Morning Thoughts

On the way to work this morning, I got to thinking about the Republican cuts to Obama's stimulus package and one of those cuts was to the funding to local health agencies to prepare for a pandemic. What are we possibly facing - Wow Swine Flu! It isn't a real problem just yet (except for those families that have lost a love one to it) but clearly it is something that could be because of our quick and broad array of travel locations. But why did the Republicans pick this issue to take a stand on?

Here is my understanding of Republican positions. They only want to protect the rich and successful in life. They think that because we are born equal under the law that we are born equal in all things. Like an intercity kid or a kid born to migrant workers is going to get the same opportunities as a Bush kid or a Rockefeller kid. If you think about that you should come up with a lot of thoughts about what really makes or breaks a successful citizen.

Likewise they fail to understand that the business successful never achieve success solely on their own efforts. They are successful because (in part) of those of us that work for them and those of us that buy from them, i.e. the non-rich. (We the non-rich measure success quite differently.) Without workers and purchases (those with needs to be filled) they wouldn’t have any success at all. I’m not ignoring their contribution to success. I’m just saying they need to remember that it takes all of us to make it happen. I by no means think the working class is without it’s faults. But if we the non-rich died in the next month from a pandemic what would happen to all those successful people the Republicans are protecting? You can legislate an increase population, at least no overnight. I guess you could five tax breaks to the wealthy for each successful conception they produced. (LOL)

All I’m saying is we are a diverse nation and our diversity is not just culture or ethnic. In fact the diversity of our work ethic and our emotional goals are a great contribution to one of the most open and free societies in history and that our government has to look at protecting more than just the financially successful.

Chet gets philosophical

The paragraph about time is my addition to this bit of life advice.

Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don't Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

Don't Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Always allow for Time. Give things time to settle in both your’s and others’ minds. Let emotions have time to ebb and flow. Walk away for a while to give time a chance.

It is Christmas Eve - Eve. I’m the only contract person in my section at work today. I’m here with the project manager. We just happen to be the two oldest folks in our respective sections as well. What does that tell you?

One of the more enjoyable aspects of working in the procurement field is that it is predominately women I work with. I’ve always preferred women’s company over men’s. No, I’m not a “Player” or a womanizer even though I do appreciate the female form. I just get bored with the bravado conversations that characterize men’s conversations.

Yesterday, I overheard a group of guys talking about welding on hunting trucks and the best guns for ridding pesky rodents. The conversations were full of “I get away with . . .”, “it’s against the law but . . .”, “this is the best way to . . .” and the characteristic interruptions of agreements/disagreements with personal antidotes that come across in tones of chest pounding.

Sunday at a family Christmas gathering (Emily’s side) I ended up defending the Corps of Engineer Engineers to a couple of good old boys who just love to find fault with professionals overly impressed with their smarts. There is nothing like good old common sense to make the world right, ya know. The fact that they set the setting for their criticism and I have no way of disproving “the facts” they choose to present is why I hate such conversations. They pound their chest and I look like I’m on the looser side of life. My comeback? How many times have you put your $10,000 fishing boat in the water at a Government built boat ramp? Nice to not have to bounce over a tree roots or run your trailer into a muddy bottom creek bed isn’t it.

We men just can’t seem to have a conversation in which we don’t somehow compete on the topic of at hand. Somewhere in that discussion we have to have the “best” answer. That’s not a bad thing unless it is the only thing coming out of the conversation. After all these years, I’m bored to tears by it.

Women, I find, actually exchange ideas. They offer solutions without claiming it to be the “end all” solution. They care that you come away with enough information to be successful. Yes, they talk about shopping and cooking and health aids, etc., but the conversations are pleasant and constructive. These days, I’m beyond getting dirty under the hood or constructing the worlds best carpentry/welding shop in a 8’ by 10 ‘ shed. I like Martha Stewart and find cooking very rewarding as a creative activity. I appreciate a designer that can design with a man’s taste in mind. And yes, I still love power tools but I love them for assisting me in achieving my goals, not as jewelry hung from my ego.
So what does this have to do with being at work on this Christmas Eve – Eve? It’s a guy’s thing and I’m still very much a guy. LOL

Happy Earth Rotational New Year!!!!

