Nuke It!

Technology makes itself obsolete before I can read the instructions on the device I just bought. New gadgets and electronics seem to appear everyday, designed to make our lives  not only easier and more efficient but more fun too. We buy X-Boxes, Wii's, iPhones, iPads, 3-D TV's, and loads of other new and exciting stuff.  You can purchase a fridge with a computer, an alarm clock that predicts the weather, and books with no paper. My vacuum cleaner even tells me when the carpet is clean.  We have become so blase` about astonishing new inventions that nothing can surprise us anymore.  A phone that reads bar codes and takes videos?  So yesterday. Download a book in seconds? So what? Depending on your age you can't remember a time when technology didn't  upgrade every nanosecond.  Too bad really, because the excitement of discovering new technology is gone.

Can you remember when microwave ovens were first for sale?  They were actually invented as a by-product of the war effort during WWII.  But they were huge and not commercial. Even as they got smaller they were still not user friendly.

  

But then, a miracle. Do you remember your family's first microwave? I do. It was big and cumbersome and took up a huge amount of counter space. And the things it could do! Imagine cooking a baked potato in 5 minutes! Bacon could be had with a couple of paper towels and a plate.  No more grease all over the stove. A real advantage to children whose job it was to clean the kitchen.

The real excitement (besides baked potatoes)  was the way leftovers could be reheated plate by plate. No more pots and pans to scrub every night.  We grew to love the nights I later called "scrounge" because everyone could have something different. We'd get out all the leftovers and make our own TV dinners. This box saved time, energy and money. It was amazing and exciting and everyone could use it. Microwaves weren't just for mom or dad, they were a family gizmo and you could experience the excitement of a 5 minute potato anytime you wanted.

Think about life without one. No reheated coffee or food. And think how long frozen dinners would take to cook. The frozen meal industry took off after the invention of the microwave.  Before this, the only frozen food I ever ate was a Swanson's TV Dinner when my parents went out.  What a treat that was and the food was pretty awful.

For a time, many of us tried to cook actual meals in the microwave.  I cooked macaroni and cheese that boiled over every time. I had a fillet of sole recipe that looked promising but wasn't. We learned that rolls reheated became chewy but tortillas could be perfectly heated. Cooking vegetables in the microwave still produces edible meals. Still, reheating meals or cooking frozen meals remains the microwave's primary function I imagine.

The RadarRange, as the first ones were called, delivered on it's promise to make life easier and simpler. Moreover, the excitement this new technology generated was incredible. Recent technology is indeed more sophisticated but it hardly makes anyone's life simpler nor does it create the excitement of the microwave coming as it did at a time when modern electronics was in its infancy.

Grammar and Punctuation

Since I've been writing and rewriting this blog I have found myself in many a quandary about grammar and punctuation.  Not so much spelling because I've always been a naturally good speller.  As I write this, I just had to look up how to spell "quandary" and it took me a few minutes.  The grammar part of writing is not a huge issue.  I can usually get that right by rereading what I wrote. But it's the punctuation that gets me as you know if you read this blog and know your punctuation rules.

Commas. These little snarky pieces of print drive me nuts. I know you use them when making a list.  I'm clear on that. But as for other uses I just make up the rules as I go along. That's not a comforting confession from a writing teacher but there it is. If I think I want the reader to pause, I stick in a comma.  If I want to offset an aside I either use a comma or parentheses.  Somehow I think both of those are wrong but who knows. I'm sure if I were writing the great American novel I'd have to know about this but a blog is much more casual.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Colons: What's up with those? And who decided to name a body part after it? I've no idea what to do with those.  I've been known to use them in memos to parents or in complaint letters. You use them when expressing time, of that I'm absolutely positive.

Semi-colons; A colon but not. Can't even use those to tell time.  All they're good for any more is making a smiley face that's winking ;).

"Quotation marks" I do know how to use these but quite frankly they're a pain. You have periods and commas and quotation marks and indenting all getting in on the action.  You can't read the dialogue for the punctuation. In some books they're left out as a literary device and in others an apostrophe stands in for them. So it seems like they're optional. Don't tell my students that!

'Apostrophes' These drive kids mad. Before the s, after the s, between the n and t or before the n. Kids have a hard time remembering the rules.  In other languages possession is actually written out like "le chapeau de ma mere", my mother's hat.  But in English another lousy comma-like bit of print tells us what belongs to who or whom (another quandary). And if you don't put it in exactly the right place when using contractions your teacher will mark it wrong.  You have to be very careful with these bits.

Everything else is pretty easy to handle.  Question marks, periods, and exclamation points are good solid punctuation, useful and easy to use. Did I need a semi-colon there? See what I mean? It's confusing.

