Month: June 2018

The price of helping …

/ paigepugmom / Leave a comment

It’s a good thing to help someone, right?  I think so … but have you ever encountered a situation where, by helping one group – you’re hurting another?  This happened to me, quite by accident, and now I’m in a real quandary as to what to do.

For ages, I’ve been a blood donor … not the most regular donor, but I hit the one gallon mark years ago.  It’s important, for me, to donate blood.  I know someone who, because of her particular type of cancer, depends on occasional blood transfusions.  And it’s not just putting a face on the need for blood donations – it’s the fact I’m very popular with the Red Cross.  They call me, email me, text me … it’s somewhat akin to being stalked by a jealous ex-lover.  In defense of the Red Cross, it’s not them – it’s me.  I’m O negative, the universal blood donor type.  Anyone can receive O- but, here’s the rub, O- can only receive O- … how unfair is that?!  Anyway, because it doesn’t hurt (except the part where they stab your finger for a tiny drop of blood for iron levels testing) and I like adding to my growing collection of Red Cross t-shirts, it’s a very small and super easy task.  You just  sit there (or lay there) and read a magazine or cruise facebook for about 20 minutes.  According to The Red Cross website, one pint of blood can save potentially 3 lives, and every day (yes, every day!) 56,000 pints of blood are needed.

Here’s the unfortunate pickle in which I find myself.

Last year, I went to Haiti with the mission team from St.Timothy’s Episcopal Church.  We support 25 children in Chapeteau … a village which, well, is barely a village.  There are no roads, the shacks have no electricity and no running water.  They are the poorest of the poor.  We support local industry, we don’t go in and -shazam- build for them, we help with resources to help them build.  We go to maintain that physical connection, to show them by action rather than just words, that someone cares.  Someone out there in the big world knows and cares.  You are not alone.  That is why we go.  Last year was my first trip to Haiti and every day since, I feel changed by the experience and can’t wait for the next trip.

And that’s the problem.  That is where the crossroad of help one and hurt another meet.  As long as I go to Haiti, I cannot donate blood.  According to the Red Cross, one must wait a year after traveling to certain countries in order to donate blood.  If I go to Haiti every year, I’ll never have that one year buffer, and I’ll never be able to donate blood.

Haiti is very important to me, for many reasons – but so is being a blood donor.  I cannot do both.  I have to choose.  But how?  And who?

Enough is enough …

/ paigepugmom / 1 Comment

I can’t take it anymore.  The lies coming from the white house and the republican establishment are mind boggling in their sheer nerve and volume.  While trump continues to blindly maintain it’s not his fault, children and their parents are being forced apart, held separately, having no idea when they’ll be reunited.  There’s no such law, contrary to what trump seems to believe.  According to the Washington Post, it’s not so much a law as it is “a collection of policies and court rulings”.  Of which, trump summarily decided to lay down the no-exception edict … of of which trump can rescind anytime he wants to.

Where are the republicans?  What’s with the silent majority?  They appear to fuss and fidget and wring their hands with concern and dismay … but where is their action?  Where is their outrage?  Where are their balls? The republicans own the house, the senate, and the white house, for crying out loud … and they say the democrats are the holdup?!

Actions speak louder than words and their lack of action speaks volumes.  Come mid-term elections the actions of the voters may just leave them speechless, and they’ll only have themselves to blame.

That magic moment …

/ paigepugmom / 1 Comment

when every fibre in your body is screaming “buy it now, buy it now, BUY IT NOW!” and you know there’s only a thin filament of resistance between you and the object of your dreams.  You can feel your hand inching towards your purse and the credit card within.  It would be effortless …

Oh, the torture of it all.  I was in that teeter-totter moment, standing there looking at the e-bike.  The very bike I’d broken my shoulder riding to take a look at.  It was something of a moment of trump.  Seven weeks to the day after my little mishap, I’d finally gotten to test ride the e-bike.

Wow.

Going up a hill, the electric assist kicked in.  It was like magic.  Like an invisible hand pulling me up the incline.  If I wasn’t hooked before, I was now.  In my imagination, it was all so simple.  Ride the bike, buy the bike.  Not even the $2,500 price tag would get in my way.  12 months same as cash you say?  It was on the tip of my tongue “I’ll take it!”

