Discoveries

During our recent branch renovation, we had to pack up our belongings so that the painters could paint the staff area, including my office. We did this quickly as we had almost no advanced warning as to when the painting was to begin. Even so, I took the time to toss out quite a lot of dead wood mainly because I did not want to pack what was not needed or unpack it later.

Now when my sons were little and I needed some alone time from them, I’d tell them to go clean their room and would say, “ and don’t come out until it’s done!” knowing that they would be in there for hours. You see, they would find things that they forgot they had and start playing with them. Periodically I’d ask, “aren’t you through yet?!?’ just to see how much more down time I had. Most often they said no, so I’d go back to doing whatever I wanted. Unpacking my office was like that. I found things I had not seen in awhile, things I wondered why I’d kept, and things that just were not even mine. And, I used the ‘handle it once rule’. Once I picked something up I had to resolve it – keep or toss. I tossed a lot more. Next I’m tackling my file cabinet. I only have two drawers of stuff, but it is that- stuff. I’m sure some can go.

This project came at the right time of the year, too, because I tend to really take stock of things in the fall. I clean house and swap closets, and toss things out better in the fall, early winter than any other time of year. Maybe I just like for spring to have a great start.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: And Not Necessarily In That Order,

Trains

Saturday September the 6th my son Austin and I started our westward migration. We left Columbus by Greyhound (a real feat since we are not fond of traveling by dog) to go to Cleveland to catch a train (if only Columbus could have a depot) to Chicago to start our adventure. Try not to travel in the coach section as it is a big fast moving greyhound. I will not write about that leg of the journey because of pc issues. Anyway, once we changed trains in Chicago and boarded our sleeper car, everything changed. We left Chicago around 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon.

Roomettes are very small but functional for one person or two very small agile people or an adult and child. Each roomette has two beds. The top bunk folds up and is out of the way until you need it. The bottom bed is made from two “chairs” that pull together to from your sleeping platform. When you pull the top bunk down, there is a second mattress (already made up) that you place on the bottom bed, and voila! you’re all ready to sleep. In the morning, you just put the second mattress on top of the top one and close the upper bunk and you’re back to a sitting car. It’s really neat. There is also a small closet and a lap table that lives along the side of the wall under the window until you need it. We had two roomettes across the hall from each other. It seemed as though the sleeper cars have a much better suspension system than coach. If at all possible do travel this way. Not only is it much more relaxing but your meals are included in the cost of the room.

When you are rolling along the tracks with a nice rocking motion, watching the landscape pass you by, it is amazing how hypnotizing this is. I had planned to play with my DS or read and neither of these activities took place. I watched upper Middle America pass by instead, and it was worth it.

One little anecdote I will share with you about train travel is, if the train runs over a steer, it is likely to disconnect the air hoses under the train. When this happens, the train makes unusual sounds and movements. I heard crack, rattle rattle, rocks flying up under our car and then thththththththththwisttttttt and then silence. Eventually you will get word over the PA that they hit livestock and that the power is off as the conductors have to go under the train to re-connect the air hoses. By the way, please do not use the restrooms as the toilets will not flush when there is no power. That was useful information. It was also funny that just as the train stopped it seemed that most of us thought that would be a good time to use the rest room. Good thing that announcement came first. Nothing else exciting happened during the trip except for the gentleman who died on our car, but that, too, is another very short story that should be told, not written.

Automobiles

Our train ride ended in Lamy, New Mexico. From there, we took a shuttle (van) to Santa Fe. I must admit that I was a little surprised when I discovered you could neither fly in or out of Santa Fe, nor did the train go directly in either. Lamy is about 17 miles outside of Santa Fe. Apparently the 75 mile per hour speed limit is only a suggestion since no one seemed to do less than 105. This is not a joke. Anyway, that was the only example of fast paced anything we encountered on this trip.

We asked the shuttle driver to drop us at Enterprise car rental instead of our hotel because we wanted to make sure we checked in there before they closed at 6. We then checked in to our hotel. Santa Fe became our base camp. We settled in Monday evening and Tuesday we hit the road.

We hung a right and went to Albuquerque. One thing I noticed about this area is the lack of tall buildings. There are no skyscrapers as we know them. It may be because they are so high up (Santa Fe is 7388 feet above sea level and Albuquerque is 430+ feet above sea level) everything is scraping the sky.

The petroglyphs were fascinating. First, I guess you should know that these mountains were once active volcanoes. It is believed that the Native Americans painted these symbols on the rocks as examples of the spirits of their dead.

BEEP- BEEP! As we were leaving the petroglyphs area, something was moving in the brush to the left of our car. Suddenly, a medium sized funny looking bird darted in front of us, stopped, looked both ways and ran across the road into the brush on the other side. Yes, it was …..the roadrunner! We tried to get a picture of it but it was way too fast. Really! So once it disappeared we sat there for a few minutes waiting. Wiley Coyote had to be coming along in a minute with his ACME credit card in hand. Well, half of the duo was not bad. How often can you say a roadrunner crossed your path?

Wednesday, we drove to Roswell, which is 200 miles southeast of Santa Fe. Roswell was really weird. I felt alienated, or rather spacey. Well, the thing is, it’s really flat, like Columbus or Cleveland, or central Ohio. It had trees and plants like Columbus or Cleveland, or central Ohio. It was humid like Columbus or Cleveland, or central Ohio. All of the shops we saw reminded me of Yankee Trader. Wait. Where was I, Roswell or Columbus? There were no skyscrapers or a real downtown, although I could have been on W. Broad Street past the Spaghetti Warehouse. Ok, it was Roswell. Roswell is the home of The International UFO Museum. It had some interesting exhibits.

One of the things that this trip showed us was the vastness of the country. Roads are straight and go for miles! Notice the traffic? New Mexico is so sparsely populated that people sighting was a bigger sport than seeing antelope in the wild. Something else we saw that was exciting and beautiful was a windmill farm. Someone is thinking conservation!

We only drove around Santa Fe to get in and out of it. We spent most of Thursday visiting the shops and sites in town. This is a small city – maybe 73,000 people, and it is a walking city. Most things are within walking distance to the hotel areas. The streets are circular – one will probably take you to the few main streets in town so it easy not to get lost, but on the other hand, I found it hard to remember where I was. That could have been due in part to the fact that I had a nasty cold and was trying to breathe in a thin air environment. On the other hand, it could have been because things looked similar throughout the city. But then, all of a sudden, you’d come upon a very striking church or building that was just stunning. This area is full of history. I may go back one day (by train) when I do not have a cold just to be able to spend more time at the historic cites. However, if you want to shop here, bring your 401k plan and the rest of your life’s savings with you because that may be the only way you will be able to afford it.

Planes
Friday morning we checked out of our hotel and took another shuttle (van) to Albuquerque to the airport. During the ride to the airport, I had the pleasure of talking to a gentleman from British Vancouver who had lived in Santa Fe for years. He is an architect and gave me a lot of info on the city. As we talked we exchanged the ‘what-do- you-do info. Once he learned what I did the conversation changed from politics in the US and how the economy here relates to issues there, to WOW I love the Library! He told me a bit about the library in Victoria BC. They are providing DVD’s and CD’s on demand. The interesting thing is that according to him they had just started letting customers reserve them. Anyway, we had a great discussion about libraries and other quality of life issues.

Albuquerque has a cute airport, small with lots of shops. It was pretty easy to get to the gate, except the security area was really a bit much. I had to go through extra screening because of a tube of lotion – just about 3 oz. that they wanted in a quart sized clear plastic Ziploc baggie that they felt I should have removed from my carry on bag (too big to really call a purse) and put in the bin prior to screening. But the real kicker was the gate area. If you have seen in westerns when they herd the cattle through a narrow gate to get them in one by one so they can be counted, and then they are sorted into various pens afterward- you’ve been to this airport. We arrived at our gate, but could not tell where to line up. There were several planes leaving at about the same time and we all seemed to have to go to the same desk and exit point to get to them. There was no seating for passengers at the gate, so if your plane was late, like ours was, you had to find somewhere out of the way to stand or squat around until it did come. Then it was a real stampede to the gate to board. Boy was I glad that was over.

We had a flight to Atlanta with a three hour layover and flight from there to Columbus both via Delta, and both were great flights. Even so, ranking means of transportation in order of preference, trains would get a 10, planes a 5, and buses a 4. I do not like airports if I’m traveling. I think they are nice places to pick up trinkets but many are too big to be comfortable. I do not like take off. Once we’re up I’m fine. Take off bothers me because it feels as if the plane has not committed to the possibility of flight. Once it has leveled off, I’m ok. Landing is not a problem – we have to come down sometime so gliding in and landing in one piece is expected. It’s the take off.

Buses on the other hand are too impersonal and uncomfortable for too long, and they tend to have a generic bus odor that is not nice. And although they may be safer than planes, planes are faster. But in the scheme of current things, if we had instate rail service and even regional multi state rail service, I bet there would be a major decline in bus, plane, and highway travel – trains would win! Not only is it a pleasant trip, but I understand that it is fuel efficient as well.
Well, we landed, and came home to more humidity than I ever remember feeling here before. It felt, well, alien. Wait, where am I…..

More on Over the Hill

Well, I guess the post about surgery did not mention being over the hill, but I am and as such I am finding out things about aging and my body that are less than satisfactory. I walk like Fred Sanford because I need knee replacements. I passed on them because up until now, most recipients, male and female did not seem to be better off after the surgery and painful rehab. But lately, people (women in particular) have been getting replacements today and actually walking well within a week or two. Now I'm curious. So, I plan on discussing this with my Doctor and if it is a go, planning on doing something about my limp and drag this time next year - I am storing up on PTO (Paid Time Off).

Whaass New?

I had rotator cuff surgery in May. It was the first time I'd ever had surgery so it was a real experience. It is now something that I added and then crossed off my bucket list. I had to add it because my plan was to make it to at least 90 years old and no surgery. But, now that this has occurred, I added it and immediately crossed it off!

Apparently by trying to put a piece of paper behind me on a low file cabinet, I dislocated my shoulder and that process cut the tendons holding the rotator cuff in place. I tore it really well (if you're going to do something, do it right) to the point of having no pain. My shoulder just felt like it was annoyed by a sleeve being too tight on it. It made me move it around to get that odd feeling to go away. It didn't.

Anyway, after a few days of that and creeping numbness in my hand, and, yeah the inability to use my left hand, (and friends asking me to do my Bob Dole impression) I decided to see what my Doctor thought.

Long story short - I ripped it. So in order to get my arm (and life) back, I needed surgery. Now you (or at least I) have to wonder when the surgeon and her team continue to ask why I want the surgery since I was not in pain at the time and then they told me over and over that, "you know after you have the surgery you'll be in pain", was this really the right thing to do? Or rather was I in my on personal episode of Twilight Zone. Of course I figured there might be pain after surgery, but when they emphasized that it would be horrible, I began to wonder if that was with or without medication.

So I had the surgery. Arthroscopic - six tiny incisions. In at 8 am home by 1pm - done. Needless to say I was waiting for the pain. Well it did hurt, but nothing compared to natural childbirth - it was pretty easy compared to that. So after about 4 days, I was pretty much off the medication - until after Physical Therapy when I thought it was best to at least take half a dose.

I am now about 66% back to normal. Well, maybe 50%. I am just beginning to use the arm for driving, and I am now reaching up for things and not dropping them (light weight things like a box of cereal).

I will say something about this in a couple of months when I hope to be at least 70% better.

Fight or Flight: No Child Left Behind

Just trying to consolidate blogs. Here is a older one of mine that I just wanted to link to this page but could not figure out how to do it. Previously posted in July of 2006:

During his address to the NAACP, President Bush made the following statement. “There's an achievement gap in America that's wrong for America, an achievement gap that says we're not fulfilling the promise. One of the barriers to opportunity, one of the obstacles to success is the fact that too many of our children aren't reading at grade level. And we know that because we measure, and we're doing something about it. Actually, the achievement gap is beginning to close. There's more work to be done. Measuring allows parents to see how the school that their child is going to is doing. It lets the parents determine whether or not they should be satisfied with the education their child is getting.

I strongly believe that parental involvement is important for our school systems. And I believe, and I strongly believe a parent knows what's best for his or her child. That's what I believe. And therefore, when we find schools that are not teaching and will not change, our parents should have a different option. If you want quality education you've got to trust the parents.
You know, an amazing thing about our society today is wealthier white families have got the capacity to defeat mediocrity by moving. That is not the case for lower-income families. And so, therefore, I strongly believe in charter schools, and public school choice. I believe in opportunity scholarships to be able to enable parents to move their child out of a school that's not teaching, for the benefit of the United States of America.”

