New Rain Gear

My rain gear has made it to Seattle. It's due to be here on Tuesday. But you never know with UPS they could send it hundreds of miles in the wrong direction only to send it right back to Seattle or past Seattle or who knows where.

Nov 12, 2005 4:19 A.M.
SEATTLE, WA, US
ARRIVAL SCAN

I don't know where my new backpack is. I am so sick of spam that I did not give the online company that I bought it from a real email address.

I feel safe ordering things online with my credit cards. Credit cards give you protection that you don't have with a cash transaction. On eBay it's a good idea to use credit cards because if the item does not arrive you can do a charge back.

The only way that I know of to cancel an AOL subscription is to cancel the credit card that you signed up with or do a charge back. Unless things have changed if you sign up for AOL and allow them to debit your checking account you may actually have to change banks when it's time to unsubscribe.

See fifty ways to leave AOL : http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/comments/2005/8/26/17831/3572/0/post

I wanted to "hike" to my secret chanterelle patch today but cleaning my 8 year-olds room took up most of the day light hours. Maybe I can go tomorrow but I also have to visit an ill relative tomorrow.

My 84 year-0ld maternal grandmother lost her husband of 58 years this August, she also lost her last living sibling two weeks ago. Last night she broke her leg. She should never have been living alone in her health. She had to wait a full hour for someone to find her after she fell. She is in the hospital tonight and I will call her soon.

We have a family member who never quite grew up and always depended on Grandma and Grandpa for her and her children's financial needs. She would blow her money on expensive food and other stuff that she would have nothing to show for afterwards. She had no incentive to spend responsibly because she could always mooch of Grandma and Grandpa.

Well where the hell is she now? She is not living with Grandma and taking care of her. Nope, she's living in the house that Grandma and Grandpa bought her and working as a toilet cleaner for the State Park System. Everyone expected that she would be the one to move in with Grandma and take care of her, if only as a convenient way to take over Grandma's house and then keep it after she dies. But she has not lived up to expectations. Will she rush in to put Grandma in a nursing home and then move into her house?

Back to more pleasant thoughts. Grandma and Grandpa used to take me to the ocean every summer and they took me razor clam digging a few times. Grandma and Grandpa rewarded me with my very own clam shovel for digging my first limit. I was only 8 years old but I did it all by myself. My uncle coached me but I did all the work. Grandpa painted the shovel handle red and painted my name on it in white letters. The paint has all worn away but I still have that shovel.

She is my last living Grand-Parent. With one notable exception I had wonderful grandparents and I feel very lucky to have gotten to know all of them. My parents are members of the me generation, their generation (in general) did not take much interest in their kids. The me generation created a generation of latch key kids who had to grow up real fast. The me generation went out in pursuit of money at the cost of their children. The me generation made a lot more money then their parents did. The parents of the me generation fought world war II and lived through the depression.

The me generation went to Vietnam, invented "free love" got stoned and high a lot and then went out and made their fortunes. Where have all the hippies gone? There are some left but most of them have turned to levels of consumerism never seen before in the history of this country.

My generation is doing a better job of child-rearing. Yes these are all generalizations but in my case they really fit. I was made a ward of the court at the tender age of 16 and turned out onto the street at the age of 18. Somehow I was expected to make my way in the world with almost no help and in the middle of the recessions of the 80's. Well I've not lived up to the expectations of my parents but I'm happy. I stay at home and take care of my kids and I take them places and do thing with them. Sure my Dad (I was raised by my Dad and his wife) took me lots of places when I was a kid but it was always about him and what fish he could catch there.

My parents idea of taking care of my Grandparents seems to be to quibble about who is responsible, then take over power of attorney so all their assets can be hidden and then plunk them into a state run nursing home until they die. Death comes quickly for Medicaid patients once their primary insurance runs out. My step grandma died only 3 months after running out of money.

I wonder if my parents who turned me out at the age of 16 and raised me as a latch key kid and dumped their own parents into nursing homes actually expect me to take care of them in their old age??

Time will tell.