While I am too technologically challenged of a Luddite to post pictures, I will try my hand at the unglazed letter of the day challenge posted by Jen.
http://unglazed.blogspot.com/
Today's letter is S.
S is for saltine crackers.
Sounds crazy, but saltines will always remind me of a sermon and a Bible lesson.
Jesus taught that people who love God are supposed to be the salt of the earth. Salt on the roads gives traction, and leaning on God gives traction to your life. Salt on food gives savor, and makes it taste good. We should flavor people's lives, leave a good taste in their mouths.
But like saltines, we should leave them thirsty, thirsty to draw closer to God.
In a way this should be easy enough for me. I'm a little bit (who am I trying to kid? a big bit!) crackers, so I might just as well be a saltine.
Today is:
Festal Day -- Order of the Eastern Star
Grape Blessing Day, Armenia
Hari Merdeka, Maylaysia (National Day)
Independence Day, Kyrgyzstan, Trinidad and Tobago
Love Litigating Lawyers Day (Yes, God tells us to love everybody, even litigation attorneys. He never said doing it would be easy.)
National Trail Mix Day
Solidarity Day, Poland
St. Aidan's Day
Summer Bank Holiday, UK
Wisconsin State Cow-Chip Throw
Birthdays Today:
Jeff Hardy, 1977
Richard Gere, 1949
Itzhak Perlman, 1945
Marva Collins, 1936
Frank Robinson, 1935
James Coburn, 1928
Buddy Hackett, 1924
Alan Jay Lerner, 1918
Arthur Godfrey, 1903
Maria Montessori, 1870
Today in History:
Traditional date upon which Ayonwentah (Haiwatha) and Deganawidah (The Great Peacemaker) assist the Iroquois tribes in establishing the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations), 1142
Lewis and Clark begin their expedition, 1803
A nuts and bolts machine is patented by Micah Rugg, 1842
The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1895
Edison patents the Kinetograph, 1897
Mrs. Adolph Landenburg, a horse rider, debuts the split skirt, 1902
Debut of Foghorn Leghorn, 1946
Moscow to Washington, D.C. "Hot Line" installed, 1963
Solidarity Labor Union forms in Poland, 1980
As I grocery shop, I add up the purchases in my mind, keeping a running tab of the total that I hope is just a little bit higher than what I am actually spending. I round up, in other words, to cover the sales tax and make sure I am not caught unaware at the counter and with too little cash.
So yesterday, I knew something was wrong when the total came up. I told the nice cashier that something just was not right.
She printed out a small, temporary receipt, just to look and compare. Sure enough, a couple of items had not made it onto the total, somehow she had passed them over the scanner and they had not "scanned". We took them back out of the grocery cart, and she scanned them again, and the total was much closer to what I was expecting, so I paid and began to walk away.
Then I checked the receipt again. This time, I realized three things. One, she had rescanned an extra item. Two, we had still missed an item. Third, the second item, the one we had still missed, I had bought two of them, and and its price came up higher than the shelf tag price, by $0.16.
My very first thought on the item missed was, well, so what if they missed that one item, I got charged more for the other, so what. Then I realized what I was thinking and was shocked at myself. Walking toward customer service to have the extra item removed, yet thinking about not bothering to mention that the nice lady missed an item? I looked again at the item missed, that the other had come up as too much, and knew I couldn't do that. I got in line to have one item removed, and the other added.
Then let's top it off with this. I realized after looking yet again that I had grabbed, probably because they had placed it over the wrong shelf tag, the one that is actually sixteen cents higher. This happens routinely at this store, the item not actually correlating to the tag directly under it, but just a bit to the side. It is always the slightly more expensive item that has the cheaper price under it. I find this unprovable form of dishonesty aggravating, and usually look more closely to begin with.
It hit me what a slippery slope I had been on. I was about to get my money back for an item that had clearly been charged to me twice. That is fine. I had considered for a moment, at the same time, just not bothering to pay for a second item because I "thought" I had been slightly overcharged for the other one that had scanned. That is unacceptable.
If I ever step on that slippery slope down, justifying my actions, refusing to be less than scrupulously honest in all of my dealings, what will I consider doing in the future?
