The camera

I was the guest speaker at a book club last week. A lovely group of women purchased my book and I was invited to discuss it with them.

This would be a first time for me so I planned accordingly, dressing to perfection and arriving before schedule. The home of the hostess was lovely with a table set with china and silver for 15 ladies. She made a centerpiece of a road map, 2 little mustangs, a hat (as she knows I love to wear them) and a little figure of a black man, all done with great thought and fun.

Naturally, I brought my camera, but oops the batteries were dead.

I asked if she happened to have any and she said, she would call her husband to find out where he keeps them. Mind you the guests would be arriving in minutes. We went to her office but the batteries she found must have been old as they did not work and when we tried the second set, they did not work either.

On the table was a TV control and I suggested I borrow the batteries and return them to the TV controller at the end of the evening and it gave us difficulty in pulling them out, but they did not work either.Now we were both frustrated as the lovely hostess was being put through the mill as her guests were approaching.So I said, l"et us forget it," and she said, "Don't worrry, I will take pictures."

Things calmed down, the guests began to arrive and she took one photo of me and the evening went on. And then a bit later, she said," did you see where I put my camera? I can't seem to find it!." So I went back to the office opening up strange drawers looking for the camera but it could not be found. As we mingled we looked in each corner and table amongst all of her lovely things to see if her brand new camera, bought for the occasion, was in site. But to no avail. The hostess kept searching discretely, turning pillows over, looking under each, as she served her delicious dinner, but no camera. Finally she said," I have another one," and went and got it and started shooting, but she could not get it out of her head remarking throughout the evening, "where can my camera be?"
It truly was a divine evening in every other way but I did know that her well planned evening was disrupted with the nuisance of my batteries and the loss in her own home of the camera.

As we were leaving, she slipped her hand between the crack of the pillows of her sofa and lo and behold, her camera. Voila.

Question. Do you think I was out of order by asking for batteries and removing them from her remote?
Carol Sue Gershman

What a wonderful wonderful day.. The Inauguration

Where were you today when our new leader was sworn in? With family, friends, in the office, or were you not able to see it as it happened?
I left early on foot taking a 45 minute walk to Adrienne Arsht center (a new complex like Lincoln Center) here in Miami Beach. There were 4000 people in four different rooms assembled At first there was a prayer, then a choir of at least one hundred girls and boys dressed in tucks and red dresses sprawled across the stage who sang America the Beautiful, Glory Glory Hallelujah. Then the mayor addressed the audience and then we saw a short film on Obama growing up from childhood till now. AND THEN AS THE ANNOUNCER SAID, " HERE IS THE MOMENT WE ARE WAITING FOR"... and down came the massive television screen as we were taken right to the inaugural and there I saw the two little girls marching in and the 4000 of us cheered and screamed and then were silent; and for each person and for each speech the crowd screamed and then were silent. I liked this crowd as we were all in sync. We were an exciting crowd that were there to take each and every moment in; but we knew when to hush and not to interfere to those who were trying to listen We were perfect and we cried and cheered and clapped and stood up instantly when we were told, and sat back down instantly when we were told. I have never been in an audience that were in such harmony. It was glorious, thrilling to see the 2,000,000 people in Washington cheering and on and on it goes. I love our new President; to me he is a Buddha bringing peace and hope. His face is warm and loving and I love him.
Carol Sue Gershman

The Air Conditioner

Once upon a time there was an air conditioner. It sat in the window of a small apartment in Miami Beach. But this A. C. had lots of problems to stay cool for any length of time. It liked building up and as soon as the tenant was enjoying the cool, it liked to trip the circuit breaker. So the owner called in an electrician and he said, "Of course, it needs a new separate plug." That cost the owner $475.00 but it would be O. K. as long as he got it to work. The reputable electricain did re-wire the apartment but the A. C. still felt that it did not care to work round the clock and even with the new plug, the A. C. tripped. So the owner called back the electrician who said, "It is not me, I did my job, look at my beautiful wiring, you need to call in an A. C. company." So the owner having no choice, did exactly that. The A. C. company came, took the poor little A. C. apart, and declared there was nothing wrong, except for one thing; It was dirty, actually filthy. So he told the owner without a doubt that cleaning would cure it at the cost of $200.00. So the owner watched as they took it out of the window, took it outside, hosed it down and 4 years of filth went down the drain. He said, "You see, how it needed it?".. So back in the window it went and the A. C. liked it for a couple of days but then tripped again. So the owner called back the A. C. guy who was shocked; so he returned with an assistant who said, "There is another problem, the regulator or such is off and this is absolutely for sure the problem. Since he diagnosed it incorrectly, he was kind enough not to charge the owner for the second visit. And later that day, it tripped again. So the owner decided to call a conference with the electrician and the A. C. company and after much testing they said, there is nothing wrong with our work. It is an outside problem and you need to call Florida power and light. i So Florida power and light came and discovered there was a problem, and turned it over to another dept. But the person who took the order did not feel like following up the work order and decided instead to take the day off turning it over to someone else. So the owner had to track down the first guy to tell it to the second guy and the second guy finally decided to follow up and told the owner to shut the building down. So the owner arranged with the manager of the building to put a notice up to all of the tenants that service would be shut off the following day. And so Florida Power and Light re-wired and 10 minutes later, Yup, the A. C. tripped again. The nice understanding tenant at this point said," I figured it out, I figured it out, when it is hot outside, the A. C. trips, but when it is cooler outside, it seems to work better and besides I think it is when I run the A. C. and use my computer at the same time that it also trips." "No, I said, that can not be. It is when it is hot outside that we need the A. C. to work and I think working on your computer and having A. C. should be O. K." Well the first electrician was now becoming challenged; 'In my 20 years of service, I have never seen anything like this before." so he called in his own A. C. guy and that A. C. guy said, he thinks it is the compressor and was smart enough to call the manufacturer who said, bring it in. it has 2 months left on the 5 year warranty. The new A. C. guy said I will only charge you $95.00 to pick it up and bring it back. So the owner said, O. K. the tenant said O. K. take it out and now we will see... What is your guess? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE ENDING?????????
Carol Sue Gershman