Off to the Union Hall in a few minutes to listen to the details of the "new" concession contract...less than 1/4 of the way into the 4 year concession contract we approved last year. I'm hoping to glean some details about what happens to the retirees; there aren't enough of us to outvote the active workforce anyway!
Still stuck in my "craw" is the "Prop H8te" decision that came down yesterday; now that the "majority" has managed to take away the rights of other citizens to marriage, what's next? Since I'm not a Bible thumping church-going God fearer, do I lose my right to vote? A fair trial? Which inequality will they decide to force on someone next?
I realize the court could only rule on the the questions presented and there will be appeals; I hope this travesty is overturned in one of them. If not, then someone needs to draft a new ballot measure, one written to withstand the inevitable challenges, and then not only make sure that everyone with a vested interest is registered to vote but actually gets there! The vote was too close to stand if everyone who knows someone disenfranchised by this casts a ballot!
Dottie seems to be doing OK, though there's some "taking it easy" going on that isn't her usual forte. We made it to "Angels and Demons" yesterday and both enjoyed it. She's very enamored of the books and had made a point of finishing that one last Thursday night before our planned viewing last Friday, before we woke up and found that hernia.
The liberties that Ron Howard took with the book she was very happy with; I won't spoil anything for anyone with details.
Lots of good previews for things coming out this summer; hoping that our gift cards hold out for the best of them!
Now, to go stand under that sword of Damacles...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day...
Dottie is at work and as I catch up with Monaco and Indy from yesterday I can't help but think of the generations past. My Dad and his enlistment at 17 during WW2; his 2 older brothers, one in the Navy, the other in the Army Air Corps, shot down and hidden by a Belgian farmer to keep him from capture. My Mom's Dad enlisting in the SeaBees because the Navy said he was too old; her Mom's 3 brothers enlisting, one to never come home again, one to die of cancer when I was 2, the 3rd captured and held as a POW in Germany, starved from 180 down to 80 pounds and never in good health again. Grandma and her sisters building B-25 Mitchells in the plant I would later hire into after GM bought it from North American.
Dottie's Dad, unable to enlist because he'd had "yellow jaundice" and you coudln't enlist if you couldn't give blood, giving up the Green Mountains of Vermont to go to Boston and work in the shipyards building sub-chasers and mine-sweepers. Her Mom, Marion, a mechanical engineer hired by Pratt and Whitney to lay out assembly lines and staff them for their various plants.
Marion's Dad, a mechanical engineer as well, enlisting during WW1 and serving in France; I have an aircraft identification book of his from during the "Great War". My Dad's Dad, fresh out of telegraphy school for the railroad, enlisted and sent to join the Signal Corps as a telegrapher in the trenches where he was "gassed". He had heart and lung problems that plagued him for the next 46 years 'til they finally claimed him. His brother, Jesse who served in the Navy during WW1- I have a letter he wrote Grandpa from a VA home in 1962 telling him whatever he did he didn't want to end up there, that the screams at night were horrific. Some of their older siblings were in the Spanish-American War, though our family history gets a bit hazy as it spreads out.
Their grandfather, Hiram, dead of measles contracted during the "War Between the States" in Tennessee in 1864. In the Confederate Army...I know from my Mom's Dad that he had family on the other side of the lines then, though I don't have names to put with it.
On the wall in the house Dottie grew up in in Vermont is the Union Army discharge certificate for her Dad's namesake, his grandfather.
I'm sure for each I know of there are others...I am sure many of you have just as many in your families who have served; some forever!
Please, collect the stories you can, where you can and pass them on to those who will be here when we aren't?
From a Vietnam era sailor married to another Vietnam era sailor; the names, the stories, the sacrifices are too important to let fall away; we can't let this become just another holiday!
May this week be kind to each of you!
alan
Dottie's Dad, unable to enlist because he'd had "yellow jaundice" and you coudln't enlist if you couldn't give blood, giving up the Green Mountains of Vermont to go to Boston and work in the shipyards building sub-chasers and mine-sweepers. Her Mom, Marion, a mechanical engineer hired by Pratt and Whitney to lay out assembly lines and staff them for their various plants.
Marion's Dad, a mechanical engineer as well, enlisting during WW1 and serving in France; I have an aircraft identification book of his from during the "Great War". My Dad's Dad, fresh out of telegraphy school for the railroad, enlisted and sent to join the Signal Corps as a telegrapher in the trenches where he was "gassed". He had heart and lung problems that plagued him for the next 46 years 'til they finally claimed him. His brother, Jesse who served in the Navy during WW1- I have a letter he wrote Grandpa from a VA home in 1962 telling him whatever he did he didn't want to end up there, that the screams at night were horrific. Some of their older siblings were in the Spanish-American War, though our family history gets a bit hazy as it spreads out.
Their grandfather, Hiram, dead of measles contracted during the "War Between the States" in Tennessee in 1864. In the Confederate Army...I know from my Mom's Dad that he had family on the other side of the lines then, though I don't have names to put with it.
On the wall in the house Dottie grew up in in Vermont is the Union Army discharge certificate for her Dad's namesake, his grandfather.
I'm sure for each I know of there are others...I am sure many of you have just as many in your families who have served; some forever!
Please, collect the stories you can, where you can and pass them on to those who will be here when we aren't?
From a Vietnam era sailor married to another Vietnam era sailor; the names, the stories, the sacrifices are too important to let fall away; we can't let this become just another holiday!
May this week be kind to each of you!
alan
Saturday, May 23, 2009
"Never count your chickens..."
could pretty well apply to the last couple of days!
Thursday, having saved some old window sashes for their glass when I replaced the ones in the house, I spent some time chipping out a broken one in the garage, having re-puttied all the ones that didn't need glass, then even longer carefully chipping a 24x36 out of it's sash to make a 24x24. Never having had luck cutting my own, I eschewed Dottie's Dad's cutter along with my Dad's and used a brand new one. Nicely scribed line; supported the "keep" side the length of the cut, tapped it...I had about 10" of straight line then it angled away from the cut. Tapped it again to try and "clean it up" and blew up the entire edge.
As I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck hearing all those "sailor words" in my vocabulary "in my head", smiling because they weren't out loud, I decided I was buying glass for that one and the other two.
Friday morning, up a few minutes before Dottie I started the kettle for coffee and slipped in here to check e-mail and check in with some of you. Put a note on Facebook to explain our plans and that I wouldn't be playing WordScraper, then I heard Dottie call me.
She started to get up and it hurt, not badly, but just a "something's not right". Lying on her back everything was fine, but the minute she stood up there was an obvious knot on one side of her lower abdomen, normally symmetrical. About the diameter of my fist, as thick as my hand.
We are assuming at this point it's a hernia.
7 years ago she had a kidney and her gall bladder taken out; they split her from almost her sternum to a handwidth below her naval. The surgeon left a resident to staple her up; he overlapped the layers and gave her a wicked scar that has caused problems ever since. When I saw her postop she looked like she had a zipper...
Phone call to our doctor; he's busy, leave a message, wait for the phone call back; if there are any of a number of other symptoms, go to the ER, otherwise, call the surgeon. Call the surgeon, no openings 'til June 4th...if there are any other symptoms go to the ER...
So now it's noon; we should be coming home from the movie and I have one sash in the garage with no glass in it. I went and got the 3 pieces I needed cut, came home and got the one in in case the rain started early. Then it was time to pick up her paycheck and run a few other errands.
She told her boss she wouldn't be doing any transfers (moving patients who can't move themselves; she's not supposed to have been doing them since her joint replacements) or moving tables and chairs 'til we know what is going on and was told "Good" because her boss thinks some of the others leave things they don't feel like doing because they know she will.
Meanwhile, knowing that most likely GM will file bankruptcy on the 1st, I wonder if I'll even have insurance...I "know" somehow that I will, but that nagging fear is still there.
Dottie works tomorrow and then is off on Sunday for my nephew's high school graduation. I'll be watching Indy off tape for the first time in many years; I usually time shift Monaco, but watch Indy beginning to end.
Go Danica!
