Cards

Many of my friends know that the postal service is my friend. I love getting mail and also send a great deal of mail. It is unusual for a day to go by without sending at least one piece of mail and it is very rare for the post person to pass our house without something to drop off and most of them it is a bundle. I have the elastic bands from the mail to prove it.

I buy cards but the past few years, I have started to make my own cards using my photographs. The positive comments have which inspired me to continue making the cards and then sending them or sometimes giving cards as gifts and hopefully brighten some one's day with a card(s).

I was reminded how much cards mean when I went out for dinner with my husband at a Kelsey's. We chatted with our waitress and the end of the dinner not only did she drop off a bill but also a card wishing us a nice evening and commenting on the activity we were going to be involved in that evening. I know that the card was from the restaurant and there is probably a campaign on the part of the restaurant to have the staff chat with patrons but the card works and indicates that the wait staff listened and paid attention to the patron. Nice touch. I would go back and the food was good as well.

I know that postage costs but try it send a card or a note and brighten some one's day, let them know that you are thinking of them. I am always surprised and pleased when someone tells me many months and sometimes more than many months how much my cards meant to them. It encourages me to keep it up.

Nursing Homes

The events of this summer have made me more aware of the level of care available to those in need in Ontario. Nursing homes are funded to the tune of $3.5 billion a year and this still only guarantees 3 hours of care per day. Think of your day and how much time that means. Based on the level of care that a person needs, feeding and bathing are part of the three hours. The question is what happens the rest of the day? Who is observing the resident? What level of care is being given? Is the time spent sitting in a chair in front of a nursing station part of the three hours? Time to start thinking of the future. There is much planning to be done.

CFL's

I am a firm believer in trying to be environmentally friendly; I recycle, compost and reuse. One look at my wardrobe will convince you that I try to wear things until they are well and truly worn out. Long ago, I gave up trying to be in style, if it fits, is comfortable and clean it works for me. Yup, some of the clothes that I wear are very old!
My many attempts to be a good steward of the environment have taught me that it is important to examine all sides of issues. For example, CFLs, compact fluorescent light bulbs are not living up to their claims of lasting a great deal longer than regular bulbs. CFLs cost 6 times what regular bulbs do and some have lasted half as long as incandescents! Apparently, the tests on CFLs were only done on table lamps not the many uses that people have for lights. Turning CFLs on and off speeds up their demise. What are we to do? Keep the lights on? CFLs emit frequency harmonics and its infared light interfere with many electronics. You have to wonder what they do to computers!
In Europe, CFLs are branded dangerous waste because they contain mercury which is something that has caused me concern and wonder about the claims about their environmental impact.
Let this be a reminder that we must examine products carefully and their impact through their complete life cycle.

Many facets of people

Again, I am reminded that there are many facets to the people we meet. We know them in one capacity but they are often involved in other activities that can sometimes be most unexpected. Yesterday, I found out that one of the people who I play tennis with belongs to a theatre company that we have a subscription to. The East Side players has been putting on plays for many years at Todmorden Mills and are an excellent community group with some excellent productions. My friend is auditioning for Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings, hope that she gets a part.
Another tennis player is an avid concert goer and visits art galleries regularly. She has been to concert with performers who I wish I had heard. I usually just picture her as a very athletic person but did not imagine that she had an appreciation for the arts.
On Friday, I am attending a pottery show that another friend is taking part in. She teaches ESL at a community college and was in management before that.
This reminds me that there is more depth to the people we meet than we assume at first encounter. Pealing away the layers takes time but is the enjoyable part of relationships with others. . We must take the time to get to know them and learn about them and their interests. People can be very fascinating and are in turn engaged in many activities in their various communities.

Health

For many reasons, I have been more conscious of good health lately: I appreciate my good health physical and mental. On Monday, I met some new tennis players who commented that I hit the ball hard and noticed that I do not seem to have any injuries; it is true so far all my joints are pain free. No sore elbows, knees or shoulders and not torn muscles. Don't know if my peasant stock is saving me from these problems. Most of my tennis buddies have complaints or have had to stop playing.

Yesterday, I went to a workshop about getting your written work published. I have managed to have a number of articles published and was actually paid for one. I must keep working at it and hope that I will be able to have more work completed and get paid. During one of the breaks at the workshop, I spoke to some of the people at my table and was surprised at their comments about aches, pains, headaches. Now one of them should be examining her diet: potato chips, chocolate milk and a muffin a meal do not make. I think that Country Style donuts offered a bagel which would have been better for her. The chocolate milk was probably not too bad but there are better choices.

After all is said and done, we must all do all we can to maintain good physical and mental health. Some problems are not of our making but others might be avoided with care.
Enjoy your health and do everything you can to maintain it.

Six Million Trees

This is community involvement!
Thousands of Macedonians took to the hills and forests yesterday to plant six million trees in a single day as part of a mass reforestation drive in the Balkan Country. "Our goal is to make Macedonian 'greener' and make people more aware of the needs of this plant." said Macedonian opera singer Boris Trajanov, who initiated the project. Thousands of people were bused to the planting sites, including more than 1,000 soldiers who planted some 200,000 seedlings. Trajanov said he hoped to spread the campaign across the whole Balkan region next year.
Wonder who donated the trees or if a fundraising campaign as well as awareness campaign was held. This is an outstanding idea. More ideas like this which involve people would be ideal.

Money

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend whose son who is in university told her that money would disappear in today's economy. An interesting theory which I had difficulty accepting. There was a reason that money developed. We have difficulty carrying the goods that we might want to barter and the exchange process for the house or car might be very difficult. We do not all have goods that the next person wants to trade.
Money has a long history. Humankind started out with barter. What do you have that I need? It went with specialization of labour. If someone makes arrowheads all day, how are you going to get the arrowhead from him? You're probably going to trade something you've just hunted with an arrowhead he made. Money comes into the picture as a way of solidifying the power of the state. That's why the Sumerians, the first agricultural urban society, were the first to adopt a concept of money. In other words, I've got a lot of stuff stored, I 'll give you something that says you now own it. In effect, it's a form of deed.

We come forward from coins to paper money and finally the thing that enables all modern economies, the concept of fiat and credit currency, which was developed in late medieval Europe, in which letters of credit and letters of mark allowed us for the first time to bank on the power of the state itself rather than on the value of the coinage.

Money will not disappear completely but the use of debt cards, credit cards, and the Internet has allowed us to complete transactions without the presence of physical money. It will be fascinating to see what the present economic crisis does to the value of money and our understanding of its value.