100 DAYS

Wow! 100 days. For some of us it seems like yesterday. For others it seems ages ago. The news reporters and political correspondents have been reporting for hours a day since day 25. What has he done today? What has he accomplished? There's the economy. There's the war. There's health care. What's his report card looking like? I can't imagine why anyone in this world would want the responsibility especially in this day and age.

100 days for those waiting to go on vacation or retirement or for kids waiting for Christmas or summer vacation will never get here. For those watching their grandkids grow up or celebrating that social security birthday, "Wow where did the time go"? I tried to think of the things I accomplished in the last 100 days. I joined a group called Community for Change to help better our community, organized and helped out with several fundraisers, had cataract surgery on both eyes and like the first family got a dog. Wasn't much compared with getting a stimulus package passed, taking on the banks and car manufacturers, visiting several foreign countries and heads of state, setting policies for Afghanistan and Iraq, nuclear weapons in Korea, fighting pirates, Mexican drug dealers and the Republicans on a daily basis. And now he has to battle the swine flu and answer for the planes flying over New York. What idiot thought of that? What will the next 100 days be like? It makes my head spin thinking of it. When I have a doctor’s appointment or something I am not comfortable with happening the next day, tossing and turning all night and thinking about it is normal for me. Can you imagine what goes through the president's mind each night as he lays his head on his pillow trying to fall asleep?

I am just extremely happy that he was the one who won this election, the one who will handle all these issues and problems. He can do it. During Meet the Press this week-end it was said that he loves the job. That he maintains a normal routine and is the "politics of calm." Wow with someone like him at the helm our chances are good. I worked hard for the right candidate and am proud of it.

IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE

Yes, it is finally here. I thought it would never come. It is SPRING. Although it is about a month late, seems like many months late, it is here. I knew it yesterday when the dog signaled she had to go out and I just put her leash on and walked out in the back yard. Slippers still on my feet. No slosh or water on the ground to cause stopping to put on the heavy shoes or boots. No coat or hat. Didn't need them. And I wasn't out there yelling "Hurry up, it's freezing out here". Baby does like to take her time no matter what kind of weather. So except for the rain, we won't have that to worry about for the next 5 or 6 months.

Now that the sun is shining again, I don't find it necessary to harass Pat on a daily basis. "Why can't we go to Vegas now instead of in October?" I would like to go tomorrow but I don't find it necessary to voice that over and over again. She is the travel director and I have to go along with her. She also is still working (poor soul) so vacation schedules have to be worked out.

Now that spring has sprung, I don't find it so hard to correspond with family and friends that live in warm weather parts of the country. Jealousy does not take over during the months of May, June , July and August as much as it does in December and January. It starts creeping slowly back in after that just knowing what is coming. The older I get, the faster it creeps.

I don't know why I get so excited about spring. It's not like I'm the big outdoorsy type. I'm not. As everyone knows I haven't owned a swimsuit since my teenage years. I don't like gardening. I never did play sports even as a child. It just has to be the warmth. I rarely complain that it is too hot. I love Vegas and have been there when the coolest day was 103 and dry. Florida is my favorite state. Hot and humid in July. Love it.

The one and only draw back with spring right now is happening already. I stand here at my closed up windows. Winter blahs disappearing, wondering "Who's going to start this SPRING CLEANING" You can barely see the sun shining through these dirty windows, the dust inches thick on the shades. Didn't seem so bad with the gloom of winter, but now. I guess as I look around and I'm the only one here, the answer must be me. So get out the rags and paper towels. Find the pledge and windex and the phone book. Oh, the phone book is for a cleaning service. You didn't think I was doing it. I'm retired. I have to enjoy Spring.

YOU CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES

How do you tell a 3 year old that not all things in this world are equal? Some are just born under the right star. There is nothing you can do about it. That's just life. Some say you have to be born into it. Some say you just have to be in the right place at the right time. And some say it is just destiny. Whatever it is, be thankful for all the good things you have and don't be jealous if others are just given more. True happiness can't be bought.

Ever since yesterday when Baby caught the news on MSNBC and spotted Bo, the first dog prancing around the White House lawn with hundreds of cameras and reporters following his every move, she has been moaning and groaning and laying around the house claiming life is not fair.

My friend suggested seeing that I'm so close to Barack I should get an invite for Baby to go visit. Bad idea. Baby is not at all a social being. Another dog occupying her space (and she thinks all space is her space) sends her into a diva spin. Barking and howling and jumping all over. I can see the headlines now, "Diva Bitch attacks poor Bo in White House" FBI and secret service called to subdue her. Led out in pawcuffs.