May each of your weekends be kind!
alan
Thursday, having saved some old window sashes for their glass when I replaced the ones in the house, I spent some time chipping out a broken one in the garage, having re-puttied all the ones that didn't need glass, then even longer carefully chipping a 24x36 out of it's sash to make a 24x24. Never having had luck cutting my own, I eschewed Dottie's Dad's cutter along with my Dad's and used a brand new one. Nicely scribed line; supported the "keep" side the length of the cut, tapped it...I had about 10" of straight line then it angled away from the cut. Tapped it again to try and "clean it up" and blew up the entire edge.
As I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck hearing all those "sailor words" in my vocabulary "in my head", smiling because they weren't out loud, I decided I was buying glass for that one and the other two.
Friday morning, up a few minutes before Dottie I started the kettle for coffee and slipped in here to check e-mail and check in with some of you. Put a note on Facebook to explain our plans and that I wouldn't be playing WordScraper, then I heard Dottie call me.
She started to get up and it hurt, not badly, but just a "something's not right". Lying on her back everything was fine, but the minute she stood up there was an obvious knot on one side of her lower abdomen, normally symmetrical. About the diameter of my fist, as thick as my hand.
We are assuming at this point it's a hernia.
7 years ago she had a kidney and her gall bladder taken out; they split her from almost her sternum to a handwidth below her naval. The surgeon left a resident to staple her up; he overlapped the layers and gave her a wicked scar that has caused problems ever since. When I saw her postop she looked like she had a zipper...
Phone call to our doctor; he's busy, leave a message, wait for the phone call back; if there are any of a number of other symptoms, go to the ER, otherwise, call the surgeon. Call the surgeon, no openings 'til June 4th...if there are any other symptoms go to the ER...
So now it's noon; we should be coming home from the movie and I have one sash in the garage with no glass in it. I went and got the 3 pieces I needed cut, came home and got the one in in case the rain started early. Then it was time to pick up her paycheck and run a few other errands.
She told her boss she wouldn't be doing any transfers (moving patients who can't move themselves; she's not supposed to have been doing them since her joint replacements) or moving tables and chairs 'til we know what is going on and was told "Good" because her boss thinks some of the others leave things they don't feel like doing because they know she will.
Meanwhile, knowing that most likely GM will file bankruptcy on the 1st, I wonder if I'll even have insurance...I "know" somehow that I will, but that nagging fear is still there.
Dottie works tomorrow and then is off on Sunday for my nephew's high school graduation. I'll be watching Indy off tape for the first time in many years; I usually time shift Monaco, but watch Indy beginning to end.
Go Danica!
May each of your weekends be kind!
alan
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
My last...
was much more about the rest of the world than my own little corner...wishing I could deliver hugs and chicken soup and some car repairs for those who could use a bit of help. I am after all, someone who always tries to "fix" everything and despairs when he can't!
Though somehow a nice Italian dinner sounds much more "the ticket" than chicken soup right now...
alan
Though somehow a nice Italian dinner sounds much more "the ticket" than chicken soup right now...
alan
Monday, May 18, 2009
If I weren't bald...
there are times I'd rip my hair out, I swear!
Having been forbidden from blogging before I ever began (by several years), this haunt has been a secret for many years now. It's not that my sons, my sister and my nephews don't know; I even shared the URL with a trusted few from work what seems like ages ago now. I don't think any of them have been here in years...my sister let something slip about my Facebook page a while back and I expected to hear more about it, but there was a grimace and silence...so far...
Keeping secrets from the one who knows you best is frustrating! Trying to keep a lid on the emotions when someone you care for is going through something, no matter whether it's small or life-threatening; when you know that were it a different life you'd be "there" at the drop of a hat (or a plane ticket).
So when asked what's wrong you say "nothing"...or cite something else.
Wish it weren't that way, but I'm not about to pull the plug on this or my friendships or my heart. So, I'll deal somehow...the double edged sword of regret flaying me the whole time...
Not what I was planning to write today; forgive me!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Having been forbidden from blogging before I ever began (by several years), this haunt has been a secret for many years now. It's not that my sons, my sister and my nephews don't know; I even shared the URL with a trusted few from work what seems like ages ago now. I don't think any of them have been here in years...my sister let something slip about my Facebook page a while back and I expected to hear more about it, but there was a grimace and silence...so far...
Keeping secrets from the one who knows you best is frustrating! Trying to keep a lid on the emotions when someone you care for is going through something, no matter whether it's small or life-threatening; when you know that were it a different life you'd be "there" at the drop of a hat (or a plane ticket).
So when asked what's wrong you say "nothing"...or cite something else.
Wish it weren't that way, but I'm not about to pull the plug on this or my friendships or my heart. So, I'll deal somehow...the double edged sword of regret flaying me the whole time...
Not what I was planning to write today; forgive me!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, May 11, 2009
Nice guys...
the first words that popped into your mind are exactly where we're going, sadly...
A few months ago my older nephew moved to western Kansas for what he thought was going to be his dream job. It fell through, though he immediately found another. He's had a "gift" for mechanical things and his education at WyoTech has stood him well; he can troubleshoot things on the fly, fabricate, whatever he needs to do.
Raised well by my sister and her husband, he's always been one to help anyone he can, no matter what it took. An Eagle Scout, in every sense of the word and as nice a guy as you could ever hope to meet, let alone be related to!
This "other job" he took was partly as a mechanic and partly maintaining the equipment for an assembly line. A month or so ago the 2nd shift manager asked for a key to his toolboxes because when he goes home they had no access to tools; he was promised no one else would be in his tools.
It didn't take long before he found things lying out when he came in to work, but didn't complain about it. He didn't complain when things weren't brought back for a day or two...then suddenly the keys went missing.
Still trusting, he left them unlocked, trying to do the right thing, to help keep "the line" running. (Something I remember all too well!)
Last Friday they laid him off. He went through his boxes and told them that about $400 in tools were missing and asked for the tools or the money. He was told it wasn't their fault if he couldn't keep track of his tools and that he had no way of proving he hadn't lost them instead of the company!
We talked on the phone when he called to wish Dillon a "Happy Birthday" at the party on Saturday and I got him to tell me what he really needed that was missing; they had taken every wrench he had from 3/4" up and most of his screwdrivers. The other things that were missing he had duplicates of and still had his sockets and impact wrenches.
He was going to the unemployment office on Monday (today) and to try to start job hunting on Tuesday. I talked to Dottie and went through ads and the online sales and figured out how to replace his wrenches and screwdrivers and call them early Christmas and birthday presents and since he'll be here for his brother's graduation next week he can take them home with him instead of me shipping them. I even managed to buy Craftsman through the sale ads and the "Craftsman Club" ad, so he'll get the warranty.
It's really sad to have him treated that way, though an open toolbox is always a magnet. I was lucky because when I hit my squadron in the Navy your box was issued, every tool was marked not only by engraving but by reflective tape in color codes as well. If they found one of your tools in a jet intake, on the flight deck, or anywhere except in your toolbox you were up for "captain's mast" (non-judicial punishment)!
So you didn't loan anything to anyone unless you really trusted them or you stood right there with them to get it back when they were finished!
At GM things were so bad that just using the locks built into the boxes didn't work, so they would have extra brackets welded onto the boxes for long locking rods and padlocks. It wasn't that there weren't ways to open them still, but it took so much effort they were usually left alone. When we shut down the plant and contractors were working inside, they would load them all into trailers and have them taken away from the plant 'til we came back to work!
I grew up at the end of the days where you could leave your windows open, or a car unlocked and not worry about what you'd find when you returned. When a handshake meant something; when if it wasn't yours you didn't take it; when if you borrowed it you returned it in the same shape or better than you got it!
There are many ways in which I love "now", but there are some that truly sadden me!
For my nephew a lesson learned, hopefully; yet sadly, a bit of trust extinguished.
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
A few months ago my older nephew moved to western Kansas for what he thought was going to be his dream job. It fell through, though he immediately found another. He's had a "gift" for mechanical things and his education at WyoTech has stood him well; he can troubleshoot things on the fly, fabricate, whatever he needs to do.
Raised well by my sister and her husband, he's always been one to help anyone he can, no matter what it took. An Eagle Scout, in every sense of the word and as nice a guy as you could ever hope to meet, let alone be related to!
