Conversation with My Civil Libertarian Self

BITACLE.ORG steals content. JESUS GLEZ is a THIEF. If you are reading this post on BITACLE.ORG, you are supporting theft of intellectual property. This post was written and copyrighted by CREEKHIKER, who has not given consent for material to be reproduced. Please visit CREEKHIKER to enjoy this content LEGALLY.

After reading Velvet's comments to my last post, I gave a lot of thought to why I write. I really do it for me... so there. But that being said, the above will appear at the top of every blog.

Velvet's recent posts on Microchipping Me reminded me of a conversation I had with myself last week.

O.K. before you start laughing too hard, I live alone, I work alone and there are days when I speak to no human at all. So I have to talk to myself. And for the record, I usually answer - unless I'm mad at myself and giving me the silent treatment. (Kidding!)

I was hiking the creek which is mostly dry and was very angered to find our local graffiti artists have been very busy on the levy wall and on my favorite "sofa" rock.
It was just a few months ago, I spent days negotiating between the city and the golf course which oversees the city-owned land. The golf course places huge boulders in the paths to keep golf carts (which are street legal in my town) from sneaking onto the course and illegally playing. It took a solid week of phone calls to get the boulders moved and then arranging times to meet the city graffiti crew to show them where all they had to go.

As I was looking at the levy wall full of racial hatred, swastikas and pot symbols I had the following conversation. I will refer to my two selves as CH (CreekHiker) and CL (for Civil Libertarian).

CH: (angry) Oh... we should just fingerprint everyone at birth.

CL: What? Are you nuts?

CH: Well, it would make is so much easier to catch the little punks that spread this kind of hatred and venom in the world. And, send their parents a bill for the cleanup!

CL: (Appalled) I, I, I just don't understand why you don't have a problem with that...fingerprinting everyone? What about personal freedom? What about the government abusing power?

Silence.

CH: Well, I guess I don't have a problem with it because I trust that I'm not going to do anything wrong. I have a moral compass and these little punks don't. They are going to end up in jail someday anyway. It's perfectly fine with me if they get there sooner.

And then I had nothing else to say to myself (for the moment).

Now, I don't really think that should happen but sometimes I just get so frustrated with those that destroy public property and place such hideousness in an otherwise beautiful place.

And I loved Velvet's follow up post and completely agree: Who is watching the watchers???

Critical Biticle

I was perusing Velvet's page the other night - She really has the best links - and found a link to Little Bald Doctor's site. I was most alarmed by the Oct. 9 (and apparently last)Post.

Bald Doc explains how a website in Spain is stealing content from Blogger and posting it on their site to make ad revenue. I checked for my own site and I'm not there yet. But...

Velvet, if you are reading this, I apologize for you finding out this way. I didn't want to add a comment to your birthday celebration post. But, you have been hijacked! My stomach dropped when your posts started coming up on this website. I couldn't look around any further.

I have been a writer for years. I've spent my entire career around artists and I am deeply offended by such blatant theft.

There are all kinds of links in Bald Docs post but I'm just left feeling confused as to WHAT to do about this. If anyone has any ideas...let me know. My personal email can be found on my business website linked to this page.

(P.S.) - I chose not to put a link to the .org I am writing about... more links to their website only lends to their credibilty. I refuse to help them in any way.

Packing Her Bags

Since helping my mom unpack the other day, I've been really wondering what goes through her head while packing for a visit.

Could I possibly have the only mother who travels 3000 miles and thinks she is expected to provide lunch, Thanksgivng dinner and household supplies?

Just a few items in her ONLY bag:

-A ham
-A plate lunch from a casino in Baton Rouge
-3 packs of cookies
-A "pone" of cornbread (trust me, the word pone could be another blog entirely! LOL)
-"Storebought" stuffing mix (to be used for flavor only)
-a large package of nice table napkins
-2 rolls of toilet paper
-fat off a chicken (for Mabel)

She also managed to fit some clothing and 7 pair of shoes in that one bag.

