Where are the instructions for a ten foot pole?

I've had an adjustment to getting older. I am not old, old. But women are put out to pasture earlier. The fact that we are not taken seriously unless we are hot is a fact in the matter.

There are whole groups of people who do not get respect. One is the Vietnam veteran.

My older brother is slowly getting his house together to sell and move closer to the rest of us. He's in a state of flux. His wife left him in November. He still pays her bills. Its hard to keep a marriage going. I'm using my trustee ten foot pole as my guide in commenting. My instinct is, my brother is right and she is wrong.

My older brother has always had a talent with languages. Like many GIs, he learned some Vietnamese. This gets to my problem.

At the nail salon, there is one worker who is noisy and nasty. I will call her Talkstoodamnmuch. Instead of using common sense, I continue to chat with her. She wanted to suggest my brother had illegitimate children left in Vietnam.

Our government let the Amerasian kids down by not issuing condoms, educating GIs about birth control and moving these kids back to the United States. So many had the problem of extended families who would have traveled with them. My sympathy is with them.

I had mixed feelings about the mothers and extended families. True love is like lightning in a bottle with someone 19. Was it love, was it economic opportunity, having children without a helpmate's commitment is a problem in the relative prosperity we live in the United States today.

As sensitive as my brother is about children, I know he would have moved heaven and earth to get his kid back home. Heck no, I am not asking him. I am encouraging him to write his memoir about his tour of Vietnam.

Talkstoodamnmuch then talked about history and the liberation of Vietnam in 1975. I sat quiet because the woman doing my pedicure had family that went to re-education camps before the big liberation or fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnam.

I just had my fill. On the Ellen Degeneres show, there was a shrimp recipe which the nail technician pointed out to me.

After I paid and tipped, I stopped and told Talkstoodamnmuch that many American soldiers who would have been my age died in Vietnam. The war was not a good thing for them either.

Anyway, I think back. Why didn't I tell Talkstoodamnmuch that she didn't speak English well, I sure as heck didn't speak Vietnamese, I don't talk politics with folks I grew up with. Let's talk about the weather. I don't have much better sense than her.

I don't need to rack up these sort of incidents. Just get along with everyone. My antenna doesn't work lately. I'm waxing my trustee ten foot pole soon.