Category Archives: Editorial

Welcome to the blog

What does not kill me

Posted on February 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

makes me stronger. Nietzsche, 1888.

Just as there is no crying in baseball, there is no loyalty with employment. We’ve had up and down times and make it through because we have each other, and our families and friends.

We deal with divorces, deaths, layoffs and become stronger and closer.

When it comes to work, it comes down to education, persistence and a continued need for personal and professional growth. I know kids aren’t reading this, so tell your kids to stay in school.

Study math and science and do sports and get to know people. Be smart. Study the hard stuff and the world is your oyster. My husband says I got by on “soft skills,” social science. Hey, I married a geek but he’s a gem. And he knows I’m smart in many other ways as writer, editor and counselor, and we complement each other. E=mc2, that didn’t work, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

Whitney Houston

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

I saw a few snippets from her funeral today. She had a gift, a voice. While she had many incredible feats in her life, her problems defeated her in the end.

Was that really the guy doing her movie to come out later this year eulogizing her to gain movie ticket sales? Did her family do this to make more money?

I applaud her family for choosing her home church, instead of an arena, for the service, but it was a circus nonetheless, with her ex-husband storming out in protest (saw that on CNN, later).

Whitney Houston is a cautionary tale, like her friend Michael Jackson. All of this “they believe” nonsense is just that. I do believe in God. If He takes talented druggies young for His own purposes, so be it.

Perhaps the conductor, St. Peter, needs vocalists for the choir that will welcome us when that day comes. When my day comes I’d like to hear the music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven; the voices of Marilyn Horne, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Beverly Sills, Mary Travers and many others including Mahalia Jackson, Etta James, Nat King Cole. So many others.

If Ms. Houston was chosen, she’s got a good chance at the tryouts. Here’s to the diva, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , ,

Last Days in Paradise

Posted on February 18, 2012 | 1 comment

At five o’clock this morning I watched a quarter moon come up in the east, backlit by the sun and nearly obliterating my view of the stars. Lights at the top of the mountains fade as the sun begins to place the majestic (homage to Dad) mountains themselves in focus.

One of my favorite late-night adventures out west is looking at the stars, and in the winter, seeing the sno-cats grooming the mountain trails. Watching sno-cats probably evolved from my early childhood interest in having an ant farm, because that’s what they look like from a distance, ants with headlights.

Listening to the early morning mortars go off to prevent avalanches is now a comforting sound. Even the dog doesn’t mind it. Loud thuds let me know where we are and how much we love it here.

But life is a series of adventures. I’ve followed my husband to the heat and humidity of Texas. We do love the West, the mountains and the sense of freedom that they bring.

He liked shedding his “banker image” for what I call “Utah Formal,” cords or nice jeans with a starched plaid Stetson or Resistol shirt. Indiana Jones hat for summer, Cossack hat for winter. And believe me, we have year-round clothing and boots that’ll take us anywhere.

Now it appears other forces are at work and our locale will change, at least for a while. While I prepare for the future, I plan to appreciate what we have here for a short time before driving across this country of ours once again, dog in tow. Well, she’s not in tow, she’d be in my SUV sleeping soundly on her 4″ thick orthopedic mattress with two-hour potty and water stops until she awakens and pops her head up as soon as I slow down at an off-ramp. Great travel dog!

We promised not to buy anything here, but ended up with my husband getting an AWD car, eight snow tires, books, kitchen equipment and a lot of paper with taxes et al. Portable heater, humidifier, grill…. He thinks we can fit everything in the cars or a small container, WRONG! He has no idea even what clothes we’ve had to buy him to get through three years with everything we own in storage! But he’ll find out soon enough.

He’s on the ground checking out temporary digs today. We miss him. The dog keeps looking for him out the front windows at her Watch Station (the far bed in the guest room). I’m keeping up the same old routine of dog walking and feeding, cleaning, laundry et al.

We’ve met some really good folks up here, who will be missed. While I’ve gotten used to living at a high altitude, I won’t miss shredded hands from the dry air, or being unable to successfully boil an egg, failures due to no atmosphere and total freshness of the produce we receive here. Up here you need a week-old egg and to place it in cold water and bring it to a hard boil for 12 minutes, then ice and peel.

