Archive for May 17th, 2007

Alexander Hai - brava!

Posted 11:54 pm May 17th, 2007 by bama2

gondolier

After a decade of struggling to become a gondolier, Alexander Hai has won a moral victory. A court recently allowed her to paddle around the canals of Venice - but only for the residents of one of the city’s hotels. “Brava gondoliera! Brava!” shouted one man from his third-story balcony on the Rio de la Veste canal as Hai paddled past, shepherding a couple from Utah on their honeymoon. The man on the balcony, clenching a glass of champagne, beckoned his friends to take a look as Hai’s boat and passengers slipped by.

This is a male dominated job and they are not happy with Hai. Being a gondolier is usually passed down from father to son. They say she isn’t strong enough and cannot pass the test to become a gondolier.

I was lucky enough to go to Italy on two different occasions, but did not get to see Venice, where all this drama is taking place. I was very disappointed–twice! I saw Pisa, Rome, Florence, Naples, and Pompeii, but no Venice. And I absolutely would not have cared who was steering the gondola! You have to give her credit, though, for the abuse she’s taken but hasn’t backed down!

Bo Diddley

Posted 11:51 am May 17th, 2007 by bama2

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Bo Diddley, 78, is in guarded condition in a Omaha, Nebraska, hospital following a stroke after a concert Sunday night. His speech and left side were impacted. He had a history of hypertension and diabetes.

He was one of my cousin’s favorites when he was in high school. Whenever I would be at his house, he’d be listening to one of his albums–the songs I most remember are “Who Do You Love” and “I’m a Man”.

In this corner…….

Posted 11:03 am May 17th, 2007 by bama2

I’m thinking of taking up boxing! I have a plate full of stress and somehow I think pounding on something would help! I know I’m not alone, at least that’s what I keep telling myself, but for some reason it doesn’t make my stress feel any lighter! My BP and BS are still elevated from last fall when my eye blew a vein, even though I’m on more meds. How do you convince your body to relax? Okay, for some of you that may be a loaded question! Not going there! I just wish there was something you could do to alleve stress.

I went to the dr’s about 2 wks ago and the front desk was making an announcement about someone’s car lights being on as I was about to leave–guess who’s they were? Yep and I couldn’t turn them off! I still had things I had to do and now, I had a problem that could cause the battery to die on me! I did what I had to do, all the time worrying about whether or not I was going to have a working car! It was too late to take it somewhere so I called a friend and he said to undo the battery but be careful. I looked at the battery but was afraid to touch it and couldn’t figure out how to unplug the tail lights, so I resigned myself to having a dead battery in the morning. It was. I called several people and nothing was looking promising. I was really afraid it was going to be a major problem. Meanwhile, the a/c stopped putting out cool air and when I went outside to check on it, I fell about 5′ off the stairs. Thankfully, nothing was broken, but let me assure you EVERYTHING was bruised and hurt! And is still hurting plenty!

Anyway, after over a week without a car, the son-in-law of my cousin in GA came and tried jumping the car off and adding brake fluid, but the lights were still on and that didn’t fix the problem. He said it might be the brake light button and got his cousin to come over and replace it, just as a thunder storm showed up! The brake pedal had been feeling cushy and I had been pressing on it real hard, which I guess is what caused the problem with the lights!

About this time–after the car was running again–I remembered I’d forgotten to pay the phone bill! I remembered because, they turned the phone off! I drove to a grocery store that has a pay phone inside and did a check over the phone and went home. I didn’t know what was taking so long for the phone to be turned on, but assumed it would be. (My back makes it very uncomfortable to find a position I can sleep in and I mostly sleep in spurts, so the phone was in 2nd place in priorities!) Yesterday, I tried to check at the library on the computer but gave up and went back to the store. That dept was closed, of course! Now, I’m mad. The phone co gave the new Publix a number one digit off from ours and we get calls all the time from people wanting to know “Is this Publix?” This is not making me happy! So…..today I went back to the store and made another call and refused to talk to the dam machine. I talked to someone and he said they didn’t have a payment showing and switched me to someone else. I repeated my story and she asked for my confirmation number and I said I didn’t have one but I had given my routing number and my checking account number and she repeated her spiel. I asked how was I suppose to know about that? We were going back and forth saying abou the same things. I told her I would do a check over the phone again. She said it would be 2-3 hours for it to be turned on and would I like to talk to someone else about the phone number and I said no, I’m standing in the middle of a grocery store–what I didn’t say was that I was so mad I could hardly talk with my teeth clenched! Amazingly, the phone was on when I got home about 5 mins later!

There’s more, but I won’t completely spill my guts! Just believe me when I say I have enough stress to go around if you need some! And I know there are problems more severe!

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted 9:24 am May 17th, 2007 by bama2

mother’s day

Click to enlarge