Fabulous Friday - April 1st edition

I really think Red is the right color for this.  I could get it in black, but I really think red is the best color.  I mean if you are going to buy a car that says LOOK AT ME!, it shouldn't be boring.  I was surprised the dealer had them in stock, ready to drive home. You do have to be careful, first time drivers have an amazingly high rate of losing control in the first few weeks.  The recommendation is to take delivery at a safety driving course, and work with an instructor until you get a feel for it.  Acceleration is painfully abrupt, braking is immediate and violent.  It is a challenge to get in and out of.  

It is a total fantasy car, after years of what I should have, or what is reasonable.  Why not? After all we are not going to live forever and we can't take it with us. 

For years I thought it would be a Rolls Royce, when I was growing up I remember the first time I saw one.  The elegant flowing lines.  The new one's look like a box, big, square, shapeless (well I guess a box is a shape.) The are comfortable inside, but the style leaves a lot to be desired, and unlike the good old days, they will paint them in gaudy colors, instead of stately greys, black, white, cream, and brown (not the best color.) 

Oh, by the way, it is April 1st, known in many parts of the world as April Fools Day, a day for minor practical jokes.  Nope, I didn't, I wouldn't it costs like $15,000 to have the oil changed in that thing at the dealer.  And I can get in, but it takes two people to drag me back out of it and then I land on the ground like a fish fresh off the hook.  

Thursday Ramble: Current Events

I watched Judge Brown, soon to be Justice Brown, exhibit amazing grace, and control while being barraged with irrelevant, racist, and insulting questions during her Senate confirmation hearing.  I had never heard of her before, after listening to 30 minutes of the hearing, she is amazing.  I wouldn't have made it through the process.  I would have told a couple of them what @$$holes they are. There are reasons I will never enter politics.  

Ukraine, the world stands by while a despot bombs the country into "smoldering ruins!" We offered the President an escape route, he said "send bullets!" The world saw it coming, and stood by and waited.  Thousands of people have died, millions of lives torn apart, and the world watched.  A dark time in world history.  

We recently watched the Jeopardy College Tournament, and were shocked at the sheer lack of knowledge of events that happened in the 1960's - 1990.  It was before they were born, and not long ago enough to be in the history books.  I remember my parents being shocked when I was in school in the 60's and 70's at the lack of information about World War II, and Korea.  I didn't really learn about the holocaust until I was in college in the late 1980's, and then really only because of one professor who felt we needed to know so we wouldn't stand by and watch a repeat of the past. 

Oh My, this is depressing.  What Good is happening. 

I had lunch with a new colleague recently.  I was trying to explain what we really do.  We are paid (relatively well) to study complex issues, think deep thoughts, help others understand the issues. We can spend time seeking deeper understanding of issues we are passionate about.  All of us came at some point from the front lines, with a single view on the issues, the solutions and how they work. Starting to look at the issues from multiple points of view, finding the interconnectedness of it all, I find inspiring. The longer I do this, the more I realize how little I knew, and how much there is left for me to learn. It is what has kept me here for 13 years, it is what drives me through the long weeks.  

The spring bloom is at its peak here in the DC area.  Lots of blooming trees, the trees are starting to leaf, the grass has that bright spring green.  Still the occasional cold wind. 

 

The Way We Were Wednesday - My First Checking Account

The building on the left, was my hometown bank. Now long gone, bought, sold, merged.  There are few small town state chartered banks left. There was a dime-store next door on the right when I was a child, complete with a candy counter.  

I had had a savings account in a larger bank in a nearby city, the fall I turned 15 I asked for a checking account.  The local bank said, yes if your parents approve we can do that.  They did. I remember there was a 3-cent charge for each check - forget that and your statement wouldn't balance.  

I remember the first check I wrote, to the G.B. Dupont company to rent an airplane, that my father flew, so we could go take photos of farms from the air.  I was making a few hundred dollars a year on aerial photos, and I stepped up to paying for the airtime with that first check. I should have kept that check.  

