Today I have a big smile on my face. It was 15 years ago today that Earl and I had our first date in the lovely city of Albany, N.Y. The date ended up being a six hour drive through the mountains of Vermont and the beginning of a lifetime journey together. When he put my hand on my leg as I was driving my little ’94 Hyundai Excel, I knew that hand would be there forever.
‘Tis true, the man still makes me see fireworks. And smile. A lot.
Back when I was young and full of energy I worked for a couple of agencies that worked with the developmentally disabled. I worked in group home and assisted living facilities. It was a job that I liked, though I knew that I wasn’t destined to do it forever, and it was a job that pulled on my heart strings and helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise found. I learned a lot about the human equation during those years.
One of the daily chores that I would help the folks1 complete was the assembly of their lunches for the next day. These folks, regardless of their age, brown bagged it to the various day treatment or workshop programs they attended during “business hours”. Each of the folks was responsible for making his or her own lunch and as a residence counselor or manager I assisted with the process. My assistance was dependent on the skill set of the individual. Some folks needed help manipulating a knife to spread mustard, others needed to be shown the difference between ham glaze and strawberry jam and yet others had no concept of lunch at all and just knew that whatever came out of the brown bag made them happy. Others could assemble the lunch on their own, they just needed some guidance as to what would be healthy and what probably wouldn’t be a good choice. After a year of addressing and guiding healthy choices with one particular woman, she found a great deal of pride in gaining the skill to assemble a healthy lunch on her own, based on what she had been taught.
A Chicago Area School has banned students from bringing in lunches from home. The students must eat what is served from the cafeteria or else go hungry. Principal Elsa Carmona said that the food coming from home wasn’t nutritious enough so she banned brown bagging it.
So, if a mother wants to make a homemade meal for her child, she can’t. Her kid must eat the processed crap that school cafeterias serve these days. I have been behind the scenes in a school cafeteria. Pork comes in tubes with so much fat that you can pour the pork out of the tube. Hot dogs are a routine staple, French fries are a necessity and there’s always plenty of cookies around.
Not exactly a healthy offering, is it Elsa?
When I first read this article this morning I was became angry, because here we have another example of someone sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong and trying to dictate to others how they should live their life. I’m sorry but the school is not there to be a nanny or to babysit. A school is there to educate, and they are completely missing the mark because they are taking away the responsibility of the parent to teach their kid how to make healthy meal choices. I don’t understand why there isn’t more outrage about this.
There is a cynical side of me that thinks that this has to do with government reimbursements for the cafeteria — a sure way to help the school budget. But I won’t go down that road because it could just be me being cynical. However, I won’t buy one word of the principal’s claims that she is trying to help the students eat healthier until:
I have written Ms. Carmona an email expressing my feelings on the subject, after trying to call her but finding all circuits busy (I guess she’s popular today). I’m interested in seeing her response.
1 The people I worked with at the homes were just folks. We didn’t call them residents. Chautauqua County had a habit of calling them “the guys”, regardless of sex and Oneida County called then “the folks”. I liked “folks” a lot.
I think I might have a reputation for going on a rant once in a while. I’m not sure that I enjoy this sort of reputation because I like to think that overall I’m a nice sort of guy, but once in a while something puts me in the mood to rant and rave. I’m sometimes told there are more important things to worry about and I should look at the big picture. As I have said before, I’m not even in the same art gallery looking at the same wall, let alone looking at the same picture as most, so I figure I can say what’s on my mind once in a while. I figure it’ll give folks a glimpse at my perspective.
My rants are usually associated with an OCD thing I might have going on. For example, the driver of the SUV on the other side of the parking lot has completely ignored the lines that denote a proper parking space. This makes me insane. Is this woman as haphazard in her approach to life? Does she feed her tiny kids milkshakes because after all, it’s milk? Would she like it if the woman at the beauty parlor drew her eyebrows on haphazardly, say vertically from the nose, instead of where they should be above the eye? Are her panties turned inside out? If she is this haphazard with her parking habits then she is surely just as messy with her everyday life. And if she doesn’t really care about the small details, why should we fund her basic needs with public assistance? If she doesn’t care, why should I care? I say park between the lines or being a victim of thinning the herd. We have more needy people that need the welfare cheese.
America’s fastest 3G network is sucking big time today. Is anyone as tired of the ads as I am? Is anyone a fan of the merging of giant corporations (I.e. AT&T and T-Mobile)? They push us to move our lives to the cloud and then they give us crappy service. Don’t promote it if you can’t furnish the goods. Empty promises. So many empty promises. Do we remember that the voices on our party lines (shared phone lines, not hubba hubba) sounded much clearer than what we accept as golden over our cell phones? We are settling for mediocrity. “The next version will be better with more features, but buy this version in the meantime.” I’m not buying anything. Earl just rolled his eyes.
There is a septic truck pulled up to Applebees making a really loud noise ( though it’s not a farting sound). This seems appropriate for lunch time. How about an appetizer to go with your honey wagon cocktail?
Why do young people start smoking these days? Have we raised such a stupid generation of people that they’ll go ahead and do something that they know will kill them prematurely? Perhaps it’s part of the master plan and we’ll be rid of them soon enough.
