In Media Res

This is advice often given to writers these days. It's the latest publishing gimmick, and now the darned habit is bleeding over into episode tv. The shows are starting with -- say someone getting fired. Then they go back to before they got into the trouble that got them fired.
I don't like this as a regular thing. Every now and then is okay, but not two or three shows in a row, and not as even a semi regular opening. (It's okay as a tag or ad, if it's a program that has used that format regularly.
There are a couple of shows that I now turn off if the new episode starts with the story's climax.

For what it's worth, I think it's also bad writing advice, unless well done. Beginner writers often ask "Where do I start?" For years the obvious answer was to start at the beginning. It often takes a lot of writing and reading to decide when the beginning of the story is, but it's a place to start.

Notsomuch in today's publishing market. Today we are advised to start the story near the end and tell it all as a flashback. (Another style of writing that has to be well written to be readable.)

Sorry, major media. A good read or a good program has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In that order.

whose time is it anyway?

It's that time of year again. Time to change the clocks from standard time, to savings time. We know have eight months of savings time, and four of standard, so I'm wondering how the time setters define "standard".

It used to be that time changed the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October. Then they made it the last weekend in October. Now, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the dates selected, and that makes it more difficult than it needs to be.

I don't question that they can do this. Clocks are man made, and standard or savings time, the time zones and titles were man made, and even originally created by big business. So it's certainly within their province to manipulate the o'clocks to their benefit in any way they wish.

I do wish they'd do so within understanding of the common man, and that the language would reflect the changes they are making. (See above reference to standard.)

What they call any time really doesn't matter. The sun rises according to its schedule, whatever o'clock Big Chief CEO calls it. The birds migrate, the frogs croak, the cows need milked. According to time, not the clock.

Let's all remember that time is not about clocks or calendars. Time is an entity in itself, and let us flow with it. Because we have no choice, yes, but also because it is and we are.

computer troubles

 I got my old desk out of storage. My desk is a lovely corner desk, with lots of nooks and slots and shelves and doors and I was sooo happy to finally have it back.

I shut down my computer -- it was working well -- and, once it had shut off, I unplugged it and then unplugged the stuff off of it. My monitor, mouse, printer/scanner, speakers. I very gently moved the thing into the other room so it would not be tipped, bumped, knocked or dropped in any way by the rearranging of the desks -- out with the little, in with the good big one.

Once the moving was done, I hooked everything back up and plugged everything in, turned on the computer, and it came on and informed me that Windows had shut down improperly and for me to select a choice: two safemode options, a return to last good date and start windows normally. No matter what I selected -- and I tried them all -- it keeps going back to this screen.
Someone came and looked at it for me. The drivers are missing. I dunno where they went or how. I do know there was no improper shut down. I do know it wasn't jolted in any way. No one seems to want to believe that, but it is so. I know. I treated that tower as if it were more fragile than a hewborn baby. (Not that they are fragile -- they aren't -- but we're programmed to treat them that way)I suppose it copuld have got a virus or a worm or something, but I don't know how it snuck in if so. I have -- had -- MacAfee, Norton, and AVG.


There is some communication glitch with my repair team, and I am seriously considering just trying to get a new (to me)one. However, with just this one exception, it will cost money that I do not have.

I had all my writing on that computer, very little of it backed up. The bifg things, yeah, but as you all know, most of my writing is small stuff. Forty plus years of creation blinked away. If any of you have copied anything, please let me know, and be patient if I can't respond right away. The local library has only one computer for the public, and I can't wait for hours at a time. Not with Rex as he is.

Bear with me, please. I don't know what to do or how to do it or why it happened (not that that matters, except I'd like to know so I won't do it again). All I know is I have been stranded in solitary solitary.

fat getting fit

Why do the ads for exercise equipment keep using the already fit in their commercial? Only part of it can be that that's a subliminal message/goal to the prospective customers. Why not use people who really need their equipment? (It worked for Jared and Subway.) That's who they are selling for, isn't it?

