The Portal to Boomeranger World

On the Road Again--Across NJ, Pa, Ohio...

I was prepared for gas sticker shock--since NJ has some of the nation's lowest gas prices, plus we get great at the pump service. But zowie, I did not imagine that diesel prices would be almost $4.90. I pity the truckers...

Well, I guess I am one of the whiners Phil Gramm is whining about.

What do I have to complain about? I have a roof over my head, my health, no "mental recession", a great daughter, lots of wonderful friends..so what if my taxes jumped  7.4% this year after almost 5% last...who cares? Right?  Phil Gramm certainly doesn't! His banking and energy deregulation policies set us up for the Enron debacle and the sub prime mortgage bailout. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.  Cute, huh?

On a brighter note--I was reminded again why "America the Beautiful" is such an apt song...NJ and PA especially around the Delaware Water Gap are so lovely.

Dinner in a diner near Heritage, PA.The local shopper available for my dining pleasure reading was called The Senior Shopper.

One article advised how to dispose of expired prescription drugs--DEFINITELY DO NOT FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET. That is one reason our water supply is contaminated. But the article also advised mixing crushed outdated pills with an inert substance like kitty litter, sealing in a coffee can and tossing in the garbage--YIKES..where does the doc writing the article think the can will end up? It's going in a land fill to leak into the water system. There must be a better way...

July 4th Savings: With Gas and Other Expenses So High, Many Companies Are Offering Special Deals

From computers: Gateway@email.gateway.com , to Los Angeles on a budget, LA Budget , the high gas prices are pushing other prices lower.

Automobile AA estimates that fewer will travel this July 4th (weekend), but there are still millions who will. If you are driving, make sure your tires are fully inflated, you have cleared out the junk in your trunk--less weight less gas. Well that's true for human behinds as well, no?!? Look for cheaper gas, but not at the expense of driving around a lot looking for it.

Seniors are being offered special deals as well:  AARP Travel  Students as well as families can get discounts, ie, incentives, due to mile high gas (AKA) oil prices. Student Travel

AARP has a deal for a romantic trip to Sandals in the Caribbean--usually this resort is identified with nubile young-uns or newly marrieds, but now they want us boomers as well.

The State of Vermont is giving away a $100 tank of gas to potential visitors this summer.You can enter contest here: Vermont Gas $100

Lowe's is offering a 10% discount up to $5,000 in purchases to all military  Lowe's Offer If you are going to take advantage of discounts and sales, do so with a critical eye. Like some airlines which started charging for checked bags, offering free baggage checking is hardly a savings--it's just back to service as it was a few months ago.

So, think before you buy, do you really need that purchase or is this a GREAT, I CAN SAVE MONEY!!  Well, of course you haven't really, you have still spent money -- just maybe a little less.

Mountain Gorillas and Polar Bears Endangered: Human Energy Needs to Blame

OK, you say, now I'm supposed to feel guilty about polar bears AND gorillas?

What has that to do with me? Nothing directly...if you are in the developed West, you didn't pull the trigger that brutally murdered--some execution style--10 of a family of 12 Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park in Central Africa last summer. Moms and dads, teens and kids--leaving the babies to starve to death. A warning to all to back off from investigating illegalities in the park.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text.

You are not part of the $30, 000,000 illegal trade in charcoal that is decimating this most stunning national park--a park that for its environmental and ecological diversity and sheer beauty many scientists and environmentalists call the jewel of THE PLANET.

You are not one of the many 1,000s of families that have been displaced due to the wars in Rwanda. Due to the decades-old (several century-old) conflicts between The Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, all that border the park. You are not a Tutsi or a Hutu. You are not desperate for the life-giving charcoal that will heat the water to cook your mealie meal to feed your hungry kids.

Nor are you purposely running your car on oil, wearing oil based clothing, heating, cooling with oil, drinking water out of oil-based bottles, walking on oil-based carpeting, sitting on oil-based furniture, bringing home food packaged in oil-based wrappings and bags, right?   That's just all there is to choose from, right?

You are not directly responsible for the carbon emissions that are melting the ice floes at the North Pole and shrinking the ice pack that normally sits about 50 miles off the northern coast of Canada to more than 200 miles? SO...you are not responsible for the loss of PLANKTON that is locked up in the ice and feeds all the subspecies that feed the Polar bears and larger polar creatures, are you?

Humans have an insatiable NEED for energy--whether it is charcoal the production of which is descimating the old growth hardwood trees in Virunga Park: No trees=no habitat. No habitat=no gorillas.Or whether it is oil to power our "modern" comfortable life.

And yes, I do believe we are all responsible--not in a guilty way--guilt paralyzes and causes us to turn away. But in a way that is a Global Wide Call to Action and on our own selfish behalf. We are selfish creatures--well, really we have a basic driving inner force to LIVE. Each of us has this need, this drive--all creatures do. But now we must realize that unless we are selfish together and take selfish action together for our own benefit, we will all go the way of the dodo. And our beautiful Blue Marble will be a smoking empty desert hulk.

