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Jul
23
Alien species
Filed Under Politics | 3 Comments
During the last several hours, with some sleep in between, I’ve tried to teach myself how to blog and write code – or at least, move code – or at least delete the right code I don’t want. I’ve felt like the member of an alien species who has invaded a world to which she may never acclimate.
This feeling made me think of the animals who treat our yard as their playground. Five deer, two very cute bunnies, a large furry slow-moving rodent and several chipmunks live around and under our house, and in our trees. From my writing space, I can see them romp, stop, nibble and scurry across sunlit and shaded portions of the grass.
But when we moved here over seven years ago, my oldest son – who then was five – labeled our family “the alien species” that was invading the animals’ territory. I didn’t argue with him then and I wouldn’t argue with him now, even as my city and those around it offer solutions to thin the deer population that frankly make me recoil.
I’m not oblivious to the damage they cause. My older brother’s 1970s VW Bug got slammed by a deer in a frightening incident near Ithaca, New York. One night, a couple of years ago, a slew of sirens and red lights parked outside our house and interrupted our bedtime rituals: a deer had hit a car almost exactly in front of our house.
I’m no tree-hugger, I eat ostrich and I love shearling slippers. I giggle at the bags hung on long sticks that successfully ward off deer and keep my neighbor’s blooms beautiful. But something within me can’t accept that large wire traps and sharpshooters in the trees are the best solutions. We have to find a way to co-exist, not constantly declare death to the enemy. Is annihilation the only way for either species to acclimate to the inevitable presence of the other?
Hopefully, my acclimation to the blogosphere will be a lot less existential.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:19 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | 3 Comments
Print This Post
Jul
23
Let there be sun (originally posted 2/26/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
The only white outside today is the snow, and the only blue -the sky. It’s as sumptuous and intoxicating as a whiff of my children’s hair after they’ve bathed. You want to close your eyes, bask in it, inhale it and embody it.
Though not much I’ve done yet today could be considered the embodiment of a sparkling mid-winter’s day – laundry, dishes, breakfast, to and from art class, some exercise while watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy try to turn a motorcycle mechanic into a businessman and half a bowl of tomato soup spilled on the dining room table (my soup, my spill – the worst part not being the spill, but being the fact that I had less to eat).
But the rest of the afternoon will play out nicely as my daughter and I indulge in a manicure and Starbucks, then to the craft store for an Anne of Green Gables diorama supplies run, then home to meet the babysitter (Melissa, who’s really not a sitter, she’s part of our family after almost eight years with us) and over to our neighbors for cocktails and out to dinner. What’s especially nice about the evening is that we’ve never gone out socially with either of the couples we’ll see this evening, even though we’ve lived next to them for a few years.
Lots of glitter on this day, especially in hidden places.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:54 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
23
The dental trap (originally posted 2/25/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Yesterday, after rescheduling several times, the kids and I finally made it into the dentist’s chair, four of us within two hours and a lot of roundtrips between their school, art class for the youngest and the office. But we got it done and have new toothbrushes and bubblegum toothpaste stashed in drawers throughout the house now.
Today, I get my annual mammogram which actually isn’t so annual this year because I neglected to get it when I should have, several months ago, and then a year before that. Oops. And with the family history I have (mother, grandmother, paternal grandfather’s sister, her daughter and her daughter’s daughter), I can neither afford to neglect nor excuse it. So, I’m going to tennis afterwards without deodorant just to be sure nothing that shouldn’t set off the device does.
Being less than two years from the age when my mom was diagnosed makes me anxious. But having lived with the inevitability of the detection process for so long now – I’ve been getting mammograms since I was 28 – I can usually push the demons down. I also know that we don’t have any of the identified gene markers and my risk score on something called the Gale scale wasn’t high enough to qualify me for a new study that puts MRIs head to head with mammograms as far as detection procedures go.
It’s an inconvenience for now, and I hope it stays that way.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:52 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Beat the bus (originally posted 2/24/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I probably sounded like Dora the Explorer, but yesterday morning, when I arrived home at 11:54am, after being away for a day and a night and scurrying from that commitment which was 40 miles away back to my house, I called my husband while I was inside my car, inside my garage and, when he answered, said, “I DID IT! I DID IT!” I’d beaten the bus to the house. My kids had a half day, knew how to get into the house but I’d set the goal that I’d be back before they got there. And I did.