Probably not. The people who are fighting fit usually have more disposable income. They spend money, not just on healthier foods, but on all the equipment and on the fashionably fit togs that are also a feature of the ads.

 What they don't tell: Many times their equipment isn't made for the truly overweight. There are weight limits on the things, usually around 250 pounds. Now, 250 is overweight for most of us, but the people who will most benefit from the products very well may see 250 as a goal to get down to.

There's also the ease of use aspect. If you are lighter, you can make that equipment sing, hum, fly! You can get it going and it goes, goes, goes. If you are around the 250 limit, just getting it to move can be a problem.

If the ponytailed blonde can whiz by on a walker, and the muscle bound guy can pull those elastic handles with ease, it's because they don't need to. Also because they have already done most of the work needed to get the benefit of the products.

No matter how easy it looks for the young and fit, it's work getting there.
It's work getting it started.
It's not easy work, and it's not quick work. But, as the advertising models know, it's good work, and gets easier as you go along.

Make sure it fits, and know, before you start, that you are worth the effort.

time to go outside

I think it's getting close to spring. Yesterday we were wakened by tornado sirens and high winds and lightning. Today was filled with sunshine. (Never mind that it is supposed to snow again Sunday.) I was out doing yard work.

It smells good outside. Smell is the most neglected of the senses sometimes, but can be the most poignant. An aroma cam bring back a memory faster than any other sensation. It used to be bread baking, but that's rare these days, even as a memory.

Everyone knows the scent of spring. It seems as if we can smell the energy in the air. The wet earth is light with the aroma of green and growing. The wet itself is good clean rain. Even the sunshine has a smell to add to the air.

Go outside, people. Take a few deep breaths. Life is growing, changing, greening.
And it smells darned good.

Talkin' bout that weather

Is it any wonder that people talk about the weather. It never stays the same. Even when it does, like during a drought, there's always the anticipation of change.

There's a belief that people talk about the weather when they have nothing else to say.
Not true, I say. Because usually, when talking about weather, people have plenty to say. They can talk and talk and talk.

And can you think of a better, less pushy way to get to know someone? Do they bask in the sun, or do they prefer cuddling in the cold? Do the pretty pastels of spring brighten their world and mood, or are the more vibrant colors of fall their thing? Can you argue the merits of the seasons with camaraderie, or does someone get angry defending their climate?

And, of course, global warming -- now known as global climate change after the cold and snowy winter -- is a hot topic in the more sophisticated circles. Farmer in the drought or sheik in the desert, the weather is always sure to get a response.
That's why we talk.

Is it Over Yet?

There are daffodils in my flower bed. Bright green leaves. Big fat buds. Clusters of them, pushing out from the covering of leaves beneath the (now melted) snow. I don't know when they got there, but there they are. I think today's rain must have squashed the dead leaves down to let the green out.

And such a lovely green it is.

In the meantime, it is snowing again in Kansas. My niece just posted a picture on Facebook of her freshly shoveled walk. I had to enlarge the pic to see where the walk is supposed to be.

Last week it was March. Windy and warm.
Over the weekend it snowed again, just flurries.
Today it is April. Rain, rain, more rain. And daffodils awaiting.

If only the calendar could keep up with the weather.
But then, we'd be pretty dizzy by now wouldn't we?

How cheap is that?

Now that gasoline is over $3.00 a gallon, even the service stations don't rush to put up their prices. Some few places let their signs fall into disrepair, surviving on convenience customers instead of competing actively for business. Others are looking for new ways to attract the drive-by consumer.

The price signs proclaim 3.09 for regular, 3.45 for diesel, and under those there is often an .89 or .99. Now, it has been a long, lo-o-o-o-ng time since any service station has sold anything for so low a price. What could this alluringly priced item be? Why should I stop here instead of there?

It is coffee.
Gas stations are pricing their coffee on their street signs, in an effort to get you to stop here instead of there.  The emphasis is no longer on fueling your car, but on keeping you going. They know the gas prices will no longer bring you in, but you still need some reason -- any reason -- to prefer their business to the next one down the road. 
So they offer coffee.
Any kind, any style, any size. Well, some places have any size for .99. Others have 16 ounces for .89.

