Plant Life

The will to live---among plants that is.
      Last Valentine's Day, one of my gifts was a floral bouquet. The flowers, maybe they were tulips, and maybe it was Easter and not Valentine's Day, eventually withered and were thrown out. But the supporting greenery was still so fresh and vital looking that I kept them in the vase of water. If they root, I'll plant them outside when spring comes, I thought.
  Well, they didn't root, but they still appear as fresh as the day I got them, almost a year ago. I inspected them the other day, and what do I find, on the bottom side of several of the leaves, but what appear to be tiny seedling plants. I wonder if I can plant one of them.
   I'm trying to recall if that's how mistletoe grows. I'll look it up if I find the motivation.

Animal Tracks

I wonder what little beast may be living under the ramp and crawling down the walkway and up on my front steps at night?

Royal Shot

  I just saw the Christmas Card photo of the royal family, William's branch. Everyone looks adorable, but little George looks as if he's doggy-peeing on the tree.  An awkward sight.

Dental VS Ophthalmology

   This is not a debate about the relative merits of these two important medical specialties, but rather of the creature comfort afforded by both.
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    DENTAL OFFICE:  You the patient are seated in a fairly comfortable chair.  It has padding, a headrest, a footrest, and armrests. The chair is adjustable to your needs, and someone else adjusts it.  There is a tray that slides in front of you, with various piece of  equipment or implements.  The dentist, dental assistant and technician all lean in to provide their services. Almost all the needed equipment, including x-ray machine, are brought to you as you sit in the chair. Yes, there may be some discomfort and even pain, but it is not because of your position. You remain pretty much passive throughout whatever the procedure is;  the professionals  do all the work.

    OPHTHALMOLOGY OFFICE:   Yes, you the patient are seated in a chair. But don't expect to get comfortable in it. For almost all the testing that follows will require contortion on your part. And compared to dentistry, the majority of patients here are in the elderly age group. The office equipment does not conform to you, but the other way around. Except for the administering of eye drops, the staff has no actual physical contact with you. You are the one who has to lean forward and place your forehead against a brace on the machine while resting your chin on another part of it. The assistant may screw the opening up or down for a better fit, but you are straining your back and neck to accommodate the machine more than the other way around. You may be taken to another room for a field of vision test. Again, you strain to conform to the machine. You're on a chair, no backrest at all this time. Lean forward into the machine and press a button when you see a flash. This has to be a primitive and uncertain method of testing. It;s rather like the early game of Pong,and look how far that technology has developed in the gaming world. But not in medicine. Meanwhile, the technician in charge of the testing plays no active role, just sits, bored as heck, but not physically stretched into an uncomfortable position, as is the patient.
    It is obvious that ophthalmic testing machines have not advanced in keeping with the times. Why shouldn't patients  be able to remain  seated in a chair, and have the equipment conform to their needs. What patient, especially those of a certain age, needs to endure unnecessary headache and back strain caused by having to contort their bodies to fit the machines. But I suppose if someone were to invent such accommodating devices, that would necessitate the purchasing of new office equipment, and that would be the show stopper.

   

Oh, Lord!

   Please deliver me from children's performances of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."   The song is not about praising the lord. It is about sex. Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially in today's raunchy climate.
   But to see a child, in the aura of innocence, stand and sing the song as if it's a religious tribute is just wrong.
    I try to avoid such spectacles, but last night I was more or less forced into viewing one such. I don't know what happened, but the remote to the bedroom TV will not allow the channel to be changed, even with the installation of new batteries. So I'm in bed with the channel stuck on Channel 13, which is fine with  me because I intend to watch the Tonight Show.
    But in the meantime, what show comes on but Little Performers or whatever it's called. I'm now a captive audience. One young boy sang a song and while his voice was pleasant in the lower, softer range, he of course had to shriek to get the audience approval, and it was very hard on the ears. Then came a kid and a dog, dressed alike and out of control when it came to cupcakes.
    A young girl, from Ireland no less, made an appearance to sing, in all her innocence, "Hallelujah."   (Almost beyond belief, she was joined by Pentatonix, but that's another horror story.) Granted, Cohen has changed the lyrics, omitting and adding, editing, as the mood suited him in his many performances. But his Hallelujah is not in praise of the lord, but as one notable singer put it, "A hallelujah to organism."   Not a difficult observation with the lyrics  "Remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was Hallelujah."  And the opening references to Samson and Delilah---what can that mean to a child --maybe relating to cutting her Barbies' hair. We won't even consider, "what was going on below" that's no longer happening or the significance of the flag on the marble arch.
    It's a beautiful and significant song, certainly overdone. But at least could someone please keep it out of the mouths of babes. And don't let them anywhere near Leonard Cohen's tribute song to Janis Joplin.

Good Browser

   After years of using the same pathway to our bank accounts, and successfully paying almost all our bills online, last week the system failed. Either I couldn't log on as usual, or else I'd log on and the message would read no connection. I thought maybe the bank's site was down.
   After waiting 4 days, and with bills to pay, I called the bank's customer service line. The guy who answered, and I'm sure he was of the youthful tech savvy ilk, assured me there was no problem with the bank's site, and asked if I was able to use another browser, and something about needing to delete cookies and.or do something else with them.
    Not wanting to appear any more ignorant than need be, I just thanked him and said I just wanted to verify that the bank's site was ok. I'm pretty sure he saw through the guise, but what does he care.
    So I worked on finding an alternative browser, checking out anything that might fall into that category. After some unsuccessful tries,  I spied Microsoft Edge, which was completely unfamiliar to me, but I tried it and it worked. I don't know what to do with those superfluous cookies, but if I can find them, I'll delete them.

Mental Incarceration

How many, O, How many?  Mental incarceration sounds a lot like brainwashing, doesn't it? As for lost moral compasses, who the heck knows how that happens.