Unemployment of 10%?

We may have hit this number some time during my lifetime but I sure don't remember when. Another one of those firsts you don't want to align yourself with as in being one of the unemployed or as in causing the problem in the first place. It's a significant concern because many who have already retired have now lost far more money than they can afford in the stock market on top of everything else.

In all the 23 years I've been in Benefits, this is the first Open Enrollment where we have repeatedly heard from employees that they were just thankful to have a job and benefits. This has been amazing since we made more significant cuts in our benefits this year than we have in at least 5 years. What we're finding is that those who are complaining loudest are the ones who are having performance issues in their jobs already so I guess you could say, no loss.

Day after tomorrow will be the last day of my formal eight week fitness program. I have every intention of continuing indefinitely but it will be on my own (along with my team who all want to continue too). I have not yet come close to my goals but I absolutely intend to hit and even surpass them if I can. And yes, I'd love it if I could get into these shorts.

The strength and energy I have now are a new phenomenon for me, I'm unwilling to give them up. I'm better able to keep up with Beckett and with 3 more on the way (not all local but I want to be involved anyway), I will need more flexibility, muscle and endurance than ever. It's been an amazing program as well as very challenging. Changing your life routines and never succumbing to tiredness or laziness is very difficult, especially when life altering events occur. Nevertheless, it's worth the effort.

Off to get some work done. Tomorrow night I hope to get back to the piano too. That's going to take me a while since it's been about 3 weeks.

When Is Enough, Enough?

We have now officially attacked Syrian soil. OK, let me rephrase that. The U.S. has now conducted this attack, I do not want to be directly implicated in this ludicrous behavior as I would be by using the pronoun of "we". How many other nations are we going to piss off before we get this blankety-blank idiot out of office? It's almost like he's trying to see how far we can push the rest of the world until they finally react in the most negative of ways I might add. Either that, or he's clueless (which goes without saying), and his generals and cabinet feel so empowered they can virtually ignore good, common sense and do whatever they damn well please, screw the consequences.

Unbelievable; and we, the American people, just sit by and keep letting this crap happen repeatedly.

With my mom's situation and work about as tense as it can be, I don't feel like I even have time to keep up on day-to-day events yet I also feel like I can't afford not to. I'm so worried about what kind of a world we are leaving to the generation of babies born recently or to be born soon. I know generation after generation has said exactly the same thing and everything has gone just fine, sort of, but the severity of the results of our actions is much worse than it's ever been (except perhaps in WWII) so it bears pondering.

This is not the kind of positive note I want or need to start out my week. I think I'll go soak in a very hot tub and try to steam this funk out of me.

The Stroke of a Stroke

My blog absence has been due to my mom's recent incapacitation from a bi-lateral stroke to the frontal lobe of her brain that fully affected her a week ago last Sunday. So, I have been living at the hospital for all intents and purposes for the last 7 days. Today, we moved her to a skilled nursing facility and tomorrow the therapy team there will begin the rebuilding process to get her brain to hopefully reboot somewhere near the level of its previous operation.

I'm hopeful there will be a lot of changes for the better as a result of this scary event. Thinks like my dad actually purchasing hearing aids that are worth their salt and wearing them, Deb and I clearing out their house so she can actually walk around without falling over her stacks of stuff yet again, and the end of her buying clothes that aren't even her size and other stuff she has no room or use for. At least, those are my goals.

I'm too tired to go any further. I'm ready for my PTO now, ha ha. This has truly been a topsy-turvy October. I don't know the date or the day of the week these days. But I'm confident Mother is now on the mend so it doesn't really matter.

Tomorrow she gets to see her dog again (they allow them in this facility, we saw 4-5 different dogs today of all sizes). I don't know who will be more excited, her or Dolly.

Waiting...

He'll be here any minute, another day with baby boy. These are the days I live for. Will I be worn out at the end, certainly. Will I be entertained throughout, absolutely. Will I be amazed at his 2 year old intellect, undoubtedly (how many two year olds do you know who can spell, read some little words, know all their letters and numbers up to 20 and beyond).

On the other hand, he doesn't like anyone dressed up in anything other than normal clothes including himself. That means this Halloween will be in his Batman pj's since we can actually talk him into wearing those.

He doesn't like any group singing other than on a CD. Singing him Happy Birthday was very unpopular, but of course we did it anyway and he actually survived.

He doesn't like loud noises like that of the first present he opened. It's kind of a loud suction and he insists it be turned off. I suppose this comes from keeping his environment pretty quiet and low key. I'm sure he'll grow out of this once he plays with others more frequently.