Just like with gasoline, it depends on where you stop.

failure fails to succeed

There is a sign on the wall of the cardiac unit at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati that says. Heart Failure does not mean your heart is failing.

The sign goes on to explain that heart failure simply means that the heart isn't effective at doing its job. (my own words here)

The sign has me puzzled. Not about heart failure, about definitions. How do they define failure? Isn't a definition of failure not effectively succeeding?  Isn't failure not doing one's job?

Obviously, this is not complete and total failure -- it's okay to get help when help is needed. Sometimes, failure to ask for help is more of a personal prideful failure.

The sign is meant to reassure. I know that. But why lie? Heart failure means your heart is failing on its own. We are here to help, and there are things we can do that will help.

Don't say failure isn't failing. Because it is. Even then, some failures are successful. What would they think of that? How will they explain it?

The Longest Month

We know that Nature and man too often disagree, and the month of February is a perfect example of that. February is the longest month. It encompasses the snows of December, the cold of January, the winds of March, the rains (which in February are frozen) of April. Only at the very end, and often only if we are lucky, do we get a hint of the flowers of May.
It is frustrating that our calendars tell us that we are nearly into spring, as we continue daily to battle the blues of a too-long winter. Only four weeks till warmth, the calendar says, as we chop our firewood or buy our fuel for the coldest blasts of the year.
Only three weeks, the calendar lies, until sunshine comes, and the warm, wet winds, as we once again add an extra layer of clothing to keep us warm as we scrape the ice off our windshields. Only two weeks, the calendar declares, until life becomes beautiful again, and we look out our windows at ice sculptures that glitter in the hard sunshine. (Hmm. Hard? And Sunshine? Maybe the calendar is not so wrong as we first thought.) One more week, swears that calendar of ours, one more week and we will be heading out of winter, as the blizzard roars.
After the blizzard, we walk outside, checking for dangers and damages, and what is that we see, just below the stalactites of water hanging from our eaves. It is a different blade of white, tinged with maybe purple, maybe yellow. A flower, not afraid to brave the cold and the snow. It breathes in the cold crisp air and sends sunshine deep into the earth

Maybe the calendar is not so wrong, we think, but then again, we know. These last four weeks - twenty-eight days - no matter who was counting or how, have taken a lot longer than the six hundred seventy two hours allotted to them by our measurements. It seems that we have spent all those hours battling the last blasts of winter.

February, the longest month, draws to a close.

spring in the air

I keep searching for the signs. First robin, no. First green shoots, no. First green grass, no. But there are less tangible signs, seen everywhere in the neighborhood. People are moving. People are buying new furniture and throwing out the old. They stay at home birds are greeting the dawn with friendly chatter. One can almost hear them saying, "Well, Sunshine, when are you going to stay awhile? We've been missing you all this time." The skunks are out and about, seeking their Awakening. Men are looking over their lawn mowers.

It always amazes and amuses me that one of the first invisible signs of spring is men talking about their mowers. Day after day, they've been talking about shoveling, heating, ice, and one day at the lunch break, they all start talking about their lawn mowers. In my experience, it's been as if someone flipped a switch. Winter talk is over -- let's go on to better things.

It will still snow, freeze, blow ice, be cold. They'll still complain about all that work, but immediately change the subject back to the mowers.

Women do the same thing, to a lesser degree. They talk, in public settings, about flowers. In more private conversations, the discussions are about vegetables.

Long before the snow has melted, before the ground has thawed, before any signs appear -- men are mowing the grass, women planting, and let's not forget the skunks scenting the air.

Yes, Spring is on the way.

help needs helped

Everyone needs a hand now and then. Sometimes an applauding hand, but more often the need is for a helping hand. There's nothing wrong with needing help, and there's nothing wrong with asking for and accepting help.

There is something very wrong with taking help for granted.

Today's 'children' are too often guilty of that. They have taken no responsibility for themselves, so that when hard times happen, they greedily grab up every offer of assistance, demand more, and than wonder why no one respects them.

