As I attempt to indulge in my weekly shower, I am once again reminded of one of my pet peeves in life-containers that do not identify their contents for all to see.  Picture this; I am in a hot, steamy shower, no eyeglasses of course, and I reach for the shampoo bottle amid our collection of conditioners, shampoos, body washes, and exfoliants.  (Isn’t exfoliant like defoliant?  Like Roundup and Agent Orange?  Read the fine print.)  Thru the haze I can read, in LARGE bold print; honeysuckle, fructis, light & free, herbal escape, kiwi, lime, moisture beads, mango & pomegranate, mountain fresh, even green tea with cucumber!  Ah, there it is, the fine print down at the bottom near the ingredients, shampoo.  Are they ashamed to tell us what they are bottling?  Why not SHAMPOO at the top of the label in bold print?  Witch hazel?  Sandalwood & cinnamon? Herbal Escape?  Why do they think pouring a mess of fresh fruit or mixed salad on my hair is good?  Or even worse, green tea and cucumber?  To “Inspire my mood”?  And “20% more free”.  That’s a laugh.  None of it is free.  I just want to wash my dwindling hair.  Why not a label that says it is body wash (is that like soap?) or shampoo or whatever?

And dish soap!  Did you ever confuse dishwasher detergent and dishwashing detergent (read the fine print) and have your dishwasher blow and cover the kitchen floor with a foot of suds?  Tiny Bubbles?  Shades of Lawrence Welk and his bubble machine. Why can’t they just tell us what is in that bottle?

We did find some honest package labeling at Price Chopper last week though.  They call their cereal “Sugar Squares”  Let the parents know that the kiddies are getting a straight dose of sugar to start the day.  Forget the fibre content and colesterol fighting grains and all that.  Tell it like it is.  We can handle it.

Recently my daughter sent me a link to an Albany area blogger who had ventured up to visit the Tug Hill Wind Farm and appeared to be offended by their existence.  Abominable!  (Side note: legend has it that The Tug may be one of the habitats of the Abominable Snowman.)  For some reason this attitude also offended me, and I attempted to educate, enlighten, and point out to him some of the good things about windmills, such as renewable energy, the economic boost to the area, the awesome beauty of the windmills, etc.  Maybe T. Boone Pickens could manage it.  “The Plan”.  At least T. Boone has an energy plan, unlike our current administration.  BTW, whatever happened to Dick Cheney?

Speaking of abominations, I am not sure how this Albany person found his way to Lowville-I know that few of Albany’s politicians have made it in the past 100 or so years-but he must have passed by the Lowville version of the supercolassalmegamart, or some like it.  Seems there is one on nearly every corner now, like the gasoline service stations of old.  Remember “service”, when they pumped your gas with a smile, checked your oil, even washed your windshield?  Now you just get hosed-and that is self-service.  Anyway, those megamalls are my idea of abominable.  I hear that Albany even has a double-decker one.  Whoooeee!  Sure, they add a few low-paying jobs to the local economy, and make some of the local stores more price conscious, (or drive them out of business), but at what cost?  And in a few short years, they will be vacant buildings with weeds growing in the supermega parking lot.  Now that is offensive!

Maybe I just take things like this too personally, even though I have no personal stake in the wind farm.  I was just born and raised there.  Got to keep more of a sense of humor.  I can’t stop civilization.  Can’t stop progress.  Can’t change the attitude of a passerby who is offended by progress, even though he has no idea what was there before the windmills.  Wait until he sees the natural gas wells next time he stops by.  Or how about the landfill that sits atop the Tug Hill pure water aquifer?  Of course, that cannot be seen from the road, so it’s ok.

Speaking of windmills, as I sometimes do, My Man T. Boone Pickens has the plan.  If only he could get gubmint to listen to him.  Maybe some of his money in the right places would help?  Maybe he should run for office?  If only we had listened to Ross Periot.

As a member of the “boomer” or (pre-boomer) generation, I have never considered myself a a tech person.  Technologically challenged, is how I describe myself.  In my world, there are basically 3 types of computer people: Those under 30, who know all about computers and iphones and imacs and all that; those who maybe know how to turn on a PC and send email, but maybe don’t want to; and everyone in between, which includes me.  I was required to learn the pc in my last job, and with much help from my (under-30) daughter, I have learned how to email, internet, ebay, develop photos, create websites, work with tax software, and other good stuff.  Sometimes I just wing it.

