10/30/07:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN RIDDLES (Courtesy of my cousin Diane):
What do you get if you cross Jesse James and Dracula?
A robbery at the blood bank.
What's black, white, orange, and waddles?
A penguin with a jack-o-lantern.
Why did the monster eat a light bulb?
Because he was in need of a light snack
What do you call a ghost with a broken leg?
Hoblin Goblin.
What does a ghost eat for lunch?
A Boo-logna sandwich.
10/28/07:
I couldn't help but include this David Horsey editorial cartoon. As you all know, I am very much in favor of government supported health care for everyone instead of our current system of government supported health care just for people over 65, the disabled, all government employees, all state and federal elected representatives, members of the armed forces and, well, you get the idea. Our country's reluctance to take the health insurance albatross off the necks of businesses creates a huge drag on our economy while keeping the US in the unenviable position of paying more per capita than other nations, while not providing regular health care for most of those "capitas". But, hey, keep your eye on the boogey men the current administration wants you to be afraid of so they can furtively subsidize the profits of defense industries, rather than ensuring health care for all.
Clicking on the cartoon will link you to an abbreviated version of a New York Times article about insurance companies ripping off paying Medicare customers.
In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.— Bertrand Russell
10/27/07:
When the kids were young, one of Kira's school friends often came over to play and the girl's mom would sometimes drop her off or pick her up. I would make small talk with the mom and I always remember one particular time when the two of us chatted in the driveway waiting for the kids. We stood next to her late model Volvo and I could see a Bible poking conspicuously out of a cubby in the dashboard.
I was noticing the Bible as she asked what I did for a living. “Oh, a social worker! I thought about being a social worker myself, helping people and everything. I liked the idea, but then I thought about what kind of people you would be helping…”, her voice trailed off. I actually cannot remember my response or if I did respond. Maybe I kind of raised my eyebrows and said “mmm” as I looked about desperately for the girls to save me.
A few years later I responded to a hospital referral and found myself talking to that mother once again. Surprisingly, I chuckled a bit to myself as I helped her apply for nursing home Medicaid benefits for her own mother. I couldn't help thinking about the kind of people this social worker was helping.
Some people who are saved seem to take it as a license to do anything they please the rest of their lives. They feel they are special, chosen, above all others. I tell people I have to do what I believe is right in this life, that I'll have to answer to whatever god there is because I am not already saved. So I continue to help that kind of people, heathen that I am.
The man who slanders his fellowman unwittingly uncovers the real nature of his inner self.— Napoleon Hill
10/26/07:
Whew! I am pooped, been busy. Today I drove down to Seattle for a job interview at the University of Washington Medical Center— what a huge hospital. I have interviewed for three jobs recently and applied for several more. It is a lot of work, on top of work. I was offered one position that just did not fit for me at this time, and offered a second that is now in limbo because they called back after the offer saying they were still interested in hiring me but might not have a position to offer, so I am on hold. That is fine because I have other things in the hopper right now, like the job I interviewed for today. I am looking at getting back into more direct service with clients, and in a medical setting. I miss that. So, more to follow…
We gave some feedback to our architect early in the week and she is working on a new plan. We will meet with her again in the next week. Meanwhile I saw an article in a magazine at the dermatologist's office about quilt patterns being painted on barns that looked interesting. The front of our house has a large blank wall space on half of it and I am thinking… The pattern up and to the left is one of the barn quilts, click on it to see some more. They are painted either directly on the barn or on a board attached to the barn. See what you think.
All I ever wanted
Was just to come in from the cold… — Joni Mitchell
10/21/07:
On first blush it seems I am focused on food today, but as I pontificate you will see that I am interested in how ideas are presented and how those presentations can skew or limit our thinking.
First, what about that shopping cart? Jay and I grow some of the things we eat, and we like to purchase local produce when we can. Ideas today of buying locally to save energy, eat fresher foods and support small farmers are popular. They are good ideas. An interesting article in the September 3 & 10, 2007 The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik talks about some local food efforts being made, but what interested me was near the end of the article as he says "the one word that never occurs in the evocation of the lost world of small cities and nearby farms is "famine." Our peasant ancestors, who lived locally and ate seasonally from the fruit of their own vines and the meat of their own lambs, were hungry... Where a century ago all upwardly mobile people knew enough, and had enough resources, to get their hands on the most unseasonable foods from the most distant places... their descendants now distinguish themselves by hustling after a peasant diet. This may be so, but the fact that one can explain everything in social life as a series of status exchanges does not mean that social life is only a series of status exchanges. It was cool to be a liberal in 1963, but that did not make liberal attitudes to race foolish. All human values get expressed as social rituals; we place bets on which of the rituals are worth serving."
That being said, I think I am at risk of losing my train of thought. Oh, yeah, his point is interesting, how we often jump on the popular bandwagon, idealizing the past or what the future will hold, but just because this is so does not mean the new ideas are without inherent value themselves.
And what about that soda picture? Do you ever get confused about all the news articles telling you the latest research on what is healthy and unhealthy? Yes, one week one thing is healthy, the next week it is unhealthy. Sometimes I actually get on the internet and look up the original study, which often presents even different information that the news articles. I did this with reports about soft drink consumption leading to metabolic syndrome. The news articles often had alarming titles, like the one in our AARP October 2007 Bulletin: "Downsides of Diet Soda". This spate of misleading articles has puzzled me even more than most because almost invariably the body of the article will even mention, as the AARP one did, "drinking one soda a day— regular or diet". So what's the deal with the headlines about only diet soda? Guess they think we are all stupid. The articles present the study as finding people who drink as little as one soda a day having a 24% higher rate of developing metabolic syndrome (a collection of heart disease risk factors that increase your chance of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes). Well, what does that mean? It means what it says, but people aren't real sophisticated about statistics. The study was a published in Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association, July 23, 2007. Clicking on those words will take you to the article, where you can see that indeed the study looked at data gathered from the Framingham Heart Study and found (abbreviated): "On follow-up new-onset metabolic syndrome developed in 765 (18.7%) of 4095 participants consuming less than 1 drink per day and in 474 (22.6%) of 2059 persons consuming 1 or more soft drinks per day".
Were the actual study results different than you thought from news stories you heard? 18.7% of people drinking less than one soda a day got metabolic syndrome, while 22.6% of people drinking one or more sodas a day got metabolic syndrome. Yeah, almost 4% more study participants who drank a soda a day got metabolic syndrome. Doesn't sound so interesting that way, so they stick to 24% more people who drink one or more sodas a day get metabolic syndrome. Best ask "percent of what?" then look at the actual studies if you are concerned.
The confusion about this proliferation of contradicting studies partially results from many of them being retrospective studies or meta analyses. They look at findings of multiple or large studies, seeking correlations. Yeah, like diabetics tend to drink diet soda. Correlation and causality are two different things, but we tend to forget that. Reports on the study in question wondered if it was the artificial sweetener, but we know the study did not differentiate between diet and non-diet soda, and wondered if the culprit was the brown food coloring, as if the study asked participants what flavor soda they drank. News flash! There are many colors of soda, even colorless. Jay pointed out one thing all sodas have in common— carbon dioxide. Hmmm, none of the articles wondered about that… so much for my bright idea about just putting some lemons in soda water!
Well, that is my lecture for the day, thanks for tuning in. Hope it gave you some good food for thought.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.— HL Mencken
10/20/07:
Jay and I had a wonderful celebration of our third anniversary. We stayed at a lovely cottage in Greenbank on Whidbey Island, had a beautiful dinner and enjoyed roaming about both to and from our destination.
The picture to the left is of a metal sculpture in a pond we saw and the picture to the right is of the cottage we stayed in. Both link to pictures…
We met with the architect Friday evening to see two versions of our addition she had come up with. Now we are considering what we like and don't like. We also spent today looking at gas stoves. Lots of decisions to come…
The road of life can only reveal itself as it is traveled; each turn in the road reveals a surprise. Man's future is hidden.— Author Unknown
10/17/07:
Three years ago today Jay and I were married at my parents' home on our mothers' birthday. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, sometimes it seems longer ago— time is a funny thing. We have taken a couple of days off from work and are headed to a cozy cottage bed and breakfast on Whidbey Island to enjoy each other. Ciao!
