Why isn’t someone doing something? The sad and simple answer is that they can’t. No longer do we have a Teddy Roosevelt to step in and just take control telling the complainers and whiners and finger pointers to just shut up and sit down. We have no Harry, the Buck Stops Here, Truman. Today there is no where for the buck to stop. We have no one to step forward and just get things going. Every politician is afraid to take a leadership position. Government is now by committee, sub committee and fact finding groups. By the time any one of these groups find out that the house is truly on fire and that they should get us out, we will all be dead.

We have two presidential candidates representing the major political parties. Fuzzy still doesn’t have a clue as to what either of them truly stand for. The minute a special interest group comes forward they are for whatever that group represents. I am sure if Fuzzy could put together several thousand people to promote feeding diabetics only sugar they would, no how absurd the idea, be all for it. Each candidate has hundreds of advisers telling them what they are for or against. Some of these advisers were poor choices from the start and now are being weeded out.There are number of fact checker websites that are great at pointing out the bull that these candidates are spewing forth because their advisors tell them to. These advisors are telling candidates what the American people want to hear and in most cases they are so wrong.

When the candidates are asked questions that their team hasn’t prepared them for they struggle, stumble and make serious mistakes. This then becomes fodder for the late night comedians and the internet.  Who is going to step forward and say right or wrong? We need to do something and we  need to start now. They politicians need to stop being afraid of making a mistake. They need to stop think about offering incentives to get this country and its people off center and moving. If they are just going to offer incentives nothing will get done while we wait around for a better incentive package. SCREW the incentives. Just pass a law or mandate that this or that must be done. We must stop wringing our hands and crying, "Oh me Oh my". Lets see if we can at least agree as a nation that our elected officials do the job they were elected for. Stop passing the buck. Fuzzy still has no candidate to support or even vote for. This a multiple choice test that will determine our lot for the next 4 years. Like most multiple choice tests there should be an answer that we can check that is NONE OF THE ABOVE.

The Chicken Littles’ of this country are all coming up with one idea after another and all seem to be screaming that the other Chicken’s idea sucks! Fuzzy hasn’t heard a one that doesn’t suck! Every Chicken is concerned with the immediate problem and hasn’t a clue as what to do now or in the future. They bicker and argue and point fingers and think they are contributing to the solution.

Now the fringe element is beginning to join in with their hair- brained ideas. The latest to hit the news channels is an exwildcater’s idea for wind farms. Now Fuzzy will admit that there are a few places on this globe where the wind blows on a fairly continuous basis, but those are few and far between. There are those who want to rush hybrid cars into production and believe they can be at the dealerships almost immediately. If they knew anything about manufacturing and production lines they would know it takes some time for the industry to retool and gear up for a complete model change. Of course Fuzzy hasn’t heard anyone mention just how in the hell we are going to dispose of those hybrid car batteries when we have trouble getting rid of flashlight, cell phone and computer batteries because they are a hazardous material. I guess we will just have to wait and like everything else scramble for a solution when it is too late.

So Fuzzy is looking high and low for a political candidate or member of congress who has the moxey to tell the oil speculators they need to stop. I am looking for one who has the foresight to be able to plan for our future while we still have a hope of having one. I am looking for the person who has the balls to stand up to the dirt eating tree hugging druids and all of the not in my backyarders and say this is where we need to drill and explore for our future. I want one who with judicial use of the EPA guidelines, rules and laws will make our energy future a priority as Kennedy did with putting a man on the moon. Crap, if we working together could do that then this ought be a walk in the park.  Oops, I said working together and we all see how that is going.

Why can’t Fuzzy buy a work pickup truck that has vinyl seats and rubber mats with a simple AM/FM radio? Why can’t I get a TV with a remote control that just turns the set on and off, changes the channels and the volume? There is just too much crap out in the world that instead of making life simpler, it is making it more complicated.