Look For the Union Label

Labor unions are under attack from every side.  They've been blamed for everything from the economic recession to global warming. I know people who think business should be able to operate unfettered by laws, that corporations will police themselves and the market will take care of the rest. I call these people crazy and uneducated.  Most people these days also hate public sector labor unions  because of what they perceive as unfair pensions and job security. I also have a name for these people, ignorant.

I, of course, have a bias. I belong to a union, my parents both belonged to unions and My Girl was arbitrarily dismissed from a job over some gossip precisely because she had no protections. My mother walked the picket line for six weeks back in the early seventies when teachers were paid less than locksmiths working for Los Angeles Unified School District.  That labor action changed everything for teachers in this state. Teachers had a fighting chance to make a living wage. Because of that strike teachers today are better compensated and have a voice in decision making.

Anyone who thinks that business will take care of its employees with pressure from market factors is out of their mind, plain and simple. A business cares about its bottom line and stockholders that's it.  It doesn't care about individual employees and never has.  Why do you think labor unions were formed in the first place? Even if you don't belong to a union you have them to thank for the 40 hour work week, for eliminating child labor in this country, and for demanding safe workplaces.  They are responsible for holding business and government accountable for working conditions. They protect members from being fired on a whim without cause and pressure government to enact labor laws for non-union employees.

Without labor unions, our manufacturing plants would look like India or China where workers labor for pennies under unsafe conditions for long hours. We would have children at work rather than at school.  Why do you think corporations took their manufacturing overseas? They can get cheap labor and no one demands they pay a living wage or provide safe working conditions.

The media has exposed inequities in the public employee pension system but remember these people SERVED the public for many years at salaries not commensurate with private industry. They contributed to their pensions and many also contributed, as I do, to mutual funds similar to a 401K. Only a very few draw huge pensions from one or more funds and I can't condone that. On the other hand  I'm also not a fan of huge payouts to CEO's or health care and a huge pension for life if one serves one measly term as a state or federal representative.

So if you have paid vacation (I don't by the way), a 40 hour work week, and a safe workplace you can thank those brave laborers of the early 20th century who fought for the workers' right to organize and strike if necessary. Those among you who applaud the erosion of labor's power and the destruction of unions will eventually suffer the consequences as big business will no doubt turn back the clock on workers' rights.

Take a Second, Make a Difference

Just when you think one person can't possibly make a difference in this over populated world we live in, some random event happens to prove you wrong.  It took just one ordinary Arizona power company employee to throw 4 million people into chaos. Wow! That's a major coup! One dude in a uniform doing routine maintenance disrupted the lives of 4 million people spanning two countries.  A cell of committed terrorists couldn't have done better.

In the middle of a heat wave with temperatures in the 100's, millions lost power, not because there wasn't adequate power but because the grid providing the power went down. My Girl in San Diego was in the center of the gridlock trying to drive the 25 miles home from work with no traffic lights.  When the power went down everyone from all over San Diego County left work and the transportation system just isn't designed to handle an entire county on the move at the same time. To make matters worse there simply aren't enough cops to do traffic duty so every intersection is a 4 way stop. Some people abandoned their cars by the side of the road. Others heeded the call of nature despite onlookers.  With so many on the roads, anyone requiring roadside assistance was on their own.

 Our reliance on electronics makes a power outage a personal disaster in a severe heat wave. People on oxygen were advised to go to a hospital to avoid overheating their oxygen tank and risking an explosion. Scary! As temperatures rise in your house to over 90  and your refrigerator remains quiet, what food you have begins to warm and spoil. Lots of garbage for next week's pickup. If you have cash you can't buy food because the stores have closed as have the restaurants.  If you don't carry cash like many of us who rely on ATM/Debit cards, you might as well be flat broke because you have no way to get any money. Water was the only utility my girl in San Diego had at her house.

Those on the edge of the outage could drive to areas with power.  A friend and her family were able to  get to a restaurant and eat in air conditioned comfort before returning to sleep in their 90 degree house. The Boy lives on the edge with power so he was lucky and could turn on the AC in the 100 degree heat. BTW why doesn't a keyboard have a degree sign?

Of course a day without power is nothing compared to the suffering endured by people in areas hit by hurricanes and tornados. But I'm pretty sure that doesn't make the people affected by the power outage feel much better. When I was a kid I never wanted to "clean my plate" just because "people in China" were starving.  How was that supposed to make me hungry? Same thing applies here.  How does knowing that some people are homeless due to a hurricane make it easier to sleep in 90 degree heat?

