Listen, I know who you are and what you are doing. Kindly cease and desist. Get a grip on yourself and grow up. Get help.
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Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit!!
“Dear Lord,
Give me a few friends
who will love me for what I am,
and keep ever burning
before my vagrant steps
the kindly light of hope…
And though I come not within sight
of the castle of my dreams,
teach me to be thankful for life,
and for time’s olden memories
that are good and sweet.
And may the evening’s twilight
find me gentle still.”
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
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Like this:
Wait, What?
I recently received a letter from my insurance company. Kind of a head scratcher, actually. I opted out of maternity/pregnancy coverage as I wasn’t going to be needing it, and opting out saved me some money. But now, it’s been added at no extra cost as a result of the changes (I can only assume) brought about by Obamacare. Here’s a paragraph taken from the letter.
Colorado law recently changed, requiring individual health insurance carriers to cover the medically
necessary expenses of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity the same as treatment of covered illness or
injury. This applies to all major medical individual insurance policies in Colorado issued or renewed
on or after ]anuary 1,2011, regardless of the policyholder’s gender or age.
Yeah, you read that correctly. We don’t have to pass it to find out what’s in there, we just have to wait until we get letters like this from our health insurance companies.
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Like this:
Wait, What?
I know, it looks like I have posted the exact same thing twice, however, I didn’t, well, I did, but not really. I posted this one first, but somehow the URL got mixed up with a previous post (how on earth can that happen?) name “Huh?”. I am leaving this here so that I work on trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, I reposted the content so that I could get a correct URL for linking purposes….
I recently received a letter from my insurance company. Kind of a head scratcher, actually. I opted out of maternity/pregnancy coverage as I wasn’t going to be needing it, and opting out saved me some money. But now, it’s been added at no extra cost as a result of the changes (I can only assume) brought about by Obamacare. Here’s a paragraph taken from the letter.
Colorado law recently changed, requiring individual health insurance carriers to cover the medically
necessary expenses of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity the same as treatment of covered illness or
injury. This applies to all major medical individual insurance policies in Colorado issued or renewed
on or after ]anuary 1,2011, regardless of the policyholder’s gender or age.
Yeah, you read that correctly. We don’t have to pass it to find out what’s in there, we just have to wait until we get letters like this from our health insurance companies.
…
Like this:
My Little Sister Cracks Me Up…
I recently posted on my facebook page that there was a news report concerning a missing 23 year-old woman. There was extra concern in this case because (as it was reported) she was “developmentally disabled, having the mental capacity of a teenager”.
Ya know, I made some stupid decisions when I was a teenager, but I don’t exactly consider teenagers in general to be developmentally disabled.
Apparently neither did my sister, Liz, whose space bar on her phone is malfunctioning, and who wrote:
“ThatMeansShe’llBeFine…..
SheKnowsEverything….
AndCanAffordAnything…..”
Like I said, my little sister cracks me up!
(From what I hear, the missing woman was located.)
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Why I Didn’t Answer The Door
About 20 years ago, I returned home from my noon to midnight shift at a hospital emergency room. It was close to 1:00 in the morning. I parked my car behind the rear unit of the tri-plex in which I lived. The back door and front door were both on the same side of the house, about 25 feet apart. It was a very dark night. I had not left my porch light, which actually was pretty much my custom until this night. But even in the near pitch darkness, I could still see something on my front porch, and that something looked an awful lot like a dead body.
I quickly let myself in the back door as I didn’t have a good feeling about “this”.
I switched on the front porch light and peeked out the small peep door in the front door. Sure enough, there was a “dead guy” on my porch! But I was suspicious. I grabbed the phone and called 911. I hollered out the peep hole to the dead guy that I had called for help for him if he was the one needing it, and for me, if I was the one needing it. My landlord was a cop whose mother lived in the front unit, so let’s just say this…the response time was like lightening. Despite that, once I informed the dead guy that help was on the way, I heard him get up and bolt away down the front path. The police showed up just moments later.
And they told me it was a good thing I hadn’t gone right to him to see if he needed help, because there’d been a series of crimes against health care workers recently…seems we have this desire to want to help people that sometimes causes us to make decisions that might not be the smartest when it comes to our own safety. This guy would pretend to be having a medical emergency on the porches of female healthcare workers in order to lure them into “helping” him. He would apparently scope out potential victims who worked odd shifts and returned in the wee hours.