This "other job" he took was partly as a mechanic and partly maintaining the equipment for an assembly line. A month or so ago the 2nd shift manager asked for a key to his toolboxes because when he goes home they had no access to tools; he was promised no one else would be in his tools.
It didn't take long before he found things lying out when he came in to work, but didn't complain about it. He didn't complain when things weren't brought back for a day or two...then suddenly the keys went missing.
Still trusting, he left them unlocked, trying to do the right thing, to help keep "the line" running. (Something I remember all too well!)
Last Friday they laid him off. He went through his boxes and told them that about $400 in tools were missing and asked for the tools or the money. He was told it wasn't their fault if he couldn't keep track of his tools and that he had no way of proving he hadn't lost them instead of the company!
We talked on the phone when he called to wish Dillon a "Happy Birthday" at the party on Saturday and I got him to tell me what he really needed that was missing; they had taken every wrench he had from 3/4" up and most of his screwdrivers. The other things that were missing he had duplicates of and still had his sockets and impact wrenches.
He was going to the unemployment office on Monday (today) and to try to start job hunting on Tuesday. I talked to Dottie and went through ads and the online sales and figured out how to replace his wrenches and screwdrivers and call them early Christmas and birthday presents and since he'll be here for his brother's graduation next week he can take them home with him instead of me shipping them. I even managed to buy Craftsman through the sale ads and the "Craftsman Club" ad, so he'll get the warranty.
It's really sad to have him treated that way, though an open toolbox is always a magnet. I was lucky because when I hit my squadron in the Navy your box was issued, every tool was marked not only by engraving but by reflective tape in color codes as well. If they found one of your tools in a jet intake, on the flight deck, or anywhere except in your toolbox you were up for "captain's mast" (non-judicial punishment)!
So you didn't loan anything to anyone unless you really trusted them or you stood right there with them to get it back when they were finished!
At GM things were so bad that just using the locks built into the boxes didn't work, so they would have extra brackets welded onto the boxes for long locking rods and padlocks. It wasn't that there weren't ways to open them still, but it took so much effort they were usually left alone. When we shut down the plant and contractors were working inside, they would load them all into trailers and have them taken away from the plant 'til we came back to work!
I grew up at the end of the days where you could leave your windows open, or a car unlocked and not worry about what you'd find when you returned. When a handshake meant something; when if it wasn't yours you didn't take it; when if you borrowed it you returned it in the same shape or better than you got it!
There are many ways in which I love "now", but there are some that truly sadden me!
For my nephew a lesson learned, hopefully; yet sadly, a bit of trust extinguished.
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
For lack of a nail...
I've let a week slip away since my last missive; I've started to write something more than once, but thought better of it.
I still have enough standing water behind the garage that I could plant rice, but it's too wet to try and grade it to make it drain and more rain is inbound. In a bit I'm going out with a hoe and try to trench it just a bit. After 5 days since the last heavy rain, it's finally quit draining down the hill and across my driveway. I mowed, except for the swamp next to and immediately behind the garage; as I finished the landlord up the hill sank his tractor in the center of that yard on his first swath through it. We pulled his Cub Cadet out and he decided he'll pay his grandsons to mow it by hand this weekend...I don't envy them!
Dillon's 10th birthday party is on Saturday, a joint affair with his best friend Andrew. Perspective has me thinking lots about him turning a year older than I was when I lost Dad's Dad and 5 years older than my oldest was when he and his brother lost my Dad; anytime I start to get depressed, that is enough to make me know I'm lucky!
Having watched a minority share of bondholders throw Chrysler into bankruptcy, I don't have much hope for GM avoiding it. I'm not sure that killing Pontiac will leave GMC and Buick viable on their own, though perhaps if they bring them in under the Cadillac dealerships they can pull that part off. When they say that 42% of their dealerships are going to close through this whether they go through bankruptcy or not, it sure doesn't bode well for a lot of jobs...let alone the factory and supplier jobs!
I look at the railyards each time I head south; the largest switchyard in the midwest, knowing it used to bustling, almost all the rails full, seeing it half empty kind of tells you where the economy is, along with all the empty billboards around town!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
I still have enough standing water behind the garage that I could plant rice, but it's too wet to try and grade it to make it drain and more rain is inbound. In a bit I'm going out with a hoe and try to trench it just a bit. After 5 days since the last heavy rain, it's finally quit draining down the hill and across my driveway. I mowed, except for the swamp next to and immediately behind the garage; as I finished the landlord up the hill sank his tractor in the center of that yard on his first swath through it. We pulled his Cub Cadet out and he decided he'll pay his grandsons to mow it by hand this weekend...I don't envy them!
Dillon's 10th birthday party is on Saturday, a joint affair with his best friend Andrew. Perspective has me thinking lots about him turning a year older than I was when I lost Dad's Dad and 5 years older than my oldest was when he and his brother lost my Dad; anytime I start to get depressed, that is enough to make me know I'm lucky!
Having watched a minority share of bondholders throw Chrysler into bankruptcy, I don't have much hope for GM avoiding it. I'm not sure that killing Pontiac will leave GMC and Buick viable on their own, though perhaps if they bring them in under the Cadillac dealerships they can pull that part off. When they say that 42% of their dealerships are going to close through this whether they go through bankruptcy or not, it sure doesn't bode well for a lot of jobs...let alone the factory and supplier jobs!
I look at the railyards each time I head south; the largest switchyard in the midwest, knowing it used to bustling, almost all the rails full, seeing it half empty kind of tells you where the economy is, along with all the empty billboards around town!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sometimes...
I forget that the smarter people in this world don't follow the news all the time. There was a point at which I didn't either, but 30 years in the auto factory drove me to NPR because between the commercials and the continual cycling of 100 or so songs on mainstream radio, I just couldn't take it anymore! Plus, having jazz as a first love led me down to the left end of the radio dial as well...
So I apologize for the vagueness of my last post! Knowing I'm not the smartest guy in the room, I tend to assume that if I know something the rest of the world does as well. Whether it's the horrific beating to death of Angie Zapata with a fire extinguisher, or the women of Zimbabwe that are in such fear of the stigma of having a "legal" abortion that they are instead showing up at doctor's with sticks broken off inside them, or ground glass, or battery acid. Whether it's the lady in Dallas yesterday, waiting 2 hours in the doctor's office with a 103F. fever because she's 8 1/2 months pregnant and fears she has "swine" flu, or the ongoing lack of real body armor for our children in Iraq and Afghanistan I figure that by the time it trickles down to me, the rest of the world already knows.
For those of you who don't, I'm glad! I'm glad you don't feel the ache that haunts me as I listen to the stories or read them; I'm glad you don't wake up wondering what you might have done to change things, or shed the tears of empathy for the victims. I've tried to "wean myself" away from the radio and the TV and the things I read on-line and actually have cut down since I retired, but like the moth and the flame, I just can't stay away. My addictive personality has found yet another way to let me down...
In the old days when I worked the assembly line I kept a little notebook in my stock rack and when things got to be too much words would find their way into it...
From those years:
“A Life Lost”
“Shiny brown hair
strewn over the snow,
her eyes staring
sightless
at the sky”
Says the article
in the New Year's
“New Yorker”.
Someone's daughter?
Sister?
Wife?
Mother?
Kosovar freedom fighter?
Serbian rebel?
Another sacrifice
on the altar
of ethnocentricity...
How many millennia
have we left to learn
that teaching tolerance
brings life and
happiness
for our loved ones;
teaching hatred
reaps death!
_______________________
Words fail me more often now. Whether it's their futility, my lack of reading of late failing to expand my vocabulary and my thoughts, or the onset of cynicism and old age, I wish more and more often now I could just pick up a trumpet and bend a blue note or two...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
So I apologize for the vagueness of my last post! Knowing I'm not the smartest guy in the room, I tend to assume that if I know something the rest of the world does as well. Whether it's the horrific beating to death of Angie Zapata with a fire extinguisher, or the women of Zimbabwe that are in such fear of the stigma of having a "legal" abortion that they are instead showing up at doctor's with sticks broken off inside them, or ground glass, or battery acid. Whether it's the lady in Dallas yesterday, waiting 2 hours in the doctor's office with a 103F. fever because she's 8 1/2 months pregnant and fears she has "swine" flu, or the ongoing lack of real body armor for our children in Iraq and Afghanistan I figure that by the time it trickles down to me, the rest of the world already knows.
