October 2003 Archives

I just read an article in the WSJ about a study that "found a 55% greater risk fo heart disease among grandmothers who care for their grandchildren." Okay, that sucks. Later in the article, we find the following,

"This is a dramatic and important finding," says scientist Meredith Minkler, of the University of California at Berkeley's School of Public Health. "These grandparents might constitute a vulnerable group of hidden patients whose healthcare needs to be attended to by physicians and policy makers alike."

Now hold on here, Scientist Minkler. What exactly do policy makers have to do with this? Do we need a law that makes sure my mom goes to the doctor more often if she babysits my kids? Maybe my employer should have to chip in for my mom's health insurance. Or maybe we need to put a tracking bracelet on grandma so she doesn't spend more than the safe amount of hours near her grandchildren. "Sorry Gran, you can't come over today. You've exceeded your kiddie care allotment for the fourth straight week. Not safe, you know. Better cancel Christmas. That'll overdo it for sure." Or better yet, it'll be my fault. Granny's just the victim, you see. What sort of policy could possibly add anything good to this situation? I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for the last four words of that quote. I'm just not familiar enough with policy-making to understand what it might be.

In Houston, anyway, the Most Popular Bead status currently belongs to any kind of gemstone briolette. I went to a church bazaar yesterday and there were at least three booths with beaded necklaces, and it seemed like 75% of them contained gemstone briolettes. They're pretty, yes, but it was kind of funny to see them EVERYwhere. I'm sure each artist thought they were being unique, and, well, oops. And definitely, for folks who sell, at any rate, gemstones seem to be the way to go. I didn't see any glass at all, except in imported off-loom seed bead work. I think it is because you can charge enough for the results that you can actually get your labor back out of it (gemstones, not off-loom work--I think you only get your labor out of the seed bead work if it's somebody else's labor!)

Hm. I wonder if our butterfly center has any of these literate critters? I think I've seen this before, but it's neat anyhow. I'm looking forward to seeing Dad's pix of our trip last week. I have high expectations of a particular green butterfly on a purple flower.... This is one of THE best places to take visitors. Thus far it has never failed to delight.

[Link from BoingBoing]

Now this is neato.

My grandpa died last night. Expecting that it was going to happen "pretty soon" didn't really help much. I spent this morning rooting around for photos, and I realized that I don't have that many pictures, but I do have a lot of memories.