Possessed by a Phalaenopsis

January 31, 2010 By

When you can’t go out because your car’s possessed by the devil, photograph a Phalaenopsis that you bought for your cousin Mary’s visit next Friday!  She’s from Palm Beach Florida and loves orchids.

I love the word “Phalaenopsis”.  This orchid is also called a “moth orchid” because the flowers resemble the shape of a moth or butterfly.

They are easy to grow, long bloomers, and have a name that suggests complexity.

Long live Phalaenopsis-sizzzzz.

Plural of Phalaenopsis is not so easy to say.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Flora and Fauna, Flowers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Dear Toyota People

January 29, 2010 By

Dear Toyota People,

I received your email yesterday, January 28th, 2010, to come on down to your showroom to buy a new RAV-4, Camry, or Corolla.

Are you kidding?

I already have one I can’t drive without risking life and limb and now you want me to come on down to buy yet another one?

A week ago I heard on the news that there was massive recall of vehicles from Toyota and that it included my 2009 Rav-4 that I purchased in September.  I called your service department the next day.  They put me on hold.  They came back on the line.

“Um…we haven’t heard about this recall but if we had we can tell you that we don’t yet have a “fix” for the accelerator problem that caused the first recall two months ago.”

They said they could do the maintenance on my vehicle, though, if I’d like to come in for that.

I’m afraid to drive this red bag of bolts, people!  You can’t go in for the 5 thousand mile service if you are afraid you are going to get to the service bay crashing through the showroom glass en route.

I’ve seen the video on the TV of the accidents caused by this sudden acceleration.  I’m not asking how these TV stations got this video of the car speeding down the highway with the voice over of the 911 caller screeching, “It’s out of control!” but I think it’s a safe bet it’s not Toyota footage.

Here’s my real problem aside from my Cujo Toyota RAV-4.

It’s how you are handling this crisis.

I’m your customer and have received nothing from you about this situation.  I’m getting my information from a TV reporter who is getting text messages from Toyota corporate headquarters advising owners of these recalled vehicles to keep on driving these cars.

Whaaaat?

Then, the reporter gets in behind the wheel of one of these vehicles and demonstrates what Toyota is recommending a driver to do if they encounter this sudden acceleration problem.  Put your foot on the break, don’t pump it, just steady pressure, put it in neutral and drive to the side of the road.

Nice to know I can steer in neutral, really.  It’s comforting.  Are you aware “REVERSE” is one click up from “Neutral??

I’d like to see the video of that.

Since purchasing the vehicle, I’ve been inundated with follow-up telephone calls: from corporate Toyota to take a telephone survey of the customer experience at Toyota; from the salesman from the dealer reminding me to fill out the on-line customer service survey, hopefully with “good things to say” about him; calls from the sales manager of the dealership hoping I was satisfied with my buying experience at the dealership.  Then, the emails started to flow in as well, and then direct mail.  Service reminders, sales promotions, special events and deals.

I emailed your customer service manager yesterday to say “Hello” and would Toyota mind text messaging their customers along with the TV reporters about this recall.

When I saw in my email “IN” box a message from the dealer, I foolishly thought “At last, some guidance on this mess”.

But, no, it was a sales pitch to buy a new Toyota RAV-4 or Camry or Corolla.  There were some “good deals”.  The good deal part does not surprise me at all.  Who in their right mind wants to buy an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) masquerading as a car?

But, I am surprised and disappointed that despite having my telephone number, my address, my email address, the only contact I have had from you is a pitch to buy a new vehicle.

Was the head of Toyota Customer Service involved in one of these fatal crashes caused by this sudden and unexplained acceleration?  If so, my condolences.

If not, then, I’m here to tell you that he is asleep at the wheel and texting at the same time.

Better wake him up before he drives your company off the cliff.

Plus, to add to your problems, J.D. Salinger died yesterday, author of “Catcher in the Rye”, so that means there’s no Holden Caulfield to catch you as you fall.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive may be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: AUTOMOBILE, Rants and Raves, Toyota Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

MultiMeter Fluke

January 28, 2010 By

The plumber is here installing a sink and I’m rooting around in his truck as if it was Haagen Daz.

This is a Linesman MultiMeter thingamahjiggy.