There are lessons to be learned here.  The same ones all Californians should know by heart. Always carry some cash in small bills. Keep a supply of water at your house and in your car. Carry comfortable shoes in your car. Stock up on flashlights and batteries. And in this day and age keep all of your electrical devices charged. That means laptops, phones, iPads, iPods, Kindles and any other device necessary for communication and entertainment. It's a real drag to get home and find all your electronics out of juice.

When the power comes back on, officials ought to be prepared for a massive surge as 4 million people plug in and power up. I hope they're ready.

A Meeting of the Dogs

The meeting of the Big Dog and the XS dog was not auspicious. As soon as he walked into the house XS barked vigorously inviting him to go after her so he did.  Like a cat she leaped on the couch, raced across the back, jumped onto the floor and hid in a corner behind the kitchen table. She shook with fright. The Big Dog went right through out into the backyard where LWD (Little White Dog) was glad to see him. At last another real dog! Meanwhile the little barker shivered pathetically in her corner.   We decided to wait until the next evening to introduce the two dogs. So all day XS sat at the slider like the cat who swallowed the canary and inspected the Big Dog from a position of safety.

The introduction went well. XS barked while we held the Big Dog's collar.  He wagged his tail and looked at her with interest.  She bounded around, back and forth, up and down trying to decide on his threat level. I think she decided to treat him warily and was no longer sure he was going to eat her.  On that score she was mistaken. XS loves to be chased and run laps around the yard at top speed.  Running after small animals is the Big Dog's favorite activity next to pulling possums out of trees. We decided they could be together in the house and outside but outside required supervision. Ultimately, unless XS draws attention to herself by barking, the Big Dog largely ignores her.  However, his eyes light up and his tail curls to attention if she starts to make motions like she wants to play. Unfortunately we can't allow this. It's like a toddler in a lion cage, the toddler doesn't stand a chance even if the lion doesn't mean any harm.

To recap: LWD is safe with both dogs. XS is safe with LWD but not the Big Dog.  The Big Dog is safe with LWD but not XS. They can all sleep together in the family room while we watch TV.  In reality this has meant a merry-go-round of dogs in and out of the house.

Dogs are fickle creatures.  First they want in, then some imaginary noise or scent alerts them to danger and they want out to investigate. All evening long it's up and down and in and out. The LWD likes to be outside at night and when he wants some company or has some evil desire to drive us nuts, he barks a couple of times so the Big Dog will awaken and demand to be let out. Barely five minutes later the Big Dog is pawing at the glass to come in because there was nothing out there. Then we have to find "his" towel and wipe down his jowls and send him to his bed. Of course, just like a baby, whenever XS wakes up from a nap we have to take her out to pee. All of this activity in the evening leaves me irritable, annoyed and tired.

We find ourselves going to bed early just so we can lock up the mutts and have some peace to finish reading a page in a book or to watch the end of a TV show.  The Boy will be back tomorrow afternoon and take The Big Dog home.  Having only 2 dogs will be as easy as pie after this three ring circus we've been running.

Pave Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lot

Parking lots. Necessary for those of us who drive cars everywhere. We've all thought about parking lots a few times.  The lot is full. I can't find my car! How do I get out of this parking maze? Sound familiar? But how many of you have thought of the ongoing irritation of the parking lot which is: once you've parked your car and gotten out how are you supposed to get to your destination?  In most lots there are no walkways, no pedestrian right of ways, and precious few crosswalks to protect the "motorist turned pedestrian".

Instead we walk down rows of cars in the middle of what is basically a street hoping we won't get run over by a car pulling out of it's space. We squeeze between cars to "cut" through the lot to our destination. Sometimes we have to push through decorative shrubs to cross the lot. Large dim parking structures are especially dangerous for pedestrians since we can't easily be seen and finding our cars can sometimes be difficult.

I know there is a science to creating a lot or structure that works.  One must have spaces of the right width and angle, convenient entrances and exits, and an adequate number of spaces. But nowhere do the designers of parking lots allow for the pedestrians that leave the cars and have to walk in the lot. Why not? I don't know why not.  I would think it's a no-brainer.  Designated walkways in parking lots would be more efficient and most important safer for all concerned.

But wait! Safety and efficiency aren't the goal of parking structure builders.  The real goal is fitting the most cars into the smallest space. Parking lots and structures are just storage for cars. The fact that people on foot must  also navigate them is incidental to the builders' goal.

I knew that all along, but whenever I wind my way through a parking lot, pushing through bushes and crossing busy lanes to my car I always think that someone somewhere should design a parking lot for cars AND people.