Technology is rushing us headlong towards disaster. Cash registers that calculate the change has caused many of our young people working in the retail sector to lose the ability to add and subtract.  Without the machine, they just can’t do it. You go into a store, restaurant or any other public place and have to listen to others private phone conversations as they continue their call as they try to order. We are becoming very rude to one another.

There is hope on the horizon. There are companies who are beginning to realize that simplicity is needed in our lives. Fuzzy has found a cell phone for his 89 year old father that he can actually use. No longer does he need to push and hold a button to turn it on, just push the on/off button. It has three large buttons to call the operator, home or 911. It has a voice dial phone directory and simple yes and no buttons to operate it. It makes him safer out in the world and eases Fuzzy’s mind.

This is just one example of a company who saw a need for something less complicated and acted to produce a product that is simple and easy to use. On the other hand, this approach can also run amok if taken to extremes. We now have voice activated controls in our cars that are coming off the assembly lines. You can place cell phone calls or order up your favorite music, call a barbershop, pizza delivery and a myriad of other things, all of which diverts the drivers attention from the primary task at hand which is driving the car!  We have already had to outlaw the use of hand held phones and texting while driving because some of us think we can do multiple things at the same time. I wonder if that guy texting on his phone as we hurtle down the highway could shave and brush his teeth at the same time?

Fuzzy’s answer to all of this is just because we have gadgets that can preform multiple tasks doesn’t mean we need to use them. There was a saying that was popular in the engineering circles of the 70’s and 80’s. We even had placards with it on them. It was a focus point of many design review meetings. We surely need to resurrect it and bring it back to the forefront. What you ask is it? Very simple, KISS " keep it simple stupid".

Those of us living on fixed incomes, some at or below the poverty level, are once again becoming the forgotten among us. The Economists tell us the bubble will break and things will come back down in price, just wait it out. Many of us are coming to the end of our ropes. It is almost impossible to put gas in the car to make it to our many doctor appointments. Do I buy groceries or gas?

We are upset over all of the jobs and businesses leaving our country. Now there is an advertisement on our TVs extolling the benefits of doing business in Malaysia. I sit here trying to enjoy a morning cup of coffee and here before me in Hi Def and living color is Jeffery Immelt trying to sell me on the idea how wonderful it would be to move my business to an Asian country! Who is Jeffery Immelt? That unamerican is none other than the Chairman and CEO of  GE! That’s right, General Electric. Kind of  makes Fuzzy want to run out to the store and buy a light bulb. Damn. I feel proud having GE appliances in my house.

Fuzzy has great trepidation before reading today’s local newspaper. Yesterday we voted on the school budget for the coming year. The new budget has a five million plus dollar increase. I would hope it didn’t pass but then we always hear "its for the children". Will my taxes take a jump? Can I and others afford to keep our homes?  All I hear on the news is endless blather on which candidate has the most votes for the nomination but they are not telling me that there is a plan somewhere to help put a lid on this runaway world.

We all need to help put on the breaks by controlling our budgets. Stop the extra spending that is fueling this runaway train.

E-mails are forwarded pointing fingers at various groups, companies and individuals for the the problems plaguing us. Don’t buy gas on a certain day, boycott a certain company, conserve and so on and so on. I can feel the frustration of the writer and senders of these e-mails.  However, they all are missing the point! The point is that the world’s economies are running out of control. Each problem is not just local to one city, region or country, but worldwide.

We can, and most likely will, go on complaining and pointing our fingers at various culprits real or perceived. But we are not ,as a people, doing anything to cope with or control, let alone fix,  the problems. We can look back at what we have sewn and are now reaping but we need to act together and do something. I am sad to say we cannot seem to be able to do that. We cannot get enough of us together to put forth a concerted effort to fix or repair our life situation. We have raised a bunch of isolationist children in whom we have ingrained a deep sense of me first, not in my backyard and let the government fix it. I don’t have time because I am working too hard to keep a house and car that I never really could afford but bought anyway. I can however wring my hands and cry woe is me and the President is to blame. True, the buck does stop on his desk, but he alone didn’t create this, the congress and all of us helped.