The Northern Hemisphere is now heading back toward longer days and not a moment too soon for me. I just have to survive the Congressional screwing around that will come in March.
I’m an early riser. I’m up at 4:45 AM and on my way to work by 5:20 AM. I’ll get to the office around 6:30 AM. This time of year on the leading edge of the Central Time Zone that is night driving. The predominately cloudy conditions this time of year only makeit a darker time of day. But, when the Sun starts to rise during my trip to work, the drive is a splendid part of my day. The colors of the sky mixed with mist or fog over the fields. The long shadows and rich colors of the flora – even the grays of leafless trees are vivid – are like the robust smells of Mom’s kitchen - intoxicating. But now the sky is black when I pull into the well lit parking lot at the office. Soon the morning sky will greet me and join me on that long trip and when it does, even the bitter cold of Winter will not chase that inner happiness from my smile.

Always looking for that silver lining

I’ve missed so many great photo opportunities this past week. We’ve had a day or two of uncharacteristically cold weather preceded by humid warm weather to include a ton of rain. Two different days I missed some great pictures because 1) I’m a working stiff who has to get his ass to work or else and 2) I didn’t have my camera with me because Tiz the Season to be Jolly and the truck is full of food and gifts. Can’t carry that German Chocolate cake and the office gifts and my big old camera bag.

One morning going to town the thin weeds and small branches were frost covered and the sky was clear letting the sun shine on and through them. It was almost like ice but with the frosty softness in the crisp air. On the way home things warmed up a bit and the frost was going fast but the tall grasses in the fields held the frost a little longer than the other flora and they reflected a purplish blue, like hundreds of fan-headed staffs sticking up from the brown grassy meadows. It was so eye catching and I’ve never seen anything like it before. So I just took a few moments, stopped and enjoyed it.


Not my picture and nowhere near as beautiful as what I saw that morning.

Yesterday we awoke to 13 degree weather and the temp never got above freezing. This is Southern Middle Tennessee I’m talking about not Ashland, Wisconsin. On the way home with the sun setting in the distance, the water that normally drips out of the rocks where the highway cuts through the hills, was making interesting and unique icicles that reflected the golden sun set – and I didn’t have my camera. By the time I got home it was too late. The sun was gone. Today it is above freezing and more warm humid weather is on the way.


Again, not my picture and the icicles I saw were delicate and clear with the Sun shinng on and through them.

As disappointed as I am, I know now that this is possible and what conditions created it and I will be on the lookout for it again. Always looking for that silver lining. It sure beats bitching about things that can’t be undone.

Reading???

I ran across an interesting literacy statistic the other day. “The average American annually spends 10 times more on what he puts on his head than what he puts into his head.”

Here are some other interesting thoughts.

* If you read just one book a month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world.

* If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world's foremost leading authorities on that subject.

* If you read just 15 minutes -- every day for one year -- you can complete 20 books.

It doesn’t sound like it is hard to be well read. Of course 15 minutes with Superman comic books is probably not what the creator of those comments had in mind. Reading isn't expensive either. you can read great writing for free and even some not so great more resent works for practically nothing.

Yes, the internet is one source. I like the Project Gutenberg site. It was the first producer of free electronic books and they have over 25,000 free books. They are classics that are beyond copyright protection so you can get anything from Plato to Shakespeare. Yes, that’s fiction and non-fiction. They even have books in over fifty different languages if you are so incline to read something in Gamilaraay or in Swedish.

There is your local library. It may seem old fashion but, it is still nice to have a warm dry place to go with friendly knowledgeable people around to help you find a great read and actually sit quietly and leave the now behind for a while! How "novel" is that? I always enjoyed sitting in a comfy chair in a quiet corner of the library to read feeling almost decadent with the luxury of it all.

There are lots of media to use too. I’m just old fashioned enough to still prefer a book. But I have adjusted to reading on screen. Hard to write notes in the margins though. LOL

It is a marvel of our times that through public education we have so many writers and writing opportunity. Yes, a lot is junk. I remember a line from a Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in which the crew travels back in time to San Francisco of the 1990s, Cpt. Kirk describes the era to Spock as a time known for it’s trashy novels and cheap architecture. He names a few writers known for their sex scenes and overly simplified plots ( I think he mentions Danielle Steele). We also have far easier access to good writers and good writing on any subject – fiction or not – you could possibly want.

Is it really so difficult to read fifteen minutes once a day? How about reading to your kids before they go to bed? The parental responsibility to enhance children’s potential is so easy to do this way and reaps so many benefits just by sharing a little time reading. I loved reading Uncle Remus and all those Brer Rabbit tales to my kids.

