Buffalo Gal

We all know the familiar warning….do not get into Religion or Politics when you are talking to someone you know or don’t know—either way, it is likely to end up in a hostile "discussion"  (i.e.  shouting match)     I think most of us have been in that situation.  I remember a long-ago "discussion" between 2 family members and a family friend that got so heated that another family member felt he had to leave the house to get away from it before he got even more upset over what was going on.  This was wa-a-a-a-a-y  back in the mid-1960′s about the time Barry Goldwater was the candidate for president in the Republican party.    Some things never change.     It is still happening but it is REALLY happening in the current presidential campaign.

The names, Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger,  and John Hagge all raise specters of the warning about mixing religions WITH politics.   The most recent political/religious brou-ha-ha involves the "sermon" given last Sunday in the Trinity Church in Chicago, formerly pastored by Rev Jeremiah Wright who had his own melt-down over politics and religion and took a "retirement" to extract himself from the highly unfavorable publicity his rhetoric, captured on tape, was doing to candidate Barack Obama.    Now, just when Obama needs it least—on the weekend the Democratic mucky-mucks are going to decide who the candidate will be for certain——Father Pfleger appears as a guest speaker at Obama’s church in Chicago and sets off and even bigger firestorm with his rant on White Entitlement and his personal attack on Senator Clinton.   I, like millions and millions of other American voters trying to make up their minds about voting in November, have seen those You-Tube tapes played, replayed, ad infinitum for the past 2-3 days.  Campaigning in the late 2000′s guarantees that anything you say or anything your supporters say, will be forever in an audio tape/video tape vault for future use.  Pretty different from the old days when candidates spoke mostly to audiences in cities and towns and were not recorded. There was no TV camera to record every last thing you said and the gestures and facial expressions when you said it.

I think what bothered me most about the rant of Fr. Pfleger was the reaction of his listeners, some of whom were visible in the background.  As he spewed out his vile racism, listeners were seen slapping their knees, laughing uproariously, high-fiving in the choir pews and other shows of unseemly behavior, at least in most churches across the country. Maybe it is a natural reaction of black people to the years of knee slapping humor inflicted on them by white comedians or movies made in the earlier eras of filmdom when they were portrayed as tap dancers or frightened ignoramuses, or other negative roles.  I CAN understand such a reaction to that kind of "humor".    But it still is unseemly behavior in a church of any persuasion (my opinion).

I have been bothered for many years by Politicians using church pulpits for campaigning. We have seen it for many,many campaigns…..the Candidate takeing the pulpit and using it to "preach" but the preaching is certainly not what preaching and teaching is described as in the Holy Books of religions.   These messages are pure politics and it is always surprising to see certain candidates—those who normally trumpet and promote "the separation of church and state" doing exactly what they rail against.

I have this fond hope ( and I know it will not be fulfilled) that the only speaking that comes from pulpits in Christian churches would be the teaching from the Bible’s words….no social issues, no political speeches…..even in this day after so many years of opportunity, there are many in this land who NEED to hear to Gospel taught and then need to appropriate true spiritual change within their hearts.  The mission field is just as large in the United States as it is in other nations who are considered to be non-Christian.   My views are that of a Christian…not of any other religion.      But  if any other religious groups….Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu…any world faith….allows its religion to be hijacked for political messages, that is wrong and I wish it could be put to rest once and for all.

I doubt that it will happen,given the polically and religiously charged present campaign for the presidency.

Here is a HOT ITEM from the New York Post today (May 30 2008)    According to Liz Smith, SUSAN SARANDON, the Hollywood Liberal/Leftie who has supported all sorts of "progressive" causes along with her husband, whose name I cannot remember (probably for a good reason) has said that if John McCain becomes President in November 2008…..she will move to Canada or Italy.   Where have I heard such a promise before?   Hmmmmmmmmmmm????

Oh yes, ALEC BALDWIN  said in 2000, that if George W. Bush won the presidency, he was going to move to Australia.  He did not go.   But in 2004, once again he said he would move to Australia if George W. Bush were re-elected.  Again he did not keep his word.

Unfortunately, I do not trust Sarandon to keep her word either.  They love their American liberties and freedoms too much to move to another country, in spite of all the bad-mouthing they do of the United States.

It’s too bad we cannot count on either of them to keep their word, but then…..LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE……….I guess is all we can think or say.  What else is new among the Hollywoodies of the liberal persuasion???

If Alec Baldwin had moved to Australia, it might have saved his daughter that hostile and mean-spirited phone message.  But I suppose he has a cell phone that would make international calls so that would cancel that hopeful scenario.

We are probably still going to be stuck with both Susan and Alec after November 2008.  Would that it  were not true!!!!

