Third Hand

God created people with two hands.That was good enough until the year 2000. People now need three hands. One for their cell phone and two others to do whatever else they need to. Lately I have been observing people and I see that everyone has a cell phone in their hand constantly. They even have one when they are with other people. They walk in the street with them. Sit in restaurants with them. Look at them in doctor's offices. It has become an extension of their arms. One day the human race will start to mutate and grow a third hand.

The Dollar Bill

We have all had this happen to us. We are walking and out of the corner of our eye we spot money. Dollar bills. Maybe it is a one or a five or a twenty. For that brief moment in time we get a genuine rush of happiness. It is nothing we can control. It is raw human emotion. Wouldn't it be nice to feel like that at some point every day? I hope to find the way to do that.

The Motivator

I am a motivator. I get people going. Yesterday my mother had a slight cold and could not go with my father to dialysis. I called from work and she was lying in bed. That is not good. The family does not want her staying alone. I got in my car and drove to their house. When I arrived my father left. I got her up and  made her eat every two hours even though she was not hungry. She miraculously felt better. She wanted to walk around the house and then sit outside on the porch. She and I chatted all day. At dinner time we called for Chinese take out and she ate more than I did. All in all it was a great day.

Negating History

Today is September 11th. I went online to write this blog and there was no mention of anything special about this date. Have we forgotten the tragedy of 2001? There were articles about diet foods and what celebrities did last night, but not one memorial paragraph. Is America trying to rewrite its history. Statues are being removed from town squares and flags are being destroyed. If certain groups are offended by these things, I get it. Place them in a museum setting. Don't erase history. Acknowledge it and strive for better.

Pound of Apples

We had a great day apple picking. We got to the orchards and paid the admission fee which entitled us to get four bags to fill with the apples. We were allowed about 20 pounds. We picked and picked and were ready to leave so we had them weighed. There were only 5 pounds. We went back into the orchards. We picked again. This time we were 5 pounds short. Again we went to pick. This time we were $2 short. We decided to forgo the $2 as it was getting late and we wanted to go to dinner. Today I will make apple pie, apple sauce, apple crisp and any other apple dish I can find.

Apple Picking

Once every year we go picking. Some years it is for pumpkins and other years it is for apples. This is the apple year. We will drive East towards the orchards and gather apples from the trees. This year my granddaughters picked many types of fruits. They picked strawberries, sunflowers, peaches and berries. I have pictures showing their happy faces as they went down every orchard aisle. Today my grandson will go. He has been asking about picking apples off of trees, so today he will get his wish.

Security

There has been a lot of talk in the past year about immigration and how a country needs to keep its borders secure. My boss went to Russia to sightsee and then was going to Slovenia to lecture. In order to enter Russia she needed to be sponsored. She needed a stamped visa from the place where she is staying. She got a visa from both hotels stamped with her dates of arrival and departure. She had to visit the Russian immigration center in New York and be interviewed. She had to answer questions as far back as what clubs she was in when she went to high school. Keep in mind my boss is 64 years old. After staying in Russia and seeing everything she wanted to, she decided to go to Slovenia a few days early. The Russian government refused to let her leave until the day that her visa says she is supposed to. No discussion. She will remain in Russia until September 12th, like it or not. This is a sharp contrast to America where jumping a border and vanishing into thin air is acceptable.