For those of you who don't, I'm glad! I'm glad you don't feel the ache that haunts me as I listen to the stories or read them; I'm glad you don't wake up wondering what you might have done to change things, or shed the tears of empathy for the victims. I've tried to "wean myself" away from the radio and the TV and the things I read on-line and actually have cut down since I retired, but like the moth and the flame, I just can't stay away. My addictive personality has found yet another way to let me down...
In the old days when I worked the assembly line I kept a little notebook in my stock rack and when things got to be too much words would find their way into it...
From those years:
“A Life Lost”
“Shiny brown hair
strewn over the snow,
her eyes staring
sightless
at the sky”
Says the article
in the New Year's
“New Yorker”.
Someone's daughter?
Sister?
Wife?
Mother?
Kosovar freedom fighter?
Serbian rebel?
Another sacrifice
on the altar
of ethnocentricity...
How many millennia
have we left to learn
that teaching tolerance
brings life and
happiness
for our loved ones;
teaching hatred
reaps death!
_______________________
Words fail me more often now. Whether it's their futility, my lack of reading of late failing to expand my vocabulary and my thoughts, or the onset of cynicism and old age, I wish more and more often now I could just pick up a trumpet and bend a blue note or two...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
At last...
After too many deaths...
too many snickered jokes...
too much pain...
justice!
Rest in Peace, Angie!
alan
too many snickered jokes...
too much pain...
justice!
Rest in Peace, Angie!
alan
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sinking curveballs...
This was "the weekend" for the family birthday party we usually throw for our two sons. We rent a shelterhouse at one of the local parks, take the grill, the bicycles, play baseball...those of you who have been around a while have seen pictures from some of those outings.
With our oldest living in DC now, we hadn't counted on him getting home. That's the 1st time in 31 years he hasn't been here for his birthday; we've gotten pretty lucky to get this far into life before it happened.
Saturday my oldest grandson had a car entered in a Cub Scout "Pinewood Derby" for the first time. He and John had spent an afternoon here last week cutting and shaping it then took it home to paint. Dottie was off, and Noel and the other grandkids went and it was quite an affair.
Since their troop holds it at the GM plant I used to work in, an affair in more ways than one. It was my first time setting foot back in the door since I retired; though it wasn't a production day, I saw a lot of Union officials I hadn't seen since then, along with management, some currently employed, some who had been forced out last fall but were there because of their involvement with Boy Scouts. We got to see the final production ready version of the new Buick that we were getting in parts for the preliminary builds for as I retired; it looks very good and if the quality we've always built with holds then between it and the Malibu the Fairfax plant's future should be assured as long as the corporation's is.
Though Dillon's car didn't do as well as we'd have liked, for his first time entering he was happy and we learned much of the technical stuff we need to know for next time. He had a great time and was still carrying his car around yesterday at the family birthday party to show it off.
Saturday evening we cooked a birthday dinner for John and his family and gave him some of his presents. Though we've cut our spending we shopped well and he seemed delighted with our choice of Wii and DS games.
We had rain Saturday morning, then thunderstorms Saturday night with a real deluge we didn't need. When John put his dogs out Sunday morning he lost a sandal in the mud things were so soaked and Dottie and I woke to water in our basement again, though we caught it before it became a major issue.
On top of that, the temps had dropped into the mid 50's with a 30mph north wind, so the party at the park got revised into a party at my sister's house in Lawrence. The only things that really changed were us not having to take a grill or crockpot and baseball got changed to basketball in their driveway late in the afternoon when the wind died down and the sun finally came out for a bit.
Since they had bought a Wii "Fit" to go with their game machine, we watched the grandkids attempts at snowboarding and soccer while cooking brats and such...quite interesting, lol!
Saturday my sister had taken my nephew to Emporia to enroll in college; he is all set, classes picked, ID/debit/key card made and ready to go. She on the other hand isn't ready to let go and will cry at the drop of a hat if you mention it. I keep reminding her that at his age (19 now) I had already been halfway around the world; she doesn't want to hear that either!
So now it's Monday and I'm running laundry and getting ready to wander back out to the garage to try and sort some more and organize things. I should mow, but think that with the water still draining down the hill I'll give it at least until tomorrow or Wednesday just so I don't tear up more than I cut!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
With our oldest living in DC now, we hadn't counted on him getting home. That's the 1st time in 31 years he hasn't been here for his birthday; we've gotten pretty lucky to get this far into life before it happened.
Saturday my oldest grandson had a car entered in a Cub Scout "Pinewood Derby" for the first time. He and John had spent an afternoon here last week cutting and shaping it then took it home to paint. Dottie was off, and Noel and the other grandkids went and it was quite an affair.
Since their troop holds it at the GM plant I used to work in, an affair in more ways than one. It was my first time setting foot back in the door since I retired; though it wasn't a production day, I saw a lot of Union officials I hadn't seen since then, along with management, some currently employed, some who had been forced out last fall but were there because of their involvement with Boy Scouts. We got to see the final production ready version of the new Buick that we were getting in parts for the preliminary builds for as I retired; it looks very good and if the quality we've always built with holds then between it and the Malibu the Fairfax plant's future should be assured as long as the corporation's is.
Though Dillon's car didn't do as well as we'd have liked, for his first time entering he was happy and we learned much of the technical stuff we need to know for next time. He had a great time and was still carrying his car around yesterday at the family birthday party to show it off.
Saturday evening we cooked a birthday dinner for John and his family and gave him some of his presents. Though we've cut our spending we shopped well and he seemed delighted with our choice of Wii and DS games.
We had rain Saturday morning, then thunderstorms Saturday night with a real deluge we didn't need. When John put his dogs out Sunday morning he lost a sandal in the mud things were so soaked and Dottie and I woke to water in our basement again, though we caught it before it became a major issue.
On top of that, the temps had dropped into the mid 50's with a 30mph north wind, so the party at the park got revised into a party at my sister's house in Lawrence. The only things that really changed were us not having to take a grill or crockpot and baseball got changed to basketball in their driveway late in the afternoon when the wind died down and the sun finally came out for a bit.
Since they had bought a Wii "Fit" to go with their game machine, we watched the grandkids attempts at snowboarding and soccer while cooking brats and such...quite interesting, lol!
Saturday my sister had taken my nephew to Emporia to enroll in college; he is all set, classes picked, ID/debit/key card made and ready to go. She on the other hand isn't ready to let go and will cry at the drop of a hat if you mention it. I keep reminding her that at his age (19 now) I had already been halfway around the world; she doesn't want to hear that either!
So now it's Monday and I'm running laundry and getting ready to wander back out to the garage to try and sort some more and organize things. I should mow, but think that with the water still draining down the hill I'll give it at least until tomorrow or Wednesday just so I don't tear up more than I cut!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I guess it really is Spring...
though it feels like it's been drug kicking and screaming into being!
After more rain than we've seen all winter (we're actually ahead for the year now) they called for another frost on Monday evening. These are what I had before...I really figured they were so wet that covering them wouldn't help, but did anyway.
So when I uncovered them yesterday, unable to even stand up, I wasn't sure they would open, but when the afternoon sun came around the corner of the house and down the driveway...
Angel has wanted to be outside every minute she could; at 14 she has one hip that bothers her a lot and has been on MSM for it for over a year now. In the beginning it rolled the clock back to where she was like a 5 year old again, but now she has good days and bad days like any 100-something human would. We already clipped her fur because she was panting a lot more than she used to and would always feel "hot" under it when you patted her, so she may get clipped 3 or 4 times this year instead of the usual spring and summer ones.
Things are ramping up for the annual trek to the park for the spring birthday party this weekend. It used to be we split the difference between Bill and John's birthdays but with Bill living in DC this year, we won't have him home on his birthday for the first time ever. Guess we're lucky we got to 31!
My nephew was in Orlando with his choir, singing at Disney World when his birthday went by in February and with his preparations for graduation, college and job we haven't managed to slow him down enough to have his yet so he'll be finally having his this weekend with John.
