Week End Update

While this blog contains autobiographical elements, I have never intended it to be an online journal, per se. I have not envisioned this as a place where I relate the details of my day-to-day life. But, as I have been a bit lax in posting of late, I thought I should at least relate why. (And this way my parents will know I am alive!)

I have started many blogs in the recent past, but haven’t been able to really finish any of them to my liking. There has been other stuff going on that I think has distracted me.

Here’s the quick rundown:

I am still trying to get my correct pay from my last job, where I worked for 4 years. Ended badly and they still owe me money. I am in the middle of a complaint with the state labor board about it.

I came out of work this week to find two of my tires flat. I had used my spare about a month ago and hadn’t gotten around to replacing it. So, several hundred dollars later I have new tires. Seeing as how I couldn’t drive on just two good tires, I had to enlist the help of friends with vehicles to get the tires replaced. This took a bit of coordinating, but was done. In between getting the tires fixed, I relied on some rides from friends when the buses weren’t running. (Thanks to all of you, you know who you are.)

After getting home the night I found my tires flat, my male cat got out and has not been seen since. I am very careful about watching him since the first time that he got out and I don't know when he slipped past me, but I was tired and distracted that night, so who knows. I had a dream this morning that he was sleeping on my chest as he likes to do, but awoke to find it had just been a dream. That sucked. For as much as they are a pain in the butt, I love the cats and am missing him very much. The flyers go up tomorrow.

Speaking of buses, they suck in Phoenix. 5th largest city in the US and the mass transit system is deplorable. I had to take the bus to work one day and it took me almost three hours to complete what would have been a 30-35 minute drive.

Also rode my bicycle to do some errands one day without the car and was almost run over. Wound up crashing while trying to keep from slamming into some jerk face not paying attention to the fat guy on a bike. I was even wearing a bright red shirt. Don’t know how he didn’t see me. Was probably on a cell phone.

So, I am a bit beat up, physically and mentally, but getting by with the help of friends. My two best friends this week, Aleve and Tiger Balm.

Well, thanks for listening. I will be retro-posting as I finish the things I have started.

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Random Fact: That’s the news and I. Am. Outtahere.

House Napping

So I am watching my friend’s cats and apartment as they traipse around Europe for two weeks. This is the apartment where we congregate for theme movie nights such as Zombie Night and Cheesy Sci-Fi Movie Night. Much fun is had by all and it becomes a bit reminiscent of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

However, there is one drawback. More butts than chairs. And, as I am frequently one of the last to arrive, I am usually standing until someone foolishly gets up to go to the booby-trapped bathroom. (That is a whole other story.) As for those of you who say, “Why not just get there earlier?” Well, I can’t. It’s cultural AND genetic. (My mom will vouch for me on this one.)

So, here I am, with full run of the cable box. A very well stocked couple of shelves of movies. More books than I can ever thing to read and access to a very quick wireless network. Guess what I do. That’s right, I plop down on the couch and watch movies I already own! Two of them in a row! And they weren’t even great movies. I could have at least justified it if they were great movies. Then I fell asleep during something I hadn’t seen, but wanted to.

My pets are suspicious and think I am cheating on them.

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Random Fact: Many of the recent “Random Facts” are actually quotes from movies and comedians.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

First off, I mean this to reflect society on the whole, not individually, so you other nice people out there, don’t fire off nasty e-mails, please.

It seems as though we have become an increasingly selfish bunch. We are motivated more by what our individual interests and wants are than what is good for the group. For instance, when two lanes merge into one, it is easy enough to realize that if one car goes from one lane, then one from the next, everyone would be able to get on their way with the same amount of delay. But we all know what really happens when those two lanes merge. The bigger car gets to go. Either that, or the person with the least concern for his or her own vehicle.

But the example that makes the biggest impression on me is the seeming decrease of people saying, “I’m sorry.” Two very simple words, but speaking them is so much more than those few letters seem to contain.

When you say “I’m sorry.” You are asking for forgiveness from someone. By asking this forgiveness, you are admitting that you have done something that has made a negative impact one to someone else. You are acknowledging your recognition for the feelings of others.

It seems that we have become so self-centered as a society that we have lost the capacity for the ability to think of others. It seems that we only think of situations in terms of what we can get from them, or how they impact our lives. We have stopped being responsible for being good neighbors. We have stopped taking into account that there are other people on the planet.

I am not sure when this began, or why it has happened, but it is prevalent in many places that I have gone, not just limited to the folks on daytime TV. Although the folks that they find for the Judge Whoever shows are shining examples of this. Well, maybe they don’t shine, but they sure are apparent.

So join with me people! Explore the impact that your actions have on others! If you wrong someone let them know that you realize it and say “I’m sorry!” Together we can make the world a better place!

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Random Fact of Kindness: Drop pennies where kids can find them. Make sure they are facing “heads” side up.

Think Before You Speak

I was listening to the radio the other day. (For those of you out of touch with things mundane, radio is like streaming audio, but in your car.) There was a commercial that came on. Okay, there were a lot of commercials. But there was one in particular which was advertising a fundraiser for a Gulf War (II) vet who was injured in combat and is now an amputee. The fundraiser is to assist in the payment to make modifications to his home, so that he can function in it.

Now before you start thinking that I am going to start picking on this poor gentleman, let me allay your fears by saying nothing could be further from the truth. I have kept politics out of this blog, for the most part, and don’t intend to start on that topic as yet. Suffice it to say that I do not support the war, nor the bogus reasons we have been given as to why we are there. I DO, however, support all of our troops stationed overseas. They are doing an amazing thing under conditions that I can’t even imagine. I have nothing but respect and admiration for these folks.

What caught my attention was the way it was phrased. They are wanting to raise money to help him transition to his “new amputee lifestyle.”

I don’t want to sound too much like George Carlin, but this seems like rhetorical B.S. to me! You don’t have an “amputee lifestyle,” you have a bachelor lifestyle, a swinger lifestyle, a gay lifestyle, a rich lifestyle, etc. This is tantamount to saying that a homeless mentally ill person has a “carefree lifestyle.” What kind of crap is this? We are taking this man who sacrificed parts of his body doing a job that few are willing to do.

He is not picking out new drapes with his new girlfriend, he is having to learn to function in ways that circumvent the ways he has functioned for his entire life, up til now. He has to make adjustments to an environment that he was comfortable in prior to his being deployed overseas. He has to make a shift to a condition that most people will never have to experience and that society at large fails to fully accommodate adequately.

Calling this an “amputee lifestyle” seems insulting. It diminishes the loss and sacrifice of his condition.

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Random Fact: (From Amputee Online) Phantom sensation is not just the feeling of having a limb when no limb is present (which usually goes away). It is a term used for any sensation or pain originating from a residual (stump) limb.

http://www.amputee-online.com/amputee/phantom.html