The name of the company is “FLUKE”.

I suspect that this corporate name “Fluke” for a company that produces voltage meters did not pass inspection at Harvard Business School but, then again, it still works after X amount of years as opposed to my four month old RAV-4 Toytota and 70% of all US Toyota models which are being recalled for an accelerator problem that they don’t know how to fix but we are told to keep driving until they do.

What?

Seriously, after I bought this car, the corporate Toyota headquarters called me incessantly to do a review of customer service at my dealer.  The car salesman was calling regularly to remind me to fill out the on-line customer service questionnaire and if possible to give him high marks.

My phone is quiet since reading about this recall.  I read that the government made them do the recall of all these vehicles but so far there has been zero contact by my dealer or corporate Toyota.  I had to call them to hear that they didn’t have a fix yet.

I think I’ll fill out the customer service survey now, right after I master the new way to drive my RAV-4 with my white knuckles.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: The Art of the Overlooked, Tools, Tools of the Trade, Toyota Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Geezer Dome

January 24, 2010 By

Today, the NFL championship games take place.  I have no dog in this hunt as the New England Patriots are currently “rebuilding” their former championship status.

Me?  I’m trying to do my own rebuilding.

Welcome to the surface of bubble wrap.  Some folks like to pop their bubbles–I like to photograph them.

A pattern is emerging here, I’ve noticed.  This past month, the first month of the new year, the new decade, I’ve been photographing useful objects around the house that are often taken for granted or even tossed out when their usefulness is over.

Small hand tools.  Vegetables.  Now, bubble wrap.

What is going on here?

I’m thinking it’s my 65th birthday coming up in February.  Oh, and if you want to retain your limbs,  don’t be telling me it’s just a number.

This isn’t a ‘you are as old as you feel’ moment.  This is an honest-to-god society looks-at-you-as-a-geezer moment AND this turnstile leads only in one direction.  You can go on a cruise or climb K2 if you are able and want to, but infinity is no longer a biological defense against nature.  High seas? High altitudes? Nope.  I’m more interested in journeying to states that legally approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

If I wanted to forget this birthday,  I couldn’t.

My mailbox on a daily basis has another reminder.  Medicare.  Medigap insurers.  Social Security.  I know the US post office is in trouble financially but it’s not because of my age group.

As I have poured my creative efforts into revealing a hidden beauty in those things we often overlook in our lives, I have filled out forms, talked to 800 lines, received my Medicare A & B card, my Blue Cross Blue Shield Medex card, and countless lesser but unmistakable confirmations of geezer status.

I’m not kidding–if Obama wants to reorganize his political team,  I suggest taking some folks from the Social Security Administration.

This is yet another ongoing series. The Art of the Overlooked, and, of course, I’ve realized along the way that  it is my usefulness and value that  I am looking for as I scan vegetables, old hand tools, bubble wrap.

Well known to those of us who are female and over 50, a cultural invisibility comes with the territory.  Some women try to surgically make themselves visible again but to those who wait without the scapel, when we reach 65?  Miracle.   We are once again visible.

That’s the good and bad news.

Our individual visibility is now as a group herded into The Geezer Dome and while I’m going to try to get out of the stadium occasionally, most of the time, I’ll probably be trying to get into that red zone all those NFL analysts palaver about, but so far?

I’m not exaggerating one bit when I tell you that this artificial turf is bad on the knees.

a©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Aging, ANXIETY 2.0, The Art of the Overlooked, The Geezer Dome Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

As the Parade Passes By

January 21, 2010 By

As the parade passes by, we forget some things worth remembering.

Barack Obama seemed the only Democrat on his inauguration Day, a year ago yesterday, with a sobering view of how difficult it was going to be to work as a nation on our problems.

Remember the criticism of his inaugural address and his reference to George Washington at Valley Forge as being “too sobering” ?  He wondered aloud not whether we had a government too big or too small, but simply, do we have one that works?

I have a print of the famous painting of George Washington on his horse in the deadly snows of Valley Forge surrounded by his starving troops in my hallway.   I can attest to its solar plexus effect, but also its inspiration.

It’s not a moment in our history a presidential speechwriter might suggest to conjure up in the inaugural address so I feel confident it is the image President himself inserted in to his speech.  He understood the complexities of the challenges in front of him.

