such small hands

Thanksgiving Thoughts

I'm really not working much today. I've baked a chocolate-pudding bundt cake for tomorrow and a pumpkin pie is in the oven. Amy's on the road from Kalamazoo. When she gets here, our first order of business will be to take her car in for new tires and a front-end alignment. What a year it's been! I have so very much to be thankful for.

Tomorrow's feast will be at Ken's sister's house. It's one of our favorite meals of the year --- the traditional turkey with all of the fixings. Even though I've toyed with variations on the old favorites, everyone seems to like the old recipes the best. Ken teases me for pouring gravy over my turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. In return, I sometimes give Ken a hard time because he hates stuffing. Apparently, he is not alone in that sentiment.

Pat Buchanan Agrees with Me

And that is a scary thought. Buchanan writes for Human Events "As GM Goes, So Goes the GOP." He could have had my dining room bugged last night, because I was ranting and raving some of the same things to Ken last night (poor man!)

Some excerpts:

In a good year, like 2005, Americans buy more than 17 million new cars, and West Europeans as many. Tens of millions in Eastern Europe, Russia, China, India and Southeast Asia are now moving into the middle class each year. These folks will all need or want one or two family cars. If we let the U.S. auto industry die, that immense and burgeoning market will be lost forever to America, and ceded to Asia.

"Who cares?" comes the free-traders' reply. Japanese and Koreans are setting up factories here. They can pick up the slack.

But that means Americans will work for and depend on foreign companies for a necessity of our national life as vital as the imported oil and gas on which our cars and trucks operate. All the profits of the mighty automobile industry in America will be sent abroad.

Here's another one Buchanan overheard in my house:

If the GOP blocks these loans, and the industry dies, the party can forget about Ohio, Michigan and the industrial Midwest. For the Reagan Democrats will never come home again. Nor should they.

Actually, the GOP could lose some longtime Republican voters. Looking out for our pocketbooks and all. This isn't just affecting the manufacturers and suppliers. I just heard today that there were additional layoffs at my former company and even more at an advertising agency. If the GOP is willing to flush the Rust Belt down the toilet, maybe we should secede and join Canada.

Auto Bailout

It's probably not coming any time soon. And the perspective from here in the Rust Belt is that the rest of the country couldn't care less. It makes me mad. Not just because the collapse or drastic restructuring of one or more of the Big Three will directly impact my income and the lives of many of my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. It's the pure tone-deafness of those who call themselves experts.

Manny Lopez of the Detroit News puts it pretty well.

But the absolute ignorance of how a car or truck is built, the immense research and development that it takes and the overbearing government regulations that must be met will not be better solved by bureaucrats or executives who, for whatever reason, have left their own companies or industries altogether or have benefited from government welfare themselves.

Take a minute to think about that. Do we really want professional politicians or those who pay them off the most generously at election time to be in charge of the auto industry -- or any American industry, for that matter? Absolutely not.

What Is Going On?

Where is November going? The time really gets away from me. And I've been sort of busy with 3 projects that I'm working on, or will be soon. So, work is coming in, and I'm hoping that soon I'll start getting paid for it. Invoicing clients as a freelancer and waiting to get paid is a whole lot different from having that regular paycheck going into the checking account every two weeks.

Ken is currently playing electrician and installing new outside lights on the porch and garage. In a big Hollywood snowstorm. Freaky. We still have leaves on the ground and on some of the trees.

Earlier this month, I took a daylong training class to be a Peer Mentor through the hospital where I received my kidney transplant. Along with several other transplant recipients, I will be available to meet with prospective transplant and dialysis patients --- those who have said they would like to meet with a peer mentor. We're basically there just to listen and share our personal experiences to help them cope with some aspects of living with chronic kidney disease. Not to give medical advice, but to counsel, listen, validate their emotions.

The training was more emotionally draining than I was expecting. We did a lot of role-playing practice to learn the different techniques of listening. It was like reliving some of those very difficult times during my illness. I sure wish I had had a peer mentor to get me through some of those things.

I haven't had my first patient call yet, but I am praying that I will be ready for the right words when I finally do get my first call.

Speaking of mentors, the women of my church are working on getting some mentoring relationships going. Or if not actual mentoring, more transgenerational relationships to bring the older women (like me) together with young moms and the young single women of the church. We're having a dessert get-together Tuesday night to get that kicked off.

Working at home is not always as easy as I thought it would be. There are so many things I want to do during the day, the temptation is there to postpone work --- especially if it's something I don't really want to do. I know I spend too much time reading blogs, news articles and political opinion. By Election Day, I was sick to death of it. And now I'm getting tired of hearing about Obama's transition ... the financial crisis ... the pros and cons of the Big Three bailout. As you can imagine, I have some pretty strong opinions about that, since my own livelihood is (still) closely tied to the health of the auto industry (at least, Ford and Toyota at this point).

Ken and I are loving the DVR. Can't imagine how we lived without it (kind of like seat warmers in the car). We almost never watch anything in real time, except maybe "The Office." We even time-shift the PBS NewsHour. And Ken's gotten me hooked on the new series "Life on Mars."