There are certain elements in the United States that are doing all that can be done to eliminate home schoolers.   The National Education Association and their state affiliates are part of that opposition.  They have much bigger fish to fry like telling their members for whom they should vote in state and national elections, a’ la BIG UNION tactics.  They are busy pushing agendas that many of those forced to be members of this Union do not want any part of.  The end of it all came for me that summer that the national NEA convention was prepared to vote on forcing public school teachers in primary grades through high school level to teach a prepared curriculum on homosexuality.    I fired off a resignation letter to the NEA and the state organization explaining my resignation from this union.  I do not consider myself to be what the Progressive Liberals want to tag you with—-the term "homophobe" implying  that you are scared to death of homosexuals.  I definitely do not fit into that description , but because of my religious convictions, I believe what the Bible says about homosexuality.  For that reason alone, I could not go along with the national educatation association’s  attempt to push for the curriculum it wanted to install in all public schools across the United States.  That attempt several summers ago was hastily pulled when word got out to the public at large who rose up in a massive protest against such an agenda.         It became a 3- year battle with two unions but I stuck to my position and did not pay dues for the rest of my teaching career.   The Teachers’ Union loves to ignore the First Amendment rights of its members by lobbying for non-right-to-work laws. North Dakota still has "right to work" status to my knowledge but Minnesota does not. The union has gotten it done in that state.  The teachers’ unions have also lobbied hard to eliminate home schooling.

Now news is out that even Subway, a sandwich and deli-fast food business, is cooperating with those who would have home schooling stamped out.  In an announced nationwide competition called "Every Sandwich Tells A Story", school-aged children are invited to win prizes for their schools.  However there is a caveat.  The rules state that "the contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied States who are over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private, or parochial schools that serve grades K-6. No home schools will be accepted. "      This quotation of rules for the sandwich story competition were posted in an article by Erick Erickson which appeared in "Human Events" recently.(May 27, 2008)      Go back and read the quotation again if you did not note that the contest is open only to "residents of the UNTIED States."     That was not one of my typos!   That is how the rules appear on the contest competition form.     

Another quote from Erickson’s essay:   "Given the rate at which homeschooled children win the national spelling bee, perhaps Subway should have let a third-grade homeschooled student proof its rules.  In addition to spelling ‘United’ as ‘Untied’, the prizes included a ‘gift bastket’ in lieu of a ‘gift basket’. "

Another piece of information included in Erickson’s article is that the states of California and Tennesee have passed laws and done their best to shut down homeschools.  In California a law has been passed that says that homeschooling is illegal unless the person teaching the child(ren) has grade level certification.  Tennesee’s state board of education has ruled that diplomas  from home schooled affiliations are invalid to show high school graduation.   It would not be surprising at all if these laws are being appealed to higher courts in those states….as they should be.

I am personally acquainted with a number of homeschooled students and their families. These families are required to test their students on a regular basis using state standarzized testing.  In some cases,  homeschooled students must take this testing on an annual basis. In other cases, homeschoolers are required to test on the same basis as the public schools do…at certain grade levels to test a student’s progress.   The homeschoolers with whom I am acquainted have passed their tests with flying colors…. two of the students passed reading at 4-5 grade levels above their actual grade levels.  The same applied to the standardized math tests.   The homeschooled students I know of personally also are not what some would label "social retards" .  I heard that statement come out of the mouths of public school teachers who were most opposed to home schooling…based on the fact of the students not "being properly socialized".   I suppose if you count being "properly socialized"  as what many young students learn on the playgrounds by hearing the most foul language imaginable, or getting beaten up and tormented by other students, then I would, as a parent, opt out of that kind of "socialization".  

I recently attented a senior piano recital of a 13- year veteran of home schooling;  his recital was more like that of a  recital of a college senior.  His homeschooled sister’s senior recital was the same , two years ago.  Both these personal friends are off to college and the sister is doing a superior job as a college sophomore…she also participates (socializes) in many extra curricular college activities.      She did not suffer from her homeschooling one bit and neither did the numerous other acquaintances of homeschooling  You may say, well, that is just one tiny example of homeschooling…what about those others who are homeschooled by really "kooky" parents who have gotten into an argument with a public school and huffily pulled them out.  In my  experience, "kooky" parents who pulled students out of a public school (in a snit over some minor matter) transferred their students to either a private school or to another public school under Minnesota’s open enrollment policy.  They did not home school. They lacked the dedication it takes for parents who do homeschool their students. Those homeschooling parents also pay their school district’s school taxes and in addition, spend their money on their homeschool curricula which are every bit as superior as the best public school curricula.  Homeschooled students are  also eligible to participate in sports, music, and arts activities in their public school districts and many of them do.  They also have additonal opportunities to take part in many valuable activites sponsored by the large homeschool associations that have networked over the past years.  One 6 year old that I am well acquainted with, presented a rather detailed science report on "rocks" to her Homeschool Association’s Monthly Meeting when she was in kindergarten.

The attention given to homeschoolers on a one- on- one basis is not possible in public, private or parochial schools.  Families who choose to give their own children the best education they can possibly give them, should not be objects of governmental interference and downright persecution, as in California and Tennessee.  Citizens should stand up to the ham-handed tactics of state departments of education and also the unions that lobby heavily and expensively, to stamp out home schooling.

There is a wealth of information on the ‘net if you type in words like "home schools" or "statistics on homeschooling/homeschools".  Check, it out if you are interested.

I have a son and a grandson here tonight ready to watch the basketball game on TNT at 8 p.m.  While eating pizza, I got this little story:

John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama were walking together down the street of a large city in the U.S.    They came upon a homeless man who pleaded for money .  John McCain said to him, "Come to my office first thing in the morning and we will help you fill out a job applicaton; you will soon be earning a living."  Then he gave the man 20 dollars.