The weather guessers are predicting severe thunderstorms tonight. Because of this I plan on barbecuing under a clear sky with a mild breeze. Listen to the forecast and expect the opposite because no one really knows which side of the dice really means rain.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tom is pleased with the decision to return to the older comforter. At around 16 years old, he prefers the well established traditions, eats at 4:30 in the afternoon and mourns the lost opportunity to get an Ames senior discount card.
Future plans include the intention to outlive the current titleholder of “oldest cat on record”.
The Commodore 64 is coming back!! Everyone can start up a collection because I will even sell a Mac to get one of these machines into the stable.
From Digital News Report:
Digital News Report – Commodore USA, LLC has announced a Commodore 64 computer that may look like the 1980’s model, but has all the fast new technology that you would expect in today’s computer systems.
Fond memories of the Commodore 64 still reign with many. The 1980’s brought the Commodore 64 personal computer into the homes of many families for the first time. The company went bankrupt in the 90’s but there was still some rights to the name that were purchased at the end of this computer companies operations. Commodore USA LLC has licensed the rights to recreate the Commodore 64 into a new product.
The new computer has a Commodore 64 emulator that comes with it so you can run some of your classic favorites and see the command line prompt that you haven’t seen in years.
The operating system that comes with the new Commodore 64 is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Linux based OS, but you can buy and install Microsoft windows operating system on it if you so desire.
The Commodore 64 updated model is expected to ship between middle part of May or early June. The company’s website at www.commodoreusa.net, said that the price for the Commodore 64 basic system starts at $595 and goes up to $895 as they upgrade hardware components. If you are a do-it-yourself computer system builder you can buy the barebones Commodore 64 keyboard chassis case and card reader for $250.
Barry Altman founded Commodore USA, LLC in April of last year to bring back the nostalgic memories of Commodore and Amiga branded computers. There is also plans to bring back the Amiga computers.
By Victoria Brown
The other day I was driving along my commute route later in the morning than normal. This is not remarkable in itself. My commute takes me through a pretty substantial Amish community. I think it might be multiple Amish communities, because there is more than one school house along the route. Two of them are separated by a mile or so. Both are single room buildings, one of them looks like the schoolhouse seen in Walnut Grove in “Little House On The Prairie”. I sometimes look for Miss Beadle but she’s never around.
As I passed by I could see in the windows; there were several desks with children sitting at them. Smoke emanated from the chimney and the curtains on the windows were plainly pulled to one side. I imagine that the teaching and learning going on there is fairly simple in that there’s no computer, overhead project or probably even a dry-erase marker. That is kind of cool to me.
Though the philosophies differ, I admire the Amish for their adherence in what they believe in and how they choose to live their life. I have mentioned before that I really like their pies (it’s almost pie season!). Among the pies they would have had drawn coloring books for sale. No need for an Xbox, just color in the lines.
As a person that lives amongst a lot of technology and all the complications it can bring with it’s wonders, I think it’s important that one be able to also live simply. I believe that the person that is going to truly thrive in their existence is the one who could still live happily without the gadgets and by only the candlelight of the night and the wood fired stove heating the homemade soup. These skills reside in me somewhere, and I could call upon them if ever put in that situation. It would be a heck of an adjustment, but it is definitely doable.
I think it’s important to keep that perspective.
I recently heard of a young girl that was very upset that she couldn’t get in her car because the battery in her “clicker” had gone dead. She couldn’t unlock the door without it. She had no idea that she could put her in the slot and manually unlock the door.
Someone missed the basics along the way.
I think for us to truly thrive we must start with the same basics as a foundation and then build whatever more we want on top of that. But we mist never be afraid or ignorant of the basics.
Sometimes it works better to just keep it simple.
It’s a beautiful day today. There’s a bit of a chill in the air, but that just keeps it interesting.
My iPad is really shiny.
One of the things I admire about my father is his sense of discipline. He has always amazed me in that way; if there’s a job to be done, he does it. If he feels a sense of procrastination I don’t know that he would ever say anything out loud about the subject, but I suspect that he wouldn’t procrastinate about it in the first place. This sense of discipline is something that I have always aspired to but rarely found. I still aspire to it. I hope I’m getting closer to that goal.
Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to calm down on absolute terms: I will always do this or I will never do that. Today is the second day in a row that I have refrained from picking up an iced tea at the drive thru at lunch time. Let’s see if tomorrow will be the third day in a row. I suspect it will be. This “one day at a time” approach is my attempt at being disciplined at something. On day two it’s working. I will strive to make it continue.
I have dreams about being a self-employed web developer, contracting my services to those that need them. This is a ways off in my future, after all, I have a really good gig right now, but I can’t see working for someone and earning a paycheck from someone else for the rest of my life. I want to live under my own steam; it is my hard work and my hard work alone (with the support of the husbear and my family, of course) that will determine whether I make it or not. I don’t want to share an annual pay raise budget with others on a team. I can do the teamwork thing, and I think I do it quite well, but ultimately I want to be the one calling the shots over my own success. I already know I have control issues. A disciplined approach will help keep them in check.