It doesn't matter if they are 25, college (paid for by parents) graduates sitting on their behind playing video or computer games while they wait for the job offers to pour in. These are the job offers attached to graduation . Who ever heard of working for a job before working at one?

It doesn't matter if they are single moms with multiple children of multiple sirage. Many of them -- not all -- are waiting for someone else to pay their rent, their childcare, their this or that.

They are not any different from the first example. They are no different.

They expect help handed to them, because no one has taught them any different way. They haven't even been taught to ask for help. Why would anyone expect them to think of saying "thank you."?

No one has taught them how.

No one has shown the way.

Child Abuse Prevention

There are classes and months and groups devoted to this topic. But when it comes right down to facts, there is no Mr. Everyman way of preventing child abuse.

You can see it, hear it, feel it in the air around the child at risk, but there is not anything a bystander can do. If you call the authorities, you will be grilled and questioned and examined, while the child is still being called names, smacked around, and neglected. You have to be able to prove that there is abuse or negligence that leads to abuse. It does no good to "prevent child abuse" unless you have an abused child to show the authorities. Bruises. Burns. Brain injuries.

How many children have had their brightness dimmed because the laws do not allow "Child abuse Prevention"?

catching up

It's been a crazy weather week. Heck, today was a crazy weather day! We had spring warm up temperatures, ice, rain, then snow. The forecast called for two or three inches of snow, but it wouldn't accumulate. They sure called that one right! Strangest thing I've heard of for a while.

Found out that the show I was writing about, The Tudors, wasn't even an original BBC series. It was created and broadcast by Showtime. Which makes the future "premiere" of just-watched episodes more ironic.

Then there's the toilet paper commercials. The latest annoying one is the guy who stands in the hall hollering "we're out of toilet paper". Then he gets either a buzz cut or a face full of lint. Okay, where do these people keep their toilet paper? In my house, it's in the bathroom. Or at least near the bathroom. No hollering down the halls and playing catch with it here.
There has to be a better way to make their point. Unless they are trying to say stupid people use their brand.

The ads that appear here in this blog are entertaining. Some of them are obvious from my key words, but most of them are more subtle than that. I say my granddaughter had a fever, and ads appear for pediatric thermometers. I mention donating hygiene products instead of food, and offers appear for both paper towels and canned goods.

Now, if I could just convince the computer that I do NOT shop in Dayton, I'd be happy.

At least for a minute.

premiere

Two or three weekends ago, I watched a program, The Tudors, on BBCAmerica. It was ten episodes, One through ten, and it was repeated at least once. During the programs, the commercials were touting the new premiere (there's another kind?) of the series on Wednesday nights. That was interesting. The Tudors, especially wicked old Henry VIII, were interesting people, all five of them. And I was ready to take up the shows where they left off -- shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution.

Come that Wednesday night, imagine my surprise when the "new premiere" was episode 1 of the  exact same series that had been on at least twice that Sunday.

I've observed this before. The Harry Potter movies have had more premieres than they have fans, or so it seems. They have premiered on Pay TV, on cable TV, on network TV, and most recently they have premiered, individually, on this or that channel. Harry Potter has premiered on ABC Family channel about two thousand times. The 'premieres' now include a Wednesday night premiere or Sunday morning premieres.

I checked the most recent online dictionaries. Premiere is still defined as a first time appearance. Not a detailed first time appearance.

Not a synonym for rerun.

I don't watch Wednesday night premieres anymore. I've already seen the show.

We did it!

Yesterday my granddaughter came into my bedroom. I was sleeping, and she patted my face with her little hands, stroked my face, and said, "Mammaw, Mammaw," until she woke me up. I sat up, Put on my glasses and said, "What, Baby? What do you want?"

She jumped up in the air, clapped her hands, and started twisting her arms and butt around. "We did it!" she shouted. "We did it! Yay!" She had obviously been involved in watching Dora the Explorer, and she helped.She danced and sang while Mammaw laughed and got out of bed.

What a wake up. It isn't every day that we can wake up with a "we did it!" attitude, but it should be.
That will be my goal.

