SISTERHOOD.

Women treasure their friendships and plant deep roots with each other. Lizz Emerson is one of the strongest women I know. Out of a job? No problem, I'll have one tomorrow. From a non-opportunistic background, with no education, she raised her children, on her own, since they were little. One daughter has been a city supervisor and is now running for congress. Another has her own catering business in Sacramento. Both success oriented like mom.  Lizz, called me and said, I couldn't make your birthday party, so its belated birthday party time. I'll bring the food, what do you like? I told her I like vegetarian food and, voila. Let it be done.
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Hor's de ouevres.


A Mexican casserole with fresh corn, and olives rolled in lasagna noodles.


A Greek spinach and cheese casserole. She brought the food cooked, and placed cheese on top before we put it in the oven to warm-up.


She brought all the condiments, a Greek salad and dessert, too. I didn't get pictures of everything. Plus, her instructions were that she wanted every guest to go home with food.


First to arrive was Jan Stewart, who also couldn't attend my 75th. I like to describe Jan as an expert at pushing all the negatives away, forgetting them and making haste to see sunshine in everything and everyone. She practices esoteric healing and she practices love. Love thy neighbor, love thy neighbor's dog, love all children, help everyone you can. I'm grateful to be in her sphere and have felt her love and helpfulness.


Karen Phillips is my housemate. She's been with me for 10 years. Loyal, conscientious, she literally keeps the home fires burning.  I could not have chosen a rambling lifestyle without her. Gathering my mail, watering my plants, keeping my place looked after and occupied. You name it, she does it. An excellent cook, she feeds me when I'm busy. This picture was taken in 2010.


Margo and Pam were the last to arrive. Pam Quyle, raised a son on her own with no support.  Pam is a potter and drives a big truck delivering clay all over the Bay Area, besides making pots. She has one day a week off and arrived straight from work. Harried and tired she said, POUR THE WINE.

Margo Osborn has a son, a grandchild, divorced and in her late 60's and continues to work. I love talking to Margo because she has such a diverse background and speaks with ease on any subject. Both she and Pam are associated with the wine industry. Margo's winery was sold and she is the only employee retained from the former staff. Lucky for them, she is the most popular wine advocate in the county, as in "everybody knows Margo." She speaks several languages and has a magic way with people. She was in Italy during my birthday party.

We managed to discuss all subjects important to women with no men around, as in breasts, bras, sex, men, food, life, shoes, healing our wounded souls and bodies as we age. Not necessarily in that order.


Pam took a picture of all of us.


And, someone took a picture of she and I. We share so many experiences. Lizz making me go out on New Years the year my husband died. Pam's 25 year old son taking his first steps on my deck. Karen and I learning together how to deal with her adversarial boss. Jan performing reiki and meditative healing when my spirits were low. From Margo flows hiking club, zumba, health, sharing and "yes, let's do it." Our roots are deep. Girlfriends. Sisters all. Happy Valentines day.

MY AMAZING FRIENDS.

After a long day, a doctor's appointment, tests ordered that will change my return date to the motorhome, and other busy details, I stopped in to see Bill and June Foster, retired friends from the Sheriff's Department who live in nearby Angels Camp. It is hard to believe June is 88 and Bill will soon be 90. We don't get to venerable ages without some health problems on the way, but I want to be just like them, my amazing friends.
Bill recently had surgery that removed a gland in his ear. It damaged a muscle and his ability to close one eye. The surgeon told him that would happen in advance. A specialist put some gold beads in the loose layers of skin over that eye and now he can close it. Bill joshes, "Shoot, I've got gold in my teeth and gold in my eye, I'm worth more dead than alive."
June fixed a lovely dinner and Bill couldn't wait to show me his new toy, a vintage Mustang convertible.


"Makes me feel like a kid again," he said. We might age but we don't have to grow old. He does oil painting, golfs twice a week and they travel.
I'm not envious of his car, but I'm envious of that clean garage. (On my bucket list is to have a well organized, clean garage.)  It seems to me if they can make a driver-less car, they could make a self cleaning garage, couldn't they?  The all powerful "they".

THE BEST FOODS IN THE WORLD.

