I walked into a lively discussion the other day regarding the community I once called home... Chillicothe, Ohio. I follow the goings on there primarily because my mother and two of my siblings still live there. In one sense I feel as if I am qualified to make comments regarding some of the goings on, in another, I wonder if by living a thousand miles away I am becoming a buttinski.
At issue in this particular discussion is the disposition of Chillicothe's railroad station. One of my regular Facebook friends has wondered why something hasn't been done to restore the station, perhaps making it into a neat restaurant of some sort.
Sounds like a good idea, until one realizes that the promise of restoration on a grand scale has been tried before in several locations with sometimes less than promising results. The finger of blame need not be pointed at any one person or any one group. There have been valiant effort made by people like Bob Etling and David Moore to do work on the Warner Hotel and the Majestic Theater, respectively. From what I have observed on both of those places is that while some of the basic needs of the buildings were met, there ended up being more to the restoration process than was initially anticipated, meaning that some projects tend to get pushed off to the side while more money is generated to push the projects ahead.
There in a nutshell is what is probably going on with the railroad station. The owner needs to generate money with which to move ahead with the restoration of the building in order to attract a tennant who will give the owner a decent return on his investment. Buttinskis like me can sit in our suburban Dallas homes and suggest solutions to a group of interested people who will camp out on the internet and make even more suggestions as to how to solve the problem.
In the meantime, there are a couple of other "grand" projects which need attention... the Carlisle Building in Downtown and the former High School/Junior High School over on Arch Street. Where should the investment be made, or more importantly, how should the investment be made?
Let me shift some attention to a couple of places I have visited in the past couple of months here in the State of Texas. Last Saturday (July 30th) the wife and I met with a lovely couple in a neat little English Pub called Churchill's in Downtown McKinney, Texas. Downtown McKinney is a bustling place with several blocks of shops and restaurants which seem to attract a lively crowd. Now, when I arrived here in North Texas thirteen years ago, McKinney wasn't quite as bustling. It took a number of years and a number of people willing to make an investment to make downtown become an attraction in and of itself. Despite the flood of McRestaurants a few miles to the west along the freeway, the downtown establishments were doing quite well for themselves despite the drought and despite triple digit temperatures. Two weeks earlier, the lovely Miss Carol and I went to Fredricksburg, Texas... a good hour's drive out of San Antonio. Smaller than Chillicothe and doing a land-office business, again, despite a drought and a heat wave.
Both Fredricksburg and McKinney came alive in part because of cooperation and a concerted effort by the people investing in those towns to build something which would attract tourists. Those are only two examples of building a successful downtown here in Texas. There are other examples I have seen or have heard of where people have banded together to make a difference.
It was all done in little baby steps.
Sure, there were focal points - The Nimitz museum in Fredricksburg and the old courthouse in McKinney - and the focal points helped. Chillicothe has one heck of a focal point in Tecumseh, thanks in large part to the vision and hard work of the late "Rusty" Mundell. What is needed now is for more visionaries to come forward and take advantage of that focal point, to take some baby steps and to start inviting that couple from Dayton to come down and stay for another day or two, or to convince the family in Pittsburgh that there is life here in Southern Ohio.
Yes, there are people who are going to feel left out because a particular pet project of theirs might be getting the short end of the stick for a while or who won't participate in an effort unless the effort massages their egos. Yes, some of the people who decide to come in and make an investment will lose their asses. But if there is a concerted effort, if a viable master plan can be made and the plan is followed through, there will be brighter days ahead for Ohio's first capital.
At least that's what this buttinski thinks.
Be Seeing You!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Trying to make sense of it all
Some years ago, a President of the United States came up with what was deemed to be a really good idea: If we cut taxes on someone who is making a lot of money, they will re-invest the money they are saving to create more jobs, better paying jobs, and more taxpayers who will in turn make up for the revenue which was lost in the first place.
It sounded like a reasonable deal, so it was put into practice. What no one mentioned was that the plan was an income redistribution plan. Almost immediately the plan went awry.
Instead of using the money that they saved on taxes as an investment in jobs and prosperity, there were those who decided to use that money as an investment to make even more money for themselves. So the next thing we know, we have money invested into speculative ventures involving stocks, bonds and real estate which really took off and, indeed, made money for those wise enough to invest the tax dollars that they didn't spend into making more money.
In the meantime, us here in the middle were noting that it was becoming harder and harder to stay in the middle. While our incomes remained the same, the power of that income to buy us things like housing and groceries was being slowly diminished over time. Not only that, but the goods we are able to afford are now labeled "Made in China" or "Made in Mexico", sold to us by people who are lectured that they should be damn happy that they have a job in the first place.
