Mail and News

Interesting things in the mail today.

One was a note from my insurance company -- the one that paid that startling hospital bill -- asking, wistfully, if perhaps anyone else was involved with my accident, or if maybe it happened someplace where someone else might have insurance coverage. Alas, I have to tell them no, it was just me, alone, at home. But if it helps, I don't wear baggy pajamas any more.

It disturbed me to get the letter, though. I have this lurking feeling that somehow I'm going to end up regretting what they had to pay out. I know, thats what insurance is for. Still...

Another was a package of Nonni's biscotti that we'd ordered -- we like it, and though the local store does carry it, they don't carry it consistently, and they like to move it around in the store (hey, lets put it next to -- no, behind -- the antifreeze!) -- so we ordered some directly from the company. Um. We're going to have biscotti around for a long time.

And we got a letter from a program at Johns Hopkins center for gifted children, saying that our daughter had qualified to be in one of their programs, due to her performance in a standardized test. Optional, of course. Are we interested? Well, sure, we're interested -- and pleased. We knew she was smart -- not a genius, but smart, yeah. Heck, look who she picked as parents!

I received a response from Muslim Apple to an earlier post. I'm afraid I offended her. That bothers me, because I didn't intend to. And yet it bothers me that it bothers me. I use normal courtesy with everyone. Is the subject of relations with Muslims so touchy that it can't be approached at that level? Is it even possible to ask the question without being offensive, because the underlying assumptions that buttress the question are themselves offensive? (Hey, you quit hitting your wife yet?) You can get really tied up in knots with this kind of thing.

Maybe I shouldn't talk about Muslims for a while.

I recall when I was in Thailand, courtesy of the Air Force, and they showed us this video about how to act properly and with decorum to the Thais == say 'goodbye' by bowing, hands together . Didn't take long to notice that nobody did it. Was it a scam? Did they really want it but not expect it from the ignorant Americans? Whew, mah haid hurts.... But dialogue has to start somewhere. I'll talk, at least once, to anyone. It appears to surprise some people. I once got a copy of an email from a senior exec at a company I worked for, mentioning that she had 'established an inadvertant connection' to me, because she'd responded to an email of mine. Turns out she thought that if I wrote to her, I must be pretty senior, too -- but I wasn't. Can't have that !

Tomorrow, the ultrasound.