Tag Archives: lifestyle

Thank you for your service.

Posted on June 25, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Hi readers.  Gotta smile.  Someone sent me this link to a Yahoo News article saying Executives running VA medical treatment facilities got themselves high-dollar bonuses the past few years.  And 65% of all VA employees got bonuses.

Ironically yesterday I also got another co-pay demand for the meager services I got from them in the form of prescriptions a while back.  Been paying $10 per month, and they ain’t happy about it.  Gonna take it spang out of my Social Security pension check.

I thought I had all that ironed out with them, but evidently I don’t.  At least I’ve gained the wisdom not to use their pharmacy again, to just use the Walgreen down the street and Medicare.  Co-pay isn’t such a killer.

The other up-side of all this is that people aren’t in any danger anymore of finding out I’m a veteran and saying, “Thank you for your service.”  The past couple of months have provided me with the reply I never could quite come up with before:

“How about we go over to the VA Hospital and jerk each other off?”

Anyway, I’ve got the pharmacy co-pay worked down paying $10 per month so’s when they snag it out of my SS pension check it will only be $50 or less.  Provided they don’t hit me with a co-pay on this Merlin@Home transmitter to monitor my defibrillator they sent without me asking them to.  If there’s a co-pay on that I’m going to have to consider the VA benefits equivalent of going postal.

Not that I’m complaining.  Hell it ain’t as though I did anything to deserve all this special treatment they’ve been giving me at the VA, first back in Texas by stroking my bird for six weeks, then here by actually taking my blood pressure and giving me a prescription.  After all, they’re paying for my physical therapy.  I’m grateful for that.

Next time I’m over that way I’m going to tell them a big “Thank you for your service.”

And meanwhile laugh my ass off.

Old Jules

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We few, we happy few

Posted on June 24, 2014 by | 4 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Down at physical therapy we’re folks who’ve seen 17-year cicadas emerge the way they did in 2013 enough times so’s we shrug it off.  Old hat.  Centuries change and we say to one another, “Back in ninteen hunnerd and eight-one I was fishing out in Colorado or somewhere and caught one hell of a brown trout.  Or maybe it was the Black Hills.  Rainbow trout.”

Seventeen year cicadas just ain’t going to impress people such as us.  Because we all remember all the words to, “I’ve got a feeling called the blues since my baby said goodbye.  Lard I don’t know what I’ll dooooo, all I do is sit and cryyyyy oh lard that last long day she said goodbye, etc.” 

There’s an instrumental version on the boom box and a pair of octogenarian who quit whatever machine they’re on and stand together and sing it everytime it plays.  Not too bad duo, either.  And all the rest of us mouth the words while they sing it through.

She’s evidently one of the people who’s got the kind of insurance pays for her to go down there forever as a cost saver.  His ain’t so good.  I overheard them saying his will be running out in a few weeks, a little before mine.

So I’m thinking I might get a chance to get up and sing some old Inkspots or Otis Redding, once he clears out of here.  Maybe Hair, too.  Everybody’s Talking At Me I Don’t Hear A Word They’re Saying Only the Shadows of Their Eyes. 

Maybe run through a little standup comedy.  Some tap dancing.

Fact is, though, if it weren’t for the fact my energy level and limitations are being demonstrated to me while I listen, I otherwise feel more prone to do some jitterbugging and Texas Two Step and trying to remember the words to songs and sing them except as background noise to 17 year cicadas.

 Got to see a Century change, we did, got to see Haley’s Comet once.  Four times around for those 17 year cicadas.  And we got a feeling called the blooooose.

Ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

Old Jules

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Just when you thought you had it bad

Posted on June 23, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Hi readers.  Maybe it’s worth watching some foreign films just to remind ourselves that things could be a lot worse.   All these are for streaming on Netflix.  I’ve given them all four, or five stars:

Tall as the Baobab Tree, 2012 NR 81 minutes, When an accident threatens his struggling family’s survival, a father decides to sell his 11-year-old daughter into an arranged marriage. Starring:Dior Kâ, Oumoul Kâ  Director:Jeremy Teicher

Mandabi 1968 NR 91 minutes A down-and-out man receives much-needed financial aid but hits bureaucratic roadblocks as he tries to convert the money order to cash. Starring:Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N’Diaye Director:Ousmane Sembène

 The Grocer’s Son  2007 NR 95 minutes After his father suffers a stroke, a young man reluctantly returns home to his small mountain village to help out with the family business.  Starring:Nicolas Cazale, Clotilde Hesme  Director:Eric Guirado