Of course, after these last two days in the upper 60's, they're saying 56 and showers for Sunday...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you and some glimmer of green brighten your spring as well!
alan
After more rain than we've seen all winter (we're actually ahead for the year now) they called for another frost on Monday evening. These are what I had before...I really figured they were so wet that covering them wouldn't help, but did anyway.
So when I uncovered them yesterday, unable to even stand up, I wasn't sure they would open, but when the afternoon sun came around the corner of the house and down the driveway...
Angel has wanted to be outside every minute she could; at 14 she has one hip that bothers her a lot and has been on MSM for it for over a year now. In the beginning it rolled the clock back to where she was like a 5 year old again, but now she has good days and bad days like any 100-something human would. We already clipped her fur because she was panting a lot more than she used to and would always feel "hot" under it when you patted her, so she may get clipped 3 or 4 times this year instead of the usual spring and summer ones.
Things are ramping up for the annual trek to the park for the spring birthday party this weekend. It used to be we split the difference between Bill and John's birthdays but with Bill living in DC this year, we won't have him home on his birthday for the first time ever. Guess we're lucky we got to 31!
My nephew was in Orlando with his choir, singing at Disney World when his birthday went by in February and with his preparations for graduation, college and job we haven't managed to slow him down enough to have his yet so he'll be finally having his this weekend with John.
Of course, after these last two days in the upper 60's, they're saying 56 and showers for Sunday...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you and some glimmer of green brighten your spring as well!
alan
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Just a fly-by...
to say I'm on the mend. Slept on the couch Sunday night because I was coughing so badly and didn't want to keep waking Dottie up, but had to get off the cough syrup and the drugs as they weren't helping anymore.
I slipped outside and took a photo of the 3 tulip buds yesterday before I covered them yet again as we went back down to 34F again last night, about 1 above Celsius. When I uncovered them today they wouldn't stand anymore...I'll get that photo uploaded in the morning as I've been picking up limbs and running errands today.
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
I slipped outside and took a photo of the 3 tulip buds yesterday before I covered them yet again as we went back down to 34F again last night, about 1 above Celsius. When I uncovered them today they wouldn't stand anymore...I'll get that photo uploaded in the morning as I've been picking up limbs and running errands today.
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Spluttering Saturday...
I'm still trying to fight off Dottie's cold...a few hours good then a few hours miserable. I get to where I almost feel like doing something then I'll cough myself into a splitting headache and decide not to...
I mailed that paperwork off Priority with a return receipt to make sure it was there by Friday afternoon. I've done my part and now will sit back to see what happens!
Tomorrow Dottie is off for the holiday and we'll be spending the day at John and Noel's, watching the grandkids hunt Easter eggs and such. Hopefully we get the egg hunt in before the rain begins again.
I'm giving up on my tulips for the year; last year I had over a dozen, but this year they've been covered so much that only 4 buds had come up and one of them snapped off under the cover in the wind the other night. It's supposed to freeze again tonight and perhaps again later in the week...perhaps next year!
I saw someone's photos of flowers in her neighbors yard, ones planted by his wife and now she's gone and he's in a nursing home and no one was there to enjoy them. I acquired my tulips that way...the women who owned the house up the hill from me gave almost everything she had to Jim and Tammy Faye "back in the day". I had kept her car running for her and such, helping her mow on the hot days and doing what I could without intruding too much. When she died and the house was sold, the next tenant didn't care a bit about the flowerbeds and such, so finally I asked if I could transplant the tulips and did. Each year I think of Mabel Rose and wonder if anyone else does...
The house has been through a half dozen tenants since then and been vacant the last 3 years. I'm sure no one but me remembers where those flowers came from, but I'm glad they aren't mowed under like her iris bed was!
May your weekends each be wonderful!
alan
I mailed that paperwork off Priority with a return receipt to make sure it was there by Friday afternoon. I've done my part and now will sit back to see what happens!
Tomorrow Dottie is off for the holiday and we'll be spending the day at John and Noel's, watching the grandkids hunt Easter eggs and such. Hopefully we get the egg hunt in before the rain begins again.
I'm giving up on my tulips for the year; last year I had over a dozen, but this year they've been covered so much that only 4 buds had come up and one of them snapped off under the cover in the wind the other night. It's supposed to freeze again tonight and perhaps again later in the week...perhaps next year!
I saw someone's photos of flowers in her neighbors yard, ones planted by his wife and now she's gone and he's in a nursing home and no one was there to enjoy them. I acquired my tulips that way...the women who owned the house up the hill from me gave almost everything she had to Jim and Tammy Faye "back in the day". I had kept her car running for her and such, helping her mow on the hot days and doing what I could without intruding too much. When she died and the house was sold, the next tenant didn't care a bit about the flowerbeds and such, so finally I asked if I could transplant the tulips and did. Each year I think of Mabel Rose and wonder if anyone else does...
The house has been through a half dozen tenants since then and been vacant the last 3 years. I'm sure no one but me remembers where those flowers came from, but I'm glad they aren't mowed under like her iris bed was!
May your weekends each be wonderful!
alan
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
I got a letter from GM today...
that said the Union negotiated language into the "Special Attrition" agreement to cover those of us who were under 55 and penalized like I was when we took the "buyout". It said if I mail them copies of the right papers, I will be reimbursed as long as I do it before June 30th.
With all the bankruptcy rumors flying, I'm on my way to the Post Office now!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
With all the bankruptcy rumors flying, I'm on my way to the Post Office now!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Election Day...
Though it's only local issues, some of them are looming very important over the heads of all who live on "this side" of the river.
Largest among them are the shenanigans at our local "public utility" as outlined in this summary I found online when I "Googled" up the keywords:
BPU's Challenges Could Boost KCK Electric Bills
We have been hearing these stories for quite a while now; two weeks ago one of the indicted in the State probe of the missing $400,000 took his own life. Then there are the mentioned millions in EPA fines the utility is liable for...In the run up to the current election one of the sitting board members said that the board members aren't responsible for what goes on at the utility!
Needless to say, he didn't get my vote!
If they aren't responsible then why are we voting for them?
The evening news should be interesting!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Largest among them are the shenanigans at our local "public utility" as outlined in this summary I found online when I "Googled" up the keywords:
BPU's Challenges Could Boost KCK Electric Bills
We have been hearing these stories for quite a while now; two weeks ago one of the indicted in the State probe of the missing $400,000 took his own life. Then there are the mentioned millions in EPA fines the utility is liable for...In the run up to the current election one of the sitting board members said that the board members aren't responsible for what goes on at the utility!
Needless to say, he didn't get my vote!
If they aren't responsible then why are we voting for them?
The evening news should be interesting!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Friday, April 03, 2009
The view from here...
The other day when I checked and found I had managed to get one more pension check "before the end of the world" I said something about it on my Facebook page prompting an e-mail exchange with someone who said afterwards I should post something like it here.
I try not to climb on the soapbox too often, as we all have enough people who feel obliged to do that in our lives and I'd rather not be a part of that club!
Yet with all that's gone on of late, perhaps some of you might find parts of it interesting, so I'm pasting and doing a bit of editing...
My friend, seeing my Facebook note, wrote and asked if I thought Obama was doing the "right" thing by the auto industry, or was he going to make things worse. My reply:
_________________________
"We all tend to fear for ourselves, for our own best interests, myself included. I beat myself both mentally and physically for 30 years in return for a promise, one written and signed and supposedly guaranteed. One that others gave up payraises to get in the generations before me so that there would never be another generation to go through what theirs and the one before had gone through. (The Great Depression)
People gave up dimes and quarters in an era when that was 30 minutes pay for those benefits; that some judge can wipe it away as though it it were nothing is somehow not only terrifying, but wrong. When the airline industries went through bankruptcies these last 30 years many of their workers, given the same promises I was, ended up receiving $1 on every $4 they were owed. Many others have ended up with far less. My wife's father, 30 years in a woolen mill in Vermont, got a severance check and told:
"Sorry, new ownership!" At 64, his world come to an end, he sat down on the porch, started drinking and never stopped.
Why should the banks and the creditors "get theirs" first, other than their control of the levers of power?