Woe to all of us! Fuzzy is having trouble dealing with a civilization that has lost all of its common sense. We have now passed a rule that all the school buses in New York State can no longer sit with idling engines while they are waiting at a school because it costs too much in fuel. WELL who would have thought? Why does common sense have to be legislated? Are we as a people that self-centered and stupid that we do not even realize when we are being wasteful?

A local power company had a news article printed about them because they put forth the idea that we should, in order to save money, conserve. WELL who would have thought. That required a whole article. Economists appear on news channels telling us to shop store brands and use coupons as well as buy in bulk when possible. WELL who would have thought. My family always shopped in that manner but now it is touted as new idea. Fuzzy never thought he was so far ahead of the curve. It is just to easy to be wasteful.

What does Fuzzy think can be done? Basically with the population and mindset we have now, the hard answer is, nothing. We can do nothing because we cannot work and act together. We listen to the rhetoric spewed forth by the political candidates about how they will fix things, bullshit! No one person can fix this alone.

Tell me you are going to make drastic changes in the way the government does business, that pork barrel add ons will no longer be tolerated that support for the country cannot be bought or bartered, and backroom deals are unacceptable. Tell me that you are going to conserve not only in your personal life but in your public life as well. Mandate, and if necessary legislate, conservation because as a people we are too stupid to realize that conservation IS mandatory if we are to survive ourselves. Tell me you are going to work with and cooperate with the rest of the world and stop pissing them off. Tell me how you are going to foster the technology to bring us back from the brink of economic disaster. Tell me you are going to push for more nuclear power plants and that not in my backyard is unacceptable. Tell me you are going to protect our rights as assured us in our constitution. Tell me about how you are going to foster, or better yet demand, cooperation among our political leaders. If you can tell me these things then perhaps you will get my vote. Then you had better live up to your promises!

Fuzzy believes that in the voting booth this fall should be choice entitled NONE OF THE ABOVE. If this gets the most votes then the political parties should be forced into a do over with no nationwide campaining amongst party maembers for the nomination. This is an unlikely senario so Fuzzy, like all of the rest of us, will then vote for the lesser of two evils. But Fuzzy will vote!

I ask that those of you who read this posting forward it on to others. Perhaps, just perhaps, we might wake up and smell the coffee. Conserve in everything, not just gas, but electricity, heat, cooling and groceries. Get tough people, stand up for yourself and in that way you will be standing up for others. Fight for ourselves! Fight wastefulness in our homes, jobs and neighborhoods. There is no THEY, there is only US. They are not doing this to you, you are doing it to yourself and all of the rest of us are helping. As POGO once said "I have met the enemy and they is us".

I also purchased a ride- on tractor last summer for his birthday. This is what he takes around the block. He can pedal that tractor so fast that Mom darn near has to run to keep up. The saving thing is that he has regular stops to make along the way to look at flowers and pick one for mom, the corner where he waits to be escorted across the street and the pine tree to look for pine cones. Fuzzy has learned all of these as I follow him on my scooter.

He does puzzles with mom or dad watching, because he no longer needs or wants help. He particularly likes the map puzzles and when he does the one of the United States he can tell you every state name and capital. He has one of Europe and Asia. How many kids can show you where Uzbekistan is let alone pronounce it?

Every night when possible he spends time with dad listening to and playing along on a drum and tambourine to music. Not the kiddie stuff like, "Mary had a little lamb", but the 1812 Overture. He often sings in dah ta dah way some classical piece which is readily recognizable.

He goes to and enjoys Soccertots, art classes, Gymboree and playgrounds. He knows to watch out for the little people and not push or shove, although the three year old mind sometimes snaps. Frustration, at some little one who is taking too long to go down the slide, does take over but is readily handled by mom or dad. He is after all only three. Right now his favorite phrase is,"I don’t want to" which on occasion comes out in a screeching voice that can rattle windows two blocks away. He is beginning to understand that just because he says, " I don’t want to" it doesn’t mean much, because more often than not he is going to. Ahh, the three year old thing again.

