Chain emails - hate 'em

Chain emails, like chain letters before there was such a thing as email, always irk me a little and sometimes a lot. They always start out innocently enough with a prayer or good thoughts or encouragement to do a good dead. Then when you get to the bottom it's always "send this to 5 people before the end of the day"; or "send this to 10 people in the next 10 minutes." Then there's the thing that determines whether I'm irked a little or a lot. The ones that don't have this, then I'm only mildly peeved. It's always something forward this and "you will receive a blessing in the next 24 hours" or "you will your luck will get better" or, in the case of one I just received, "make 3 wishes, forward this to 10 people in the next 10 minutes and you will get your 3 wishes in the next 3 days". Yeah, right, sure I will. This is the part that I think is the most disturbing because it plays on a person's desire to be better, do better or get something for free. It preys upon those among us that are lonely, weak and vulnerable.

What I dislike most is the veiled message that a person is not worthy to be blessed or lucky or whatever unless they forward the email. The God that I believe in doesn't bless us based on whether or not we forward an email. We are blessed every day when we look at the blue sky and the green leaves on trees. We are blessed when we hear birds sing or smell the sweet scent of flowers. We are blessed because we live.

Gray Day

I must exude a certain amount of confidence or expertise in areas that I most times do not feel. Three times in the last 24 hours, I've had people ask me for help or direction because they just knew I'd have the answer. Well, I didn't. I don't. I'm clueless. Something about how they took the answer made me feel like they didn't believe me. Why would I lie to them and refuse to help? That is not in my nature and surely they know that about me.

Liars offend me. It is probably my biggest pet peeve of all. Be honest.

Yes. OK, I'll be honest too. I'm not perfect. I have told lies ... some small white lies and some big whoppers ...like when I was 16 and supposed to be at the movies, but really was out necking with a guy ... but I learned a lesson from that. I always feel really bad when I do lie and so I don't. Even small white lies can come back on you. Like saying to your mother-in-law that you really like some dish that she made when in reality you don't, but then she thinks you do so makes it for you every special occasion and you have to continue to eat it and pretend to like it because you lied. Lessons like that make me not lie.

And when I catch a certain someone in a lie, this someone that lies so often that she can't keep track of what she has said ... it makes me not want to be around her ... it makes me not trust anything that she ever says. And yet, she continues to lie never learning and she wonders why I don't believe her. I just don't get it.

Stop the glorification

While I have great sympathy for the loved ones and the survivors of the recent shootings in Virgina, I cannot help but wonder if all of the media attention is priming the next off-balance individual. We'll never know what pushed this person to do this horrible thing, if we did, I can only hope that we, as a society, would do everything we could to keep it from happening ever again.

I remember John Hinkley who shot then President Reagan in the hopes of getting the attention of Jodie Foster. I remember Mark David Chapman who shot John Lennon. And I wish I did not.

The Media, then and now, is bombarding all of us with constant images of the twisted individuals who do these things and their victims, while at the same time dissecting and rehashing over and over the event. Its enough to make me and other normal people cringe. I cannot help but wonder if it pushes some people who are near the edge over completely.

I just wish the media would stop for a moment and think of the survivors, think of the viewers and think, most of all, of the people they could be influencing with their glorification and exploitation of this incident.

I'm not THAT old

I got "ma'am"ed today at a local coffee shop. I was going out as this 20 something was going in and she held the door for me. I thanked her and she said "you're welcome, ma'am"! EEK!

I know she was just being polite and respectful and her parents certainly raised her right... BUT still ...

Good Help

My husband and I have a saying "It's hard to find good help these days". We apply it when:

• a waitress brings our dinner, but neglects to refill our drinks and disappears until we are leaving
• we discover an obvious typo in the newspaper (what are proofreaders for?)
• we are looking at a brand new car and notice the interior door handle cover is missing (QA anyone?)

Recently, a gentleman came by our house offering his services to prune our trees. By all appearances, he seemed like a nice fellow ... clean cut, clean clothes, and he talked intelligently about pruning trees. We'd been collecting fliers from tree pruners because our live oaks needed pruning and we had a few cedars we wanted removed. So we negotiated a price and he went to work. Now, mind you, I was somewhat skeptical. We've had to apply the above saying more than once to drive by pruners.

I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised! This guy really knows what he is doing. He is cautious in climbing the trees ... not just for his own safety but also so as to not damage the living portions of the tree. He has taken care to not obstruct the side walk. When he leaves for the day, he has left the cut limbs in orderly piles. He is almost done and has raked the yard and swept the side walk.

I can't help but wonder if the universe sent him to our door as a way of saying "yes, you can get good help these days!"!!!

Pet Peeve

One of my pet peeves is the seemingly rampant misspellings and misuse of words. In the newspaper, in magazines, on TV commercials, on banners on buildings … everywhere I look, it seems as if people have forgotten how to use a dictionary or are heavily dependent on spell check programs.

1st case in point – a national pizza chain near our house has an advertising banner hanging on its building. The banner says “Now hiring drivers - $1 gas reinbursement”. There is no such word as reinbursement … it is reimbursement. I have to wonder how many people had a chance to review the sign before it was hung. I have to wonder even longer about a manager that would think it is ok because (and I am quoting him) “…most of the kids we hire don’t know what the word means”. Yes the sign is still there in spite of my pointing out the spelling error. Just because they don’t know what it means doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be spelled correctly! That way they could look it up and learn what it means.

2nd case in point – just last night, I saw a TV commercial for a famous brand of toothpaste. The product claimed to “protect cavities, gingivitis, plaque, stains, tartar buildup and sensitivity”. Not to protect against, mind you, but to “protect”. So, I’m left wondering … I thought toothpaste would protect my teeth AGAINST cavities, gingivitis, etc, not the other way around. I don’t think I want to use a product that protects some of the very things that I brush my teeth to avoid.

AARRGH!!!! It’s enough to make me want to pull my hair out. Is America becoming a nation of illiterates? Does anyone care anymore???