Through my years I've known so many people. I knew the man that was the highest paid employee at Consolidated Aircraft at the outbreak of WW2. He was an inspector who had worked his way from machinist to tool and die maker to the most important hourly man in the plant in San Diego. He was considered critical and though he tried to enlist was told he was too important. He made $.40 an hour...
I knew several that hired in in the first group when GM took over the old North American B-25 plant where my grandmother and her sisters had worked during the war. They hired in in 1946 at $.47 an hour...
When I hired in I got $5.44 and came up to scale at a tick over $7 at the end of 90 days in 1978. At that point our insurance covered us immediately, including my already pregnant with our 2nd son wife (now it's 18 months after you hire in) and also covered office visits and most everything else; prescriptions were $3.
So to have Richard Shelby or anyone else tell me that I was or am the problem is like throwing gasoline on a match. We were within a dollar of the same wages and benefits as his non-union Japanese transplants before this last contract was opened up yet again! The entire industry was "off the hook" for retiree health care, paying only part of it's estimated cost into a trust fund to be managed by the Union. Now they are trying to get out of paying even that by substituting stock instead.
For years if Chevrolet came up with something that sold, management diluted the market by changing a bit of trim and badging Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac variants. They created Saturn and diluted the market so badly they killed Oldsmobile, a name that had stood for over 100 years. Yet like AIG execs getting their bonus checks, they already took their money and ran, leaving the workers to pay the price.
I am sure that Obama had good reason for asking for Rick Wagoner's resignation. Probably to do with the fact that they still weren't killing entire divisions of products and eliminating the dual and triple badging within them.
Yet Wagoner was the first one to knock down the levels of "white shirts" within the plants, let alone the layers between us and them. He did away with thousands of salaried jobs for the hundreds assembly jobs that left, the first time I had seen that. We went from 1 white shirt in the plant for every 8 to 10 hourly people to about 1 in 15, a step in the right direction...though those offices in Detroit and elsewhere seemed to have a knack for hiding their friends out in "temporary slots" out in the factories, so that they didn't show up in the census of management/hourly ratios.
When I hired in in 1978 there were 5,000 of us on 2 shifts to build 549 cars per shift. When I left there were about 1500 of us building the same number of cars. The number of white shirts never reduced as dramatically as our ranks did until Wagoner took the reins.
Though he tried to reduce those numbers, there were good salaried people that were forced out so someone's buddy or wife or relative could have their job...these cuts weren't always done by merit. So we ended up with mid-level people from the Detroit offices or elsewhere trying to manage line workers when they had never built a car in their life and us building cars despite them. Some of them have since been forced out as well, others I'm sure are making other lives miserable still!
With all of that going on, the Malibu and Saturn won back to back Car of the Year awards, something never done by another assembly plant. Ever! The Buick they were getting ready to bring on line as I retired has apparently done the same.
The man who headed the design team for all of these, Bob Lutz, is also retiring and that worries me because he did have a knack, much like Harley Earl in the years gone by.
I read a Wall Street Journal story night before last that illustrates a lot of my frustrations:
"Malibu Shows Road to Revival Is Bumpy"
It was hard not to look up that man's address in the phone book!
For the same reason that it was hard to swallow my pride and quell the ache in my heart when my older son's wife went and paid cash for a new Hyundai a few weeks go because her Dad told her GM and Ford were going under...
I told Dottie I'd never speak to him again...I can't do that to my daughter-in-law, but don't think I could let it in my driveway! I'd walk or call a cab before I rode in it, I swear!
It's not like I haven't ridden in them before, I even rented a Volvo once to see what the fuss was about!
I told my son that it's not about her buying a foreign car, but that she bought one built in Korea, right now, when keeping as many dollars here as we can is more important than it's been in 75 years! If she wanted a Toyota or Honda or whatever, at least buy one built there that paid American workers instead of the couple of longshoreman and truck drivers that unloaded and delivered it!"
_____________________
Since I wrote that the Union has offered to accept stock in lieu of the money the companies were supposed to have paid into the VEBA fund on condition that the government offer to warranty it as they have the cars themselves...I haven't heard of anyone approving that idea yet.
I hope none of you take offense at this...none was intended!
May your weekends be kind!
alan
I try not to climb on the soapbox too often, as we all have enough people who feel obliged to do that in our lives and I'd rather not be a part of that club!
Yet with all that's gone on of late, perhaps some of you might find parts of it interesting, so I'm pasting and doing a bit of editing...
My friend, seeing my Facebook note, wrote and asked if I thought Obama was doing the "right" thing by the auto industry, or was he going to make things worse. My reply:
_________________________
"We all tend to fear for ourselves, for our own best interests, myself included. I beat myself both mentally and physically for 30 years in return for a promise, one written and signed and supposedly guaranteed. One that others gave up payraises to get in the generations before me so that there would never be another generation to go through what theirs and the one before had gone through. (The Great Depression)
People gave up dimes and quarters in an era when that was 30 minutes pay for those benefits; that some judge can wipe it away as though it it were nothing is somehow not only terrifying, but wrong. When the airline industries went through bankruptcies these last 30 years many of their workers, given the same promises I was, ended up receiving $1 on every $4 they were owed. Many others have ended up with far less. My wife's father, 30 years in a woolen mill in Vermont, got a severance check and told:
"Sorry, new ownership!" At 64, his world come to an end, he sat down on the porch, started drinking and never stopped.
Why should the banks and the creditors "get theirs" first, other than their control of the levers of power?
Through my years I've known so many people. I knew the man that was the highest paid employee at Consolidated Aircraft at the outbreak of WW2. He was an inspector who had worked his way from machinist to tool and die maker to the most important hourly man in the plant in San Diego. He was considered critical and though he tried to enlist was told he was too important. He made $.40 an hour...
I knew several that hired in in the first group when GM took over the old North American B-25 plant where my grandmother and her sisters had worked during the war. They hired in in 1946 at $.47 an hour...
When I hired in I got $5.44 and came up to scale at a tick over $7 at the end of 90 days in 1978. At that point our insurance covered us immediately, including my already pregnant with our 2nd son wife (now it's 18 months after you hire in) and also covered office visits and most everything else; prescriptions were $3.
So to have Richard Shelby or anyone else tell me that I was or am the problem is like throwing gasoline on a match. We were within a dollar of the same wages and benefits as his non-union Japanese transplants before this last contract was opened up yet again! The entire industry was "off the hook" for retiree health care, paying only part of it's estimated cost into a trust fund to be managed by the Union. Now they are trying to get out of paying even that by substituting stock instead.
For years if Chevrolet came up with something that sold, management diluted the market by changing a bit of trim and badging Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac variants. They created Saturn and diluted the market so badly they killed Oldsmobile, a name that had stood for over 100 years. Yet like AIG execs getting their bonus checks, they already took their money and ran, leaving the workers to pay the price.
I am sure that Obama had good reason for asking for Rick Wagoner's resignation. Probably to do with the fact that they still weren't killing entire divisions of products and eliminating the dual and triple badging within them.
Yet Wagoner was the first one to knock down the levels of "white shirts" within the plants, let alone the layers between us and them. He did away with thousands of salaried jobs for the hundreds assembly jobs that left, the first time I had seen that. We went from 1 white shirt in the plant for every 8 to 10 hourly people to about 1 in 15, a step in the right direction...though those offices in Detroit and elsewhere seemed to have a knack for hiding their friends out in "temporary slots" out in the factories, so that they didn't show up in the census of management/hourly ratios.
When I hired in in 1978 there were 5,000 of us on 2 shifts to build 549 cars per shift. When I left there were about 1500 of us building the same number of cars. The number of white shirts never reduced as dramatically as our ranks did until Wagoner took the reins.
Though he tried to reduce those numbers, there were good salaried people that were forced out so someone's buddy or wife or relative could have their job...these cuts weren't always done by merit. So we ended up with mid-level people from the Detroit offices or elsewhere trying to manage line workers when they had never built a car in their life and us building cars despite them. Some of them have since been forced out as well, others I'm sure are making other lives miserable still!
With all of that going on, the Malibu and Saturn won back to back Car of the Year awards, something never done by another assembly plant. Ever! The Buick they were getting ready to bring on line as I retired has apparently done the same.
