I Thought We Were NOT In Kansas Anymore

The fourth day of winds has got me feeling this way.



-Peter Tosh

If you wanna live
Treat me good
If you wanna live, live
I beg you treat me good

I'm like a walking razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, said I'm dangerous

I'm like a walking razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

If you are a bully
Treat me good
If you are a bully, a bully
I beg you treat me good

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

If you are a chucky
Nobody chucky from me
If you are a chucky, a chucky
Nobody chuck from me, Yea

I'm like a stepping, walking, cutting razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

If you eat asphalt
Better treat me good
If you drink lead soup
You better treat me good

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous


I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

If you are bull bukka
Nobody buk from me
If you are duppy
Move away from me

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

I'm like a stepping, walking
I'm dangerous, dangerous

If you wanna live
Treat me good
Warning you if you wanna live
You better treat me good

I'm like a stepping, walking, cutting, flicking,
jumping,chopping, walking
I'm dangerous, I'm dangerous

I'm like a stepping, jumping, flicking, bumping, boring
I'm dangerous, I'm dangerous

If you drink, mortal
Treat me good
And if you eat, brick
Treat me good

I'm like a flashing laser and a rolling thunder
I'm dangerous, I'm dangerous

I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my size
I'm dangerous, dangerous

(Talking)

Treat me good
If you wanna live
You better treat me good

(Talking)

If you wanna live
Treat me good
You could a drink lead soup
I'm dangerous
You could a eat asphalt
I'm dangerous
You could a eat brick-crackers
I'm dangerous.........

The Wind

I SAW you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass—
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all—
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song:

-Robert Lewis Stevenson

Who Has Seen The Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
-Christina Rossetti

Radium Girls

We were young. We didn’t know anything about the paint.
-Mae Keane

Back in the 1920s young women working in the United States Radium Corporation factories applying radium paint on watch faces started loosing their teeth and/or suffering from painful inflammation in   their jaws.  It turned out they were in pain because their jawbones were disintegrating. The women used tiny paintbrushes in their work and their supervisors had taught them to reform the point of their brush by using their lips.  They were so in-the-dark about the dangers of radium that they would paint their fingernails teeth, and face with it and sprinkle it in their hair.

At the time the dangers of radium where not known by the general public and radium was being advertised as being healthful.  But US Radium knew and when the women started dying company officials  blamed the women, saying they were suffering from the symptoms of syphilis and that US Radium was not responsible for their deaths.

It is not know how many young women died in their twenties and thirties (It is estimated to be in the hundreds.) or how many died later due to cancer brought on by their exposure to and ingestion of radium at the factories but last month the last of the Radium Girls died at one-hundred-seven-years-old.  Mae Keane was a Radium Girl for only a few months at age 18 because she did not like the taste or gritty feel of the paint in her mouth, or the  monotony of the work and because, as she has admitted, she wasn't good at her job.  She did not get away unscathed though; loosing all her teeth by age thirty-eight and suffering from colon and breast cancer.


George Santayana said those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it and it is interesting how short the memories of big businesses really are.  Right now we have the 1.3 billion dollar fine Toyota had to pay for not reporting the acceleration problem with its cars to the government.  Then there is General Motors ignition switch problem - the one they kept quiet about for over a decade, the one that has killed 13 people.

In all these cases, and there are many, many, more between US Radium and GM,  companies have put "sales over safety and profits of principles."  You think in 90 years they would have learned better.


Mae Keane's New York Times obituary.

Two articles about the Radium Girls: Undark and the Radium Girls and After Glow.

I Got The Music In Me

Two weeks ago I was up in Boulder, Co and stopped in at a record store. Yep, an old fashion record store.  I walked in to just look but ended up buying three albums; The Best of The Crusaders,

The Best of Donald Byrd,

and Mildred Bailey Her Greatest Performances 1929-1946.

What's great about this store is that they let you listen to the record before you buy it. I was very appreciative of this at the time but doing so turned out to be very expensive for me. When I got home and put the Mildred Bailey record on my old stereo/radio/cassette player it sounded like crap. At first I thought I had made a mistake in buying the records but then I realized it must be the stereo, which makes sense since the darn thing is over 30 years old. So...we bought a new stereo system with a brand new turntable, receiver, and speakers. I'm listen to Mildred as I type. God, she sounds good.

Doo, Doo, Doo. Lookin' Out My Front Door

Old Door, New Door

Painting the old sidelight and the new door took a long time but was it was worth it. Having a husband who knows how to hang a door made the whole project a lot easier. Sometimes I'm amazed by what that man can do. The reason we replaced the door was to get more light into a dark entryway, which brings me to my poem.

Old door
New door

No light
Real bright

Yo, Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!

While out riding our bikes my husband and I saw this sitting in a neighbor's driveway.  That is a pirate ship made out of an aluminum fishing boat which another neighbor built and rents out for kid's parties.  The four-year-old at this house is a big fan of Jake and the Never Land Pirates on Disney Junior and his dad rented the ship for the little boy's 5th birthday party. The owner dropped the ship off the night before the party and when the boy saw it he was awestruck and asked, "Is that my birthday present?"
His father had to tell him no, it was for his party but that he could play on once before the party the next day.  That is when we rode by and I took this photo.