It is unfortunate that the answer to the question is not fight where you are but move elsewhere. I suggest that often times the problems reflected by the students are those of the parents. Yes, some of them want a better education for their children, but they do not expect to have to work for it. They are not members nor do they attend PTA meetings. They do not respond to requests to attend parent/teacher meetings or open houses. They ignore requests to come to school to talk about the educational progress or lack thereof of their children. They expect the teachers and school personnel to handle everything. They become hostile when asked to check homework or read to/with children. Sometimes the parent is not much older than the child. Sometimes the problem is the lack of skill on the part of the parent. On many levels, a system based upon the family unit is doomed to fail. The divorce rate shares the same percentage of the odds that the parent is sufficiently educated to help their child. There are a lot of excuses for this behavior, but the bottom line is, parents have a real role to play in the education of their children. It does not start at age 5. It starts before birth.

Flight away from inner-city schools is not the answer. There are many dedicated teachers, support personnel and principals in these schools who would love to have parental support. These are people who are trained and dedicated to teaching.Along with No Child Left Behind we need a different educational model. People are not machines, they are uniquely different, and as such we cannot have a rote program and hope that it will cultivate individual personalities and successes. We tend to believe everyone should learn the same thing at the same time and therefore must learn everything they need to know by the time they reach the age of 18. So what about the children who can absorb twelve years of classroom knowledge in six years? What about those that may need fourteen or sixteen years to learn? Stigmas, like racism and other isms, related to intelligence must be eliminated so that more people are not left behind. We need everyone, who can, to get “it”.

We need teachers in the classrooms not instructors. We need students to feel less pressure to learn things by a certain time so that their energies can be focused on learning and retaining knowledge, and then understanding how to apply that knowledge. Maybe we need to migrate from needing X number of clock hours in the classroom to a system that says you have completed the requirements for primary and secondary learning when you can show you understand these basic knowledges – age at understanding is not important. School should be year round. I am sure there are many creative ways to make sure everyone gets enough time off, and a reasonable amount of time to learn.

I believe parents have the option to make sure the schools in their neighborhoods are having a positive effect on their children.

I believe that by working with the local schools and the unions that education in America can become the best in the world.

I believe that in some communities, education must be done at a time that is convenient to the majority of the people in the community. Maybe parents and children should go to school together – children to get it right the first time, parents to enhance or refresh their skills so that they can be productive in supporting their children’s education and the family financially. Then maybe we would have a system in which parents are the role models and teachers are the educators.

I believe that with some creativity, rule bending and hard work, no child would be left behind.

In Open Letter: Star Jones Checks Bill O'Reilly's Racist Remark, Star Jones-Reynolds (for those of you who are not familiar with this issue) responds to the following:

"O'Reilly, ...was talking to a caller who was angry that [Michelle] Obama had said on C-Span that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." The 58-year-old television commentator..... responded to the caller by offering that of course they'd have to check the facts first. He said: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels - that is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever - then that's legit. We'll track it down."

I was intrigued that Ms. Jones picked up on the lynch party and tracking down comments as being racist. Actually, I missed that until she brought it up. I was taken aback by the obvious lack of support for free speech - something that O'Reilly depends on. I though how hypocritical this was as a journalist, he did not defend her or everyone's right to their opinions, and the right and freedom to express them.

I was glad, though, that he said he would look in to it instead of just reacting, however I was intrigued by the line, "we'll track it down". Track it down and do what?

Granted, she is right in the public eye, and she had the audacity to say what many people have felt for some time. Let's hone in on this attitude - that of we must support our government right or wrong or otherwise we are not patriots.

One of the things that made this country great was the courage many people exhibited when they stood up and spoke change into existence.

But speaking of speaking change into existence, why must we have a conversation like this about racism and the negative effects of words at this point in time? How can we speak change into existence? When will lynch party be a page in history, one that we can read about, look back on and marvel about how that and the issues related to it have been solved? When will someone be able to use that expression without drawing fire? And, by ignoring it, are we certainly opening the door for more, or for escalated racism? How can we solve this problem?