Confessions of a Grandma

  Here's what can happen when one blindly follows technology's artificial intelligence (or what Kellyanne Conway might term "alternative intelligence). Smugglers' Notch Road in Stowe, VT, is a popular tourist stop during our lovely Vermont summers.  Part of route 108, it winds up, over, and down a steep mountain. There are sharp turns and narrows. There are also road signs warning truckers not to take the route no matter what one's GPS might be directing drivers to do.  GPS simply considers the road a short cut. Apparently, truck drivers love themselves a short cut. Seven trucks got stuck on the road in 2020. Assistance in getting these trucks unstuck is arduous and costly. Signs are posted that warn truckers not to attempt the route and inform drivers of substantial fines. The first truck of this year got stuck yesterday -- last night at 11:30 PM actually.  The driver: Yes, I saw the signs but I was following my GPS. The Florida man was fined $3,500 and will be re...

Through the common ordeal that was (let's face it -- IS) a pain for us all. For me, there was the additional problem of dealing with a detached retina. The swelling was finally cleared last January, after seven months. I am thankful to my Florida retina specialist who dealt with the problem aggressively after three months of my VT doctor doing the "hmm, come back in a month." I was going to say "wait and see" but then thought that was kind of a sick pun. So, my eye is healthy, but the invasion of surgery does leave a certain amount of distortion in my vision. Apparently my brain is having some difficulty in compensating for this. One funny thing is that there are floaters just in my right eye now. This results in my jerking my head to the right in a startle response to seiing 'spiders'  scurrying up the wall. What can I do but laugh? I mean other people my age have real physical problems. And what can others do but learn not to sit on my right side if th...

 

 I don't have a yet recent picture of my grandson -- and I really should have one to go with this post.  I was in Florida from mid-October to mid-May. When I left, Dane was almost as tall as me, but not quite. There was the occasional crack in his voice.  When I got back . . . he has shot up to 5'9". That was a growth spurt of 4 inches in six months! His voice is deep.  His face has enough peach fuzz to shave once or twice a week.  He will be finishing up his final exams to complete his freshman year in high school this week. He did well in all classes. He was in advanced placement for science, math, and social studies, which I think was amazing for coming off a year of online schooling with all the concern about lags in learning. (Moment of grandmother bragging -- indulge me) It occured to me that he is old enough to get his learner's permit, although he has not as yet. I really have to get on changing the pictures on the side bar.

 My son took a vacation the last week in May -- ostensibly to visit his father. He loaded his car with paddle board, hiking gear and mountain bike. Kevin's sole motivation for working is to ensure funds for outdoor activities.  So here he is in Virginia: Just what every mother wants to see -- one of her children standing on a precarious rock ledge. God knows how far a potential fall that would be! No tether! Does he have his personal locator device in his pocket? Most likely not. And why isn't his father there to tell him to get off that ledge before he falls? Your children will grow up no matter how much you think of them as your babies. And, darn it, you have to just let them.

    It makes me uncomfortable to hear or see people expressing "Happy Memorial Day!"  When did it become a day of celebrating instead of honoring? We are living in a time and in a country where it is less and less safe to do ordinary things like shop in a grocery store or go to school. Frankly, I think the situation makes a mockery of those who sacrificed for our freedoms.  Do we really want to live in a society that even contemplates solutions like dropping off our children to spend their days in prison-like conditions, passing armed guards at the door of the elementary school? And pointing to perpetrators as evil and deranged is a convenient way to absolve oneself of any complicity in a allowing the human condition to have devolved to this sorry point. I am heartbroken, sad and damn angry.

  This seems only fair now that I think about it! But of course sometimes life seems fundamentally unfair: Yes! Passwords ate the bane of my life! IMO, technology has taken an evil turn!