So, fast forward a few years and we find ourselves in a position where all of that money that has been saved in taxes which didn't trickle down is needed to pay for several wars and several other bad decisions handed to us by Presidents and Congressmen over the past thirty years or so. Now, we've gotten into this mind set that certain people have the right not to pay taxes, or if they pay taxes they should be granted tax relief or at the very least, not have their taxes raised. Some of the people who are most vociferous about the right not to pay taxes are not now or have ever been in a financial position where they will be touched by some of the recently proposed increased tax rates.
I find that about as insane as the Monty Python bit where Eric Idle was wanting to be a woman just so he could have babies (or at least he wanted to have the right to have babies when it was pointed out to him that he didn't have a womb which was nobody's fault, not even the Romans').
I'm not against making more money, but it would seem to me that if I had the means by way of a tax break to make more money, I would expect to pay a larger portion of that income in taxes because --- big drumroll, here --- I would have more at risk and would need a larger portion of the services offered by the government in order to make even more money. And believe it or not, I would still have enough money to hire more workers to produce more product which would pour even more money into the system.
Such a deal!
Okay, I've strayed a bit from the point... the point being that the Reagan idea of "Trickle-Down Economics" is/was an ideal which has had limited success at best, and has created a breed of greedy folk who have managed somehow to convince "The Great Unwashed" that greed is good. Income redistribution when labeled as lower tax rates for the well-to-do is a good thing. When it's done by way of increased taxation, it somehow becomes a Communist Plot. The same action is going on either way, it's just that as trickle-down, income redistribution just plain doesn't happen.
We've left the fox in charge of the chicken coop. Hopefully someone will figure it out and be in a position to do something about it.
Be Seeing You!
It sounded like a reasonable deal, so it was put into practice. What no one mentioned was that the plan was an income redistribution plan. Almost immediately the plan went awry.
Instead of using the money that they saved on taxes as an investment in jobs and prosperity, there were those who decided to use that money as an investment to make even more money for themselves. So the next thing we know, we have money invested into speculative ventures involving stocks, bonds and real estate which really took off and, indeed, made money for those wise enough to invest the tax dollars that they didn't spend into making more money.
In the meantime, us here in the middle were noting that it was becoming harder and harder to stay in the middle. While our incomes remained the same, the power of that income to buy us things like housing and groceries was being slowly diminished over time. Not only that, but the goods we are able to afford are now labeled "Made in China" or "Made in Mexico", sold to us by people who are lectured that they should be damn happy that they have a job in the first place.
So, fast forward a few years and we find ourselves in a position where all of that money that has been saved in taxes which didn't trickle down is needed to pay for several wars and several other bad decisions handed to us by Presidents and Congressmen over the past thirty years or so. Now, we've gotten into this mind set that certain people have the right not to pay taxes, or if they pay taxes they should be granted tax relief or at the very least, not have their taxes raised. Some of the people who are most vociferous about the right not to pay taxes are not now or have ever been in a financial position where they will be touched by some of the recently proposed increased tax rates.
I find that about as insane as the Monty Python bit where Eric Idle was wanting to be a woman just so he could have babies (or at least he wanted to have the right to have babies when it was pointed out to him that he didn't have a womb which was nobody's fault, not even the Romans').
I'm not against making more money, but it would seem to me that if I had the means by way of a tax break to make more money, I would expect to pay a larger portion of that income in taxes because --- big drumroll, here --- I would have more at risk and would need a larger portion of the services offered by the government in order to make even more money. And believe it or not, I would still have enough money to hire more workers to produce more product which would pour even more money into the system.
Such a deal!
Okay, I've strayed a bit from the point... the point being that the Reagan idea of "Trickle-Down Economics" is/was an ideal which has had limited success at best, and has created a breed of greedy folk who have managed somehow to convince "The Great Unwashed" that greed is good. Income redistribution when labeled as lower tax rates for the well-to-do is a good thing. When it's done by way of increased taxation, it somehow becomes a Communist Plot. The same action is going on either way, it's just that as trickle-down, income redistribution just plain doesn't happen.
We've left the fox in charge of the chicken coop. Hopefully someone will figure it out and be in a position to do something about it.
Be Seeing You!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Mayor for Life
My understanding is that there are elections coming up in a couple of weeks. I am anxiously looking forward to the results in a couple of mayoral elections, one a primary, the other, well, we run things a little bit differently here in Texas.