The three candidates continued their walk and came upon another homeless man who asked for money.  Hillary had liked the way McCain handled the last homeless man so she said, "Come with me and I will take you to the nearest welfare office.  Then she took  20 dollars out of McCain’s pocket, kept 15 for herself (for administrative costs) and gave the  remaining 5 to the homeless guy.

The three kept walking and of course came upon a third homeless man (what did you expect to happen?)  This time Obama spoke to the man.     "Just wait my man, there are CHANGES coming, really big changes.  Be patient."

And thereby hangs a tale of the differences in our three leading presidential candidates.

The dictionary defines suffering as the experience of feeling  pain  or distress.  When I was a youngster I overheard adults talking about someone "suffering" when they were ill with a life ending disease or condition.  I knew what those grown ups were talking about.  But the sort of suffering that I, and 3 communities, have been experiencing since last Friday, is not the kind of suffering that I was aquainted with as a child…that of physical pain.  

No, this week’s suffering is the kind that is experienced over and over… when a young person…a much too young person….dies in a car accident.  The death of a 21 year old young lady, who went to all 13 years of public schooling in our school district, died in a crash on Thursday night, one week ago, while she was driving through the Metro Area in southern Minnesota so she could attend her youngest sister’s graduation on Sunday. That car crash ended a lot of things for one family and for so many others.  It ended the life of a beloved daughter and a good friend;   it ended a young woman’s college career at which she had been so excellent in her major field of drama and speech; it ended all the wonderful friendships she had with her college friends and the friendship and closeness that only a small high school class can have and continue to have, even after they graduate from high school.

I attended the prayer service and remembrances for her last evening and there is, in spite of the pain of tears and anguish of family and friends, teachers, local people from 3 communities….there is a comfort and an easing of the horrible pain that has been breaking our hearts since we heard the terrible news a week ago.   When I received the news via e- mail last Friday morning, I was sitting at the computer and broke into instant sobbing and weeping, which caused an alarm to go off for my husband who was in the same room and as I was.  He had no idea of what I had just read.   I remembered the sweet little elementary student who would come, smiling, up to the library desk with her weekly load of books…oh how she loved reading!!!  I remembered the wonderful family from which she came, and her precious mother whom I learned to know after she became a Title 1 teacher in our school.  I thought of the pain in her father’s heart and I thought of her 6 siblings who would be suffering terribly with the loss of their beloved sister.  So many things flashed through my mind, as I read the unbelievable news…the news that you dread, especially if you are a parent—that middle- of- the- night phone call or knock on the door portending disaster that will change your life forever.   I thought of the tragedy in Pelican Rapids not long ago, with the death of a 16 year old in the bus accident that upset the entire community there.  I thought of a gun accident that ended the life of another 16 year old many years ago and the shock waves that engulfed another community—my own.   I thought of the motorcycle death of a 17 year old boy about to begin his senior year in high school and of the devastation it wreaked on my community….it all comes back from years ago when you hear of someone you knew and cared for who has died so young and so suddenly….in the midst of their young lives that had so much promise ahead.

One never can know a reason for such a tragedy.  It is not for us to know.  But in spite of this truth, many cry out, "Why?  Why him?  Why her?"  and the question lingers with no answer…. ever.  The only thing that can be done is to rally around the grieving family with words of comfort,  holding them in your arms, with prayers uttered while tears soak a pillow in the dark of the night; with the custom this region has of bringing in food and even whole meals to the grieving family.  Their church fellowships enfold them, their friends and families gather around, the prayer service and the funeral service and the crushing grief of the cemetery have to be borne.

Too often the grieving ones are  left alone to deal with the reality of their loss when the numbness of the first shock wears off and the formal ceremonies have been held.  That is the time  for friends to remember them. That is when they really need others to help them bear their load of sorrow.  There is nothing one can say to ease their pain, but going to them and listening to them talk about their loved one or their terrible anguish…that is what they need and they need it for a long time.

Whenever there is a death that is sudden or especially tragic, I always think of what I read so many years ago in the autobiography by Dwight Eisenhower, AT EASE.  He was in his later 70s when he wrote his memoir, and when he wrote about the death of his 3 year old first son. ("Icky" is what the soldiers at the army base called him.)  The Eisenhower’s first son contracted scarlet fever and there was nothing to cure him at that time in the early 1900′s.  They watched him die in the base hospital and could do nothing but pray and weep. Eisenhower wrote that the pain of his son’s death was as fresh as the day it happened when he sat writing about it so many years latger.     And then he said, "you never get over it; you just get used to it."  How true that is for all who lose loved ones…you NEVER get over it…only, as time passes, do you get a little more used to the fact that the one you loved is no longer with  you on earth nor will he/ or /she ever be back in this life.

Those who are Believers and trust the Bible…. or other Scriptures from the faiths that believe in life everlasting..have the comfort of the Blessed Hope of seeing their loved ones  again, in "heaven".  I have always thought of the hopelessness that must envelop Athiests or Agnostics who do not have any faith in such matters. 