Lost in Thailand  2012 NR 105 minutes  This Chinese comedy caper tracks the competition between two managers for control over their company, which has developed a miraculous new product. Starring:Zheng Xu, Baoqiang Wang

Aftershock  2010 NR 135 minutes   In the decades after her mother chooses to save her brother and leave her to die following an earthquake, a girl struggles to rebuild her life. Starring:Fan Xu, Jingchu Zhang Director:Xiaogang Feng

Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets 2000 NR 98 minutes A group of urchins living on the hard streets of Casablanca create a familial bond of friendship in order to survive amid violence and poverty. Starring:Mounim Kbab, Mustapha Hansali Director:Nabil Ayouch 

A Thousand Months  2003 NR 120 minutes 1981 Morocco, young Mehdi comes to terms with his own culture during Ramadan, secure in the knowledge that his beloved father is away in France. Starring:Fouad Labied, Nezha Rahile Director:Faouzi Bensaïdi

 Journey of Hope 1990 PG 110 minutes Beckoned by tales of economic prosperity, a Turkish family leaves their meager existence and sets off on a grueling journey to Switzerland. Starring:Necmettin Çobanoglu, Nur Sürer
Director:Xavier Koller

Times and Winds 2006 NR 111 minutes Reha Erdem writes and directs this award-winning film set in rural Turkey, where three friends entering adolescence share the struggles of growing up. Starring:Taner Birsel, Nihan Asli Elmas Director:Reha Erdem

The Deserted Station 2002 NR 88 minutes Inspired by a photographic jaunt, this lyrical film asks what happens next when a couple is stranded in a small village after their car breaks down. Starring:Leila Hatami, Nezam Manouchehri Director:Alireza Raisian

Tsotsi 2005 R 94 minutes After shooting a woman and driving off in her car, a ruthless thug is surprised to discover a crying infant in the back seat. Starring:Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto Director:Gavin Hood

Munyurangabo 2007 NR 93 minutes A Tutsi orphaned by Rwanda’s genocide sets off to mete out rough justice with his Hutu friend but their tribal differences soon come to a head. Starring:Jeff Rutagengwa, Eric Ndorunkundiye Director:Lee Isaac Chung

Sounds of Sand 2006 NR 92 minutes With a drought killing their livestock and a war looming, the residents of an African village decide to migrate in search of an easier existence. Starring:Marion Hansel, Isaka Sawadogo

American Flyer 2010 NR 86 minutes After failed attempts to cross the border at Tijuana, a young man constructs a flying machine out of a wheelbarrow to try to fly into California. Starring:Douglas Spain, Julian Scott Urena
Director:Mark Christensen

 

 

 

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It’s been a long century

Posted on June 23, 2014 by | 6 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

June 28, 1914, the Coincidence Coordinators [CCs] finally got a belly full of a particularly venal form of aristocratic, dynastic and imperialistic exploitation of world populations.  They pulled the trigger on the first, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, and started a ball rolling that didn’t end until the Berlin Wall went down in the 1990s.  Maybe didn’t actually end then.

But one of the problems with WWI was nobody could figure out what it was all about, so they couldn’t pick a direction and head there, cut out all the middle men.  That’s why WWI didn’t end until the USSR packed up its tents and left eastern Europe all the way back to Moscow.  Told them all to go, and sin no more.  Here’s the keys to this stupid wall we built in Berlin.

Certainly the dynasties are still around because human beings are creatures of habit.  There are still Kennedys and Bushes and possibly a Roosevelt-or-two hanging around threatening to rear their ugly heads.  But the last Century killed off an amazing host of parasites with names such as Romanov, Hapsburg, Magyar, Hirohito, Stalin, to name a few.

The only WWI museum in the US, the National WWI Museum in KC, says that while they’re going to have a lot of special displays and ceremonies between June 22, and June 28, they aren’t celebrating.  Standard cliché of “There’s nothing to celebrate in war.”

In one sense they’re right.  Damned shame all those commoners had to die fighting wars for aristocrats.  But when you think about it, all those dead Romanovs, Magyars, Kennedys have given rise to some opportunities nobody’s likely to take advantage of.  But the opportunity is still there to hang the rest from lamp posts.

Didn’t do much long-term good when the French did it way back in the day, but maybe they weren’t thinking big enough.

Probably not, though.  This guy in the White House now might as well be named Bush or Kennedy for all the difference between him, them, and the ones named Clinton-was, and Clinton wannabe. 