In my old stomping grounds up in Chillicothe, Ohio, there are primary elections, followed by a general election in November. Handy arrangement. The parties put forward a number of candidates for various offices and then distill down to just one candidate to run per office in the November general election. In the Republican primary for Mayor of Chillicothe is someone I am quite familiar with, one Jack Everson.
I like Jack and I wish him well. I went to school with him, I understand that he's had a successful career in business and now he wants to give back to the community by being a public servant. I have no doubt that he would make an excellent choice and that eight years hence, once he has served a couple of four year terms, he will have laid the groundwork for someone else (perhaps younger and wiser) to come in and provide the city with the leadership it needs.
Jack would have trouble at least in this part of Texas where if one manages to get elected to public office, they will essentially hold that office for life.
Take Allen, Texas mayor Steve Terrell (please!). He was mayor and had been mayor of Allen prior to our arrival in Texas some thirteen years ago. He's still the mayor and he's running for re-election again. Since Texas seemingly has no effective primary election cycle (having to do with the fact that Democrats are strongly discouraged from having aspirations for public office) the candidate elected in May wins the whole shebang.
So saying, we will once again anoint Steve Terrell as mayor of Allen still yet another time, despite efforts of malcontents like me to vote the guy out.
I have nothing personal against the man. Honestly. I frequent his business, I see him in the store where I work from time to time and believe me, he seems like a personable man. But for some reason I just can't hand someone control (albeit limited) over the city I live in for more than two terms or eight years. There comes a point where having an election becomes a futile exercise. We may as well save our money, stop having elections and appoint some of these politicians as (Insert name of office here) For Life!
Governor (For Life) Rick Perry just won his third term - full term, that is, last fall. He'll preside over our State Senator (in since before we got here) and our State Representative (in before we got here) at the Statehouse in Austin where the names seldom change. We're looking for ways to save money, folks, so let's do it by eliminating those pesky elections!
Anyhoo, wee're back to the polls here in a couple of weeks. Good luck, Jack. At least you'll have the sense to realize that when you get into office, you will be a servant to the people instead of someone who expects the people to be servants willing to hand you control of a multi-million dollar enterprise time and time and time and time again.
Be Seeing You!
In my old stomping grounds up in Chillicothe, Ohio, there are primary elections, followed by a general election in November. Handy arrangement. The parties put forward a number of candidates for various offices and then distill down to just one candidate to run per office in the November general election. In the Republican primary for Mayor of Chillicothe is someone I am quite familiar with, one Jack Everson.
I like Jack and I wish him well. I went to school with him, I understand that he's had a successful career in business and now he wants to give back to the community by being a public servant. I have no doubt that he would make an excellent choice and that eight years hence, once he has served a couple of four year terms, he will have laid the groundwork for someone else (perhaps younger and wiser) to come in and provide the city with the leadership it needs.
Jack would have trouble at least in this part of Texas where if one manages to get elected to public office, they will essentially hold that office for life.
Take Allen, Texas mayor Steve Terrell (please!). He was mayor and had been mayor of Allen prior to our arrival in Texas some thirteen years ago. He's still the mayor and he's running for re-election again. Since Texas seemingly has no effective primary election cycle (having to do with the fact that Democrats are strongly discouraged from having aspirations for public office) the candidate elected in May wins the whole shebang.
So saying, we will once again anoint Steve Terrell as mayor of Allen still yet another time, despite efforts of malcontents like me to vote the guy out.
I have nothing personal against the man. Honestly. I frequent his business, I see him in the store where I work from time to time and believe me, he seems like a personable man. But for some reason I just can't hand someone control (albeit limited) over the city I live in for more than two terms or eight years. There comes a point where having an election becomes a futile exercise. We may as well save our money, stop having elections and appoint some of these politicians as (Insert name of office here) For Life!
Governor (For Life) Rick Perry just won his third term - full term, that is, last fall. He'll preside over our State Senator (in since before we got here) and our State Representative (in before we got here) at the Statehouse in Austin where the names seldom change. We're looking for ways to save money, folks, so let's do it by eliminating those pesky elections!
Anyhoo, wee're back to the polls here in a couple of weeks. Good luck, Jack. At least you'll have the sense to realize that when you get into office, you will be a servant to the people instead of someone who expects the people to be servants willing to hand you control of a multi-million dollar enterprise time and time and time and time again.
Be Seeing You!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Pseudonyms
A few weeks back I recieved a "Friend" request from someone on Facebook using a pseudonym which was used by an acquaintance over 40 years ago. To that point, I was using that particular name as part of "The Great American Novel" which I am busily writing on one of the other files on my computer. After politely declining the invitation, the writer made the request again, this time providing me with information which told me that I really did know this person. We had a couple of rounds of correspondence before I figured out who the person was. He was always a private sort of chap in the first place and I have no doubt as to the reasons he used a pseudonym to cover up his identity in such a public venue.