But, surprise surprise, I left without the bike.  I didn’t give in to the rush of temptation, didn’t throw financial caution to the wind.  I put my inner child to the side and waited for the inner tantrum.  Another surprise … the impulsive “want it now” part of me that was sure I’d be leaving with a new bike was silent.  Could it be that my inner child was growing up?

Oh, I’ll be buying the bike … just not today.

Pardon me …

/ paigepugmom / Leave a comment

I’m getting ready to take a vacation … first one in … um … three years?  People have been coming to visit me the past few years.  One of the perks to living near the nations capital. Welcome your guest, hand them a metro map and see you later!  This time, however, I’ll be the one traveling.  And, to be honest, I’m a bit nervous.  No … not afraid of flying (just afraid of flying coach), it’s not one of your typical travel phobias.  I’m nervous because of the idiot trump.

Our global reputation is, well, kind of in the toilet.  We back out of the Paris climate accord, tear up the Iran nuclear deal, and piss off who knows how many foreign leaders.  We label every Mexican refugee as a murderer or rapist, automatically separate parents and children at the border … we pick a fight with Canada   Canada!  The worst thing about Canadians is … well, nothing.  Some mental dustball in the trump administration accuses Canada of “stabbing us in the back”, yet North Korea’s leader?  He is called honorable, and someone who loves his people.  Yeah, loves them to death – that kind of love they could live without.  Literally.

When did we start sucking up to ruthless dictators and shoving loyal friends to the side?  I’m just glad I’m not traveling to Canada.  As it is, I feel like wearing a t-shirt that reads, “I’m sorry, I didn’t vote for him”.  This man represents us!  For better or worse, our president is the face of our country and, in the case of the idiot trump, it’s definitely for worse.

When he’s not cozying up to Putin, he’s pardoning everyone in sight.  Now, Jack Johnson, that one I agree with.  And, the first time offender grandmother, a life sentence did seem a little harsh.  But the rest?  He couldn’t be sending a more obvious  message to his co-conspiritators.  “Don’t worry … hold tight and there’s a pardon coming your way”.  I wonder if justice will ever be served?  If it is, for how long?  Putin must surely be chuckling all the way to the bank.

And, now, I will travel abroad … to countries that trump, not so very long ago, just about spit in the eye of.  Sat with arms crossed like a petulant toddler in front of.  Refusing to sign the traditional G-7 summit. I know I don’t judge other people harshly because their particular government might say or do something stupid … I can only hope to get the same.

A new spin on delivery …

/ paigepugmom / Leave a comment

Grubhub.  Just placed my first order with this service … a sudden craving for a crispy chicken sandwich with a side of fries combined with the unwillingness to leave the house prodded me to order from Red Robin.  Yes, I could have saved the $6.99 delivery fee by getting in my car and driving less than five miles to the restaurant, but … I don’t feel like it.  I justify it by saying I’ll save gas and it looks like it’s going to rain.  But, mainly, I’m feeling lazy.  Such a first world problem, it’s almost embarrassing.

I’m watching CNN which is currently running a story on how about 10 – 11,000 people in Puerto Rico are still without power, 9 months after Hurricane Maria.  Nine months without power.  Imagine.  It’s hot, it’s humid, you can’t run fans let alone air conditioners.  You certainly can’t hop online and, with a few keystrokes, order a chicken sandwich with a side of fries.  And these people are as much American citizens as I am, sitting here in my comfortable townhouse in Northern Virginia.  Having grown up in Florida, I’m well acquainted with the heat and humidity of summer months … as well as being without power from a tropical storm or hurricane.  It’s miserable.  You can’t sleep for the want of a breath of fresh air, and – even if you had means of cooking – being around a hot stove or fire is the last thing you want.

We should have done better by Puerto Rico.  The idiot trump missed the boat as well as the point, throwing paper towels into the crowd and saying they only had a few reported casualties vs the hundreds lost in Katrina.  Bet the families of those “few” casualties have different feelings on the matter.

So, I sit here … waiting for my chicken sandwich with a side of fries … just a bit more aware and a bit more thankful.