~by Mary Weaver
Do you remember watching Sesame Street with your kids or grandchildren?
I feel like Oscar the Grouch. As you may recall Oscar lived in a garbage can, was a slimy green colored furry Muppet that always spoke gruffly. If you are really old, he is a parallel to Mr. Bluster who was a puppet on the Howdy Doody show. Both Oscar’s and Mr. Bluster’s cups were always half empty.
So okay, you want to know why I am searching for a garbage can large enough for escape?
●Halloween Candy was on the shelves at the grocery store before school started.
●One or two gift catalogs come every day in the mail. They don’t say Merry Christmas, but I know.
● I was in a grocery store after a meeting in Adel. Three people were chatting with their carts, and no one moved. I waited a few seconds and finally I announced myself by saying “excuse me”.
●The National evening news has 7-8 minutes of apocalyptic weather stories, forest fires in several locations, mud slides, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat like we have never seen before, and droughts in numerous places.
In addition……I attended one day of the Summit pipeline hearing being held in Fort Dodge, hosted by the Iowa Utilities Board. Attendees were restricted to parking 200 feet away from the building by barricades including a large pickup truck blocking the building driveway entrance. Fort Dodge police, Webster County sheriff’s deputies, five identifiable private security people, had me empty my purse, and pockets,“wanded” me and made me take my iced tea in a plastic container back to the car. The chair of the IUB was addressed as YOUR HONOR, but he is not a judge. This was only a public hearing to allow landowners to provide testimony about why they did not want the pipeline to cross their fields.
Finally, four grand juries (composed of U.S. citizens from different parts of the country), 91 indictments, and we observe a former president essentially thumbing his nose at our democracy and profiting from T-shirt sales.
So, is it just the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER?
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the ancient Greeks and Romans believed the “dog days” to be a time of misfortune plagued by drought and unrest as animals and people alike were driven mad by the unbearably hot temperatures.
“Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia” written by Anthony Cavender, states “The rise of the Dog Star, Sirius, was thought to be a dangerous time for both people and animals. During ‘dog days,’ dogs were more susceptible to going mad, snakes more inclined to bite, and sores and wounds less likely to heal.”
I do hope the Dog Days will end September 1.
My current antidotes to the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER:
Be courteous to those around you
Do not block grocery store aisles with carts
Do not talk on cell phones when in a group with others
Hold the door for others coming or going
In traffic situations, let cars merge
Pick up five pieces of trash daily
Take time for lunch with friends; laughter is therapeutic
Get up early to watch the sunrise, and sit quietly and watch the sunset
Go for a walk in Squirrel Hollow Park
Have Greene County football team members come and move heavy furniture; such courteous and strong young men.
I will want to climb out of this garbage can mentality, and they do not make 6 feet tall garbage cans that can be easily climbed out of when the Dog Days have passed.
Mary Weaver writes from her rural home near Rippey. She is chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus
