This Healthcare debate - is not

I recently started to follow a blog called Helen and Margaret. They have quite a following and even if the premise of their being 82 is false - I still like what whoever is writing it. Today they started talking about the healthcare debate. Not that's it is really a debate. I'd love to see a discussion about facts. I've read much about it in blogs, TIME and listened to people on their radio shows - and admittedly I've gone out of my way to ignore Limbaugh and his ilk. I don't like what I'm seeing on the news or reports from what seems to be 'staged' town talks. Canada has a perfectly good health system. We don't. Having recently lost my job I can speak to some aspects of this - COBRA is totally not the program for people who have lost their jobs - as far as I can tell it's just another way for insurance copies to bleed the hurting public. Thankfully the Obama government has forced them to offer a 'discount' to people like me that matches what my former company paid for my health care versus the cost they desired - 3.8 times what it cost. I just don't get it - you'd think they would want to maintain as large a pool as possible....not the shrinking employee count the situation currently represents.

I'd like to look forward to a future with an option for insurance from my government - honestly, with a pool that large how could it not represent smaller monthly payments. It's just another form of Medicare. One that I can join now instead of waiting until I'm older. As for the debate regarding rationing of healthcare - hey my current insurance coverage does that quite well right now - what do I really have to fear from the government?

It’s about fear.

The government has been spending fast and furiously the last six months and proposing legislation that’s likely to come with tons of new regulations.

Our national debt has soared and it’s upsetting and scaring many people. Some of them are getting quite vocal about it, especially when it appears to them, right or wrong, that health care reform is going to have a negative impact on them.

I voted for this president. I’m proud of that vote and stand by that vote. However, he and every other elected official up for reelection on my ballot has to earn my vote for the next election. Health care reform full of pork and unneeded regulatory red tape will not earn my vote.Health care reform that reduces my benefits or makes them more expensive will not earn my vote.

But I’m not going to go out there and yell and scream about it, no matter how much I’d like to. I might write some more emails though . . . .

Rushing the season

Okay, we're rushing the season again. Just got my first Fall Catalog from Crate&Barrel which they have casually called 'fall's very Best Buys'. We used to rush just the xmas holiday - now we seem to rush the season's and all the holidays.

One knows that retailers are desperate for us to spend but why bring fall into the picture? I just know that Land's end is around the corner with their fall clothes. Scarfs in July? Phoenix is not a place for fall until say late October. We don't even think about it until September (really all we can feel is the heat and wonder what happened to fall, ' it seems late this year'. It's never late - it just doesn't exist for more than a week or so. We have to travel up north to even see a hint of all the seasons. What we should get is summer sales catalogs. A new angle for retailers . . . send us catalogs for the things you can't sell in September . . . we're there dude!

Primitive Road Ahead

Shortest route. That's one of the 'guides' offered on our GPS unit in our Prius. We were on the way to visit friends and stay the weekend in their cabin in Groom Creek - an area outside Prescott. It highlighted a route I had never seen to Prescott so I punched it in.

The presets should have precluded this route as an unimproved road but it didn't so . . . we took it. It was very well graded at first. All the way to 'Potato Patch', an area in the middle of the route that had around 4 cabins in it. As we continued on it became very apparent we should not be on this road in a Prius. It deserved nothing less than a Jeep of some sort - our other vehicle. This creek (really it wasn't a creek so much as what was left of the morning rain going across the road) should have warned us. But we trekked on. Rocks. Steep grades. Interesting moments with the differential wheel base. About halfway through the bad part we stopped to take a look and let a large truck through. When John stepped up in response to his query "Are you guys all right", the man's son piped up that they had a very large truck. One could imagine the conversation in the truck prior to their stopping -

They agree to follow us in case we ran into trouble for the remaining 13 miles. Those 13 miles took us around an hour and a half. Switchbacks, more potholes, more steep grades, more rocks and more water, more-everything. Towards the end all we could see was the fine blue line on the GPS unit weaving around, back and forth with no real understanding of where we were other than on the Senator Highway.

We've agree that our car now carries the name 'Intrepid'. She deserves it. We arrived to tell the tale - suitably crafted to be more horrible than it was. We'll do it again someday - in the Jeep. And if we're in the Prius - we'll take the 'Quickest Route' . . .

The corn is UP

Yup, we're growing corn. It is my husband's favorite and the one vegetable my grandfather would neither eat or grow. For him it was pig's food. For John it's nirvana. He will consume as many ears as I put into the pot.

I had heard many things regarding corn from friends that grew up on farms over the years: tasseling corn was hard work, corn tastes completely different when mere minutes separate it's picking and consumption, it doesn't grow well in Arizona, etc. Well apparently you only need to tassel corn if you're growing it for seed. John would never let it get that far. The ears we have (11 so far) haven't matured enough for us to know whether it tastes better or not. And the last - well there is so much corn growing Maricopa it's unbelievable it's all eaten. And it seems to be doing well in the back yard so far.

