Conversations on the road

     

What did I do on this vacation? Talked, of course. Ann owns a business and employs people, mostly high school youngsters, kids moving on to the next phase of life. She tagged along on blogger meet-up lunches with women her age and mine, engaged with the public in similar ways. 

In truth, she did much of the talking, my aching knees and I joining in. I am pleased and amused to report, Ann confessed she could have sent me alone, with nothing to worry about. And I resolved the knees on returning home, sort of. A discussion for another day.

I was about to start this paragraph: Millennials!  Actually, it’s worse than that. They’re called Gen Z in the literature. “Z” may have been appropriated as the next in the alphabet. Or, it may be “Z” as in the old cartoon notation of fast, fast asleep. Kids these days, as noted by we old geezers, respond to no stimuli we experienced or understand.

So, I’m sitting at lunches with adults dealing with Gen Z’s, who all made the same observations. Gen Z’s parents call and make their appointments. Their parents call them off work. Their parents even submit their resignations. “I’m calling to let you know Jane/John is quitting.” “And how much notice are you giving for Jane/John? A week, two weeks?” “Oh, no. She/he is not coming beginning today.”

When dealing directly with a Gen Z, any sentence ending in a question mark is met with a blank stare. There is no apparent recognition of the punctuation mark, or the authority of the person asking the question. When set upon tasks, the Z’s perform adequately, then mill about out of sight, or stand stock still, ‘out of sight, out of mind’, avoiding learning the next job. Or knowing the next job, commencing the execution.

All these points of discussion between Ann and the wonderful lurkers I found did not fall on deaf ears. I’ve had ten or more years of blank stares. The children come home from school with their self-esteem boosted, but little increase in understanding. In short; it’s a pervasive new system. Parents and teachers seem to have cheerfully quit knowing what is best, in favor of gaining the approbation of the children.

And then we would conclude a nice meal discussing the very few we have seen sent out to the world and rising to expectations. We despaired for the many who shunned a trade for accumulating all the debt associated with a profession.  There is not much left for we geezers to do. In due time we will exit stage right, hoping the examples and lessons we’ve left behind will have effect.

I see that worry about the results of the next election, and the big one, after that, are futile. We are left with speaking our minds and making our case. Generations X and Z will turn the election left or right, blue or red. We can only hope there are wheels in play behind blank stares.

I spent a lot of time in Madison, the beautiful capital of Wisconsin. Like my own Case Western Reserve, the University of Wisconsin, Madison area is maintained and upgraded University, Inc., USA. A pleasure to be in, ambiance to absorb, restaurants to try. And the bakery! In Wisconsin you must try every bakery. All those Swedes and Danes and Germans knew what to do with butter and flour!

Toby wishes he'd picked his home more carefully, I know

I picked up this kitten from a parking lot in Pittsburgh, eight years ago. Dr. Mike, my vet of thirty years, told me he weighed barely a pound, was four days old, and probably would not have survived a fifth day. 

All I had to offer him was kibble, reduced to mush in water, and how he fell on it! He wrapped his paws around the custard dish and demolished the contents. My sister was not home, and there were no unilateral decisions made back then, so the kitten and I waited.

"He's so cute!" my sister announced, and so he remained and I started a little blog about a little kitten. She made one further remark of note: "Another longhair!"

Back in the day I was a spinner, and routinely fell for "Can you spin my dog/cat hair into yarn?" And I could, and I did. Eventually I became allergic to cat and dog dander. I used to take antihistamines, and carry on.  Since the stroke, compounded by the TBI, that is totally off the table.

When I left home three years ago, Toby became mine in fact, punctuated by hairballs. I am too allergic to brush him, and Laura disinterested, so hairballs it was. Then I realized my boarding kennel also grooms pets.

They were not too keen on cat grooming, but I convinced them he is a first class woos, so they gave it a try. He indeed is a first class woos, and he's now down to a "short hair" hair cut, every six months.

In the event you don't read cat, 1) that is his back, and 2) those are angry ears. All he has to show for those damn bi-annual trips to Wisconsin is his magnificent tail.

See how he is grey from his arm pits down. That is a phenomena of hair cutting, or shearing.The black on his head and shoulders and tail are because the tips of the hair have never been cut. All the rest has been cut, and refracts light in a different manner than the uncut. Toby thinks there should be a test when you leave.

I had a wonderful time in Wisconsin. Tomorrow or the next day...

Pictures from yesterday and today

I was out and about yesterday, to the post office and bank. I drove around the "No Trespassing" signs at the golf course.

It would be only a very large meadow, were it not for the rows and orderly rows of spruce.

A final stop by the pond. I have not seen the heron in some time. Perhaps it's too hot for it, too.

I watered the plants today. Too hot to be out, at ten this morning. Next week will be seventies and eighties all week, including Wisconsin.

Have a good couple of weeks, until we meet again. I am going off off line.

Fifty years ago

We were so proud fifty years ago, as Americans, and every single one of us. We who were old enough remember where we were. Those not old enough tend to remember where they were the first time they saw the old magic.

Today we do not have that thrill, that image, that lift of spirit, mind and body. Like the heat wave so many of us and so much of the world is sinking under, we are oppressed by our president. Some words I've copied down of late:

Abhorrent

Obviously racist

Dangerous rhetoric

Antithetical

I cannot look. I cringe and shrink in at his words. Frequently there are tears.

I read even more disturbing news. The man can lose the popular vote by fifty million, yet capture the electoral college, he has so consolidated his base in this midwest of old white men, terrified of losing power.

I just don't know. I can only keep on trying.

Suspicious mind

Toby visited the vet this afternoon, to get current on his immunizations. This afternoon he sulks! Not because he was stuck.

No, he is put out because I haven't put away the cat carrier. Something is not right in his world, and he's stopped speaking to me. Oh well.

He's right; something is up. Although I'm not leaving until Monday, he goes to kitty kamp tomorrow. They can have a few extra days to give him a good, close haircut.

In other news, the shed saga is over. Les Nesman's office is in place.

I told Dan I was leaving Monday, and would leave him the key to the old shed, to handle the details while I was gone. His response was "Meet me out there Wednesday morning!", and I did. Following an overnight downpour, they brought it in.

Then Dan and Joe brought over "your damn stone", and set it. A giant slab of sandstone I bought on sale at the landscaper across the road, so I can step up into "my damn shed". My granddaughters sited it at the old shed.

And while Dan hung over the back of his truck and enjoyed himself haranguing me for twenty minutes, Joe carried the contents of the old shed up the slope and put them in the new shed.