Why be Normal?

I can’t help it.  I’m not deeply into politics, but with the onslaught of Rush Limbaugh on television voicing his racist, homophobic opinions I can’t help but add my two cents in.   I understand that Mr. Limbaugh will have no interest in me, a tiny little blogger, but if he can state that he wants the president to fail, I can state that he is a jerk for saying it.

Rush Unleashed, Mr. “I was addicted to pain killers and have been divorced three times”, is having a special on television Tuesday night.  Why do some people cling to the opinion of a man who can’t even get his own personal life under control?

When asked the question:  Is there anything positive you can think to say of Barack Obama, Mr. Limbaugh pauses dramatically and then states, “he reads a teleprompter well and has a good voice.”

This from a man who staunchly supported President Bush, and well, we don’t even need to discuss his shortcomings here.

 Mr. Rush Limbaugh proudly announced that he wants President Obama to fail and claims that this statement is not unpatriotic.  He stated that he wants President Obama’s initiatives to fail because if they succeed, the United States will be in worse shape than it is now.

How does a public figure get away with such irresponsible and wide sweeping statements?  Doesn’t Mr. Limbaugh understand that as an upper echelon member of the Republican Party he only degrades the party as a whole? 

Let President Obama do his job and critique it,  that is patriotic.   Hoping the President of the United States fails, regardless of your political affiliations, is unpatriotic no matter how you look at it.

 I was driving around looking at fall foliage the other day and came upon this street sign.  For the first time in over a month or so, this made me think of blogging and I had to snap a picture of Trouble Street.

I love the fall and the foliage here in Massachusetts is just breathtaking.  I take pictures of the fall foliage, but it is very difficult to capture the true beauty of New England in the fall with a camera. 

In pictures, you can’t smell the fall in the air.  The smell that says it is no longer summer, that leaves are changing colors and the snow is soon to fall.  You can’t hear the crinkle of the leaves as you walk through a pile or the sound of people endlessly raking their yards in a fight against nature.

What does this have to do with Trouble Street?

Since I have been spending so much time outside enjoying the fall I have let my blog sit neglected, waiting for a random post, anything to keep the love alive.  Here I am blog, it might only be a brief visit, but I worked hard over the past year to build you into the pile of muckety muck that you are and I haven’t forgotten you.

What I found funny and the posts I began with aren’t as interesting to me anymore.  I think I am changing as a blogger, and although my google page rank will take yet another hit for being a clustered mess of unrelated material, I will slog on and focus on better writing.

It’s fall.  The time to batten down the hatches, grab a few breaths of fresh air and hunker down for some serious hibernation. 

This Labor Day weekend was like any typical last weekend of the summer in New England.  Cooling temperatures, last hurrah barbeques, and a tag sale on every corner.  Yes, we had a tag sale too, that yearly hoeing out of the junk that accumulates in the garage that people screech their tires to stop and look at.  The junk that ends up in their garage and they sell next year at their own tag sale.

What I find the most interesting about tag sales is the haggling that goes on.  “How much is this (fill in the blank)?”

“It has .50 cents on it.”

“I’ll give you a quarter.”

Yeah, I know, we all like a bargain, but really, haggling over .25 cents?  For a once used audio book that was purchased six months ago for $28?

“Take it.  You can have it.  I already listened to it.  He dies in the end.  Sad, sad story and so unexpected.”

Better yet are the people who won’t pay a quarter for anything yet when we have a big free sign at the end of our driveway, they load up their car.  What they don’t want for a dollar or two, they will cart away when it is free.  Hmmm.  Just my opinion, but if you don’t want something for a quarter, you probably don’t want it at all.

I actually had someone knock on my door yesterday asking about my free table and chairs that are down by the mailbox.

“Do you have the screws for the legs?”

“Yup, they’re attached.”

“Do you have the table leaf?”

Are they kidding?  I thought I was being punked or something.  IT’S for FREE! 

“No, we don’t have the leaf, I didn’t know it had one.”

Looks at me as if considering “buying” the table despite it’s flaws.  Shakes his head.

“That’s too bad.”

He leaves without the table, shaking his head as he walks down the driveway.  I just want to scream “It’s free!”, but I close my door quietly.

Next year I am not going to have a tag sale.  I am going to have a giant bonfire instead.  I’ll start by breaking up this leafless table and use it for kindling.  Afterall, it is free.

  We all start out innocent.  No need to make sure we do everything perfect for fear of possible litigation.   What has happened to us as a society that we are so afraid of liability that we forget compassion and understanding?

No, I’m not saying everyone, everywhere lacks compassion.  There are many of us out there who are not afraid to reach out to others without a thought to covering our potentially liable behinds, but I have a bad taste in my mouth from a recent incident and I can’t help but voice my opinion as many of us bloggers are inclined to do.

