Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Brooklyn Bowl, Music, Parlor Mob on July 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Ceiling Fans, Energy, Generators, Power Outages on July 9, 2012| 2 Comments »
I must be blogging. But instead of typing contentedly in my cozy aviary office, I’ve moved my laptop to the kitchen table. Why, you may ask, after all those years reporting from a corner in my dining room would I move back into my home’s food court? Simple, it’s the heat!
Yesterday the temps were soaring in the 105 degree range…again, which meant my third floor office was hovering around 85 plus. The builders of our “not so big house” warned me; “You’ve got to put a ceiling fan up there Ma’am.” If you are over 30 in the South, you are automatically called Ma’am. I’m almost getting used to it. But did I listen to those men in tool belts? I was amused to hear their tales of deer and wild turkey sightings, and how if they had their way my office would be a gun turret. Of course not, a ceiling fan, no way. My concern was having a breeze on my neck. I didn’t want a breeze from a ceiling fan which would lead to a crook spasm in my neck and before you know it, a frozen shoulder! And no guys, we don’t allow even bow hunting on the property.
OK so I admit it. They were right. A ceiling fan in the South is like a mud room in New England. Not everybody has one, they are not a necessity, but boy does it make life easier. I have a friend who has to have a fan over her bed. She claims that she just cannot sleep since menopause hit without that little breeze. And we did install one on the sleeping porch; a last minute idea. 
It just seemed so natural to put a fan out there to mix up the scent of lilacs with the sounds of tree frogs on a hot summer night. And like most last minute ideas, it turned out to be absolutely perfect…like installing the built-in generator.
Some people in Albemarle County have been without power during this record-setting heat spell going on 6 or 7 days. In fact, so many lost their food from melting refrigerators and freezers that our local Food Pantry desperately needs donations – preferably canned or box foods. I’m packing up a box today to deliver. We only lost our power for a few hours, and our trusty generator just automatically started up. It saved my life during our second year in the house when Mother Nature dumped 2 snow storms on us measuring over 2 feet of snow and ice each time. Bob went to the hospital early and didn’t leave, which is what directors do when they know other docs won’t be able to dig their way out of their driveway and if they could, the roads were still buried. VA road crews were not prepared for the magnitude of those storms. I never could have lasted 7 days without power in the freezing cold, without that generator. Anyone thinking of building a house today, or renovating their existing house, I have just two things to say: 1) generator and 2) ceiling fans! Mercifully cooler temperatures are predicted this week. Since I wasn’t blogging back then, and to usher in the drop in temps, I thought you might like to see some pictures of Buddha and Bean in the historic snowfall.
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Public Policy, Religion, Southern Poverty Law Center, War on Women on July 7, 2012| 1 Comment »
I have received a “Call to Action.” In the midst of a historic heat wave (108 today), my bus riding feminist sisters would like me to ignore my physical ailments du jour, and ride on over to Richmond as counter-point to the Family Research Council’s “Values Bus Tour.” In the past I’ve marched for peace, rallied for Planned Parenthood, and yes, got on the bus for Richmond to protest the Republican-led War on Women. But I have never, ever been asked to serve as the opposing view at someone else’s rally. I must be moving up in the social hierarchy of activism!
“The “Values Bus Tour” is billed as ‘bringing Americans around the nation together to voice support for fiscal responsibility, religious liberty, life and marriage,’ according to an announcement from the Family Foundation of Virginia.” They are rolling into Richmond on Tuesday, July 10th for a Conservative Coalition Meeting with the Virginia Institute for Public Policy at 10 am, followed by a press conference on the Myth of the War on Women at 12:15. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/values-bus-tour-rolls-into-virginia/2012/07/05/gJQA5Ud4PW_blog.html
If you would like to know just what the Family Research Council is about, you can read all about their misinformation and faux policy research on the LGBT community here: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council Thank you Southern Poverty Law Center. OK, I get that they view gays as a threat to their value system, not that I understand it at all but I get the hatred. Bigotry is alive and well, and in certain parts of our country its roots run deep. But the GOP is barking up the wrong tree if they think they can sell the War on Women as a myth. Holler!
According to the Chicago Tribune, “There were over 1100 antichoice provisions introduced in 2011 and 900 antichoice provisions introduced so far in 2012. Legislators in 13 states have introduced 22 bills seeking to mandate that a woman obtain an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion. Of these, seven states are pursuing the state-rape vaginal probe variety. In addition, legislators in 13 states have sponsored right-wing “Personhood” type bills, too extreme even for the electorate of Mississippi, that could make both abortion and reproductive choices highly restricted.” http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-11/news/sns-201204111215usnewsusnwr201204090410debate.women.baapr11_1_gop-war-ultrasound-bill-poor-women
I think they are scared, because many Republican women are not buying this myth business. And women are not a minority, like the LGBT community, or undocumented workers. We women vote, and will do so in unprecedented numbers this fall. We women know when a myth, disguised as religious freedom, works its way into the public discourse and starts chipping away at our human rights. We would like to call on that elephant with all those arms to get these ridiculous bills out of our state capitols. One person’s myth is another person’s caterpillar, or elephant.
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Documentary Films, Hard Times, Parlor Mob, Unemployment on July 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
“Lost on Long Island” is the documentary film that was the topic of discussion this morning. It will debut on HBO this Sunday night. It is the story of mostly baby boomers who have lost their jobs and are consequently losing their employer-based health insurance and sometimes their homes. It takes all the words and statistics that politicians like to throw around about our “economic recovery” and “income inequality” and puts a human face on it.
After my last post I got some interesting comments on Facebook. I think it’s important to distinguish between people who are homeless as a direct result of this economy, who have worked all their lives only to find themselves a decade short of medicare and still looking for work, not a hand out…and those who have taken to the streets to make a livelihood of sorts out of begging. Let’s not forget those people who grew up in poverty, and who might just be scraping by, living in a medicaid motel with children, maybe making a minimum wage. In our family’s Year of Living Dangerously only the Salvation Army appeared on the Flapper’s doorstep Christmas Eve. My brothers didn’t want their charity, but I’m sure my Mother appreciated it.
In the worst year of the Great Depression, in 1933, the US jobless rate reached 25%. We hit a recession peak in 2010 when our unemployment rate hit 10%. Today it is averaging at 8.2%; most economists think that under 5% is acceptable. But what does that mean when only 1 out 10 long-term unemployed will most likely find work? There are so many factors at play: http://www.economywatch.com/unemployment/causes.html?page=full It has been argued that either government spending or raising taxes will grow the economy, so I wonder why we are cutting government spending and so reluctant to raise taxes. Particularly on that 1% of “job creators.”
For those of you looking for a job with a sustainable future, you might like this list. http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/06/22/9-most-secure-jobs-in-america/
And for my lovely troubadours, play on! (ps the President they reference is our previous Republican)
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Fourth of July, Historic Downtown Mall, Homeless, Mental Illness on July 3, 2012| 2 Comments »
Last night our City Council heard from many business owners on the Historic Downtown Mall. Their issue is that the numbers of homeless people congregating on the mall is hurting their business. I remember Mimi walking into her yarn shop one day and complaining about some people who were yelling profanities and getting into a fight a few doors up. Right smack dab in the middle of the day! I have to admit, it’s hard to sit outside for a scrumptious meal at one of our fine dining establishments with homeless people carrying on in the background. Catholic guilt kicks in. Still, our city, the People’s Republic of Charlottesville, has gone overboard in protecting the rights of the homeless: http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/city.cgi?city=Charlottesville&state=VA its churches offer shelters; lawyers defend them in court free of charge; and there are ordinances protecting their right to congregate while restricting where they can stand/sit. Since they are not allowed to approach you for money, they sit with their dogs and kids holding cardboard signs explaining why they need to beg. Because that is what it is, not loitering, but begging.
My Jersey comes out at times like these. I grew up walking the streets of NY pre-Guiliani, when every block was teeming with beggars and people were sleeping on cardboard boxes outside of Tiffany. I was taught to ignore them. I know that sounds cruel, but the reasoning was that it would put (young) me at risk if I stopped to talk with them, and it would encourage more begging. There were shelters available and most homeless, I was told, are alcoholic and/or drug users; so any money I gave them was just feeding their habit. That made sense to me. Now we know that many homeless are not just drunks but mentally ill, and since there are laws prohibiting the forced administration of medication to these patients, unless they are a danger to themselves or others, they are stuck in a Catch 22 of bureaucratic limbo. If they are treated with psychogenic drugs, they will often stop taking them because they forget or just don’t like the feeling. So a cycle of homelessness can seem hopeless.
Certainly today, there may also be a small percentage of homeless who have fallen into poverty due to divorce or bankruptcy, and find themselves living in a car. My question is do homeless people really have the right, are they protected by our First Amendment, to sit on our public sidewalks with their signs up and their hands open? To argue and party with abandon so long as they remain a certain number of feet away from the Paramount Theatre? And how much can we the people balance and regulate their rights with the rights of business owners to operate their stores in relative peace?
