Grocery Event

I shop at the local big supermarket. Produce is less varied and must be selected more carefully than when I shop at the more expensive yuppie market across the bridge. While I am fortunate in that my grocery budget is ample for the two of us, I come from that old family farming culture which makes me shop most carefully and not buy so much that I have to throw out food at the end of the week. I do use mostly the outside aisles (bakery, produce, meat, and dairy) while avoiding the processed foods in the inner aisles. I get my cleaning stuff at the Big Box store, but in reality, if I paid attention to sales, I would not need to go there. This intro had nothing to do with my event yesterday, by the way.

I had four large bags of food and was loading them from the basket into the trunk. I heard someone shouting and looked up toward the door of the store. I was parked about eight cars away. Standing in front of the double doors and waving both arms was a black man in his 50s with salt and pepper closely cropped hair, tall and in reasonably good shape. He was all in black. There was a set of black earphones covering his ears, a black backpack and what appears to be a bit of paraphernalia tagged to his shirt pockets. He was also shaking his head from side to side. He was loud, but I could not figure out what he was saying as he was talking fast.  At first, I thought perhaps he was singing to some rap music that was coming from his earphones.  People entering the store pretended not to see him.

I finished loading the trunk and opened the driver's side door. The man started jogging in my direction. I then heard what he was shouting over and over again. "I can't take it anymore!..I can't take it anymore!..I can't take it anymore!"

I was not frightened as I got into my car and shut the door and he ran down the area in front of me between the parked cars. I was sad and curious instead. For just a second, I actually felt like re-opening the door and shouting after him..."ME TOO!"

Within a few seconds a man in a white shirt with a name tag and black dress pants and holding his phone appeared.  He was moving after the black man but did not seem to want to catch up with him as he typed something into his phone.  He stopped in front of my car and then another man in what appeared to be a supermarket shirt and cap (perhaps a deli-counter uniform?) showed up behind him.  The second man looked at me and then shook his head and chuckled.  I raised my shoulders and arms agreeing as if saying "WTF?"  But I do not swear, so I was more commiserating with the situation for all.

My take was that I wished I could have helped the man.  Had he shoplifted?  Had he threatened an employee?  Did he have a fight with another customer about who was next in line?  Did his mental illness manifest itself?  Was this a reaction to a drug (legal or illegal)?  I actually wish he has not been moving so fast and that I would have been brave enough to get out of the car and display some sympathetic body language if nothing else.

Clearly, this was not a major crime or even a novelty to the two employees who walked back into the store as I pulled out of my parking place.  The black man had totally disappeared as I found my way to the exit.  

Crime in our county has been climbing this last year.  Not sure why with all these great emplyment figures and growing economy (snark).

What Color Are Your Thumbs?

A Man's Home is his Castle

We built our house over twelve years ago. Over the years I have had to have two casement windows repaired (one no longer can be opened); two ceiling areas re-taped, floated and painted; the stairs leading down from the back deck to the backyard re-leveled as one side sank; one toilet valve replaced twice; the wine cooler solenoid replaced; the gate motor replaced and the garage door opener fixed.  I have had one burst water pipe (my fault for not disconnecting the hose).  We also had the two chimney's recapped last year due to water leakage through the ceiling.  Next week someone is coming in to replace the cracked baffle and insulation in the wood fireplace.

Some of these events are normal wear and tear items and others the result of living in a humid area with dramatic temperature changes.  The windows are just bad product.

This year the starters on the gas range have been giving me fits and I have been told corrosion means they cannot be replaced. I will need a new range top which I keep putting off due to the complexities of measurement and my fear of getting it wrong. We have a dual AC system and one unit is now not working and waiting for a part ($400 not including labor) and I have been cautioned that this could be a temporary fix and I may need a new unit (thousands of dollars). The good part is while the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, temps are below 80 F.

My refrigerator is making odd noises.  I am working hard to keep the coils clean while it runs in this warmer than normal house.  