This isn’t about me, but about a friend.  Not a “wink, wink” friend, but really, not me because right now I am a stay at home mom.  This friend, we’ll call her Kate, has been sick.

Kate has a seizure disorder which has been newly diagnosed.  She hasn’t been able to drive a car for about six months because her seizures aren’t totally under control.  She has been to the doctor time after time and despite everything, continued to work dilligently at her job every day.

After ten years of hard work, she receives a letter outlining her employer’s “concerns”.  Apparently in the past 6 months there were three episodes where my friend was “a little confused”, “unresponsive”, or otherwise incapacitated for a period of less than 15 minutes.  That’s it.  Three minor episodes in 6 months.  As an epileptic myself, I can assure you that this is insignificant in the grander scheme of things.

 Instead of showing just a bit of compassion for Kate, her employer hands her a three page letter outlining every single statement she has made about her possible illness and details of the three episodes with a demand that she undergo a full physical and mental health evaluation and sign a release for her employer to contact any medical professionals so they can have input into the evaluations.  Further, they have reserved the right to get a second opinion if they do not like the first one.

Not once has her disability affected a major work decision or her overall performance, but it has made people feel uncomfortable.  They outline this discomfort in their letter as well.  “People feel embarrassed for you”.

Well, when I was having trouble with my seizure disorder 15 years ago, I wasn’t worried about being embarrassed, I was worried about things like hurting myself when I seized or getting my disease under control. 

Kate is a model employee.  I don’t work with her, but I know that she is.  She is dilligent, hardworking and a perfect rule follower.  She stays late without pay and will always get the job done.  When one of her coworkers was sick, she covered for her extensively and she is now not receiving the same compassion.

Why?

Are people that freaked out by others who have seizures?

I know that before I had seizures, I thought that they were only for severely impaired people and not college educated professionals.  I too was afraid, but nothing gets you over the fear of something than having to live with it every day.

To me, this is all about compassion, or in this case, a lack of compassion.  Their fear of what could happen has sparked their need to attack my friend, humiliate her with details I haven’t outlined here and put an already stressed, ill person under more stress.

What is even more disturbing is the agency she works for.  I can’t outline the details, but it’s safe to say that they are in human services.  Maybe a bank or an accounting firm wouldn’t understand or have compassion for a person with a seizure disorder, but an agency that services people with special needs probably should.

If it isn’t already obvious, I am angry.  I am mad that because of a fear of potential liability my friend is being dumped on by her employer despite ten years of service for an illness that is beyond her control. 

Are there any real answers out there?

 The threat of swine flu is back.  Watch any news program during your morning coffee and you will hear swine flu mentioned at least once.  Health officials are sending the warning that half of Americans could be infected by the swine flu this flu season and 90,000 could die.

What?

90,000 people could die from the swine flu?

They are encouraging people to get the swine flu vaccine when it becomes available, although there will only be enough for half of the population.  Let’s hope it’s the half that would have been infected in the first place.

Why can’t they make enough vaccine to cover the whole population?

I’m sitting here, watching the news as I write, and waited patiently to learn, “how to protect yourself from the swine flu”.  I waited through several commercial breaks to hear how I could protect myself and my family from this potentially fatal flu.

What have I learned in the past hour?

First, that I should get vaccinated, but only if I am a school aged child, have asthma, or am otherwise frail. 

Second, if I fly, I shouldn’t fly sick.   Well, no kidding, but this would mean that I was already infected.  The news warned of flying, but then reminded us that all airlines have confirmed that the air inside of planes is HEPA filtered and safe.

Third, I learned that I shouldn’t cough into my hands, but into the crook of my elbow.  Again, this would mean I am already infected, and is not a prevention technique to avoid catching illness but a means to not spread infection to others.

The newscast then ended abruptly.  What did I really learn about swine flu?

Half of us are going to get sick if we don’t cough into our elbows and wash our hands.  90,000 of us Americans could die, so fly somewhere before you do and enjoy a vacation because the air in planes is HEPA filtered.  Get vaccinated, but not if you are healthy, only if you are a child, frail or have asthma.

I learned NOTHING about how to really prevent the swine flu today, but my belief that health officials and the media try to scare the poop out of us is confirmed. 

Beware, the threat of swine flu is out there, the terrorist threat level is orange, vaccinations cause autism, the recession will live on forever and toxic lead levels were found in your child’s toys from China.  Now, sleep well, don’t panic, and take a vacation.

As one of the many, many bloggers out there, I too have an opinion about the death of Michael Jackson that has been clogging up the media for the past two months.

After careful investigation, his death is now being ruled a homicide.  It is ruled a homicide because it is clear that someone else was a factor in Michael Jackson’s death.  Of course Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician who gave Michael Jackson propofol 10 minutes before he stopped breathing is the likely (and only) suspect, but what about Michael Jackson himself who demanded the drug be administered?

