I salute the memory of those who fought for our liberties, whether they perished or survived.

I remember, too, that they also served who kept the home-front watch while their family members served.

My favorite has to be Star Trek.

It gave us hope in a time when we needed it.

It has sustained hope in times when we had little.

Well, let's see . . .

Just in the past few days:

1. Because of what one of the participants in the BlackSheep mailing list of the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists suggested, I have a genealogy blog. The name is a pun (those who know me are groaning, "Of course."): Karen About Genealogy. The URL is http://karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com.

2. I've only made four posts and I'm already involved in a blog carnival, the Festival of Postcards, which begins this Wednesday. The site for the host of the Festival can be accessed through the Geneabloggers website at http://www.geneabloggers.com. Look for the section on Genealogy Blog Carnivals. My post is on using post cards to flesh out the social history background of our ancestors.

3. My blog has already got 6 followers. 11 people went and took a look because another person tweeted about my blog.

4. My husband and I had a great time on a beautiful day Saturday going out to Kingsley Plantation (National Park Service historic site) to hear one of my UNF history professors speak about his latest book (which I then talked about in my blog, because it has uses for family historians). We then had a wonderful seafood lunch at a restaurant right on the St. Johns River.

5. I got an e-mail from my publisher telling me that my book on the colonial, territorial, and state censuses of Florida has passed smoothly through the preliminary editing stage with no stops from the copy editor and is on its way into the first production phase. My next steps will be proofing the page proofs and constructing the index.

6. We have actually had some real RAIN here in northeast Florida. And it has been cool! We've already had temperatures up in the low 90s, but today the high was in the low 60s. It's wonderful. I love it.

7. Because I sent an e-mail about my new blog to the 2nd V.P. of our genealogy society, who is in charge of programs, I'm speaking at the June meeting -- on blogs and podcasts!

An eventful few days.

I have a horrible cold. My head is stuffed up, my throat is horribly sore, I have fever, and I am coughing. And since I have high blood pressure, I can't take any of the usual remedies, which work, at least to make you feel more comfortable. So that means I'm not getting much sleep, either.

Phooey. There is something made for people with high blood pressure to take for colds -- Coricidin HBP. Sorry, people who made it, but it does NOTHING for me. Doesn't work worth a damn.

So I suffer. And I'm bored. And I'm miserable. Bleah.

The internet has become a thorny bramble in the area of intellectual property rights. There are some out there who think they can just lift whole works -- poems, stories, BOOKS -- and take credit for them as if they were their own. This is nothing but theft.

As a writer, I can tell you we put in MANY hours of work on our poems, stories, and books. And most of us do it for darned little pay. For all of last year, I made $1055 with my writing. This is not what one calls a living wage.

Here is a plea from a friend of mine, Lezlie Kinyon, who has found one of her works under the Jolly Roger on the internet, and as can be imagined, does not appreciate it!

Let's take action against internet piracy. If there is a site you find to be pirating the works of others, at the very least, BOYCOTT the site. Send the site administrator e-mails protesting the piracy. Provide facts concerning the real, copyright-owning creator of a pirated work. Educate yourself about copyright.

Here's Lezlie's statement:


My friends, colleagues, and relations, Please send this note to everyone you know. Thank you Lezlie (PS- it is not suitable for young children and I would very much disapprove of anyone givnng a child a copy.)

"Rusalka Moon" written under the pen name Cenizas de Rosas Published 2001ISBN 1-930805-24-1 (downloaded version)ISBN 1-930805-25-X (CD version)

This is a book I published - I find it proliferating all over the
Internet at places like this:

https://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=185769&v=buynow

This practice is completely unauthorized and is out and out theft. Please
don't buy it *anywhere*. The press that published it is out of business, and
I do not get any royalties for pirate website sales. Since it seems
impossible to stop this from happening, I am putting it here for absolutely
free:

http://lezlie1.wordpress.com/literary-wrks-and-poetry/

Enjoy!

For further information concerning Internet piracy of intellectual and
artistic rights, please visit one of these sites:

http://harlanellison.com/KICK/kick_rls.htm

http://ezinearticles.com/?Internet-Piracy-of-the-Nations---Piracy-Law-Treaty-Negotiations&id=1516930

Thank you, Lezlie Kinyon, author (under the pen name , Cenizas de
Rosas") 2009."