When temperatures rise into triple digits in June, and many in our county are still without power in July, our City Council may find it difficult to keep tempers down around town. Stay safe, stay cool be careful around those fireworks – did you know you can buy them right in the grocery store in VA?! Happy Fourth of July Y’All, from this transplanted Jersey Girl! 
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Disaster, ER, Power Outages, State of Emergency, Thunderstorms, Wizard of Oz on July 1, 2012| 2 Comments »
We all know that scene in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy looks at Toto and says “I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Well, late Friday afternoon, when the temperature had peaked at 108, I had a feeling my house might just be blown off its foundation and end up in Kansas!
Gov McDonnell declared a state of emergency for VA after a series of violent “boundary” thunderstorms ripped through these parts leaving 6 people dead; 2 in our county were struck by trees. Bob was putting a foot in the hot tub when he looked up and decided to come inside. Usually, he likes to sit on the deck and watch a storm cross over the mountain range, so this was unusual. We lost power but our trusty generator switched right on, then we lost our Dish satellite and only had news via the Weather Channel on my iPhone. Oh, and we lost our land lines too. Then it got very, very dark and our windows, the shiny, beautiful clean windows I’d just washed for the party, were being pummeled by what, hail?
When you are married to an ER doctor, you get used to a certain laissez faire. Unless you are dying, nothing much can bother him. “HA, I was right, you have Zoster!” he might say smiling. Or, “It’s only a GI bug, you’ll feel better tomorrow.” When I ran in with a limp child after falling off a bike, and he said call the ambulance, I knew it was serious. So Friday night, when he put on his work boots, started gathering flashlights and opening windows, I have to admit, I started to panic just a little. First he’s not on the deck watching the storm, second he came in from his beloved hot tub, and third, he NEVER opens windows, but he said he wanted to equalize the pressure. That unbearable heat was being whipped up by a cold wind, a wind that hit straight-line gusts of over 80 MPH while the lightening played out over our Blue Ridge mountain range like some evil horror show.
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/jun/30/thunderstorms-leave-2-dead-thousands-without-power-ar-2025298/
What do you do in a disaster? Some people were made for these things, ER docs, firefighters, pilots, medics. It’s in their DNA. They are the opposite of risk-averse, they are risk-in-love. I asked Bob what he would have done on that Italian cruise ship that went aground recently, would he have started climbing up? Of course, he would not have listened to the officers telling people to go back to their cabins. It made me think of one of the Flapper’s famous sayings, “Signs are for sheep.” Yesterday morning he was doing his chain saw buzzing best all over our driveway, we had 3 trees down.
Then when we went to Starbucks for a break, they had no milk. He went over to the only other open store in the whole shopping center, bought milk and half and half, and gave it to the baristas. People were wandering around like zombies, trying to find a cool shelter, trying to find relief from the massive power outages. “Do you know if they have any hamburger in there?” one nervous woman asked me while we walked to the car. I started to tell her they have milk, but no yogurt, and saw in her eyes she didn’t care. She was after meat.
I felt like I was in an episode of Doomsday Preppers! Later, on Bob’s 3 to 11 shift, the ER treated over 100 patients, many with heat exhaustion. We have 2.5 million people without power in the state. “This was the largest non-hurricane power outage in Virginia history,” McDonnell said. And the fifth highest ever in state history. Well people, it’s July 1st, please try and stay out of emergency rooms. You know why, right? All the new ER interns are starting fresh out of medical school. They just got their long white coats and are still learning how to write a prescription. But if you do find yourself on a gurney, give ’em a break and try to be a patient patient. Hum “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Affordable Care Act, Family, Obamacare, SCOTUS on June 29, 2012| 1 Comment »
We’re heading into triple digit territory today. I watered the garden and all my pots, caught a couple of Japanese beetles chewing away on a basil plant, and heard all about the beautiful red fox that was strolling up our hill while Bob was showering. Today is a day to stay home, in the air conditioning, and finish putting napkins away and chairs in their usual spots. To finish reassembling the house, post-party. And to celebrate the SCOTUS decision upholding almost all the principles of the Affordable Care Act.
Why was I nearly crying while listening to Nancy Pelosi talk about Teddy Kennedy? Why did I take this so personally? It’s hard to say. The drunk driver who hit the Flapper head-on in 1949 when I was a baby had no car insurance, it wasn’t mandated back then. And I always thought the analogy for the High Court was more like auto insurance and less like broccoli. Now if a small percentage of the nearly 50 million who are uninsured in this country fail to get health insurance, they will be taxed. OK, and the problem is? Part of being a citizen of these United States is paying your taxes, and did we have a choice when Bush marched us into Iraq? And hearing Mitt talk about not wanting government to come “between you and your doctor,” made me laugh. Don’t the Republicans want exactly that, to mandate ultrasounds and building codes/requlations for out-patient surgeries? To tell doctors they must document a patient’s record in a certain way, to make sure that each patient has been offered the chance to see and listen to a small heartbeat?
It’s Etch a Sketch time again; Govenor Mitt really wanted the individual mandate in MA, but Candidate Mitt wants us to think it’s the end of the world. In fact, for women this is just the beginning since they represent 19 million of the uninsured today. “Up to 10.3 million of the low-income among them will now be covered by Medicaid by 2014 when the law goes into full effect.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/brycecovert/2012/06/28/obamacare-decision-why-women-are-the-big-winners-health-care-supreme-court/
I have to imagine that maybe I would not have been raised by foster parents if our family had not lost everything after my father’s unsuccessful brain surgery and death. If my mother had her extensive physical rehabilitation covered after the accident in our Year of Living Dangerously. And to think that over 60 years later, a devastating diagnosis or an accident could still result in bankruptcy for American families. The rest of the civilized world had some form of universal health care for their citizens by the end of WWII. Maybe that’s why I was crying.
President Obama said yesterday that the ruling was “…a victory for the country, (people would not need to)…hang their fortunes on chance, or fear financial ruin if they became sick.” I truly hope the GOP leadership has some cooler heads going forward, because Mitt, you were right. We don’t want government coming between us and our doctors, just us and our insurance companies. Like the fact that Anthem recently partnered with CVS, what’s that all about? Shouldn’t the FTC look into this? But who am I? I only pay taxes!
Thank you Justice Roberts, for doing the right and proper thing. Thank you for really valuing the American family, in all its myriad forms. I knew that after Gore vs Bush and Citizen’s United you began to see the forest through those tea party trees.
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Feminism, Nora Ephron, Public Policy, Working Mothers on June 27, 2012| 2 Comments »
It’s another beautiful Blue Ridge morning. A crisp north wind has banished the humidity and rabbits are hopping all over my sun-drenched lawn. But hearing the news about Nora Ephron gave me chills and made me pause to listen to her incredible voice. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-nora-ephron-20120627,0,4888846.story She was about a generation ahead of mine; she was our trailblazer. She helped to define my tribe of women, she coaxed us along and prodded us to laugh at ourselves. And somehow I wasn’t surprised to find out that when she was fresh out of Wellesley College and looking for work in NYC, Newsweek told her “Women don’t write here.” Maybe going to an all female college helped her to just accept that fact and start off in the mailroom? My very first job fresh out of college was with the ironically named Manpower. Refusing for years to learn how to type or ever consider being in a secretarial pool, at least I could test other’s typing skills.
In July the Bride will be starting her first job in her EM field, well technically. She certainly worked summers and years before in other medically related fields. But the years of residency training have all led up to the day she will walk into a new ER, baby bump first. And part of her reasoning in choosing this career was the work-life-balance thing. Recently, an Atlantic article has been getting a lot of buzz about this very issue – one I had fought and thought was pretty much over and done with. Titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” by Anne-Marie Slaughter http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/
I know I know, Adele is singing about a bad boy, but didn’t we raise our daughters to think they really could have it all? Slaughter had her dream job in DC, she left academia at Princeton to mingle with the super powers of foreign policy planning
as the very first woman director of public policy at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. She left her teenage boys during the week and only returned home to NJ on the weekends and she talks about the toll that decision had on her family.”I could no longer be both the parent and the professional I wanted to be—at least not with a child experiencing a rocky adolescence. I realized what should have perhaps been obvious: having it all, at least for me, depended almost entirely on what type of job I had. The flip side is the harder truth: having it all was not possible in many types of jobs, including high government office—at least not for very long.”
One of the hardest things Slaughter found to write in this story was that she actually wanted to be home. So have we sold our daughters a feminist myth? Certainly the life of an academic, and a Dean, is conducive to balancing a family because the hours are flexible. But one wonders why women are not equally represented in board rooms and legislative offices all over our country. Certainly other countries value parents more by allowing for more flexible schedules and longer child care leave and most importantly, providing excellent early childhood day care. In Canada, women have paid leave for up to a year after their babies are born. My daughter will be returning to work 8 weeks after she gives birth. Her husband is an excellent photographer, and captured the new Doctor with her Grandmother Doctor! Ada received her doctorate in marriage counseling at the age of 65.