Tiny bubbles that keep us a float.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:51 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
23
Love and medieval torture tools (originally posted 2/22/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I’d never thought it could happen, but for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been begging to get my neck clamped into traction. Somewhere between shlepping from school to school to school (youngest son’s pre-K, two older kids’ regular school and oldest child’s Hebrew school), I started to feel a strange connection between my flexed foot – as it hovered over the accelerator – and every muscle in between and up through my spine. Within two weeks, I had a knot the size of a large ice cube that radiates heat and pain no matter what I’m doing – with the possible exception of standing. So back to my favorite orthopedic specialist, Dr. Danny Leizman, I went and God bless him. I got an antiinflammatory that I’m sure won’t give me a heart attack, but even better – SIX SESSIONS IN PHYSICAL THERAPY. I love those guys. So even though I couldn’t fit in my first torture appointment until next week, I have something to look forward to in a week.
All torture should be so welcome, but I am taking a couple of actions to try and prevent the pain from recurring: I’m giving in and getting the mega-expensive desk chair and will outfit myself with headsets for all phones.
Or maybe I’ll just stop answering the phone altogether. Now there’s an idea.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:48 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
23
I’m not a journaler, not yet a blogger (originally posted 2/21/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Don’t you just hate it when you know enough to know that you could do something if you put the time and mental energy into it, but it’s so much easier to pick up the phone and have tech support help you? Actually, I guess I really love it when that happens – saves me a bit a mental energy and is probably the secret to multi-tasking.
And don’t you hate it even more when you have to be the conduit between a health care service provider, the insurance company and the claims company hired by the provider? Like in a case where one of those entities messes up your information in the first place and then sends you bills over and over, compelling you to make all the calls to clear your more or less good name?
Yes, it was a wonderful time here from 9-10am. Then I called in the wrong number of reservations for my son’s birthday celebration at the orchestra (but how cool is it that an eleven year old WANTS to take his friends to the orchestra!?) and had to call them back. Then I paid some bills, tried to enter an alumni interview report for my alma mater but couldn’t find my username and password so I had to send them an email asking for the info. THEN I got to the website stuff – I’d been neglecting to update some billing information so my website designer couldn’t get in, or so I thought, but in fact she couldn’t get in because the password had changed and I’d neglected to tell her that (do you think neglect is a theme going on right now?? too much information), but calling tech support helped me realize my faux pas and now billing is updated and Beth my wonderful web designer is also updated. Thank yous to Dan, Sherry and Nick at Hostsave.com. Nick got off VERY easy – all I had to do was hear his voice, look at a paper in front of me and realize that what I thought was a 2 was really a Z. And with a last name like Zimon, you’d think I’d get that right the first time.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:42 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
23
Technorati Profile
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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:45 pm July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
23
Alien species
Filed Under Politics | 3 Comments
During the last several hours, with some sleep in between, I’ve tried to teach myself how to blog and write code – or at least, move code – or at least delete the right code I don’t want. I’ve felt like the member of an alien species who has invaded a world to which she may never acclimate.
This feeling made me think of the animals who treat our yard as their playground. Five deer, two very cute bunnies, a large furry slow-moving rodent and several chipmunks live around and under our house, and in our trees. From my writing space, I can see them romp, stop, nibble and scurry across sunlit and shaded portions of the grass.
But when we moved here over seven years ago, my oldest son – who then was five – labeled our family “the alien species” that was invading the animals’ territory. I didn’t argue with him then and I wouldn’t argue with him now, even as my city and those around it offer solutions to thin the deer population that frankly make me recoil.
I’m not oblivious to the damage they cause. My older brother’s 1970s VW Bug got slammed by a deer in a frightening incident near Ithaca, New York. One night, a couple of years ago, a slew of sirens and red lights parked outside our house and interrupted our bedtime rituals: a deer had hit a car almost exactly in front of our house.
I’m no tree-hugger, I eat ostrich and I love shearling slippers. I giggle at the bags hung on long sticks that successfully ward off deer and keep my neighbor’s blooms beautiful. But something within me can’t accept that large wire traps and sharpshooters in the trees are the best solutions. We have to find a way to co-exist, not constantly declare death to the enemy. Is annihilation the only way for either species to acclimate to the inevitable presence of the other?
