Batten Down The Hatches

It's amazing to me how quickly the economy has dipped to an alarming level. In retrospect, it feels like one house of cards fell, then another, then another and they have been continually falling. I truly think the overspending and stupid spending of this administration started it all but then it feels like there was a major pile-on and now we're all under it.

So, all those Baby Boomers who are my age or somewhat younger are beginning to wonder if they are ever going to be able to retire. We're watching our investments dwindle on a daily basis and it doesn't feel like there are any safe alternatives. I'm beginning to wonder if there is any audience left for Dennis Hopper to appeal to. There has been lots and lots of talk in the past about Social Security and Medicare having no future financially but that's starting to feel more and more likely now. I have to admit, the idea of working forever isn't what I signed up for. So, if all of us who are over 50 start getting the boot, the average age of employees at Walmart may eventually be 55 or higher.

I have to wonder if more and more Boomers are going to start dropping dead at work since they are having to work longer years in their pressure cooker environments when tolerance for age seems to be lower than ever. That's not a pleasant thought for the dropper or for the surrounding witnesses.

In my particular case, I'll be very surprised if Congress and/or the new president don't take some sort of drastic action on health care and that will most certainly impact my work and life. Only the fact that it would take a considerable amount of time to affect significant change in the insurance industry leaves me any hope of being able to finish out where I'm at.

It is heartening to see the Boomers picking up the mantle for greening America as demonstrated by this photograph you can almost see. I feel the good old social consciousness raising again. Give my generation a good cause and we're there. I'm just looking forward to the music that comes out of this millennium's Woodstock.

We'll see. If there's one thing of which I can be certain it's change, repeatedly.

Aging At Disneyland

I'm going to share here all the fun I had last week at Disneyland. That would be me and 16 others in our party. Never mind, it's too confusing to explain. And yes I mean Disneyland not the bogus look-a-like in hurricane land but the real, true Walt Disney originated land where his footprints still point the way; the one that most appeals to purists like me, but I digress.

I noticed a few abnormalities this trip from my prior three. Getting in and out, up and down and over and back all became increasingly difficult this time.

Walking away from the raft ride and noticing there were chlorine burns on the lower backs of my legs where significant splashes of water had made their way to my body through the various raft openings.

Neglecting to wear a hat resulted in a bright red scalp that will itch till the cows come home.

By the end of the third day, I was in junk food trauma. I must say though, the addition of fruit carts (I think I saw a total of two) was a plus. Unfortunately, I never could find them when I was actually hungry and not about to go on a stomach wrenching ride.

I foolishly wore shoes I thought would be comfortable vs. shoes I knew would be comfortable and the lack of arch support was challenging. What really fries you is watching flip flops after flip flops slapping by you while your blister and arches are screaming.

But in between the limping, there were great ride experiences like Thunder Mountain Railroad with some thumbs up riders you see here.

When thinking about the cost of everything there, I would have to say that Disneyland is not the place for those on a fixed income or who have a tendency toward motion sickness. I do have to admit I got a great picture of my niece's husband's face on the teacups when he obviously should have abstained.

Then there were the repeated instances of ride failure as you will witness in this picture when we had gotten all the way to the front of the line when they shut it down just before we could put our feet into the Splash Mountain logs. Hence the fat lips, which were retracted when we were given multiple fast passes for later. There are some significant engineering issues with many of these rides. I think they're struggling to handle the crowds and I do mean hundreds of thousands. FYI - for that reason alone, fast passes are pure heaven.

I also predict that in the not too distant future, in the battle of the scooters and the strollers, old coots on scooters will definitely prevail. Actually, maybe they'll invent a scooter with a second seat for a kid, kind of like those double strollers you see. That sounds pretty funny but presents a definite possibility.

We only had one experience where a big, fat guy yelled at us and blocked us from going forward a couple of people in the line to be with the rest of our party (there were 17 of us in total). So, the rest of our party insisted he go ahead so they could be with us. The rest of the line for all intents and purposes told him he was a jerk and he was. The payoff was that my sister and I got called ahead of him and his family to join an earlier raft, we did enjoy that irony.

So, how was my trip, you ask. I completely, totally and uncategorically loved it. Anyone who doesn't enjoy Disneyland has truly lost their youthful imagination and ability to enjoy pure fun; and that makes me sad. But not sad enough to dampen my happy memories, sorry.