The man who headed the design team for all of these, Bob Lutz, is also retiring and that worries me because he did have a knack, much like Harley Earl in the years gone by.
I read a Wall Street Journal story night before last that illustrates a lot of my frustrations:
"Malibu Shows Road to Revival Is Bumpy"
It was hard not to look up that man's address in the phone book!
For the same reason that it was hard to swallow my pride and quell the ache in my heart when my older son's wife went and paid cash for a new Hyundai a few weeks go because her Dad told her GM and Ford were going under...
I told Dottie I'd never speak to him again...I can't do that to my daughter-in-law, but don't think I could let it in my driveway! I'd walk or call a cab before I rode in it, I swear!
It's not like I haven't ridden in them before, I even rented a Volvo once to see what the fuss was about!
I told my son that it's not about her buying a foreign car, but that she bought one built in Korea, right now, when keeping as many dollars here as we can is more important than it's been in 75 years! If she wanted a Toyota or Honda or whatever, at least buy one built there that paid American workers instead of the couple of longshoreman and truck drivers that unloaded and delivered it!"
_____________________
Since I wrote that the Union has offered to accept stock in lieu of the money the companies were supposed to have paid into the VEBA fund on condition that the government offer to warranty it as they have the cars themselves...I haven't heard of anyone approving that idea yet.
I hope none of you take offense at this...none was intended!
May your weekends be kind!
alan
Sunday, March 29, 2009
4 Minutes of Magic!
Please, if you can spare just under 4 minutes...
A while back I listed one of my favorite films as being "The Black Imp". When most think of Georges Melies they think of his "Trip to the Moon" but for me, this and "The Cook in Trouble" are both delights. Made less than 10 years after the Lumiere Brothers first films; made before there were computers or even a standardized camera/film system, his feats are amazing!
When I had my first VCR many years ago I recorded a PBS show called "Matinee at the Bijou" one afternoon on a whim. I was lucky enough to end up with a Harold Lloyd film called "Dr. Jack". The next week, even luckier, I discovered "Safety Last".
I was so impressed by these I unwired my VCR and took it to my Dad's to show them to him...to him they were just things he'd seen growing up...
A few weeks later I was treated to "The Thief of Bagdad" in a print restored in Britain by a gentleman named Kevin Brownlow.
A trip to the local library turned up "The Parade's Gone By", Brownlow's book on the "silent era" (the movies were never silent and a good many weren't black and white) and cinema became an ongoing love that continues. Some of you remember me posting about watching Mary Pickford movies just after we joined Netflix, things I couldn't rent locally. That local library has a cinema buff working in it's AV department who has made a point of acquiring things through the years; through him I first saw the films of Georges Melies on VHS many years ago, mostly unrestored as that is something that costs much less now in the age of the computer and DVD's than it did even 15 years ago.
I've spoken before of how easily I fall in love, not only with each of you who find your way here, but also those who have touched me through the magic of film. Abel Gance, Chaplin, Keaton, Pickford, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Louise Brooks...the list is not only most likely endless but still growing.
This all comes up now because just before I retired I heard a piece on NPR about a book: "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". The book, about an orpaned boy living in a Paris railstation who meets an old man running a toy store there...Georges Melies! In the interview they said that when it was nominated for a National Book Award a whole roomful of normally very staid librarians stood, clapped and cheered!
It was the last hardcover book I bought before I retired, hoping it might set my grandchildren on a course to love those same films that I have so dearly. (They have already watched Chaplin's "The Kid" spellbound and talked of it for days after.)
Dillon was already reading the Harry Potter books at the time, but since his parents hadn't heard of it, they said one of them had to read it first. Since neither of them had, I borrowed it back when they were on vacation last week and on Friday I started it at about 3:30 as we left to go to Lawrence for my nephew's last musical program before he graduates.
The book, written by someone who has illustrated other things, combines the illustrations into the narrative in a manner he compares to film. You read "scenes" then scenes are illustrated over the course of 10 pages or so, then the narrative picks up again from the last frame of illustration.
534 pages, by the time the program started at 7:30 I was down to the last 25...sitting in a room full of students and parents along with my wife and sister, having to raise my bifocals to wipe tears from my eyes. An amazing book!
A teacher I met through ICQ many years ago told me that "The Little Prince" is not really a children's book, though everyone thinks it is. I went to the library and found it (in the children's section) and read it for the first time since kindergarten or 1st grade...Ana was right!
This one, "The Invention of Hugh Cabret" may be a children's book to some, but if you've ever loved film...if you've ever had your heart stolen by someone in print or on the silver screen then perhaps it's not a children's book after all, or perhaps you have enough child inside to give your heart once again!
So as I wish you all and warm and kind "rest of your weekend" and a Monday that is kind as well, I'm off to pop a restored collection of Melies films in the DVD player courtesy of Netflix...
alan
P.S.- For those who may wonder, I didn't put a link to Melies "Trip to the Moon" because I couldn't find a YouTube or Google version that was the full 13:48 runtime that didn't have someone narrating it. I don't need someone to explain to me what I can see (unless perhaps it's "Memento" or something similar) and the narrative is so distracting I just couldn't...
A while back I listed one of my favorite films as being "The Black Imp". When most think of Georges Melies they think of his "Trip to the Moon" but for me, this and "The Cook in Trouble" are both delights. Made less than 10 years after the Lumiere Brothers first films; made before there were computers or even a standardized camera/film system, his feats are amazing!
When I had my first VCR many years ago I recorded a PBS show called "Matinee at the Bijou" one afternoon on a whim. I was lucky enough to end up with a Harold Lloyd film called "Dr. Jack". The next week, even luckier, I discovered "Safety Last".
I was so impressed by these I unwired my VCR and took it to my Dad's to show them to him...to him they were just things he'd seen growing up...
A few weeks later I was treated to "The Thief of Bagdad" in a print restored in Britain by a gentleman named Kevin Brownlow.
A trip to the local library turned up "The Parade's Gone By", Brownlow's book on the "silent era" (the movies were never silent and a good many weren't black and white) and cinema became an ongoing love that continues. Some of you remember me posting about watching Mary Pickford movies just after we joined Netflix, things I couldn't rent locally. That local library has a cinema buff working in it's AV department who has made a point of acquiring things through the years; through him I first saw the films of Georges Melies on VHS many years ago, mostly unrestored as that is something that costs much less now in the age of the computer and DVD's than it did even 15 years ago.
I've spoken before of how easily I fall in love, not only with each of you who find your way here, but also those who have touched me through the magic of film. Abel Gance, Chaplin, Keaton, Pickford, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Louise Brooks...the list is not only most likely endless but still growing.
This all comes up now because just before I retired I heard a piece on NPR about a book: "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". The book, about an orpaned boy living in a Paris railstation who meets an old man running a toy store there...Georges Melies! In the interview they said that when it was nominated for a National Book Award a whole roomful of normally very staid librarians stood, clapped and cheered!
It was the last hardcover book I bought before I retired, hoping it might set my grandchildren on a course to love those same films that I have so dearly. (They have already watched Chaplin's "The Kid" spellbound and talked of it for days after.)
Dillon was already reading the Harry Potter books at the time, but since his parents hadn't heard of it, they said one of them had to read it first. Since neither of them had, I borrowed it back when they were on vacation last week and on Friday I started it at about 3:30 as we left to go to Lawrence for my nephew's last musical program before he graduates.
The book, written by someone who has illustrated other things, combines the illustrations into the narrative in a manner he compares to film. You read "scenes" then scenes are illustrated over the course of 10 pages or so, then the narrative picks up again from the last frame of illustration.
534 pages, by the time the program started at 7:30 I was down to the last 25...sitting in a room full of students and parents along with my wife and sister, having to raise my bifocals to wipe tears from my eyes. An amazing book!
A teacher I met through ICQ many years ago told me that "The Little Prince" is not really a children's book, though everyone thinks it is. I went to the library and found it (in the children's section) and read it for the first time since kindergarten or 1st grade...Ana was right!
This one, "The Invention of Hugh Cabret" may be a children's book to some, but if you've ever loved film...if you've ever had your heart stolen by someone in print or on the silver screen then perhaps it's not a children's book after all, or perhaps you have enough child inside to give your heart once again!