A similar situation broke earlier today. The name was unfamiliar, the face on the internet vaguely familiar. She went public with the name by which many of us knew her back in the day. Okay, mystery solved. We had a conversation via instant messaging after she broke the news... one of those typical "Hey, howya doin'just thought I'd rattle your cage" types of conversations you have with people you have not seen in 40 years. We never got into the "Why the change of name?" questions. Marriage, divorce, perhaps a whim, or perhaps a desire to break from the past.
Having been in radio for a number of years, I am familiar with people who use pseudonyms for one reason or another. Memory flashes back to the old TV show WKRP in Cincinatti where Venus Flytrap told the story of Gordon Sims who disappeared from the radar after going AWOL from the Army. I worked for a while for a fellow who called himself Randy Jay, who was in fact named Calvin Dailey Jr. For quite some time I called myself either Bruco in the Night-time or Uncle Bruco (see the title for this set of blogs), reverting to my real name only in the last several years of my overstay in radio.
Pseudonyms are used in other situations, as well. I recall being part of the CB craze back in the late sixties into the early seventies when I had a "handle" in order to avoid (like so many others) having to have a license to run my mouth off on my walkie-talkie. More lately I've taken to Geocaching which, like in those days of CB radio, most of us take on a "handle" when we are out using multimillion dollar satellites to hunt for Tupperware in the woods. (For my current pseudonym, see the signature line I use on most of these blogs.)
Then there are the people who use pseudonyms either because they had always been called something other than their real names. My Uncle Mike was one of them. He was always Uncle Mike. Nothing else, that is until it came time when we would see mail addressed to someone named Fay. For some time, I wondered as to who this person Fay was, until it was explained to me that Fay Ritz Vincent was nicknamed Mike from a very early age in honor of another of his relatives. No one used the name Fay Vincent at the time he was alive... it wasn't until after Uncle Mike died that Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent became known to the public at large. There was at the time of Mr. Vincent's tenure as Baseball Commissioner sniggers from people who who would ask "What kind of a name for a man is Fay?"
I now know of two.
Be Seeing You! (BCingU)
A similar situation broke earlier today. The name was unfamiliar, the face on the internet vaguely familiar. She went public with the name by which many of us knew her back in the day. Okay, mystery solved. We had a conversation via instant messaging after she broke the news... one of those typical "Hey, howya doin'just thought I'd rattle your cage" types of conversations you have with people you have not seen in 40 years. We never got into the "Why the change of name?" questions. Marriage, divorce, perhaps a whim, or perhaps a desire to break from the past.
Having been in radio for a number of years, I am familiar with people who use pseudonyms for one reason or another. Memory flashes back to the old TV show WKRP in Cincinatti where Venus Flytrap told the story of Gordon Sims who disappeared from the radar after going AWOL from the Army. I worked for a while for a fellow who called himself Randy Jay, who was in fact named Calvin Dailey Jr. For quite some time I called myself either Bruco in the Night-time or Uncle Bruco (see the title for this set of blogs), reverting to my real name only in the last several years of my overstay in radio.
Pseudonyms are used in other situations, as well. I recall being part of the CB craze back in the late sixties into the early seventies when I had a "handle" in order to avoid (like so many others) having to have a license to run my mouth off on my walkie-talkie. More lately I've taken to Geocaching which, like in those days of CB radio, most of us take on a "handle" when we are out using multimillion dollar satellites to hunt for Tupperware in the woods. (For my current pseudonym, see the signature line I use on most of these blogs.)
Then there are the people who use pseudonyms either because they had always been called something other than their real names. My Uncle Mike was one of them. He was always Uncle Mike. Nothing else, that is until it came time when we would see mail addressed to someone named Fay. For some time, I wondered as to who this person Fay was, until it was explained to me that Fay Ritz Vincent was nicknamed Mike from a very early age in honor of another of his relatives. No one used the name Fay Vincent at the time he was alive... it wasn't until after Uncle Mike died that Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent became known to the public at large. There was at the time of Mr. Vincent's tenure as Baseball Commissioner sniggers from people who who would ask "What kind of a name for a man is Fay?"
I now know of two.
Be Seeing You! (BCingU)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
D'Uh Wards Show
Sorry about the gap. This pilgrim has been busy with other things lately.
