Happy Halloween

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 35

A sugar skulls bag for a little girl my sister knows who loves sugar skulls.

Light Shadows- 31

I'll take Manhattan on a warm Autumn evening.

Last Night's Presidential Debate

I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win
-Donald Trump


I would like to say that I will also totally accept the election results if:

1. There is a Taurids Meteor Shower right before election day.

2. MARS starts making caramel M&Ms.

3.Fox broadcasts a lame live version of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

4. No one has come up with a credible theory for what happened to Amelia Earhart's airplane except for it crashing into the Pacific Ocean after running out of fuel.

5. The Republican Party willing makes a deal with the devil in an attempt to win said election.

Angry Middle Aged White Men

There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust
-St. Francis De Sales, An Introduction To the Devout Life


I came up against two angry middle aged white men at the Rec Center this week and all I can ask is, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The first man was in the steam room on Sunday.  Let me tell you about the stream room before I tell you about what happened. The steam room is small and can almost comfortably seat 10 full grown men.  We had a problem at the beginning of the year with people doing their stretching and other exercises  in there but that was finally stopped in March. 

Sunday I walked into the steam room after swimming and found 3 men sitting on the top of the build-in double tiered tile benches straight across from the door and one man sitting at the end of the top of the benches to the right of the door.   In the corner where the benches met was a middle aged white man standing on the bottom bench doing stretching exercises.  He was doing things like holding his arms out at should level and leaning against the back walls and bending forward with his eyes closed and touching his toes- all while standing on the bench.   The only place for me to sit was between this guy and the man sitting to the right of the door.  This put me close enough to the guy standing up for his hand  to comes close to me whenever he reached his arms out.  I looked at him and said, "You are really not supposed to do exercises in here."

His head snapped around and he glared down at me and said he was doing his stretches. I then said that stretches were not allowed in the steam room either. He walked over to me (still standing on the bench) and put his face right in front of mine- close enough that all I could see were his eyes- and said furiously, "I'm a fitness instructor and a PT instructor and I can do what I want!"

I got up and walked out. After getting dressed I found the Rec Center supervisor and told him what had happened. He seemed to know exactly who I was talking about and said he thought the man I was talking about was sitting in the hot tub and asked if I was willing to come with him to see if this was the same man.  I said yes.  It was the same man and the supervisor said he would talk to him.  I went and sat in the lobby and after a few minutes the supervisor came back and apologized for the man's behavior and asked me to report any other problems I may have with the man.  He also said that he understood that sitting in the steam room was supposed to be a relaxing experience and  again apologized for the man's behavior.  I agreeded that the steam room was supposed to be a relaxing experience and  added that for women having some man looming over them in a small place was disconcerting and could even feel threatening.

Monday night I was back at the Rec Center for my dance class and  I was waiting outside the studio where the class was being held when another middle aged white man, this one wearing a martial arts uniform, walked up to me and asked if the Tia Chi class was going to be in this classroom.  I said no.   He asked if I knew where the Tia Chi class was.  I said no.  He ask what class was being held.  I said a dance class. This upset him.  He asked if the Tia Chi class was going to be in the room with the dance class.  I said no. This upset him more.  He turned around and walked into the studio as the students from the class before were leaving.  I thought he was going to ask the instructor if she knew where his Tia Chi class was but discovered this was not the case when I walked into the room and saw the man standing at the back of the studio doing Tia Chi movements.

I walked across the room to where he was standing, since that was my spot during the dance class, and stood beside him. I figured once the class started and he saw it wasn't his Tia Chi class he would leave.  He did not.  He stayed though out our warms-ups as loud rock and roll played and did his Tia Chi moves.  I was hesitant to speak to him after what happened in the steam room the day before but I knew in a few minutes he was going to be in my way so I spoke up.

"Sir, we are going to be using all space in the room now."

Not looking at me, he turned, yanked his backpack up off the floor, stormed off, and made his way around the back of the room and then out the door.

Two observations.

First, when the man in the steam room overreacted and  stood looming over me with his face inches from my face I was shocked.  Shocked because this was the kind of thing my father would do.  Then I was surprised to find I felt no fear.  In fact, I was thinking about the best way to hurt him if he dared to touch me.  I felt totally in control and left because I knew breaking off contact and walking away was the best way to handle this. 

