adventures in disaster

Why

Sixteen year dies from cellphone
She was sixteen , driving on the express in the passing lane on a major highway when she reached down into her purse to answer a ringing cellphone. She lost control , hit the guard rail, flipped the car , hit her head and died.
How many mistakes can you point out?
What was a sixteen year old doing on a major highway?
Why was she on the express in the passing lane?
Why did she have to answer the damn phone?

I don't blame the child, I blame her parents. I have a child that is driving. Though by law she is allowed to drive on the highway she is not allowed too. See, I know she doesn't have enough driving experience yet. I know she has poor impulse control. I know it is painful, near impossible for a teenager to ignore a ringing phone. I understand that teenagers need rules.

It is a damn tragedy that didn't need to happen. Parents terrified of parenting, scared that their teenagers wont think they are "cool", worried that their teenagers will rebel against limits...I just don't understand. I don't care if my kid thinks I am cool, I don't want to be her friend..I want to be her mother and with that comes some ugly moments. Yes, she does hate me sometimes. She does think I am old and stupid and that "I just don't get it"..so what? Isn't that what every teenager is supposed to think? I wouldn't think I was doing my job if I didn't have to ignore at least one hysterical foot stomping temper tantrum a week.
I am not a great parent, not wonderful..hopefully just competent..just meeting the challenges with some common sense, remembering what a monster I was at her age and accepting she will have her monster moments too.
Some of my rules are hard, painful for her but those rules are there so I don't have to be that woman I saw the other night. The one who once she started screaming couldn't stop.




Watched an interesting documentary on surgery the other day. A guy had a spinal cord stimulator implanted. His voice and face were so completely changed when they turned it on. He relaxed and seemed joyful. The stimulator isn't pain medication, it is a vibrator for the spine. The science behind it is the sensation of vibration moves through the spinal cord and into the brain faster than the sensation of pain so it overcomes the pain signal. It changes the sensation and according to this man just changing the message was an incredible relief. I don't know how long it would last but I am kind of interested. Lately I am getting more wore down by my pain. I feel short tempered and slothlike. I feel like I have tried everything already..I tried acupuncture for goodness sake why not a stimulator?
I know it's for people who are using a lot more drugs including narcotics but I don't want to wait for that.
I will have to do some research and talk to the docs.


I just finished reading The Shipping News. I enjoyed it despite having seen both movie versions. The Canadian version was much the best and much truer to the book. I liked that the normal Newfie condescension was absent. We are guilty of making fun of Newfies here, questioning their intelligence. We forget that they have a distinct culture, a language of their own. We bow down to Quebec while ignoring the East Coast.
Personally I have never believed that Quebec had it's own distinct culture, only a distinct language. Language does not make for culture. Culture is history and tradition, poutine doesn't exactly count for tradition. I think Quebec is Ontario in french and make no mistake it's not "French" french it's a bastardization of Parisian french.
Culture and tradition is created by seperation, distance from the modern world.Those on the east coast lived on the water creating a language for it and a culture around it. Much like aborigine's, Native Canadians have done while living on the land, off the land and finally by being forcibly removed from the modern world and onto reservations, separated and segregated.
I liked the book as melancholy as it was. I agree that love can be a quiet thing that brings you joy instead of a wild thing that drags you from ecstasy to heartbreak.


I watched the Mercer report tonight and cracked up when I saw George Bush ignore Harpers outstretched hand. I know George wasn't trying to be rude. I know he didn't even notice the attempt at the handshake but it wont matter will it? Canadians will get all stiffly offended and think America hates us . Why are we so damn sensitive? A literal joke of a human being misses a handshake and we instantly forget he is the dumbest man alive and think there was some "message" being sent.
He is George Bush, a guy who is not allowed to eat pretzels alone , cannot stay on a bike and is unable to speak in full sentences. Do we want to shake his hand?

I agree with Harper about keeping our troops in Afghanistan. We made a real commitment, we promised the people there we would help keep them safe, guard their baby democracy. Terrorism was born there too..Which do we want to grow up?
I want Canada to be able to say we did everything possible to keep Afghanistan connected to the world. We can show them by example that you can have divergent beliefs and still have a safe, prosperous and vibrant country.
I hope Afghanistan can look at us and say "that is what we want" and fight hard for it.

I think it is time the US gets out of Iraq and allows the United Nations to move in and take over.
America has done too much damage, they have no credibilty. Too much corruption, terror and death to ever overcome. Americas fatal mistake was ignoring civilian deaths. They didn't make an effort to keep count, make the deaths important. They should have kept track, mourned every civilain death as painfully as a soldiers. If Iraq felt that Americans cared about their loss they would have stayed engaged. When hundreds die every day and the invading country ignores it or worse denies it, pretends it isn't happening the civilains grow exhausted and look to a new champion to protect them.
America made no effort to understand the culture, the rules of conduct in a Muslim country and have deeply offended almost everyone there. What else could we expect from a guy who doesn't understand half the customs of his own citizens?

This Lou Dobbs is getting on my nerves. He rants away but bails when someone says what is your solution? He oversimplifies everything. It isn't black or white, it is a thousand shades of grey.
Yes, illegal immigrants really shouldn't be getting welfare or free medical services but come on , this isn't happening. They pay and they work. Who wants to pick fruit? I did it and hated it, it's back breaking work. Is there a line up of Americans that want these jobs? Really? Then where the hell were they when the farmers needed them? Around here we have left tomatoes in the field because we couldn't find anyone to pick. Welfare recipients refused "it was below them" , it was racist to force them to work in a field for money. See the problem?
Not all that simple is it Lou?

posted by adventures in disaster @ 12:12 AM