DO the Change you want to BE. SOmeone out there invent a little portable and cheap solar cooker that can be GIVEN to all the displaced families around Virunga Park. And SURELY we are not that lazy, worthless or stupid to not be able to invent cheap and easy wind turbines and solar or human powered and CHEAP means to power our needs.

I recently received a sampler from the Sundance Channel about a new environmental program called "big ideas for  a Small Planet." As I view that sampler, I' ll share with you.

So think about what you can do today--one action taken in millions can really change things.

The Beatles Taught Us "Money Can't Buy Me Love," But If There Is Too Little, It Compromises Health, Happiness and Longevity

Can't buy me love, can't buy me love, can't buy me love--nononononoooooooo...

The Beatles definitely got the larger picture right. Money can't buy love.

But according to www.realage.com in an article on happiness and age (http://www.realage.com/WellnessCenter/Articles.aspx) the stereotype of getting older, being lonely and unloved,  and getting crotchty is just that--a stereotype.

Older people today--or we boomers--are by and large happier and happier as we age, because larger and larger numbers of us are being very attentive to our health. And the connection between good health and happiness has been documented in numerous studies.We certainly have been knocked for being too concerned with self--The SO-CALLED ME Generation--trailing edge Boomers are called.

But what this really means is that Boomers in general have begun to unravel some of the secrets to happiness--that given enough money, decent health care can be purchased.

That massages, and other destressors can be gotten. That choosing to focus on the good things in one's life even in the worst of circumstances contributes to a happier frame of mind.

And this happier mindset contributes to overall calmer condition, lessening stress hormones, better heart health and a stronger immune system. And given a happier frame of mind, we have more heart to share with the world and with and on behalf of those who are suffering from severe lack.

To wit Bill Moyers Journal reported on PBS tonight (last night, because my post would not upload!!) about the collusion between OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) under the Bush (mis)administration and companies such as poultry plant owners in 27 states, with huge numbers in SC and NC. Not only has there been tricky reporting by the companies that obscured the outrageous numbers of injuries to workers. But under Bush the key OSHA rules that set critical standards were removed in 2002 as was a column on injury report sheet that previously had collected data on injuries.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

In order to slide around reporting that would have flagged a plant for inspection, employers have forced injured workers to return to the plant directly after surgery--thus avoiding lost work time reports. Because these workers are at the bottom of the labor market--poor, largely immigrant and sometimes undocumented, they are terrified of losing their jobs and are generally economically, politically and health-wise disinfranchized. See that six part story in the Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotte.com/716/index.html).

And Karl Rove has the nerve--no arrogance--to call Sen Obama arrogant! Beggers the imagination. Read Rove's remark here   Rove and his other ARROGANT Bush minions have been the architects of  this inhumane administering.So while money can't buy us love and by extension happiness, we can choose our happiness in the small moments of life. One of those acts of happiness is to be grateful for one's blessings and to serve others. Keep a positive attitude, get laughs.

VOTING THE BUMS OUT would make me VERY happy!

Boycott House of Rayford chicken products.

And let's not forget McCain't who thinks is it funny to make a wife-beating joke McCain's joke.

That's a sick idea of love.

Barack to the Future: What Will Presidential Hopefuls Do for Women?

Madelaine Albright signed on to Senator Obama's advisory team the other day in a move to heal the wounds from the recent historic, mind-blowing, I never thought to see in my life time, Democratic party presidential primary campaign.

I was a Clinton supporter, because I believe that having our first woman president in 230 YEARS would be an EXTRAORDINARY move forward for our country in declaring to the world that America has at last decided to acknowledge the bedrock depths of sexism and all its crafty and insidious interlinkings with racism, ageism,  class, and all the other power imbalances in our country.

BUT I will give my full and enthusiastic support to Senator Obama and HOPE if he is elected that he will do right by America's women and girls who constitute the majority of the population, the majority of the poor, the majority of the elderly, the majority of income discrimination, the majority who are at the bottom ranks of the labor force, the majority who are raped and sexually abused and harrassed, the majority of those who carry the double and triple burdens of caregiving to their own health detriment.

Jennifer H. Mieres, MD, FAHA and Terri Ann Parnell, RN and MA (with Carol Turkington) have pointed out the deliterious health effects, especially on women's heart health, of stress, gender, ethnicity, and other social factors such as poverty in their new book, "Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas" (2008 St. Martin's). Our presidential candidates need to take into account issues such as these authors raise as they are crafting their strategies.

I HOPE Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain will do what no other presidents have ever done and recognize that women of ALL SHADES OF TAN are the majority of their citizenry.  Terressa Stovall writes in the current issue of the Montclair Times about the challenge to blacks and whites dealing with racism. I could not agree more. We have to acknowledge and repair the injuries of slavery and racism and how those continue to play out in the life of our nation. And we must change.

AND I challenge all to think beyond the simple dichotomy of black and white that excludes those of other heritages.

I challenge us to think in shades of tan and understand how those shades interlink with the  divides and discriminations that reside in the artificality of gender. We already see it with Michelle Obama getting slammed.