Readers' comments day

It's time for another conversation day with readers! I've gotten some great comments on recent posts, and I am very grateful to all of the readers who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me. I am, of course, very grateful for all of the readers of this blog. Thank you so much for visiting!

In one blog post, I asked, "Who would you climb a tree to see?" In other words, who do you admire so much that you would actually climb a tree, just for the opportunity to see that person?

Alana said, "Alice, you ask tough questions. I have few living heroes/heroines. But I would definitely climb a tree to see Malala Yousafzai."

Me, too, Alana. At nineteen years old, she has accomplished more than many of us do in a lifetime. Two years ago, she was the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been an advocate for girls' education in her home country of Pakistan since she was eleven years old. One of her strongest supporters is her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who ran one of the last schools in Pakistan to defy the Taliban's orders not to educate girls. Malala has already written a book. She is a role model for all of us, regardless of age or nationality. One person can make a difference!

Martha said, "I would love to climb a tree to see my mom again."

Oh, Martha, I know what it's like to miss a precious parent. For me, it's my dad. I would most definitely climb a tree to see him!

Doug said, "Yes, a tough question. It requires some thought. I don't idolize others and I think a lot of the people around me. My tree climbing days are almost at an end but there are some people I plan on traveling to see. You may have prompted me to reread All the Light We Cannot See (by Anthony Doerr)."

Thank you, Doug. Enjoy your travels and your visits. I love to travel to see dear friends. Enjoy the book, too. If anyone reading today's blog post has any book suggestions, please mention them in the comments. 

In another blog post, I talked about my fear of giant hornets. Here are the responses that I received:

Alana said, "I haven't seen these giant hornets, and I hope that I never will. I have seen fire ants and fire ant mounds back when I lived in Texas -- and I am glad we don't have them. Yet. With climate change, who knows. But weren't the regular yellowjackets more numerous this year? They were for us. If I tried to eat outside and escape the office, I couldn't escape them. They zeroed in right on my sandwich (I don't drink sugared soda, either)."

I don't think that I saw a whole lot of yellowjackets until September. One of the scary things about yellow jackets is that they nest in the ground and, if you accidentally step on the nest, its inhabitants will pour out and will sting the heck out of you. They come out, prepared for war, and they usually win!

Mostly, I saw honeybees and bumblebees in the gardens. I love bumblebees. They are easy going bees and they really ,don't want to sting.

Cerebrations.biz commented, "Since I no longer carry a $600 epipen, I tend to avoid those wonderful buzzing creatures. Because I prefer to avoid the ER -- or more to the point -- the ICU!"
Severe allergic reactions can be life threatening. It's good that you are avoiding those wonderful buzzing creatures but it's bad that life-saving devices, such as the epipen, have become so outrageously expensive.

Comments about my day-after-the-election reflection:

Mahatri said, "Oh, how true, Alice, money and power dominating politics."
You're so right. I don't know who benefits from this situation. It just keeps perpetuating itself and never goes away, sort of like the cliche about the bad penny that always turns up. Apparently, that means that something or someone that you don't want to have around just keeps appearing over and over again. I would put these toxic elections, the robo calls, and the attack ads (often unsigned) in that bad penny category.

Cerebrations.biz said, "Neither of the two primary parties provided us with the best and the brightest. Oh, sure, Hillary could be qualified, but she was so paranoid (not that Trump isn't) and secretive, it negated the positives.
But, the Libertarian choice evoked memories of a previous vice-presidential candidate for all the wrong reasons- and was, therefore, of no value to leading the country.
Jill Stein might be bright (I don't know her personally), but had neither the plan nor the ability to lead a small contingent let alone a country. Sheesh."
It was, most definitely, eye rolling time. You would think that, in a country of 324,994,133, we could come up with a group of better candidates. I am starting to think that we could have gotten better candidates by the process of random selection (picking names out of a hat). This election was pitiful and, today, I am fashionably attired in a "Giant meteor 2016, just end it already" t-shirt."

Alana said, "My manager at work is an election official, and some of the things she reported was - well, hate to say it, but 'so sad.' Among other things, she felt that some of the people who came in to vote had apparently (in her opinion) been drinking or smoking (not cigarettes)before they arrived. She could smell it on them. She had not experienced that before. Lots of trouble with the voting machines. Many people who had moved, and the new addresses hadn't been recorded, so affidavits had to be taken. As for the candidates...what I feared is starting to come true."
We had problems with errors in the poll book, too. Some people moved and the husband was in the book and the wife wasn't or vice versa. We had to have people do affadavit ballots. One woman became quite angry and left, just as we were getting the affadivit envelope ready for her. We never had long lines, but we were busy all day. We had a lot of people who believed that they should have to show identification to vote. They were very enthusiastic about taking out their driver's licenses. Too enthusiastic. One person left a wallet behind, and someone came to fetch it. One woman dropped her license in the parking lot. One of the election inspectors found it, and, during a lull in voters, he drove it to the woman's house. She was just leaving and was very surprised because she didn't know that she had dropped her license.

More comments and conversations in a future post, probably in about two weeks!!! Please keep visiting and commenting here at this blog. I really enjoy hearing from you.