I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.— Rabindranath Tagore
10/16/07:
My mom's birthday is tomorrow. It is hard to figure out what to get either of my parents for birthday or holiday gifts. My mom has a lot of chicken things, particularly in her kitchen. I've sent a lot of chicken things to my mom and for this birthday I was trying to think of something nice. A year or so ago I had gotten her tickets to a musical show at a local civic theatre. She had enjoyed that show and so I checked there first— no luck. Then I remembered my folks had gone to see the Oakridge Boys a couple of times at the casino in Mount Pleasant. I checked there and they had a Loretta Lynn concert scheduled, what luck! I bought tickets for the concert plus a night at a hotel close by so they wouldn't have to drive home late at night.
My mom called Saturday to let me know they had a wonderful time at the concert Friday the 12th and the hotel was good too. Mom said she swayed in her seat, moving her hands and singing along some. That is good. Happy Birthday mom. Love, Cindy
The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.— Honore' de Balzac
10/14/07:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE!
Diane is in Michigan, the daughter of my mother's brother and sister-in-law, my cousin. She lived in the city, we lived in the country. We remember different details of childhood times spent together, but we both remember time spent playing and laughing together, we both remember happiness. My sister Linda, my cousin Diane, my cousin Patti and I spent a fair amount of time together as children, just a handful of years in the scheme of things, years that imprinted also a fair amount on our souls.
These too are the handful of years we will look back upon as part of the process of creating our selves. Best wishes Diane, enjoy, with luck, the second half of your century…
On the day that I die
I'd like jokes to be told
And stories of old
To be rolled out like carpets
That children have played on
And laid on while listening
To stories of old.
— Paul Mc Cartney, "The End of the End"
10/7/07:
One of Jay's co-workers found an amusing video on YouTube.com. Everyone who has been a mother, or a parent, or the child of a parent will likely find it amusing. Click on the pregnant woman to see it.
In the novel "Middlemarch," we find the old adage of a man's charity growing in direct proportion to its distance from his own door. This is reminiscent of all the dutiful grandchildren and great-grandchildren lingering over deathbeds with digital recorders, through the online genealogy sites at three in the morning, so very eager to reconstitute the lives and thoughts of dead and soon-to-be-dead men, though they may regularly screen the phone calls of their own mothers. I am of that generation. I will do anything for my family except see them.— Zadie Smith, from "Hanwell Senior", The New Yorker 5/14/07.
10/6/07:
I ran across a website that searches to see how many people in the US share your name. I found out:
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Interesting. Then there's this:
| Cindy | Cindy Jardot | ||
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To check yourself out, click on the laughing family picture above. Ciao!
I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I'd think, no, actually I'm a giraffe.— Richard Gere
10/5/07:
Whew! After all this time… our variance has been approved by the county and we are on to bigger and better things.
What this means is that we can now proceed with the addition to our home, at what would normally be the beginning. The architect came over this morning and saw what we have, talked with us about what we wanted, measured and took pictures. She will get back to us with her ideas, then we will proceed.
The constraints put on us by the county limit us to a 300 square foot addition, but this will make our home 800 square foot— plenty for the two of us. There is more to come…
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.— Will Rogers
10/2/07:
We have two apple trees in front of our house, one yellow and one red delicious. Last year they were both so loaded with apples Jay had to prop up the limbs so they would not break and I made many, many apple pies and cobblers, filling our freezer to the brim
This year the apples were not plentiful, for whatever reason. The couple reds we had disappeared weeks ago. We picked the yellow delicious harvest on Sunday, in the rain. I made one pie for immediate eating and froze one more, plus one cobbler. That left us half a dozen apples for eating. A smaller harvest of apples this year, yummy nontheless. The irritating jump-roping apple links to a 1910 apple harvest picture.
The air is crisper, my hair has perked back up with the rains and weather change— a very important thing! Hope you have a good October… For us it brings our mothers' birthdays and our anniversary, good things.
Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity— it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.— John Keats
Jardot's World: October Edition, 2007
All pictures on my page link to somewhere... go ahead, click!
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