The radishes got a lot of black spot. A little more research here revealed the growing medium needs to be sandier with more Boron and the plant appreciates cooler weather. So we'll try again in late fall. Beans - same thing. Tomatoes - they seem to grow no matter what if there is enough sun - a real challenge in our back yard.

All in all - I'm learning how to grow things in this yard. At least the parsley, basil and mint are thriving - sure makes cooking a lot easier.

Human Follies

I am constantly amazed at the tasks humans choose to undertake. We drive Interstate 8 between Phoenix and San Diego pretty regularly so I look for things to see along the way to see what's out there. In the middle of the Algodones Dunes just past Felicity (that's another story) you exit Gray's Well Road and on the south side head west. This wooden road was built first at the turn of the century - the last century. They built this road not once, not twice, but three times and created machines to move parts as needed. This last one was built in 8 foot sections they could move as needed to accommodate the shifting sand. You can still see the wear and tear on the wood that remains - etched by the sand. It’s laying out there with the interpretive signage practically unreadable with sand damage. They closed the road after twelve years or so. It doesn't say what it was replaced with - presumably Highway 80. But still. They built it. 

And I'm glad we're preserving it.

MY GARDEN GROWS!

We worked all last Saturday in the yard, sprucing it up a bit in preparation for the spring rush. I even managed to get in some seeds - two kinds of beans and radishes. And here, a week later, the radishes have erupted. Some sprouts have been munched on so I believe I need to investigate a temporary cover of some sort to protect them from the birds in their initial growth spurt. We do much to attract the birds and forget they sometimes are not necessarily following a similar agenda. 

Speaking of different agendas - Obama held out his hand to the opposite party in his Saturday address, this time for health reform, and the Repubs started the immediate whine of why it will not work versus just saying it's a good start and let's build something better. Playing well together continues to be a challenge. And somehow npr found a light at the end of the tunnel in Florida noting a possible bottom in that real estate market.

I wonder if squash would work in the garden?

Communicating or, ah, not communicating

How do we do it? I've been on the planet for a couple of years now, and some folks have assured me that it isn't my first time but I still seem to sometimes have trouble communicating with the opposite sex. This isn't meant to be a sweeping statement so much as an observation. 

For the past several months I have been learning a new set of tools as a part of planning and programming new facilities - projections. The main market sector our office performs work for is government/institutional. This market sector tends to build what they need long after they really need it and then tries to build a little for their future since they recognize they'll put it off the next time too. In our first kickoff meetings we are often led through a maze of rooms that can no longer be called offices, storage room or even janitor closets. They've all been 'repurposed'. I've seen an office that was a janitor's closet. Not my idea of an office but I suppose it is private. Corridors turn into file rooms and other work spaces. Observations of how people make do could be the subject of another blog, another day. When these entities actually finally choose to build - they often want to know, in five year increments, how they will grow - both in staff and space. 

My first projection project was for a lab and the second is for a communications facility. In setting up the models I tried to use as a basis others that I reviewed an thought I understood. I used a 'go by' following in the footsteps of others. A cheat I know, but you have to start somewhere and get it done in a reasonable amount of time. My supervisor liked it at first but upon further analysis found an error in the logic. My logic or really, the original author's logic. And tried to explain it to me. Several times. And although each time we reviewed it I believed I understood him - it turned out I didn't. Having now finished the second project projection I think I finally got it. Apples and oranges are different. And when you hear about it, well, it means something other than what you think. Sometimes. Wikipedia didn't help me by the way - turns out apples and oranges may not be absolutely a comparative statement. We can't trust our own definitions in a conversations sometimes without first comparing our definitions. And agreeing. 

By the way - girl logic and boy logic requires further exploration. And attention. And hard listening and exploration during the conversation. Confirmation during and after the conversation. And cooperation between two people who understand that they think differently. Very differently. 

The Common Cold

That's what it looks like. A rather pretty (in a way) rhinovirus. I have the sore throat, nasal congestion, sneezing and coughing. Muscle aches, headaches and loss of appetite. It's just plain annoying. Especially as there is no cure - plenty of drugs to relieve the symptoms, but no cure. I've considered the Vitamin C, zinc and even echinacea (had to look that one up) - but I'd actually have to go to the store and I don't think I have the energy for that endeavor.

I was in San Bernardino the last couple of days and although it was chilly, my reading in Wikipedia suggests that no one has been able to connect the cold with the uh, cold. I do know that I pretty much need to stay away from John who is asthmatic and therefore particularly susceptible - kind of a bummer it being Valentine's Day and all.

So I'll stick to plenty of rest, drinking fluids to maintain hydration and the over-the-counter drugs. And plenty of tissues for the fluids dripping out of my sinus passages. And go to bed early. Mmm, maybe another shower.

