Pulling up the Fence

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to be--as Jack Bauer is fond of saying--"going dark" tomorrow afternoon. No TV or Internet of any kind. And that includes this blog. But before I leave for three days, I feel compelled to talk about one current news story that really has me ticked off...

Imagine for a moment that a dairy farmer pulled all of his fences out of the ground and burned them. What would happen? His cows would wander away. Imagine that--after that--he rounds his cows back up and then berates them for hours and hours, yelling at them for something that HE did. Pretty dumb, huh?

But that's EXACTLY what went on earlier this week when Congress pulled Goldman Sachs executives in front of them to berate those executives. All the executives had done was make lots and lots of money off of our financial system. True, in the process they just about wrecked the economy, but it's not Goldman Sachs' fault that the loopholes existed that they jumped through. That's the federal government's fault for refusing to regulate over the counter derivatives. Congree was the farmer, screaming at the cows because of mismanagement on their part.

I don't really have time to explain all of why I feel this way tonight (Meredith has a band concert and I have to leave for it in just a few minutes), but the link below will take you to a web page where you can watch a PBS show that talks all about it.

Watch the show.

A Blog Post in case I'm Murdered

In my last post I wrote about how social networking--and I guess I meant online access in general--is changing us as a people. Here's some more interesting information. Last night I started watching on Netflix via my Roku player (By the way, I have two of these things now) a two month old PBS special called Digital Nation. The show basically works from the same premise that I had in my post, that we are being changed as a people by our always online world. If you don't have Netflix, you can read more about it and watch the entire show online here.

In addition, I just found an article on eschool news that says that college students who were denied technology for 24 hours began exhibiting symptoms similar to drug withdrawal. This suggests that access to technology is perhaps REALLY addictive.

All of this matters to me because yesterday--before I started watching the PBS show or read the article above--Lisa and I agreed that this next weekend, from Friday at 4 PM until Monday morning, we would once again have a "No Technology Weekend." The last time we did this we left off only the TV and computer. This weekend we're going to also turn off the cell phones and landline phone.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to unplugging, but I'm worried that we might begin to exhibit some of the symptoms described in the article above.

Anyway, I guess I'm writing to warn all of you. If you see on the news next week that one of us has murdered the other, you might want to point police to this blog entry, which will probably explain a lot.

Social Networking is Changing Us

A few months ago I made a post about my older daughter, who is now 13, setting up and using an account on Facebook. The next day I wrote another post that linked to an article that talked about how social networking was actually CHANGING the younger generation. Earlier this week a new study was released that said texting has become the primary way teenagers communicate. They text more frequently than they speak aloud!

Here's more evidence that social networking is changing us: This past weekend the daughter of a friend of mine got married,* and when the vows were finished the minister said, "I now pronounce you 'Man' and 'Wife.' You may update your Facebook status." At which point the bride and groom pulled their cell phones out of their tuxedo and wedding dress and actually updated their status from "single" to "married" BEFORE kissing one another.

They were making a joke, of course, but there's a little bit of truth behind every joke. We are becoming as married to our social networks and to the accompanying cell phones, netbooks, and computers as we are to our spouses. And our Facebook "status" is nearly as real to us as our actual status is.

My wife even sometimes refers to our home computer as my partner in an affair. She has a name for the computer: Della (You only get one guess what model of computer I have at home). And lately, thanks to Facebook, I've started referring to the computer as Dale.

And I've noticed the changes in other places, too. I call my parents less often than I used to, and they call me less often as well. Why do we need to talk? We're reading all about it online. And when I run into friends, we no longer have to ask, "So...what's been going on with you?" We already know what's been going on with each other because we've been reading about it. Instead of that age old question, we're able to jump right into the meat of the matter with, "So...you and your daughter have been fighting lately. What's going on?" or "So...did your mother make it home from the hospital?"

Don't hear me complaining about it. I'm not. I don't really see this evolution as either good or bad. It just is. But I'd daresay that it's the biggest cultural shift I've seen in my entire life...save maybe for the way we all changed after September 11, 2001.

