Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Author Archives: kayewer

• Skidding Just Fine, Thank You

  Posted at 2:36 am by kayewer, on November 18, 2012

  Nothing like a bad week to make one miserable.  Bad weeks make you appreciate the ones in which you come out with money in your pocket and no need for medical care.  I have been trying hard to come down with something, and running with a sleep deficit doesn’t help matters.

  Traffic was unusually hectic, with drivers disregarding speed limits and getting into accidents by incredible numbers.  The local newscasters have had a field day with snarls and gridlocks all over, and I was stuck in quite a few of them.

  This week in particular, I found myself driving into the rush hour traffic, as I went to a different office than usual.  This required going south to north in the morning, and north to south in the evening.  Everybody seems to go in these directions, and I have always been glad to have a job which normally sends me the other way and out of the grip of the brake-tapping tango that normally fills the opposing lanes when I’m coming and going.  Traffic jams are nerve-wracking when you have someplace to go.

  Then I got delayed in Friday traffic when a jam took place at my usual exit.  The cars backed up for five miles.  When I got to the exit, there was nothing to indicate an accident, only cones and flashing lights.  It still took me an extra half hour to get home, on a night when I really wanted to be on time, because I had something to do.

  Bad traffic days make one want to not have something to do after work.  There will always come a time when you will be late, and people don’t like to be late.  That is when they speed up and cause accidents which make other people late.

  Maybe it happens because everybody seems to get out of work at 4:00 or 5:00.  Maybe people just don’t get the concept of driving safely and taking care of their vehicles.

  Griping about it doesn’t help make the bad week go away.  All I can do is wait for the next one to be better.

  At least I can look forward to turkey this Thursday.

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• Tired of Christmas Already?

  Posted at 3:53 am by kayewer, on November 11, 2012

  I was in the mall with a friend and saw Santa had just arrived that day.  We just finished a late Halloween, and already the jolly old man is taking children’s early toy orders.

  This whole thing has gone a bit too far.

  Does anybody remember Hess’ department store, based in Allentown, PA?  Each year, usually after Thanksgiving, a local network would air a special featuring the store’s animatronic holiday figures.  It was something to look forward to.  All the major department stores opened up a holiday window the day after Thanksgiving.  Black Friday meant something back then.

  Hess’ was one of the early victims of department store closures.  Back then, probably nobody would have predicted that such places would go out of business like they have in the past twenty years.

  Now department stores compete for which can open closest to the end of the turkey dinner, while the stuffed denizens of the family table have not succumbed to the effects of tryptophan.

  The PA lottery is airing their holiday instant ticket commercials already, featuring a group a carolers doing a lottery themed rendition of “Twelve Days of Christmas”  (the lead singer has sung “Five Cash Five”–substituting for five gold rings–for about four years now, and the residual checks must be phenominal), and a man graciously giving tickets as gifts to the employees as a newsstand  (from which he might well purchase them daily anyway).

  We see ads for the “Pre-Black Friday Sale,” and prices are low enough that one could refurbish an entire home with new stuff.

  Of course, there are victims of Hurricane Sandy who need an entire new home, and even sales won’t help them recover in time for Christmas.

  Some of the networks are already airing holiday themed specials.  Next will come the radio stations playing holiday music until January.  Christmas has become a calendar equivalent of a plague of locusts, which comes and ravages your life for what seems like forever, and for which you are grateful only when it is finally over.

  Sure, businesses are desperate for end-of-year profits, and some people like to have a holiday that lasts forever, but the constant barrage so early in the season is just wrong.

  Can’t we at least get to Thanksgiving week first?

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• No No Wri Mo?

  Posted at 1:39 am by kayewer, on November 4, 2012

  I’ve been having bad luck with attempting to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  Each year, starting the moment November begins, intrepid writers attempt to complete a novel of 50,000 words by the last second of November.  That entails some time and devotion.  Time is my enemy, and my devotion gets put on hold.

  One thing I’m trying this year is to use voice software to leave my hands free to do the things I would have to ignore if I’m typing a novel.  The software has turned out to be a bit too human: it doesn’t understand me, often ignores me and keeps asking stupid questions.

  This morning, while waiting for some friends to show up, I channeled my inner J.K. Rowling and drafted some details from my planned NaNoWriMo novel on a napkin.  It works rather well and travels lightly in my already bulging handbag.  Somebody had a fingernail issue and I offered my clippers, prompting another friend to ask what I don’t carry in my purse.  I confessed that I don’t have a kitchen sink in there.  I also don’t have a novel.

  Over the years I have had attempts at making my novel goal that came close to being tangible successes, but that 50,000 mark has escaped every year.  One would have to write 1,667 words daily to achieve the goal.  Maybe it is best achieved by folks who are on vacation, retired or write for a living.  That doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying.  Wish me luck, and if I’m not back next week, you’ll know that I’m cranking out words on a napkin somewhere.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged National Novel Writing Month, NoNoWriMo, writing a novel

• On the Storm Front

  Posted at 2:08 am by kayewer, on October 28, 2012

  The coast is due for a pounding from a hurricane.  I’ll be back after the dust has settled (or the water recedes).

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• Proper Postal-age

  Posted at 1:33 am by kayewer, on October 21, 2012

  Today I was in the queue at the post office.  The good old reliable mail system has lost some luster lately because of the prevalence of email, so staffing is lighter than usual.  In this particular case there was one employee on duty, and the line for customer service for this real human being was ten people long.

  Four people had packages to send, two of which were pre-paid returns which needed no additional work on the clerk’s part, but he did suggest that they obtain a receipt just in case.  They stayed on to do that.

