The Morning News

This morning early, while rubbing on deodorant, combing my hair, putting on my clothes and trying to tie my shoes, a well known morning guy interviewed members of coal miner's families. Their loved ones were still in the mine. Twenty-five of their co-workers were dead. The news guy wanted to get their thoughts.

I don't get why anyone in a stressful personal situation would ever want to or agree to go on camera for a national television broadcast. Doing that less than 24 hours after the disaster borders on insanity.

I've seen parents of children who have been abducted sit there crying while choking out words about their feelings.

I've seen parents of a child who was just found dead and dismembered in the woods after a week of searching, talking about their grief.

I've seen child of 15 who had been sexually molested by a trusted family member sitting with the brother of the molester, speaking of their abhorrence.

This is nuts.

Maybe it's a good thing to have a "spokesperson" or further removed family member speak in order to draw attention to the need to watch our children or improve mine safety, but for me at least, it's too much. I turn the TV off when this is shown. I may be a life voyeur and perhaps I will slow down a little driving by a wreck, but I do not need to see and hear that with my morning coffee.

Alright, I'm stepping back down off the soap box!

One thing I do enjoy in the morning is reading the daily paper. I grew up in a small country town and there was a weekly paper. It used to be a good paper. I still subscribe and now it's basically a weekly paper of record; births, deaths, marriage licenses, court reports, arrest records. The news is meth busts and people arrested for smoking marijuana or hitting their girlfriend. When I moved to Louisville there were two daily papers; one in the morning and one in the evening. When I married we got both papers. We both loved reading the paper. Dennis had a daily paper in the town where he grew up and still subscribed to it.

Now days I read the remaining daily paper and enjoy it immensely. While doing so today, on TV an entertainment talking head was trying to use the iPad. The device looks sleek and cute and modern. I'm not convinced. Let me keep my daily paper. Even if they raise the price of it to the price of the New York Times, I want my daily paper.

This morning in the Courier-Journal Clay Bennett's cartoon made me laugh out loud.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100406/OPINION03/100405010/1020/GOP+s+image+tarnished

Weather is hot as West Texas here today; 88 degrees.

Simple occurence results in obsession

A frequent pastime is pressing the "next blog" button at the top of the page. It's a voyeuristic thing I do, for there is no telling what I will see.

I found a blog of obsession. It seems to be a woman who met a man at a business meeting a long time ago. He has become the only thing she thinks about or writes about or evidently talks about? After reading her posts for a month I've figured out she has never had a one on one conversation with him; phone, e.mail, text message or in person.

She seems to have an entire friendship genealogy laid out along the lines of who "Sam" knows, went to school with, rides the same train as, eats lunch with, plays racquetball with, etc.

From her posts she dreams of the man. She spends time between business appointments thinking of him. She wonders what he thinks about her, or if he thinks about her. He is a ghost in her story; when we are married we will, etc.

I couldn't stand reading more posts. They go back years. Her fascination seems to have started because after the meeting he took her left hand in his two hands and said, "It was really good to make your acquaintance Gertrude." [All names changed to protect the crazy people.]

I try to think if I've ever been this obsessed with someone I only met once and never saw again. I don't think so. I was insane that first year with Roger but I forgive myself. He was the first man I met and dated after my husband died. I was the crazy person that year and he was just the man to take advantage of the situation the next four.

Have you ever been an obsession or obsessed with someone? You can tell me privately.

The week has been lovely. There is nothing like a week of early spring in Kentucky. Keeneland opened its short spring meet today. Reggie got a bet down on the first horse in the first race, and although it went off at 8/5 it did not win. That's an old tradition of horse players; bet the first horse in the first race on the beginning day and the last horse of the last race on the last day of the meet. I know people who went to the track today. They sure had a beautiful day; 80 degree temperature and sunshine.

To answer that nagging question for you, no the bluegrass in Kentucky is not blue.

Furthermore it is true that Kentucky is known for beautiful horses and fast women.

Honest work at the polls.

The first time I worked for the county at the polls was over thirty years ago when I worked for a credit union. My boss was a Republican. The year Carter was running for President, he signed me up to work the polls as the Republican representative. I worked and never spilled the beans that I was really a Democrat. I wore a small gold peanut under my jacket lapel so I knew it was there but it wasn't visible.

I was going through my calendar today and see that I've agreed to be "trained" as a poll worker the 20th of the month. Have any of you ever worked at the polls? I highly recommend it. The job is clerical and any literate person can do it. You don't have to stand on your feet much and you get paid. In my county the county clerk pays $125.

I particularly like it when a young person comes in and it's the first time they have voted. Last election I worked in the fall of 2008, a man of at least 80 came in and stated that was the first time he'd voted. I was in awe. I don't get why people don't vote. I had a school friend killed in Vietnam. I had other friends who were treated badly when they returned from that war. I vote in their memory.