Today, I did it!

Free on the Internet

Free on the  Internet.

Free credit scores: with a membership in beautiful benefits you'll never need or use. These can cost anything from $99 a month to $199 a year. Maybe more, but those are the ones I've looked at. The good thing here is that you cannot cancel until 30 days have lapsed, (and then there's a cancellation fee)and your informational brochures will be delivered in about six weeks.

Free samples, usually health & beauty substances: just pay shipping and subscribe for monthly deliveries. The shipping fees are more than the product. There are sites devoted to sending people free samples -- after they sign up for at least one thing off each of ten or twenty different pages. And they still need shipping paid in advance.

Free reverse phone look up: I really like this one. They look it up. They tell you the carrier. But if you really want to know who the number belongs to, get ready to pay up. $1.99 for each look up or by a membership.
The look up is free. The info is not.

And there's the seasonal. Free income tax: Step-by-step guidance while filling out your return, checks and double checks that everything is being done properly. Filling out the forms is free. Filing is not. There's a filing fee, with the tax preparation companies.

People get all enthused about all this free stuff. Then their finances are compromised as shipping, memberships, and automatic deliveries are taken out of their banks or added to their credit cards.

People: Stop and Think. How free can it be, if they need your credit (or debit) card number before they will send you anything?
Nothing is free, expect to pay.

Just know when why and how much, and enjoy the freedom of the 'net.

Weather and Health

Whew! Another night of snow. This kind of steady snow fall is more legendary than usual in this part of the world. I think we've had snow on the ground since Thanksgiving. Normal for some places, and it's not unheard of in the lore of the area. The kinds of stories they used to tell us were tall tales, and that diarists of the day exaggerated. Seeing this year, one has to wonder.
At least, one does if one thinks about it.

Every one did finally recover from the Cold from Hell, but it looks and feels like we're getting ready for round 2. Would that be the Cold from Heck?
Anyway, cranky, cranky baby today. Grouchy Mommy, testy Mammaw. Nobody female in this house was doing well at all. I think Baby may be getting a yeast infection from being on antibiotics, It's too soon to tell, but I know how to handle that -- and it would certainly make me cranky.

I apologize for not writing anything more interesting. I haven't been able to stay at the computer long enough. There's things in the works, but Life, being Life, is putting up the usual roadblocks for me to overcome or detour around. Haven't figured out, tonight, which it will be.

But it will be one, or the other, or perhaps an entirely unseen option. (Helicopter? Rockeater?)

Fat Like a Fruit

The over hyped world of weight loss has too many women convinced that if they are fat, they need to decide what fruit they resemble. Their fruit shape indicates their probable illnesses (even if they have no other indicators or symptoms.) Their fruit shape somehow indicates how they can more effectively lose weight.

The apple diet used to be eating apples with every meal. Now it is what you look like.

That's where there's a problem. The whole 'look like' thing.

When she's coming at you, she looks like an apple. All that can be seen is the large sized upper portion.
When she's walking away, she may be pear shaped, because what is seen is the big juicy bottom.

Only the tape measure can tell.

Truth is, she may be a perfect hourglass. 50-40-50 is close to the same shape as 35-25-35 --an hourglass.
There is no hourglass diet. Research suggests that there may be no need for one.

So, large ladies, check with your doctor for general health, and check your tape measure for your shape. You may not be a fruit at all.

Forgive: Like a 2 Year Old

Dealing with my granddaughter on a daily -- and nightly -- basis, I marvel at the resilient spirit of the child. You can tell, smack (at hands), wrap, time-out, make her do all sorts of things she doesn't want, just because you are bigger (her point of view)and wiser (your angle). When she wakes up from the forced nap, or when she can't reach the fork or scissors she was running with, there she is climbing in your lap or up your back, laughing.

When you have to swaddle her to tame her for sleep, and she screams and bites and spits until she settles, and she finally sleeps -- when she wakes up, it's you she comes looking for. Your name that she chirps from her bed, or calls through the empty rooms.