I guess I can live near sea level for a time. Mark my words we will be back in the mountains, if only to retire. Perhaps Montana or Colorado, states that have more freedoms than where we are now. Cheers looking to the future, and future posts, Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

I Miss Jim

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

He’s off this weekend and his girls, me and the dog, miss him. She’s at the front window awaiting his return. He’s not usually accorded that kind of respect. He’s the “fun guy” who lets her play and tosses her ball, but I’m the one who is here, walks and feeds her.

Right now I just think she’s exhausted by us getting up at 3 a.m. yesterday to get Jim to the airport! Yes, she loves you, dear. But I’ve been up about 36 hours now and have to get some sleep. Perhaps Zoe will join me and leave the front windows for a few hours. Let’s hope so. ‘night, dear readers. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged

King Andrew

Posted on February 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

No, the Queen, Prince Philip and Duke of Cambridge are not deceased. Not at all.

I’m talking about the King of Albany, New York, who wants to increase his powers to the detriment of the people of the State of New York, as represented by their Assembly Members and Senators, and the Judiciary.

Many years ago as his father ascended the steps to the Assembly Chamber at 3:00 in the morning I was trudging down after two months of hellishly long days and weeks and we even had to get pizza at 2:00 in the morning and pay for it ourselves. I said hello to the King’s father, Governor Mario Cuomo. I think he asked where I was off to and I said “bed.”

But you don’t make deals by changing the power base or whatever is in NYS organizational documents that I haven’t seen in decades. You make deals by negotiation and it’s always been tough, one side vs. the other when I was there.

I tend to think that makes some of the best laws because separate interests are involved and both, then all three parties get the best law made. I am of the mind that less legislation is better, at a state and congressional level.

In days of yore school teachers, businessmen (yes, they were all men) and lawyers spent precious personal time legislating for their town, city, state and Congress. They brought different viewpoints. Now they’re all full-time lawyer/legislators and they and their lawyer staffs are bilking the State of NY for millions. I don’t know about other states but assume the experience is similar.

Dear King Andrew, your penultimate power grab must not work, for the people who elected you will be disserviced by your money and power-grubbing after the votes are cast in the legislature. Legislature and Judiciary are there for a reason, King Andrew. They’re there to bust you back down to governor. That was fun! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , ,

Dee and the Tone Deaf Band

Posted on February 15, 2012 | 2 comments

Yes, at age 12 Santa got me a cheap guitar with nylon strings and I put together a band with two girlfriends.

I thought if they knew the tune I could sing harmony and play the guitar, I knew C, D, E, Em, G and that’s about it.

Next thing I know, we’re on deck for a concert. OK, I’d played the guitar a couple of months, self-taught. The concert was a disaster and we broke up afterwards.

We sang “500 Miles,” “Day is Done” and “Teach Your Children.” I apologize profusely to the authors and singers of the original works, but I was 12.

Now I’ve had six months of lessons and a very nice folk guitar but my fingers are shredded from lack of air and humidity.

I can say I’ll never take private guitar lessons from a drummer again. Most of these teachers look to rich parents in the area to make their kids a great singer or pianist.

And if I’m ever dumb enough 40 years later to get a band together, no-one who is tone-deaf will have a part in it. We were singing to one tune (the drummer professor) and I gravitated to harmony and he went with me. This is on a well-known song. Then he looked at me and said, “I get it, you have perfect pitch.” All I could say is “That’s what my music teachers have told me.”

End of lessons. Sad, I know. When I’m lower than 6.400 feet above sea level and stay out of dishwater without gloves, I may be able to learn again. Right now my right thumb and forefinger are bleeding.

Thanks to my mentors, my dad, PDX and my husband for keeping music in my head and heart. PDX I’m stale, way more than day-old but willing to learn. Cheers, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Music

Tagged , ,

Follow Me

Posted on February 12, 2012 | 3 comments

An old John Denver song, probably before you were born. He never asked. We just made job decisions together and went to the next town. My mother always hated that about me, probably because she did it herself.

It’s time for another change and it hurts our hearts to leave where we live and where we will retire.

But as we enter into our tenth year of marriage I actually prefer Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of the aforementioned song as well as this one by John Denver. It starts with “I’ll walk in the rain by your side.”

And the wind will whisper your name to me
Little birds will sing along in time
Leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime

I love my husband, he’s incredibly smart, honest and hard-working. Spending 24/7 with him for a few weeks we talk, discuss, argue then coalesce and make a better environment for change. The change we want is not to be together 24/7 and have money coming in the door rather than out. I want him to be happy with his work, because it means so much to him to be challenged and have a loose leash, so to speak.

