Change is on the Way

I am usually a creature of habit. I have set little patterns of things that I do in my own sweet time and I really get a bit compulsive about it. But I am also not opposed to learning new things and applying what I have learned to my job or my art or life in general. That said, change is in the air and while it terrifies me at times, I also am intrigued by it.

I was driving home from work last week, listening to Talk Radio, I think it was the Dennis Miller show, and someone called in and was rambling on and on about life needing a remote control. I figure whoever the caller was, he must have just watched that Adam Sandler movie CLICK. I haven’t seen the movie and have no desire to but it could be kind of interesting if we could do life with a remote control. Something happens at work just hit the clicker and it fast forwards or changes the time. Or maybe even rewind so you can still get some special little project finished.


This next week is going to be a change for the United States we all hope. Tuesday is Inauguration Day for President Obama. While I didn’t vote for him, I hope he is a successful president…For all our sakes. He is a young man that is taking on a new job of enormous responsibility and that carries long lasting effects. It will be interesting to see how his presidency unfolds. Will he be able to carry out his campaign promises? I have my doubts on some of them. But I do hope he can change a few things.

Some of the changes that I personally would like to see happen, is that the sieve that is the border be plugged up. The land of opportunity is hurting right now. I had a young woman from a Middle Eastern country tell me that in America everyone can get Medicaid. I was trying to explain to her about birth certificates and social security and the process one has to go through. She would not believe me though. She will find out soon enough. I know too many people that have a job but don’t have insurance because they can’t afford the premiums, but they make too much to get Medicaid.

Another change I would like to see is in the cost of utilities. Did anyone else nearly have a heart attack when you got your power bill or your gas bill? Now before you say something about my Christmas lights let me ‘splain something about that. Our lights have their own electrical meter and a computer that controls the amount of time they are on and what percentage they are on. They are never all on at the same time nor are they ever at full power. The house was a different matter. Our bill was nearly double. I cook with gas, we heat water with gas. The majority of the lights in the house are compact fluorescents. The only new thing is we had a heat pump installed this year. So either the heat pump is not as energy efficient as I have been led to believe or that price increase that TVA laid on us was one heck of an increase. And didn’t the price of fuel go down?
So why in heavens name, are we always soaked at the electrical meter each winter?

I read that the power company in the southern part of the state had admitted to overcharging its customers. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the end. Some of the folks that I know in the Jackson area don’t want a rebate, but they sure would like to the see the rates drops to a more reasonable level. Wouldn’t we all?

Perhaps some of the things that President Obama needs to address is the outrageous costs of electricity and fuel in our country. I don’t know what the answers are. I turn off lights and try to make sure that the rest of the household does too. But we can’t sit in the dark all the time and we have to stay a warm. The thermostat is set at 68 and we all wear socks and long sleeves.

I don’t envy the man in his new job. I am sure the thoughts going round the dinner table when Obama had lunch with Bush, Daddy Bush, Carter and Clinton were something along the lines of, ‘I’m glad it’s him and not me’. While I won’t be able to see the historic inauguration on the 20th because I will be at work, I will be thinking about it. There is no changing of the channels and fast forwarding. We are headed for change to be sure. Matter of fact that is all I have in my purse at the moment, Just a bunch of change and not even enough to buy a Mountain Dew at Joe’s Market. I hope I get more change in my purse. I hope the economy does change. I hope the cost of electricity does change for the better. I hope that the cost of fuel at the pump keeps going down so I can afford to go to work. I hope that the new President has a special clicker that can fast forward our country out of the mess it is in.