It’s About Making Babies!

NML on Baggage Reclaim contends that certain themes keep running through the music in her life, themes having to do with love gone wrong, and getting past past mistakes, and about healing.

Now, I am *not* a ‘fallback girl’ and am not getting over an Emotionally Unavailable Man such as NML writes about on Baggage Reclaim.

But I do find some songs, some books, some movies can distract, can help heal emotional hurts.

Ok, so all I have are a few songs that have horrible stories, but are presented so entertainingly.

Lovefool, the Cardigans.

Then there are the classic stories,
It wasn’t God who make Honky Tonk Angels, by Kitty Wells, and by Wanda Jackson and by Loretta Lynn. Copyright 1952, Peer International, written by Jay D. Miller. I heard this on the compilation album, Sioux City Sue, title song sung by Bing Crosby. Sioux City Sue is another classic, horrible song, “Your eyes are blue; I’d swap my horse and dog for you”, only it is Sue that turns out to be dating every one and loving none.

I like Trick Pony, ‘Pour Me’. “I damn sure ain’t looking for a romance’; so Pour Me, Pour Me, Pour Me another shot of whiskey”. I don’t think the alcohol helps, but I like the ‘leave me along while I heal’ theme.

And the fairy tale story movie, ‘Sabrina’, with Harrison Ford came to mind yesterday, how this is a horrible, horrible fantasy to perpetrate. At the end of the story the EUM, Ford, has a change of heart, and the manipulative bastard finds he ls really in love and runs off to leave his obsessive career to be with the Ugly Duckling turned Swan, Sabrina. The music is great, the way Sabrina develops is wonderful, but the thought that bastards change without even realizing it - what a horrible, horrible lie. On the other hand, I adore the stories in Emma Thompson’s “Love Actually” movie.

Some science fiction novels have been important mood lifters for me. A good novel, one that engages the mind and the imagination, usually also engages the emotions. C. J. Cherryh’s “Pride of Chanur” takes a strong female lead, a merchant ship captain, and throws the world at her. Pyanfar must find truth behind the unknown alien on her deck (the only human in the story), battle the Kif, a pirate race, and face the treachery of her own people. Excellent science fiction, a very good novel, and a good emotional catharsis. Another is Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s “A Conflict of Honors”. Again, not about affairs of the heart, although Priscilla does find a lasting love, I adore how the alien Liadens adopt and befriend this human that drops in the midst of the crew of the trading ship, Dutiful Passage. Immensely rewarding. A more young adult story by the same authors is “Balance of Trade”. A coming of age story without any romance, BoT explores personal growth across cultural boundaries. Gotta love the young psychic twins and Merlin, the cat. I find all three of these stories quite healing.

The A-Teens released a Disco memorium of ABBA tunes, The A-Teens Generation. One of Us is a great lament. The sound is pure ABBA, with a bright new tone. Then there is K. D. Lang’s Absolute Torch and Twang album with the soulful Three Days, with Full Moon Full of Love.

There is Dean Martin’s All Time Greatest Hits from the 1950’s And a movie that uses several of the tracks, Return To Me with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. I love Helen Hunt’s advice for a first date, “Whatever you do, don’t shave your legs. Hairy legs are your only link to reality.” Minnie tells Helen she should stitch that in a pillow. Great Sinatra tunes, good story, and Frank Loggia and Carrol Oconnor.

How do you heal?

Sharon Astyk at Causabon’s Book (”Sabbaths: Public and Personal“) admires the article that Aaron on The Oil Drum wrote, “The Four Day Work Week: Sixteen Reasons Why This Might Be an Idea Whose Time Has Come“.

10 years ago I worked at a Lockheed Martin R&D plant in Goodyear, AZ. They worked a 9 day/two weeks schedule. The work week began at noon on Friday. Monday through Thursday were nine (9) hour days. On Friday, we alternated. One Friday everyone worked Friday morning to finish the week’s 40 hours, and that Friday afternoon worked the first 4 hours of the following week. The next Friday no one worked - the 40 hours were completed on the previous day. Setting the beginning of the work week at noon Friday made the calculations and mechanics of working two weeks with one day less to commute work easily.