In the past month and a half, several news items have come to mind which in my opinion need recognition. As I was preparing for my day, I decided that awards were needed, but the awards I had in mind were not necessarily awards which a body would be eager to recieve. Therefore, I present D'Uh Wards:
MOST USELESS TECHNICAL ADVANCE (The envelope, please...) Goes to the bone-headed software developer who came up with an I-Pad application which reportedly "Cures" homosexuality. I honest to gosh wish that I was making this up. I had an e-mail cross my desk the other day urging me to sign a petition to send to Apple protesting an "App" which touts itself as a cure for gayness. Oh, come on, now. I have several openly and not so openly gay people who I work with and whom I consider as friends. For the most part, they're very happy with themselves and don't need to be "cured" of what ails them. If homosexuality is genetic, well, there's nothing that a phone application can do for it. If it is a choice, well, we have freedom to choose what we are, and if one chooses to be gay, he or she made that choice, now, haven't they?
CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE SUPREME COURT (The envelope, please...) Goes to the decision favoring Westboro Baptist Church, enabling them to spread their gospel of hatred wherever they damn well please. This award is based on the old saw of "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". No one I know has anything good to say about Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. As much as that group is a bunch of patented a**holes, they do have the right to spew whatever venom they want. Perhaps the best way to deal with this little rabble is to do what Playboy Magazine did to American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Back in 1965 they sent a (then) little-known writer named Alex Haley to interview him for the magazine, then printed the results. I read the interview less than 10 years later (when I was "of age", and yes, I did look at the pictures of the naked women, too) and it was an absolute hoot. I have never read so much back-pedaling and faulty rationalization to that point in my life and it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. Now if Playboy could do the same for Fred and his little group...
DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO (The envelope, please...) Goes to the American consumer, especially to those who voted for less government last November who are now screaming for the government to do something about skyrocketing gasoline prices. Whatever happened to the ideals of a free-market economy or unrestricted capitalism? I don't like gas prices any more than the next person, but we need to be looking at ways to quit depending on oil by making other resources easier to access and more affordable... that way we can quit having to kowtow to dictators in hopes that they don't cut us off from our addiction.
JUST GET ON WITH IT AND ELOPE ALREADY! (The envelope... wait, we don't need an envelope...) The award goes to Prince William (or is that Harry, or Charles or Walter or something) and Kate Middleton. The only bright spot in the past week and a half about the goings on in Japan and Libya is that attention is diverted away from this royal wedding. I figured out how bad all the hooplah is about a few weeks ago when I happened on an enthusiast magazine for log cabins - and on the cover of the magazine was a headline promising a look at the log cabin where William proposed, as well as a look at the log cabin where William and Kate had some private "dates" during the run-up to the engagement. He's attractive, she's attractive, so go ahead and see a Justice of the Peace and send the money somewhere where it's needed... like Haiti, New Zealand or Japan.
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT'S A MOVIE, NOT A POLITICAL PLATFORM (The envelope, please...) Goes to an un-named bonehead belonging to a decidedly non-political user group here in North Texas. The lovely Miss Carol and I went to see "The King's Speech" and were delighted about the whole thing. A charming movie, richly deserving the Oscars it earned. A few weeks later, I read comments by this un-named bonehead who also liked the movie, but at the same time used it as a platform from which to criticize President Obama. Personally, I'm mostly neutral about Obama. He's not the saint which some believe him to be, nor is he the devil incarnate as others would have you believe. Can someone be critical of the man? Sure. See above. But it strikes me as just more than a bit tacky to insert one's political opinion into what started out as a review of a pretty darn good movie. Take a memo: Get a life!
And Finally, the award for READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO... (The envelope, please...) Oh! Me! No surprise, here. I thought that it would be awfully clever of me to start a garden by planting seeds in the middle of February, despite instructions to do so no earlier than mid-March. I've waited for weeks for the plants to germinate and shoot little green stuff out of the earth. No such luck. Back to the drawing board, I guess. Perhaps I should have listened more carefully to the Walden Ponderer before making my first attempt at being an urban gardener!
Be Seeing You!
In the past month and a half, several news items have come to mind which in my opinion need recognition. As I was preparing for my day, I decided that awards were needed, but the awards I had in mind were not necessarily awards which a body would be eager to recieve. Therefore, I present D'Uh Wards:
MOST USELESS TECHNICAL ADVANCE (The envelope, please...) Goes to the bone-headed software developer who came up with an I-Pad application which reportedly "Cures" homosexuality. I honest to gosh wish that I was making this up. I had an e-mail cross my desk the other day urging me to sign a petition to send to Apple protesting an "App" which touts itself as a cure for gayness. Oh, come on, now. I have several openly and not so openly gay people who I work with and whom I consider as friends. For the most part, they're very happy with themselves and don't need to be "cured" of what ails them. If homosexuality is genetic, well, there's nothing that a phone application can do for it. If it is a choice, well, we have freedom to choose what we are, and if one chooses to be gay, he or she made that choice, now, haven't they?
CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE SUPREME COURT (The envelope, please...) Goes to the decision favoring Westboro Baptist Church, enabling them to spread their gospel of hatred wherever they damn well please. This award is based on the old saw of "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". No one I know has anything good to say about Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. As much as that group is a bunch of patented a**holes, they do have the right to spew whatever venom they want. Perhaps the best way to deal with this little rabble is to do what Playboy Magazine did to American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Back in 1965 they sent a (then) little-known writer named Alex Haley to interview him for the magazine, then printed the results. I read the interview less than 10 years later (when I was "of age", and yes, I did look at the pictures of the naked women, too) and it was an absolute hoot. I have never read so much back-pedaling and faulty rationalization to that point in my life and it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. Now if Playboy could do the same for Fred and his little group...
DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO (The envelope, please...) Goes to the American consumer, especially to those who voted for less government last November who are now screaming for the government to do something about skyrocketing gasoline prices. Whatever happened to the ideals of a free-market economy or unrestricted capitalism? I don't like gas prices any more than the next person, but we need to be looking at ways to quit depending on oil by making other resources easier to access and more affordable... that way we can quit having to kowtow to dictators in hopes that they don't cut us off from our addiction.
JUST GET ON WITH IT AND ELOPE ALREADY! (The envelope... wait, we don't need an envelope...) The award goes to Prince William (or is that Harry, or Charles or Walter or something) and Kate Middleton. The only bright spot in the past week and a half about the goings on in Japan and Libya is that attention is diverted away from this royal wedding. I figured out how bad all the hooplah is about a few weeks ago when I happened on an enthusiast magazine for log cabins - and on the cover of the magazine was a headline promising a look at the log cabin where William proposed, as well as a look at the log cabin where William and Kate had some private "dates" during the run-up to the engagement. He's attractive, she's attractive, so go ahead and see a Justice of the Peace and send the money somewhere where it's needed... like Haiti, New Zealand or Japan.
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT'S A MOVIE, NOT A POLITICAL PLATFORM (The envelope, please...) Goes to an un-named bonehead belonging to a decidedly non-political user group here in North Texas. The lovely Miss Carol and I went to see "The King's Speech" and were delighted about the whole thing. A charming movie, richly deserving the Oscars it earned. A few weeks later, I read comments by this un-named bonehead who also liked the movie, but at the same time used it as a platform from which to criticize President Obama. Personally, I'm mostly neutral about Obama. He's not the saint which some believe him to be, nor is he the devil incarnate as others would have you believe. Can someone be critical of the man? Sure. See above. But it strikes me as just more than a bit tacky to insert one's political opinion into what started out as a review of a pretty darn good movie. Take a memo: Get a life!
And Finally, the award for READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO... (The envelope, please...) Oh! Me! No surprise, here. I thought that it would be awfully clever of me to start a garden by planting seeds in the middle of February, despite instructions to do so no earlier than mid-March. I've waited for weeks for the plants to germinate and shoot little green stuff out of the earth. No such luck. Back to the drawing board, I guess. Perhaps I should have listened more carefully to the Walden Ponderer before making my first attempt at being an urban gardener!
Be Seeing You!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Appreciation
Back when I was in High School I was one of those 'wallflowers' who didn't spend my time getting to know some of the girls in my school. Instead, I contented myself with carrying on an extended correspondence with a girl I had met up with at our 7th and 8th grade 'dances' at the Junior High I attended in the Cleveland area and attempting to find out more about a girl who appeared on Mrs. Colonel Fair's seating chart when I was in the 9th grade.
Fast forward 40 years later and I have come to the conclusion that I am in awe of those girls, not just for the girls they were back when, but for the women they have become now.
This awe had been prompted by several events, including recent milestones and accomplishments. For instance, today marks Jane's birthday. She was the editor of the yearbook in my senior year. Smart, perky and ebullient, I had been a fan for years. I had heard of what she has done in her adult life through what I call the Chillicothe "moms network" and she has remained smart, perky and ebullient to this day. By most standards, she is successful... and she deserves every bit of that success.
I have been contact with another yearbook staffer, Kay. She has become a teacher... the girl most likely to point out any misspellings and grammatical errors which haunt this blog from time to time. (Hey, I looked up the word ebullient in my dictionary before I used it in the previous paragraph.) I really look forward to her occasional posts on Facebook about recent events in her life... they are heroic in the sense that it is my understanding that she had hit some rough spots here and there which she has risen above.