Hopefully, my acclimation to the blogosphere will be a lot less existential.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:19 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | 3 Comments
Print This Post
Jul
23
Let there be sun (originally posted 2/26/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
The only white outside today is the snow, and the only blue -the sky. It’s as sumptuous and intoxicating as a whiff of my children’s hair after they’ve bathed. You want to close your eyes, bask in it, inhale it and embody it.
Though not much I’ve done yet today could be considered the embodiment of a sparkling mid-winter’s day – laundry, dishes, breakfast, to and from art class, some exercise while watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy try to turn a motorcycle mechanic into a businessman and half a bowl of tomato soup spilled on the dining room table (my soup, my spill – the worst part not being the spill, but being the fact that I had less to eat).
But the rest of the afternoon will play out nicely as my daughter and I indulge in a manicure and Starbucks, then to the craft store for an Anne of Green Gables diorama supplies run, then home to meet the babysitter (Melissa, who’s really not a sitter, she’s part of our family after almost eight years with us) and over to our neighbors for cocktails and out to dinner. What’s especially nice about the evening is that we’ve never gone out socially with either of the couples we’ll see this evening, even though we’ve lived next to them for a few years.
Lots of glitter on this day, especially in hidden places.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:54 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
The dental trap (originally posted 2/25/05)
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
Yesterday, after rescheduling several times, the kids and I finally made it into the dentist’s chair, four of us within two hours and a lot of roundtrips between their school, art class for the youngest and the office. But we got it done and have new toothbrushes and bubblegum toothpaste stashed in drawers throughout the house now.
Today, I get my annual mammogram which actually isn’t so annual this year because I neglected to get it when I should have, several months ago, and then a year before that. Oops. And with the family history I have (mother, grandmother, paternal grandfather’s sister, her daughter and her daughter’s daughter), I can neither afford to neglect nor excuse it. So, I’m going to tennis afterwards without deodorant just to be sure nothing that shouldn’t set off the device does.
Being less than two years from the age when my mom was diagnosed makes me anxious. But having lived with the inevitability of the detection process for so long now – I’ve been getting mammograms since I was 28 – I can usually push the demons down. I also know that we don’t have any of the identified gene markers and my risk score on something called the Gale scale wasn’t high enough to qualify me for a new study that puts MRIs head to head with mammograms as far as detection procedures go.
It’s an inconvenience for now, and I hope it stays that way.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:52 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
Print This Post
Jul
23
Beat the bus (originally posted 2/24/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I probably sounded like Dora the Explorer, but yesterday morning, when I arrived home at 11:54am, after being away for a day and a night and scurrying from that commitment which was 40 miles away back to my house, I called my husband while I was inside my car, inside my garage and, when he answered, said, “I DID IT! I DID IT!” I’d beaten the bus to the house. My kids had a half day, knew how to get into the house but I’d set the goal that I’d be back before they got there. And I did.
Tiny bubbles that keep us a float.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:51 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Love and medieval torture tools (originally posted 2/22/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I’d never thought it could happen, but for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been begging to get my neck clamped into traction. Somewhere between shlepping from school to school to school (youngest son’s pre-K, two older kids’ regular school and oldest child’s Hebrew school), I started to feel a strange connection between my flexed foot – as it hovered over the accelerator – and every muscle in between and up through my spine. Within two weeks, I had a knot the size of a large ice cube that radiates heat and pain no matter what I’m doing – with the possible exception of standing. So back to my favorite orthopedic specialist, Dr. Danny Leizman, I went and God bless him. I got an antiinflammatory that I’m sure won’t give me a heart attack, but even better – SIX SESSIONS IN PHYSICAL THERAPY. I love those guys. So even though I couldn’t fit in my first torture appointment until next week, I have something to look forward to in a week.
All torture should be so welcome, but I am taking a couple of actions to try and prevent the pain from recurring: I’m giving in and getting the mega-expensive desk chair and will outfit myself with headsets for all phones.