Morning Thoughts

This morning is one of those “hard to get moving” mornings which I’ve been having a lot of lately. When I got to work I took a moment to check out my Google Reader service and stumbled onto a photograph of a person holding buttercups titled “Likes Butter”. I got to thinking I really never paid that much attention to butter. The color or the texture or the smell are not all that familiar to me. Could it be that a lifetime exposed to butter want-a-be’s in the form of margarine have hidden real butter from my experiences? Has the chemically altered state of normal foods dulled my senses to good old wholesome foods? I’ve long healed a believe that chemistry as wonderful a tool as it is has been misused by the commercial world and is the underlining cause of many of today’s illnesses. If you want to challenge me on this then I recommend you look at the tremendous increase of lead in our air which can be clearly linked to 1923 when it was added to gasoline to make cars run smoother. Note when you check that out that the nature of such lead is to hang around a long time so that even though we have outlawed it in gasoline the parts per million in our air is still unnaturally high. The consequences of our indulgences are long lasting and will effect generations to come.

Another thought that hit me this morning while riding the elevator up to the third floor (I said I was dragging this morning), is how sad it seemed to me for people who work in the big cities who work in buildings that are so tall they need two or more elevator changes to get to their place of employment. If they are happy so be it. I’m not passing judgment on their choices, but I would find that sad if I found myself in that situation. Of course this comes with the whole city life style of commuting, crowds, noise and smells. I know there is lots to offer people in that life style but I guess it is not for me. Especially as I age. Reminds me of the Simon and Garfunkle song “Old Friends”.

Such are my thoughts today.

Photographer??? Me????

I've been putting a lot of effort into my photography lately. I think it is about time I start my own photo site and stop using the free sites I've played with over the last decade. At the same time, I want to express my views on photography as an art form as well as a historical tool for institutions and individuals alike. I might even want to look at its use in marketing seeing as I'm an old advertising major from YSU.

Since I surf the web looking at works of other photographers, I'm thinking of having a section showing my favorites and giving the creator full credit and exposure.

So to you few viewers I have, I solicite your opinion on this proposed venture. What ya think?

Rambling Thoughts of a Morning

Emily pulled a book from my bookshelf this morning and said, “This looks interesting.” It was “Getting It On” by Lewis Grizzard. She thought it might be a sexually raunchy book, not that I have a lot of them, but in my head life unfolds that way. I got to thinking about Grizzard’s life, what little I know of it. I know in his early life as a comedian he was a racist and his humor reflected that racism, but I did not find that out until after his death. I just remember him as a purveyor of southern humor rich with simple southern life. He understood the charm of a steak dinner at Waffle House if you get my drift. I also thought about how I’ve changed my reading habits in my merging autumn years. As I thought about this I remembered I had read Herman Hess’s “Siddhartha” this week at work and how out of character that was for me these days. It was a slow week and nothing crossed my desk to do and once I got all the unimportant things done that no one asks you to do but you know they expect you to do, I had time on my hands. I got Google books up on the computer and searched for Steppenwolf thinking I would read that story again since I last read it in a previous life and couldn’t remember why it was considered worth reading by the literary world. Well, actually, I was tired of reading my critical thinking book and wanted something different. I found it, but got side tracked to Siddhartha and for the life of me I don’t know why. I had never read it before and knew nothing of it. Hess was known to me as a German writer of strange philosophical undertakings that bored me to tears in my youth. I started with an introduction to Hess himself and was struck by a lot of similarities between his life and his thoughts and mine. We are not all that identical, but there were some remarkable similarities of thought. I finished the book by the first hour of the second day and have pondered its meaning off and on the rest of this week. I realize it means far more to me now than it ever could when I was 19 and built “like a rock”. I can’t help but think teachers waste a lot of effort on high school kids trying to get them to read and enjoy the classics when one really needs a lot of life experience and the wisdom that comes from that exposure to really relate and see the real value of the authors writings. It’s like expecting a high school biology student to understand the instructions of a brain surgeon at work. What a waste.

For those who have not read Siddhartha, you may want to pick it up some time and give it a try. It is less than a hundred pages and you don’t have to worry about in-depth character studies because that is not Hess’s style. You may find his insight into life and value of human interaction and experience insightful.

Just a Ponder

History is what was and the cause of what is. We can never know what it could have been. I think of this every time I think how different the world would be today if Al Gore had won his own state in his bid for president in 2000.

A term that serves to degrades the user

I heard a self professed “freethinker” say the Flying Monkey Arts Center “looks wayyyyy too artsy fartsy for my tastes”. Too many times I’ve heard the expression “artsy fartys” used to denigrate creativity. It is a term used by the ignorant who think creative people are outside their capability for understanding. They relish their self inflicted ignorance of creativity wearing it like a badge of honor. I’m particularly disturbed by a person who calls themselves open minded using this term. This person is really a self claimed atheist who likes to claim she thinks outside of the restriction of dogma, but is in fact encased in her own restrictive inhibitions to examination of the world. She slaps a label on a concept that she thinks is cute but is really belittling.