Whenever such a tragic accident or other cause of sudden death strikes at our hearts, there is much deep contemplation about life, its briefness, our futures….we are like "the grass that fadeth and the flowers that die"…………….and we have to depend on our inner strength that is needed to accept such things.

Last night’s prayer service was a small baby step towards healing…..but it will be a very long time before those of us who knew and loved her and her family will "get used to it".

My private "cat alarm" went off about 6 a.m. this morning so I am up a lot earlier than I planned last night!  The early morning light, in spite of DST, is a wake-up factor for everyone in this house, including the Princess Kitty, she- who- must- be- obeyed.  That phrase comes from "Rumpole of the Bailey" which I used to watch faithfully on the old "Mystery" series on PBS.  Rumpole would grumpily refer to his wife, Hilda, as "she-who-must-be-obeyed".  One of my friends got a gift mug from her sons and husband with that adage on it and all of us were highly amused because Joyce did not seem like a "Hilda" to us!

I am currently stiff and sore from more gardening efforts.  Yesterday, neighbor Jane came over and wanted to be involved in the gardening with me.  She did a lot of necessary clipping of some raspberry canes (old , near-dead ones) which had not looked old and near-dead to me last fall when I prunced the raspberry patch.  While I watched Jane clip and prune, I continued transplanting my tiny, started- from- seed Roma tomato plants.  Some years I get the urge to see if I can start tomatoes in March and this was one of those years. It produces a feeling of accomplishment but the plants are never as big as the ones in greenhouses.  Nevertheless, they got planted yesterday….duly protected by fruit and coffee cans (from cutworms) and also covered with hot kaps to encourage faster growth. I hope it works. I also transplanted pepper plants which I thought were bell peppers til I looked at the planting container.  It said something like "hot salsa" and the picture showed skinny long green peppers like the ones you see in the supermarket produce section that are usually hot, hot, hot!  I only planted one of those, then cursed myself for hastily picking up the six-pack at the nursery while talking (too much) with my friend Bette.  This means another trip to a greenhouse for bell peppers—my original intent.   I am also cursing bunnies or whatever animal has totally nibbled the cantaloupe plants off—-RIGHT OUT OF THE SIX-PACK container.  Those rabbits are getting agressive coming right up to the house and feasting on whatever tasted good to them.  Another reason to go back to a greenhouse…I am determined to have melons this summer.

Getting back to neighbor Jane—-I so admire this woman who could be my daughter (same age as one of my sons).  She boldly left Minneapolis a couple of years ago and came to our country neighborhood to establish her pet grooming and boarding business.  She is getting it done and is a true professional groomer.  She also raises Curly Retrievers, a breed from England which almost got wiped out during the WW 2 years.  She related this to me while we were clipping and planting yesterday.  When England was being bombed and attacked by the Nazis, the dog breeders and even pet owners were forced to kill their pets due to food shortages and uncertainty about a land invasion at the beginnings of WW2.  I shuddered to picture myself in that situation knowing how much people love their pets but desperate times called for desperate measures.  There was only one kennel of Curly Retrievers left with about 15 animals and the kennel owners were prepared to kill the dogs if there was an invasion because they knew the Nazis would kill them anyway.  It did not happen (the invasion) and the breed survived, but barely.  Jane had told this true story to a class of sixth graders who visited her business this week.  The local school has an interesting program in which the elementary classes each have a business to visit and learn about.  It had been quite an "enlightening" experience for Jane to have a whole class of very fascinated sixth graders crowded into her rather small grooming room but it worked—-her willing poodle, "Pepsi" had even allowed the kids to experience using the clipping scissors on her!!!    She is one great ambassador for Jane’s business!!!!  Jane has also taught a very naughty and undisciplined Shi-Tzu named Sammie to behave and "make nice" to people.  I guess Sammie enjoyed a lot of holding and petting from the sixth graders also.  I have a feeling that Jane’s other adoptee,  "Hello Kitty",  disappeared as soon as the first sixth grader set foot inside the house!

The blossoming crab trees are a current delight.  They are about 1 month late this year due to our nasty April "winter".  Now they are ablaze in white, pink, and that deep red of the regionally developed "Red Splendor" developed by Melvin Bergeson of Fertile, first owner of Bergeson Nursery.  I am anticipating an early June visit to that business   for the annual birthday trip with Fran, good friend who celebrates her June birthday each year with our trip to Bergeson’s near Fertile.   The juneberry shrub I bought there two years ago is loaded with blossoms and this means I will be picking juneberries for the first time since I was a child and went picking wild juneberries in my Uncle Wally’s pasture every summer.  They are like blueberries but they have more taste so I am really eager for a small crop from my little tree that is making progress.  Maybe one juneberry pie?  Or just juneberries with half and half!  Either would be a renewed thrill for my taste buds.

The hummingbirds have taken up residence once again in our thick blue spruce trees.  Yesterday I encountered a rather irritated male when I was planting things too close to his personal feeder.  My husband had a close encounter with a hummer a few days ago when one of the birds inspected his orange cap, up close, thinking, perhaps, that he was a big  colorful flower.  They are amazing birds and such fun to observe as they fight over the feeder….only one is allowed on it at a time even tho there are spaces for multiple birds. They have their own rules about who gets to sip and who doesn’t.

