For some unknown reason, when I woke up yesterday morning I got it into my head that it would be a fine day to tackle the job of cleaning out my office. I don't know about any of you, but for me, my office is sort of like the black hole of paper. Everything that comes in gets piled here and there. If I don't feel like dealing with the mail that day, it goes on the stack If I pay a bill, I mark the day I pay it and the remnants of the invoice goes on the stack If I get a ton of junk mail on any given day, but if there seems to be a few interesting things in it, well then, it just goes on the stack where I have full intentions of going through it "later". Somehow, though, "later" never seems to get here and the stack just grow...and grow...and grow.

My accountant has told me that there is really no need to keep all that paper...that anything that is older than 5 years is just a space-taker-upper. But it's so much easier sometimes to just shove it in the office, convincing myself that I'll "deal with it later". Well, "later" finally arrived yesterday.

Going through all that mess piece by piece has been pretty daunting. I have a really good paper shredder and even with it going full blast yesterday I took out 5 trash bags full of confetti. And such stupid stuff, too. Old receipts for gasoline. Old lottery tickets from ages past which, even if they had been missing winners, are now too old to ever redeem. Junk mail. Tons of junk mail. Old bills that I paid years and years ago. I didn't realize that I was such a paper packrat, but I guess I am. 

I went up to Wal-Mart and got a few containers. I have now separated [or have started to] the papers into "medical", "household expenses", "taxes", and "social" [where I keep all the cards, letters, pictures and such that have a special meaning to me]

In the midst of all this madness, I started to think about why I was doing this. Then I remembered what a nightmare it was to clean out my mother's house when the time came. She was a paper packrat, too, and going through 50 years of paperwork is something I never want to do again. And I don't want my daughter to have to go through it, either.

None of us is getting any younger. Look around your house. If you [G-d forbid] were to drop dead tomorrow, would you want to saddle your kids with the job of going through all of your "teasures" [which really, for the most part, is most likely just accumulated junk and clutter]

And so I work on, and hopefully today it'll all be done. If the worst happens, it'll be one less thing for my family to have to deal with. I'm not one to tell anybody how to live their lives or deal with their stuff, but maybe it's time for you, too, to "consider the clutter".

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled lives ...

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When I got back from my little trip to Tulsa on Sunday, I was "confronted" with some drama that appears to have gripped Boomer's while I was gone. From what I have been able to discern, two of my Boomer Buddies, "dog_beast" and "miller_moth", have for all intents and purposes withdrawn from our little zoo. Apparently, following the tragic, personal loss through miscarriage of their baby, they decided to play the story through to the end...the end being the birth of a healthy baby boy. 

Nobody seems to be talking about it "out loud", so I will. Do I think John and Daffy did the right thing in perpetuating this fantasy? No, I do not. I'm hurt that they didn't trust any of us enough to just come out with the truth from the get-go. I think they misjudged the compassion of most of the folks in here, and the sincere and heartfelt grief all of us would have shared with them over their horrible loss. 

However, that having been said, who of us has the right to judge how any one of us deals with grief? Perhaps this is the only way they felt they could personally cope with such a crushing personal loss and I, for one, am in no position to congratulate or condemn them. I have done some really bone-headed things in my life, and more things that I am ashamed of than I can even count. I have made wrong turns, wrong decisions, and outright asshole mistakes that I surely do hope I'm forgiven for by the time I reach my "maker". 

I don't know if John and Daffy will ever be back. I sort of hope that when they work through this that they will come back and give us another chance. I know that I will welcome them back with open arms and an open mind. I don't know if they'll continue to "check in" and/or if they'll ever read this blog, but I like to think they will.

As for the rest of us: Well, maybe we can all learn a lesson here. It's so easy to get wrapped up with the folks we meet online. It is just so easy to not have all the extraneous baggage that comes along with making friends "the normal way". Since we have nothing else to go on, we love what we see, and we love what we're told, and in many ways, it's a truly pure friendship with neither side having really a whole lot to gain or lose. Perhaps it gives us all the opportunity to be more compassionate, understanding, and forgiving than we would ever allow ourselves to be in "real life". What do you think?