Maybe some black hand organization lurking around out in the bushes will rally around the flag, gather up all the Post Office workers, rooftop snipers and school killers and explain to them they’re killing the wrong people. 

I expect if that doesn’t happen something equally appalling will, and I’m damned glad I’m not likely to have to try to live through it.  20th Century was a piece of cake from where I was sitting.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, America, History

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Library Mail Art – Received June 8th- June 14th

Posted on June 14, 2014 by | 3 comments

The latest on Jeanne’s library mail art project:

Library Mail Art 2014

Another great week for mail here at Lackman Library!

“Moment Book” a pencil drawing by Jaromir Svozilik from Oslo, Norway:

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From Andre Pace in Phoenix, Arizona, a letter, a card about his book and two more cards with poetry on the backs!

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From Peter Mueller in Bremen, Germany, an entire book with a stamped image on every page:

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From Dorian Ribas Marinho in Brazil, three signed prints:

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And a card and decorated envelope from Eni Ilis, also in Brazil:

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We’re so pleased and excited about these submissions! I also made three that I will contribute myself, so here they are. The first one is from a sewing pattern, an old Classics Illustrated comic, and a children’s dictionary:
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This second one is a collage I did from a summer reading program log that my mother kept for me in 1963 for the Johnson County Library. In those days, Lackman library didn’t yet…

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Posted in 2014, Adventure, America, Human Behavior, Libraries

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Sure I’m poor, but I came by it honest.

Posted on June 13, 2014 by | 6 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

The 20-30 people down at my physical therapy are surprisingly homogenous and I’m not saying anything about sexual preferences.  We’re all white, all but three are men, and all but two are above the age of 60.  The nurses, also are all white, but their ages cover a spread from around 30 to a cautious guess of 60.

So when I asked one of the nurses, “Where do you keep all your ethnics?” while she was taking g my blood pressure it seemed an obvious question.  An expression of surprise crossed her face and she flinched, or sort of jumped, then her eyes scanned the room and the people on all the machines. 

“What do you mean?”   Seemed more of an accusation than question.

“Hey, we all look alike in here.  Everyone here seems to be old, male, white and other than me, well-to-do.  All except me are fairly unpleasing to the eye.  Don’t people with skin pigment get cardiac problems?”  I was just wising off.  I already knew Olathe’s an affluent community and area.   But watching her facial reactions kept me at it.

 Anyway, the old guy at the NUSTEP machine next to me felt the need to set me straight when she went on to other matters.  “We’re not all well to do!”  He ground his teeth a bit.  “I used to be but I lost it all in 401Ks.”  His face was reddening and the blood vessels on his bald scalp were becoming visible.

“Sure I’m poor.  But I got that way through honest hard work, good credit, bad marriages, and trusting the 401K people.  Not like these people who got born into it and didn’t get out because of shiftless laziness and rotten attitude.”  I finished my time about then and just grinned.  Couldn’t think of anything to say.

Damn I love that Physical Therapy at Olathe Hospital.  I’m going to be sorry when it runs out.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America

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City of Adventure

Posted on June 10, 2014 by | 4 comments

hydrox june 2014

He’s too old to cut the mustard anymore.

Hi readers.  Thanks for the visit.

Jeanne’s next door neighbor saw us on the back porch the other day:  “Hi.  Is that big, fluffy-looking black and white cat yours?”

Me:  “He came with me from Texas.”  No point giving my cat-ownership philosophy dissertation.

Neighbor grinning:  “We watch television late at night with the front door open.  He comes by every night and sticks his head inside, looks at us a moment, then leaves.  It’s eery when he meets your eye.”

Hydrox is evidently as determined to milk as much living out of this life as I am.  Even if it means spying on the neighbors.  They’re older than him, but barely.

Old Jules

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Hi diddle diddle – Google driverless cars

Posted on June 8, 2014 by | 10 comments
If you live in one of the states darkened in blue you might have already seen a Google-driven car as you gnashed your teeth over traffic jams. They've logged over 700,000 miles on public roads as of April, 2014.

If you live in one of the states darkened in blue you might have already seen a Google-driven car as you gnashed your teeth over traffic jams. They’ve logged over 700,000 miles on public roads as of April, 2014.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Probably I was the last person on the planet to find out this is happening.  And I should have guessed it, anyway.  There’s a particular place in New Mexico where a police car sits around with a dummy in uniform at the wheel to discourage speeding.  The inevitable next step was to replace the drivers of cars going past, standing their cars on their noses when they saw the police cruiser.

