I had the weirdest dream last night. It is a recurring dream that I have, about me having the ability to fly. I usually use the ability to try to escape some kind of life-threatening danger, but I always get tangled up in the telephone and electric wires that criss-cross the air space from utility pole to utility pole. When that happens, I wake up, I guess I’m afraid that I’ll be electrocuted when I get tangled up.
I was reading an article in The Washington Times newspaper today about how a lot of companies that claim to be “green” are not actually “green.” It was a very informative article, but very disturbing too. I get very disturbed when I learn how so many unscrupulous companies are trying to jump on the bandwagon of saying they are green when they are not. I don’t like being deceived – not one bit! So I am going to be more vigilant in finding out what products I buy are really “green” or not. And if I find out that they are claiming to be “green” when they are not I plan to write some letters of complaint.
Over the past year, I’ve been trying to buy a few CFL bulbs every week. I’ve been doing it slowly because they are pretty expensive and my budget can’t accommodate the shock of buying a whole lot of them at once. So, I’ve been slowly replacing my standard incandescent light bulbs with the new CFL bulbs. I had a hard time finding 3-way bulbs. In fact, I didn’t even realize that they made them until a friend told me that she had some! So, I started searching everywhere in town that sells light bulbs and finally found them at Ace Hardware. I bought enough of them to put in all of our 3-way lamps. I hope that these will save as much energy as they claim they will!
I was driving home last night from a friend’s house. I was completely sober (trust me, I don’t drink or smoke or do any kind of drugs – well, ok I have a glass of wine once or twice a year on a special occasion.) It was after dark, but it was a clear night. When I turned onto the road that I live on, there appeared to be a woman, dressed in a white gown, crossing the road. I hit my brakes hard, so that I wouldn’t run her over. She looked at me and kept walking – right through the guardrail beside the road, and then she disappeared! I was so surprised! I still can’t believe my eyes!
I know that there were many days and nights that I was worried about something one of my kids had done (or not done) and that I suspected they were doing (or not doing,) that I wondered if I would survive their teenage years. They were all basically good kids, but parents worry and kids do make mistakes. But that’s how they learn, after all.
I had an older woman working with me at the time and she used to tell me to just hang in there and keep telling them that I loved them. She would tell me stories of her own sons and how she was frantic for almost a year that one son who was fighting depression might try to kill himself. She made a tremendous effort to spend as much time with him as she could, often going for long drives at night, just the two of them in the car. She kept talking to him about the future and how he had so much to look forward to, and that she loved him. And eventually he developed some new interests and friends ,and he gradually came out of the depression. Now he is a healthy and vital young man with a family of his own.
I often think back on how much those conversations with her meant to me and inspired me to help my kids get through their bad times. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude.