The Sounds of the Lake

On Monday, I sat about ten feet from the water on one of the many private vacation mini-shores of Lake Winnipesaukee – about 74 square miles of refreshing glacial water dotted with well over 100 islands, large and small – a benefit left behind by a long-ago ice age. It’s a popular vacation attraction for New England residents, Canadians, and others ‘from away’ who know of its secrets.

Reading Masters and Commanders in an old wooden beach chair, I paused to listen and to observe. Straight ahead, a small sailboat glided noiselessly by in the distance, disturbing nothing. To my right, along the edge of a private little cove, a kayaker paddled his way around a small granitic outcrop.

Power boats hadn’t come out in force yet and, when they did, their engines were muffled from the distance offered by no-wake-zone rules which keep boating enthusiasts away from shorelines and prevent them from gunning their craft full throttle until they reach the lake’s deeper, wide-open section called ‘The Broads.’

Even now, in the afternoon, after a drenching 10-minute rainstorm, boats passing by are barely audible. (A lot of boats at any one time in this inlet overlooking the Ossipee Mountains constitutes perhaps six or seven. Don’t think NJ congestion!)

It’s very relaxing here: Water laps gently at the sandy shore, rising intermittently as distant water craft create a mild series of harmless, low-peaked waves. Large stones line the swimming beach, preventing erosion to the sitting area. Granite is ubiquitous. Locally, you can purchase a top-quality, last-forever lamppost hewn from stone for $225.

Keep safe and give yourself a break. Mom always cautioned me, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Same for the ladies!

(Photo by Dick Bergeron, July 2009)

The Raspberry Patch

Early this week, on a bright day before the rainstorms began rolling in, I walked out to the backyard raspberry patch – a place of wild, bountiful berries.

Dressed in old shoes, a cap, long jeans, and a matching blue long-sleeved shirt, I began picking around the perimeter of the bushes. Don’t try wandering near or into a brier patch of raspberries with shorts and a T-shirt.

There are plenty this year, more than at any previous summer. Equipped with a light plastic bowl holding about 5 pints, it didn’t take me long to gather up a profusion of those sweet-tart organic fruit. Picking raspberries comes with some risk: you need to be ready for a few scratches, bug bites, and sticky sweat as the sun beats down on your person.

Since I wanted to harvest more than a few pints that day, I knew that I would have to venture into the middle of that prickly thicket, thorns or not. That’s when it occurred to me that life – in some respects –can be compared to a raspberry patch: If you live only at the margins of life, you don’t get to savor the full abundance of its fruit. But if you wade into the middle of life’s brier patch, you may find it much more rewarding.

Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But the thought is authentic. Part of the troubles in our community, state and nation, is that there are too many healthy and able people who expect others to pick their raspberries for them.

Take care of yourselves and enjoy the remainder of summer – it will be gone before you can blink. (Ah – luscious raspberries: I came out with about 8 to 9 pints.)

Obama Proposes to Change Healthcare Quality & Cost

President Barack Obama made two statements in last night’s press conference that summed up the entire hour. Even before taking the first question, he laid out the two key aspects of his plan which incorporated everything that he said later in the Q&A portion:

The President disclosed that his healthcare plan will mandate a national committee “of doctors and health care experts” which will be empowered under the law to decide methods of treatment and reimbursement rates. Obama also said that Americans should get “the best care, just not the most expensive care.” Decode that last statement, and you have reduced benefits.

Several times throughout the press conference, Obama came back to the same two points, using different language to underscore the same thing: “They (that means you!) will have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier.”

And how will we know that? There will, Obama explained, “be a panel of doctors and health care experts advising how to get better results and to reduce costs.” More coded language for reduced benefits: “People will need to be discriminating consumers; we just can’t afford this.”

What about that bureaucratic healthcare committee? Obama says he will, “Create a panel of healthcare experts to make recommendations to Congress.” The Congress, he went on, “Will be required to vote on proposals (of that committee) as a package deal each year on treatment options . . . this will change how benefits are delivered.”

So there you have it. Cutting through the Q&A's in Obama’s statements, you could, if you listened carefully, discern the fact that President Barack Obama wants to 1. Expand medical care by reducing current and future benefits, and 2. Establish a national bureaucratic healthcare committee with power under the law to push quality of care and cost decisions through the Congress.

The Subtle Pullback

In a little noticed Associated Press report, President Barack Obama seems to be pulling back from his previous full court press to enact into law hurried healthcare legislation before the end of the August Congressional recess.

In the report by two AP reporters, Obama is quoted as saying, “Let’s pass reform by the end of this year.” That statement is an acknowledgement by the President that his own party wants him to slow down on this issue, and that his arm-twisting may not be enough to line up all the cats before the August deadline.

Reading from a script during a brief televised appearance early Tuesday afternoon, the President not once mentioned his August deadline. When it was finished, he quickly walked away, permitting no questions from reporters.

The President will now get more airtime on TV to try to get you in his corner. He then goes on the road to sell the program. Keep your thinking cap on. In healthcare, we don’t need the kind of fractured rescue plan that President Bush foisted upon the economy and which President Obama eagerly adopted and expanded.