I had the nice lady in customer service take off the item I had been charged for twice. As I did not feel like walking all the way back there to switch out two small boxes of noodles, I also simply had her ring up that second box. The whole transaction took about 3 minutes, as there was no one in line at customer service at that moment (very unusual, but I'll take it). I got all of ninety-one cents back.
Even more, I got a lesson in self deception. I have tried to be truthfully and scrupulously honest in the small details like this, because I know once you start down the slippery slope, you can gather downhill speed very quickly, and begin justifying your actions in bigger and bigger things. Even if I had been overcharged for one item, that's not a reason not to pay for the second one. It's a reason, if that had been the case, to get them to correct the price on the first and charge the right price on the second.
Either way, you do it the right way. First time, every time.
Yes, it was only a thought that popped up, and I quashed it as quickly as it came. It doesn't matter. I am no hero for doing it -- it was simply the right thing to do. I am responsible for doing what is right, every time, in little things and in big things.
"He who is faithful in the the little things..."
I hope I always will be.
I don't want to set one foot on that slippery downhill slope.
Today is:
Alexandrian New Year
Charisteria -- Old Roman Calendar Thanksgiving
Family Day, Tennessee
Frankenstein Day (Interesting, when juxtaposed to the next entry.)
Huey P. Long Day, Louisiana
International Pow Wow Ceremony, Gallup, NM
Julienne Fries Day
Mind Day
National Holistic Pet Day
National Toasted Marshmallow Day
Santa Rosa de Lima, Peru
St. Fiacre's Day
St. Pammachius' Day
Toasted Marshmallow Day
Victory Day, Turkey
Birthdays Today:
Cameron Diaz, 1972
Peggy Lipton, 1947
Frank "Tug" McGraw, 1944
Jean-Claude Killy, 1943
Warren Buffett, 1930
Ted Williams, 1918
Fred MacMurray, 1908
Shirley Booth, 1898
Huey P. Long, 1893
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1797
Today in History:
European leaders, in an attempt to end war "for all time", outlaw the crossbow, 1146
Founding of Melbourne, Australian, 1835
Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner, 1901
J.B. Parsons becomes the first African American judge of a US District Court, 1961
Guinon Bluford becomes the first African American astronaut in space, 1983
So, what does the world's most boring blogger blog about near the end of the month and at the end of the money, when her patience is thin, her time stretched, and her house in its usual "lived in by a tornado" look?
Well, if she is smart, she doesn't. She shuts up and goes and sits in a corner and behaves.
Then again, if I were smart, I wouldn't be writing the world's most boring blog, would I now?
So I am reduced to remembering a chance conversation with a former nurse (male) in a coffee shop the other day. He was talking about patients at the end of life on ventilators. He said he got out of nursing because he could not look these people, who had "living wills" stating they did not want this kind of intervention, in the face any more.
He noted that these so called living wills are violated all the time by doctors who want the patient kept alive, so the doctor keeps getting paid to "care for" the patient. He said these people's eyes haunted him, asking why they were being kept like this when they had left express orders saying "don't". The doctor would show up once a day, for 3 minutes, look at the chart, glance in the patient's direction, and never have to face them, then bill the insurance. Meanwhile, on him and the aids fell the actual care of people whose quality of life was deplorable, and who were ready to go.
I told him that really, these "health care directives", "living wills", even "health care powers of attorney" do nothing legally. The doctor gets to ultimately decide what happens, no matter the wishes of the patient. If the doctor wants the patient to suffer on, well, that's what will happen. If the family disagrees, they can go to court. That is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, of course.
Then there are the ones who are past looking you in the eye, who will never be themselves again, but "do everything you can to save grandma" says the family. Keep her on a ventilator for days because we don't want to have to grieve.
A third person, the one the nurse was speaking to when I joined the conversation, talked about losing his mom. He said, we knew she was ready, she had already said do nothing, so we kept her at home, and let her go. Her doctor knew, she was receiving care from her family and a home health nurse, and they just let go.
He said it wasn't easy, but they were at peace with it and so was she. Then, 4 months later, their dad, hale and hearty and riding his bike, hit a patch of water and slid and ended up getting thrown off, and seriously injured. They told the doctors not to provide extraordinary care when it became clear he would never recover. The loved him enough to let go, as they had discussed as a family. Much earlier than any of them wanted, but they knew what he wanted. In these cases, the doctor complied, too.
So, if we get this great mass of health care reform that is coming, ready or not, which will predominate? Will it be people's wishes, whether for or against extraordinary measures? Will it be whatever the family says? Will the doctors get to decide, and keep patients around, and in view of shrinking payments from insurance companies, will the amount they can make off these patients be part of the decision? (This is what the former nurse began with, that the doctors in the cases he had to care for were milking the system. I am not saying all, or even most, doctors would do this.)
Or will it be taken from our hands and be buried in a bunch of legislation? Or given over to a committee?
When the time comes, just let me go. Please. I hope it's a long time from now, after I get a chance to see lots of good things come to pass in this world. Because yes, boys and girls, even though bad things happen, lots of good things still happen.
When the time comes, let go.
Today is:
According to Hoyle Day
Day of Loose Talk -- Fairy Calendar
Feast of Augustus -- Old Roman Calendar
Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist
More Herbs, Less Salt Day
National Sarcoidosis Awareness Day (Sarcoidosis involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body. Just so you can be aware. Now one more thing for us to worry about.)
National Whiskey Sour Day
Nativity of Hathor (Egyptian goddess of Joy)
Swiss Winegrowers' Fete
St. Sabina's day (Patron Saint of Housewives)
Urda -- Old Roman Calendar, the Oldest Fate
Birthdays Today:
Michael Jackson, 1958
Elliot Gould, 1938
John McCain, 1936
Richard Attenborough, 1923
Charlie "Bird" Parker, 1920
Isabel Sanford, 1917
Ingrid Bergman, 1915
Preston Sturges, 1898
Today in History:
Era of Diocletian (Martyrs), the last major time of persecution for the early Christian churches, begins with Gen. Gaius Aurelius V Diocletianus Jovius becoming emperor of Rome, 284
Japan mints its first copper coins, 708
The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, is executed by order of Francisco Pizarro, 1533
The first Indian "reservation" is formed by the New Jersey Legislature, 1758
The first motorcycle is patented in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler, 1885
The chef of a visiting Chinese Ambassador invents "chop suey" in NYC, 1896
Speedy Gonzales makes his debut, 1953
In scanning health news this morning, I've come across yet another study that gives people a good reason to lose weight.
It seems being overweight or obese damages your brain, causing what researchers called "severe brain degeneration."
Overweight people have about 4% less brain tissue than average weight peers, and their brains appear to have prematurely aged about 8 years. The figures are doubled if you are obese, with 8% less brain tissue and premature aging of the brain of about 16 years.
The areas of the brain most affected were those associated with planning, long and short term memory, attention, movement, and executive function. All of this, of course, increases likelihood of Alzheimer's and probably of other things they didn't mention as well. One I could think of is the risk of falling, getting hurt, and getting into that vicious circle of weighing more, so you don't move as much, so you gain weight, and on it goes.
Granted, they only did brain scans on 94 people in their 70's. Still, if you are 73 years old and obese, and your brain is behaving as though it is already somewhere in its 80's, do you really think you are going to make it to the average life span in this country of 80 years? It does seem less likely. If you do, how much of "you" will be left?
This was published in the online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping.
On a lighter note (terrible pun intended), they say inside every 90 year old is an 18 year old wondering "what in the world happened?" when he/she looks in the mirror.
Today is:
Crackers Over the Keyboard Day (Are we supposed to go crackers over our keyboard, or tempt fate by eating crackers over our keyboard?)
Dream Day
Festival of Neon Revolution
Liberation Day, Hong Kong
National Cheese Sacrifice Day (Now you know why you purchased the cheese for the sacrifice! To let it age properly before the actual sacrifice. Still doesn't answer why we sacrifice it, anyway, or to whom.)
National Cherry Turnover Day
Nativity of Nephthys (Egyptian goddess of Love)
Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day
St. Augustine of Hippo's Day (Patron Saint of Brewers and Printers)
St. Hermes' Day
World Sauntering Day (So saunter somewhere.)