The long weekend is nearly over and it does not matter to a person who is retired!   It used to mean I had one or two days more of school’s final workshop days and maybe more, if I had not done what I needed to do in the school library.  The year I retired it took at least an extra week to deal with all the stuff in my work room…things I had brought over in 1980 and still had in drawers or cupboards.  Somehow I got it all done and brought home and it has been Freedom Town ever since!

I did a lot of riding, parking, thinking and pondering over the 3 day weekend.  3 graduation receptions, two in Fargo/Moorhead, but each a day apart (two trips) and one south of Lake Park on the shores of Middle Cormorant Lake so a lot of territory was covered on Saturday and Sunday.  Then today, more riding….a really good day trip to St Cloud to see the new home our youngest son and his family have just moved into.  The home is called "Craftsmen Style" and is reminiscent of the lovely old homes from the 1920′s and 1930′s.  It has two lovely craftsmen style porches, both back and front and they are so like homes I remember in my hometown from that era.  We all shared a rhubarb pie—first of the season from my rhubarb patch and it was good!  My son remembered his Gramma (my Mom) saying that rhubarb was a spring tonic…she always believed that and made many pots of "rhubarb sauce".  It was probably the tremendous amount of sugar it took that provided the "tonic".

We visited Lowes in West Fargo on Saturday in a quest to get some more really nice compost but it was all sold out.  Had to settle for some good quality potting soil but it was definitely not as good as the compost I had hoped for.  While we were parked in the lot near the garden center, we noticed that our van was surrounded by huge gas-guzzlers. There were big pickups and big SUVs parked all around us and NO smaller, more efficient sedans.  It seemed indicative of what American drivers prefer, in spite of the soaring prices of gas and diesel.  We also noticed a lot of heavy pickups loaded with things like 4-wheelers and picnic coolers on the highway today going to St Cloud.  We have restricted our driving quite a bit but apparently it is not affecting a number of motorists. (that reminds me of a phrase used in local news items years ago in the local papers….when someone went to visit someone else, it was dutifully reported by the local news reporter that "so and so had MOTORED to Barnesville on Wednesday to visit so and so"    I was always  wondering what it meant to "motor" somewhere.)      But back to gas and diesel guzzling: it might take 10 dollar a gallon fuel to put the damper on some of these people who still drive at high speeds in huge inefficient vehicles.

IT IS SO GREEN  everywhere now.  The trees, even the late-leafing oaks and ashes, are showing foliage and the woods and copses along the interstate really are brilliant green and all fluffed out for summer.  Alfalfa fields are coming on like gangbusters and it will not be long before the country folks will be smelling the sweet scent of cut hay and alfalfa.  It is the sweetest scent!!!!

ROAD RAGE was pondered at an intersection coming out of the Lowe’s mall area on Saturday.  We signaled to turn left at a light which was just turning orange and apparently we did not move fast enough to suit the VERY ANGRY MAN in the SUV behind us who also wanted to turn left.  As we made the turn, there was a loud honking of his horn and he passed us so fast he was nearly on two wheels (in the other lane) and he was waving his arm out the window and you could see he was running through his ROAD RAGE vocabulary. It is disturbing to see the anger in so many people who are driving amongst us.  What could possibly trigger such a burst of rage over a left turn?  He ran the red light in order to make his turn and I just wished a traffic cop had been right there at that moment or that I had a taser in my hand to flick off his angrily waving arm.  I truly hope the likes of him will spend Eternity in the worst traffic jam of all times!!!

BOYS WILL BE BOYS:  Today while looking around the upstairs of the new house, my daughter in law and I were first in the master bedroom and then moved to the guest room where I reclined on the bed with one leg hanging over the edge.  I suddenly felt something like a small animal nuzzling my leg but I knew this was impossible since "Bunners" was in his cage and Jobie the Dachsund was "at doggie camp" with Debbie, one of my daughter’s good friends who had volunteered to take the dog while they unpacked things.  Then I looked at my walking shoe and concluded the edge of my shoe had flicked by ankle.  But again, when I resumed the position on the bed, I felt that strange sensation on my lower leg and sat up, very startled.  I told my daughter what I had felt and she looked at me like I was not playing with a full deck.  I stood up and immediately felt the sensation of a small animal paying attention to my leg.  At that time, Daughter In Law spotted the brown hair of "our" 11 year old mischievous boy…..he emerged, wiggling, from under the bed, triumphant and giggling.  He had put one over on Gramma and was so delighted to have done it.  He had snaked up stairs quietly and darted under the bed when he heard us coming from the other room.  The rest is history but I think my heartbeat and blood pressure were re-adjusted a bit.

It is time for the second installment of "Harry Truman" on the delightful presidents’ series on American Experience on PBS.

This statement from the blog title is one that fortunately, I seldom have to make.  I am among the extremely fortunate who are not affected by sleep deprivaton chronically, but I have done a bit of research about the serious condition that affects so many Americans presently….real sleep deprivation.   I have been blessed with a natural ability (I am not sure it IS an ability but..) to fall asleep quickly and soundly when I go to bed at night and also if I need a refreshing nap during the daytime.  I wake refreshed most mornings and am ready to "get at it".  If I understand the research I did, I need to be extremely thankful for being this way as so  many others are at the other end of the spectrum of sleeping well.