Confrontational Bicycling

I'm wondering if Portland has reached a critical mass of bikers yet? I ask the question because it appears that associated complaints, run-ins, accidents and fatalities are eerily frequent. We passed a biker laying on the ground after being hit just yesterday (no car in sight, which said to me hit and run) and the paper this morning talked about some major road rage where the bicyclist actually hit the driver of the car and then climbed up on top of the hood of the car for four blocks. I guess he made his point, which was that the driver was going too fast.

It isn't that I think we could actually have to many biking, it's more that I'm not sure the city is set up to accommodate as many as we have. Specifically, do we have enough bike lanes, enough bridges open to bikes, enough blue boxes, enough bike racks or any other bike accommodations that would make the coexistence thing more pleasant and healthy for all involved?

I don't know if anyone is looking into these issues or if I'm the only one asking the questions. It seems like there are times when the questions don't get asked until we have reached a sufficient death toll, that's what I want to prevent. I know I see a huddle of probably 50-70 cyclists at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge each morning; I'm sure they're talking about issues such as these. The trick is how to get the non-bike riding public to sit up and pay attention, before they're on the wrong end of a bumper incident with a non-auto body.

Of all the times I've been in Europe, I've never witnessed a bike/car incident and they have exponentially more on the road as well as more motorcycles and scooters. Although, from what I understand, we have a larger scooter population than anywhere else in the country. I'm kind of proud of that even though I don't have one, at least I'm related to one.

On that note, it's time to go practice. Welcome back to me!

Intestinal Fortitude

Right now, I'm trying to outlast my grandson who doesn't appear to think he needs a nap. He has been in his nap room for exactly 40 minutes and still appears (the audio version anyway) to be going strong. His parents will not be happy with me if he doesn't take a nap, especially since they are supposed to take him to a play group party immediately after he wakes up. Hopefully, he'll collapse in there at some point in the next few minutes. I don't dare go in there to try to get him to go to sleep (tried that before) because he will be up, up, up at that point with no hope of any shuteye after that.

He's been talking the whole time, some counting, some reciting the alphabet, some talking about what he did earlier today. He's cracking me up so it's a good thing he can't see my face. I'm hoping for a miracle in the next 15 minutes or so.

This weekend's weather has represented one of the ironies of life. The entire last two weeks it has been hot, hot, hot, like summer should be, albeit quite humid. This three day weekend, it has been overcast and just barely warmish. Then, on Monday, it's supposed to immediately go back to sunny and mid-80's. Hence the irony. Oh well, maybe it prevented some of the fires that seem to go hand-in-hand with fireworks.

I swear, every time he gets quiet, a Harley drives by or the phone rings or the neighbor starts hammering. I'm about ready to give up. I definitely have to relearn the art of getting things done while the baby's asleep, which I think he might be now.


I can remember when my girls were little I would kick into superwoman mode at this point to achieve all my nap objectives. It seems silly now but I have the added challenge of a house that squeaks and creaks with most of my steps so I have to watch where I step while I'm at it. I'd better dig deep and find some of that previous s.w. energy because it's no where on the surface.

OK, it's official, he's been quiet for the last 10 minutes so I'm outta here. Hasta la vista.

You Forget It's Summer

You know how you're walking downtown on your lunch hour and you see a family in their shorts and carrying backpacks, pointing at a map? All of a sudden, it occurs to you that it's summer. That just goes to show how caught up we get in work, ugh!


Anyway, I can't complain because the following pictures illustrate where I've been the last three days at an internal conference for our Actuaries. It was a beautiful spot with more than enough to do to keep you busy or plenty of space to relax, whatever your pleasure.





While we were there, we spent 3 hours outside doing something called Geo-caching. This was quite the exercise to develop our team skills through competition. Each team of 10 had 3 hand held GPS devices, one palm pilot and a digital camera all to help us find as many of the 20 "cached" items around the property as we could. It was really fun and interesting to see who stepped up to a leadership role because if someone didn't you couldn't function, let alone win.

And no, we didn't win, in fact we came in last because one of our team members was so heavy and out of shape that she looked like she was a heart attack candidate most of the time. Her face got so red it was almost purple. The hot, stuffy air (there was lightening hitting the ground in the mountains around us) wasn't helping anything. Because she couldn't keep up with the rest of us, we were severely limited in what we were able to do. Nevertheless, we had some successes and we never deserted her or any other team member. It was good to get to know each member of the team. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

This is quite the week considering I have exactly one day left (tomorrow) in the office. Poor me!