The disciplined aspect of my father’s personality afforded him the opportunity, along with his siblings, to have a successful business for many years. I learned a lot from his experiences with the business and I feel that using what I observed there, coupling it with my own talents and then just taking it one day at a time, will give me the opportunity to someday make a serious go of having my own business.
I will get there. With a sure and steady step, one day at a time.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I am skipping the Dunkin’ Donuts iced tea today. I would like to think that this is the beginning of a trend, but I can only make this determination one day at a time. I have an unfortunate habit of expressing myself in absolute terms: “I will never drink iced tea again.”. This sets me up for failure. By declaring that intend to cut back on iced tea and then making a concerted effort of doing do, I have a broader sense of accomplishment and a smaller sense of drama. I hate drama. I don’t know why I’m so dramatic.
Earl has made me an egg salad sandwich today, which is another step in my constant quest form self improvement; I rarely eat egg salad and I never eat eggs, but it’s time to step out of the box and live a lit, especially if there is the promise of an olive.
I am situated in the Jeep in a different parking lot today because I was in the mood for different scenery. I am parked next to what used to be an Ames but is now a Dollar General. There is a Burger King about 2000 feet away but I can still hear the drive thru speaker. This is unfortunate because I can’t imagine how loud it must be for the driver that is sitting in of the thing. I just heard the classic “ya want fries with that?” over the sound of the rain. I don’t know how the driver responded.
On my way to this parking spot I heard the weather forecast and there was a mention of thunderstorms tonight. Since I no longer have that awful on call gig, I can rejoice once again because thunderstorms, tornadoes and other wild weather phenomenon is wicked cool, as long as you play it smart.
And last, but not least, the geek in me rearranged some of my web services this weekend. I now have a more cost affordable and simpler way of managing photos, music and the like. I will probably lose a point or two, but I opted out of Apple’s MobileMe because after all these years I still find it unreliable and slower than it should be. Dropbox, and apps that use Dropbox for storage, are on my radar now and I’m quite pleased. For example, I can take a photo on my iPhone and have it nearly instantly appear on my iPad. Prior to Dropbox I would have to sync with iTunes and drag things around. Now it’s point and click. This eliminates a few things in my tech costs, including the need to buy an iPad with a camera.
I’m happy with the toys in my toy box right now.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
It has been a gorgeous weekend. Earl, Jamie, Scott and I went out to dinner to a local Irish castle (even though we are not in Ireland). The Beardslee Castle is known for it’s ghosts, it’s ambience and it’s great food. We had a wonderful evening.
We’ve been doing some work around the lawn getting everything ready for spring. I added a few new landscaping lights to the collection; I have promised these are the only landscaping lights I will purchase this season. Solar powered lighting rocks!
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
The last remnants of winter are almost gone. We are hoping that all remaining snow will be gone by sundown. It looks like we are making good progress towards that goal.
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
I went for a walk to “town” and back and decided to bring the good camera along for the walk. I snapped some photos with the theme “connections” in mind. The first two photos in this blog entry are part of that theme; the landscape lights stand in unison, connected to their sun via their solar powered batteries. The last bit of the snow bank is the connection to the winter that has (hopefully) passed.
The lilac bush in the front lawn is feeling connected to spring. Soon we will have lilacs giving us a lovely scent as we walk out the front door. I think lilacs are my favorite flower; Grandma City had quite a few bushes in the back lawn and when they were in season, she’d have a small arrangement on the kitchen table. The scent was pleasant
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
The local county DPW has decided to start marking the county routes like most of the counties in New York State does, connecting folks to the directions stamped on their printed Google Maps directions or barked out by their GPS. I took this photo of one of the new signs.
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
As I notice these signs I bark out “we are on County Route (whatever)!” Everyone else in the vehicle sighs.
Before the road came through, their was a railroad that is now mainly used by a local railroad preservation society. This line goes into the Adirondacks and is aptly home to the Adirondack Railroad. The northern end of the line is just south of Old Forge in Thendara; the southern end of the line in Utica at Union Station.
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| Northbound. From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
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| Southbound. From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
Grandma Country had a fondness for watching the trains go by as she read in her rocking chair. I wish this line was busier so I could snap some photos from time to time. I’ve never ridden in a locomotive; that’s something I’d like to do.
Because I’m a big geek and have always been a big geek, I occasionally take photos of power lines. These particular type of pylons (I believe that’s what those who know call them) are only found in Upstate New York (mostly in the former Niagara Mohawk territory), at least as far as I have observed and there are several variations on this theme throughout the Empire State. I plan on taking some shots of the variations. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a manufacturer or date when I inspected this closely.
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
It’s hard to believe that the local expressway is eight years old already. It keeps us connected to the small city, pictured here in the distance. Someday this road will have an official Interstate number and everything.
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
I have been feeling particularly connected to my country these days. This flag made me smile, as it is up 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and given the proper lighting and respect it deserves. This is at the local post office.
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| From 2011-04-03: Connections. |
All in all the walk was around two miles and it felt good to be out in the sunshine. I’m ramping up to be on the bike by the end of the week; the weather predictions say we’ll be near 60 by then. Perfect cycling weather.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!