Much as I hate to say it, these brief periods are good for us as a couple and family (with dog Zoe). We all get to know each other again. While our state’s unemployment office has denied coverage for all the time Jim was working instead of taking vacations, we’re OK.

This is gonna be a good week. I can feel it already. We even have snow! Cheers! Dee

3 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Music

Tagged ,

Writing Styles

Posted on February 11, 2012 | 6 comments

For the past few weeks my husband has been Lord of the Living Room, looking for work as are many Americans. He tells me he wants me to read an email he’s writing and thousands of keystrokes ensue. Granted, he’s used to writing code so writing prose is a bit of a challenge.

A half-hour passes and he shows me three sentences. I delete one for him and he sends it off.

He writes a novel and edits it down to nearly the nub of the issue. He is very precise with his content and aside from an occasional spelling error or TMI, he’s right on the mark.

I write. I write as I think and will have this post done in under ten minutes. Why? Because that’s how I work. And I’m not dealing with recruiters or a job.

I love seeing how other people go about writing letters, a blog, a condolence note or even a “welcome to the neighborhood” note. Yes, I still use paper and have several species of note cards available when sending something to a sick neighbor, or someone whose loved one broke up with them by email. How tacky.

For all this I must thank my parents and my aunt, the English teacher. Five hundred words were a hurdle back in high school. I’m at 216 words now and haven’t even broken a sweat.  And you read me! Thank you! Dee

6 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Condoms

Posted on February 10, 2012 | 2 comments

I remember leaving public elementary school Wednesday afternoons for CCD (Catholic doctrine, never knew what it meant). One day around third grade one gal was goaded by her cool friends to ask how Mary was a virgin. The nun was very flustered and the next week a priest came in to explain it to us.

It made no sense to me, real sex (I didn’t have a clue until my little sister told me two years later) or virtual sex through a divine being. It was all mixed up in the crazy RC religion so didn’t really matter as I competed to win scapulas for the five miracles of whatever.

No sex education ever took place, except that fantastical class in which the priest was dumbfounded. The last thing I remember of CCD was my sister refusing the 52-week box of envelopes for personal donations at Mass every week. She refused it twice, then finally told Sister that we go to the parish down the street! I really love her chops on that one!

When I started working for the legislature on insurance issues, thirty years ago, everything we proposed, including offering (not paying for, just offering) well baby care got a three word response from the Industry. Will Increase Premiums. Legislators were frightened of the insurance lobby because they gave money to folks they liked. We did get well baby care passed but do you think anyone got an insurance rebate when companies raked in the profits after the seat belt law was enacted?

State legislators were fearful of the state-by-state insurance lobby (the lobby’s choice) but our President, Barack Obama is more fearful of Rome, the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. I believe his step-down position should have been his primary position so he wouldn’t look as if he’s caving to Rome in the first place.

Many others have said in better ways that these institutions of higher learning and hospitals receive major federal funding so they should be subject to rules in order to accept that funding. I agree.

Last I heard there was a separation of church and state here in these united states. Of course people want to blur the line otherwise they wouldn’t be seen as working. Fact is, I don’t want to see women be treated worse in healthcare when they work for a Roman Catholic institution.

This has been a week of Prop 8, Susan G Komen and now this debacle. Conservative Utahans don’t want California gays to marry. Susan J Komen caves to conservatives that don’t want poor women to have mammograms to detect breast cancer, and Catholics don’t want insurance companies to allow access to birth control. Is this really 2012 or did I awaken in a different decade?

Here are my solutions: Utah, take your hands of California, let the courts rule; Komen, you did a big boo boo to your donors, fix it and forget about ego; and to the RC church, let it go. Your members can go to the 7/11 and buy a condom. And they do.

All for this post, fellow readers and writers of more than I’m capable of submitting. Cheers, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Will Ferrell

Posted on February 7, 2012 | 1 comment

I’m going down the cliff to my forest, and in the creek will be an Old Milwaukee! Leave it to you to put the millionaire ads to shame by doing your own thing.

Many years ago I “reserved” a table at our local beanery, yes, they served beans in the 1930’s for a nickel and people lined up around the block. When we went, it was usually for birthdays and we all had corned beef and cabbage on rye with Gulden’s mustard, and quarts of PBR on the table.

I called to make a reservation for 12 at noon. They told me they don’t take reservations. I said “It’s Dee.” We showed up, the table was set and PBR’s were already there.

Thank you, Will Ferell, I’ve always loved your comedy and this shows it even more. Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,