The account for the first year or so did not have an account number.  The check clearing house finally forced the bank to issue account numbers, or they wouldn't clear checks.  I remember the letter from the bank, apologizing and assuring us that we would never be a number to them, always a customer, a neighbor, a friend, a family member.  

Travel Tuesday - Froggy

 I keep finding out that I live in a place people travel to see.  Of course there are all those pretty stone monuments and buildings downtown, but out here in the burbs, people travel from far and wide to see and hear the birds, turtles, and frogs. Really the frogs?  I had no idea, the parking lot was dotted with out of state license plates, apparently there is a network of frog spotters and listeners, who share where the cacophony and spotting is best this week, and off they go for the weekend.  

I have to think what would I travel to see, a meadow of sheep, a flock of majestic flightless waterfowl,  wolves, bears (two or four footed,) the sea crashing on the rocks, ships, airplanes, desert, dessert, Not frogs. 

My Music Monday: The Rolling Stones - Angie

The Rolling Stones played in Orlando sometime in the 1980's, while I was living there.  The band stayed in one of the hotels at Walt Disney World, and caused a bit of a stir.  Late at night, after the show, they chartered one of the sternwheel boats that normally run from the ticket and transportation center, aka the parking lot, across the lake to the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, to cruise around the lakes for a few hours.  There was food and drink and relaxation for the band, crew and a few invited guests.  The highlight of the night was Keith Richards with a bottle of champagne in one hand and the other on a railing, hanging off of the front of the boat signing into the wind around the lake.  I wasn't there, but I knew people who were.  

The Sunday Five: Inquiring Minds

 1: Do you use reusable shopping bags? 

2: When was the last time you used paper-money? 

3: Are you answering this on a computer, tablet or phone? 

4: Is your community recycling glass? 

5: Do you still write checks? 

My answers:

1: Do you use reusable shopping bags? Yes, Virginia now has a 5 cent tax on disposable shopping bags and I HATE plastic shopping bags. 

2: When was the last time you used paper-money? At the farmers market The Pastry Dude was not accepting cards. 

3: Are you answering this on a computer, tablet or phone? desktop computer - I am old fashioned like that. 

4: Is your community recycling glass? No, the service at the condo stopped accepting glass, and actually charges us extra for glass that ends up in the recycling bins. 

5: Do you still write checks?  A few, I should stop doing that. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Spring Cleaning

For those of us on the top side of the earth, it is spring. Time for a little spring cleaning.  My parents grew up with wood or coal fired heat in the winter and spring cleaning was a major need, in my mother's family they rolled up the carpets for the summer.  I am not much of a housekeeper, and Brabinger the rumba does a good job on the floors, and Sweet Bear dusts more often I would. So it is not the house, but my mind that needs a spring clean. 

I moved into a supervisory position over the winter, and a new colleague started a week later.  I need to clear out the doubt about doing well. I have noticed that my concern about doing well, shows as a shadow over the joy.  

I need to dust away the past.  I was the one who said, just because it is the way we always did things, does not mean that is the way we should do them today.  And I find myself looking to the ways of the past. 

It has been a shut in winter of long days of working, days when I never step outside the door.  I need to get out more, feel the sunshine on my balding head.  Put the top down on the Pandavagon* and drive slowly in the fresh air, let the fresh air blow the winter out of my mind.  

I need to walk more.  Walking more is on my list of goals for the year. I need to do it, not because I am failing to do it, but because it is good for my mental and physical being.  

I need to dust off the luggage, pack up and get out of town.  We are going to New York in a couple of weeks, I am very much looking forward to seeing friends, and museums, and the city.  Unless the world falls apart we are going to Iceland in May for a week.  Even if the world falls apart, we should go as long as we can go.  It will do me good to get out of the country for a few days.  

I need to clean off my desks, both at home and in the office that I am only in a day or two now and then, the detritus of work is stacking up.  If only I could hand someone the keys and have my desks cleaned as efficiently as my car.  

* Getting a spring clean above is my little VW convertible, a hardtop convertible.  Shortly after I bought a five foot tall panda took up permanent residence in the back seat, hence it is known as the Pandavagon.