I am personally acquainted with several individuals who have real sleeping problems.  A couple of them have been subjected to working night shifts in their careers and one of them, although retired for a number of years, is still affected by the lack of sleep suffered when on varying day and night shifts.  It has become a chronic condition.  Another is subjected currently to varying day and night shifts and is suffering a number of symptoms of sleep deprivation.  Another has sleep problems probably due to either affects from a former serious physical ailment and/or  medicines taken for the condition.  I am so sorry for these people I know and I am greatly concerned for their physical health due to the sleep deprivation they have endured.

The best site I encountered in doing my research was titled  "Sleep Deprivation Links And Information".   If this subject is of interest to you, typing in that exact title will lead you to a number of links that I found valuable.  The ones I took a look at were   1. Sleep Deprivation Undermines Teenage Health.    2. Sleep Deprivation As Bad As Alcohol Impairment.   3. Brain Activity Altered Following Sleep Deprivation    4. Effects of Sleep Deprivation On Brain And Behavior   and  5.  Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivaton On Driving.   The last one was shocking when I learned that getting as little as 6 hours of sleep can have a negative influence on coordination, reaction time, and judgement when driving.  People who drive after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent.  This particular study (one of the links on the aforementioned site) showed that 16-60 percent of road accidents involve sleep deprivation.   That, to me is really scary, since all of us are on the highways together at all times.  This study,a part of the British Medical Association research on S.D. warned that there are other problems associated with sleep deprivation including increases in depression, anxiety, and stress levels leading to taking unnecessary risks on the road.

One website I looked at was a fairly lengthy research project on S.D. done by a college student for an advanced biology class.  The student had an impressive list of references she had used from a number of scientific journals and other relevant sources.  The report also had a place for commenters and one of those reported deliberate sleep deprivation of 11 days  {this blew me away}  for the purpose of winning a bet on being able to play computer games for an inordinate length of time.  The male commenter reported that he had done this  for 11 hours without sleep, but was now noticing memory loss, as a horrible after-effect.

Another site that caught my attention was from SCIENCE DAILY which made this statement : "Sleep Deprivation Affects Moral Judgement".   It went on to quote a journal titled SLEEP in an opening paragraph that said "Research has shown that bad sleep can adversely affect a person’s physical health and emotional well being.  A study published in the journal, SLEEP, finds that sleep deprivation impairs ability to integrate emotion and congnition to moral judgements."

In the past, a good friend and I have joked about "paying back the national sleep debt" but after reading some of the references I encountered , joking about sleep deprivation, is not very funny when you consider the possible disastrous effects such a condition can produce. Impaired drivers going down highways, falling asleep at the wheel;  students who cannot stay awake in classes and are deprived of learning that should be taking place;  medical  personnel who are forced by modern hospitals, to work 12 hour shifts, yet are required to make crucial decisions about patients in their care;  workplace implications of sleep-deprived individuals trying to do  crucial jobs while suffering the effects of S.D (think about air traffic controllers who may be sleep-depirved or the pilots flying the big jetliners……the consequences of the national horror story are enormous and worth learning about.

If one types in, on a site like "Google" , the words  "sleep deprivation" or "effects of sleep deprivation" you will get a huge number of references, some valuable , some merely advertisments for companies cashing in on the condition.  It was worth it for me to read through a lot of them.

I read HOMD’s blog today and she mentioned end of school picnics and games remembered from school days.   The blog triggered a lot of good memories about school picnics and the final days of school when I was in what we referred to as "grade school".

Our class picnics involved a long walk from the yellow-brick schoolhouse in the northwest corner of the town I grew up in.  We walked in a two by two line, with our teacher leading us to the far south side of town, where we had to cross the busiest highway in the area in order to get to our town’s park.   I do not even remember having to have permission slips to make this long walking journey.  Everyone trusted the school  and the teachers in those days.  We always crossed safely due to the fact that in those days, traffic was pretty light on most days, even on the weekends.  Everyone drove about 45-50 mph back then also. It is quite a contrast to the high powered cars and pickups that go careening through the same area now….going over the speed limit through the town if they can get by with it. I would not have let my own sons cross that highway when they were growing up, but I remember doing it all the years…grades 1-6…when we went on our Class Picnic.  It was the most exciting day of the school year….better than the Halloween, Christmas and Valentines day(s) parties rolled up into one.  We carried our sack lunches and were in a hurry to eat our sandwiches, cookies, apples…..drink what was in our little thermoses..probably not soda pop, because that came in breakable glass bottles.  Most of us would have had "nectar" , a fore-runner of Kool-Aid.

As soon as we had gobbled down our sack lunches, we would be off to take turns on the swings and teeter-totters, to run wildly through the grassy park filled with trees, to chase each other through the park;  to lean over two bridges and watch the river run below us.  I think we might even have gone wading in what was known as the "spillway" over which cars could drive from one side of the park to the other.  There was no concern about getting hurt or drowning and somehow, probably due to the presence of Guardian Angels, nobody in "grade school" in those days got hurt seriously or even fell off the bridges and into the flowing river!!!!  If we waded across the spillway, we could get to the Boy Scout Log Cabin and peer through the dusty panes into what was a very secretive meeting place—-one in  which girls did not enter.   The teachers tried organized games…..hide and seek or circle games for the younger kids and later, softball contests for grades 4-5-6…IF they could round us up.  It was only the teacher with us…no parent chaperones ever, but as I said, everyone trusted the teachers and the school in those days.