So as I wish you all and warm and kind "rest of your weekend" and a Monday that is kind as well, I'm off to pop a restored collection of Melies films in the DVD player courtesy of Netflix...
alan
P.S.- For those who may wonder, I didn't put a link to Melies "Trip to the Moon" because I couldn't find a YouTube or Google version that was the full 13:48 runtime that didn't have someone narrating it. I don't need someone to explain to me what I can see (unless perhaps it's "Memento" or something similar) and the narrative is so distracting I just couldn't...
Monday, March 23, 2009
36 years ago today...
I enlisted. I was 17, 2 months short of graduating high school and knew that there was no way I was staying home another minute.
Having been told by my Dad that I couldn't accept the full paid music scholarship to a university 180 miles from home because it was too far for me to be from home at 17, the Navy recruiter that had been picking me up to go play "Taps" at the Navy funerals for 2 years had a pretty easy time of it. Originally I had planned to enlist for 4 years and go to the Navy's music school, but at 17 I had to have my parent's permission for that as well and Dad wouldn't sign for a 4 year hitch.
So I ended up signing up for 2 years active duty and 4 years as a Reserve, intending on re-enlisting at the end of 2 and trying to get in the music school then. Christmas of that year found me in the Phillipines.
Things changed of course! The freedom to "be" I found led me through a lot of changes, a lot for the better, a lot that weren't as well. None I regret, even those that probably cost a few brain cells.
Though "the path not taken" always beckons, I can't look at my sons or my grandchildren and have regrets about the one I chose!
May Monday be kind and the week as well!
alan
Having been told by my Dad that I couldn't accept the full paid music scholarship to a university 180 miles from home because it was too far for me to be from home at 17, the Navy recruiter that had been picking me up to go play "Taps" at the Navy funerals for 2 years had a pretty easy time of it. Originally I had planned to enlist for 4 years and go to the Navy's music school, but at 17 I had to have my parent's permission for that as well and Dad wouldn't sign for a 4 year hitch.
So I ended up signing up for 2 years active duty and 4 years as a Reserve, intending on re-enlisting at the end of 2 and trying to get in the music school then. Christmas of that year found me in the Phillipines.
Things changed of course! The freedom to "be" I found led me through a lot of changes, a lot for the better, a lot that weren't as well. None I regret, even those that probably cost a few brain cells.
Though "the path not taken" always beckons, I can't look at my sons or my grandchildren and have regrets about the one I chose!
May Monday be kind and the week as well!
alan
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Outnumbered!
When Bill moved we took in Laura's cats, two 8 year old males, until they can afford a house. In D.C..
We of course, already had an old dog and a 2 year old male cat of our own.
Last week one of my projects was putting a screen door on a bedroom because it was that or buy another 110 window unit air conditioner for that room and pay the bill. The door was cheaper...
Because one of their cats will eat anything in sight, cat food, dog food, the trash. The other one likes to hide and we feared him getting in the basement and not being able to find him.
Also, Frankie doesn't much care for either of them. So he has the run of the house, they have the run of the front bedroom and in the evenings while Frankie's napping on our bed, we let Alley and Willow run loose after we cover the dog food and shut our bedroom door (keeping Willow out of the basement).
I pan for cat turds twice a day now because her cats are huge and they are sharing a litter box...and feed them twice day, holding Alley's food dish so he doesn't eat too fast and make himself "yak".
So, I was about petted out to begin with.
John is taking Noel on a trip for their 10th anniversary. My sister has all 3 kids right now, we'll have Dillon over the weekend and Cindy will be moving to their house on Sunday to get the kids off to school on Monday (they're on break this week).
So he brought their two dogs over this afternoon. A full grown shepard and a knee high something-or-other. So now in addition to the screen door I have two kiddie gates on either end of the kitchen to control who gets to Angel's food and to control who is near the back door to go outside. (One lead and the yard isn't fenced.) Of course that means we get to put them up and take them down each time we need through, or we get to vault them...
And we get to drive to their house twice a day to feed their two cats!
I'm glad I'm already pretty much bald!
May Friday be kind and your weekends be wonderful!
alan
We of course, already had an old dog and a 2 year old male cat of our own.
Last week one of my projects was putting a screen door on a bedroom because it was that or buy another 110 window unit air conditioner for that room and pay the bill. The door was cheaper...
Because one of their cats will eat anything in sight, cat food, dog food, the trash. The other one likes to hide and we feared him getting in the basement and not being able to find him.
Also, Frankie doesn't much care for either of them. So he has the run of the house, they have the run of the front bedroom and in the evenings while Frankie's napping on our bed, we let Alley and Willow run loose after we cover the dog food and shut our bedroom door (keeping Willow out of the basement).
I pan for cat turds twice a day now because her cats are huge and they are sharing a litter box...and feed them twice day, holding Alley's food dish so he doesn't eat too fast and make himself "yak".
So, I was about petted out to begin with.
John is taking Noel on a trip for their 10th anniversary. My sister has all 3 kids right now, we'll have Dillon over the weekend and Cindy will be moving to their house on Sunday to get the kids off to school on Monday (they're on break this week).
So he brought their two dogs over this afternoon. A full grown shepard and a knee high something-or-other. So now in addition to the screen door I have two kiddie gates on either end of the kitchen to control who gets to Angel's food and to control who is near the back door to go outside. (One lead and the yard isn't fenced.) Of course that means we get to put them up and take them down each time we need through, or we get to vault them...
And we get to drive to their house twice a day to feed their two cats!
I'm glad I'm already pretty much bald!
May Friday be kind and your weekends be wonderful!
alan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The day after...
the only thing better than St. Patrick's Day is the corned beef leftovers!
:o)
In trying to tighten things up where we can, we hadn't been to the store since the 1st and didn't buy corned beef on that run. Yesterday, with Dottie off after working the weekend, we needed milk and Sam's had corned beef in the cooler. She kept saying no, but knowing how much her heritage and the holiday both mean to her (she makes a point every year of sending cards to the kids and grandkids; she still has a grocery store shamrock I bought for her 20 years ago that goes out in the summer and comes in in the winter) there was no way I could not, so I told her she could pick or I would. Of course I was told where my taste is...but at least she picked what she wanted.
The rest of the day was spent with her cooking and me puttering. It was 80 Farenheit yesterday, the windows were not only open all day but all night. Now it's 55 and cloudy and I've closed the windows and re-lit the furnace, happy that they aren't predicting another freeze!
And to loop back to my opening, besides the corned beef sandwich I ate for lunch, I'm truly looking forward to it and leftover potatoes for dinner!
Dillon is supposed to spend the weekend this week and he's very ready to have some time away from his siblings. They are so close in age (2 years apart) I can't blame him, everything is a compromise when he's at home.
I plan on getting another post up before then, but just in case I don't, I'll hope that the rest of the week is kind to each of you and that your weekends are warm and wonderful and turning to thoughts of spring!
alan
:o)
In trying to tighten things up where we can, we hadn't been to the store since the 1st and didn't buy corned beef on that run. Yesterday, with Dottie off after working the weekend, we needed milk and Sam's had corned beef in the cooler. She kept saying no, but knowing how much her heritage and the holiday both mean to her (she makes a point every year of sending cards to the kids and grandkids; she still has a grocery store shamrock I bought for her 20 years ago that goes out in the summer and comes in in the winter) there was no way I could not, so I told her she could pick or I would. Of course I was told where my taste is...but at least she picked what she wanted.
The rest of the day was spent with her cooking and me puttering. It was 80 Farenheit yesterday, the windows were not only open all day but all night. Now it's 55 and cloudy and I've closed the windows and re-lit the furnace, happy that they aren't predicting another freeze!
And to loop back to my opening, besides the corned beef sandwich I ate for lunch, I'm truly looking forward to it and leftover potatoes for dinner!
Dillon is supposed to spend the weekend this week and he's very ready to have some time away from his siblings. They are so close in age (2 years apart) I can't blame him, everything is a compromise when he's at home.
I plan on getting another post up before then, but just in case I don't, I'll hope that the rest of the week is kind to each of you and that your weekends are warm and wonderful and turning to thoughts of spring!
alan
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