Buoy 40

A real view from No Problem. For years I've been taking photos of buoys all along the run from SD 1 to ..... well I'm not sure how far the numbers go up. SD 1 is out in the ocean and marks the shipping channel to go into San Diego Bay.  It's several miles out in the Pacific and starts the point at which a large ship must then review both port and starboard  buoys in order to stay in the middle of the channel and therefore not run aground. This is generally not a problem for our boat since it only has a draft of 6 feet to the bottom of the keel. There's a couple of places we could get into trouble, all out of the channel which they keep dredged to 30 feet or so. 

We did in fact get into a spot of trouble out near this buoy which is on the other side of the Coronado Bridge, by not paying close attention to our depth guage one afternoon when the sailing was fine - just fine. It was a magnificent day. We managed to motor off this slight rise in the floor of the bay to our favorite anchorage off Glorietta Bay but I must say it is scary to just stop like that with water all around. 

This image, which started life as a photo I took with my phone, was imported into a new program I downloaded from that vast resource called the internet and is called ArtRage. It is my first effort using a photo as a base and painting over it. Oh my, am I going to be wasting, ah, spending hours in that program. I downloaded the freeware which is short of some abilities such as saving files in usable formats but the Mac can overcome these little problems thankfully, thus enabling me to share this image. 

I am so wanting to spend some more time on the boat.....

FALL HAS ARRIVED

Fall has started. Here it is mid-January and the leaves are finally dropping off the trees in our yard. So begins the annual migration of wandering souls to our part of the world to enjoy the weather, car auctions, horse shows and golf tournaments. 

Still, it's very disconcerting to see the leaves fall so late - a season late in fact. The sun is very low in the sky, mornings are still dark and I can't help but wonder if mother nature is confused how do the beings on the planet keep up? 

Listening to Science Friday this past week I learned that since the ocean's little fishies are being consumed so quickly they're adapting with early maturity, staying smaller and generally changing their migration patterns. Glad mother nature is on the job watching out for us even when we don't.  

A question we might ask though - can the trees and other forms of nature keep up as quickly as our finned friends.

MID-CENTURY MODERN NEW YEAR

This year we started the year in Palm Desert with some friends. People we didn't know all that well and found so much in common we have become friends that will do more than exchange cards and silly email garbage. We rang in the new year at a local country club dressed in our wedding outfits - they don't look like wedding outfits (our intention) and according to our friends - we charmed the old folks that night. 

The best surprise for me however was staying in a mid-century coop, viewing mid-century architecture and the scene that surrounds it. At one point we dropped in on the Riviera in Palm Springs for a beverage of the alcoholic variety. The pool was surrounded by the trendy glitterati who happened to be young and gay on New Years Day. Some were celebrating more effusively than others - there was an attempt at changing the Muzak with a chant but it failed for lack of support. Getting a beverage while viewing the patio also failed for lack of support and we left after waiting for 15 minutes to even get the attention of a waitress. This after 10 minutes of attempting to find someone to seat us. One suspects the Riviera is not long for this world not wholly due to it's lack of enthusiastic or attentive employees. Open less than a year to say it was trendy is an understatement. Mirrors, glass, vinyl and more mirrors, glass and vinyl will lose their appeal quickly - especially given the average age of the local residents.

Continuing our wandering we reached the modern classic by Albert Frey of the Palm Springs Visitor's Center - an old gas station. There we also discovered a phone. It had been lost by Abdool. No emergency numbers. No easy to read contacts. Strange messages.

"There is great pleasure in the blood letting of animals".......or something like that as a greeting for the new year. This discovery really turned the conversation into something quasi-religious and explored the different religious traditions worldwide.

A quandary in our sunny day of discovery. We discussed what to do with this found object - dropping in a mail box, the local police station, out the window and ultimately decided upon a T-Mobile Store. A car full of enlightened, liberal, educated, open-minded people faced with the inability to call Abdool (who had neglected to provide any information anywhere on his phone to help us out) and all slightly stymied because we did not want to call any of his friends to tell them we had his phone. If we could have even pronounced the names right. It's amazing how much conversation this phone caused. Even after we dropped the phone off. 

After we had disposed of the unwanted object in an ethical way our brains finally kicked in with waves of creativity -

1. Abdool's phone camera could have taken photos of it's adventure like the lawn dwarf in Amelie's father's yard;
2. A photo tour of Palm Springs since it was found at the Visitor's Center and he was at some level interested in visiting the area;
3. An anonymous blog post somewhere outlining the phone's adventure. 

Something, anything besides just returning a phone we were not going to call. So we wrapped the weekend with a 3-D journey to the center of the world and breakfast at Keedy's. All the while discussing the possibilities which are seemingly endless.