Confessions of a Grandma

A 77 year old Burlington, VT man known as Poppa Neutrino, set out on an around the world raft trip earlier this week.  Unfortunately, the trip was cut seriously short when the raft was smashed by high winds into a 30 foot cliff on Lake Champlain.  Around 50 rescue workers arrived at the scene to pull Neutrino, his two crew members, and three dogs to safety.  Neutrino apologized to the people of Vermont for the pollution to the lake (several containers of gasoline where dropped into the water) and for using the time and effort of the various rescue workers. Apparently the raft took three months to build, but the entire project has been in the works far longer.  The intent was to advance economic, environmental, and joyful living beliefs.  If you have interest in your own floating, self-sustaining, off-grid life style, you can read more about Poppa and his pals on an essay entitled "Floating Neutrinos" here . It's the new wave of the future.

It is old news that the State of Arizona passed a law making it illegal to be an illegal alien, but it actually went into effect just recently.  Illegal to be illegal?  Does some kind of double negatives principle kick in here? Critics, bleeding heart liberals to be sure, say the law will lead to racial profiling, but its supports argue that the law merely enforces existing laws.  Does any one else wonder why we need a law that says it's okay to enforce the law?  Do we now need a law that says we need to enforce the law that says we need to enforce the law?  If this makes sense to you, would you please explain it to me.  The logic escapes me entirely.

I recently read that auto engineers in Germany are working on a technology that would allow one to steer one's car via eye gaze. Instead of a steering wheel guiding the car, the car would just go where the driver is looking? Gosh, that sounds dangerous and I can't say that I even begin to grasp what might be the advantage to such a system. Well, I guess if Mike mowed over a co-ed as he was driving by the university he could no longer deny that he was, in fact, looking! (Just a little joke. Mike doesn't take me seriously. No one else should either.) This was an Associated Press story headline in today's Burlington Free Press: Iceland, Cyprus post lowest death rates . The story states, "Men in Iceland and women in Cyprus have the lowest risk of dying worldwide, a new study says." Now I am certainly no math whiz, but isn't the death rate, like, 100%, really?? I'm just saying...

I am ready to give up watching the news. It's too depressing. Today I saw a bumper sticker: CRONE--creative researcher of new experiences . Now, that's a group I would join on Facebook. Both Mary Matalin Corville (on CNN) and Rudy Giuliani (on ABC) stated publicly that there were no terrorist attacks on the United States during the George Bush presidency. UH, I guess if you don't count 9/11... On the subject of terrorism, I TOTALLY believe blogger Betty ( http://bettysnewtrick.blogspot.com/2010/01/chasing-terrorism.html ) has the answer. I hope she will run for president. I want to be just like Helen Philpot ( http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/ ) when I grow up. When is common sense going to return to our political process in this country? Every recent development seems fueled by anger. It's not healthy and it's certainly not productive.

There was a wire service piece in the local paper about North Face , purveyor of active wear, suing a college student who started a line of leisure wear he chose to call, " South Butt ." The North Face people apparently took exception to the parody. C'mon .

I read a letter to the editor yesterday by a guy who was outraged when he hears store clerks and bank tellers wish shoppers, "Happy Holidays." I witnessed a man returning a box of cards his wife had purchased at the stationery shop because they referred to "Holidays." Apparently, there is some movement to boycott Old Navy and Gap stores because their TV ads mention Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and solstice. Christmas is being squeezed out. Personally, I don't react to greetings of "Happy Holidays" in a negative way. It seems to me that people were wishing each other "Happy Holidays" long before any concept of political correctness. When I was growing up I had never heard of solstice or Kwanzaa and had only the vaguest awareness of Hanukkah. "Happy Holidays!" was meant to cover Christmas through New Year's Day. If anything, I guess it was more efficient than saying (or writing), "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." You save four...

I really read this. A woman in Texas shaved her head and pretended to be a cancer patient in hopes of collecting donations for her surgery. In fact, she did not have cancer and the surgery she was hoping for was breast implants. She explained that she was hoping that breast implants would save her failing marriage--her failing marriage of seven months duration. Lady, if it’s that broke, it cannot be fixed.

I get a lot more exercise since I've retired. That is largely due to the fact that I can get out for a brisk walk during the daylight hours. When I was working, there were long winter stretches when I left for work in the dark and returned home in the dark. Some times I would stop off at the gym, but mostly the Big Dark just made me want to get home, put on warm pajamas, wrap up in a fuzzy blanket, sit by the fire and sip some wine. I'd pretend at being a weekend warrior, but the truth is that most of that time was taken up with shopping and other errands, cleaning, laundry, and other household necessities. This morning I was reading about a young local woman who stays motivated to do her daily running when she gets home from work in the dark. She mentioned similar obstacles--allure of the fireside, household demands, the hibernation reflex that comes with Vermont winter--but has stayed motivated to get out for a run because of a device in her running shoes that somehow communi...

This morning's Burlington Free Press showed several pictures of hundreds of people who had lined up at Colchester High School on Saturday morning (some as early as 4:00 AM, one with seven week old baby tucked in a down jacket!!) to wait for the H1N1 flu vaccine. Yikes! It's one thing to line up in the wee hours outside of WalMart on Black Friday to score the latest "Tickle Me Elmo" or "wii" system (not something I would ever do, BTW), but this is flu vaccine. Have we not been hearing about the "swine flu" threat for at least the past three years? Fox News assures us that we, in the USA, have the best health care system in the entire world. So how is it that there is not enough vaccine by now? FOX, POX! A couple of days ago, we went to the cemetery in Graniteville, Vt, to visit the grave of Mike's grandfather, who died in the 1919 flu pandemic. Harvey Hebert was 28 years old at the time of his death. A flu pandemic is not something we are real...

It appears that Maine voters have voted against the freedom to marry law enacted earlier this year. I have to say I don't understand why. If you don't believe in same sex committed relationships, don't enter one. I sometimes wonder why certain issues are even subject to debate. There's the Right thing and there's the right thing to do. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.

The health care reform debate goes on. One controversy has been around end-of life care. There has been objection and open demonstrations against this as a concept because some people believe that it sets up "death panels" charged with determining when an old person has used up more than his or her share of health care. This was interpreted from President Obama's support of Medicare paying for a doctor to consult with a patient around end of life care. (Something along these lines.) Now here's the thing...I would expect that my doctor's visits, covered by health insurance, therefore would be covered whether I went for a consult about my cholesterol levels, a case of bunions, or end of life care. I always thought that the doctor-patient relationship was private (although I know insurance generated paperwork renders that a moot point). When you think about it, insurance just sounds like something evil. I'm paying money on a bet that something catastrophic ...

An 18 year old boy from Massachusetts was arrested and put in jail with bail of $10,000. The crime, according to a short blurb in the Burlington Free Press, walking out of a supermarket with a stolen can of Cheese Whiz in his jacket. Is it just me, or is that harsh? Surely there is more to the story that didn't get reported. Was he planning to board an airplane with contraband cheese product in not quite liquid but not quite solid form? Is he a known graffiti artist who works in edible medium? Did he steal a vehicle from the parking lot, using a shot of orange cheese to intimidate the driver into turning over the keys? Because that is some expensive Cheese Whiz.