putting this out there

“What keeps you up at night?” said the newsman to the guest. The guest didn’t answer it. I suppose the guest was a politician. I answered it. “Wealth inequality,” I said aloud. After all, it is why the Roman Empire fell, right? And as I write this, I’ll add income inequality to it. Ultimately, that is supposed to be the way one acquires wealth, right? By earning income. And the wealth inequality horses are already out of the barn.

DH reminds me regularly of the Harvard Business school students who refused to sign the ethics pledge. I believe they were of my generation. The double-digit inflation of the 70s-80s taught my HS graduating class it was every man for themselves, and that’s how we’ve behaved economically throughout our lives. Remember yuppies? There was a reason for that. Just as we were coming of age to earn our way and pay the bills, we saw rents double and triple, and food and others essentials do the same.

I attribute the lack of ‘in touch’ ethical and knowledgeable public servants and leaders in my generation to those economics. We average Joes and Janes could not afford to serve; we knew we would have to scrap to just keep getting food and shelter. Especially with the elimination of regular minimum wage raises to honor the dignity of working.  Those who were left to serve publicly were-are rich and-or ethically dubious and-or with an agenda (theocracy, anyone?)

Sigh. I feel like I’ve played by the rules my whole life and still not done enough - DH having to retire early with the reduced social security benefit and a finite retirement account, and now with what I perceive to be the kids’ financial jeopardy of buying a house with limited income - the retirement I’d hoped for may be out of reach. So I’ll go to the doctor and try to keep fit and well enough to keep working at my good job, with ‘invisible’ monies (retirement contributions, health care subsidies) dong their part to provide the best future and end of life scenarios I can manage.

Of course there are other reasons my generation lacks leaders. Even as I put this out there, I wonder if I have the fortitude for sustained discussion of it. I know I have the capacity to learn, grow, and change from other perspectives, so I welcome them. But I certainly don’t have the extroversion and energy needed to deal with the constant peopling of leadership! I am grateful for those who have those skills and are using them to benefit the most people possible. May their work bear good fruit for all.

Daily Check-In February 19, 2023

Good morning!

Partly cloudy here today, but it’s been warm and sunny enough that the ground has slowly been drinking the ten inches of snow moisture. This morning I didn’t even need boots for the depth; it’s melted to maybe an inch on the yard. Glad for that, because I’d rather clean up wet paws than muddy ones. We’ll have those later today!

Thanks for the stories and music and quotes to start the day. The Fastelavnboller look decadent. 

We have Paczski here too, Barb! Our local grocer sells them, and doesn’t break out king cakes until the final week. I prefer my Paczski (pronounced poonch-key here) with blueberry or white cream filling, and probably shouldn’t eat them any more than the king cakes! 

I bought a mini king cake a couple days ago. It’s no Sucre, but the memories are sweet, and I want the grocer to keep making them.

A calorie free way to enjoy the season has been reading my birthday present from DH last year:

Anja thank you again for creating all this after the demise of Sparkpeople, and thank you Jeanknee (and anyone else I’m less aware of) for helping to maintain it! My ‘invisible friends’ ‘online friends’ ‘friends I’ve never met’ mean the world to me ❤️.

"Daily" Check-In

Catching up, and I'm putting this here because I have a feeling I will go on and on; too long of a post for a conversational thread. Hope my pals can find it!

The weather is frightful; yesterday only support staff had to report to work (or use leave; I did a bit of both), today we are closed. The high temperature will be in the negative Fahrenheit *before* wind chill. brrrr

Anja - Benji would love a barn hunt. And thanks for the advice to 'use email' to post from the phone; I hope to have time to look into that.

Favorite Christmas gift of all time? Probably the baby doll I got when I was around 4 years old? I named her after myself, calling her "Leesha Baby". Also, DH has given perfect gifts to me multiple times: a ring when we reconciled, a camelback when I was training, this laptop with a 10-key. I don't remember if any were attached to 'occasions' though; the camelback would likely have been my birthday. The ring was in December, I know.

The 1-1 dollar match gift from OKM that paid for my teen school trip to Mexico ranks right up there, too. It not only covered Christmas and Birthday, but other gift-giving as well. So. Worth. It. Lifetime memories, for sure.

A lot has happened since my last post. DD tested positive for covid and had to quarantine for 5 days. She improved rapidly, thank goodness, and got bored enough to clean out her car.  (She never does that. When I ride, she always says, "Don't look in the backseat, Ma." LOL) Unfortunately, SIL is not faring as well. He had the same symptoms, but has tested negative repeatedly. :(  

I got a prescription for albuterol to try it out. I. Am. Loving. It. So much easier breathing with this medicine. Problematic in some ways; it's a learning curve to self-administer the inhaler. I was disappointed at how far I could expand my lungs to get my first puff this morning; I reminded myself that's why I am on this medication. That reminds me, I need to call and ask the Dr. about 1 puff every 3 hours vs. 2 puffs every 6 hours. BRB.

Okay, that task completed.