So do men even think about the work-life-balance today? Do they truly want to share in the raising of their children? I can only hope we have raised a generation of young men who do consider these things. My generation ushered in the pill and free love with its kissing cousin, the ability to file for a divorce because of “irreconcilable differences.” We wanted what they were having; we wanted it all for our daughters. So I’ll leave you with another classic Ephron quote: “Marriages come and go, but divorce is forever.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/the-d-word_1_b_779626.html?ref=topbar
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Baby Shower, Cake, Food, Friends on June 25, 2012| 2 Comments »
What’s a person to do when they’re lying awake in bed at midnight buzzing with happiness and the let-down of a stressful but fun weekend? Why, get up and watch Pierce Morgan interview the Dalai Lama of course. Oh, and check in on my friend Karen’s Daughter-in-Law. I mentioned this gal before, Kath Younger (KERF) is our town’s famous food blogger, as big online as that Pioneer Woman out west, except that Kath is adorably real! And yesterday, she and her husband Matt documented the Bride and Groom’s baby shower here http://www.KathEats.com/party-hoppin
It all started on Friday, like any good Jewish celebration relatives started streaming in from points north and festivities were planned. The Rocker got his first glimpse of his sister’s 30 week belly at Barbecue Exchange in Gordonsville, a truly unique and delicious experience! 
Saturday night we met friends on the mall for dinner. The weather couldn’t have been better and my Grand Dogs were very well behaved. How long does it take for the conversation to turn to medicine when 4 doctors walk into a restaurant? I always try to postpone the inevitable, but it never works. Once, when the band stopped by on a grand tour, we played a game of Trivial Pursuit with a group of medical students after dinner. I called it the artists vs the scientists, and the artists won! Ah those were our glory days! But this weekend the doctors were in; so sprinkled among the baby talk were consults on broken fingers and poison ivy.
Many thanks to the Groom’s Mom for co-hosting a great baby shower; and to Ashley East, Dinner at Home for the yummy salads. The baby-clothes-line-art-activity went particularly well (thanks Pinterest), in fact we couldn’t decide on a winner. And I am humbled by Kath’s opinion of my carrot cake. 
(photo courtesy of KERF) This 3 layer, toasted coconut, cream cheese frosted carrot cake has a special meaning for us. I found the recipe years ago in a Junior League cookbook, and I would make it once or twice a year with my daughter since she could stand on a stool and help. We’d bring it to birthday parties, we’d deliver it to a funeral, we’d demonstrate its deliciousness to visiting French students; its secret is that it is overloaded with carrots. I still use the 1960’s avocado green Sunbeam hand mixer to whip it together. Of course, the Bride would always get to clean the frosting bowl. Baby girl was kicking up a storm this morning as they packed up all their presents and the dogs for the return trip to Nashville. Sweeter they couldn’t be!
Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged Eric Holder, Executive Privilege, Fast and Furious, Gun Violence on June 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »
They’re at it again in the District. Republicans would like to have the Justice Department’s 80,000 documents related to that vaudevillian program of gunrunning called “Fast and Furious.” I wrote about it here: https://mountainmornings.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/unintended-consequences/
Our President told them to just hold on a minute, and issued his Executive Privilege, which means they can’t have them. Ouch. Remember back in 2007 when Justice fired 9 judges and the Democrats thought this was a political move? The shoe was on the other foot as a Democratic Congress asked for some clarity from President George W Bush. He issued his privilege to keep Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten from testifying in front of Congress. It’s nothing new, in fact our first President thought it up!”President George Washington set the precedent in 1796 when he refused a House request for documents relating to how the Jay Treaty with Great Britain was negotiated.” http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/20/politics/executive-privilege-history/index.html?hpt=hp_mid
Isn’t this akin to a parent saying “Because I’m your Mom/Dad and I said so?” Now since all of you were kids at one time or another, I’m sure that tactic still irritates you. It’s the absolute last move in any disciplinary chess game. Ironically, we’ve all had to use it ourselves from time to time. Trust us, you’ll understand it when you’re grown. Kids can’t think ahead, not logically at least until a certain age. Hence the temper tantrum. And that’s what’s happening now.
Yesterday, by a vote of 23-17, the House Oversight Committee is recommending that Attorney General Eric Holder be cited for contempt – even though the President has said these documents are confidential. And this sets up our political landscape for a long-winded fight right before an election. The party of the NRA wants to know why the ATF was so loosey goosey with all those firearms. Now I’m all for quality control, maybe even calling in some outside consultants to figure out what went wrong. Although it seems pretty obvious to the casual observer; give Mexican drug lords more guns? Our gun culture, our failed war on drugs, our woefully inadequate Congress – where to start. Ms Bean agrees with me 
It’s just that at some point, the boys will be boys club on the Hill has got to stop bullying from their pulpits and go about the business of running our Country before we sink into an even deeper economic hole.
MountainMornings 