Mysteries of Life

I can't help but envy blogger friend Debby a bit, going to college here in the prime of her life. Not that I would want to take tests and write papers -- believe me, I did my share of that -- but just gaining that type of knowledge with a few more years to my credit would be attractive to me.

I was a journalism major in college. I did a feature story on one of the psychology professors for the school newspaper and was so impressed with him I decided to take a psych class. I loved it. And I really do envy Debby for getting to take Psychology. I think I would have a completely different view of such a class in my 50s than I did when I was about 20.

I think I would enjoy a psych class at this point in life because I am aware of so many "mysteries of life" that I would like to hear addressed by someone who is learned in the field of what makes people tick, or why things happen the way they do. Here are a half-dozen of my unanswered questions:

1. We don't have a huge house but it is big enough that we can entertain 20 - 30 people fairly comfortably. We rarely have that many at one time but will on occasion have 10 - 12. Our kitchen is a decent size but not one of the really huge ones like some of the newer houses today have. We have a very nice sized family room/den that flows through a cased opening from the kitchen. Yet, inevitbably, when we have folks over and Wife is cooking dinner, almost everyone, to a person, will congregate in the kitchen, right around Wife while she is cooking. She is a very good sport about it, but she has to constantly dodge people who are sipping wine or eating appetizers while she's putting the final touches on dinner. Why is that? Why don't they go where there is more space and they can move around more comfortably?

2. The local YMCA where I go to work out has plenty of parking. When I go early in the morning, I can usually get a fairly close spot because the crowd is rather small. By the time I leave, things are picking up a bit and more folks are coming. When I go to my car, people who are arriving and looking for parking spaces will sit in their cars a couple of car lengths away from those leaving and even sometimes honk, waiting for the soon-to-be-vacant parking place. (Note to the ones who honk to try to make me move faster: this actually makes me stay in the parking space a little longer, checking my phone, fiddling with the radio or rearview mirror or making sure my seatbelt is comfy. In other words, you annoy me). These are people who are coming to EXERCISE but they are bound and determined to get a close parking place so they don't have to walk a few more feet. Ironic, you think?

3. I have a good friend whose wife has been out of town for a couple of weeks with her mother who is ill. He came over and ate dinner with us last night and told us that, while his wife has been gone, he has many times just forgotten to eat at night. 9 p.m. comes, he's gotten busy doing something and he realizes he has not eaten but by then it's too late, he thinks, and he just goes to bed. I, on the other hand, have never once in my life "forgotten" to eat. In fact, I "remember" to eat way too much. And if my wife were out of town, rest assured I would still not forget and would, in fact, probably eat way too much out of sheer loneliness. And I would no doubt gain weight. Why the difference? Why don't I forget to eat sometimes?

4. How is a wife able to articulate, with total and accurate recall, every word ever spoken by her husband since the day she met him? This is not just reflective of my own marriage. I have done an informal survey and every husband I have asked says that it's true of them also. Why do husbands not possess the same ability and have a snowball's chance of occasionally prevailing in a discussion (that some might lable an "argument")?

5. I think I addressed this in a previous post but it's still a mystery. Why do we clean our house before the housekeeper comes?

6. And, finally, this one. I can do a load of laundry and I will have gathered perhaps ten pairs of dirty socks, for a total of twenty socks. I put them in to wash with other clothes. I remove the load from the washer and put it in the dryer with all socks still accounted for. When the dryer is done, I take the entire load to our pool table, which doubles as our laundry folding table, and somewhere between the dryer and pool table at least one sock has totally disappeared and often more than that. The stray sock (or socks) goes into a basket in a closet that holds approximately 50 other stray socks. Every once in a great while a stray that goes into that basket will match one of the other strays, which is a time of great rejoicing (and if you're thinking, "This guy needs to get out more," you'll hear no argument from me). But more times than not, the new stray just joins the others and the stray sock basket just grows in volume. My question, of course, is where, oh where, did that sock -- or socks -- go between the dryer and the pool (folding) table?

Winter Wonderland

We are burrowed in under a blanket of snow here in Middle Tennessee, the biggest snowfall we have had around these parts in several years.

As it is with many southern states not accustomed to this type of weather, we go crazy when this happens. When the forecasts start mentioning snow, we hit the grocery stores as if we're preparing for a national famine, folks stocking up on eggs and milk even if they don't eat eggs or drink milk. Schools close. We stay home from work. We pretty much shut down.

One of the local TV stations actually preempted Oprah yesterday afternoon and ran an hour-long special on the snow. So this is serious business.

This time the weather forecasters got it right. It's Saturday morning and we've had the white stuff falling for about 24 hours. Here where I live, we have about four inches, with the last quarter inch or so consisting of ice. Some of our neighboring areas got as much as ten inches.

It's a lot different than it used to be, of course. With only one child left at home, and he being a 17-year-old, Wife and I don't have to worry about making make-shift sleds out of trash can lids, making snow ice cream and hot chocolate or keeping little people entertained and fed once they come inside from playing.