Sharon and Aaron enthuse about saving fuel, about saving the energy needed to run the plant, and about extra family time.

Sharon, for her part, wants to make not just one less commute day, but a legally mandated ‘no commerce day’, a day of freedom from supervision, work - a sabbath.

My first inclination, when I started reading Sharon’s post (good reading, very thoughtful, as always), was that she overstated the resistance and inability of industry to adapt to a four day work week, short of a law imposing the issue. My observation is that the resistance is in labor unions, labor union contracts, and labor union leaders. Labor unions are perhaps the epitome of conservative social agendas, dragging industries into bankruptcy to protect their status quo and their positions of power. And yet labor unions, by and large, support Democratic candidates and campaigns (maybe easier to influence, more naive? Hello! President Jimmy Carter - does that ring a bell?!)

No, corporations can choose to manage their affairs quite easily - many companies find Friday a weak day for productivity anyway. Whether the pre-weekend slacking would just drift to erode Thursday, assuming a Monday-Thursday work week, will be interesting to watch. Working out what a ten (10) hour day means for start times vs. other familiy commitments such as school times, day care, doctor appointments, etc. will be interesting, but doable. Breaks, meal times, etc. will work themselves out.

But Sharon seems enamored of the idea that the commuteless day means more family time. Ha! Unless schools go to 4 day weeks, that won’t happen. What families need is not ‘quality’ time as portrayed on TV - they need more time of kids working, parents working and all working together. It is in sharing work that kids learn values, learn discipline, and learn about society, culture, and beliefs in the family. And most families don’t / won’t share work with kids. They don’t have any work to share.

Sure, that extra home-day could be put to use doing major garden work, but various seasons in the garden need daily attention to prosper. Once-a-week, even a three-day span, will have to be awfully well planned and fit weather and garden growth status.

The results I saw of the extra weekend day every other week? More shopping, more time in the car than the usual commute. Yes, the plant did operate 10% fewer days. Except for those people that worked overtime for late projects, or critical projects, or because they needed the extra hours for utility bills.

Most companies use a number of computers. Most business computers assume that humidity and temperature will remain reasonably constant. Most businesses leave the A/C running when the plant is ’shut down’. Major industry will probably show a major change as heavy machinery is idled and powered down, but office type enterprises will show surprisingly little change in energy usage.

Sharon raised the issue of service industries, such as hospitals that are expected to operate 24/7. What about Telephone worker’s unions that hold out for contracts with mandatory overtime for employees - that the company cannot reduce?

What to do?

The cable company here in North Central Oklahoma has cables strung from utility poles. On any given day, I have no problem finding a service truck changing a customer’s services, or making repairs. This is a massive, ongoing operation - with a sizable utility truck. Recently the city installed satellite monitors on all water meters, so water meter trucks don’t have to check each meter each month for accurate billing - that saves fuel and resources. Ohio has been testing broadband over power lines for a couple of years. If that technology comes online, power companies can do many things - charge day rates and night rates, save the cost of human meter readings each month, remotely monitor for unexpected outages or voltage problems.

And I expect the cable truck will still be mending lines, tracking leaks and shorts, and looking for thieves that tap into the line illegally.

Does Wal-Mart have a setup for me to fill out a shopping list, that I can have a neighbor or a delivery service pick up? Not yet. I still have to make my own way to the store to get what is on my list. Does my community have a general delivery service, similar to UPS but serving local merchants and their customers? Not yet.

Does the IRS still limit moving costs, to be closer to work, to moving 35 miles closer, at least? As far as I know. I am also unaware if they mandate that that ‘closer to work’ be within 4 miles, or 10 miles. And moving closer to work has to be the single most effective way to reduce highway congestion for rush hour, reduce fuel usage for commutes, and increase time available for home.

Or time for the three-day-a-week second career that Sharon and Aaron’s four day week will create. Hide and watch.