Saturday, June 22, 2013

Blinking Lights


So, yesterday I sat down at this computer to write my weekly blog.  I stared at the screen for a while, trying to decide what to write about.  The non-scandals of the IRS targeting right-wing organizations; the one just simply named Benghazi?  The silly one that is rising again like the mythical Phoenix about where President Obama was born?  After staring for some time, I decided to play computer Solitaire to try to find out what would surface with enough vehemence to write about.  Nada.  Zilch.  Total blank.  I finally gave up and just played Solitaire.

I generally get up in the middle of the night, and if I don’t creep out to the kitchen, so I don’t wake up Bill, and snack on something I can’t get back to sleep.  Last night was no different.  As I silently made my way into a darkened kitchen, I noticed the kitchen blinking at me.  At least that is the way it seemed.  Since I am highly allergic to house dust, we have one of those little robot vacuums to keep the dust down on our wood floors.  It came with these little “virtual walls” that one puts down by a doorway, the little robot gets near its green blinking eye and doesn’t go through.  Even when the robot isn’t roboting the little green eye keeps blinking.

Someone, or something, called last night and didn’t leave a message, which is OK, except that the telephone little white eye was blinking to let me know we had missed a call.  OK, no problem.  That could wait until the morning.  But the very best blinking of all was the rat zapper on the sink.  Our cat, Big Mo, had brought in a live mouse, probably to play with, and the mouse had gotten away from him.  Bill had seen the mouse dash across the sink, so put our little rat zapper up on the sink with a french fry in it.  The mouse had gone in and was instantly electrocuted, triggering the blinking red eye.  (A mouse on the sink, of course, for me is a great big no-no, requiring everything to be wiped down with bleach, or thrown in the washing machine with bleach, but not in the middle of the night!  That done this morning.)  All of those blinking eyes with notices got me to thinking about our federal government.  Yeah, I know, but then I do make connections between various ideas.

What we really need is a system of colored blinking tiny lights, or eyes, to identify issues in Washington, C.C. in order of importance.  A little green eye to let us know we don’t even want to go there for any one of a number of reasons perhaps, but best to just stay away because we don’t have enough information to make a decision, or because there is no need to think about it.  After that we need a little white blinking eye for those issues that require attention because they could be of importance, like an important missed phone call, but just not right now.  These can wait for a more propitious time. 

A red blinking eye, however, would indicate that, My God!!  Congress actually accomplished something!!!  This blinking red light would require immediate action on our part to determine what that something was, and whether we should simply be disgusted, as we were this week with the House of Representatives taking a useless vote on abortion, or cheering that President Obama nominated James Comey as the new FBI Director.  Comey has a really good resume, and should be something we can cheer about.  We would hope the little red eye continues to blink that the Senate confirms Comey’s nomination.  Or, the blinking red eye could just mean that there is a dead something that needs to be thrown into the incinerator before we scrub everything down with bleach.

I look forward to what bright ideas my kitchen can bring me tonight at what I fondly refer to as my 2:00 AM feeding.

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