Today's upsets

1. Today's Boston Globe informed us that our heating bills would be further through the roof this winter--as if we didn't know! Set me to thinking--is it really a good idea to go on living here (Boston area) a place I've called home for over 40 years? Periodically I have wondered about this but always decided that it's my home and I'll take the bad weather, crowded crazy highways, high cost of housing etc. in exchange for the vibrancy of life here--and don't forget the ocean.

However I wonder--if all my "extra" cash is going to stay (barely) warm--is it worth it?

And then--where would we go?

Thoughts?

2. Why can't the Democrats save us from oil speculators? There seemed to be very little coverage of the recent failure of Congress to rein in oil speculation. Meanwhile we have McCain and his Paris Hilton ads! What about us regular folks?!?

3. I have a bone to pick with James Kunstler. His latest eyesore is a tattoo shop on Broadway in my beloved birthplace Saratoga Springs, NY. He is totally correct that the storefront is a mess--but it has nothing to do with tattoos, as he states in his usual waaaaayy over-the-top fashion. (I speak as a be-tattooed woman of a certain age.) It has to do with crappy design and signage allowed by god-knows-who in this lovely downtown. Why should tattoing be in the back alleys and skid rows (and who uses that phrase these days)? Where has Kunstler been the last 25 years? "Tattoing [is]....the calling card of cannibals and whores." Pathetic. Silly. If he wants to get better design in this storefront it behooves him to move into the 21st century.

4. Another guy behind the times is my soon-to-be brother-in-law who informs me that he is glad that his brother and I will make ourselves "legit" by getting married after 10 years of happy non-marriage. Just joking, he says. I haven't heard that phrase since 1971!

I often wonder how old I will be before I take leave of the present and become an "oak of my own generation" as Smiley muses in one of Lecarre's best works. When will I rant about tattoos and plead for legitimacy? When will I find the latest technology too baffling? I speak as the owner of more than my share of modern technology, every bit of which I love. 

Part of my purpose in this blog will be to demonstrate that middle-aged women are not dead yet, despite the way we are invisible in society--say, on TV and in the movies ( Meryl Streep excepted--a shoutout to her though not the movie). I keep up, chose my new stuff carefully and spend big bucks. Why should my type not be pictured in the world??

Enough for today. Chime in please.