Late Thursday afternoon our county school officials made the decision to cancel school Friday. Wife had already joined all the other crazies at the grocery store (not to imply that she is crazy) earlier in the day and once Younger Son got the news he was pretty much out the door. He called in from a friend's house Thursday night and said he would check with us sometime Friday

Now remember, he's our last child, so he has the benefit of our being old and tired. As long as we have a reasonable assurance of his safety and whereabouts, he doesn't get much of an argument from us. Our older two often remind us how much easier we are on him. Can't help it, I tell them. I had nothing to do with their birth order.

Although it snowed fast and furiously for most of the day yesterday, I got out and went to my exercise class. Wife and I ventured out late yesterday afternoon and got some movies (another thing we all do when it snows). Not a lot of folks were out driving but, really, as long as you go slowly and carefully and have decent tires, it's not that difficult to maneuver if you want to drive. And even though we don't get this on a regular basis, our municipalities do have plows and brine, so they can get the main roads cleared.

Younger Son called about 6 p.m. and said he thought he would like to come home. He had been picked up by a friend when he left so I went and retrieved him. Again, no real problems as long as I went slowly. Wife made a pizza and salad for us last night, then we watched one of those movies.

This morning I am sitting at my kitchen table looking out on a beautiful wintertime scene. Ralph the Dog and I went for a short walk but he did not much care for it. After doing the things he needed to do he was right back at the door and is now stretched out comfortably on the sofa.

This doesn't happen much around here so, when it does, we try our best to enjoy it. Hope you enjoy these shots.

Stick around; things always change

My, how quickly things can change.

Exactly one year ago today as I write this, Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, riding a wave of popularity unequaled in recent times. His aura was undeniable – the first African American president; the young, handsome leader with the beautiful family. Even many of us who were non-supporters could not help but, at least partially, buy into the “audacity of hope” he seemed to represent.

For me personally, having grown up around bigotry and easily remembering segregated schools, I was proud of my country for taking such a dramatic step away from that ugly part of our history, even though I had enthusiastically voted for John McCain.

Obama’s Democratic brethren were nothing short of giddy, and with good reason. Not only was one of their own taking back the White House, but they were taking over comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate. The pendulum had swung back their way and the Gospels according to Pelosi and Reid would soon unfold.

As for the Republicans, well, there was much wound-licking and wringing of hands. Fingers were pointed and in-fighting persisted.

The tongue-clicking of the media pundits echoed across the land as they reported on a GOP in shambles, a political party that had “lost touch.” How would this formerly stalwart institution rebuild and recover from such a resounding blow?

But, as I said earlier, things can change quickly. The American electorate has repeatedly shown that memories, like honeymoons, are short.

To give an example, September 11, 2001 was way too long ago when the election of November 2008 came along. Although George W. Bush had been perceived as doing an admirable job of bringing the country together during his first year in office following the 9/11 attacks, and enjoyed immense approval ratings at the time, all of that was ancient history by late 2008.

Even though Bush was not the candidate running against Barack Obama in the November 2008 election, he was definitely Obama’s opponent. The “Bush era,” that of the spiraling economy and misguided military action, was denounced through hissing lips and clinched teeth by the Obama faithful. Republican Candidate John McCain could not distance himself enough from that concept.

But here we are one year later. The economy appears to be stabilizing but unemployment has risen in the last year. Some believe our military efforts are stalled. Domestically, a health care plan is still on the table, but greatly watered down from its original incarnation. And public support for it has waned.

If a person had gone into seclusion the day after President Obama’s inauguration last Jan. 20 and just emerged today, and if that person were to open a newspaper, watch a television newscast or log onto any of the Internet news sites today, that person might think that those reporting the news are getting the word “Republican” and “Democrat” mixed up.

For today, January 20, 2010, the wound licking and in-fighting is taking place within the Democratic Party. To the utter shock and dismay of the majority party, the Senate seat formerly held by the late Edward Kennedy will now be filled by a Republican, thanks to Massachusetts voters who took matters into their own hands Tuesday night. And the Democrats are left wondering what went wrong.

Theories abound on what turns the tide in an election. There will be much pontificating in the days ahead.

The Republicans will claim the people have sent a clear message that the “change” for which the Democrats were certain they had a mandate was not the change the voters had in mind. The Dems will tell us this is just a pause in the action, that they are still very much alive and well and still committed to fulfilling the mandate they were given.

Did the Democrat candidate in Massachusetts run a “bad race” as many are contending? Or was President Obama too late to the party when he made his last ditch effort to rally Democratic voters the week before the election? Or was he part of the problem? Who knows?

One of the “gifts” given to Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts was when someone called the seat in play “Ted Kennedy’s seat.” Brown wryly replied that, with all due respect, it was “the people’s seat.” And that became the cornerstone of his candidacy.

You have to give him that one. And those “people,” in spite of all the trends and polls, can be stubbornly independent.

And things will no doubt change again. It is, indeed, the constant in American politics.