Or maybe I’ll just stop answering the phone altogether. Now there’s an idea.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:48 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
I’m not a journaler, not yet a blogger (originally posted 2/21/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Don’t you just hate it when you know enough to know that you could do something if you put the time and mental energy into it, but it’s so much easier to pick up the phone and have tech support help you? Actually, I guess I really love it when that happens – saves me a bit a mental energy and is probably the secret to multi-tasking.
And don’t you hate it even more when you have to be the conduit between a health care service provider, the insurance company and the claims company hired by the provider? Like in a case where one of those entities messes up your information in the first place and then sends you bills over and over, compelling you to make all the calls to clear your more or less good name?
Yes, it was a wonderful time here from 9-10am. Then I called in the wrong number of reservations for my son’s birthday celebration at the orchestra (but how cool is it that an eleven year old WANTS to take his friends to the orchestra!?) and had to call them back. Then I paid some bills, tried to enter an alumni interview report for my alma mater but couldn’t find my username and password so I had to send them an email asking for the info. THEN I got to the website stuff – I’d been neglecting to update some billing information so my website designer couldn’t get in, or so I thought, but in fact she couldn’t get in because the password had changed and I’d neglected to tell her that (do you think neglect is a theme going on right now?? too much information), but calling tech support helped me realize my faux pas and now billing is updated and Beth my wonderful web designer is also updated. Thank yous to Dan, Sherry and Nick at Hostsave.com. Nick got off VERY easy – all I had to do was hear his voice, look at a paper in front of me and realize that what I thought was a 2 was really a Z. And with a last name like Zimon, you’d think I’d get that right the first time.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:42 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:45 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Alien species
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
During the last several hours, with some sleep in between, I’ve tried to teach myself how to blog and write code – or at least, move code – or at least delete the right code I don’t want. I’ve felt like the member of an alien species who has invaded a world to which she may never acclimate.
This feeling made me think of the animals who treat our yard as their playground. Five deer, two very cute bunnies, a large furry slow-moving rodent and several chipmunks live around and under our house, and in our trees. From my writing space, I can see them romp, stop, nibble and scurry across sunlit and shaded portions of the grass.
But when we moved here over seven years ago, my oldest son – who then was five – labeled our family “the alien species” that was invading the animals’ territory. I didn’t argue with him then and I wouldn’t argue with him now, even as my city and those around it offer solutions to thin the deer population that frankly make me recoil.
I’m not oblivious to the damage they cause. My older brother’s 1970s VW Bug got slammed by a deer in a frightening incident near Ithaca, New York. One night, a couple of years ago, a slew of sirens and red lights parked outside our house and interrupted our bedtime rituals: a deer had hit a car almost exactly in front of our house.
I’m no tree-hugger, I eat ostrich and I love shearling slippers. I giggle at the bags hung on long sticks that successfully ward off deer and keep my neighbor’s blooms beautiful. But something within me can’t accept that large wire traps and sharpshooters in the trees are the best solutions. We have to find a way to co-exist, not constantly declare death to the enemy. Is annihilation the only way for either species to acclimate to the inevitable presence of the other?
Hopefully, my acclimation to the blogosphere will be a lot less existential.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:19 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Let there be sun (originally posted 2/26/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
The only white outside today is the snow, and the only blue -the sky. It’s as sumptuous and intoxicating as a whiff of my children’s hair after they’ve bathed. You want to close your eyes, bask in it, inhale it and embody it.
Though not much I’ve done yet today could be considered the embodiment of a sparkling mid-winter’s day – laundry, dishes, breakfast, to and from art class, some exercise while watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy try to turn a motorcycle mechanic into a businessman and half a bowl of tomato soup spilled on the dining room table (my soup, my spill – the worst part not being the spill, but being the fact that I had less to eat).
But the rest of the afternoon will play out nicely as my daughter and I indulge in a manicure and Starbucks, then to the craft store for an Anne of Green Gables diorama supplies run, then home to meet the babysitter (Melissa, who’s really not a sitter, she’s part of our family after almost eight years with us) and over to our neighbors for cocktails and out to dinner. What’s especially nice about the evening is that we’ve never gone out socially with either of the couples we’ll see this evening, even though we’ve lived next to them for a few years.