As always happens, my ol’ Dell desktop just became obsolete after 5 or 6 years.  Memory lapses, freezeups, the dread blue screen showed up almost every day.  (I love it when you get a pop-up like: “Your hard drive is about to be erased!” and your only option is a little box that says “ok”.)  Anyway, my daughter advised me to move up to Apple, but I am a senior on a limited budget and the Mac costs about 3 times the price of a Dell, plus I reasoned that buying a Apple would mean replacing all my windows programs like quickbooks and photoshop and Dreamweaver that are not compatible.  Little did I know!  Introducing Vista!

So I tuned in to the Dell website.  Dell has more deals that the local used car dealer-you just have to pick one and go.  But there oughta be a law: nobody mentions that if you order a shiny new desktop with Windows Vista, most of your programs over a year old will NOT be compatible!  Quickbooks?  Forget it.  Photoshop?  No way.  Earthlink’s email program?  Not for a few years.  Would Apple have been any worse?  I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was able to update my old MS Office software, and it works better that ever. Saved a couple hundred bucks there.  I am still running into bugs with Vista-popups with “runtime error”, IDE driver problems, and other mysteries.  Had to dispose of some favorite software that would not even load.  Had to replace some others-much as I would have done with a new Apple.  Live and learn.  And I have yet to find anything new and improved with Vista-maybe if I were a “Gamer”?

So my advice to you all is to put off replacing your pc for a couple of years until all these software writers catch up with windows, or, as with Dell, there is an option to order your new computer with the old XP operating system, I think at an added cost.  Not sure that this is progress.  Be warned: It is costly, and very frustrating, to be on the cutting edge of technology!

Of course, the hot news for today is the great national tax rebate and money giveaway to stimulate our sagging economy. All the news media folks are going wild with it: how much? how soon? how will we spend it? will it help with the economy? will it help win the elections? No mention of who is paying for it. Do we put it on the bill for our great-great- grandkids? Our Chinese credit card? Tack it on the Iraqi War Appropriation? Rob the Social Insecurity fund?  Maybe get exonmobiltexacoshell to kick back some of their obscene profits?

And of course, for this gift to work, we need to have the ignorant masses go out and spend it, instead of foolishly paying off bills or saving it. The simple solution here, it seems to me, would be to not send out checks or give tax credits, but to issue a bundle of plastic gift cards. They could include cards to all of us for walmarttargetmacykmartsears, maybe even one for groceries, and maybe one good only at The Prez’s favorite oil chain’s gas station. And of course, many of us will be too ignorant to use them at all, so that will save our future generations some money. If only the government would contact me before announcing these brilliant ideas… I can help.

I guess I just have to stop reading the paper. Doc says my blood pressure is soaring.

I just read a letter in the Syracuse paper from a (obviously) young man who advocates that all older drivers are slow and dangerous and should be given driver tests every 2-3 years. Well, he may have a point, but why point fingers, especially that finger? Why not retest everyone? There are a lot of very incompetent drivers on the roads.

No doubt this young man is one of those gifted with the excellent reactions, super coordination, and perfect eyesight of the young, (like Lebron) which allows them to ignore the speed limits and traffic laws the rest of us must obey. Unfortunately, they often find, too late, that they are not actually invincible, and they usually take some of us with them when they die.

I will probably send this to that same newspaper, they sometimes publish my ramblings, so I would like to pose this short quiz to that young man, and others who may agree with him. For each example, just answer (a) for under 25, (b) for over 65. These incidents, by the way, come from my own recent experiences.

(1) I am stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of a busy highway. The light on my side turns green, so the law says I can proceed thru the intersection, though with my aged reaction time, luckily it takes me a few seconds. As I start, a vehicle hurtles thru the red light from my right without slowing, narrowly missing the front of my car. That driver is also conversing on a cell phone. a or b?

(2) I am traveling on a local 4-lane expressway, just above the legal speed limit, when I come upon a slower moving vehicle in my lane. I signal and move into the passing lane at a slightly higher speed. Suddenly, I see a very fast moving vehicle coming up behind me in the passing lane, and it approaches to within 3 or 4 feet of my rear bumper. The driver then flashes his lights and honks his horn, obviously wanting me to pull off the road. With nowhere to go, safely, I continue to pass the car on my right, then signal and return to the right lane. Too slow. I am rewarded with the single upright digit as the speeder passes me. a or b?

(3) Also on a busy local expressway, I approach the exit ramp near my home. I signal and proceed to enter the ramp, slowing for the curve. On my left, a large SUV comes up at a high rate of speed, passing a number of car, crosses both lanes and the diagonal stripes, and attempts to enter the exit ramp in the space my car occupies. With nowhere to go but the ditch, I continue to exit, forcing that driver to slow and enter behind me. Again, I am punished with the blowing horn and the dirty digit. a or b?