I know we've all changed because I read about it on Facebook every year on the 11th!
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*There's a post for another day...the fact that I'm old enough to have friends whose kids are getting married! Some days I can hardly believe that I am married!

Ticked Off!

Imagine that you had an employee who neglected doing his job duties during his regular work day, and then wanted you to pay him overtime to get his work done. How would YOU handle such an employee? Most likely you would reprimand the employee. What if it happened over and over again? You'd probably have to fire him.

That's EXACTLY what is happening in the state of Kentucky with our legislature. In the legislative sessions that end on the even numbered years, the legislature's only constitutionally required goal is to pass a budget. Sure, they can pass other laws if they need to and want to, but they're REQUIRED to pass a budget. And in three out of the last four budget years the legislature has been unable to pass a budget. As a result, this year the governor will have to call a special session before July 1 so that a budget can be passed. This special session is tantamount to overtime for the legislators, and it's overtime to the tune of $64,000 a day. At a minimum a special session would last a week, meaning taxpayers will be out $320,000 because of legislators' dawdling.

And don't be fooled--they really did dawdle around, especially at the beginning of the session. Most bills were not introduced until a couple of weeks into the session. Why? Legislators wanted to wait until the filing deadline for this November's election had passed. They didn't want to tick off anyone who might consider running against them.

I'm a political moderate, and proud of it. I don't get riled up easily. I'm not a Tea Party candidate, and I've also never given money to ACORN. But I have to say, I am absolutely FURIOUS over the legislature's inability to get their one job done. I've always laughed at the people who say "Vote all incumbents out of office!" but now I have to admit that I think they may be right.

I think it's time we did what ANY boss would do in our situation: it's time to fire the whole lot them!

Adios, Kroger

I never thought that a store closing would be so emotional...

Yesterday the Kroger store down the road from my house closed. Not permanently. It's closing temporarily so that it can be knocked down and replaced with an even larger "Super" Kroger, complete with a gas station and increased merchandise, including clothing, toys, electronics. And a Starbucks! It's supposed to reopen in late November.

But that's seven months from now. Until then, I'll have to actually DECIDE to go to the grocery store. I won't be walking up to the store with one of the kids and the dogs to get something we need, and I won't just be "stopping by the store" on my way home from work. This is going to take PLANNING and PREPARATION! One more stressor in my life!

Yesterday Natalie and I walked up to the store for one final pick up of something we'd forgotten during the prior trip (some liquid dish washing detergent and napkins). We walked through the store, which was about half empty, and we waxed nostalgic about all of the previous times we'd been in the store. We walked over to the tiny toy section and looked at the Littlest Pet Shop toys one last time.

When we checked out, our few things were bagged by Jessie, a bagger who's been working at the store since we moved to Fort Mitchell ten years ago. We know him because he always asked my kids when they were younger if they wanted a sticker that said "I've been Krogering," and because he always asks how we want our groceries bagged with the same run together phrase of "PaperPlastic?"

"So Jessie," I asked. "What store are they sending you to?"

"Latonia," he told me. "Where are you going?"

"We're probably going to shop at Silverlake," I said to him. "It's closer."

"Oh," he said, kind of sad. He looked down. "So I guess I won't see you again for a while."

I didn't know what to say. I felt like we were breaking up or something! I turned to the cashier, whom I also recognized as a long time employee, but whom I didn't know as well. "Where are YOU going?"

"Latonia," she said. "I wanted Silverlake, but I didn't have seniority."

A manager walked by as I was swiping my credit card, and she said, "I'm going to Newport." She looked around and I could see her getting misty eyed. "I'm going to miss this place."

I ALMOST succumbed to the sadness in the air, but then I thought, this is ridiculous. I laughed. "Now wait a minute," I said. "You guys are all still employed, though, right?"

"Right," they all said.

"And you're all coming back here in November when this place opens back up again, right?"

"Probably," they all said.