I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives ...

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I went to breakfast with my daughter this morning. It was lovely. We had a very pleasant meal and were able to catch up a bit from all of this holiday running around that's been going on, and with all of the other ins and outs of our lives. Glancing around the restaurant [a local Cracker Barrel] I couldn't even count the number of people sitting at tables, side-by-side and across from each other, all with their cell phones out and rapidly click, click, clicking away. And I thought to myself: what the hell is going on here?

I remember in the not-so-distant past when going out to a restaurant was a big treat. Meals would stretch out for a couple of hours all the way from drinks before dinner for the grown-ups, to the meal, to the dessert, to the coffee afterward. And oh the conversations that were had. Even if you were a kid and really weren't "allowed" to join in, so much was there to be gleaned and learned and catalogued to be asked about later. Now people don't even look at each other. They gulp down their food between messages, or let it sit and get cold while they take or make "one more call".

I know that I'm a dinosaur. I come from a time when a telephone was made out of plastic, was usually black, and had a rotary dial on the front. It was attached by a long cord to the wall, usually in the foyer of the house or maybe in the kitchen. For a time, we had a party line [for you youngsters, that's one phone line with several families on it] Our "ring" was two shorts and a long. If the ring was different than that, you didn't answer because you knew it wasn't for you. Even when the private line was installed, if you couldn't answer the phone, or you just didn't want to, no big deal. The person calling you would just call back some other time. No answering machines. No pre-recorded clap-trap messages. They just called back.

We actually wore watches and knew how to read them, so we generally knew what time it was at any given moment. If we wanted to remember a number, we wrote it down. [Along with the person's address, because "back in the day" we still actually wrote letters to one another!!] If we got lost we had these wonderful paper thingies called maps and we could look up where we needed to be, or, [horrors!] we could actually stop someone and ask for directions. If we wanted to listen to music, we turned on the radio or sang songs to ourselves. What a concept!! Just about eveybody I knew carried around a Brownie Insta-Matic in their cars so if you saw something really, really special you could take a picture of it...on real film...that you took to the drug store to get developed...as soon as you finished the roll. We didn't feel the need to be "connected" 24/7/365 because we knew in our heart of hearts that nobody really gave a damn if we were making a ham sandwich at 4 o'clock in the morning!

I know that we are living in a "brave new world" and there were lots of things about the good old days that really weren't all that good. And there are times when I have been enormously grateful for my cell phone and for the technology that allows me friendships I never would've made otherwise. But come on, people!!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives... 

Tags: Popular Culture

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I had a little extra time this morning and decided to throw out a little bit of whimsy in the form of a "collective noun" challenge. I've listed 25 examples below. I know that there are dozens and dozens of others. Perhaps you'd like to add a few of your own, just for the heck of it. Enjoy!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1.  Congregation of alligators

2.  Cete of badgers

3.   Sleuth of bears

4.  Wake of buzzards

5.  Caravan of camels

6.  Cluster of cats

7.  Intrusion of cockroaches

8.  Float of crocodiles

9.  Murder of crows

10. Pod of dolphins

11. Convocation of eagles

12. Business of ferrets

13. Stand of flamingos

14. Army of frogs

15. Array of hedgehogs

16. Observance of hermits

17. Fluther of jellyfish

18. Mischief of mice

19. Labor of moles

20. Watch of nightingales

21. Company of parrots

22. Ostentation of peacocks

23. Bevy of quail

24. Gaze of racoons

25. Descent of woodpeckers

Tags: Whimsy

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.

I'M OLDER, YOU SEE.

AND THERE ARE STILL SOME THINGS I DON'T KNOW. 

LIKE WHERE DO YOU RUN WHEN YOU'VE RUN OUT OF FUN

AND YOU'VE PLAYED EVERY GAME THAT YOU KNOW.

JACKS AND MARBLES AND HIDE-N-GO-SEEK, RUN-CHIEF RUN AND THE LOT.

