WAGblog

Global Warming petition; Computer woes; Food and eating

I recently received a copy of this letter by email and thought I should reproduce it, and the lilnk it contains here, since I have written with some passion before about global warming. I have also written a sample letter, the one I sent, below Al Gore's missive, which may be copied and pasted or altered and used as a skeleton for a better more personal letter, if you wish to send a message along with simply signing the petition. Take a look. All you need to do is provide your name, email address and zip code, the rest is optional. More about my days and what is going on is at the bottom.

From Al Gore: "When the producers of An Inconvenient Truth first approached me with the concept for the film, I was skeptical. Could we really take a slideshow about the climate crisis and turn it into a compelling movie? Davis Guggenheim’s Oscar win for best documentary and a second one for Melissa Etheridge’s beautiful song “I Need to Wake Up” was a testament to their ability, but it was also a testament to you.

"It was you who packed the theaters and got your friends to go see this film, greatly increasing the audience. And then this past December, it was you who connected through MoveOn.org and AlGore.com to attend An Inconvenient Truth viewing parties. At those parties and in the weeks that followed, nearly 200,000 of you wrote to Congress, demanding that they address the climate crisis like the planetary emergency that it is.

"Even though I have been a life-long movie fan, I didn’t really understand how big of an audience a movie could reach. And of course I never would have imagined in a million years that a movie that I was a part of would receive two Academy Awards—or one—or would have ever been made in the first place! As humbling as this moment is, An Inconvenient Truth will only succeed if it drives all of us to take action. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in the next stage of our fight. On March 21st, I'm going to hand-deliver the messages you signed when I testify at Congressional hearings on the climate crisis.

"This is an incredible opportunity to demonstrate to Congress that we demand immediate action. And I need your help to really make this moment count. Can you commit to getting 10 friends to send their message to Congress through AlGore.com before March 21st? The more voices I can bring to Washington, the more powerful our message will be.

To get your friends involved, just forward them this note or direct them to:

http://algore.com/cards.html (see link below)

"There is no longer a debate about the fact that global warming is real. We're causing it. The consequences are serious, and could be headed towards catastrophe if we don’t fix it. And it's not too late. I don't want to imagine a future in which our children say, “What were our parents thinking?” “Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?” And I know you don’t either.

"The hundreds of thousands of you who signed messages to Congress showed me what's possible. Working together we can unite millions of people and build support for real action on a scale that has never been seen before.

"Help me take the first step and fill up that hearing room with your signatures. That picture alone will send a powerful message.

"Can you commit to getting ten more people to send messages to Congress demanding action to stop global warming?

"I’m looking forward to working with you on this monumental task.

"Thank you"

http://www.algore.com/cards.html

Here's the message I appended to my electronic signature on the petition. Feel free to use it in whole or in part or not at all, if you wish to add a message to your own representative.

Dear Representative,

The permafrost in Siberia and Alaska and upper Canada is melting, threatening to skyrocket the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by gigatons; the glaciers are already almost gone, portending rising sea levels, and threatening our coastlines; the Northeast just experienced spring-like conditions from Dec 15 to January 19, usually our coldest months of the year. Obviously global warming is real and a danger to humanity. There is still time to stop the doomsday clock of the end of our species, but precious little of it. We MUST make stopping the over-production of greenhouse gases a world-wide but certainly a national priority or we will be the major part of the problem, consuming as we do the lion's share of the world's resources. Please tell congress to DO SOMETHING NOW. It can't wait another year, not another month, and scarcely another day.

Sincerely and with great hope,

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday all day (the reason I didn't write an entry) and today for four hours, I was on the phone with Hewlett Packard, U.S. to India, trying to get Joe's All-in-One Printer installed properly from a disk that evidently was no good. I learned a lot about Windows in my travails, being a Macintosh person, but the result of those ten hours or so was a big fat zilch: they could not get it working, not even by remotely taking over the computer and working from their end. I should have stopped them after the second techie started me redoing what the first had had me do with no success, and then the third repeated the second...But I had hope that one or the other would KNOW what to do.