I often wish I was more of a handy-man like my Dad who could fix anything.  Hubby is mostly thumbs even though they are green.

I have read that you do not own a house, it owns you.

I have Questions.

I have always been a curious person and have many questions this week (not necessarily in order of importance):

1. Why did Pruitt try to buy a "used" Trump Tower mattress?
2. Why did a Congressman get turned away from an abandoned Walmart building that is housing children separated from their parents who were crossing the border illegally?
3. Why did Melania Trump have 700% longer time in a hospital for a procedure than normal and why have we only seen her many weeks later?
4. Why were the Eagles uninvited to the White House to celebrate the Superbowl?
5. Why is Medicare going to run out of money in 2026?
6. Does Russia really have a smaller economic footprint than Italy?
7. Do the bulletproof plates being given students actually stop bullets?  (not AR-15 bullets or assault rifles)
8. Is Bill Clinton extremely naive (and out of touch) to be promoting a "fictional thriller" book he co-wrote with Patterson.
9. As Facebook gives us more control over the ads we see, does this mean they are going to be losing money?
10. Why don't Americans know the difference between a reporter and a contributor?
11. Why do we not teach financial literacy courses in public school?
12.  Do you ever forward your spam mail to abuse@name-of-company.com?
13. Why war??

Milestones

This is close to La La Land.

Many years ago when my sister was in her early 40's, she contracted skin cancer and lost the battle against it after only a few months. She lived on the other side of the country and our correspondence was by sporadic phone calls and emails.   The expertise of the staff of a major Los Angeles hospital was not smart enough nor quick enough to save her life.  I flew out to be with her for a few days in the middle of her battle.  When she passed she left behind a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl soon to turn 13 and their Dad.  These two children grew up into beautiful, stable, and sweet adults through some miracle of good parenting and good genes and damn luck.

This weekend I flew out again to attend the wedding of the young man, my nephew.  We were there for only 2 and half days and it was very emotional...more so than weddings are normally emotional for me.  I left the rain-filled skies here in the Mid-Atlantic for the sun-filled skies of Southern California.  

Southern California where real estate prices START in the very high six figures and never seem to end.  This little gray house in the background was worth a couple of million!

This was a special trip for me since I had not had a chance to see my niece and nephew for many years as their careers took them away from the places where I visited their father.  

The wedding was small, semi-formal, and was a chance for me to see my other brother and sister briefly as well.

It was both a tough and terrific time for me and I am so glad I did not miss it.  

Now I am back home and returning to normal---my version of normal that is.

Missing

"The Health and Human Services Department has a limited budget to track the welfare of vulnerable unaccompanied minors, and realized that 1,475 children could not be found after making follow-up calls to check on their safety, an agency official said."--- Time Magazine.   The richest, most powerful country in the world cannot keep track of the children that they make into orphans by removing them from their parents at the border.  OK.  Let us put this in "perspective".

According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center Missing Person File, 36.5% or approximately 32, 121 that are missing are humans under the age of 18.  Of course, these children were not the responsibility of the Federal Departments nor was their separation from their parents an action by the government.  Data indicates that 90% of these are runaways.
The European Commission reports that 250 000 children are reported missing every year in the European Union, 1 child every 2 minutes.  Runaways account for 57% percent of EU missing children.  23% were parental abductions.

The Internet has been a tool for luring children away, but it also has been a tool for finding them.  Cell phones owned by children have been important in finding children who just get lost.  We cannot blame it on technology.

Did the immigrant children go to a relative who is hiding them?  Were they taken in by a foster family that is evil?  Did the children run away in confusion and fear and are sleeping in the desert or the sidewalk?  Is this part of a sex slave network?

I saw the movie Lion based on a true story a year ago and was deeply moved by the overpopulation and poverty in India that created a culture where children were treated like lost dogs.  

I just wish we would fight for the rights of the born as much as we fight for the unborn.