Back into the Groove
Jeeze-O-Pete how I love my home!As may have been mentioned previously somewhere on this blog, I'm a Virgo. I like things tidy, well planned and I love being home.
Home is, to me, heaven.
When I was a kid and had to memorize 2 bible verses every 2 weeks, one stuck out in my mind: the kingdom of god is within you (Luke, I think).
Now, I'm probably best described as a sympathetic, spiritual agnostic, but my own concept of heaven begins inside of me.
For me? My heaven is at least, in part, found in my home.
When I travel to a new place the first thing I do is check into my hotel and "arrange" I carry a big, plastic "Home" box with me with candles, toiletries, teas, snacks, pillow, all of the things that I need to make me feel I'm not in an alien environment. If there's a refrigerator in the hotel room I may stick a beer in there, and then I leave for my teaching gig.
When I finish my teaching for the day I return - home! It makes me feel so much more settled as I teach to be able to visualize my room, my stuff, my beer - all waiting for me to return to my temporary home.
It makes me understand why homeless folks get so attached to any small thing that they have.
Hey - remember when we didn't have homeless (well, not in the droves we do now) back in the 70's? Just sayin' I remember telling a friend in 1980, "The only folks who are homeless in the US want to be homeless." That wasn't true for much longer.
One thing waiting for me at home was a big package of yarn for a project I'm doing. It's a coat for Stitchy McYarnpants new book - I'm not sure how much more I can say (I hate secrets... I'm a total surprise party killer) but it's going to be amazing.Unfortunately as Max was rolling one of the balls of yarn, and Mommy was being a little less supportive than she should have been, the whole thing got kind of screwed up and we ended up with this mess of Casbah.
Heaven and earth were moved to get me this yarn (read: no more was available), so I was pretty frustrated. And my amazing, wonderful, loving husband sat bedside last night watching a documentary on Patton and rolling the mess into a ball. Is that love?
Last night was pulled-apart parent night again as Gerry took Hannah to her Breakthrough Program and I accompanied Max to his baseball game.After 2 seasons of straight wins, the Dodgers are feeling the pain of losing so many excellent older kids (they moved on to the bigger leagues) and taking in a lot of really young kids.
They have yet to win a game this Summer, but they played their hearts out last night! Max got a homer (yay!) but has to work on his fielding.
So slowly - S L O W L Y - I'm finding my St. Paul Legs again. Today I see my accupuncturist again, hoping to get back on top of the breathing. The tomato plant and beans are doing well, and I'll ride over to see if I can pick up another Topsy Turvy Planter for my cucumber (which is NOT doing well...)
Best of all will be seeing my old friends again. This Saturday is Knit In Public day, so I'm hoping to join my knitting group at one of the exciting events. Then later I'll knit in private with my friend London as we head over to her place for some barbeque and the running of the poodles. Happy days!
I'm hoping to see some of London's new stuff - she just put a bunch of new yarns up at Etsy (she dyes and spins) and she always has something exciting & lovely to play around with!Single Payer Option
And one more thing... My family's been SO lucky to have been able to retain insurance for the past 2 years. We thank Gerry's union, IATSE Local #1, for that. But almost 50 Million Americans aren't as lucky, and that number is growing.
The current system only helps one group: The large Health Insurance and HMO lobby.
Why do we NEED these highly paid middle men mucking up our health and telling us what doctors and medicine we can and can't use?
It's widely agreed that Single Payer is the way to go, but that option is not even ON THE TABLE because of the strength of the health insurance lobby.
If we don't stand up for ourselves, the corporate insurance giants will make sure that Single Payer isn't even open for discussion.
Make sure YOUR representatives in congress know where you stand - and that your voice is as loud as the rustling of cash and checks from lobbyists.
Feed me, baby!
9 Comments:
Your little thing on the homeless reminded me of a "Father Knows Best" episode I saw where Bud brings home some kid from school because he was living in a box car on the edge of town. The kids parents had died (I thnk) and he did not have any family so he had been scavenging for food. Of course, Dad was able to find a nice family to take the kid in, but it was weird to think that there was this sort of thing even being shown on T.V. back then.
As a Virgo, I empathize with your "homey" feelings. And can't think of many messes that I'd like to be surrounded by thatn a mess of Casbah! I think it's been true for a very long time that most of the homeless are not so by choice. Even back in the 50's I remember homeless men (many WWII vets, coming to our door asking for handouts. My mom & aunt explained that they were down on their luck & it was our duty to be as generous as possible. There have always been that kind of homeless at least in the Chicago area. The numbers spiked in the 70's because the SRO hotels where a lot of the downtrodden stayed (they cost about $1 a day then) were torn down to build high rise luxury or at least upper middle class housing. And it's been getting worse every year. They've been tearing down high rise public housing (horrible for sure but possibly better than the street?) & replacing it with high end housing. Oh yeah, it's "mixed use" which means that about 10% of the units are reserved for former tenants of the obliterated public housing. They have been building some public housing but I don't think they've replaced even half the units that were destroyed. I agree 100% with you on teh public option. We need a single payer system similar to that in the UK. Anything else will be a boondoggle costing more than we are now paying & covering less than it needs to cover. And there will still be people who can't afford it. We need health care that is like police or fire protection or public schools - most if not all of those were called socialist when they were first started too. Now is the time to contact your representatives. I just sent a long email to Dick Durbin (I am lucky enough to have him as my senator - I love that man - his heart is in the right place & he's not afraid to vote his conscience. Forgive me if I came on too strong but my "baby" sister was hit by a pick up truck while riding her bike 4 weeks ago. She was very seriously injured & getting less than the best treatment because, as waitres, she is uninsured.
OK, Annie; OK, Max---do NOT blame yourselves for Casbah foul-ups. I have been lucky enough to acquire 2 skeins of Casbah, on 2 separate occasions. In each instance, while using the ball winder and swift that has successfully wound many a skein from lace to bulky, the Casbah ended up all messed up. Your experiences confirms my suspicion that it's not us, it's the lovely Casbah!
Mary Anne
a happy participant in your classes at Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI last fall :-)
i don'tmean to sound obtuse, but what's single payor? having fun dealing with insurance here, too
Here's a link to Wikipedia's section on Single Payer Health Care.
Basically it means ONE entity (instead of 40 insurance companies) pays the bill. A single payer.
It's how Medicaid currently works, and healthcare in most other industrialized nations.
The bone of contention is that single payer would mean NO profit for the health insurance co's, which have used their lobbying might to try to wrangle it off the table so it's not even up for consideration by Sen Bachus.
And that's why there are so many well funded campaigns against this sensible alternative to the inflated, expensive, non-working system we currently have in the US.
Having had a 27-year career in the health insurance industry, I have always wished that everyone could work in that field for a period of time, especially in the underwriting department. I think your views on the industry would change dramatically.
Having said that, I am happy to see that my employer is not included in the lists that you referenced.
Mary G. in Texas
Was Gerry watching a documentary on Patton or Patons?
:D
PS: If Gerry ever gets tired of it, there's a whole group on Ravelry (myself included) who enjoy untangling yarn.
What is Gerry's secret?? I'm having a bit of a timeout with a new Araucania laceweight that despite being untied properly, is refusing to be wound into a proper skein. (The yarn's in timeout, and I guess I am too...)
Anyway -- help me resist pulling the damn thing off the swift and donating it to the cat!
I love your deck. Does the furniture stay out there all season? What kind of rug do you have down? I'm a Twin Cities girl currently living in Iowa. I love your neighborhood. Beautiful homes. Grand Ave is the best place for unusual shops! And walking down Summit Ave in the fall is such a treat. Deb
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