I just tried to explain even though she does not have acres of green lawn to romp on or hundreds of servants to cater to her every whim or 2 cute little girls, a first lady and the President of the United States to call family she has me to love her, feed her, spoil her. What more could she want? And besides she is only 3. No one knows what the future will bring.

HAIL TO OBAMA

Being a news junkie, I have kept a close watch on the pirate saga for the last couple of weeks. Before that I joked about the "pirate situation" not taking it very seriously.

When these ignorant criminals decided to jump aboard an American vessel and kidnap an American crew and captain, I figured trouble would be brewing. Not so much between the pirates and the US Navy but between the American right wing and President Obama. Once the Navy ships showed up and parked surrounding the plastic dinghy, I wondered how long it would take the conservative party to blame President Obama for the pirates of the world and their hijacking on the Somalian seas. It had to be his fault, everything else is.

Well it didn't take long. This morning on George Stephanopoulos Sunday show, with guest Newt Gingrich and others from the right he was blamed for not doing anything, for the problem in the first place and for not getting the rest of the world to do something. Even though the shipping companies have been paying millions in ransoms, even though other countries such as France tried to fight back with some casualties it is our fault ( or should I say Obama's fault.)

Well now that they gave him all the blame I hope they give him all the credit because it was just announced that the captain has been rescued and 3 pirates killed when our Navy Seals under the cover of darkness performed a successful rescue mission. Hurray for our side. Here's hoping that pirates everywhere take notice. "You can't mess with the worlds best Navy and get away with it. We won't let you.

OVERLAPPING

Thank God Barack Obama got elected president and not John McCain. I write this for many obvious reasons but there is one reason I have been made more aware of the last few weeks. Age. I have been, of course, watching every step our president has made since he took office. Actually I have watched every step he has made for over 2 years but that's my problem not what this is about. I marvel how he can keep so many complicated and important issues straight in his mind. How he can answer one reporters intricate question on one subject and then instantly switch to something completely different and sound like he knows what he is talking about.
This past week at the G-20 Summit meeting with all the top leaders on world issues, dine with dignitaries and their wives on a social level, just trying to remember who you shake hands with who bows, who you don't touch, has to be mind blowing. Then he gets on a plane with many other people and heads to another country, a country that doesn't like us, or a country that wants our help. This can not be handled by a 73 year old. It doesn't matter what your feeling towards the issues are. It doesn't matter how much experience you have, it doesn't matter how long you have been in government. You can't handle it if your 73.

I know. I'm closer to 73 then 47. I worked in a job for 25 years that thought God gave you 2 of everything so you could use 2 at the same time. You were required to plug a hearing device into one ear so you could talk to a customer while you were typing an order in your computer with your left hand, filling out forms with the other and listening in on a meeting going on around you with the other ear. At 35 this was not particularly difficult but closer and closer to retirement age I heard myself say more then once, "I'm busy, I only have 2 hands" I just couldn't do it now.

Now that I am retired, I was born to be retired, I find that I not only can't overlap, doing 2 things at the same time I can't do 2 things in the same day. Saturday I was doing dishes and decided the window over the sink needed washing. I could no longer see the neighbors building. If you have been in my house you understand how bad that is cause you can not only see my neighbors building, you can touch it. Of course I had to wait until Sunday to tackle washing the window. Remember I had already cooked and did dishes on Saturday. Yesterday was laundry day. Even though it takes the washing machine a minimum of 30 minutes to go through the cycle I had to rest between wash and rinse. Tonight I have a meeting so there goes any thought of running the vacuum. This is what retirement means. Of course you can go to the movies, out for dinner with friends and head to a casino in the same day but that's different. I don't know why, it just is.

There is an age restriction on how old you have to be to become president, but there really should be a limit on being too old to run our country. Senior citizens need time to write things down. We need to look up words because we forget so easily. We need to check on our own families names let alone dignitaries of other countries. But most of all we need to know why we walked into that room, or went into that country before we go there. We don't look good scratching our head and turning around and walking out with nothing. Let younger, more (I can't think of the word I want to use here, oh well) do the hard things. I'm too busy trying to remember why I am writing this anyway.

TEENAGERS AND THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

The other day my nephew posed a question on facebook "What is the matter with teenager's brains?" He has a teenager. I didn't think it necessary to ask what was the problem. I'm sure any parent of a teen has come across it no matter what took place. I just pointed out that over the last couple of years it has been published by the medical population that the brain is not completely developed until after the teenage years are over. The section left undone is the part that helps with reasoning and common sense. That little fact has answered a billion "Why would you do that?" or "What were you thinking?" inquiries from mystified parents.