The timeline of medications administered is reportedly this:

1:30 am  10 milligrams of valium

2 am  2 milligrams of ativan

3 am 2 milligrams of versed

5 am 2 milligrams of ativan

7:30 am 2 milligrams of versed

10:40 am 25 milligrams of propofol.

Reportedly Michael Jackson demanded that Dr. Conrad Murray administer the propofol and after 10 minutes of watching Michael Jackson, Dr. Murray reports going to the restroom and returning to a non-breathing Jackson.

Dr. Murray did not call 911 for one hour and twenty minutes after finding Michael Jackson not breathing but managed to call three different people on his cell phone.  It reeks of fear for what he had done, for the meds he administered and the knowledge that he should have been the doctor and not listened to a patient willing to pay him outrageously for his ability to prescribe legal drugs.

What I think we have is a legal drug prescriber purchased by Michael Jackson who knew that no doctor would prescribe such ridiculous amounts of sedatives and anti-anxiety medications without the lure of huge financial gain.

He’s dead, so Michael Jackson has paid the ultimate price for his drug addiction and Dr. Conrad Murray is going to have to try and justify his actions for months to come. 

It is my opinion that some of the responsibility for the death of Michael Jackson lies with Michael Jackson himself.  That his increasing need for sedatives was a cumulative effect from overuse and that luring a doctor in with money (and let’s not forget how famous he was) was Michael Jackson’s doing.

Should Conrad Murray have prescribed and administered such powerful medications?  Only professionals and the courts will be able to determine if his actions were out of line, but what we should remember is that Dr. Conrad Murray did not sneak his way into Michael Jackson’s room in the middle of the night and begin administering drugs.  He was hired and Michael Jackson knew what he was doing.

First Lady Michelle Obama is wearing *gasp* shorts, and on vacation with her family no less!  How do we live with such a scandal?

Here’s a picture of Michelle Obama right here, walking on the White House lawn with the family dog Bo.  Again, she is wearing a pair of shorts.

What are we, the public, to think of such an escapade?

That she was HOT and wanted to enjoy the nice weather. 

Are we really so focused on what people wear instead of who they are that when the First Lady wears shorts it becomes headline news?

This picture was taken earlier in the summer and now scandal is hitting again because Michelle Obama wore shorts while vacationing with her family.  Some argue she is a role model and shouldn’t be seen in shorts. 

They aren’t exactly hot pants and she isn’t holding onto a stripper pole as she walks off of Air Force One.

Maybe we need to focus on what matters, like the reasons why we care if Michelle Obama wears shorts and why we think this is so destructive to society.  Does any mother out there (or father) really think that their daughter is going to be negatively influenced by Michelle Obama because she has on a pair of madras shorts?

Michelle Obama wearing shorts tells me that she is one of us, that she gets hot and she wants to be comfortable.  She is telling me with her actions that expensive suits are hot and she isn’t going to succumb to the “pain for beauty” mantra that many women foolishly subscribe to.

I’m all for shorts, whether on Michelle Obama, the Pope or anyone else that wants to stay cool on a hot day.  Stay cool Ms. Obama, you have more important things to do than care if you are wearing shorts are not.

It’s summer in Northampton, Massachusetts and although it has been a rainy summer, the gardens at the Northampton Community Gardens couldn’t be more beautiful this year.

The community gardens in Northampton are a series of plots that locals rent from the Northampton Recreation Department for a nominal fee and tend throughout the summer.  You never know what you are going to find planted here in these gardens, but most take a huge amount of pride in their plot, planting harvestable vegetables and beautiful flowers.

I took this picture on a walk a few days ago,  when the weather was one of the top five days of the year with 75 degrees and a light breeze.  The sunflowers and black eyed susans are in full bloom and can be seen in almost every plot at the Northampton Community Gardens.

I visit often the gardens often and I love to see how they change throughout the growing season.

I followed this monarch butterfly as it flitted around the gardens looking for the right place to find some nectar.  Finally the monarch butterfly settled on this flower and I was able to catch a picture of it.  Summer in Northampton, I love it here.

 On July 31, 2009, I was on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland.  Most of the day was sunny and warm, a perfect beach day.  Although there were weather warnings that an isolated thunderstorm might appear during the day, the sun shone and the beach was full of people.

I was sitting on our cottage deck when lifeguard whistles started blaring and people began scrambling off the beach.  I grabbed my camera and went out onto the boardwalk a few feet from our cottage.

I took about ten pictures of the ocean storm in less than two minutes and the progression of the storm was intense.  One woman described these clouds as “clouds banking over the ocean”. 

I didn’t know at the time, but there was also a tornado warning that lasted about 30 minutes.  No tornados struck down, but the thunder and lightening for the next few hours after this storm hit were incredible.  One minute it was sunny on the beach and less than ten minutes later these clouds had formed over the ocean.  Nature can be amazing and this storm proves just how powerful nature can be.

People still scrambling to get off the beach.