The best foods in the world are herbs, as it turns out. If you are interested they are turmeric, sage, marjoram,cinnamon, oregano, pepper,cloves and then a mixture of Jamaican spices and a mixture of Italian spices, under what name and brand, I’ve promptly forgotten. Then following the herbs are ginger root, and honey. Maybe they should be the best foods in the world for your health. I’m not sure who decided these things but they make for a god-awful breakfast.
I shouldn’t complain, since I’ve  eaten grubs, ants, grasshoppers, snake, rat and other weird fare. The difference is, I don’t eat them as a steady diet.
The foods on this best foods list are purported to have healing qualities, and are  therefore recommended as a preventive. Despite my upcoming carotid surgery, even my surgeon agrees I have a healthy diet and have exceptionally good health. But, it isn’t the grasshoppers, or grubs. I do faithfully eat five to seven fruits and vegetables each day. I enjoy unsalted brown rice with sea weed and whole grain breads and cereals.
And, according to some of my friends, I have bizarre taste. I happen to love parsley in my unsweetened, whole grain cereal every morning. I clip it with a scissors and I l\enjoy the texture and the taste. I know, everyone thinks it is strange.
My sister and I were discussing bizarre eating habits in our family. She claims she loves pickle relish with potatoes and gravy. She also likes sliced cooked potatoes with raw onion and baloney in a sandwich with plenty of  mayo.  We normally don’t tell anyone what strange stuff we eat. One of my brothers eats pickled pigs feet every day and happily devours the cartilage around the ends of chicken bones. Whose to say what foods are right or wrong? A friend of mine eats sweet pickle and peanut butter sandwiches. And, my brother who lived many years in Alaska, developed a taste for whale blubber.

But, this guy, Andrew Zimmern, roams the earth to taste things like dung beetles, tarantulas, scorpions, and rooster testicle soup. He is the host of the travel channels Bizarre Foods.

Here he is shown with withered frogs. He reminds people that most of his programs are devoted to all the wonderful foods you see only in other cultures, many of them poor countries, where absolutely nothing goes to waste. Like in Bolivia where an old women with nothing but an oil can for a kiosk, serves thinly sliced calves liver that barely touches a hot grill. She adds a homemade sauce with peanuts, chili, garlic and vinegar. People stand in line for it because it is ridiculously good. He thinks Americans are squeamish and afraid to eat little fish with the heads on them, and chickens feet. It bugs him that the hot dog and hamburger are king. (Information and pictures taken from Sierra Magazine.)

We are so fortunate to have great food, wholesome and clean. And, we can enjoy the health benefits of herbs and spices as well and make lovely dishes if we just step up to diversity.

I’m appreciative that my parents never introduced us to fast food nor soft drinks. We ate close to the garden, what was in season, whatever was available. I cringe when I see a cooking show and the participants leave half the tomato sauce in the can, they don’t scrape or rinse every bit out. We didn’t waste.  My father was a survivalist and I like to think I’m a survivor, no matter what happens in this economy. I could live off what I can find in my yard. Thinly, but I could do it with a couple of chickens and a goat.

SOLUTIONS?

I introduced you to my homeless brother yesterday. His problems were self-caused. For him to regain a respectable place in society requires that he have access to a toilet, a shower and an address.  He can sleep under the shelter of a freeway without too much hassle from the law.

Hassle from the law is part of what prevents MEN like Norman from getting out of their situation. I emphasize men because homeless women and families with children are treated differently.
When he still had a trailer, he was parked on private property with permission of the owner. The police department of that city, which I will not name, banged on his door one night. A familiar problem. They know who the homeless are. They had arrested him for drunk on more than one occasion.  Without opening the door, he asked what they wanted. They ordered him out of the trailer. He refused and with a copy of the bill of rights on his door he quoted:  “I have a right to be secure in my own house with my papers and effects against  unreasonable searches and seizures. So, tell me what you want?” They demanded twice more that he come out. When he refused they threatened to break the door down, and did.
They towed his trailer. He didn’t have money to get it out of the storage yard.  He had no income.  He did odd jobs, cutting weeds, mostly, on the property where he was parked. He fed himself and his dog from dumpsters.