The answer, in all 3 instances, if you haven’t guessed, is (a). Am I the bad driver here? My conclusion is there are a lot of folks on the roadways, more every day, who could use some driver training, courtesy training, and yes,  periodic testing, regardless of their age.  There is only ONE place you really have to go, folks, do you really need to get there ahead of the rest?

It was with mixed emotions that I received in the mail yesterday and opened my own “Certificate of Recognition”, personally signed by our current Secretary of Defense. Suitable for framing. I will scan it later and put it up here for viewing, for those Cold War Vets who have not yet been recognized.

It is heartwarming to be singled out and thanked by one’s country for one’s Cold War service and sacrifices in promoting peace and stability, even though it took 50 years and I did have to request the certificate. I didn’t give them 3 years in vain. I never did get my Good Conduct Medal-have to work on that now. It would have been nice, though, to have the certificate signed by GW or Rumsfeld, the deciders who decided that our Cold War was finally over and that we had won. And it takes away some of the hurt that the American Legion doesn’t allow me to join their elite group. If only they would stop sending me the membership form and then refusing me.

Now, where will I display this beauty?

It would really be interesting to sit in on the marketing meetings at some of our major manufacturers.  Kind of like watching the NYS Legislature in session.  A good example is the latest product rebate we encountered.  “What were they thinking?”

Of course, it is traditional to start the Christmas shopping frenzy in October now, but we usually don’t get into it until after Thanksgiving.  This year, on November 28, we bought a cookware set as a Christmas gift for our daughter at one of the major stores-Kohl’s in Clay, NY.  I noted a design on the box that proclaimed: $10 Rebate Form inside! No details.  But that wasn’t really our reason for buying.  A nice bonus though.

Now when one purchases a gift, one does not usually take it home and open it up and rifle thru it-we set it aside to be dealt with and gift wrapped on Christmas eve.  Imagine our surprise when the box was opened on Christmas day to find a rebate form that boldly states “Must be submitted within 15 days of purchase date.”  Fifteen days!  What were they thinking?  

So now I have to do the rebate battle thing with an outfit named Tabletops Unlimited (Chinese of course) over my ten dollars.  I searched them a bit on google and, surprise, they have a number of unhappy rebate customers-some have been waiting over a year!  But, hey, maybe I will be one of the lucky ones.  But can’t you just picture the marketing people discussing this proposed strategy?  “Make them submit the rebate within 15 days-no one will notice that until too late.  And if a few of them do, we just lose their paperwork”  No Rebates For You!  I hope the NY State Attorney General is investigating this.

I’m sure everyone heard on today’s news that America’s oldest living World War I Veteran has died at age 109. Now that is a good long life. Got me to thinking again, though, about the gross inequality of our country’s treatment of its veterans. Yes, it’s the Cold War Veteran thing again.

Now, I have nothing against Mr J. Russell Coffey; I’m sure he served his country well and did all that was asked of him. I’m not even sure if he ever took advantage of any of his veteran benefits over the past 90 years. Perhaps he took part in the famed march on Washington after the Great War to protest the government’s treatment of veterans.  Our government has a long history of that, from George Washington’s volunteer troops to the current patients at Walter Reed hospital. 

But as the story goes, he enlisted in the US Army in 1918 just 1 month before WWI ended, and spent that month in basic training. He was discharged one month later. So here is a “War Veteran” who served his country faithfully for just 2 months, never heard a shot fired, never left the USA, yet he was eligible for full veteran benefits for the past 90 years. He probably even received a medal and a certificate of appreciation from his government. Even got to march in all the parades and hang out at the American Legion and swap “war” stories with the guys. For 90 years.

Compare this to my own military history in 1958 to 1960, the so-called “Cold war”, which we won, incidentally. I voluntarily gave my country three years, 2 1/2 of them in a hostile foreign country. Well, it was actually France, but General Charles DeGaulle was in charge. My veteran benefits? I think I may have been eligible for a GI Bill, which was too insignificant to even pay the rent, let alone cover tuition and groceries and such. That’s it. Does anyone see the irony here? The injustice? The humor? Oh, well. Rest in Peace, Mr Coffey.

We have been hard at work in our spare time getting our second Tug Hill camp ready to rent to snowmobilers. The snow has been great there so far this year, and demand is excellent. This is a small camp we call “Camp Oscar” in memory of Brother Kenn, who built it. It sits atop a hill with a great view of our stream, woodlands, fields, and the local windmills. One of the major Tug Hill snowmobile trails, I believe they dub it #5, runs right by at the bottom of the hill. We just need a few finishing touches and it will be ready for your visit. I will throw in a couple of photos. If it interests you, contact Jim at: jnorthru@twcny.rr.com, or view our site at http://winteridgefarm.com. Happy Trails!