Fortunately I am worst case scenario girl, or I could have been one of his victims.
So, whoever it was who rang my doorbell at 1:00 THIS morning, that is one reason why I didn’t answer the door.
The other reason is that I have a friend who has a totally cray cray stalker who has been escalating their stalker activities, and I have fallen into the circle of destruction. I don’t know if they know where I live, but I am not taking any undue chances.
No way I was gonna answer that door.
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Hacked
My e-mail account was recently hacked.
Got that mess cleaned up, I think.
Didn’t remember that I have my blog set up so that I can post via e-mail…so my blog was e-mailed the offending e-mail as a post.
Sorry to anyone who thought it was legit and clicked on the link.
Thanks Wonderlandhwy for the heads up!
Happy Winter!
Today marks the first day of winter.
In celebration of that, I bring you (again, not my first time!) the song that makes me all warm inside about winter…
John Denver’s “Aspenglow”
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My Fellow Americans…You Are the 8%…Probably Even the 1%
If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet, and loose change lying around your house, you are richer than 92% of the world.
I wonder just how many of the “99%”ers are in fact, 8%ers…
The following is by an anonymous author (with numbers which are only approximate) and has been widely quoted for many years. Does it put things into a different perspective???
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would
be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
ONE would be near death; ONE would be near birth
ONE would have a college education
ONE would own a computer.
When you consider our world from such a compressed perspective, are you among the fortunate? I certainly am!
And….
If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won’t survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.
So if the world is reduced to 100 people, and only one has a college education, and only one owns a computer, then a whole lot of people who didn’t think they were, are actually in the 1%…
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Like this:
Arrest Him, or Institutionalize Him, Please!
I have had it with Alec Baldwin. He’s either one of the world’s biggest jerks, or he’s severely mentally ill…but he’s most probably both.
All the latest headlines surrounding Baldwin’s being kicked off an American Airlines flight state the reason for his ejection was that he refused to stop playing Words With Friends on his cell phone. Not exactly so. It seems Mr. Baldwin did a little bit more than refuse to turn off his cell phone. The headlines make it sound like he kept his phone on 15 seconds too long and was forced to leave the plane. He is acting like a spoiled brat, a petulant child. This is NOT his first run-in with being the world’s biggest jerk. Ever heard the message he left for his 11 year old daughter on her phone? Yeah, really classy and fatherly, Alec…call your little girl a “thoughtless little pig”. Nice. There’s a lot more to his deranged tirade blasted at her, but the language isn’t exactly suitable for my blog. Suffice it to say, he was foul. Eleven years old. Good grief. But I digressed. Back to his latest deranged behavior….
Sure, all the data and studies show that cell phone usage does NOT interfere with the workings of an aircraft and will not cause it to crash or anything like that. But the fact remains, it’s the rule that electronic devices need to be shut off during takeoff and landing, and limited in their usage while in flight. Plus, the flight attendants are the BOSSES of the plane and keep you ALIVE in case of an emergency and when they tell you to do, or not do, something, you do it, or stop doing it. That’s just how it goes.
Here is the American Airlines comment from their facebook page on just how classy a guy Alec is:
Since an extremely vocal customer has publicly identified himself as being removed from an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Dec. 6, we have elected to provide the actual facts of the matter as well as the FAA regulations which American, and all airlines, must enforce. Cell phones and electronic devices are allowed to be used while the aircraft is at the gate and the door is open for boarding. This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane’s lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding.
If *I*, and likely you, had acted in such a manner, we’d have been hauled off in handcuffs. But this maniac walked away and got himself on a later flight, on which I suppose, he behaved himself, at least enough so to be able to remain on the plane.
This isn’t a man who has simple anger issues. This is a very sick guy who needs to not be in society as he is now.
I’m not one who does the boycott thing, but I won’t be watching his shows, going to his movies, or doing anything that supports him in any way shape or form. He’s calling for a boycott of American Airlines. I think American Airlines should ban him forever from flying. If I was one an American Airline flight attendant, who he called “retired Catholic school gym teachers”, I would walk off the plane if he showed up on my flight. I’d have the right to do that written into my union contract, in fact.
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The Christmas Code
I grew up on Bungalow Street. It isn’t a weird street name to people who grew up in my town, but when I started to make friends outside of my little town, I learned it was a little odd.