Copy the list to your LJ, bold those items you have yourself done.


1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (I've also been to Walt Disney World)
8. Climbed a mountain (Done so in a car, but that doesn't count)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch Counted cross-stitch and crochet
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight (With older siblings, I couldn't avoid it!)
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted by your mother.
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a cheque
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar (I fail to see what the fuss is about; it's NASTY!)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (James MacArthur)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (Several . . .)
94. Had a baby (Two, in fact)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a mobile phone
99. </b>Been stung by a bee</b>
100. Read an entire book in one day

Tuesday, 2 December, I was on my way to my classes at the University of North Florida. I was crossing the Buckman Bridge, a two-span bridge of 4 lanes each over the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.

I had four or five car lengths between me and the car ahead of me in the left-middle lane. I like a large comfort zone like that, so I would have plenty of time to react and stop if necessary.

In the left lane, at a distance of about a car length ahead of my position, was a red SUV. In the right-middle lane was a white sedan, in a similar position relative to mine as the red SUV. The white sedan had its turn signal on; the red SUV did not. But both of them, at the same time, decided to change to my lane. They did this apparently without looking to see if it was even clear. We were all going around the speed limit of 65 mph.

I don't think either driver saw the other as they came within six inches of each other. I braked, but didn't have a lot of room because they had cut the distance between me and any obstacle (mainly, them) from five car lengths to one or one and a half. As Han Solo would have said, I had a bad feeling about this.

Suddenly, the red SUV's driver got wise (probably when her passenger pointed it out) that there was another car and that they were both about to violate that axiom I learned in geometry over forty years ago: No two objects can occupy the same space at the same time.

The red SUV driver suddenly swerved left, quickly figured out she'd made too hard a move, overcorrected, and damn near went over, as I could see the undercarriage of the car. The car came back down to four-wheel contact with the road, and it seems to me she did a 180 and headed off to the left. I passed her, and thought I was clear and was preparing to pull over into the left emergency lane and do my duty as a witness.

WHAM! Suddenly she came caroming back and smacked my little green 1996 Ford Ranger forward of the driver's door. Seems to me she came at me stern-to, that is, backwards, and I'm fairly sure she bounced off the retaining wall and bounced back to me. Her car was full of trash or loosely-thrown-in personal belongings or something, because some of it ended up on the hood of my truck. I lost steerage, but managed to nurse the truck over into the left lane just to get it out of the traffic flow, and with an extra effort and help from a witness, got it nearly into the left emergency lane. But I couldn't get my door open.

The driver of the red SUV never came over to see how I was; she was busy picking up some of her trash off the highway before the cops got there. Apparently, she was uninjured, or only slightly injured. I had a pain in my left side, but could tell that I did not have broken ribs. I've had those before, and the telling point was that I did not experience agony when I inhaled.

The paramedics came and managed to get the passenger side door open, so I was able to scooch my way out, over the stick shift and across the passenger seat. While waiting to be got out of the truck, I called my husband and told him what had happened, and took everything out of the glove compartment and put it in my rolling case which holds my computer and textbooks and notebook and all the other attendant impedimenta of studenthood.

I wasn't scared during all this so much as angry and disgusted.

This is not the way I wanted to be parted from my great little truck. We were thinking of trading it, because with my arthritis advancing, I will be more comfortable with an automatic transmission, sorry to say. Automatic transmissions are a pain in the tuchus, for the most part, and I enjoy driving a manual. But advancing deterioration has its say, alas.

I had also thought of selling the truck to our son-in-law, which would have been very nice for him. A pick-up truck is always a handy thing to have. Sorry, carlfox.

So I am bereft of the truck which has served me and my husband so very well. It had very few needs as to maintenance -- hardly ever had anything go wrong with it. My husband changed the oil every 3000 miles, and kept it running just fine. The one thing anybody can do to keep a car or truck in good running order is to change the oil regularly.

I will miss that truck. It has taken us through many states, to Ohio and Illinois and Virginia and many others between and among. It has hauled many loads of groceries. plywood, hardware, appliances, and daughters' belongings. It has been hither, thither, and yon and never complained.

Drink a toast to a great little truck.

Lordy, I just wish there was a way to outlaw stupidity!

All is not lost in this impersonal technological world we live in today.

Our health insurance has a prescription drug coverage, which is very nice since I take a whole bunch of prescription medications for all the crap that's wrong with me. (And no, the medicines are not contributing to the problems; I am much more able to function with them than I would be without them, and without some of them I stand a good chance of being dead.)

I get my prescriptions filled by the mail-order pharmacy they have a contract with. I'm fairly certain this is a reputable outfit, but I like to have more control over such things. One day, getting a recent short-term prescription for an acute condition filled at Wal-Mart, I made a point of asking where the medication came from. It was from Germany. Germany is OK. China most certainly is NOT!

Anyhoo, as of the first of January 2009, I will be able to get the same deal -- a 90-day supply for the same copayment -- by walking into (or having my doctor's office call prescriptions in to) any CVS pharmacy. We have a couple near us (in terms of country living, that's within 10 miles). I like that a lot.

I had a question today, though, so I called the insurance company's number that was in a mailing we got about this switch. There was the usual voice mail Hell, of course, and it was one of those that you respond verbally to, rather than punching the numbers/letters on the telephone keypad. With my arthritis, I prefer that, but it is rather weird to me to spend two minutes talking to a machine.

However, the menu choices they had did not fit what I was calling about, and I was not happy with that. The machine asked me to select one, and instead I said firmly, clearly, and with a mild level of exasperation, "Human being."

Doggone if the darn machine didn't switch me to a human being! Right then and there!

I have to give them high marks; that's the way to do it.

12 years ago, before I started a LiveJournal (maybe even before there was a LiveJournal, I don't know), I went to Seattle to be a bone marrow donor for my brother. The procedure was to take place the first week in July.

His insurance company, one of the companies in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits System (FEHB), knew the diagnosis and had all the information they needed to make a determination of coverage by April.

Come just a few days before the procedure was to be done, in July, and the insurance company says, oh, no, we're not doing that because it's an experimental procedure. Well, there wasn't much that could be done but for my brother and his wife to apply for state Medicaid. He had not been able to work since being diagnosed at the end of March.

That took several weeks, and the bone marrow transplant wasn't done until the end of August. That was too late. My brother died in October of 1996.

I blame that insurance company for a number of reasons. We wrote to them and laid out all the facts and asked that they cover the procedure. Nope. Couldn't be bothered. Their tone was reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge, when he tells the two men soliciting for charity contributions that the if the poor are going to die, they should be quick about it and thus "reduce the surplus population."

I happened to be acquainted with a gentleman who had at that time recently retired from many years of service in the federal Office of Personnel Management, in the department that chooses and evaluates the participating insurance plans -- in fact, he was the guy who was responsible for doing just that. He told me that there could be an exception of the company could be persuaded to make that exception, and told me exactly what to do. It fell on deaf ears.

The last letter I wrote to that company was a scorcher; as far as I was concerned, they were murderers and I wondered how they could sleep at night. They could have gone the extra few inches for a human life, and couldn't be bothered.

Well, it ended up that my sister-in-law went to the state insurance commissioner, and this company ended up having to reimburse the State of Washington for the Medicaid expenses, and had to settle a rather nice amount on my sister-in-law. I hope they had to pay a hefty state fine, too! All told, their stupidity and insensitivity cost them a lot more than just covering the damn procedure in the first place would have cost!

But why bring this up now? Because my husband is a retired federal civil servant, and we, too, are covered under the FEHB (we get to keep the coverage in retirement, as long as we pay the entire premium). We wouldn't touch this particular company with a ten foot pole. If they were the only company left in the FEHB, we'd bail out so fast they would think a category 5 hurricane had hit them.

So today a mailing from these doofuses comes -- addressed not to my husband, but to ME. Oh, boy, did these fools make a big mistake. I took the little reply form, took out a thick red Sharpie, and wrote on it "Your insensitivity and inaction killed my brother. I want NOTHING to do with you" and shoved it back in their postage-paid envelope, along with a bunch of junk mail (nothing with sensitive information on it) so they'll have to pay a little extra on the postage.

Let's see if they're smart enough to take me off their mailing list.