HEARTS AND FLOWERS, BY THE HOURS

PLAY 'EM AND WHAT HAVE YOU GOT?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, I'M OLDER YOU SEE.

AND THERE ARE STILL SOME THINGS I DON'T KNOW.

LIKE WHY DOES IT TAKE A BIRTHDAY TO MAKE

YOU WONDER HOW LITTLE YOU GROW ...

by: Rod McKuen

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It's one of those days when a lot of little things are on my mind. I probably should never listen to or read the news. It just makes me crazy. And mouthy. And borderline ridiculous. So here are a few things blistering my butt this fine July day. If you want to reply, you know that I always welcome your comments. I have always maintained that anything YOU add is much more entertaining than what I have to say ...

At a Starbucks in Canada some barista came to the "aid" of a mother who was breast feeding ... basically by ignoring another customer who complained. Yay him! But you know, whatever happened to plain old courtesy? I don't have any problem with a woman breast feeding her baby in public [well, unless the kid is 4 years old, and that's just creepy and food for another blog...] But is it too much to ask that the mother use a receiving blanket or something to cover herself up while she's doing it? And I can hear the screams now: "Breast feeding is perfectly natural and doesn't need to be hidden." Yeah, well, taking a dump is perfectly natural too, but I sure don't want anybody to use the chamber pot next to me while I'm eating.

Michelle Howard became the Navy's first 4-star admiral and I'm amazed at some of the comments being made, the most prominent being that she got where she is because she's female, black, and kissed a lot of political ass. How 'bout we give it to her that she worked her buns off up the chain of command and just happens to deserve this promotion? And about the ass-kissing part: I can assure you that ANY big-wig in ANY private corporation didn't get to the top without his/her own share of ass-kissing along the way. 

Researchers tested something like 30 different specimens from various sources around the world concerning the "validity" of bigfoot [or sasquatch, or yeti, or whatever] Turns out all the DNA test results showed "stuff" from racoons, cows, weasles, possums, and even a couple of extinct bears, but no "new" or different species. But if you think that will stop the die-hard believers, you've got another think coming.

It's easy to have forgotten such things, but do any of you remember when a "portable" computer weighed something like 30 pounds?

In other crazy news, you have the nutty nanny out in California who refuses to leave the home she was hired to work in. The homeowners will have to go through formal eviction procedures just to get her out. And then there's the Italian family that's selling their vintage Ferrari and hoping to get $52 million dollars. That's just for one car, folks. $52 million dollars. There are children starving all over the world, and yet some rich yutz is going to put down $52 million dollars for a friggin' car. Go figure.

Walgreens Drugs is making noise that they may move their corporation "off-shore". The state of Illinois gave Walgreens a butt-load of tax breaks to create jobs and stay in Illinois, but now Walgreens says that isn't enough and they could get a better tax break somewhere overseas. Y'know, if more US citizens would start boycotting these corporations who move off-shore, maybe the people who run them would have to start thinking. Sure, you might save $5 million in taxes, but is it worth the $6 million you'll lose in customer revenue and all the bad press you'll get for abandoning your own country in the name of the all-mighty buck?

And finally, Viet Nam veteran Doug Chase, after trying for over 2 years to go to a VA Hospital near his home to be treated for his brain cancer, finally received a letter from the VA confirming his right to care and giving him the go-ahead for treatment. Thing is, the letter came 2 years after he died. Ain't that a bitch.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled lives ...

Tags: Everything And Nothing

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While I was sitting here, bemoaning the fact that we haven't had rain in a good long while, the names of "rain songs" have been floating through my head. I suggested to my friend NOLA that we make some sort of a contest out of it. No, there are no prizes, and the cameras aren't going to show up at your front door. In fact, there are no winners and no losers. But maybe we can put together an impressive list that will take us down memory lane while those of us who are dry wait for the rains to come, and those who are wet, wait for the rains to leave. Anyway ... Here are 10 songs that came immediately to my mind. Why not add a few of your own?

