Where the Heck is Bhutan?

Posted on 07/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

Not long ago I watched an Academy Award nominated movie titled Lunana, A Yak In the Classroom. It is a cute story about a young man from Bhutan who complained about his teaching job to the state supervisor in charge of teaching assignments. What was funny about this story was that the kid wanted to quit his job, and the Super held his feet to the fire by reminding him he had one year left on his contract. She then proceeded to change his assignment to Lunana the most remote school in the country. To give an example of how remote it is he took a train to the end of the line, then hiked uphill for eight days. (Hint: Never complain about your job to the person who can change it.)

The movie used local people to act, so in effect this was a reality film except it was acted to a script. One question kept rolling through my mind, “where the heck is Bhutan?” The scenery surrounding the village of Lunana is amazing, mountains, valleys, and streams. The people were friendly and made the story believable.

The teacher finally arrives, and is shown the school. It is a one room stone building with open windows and a door. He is then taken to his room where he will live. He falls asleep. At 8:30 the following morning he is awakened by a little girl who announces that school starts at 8:30 every morning and ends at 3:00 pm. He groggily dresses and finds his way to the kids who are all sitting on the floor in the classroom waiting for teacher.

After several weeks teacher is making friends and exhibiting some depression about his plight. The young woman he unloads on tells him he needs a Yak. The next day she walks into his class with a Yak. It is a favorite from her herd (a Yak is something like a cow). The Yak lives in the classroom for the remainder of the story. The story has a sad but happy ending.

I had to do a geographical search to learn where Bhutan is located. It is between China and India near Tibet. The population of Bhutan is 788,6015 and it’s Himalayan mountain peaks soar to 23,000 feet. The capital is Thimphu, population 114,551. Lunana has a population of 810.

And now you know!

Filed under: Arts, Movie Review | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

We Are A Country Of Wusses

Posted on 07/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

This morning I took Lovely to a doctor’s appointment. She had minor surgery about two months ago and today was her first follow up appointment with the surgeon. I was absolutely livid that we were driving twenty miles to see a doctor who should have seen her a week after her surgery. What sense does it make to look at a scar that is healed over? In my mind he should have been more interested in seeing that his cut was healing and not getting infected after the surgery. This was clearly a cover your ass appointment. He could honestly note in his chart that he followed up.

The doctor is young and cocky. My first wife Barbara worked with surgeons and always commented on how cock-sure they were of themselves and how demanding they were with underlings. This guy fit her description of a surgeon. Being upset, I angrily asked him why he took so long to see Lovely after he operated. His answer, “I had a kid.”

“You mean you gave birth to a child?” I replied.

“No, I took paternity leave and was off for six weeks.” “

“Congratulations,” I said.

That was the end of it. I wouldn’t accomplish anything by pushing the point further.

What I am going to say next will probably irritate every woman on the face of the earth. It is my opinion that today’s ladies have evolved into complete pussies. What ever happened to women who gave birth and went back to work the day, or next week or, the woman who gives birth and takes care of her newborn while also caring for their several other children, the house, the wash, the meals, the shopping, the dog? No, they have to have their husband home to help them out for that critical period after birth.

Actually, I don’t think women of today are any different than the women of yesteryear, but their husbands are clearly playing the system and take advantage of the laws that give them the six week vacation after the birth of a child. It doesn’t help when our Secretary of Transportation Mayor Pete Buttigieg disappeared for six weeks to assist his wife-husband to care for their newborn. I can see him needing six weeks off to learn how to care for a baby only because men aren’t programmed to do those kinds of things. Real women have natural instincts on the care of children.

During our child rearing years my wife never missed a beat. In fact, she made sure I didn’t miss a single hour of work on account of the newborn. I never had a middle of the night call to change a diaper or administer a bottle. Her thinking was that my job was too damned important to the security of the family. Yet, today’s ladies are gifted with all of the modernities of a large house filled with every available labor saving device conceived, and still they need help from their hubbies.

It won’t be long before uncle decides it is time to hand over the child to a government paid childcare center for raising. Wasn’t that the theme used in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 book “Brave New World” or Orwell’s “1984”?

Filed under: Aging, family, Satire | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Where is Georgia?

Posted on 06/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

If you ask the question in the title of a group of friends the answer might be “she is in the powder room.” Or if you ask a truck driver he would probably answer, it is north of Florida, and if you asked a native of east Europe they would answer between Turkey and Russia. What does it matter? Not a damn thing. It is just one of those rhetorical questions that fall into the category of trivia depending upon what your ethnic roots are.

Recently Lovely and I shopped at a deli of her ethnicity. She loves food from her own country or region. As a curious by-stander, I shopped the shelves of liquor and wine. I noticed a large selection of wines from places like Armenia, Moldava, Georgia, but none from the country that this deli was fronting. Since Georgia the country is geographically close to Ukraine and Russia, and since Ukraine is currently kicking Russia’s ass in a war no one seems to understand, I purchased a bottle of cabernet wine from Georgia the country. The idea was to understand just what was being consumed in that region that would want to make them go to war.

I presented the bottle to my club with a challenge, “open your taste buds to try this rich red wine and tell me what you think.” To my surprise several members jumped at the chance. three of them thought the wine was good, one thought it to be average. I thought it to be smooth. That could mean the the wine was well aged and the tannins had softened the harshness of a young cabernet. After reading the label I learned that it is a blend of 50% Cabernet and 50% Saperavi. What the heck is Saperavi? Most likely it is a local variety of grape that doesn’t grow any where else in the world.

The bottle of Georgian wine went empty in record time as several members liked it so much they went for seconds. I was one of them. On my next trip to this deli, I will sample wine from Armenia and Moldava, two more postage stamp sized countries in the region. These countries have existed for centuries. Their people have been making wine for just as long, and they must know how to make it good.

Nevertheless, I will enjoy drinking wine with my friends on Tuesday nights for as long as I am able.

Filed under: family | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Such Is Life

Posted on 05/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

Over the past two weeks I thought of several relevant topics to write about, “I should write them down,” I said to myself. “Nah, I’ll remember them.” WRONG!!!! I should have made notes on them. As I sit here straining my brain trying to remember what they were I find myself failing. Oh well that is life.

My efforts to complete the wood shop remodel after the house in a house project have consumed me, but I am anxious to begin grinding wood again on artistic projects. Then, as if my life isn’t complicated enough with the house work, the air conditioner crapped out. Any money I had set aside to finish my remodel just went out the window for a new compressor.

During my last shower I noticed the shower head spraying water from a joint all over the bathroom. When I shut the water off and tried to get out, the shower door stuck shut, and I was trapped inside. I wound up lifting the door off the track to get out. Two more incidents of life to slow progress on something that really matters to me. The days are getting shorter now, and instead of going to bed at 6:30 p.m. I fixed the shower door and the leaky fitting. I never do anything house related after our evening meal, but this was different.

It’s been a year since I bought new hearing aids and it was time for me to take them in to get a check up, kind of like an oil change and tire rotation. I had to leave one unit in the shop for repairs, most likely a new battery. The Audiologist was kind enough to give me a loner, that was nice. What he didn’t tell me is that the loner was not charged, and within thirty minutes after leaving his office the thing signaled that it was out of juice. Thank God it was only my hearing aid and not my car. All things considered, yesterday was a great day.

Filed under: Aging, Biography | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

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