Second,  I was more worried about speaking to the second man because of the first man but knew I was done being afraid to speak up for myself when dealing with angry men who think they had the right to vent their anger any time they wanted to without consequences.

I guess what I am saying is that I am through with putting up with bullies.

Letter From Wells Fargo

 

Over the last several weeks, you may have heard about the settlements we've made involving some of our customers receiving products or services that they did not want or request. We are deeply committed to serving you and your financial needs, and in those instances, we did not live up to our commitment. This is inconsistent with our values and with the culture we work hard to maintain. It's not who we are as a company.

It's important for you to know that making things right and restoring the faith you have in us is the very top priority for our entire Wells Fargo leadership team. There is nothing more important than for you to experience the very best from us.

Here's what we're already doing:

 

• Putting your interests first: We have eliminated product sales goals for our Retail Banking team members who serve customers in our bank branches and call centers.
   
• Proactively communicating with you: We send a confirmation after you open a new consumer or small business checking, savings, or credit card account so that you know what is happening and can tell us if anything we've confirmed is different than what you expected.
   
• Full transparency: You can always see your eligible accounts any time when enrolled in Wells Fargo Online^®.
   
• Fixing what went wrong: We have provided full refunds to customers we have already identified and we're broadening our scope of work to find customers we may have missed. If we have any doubt about whether one of your accounts was authorized, and any fees were incurred on that account, we will contact you and refund fees.
   

If you have any concerns about your accounts or any aspect of your relationship with Wells Fargo, please come into a branch and speak with our team in person, or call us on our dedicated hotline 24/7 at 1-877-924-8697. We will continue to update wellsfargo.com/commitment to keep you informed.

The trust you place in us means everything and we will work hard every day to earn your trust back.

 

All I can say in reply is, "Too little, to late."
You will never earn my trust back and here is one reason why. What you did is consistent with your values and with the culture you work so hard to maintain. It also is certainly who you are as a company and putting Timothy J. Sloan in charge only proves it.  I am done with you.

Where I Was Yesterday At 2:30 PM

Sitting on the front porch of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO enjoying the view.

Did you know that one of the TV channels at the Stanley Hotel continuously shows Stanley Kubrick's  The Shining, 24/7?

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
-October by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Beautiful evening walk with the dogs yesterday.

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 34

From this...

to this.

All in two months!  This was one of the most difficult projects so far.  I bought all my supplies after reading the supply list on the back of the pattern envelope but did not read the pattern itself.  That was a big mistake for when I started reading the instructions I realized I had no clue as to what they were talking about and found the illustrations to be no help at all.   So for the next couple of weeks I would study the instructions once a day.  Then one morning I woke-up and, Boom!, it all made sense. But...

That wasn't as helpful as it would have been if I had actually been making the bed the way the instructions said to but I was going to adjust the pattern so I could use an old couch cushion  I had stored in the furnace room.   Adjusting a pattern is easy if you have actually done it before but, since I had never done it, I was learning as I went along. Then after I started putting the pattern pieces together I found out that I really only half understood the instructions.  There were times I got so frustrated I would stop working on it for a few days and once I stopped for a whole week. But...

As you can see I finally got it done.  It's not great but I must admit it was a hell of a learning experience.

Stay, Illusion!

If thou hast any sound, or use a voice.
Speak to me.
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act one, scene one

The ghost of Richard Nixon reared its head last night during the second presidential debate.
.
“I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it, but if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation."
-Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton

I wonder what Trump's enemy list looks like and I wonder when he is going to say something like, "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

Light Shadows-30

Day dreaming and I'm thinking of you.

Feeling, Whoa, Oh, Oh

Election only a month away and this is how I am feeling. 

Twilight Drops Her Curtain Down

and pins it with a star.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables)


While out walking the dogs Saturday night my husband and I saw someone we know standing on the sidewalk down a side street and strolled over to say hello. Seems he was waiting for the space station to fly over. Since it is the third brightest object in the sky it is easy to see- if you know where to look. Our friend knew where to look so we got to watch it streak across the night sky. Most of the time you can observe the space station traveling inside the thermosphere (the second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere) for 1 to 3 minutes but Friday night it was visible for 6 minutes. We were so lucky to be walking by a couple of minutes before it passed overhead. What an astronomical treat.