Wouldn't you love to see the face on the TSA agent that screened that bag?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

The trick is this:

"Shin Shin? Laissez les boudin? Moshi Moshi? Sin jamon?"

This made up phrase became my mantra after DAYS of frustration trying to reach a human being on the postal services 800-ASK-USPS line. I uttered this crazy concoction of words in my oh-so-syrupy-sweet voice. Not the yelling, vile, obscene voice I usually resort to after pressing every combination of numbers I could think of and screaming "Human Being" over and over.

O.K., I'll admit to being a terrible listener...and I'll blame that on my mother! My dear mother likes to talk... a lot. We joke in our family that she would talk to a stump. I learned as a little kid that if I were to have any time to think and just be, I had to learn to block out noise.

Add that to the fact that I'm BUSY! I run a very busy business that has grown extremely fast pretty much by myself. On top of that I teach and make and sell jewelry. Let's just say that there is always something I NEED to do.

So, when I'm on the phone, unless there is a sweet human voice talking to me, I pretty much block it out. Then I start pressing numbers, followed by yelling, and then cursing at the top of my lungs words that no Southern lady should hear, much less say! (I worked on movie sets for 20 years... forgive me!)

The whole reason I needed to call the post office began months ago when I found a gorgeous set of candle holders I just knew my sister would love. I had just returned from Baton Rouge, having gone there expressly to paint my sister's living room. She was redecorating for the first time in 20 years.

My sister has collected angels since a fellow cancer survivor gave her one the first time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. These candles were about three feet tall and very dramatic.

Knowing my sister was on fire to decorate... she's the type that doesn't give up when she's on a mission, I bought them even though it was months before her birthday and UPS'd them to her. They broke.... UPS crushed them. No problem, UPS sent me the 150 bucks and I bought another set.

Since I use the post office all the time in my business, I decided to use USPS to ship them. I took months preparing the layers of boxes and peanuts and the new angels arrived in Baton Rouge on my sister's birthday, Nov. 2nd. Broken.

Since that day, I've been calling and calling, every day, every chance I get only to end up screaming at the phone.

Finally, I called my local post office. I know almost everyone there thanks to living a tiny offshoot of Los Angeles. The person I spoke to (I don't want to get this person in any trouble) gave me some great advice:

"Just pretend you speak a foreign language. It'll get you right through to an operator!"

I was astonished and gushed my many thanks.

As we were hanging up, this person added. "Yeah, that's what we do when we really need to get through!"

I tried it and got right through! And since then, I've tried it with my credit card company... yep, got right through.

So, repeat after me all you dear friends stuck on terminal hold, "Shin Shin? Laissez les boudin? Moshi Moshi? Sin jamon?"

Mudflaps needed

Miss Mabel was extraordinarily excited after finding a ball in the creek today and this is what my legs looked like after we returned home! On days like this, I certainly think I need mudflaps or some kind protection.

Mabel ran and jumped and frolicked - she's alway very happy at the creek but today, she was quite something. We ran into our friends Hank & Sue, Rhodesian Ridgeback siblings and their friend Sascha, a German Shepherd. The four of them had a grand time. Then they left (with their moms) and Mabel and I had our favorite creek breakfast: a chocolate croisant and a hazelnut latte from Coffee Stop. I dunk the chocolate in my coffee and Mabel gets the bready outside. She LOVES those buttery layers of bread... in fact, it's the ONLY bread she eats! Then, she found the ball.

Maybe my silly girl was excited because her granny is flying in from Baton Rouge today. I'm am certain she "knows." I'm equally as certain we are going to have a huge argument when I leave for the airport to go get her. Mabel likes being the greeting committee. But I don't like taking her to LAX. I'll let you know who wins...

In the meantime, I need to hit the shower. I guess they do make mudflaps for legs...they call them pants.