If the day warms up like it did yesterday, we're taking off for the park. That's one of our favorite things to do and it helps to make him tired enough to actually take a nap too. That's something else he sometimes fights, but what kid doesn't?

His favorite food is IKEA meatballs. Does that make him a hipster or a yuppie toddler? I'll leave that to Kara to answer.

All I know is when I see that grinning face, nothing else matters.

Procrastination Syndrome

Why is it when I have so much work and practicing to do and cardio to complete, that I find myself sitting here at the keyboard? I think it's because this serves as my best form of relaxation and stress relief. When I am focused on thinking, creating and writing, I'm not thinking about all the bad stuff in my life. I suppose it's just another form of the escapism I've talked about before. I don't think I'll be arrested or go to hell for it though so I guess it's OK regardless.

Today is my mom's birthday. My sister and I took her to a beauty salon where the gal cut and styled her hair and then gave her a 1 hour, 20 minute pedicure. While she was getting her pedicure, we brought her a crab cake lunch with broccoli/cheese soup, which was what she wanted more than anything else. She looked so cute in her chic hairdo and her sassy toes. (Granted, this pic shows her same hairdo with someone else's face.) It's so interesting how your hair style can make you look so much younger, even at 79. Of course, we had to instruct our dad on how to help her keep it looking that way from here on out. That should be interesting because she can't spray the back which is required to get the little poof back there she needs. Anyway, I think she thought it was a stupendous birthday and that makes it a very good day for all of us.

We finally got all our Halloween decorations up today. They are very entertaining (my husband is the king of fiber optics) and really get you in the mood for Fall in a big way. We won't do pumpkins since every year we've done them, no matter what city we've lived in, someone always came up on the porch and smashed them. I'm not interested in any more "smashing pumpkins" (tee hee).

The sunshine today and through the next week is so energizing. The brightness and warmth really encourages me to get a bunch of stuff done, just not the same stuff I really need to do. Ugh! I guess I need to stop stalling now. Hasta la vista.

The Price Is Right

Isn't it interesting how the best things in life really don't cost you much money, if any, it's more about the time and sometimes the sweat required of you. The sweat part can be hard, especially with weight training, but how it makes you feel is totally worth it. It's finding the time to do anything that is becoming the most precious of commodities. As the family keeps growing, as the job becomes more and more hectic, as friends' lives become more hectic, you have to grab at any opportunity to actually spend time with people, go to special events, complete the two year old project, water the plants...you get the picture.

The whole concept of the time machine becomes more and more enticing but the realization you're actually missing out on what's happening in the place you were originally mars the attraction. Now, if you could stop time, that would be something else entirely or find one of those wrinkles in time. That's why reading period pieces or watching videos of same are so refreshing. It feels just a tiny bit like time travel, that is if you have much in the way of imagination. And no, I'm not talking about these although I used to barrel through them because they required absolutely no thinking, they simply provided escape. The problem with them is, everyone of them started to sound like that last. They went beyond predictable. I don't know how the authors can keep writing them because there are no new plots, they've all been done before.

Anyway, I need to grab what's left of my time this evening and get some things done. Same o, same o.

A Ditty

The time is short, OJ's in court, Wall Street is crazy, the future is hazy.
Which way to turn, the news is all churn, Palin is blasting, but Obama is lasting.
Each day's an unknown, and Paulson's alone, the money is endless, if only he'd spend less.
War doesn't stop, it's over the top, can health care be free when there's such a high fee?

I don't know the answers, there's none for cancers, is the flu flying here, something else to fear?
If only fear's to be feared, where's the lion to beard, stop the world I say, no time for play.
Each moment is precious, even those that've left us, for those most dear, don't shed a tear.
Keep memories alive, with children we thrive, they keep us young, till our last songs are sung.

Was This A Bail-Out Or Bailing-Out?

Now that the Secretary of the Treasury has $700 Billion at his sole fingertips, will we ever see the white's of Paulson's eyes again? Is Charles Grodin going to be auditing his expenses (from "Dave" in case you forgot)? I've been wanting to know where my tax dollars have been going for years but I don't have enough ledger paper to even try to track this.



I do find it interesting that there is no credit to be had anywhere in the country except for the federal government who simply has to vote for it and they get as much as they want from where was that again??? Considering the national debt right now, this new money appears to be coming from the same bottomless resource. Who in the world will ever be able to get this budget balanced again? How can you possibly come up with $700 Billion + the rest of the huge debt previously incurred by the two thieving squatters currently taking up space in the White House, without taxing us for every penny we earn and that probably won't even be enough.

They've dug us in so deep, I wonder if we're close to China yet?