Yes I Can: This Plan’s for You, Not for Me

Whatever anyone may say about the Obama health plan now being obsessively driven through Congress; whatever you may think about its merits; whether you are for it or against it, or undecided; whether any Washington decision-makers even fully comprehend the contents of this multi-inch thick bill; there is one incontrovertible and largely unknown fact about it:

A select power group of elite Washington officials are ensuring that none of its provisions will personally affect them in any way whatsoever.

They are the President of the United States, Barack Obama, chief proponent of this proposal, together with every single senator and congressperson walking the halls of the Capitol building. Acting in unison, they are assuring that this proposed legislation will completely exempt them from any and all of its provisions.

The President and each legislator on Capitol Hill will continue to enjoy the full benefits of a gold-plated health care plan guaranteed for life.

The President is on the stump solemnly intoning that the cost of medical care in this country must come down. But he is removing himself from any personal sacrifice that his proposed health legislation will require of ordinary Americans. Yet, Republicans and Democrats on The Hill continue to participate in this hypocritical sleight of hand.

What do you think?

Minding Their Own Bees-ness

Late Tuesday afternoon, I went outside to place four additional Russian Sage plants into the beds out front. Three others were already there, planted last fall, but they looked like they needed company. A few weeks ago, I had purchased more at Valley Brook Nursery on Route 22 East (just before the Spinning Wheel Diner).

The additional flora were sitting in their containers in the upper driveway near the house, patiently awaiting reunion with their lonely friends out front. Digging holes is a lot of work, and I had been postponing the job until the weather was reasonably cool, and until a steady breeze was ready to wick away the sweat to keep me from wilting.

Tuesday afternoon was the day – blue skies, puffy clouds, and dry temps with a gentle steady breeze. Out came the wheelbarrow and garden tools and off I went to my appointment with nature.

There are, as you outdoor gardening aficionados already know, certain types of outdoor plants that are nirvana for bees. Russian Sage meets their requirements: lots of fragrant flowers (albeit small) that need pollination and that the bees need for nectar. There also are other types of bees that don’t like people.

But not these friendly little Bridgewater guys – nothing but pure camaraderie between me and them, as I raked away the mulch, dug four holes, and set the plants into Mother Earth with a generous cushion of Canadian peat and black, rich USA garden soil to give the sage a good start.

I worked down on my knees among seven bee-friendly plants, as plenty of fat, three-quarter-inch-long black and yellow worker bees maneuvered in flight like miniature helicopters. They swarmed all over the sage and flew closely around me, within mere inches of my face and neck. At least one grazed me; I was that close to the sage.

Perfect harmony! The bees were getting what they needed and I, in return, would get the pleasure of good-looking blue and green, easy-maintenance flowering plants. The bees never thought of me as sting material – but only as a benefactor. They were just doing an honest day’s work, minding their own bees-ness. Amazing, isn’t it, how Mother Nature knows precisely what she is doing?

(Author’s caution: Not all bees are human-friendly. Anyone with a serious allergic reaction to bees should not follow my example!)

Photo Courtesy of JP Rogers Plant Library

Bridgewater Bits & Pieces

Back to School -- So Soon! The advertising supplements in this weekend’s newspapers (also known as free-standing inserts, or FSI’s) indicate a very early start for back-to-school shopping. The insert for Target has great values: only 50¢ for a pack of 20 Bic Cristal ballpoint pens – same price for a 24/pack of #2 pencils, etc. See the flyer for more good stuff.

The Staples insert features an 8/pack of pencils for 1¢, limit 2 packs per customer. For just a buck, you can purchase a 6/pack of Sharpie Accent highlighters, etc. There’s a coupon on the front page of the FSI for $5 off any in-store purchase of $20 or over. Other bargain-priced items, including electronic paraphernalia are also featured. ‘Easy rebates’ may apply to some of these purchases.

The insert for Best Buy, where Priscille once purchased a Kodak printer as a gift, features many good deals. (Microsoft is promoting a free upgrade to its new operating system, MS Windows 7, by mail, with all qualifying PC purchases.) Go directly to Microsoft’s web site for info about this new release, or Google “Windows 7 upgrade” for additional sources of information.

The Bed, Bath and Beyond insert offers practical back-to-college items. For example, a campus security safe equipped with an anchor for the storage of small valuable items sells for $19.99.

Depressed Real Estate: An attractive Bridgewater colonial in the northern section of the township which once would easily have fetched well over $500,000 was placed on the market early this year for $489,000. This well-designed and landscaped property is now offered at $439,000, a clear signal that the descent of housing prices in Bridgewater has not been arrested.

There is little that Washington can do about this, except to wait for the flood waters of the financial crisis to recede from their overflow levels and return to the main river channel. Nonetheless, national lending institutions may still be hoarding too much cash and prolonging the problem.