1)  Rainy Day People - Gordon Lightfoot

2)  It's A Rainy Night in Georgia - Brooke Benton

3)  Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again - The Fortunes

4)  Kentucky Rain - Elvis Presley

5)  Who'll Stop The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival

6)  The Rain The Park And Other Things - The Cowsills

7)  I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt

8)  Fire and Rain - James Taylor

9)  Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters

10) Listen To The Pouring Rain - Jose Feliciano

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled lives!

Tags: Music

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A few of my friends have contacted me privately about some blogs that someone is posting here on Boomers, apparently having "to do" with Jews. As most of you know, but some of you may not, I am a Jew. In other words, I follow the religion of Judaism. Racially, I am an old white woman. You see, there is no such thing as a race of people called "Jews". There are Black Jews, and Asian Jews, and Hispanic Jews, etc. and the only thing we really have in common ethnically, is that we all follow the religion of Judaism. 

I must admit that I have not read any of these blogs, but I've got a pretty good idea what they say. "Jew Baiting" is a time-honored "sport" that has been going on for millennia. It didn't just start yesterday and it's not going to end tomorrow. 

I could waste a lot of my time and yours explaining why I believe what I believe, but I have never felt the pull or the need to try and convince anybody of the validity of my own religious beliefs. A person's religion is something best left between the person and the Almighty. There's not a single living being on earth who really knows all the answers [or even all the questions], so I've always been pretty much a live and let live sort of gal. Does that mean that we should be silent in the face of injustice, prejudice, and downright ignorant nastiness? Absolutely not. 

I remember a time not so long ago in this country where any black person was called "nigger". My own grandmother, sainted woman that she was, never called black people anything else. I'm from the south, and it was just the way of talkling. I never gave a second thought to how it might sound to a black person. And most folks were just like me. But then, one day, one brave soul said "I don't like that word and I'm not going to use it any more." Then another day, one brave soul said "I don't like that word and I'm not going to allow my children to use it." Then another day, one brave soul said "I don't like that word, and I'm not going to allow YOU to use it, at least not around me." And so it grew. Because a handful of brave souls said "enough".

So yes. When you see injustice, when you read injustice, don't sit by and let it happen without comment. Call the person out by name if necessary. Tell them you think they're really backward and ignorant, and that you no longer wish to be associated with someone who holds such views. [If, in fact, that's the way you feel] Someone who spews such hatred is like a schoolyard bully. As long as they have a silent audience, they'll keep on doing what they're doing. If they learn they're talking to a wall, then it's not nearly as much "fun" for them.

However, to those who are suggesting that this person should be silenced, or kicked off of Boomers or whatever, I must voice my most vehement objections. No matter how vile or repugnant I might find a person's views, they have the right to hold and express those views every bit as much as you and I have the right to challenge them and call them out as the ignorant fools that they are.

I do thank each and every one of you who have contacted me. I cherish you all for your friendship and your support.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled lives ....

Tags: Religion and Freedom of Speech

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Good day to one and all. I'm in a rather nostalgic mood this morning and it's all because of an old friend from my childhood: jello. That's right. Jello. That wiggly, squiggly, colorful glob of whatever it was that always seemed to show up on festive tables and at everyday meals. Sometimes it was just plain old Jello, maybe served with whipped cream, or maybe not ... but the real jewels in the crown were those marvelous molded Jello salads full of all sorts of things. Fruits. Vegetables. Dairy stuff. Every house had at least 2 or 3 of those copper Jello molds and they were used frequently. Taking a Jello salad to someone's house was just one of those things our Moms routinely did. And people brought molded Jello salads to your house, too. Any covered-dish dinner you went to would have some standard things: fried chicken; macaroni and cheese; corn [or corn pudding], green bean casserole, and of course, Jello.

Anyway, this got me to thinking [always a dangerous thing] and I decided to appeal to all my Boomer buddies out there. Do you have a Jello salad recipe you'd like to share? It can be anything: savory, sweet, plain ... just anything that takes you back to those "glorious" days of childhood, when we weren't concerned about our cholesterol levels, or being diabetic, just grateful for a steady job [for Dad] and food on the table. So c'mon and join in and help me in my search...okay?

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled lives!!

Tags: Food and Recipes

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