I saw a grown man cry at our vet because his dog needed Chemotherapy and he could not afford it. Another man had a cat that was having seizures and needed a script refill. The vet couldn’t do it without the $50 physical. The man left with his head down.


I need to look to these changes and remind myself of the many blessings I still have. I have a hospital, doctors, and stores. I have a job I love, food to eat, medicine. I have family and friends who care and love me.

I have decided to look to the sun. The warmth is a gentle reminder of God’s power. I will imagine each warm ray God’s hand like a Father’s touch and give thanks.

Baptism by Fire

A baptism of fire was a soldier's first experience of shooting. Any unpleasant experience undergone, usually where it is also a learning experience; is a baptism of fire.

When I think of this idiom it reminds me of the time I bought Annie a new car. I was so proud that I went through the whole process at the car dealer’s by myself and bought the car. I forgot that I did not know how to drive a stick shift to get it home. It was a deal in my book because it cost $1200 less than the automatic. I told the dealer I will buy it today but you have to get me home with the car. So they loaded it on a flatbed tractor-trailer and off we went. When we arrived they blasted the horn and Annie came out to see her new car. When I explained why I could not drive it home, she realized that if she wanted to drive her car she would have to learn how to drive a stick. She did just that.

Parenthood is a perfect example of baptism of fire. Back in the day, we just learned by our mistakes. We muddled our way through pregnancy, breast-feeding, weight gain, discipline, and co-op nursery schools. Who knew what we did had a name...play dates??? We just got together with other moms for our sanity and it worked. I would not trade some of my memories or early friendships for anything. We clipped coupons, shared books, tips, joys and sorrow. Now they call them book clubs or coffee klatches. We parented by fire. Did we make mistakes, you betcha? That is why we have to put our two cents in regarding our grand children. We mean well but just don’t want our children to do some of the same stupid things we tried.

There are many times in our life when we have new experiences it is just this, a baptism of fire. My very first teaching job was as an interim substitute for a very popular teacher who was going to be out on maternity leave. The day I started just happened to be the field day event where the classes compete against each other in relays and races. I went in dressed in sweats, headband and two cheerleading pom-poms to meet my new class. It was truly a learning experience. We won the entire event and that set the pace for a perfect transition for that fifth grade class.

Each time we had major moves for Fred’s job changes we were thrown into an entirely new and different experience and we have survived it all.

What is the point? It is really very simple God knows what He is doing. We can do anything if we just trust in Him. After all isn’t His first and very important sacrament called Baptism?

Aftermath

There is such a weird feeling after you put away your holiday decorations. I think it has something to do with texture. You know how the home improvement shows are always talking about texture. Once the trees, wreaths and Poinsettias are gone, the house looks naked. I mean stripped. It is no wonder people get depression or winter blues.

For me I have trouble remembering where I relocated my accessories. Next year I am going to write down where I put them. One year, it was six months before I found some of them. I had put them in a Christmas box I emptied out and then it was packed away as holiday decorations. For the longest time I thought I must have sold them at one of my desperate yard sales.

For weeks after I put away everything, I keep finding things. I look up and see a little elf or ornament. I am sure that is how the author of the “Elf on the Shelf” got the idea. She was probably sitting on the toilet in July and looked up and saw a Christmas decoration she left on the shelf. Why didn’t I think of that? She has made a lot of money on that children’s story. It is a new classic.

One good thing is even though you haven’t really cleaned, the sheer emptiness of your rooms makes it look like you have. It is a great fake out. Today, I skipped the mopping and just walked around the house looking for texture. I ended up bringing in a couple plants from outdoors, throwing a blanket over the couch and picked my dog up and put him on the couch...Yep, looks like texture to me. Mopping can wait.

A Game I Play in My Head

The first time I learned about the word oxymoron in an English class it just stuck. It seems like my life has been filled with examples. It has always been fun to recognize them. We see many in the course of a day. Back in the day when I taught language arts it was one of the lessons I enjoyed until one day when a student said something to me and I said, now that’s an oxymoron. The next day, I was called in to hear that a parent complained because her son said I called him a moron. (I digress)

There are times we are reminded when we are frustrated like standing in an “express line” forever in the store or when you are at a “stop and go” gas station and a message pops up to go inside and then you wait in line for the receipt.

This week facebook has people posting a bunch of retro photos. I started going through some old photos and said oh no, not that one I was just a “little pregnant” there. No one is a little pregnant or “slightly overweight” for that matter. How does one get the tag “pretty ugly”?

The grocery isles are the worst. Who thought of Chocolate ‘Nilla wafers?
There is “designer beer”, “diet ice cream”, “jumbo shrimp”.

Clothing we wear offer food for thought, like “dress jeans” or “loose tights”. You get invited to a gathering and the dress is “dressy casual”. The first time I heard this term I thought someone was messing with me.

Today I heard two more in a conversation with friends. One friend said he liked “planned spontaneity” and the other said their life was “organized chaos”.

Me, I hope to be a “mildy psychotic”, “young sixty” next year, maybe be “half naked” drinking a “dry martini” on a beach somewhere playing my “moron” game.

This blog idea hit me today when I saw the big new wall on the turnpike. It now blocks the view of Florida’s magnificent herons and ibis wildlife I used to see on my morning drive. But wait, what’s that I see, they have engraved pictures of wildlife on the walls. I wonder if that is an oxymoron????????

Straight to Heaven or Hell

There are some inventions and new ideas that are heaven sent. I thought of this as Florida has a cold snap this week and my HHR has a “butt” warmer. This seat warmer is like a cozy blanket on a cold night. LOVE it.

Facebook is another “gift”. Connecting with lost family, friends, co-workers can be a real relationship builder. In our generation we were on the phone constantly tying up lines. Now the kids hooked up via I phone or laptops.

There is a gadget that separates coffee filters I use daily that I love. However, this invention makes me just a little angry because I swear I invented it when I used to wait tables. I used a baby food jar with putty on the bottom to pick up the filters, which is not too different from my gadget.

Thank you to the Egyptians for make up and hair-dye now that I am starting to look my age.

I love white out pens. I use them for a lot of different things besides mistakes, like signing your name on a black art paper, covering chip marks on white walls, writing on rocks, sneakers, ceramic mugs.

But the other side of the coin we have the inventions that drive you up a wall.

My neighbor has wind chimes on her porch and I cannot sleep at night with my windows open.

Safety tops for prescriptions are a real pain. I can’t believe how difficult they are for and adult to open. It is no secret kids CAN get them open faster.

The toilet that saves water. Hello??????? Admit it, it takes two flushes for the early morning ritual so are we really saving any water? I don’t think it keeps the toilet as clean, so I flush more and clean it more. UGH!

The single worst invention of the millennium is the BRA that guy should not pass go and go straight to hell.