Uber - very interesting experience

We are staying at the Logan Hilton overnight since we are leaving so early in the morning so we decided to take a cab to Alewife MBTA station.  We need to take a cab since no busses run to Lexington on Saturdays (a topic for another blog post).  Rod called two cab companies and neither had a cab to send out to us.  Really????  One said they could send one in 30 minutes which was tolerable but then called us back to say they did not have a cab for us.

We had used Uber when we were in London in June.  Our friends Andy and Miriam use these services all of the time and I had loaded the app onto my iPhone out of curiosity but had never used it.  I got onto Uber and requested a cab.  Someone would arrive in 6 minutes, which was just about how much time it would take us to get ready.  The app showed us a picture of the driver, the kind of car he drives and we could look on a map to see where he was as he approached our house.

In the end we took the cab all the way to the airport hotel for $30, rather than switching to the MBTA.  This is a lot less than half of what a cab would cost.  I don't think this is a perfect situation, but Uber is definitely going to shake up the cab industry and I for one am only going to use Uber from now on because of the convenience and because of their business model.  We talked a lot to the driver on the way to the airport.  He used to drive in Norwood and has worked for Uber for 1 month.  He is convinced that Uber will win the current legal battle in Boston.

I understand that there is tension in this industry between the traditional cab companies and Uber, but believe me, if I cannot get a cab at all in Lexington and I don't really have another option, this is how I have to get somewhere without a cab and on a day when the busses are not running.  I am often an early adopter of technology so for now on I will adopt this new business model, until I get burned or hurt somehow.

"Please don't tell me what to do!"

On one of the early days of our Morocco trip, this was uttered by one of the participants (name withheld intentionally).  This is such a complicated dynamic and I have thought about it, and examined it almost daily since then.

We all have expertise and knowledge that we like to share with others.  Remember back to second grade when the teacher asked a question and hands shot up waiting to be called upon.  We were rewarded back then for having knowledge and the correct answer.  

So this sharing of knowledge is a good thing right? especially as some of us start forgetting things.  It is nice to have someone around who can remember the name that you cannot remember.  Or that place, or that person.

I want to come clean and just say that I do not like to be told what to do.  I already have a mother, and don't need another one, thank you very much.  So often the telling comes across as parent to child and protecting.  I don't need to be protected, although sometimes I do need to be warned about the pot hole I am about to step in.  

I think another reason I react to the sharing of knowledge is that I do not learn by lecture or by reading.  I learn by doing and talking about it, so when someone "shares" their knowledge I view it as a lecture and immediately glaze over and check out of the conversation.  

I know that almost all of the time, this sharing is done to be helpful, and has a positive intent.  In the last 6 weeks, and even during the Morocco trip, I was able to reframe the words and say "This person is just trying to be helpful and share all they know."  It is not because they are being a know-it-all or a show off, but they really are trying to be helpful.  This helped/helps so much to reframe their intent.

I will still react with the "Don't tell me what to do." and if I can catch myself I might be able to reframe it and not feel like the child in the classroom lecture.  The wonderful thing about being human is that if we choose to, we can learn about ourselves every single day.  AND we can reframe and hear things differently, if we catch ourselves and let ourselves.  It is a great day to be alive!

Morocco - Tagine cooking and eating

We got a tagine when we bought a table which is being shipped back

Prior to visiting Morocco, I knew that a meal cooked in a Tagine was a traditional way to eat.  I was not surprised then that most of the meals we ate were cooked in a Tagine and we had a pretty large variety of Tagine cooked/served meals.  I long for those meals now that we are back from that magical trip just over 3 weeks.

It really makes so much sense, and is like a crock pot is some ways.  Put the ingredients in a pot, and start the cooking.  It is also not exactly like a crock pot.  Most of the Tagines we were served were a beautiful shape, with beautiful covers.  There was a bit of drama each time we were served as the server removed the lid and the steam started rising out of the food.  Sometimes the vegetables were added as the last layer, and covered the rest of the ingredients and were laid at an angle rising toward the center.  Usually we were eating at a table, the Tagine was put in the middle of us, and we shared the serving dish.

Moroccans do not eat with a fork and knife but rather take a small piece of bread and dip it in the sauce from the Tagine and then pick up a morsel of meat or vegetable.  Other culture do not use utensils so I ask "Why do we have to have metal utensils with which to eat?"