Some said he missed that inaugural occasion with this speech and yet, no surprise, I think he got the moment and his our times exactly right.

As I stand at attention and pay my respects to this one year anniversary I chronicled at the time with a 14-post series called, “Driving to the Inaugural” , I offer you a link to the speech and encourage you to read it through.

It is a seed sound from yesterday that I heard while crumpled flat on the forest floor and, quite poetically, a soft snow began to fall as I decided to pick myself up and get on with it.

©Pat Coakley

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Filed Under: Anniversary of Barack Obama's Inauguration, Driving to the Inaugural Series, PRESIDENT OBAMA, The Inauguration Tagged With: , , , ,

Skyward

January 20, 2010 By

I’m on the ground from a knock-out punch trying to enjoy the view.

I hear moans and groans all around me and I’m not in Haiti which underwent yet another 6.0 earthquake this morning.

No, I’m a voter whose vote was Democratic in one of those Massachusetts middle class suburbs you’ll be hearing far too much about in the coming days that voted for a Republican to take the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy.

There’s a remarkable amount of finger-pointing going on for those so injured, crumpled, laid out limbs akimbo, dazed and confused.

But, I’m not lifting my finger to point anywhere but up.  Getting beat senseless makes me reflective not argumentative.  Skyward is my world view this morning.

So, I’ll leave you with this bit of forest wisdom.

The Lodge Pole Pine tree which populates much of Yellowstone National Park regenerates only through fire.  Their seed pods do not open unless conflagration is present.  In 1988, when a large portion of the park underwent what was considered a “catastrophic” fire, and fingers were waggin’ every which way about failed US Forest service fire management policies, the view of the park was, to the human eye, smoldering and bleak.

Beneath the rising curling smoke, however, and seen only by the wise forest floor, the seed pods were opening.

So, today, I’m looking skyward and have my ears to the ground waiting for seed sounds.

Care to join me?

You could begin by going outside, where ever you are on this vast globe, and lay down on the ground–on your back, silly–not face first, although God knows– I understand that impulse.

Then, take out your camera , your sketch pad, your pen and show us what you see.

I’ll be right here waiting.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Failure, Healh Care Debate, Massachusetts, Politics, Senator Ted Kennedy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Throwing Wrenches at Wenches

January 19, 2010 By

Oh, you simply have to laugh.

Yes, you do.

I live in the town next to the home of the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate here in Massachusetts.

The election is today and the polls close at 8 PM and so far all we know is that more folks than expected came out to vote.

I’m one of them.

I was sitting on the sidelines here with zero interest, thinking it a cake walk for the democratic candidate until I got wind that all sorts of religious right wing groups and big money from the republican party nationwide was funding the Republican candidate’s campaign.

“Up for Grabs” should be changed to “Up for Cash” because I’m not kidding, the recession must be over in Massachusetts after the money that has been spent here on campaign advertising.

The Republican’s daughter, who was a former American Idol contestant, made one of the robo calls yesterday.  Today, the democratic’s candidate sister or sister in law called and said, “Hi, Martha’s nieces went to the polls with me this morning.”

I got calls asking me if I needed  a ride to the polls, did I know where my polling place was, and I had the feeling if I said yes I need a ride to the polls, the car would have pulled into my driveway a minute later screeching to a halt.

I went to my polling place (I drove myself!) at 10:30 AM and they said it was like a presidential election there were so many folks showing up compared to the primary.  The parking lot was filled at 6:30 AM and was jammed for two hours.

There appeared to be more republican sign bearers on my walk up to the high school gymnasium but when I had voted and had to verify my name before depositing the vote into the machine, when the lady heard “Coakley”, she gave me a little extra twinkle.

So, my conclusion is: it’s horse race with the “dems” leading with a twinkle.

And, PS people: ain’t this the best looking wrench you ever saw?  If one has to be thrown, I’d go with this one, another beauty from my father’s tool box, of which this is a series, but then, you know that, right?  Here’s a few of his other tools:

Long nose (needle) pliers

Hammer

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Massachusetts, Money, Politics, Tools, Tools of the Trade, U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Who’s on Watch?

January 17, 2010 By

President Obama called on Friday.

