Hybe 16

Hello, all. I finally made it back. We finished Mom's therapy sessions and she has been discharged. We all agreed that she had made as much progress as could be expected. She is 93 after all and has no ambitions to run marathons, or begin body building. Besides she REALLY did not like the exercise. She has recovered to just about the level she was at before her fall.

Those sessions really cut into our days and occupied the time when we were feeling most energetic. I skimmed most of the posts and news articles and didn't have much energy to form coherent thoughts and post. Now perhaps I can get back to my normal activities.

A number of items over the last few days reminded me of my response some 20 odd years ago when George W. Bush was proposing what he called an "ownership society." Listening to his ideas I quipped that it he really wanted a "your on your ownership society." I remembered that when I saw a headline which claimed the current administration wanted people to be "on their own." I didn't read the accompanying article. But over the weekend the Weather Channel had a segment on prepping for weather related disasters, especially hurricanes since it is hurricane season. Their advice was to make sure your homeowners insurance was up to date and paid up, you photographed all your belongings just in case, and had your plans made for either riding the event out at home or evacuating if ordered to do so. My first thought was wondering how available insurance is in various parts of the country. Many costal inhabitants can't get insurance against hurricanes and other storms. No one can get flood insurance unless they live in a designated flood zone and then only through the federal government. Many insurance companies have left the home insurance market in the west where fires are always a possibility. In some cases States have established insurance programs to replace the private companies but it is a major question whether those states are financially able to cover their obligations. Twice during the segment the expert urged people to prepare to do without any governmental assistance. For the last century people have learned to assume the if catastrophic events happen the Federal government will step in to make them whole. And both Republican and Democratic administrations encouraged that attitude and made broad promises to that effect. Well, over the last 30 or so years we have begun to find out how hollow those promises really are.

Ugo Bardi has an interesting post discussing how similar consumer societies and military societies really are. But a key point in the essay is how empires progress from a consumer society to a military society as they decline and increasing amounts of resources are shifted from the consumer economy to the military. A thought occurred to me from my reading of Roman history: as the resources the Empire required became constrained and the size of the military increased the fraud involved in the military economy also increased. Several authors noted the many of the legions that were listed in the government records were either non-existent or were drastically under manned but the costs of that military continued to rise and the demand for taxes also increased. Officers were noted for skimming a fair portion of the funds for themselves.

June 4, 6

 Rain this morning and I am very glad. I can put off watering the plants--the few I have so far. I think the weird weather this spring--we had some very hot days alternating with very cold days. The petunias are dying off without any real growth even in areas where they used to thrive on our patio. The hibiscus plants are thriving and the lilies that have come back for the second year. The spectacular lily I put in last year didn't make it. I have some seeds so I will see what I can put directly in the pots. The last two months have blown nearly all of our regular routines.

Some of those routines are coming back as Mom continues to recover. She is able to move nearly as well as she did before her fall and her appetite is almost back to her normal before the shingles episode.

06************************************************

More rain today. It cleared somewhat yesterday so we got Mom's therapy sessions in during a bit of a dry period. I have been trying to find a couple of new doctors for Mom and that has been very frustrating. I left my number with one on Monday and never got a call back. Did the same this morning for another but they haven't called back yet. Another had a non-functioning phone number and yet another isn't taking new patients. I finally did get through to a doctor in a different network and we got an appointment for Monday. They could have given us an appointment for this afternoon but Mom's therapy session was a bit intense yesterday. She is recovering enough to resist the exercises. We haven't yet found a new physical therapy doctor but perhaps the people we will see Monday will have a suggestion.

Vincent Kelly at HANDFUL OF EARTH has a couple of good snippets this morning. First, is a long term study which describes a long term trend for workers who feel that they have lost control of their work. The percentage of workers who feel they have lost any input into work priorities and procedures drops as the use of AI in the workplace has increased. The second features an article which criticizes American elite universities from a direction I hadn't thought of before. The author believes that Trump's actions against foreign students, however crude and cruel, actually addresses a serious problem. I would also say it is an unstated problem. The elite universities and colleges are highly dependent, financially, on foreign students whose families (or governments--my addition) are wealthy enough to pay full tuition and fees. I have known several foreign students during my time in academia. Three were Thai and two were Iraqi. Two of the Thai and both of the Iraqis had government scholarships and the other Thai student came from a wealthy family who was able to put three children through programs in American universities. The problem the author describes is the fact that such foreign students provide an illusion of diversity. I can see the point. The young Thai woman who worked in the same lab I did told me that her family had business contacts in the Middle East and Europe but she had no difficulty moving between the cities--their wealthy areas were all much like the upper class area of Bangkok where her family lived. Economic class washes out cultural diversity. 

Frieda Berrigan has a good post today at Tomdispatch.com on our connected world and trying to disengage from it. I can sympathize on so many levels. I have steadfastly refused to get a "smart phone" though I have had to learn to use the text feature on my flip phone. Too many people we deal with (health providers and family mainly) use it. I prefer to actually talk to someone. I still prefer going through check out lines with an actual human checking out the groceries. However, I am using Instacart more because I don't have the stamina to do the shopping in store and then lug the groceries home. And I don't want to leave Mom alone for any length of time. I read a quip not long ago though I can't remember who said it that was right on: we use things not because we NEED them but because we HAVE them. I would also say that we use them because our society FORCES us to use them. Can you look up books in a card catalog any more (if you are old enough to remember those)? I remember when libraries were getting rid of their catalogs. Too bad. It was fun flipping through them and making unexpected connections.