In our lunch home visit, our table was set at the far end of the room, and the family ate at another table.  We had forks and spoons at our places but they did not.  Their two year old, Fatima, spotted our utensils and non-verbally started gesturing that she wanted our utensils.  They fetched her a spoon, but NO she wanted a fork, so they fetched her a fork.  At that point one of our members said "Maybe we should try to eat with bread and forget about the utensils."  It was one of those moments on the trip where we kept an open mind and experimented with their culture.

Fatima and Ali - her wanting the fork

At the end of the meal, the person whose initial reaction was "That would be pretty hard, and I don't think I can do that." said "The food tasted much better eaten this way."

There are a lot of efficiencies in Tagine cooking and serving.  You can cook it slowly, and it tastes better with all the ingredients cooking together.  There is a lot less wasted food, and you have portion control.  It is a more intimate experience and seems like the food tastes better.  Less dishes to wash, etc.

When we got back to the US and ordered our first humongous meal in NYC, I sighed a deep sigh.

We got a tagine in Morocco, and when we got back home, we cooked a few times in the tagine to keep the experience alive for a bit longer.  We probably will cook some in the tagine and bring those memories back, and probably have a more intimate meal than we usually do.  And eat with just bread and our hands.

Morocco - Hammam

On our Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip there is a "Life in the Day of Morocco" and ours was in Tineghir.  The most spiritual part of my trip took place in the Hammam.  There are tourist Hammams however, OAT takes the participants to a local Hammam and not the tourist one.  They do this based on tour guides input, and their goal to get OAT travelers as close to the local life as possible.  We were split by gender and they had hired two women to wash us in the Hammam.  They also hired men to wash the men in their side of the Hammam.

We were told to bring dry underwear, shampoo or soap, a towel and 100 dirham (10 dollars).  Honestly we were all pretty nervous as we entered the dressing room.  These were church friends, and we had not seen each other almost naked (we were allowed to keep our underwear on).  The two women said "Take off your clothes!"  Some of us were not quick enough so they said "Bras too!" and in one case they helped the woman take her bra off.

We then entered the hot room, or steam room.  They put plastic for us to sit down.  The locals brings mats to sit on and a bucket with their cleaning stuff.  When we entered the next room, where the two women washed us, there was a mother washing her 8 year old daughter.  She proceeded to wash her for the nearly 45 minutes that we were there.  While she washed her she sang to her.  It was probably a bit overwhelming to have us arrive, 8 women who were chattering and nervous and speaking English.  Part way through this, one of the woman washing us sang a song from Titantic to us, I think to get us to sing.  None of us knew the words, so she said "Sing, sing."  We then did sing some songs we knew, as the two women washed, scrubbed and then rinsed us by pouring buckets of warm water over us.  We were warned that there was a cold room, and a cold bucket of water, but that did not happen.  In the middle part of the experience, the 2 women scrubbed, and I mean scrubbed us, all over pretty roughly.  It felt wonderful.

Moroccans go to their Hammam once a week, and get really clean and wash each other.  Two twenty year olds were there washing each other when we first arrived.  The ritual of washing another person, and the ritual of getting scrubbed, washed and rinsed really well once a week is very spiritual.  The ritual of singing while you wash each other is so tender and magical.

We all grew fairly comfortable with the experience.  Apparently the men all did not have the same experience.  They did not talk to each other and lay like stiff logs.  I wasn't there so I cannot say, this is just what some of them said.

Sunday in church I was describing why I gave a sweater away to my friend Amy.  "It did not fit right around my breasts",  I said.  One of the woman who was in the Hammam that day said "Yes, and we all know how big your breasts are now."  It was pretty funny, the remark that is.

The experience in the Hammam however is one I will never forget.  I am trying to find one around Boston.  It was not be such a good deal as we got in Morocco, in that it will be more like a spa experience, which is part of the reason I have not gone yet.  The local Hammam, where the local Moroccans go, and the mother singing to her daughter are images I will never forget.  It did get us involved in a day in the life of Moroccans.

Leaf Raking over the years

While I was outside today at 7:30 am raking leaves into bags I reminisced about my leaf and fall memories.  I don't remember raking any leaves in Colorado.  When we moved to Vermont and lived on Park street we loved the fall and leaves.  We raked them into piles and jumped in the piles.  We made entire houses and forts similar to snow forts out of them with very wide walls between the rooms.  Eventually we raked them to the curb and I think the town picked them up or maybe we burned them.  I cannot remember which.  Those leaves provided hours and hours of entertainment for the 6 and then 7 of us.  The smell in the fall brings me right back to 69 Park Street and playing in the front yard with the leaves.

My next big leaf memory is when we moved into our current house when Christopher was 12 years old and Bethany was 3 years old.  Our Arlington house had some leaves but not like this house.  We raked the leaves into a big pile and jumped in them and played in them and eventually bagged them.  I was probably recreating my childhood on Park Street but my kids played outside in the leaves, at least at that age.  Our first Christmas card in that house was them in a leaf pile.

Over the years, we became busy, and leaves became a chore.  There were lots of them, we were working full time, raising two wonderful children and even some graduate school thrown in there.  One year we dragged the leaves onto the boundary line between us and our neighbors.  That was the only complaint we heard from Dot and Neil, who otherwise were the best neighbors in the world.  Their granddaughter used that hill in the winter for sledding and he was upset that it would ruin her sled hill.  One year we dragged the leaves onto tarps, loaded both of our station wagons with the tarps and drove them to the DPW recycling pile.  This was my favorite method but it was a chunk of time we no longer have/had.

At a certain point we started hiring someone to clean up our leaves.  We threw money at it and a noisy machine arrived twice a year and blew our leaves away.  I am sorry to offend anyone including my husband, but I hate those blowy leaf machines.  They ruin the sounds and smell of fall and leaf raking.  Gasoline and noise are not what I think about for leaf raking.  This spring we decided to mow our own lawn and clear up our own leaves.   Rodney has done all of the mowing this year and we were able to keep ahead of it.  Fast forward to the fall and the leaves that are accumulating.

Rodney decided to sail to the Bahamas.  OK, he is sailing from Marathon, Florida to the Bahamas with my sister and brother-in-law helping them move their boat/home south.  Right now they are waiting for a weather window to make that sail and then he is headed home to do his part raking the leaves.  Hopefully the snow we are expecting will arrive after he is finished with his part of the raking.

SO in the meantime, I set a goal for myself of bagging two bag a day of leaves.  I enjoy it but it is a solo activity and I am not a solo person.  20 minutes is my tops for a solo activity.  That is why gardening is out, unless someone is there talking to me.

I thought of inviting someone to rake with me, and then I would rake with them at their house.  Any takers?

I admit it, I am stubborn and am not going to hire a landscaping company to spread noise and gasoline smell once again in our neighborhood.  Picking away at it by two bags a day will get the job done, and Rodney will return from the Bahamas to finish the task.

Morocco - call to prayer

I have heard the call to prayer a few other times before we heard it in Morocco.  In Brooklyn when I visited with Bethany, she lived close to a Mosque and we heard it on our way to the subway.

However, for two weeks in Morocco, I grew very fond of this part of the Islam religion.  In Fes, we were staying right next to a Mosque within the Medina.  For me it was comforting to hear the 5am call to prayer both of those mornings.  While touring the Fes Medina with our local guide right inside all of that hustle and bustle was a Mosque, that Muslims took off their shoes and entered for the midday call to prayer.  In Marrakesh, as we watch the Square from one of the Terraces drinking our mint tea, we could hear and then see three different Mosques.  During this time we watched a Muslim climb up to his roof and face Mecca and pray from his rooftop.  On our final day we were in the Medina in Marrakesh and heard the call again.  It was amazing how the Medina got very quiet, during that time, for just 5 minutes.

During one of our home visits with Amina, we asked about prayer.  We had asked her about removing our shoes when we first arrived, and she had said "You only need to have them off when you enter the salon."  Mind you, her Salon, and two separate living areas were all one big room, but the Salon had a carpet. Notice in this picture that we all have our shoes off. 

After we asked about prayer, she actually demonstrated what she does for prayer.  She put on a scarf, took off her shoes, walked to a corner of her Salon and prayed for just a few minutes.  It was very powerful, how comfortable she felt with us within 45 minutes, and that she could perform her prayer in front of us.  We had the conversation about going to the Mosque or praying at home.   Amina said "It is between Allah and me where I pray."  We asked out guide about this and he said that men are supposed to go to the Mosque and that women do not have to. 

Of course we are not Muslim, and this is not one of our five tenants but somehow the practice of pausing 5 times a day and facing Mecca and praying for just a few minutes seems like a very good idea.  What if other religions in the world practiced this?  Are there other practices, like meditation, that are like this?  So among other things, I miss the 5 times a day call to prayer that we heard all over Morocco.