"So this isn't goodbye forever," I said. "It's just goodbye for a few months. We'll all be back here after Thanksgiving, and Jessie, you can ask me if I want paper or plastic then, right?"

"Right," he said.

So tears were averted for the moment.

But I don't think I'll be able to handle it if the Skyline chili down the street goes out of business, too...

Update on an Old Post

A year and a half ago I wrote a post about how nasty the USA Motels in Fort Mitchell had become. Apparently it's only gotten worse. Local Channel 12 ran a story last night about the hotel and how the city of Fort Mitchell is at odds with it, and that story included an interview with the couple that replaced us at Vent Haven Museum.

I also looked at the reviews mentioned in my old post, and user reviews have NOT improved. I sort of feel bad for the two guys in the story who are trying to keep the place open, but they're fighting a losing battle. It needs to be just leveled.

I'm glad that it's now a half mile away from my house instead of butting up against it.

Here's my original post.

Here's a link to a web page on Channel 12's website where you can watch last night's story.

More Things I Learned While on Vacation

In my last post I listed four things that I learned while I was on vacation this past week. It occurred to me that I left out a few items I intended to put on that list, so I'll finish out my list with this post.

• My hair must be thinning. I've known for a long time that my hair was receding off my forehead. It would seem, though, that it must be thinning as well, because not only did I sunburn my feet and sides (see previous post), but I also discovered when I got into the shower that my SCALP was burned. That had NEVER happened to me before. The only thing I can surmise is that I don't have as much hair up there as I used to have.
• Hotels should either have a fancy free breakfast or NO free breakfast. On the way down to Florida we stopped at a Microtel. I wasn't expecting a free breakfast at a Microtel, but they did have one, and it was really pretty nice. There were pastries, sausage, biscuits, cereal, fresh fruit, and yogurt. About the only thing missing were eggs. On the way home, however, we stopped at a hotel that advertised a DELUXE breakfast. It ended up being some Otis Spunkmeyer muffins, burned coffee, and a couple of bagels next to a toaster. I think, in that situation, the hotel would be better off to not have a breakfast at all.
• The space shuttle launches are real. I'm still not so sure about the 1960's and 70's moon landings, but I can tell you all that the space shuttle really does get launched. It launched Monday morning at 6:21, so we set our clocks for 6:10 and got up to watch it. We watched the shuttle lift off from the landing pad on TV and then shuffled outside to see it come over the trees in the back yard a minute later. You can see what we saw in the youtube video below. A couple of warnings, though: 1) We had been up less than 15 minutes, so pardon the bad jokes you hear--we weren't completely awake to be more witty (nor apparently to use good grammar, as I hear myself on the video say "It's took off!"). 2) The video camera we have is not of professional quality. It didn't have a manual focus, so it's kind of hard to see clearly what's going on in the video. In person, I can tell you that from our vantage point several hundred miles away from the launch site the space shuttle looked a lot like a jet you might see high in the sky on a clear day (you know, the kind where the jet looks like a little dot and you can see a trail of white behind it), with three exceptions. First, the shuttle was about five times the size of a jet you'd see high in the sky. Second, it was a bright orange/yellow instead of the white of a jet. And finally, it was moving across the sky A LOT faster, maybe ten times as fast.

(I can't see the video.)

Things I Learned While on Vacation

We are back from our Spring Break mini-vacation in The Villages (see previous post). I drove for 8 hours yesterday and for 6 today, so I'm a little tired, so I'm not going to have a coherent post. Here are just some random thoughts I had during our trip:

• Sunscreen really works...but you have to use it EVERYWHERE. We spent about 6 hours at the beach Monday in the Florida sunshine. We did a REALLY good job of putting sunscreen on everyone...except for in the places we missed. On Natalie, for instance, while I did make sure to put sunscreen everywhere, I did NOT put it just inside her bathing suit. As she moved around she exposed part of her back and burned it pretty badly. I put it everywhere on me, but I missed the tops of my feet (though not my toes and the sides of my feet) and for some reason, though I got my back and shoulders and most of my sides, I missed the area just above my hips, the area where George Reeves put his fists when he was posing as Superman. All of those areas got burned.
• In the south, they're not shy about advertising their strip clubs. There were pretty racy billboards for strip clubs throughout Georgia and Florida. I loved the irony in one stretch of road, where there were three billboards. The first two were for different strip clubs, and the third was an advertisement for a lawyer that read, "MEN! Getting a divorce? Call..." and then had the phone number of the lawyer.
• It's hard to concentrate in church if you're being poisoned. Easter morning we went to church at Prentiss' and Myra's church. The photo above is our family picture taken just before we headed out the door to church. We had no idea what was in store for us. Just as we stood to sing the first song I became aware of a strong odor. Either the man or woman right in front of us (we were on the second row) had--how can I put this delicately?--let one rip. The stench started off bad and then got worse. In fact, it was like wave upon wave of odor, each a little worse than the prior. About halfway through the song the power of the smell ebbed a little, and I tried to forget about it and focus on the worship music, but then it started anew as a second blast was released. I turned to look at my family--were any of them smelling this? All three of them were yellow, and each person's face was in a different smile-like grimace, each trying politely to put on as if everything were normal. "I don't care how rude it looks," I told myself, "if this person does it a third time, I'm moving to a different row!" Luckily, though, the bombardment ended a few moments later. Words cannot do justice to how terrible this was. When I asked a little while ago what was the most memorable moment of the trip, THAT was what all three of them said. We may all have nightmares about it for weeks.
• I'm glad I'm able to show restraint at the grocery store...because I apparently don't have any when I'm at home. When I go to the grocery, I just skip the packaged cookie aisle and the ice cream aisle--I don't even look in their direction. And I'm glad I do that because Prentiss and Myra had all kinds of sweet things in their house, and I think I ate all of it. Ice cream, Whitman's sampler candy, home made and store bought cookies, a home made apple pie--I had some of all of it. If there were food like that in my house all the time, I'd probably weigh 60 pounds more than I do now.

That's all for now. I'll write more later.

The Villages

I am typing this entry in the gorgeous Florida sun. It's Spring Break this week for both my school and my daughters' school, so we are spending the week with Lisa's father and step-mother. They live in a retirement community in central Florida called The Villages. It's HUGE place (It literally has its own zip code) just outside of Lady Lake, Florida, and it's the most bizarre community I've ever been in. Everyone in this community rides around in golf carts. Every home has a regular sized garage and a smaller garage right beside the regular one for a golf cart. Every road has a golf cart path that runs along beside it, and the grocery stores and Wal-Marts and everything else have golf cart parking spaces right beside the handicapped spaces.

I could tell you more about it, but you can read a lot more than I would ever take the time to write by visiting The Villages website, which you can access right here.

Prentiss and Myra's house sit on one of the golf courses, and I'm sitting on their back patio watching someone trying to hit the par 4 green which is a couple of doors down. Natalie and Meredith are picking the few grapefruit that are left from their grapefruit tree in their back yard.

I'm not sure what all we are going to do this week. I know we're going to relax, though. And it's supposed to be nice every day this week, sunny and in the mid 80's, which is very different from the only other time we've been here...

...Had to stop my story to say that the woman who was about 20 feet in front of me apparently missed the green. She screamed "Sh#t!" as loudly as she could and then pounded her club in the ground. I think she went into the water hazard because she dropped another ball and then hit it before getting in her cart and driving away. Oh well, Mark Twain said golf is "a good walk ruined."

...seven years ago when it was cloudy and in the 60's almost every day.

I'll write more later. For now, gotta go enjoy this sunshine.

Kids' School on the news

My two daughters' school was featured on WFOX Channel 19 this morning. There were three small segments throughout the morning. And hey, gotta give props to my fellow CIO Joetta Browning. Technology is featured pretty heavily in the second half of the first video!

Video 1


Video 2


Video 3