Birthdays Today:
LeAnn Rimes, 1982
Jack Black, 1969
Jason Priestley, 1969
Shania Twain, 1965
Scott Hamilton, 1958
Ben Gazzara, 1930
Charles Boyer, 1899
Leo Tolstoy, 1828
Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774
Johann von Goethe, 1749
Today in History:
The Western Roman Empire is formally disbanded and its emperor, Romulus Augustus, is ousted, 476
The Third Crusade begins with the seige of Acre, 1189
St. Augustine, FL, founded, making it the oldest city in the US, 1565
The first locomotive in the US, the "Tom Thumb", runs from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mill, 1830
James E. Casey begins the United Parcel Service in Seattle, WA, 1907
WEAF in NYC airs the very first radio commercial, for Queensboro Realty, at a cost of $100 for ten minutes, 1922
"He's a good man, but...."
Fill in the blank. He won't accept me the way I am. He says if I would just do what he says everything would be fine. He says if I would just change, life would be perfect. He demands that I have sex with him no matter what, even when he has been yelling at me and making me feel like crap. He is emotionally abusive.
Real life in the chat room yesterday. Makes my blood boil to watch a friend die from the inside from this crap. I finally got her to admit she feels like a whore, because she stays, and gives in to his sexual demands, because she only has unemployment now, so he holds all the cards.
If you have to follow a statement with the word "but", whatever preceded the "but" is usually a lie.
He is not a good man.
He had an affair, I am convinced. She told me about how he used to have a "friend" at work, and the friend got fired a while back, but before the firing he worked late with her and went on business trips with her. I cannot convince her that it was an affair, and she is too scared right now, because she is unemployed, to confront him.
So she continues the charade, the mockery of what God intended true marriage, true oneness of spirit, to be, just because she is afraid.
The kids are grown. It's just her and the dog.
They have had severe financial problems and are on the verge of bankruptcy.
He is not a good man.
He is abusive.
Another friend in chat, in trying to convince her, had to finally leave the room, because it reminded her too much of her mother, who used to make excuses for the father who would beat the toddler clinging to his leg with, "He's a good man, but..." excuses. She did the same with her own husband, and now her kids won't speak to her and blame her for what their dad did.
These men make me sick.
They are not good men.
Real life in the chat room yesterday.
Today is:
Feast of Incandescent Rebellion
Global Forgiveness Day
Just Because Day
Moldova National Day
National Pots de Creme Day
Nativity of Isis (Egyptian goddess of fertility)
Notting Hill Carnival, London, England
Ould Lammas Fair, Ireland
Petroleum Day
St. Caesarius' Day
St. Monica's Day
Birthdays Today:
Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens, 1952
Barbara Bach, 1947
Tuesday Weld, 1943
Martha Raye, 1916
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1908
C.S. Forester, 1899
Samuel Goldwyn, 1882
Today in History:
The Persian invasion of Greece is halted with Greek victories in two separate battles, BC479
Koreans battle and prevent Japanese invasion, 663
The first unmanned hydrogen balloom flight reaching 900 m altitude, 1783
Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes "Tarzan of the Apes", 1912
I've had this blank screen in front of me, mocking me, as I got dinner in the crock pot and fed kittens and did 2 loads of laundry and got them on the line and fixed breakfast and took care of email and online banking, and still I cannot think of a word.
So, maybe I will pick a random letter. The random number generator said 13, which is the letter M, so here goes.
M for manila, which rhymes with vanilla, which is sometimes very bland, like my life seems to be.
M for many, many hats that I wear.
M for mountains. I haven't been to mountains in years. When #2 Son came home from his vacation with the neighbors, he was very impressed by the mountainous areas they drove through between our swampy flat Louisiana and New York. We need a vacation to some mountains.
M for miles. The number of miles it puts on the van getting Bigger Girl and Neighbor Boy home from school is huge. I count my blessings, though, for if I had no Neighbor Boy's mother to carpool with, it would be twice as many.
M for meow -- the kittens are screaming again, they are dying of hunger, does no one care? After all, it's been almost 1 1/2 hours since they've been fed! How can we be so cruel? Cats are the ultimate drama queens, aren't they?
M for muscles, sore from exercise, and M for mind, tired from too much thinking.
M for my big mouth, which I will now close.
Bored enough already?
