Leigh's Views

Now there are two very important topics that relate to all of us. However, very few of us are willing to have a frank and honest discussion about them with anyone. What am I talking about here? Personal privacy and personal space. Okay, I know some people have this notion at they are kinda the same thing. Not exactly, but they are related. Personal privacy is how much of ourselves we are willing to show the world. As in – the person who lets no one enter their home without a passport and vaccinations all the way to the person who thinks the whole world is a nudist colony and never seems to wear appropriate clothing anywhere. So, I’ve been single most of my adult life and I have a rather strict sense of personal privacy. My house has to have a privacy fence so no one can see me in the back yard. No one comes in my bedroom unless they have a really great reason (when my son was little he better have been on death’s door to cross the threshold). I’ve never done the herd bathroom run w

It was such a nice day the other day I decided to eat lunch in the park. Sitting there enjoying the sunshine, my sandwich, I was having a grand time. Until a young woman and a child of maybe four or five came. For some reason she sat on a bench near me rather than on the other side near the playground. He was plunked on the ground nearby and handed a soda-pop and a lollypop. She proceeded to ignore him and was scanning the park for something or someone. A few minutes later another woman came and sat beside the first. Both women continued to ignore the boy. I, on the other hand, had watching him more than anything else. He was quite restless yet, for the most part, was staying in the spot he’d been put. Wiggling around on his little butt, banging his lollypop on the side of the soda can and occasionally taking a drink or a lick. All the while giving looks over to the play area and the other children. Yup, that’s where he wanted to be, no doubt about it. And then he somehow managed t

Now I really hate daylight savings time. So much so, I’m seriously thinking of moving to somewhere they don’t do it. It takes me forever to get my internal clock to figure out what time it is. I wake up late, I wake up early. Then there’s the whole issue of the physical clocks. Oh, I’m sure you’ve heard all those jokes about how hard it is to change the oven clocks. Something along the lines of needing to be an engineer to do it. Or the clock in the car just not being worth the effort to change. Well, I don’t have either kind of clock anymore. Thus, I was feeling rather confident last week when the time change came around. I only had two clocks to change – one in my living room and one in my bedroom. The one in my living room was really easy, take it down, turn the knob a bit, done. The one in the bedroom I wasn’t sure about. It was given to me as a gift and it’s a rather fancy digital one. It states not only the time but the date, temp and several other things as well. Thus I thou

I’ve often been told I’m so honest it’s painful. Never been quite sure what that’s supposed to mean. Painful for whom? It's not for me, I find it easier. And so I’ve continued to strive to be honest and truthful as much as possible. Thus, there I was the other day at the store I exchange my propane tank for my grill. You go in, pay for either a refill or a new one, get the code, go out to the machine, put in the code and a door opens. Easy, right? I finished with my exchange, not thinking twice about putting the empty into the space where I had just taken out the full one. Closed the door, jiggled it a bit to make sure it was tight and moved over a bit so the guy behind me could do his task. After he put in his code, he announced, “Huh, two doors are open.” I turned a bit to make sure it wasn’t the door I had closed, it wasn’t. Then I paused to see what he would do. And he didn’t do the right thing. Even with knowing I was watching him, he took both tanks. And no, he didn’t eve

Now normally I don’t want to use this blog as a platform to say anything that might sound even remotely political. However, I ran across a situation which needs to be spoken about and something certainly needs to be done about. Okay, here goes. There are several people I know who can’t get medical insurance for a variety of reasons. Not private, not Medicaid, nothing. Not that having insurance would do them much good. Turns out there’s a serious lack of doctors in the area. As in, apparently none who actually will take new patients anytime in the next year. I’ve spoken to I don’t know how many people lately who’ve told me they’ve called offices to make appointments and gotten the same response. Come in, fill out a form, in 6 months or so the doctor will decide if he/she wants you as a patient and then may or may not schedule an appointment 6 months or so later. What?! Come on, this can’t be a real thing. Thus I tried calling a few places, even tried pretending to have some sort of em

Now I love the beach. More specifically, I love the feel of the sand on my feet as I watch the sun set over the water. Anytime I can get a chance to go to the beach, I jump on it. However, I would never live anywhere near the beach. I’m deathly afraid of those storms, the water, the waves, the wind. I know, I know. There are bad storms everywhere. Doesn’t matter where you live. But when I see the power of a wave on a relatively calm day, I just don’t want to be around when the big one hits. Stupid, and crazy of me to think that way. You can always leave the area well ahead of a storm. But still, I live far, far away. Irrational fears often stop us from doing some of the greatest things in our lives. We falter when we should be rushing forward with wild abandon. We stick to what is safe, comfortable, normal. We become adults with a security blanket, holding on for dear life. Sometimes this can be a very good thing, after all only fools rush in. Or do they? I know someone who won’t l