Admittedly the Google Driverless car doesn't have the snazzy appearance, the pizzazz of the average cracker boxes and 1948 Dodge-looking cars running around the roads in 2014. But I think if I had a car and a few bucks to spare I'd paint it white, install a fake antenna array on the top, darken the windows, and go around ramming into things just to blow the foam off the top of a long life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

Admittedly the Google Driverless car doesn’t have the snazzy appearance, the pizzazz of the average cracker boxes and 1948 Dodge-looking cars running around the roads in 2014. But I think if I had a car and a few bucks to spare I’d paint it white, install a fake antenna array on the top, darken the windows, and go around ramming into things just to blow the foam off the top of a long life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

Things do have a way of making the full circle.  Half the drivers today are being directed by the voices of their friendly GPS devices while they text their wives, mistresses, husbands, boyfriends, parents, kids, and people they’re trying to buy something from on Craigslist.  A nice Google package would relieve them of the burden of having to be distracted by red lights and road rage.  In fact, the model that’s not equipped with steering wheel or pedals would go a step further to allow them to spend every waking minute texting and talking on the cell.

Put a mannequin in the driver seat and give it a cell phone to talk on and this thing will be lobbying for the right to vote and get mechanical insurance.  With an inflatable girl-friend sitting in the passenger seat we wouldn’t need Americans anymore.

Old Jules

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Might as well face it: China isn’t a credible threat

Posted on June 6, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Hi readers:

Despite the fact the US military budget needs a second potential front we can fight wars on to justify being the war material overkill superpower we insist we are, China’s just not going to fill the bill.  Yeah, as Yahoo News reports, they’ve got a lot of military spending going on.  Whoopteedoo.

Fact is, China doesn’t win wars.  Maybe has never won a war in the entirety of Chinese history.  Didn’t win against the Japanese in WWII.  Didn’t win the Chinese Revolution thoroughly enough to take the Nationalists out of the picture.

Didn’t win the Korean War enough to make it all North Korea.  Didn’t even win in 1978-1979 against war-weary Vietnam.

Yeah, Washington and the threat-hungry news services would give a testicle if China could get out there and run someone off a piece of real estate they wanted.  But the Chinese have had their asses whipped so many times and in so many places they’re just hoping if they have to fight someone bigger than Tibet they can bluster enough to scare them off.

China ain’t going anywhere.  Might as well try to stir up some trouble with Mexico if we’re going to have a credible threat to justify a military budget capable of taking over all the banana republics and oil sheikdoms everywhere when the mood strikes us.  Even the Muslims are falling down on the job these days.

Old Jules

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Real synthetic meat

Posted on June 6, 2014 by | 20 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Sitting around waiting rooms exposes a person to a lot of reading material he’d proabably never encounter otherwise.  Popular Science magazines are a favorite example for me.  They’ve always been great predictors of how our lives will be in the not-too-distant future.  As John Prine observed, “We’re all driving rocket ships and talking with our minds” here in this future we’re living in.

Anyway, the November, 2013 edition of Popular Science had a series of articles I found fascinating about some folks who are in the final phases of development of synthetic meats to replace those that came off living animals and poultry.  Indistinguishable from the real item.  Columbia University’s one of the places it’s happening, not because of better health, but because of the greenhouse gasses resulting from grazing livestock.

Evidently it’s so far along in getting it going they’re already producing real leather that never rode a cow for use on automobile upholstery, etc.  And they’re doing well with chicken, since almost everything tastes like chicken.

Naturally, if this doesn’t happen now it well be because the cow industry went in at night and destroyed everything they couldn’t buy up and squash.  It won’t be the fault of the lousy record Popular Science has in predicting the future.

Still, it’s nice to think of future generations being able to walk around in the woods without stepping on cow manure if they ever go outside.  And driving along rural highways in the west not having to see a yellow sign with a cow on it to warn there’s a rancher feeding his black cows on the pavement at dusk for the insurance.

Interesting stuff, and it ought to get more interesting.  Human beings ought to get a lot more violent in a world where there was no real meat that needed killing to take the edge off natural inclinations.  And thus far there’s been no mention of where Kosher fits into it all.  Synthetic pork might come from the factory Kosher and Jews and Muslims could start sitting down together to a nice ham instead of shooting one another.

Old Jules

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Posted in America, Animals

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