Finally, I told the super duper techie, the senior technician, to simply send me a good disk and let me install the driver from that, not waste any more time trying to do it from the internet or fix the old one. It was obvious the old disk is corrupt or was never any good to begin with (though Joe had everything working fine, he just balked at one error message, which he could click on and make go away and all would go fine after that. BUT no, Joe wouldn't stop obsessing about that error message, which he had to stop appearing at all costs. Since he was spending all day on it hopelessly, I figured, OK let's just go to hp.com and do it that way. No luck so we thought we'd call and get them to do it.

Well, no only did we not fix it, but now NOTHING works at all. I realize that this obsessing over a small imperfection of the technology is Joe's Asperger's coming out. His tics too went wild, as they do when he is frustrated (so much so that he left the apartment for several hours while I wrestled with the problem with the techies), but it is so-- Oh, I dunno. I'm rolling my eyeballs here, because right now I have to laugh or I'd cry at all the time I wasted just to help Joe out, and how I have nothing to show for my enormous effort, for my labor of LOVE.

I am exhausted now. I have been running around like that proverbial guillotined hen. Today I had a dentist appointment, then a bsd hair cut, then I went almost immediately to Joe's to wrestle with his computer. Then Karen called for me to stop by and then the nurse came and only now have I some time to myself. Tomorrow I have a one hour drive/ride, during which I must talk, and an hour and a half appointment for neurofeedback, then i have to keep my friend/paid driver company again on the ride home. I'll have a little time to rest tomorrow before I have to go out again to the Adult Ed class.

Thursday, I have to go with Joe to his ALS support group, then to his therapy appointment, because it follows right after and we'll be in the same car. When we get home -- it will be about 2pm -- I have to deliver 2 books to the dentist's office. I think I'm finally done then. THen Friday, I must have my hair cut again, since the first one was not done right and someone needs to repair it, then go to Cy and Lynn's for my usual Thursday visit on Friday, to help with computer etc; then...Oh F---! You see what I mean? I'm way too busy for my own good, and I don't want to be! I've already been to see Cy and Lynn on Monday to help with the computer and take Cy shopping (a whole nother entry, that. I'm PO'd at Cy for something that happened, though I realize it is partly my fault. Can't talk about it with him though). I've done so much computer work it's coming out my ears!But I don't mind, because they are in their 80s and do need the help and it is so easy for me.

I think if only I could eat properly I'd have more energy. But I have lost the knack of it or something. I KEEP on forgetting to eat, one, and when I remember to, nothing "hums to me." Partly because I think I just am not hungry, and partly because I can't find anything I want to eat. I did have a frozen yogurt today, and a nectarine, plus I cooked myself a small lambchop, which is a lot more than I usually get down, calorie-wise I suspect. I've given up keeping track of what I eat and how many calories I consume, or of trying to get to 1000 calories every day. It was just too hard to keep doing.

I tried on a bathing suit yesterday (Karen and I joined a gym to get us off our fannies at least once a week) and I looked terrible: my rib cage sticks out and I have no breasts, no behind at all, stick-like legs. I hate the way I look, yet I can't get myself to eat more. Why? I don't have any idea, except that I might be afraid of gaining too much as I did on the Zyprexa. That's all I can think of as a reason. That I might, might be phobic about ever being like I was on the Zyprexa and that it is better to be a few pounds underweight than 70 pounds overweight.

If I don't like my appearance at all, why do I stay looking lilke this? Well, I don't much care about my appearance, one, never have, except insofar as I never want to take up too much space...and lo and behold I take up even less than I ever did now. So there's another "might be."

I can't write anymore about this right now. Forgive me for just dropping the subject, but I am worn out and my eyes won't look at another line of text. So, sayonara for today and TTFN. PS I don't have the energy to proofread this, so I hope there ain't too many typos!

Posted by pamwagg at February 27, 2007 07:45 PM