Tag Archives: family

Real Choices

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There isn’t a day goes by I don’t hear about the rights of women’s choices. To be sure, a person does need to be able to make choices that effect their lives. To be sure, people do make choices every day. Some are good. Some, not so good. Some inconsequential. The hitch, so many of our decisions are made without any idea how long term those decisions can be. We think that they will last for a while and then the consequences, good or bad, will last just a while.

Consider a person gets in a car and drives while under then influence. After a short time, they wake up in hospital room and the doctor tells you, you will never walk again… or see again. If you had planned on making a living using your eyes, you soon realize that isn’t going to happen.

Perhaps all you do is go swimming. You dive and then the only reason you’re still alive is because your friends came to your rescue. Then you get to try out all those experimental things, the robotic things that might allow you to walk again, but slowly. If that is successful, you’ll celebrate a ten foot walk across the room.

You might miss that off-ramp and you have to wait and get off at the next one. That one isn’t so bad. It cost, time, frustration, and, of course, fuel.

The thing is, of course, when a woman decides to go into a place to get an abortion, she should realize it is not as simple as she might think. She gets to make the decision but the baby gets no say in the matter. Of all people, the unborn is totally helpless. He can’t even cry out in pain. If the mother goes through with it, a child will suffer and then die. The child does not have a choice. What a horrible thing if the first choice you make concerning your child, is to kill it. What a horrible thing, you will never meet him or her. You will never see him take his first step or hear his first words.

Worst of all, choice might be made over nothing more than convenience, a means of birth control.

If you do make the choice to kill the baby, at least take a few precautions. What kind of clinic is it. What are the possibilities of infection. Will the doctor provide a follow-up exam? Every time I had a tooth pulled, the dentist had me back in the office a week later to make sure there were no complications. That’s right, complications are possible. Sometimes, odd as it might seem, the baby even might live. It has happened. On the other hand, the baby might have died but was not totally removed. This sort of thing is not common, but it does happen and the resulting infection can result in the death of the mother. A woman is rushed to the e-room with pain, temperature and infection, not realizing the source of the problem. Then, besides paying for the abortion, she has to dig deeper into that savings account to pay for the hospital visit.

Finally, one more caution. Before you make that choice, make sure it is one that you can live with. You will, you know. The rest of your life. Before you make that choice, you might check with a few who have made that choice. You might want to find out if they are having problems living with it. It is one of those permanent choices, you know. It has no backspace key. It has no undo function. Every morning for the rest of your life, you will be reminded. With some, I have heard, it never gets better. The memory only gets harder as you notice other women with children the same age as yours might have been.

You can, of course, just harden your heart. You can learn to live with it. However, is this something you want to force yourself to live with. Broken bones heal. I know. I have had a number of them. Contrary to the popular saying, time does not heal all wounds. Those emotional ones have a tendency to dig in and only grow worse over time.

Replaced Electric Mower Blade

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I can’t remember for sure but I bought my 60 volt Greenworks mower about 4 or 5 years ago. I have been putting off replacing the blade because I just knew it would be beyond my abilities. I even considered having it done.

Besides all this, I didn’t have a wrench the right size. (see Wrenches, Wrenches and Wrenches in which I explained that, regardless of my dozens of wrenches, I never have the right size.) I spent a few hours checking the internet in hopes of getting some help.

First, much of the info was contradictory. Second, it was not specific to my mower. Finally, it seemed to suggest a confirmation that it would be too much for an old man.

As for the wrench thing, I resolved that problem by buying a large Cresent adjustable wrench for $8. I’m sure it would be better to use the right size wrench, but the adjustable wrench worked well.

The procedure took right about 15 minutes. If I did it again today, it would take 4, maybe 5 minutes. Indeed, I was surprised how easy it was.

I must truly give Greenworks acalaides for this mower. Other than the blade, it has performed as well as day 1 for me. Even the blade, which has had a lot of abuse was not bad for a 4 year old blade. It still cut, just a little unevenly.

Now that I know how, I will replace the blade every year and I suggest others do the same. If nothing else, it is likely better to cut the grass rather than tear it.

As my aside, I do find it odd that many mower repair shops are too busy to repair mowers, especially in the spring. I guess in a strange way it does make sense. It is why we should get our mowers fixed in the autumn.

Great Comment

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Although I have had this blog for, I guess 4 or 5 years now, I don’t know all the ins and outs, so I will not risk the possibility of giving away anyone’s privacy. However, there was a person that made a comment on my post, Photography.

I must admit it hit me hard in that, for a short time, it confused me. I just couldn’t imagine anyone not having a regular camera, with shutter speeds, f-stops and focus.

It made me realize that I have lived through a total evolution of technology. I actually saw the use of the big press cameras that used the flash bulbs. Back when I was a boy, most photos were black & white. Color was something reserved for Christmas and Easter pictures. The color was very expensive.

I took most of my pictures in slides, which saved a lot of money. It did have the drawback of needing the slide projector and darkening of the room, but what huge and bright brilliant images. I guess the regular screen was about 4X5 feet. However, I used bed sheets and still the image was sharp.

I’m not sure, but I think that some of the old slides rival the resolution of all but the most expensive electronic images today.

The technology really affected 5 major industries. Naturally, it hit the photographers, pro and amateur. Consider the wedding photographers. Their biggest competition now is the customer with a cell phone.

The TV industry, just a decade or so ago went through an enormous revolution. One day, the images, size and resolution, takes a huge step forward.

Perhaps the largest change is in personal photography. In the past, you heard, “Quick, Jim. Get the camera. I think Joey’s going to take his first step!” Today, you just keep your phone handy. If it turns out to be a false alarm, you can just remove the video. On the other hand, you can keep it. The memory cards are cheap.

You would think the big silver screen would be immune to the change and the huge reels of plastic would last forever. Not so. I suspect within a decade or two all film images will fall by the wayside, and replaced by the microchips.

I suppose the biggest change is the media itself. Kodak used to be a big part of US industry. No more need for instant film development. Polaroid, to the best of my knowledge, no longer makes any kind of film.

It makes me wonder about Technicolor and all their competitors. Personally, I liked Technicolor. The images always seemed to have a special brilliance.

I am sure I have overlooked a lot. On the other hand, is it really practical to include it all in one large post.

I guess the one comment might seem small to many. To me, it launched me into a lifetime of memories. Memories of memories, so to speak.

Thanks .