JPMorgan Chase(s) Me

The recorded messages on our answering machine asked me to call back. They started yesterday. It would be the beginning of discovering just how ugly a large financial institution can be when it gets on your tail, even in the case of a false identity.

When I responded to the first call, the person at the other end identified the institution as Card Services and would I please provide my account number, the agent requested. What account number, I said, I don’t even know who you are or why you are calling me. Washington Mutual, was the response. Could I have your social security number?

That’s when the red flags went up and the alarm bells started ringing. Never – ever – disclose your social security number to a person or institution you don’t know. Especially when the call is from an undisclosed location and the person is making cryptic inquiries without revealing any clarifying data.

The voice had a foreign accent, and its persistence in trying to obtain my social security number justified suspicions that this might be a sophisticated multinational identity theft ring trying to break into my credit records.

I spoke with at least half a dozen agents who have been pestering me over the last two days, each one wanting my social security number. (Washington Mutual is a failed bank that was acquired by JPMorgan Chase.) Only wanted to help me, I was told, but will need your social security number, they said. Nuts! I thought. You ain’t getting that number.

It turns out that JPMorgan Chase is looking for a man with my first and last name, but with a different middle initial. That person has a completely different address. His residence of record is in California.

JPMorgan Chase, with all the resources of a $2.1 trillion organization at its disposal, has erroneously assigned my New Jersey telephone number to this guy

The epiphany seems to have come this afternoon, when another agent called me. He was – of all those who previously phoned– the one rational human being. This time HE answered MY inquiries, divulging clarifying information on his screen (except social security data!) of the person being tracked.

The agent possessed a soft, friendly, African-American sounding voice, like that of a pleasant southerner – a person who, unlike some of his other rude colleagues, does know how to put two and two together and come to the right conclusion.

I told the man that I had twice spoken to the fraud department of JPMorgan Chase and that the matter would be fixed (they said), but the hounding calls were still coming in. Forget it, the voice of reason reassured me. Just ignore any more calls. They should stop by tomorrow. We will see. Keep you posted.

Jefferson & God

I was prompted to write this after reading the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. That liberating document was written by Thomas Jefferson – and by golly, hold your breath, – the man actually mentions God.

He does it at the beginning and end of one of our most defining national documents, signed by some of the most courageous patriots in this nation’s brief history.

According to Jefferson, it was “…the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God (that) entitled” the colonists to declare the reasons which caused them to bolt from the mother country across the Atlantic.

Jefferson continues, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” among them, “. . . that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (there’s that God word again) with certain unalienable Rights. . .”

After a long, yet pithy and eloquent argument, the document concludes with a declaration that “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” That conclusion, according to Jefferson and his fellow patriots, is justified by “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.” (Third reference to God.)

Now, I don’t want to get all syrupy about this, but I’d like to remind all those bright minds in all those Ivy League institutions, as well as all the politicians afraid of uttering that three-letter word beginning with a capital “G” of this:

Thomas Jefferson and all the other brave souls who signed the Declaration of Independence put their own lives, those of their families and their personal fortunes at grave risk when they did so.

And they were anything but afraid to identify the source of their inspiration. Those men were – in the absolutely correct sense and proper usage of the term – politically correct.

Just something for a few people in D.C. and elsewhere in The Public Square to think about.

Honoring American Valor

The front page of Tuesday’s The Star-Ledger displays the color photo of an Iraqi soldier monitoring traffic in one of his country’s major cities as a red car whizzes by. The soldier is outfitted and well-armed in modern battle gear, undoubtedly designed and paid for with U.S. dollars.

On that day, June 30, 2009, Iraqis were justifiably celebrating “National Sovereignty Day.” It commemorates a treaty negotiated by the former Bush administration marking the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq’s cities, and their repositioning in outlying bases.

In the accompanying AP news story, an Iraqi citizen, Waleed al-Bahadili, is quoted as saying that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds “are happy” for the U.S. troop pullout. Mr. al-Bahadili is not fond of the U.S. He believes that “The Americans harmed and insulted us too much.”

In Washington, this major milestone event has come and gone with not a peep from the White House: tens of thousands of American soldiers wounded and maimed in Iraq; some psychologically impaired; over 4,000 killed. And still not a peep from the White House.

In contrast, on that same day, the Courier News ran an uplifting local story about how two Americans from Perth Amboy, both former wrestlers from Rutgers Prep, produced a music video to honor all of America’s military veterans.

There was no talk about Iraqis bad-mouthing Americans or American troops – just a tale of two proud American citizens imagining what it must be like to serve this country with honor.

Here’s some advice for Waleed: You may have your country. I hope you have the courage to defend it yourself.

As for we Americans, we have another birthday to commemorate – the founding of the greatest successful assemblage of the world’s castaways ever witnessed – the USA.

Forgive me if I boast about our country. No one that I know has every pretended it to be perfect, or that America doesn’t make mistakes, some serious. But I’ve grown annoyingly weary of serial public apologies originating from the White House criticizing the American character in front of make-believe allies, while retrospectively denigrating U.S. integrity.

It’s soon to be the 4th of July. Celebrate. Be proud.