Best Thing

I just finished up a wonderful swim in our Endless Pool. Before the swim, my sister and I had been having a very spirited discussion about health care; and I just couldn't see why she was being so dense (hope she doesn't see this!). We are definitely at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to health care and almost anything else about the Obama presidency. I am sure neither of us is going to change the other's opinions, so we have agreed to disagree.

Anyway, after my swim, our differences don't seem so important anymore. I would call my feeling right now a runner's high, only because that is the term most people are familiar with. I have to admit, I seldom reached this pleasurable height when I ran, but I feel so wonderfully mellow when I'm done swimming. I think I will now go have cup of tea and read out on the swing overlooking the lake.

Rules for Living

Think positive thoughts

Expect great things

Live for the joy

Give thanks continuously

No Frustration

For several days, we have had little or no water. It is almost impossible to take a shower. Doing the dishes is an hour-long event. Yesterday we called the water company (for the second or third time this summer, to say nothing of the times a representative has been out here due to someone else in the neighborhood calling). We were told that too many people were watering their lawns and the company's pumps couldn't keep up with the demand. Does that sound plausible to you? I didn't think so.

This same water company has spent the last several months putting in new water lines in parts of the Headlands area; now we have trouble getting water. At one point, we were told that our house and several of the neighbors' had no water because another neighbor was filling his pool. Another time, the shortage was blamed on a neighbor who said her water was brown when she tried to wash clothes. The water company's solution? To open a pipe and let water run down the bank onto the beach, which they called flushing the lines. This was done several times over the course of the last three months. Did it help? I think the only thing it did was to help make the lake bank more unstable than it already is, and keep the neighborhood from having water.

I probably sound like a whiner, and I admit I feel like one right now (Den says I need the practice). I know that millions of people the world over have never had clean, running water; but we have had it and we do expect it, so it is frustrating not to have it now. I wonder, is it possible that the new lines the company put in are now too big for the pumps that are being used to pump out the water? Maybe they just can"t pump it hard enough to create any pressure in the lines. Would they tell us if that were the case? Or maybe they just don't care about us because only six or eight houses are affected since we live on a dead end street off a dead end street. They wouldn't feel like that, would they?

Too Much To Do

There's always so much to do -- most of it work. I just finished washing the hardwood floors in the bedroom and the office. As I sit here writing, I can look around and see an unlimited amount of more work waiting for me. I need to bring boxes down from the attic and shred old papers (tax returns from my mother and mother-in-law); fill the boxes back up with the papers I have pulled from the files down here (more recent tax returns, etc.), and return the boxes to the attic. The office needs a good going through, windows and curtains washed, cabinets cleaned out, to say nothing of the computers. I know I need to back up some information and delete some I no longer use. I don't know what Den has on his computer, but it's a safe bet he has stuff there that also needs cleaning out.

See what I mean about there always being work that needs doing? And we haven't even gotten out of the office! Kitchen cabinets need reorganizing; bookshelves need cleaned and organized; the refrigerator needs cleaning out, the windows need washing -- the list seems endless and I get tired just thinking about it. Then there's the outside -- flower beds and vegetable gardens need weeding (always!); roses need deadheading; grass needs mowing; and I want to rearrange the back garden with less patio blocks and more green. We need to finish painting the house, fix the roof and clean out the garage. (The word "we" in the last sentence means Den.) I never did get the picnic table and swing stained this year, something I should have done in May.

These are the things that need doing, but what about the things I want to do? I have to admit, I probably did more of them this summer than I should have, thus leading to all the things that didn't get done (see above). I took walks, swam, read (a lot), visited with friends and relatives (both in person and through the computer), went dancing, worked on my writing, drawing, knitting, crocheting and quilting.

But all the time I was enjoying myself, I was also feeling guilty. Was this because of some inner makeup, or the way I was raised or a combination of both? The big question I have is -- Do men feel this way, too?

Finnish Heritage Museum

Earlier this afternoon, my sister and I went to Fairport Harbor to check out the Finnish Heritage Museum. We watched a wall hanging being woven on a 100+ year-old loom that was in pieces when it was given to the museum. The loom was huge -- taller than me and about 5 feet wide. It looked really complicated to use. How could someone design something like that so many years ago? How did they know that if they put this wheel here and ran that thread there, they could weave a beautiful picture of a church with trees around it?

Along that same line, who discovered that you could twist a strand of yarn around a hook, or pull it through itself with a pair of needles, and it would make something warm and beautiful? Who discovered all the intricate needle movements that would make the stitches we use today? Who discovered that you could use hair from animals to make yarn in the first place? I'm sure someone has the answers to these questions, but I won't try to research them. It is more fun to wonder.

Oh, and yes, the Finnish Heritage Museum is well worth the visit. You can even buy a cup of coffee and a slice of home made nisu after you browse the exhibits. If you can't make the trip to the museum in person, the website is: www.finnishheritagemuseum.org.

Balloon Release

There was an article in the newspaper about a local funeral home releasing hundreds of balloons into the air to remember those who have died, seemingly a great idea. However, I cannot believe they thought this ceremony through very carefully. I'm sure they didn't think of the environmental consequences of what will happen when all those balloons come back down to earth. They have to land somewhere, and a lot of them will fall into Lake Erie.

The fish and birds that depend on Lake Erie will come across these balloons and could either get tangled in the strings attached or try to eat them. Either way, the consequences will be deadly. I'm not sure how far out we could extrapolate this outcome, but I sit here wondering if the kingfishers we enjoy watching will be effected, or even the eagle that appears to have made its home along the south shore of the lake.

I do believe that there are fewer of these balloon releases as more people realize what damage they can do in the long run. Can bubbles released into the air be a substitute? I don't know if there are any long term dangerous or harmful results from this practice, but I'm sure someone out there could tell me.

Health Care

The big issue today is health care. Should we have universal health care? If so, how do we do that? How do we pay for it? Do we want a system that is like Canada, Great Britain, or any of the other nations that have a socialized medical care system? How do we know what is best? Perhaps most important of all, who will pay for it, and how?

I, for one, would like to see a side-by-side comparison of the way different health systems work. Maybe compare our system with Finland's, Canada's and Switzerland's, or pick any three modern nations. All we hear is that we will not get the same quality of care if we change, that we will have to wait a long time for the care we do get, and that someone other than ourselves will be in charge of the care we receive. We are already putting up with these things -- when was the last time you had to visit an emergency room?

These claims leave me feeling pretty skeptical, especially when most of them are coming from insurance companies who are making obscene amounts of money off the system as it now exists. I don't believe we have a monopoly on good doctors, or researchers, or medicines. I do think that our infant mortality rate is too high (higher than several other western nations), and we do not live as long, on average, as citizens of some other countries. Maybe health care should be the responsibility of localities, like education once was. I don't claim to know how to fix the system that we now have, or even if we should fix it. Maybe we should discard it and start all over. I do know that too many people don't have health care, and that too many people are paying too much for the health care they do receive. In a country as great as ours, this is intolerable.