Can we talk?

Some Days I Just Want To Rant

    Today, I felt a little like Heloise. I wanted to share tips on using baking soda to brighten pans and dishes; what not to use when cleaning door frames, cabinets, and floors; how to save your hands from dry skin in the kitchen; keeping kitchen knives sharp; the health benefits of soaking potatoes before cooking; and many like items.

    Then, I wanted to talk about the deplorable condition that grown men will wreak on a disinfected, polished, fresh bathroom. Or the way they never refill the toilet paper! Or push the chairs back under the dining table. Or the way they will dominate the dinner conversation with work issues and forget anyone else is at the table. And, of course, every woman already knows about men and remote controls. Didn't more than a rare few ever listen when their mothers nagged them to clean their feet before coming into the house?

      But, then again, I wanted to rave about crime in Mexico. With kidnapping being worse there than anywhere else in the world, no wonder so many want to escape its borders! A call reporting a crime to the police gets a reply that they cannot afford the gas to come out and investigate! Teenage assassins, drug dealers cross the borders freely, Sadly for us, not only do the good and decent people want to escape to a better place to live, the criminals want to come here, too.

    As expected, aid sent to Haiti has been sidetracked. Water and other goods have been taken for government officials and their families and those who are not in the worst shape. Crooked officials have demanded bribes before aid from various groups could be dispersed. Haiti was corrupt and immoral before the disaster and still is.

    I always rant about chain e-mails which people obviously don't read all the way through before forwarding them to 20 people. They'll be cute or funny, but will promise good fortune if passed along. (I have forwarded a few If they stopped with that promise, and were really clever, but never had the good fortune or blessing happen,) Most, however, if you keep reading, will slip in a negative promise, either directly, or by example. If you don't forward as requested, something bad is going to happen to you: your head will fall off, or you'll lose your job, or someone close to you will die. I delete those. I will not ever send anyone, even my antagonists, such an email. I will not wish anything bad on someone else, so I simply have to believe that I will not suffer for deleting the e-mail, despite that threat.

    I could also rant about what women's shoes will eventually do to women's feet. I could list a lot of signs that show you're really a senior citizen or very close, and not just moving into your middle years. I could go on about retail credit, having worked in it for a long time, knowing the traps and enticements. I could tell you that Jay Leno is making a big mistake trying to appeal to the younger audience. I could rant about pharmaceutical advertisements, or medical costs, or management-heavy companies that keep laying off the lower ranking employees who are least likely to have savings.

      But if I ranted about all the things in my head today, you'd think I was just one extremely negative person who does nothing but complain. And I'm tired from all of these oppressive thoughts. And I have to finish those last chapters of my Grisham novel.