I am a registered Democrat. There is an equal number of each party working that day. This is to keep any hanky panky from happening. If all the workers were one party it is theorized that thae party would "fix" the vote in their favor. This has never happened when I worked and it's not been reported to have happened in any election in my county since I've lived here. So, the system works.

Reggie reminds me that some years past a car would be parked near the polls and as voters came out after voting they would be handed a half pink of whiskey if they said they voted for the favored candidate. I'm not sure how they knew they voted for them, but I suppose if they didn't carry the election at that poll, it would be obvious. As far as I know this doesn't happen here.

For some reason it is difficult to get Republicans to work at the polls. Every year there are public service announcements on the television local news, recruiting workers and it's always mentioned that in particular they need Republicans. Maybe someone can explain why this is. All the Republicans I've worked with seem to be good people. Other than some polite debate there isn't any arguing about anything.

The Easter week has been quiet. My birthday also happens to be this week, but I'm not planning anything special for it. Last Saturday my very best girlfriend Anne, who lives out of town but who grew up in a house in sight of mine, threw me a surprise party. In my entire life I've never had a birthday party let alone a surprise one. She worked in cahoots with other friends and I walked right into it as an innocent. It sure was fun though. I've got the pink balloons and a mass of daffodils to show for it.

I love flowers. In the spring Daffodils are my favorite. Otherwise I adore stargazer lilies. In Kentucky and southern Indiana where I grew up, you will find fields of daffodils. If you inquire you usually find out there used to be a farm house there. I imagine a farm wife setting out bulbs a hundred years ago. This flower makes new bulbs under ground. If you don't control them, they will move across the field as a herd of sheep grazing.

Anne filled four vases with daffodils. She got most of them from a pasture across the road from where her daughter lives in the county where I grew up.

My opinion on flowers is give them to your friends and family now. Don't send them when they die. Imagine receiving a bouquet of wild flowers wrapped in damp newsprint held out to you by someone you love. Magic!

Sitting in chairs quietly.

The Kentucky State Legislature spent the past week end working on the new budget. This was announced in an hysterical voice meant to indicate "we are working really hard for ya'all up here in Frankfort." What I find astonishing is this group of elected officials can somehow find the time to debate and pass a bill allowing the Bible to be taught as literature in the public schools but cannot do the job of passing and keeping a budget balanced.  It has already been announced that millions are to be cut out of the budget from public education. Perhaps if these elected officials were to work more quickly we could save the approximate $70,000 we spend each day the Legislature is in session.

You may recall my mention that our Attorney General stated he was not going to waste the taxpayers' money to sue the federal government over the health insurance purchase mandate. A herd of Kentucky legislators wrote a letter to him strongly urging him to join the suit. If he had done this he'd be spending money we don't have even after the cuts to education.

We Kentuckians are often disappointed to learn our state is near the bottom in things like education but not the absolute bottom. Usually Mississippi or Arkansas is sitting on the bottom. Today it was announced that Indiana is joining the aforementioned suit. Oh well, thank goodness for Indiana!

In case you may have missed it Donald Trump hates Rosie O'Donnell. He is reported to recently say he hopes her newly announced show will fail, just as all her other shows have. In the book, "Who's Who in America" the description of Donald Trump is "well known sore ass." Rosie can be a little wound up about conspiracy theories, but she's smart and funny and speaks up. Nothing she does will cost Donald a dollar so he should just be quiet.

A poem about spending time in rooms in chairs:

The adults are captured and sit on
Chairs lining the walls in the large room.
They entered willingly, sit quietly, and
Seldom talk to anyone but clerks.

Men come alone or with the wife.

Women come with their sister or
More usually their daughter or niece.
Sons don't bring in the elderly parent.

This is an observational study on my
Part, as I am always alone myself at
These morning appointments where
My body but not my soul is examined.

As I am captured here with the others,
My mind wanders to a life where I have
Children and at least one daughter with
Whom I would be talking, while waiting.

March 29, 2010

A Green Eyed Woman

Two days after surgery on my eye, I'm in possession of a dilated pupil and a blood red eye. Reggie took a picture with his phone while I was at the eye doctor's yesterday. It looks a little better today but it's still red!
In my entire life I've never had surgery where they "put me to sleep". Five years ago there was the removal of two cataracts but I was awake. Over all it was reasonably pleasant. I'm glad it's over and I hope my vision becomes clear. From talking with the doctor it seems I'll need to not only go back this Monday, but every three months for a year.