Lots of glitter on this day, especially in hidden places.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:54 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
The dental trap (originally posted 2/25/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Yesterday, after rescheduling several times, the kids and I finally made it into the dentist’s chair, four of us within two hours and a lot of roundtrips between their school, art class for the youngest and the office. But we got it done and have new toothbrushes and bubblegum toothpaste stashed in drawers throughout the house now.
Today, I get my annual mammogram which actually isn’t so annual this year because I neglected to get it when I should have, several months ago, and then a year before that. Oops. And with the family history I have (mother, grandmother, paternal grandfather’s sister, her daughter and her daughter’s daughter), I can neither afford to neglect nor excuse it. So, I’m going to tennis afterwards without deodorant just to be sure nothing that shouldn’t set off the device does.
Being less than two years from the age when my mom was diagnosed makes me anxious. But having lived with the inevitability of the detection process for so long now – I’ve been getting mammograms since I was 28 – I can usually push the demons down. I also know that we don’t have any of the identified gene markers and my risk score on something called the Gale scale wasn’t high enough to qualify me for a new study that puts MRIs head to head with mammograms as far as detection procedures go.
It’s an inconvenience for now, and I hope it stays that way.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:52 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Beat the bus (originally posted 2/24/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I probably sounded like Dora the Explorer, but yesterday morning, when I arrived home at 11:54am, after being away for a day and a night and scurrying from that commitment which was 40 miles away back to my house, I called my husband while I was inside my car, inside my garage and, when he answered, said, “I DID IT! I DID IT!” I’d beaten the bus to the house. My kids had a half day, knew how to get into the house but I’d set the goal that I’d be back before they got there. And I did.
Tiny bubbles that keep us a float.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:51 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
Love and medieval torture tools (originally posted 2/22/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
I’d never thought it could happen, but for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been begging to get my neck clamped into traction. Somewhere between shlepping from school to school to school (youngest son’s pre-K, two older kids’ regular school and oldest child’s Hebrew school), I started to feel a strange connection between my flexed foot – as it hovered over the accelerator – and every muscle in between and up through my spine. Within two weeks, I had a knot the size of a large ice cube that radiates heat and pain no matter what I’m doing – with the possible exception of standing. So back to my favorite orthopedic specialist, Dr. Danny Leizman, I went and God bless him. I got an antiinflammatory that I’m sure won’t give me a heart attack, but even better – SIX SESSIONS IN PHYSICAL THERAPY. I love those guys. So even though I couldn’t fit in my first torture appointment until next week, I have something to look forward to in a week.
All torture should be so welcome, but I am taking a couple of actions to try and prevent the pain from recurring: I’m giving in and getting the mega-expensive desk chair and will outfit myself with headsets for all phones.
Or maybe I’ll just stop answering the phone altogether. Now there’s an idea.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:48 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
23
I’m not a journaler, not yet a blogger (originally posted 2/21/05)
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Don’t you just hate it when you know enough to know that you could do something if you put the time and mental energy into it, but it’s so much easier to pick up the phone and have tech support help you? Actually, I guess I really love it when that happens – saves me a bit a mental energy and is probably the secret to multi-tasking.
And don’t you hate it even more when you have to be the conduit between a health care service provider, the insurance company and the claims company hired by the provider? Like in a case where one of those entities messes up your information in the first place and then sends you bills over and over, compelling you to make all the calls to clear your more or less good name?
Yes, it was a wonderful time here from 9-10am. Then I called in the wrong number of reservations for my son’s birthday celebration at the orchestra (but how cool is it that an eleven year old WANTS to take his friends to the orchestra!?) and had to call them back. Then I paid some bills, tried to enter an alumni interview report for my alma mater but couldn’t find my username and password so I had to send them an email asking for the info. THEN I got to the website stuff – I’d been neglecting to update some billing information so my website designer couldn’t get in, or so I thought, but in fact she couldn’t get in because the password had changed and I’d neglected to tell her that (do you think neglect is a theme going on right now?? too much information), but calling tech support helped me realize my faux pas and now billing is updated and Beth my wonderful web designer is also updated. Thank yous to Dan, Sherry and Nick at Hostsave.com. Nick got off VERY easy – all I had to do was hear his voice, look at a paper in front of me and realize that what I thought was a 2 was really a Z. And with a last name like Zimon, you’d think I’d get that right the first time.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:42 am July 23rd, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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