Who's at the wheel?

Back in the late '50s when Science Fiction was becoming very popular, one of the predictions for 2000 was that we would all be in the air, 'driving' our flying cars. Not yet on the horizon, but driver-free cars with auto-pilots doing all the work are being tested right and left. Cars that park themselves are already being touted for sale.

Right now, the main rule of road law is that the driver is to be in control of the car at all times. With the new self-parking cars available and the driver-free cars being developed, insurance coverage and changes in the laws will become necessary.

I can see it now: " It's not my fault, Officer. I was asleep in the back seat".

High hopes for 2010

I'm not making New Year's Resolutions for the coming year. I don't need the angst of breaking them. I am, however, starting a list of Hopes... one of which is to be more consistent in posting to my blog. We'll see.

Had dinner last evening with two lovely friends, a married couple. They quietly celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year and still act like newlyweds... not by being overtly touchie-feelie but in their solicitous attention to and respect for each other. When the wife left the table momentarily, the husband remarked that marriage is a crap-shoot... you never know what you're getting into. He said that his wife was not the woman he had married. She had changed, in a good way. Of course, he added, he wasn't the same person she had married. His favorite thing about her is that she continues to make him laugh. I've not often heard a man say he is glad he's married. If my husband had been like him, I might still be married. Of course, I would need to have been as nice as his wife is. They are exceptional people and I count it a grace to know them and be included in their lives.

2009 has been a wild ride, personally and world-wide. Economic havoc, ecological upheaval, momentous strides in knowledge (medical, scientific, in all branches actually), revelations of feet of clay. 2010 will be no different. With luck and grace, the good will outweigh the bad.

My present from Santa last year was eyelashes. (I had lost them after undergoing chemo therapy.) Due to starting a second round of therapy a few weeks back, I'm basically hairless again but I still have eyelashes... and there seem to be more than I have ever had. I may find them on my pillow tomorrow, but I had them for Christmas. A bonus from Santa?

The recent terror attack attempt has prompted calls to put the Full Body Scanners in use. I remember the ads at the back of comic books for xray glasses... let you see through clothes (usually pictured a teen aged boy looking at a glamorous woman). When I started my obsession with reading as a child, one of the genres I enjoyed was the emerging science fiction... reading about all the wondrous things that might happen and be invented in the future. I have come to realize that, if we can imagine it, it can happen. 'They' have managed to get a man to put explosives in his underwear.... ! I may never get over this one.

We will have a full moon tonight, a blue moon (traditionally, the second full moon occurring in a month), on the last day of the year. Not a common occurrence, but not unheard of. With luck, the sky will be clear for us to enjoy its light.

Happy New Year to all.