How great it is to see such love and forgiveness. To know, somewhere in your heart, that this mean and hateful behavior on their part is somehow good for you. That that person is wonderfully looking out for you.
And that when you wake up, or get done screaming, or otherwise misbehaving, that person is going to be there for you.
Isn't that a wonder?

Children seem to know how to hold on to the love, and to let the other stuff go. Or at least to accept that 'other stuff' as part of the person we love.

It's not hard to see that we should all love like a two year old.

My Good News/ Bad News Life

We all knows what happens during the coldest part of the winter, right?

Several of my friends know. Your furnace quits running.  (Adams County Heating and Cooling is currently getting rave reviews on my Facebook. They are Johnny-on-the-spot, and get the job done.)

If only that was my problem.

 

We're out of fuel. We do have some Kerosene, got it for that first big snowstorm. Have credit at Community Fuels in West Union. We can use that to buy jugs of K, but had hoped to get enough paid in to get a delivery. Guess that won't happen now.

But I also have electric heaters for every room, as long as we keep them on the low setting. Just what you need to do during a freeze wave. If we put them on high, they trip the breakers. Hooray for old houses.

 

EXTRA NEWS:The wick is all burnt up in the stove we have here at the house! We have other stoves, in storage, miles away across the ice and snow and cold.

 

I'm back in my good news/bad news Life Story. Someone screwed up -- I wasn't getting bored yet! Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!

More Snow, More Cold -- but less of "The" Cold

It is winter, after all. We aren't even out of January yet.
I have some curiosity about what February will bring. February is usually when we get the worst of winter, although there have been a few 'big snows' in early March.
Recent years, though, the weather has seemed to have shifted about six weeks in its changes -- which would have us warming up for spring in February, if that were to hold true.

I don't think it will. For one thing, in spite of the perceived pattern shift, our recent winter storms have been in February. On one 02/10/09 and then on 02/09/10 -- I have the dated pictures to prove it. For another thing, the early nature signs are lacking. No greens peeking and poking out of the ground, no subtle changes in the dull gray branches of the trees.

I know, because I've been looking.

Time will tell.

On the home health front, this nasty cold is finally loosening its grip. I can stay awake now, and when I'm awake, I can actually do things, like dishes. Like sweeping. Like taking out garbage. I am thrilled, even when I have to stop to catch my breath. Because I got so much more done before I had to breathe this time!

Hooray for healing!

Blogging

I've been reading a lot of blogs about blogging, so I decided to add mine to the mix. Most of them are about  focusing on the topic of your blog.
I should be okay there. My blog is about life, and that's a pretty broad focus.
More specifically, I hope it is about the absurdities of life, and the finding of the positive in the negative. It's up to me to make it about that.

Yes, the writing is important. Writing is why I'm writing a blog, but it isn't 'about' writing. There are many of those and, eventually, they aren't anymore. They still claim to be, though.

Writing is crazy, life is crazy. Writing life is crazy. Everything has its funny side, or a sunny side. Sometimes it's hard to see, and we need to be directed where to look. I hope that's what I accomplish with this blog.

And if it interests others in my writing, that's good, too.

Sad Day. Good Day.

Yesterday, my sisters and brothers and I sorted through my dad's left-behinds. It wasn't too bad. He had everything in order, knew what he wanted done and how he wanted it done, and since most of us are now adults, we went with it.

I don't think anyone who hasn't been through this can appreciate how wonderful it is to have adult siblings. One sees and hears so much of fighting and brawling that can go on at these 'events'. Surely those things are a dishonor to the Dear Departed, however much they may have promised both Bub and Sissy that each could have the Elvis collection for their children.

We had none of that. What few things were grabbed by two people, they were discussed, and usually ended with each sibling saying "Go ahead" to the other.

