What's With All The Old People At The Buffet?

Okay, so buffets are usually cheap and often older people are on a fixed income, but how much can (or should) a person eat?!  So why not go to a real restaurant, order an appetizer or salad, maybe a nice meal to share? Many restaurants have senior pricing. Perhaps it's just that they like to see what they're getting and don't want to risk ordering from a menu? I find it hard to believe they truly enjoy the cafeteria atmosphere or the mediocre quality of food. Perhaps it's popular because all their friends go there and they will have a chance to socialize? Maybe it's a pace issue - they can take what they want, eat as slow as they want, get more when they want, and not be rushed out by the wait staff? Is it because prime time becomes bed time and they need to finish eating really early? Well, I guess I just don't get it... yet!

Quit Complaining and Do Something About It

I keep seeing stories all over the internet about how we seem to care more about Whitney Houston's death, Kim Kardashian's wedding, Jeremy Lin's game stats, and Demi Moore's rehab stint than we care about our soldiers who die fighting for our country.

Let me fill you in on a little secret: Whitney, Kim, Jeremy, and Demi have spent more time in our homes than nameless, faceless soldiers in camouflage ever have. Whitney has been singing to us for a couple of decades and we know all the words to her songs to sing along, Kim is so outragous we can't wait to discuss her the next day around the water cooler, Jeremy is bringing the crowds into the sports bars in droves, and Demi - well, she's played everything from a soldier to a stripper and we just love her cuz she's hot.

But soldiers? They all look alike in their uniforms and we know nothing about them. That's why we don't care about them. We can't be expected to cry for every person that turns up on the obituary pages just because they served our country. But we should. And we could. Here's how: sensationalism!

Let's Get Real (Personal.....)

It seems the older I get, the more strongly I feel about certain issues. As usual, I am already fed up with politics months before the elections are scheduled to take place. I'm especially fed up with those old men who want to tell us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies. The GOP has some very dangerous opinions about health care and when life begins.

Let's start with a "for instance." I'm going to use someone I know pretty well as an example. When she was young, she suffered a burst appendix which left scar tissue on her ovaries, fallopian tubes, and other areas of her internal organs. She was told she would never become pregnant due to these issues. Using this information, she found it unnecessary to use contraceptives and was basically given a license for having unprotected sex. (So far, she and her husband fit perfectly into the ultra-conservative Republican profile.)

Neighbors Make the World Go 'Round!

Recently, my daughter's next door neighbors, really the best neighbors ever, moved half-way across the country. They hadn't known them all that long, they actually just met a couple of years ago when she moved to Boston, and each day they learned more and more about each other and found they had so very many things in common. It wasn't long before they were the best of friends, hanging out together, looking out for each others pets, and were eventually in each others weddings. They couldn't have asked for better neighbors, and they'll be awfully hard to replace.

I must admit that I don't know too many people who know their neighbors very well. Oh, sure, we know some of their names; we wave and even invite each other to our parties, yet a little small talk here and there just doesn't make for a really good neighbor. Not, at least, compared to the way we knew our neighbors when I was a kid.