Appreciation

I ran into an acquaintance at lunch the other day and we talked about what we did over the summer.  I said that I had gone to Europe and she responded that she bet that made me really appreciate the U.S. I nodded and smiled while thinking, not exactly. The European countries in which I traveled are known for their clean cities and pristine lakes. Europe has been "green" far longer than we have and it shows.

I have not traveled all over the United States but I've driven enough miles to say with relative confidence that many of our highways are eyesores.  One can't see the desert for the billboards or the forest for the litter. The beaches of the Pacific are scattered with plastics, syringes, and styrofoam.  The water is especially dangerous after a storm when the run-off from the cities washes bacteria, oil and garbage into the sea.

Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood, prime tourist spots, sport filthy sidewalks, graffiti, and gutters of trash. I understand the attraction of Hollywood, the well-publicized sunny weather, and Disneyland. But as far as spending time seeing the city attractions I am mystified.

I've been to Olvera Street which is dirty and unpleasant and to the Disney Concert Hall which is surrounded by ugly parking lots and weedy vacant lots. The downtown music center is lovely but don't travel too far from it. Other districts such as the garment and toy districts are seedy at best and filthy at worst. The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are great attractions, but again the surrounding area is marginal. Nowhere does city government take a sustained interest in keeping Los Angeles clean and attractive.

Contrast that with the relatively trash free cities of Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna.  Smaller towns and villages are even cleaner.  Tourist sites are especially well maintained. Given the number of tourists from all over the world it must take a herculean effort on the part of the state to keep places clean.

I'll grant you that they have more rules and regulations and pay more taxes than we do but in exchange they get clean cities, fine beers and chocolates, and health care.  Their lakes are not fouled by jet skis or used as garbage dumps. I didn't get to the ocean but the Ligurian Sea in Italy was lovely and clean when I was there a few years ago.

At this point, given the current political infighting and the  effort to NOT provide health care for every citizen, I'm not sure I do appreciate living here. The attitude of the populace seems to be that of a spoiled, self-centered toddler.  No one is willing to give up anything they like for the greater good. Not shark fin soup, not four wheeling in fragile habitats, not  enormous houses, nothing. Most aren't even willing to pick up their own trash.  We all want to blame someone else for the dirty world we live in but we are the culprits, tossing cigarette butts out of car windows, discarding fast food wrappers in parking lots, and even leaving dirty diapers in stores.

Given all of that, I'd like to try living somewhere else for a time. A place that's clean where people give a damn about society as a whole not just their own small piece of it.

Summer Shorts

Eyes.  I've had my last cataract replaced with a bionic lens. Thank god I only have 2 eyes! At the surgery center I was the youngest person there.  Everyone else was born in '30 something judging from the birth dates repeated to nurses checking I.D.'s.  I had no idea that I didn't live in a smog filled city.  That old song, "I can see clearly now the rain is gone..." must apply to cataract patients. Wow, what a lot of color in the world! I have some restrictions for a couple of weeks. No heavy lifting, that gets me out of the gym. No bending over, can't pick up stuff.  No swimming, that's unfortunate since I was just getting in the habit of swimming every couple of days. No eye make-up for two weeks. Umm, a problem.  My eyelashes and brows are blond which means unless I slather on some color, you can't see them. If no one wore makeup I'd look just fine but compared to other women I look a little, shall we say, washed out or even featureless. But since I don't have to look at myself all day I shan't worry.

Puppies. Everyone my age  swears they won't get another dog when their current one expires.  Apparently they have really good memories of what it means to have a puppy.  I, on the other hand, can remember childbirth like it was yesterday but had forgotten the work required to raise a puppy. This little cutie spent too much time at the breeder's house and is not housebroken at six months. So every time she piddles I have to drag the small shop vac up or down the stairs and suck up the mess. Why a shop vac? The people who sold me the carpet said it was the best way to clean up liquids.  Blotting can push the liquid  into the carpet.  Ok, fine! But dragging around the shop vac with it's long cord and bulky hose and cleaning it out....what a pain! Not to mention that I've spent more time in the last couple of weeks standing out on the grass in the backyard waiting for her to pee than you would believe. Morning, afternoon, at night in the dark.  You name it I'm there, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Construction. We finally have the last price for our bathroom update. Hesitation. Now that I have to make the decision to spend the money I choke. I hate spending large amounts of money on house projects.  I have no problem spending money on vacations and frequently spend more than I had planned and have never regretted it. But paying guys to make a mess in my house for weeks on end makes my stomach churn. Even though it's not a bathroom we use, updating it will disrupt the entire house and probably my yard as well.  I have only enjoyed one house project.  We retiled and re-plastered our pool, or rather some guys did.  They arrived after I went to work and were gone when I got home.  Literally, I never saw them. It was priceless.