Money is power, with no power to fight the illegal arrest, his chances of changing his situation diminishes.  District Attorneys  routinely  recommend  “human refuse” to plead guilty and promise them probation. He refuses. He always demands a trial. His latest arrest, for trespassing was dismissed by the courts. Yet, his belongings that he carefully accumulates between arrests, is often trashed and he ends up with only the clothes on his back.  In this case they gave him three days to remove his belongings. There was no citizen complaint against him living in a brushy property owned by Cal Trans.  He had been secure there and invisible for eleven months.

The Sheriff’s Department called Cal Trans officials to register a complaint against him when they discovered him. Then, they went in and cut all the brush so no one else could seek shelter there.
He has had his social security for three years now, an income of $837 a month.  Yet, when they arrest him, even though the case was dismissed, they cut off his medical, his social security and he has to re-apply for all of those benefits he is entitled too, which sometimes takes months. The Social Security office told him you have to go back to the Sheriff and pay for a piece of paper that declares you are no longer in jail. It cost him $25.  It seems like a good safeguard for we the people. But, he is on a bike, he is crippled from his stroke. He is not very clean, normal people shun him. He is accosted by business people if he sits anywhere. His stroke prevents him from standing very long.  When he tried to rent a place in a cheapie trailer park, they took one look at him with a flowing beard,  and turned him away. He is fortunate that he has a friend who will allow him to use an address, where he can pick up his check. Without his friend, he would be unable to collect his social security.

There are many solutions proposed for homeless, getting them jobs, advocates that work to  get them many benefits, but without an address, a contact place, decent clothes, and transportation, he will most likely be stuck in an unrelenting shuffle from one illegal spot to another.  There is no written law that says so, but  it is illegal in this country to be homeless  if you are a man.

A community that remains stable and self-sufficient is Slab City in Southern California. The residents maintain a community without facilities and services and manage quite well with solar and a hot springs. They have successfully governed themselves for many years. In fact, I’ve offered to take my brother to Slab City, but, he worked construction for years and has many skin cancers. The relentless sun there is his enemy and he declined.  Couldn’t  a solution be a fenced area where the homeless can congregate and form their own society?  How much would it cost to level a campground, and put up porta- potties for the homeless. A solar, out-door shower fenced off for privacy. At least, they could rest their heads without being hunted by the police.

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS-PUBLIC CITIZEN

All of us have been victims of having medicine prescribed for us that turned out to be wrong or useless. Some of us have been prescribed medication that was harmful. So, does it surprise you to know that 115 million people are hospitalized and more than 100,000 people die each year from largely preventable adverse reactions to drugs? I was stunned by that number. How can this be?  Plus, many of those drugs should not have been prescribed in the first place.
 This information comes from the Public Citizen Health Research Group April 2010 Vol. 26, No.4. Their website is: http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183 
Public Citizen is a well respected non-profit organization that tells it like it is. I'm surprised at the amount of misinformation I get in emails from well meaning friends about diets, herbal treatments, food supplements, politics, and any number of subjects we are all common to. Sometimes I think we are an anti-scientific people. We will buy into anything that sounds plausible without thinking about the science of it. I'm guilty as well.  Reading Public Citizen's Newsletter helps me stay on top of things.

Public Citizen regularly publishes products that have been recalled such as dangerous toys, items that crack or break when used according to directions, fuel pumps that leak, drug labeling mix-ups, drugs that have missing ingredients in them, tools that don't work as described, good drugs and bad drugs, contraband drugs that have been diluted on the black market, etc. They provide a wealth of useful, in depth,  information on many subjects. A friend once told me, Mary, you are so smart. Not true. I read smart.

Some years back, our local newspaper, the Calaveras Enterprise,  made National news because they published the names of sex offenders in our county. Apparently, it had never been done before.

I guess my wish list is this:


Major newspapers should publish the amount of money each political candidate running for election receives from corporations in bold print on a corner of the front page. And  those who have not fully reported where they get their money.

They should publish products that don't meet standards.

They should publish untruths passed as truth from their major competition-the broadcast news.

I could go on and on what I think the most valuable function of a newspaper is. But then, we have an alternative, publications like Public Citizen that do not profit from advertising and contributions from leveraging corporations.