Now what does this have to do with the insurance industry you ask? Well we all know that this industry has been screwed up for years and it has only gotten worse but it is really hard to live without it. President Obama has set one of his priorities to revamp the health care industry in this country. It is a very difficult and complex undertaking but it has to be done. Too many citizens have no insurance and avoid care because they can't afford it. We have all heard or experienced the nightmares. This week I have come across one of the solutions to this problem. An easy solution.

President Obama, just have someone go to each and every insurance company and check the age of their employees. They must hire nothing but teenagers because there is no common sense or reasoning being used there, especially in the claims department.

Why would you authorize payment of $1,200.00 for anesthesia for cataract surgery on 12/16 for the right eye with no questions asked, no hesitation and on 2/03 refuse $350.00 only paying $37.50 for the left eye. Same surgeon, same clinic, different anesthesiologist. They claim the second was out of net-work. Like we think to ask is that guy in network as we are laying on a table getting a needle poked in your arm. No common sense used here. Now we have wasted so many hundreds of $$$ paying all of these unnecessary people to investigate and check into and send out incorrect bills and sign stupid contract when all they had to do was use a little common sense. Must be teens working there.

I asked the gal, the fourth person I talked to this a.m, why would you pay $1,200.00 versus $350.00 for the same 2 minute procedure. Of course her reply had something to do with contracts signed etc.,etc again making no common sense, so I asked why sign those contracts when so much money could be saved. Again no common sense answer. We now have been sent to the resolution center and in 10 business days I will get the verdict. Again all it would have taken was a little common sense.

President Obama, fire the teens and get them jobs at McDonalds and Burger King.

COMMUNICATIONS MADE EASY

29 years ago I started working for Illinois Bell Telephone Co. as a business service rep. taking orders for business customers in the south suburbs. We placed orders for telephone lines and phones. The choices were few. Phones in different colors were just coming into fashion and trim lines were the going thing, but black rotary was the most popular and cheapest. You could choose between touch tone and dial. Businesses had the option of having key phones, a set that had buttons, hold keys and were able to handle more then one line( more then one phone number). If you had more then one phone in your house or business you paid for it and the phone company had to know about it or it was considered an illegal phone. And when you disconnected, the phone company came and got those phones because even though you paid a monthly fee they still owned the equipment.

You called someone and if they were not there or the line was busy you called back because there was no voice mail, no answering machines to leave a message. I had a friend who lived in a rural part of Indiana on a farm and was trying for day to reach a neighbor about a mile away. After many many tries he called the operator to check to see if the line was working or was their trouble on the line. He was told by the operator that "the neighbor wasn't that far away and maybe he should just get in his car and take a ride over there."

Now in the year 2009, the communication arena is enormous with a new option popping up before you had a chance to figure out how to use the last one. We started out with the call waiting, call forwarding, 3rd # calling. Then there were voice mail and answering machines. Once the PC took over you stopped calling and started e-mailing. Letters became obsolete and now we can order groceries, clothes, dates, pay bills, anything you need is at your finger tips.
That was not enough, along came a better way to communicate with friends, family, co-workers and even people you don't even know. Along came Myspace, blogs, facebook and now tweeter. All to make it easier to keep in touch.

My reason for going over all of this is it has become apparent to me and many like me that with all of these communication devices available to us we have been so busy communicating we have forgotten all about manners.
I cannot tell you how many calls, e-mails, invites I have sent in the last year that have been completely ignored. No one knows or cares about RSVP.
I started getting frustrated about this when I was working on the Obama campaign. I spent hours and hours daily calling volunteers, leaving messages about our canvassing trips to Indiana. Out of 100 calls maybe 2 would call back. I know people are busy but these were volunteers not cold cases. I would schedule a driver to take 4 or 5 people to South Bend, confirm with them and come that a.m. we would be left standing on the corner with no ride and they never answered their phones. I set up a phone bank in someones home, with 20 volunteers saying they would be able to be there. Several even called to verify the time that same day. Come evening, 1 person showed up. The hostess had provided food, dessert and drinks and not one person called to say they could not make it. One e-mail after another has been sent to members of groups about upcoming meetings or dinners with a please RSVP and the same 3 or 4 folks show up with no response from others.

So where this is all going is just to say, maybe the world is becoming smaller and things are getting better but we are just so busy inviting strangers to join our facebook and posting digital pictures, we're tweeting tweeter or tweetering tweets to celebrities so they can get 40,000 tweeets, or looking for a match on Harmony.com we have lost track of the one simple thing called basic manners. Have you heard of it? Is it something you taught your children? Is it something you would like to experience once in a while? I would.
Be polite, it may make the world a little happier. It would at least make me happier. Breathe and be considerate.