I’ve heard others use the term in question. Why do they fear opening their minds to someone else’s creative expression? If they don’t like it, fine, they should say so, but don’t degrade it with shitty “cutesieism” rational. Don’t turn it into an “us verses them” issue. The artist is trying to open lines of communication. Take advantage of that opportunity and explore.

They only good thing about that term is it goes a long way towards identifying fakes and I guess I should be grateful for that.

Good People - Good Community

I’ve wanted to write about an experience I had a few weeks ago that revived my faith in community. These days, with the current administration so negative about everything none American, the news media so willing to expound on the negative with no regard for the positive and business running skittish thus ruining so many peoples financial well being, it is rare that something can help get me past all the negative exposure. What I experienced went way beyond just getting past the negative. It gave me hope for the future and a great respect for local influence in our lives.

Emily is a RN and works at a retirement home and was, until recently, tagged the “Wound Care Nurse.” That is, along with the normal nursing responsibilities, she was the nurse called when a resident/patient developed an open wound. This responsibility is mostly for liability purposes, but don’t rule out compassionate care of the clients. She is called to not only care for the wound but to adequately document it – size, location, probable cause, etc. She works closely with another Wound Care Nurse, Gloria. Gloria’s husband, Doug, had a transplant a while back and after the extreme traumatic experience of the surgery, they have gone through some hard times with his recovery. There is insurance, but there is disagreement over what is covered. Meanwhile the pressure to pay the bills ignores the disagreement between the pained and the profiters. To help out, the little community of Boonshill put on a Grand Old* Opry show at the Boonshill Community Center. This is just a little place out in the country in the north-west corner of Lincoln County. If you looked up the stats most of the categories will read, “significantly below state average.” There are as many Indians are there are Blacks although its population is decidedly white. The community center is an old now unused public school building and, trust me, it wasn’t updated when it shifted purposes. It is a big building with some A/C on a good day. On this very hot July night it wasn’t up to the task.

The event was a multi-phased presentation broken into two functions. First there was a dinner which cost $10. The nursing staff at the county nursing home where Emily works provided the kitchen staff and it was served in the old school cafeteria. I got to meet a lot of the women she works with and let me tell you, they are good people. All that friendliness you read and hear about Southerners was there in abundance. That’s saying a lot for a bunch of women who were working in a steamy hot, un-air conditioned kitchen serving lots of people looking forward to a good meal. Not a lot of national chains in Boonshill, none to be exact. It’s a place where Mom is still respected for her cooking abilities. So a night out is A NIGHT OUT!

As I was in line working my way up to the service line and being introduced to all of Emily’s working buds along the way, I noticed pictures all along the walls of graduation classes. The early classes (70’s) had maybe ten people in the senior classes. As the years progressed the numbers grew, but not by much. The last picture had a respectful 30 or 40 seniors. All the pictures were black and white and faded to that old sepitone quality. Each individual’s picture in the early years was individual head shots in oval inlays. The years were showing on the photos, but the style of proper dress for such an important life event was more revealing. Most definitely something I could identify with.

The dinner was spaghetti and garlic bread. One of those hard to eat meals when the last thing you wanted was tomato sauce stains on your yellow shirt. There was a choice of deserts and the drinks were one’s choice of the national soda brands over ice in a plastic cup. Refills were expected. We sat at old folding tables and metal folding chairs with the only relief from the heat coming when the door opened letting people in or out. It was for a good cause so allowances were made.

$10 bought your way into the second phase which was a music regalia, silent auction, a not so silent pie/cake sale and a gas card and country ham raffle in the old dark wood gym with a stage at one end. The basketball goals were cranked to the ceiling. The hard steel folding chairs populated the gym floor all dress-right-dress and a couple of huge (5 foot) fans were placed here and there in front of the ancient bleachers. I captured a couple of chairs in front of one of those huge fans for the evening. Along the back wall the items up for bid during the silent auction were displayed. The items ranged from exercise equipment and office furniture to candles, country painting and song birds complete with wood cage. Many of the restaurants from Fayetteville put up dinners for two and several hair salons offered haircuts, manicure and pedicures. I went through when I first got there and made a few bids. Emily would pass through several times that night refreshing her bids after someone would out bid her until they reach her limit. She also donated a quilt to the silent auction. It would net the proceeds $200. That surprised me, but not her. She knew it would bring that much.