Morocco - mint tea

I like mint tea.  It is my second favorite tea after chamomile tea.  I had read that Moroccans drink a lot of mint tea.  They really do, or at least we were served a lot of mint tea, while we were there.  Our guide Mohammed said several times that it is good for digestion.

Obviously waiters love to show off pouring the tea and here was our first example of this.  Whenever we were served tea, it was usually in a pretty small glass and several places we were able to get it unsweetened, although usually it was sweetened or served with multiple cubes of sugar.

I almost bought some mint leaves to bring back to make tea, since I really liked this tradition. Obviously Moroccans have for thousands of years served and consumed mint tea.  Every house we visited had the tray of glasses ready to be poured.  I don't think we ever finished a meal, without the mint tea.  When we were being shown rugs made in Morocco, the men there walked us through the entire process of making mint tea.  Part of the reason to pour it from a height, it to cool off the tea.  In fact, I watched a man in a restaurant with a single serving of tea and he poured his from a height.  At first I thought that with the heat I would not like to drink the hot tea, but in the two weeks there, I grew to love this wonderfully centering ritual.

Our guide had to be very diplomatic, when he knew we should not be drinking the tea a few places.  One time in the semi-nomadic tent in the dessert, he knew we should not drink it, so he said we had just had some.  The nomads put away their already prepared tray at that point.  Little rituals like this were precious and became more so as they were repeated continually during our time in Morocco.  I just might plant some mint and use fresh mint instead of my tea bags for my evening tea in the future.

Morocco-plastic bags and bottles

Plastic bottles and bags have been a pet peeve of mine for years.  Annually I examine what I can commit to in terms of using less raw materials.  I use canvass bags at the grocery store, pretty much refuse to buy water in a plastic bottle, try to bring my reusable mug or glass with me, etc, etc, etc.

I knew this would be an internal battle for me in Morocco and one which I could never win.  We were handed a 2-liter bottle of water every morning on the bus, were coached to not drink any water and in fact not eat fresh fruit and vegetables except in a rare restaurant within a rare hotel. I get it, and I did not want to get it (the travelers GI bug).

That one I had to accept, salute, comply and move on.

However, the use of plastic bags is not one I had to accept.  I had my little reusable bag tucked in the corner of my backpack and when I bought something I handed it to the vendor.  I got really weird looks from almost all of them!  "Why is this strange American giving me this bag?"  During our drive over the High Atlas Mountains, or along almost every road we were on, blue plastic bags, or remnants of them clung to tree branches and bushes.  I knew I could not go and collect them off the trees and bushes but I was reminded of the first Vermont Clean up day in the late 1960s when I collected trash from one mile along Route 73.  I felt powerful that day and honestly, I think we have less trash with the bottle deposit.

20-30 years ago we did not use so many plastic bags and neither did they in Morocco I suspect.  Plastic does not disintegrate, ever! We recycle plastic bags now and I worry that they still end up in the landfill.

I felt such despair in Morocco as I stared out at each beautiful landscape dotted with shreds of plastic bags.  I suppose they have many bigger life issues than these bags on their flora.  I am a Polyanna and feel like I can do something about these bags and bottles, my little part of refusing plastic bags and bottled water.  Many of our improvements of modern life are not really improvements, they are taking a step backwards, and use of plastic bags and bottles is one of these.  I will continue to fight my own little private battle here in the US and try to ignore the despair I felt when I go through my pictures of that beautiful country.

Morocco-toilets

Our tour company Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) has an online area where people share information.  One tidbit shared was; whenever you leave the bus and are headed to the WC have three this with you, a 1 dirham coin, toilet paper and purel.

This was such good advice for the countless trips to the WC.  Even if you forgot your coin, or paper or purel, the others would bail you out and lend you one of the three.  

I was a bit nervous about the toilets and I did not need to be.  I only once had to use a squatting one and the ones I used were "pretty" clean.  It was just not an issue for me.

On my return to the U.S. I actually miss tipping the attendant.  Oh sure, I could tip them and will when there is one but in Morocco, even if the attendant were not there, a dish was, or our group looked for a dish.  It became so expected and routine for all of us.

Two clever entrepreneurs, removed our 1 dirham coins immediately as we placed them in the dish, and left a 10 dirham coin in the dish, hoping we would see just the 10 and think we should leave another 10 dirham for them.