President Clinton called on Saturday.

It’s Sunday and perhaps Elvis shall call today?  Here’s hopin’.  I want to tell him about weightwatchers.

Martha Coakley is perspiring–not that the democratic senatorial candidate in Massachusetts for the senate seat vacated when Ted Kennedy died is the kind of woman who lets you see her sweat, mind you–but believe me, everyone around her is grinning through flop sweat.

Calm down, democrats.

She’s no relation to me, nor is she sorry.   Her campaign has enough trouble without adding my family’s political history.

This image is of the bridge and the parapet look-out on the Andrea Doria, the Italian liner, on its final (successful) voyage to New York City.  It was taken by my father in June of 1956.   With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the look-out on this bridge, three weeks later, was a bit astounded to see “The Stockholm” come out of the fog off Nantucket Island, and head straight into the Andrea Doria.  She sank to the bottom 10 hours later.

So much for look-outs and pollsters.

I see this photo and go, “Martha. Martha. Martha.  Everyone is in a panic, seeing the Scott Brown-Playmate of The Month-steel ice breaker-bow approaching.”

Chill out, people of the Commonwealth and Democratic nation.  It’s the things we don’t have any warning about, (earthquakes in Haiti, for example numero uno) that we have to worry about.

Besides, how can someone with my last name lose?

She won’t, I reckon; but I’m telling you this.

If she does, I’m going down with the ship (after changing my name) and shouting short four letter words.

“Glub Glub Glub.”

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Massachusetts, Ocean Liners, Politics, SLIDES OF MY FATHER Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Just So You Don’t Forget

January 13, 2010 By

Just so you don’t forget with all the recent photos in focus: vegetables, tools, slides from my father.

I still bring my camera to the car wash.

Buying “The Ultra Wash” gives you the most flashing lights in the tunnel.

Just saying.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select images from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: CAR WASH, Cars Tagged With: , ,

Long Nose Pliers Make Me Cry. Oi.

January 12, 2010 By

Ok.  This is officially ridiculous.

Long nose pliers just made my eyes fill up.

I have no hormones left so that’s not a good explanation.

I am working on the narrative to go along with this series, “Tools of the Trade” but, honestly?  It’s secondary right at the moment.  I don’t really need to understand it.  I just want to do more.

My dream would be if all the folks who have helped and encouraged me in my creative journey would send me one of their favorite tools from their creative or actual tool box.

For example:

Razzbuffnik could send me one of his favorite clamps ( has to be small, though) from down there in Australia.   Forget the walrus, He is THE clamp man.

I am hoping to convince Tipota (who lives about a hour from me)  to make the drive up to my house for my onion soup gratinee (the only recipe my guests have said passed the four star test) with her father’s tool box that she now uses.

And, if BonnieLuria would send some brushes, please?  The more used the better and paint splotched and frayed, or any that have a special meaning.

Don Diddiams, how about an old stylus that you are not using anymore?  Or, if you have a favorite small tool you’d like to relinquish for a bit, send it along?

Epicurienne, how about your oldest and favorite kitchen tool?  Or a favorite written recipe from a family member?  Use it’s temporary loan as a reason to go out to eat!

Renee, take a look around, what would you chose as a tool of your creativity?

Planetross, I’m afraid of what you would send me–but, having said that,  whatever you choose as emblematic of your creative wordplay would be handled tenderly!  But, it has to be small, like scanner small!  No huge buddha doll or space alien living in your refrigerator!

I’ll return everything very fast since the scan of the material is the only step creating these images that takes hardly any time.  Then, I’ll work on the images as the snow and temperatures continue to fall around me, warmed by the gratitude I feel toward all of you who have helped stoke my creative fires for almost two years.

It shall guide my keystrokes, blending modes, layer masks and I’ll send you the final print one day in the future–one day in spring 2010–(at least in my hemisphere), on the second anniversary of this blog.

I think I’ve finally found a way to personalize my gratitude to all of you!

Yea, tools!

Long and pug nosed.

Seriously.

I am not the walrus, either, but as my late brother used to say of me–I am a piece of work.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select images from this blog and from my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Tools of the Trade, The Series:

The Hammer

Filed Under: Pliers, Tools, Tools of the Trade Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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