It is hard to describe this phase of the evening. So much was going on and people were everywhere. After we had made our initial bids and took our much envied seats, Emily continued to introduce passer-bys. I had a little time to observe the people. All ages were represented and while tee-shirts won the most worn category, there were lots of folks in clean neat plaid shirts and jeans or nice colorful summer tops and caprices. Older white haired men wore clean baseball caps with neatly trimmed haircuts. Younger men were well tanned and either had very long hair or closely cut but not quite crew cuts. The older women carried purses and fussed over the kids and the younger women tended to be knockouts in tight jeans and healthy long flowing hair. The teens were teens, boys and girls alike. They fully accepted the style of the times. The little kids . . . well let’s just say I knew they were there but they never slowed down long enough for me to get a good look. A few of the entertainers were standing around waiting for their time on stage wearing the recognizable clothing of the singer they were going to portray. A few had square dance dresses that were brightly colored and lots of ruffled slips. No one was a stranger and no one was out of place. A few of the teenage boys had the “I need an identity” fright in their eyes, but everyone else was as comfortable being there as they would be in their own living room.

When the show started it was just like the Grand Old Opry. For you who don’t know, I lived in and around Nashville during my high school years. My folks loved country music. I have lots of pictures of them taken with the likes of Grand Pa Jones, Porter Waggoner, Loretta Lynn and the like. So when I tell you that I was floored by the talent of these country folks, I know of what I speak. Their attempts to look like the stars they pretended to be may have only gone as far as the costumes they had on, but their talent was right up there with the real country singers of my youth. When I heard Andea Delap as Patsy Cline, I was transported back in time as her voice was indistinguishable from the real Patsy singing “I fell to Pieces”. Charles Sullivan singing Conway Twitty’s “15 Years Ago” had me doing a double take. Michelle Hardiman as Jeanie C. Riley singing “Harper Valley PTA” moved me to join in. As much as I wanted to rib Emily (an avid Tennessee Vols fan) when Mary Ann Tackett sang as Dolly doing “Rocky Top”, I just couldn’t because it was so good. That night’s stars ran the gamut from Merle Haggard to Elvis Presley and Connie Smith to Emmylou Harris. All of these performers were backed up by the great sounding Boonshill Grand Old Opry Band. Emily says when they are out on their own they call themselves "The Carpenters."

The graceful Sharron Reavis sang a special tribute to Doug and Gloria, who were front role video taping the entire performance. Mrs. Reavis has her own beautiful voice and it lend itself nicely to the evenings performances. Now remember, these are local folks who do this not for money or fame, but for a good cause and to give a helping hand, not with cash, but with their gifts of song.

There was a brake in the performances for the raffles and cake sale. Emily was sitting on the edge of her chair when they called out the winner for the $50.00 Gas Card. I guess driving to Huntsville as often as she does, this was a real deal. Alas it wasn’t destined to fill her gas tank, so she got up to refresh her bids back in the silent auction.

The cake sale was interesting not because the cakes were brought to the announcer by cute little 10 to 12 year old girls nor because the pointers in the audience hurriedly ran around pointing out who was bidding nor because there were so many cakes up for bid. No, what made the cake sale interesting was the sale of one cake in particular. I so wanted to find out the history behind this cake but couldn’t. See, most of the cakes and pies went for $7 to $10. However, the gym was brought to a stand still as the bidding for one cake rose to over a hundred dollars finally selling for $130. There were “ooos” and “awwws“ as the price rose and a thunderous applause as it was finally raveled sold. Imagine a $130 dollar homemade cake. I’m sure it didn’t come from a box.

As the evening grew long they finished the silent auction just before the 4^th portion of the show. Emily’s boss, Debbie, got the ergonomic office chair and Emily got two dinners at Tammy’s Outback, not to be confused with the national chain with the Aussy image. Tammy is a realtor broker by day and runs a Bar at night that serves great food. Emily just happens to be neighbors with Tammy’s best cook, Farnel, who works full time at a local appliance manufacturing plant. I’m telling you these people are interesting.

There was recognition for Doug and Gloria and the tough times they had so far endured with still more to come. This little fund raiser with all the events brought them $10,000. Not bad for a community of around 1500 people. Granted a lot of outsiders came like me, but one evening’s take like that just adds to my early testament of the talent of these voluntary performers and the generosity of this community. Its good to know that there are places where people can be this generous with their time and talent and community recourses and not get hog tied by policy, regulation and political correctness.