Hattie's Web

The weather outside is frightful, or welcome to summer in Seattle

 
 

Around here people pray for sun, not rain.

StephenAtHome Stephen Colbert
Netflix is increasing their rental fees. Great, now it's going to cost even more to have "Precious" on my coffee table for four months.

We have some Netflix movie that has been sitting around for months, too. How come I feel guilty for not watching a movie? Isn't this supposed to be entertainment? Really, by the time we get around to watching movies in the evening, we're too tired for the effort.

Report from Nation regular and Nation Cruise participant Jeremy Scahill on secret CIA prisons in Somalia:

democracynow Democracy Now!

And lots of other important news and information today. Drought in Somalia and the U.S. Murdoch's empire under fire.  Continued sex crime allegations against Assange. But no time for that today, as we get ready to wing our way westward to our loved ones. One of whom called us up this a.m. to tell us her car just died.  Her father tells her it's not worth fixing. He loves to shop for cars. She'll get a good deal with his help.

I'm absolutely knackered! I got my application finished and submitted for the mentoring program for people in transition from prison to the outside and (we hope) into employment. I will have a parolee to work with. How exciting! Not only that, they actually WANT people like me as mentors. Older women are very much in demand for this kind of thing, because we are understanding and non-threatening and grandmotherly. When the supervisor told me more or less that, I took offense a little bit and then said to myself, yes, yes, that's exactly right. We can offer uncritical acceptance and aid to people who probably never have experienced these things.
I also taught my computer class and am as usual very worried about the fate of these unemployed people. They were rather clueless young women, mostly, very nice but way too casual. Not well groomed, sprawling about, talking on their cell phones, eating fast food in class. They have few work skills, but what is worse, they know nothing about work culture. They are so far behind, and there is so little work in any case. Well, at least they are learning computer basics and perhaps some notions of where they might change their approach to life. But it's best not to expect too much but simply to be kind and hope they can turn their lives around. There was one very angry guy in his 50's but I am good at defusing these characters. If you don't injure their egos and they can succeed at a task, they usually calm down. His whole job experience has been as a day laborer, but he's not very fit any more and needs easy work, and there isn't much of that.
I actually think the ex-cons have a better chance, because they have a reputation for working hard, and the state gives their employers some aid as well.
Well, after all this, I came home and packed. Now all I need to do is clean house!
I am really getting excited about this trip and all the people I'm going to see. You know who you are!

It's time to celebrate Midsummer madness with this classic IKEA commercial.

Pretty mellow around here. But busy. Got to pack for our trip to the Mainland. And go to yoga.
Nice vid at Big Island Video news about life in the Islands on a gorgeous weekend.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/

An evening at the movies

Here is what I would do if I were  an unemployed Boomer and had economic woes. I'd get out from under the mortgage if I had one by defaulting on it. I'd go  to the community college and get some practical training in rhetorical skills, self-presentation and economics. I'd find a job, no matter how lowly, to pay my bills, but I would not work for a big company or a big box store.  I'd get rid of my car or SUV and get a motor scooter. I'd sell all my possessions except enough stuff to furnish a modest apartment. I'd make good new friends who would show me how to be a snappy dresser and how to text, and I would find a new romantic interest.

This worked for Tom Hanks in the movie I saw last night, Larry Crowne. And the new girl friend was Julia Roberts. Some stuff!

But seriously, I thought the film made some good points. There is a long posting and discussion at Feminema.

Hanks is a champion at hitching a ride on the Zeitgeist Express. He went from sit-down hero of Apollo 13  to the good hearted Reaganesque Forrest Gump, to the plodding gumshoe in Catch Me if You Can,  and now to the kind and not too dumb everyman who finds happiness in a tough economic situation. 

BTW: The best thing in Larry Crowne  is an incredible performance by  George Takei  as a scary but hilarious  economics professor.  He was worth the whole movie.

 

 

More and more it's looking as if Obama is going to throw elders under the bus, because we are not his base. It seems that all he cares about is getting re-elected.
That is what I glean from reading Krugman's column.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

We, the American public, are being played for stupid, and here is the proof.

chrislhayes Christopher Hayes
I thought I hid that jaw drop pretty well! http://t.co/fZBBnwC (cc @rortybomb)
21 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

I think since we are a Boomer driven society, we are moving in the direction of introspection and self assessment. It's the time, as I remember it, when you start summing up your life experiences and achievements and for most, I think, the time to make major changes if they need to be made. It's the dawn of the awareness that you have to prepare for the rest of your life.

This and that

A potpourri of items from things that have been going on around here lately:

Yesterday my cousin and I took Helene Hale to lunch at the Yacht Club. The Hilo Yacht Club  has the distinction of being a yacht club with no yachts, thanks to the 1946 tsunami that destroyed so many yachts that they never docked there again. Some refer to it as the Yachtless Club.  Helene is a great person who was a Democrat in this state when that was enough to get you called a Communist,  as she laughingly puts it. This is from a 2006 article about her, just before she retired at age 88. At that time we had a luncheon for her, and I'm trying to track down the photo from that event. Helene is such an inspiration, for many many reasons.

Our neighborhood is changing, as new young families move in. It's a lot more fun and lively around here, and all these new people are smart, friendly and fun.  We have lively social evenings when we go out to walk the dog. These new families all have dogs, and just about all of them are foundlings, like our dogs and cats have been.

One person we have been seeing a lot  is a hell for leather little boy here who loves to dress in eccentric clothes and scoot or bike up and down the street. Yesterday he was wearing plaid shorts, an aloha shirt, and a suit jacket. That's his "at home wear" he tells me.  He was chatting me up, telling  me about his new acquisition: a watch that has GPS and a whole bunch of other apps he can download. And it tells the time, too. I asked him if he could read a clock with hands, and he said, yes, but it's a little difficult. He's about ten. I felt a strong affinity with him, one of those strange things. I keep telling him to be careful, because he is so fearless. He says, "You know it's so funny when you push down on the pedals and it feels like it won't stop. Isn't that strange?" I guess he needs to use a lower gear. Great kid!

My Dr. and her husband who just moved in across the street had a long chat with us yesterday evening and we found out lots about them and about some ex neighbors of ours that they are good friends with. Some hair-raising gossip, actually. Wish I could tell you more!  Man people gossip around here. My closest friend doesn't, thank goodness, and I try not to, because this a place where everyone knows everyone else.

They are going to let us pay for a fireplace insert. Our previous neighbors used to burn wood and trash, and the smoke drifted right into our living room, making me quite unwell. It's worth it to us to pay for them to have a gas fire. They would rather have a real fire but are willing to compromise, which is very nice.

I went into Kaiser this a.m. and got a tuberculosis shot. The woman at the counter asked me what the primary language was that I spoke at home.  That seemed off the wall, but then I realized that Kaiser is always compiling statistics. So they would not say to a patient. "What is your ethnicity," as that would be considered discriminatory. Filipinos and Pacific Islanders do have high TB rates. It was strange that no one asked me why I was getting this diagnostic. It's because I will be working with prisoners and it's part of the application form to get the TB test, and many have TB or contract it in prison. There was a veritable epidemic of TB up at Kulani several years ago, among both prisoners and staff, and I got a test then, which was negative.

In conclusion:

Dear HLV 475 big fancy truck that backed into my car in front of Abundant Life Store this a.m. Lucky for you it was just a few little scratches. You could, however, have stopped and acknowledged that you had been careless instead of driving away. Or perhaps you have no driver's license or insurance? That would not surprise me. I'll let it go this time.
 

That's it for now!