I Learned Something Yesterday

I went to the dentist yesterday and, during a small break when she did not have her fingers in my mouth,  I asked my dental hygienist if she could tell which side of the mouth people chew on by looking at their teeth.  She said no but she could tell if they were left or right handed; you always brush harder on the same side of your body as your dominant hand.   Sherlock Holmes would have loved that observation.

My Mother My Villian

My sister has her own blog, Yup, it was my life, and this post about our mother is her latest. I found it so beautiful, truthful, and loving that reading it made me cry.

My mother.
The villain of my childhood for “Not”


Not making me go to school
Not making me do homework
Not attending school performances
Not taking me shopping for clothes past age 15
Not keeping her ear off the phone or nose out of a book long enough to see what was going on with her children
Not making her not-working-not-going-to-school-not-helping-at-home asshole son (my brother) move out before he was 26
Not asking where I was when I would be gone overnight or for days
Not being worried when at 8 I spent the night at a new friend’s home (who had no phone and Mom didn't know where the friend lived) and didn't come back for 3 days.
Not making my ER visits for migraines a priority and making me go by myself
Not helping me before helping strangers
Not making me bathe
Not making me brush my teeth
Not raising me herself but leaving it, by default to my sister
Not leaving the abusive man she was married to, my father
Not keeping the house clean which embarrassed me when friends came over
Not protecting me from my verbally abusive brother
Not telling me no, when I started working at a job that I was suppose to be 21 and I was 15
Not protecting me from the abusive boyfriend after she knew
Not protecting me from dating grown men when I was a teenager
Not asking about report cards
Not giving me a curfew
Not making me, as her child, feel like I was more important than her causes
Not parenting me
Not protecting me from...
...others
...her
...me


I no longer see my mother through just a child’s eyes, I have come to understand my mother with adult eyes and while all the above is true, I also now have come to know


My mother, my Hero "Who"...
Who suffered from depression
Who suffered from the hidden shame of being illegitimate
Who suffered in an abusive marriage
Who didn't have the resources in 1950-60’s to get out
Who raised her children alone after her husband left in 1965
Who had no car so all work, school, grocery store, doctor and library travels had to be done by bus or the mercy of people with cars.
Who always kept us out of the Social Service system
Who always kept us sheltered, fed and clothed one way or another
Who pulled strings to get us in subsidized housing without the long wait
Who was raised in privilege but ended up raising her children in poverty, and none of her children live in poverty now.
Who never, for almost 10 years never stopped looking for the father of her children to get the child support due to them
Who taught us by example that all humans are equal
Who taught us among those equal humans, some are assholes and there is nothing you can do about it
Who taught us to fight, not just support ….but FIGHT, for the equality of all
Who never made us wear dirty clothes like some of the other kids did
Who made sure we always had new shoes, not second hand
Who made sure we had a warm coats
Who taught us that words can make a change
Who taught us that reading is wonderful and
Who made sure we always had reading material including comic books if the money allowed.
Who swore like a sailor but was still a lady
Who had a wickedly funny sense of humor
Who put her pride on the line and lost friends asking for favors that kept us sheltered, fed and clothed
Who gave us a love of all types of music (except country)
Who showed me how to fight for ...
...what is right
...others
...me.


My mother, the parent of my childhood who did her best, though it wasn't always enough. I no longer see myself a victim of my childhood needing protection, I only see my unique childhood that was the cornerstone of ...me
-Maura Shannon

Peek-a-boo?

No, Little Sally Pumpkinhead trying to convince Duke she is not really sleeping in his bed.

Mad Men

The wait has almost been as hard as waiting for Santa to show up when I was a child.  Three day to go.

Why I Am Not Here

Because today has been the first real summery day of the year.  Why would I be inside when I can be outside in it?  Spring, Spring, Spring.

Guy America

My airline ID when I worked for Guy America.  The airline, and I use the word loosely since it only had one aircraft (B-707), flew from JFK airport in New York City to Georgetown, Guyana in South America. This was my first job after I got my Aircraft Dispatcher's FAA license. It wasn't until later that I realized this was the reason why they hired me.  It is easier to do shady things when you hire someone who does not know much. 

This cheesy ID tells you all you need to know about the company.  Although it did look more official in this NY Port Authority ID holder.

Those Were The Days

 

 

The Day Got Away From Me

First, I started the day by taking the dogs on a long walk now that we cannot take them out in the country where we used to run them. There are cows out there now and my dogs have a strong taste for cow poop. Actually they are connoisseurs and prefer calf poop.

Next, we replaced all the main floor windows a month ago and  the replacement window to replace one of the replacement windows that was not as we ordered arrived late this morning along with the workmen to install it. Looks great.

At noon I went to my book club where we discussed this month's book,  Behind The Beautiful Forevers.  It was one of our better club meetings with everyone eager to talk about our book selection.

Then, about four hours later, I came home and realized I had not eaten anything since breakfast so I made myself a chicken sandwich with a glass of cranberry juice and took it downstairs to watch an episode of one of my favorite shows, Burn Notice. Please do comment on this show as I'm only up to the beginning of season six. We do not want a repeat of my sister's reaction when she saw me reading Charlotte's Web.
(She told me how the book ends.)

Next, about an hour-and-a-half ago, we took the dogs on another walk around the neighbor.

Now, it is 6:51 PM and I am in my pajamas while typing this.  The pollen in the air is killing me.  I am so ready for bed.   Goodnight.