Black Friday

For the second year my church holds a worship on Black Friday to think about what the season truly is. This year we thought and spoke about being able to say, "Thank you, I have enough." This Minneapolis newspaper did a story about this and other churches doing the same. In the story came the idea: Don't just trade presents, give to someone who can't give back." (For example, my work office is getting presents for a family we do not know.) One person commented on the story said this idea is socialism. Socialism?!? Some people must think that helping anyone for any reason is socialism. If this socialism, bring it on. One of the best feelings if helping someone who didn't expect it. Each time I've helped a family at Christmas, I find that the parents are very surprised to find something for them under the Christmas tree, too.

Last Day of Summer?

Fall grasses
November River View

I purchased a new camera on Sunday, one that I think will work better for my six months in Europe, and particularly in all the "baths" of Hungary. I tackled charging the battery last night. I didn't think it was working because the charger light kept going out. I decided to just leave it plugged in all night and voila! the battery was charged this morning.

We are on the cusp of a change of weather, from the very warm November we've had to something like regular winter. This morning began cloudy and rainy. I was startled to see about 2 PM that the sun was out. It seeemed smart to grab the camera and take a walk, for we may not see this kind of weather again for a long time. The colors of November are wonderful,another kind of beauty.

Misadventures by the Health Care System

I am a nurse, but there isn't much I like about our present health care system. I recently had an encounter with it because I had to get a physical for the Fulbright Award. Tonight I got e-mail messages about some bills I owe. One is for 49 cents and the other is for 81 cents. Just how much do you think it has already cost to prepare the "this is not a bill but an explanation of benefits" memos. Even though they were sent electronically, this had to cost more than will be recovered. My students find it hard to believe that we spend 20 cents out of every dollar on paperwork. This is certainly a perfect example of one of the problems!

Misadventures

I went for a walk at sunset and took some photos with the intent to post them. I came back and downloaded them using Picasa basically for the first time. (My new computer won't accept my old version of Photoshop and knowledgeable folks have told me to avoid the new version of Photoshop until some bugs are fixed in early 2010.) I didn't do something right to make them vanish from the camera so I deleted them by hand. Then I went back to edit the photos a bit and found they had disappeared, too, from the computer because I had not saved them correctly. Well, there's always tomorrow.

And then when I went to write this blog I found a comment from a reader that had been there for quite awhile without my acknowledgment. Comments used to go directly to my e-mail. So sorry to that reader.

Almost did something else wrong. I was convinced there was something wrong with the USB drives on the new computer, as if a protector had been left in place. Discovered that they simply look a bit different and that if I fiddle a bit everything plugs in.