I'm happy at the news that our Attorney General here in Kentucky is not tagging along with a few other AG's and filing suit against the federal government, trying to keep the health insurance purchase mandate from taking effect. He said that although he personally was in favor of Health Care Reform, the problem he had with the suit was it was based on bad law, the suit was a political stunt and he wasn't wasting the taxpayer's money to get involved. I applaud the man. He's running for the Senate seat vacated by that idiot Jim Bunning. You will remember he was a baseball player, longtime senator and author of the histrionics last month when he held up legislation extending unemployment insurance.

A friend sent me a news item about the lone male prostitute in the state of Nevada having quit. He said he only had 10 patrons and those were the female prostitutes in the same brothel. The owners of the facility state they plan on hiring a new male prostitute as soon as possible. Whew! I've always felt that if it is usual for men to be able to walk into houses of ill repute and purchase the services of a woman for sex, the opposite should be possible for women. The reasons given for a man to obtain sex with a professional is he likes variety and sometimes he just doesn't want to have to put up with a relationship with one woman. Hey, you pay for sex one way or another anyway, so why not make it an honest transaction. From my personal experience with men and sex those reasons are good enough for me!

Until this is possible for women I say we are not truly equal. SMILE

I Recken They're Leaving.

Last night several of my friends and I were glued to our computer screens tuned into C-Span [I don't have fancy cable to watch it on TV]. I had been watching all day while I did other things and sat down after supper with a pot of tea, abandoning all Sunday night network TV. It was a wonderful thing to watch. When those GOP guys shouted out and acted like drunken sailors, it was only better. I enjoy seeing who is and is not working for the people who elected them.

It is interesting to me how when the GOP was in power the last eight years and used every sneaky method to get the tax cuts for the rich, the big pharma bill [which was not funded and added to the deficit], the starting of a war, there wasn't any near riots on the streets, racist shouting, and uproar in the house by the liberals.

I stayed up long enough to watch President Barack Obama speak, as well as Congressman John D. Dingell. What a guy Rep. Dingell is and what a history. Some corporate thug fires his father because he was working to get a union in his plant in Michigan. He ends up going to California to recoup from TB. After that his dad becomes a Congressman and begins working for health care for all. Then his son Rep. John D. Dingell grows up to continue his dad's fight for health care for all. There he was when health care reform gets passed.

This is testimony that when you know something is right, you never give up.

There are YouTube videos of the group haranguing Congressmen going into the house over the week end. There were several break ins at Democrat representatives and party offices. I was told by my sister, who does not agree with me on this issue, that there's as much hate speech and hate deeds done by my side. I have yet to see it. I know if I saw some guy telling a disabled man he should "work for his health care," I would have taken the guy aside and taught him the realities of life's insecurities.

Oh, by the way all those Rush acolytes who will soon be moving south to Costa Rica, please be sure to have your passports ready.  They are required at our border leaving or coming back.

Warm Rain

I live in Louisville Kentucky, out on the edge of the older part of the city in a place called the Highlands. Unless you are on a high floor of a tall building you would never know how high the Highlands really are. There are no up and down hills. With everything built up, it seems you are on flat ground of about the same elevation as the nearby city center.

I have been writing on other things today while watching the Health Care Reform Bill debate in the House of Representatives in Washington. People who oppose the reform are cat calling at people in favor of the reform. All the ugliness of bigotry is shouted when a Representative walks near the crowd. Although no one in the hate filled group will ever admit it, I know they have friends and family who have suffered because of the greed of health insurance companies. If there is coverage for the poor and the middle class, I know there are people in the crowd today who cannot imagine not being insured, who will only get health care in their later life because of this reform.


I have friends who are against this bill. They have insurance because they have jobs or were retired from jobs where the large corporation or the government has a great health care plan. One of my friends in a discussion this past week told me she was happy about her current health care. She was treated for breast cancer. Her husband has chronic illness and has been in treatment for it for decades. The only thing that worries them is the eventual cap on coverage. I told her that the current plan for reform requires insurance companies to pay out 80% of premiums collected for all those on the plan and there will be no caps for covered people.


Another friend had to take bankruptcy because she was uninsured after a divorce. Her illness was not chronic. She prays she will get insurance with this reform because she can't take bankruptcy again so soon.


My belief about health insurance is there should be no profit making insurance carriers. The best way to handle this is a single payer plan. Everyone should pay health insurance premiums.


I wrote this poem this evening:

Rain falls in the evening, and a long
Smear wets the glass of a window.
Though it is nighttime here I see
Across the yard a reflection
In the light from inside the house.

Stepping outside I feel warm air and
The dampness of the night is more
Than refreshing as I breathe in the
Scent of growing green spreading
Across the field into the distance.

Though rain will continue tomorrow and
Snow will dust the green the day after,
Spring has arrived to the Bluegrass and
There are reports of hat making class and
Horses train again for the Derby.

March 21, 2010