There were lots of big families in my town. There are six siblings in my own family. That didn’t seem like a big family, until I started to make friends outside of my little town. The biggest family on the three blocks of my street had 11 kids. That was a big family, but certainly not the biggest in town.
The next door neighbors had five kids. And when Christmas came ’round, they turned into a very crafty and sneaky bunch of kids. I don’t know if their parents ever knew, but they would surreptitiously unwrap each of the presents under the tree before Christmas and then rewrap them so that nothing seemed to be amiss on Christmas morning. And so they’d know what they were all getting.
My mom was a little bit crafty and sneaky herself. She would not put our names on our gifts. She came up with a new code every year. Sometimes she would number the presents, or she would mix up the names on them. Even if we would have opened the presents (which I’m not sure we ever would have, but she wasn’t taking any chances) we wouldn’t ever know who they were actually for…so what would be the point.
Kudos to my mom for her pro-activity in keeping Christmas a surprise!
What about you? Did you ever try to find out what you were getting before Christmas? Did your parents do anything devious like my mother did?
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Like this:
Familial Vocabulary
Every family has its own special vocabulary. Over the years, words are added that have meaning sometimes only to the family who created them. Some of my family vocabulary includes “girts” (skirts), “the oceanbath” (the ocean), “whydidyoudothistomes” (needles and pins), and “yogs” (those chemical fireplace logs).
This is the story of how one of our family’s words came into being…..
A few Christmases ago, because he was new to Colorado, I bought my little nephew (he’s not quite so little anymore) a pair of insulated overalls for playing in the snow.
I called them snowveralls. I thought I made the word up, but I have since found that I am not the original I thought I was! :-)
When Mitchell opened them up, he was quite excited! His mother (my sister) asked him “Do you know what those are??”.
He nodded in the affirmative and replied…..”ovaries”.
So, we now call those slickery insulated winter clothing items…..”snovaries”.
True story.
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Like this:
“We fear something is wrong in the state of Europe”
While the EU is burning, its lawmakers have found time to make it illegal to claim that water can prevent dehydration. I would claim to be left speechless about this, but of course, dear readers, you all know that would be a lie!
However, I let the stupidity speak for itself, lest I not do it justice by giving it a rant! I found that in order to categorize this post I needed to create a new category for it. So I created two. This is the official first post categorized under “Lou Rants” and also “headdesk”.
EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration
Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.
NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.
By Victoria Ward and Nick Collins
6:20AM GMT 18 Nov 2011
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.
Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.
Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.
“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.
“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”
NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.
The Department for Health disputed the wisdom of the new law. A spokesman said: “Of course water hydrates. While we support the EU in preventing false claims about products, we need to exercise common sense as far as possible.”
German professors Dr Andreas Hahn and Dr Moritz Hagenmeyer, who advise food manufacturers on how to advertise their products, asked the European Commission if the claim could be made on labels.
They compiled what they assumed was an uncontroversial statement in order to test new laws which allow products to claim they can reduce the risk of disease, subject to EU approval.
They applied for the right to state that “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration” as well as preventing a decrease in performance.
However, last February, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) refused to approve the statement.
A meeting of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could subsequently control.
Now the EFSA verdict has been turned into an EU directive which was issued on Wednesday.
Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the “bendy banana law” look “positively sane”.
He said: “I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.
“Then they make this judgment law and make it clear that if anybody dares sell water claiming that it is effective against dehydration they could get into serious legal bother.
EU regulations, which aim to uphold food standards across member states, are frequently criticised.
Rules banning bent bananas and curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule.
Prof Hahn, from the Institute for Food Science and Human Nutrition at Hanover Leibniz University, said the European Commission had made another mistake with its latest ruling.
“What is our reaction to the outcome? Let us put it this way: We are neither surprised nor delighted.
“The European Commission is wrong; it should have authorised the claim. That should be more than clear to anyone who has consumed water in the past, and who has not? We fear there is something wrong in the state of Europe.”
Prof Brian Ratcliffe, spokesman for the Nutrition Society, said dehydration was usually caused by a clinical condition and that one could remain adequately hydrated without drinking water.
He said: “The EU is saying that this does not reduce the risk of dehydration and that is correct.
“This claim is trying to imply that there is something special about bottled water which is not a reasonable claim.”
Link to original article HERE.