Today is:
Alice Doesn't Day
Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God's Day
First Thnork of the Year -- Fairy Calendar
Ilmatar (Finnish goddess of the Water Mother)
Make Your Own Luck Day
National Dog Day
National Cherry Popsicle Day
Namibia Day
Sky Day (Well, we do sort of take it for granted, this is a nice one, celebrate that we have a beautiful sky.)
Sultan's Birthday (on Zanzibar), Tanzania
Susan B. Anthony Day, Massachusetts
St. Zeohyrinnus' Day
Welling Pioneer Day, Canada
Women's Equality Day
Birthdays Today:
Macaulay Culkin, 1980
Branford Marsalis, 1960
Ben Bradlee, 1921
Mother Teresa, 1910
Christopher Isherwood, 1904
Peggy Guggenheim, 1898
Albert "Bertie" von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha, husband of queen Victoria, 1819
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1743
Today in History:
Chinese invent toilet paper, 580
Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta, 1498
The Pennsylvania Ministerium, the first Lutheran denomination in North America, is founded in Philidelphia, 1748
John Fitch is granted a US patent for his working steamboat, 1791
Charles Thurber patents a typewriter, 1843
Major eruption of Krakatoa, 36,000 dead, 1883
19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the vote, passes, 1920
My conspiracy theory friend is at it again.
He sends things for me to watch on different videos around the internet, even though I can't watch video on my computer as I have no sound. (I need to someday put a crowbar to the old wallet and buy some new speakers, but not while I'm still in a state of, "Do I have enough money for both bread and milk this week?")
All of these videos, clips, downloads and attachments (which my computer won't open anyway, long story short, my computer is allergic to attachments and shuts down when I try, even the Nerds can't solve this one), as well as the articles I can actually access, point to how the world is coming to an end, and those of us who resist will be forced at gunpoint to 1) receive untested and unsafe vaccines we don't want and which also secretly contain microchips that will allow the government to track our every move, 2) move to internment camps being built to house us, and 3) dance the funky chicken no matter how silly it makes us look.
Do I believe the government can solve all of our problems? No, nor should it, and it shouldn't even be trying. Personal responsibility is being given short shrift in this day and time.
Still, no matter what happens, no matter what government upheavals are in our future, no matter the economic woes, no matter what, one thing remains true.
Remember that you get to decide not what happens to you, but how you react to it, and the kind of person you become because of it.
Today is:
Begonia Festival, Belgium
Constitution Day, Paraguay
Discovery of the Runes
Fest of the Green Corn, Lake Champlain, New York
Great American Duck Day
Hershey Pennsylvania Dutch Days begin
Independence Day, Uruguay
International Zucchini Festival
Kiss and Make Up Day
National Banana Split Day
National Don't Utter A Word Day (I can't try this and teach a class, but I might suggest it for the daughter who talks me ear off! Then again, I'm glad she talks to me, so maybe I won't utter a word about it.)
National Second-Hand Wardrobe Day
Odin's Ordeal ends -- Norse
Opiconsivia -- Roman, Vestal Virgin Festival
St. Genesius' Day (Patron Saint of Comedians, Secretaries, Actors, Lawyers, and Patron against Epilepsy)
Birthdays Today:
Claudia Schiffer, 1970
Rachael Ray, 1968
Billy Ray Cyrus, 1961
Ann Archer, 1947
Regis Philbin, 1933
Sean Connery, 1930
Leonard Bernstein, 1918
Walt Kelly, 1913
Ruby Keeler, 1909
Clara Bow, 1905
Hans Adolf Krebs, 1900
Ludwig II, "Mad King" of Bavaria, 1845
Allan Pinkerton, 1819
Ivan the Terrible, 1530
Today in History:
The Council of Nicaea ends with the adoption of the Nicene Creed, 325
The Children's Crusaders under Nicholas reach Genoa, 1212
Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, 1609
Hundreds of French settlers arrive in New Orleans, which had been founded only a few months before, marking its true beginnings as a city, not just an outpost, 1718
Alice Meynell becomes the first female jockey, in England, 1804
British forces destroy the Library of Congress, which then contained about 3,000 books, 1814
Matthew Webb becomes the first to swim the English Channel, 1875
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