Then there were the cheerleaders. My son and step-son were remarking a couple of weeks ago about the absolutely awful (in terms of personal conduct) girls in the cheerleading squad here in Allen. They have not meet Debbie, Diane and Eva from the class of '72. Debbie is involved with Boy Scouts along with her husband, Jim (someone else I am in awe of) and doesn't seem to have an 'off' switch. The posts and messages I get from her from time to time are absolutely delightful. Diane has popped up on my radar from time to time in the last 40 years-I have known some of her siblings and her parents. Like Kay, she's been through some rough spots, but she's always bounced back. And Eva. She's written a book! Between being a parent, a grandparent and working for an agency helping low income families find housing, I have no idea where she finds the time.
Awesome, all.
I have not even scratched the surface. There are other women who I have come to know through Facebook who are just as awesome in their own ways as the ones I have mentioned so far in this rant, like Vickie, Barb and Dorcas... as well as others who have not come to the top of my mind at the moment.
To those who I have mentioned, to those who I have not mentioned, and to other women who I have encountered through the years who did not attend Chillicothe High School when I was there (that way I get to include my sisters), let it be known that I am genuinely happy for you and for what you have become. I am in awe of you, and perhaps a bit envious of your husbands, lovers, and/or significant others.
Have been and probably always will be... and I didn't have to wait until Valentine's day to say it!
Be Seeing You!
Fast forward 40 years later and I have come to the conclusion that I am in awe of those girls, not just for the girls they were back when, but for the women they have become now.
This awe had been prompted by several events, including recent milestones and accomplishments. For instance, today marks Jane's birthday. She was the editor of the yearbook in my senior year. Smart, perky and ebullient, I had been a fan for years. I had heard of what she has done in her adult life through what I call the Chillicothe "moms network" and she has remained smart, perky and ebullient to this day. By most standards, she is successful... and she deserves every bit of that success.
I have been contact with another yearbook staffer, Kay. She has become a teacher... the girl most likely to point out any misspellings and grammatical errors which haunt this blog from time to time. (Hey, I looked up the word ebullient in my dictionary before I used it in the previous paragraph.) I really look forward to her occasional posts on Facebook about recent events in her life... they are heroic in the sense that it is my understanding that she had hit some rough spots here and there which she has risen above.
Then there were the cheerleaders. My son and step-son were remarking a couple of weeks ago about the absolutely awful (in terms of personal conduct) girls in the cheerleading squad here in Allen. They have not meet Debbie, Diane and Eva from the class of '72. Debbie is involved with Boy Scouts along with her husband, Jim (someone else I am in awe of) and doesn't seem to have an 'off' switch. The posts and messages I get from her from time to time are absolutely delightful. Diane has popped up on my radar from time to time in the last 40 years-I have known some of her siblings and her parents. Like Kay, she's been through some rough spots, but she's always bounced back. And Eva. She's written a book! Between being a parent, a grandparent and working for an agency helping low income families find housing, I have no idea where she finds the time.
Awesome, all.
I have not even scratched the surface. There are other women who I have come to know through Facebook who are just as awesome in their own ways as the ones I have mentioned so far in this rant, like Vickie, Barb and Dorcas... as well as others who have not come to the top of my mind at the moment.
To those who I have mentioned, to those who I have not mentioned, and to other women who I have encountered through the years who did not attend Chillicothe High School when I was there (that way I get to include my sisters), let it be known that I am genuinely happy for you and for what you have become. I am in awe of you, and perhaps a bit envious of your husbands, lovers, and/or significant others.
Have been and probably always will be... and I didn't have to wait until Valentine's day to say it!
Be Seeing You!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Happy New Year!
I know, its been over a month since I last blogged, but I was busy. December is always busy as is the first part of January. Perhaps things will get better as the new year progresses. In the meantime, there are a couple of things I need to clear up or at least make comment about.
Christmas time in a home improvement store can be quite dull unless one is working in the area where Christmas ornaments are being sold or working selling dishwashers. Dishwasher sales never cease to amaze me... dishwasher sales around Christmas, that is. When I worked at Sears, I had a customer come in just after Thanksgiving who wanted to have a dishwasher installed in a place where a dishwasher never existed before. He and I planned the installation to take place on the twenty third of December while his sister had the wife occupied elsewhere. Everything went like clockwork (I was told just after Christmas by the customer). The dishwasher went in, the workmen were long gone, the wife came in and didn't even notice until the next day when after breakfast, the wife started complaining about having to do the breakfast dishes. It was then that she was told about the dishwasher... the one she was literally standing right next to while she was complaining about having to do the dishes! The customer told me that the look on her face was simply priceless.