I hear the bell ringing, it is getting closer. Whiz, there goes the mad speed demon again and the race has once again resumed.

Fuzzy is now 65, so it has been a while since his son and daughter were that age and I have forgotten what this period of life can be like. This basically is now all new to me. However I am thankfully a fast learner. You have to be because they don’t wait for you to catch up. Every second can and often is something new.

This particular three year old is my grandson and he lives in Texas. In the past when Fuzzy has visited with him I had to miss out on a lot of the action, my legs would not allow me to keep up. We would go to a zoo and Fuzzy would have to find a bench to sit on while Mom and Dad took Grandson from animal to animal. By the way his favorite is and always has been the giraffe. Even as an infant in a stroller he would just sit and stare at them either in a book, video or in person. Walks around the block were out of the question. It felt like my favorite phrase was "Grandpa will be right here when you get back.".

Well, no more! I decided it was no longer acceptable for Fuzzy to miss out on the fast paced life of a three year old grandson. I had, as all of us, seen the ads for electric scooters. Fuzzy decided it was time to look into acquiring one. A quick search of the Internet showed that you can buy a used one. They seem like they are traded like cars. So Fuzzy bought one. A three wheeled model that can easily be disassembled for transport in a car trunk.

Fuzzy is now having a blast following the Grandson around the block, he on his tractor and me on my scooter. I can keep up at the zoo and other parks. No longer do I uttter  " Grandpa will be right here when you get back." Life is fun.

Fuzzy is not looking for converts to his way of looking at the world. You each have your own unique perspective on that and should enjoy and  take pleasure from it. I hope none of my readers  ever have to go through a major illness. However,  should you find yourself in that situation understand that most of those around you will not truly understand what you are going through.

It is alright to go off by yourself and have a good cry. It eases the frustration of the time. Every now and then we all find a time in our lives where a good cry is necessary. Don’t fight it, let it come and get it out.  When it is over, rejoin the world to get on with your fight. Friends will try to tell you everything is going to be alright and not to cry but they do not understand the feeling of sadness that can sometimes overwhelm us during difficult times.

If you lose something that was a part of you either physically or emotionally it is alright to mourn that loss.  Mourn it and go on with what you have. I have lost my ability to hike and for awhile it was something that kept me feeling sorry for myself. I laid on my couch with my TV remote for a year and was sad because I felt my nature photography was finished. Then I began to notice the life going on around me, the tree coming into bud, the plants pushing their way back into the world and I started photographing it. I didn’t need to hike into the back country, I just needed to see the world around me.

When I found out I had cancer I did not fall apart as that would have done absolutely no good. I needed to show strength to my Mom and Dad so that they would not fret too much. They prayed for me and wanted to be kept abreast of my progress but they never ever judged my actions. I have many acquaintances and they all wanted to tell stories of their relatives and their bouts with the disease and how they had positive outcomes. This only served to piss me off inside. I didn’t care what happened to them.  I was only interested in what was going on with me. Some thought I was selfish and that they were only trying to help. Well, cancer or major surgery can and will make you selfish and that is perfectly OK. I just had to explain that all I wanted from them was their ear and if they found it hard to listen to me then leave me alone. I have a couple of real friends and if you have one, then feel blessed. They are there to help me and mostly listen to me. Life would be difficult indeed without them.

I had an acquaintance that never listened to what I said. I told him the last surgery restored the blood flow to my feet and that we had once again saved them. His reply was did I ever think about or consider prosthetics and how people were doing wonderful things with them. Next he wanted to know if I had pain management available and how much it helped him. I never told him I was in pain and he just assumed it. I no longer am in contact with him . If you have people in your life like him Fuzzy suggests you lose them as they will only frustrate you and will not add anything to your life and your battle to heal.

I believe each one of us is different and what works for one may not for another. I hope you can find the way for you cope and to fight to get well no matter what your battle. I wish you peace in the realization that no one truly can understand what you are going through but you. If it means screaming at the top of your lungs, crying or pounding a pillow for you to rally your inner forces to overcome the situation then by all means do it and if those around you do not understand just tell that you needed to do it to feel and get better.