Bottom line is we should tip well the workers who clean our johns and keep our WCs supplied with paper and soap, no matter what country we are in and no matter whether there is a dish there or not.  Just my opinion.

Online photo-a-day class

I signed up for an online class run by a friend.  She sends out a one word prompt for each day and all of the members post their photo in a closed Facebook group.  It has been just over a week since this started and I am really enjoying it so far.

I find myself looking at the world in a different way.  Before this, I often saw an image that would make a great quilt.  Now I see things through the prompts.  "That would make a great picture for yesterday's GOLDEN prompt."

The first day, I tried to get into a routine and take a morning meditative walk, looking for inspiration for the daily prompt.  That routine lasted one day.  I should know better than to try to introduce a rigorous routine into my day.  My myers-briggs personality is much more go with the flow.  What has worked really well is to have the prompt in my mind for the day.

With GOLDEN, I was shopping with a friend and took a ton of pictures of yellowy golden items.  They would have been OK, but on a walk with Rod and Bethany this man got off the bus and put his umbrella up.  That was GOLDEN.  Rod and Bethany thought I was crazy, whipping out my iPhone to take a picture of what.  What is Mom up to now?

Rod once told me that he likes to learn one new thing a year and I have adopted that as well.  This year I am going to learn from this class and it will increase my spirituality as well.  The creation of my theology is sparked by connections between myself and others, and this is already happening within our Facebook group.  Stay tuned for more blog posts as this class continues.

Fairpoint Customer Service - LOUSY

For those who follow me, I blog about horrible and superb customer service experiences and everything in between.  I am finally online today so I can write and publish this blog.

OK, we have a house in Vermont because of the lifestyle.  We have no TV at our house (House has the name of Coniston), and we did not have internet for about the first 6 months.  We added satellite for a few years and a year ago, we caved in and switched to Fairpoint.  It was about 1000 times faster than Wild Blue Satellite and we have been very please for a year.  We do not live here full time but when we are here, the speed of the DSL has been adequate.  Rod can watch Netflix, which is the largest connectivity we need.

Yesterday morning, we both got up and tried to check email, and neither of us could get mail.  Our modem was live but we could not connect to the Internet.  We shut off electronic equipment went on our way.  2 hours later we checked again and still nothing.  We had our iPhones if we really needed to call of find something.

Last night at 8, when we got back from the activities of the day, still nothing.  We are going on 12 hours now, and truth be told we were both twitching a little bit.  I called customer service and they knew nothing about when we would be back up.  The rep at that point said to call back in the morning and there would be more information.  Again, we are in Vermont, we don't encourage technology at our house, and we could live another 12 hours, AND I have my 3G iPhone still.  Yes, I still have a 3G iPhone which is getting replace as soon as Apple releases their next iPhone and I will buy a 5S.

This morning I called at 8am, and got this message "We are sorry but due to the high volume of calls we cannot take your call."  I have worked in technology, and I have taught customer service and this was like waving a red flag to a bull.  There was no way to talk to anyone, nor leave a message, nor ask a question.  Their website was not up-to-date with outage information.  Yes, it is pretty slow to surf the web on my 3G phone but I did while my coffee was brewing.

I called back at 10 and got through to a live person in Texas, Brittany.  I asked her if she knew when we would be back up.  NOPE.  I asked her if anyone in Fairpoint knew when we would be up.  NOPE.  She started being very defensive and definitely had an attitude.  I asked her why she was being defensive.

In my experience, and in customer service training, you never are defensive with the customer.  I reached my limit and asked to speak with her supervisor, Curtis.  He was teflon, in that nothing stuck to him.  He had no information, did not know who did, did not know what the problem was, etc.  Rod at this point emailed the CEO of Fairpoint, and I started tweeting (which I never do but I have a Twitter account).  Down Detector have both of our tweets and face books posts on their page about Fairpoint.

Two things astound me.  That we are some of the few tweets and Facebook posts on the Down Detector site.  AND That Fairpoint is still in business.  Maybe the lifestyle in Vermont is really such a lay back one that people would not complain about the Internet being down for 36 hours.   I am sure there are people in Vermont who have Fairpoint and Twitter.  Do Vermonters not complain like we flatlanders from Massachusetts?  Is Fairpoint's reputation such that people are used to being down? The few tweets out there indicate that it is down a lot.  Does Fairpoint has few enough customers in Vermont that there is no one to complain?  If this is the case, please leave a note about which provider you are using in Vermont for internet connection.

I worked in technology and was on calls for 24 hours at a time where tech support was trying to solve a problem.  What we learned was to give customers information, be transparent, let them know when you would give them an update, and give them one.  The first outage we did not do that, and we suffered the repercussions, on twitter, blogs and other social media.  The later outages, customers thanked us for the transparency on twitter, blogs and other social media.

So, I told Curtis that I blog about customer service, both good and bad and here it is.  One person's experience with Fairpoint DSL and today my experience was LOUSY!  AND I got online by changing DNS settings on my computer, a solution which I found from a poster on the Down Detector website.  He can figure out how to get around the problem but the Fairpoint tech support cannot.  HMMMMMMM?

Liam, snakes and gardening

WOW, I really thought that I had already blogged about this.  One of our first years at Coniston, Christopher walked up the boardwalk to the house and jumped back when a snake slithered out of the woodpile.  My sister stayed here for a few weeks and named the snake Liam.

Rod said when Christopher jumped back "He is a lot more afraid of you than you are of him."

Christopher said "Then he must be shitting his pants."

We have retold this story many times since that day.

Today while out gardening, weeding actually, a snake slithered out of the weeds and I jumped back and screamed loudly.

Rod said "What, a snake or a spider?"

Sally said "A snake, I don't scream for spiders, and only call you for wolf spiders."

So, Christopher comes by this fear of snakes honestly and I have yet another reason not to garden or weed.

Packing for a Month

This is a crazy summer.  All good things are happening but maybe just too many of them all packed into the same summer.

In light of that I reflected on packing for all of these trips.  We went to Star Island last week, and I usually reserve my Star t-shirts to wear for the week.  After Star we will primarily be staying at Coniston so rather than pack again for Vermont and Coniston, I am going to wear my Star t-shirts all summer up there.  EXCEPT, I will need a few collared shirts for golf if I want to play golf this summer up in Vermont.  OK, so when I go home this week for 3 days, I will have to remember my golf clubs and because I want to sew some quilts I will have to remember the correct fabric and all the right accessories for those quilts.  YIKES, this is getting very complicated.

I wonder how Mom used to pack for the summer when we went to stay most of the summer on Gardiner Island on Lake Champlain.  Did we just throw all of our clothes into a duffel bag? did we pack our own bag or did we pack with a sibling?  We always seemed to have enough clothes although we spent most of the summer in our bathing suits so maybe it did not matter.

For our first wedding of the summer we had to pack for a black tie wedding.  Evening gown and tux.  For our second wedding of the summer, just a regular dress sufficed, and a suit for Rodney.  For the 4th of July, I remembered to pack my red, white and blue hat.

So it will be a miracle if I remember everything, and if everything is in the right place, but when it comes down to it, as long as I have something to wear, I can rent golf clubs and sew something with the fabric already up at Coniston, or I could go buy more fabric.  These are all first world problems.  I carry the essentials in my backpack and everything else is just an add on.

TV Watching

In a conversation with friends this weekend we talked about TV shows that we used to watch.  There were not any recording devices or an internet to store all the shows.  There was not even replays that I remember.  On Sunday night, we all watched Disney and Bonanza.  The kids watched Captain Kangaroo.  It was great to remember all of those shows.  The memories of the entire family sitting down to watch a show together and 50 years later, it seems that we were all watching the same ones.

It is so different now.  I already watched the Sox games earlier, which is my default viewing lately so I was at a loss for what to watch.  I started to watch some PBS, since I have had enough news for the day and then noticed that a Facebook friend was watching the hockey game so that is what I am watching now.  There was a point in my life when I would never watch a hockey game unless Boston was in the Stanley Cup finals.  I have actually grown to like watching hockey.  But I digress.....

There is such a variety of shows to watch and times to watch them that there is not the same common language around TV.  Sure, there are shows that a lot of friends watch, Mad Men, but even that can be watched On Demand after the show airs.

Our discussion also included listening to the radio as well as watching TV.  I don't remember that as much as our first TV which we got in Colorado in 1960 to watch the JFK inauguration.

I actually don't watch that many series and I hate most reality TV, except Dancing with the Stars of course.

TV is also a background activity for me.  Sometimes it is on while I read my email, or quilt.  As an extravert, I want background noise most of the time, so it serves that purpose.