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La Mort En Rose
Some Parisian cemeteries are destinations. We (okay, it was me, not we) picked Cimetière du Père Lachaise because it is where Edith Piaf (singer of La Vie En Rose) is buried. Also, it’s famed for its beauty in all of Paris.
We went on Halloween, just because, well, why not? This was part of the decoration of one of the “sepulcres”, and seemed appropriate for the day:
There were many other visitors to the cemetary. And lots of chrysanthemums, which I learned after returning home is the flower best known for remembering the dead (the article pointed out that mums should never be taken as a hostess gift). So, there were not just touristy types at the cemetery that day, but people coming (often with mums in tow) to honor loved ones and notables who had passed.
I was expecting a large and beautiful gravesite for Edith Piaf. But it was small and simple. In fact, if not for the other people visiting the site, we might not have found it. Edith Piaf was not her given name.
Fittingly, those visiting her grave brought roses…
The cemetery was laid out much like a randomly plotted city. There were winding cobblestone roads marked with street signs.
In a number of strategic locations there were “roadmaps” to assist in the location of gravesites.
This “city” is also the final resting place of Modigliani, Molière, and Jim Morrison.
The “notable” M’s
We didn’t look for Modigliani’s or Molière’s graves, but we did seek out Jim Morrison’s. I also expected somewhat of a spectacle for his grave. But it was even more simple than Edith Piaf’s. His was, however, surrounded by a low fence to keep his fans from getting too close.
Nearby trees and light standards have been turned into message boards of a sort for those who come to visit.
Even the wads of gum stuck to the tree have messages written on them.
There is no shortage of beautiful art or architecture in this city within a city.
As it was late fall, the leaves had mostly turned color and many had fallen.
Those that remained in the trees lining the cobbled streets made the place just a little bit golden, and a whole lot beautiful.
This trailing vine was hanging on to its smashing color and looking mighty fashionable as it decorated a grave largely forgotten over time…
While it was not in the least a creepy place, I don’t think I’d want to be there during the night time. But if you ever are lucky enough to get to go to Paris, add “visit the Cimetière du Père Lachaise” to your “must do” list.
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Like this:
God has responded…
Prayer.
There was a time, a handful of years ago, that I sat in my car with my little brother discussing our frustrating and failing romantic relationships. I purposed in my heart to begin to regularly ask God to bring my brother a life mate and to bless him with the children he so very much wanted to bring into this world with that life mate. At that time, it seemed like his “getting” these things was so terribly far in the future. He had invested much time and energy and love into a relationship he thought would be the one. But it wasn’t. He would have to end that relationship, grieve the loss of that relationship, evaluate the changes he need to make in his life, meet and date and woo a new woman, and THEN finally get married. This is not a process that generally happens overnight!
Heck, I’d been praying for a life mate for myself since I was 16 and hadn’t gotten a “yes” answer from God yet, and I am ten years older than my little brother! But God answers prayers in many different ways. Sometimes the answer is “no”, but it is wrapped in a million gifts we never thought to ask for.
God answered my prayer for Low (my “baby” brother) with a resounding “YES!”. God has answered my own prayer for me with “<silence> “, and with those million gifts I never even thought to ask for, as I wouldn’t have had any idea that they were things I’d even want.
Two years ago, after being introduced by a mutual friend on facebook, my brother married Kristine. Two weeks ago, they were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Her name, Elianna, means “God has responded”. He most certainly has.
I can’t even look at Elianna’s picture without tears coming to my eyes. She is amazingly tangible and living proof of God’s love for my brother. But she is also the same thing for me. I. LOVE. my. nieces. and. nephews. They are each God’s special gift to me, not just to their parents. It has been ten years since one of my siblings had a child and I’d forgotten, just a little bit, how wonderful it is to have a new baby in the family. I have another niece to love. :-)
Over the past six years I have slowly come to the place where I realize that the best thing for me, the most generous thing that God could do for me, is to give me other people’s children to love.
And I am looking forward to loving this new niece of mine with all of my heart. My baby brother has a baby. God has responded…
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La Toussaint: Sur Le Coin
We decided to save Les Catacombes (the catacombs) for our last day in Paris.
November 1st.
Bad decision.
In France, November 1st is called La Toussaint, or All Saints Day, and it is a national holiday. Which means the catacombs were fermés , closed. Daaaaaaaaaaang. Being a national holiday, pretty much everything “touristy” was closed.
It was a gray and darkish overcast day, our day for the catacombs. It would have been PERFECT! But, c’est la vie (c’est la mort??), our plans for the day required reworking. As we had not had breakfast we decided to eat at a corner cafe called Café Du Rendez-Vous, which was right down the street from the catacombs…and it was open! We picked a place outside so we could observe the bustle of the corner from a close perspective.
We settled in under the white and red striped awning and ordered the not so very frenchy sounding “Breakfast” from our waitress who spoke absolutely lovely English. :-)
It started with a generous basket of fresh breads with butter, jams, and Nutella. My choice was the croissant which I smeared with Nutella and would have died a very happy woman, had I died that is. Orange juice, café crème, water basted eggs, and a little glass pot of plain yogurt (into which I stirred just enough apricot jam to make it a wee bit fruity) rounded out the meal. I could have had bacon with it, too, but I passed on that. When the plates of food were brought out, another small pail of bread joined the jumble of dishes, and glasses, and cups filling two small round cafe tables.
As we dined, the rain started. And it was a GOOD rain, too! So, in sight of the closed entrance to the catacombs, we sat, and talked, and watched…and I took pictures!
And while we sat and just enjoyed being in Paris, others who planned their day around Les Catacombes came and went away disappointed…
I allowed myself to be disappointed as I really wanted to see this bizarre sight. But the rain and clouds lifted after a few hours and the rest of the day was spent enjoying long walks down broad boulevards, coffee on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, window shopping at Cartier and Louis-Vuitton, and a walk along the Seine to watch the lights of the Eiffel Tower ignite for the last time. We came across a photography exhibit and river house boats. And the smell of something sweet and delicate wafted through the air. We followed our noses to a street creperie where ordered crêpes chocolat. The guy making the crêpes was an artist. So cool to watch him fry up those delicate circles. And the final result was even better than the my earlier “could have died happy” croissant with Nutella. After one last look at the preposterously gorgeous Eiffel Tower, we made our way back to the 2nd arrondissemont and our apartment where we packed to get ready for an early leave back to the Charles de Gaulle airport the following morning.
Paris far exceeded my expectations.
“Go to Paris” was never on my list…but I daresay “Go back to Paris” is.
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Plastic Bottle Lights
This is one of those ideas that makes you wonder “what took so long to think of it!”.
Brilliant. Seriously brilliant. A great and super cheap solution to homes that are dark during the day for those (primarily, anyway) in third world countries.
http://www.wimp.com/lightenup/
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La Vie En Rose
“Go to Paris” has never made it to The List of Fifty. In fact, historically speaking, I’ve never much wanted to go to France at all, despite having studied the language (la langue d’amour) for four years in high school.
But I am SOOOOOO excited to be going! My friend Abner (same friend of the Timbuktu/West Africa adventure) and I decided we wanted to go on a trip to a place where we could drink the water, not have to take malaria meds, and leave the sleeping bags and mosquito nets at home. We wanted to eat bread and drink wine, and listen to music while sipping coffee in street cafes, and cross bridges and take pictures of loveliness. And Paris just seemed like the exact right place to do it! PLUUUUSS, being late fall, it should be nice and chilly and maybe drizzly and rainy and gray and perfect for taking moody Fronchy photos! :-)
ALSO, ever since I read about the catacombs under the streets, I decided I needed to see them, if ever I went to Paris. Other things I am hoping to see? La Tour Eiffel, l’Arc de Triomphe, the gardens of Versailles, Notre Dame, and I would love to cross all 23 bridges. I am sure that a week will not be long enough to completely explore the city, but it will be long enough to get a feel for what life in Paris is like. However, no matter what we do or do not do, if this song ever plays anywhere where I can hear it while I am there, I will consider my trip complete!
I rented an apartment for the week we’ll be there, and it’s in a real neighborhood with real Parisian neighbors. How cool is that?
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A Recent Comment
Earlier today a person left a comment on my post called “To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate“. This was the comment:
“If vaccines WORKED, then this author wouldn’t care if others are vaccinated.
You sound like a drug dealer telling potential customers how ‘cool’ they will be if they just start doing drugs.”
To the person who left this comment I say this:
I will take you and your position that vaccines aren’t an effective method of preventing disease a lot more seriously if, when you get bit by a rabid animal, you decline the post-exposure rabies series.
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