I want to express my appreciation for all who listened and never judged or offered opinions as I went about life this past year. I can never tell you how much your listening to me means.

The group meets at a local restaurant.  We  have  dinner and a talk session and sometimes there is a guest speaker.

 Fuzzy felt it would give him a chance to socialize and help others. Fuzzy at one point in his life was deeply involved in the Boy Scouts of America. I was a Cub Scout den leader and went on to start a Boy Scout Troop as well as take volunteer positions at the local Council level. It was a very busy and rewarding time in my life and now I felt it was time to get involved in life again so after surviving my bout with Prostate Cancer I found a group where I might fit in.

Fuzzy needs to back up in his life story to provide some background. Fuzzy spent many years working for a very large corporation. This corporation during the 70’s and 80’s would subscribe to any new wave idea and self help or personal betterment that happened to be the rave at the time. We went from lunches in a cafeteria festooned with balloons and dixieland bands with lots of posters telling us that each of us was special and that we were a family to mandatory meetings to listen to some guru drone on and on about the same subjects. So I have seen them come and go, just as soon as a new idea hit the Time’s Best seller list. We had one  group thought during these talks. " Shouldn’t I be someplace else doing something more important?". After a number of years the corporation realized the only people this baloney was helping were the people they were paying big bucks to for these programs and then it stopped.

Back to the support group. I do not want to cast dispersions on anyone’s belief or program that they find helps them. I do have a problem when some new age guru ( now there is a real 60’s expression ) tries to foist his miracle ideas on vulnerable audiences. Last evening it was the SECRET that the guest speaker was holding forth.

What you might ask is the Secret? It is a newly repackaged and reworded presentation of the Power of Positive Thinking. This is not a new idea but with the new packaging it is sold as a new and improved idea. So now it is presented as, if you think bad or negative thoughts then bad or negative things will occur in your life. If you think about good health and money and all the wonderful things life could bring then it will be yours.  Again back to the 60’s and the good vibe bad vibe idea. Fuzzy did interject that positive thoughts were useless without a positive attitude to go along with them, in fact the positive attitude is the important idea people should be working on. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would not be billionaires today if they didn’t have the attitude that they could do it.

Fuzzy listened to the speaker discuss the recent death of a member. This person was out running on a busy road and was hit by a truck and killed. The speaker said that there must have been something negative going on in her life at the time. Basically that if she was thinking about flowers and butterflies and was whistling a happy tune she would still be with us! It was an accident! You can’t control fate or accidents. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. When a member of the audience was told not to think of the word cancer and to lose it from their vocabulary and they would feel and get better Fuzzy knew he had heard enough.

At this point I couldn’t listen anymore and left before I took over and went off on a rant about how much bull  was being fed to a group of vulnerable people.   I made my excuses and quietly left during an intermission in the program.

I had been to several previous meetings of the survivors group and those were very helpful to some of the attendees who were going through treatment at the time. I clearly remember one woman, a wife, mom and homemaker. She was there with her daughters and was feeling badly about her family having to support her as she dealt with this difficult disease. She had always been the caregiver and now was having to let others care for her.  Damn it, it just wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. We listened to her and could see through her tears just how frustrating her situation was. She wasn’t concerned for herself but for everything she felt she was putting her family through. By the end of the evening with the great help of her daughters and the group she seemed to let go and be willing to accept the fruits of her labor of raising two wonderful children and to accept their help without any regrets. The daughters were more than willing to do whatever she needed to get through this period in her life.

It was an evening of listening and suggesting, telling of personal experiences but no judgement. Never did this woman hear the words, you shouldn’t feel this way. All she heard were positive things that she took home with her. Fuzzy hopes she is making it through her treatment. Fuzzy knows just how difficult it can be when you are fighting for your life and how important those who love you are. I believe everyone who was there left that night feeling a little better.  I know I did.