Other than the occasional surprise dishwasher, there's not much going on, so, those of us who have vacation time left to burn will usually burn up the rest of our vacation time. I had time to burn, so, I burned it and burned it well.
When the Lovely Miss Carol and I married two years ago, we weren't in a position to take some time off for ourselves for a few days as newlyweds are usually expected to do. We considered taking that time last year, but the cancer surgery got in the way, so this year, we planned ahead and roped off a couple of days at a delightful place about two hours west of here called the Hideaway Ranch. It was suggested to us by a friend of mine who had literally raved about the place after he and his other half visited last summer.
It turns out that there were a couple of things I had forgotten which I had rediscovered during the trip. For one thing, there is actually quiet in the world. I had become so used to the almost constant din of the freeway about a mile and a half away that I had almost forgotten that there are times when there is actual peace and quiet. The other forgotten was that there are quite a few stars, and even a glimpse of the Milky Way to be seen in the sky when it is not blotted out by the constant daylight which seems to haunt our cities. The only disturbance I had to this wonderful show overhead was that eventually the condensation from the water in the hot tub interfered with my glasses.
A minor annoyance to an otherwise delightful trip.
I spent the rest of the time left of my vacation coming back down to earth. There was some general cleaning which needed to be done at the house, resulting in a really full trash can for the trash collector. We went to Church and both remarked how well the Priest who deals with the youth in our Parish is coming along with her sermons - then the following week (day before yesterday) helped to welcome the new Priest in Charge at St. Peter's Episcopal. He seems a nice fellow, but he's so young! Carol and I spent a little extra time in the Parish Hall with the Youth Priest, letting her know that she was still appreciated.
So, we're back to the usual grind here in Allen, Texas. Back to work, back to school and back to the bills.
Back to regular blogging, too.
Be Seeing You!
Christmas time in a home improvement store can be quite dull unless one is working in the area where Christmas ornaments are being sold or working selling dishwashers. Dishwasher sales never cease to amaze me... dishwasher sales around Christmas, that is. When I worked at Sears, I had a customer come in just after Thanksgiving who wanted to have a dishwasher installed in a place where a dishwasher never existed before. He and I planned the installation to take place on the twenty third of December while his sister had the wife occupied elsewhere. Everything went like clockwork (I was told just after Christmas by the customer). The dishwasher went in, the workmen were long gone, the wife came in and didn't even notice until the next day when after breakfast, the wife started complaining about having to do the breakfast dishes. It was then that she was told about the dishwasher... the one she was literally standing right next to while she was complaining about having to do the dishes! The customer told me that the look on her face was simply priceless.
Other than the occasional surprise dishwasher, there's not much going on, so, those of us who have vacation time left to burn will usually burn up the rest of our vacation time. I had time to burn, so, I burned it and burned it well.
When the Lovely Miss Carol and I married two years ago, we weren't in a position to take some time off for ourselves for a few days as newlyweds are usually expected to do. We considered taking that time last year, but the cancer surgery got in the way, so this year, we planned ahead and roped off a couple of days at a delightful place about two hours west of here called the Hideaway Ranch. It was suggested to us by a friend of mine who had literally raved about the place after he and his other half visited last summer.
It turns out that there were a couple of things I had forgotten which I had rediscovered during the trip. For one thing, there is actually quiet in the world. I had become so used to the almost constant din of the freeway about a mile and a half away that I had almost forgotten that there are times when there is actual peace and quiet. The other forgotten was that there are quite a few stars, and even a glimpse of the Milky Way to be seen in the sky when it is not blotted out by the constant daylight which seems to haunt our cities. The only disturbance I had to this wonderful show overhead was that eventually the condensation from the water in the hot tub interfered with my glasses.
A minor annoyance to an otherwise delightful trip.
I spent the rest of the time left of my vacation coming back down to earth. There was some general cleaning which needed to be done at the house, resulting in a really full trash can for the trash collector. We went to Church and both remarked how well the Priest who deals with the youth in our Parish is coming along with her sermons - then the following week (day before yesterday) helped to welcome the new Priest in Charge at St. Peter's Episcopal. He seems a nice fellow, but he's so young! Carol and I spent a little extra time in the Parish Hall with the Youth Priest, letting her know that she was still appreciated.
So, we're back to the usual grind here in Allen, Texas. Back to work, back to school and back to the bills.
Back to regular blogging, too.
Be Seeing You!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)