That's a legacy any father could be proud of. Mine certainly should be

still a cold

This is a nasty one, and it's going through the inhabitants of this house like crazy. It was Hailey who started it, and then me. Now Rex has it, and Hailey's mommy and daddy are both sick. Tam's working in the window in the snow and cold, too, all while washing dishes she tells me. And they are here, for now. Can't throw them out ,sick, in the snow. Although in one case I am extremely tempted.
At least she can get medicine if she needs it.
If Rex can handle it, he can get medicine after the first of February, when his Medicare Drug Plan kicks in. Before that, I guess we'll muddle along as we usually do. It's less then three weeks.

Me, I get to survive on thera-flu and chicken noodle soup. So far it's working, and Hailey and I seem to be feeling better. She's a handful, running me ragged -- which isn't hard to do these days. The overwhelming symptom of this nasty cold has been a need to sleep. Except for Hailey -- she's two. Nothing makes her want to sleep.
If it did, I'd have her at the hospital downtown, you can bet.

Anyway, she's healing, I'm rebounding, and everyone else is expecting me to wave my magic wand and make it all better.

Situation Normal. You know the rest of it.

In the Box

Advertising is weird, and keeps getting weirder. At the least, it is out of touch with how people actually live. And I wonder if the package designers are the ones selling the product instead of the product manufacturers.

I am talking about cold medicines. The monkey on the cell phone, the man watching the movie. Especially the man watching the movie. He coughs so his wife can't hear the denouement, so she runs to the bathroom and takes a BOX of cough syrup out of the medicine cabinet. Then, when the child comes down coughing, she gives him the box.

Wouldn't it be more effective to give him the medicine? How many of us keep cold medicines in their boxes, after they've been used? If we have vast spacious medicine cabinets, we may put the boxed product in there until it's opened, but wouldn't we throw the box away after that? And do we hand off the package to our children so they can self-dose?
(My evaluation of the situation is that people who keep medicine in boxes in their cabinets must be a little on the stupid side. Just my opinion.)

As for the monkey-- well, he's either in his bed on the computer or standing in the cold aisle with his $ell phone. He's choosing his symptoms and picking out which ones he has to choose the proper meds. In the at- home- in -bed ad he then goes out to buy what he needs.

I want that monkey's cold. He can have the one I've had this week. My version of shopping for the cold has been to go into the store and grab something that has worked in the past. Standing waiting for checkout takes all my energy. I ain't standing in the aisle reading labels or applying phone applications.
I'm sick, I want medicine, and I want to go home.

And if the medicine is a bottle in a box, you can bet I'm not going to put the darned bottle back in the box before I go to bed -- without monkeying on my computer!

Choose your Tags

How many times should you have to pay for your plates?

Not the registration. It's fine that that's an annual birthday gift to one's self.

There is a variety of plates to choose from. A 'standard' design, and several specialized designs that point out points of interest, or support a cause, or are just different. These plates are not vanity plates. They are numbered in the usual way.
They do cost more, and there's nothing wrong with that. But year after year after year you have to pay the extra price. There is something wrong with that.

What if you don't pay the extra? Well, you have to turn the plates in (if you want replacements). What if you've had the plates for five years, paying that double-or-more extra price for the prettier picture? Are they going to then hand over the reclaimed plates to the next customer? Is anyone going to pay the extra for salt-soaked, rain-sprayed, weather-exposed plates for the design?

No, they are not. The plates will be scrapped. They will NOT be used again.

It makes sense to pay extra for a fancier plate. Even  tiered price ranges in license tags is viable. But that should be a one-time charge, not a renewable extra fee. Because they are never going to use those numbers on that design again. Instead of scrapping or recycling and re-creating, let's keep things in circulation without having to pay more for the keeping and less for consumerism.

New Year; New Day

As everyone sinks into the revelry of the new year, let's remember that every day is a new day. Resolutions needn't be for the New Year only.
Every new day is a chance to start over, to learn from mistakes, to be not quite as stupid as we were yesterday.
We can learn, we can change, and we don't need any special reason to do these things.
We can wake each morning with the resolve to be a better person. To only speak kindly or not at all. To not have an extra dessert today. To hug our loved ones just because we can.

If we're lucky, we'll get to do it all again tomorrow. If we're not, we'll be leaving pleasant memories behind.

Today, this new day, I resolve to...