When we became 7th graders we got promoted to a class picnic at Buffalo State Park and this meant we got to go on a schoolbus.  We were not nearly as advanced as today’s junior high kids,  but we were aware of boy-girl attractions and some of us had "girlfriends" and "boyfriends" in the most innocent sense possible.  We would not have thought of sitting together on the bus at that age…but that did come at later picnic trips to Buffalo Park since we all went there from grade 7-12 each and every end- of -school-week!  Going to Buffalo meant three things:   1.  we would make a fire and get to cook hotdogs or attempt to cook hamburgers;   2. we would get loaded with woodticks which got picked off later at the Ben-Lee cafe, after we got home and crowded into the bathroom together to pick off each others ticks.  ( I distinctly remember the bathroom tick-picking ritual since one of my good friends screamed at the loudest level of decibels each time we found a tick on her and in that tiny bathroom, it nearly broke our eardrums)    We would also have to play the ritual softball game and it was highly competitive and the boys did not appreciate girls who

could not hit or catch the softball.(sissies)  The ones who shut their eyes and covered their heads when the ball was headed their way were especially not appreciated and had to put up with the boyish taunts and downright verbal abuse when we did not get a hit or did not catch the fly balls. As in every class at all times in history of schools,  there were girls who were really good softball players and the rest of the girls envied their acceptance by the boys.  

 I only missed one school picnic and it was the ninth grade one….a night I sobbed in my bed til I could not cry any more….I had skipped school that day, following like the proverbial sheep, 5 other girls who were much braver than I, but skip school, I did, and when my parents found out, I was forbidden to go to the school picnic and a bunch of other treasured things I wanted to do with my friends, as a punishment.  I also had to scrub the kitchen floor on my hands and knees that weekend and be grounded for about one week.  Thank goodness, the grounding was over by the time the Granfor Family came for "Youth Center Rollerskating".      The school punished us also and I remember spending the day IN school, with the other school skippers, when others were out of school…..cleaning every glass test-rube, petri dish, flask, and any other lab glassware that was in our science lab.  It was a long day but when we finished the job, our teacher, good old Mr. Clappier, took us all down to Andy’s Drive-In for ice cream cones and we felt vindicated…somewhat.  I think Mr. Clappier had skipped school himself once himself  and really sympathized with our detention and punishment….but he had nice shiny clean glassware in his science lab!!!!!

I never go to Buffalo State Park now, but what I remember those Golden Evenings when we poured off the yellow school bus and into the park for our class picnics.  Some students got their first shy kiss on the picnic bus or had a boy put their arms around their shoulders on the trip back to the schoolhouse when it was dark and the moon was shining through the schoolbus windows.

And we all got our annual load of woodticks.

It is a beautiful spring-with-a- hint-of-summer-day!!!   It is so nice because so far we have not had the disagreeable humidity that we are burdened with in the heat of real summer. Others may not consider high humidity a burden, but I do!  It ruins a lot of otherwise nice days for me.  I loved living in eastern Washington many years ago because we had hot sunny days but no humidity and when the sun went down, we could always look forward to cool relief from the day’s heat.  Not so in the Red River Valley and closeby areas.   

 TULIPS:  I went down to look at my tulip garden when I came home from a Silver Sneakers/Swimming morning and they are still gorgeous.  All the tulips are now blooming, some are beginning to fade, and by next week the glory will be gone.  Some people question planting tulips because they do not "last" very long.  I keep planting more bulbs each fall because I love that short period of time in the spring when they blossom forth.  I have been keeping a vase-ful of tulips since they began to bloom nearly 10 days ago and that is another thing I like….tulips in a vase are my favorite cut flowers, bar none!

BAD NEWS:   Though I have never seen things the same way, politically, I feel  sorry for the family of Senator Ted Kennedy and for him as well.   He got about as bad a diagnosis this week as anyone could get…his brain cancer is the fatal type with  little hope for a true "cure" and perhaps a severely shortened life span from here on.  It was noticeable that the Mainstream Media in reporting about his long career never mentions another really bad time in Senator Kennedy’s life…the going off a bridge in his car on Chappaquiddick Island and the resultant death of 22- year old Mary Jo Kopechne.  I have never forgotten the "easy off" Senator Kennedy got from the police and the courts in Massachussetts and the horrible hurt it must have caused the Kopechne family.  Any other driver who fled the scene of a drowning accident in a submerged car…. for 8 hours  not reporting ANYTHING til 1 p.m. the following day would not have gotten off so easily…..an ordinary driver doing that would probably been charged with some kind of manslaughter and gone to trial and served some time.      The Kennedys in Massachussetts are akin to an American Royal family with all the priviledges and perks that ordinary folk never get.  That was a truly disgraceful event in Massachessetts and in the United States involving a sitting senator.  I am sure he has not forgotten it either…. if he ever has a reflective moment in his busy life.