This year, the holidays coincide - Hanukah began the evening of December 18th, and the last candle lighting will be the evening of December 25 (Christmas Day). With two sets of holiday traditions to cover at the same time, I find it harder. I haven't made latkes yet and wonder if I'll get to it *scream emoji*, and the Christmas gifts for DH and work colleagues are not what I would like them to be. Throw in illness and weather, and, well, I guess I'm grateful to have lived as long as I have, so I can roll with it, go with the flow, accept that it is what it is.

We did porch drop offs and exchanges with 'the kids' (DD and SIL), and zoom candlelightings for nights 1 and 2. Night 3 she came over masked. She was stir crazy yesterday, with her work cancelled for weather, so she came over; and tonight we'll zoom again because of weather.  I've got to be flexible whether I like it or not! I learned that at my regulatory job back in the 1990's, actually. lol

Chris, I do wish you could send excess heat our way. Man plans, mother nature laughs. Thank you for your descriptions from the other side of the world. It helps keep things in perspective.

Hugs and love and Merry Christmas, belated Happy Solstice, Peace and Joy to you all, ~Ace

Puzzling

 Ah, what a satisfying puzzle!

It took me almost six months to complete it, and provided many hours of enjoyment. The completion of it was so fulfilling that I weeded out several other puzzles and moved them along. I used this one for some ‘heat days’ - keeping myself indoors when weather conditions were dangerous on the hot side. I’ve used this technique to keep myself safe on snow days in recent years. I get terrible cabin fever and tend to go outside before the end of the day! Nowadays I have to consider that my physical abilities are not what they once were, further compromising my safety.😞

Along those lines, if google is to be believed, my right side should feel better in about six weeks. On Wednesday morning, I slipped in the bathtub, and likely mildly bruised a rib. No pain while breathing, so I figure I’m okay. A sharp intake of breath to sneeze was uncomfy a day or two ago; seems better now.

Then yesterday, I walked wrong (probably changed direction too quickly), and it feels like a mild groin pull. I can get around with an occasional “dr dr it hurts when I do this”, so I don’t do that. A part of me is sad that I don’t seem to be as young and spry as I was - oh the things we take for granted - and a part of me is oh so grateful I got to NYC when I did. I was a bit lame on that trip, but today I feel older and more unhealthy.

Getting by, though, and life is good. Grateful for the weekend after a busy month at work (timing that by how far behind I was in looking at OKM’s blogs). Enjoying delicious coffee from Yemen with rumchata creamer. ❤️ Have a good until I see you again 🤗

Happy Canada Day!

Just a little test to see if I can still blog if the whim hits.  Benji says hello, too.

Good Sunday Morning

 Hello, everyone.

The weekend is lovely (I am using my denial skills to forget about work). SPINNINGJ brought me a delightful butterfly puzzle yesterday - 1000 pieces with a repeating pattern - so if I ever finish the penguins, I'll have that stay-at-home activity to keep me occupied. And dear niece also sent a second two-sided one, so I am set for jigsaw puzzling for now!

Yesterday DD and SIL were over as usual. I baked brownies for SIL, since his birthday was the day before. It warmed my heart to see the delight on his face when I insisted he finish off the last of them. It also made clean-up this morning easier, with no leftovers to put away and just the dish to wash. The young people made quick work of those 😀

As things get busier - daylight, springlike temperatures - I found myself grateful for blogs this morning. I can catch up when I am not as busy, but the writer might be. Let's go backwards today:

2-13 blogs

2-12 horchata

2-11 rain, people who feed me, the bombas box footrest OKM gave me to use at work while I cover another desk during a maternity leave

2-10 bras, adding machines, fancy coffees, senses of humor, custodians

2-9 Suze Orman

2-8 Encanto. Brushes - hairbrushes and toothbrushes. My body.

2-7 The diversity in my workplace.

On the subject of gratitude for my body, I thought OneKidsMom wrote a lovely tribute in her blog the other day:

"Time to remind us all that we have ONE amazing body, issued to us at birth (or before, depending on when you start counting)... and its up to first our parents and then to ourselves, to take the best care of it we can, while it does amazing things for us.  Like keeping us going, alive!  It converts food to energy.  It heals wounds and injuries.  It resists illness and infections.  It does all these things as long as it can, and it's our job to do the best we can to provide it with high quality input:  clean water, fresh nutritious food, activity for body and brain.  It's easy to take our body for granted or to criticize it for not looking a certain way... but my goodness, what a functioning vehicle for life!" 

Thanks for putting that into words, sis.

If you haven't read or don't follow, the complete blog should be here:

https://onekidsmomspark.blogspot.com/

 off to the rest of the weekend ... may you have a good one as well 💝

Gratitude catch-up

 1-29 Family Movie Nights

1-30 DH brewed coffee with caffeine

1-31 hairpins and scrunchies 

2-1 my sinus is draining (beats it backing up!)

2-2 dreams that help me work out emotions; pretty smelling hand soap

2-3 I filled my tires with air BEFORE the cold snap; the blue of the early morning sky

2-4 the process of elimination 

2-5 OKM helped me get to Mexico when I was young (15); my late sister-in-law helped me get to know my brother by asking me to babysit my niece every week

2-6 Today I am grateful that I am not a nurse. I knew I was never cut out for it, and I just watched a TV piece about the situation nurses are in now. 🙏🙏🙏 I am so grateful for the nursing care I received when I had DD. Thank you nurses everywhere.