  This clerk managed to juggle one woman with a complex mailing issue (involving standing aside at the counter twice), two of the package senders and a lady who swore she had been in line for a half hour (he said it wasn’t quite that long, and I think it was more like ten).  She noted that she didn’t want to be a bitch about the situation, but she had places to go and things to do.  Perhaps she supposed that the other nine of us in line didn’t have anyplace to go.  However, the gentleman behind the counter was cool under pressure, polite beyond reproach, and whittled down that line as if it were an everyday picnic.  He mentioned to one customer who noted how calm he was that he had survived a childhood in Camden, college and a family with kids, so he obviously felt prepared for anything.  It brought smiles to our faces.

  I didn’t catch the fellow’s name tag completely (it was glare or his ultra-white shirt or something), but he was a breath of fresh air in customer service.  I don’t know many post offices with staff that pleasant in the waning business hours of a Saturday.

  I was there for stamps, and I don’t like to have mine dispensed from a grocery store cash register or an ATM, so I don’t mind the minor inconvenience when I have time to spare waiting in line.  When my turn came I asked politely what small stamps were available, and I noted that he probably gets asked such questions fifty times a day?  “Fifty?” he asked good-naturedly.  I’m sure it’s more like two hundred.

  So the post office does have nice people, and I felt it was beneficial to note that.  Customers waiting in line, however, are often still as sour as ever.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged audubon nj post office, postal clerks, us postal service

• The Veep and Size Which Does Matter

  Posted at 1:42 am by kayewer, on October 14, 2012

  I have already commented on the presidential debate and President Obama’s small flag pin.  The contender, Mitt Romney, had a larger lapel pin.  Well, the candidates for the number two position did the same thing.  Vice President Biden wore a small American flag lapel pin, while Paul Ryan had the large one.

  What’s up with this?  I’m certainly not going to argue the issue of patriotism in relation to pin size, but was the choice part of the overall effort to steer public attention or opinion?  Don’t think that every aspect of the candidates’ outfits is not over-thought down to the last detail.  Somebody came up with the idea.  I’d like to know why.

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• It’s Debate-able

  Posted at 1:22 am by kayewer, on October 7, 2012

  I sat through some of the presidential debate.  It was, after all, the first one, and when trying to decide which button to push at the voting booth when “None of the Above” is never available, one must pay attention to determine the lesser of two candidates and select the other one.  Eenie meenie miney mo doesn’t work, because we all know that once you select eenie, the one you’ll wind up with is meenie.  Miney and mo are just along to balance out the count and make it look like you have control over your choices.

  The candidates didn’t surprise me much.  Sure, it took guts for Mitt Romney to tell the well-known PBS moderator that he would cut funds to public television.  President Obama stayed cool under fire (and maybe too cool for the matter at hand).  The debate amounted to too much back and forth and not enough about the real issues.  They always do.

  What bothered me the most, though, was the candidates’ choice of lapel pins.  Was it just me, or did the President wear a smaller American flag pin than Romney?  It sure looked like a token piece rather than a conscious show of pride.  I just hope neither of the lapel pins were made outside the country.

  We still have more debating to go, with the veeps going at it next.  The networks want us to watch and get involved in our right to vote based on how the candidates’ words move our choice.  I still don’t feel I have one.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Obama, presidential debate 2012, romney

• If De Cit Fits

  Posted at 1:48 am by kayewer, on September 30, 2012

  This article heading from a respected local newspaper proves that being lazy, using your instincts or a spelling checker program doesn’t work any better for the news media than the rest of us:

  

  I always thought the “fit cit” was San Francisco, but I could be wrong.

   

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• In Praise of the American Teenager (and Adults)

  Posted at 1:34 am by kayewer, on September 30, 2012

  I was in the bagel joint this morning when I witnessed something extraordinarily rare and wonderful: a young man thanked the preparer of his breakfast sandwich and wished them a good day, and when his passing through the queue caused an overhead sign to swing, a woman in line raised her hand and stopped it.

  On an ordinary day, any other kid would never raise his eyes from the ground or speak, and a woman would back away from a swinging sign.  This was a positive experience.

  I felt so good seeing such things, I left my change as a tip for the bagel staff.

  Things should happen like today more often.

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• Take Five & Pass It On

  Posted at 2:27 am by kayewer, on September 23, 2012

  Life sometimes gets too complicated.  Right now it looks like people are up in arms about several different things at once.  We’re occupying Wall Street here in the United States (again, it seems), and overseas it seems some people (well, countless people) are upset about an issue with religious sensibilities and whether somebody made a joke or really wanted to push emotional buttons.

  At least I didn’t know the person responsible for the controversial film at the center of all this, and I’m not interested in seeing it or in making people of any religion feel uncomfortable.  Most of us probably feel likewise.

  I normally follow the Peanuts character Linus’ philosophy not to talk about religion when I don’t know enough to say anything of value.  I also don’t talk about politics, and since all I know about the Great Pumpkin is what appears in the animated special aired every Halloween, I guess I’ve struck out on all three.

  Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to just take a break for five minutes and not get involved in anything.  Go sip some water.  Take a micro nap.  Clip coupons.  Just stop for five minutes and settle the torrential mind for a bit.

  It’s so easy to get het up about everything.  Life is tough.  We don’t always behave humanely.  It will never not be that way.  But throwing more logs on the fire of our emotions only makes the experience more painful than it should be.

  Just take five and settle down.  This, too, shall pass.

  And pass it on to somebody else who could also use a break from it all.

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