SWEATIN’ TO THE OLDIES:    Silver Sneakers is such a great part of my life now.  I look forward to every Tues/Thurs when my 3 other friends and I set off for the Community Center where we swim for an hour and then go to the cardio class for seniors.  What a great nationwide program it is!  Anyone who can take advantage of such a deal, should do it!  I get a free pass on my Humana supplemental insurance and it is one of the best benefits of all of them. People on Medica supplement can also get Silver Sneakers free cards to excercise facilities, including the YMCA’s       One bit of advice though:   never eat baked beans the night before Silver Sneakers.  I ate beans for supper on Monday night and on Tuesday morning I was really glad that our music to excercise by served a double purpose!!!!   We love our music at SS…one tape or CD has  great Beach Boys songs that really gets us going…."I Wish They All Could Be California Girls" is our favorite one.

A BADLY NEEDED NEW INVENTION:  I wonder if anyone has thought of inventing "ear covers" for people who singe their ears when they use curling irons.  I wish there was such a device.  OW-ITCH!!!  A device for keeping curling iron cords from getting snarled would also be helpful.  Maybe I should go back to pin-curls, those darlings of the 40′s and 50′s.  When brush curlers replaced pin curls, I remember my mother- in- law rolling up her hair at night, then taking 2-3 excedrin before she went to sleep because the brush rollers caused her to get an overnight headache.   

BEAUTY SPOTS:      What is it with us women?   We do the darndest things for the sake of unnaturally curled hair……make-up to cover up our perceived flaws ( as a teenager I invested in something called "freckle cream" in a fruitless attempt to get rid of my freckles)   —– and we wear shoes when we are young that make our feet kill us when we grow older after shoving them into unnatural shoe shapes with pointy toe- tips and spike heels.   I taught high school English classes back in the 1960′s wearing my 3 inch spike heels with pointy toes.  and now I cannot even put my foot into a cuban heeled shoe.  I wish I could wear my New Balance walking shoes for everything!  One son, who is a podiatrist, says that women suffer more foot problems because of shoes they wore when they were young…..I believe him!!!!   Men wear sensible shoes from the time they learn to walk as toddlers.      I went shoe shopping last week and could not find one pair of dressy shoes that would suit my older feet.  The skinny 3 inch spikes are back with even pointier toes than the ones I remember wearing when I was still young and foolish.  Gadzooks!  I wish I could convince the young women who buy and wear them that they will be paying a high price in 30 years from now.

CAT TALES:  My three- legged Kitty Princess (also known as "I-lean")  is in her glory being able to go outside and be a "wild kitty" during the warm daytimes.  We were told by the veterinarians who did her amputation a couple of years ago that she should be an indoor cat from then on, but I cannot deny her the pleasure she has known, pre-amputation, of being an outside kitty in the nice weather.  She has her little places she retreats to and they are all close to the house.  We have thick woods so close by that she can spend her mornings and afternoons hunkered down listening and watching for small creatures to pass by.  She can still catch mice on her 3 legs. 

KILL THE WABBIT:  She got a baby rabbit last week and I was horrified to find half a body on the concrete pad under the deck.  Then other rabbits ate one of my prize cream- colored "new" tulips and also, last night, some rabbit  came right up to the house and on the sidewalk by our garage…..  it ate about 3 of the cantaloupe plants I had outside overnight to "harden  up" before I transplant them into the garden.   Blast It!    I now do not feel so badly about the dead rabbit of Monday…..the little monster would grow up and eat stuff out of my garden.       One summer I foiled all the creatures that attack a garden and destroy crops like string beans, peas, beets, and vine crops. (I have not planted corn for years, due to deer banquets when the first shoots came up)   But I read an article that said that keeping garden edges sprinkled with human urine could deter all nibbling critters from entering the garden plot so I set out to collect all the human urine I could…..it worked too….that was one summer we did not have rabbits and deer invading the garden crops.   But sprinkling the human urine which I had collected in empty milk jugs, along the edge of the garden…  was akin to working as an outdoor- biffy-cleaner at the Renaissance Fair in the Twin Cities suburbs.  I have never smelt an odor of the sort that emanated from those porta-potties. (and the milk jugs)    Eeee-Yewwww!  I have never gone back to the Renaissance Fair and I think the porta-  potties are the major reason for not doing so.   I can make my own spinach pie and my own carameled "Queen’s Apples"   I could even find a recipe for the "King’s Nuts" if I tried hard.   You can get any recipe off the internet these days.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING BLUE……  I am getting sadder and sadder as I anticipate the upcoming sale of our RV.  I get terribly attached to vehicles and am still grieving the loss of my old beloved Subaru Legacy wagon that took me back and forth to school so many years without missing a beat.  Now, with high fuel prices, our big old RV that must be pulled by a diesel-gobbling pickup, has to be sold.  It is old enough that its interior is an unfashionable pale blue and rose color.  I did not give a hoot about the interior colors when we bought it as a well- kept used RV, but I know women who insist their husbands buy RVS based on the interior decor and the "fashionably  in" colors used.   I was raised as a Mechanic’s Daughter and I know there are more important factors to think about when buying a vehicle such as that.   I know I am going to have to go through a grieving time when the old blue beauty gets bought by someone who is not as affected by high fuel prices as I am.