So, TV watching has changed and I am not sure how I feel about that.  I much prefer Lucy or My Three Sons, to most series today.  We did watch West Wing recently and that is great TV.  House of Cards was OK, but not great.  And somehow I have become a sports fan.  Maybe it is to be able to converse about sports, but I really enjoy the Sox games, and as I blog this I have the LA vs CHI game on in the background.  I don't really care who wins, I am just happy Montreal is out of the running, because they beat us.

Last note.  It is funny to see how deep those old TVs were.  Technology sure has change, which enables this different TV viewing.

Latest Rant - pulling over for sirens and emergency vehicles

Driving through the center of town today, I heard and then saw a police car behind me so I carefully pulled over to the right to let them pass.  MOST of the other drivers also pulled over.  That was all pleasant and thoughtful.

However, when it came time for us to start driving again, don't you think you would do it in sequential order.  The first car in line pulls out, then the second, then the third?  That is not the case in my home state of Massachusetts.  The most impatient person pulls out first, cutting off the others ahead of her in line.  It causes absolute chaos, and is just plain rude.  

As this happened today I gave the two people the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe they did not think I was ready to drive yet.  My inching forward to try to take my turn getting out since I was in front of her could have been a clue.  Apparently she was in such a hurry, after all we had been stopped for less than 20 seconds.  To me this is just plain courtesy.  I was ahead of you before we pulled over, therefore I get to pull out first.

This behavior really pisses me off.  In my zen state of mind I tried to let it go and let her go in front of me, but I just do not understand it.  I have lived in Massachusetts since 1984 so you would think I would be used to it by now.  

The sirens and lights are a clue folks.  Pay attention, slow down and chillax.  

Restaurant Review - Asmara in Cambridge

Last night we were in Central Square in Cambridge to see "The Golden Door" at the Cambridge YMCA.  Who knew they had a theater at the Y?

We went a bit early to eat, because Central Square has lots of great restaurants.  We tried to get into an organic restaurant but decided not to wait in line and instead went a few doors down to Asmara.  It is Eritrean/ Ethiopian food and we were both really glad we decided to go there instead of the first one we walked into.

The food is all served communally on a large plate or platter.  Some of the tables are actually very low baskets that the platter fits into.  We sat at a regular table with the platter between us.

No utensils were on the table however, the meal was served on top of Injera, a bread made of teff grain, kind of like an Indian dosa.  As an aside, teff is grown in the US in Idaho which must have the same climate.  There was a table tent card describing this on our table.

They also served extra injera bread to eat the meal with.  Ours was an vegetarian variety of cabbage, lentils, sweat pea, and some spicy sauces.  These were all arranged in a circle.  In the middle of the platter was a very nice traditional tomato salad.

It was great to eat as they do in Eritrea and it was great to experience a different kind of food.  The waitress was very helpful explaining how the food would arrive, and explaining the menu.  She also warned us about the green peppers in the tomato salad.

After we left, I read Yelp reviews and I guess there are always bad experiences and some people love to complain.  We loved the meal and plan already to return with Bethany and Bryan, and probably others.

It is so interesting how Rod and I are.  Now that we know about this restaurant, and how great the experience was, when we are near Central Square it will be a regular destination.

I love NOT eating at chains, and I love experiencing a new ethnic food.  I also am a creature of habit and once I love a restaurant I am apt to want to go back there often.

"The Lunchbox" Wow, what a system

We saw the move "The Lunchbox" last night which really got me thinking a lot.  I just now finished reading about this incredible delivery system of lunch to workers in India.

It is amazing in this day and age that such a complex system still exists, and yet a simple system.  It is nice to know that people still appreciate home cooked meals, versus a restaurant meal.

I wonder how long this system will exist, and how long it will continue to be an effective delivery of lunch to office workers.  The movie quite accurately shows Mumbai and the collecting of the lunch boxes by bicycle, sorting to get on the right train, then unloading them and delivering them on the other end, again by bicycle, to the office workers.  And in the afternoon leg, the collecting of the lunch box to return it to the home.

I suppose it gives a job to the deliverers, and provides a home cooked meal to workers with a specific dietary requirement.

On one hand, I really love that this system of delivery has existed for over 100 years, and again I wonder how long it will last.

The story line was wonderful.  It is true, that we express in writing, things we would not otherwise express face to face.  Both main characters are lonely, and share of themselves in notes left in the lunch tins.  They share a lot in these notes in fact.

The only thing that I did not like was the ending.  It left me hanging and caused me to make up the ending, which is OK I guess.