Fighting back against talk radio blather

Once both of the party conventions are officially over, the real Presidential campaign begins. Unfortunately, both local and national talk radio shows, which disturbingly high numbers of people listen to, are already in full swing trying to smear Obama in any possible way that they can. More people listen to these radio talk shows (both national, like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and local, like Howie Chisek and Bob Golic on WNIR "The Talk of Akron", 100 FM) than read blogs or newspapers, and so it seems that our most potent weapon this fall will be to launch a concerted effort to fight back and call these nefarious right wing talk shows and bring talking points to the table. Why would a blue collar worker who, like most of us, is probably struggling day to day just to survive this economy, want to elect a President who would continue to foist upon him or her the same failed policies that put them financially between a rock and a hard place to begin with? I read in today's newspaper that many union members don't care to support Obama, despite the fact that Democrats have always done right by unions, because Obama's skin is the wrong color. That this kind of racism exists in the 21st century is deeply disturbing and speaks of the mountains of old hatreds that Obama is going to have to climb this fall if he is to win over blue collar workers and union members. It's these kinds of embittered voters who frequently are the ones to call talk radio shows and blather on about race, creed and color and who are the same kinds of people who don't hesitate to openly use the "N" word when speaking of African-Americans. Unfortunately, we are going to have to mount a rather concerted attack against this kind of mentality if we are going to elect our nation's first black President. Of course, people who are entrenched in their mentality are impossible to change in their mindset, but all one can do is to try. If we don't call in to the talk radio shows and combat the smears that are propagated on them and to try to speak truth, then we're going to face an uphill battle come November to elect Obama as President. There are just too many rednecks, right wingnuts and radio screeds out there who either host or call into talk radio shows, and they are far more numerous than blog and newspaper readers. So we have to meet them on their own battleground and fight on their terms. In so doing, maybe we can put just a dent in the smear mongering that will doubtless ratchet up a notch once the party conventions are done and the campaign heads down the homestretch to Election Day.

THEY'RE JUST LIKE US

One of the things I appreciate about the current Democratic candidates is that they come from normal working class backgrounds and have lived lives very similar to ours. They've faced the same struggles as we have, so they know what it's like not to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths and have wealth and privilege handed to them from the get-go. These candidates worked their way up from the bottom, with hard work, determination and an idea of making the world just a little better a place. Obama, for example, just finished finally paying off his student loans that he had to take out to attend college. And he's 47! Joe Biden comes from a working class Irish Catholic family from Scranton, PA. His family lived like so many of us, in working class neighborhoods where you weren't better than anyone else and you worked hard to get ahead and hoped that by so doing, that you'd make life just a little easier for the next generation. That's something I, as a Baby Boomer, can identify with. My parents generation worked tirelessly hard to give us Baby Boomers a better life than they had growing up. And I grew up, like Obama, in a single parent household where we never lacked for anything. We had food on our table, a nice modest home filled with books and antique furniture, clothing often made by our mom, shoes frequently mended by the little Italian shoe repairman near our Catholic school and we had each other and our friends, neighbors adn teachers for a support system. That's how it used to be. You could grow up in a single parent household and still make it. There was no need for the single parent to work two and three jobs just to be able to provide. Our mom was a full time stay at home mom until we were in our teens, and only then, went back to work part time. We had the privilege of having her there all the time when we needed her as children. She was there to mend every scraped knee or elbow, to sit by our bedsides when we were sick and to take us to see doctors when we needed medical attention - and we never had to worry about paying the medical bill afterward like you do now. Obama and Biden understand this. They're one of us. They remember the hard times when money was tight. They remember how it used to be growing up working class. Bush & Co. could never understand how hard it is when bills are due and money is tight, when someone you love is sick or injured and needing medical care and the worries over how to pay for it, when paychecks don't stretch far enough to make it between paydays, when food prices are so prohibitive that you wonder how you're going to eat, when filling the gas tank is a financially painful experience - they couldn't possibly know how tough it is for working class people to get by. But Obama and Biden do. They've been there and remember. That's why we need to elect them this fall to take back the White House. Because nothing less than everything, and I mean, everything in our country's future is at stake. And not just our future, but the future of the world is also at stake. Time to stop living in the darkness of fear and time to start living with the bright light of hope.

The Old Lion Still Roars

The other night, Senator Ted Kennedy, ailing from brain cancer, came and spoke to the Democratic Convention in Denver. He's fondly known as the "old liberal lion of the Senate", and he spoke in a booming and commanding voice despite his illness, exhorting us never to forget the dream of what America should be, not what it is. It was an emotionally charged speech and one that, for all intents and purposes, officially passed the torch to a new generation of leadership in the party, that being Senator Barack Obama. There was a short documentary about Kennedy by Ken Burns that was shown prior to his appearance, and before that, his niece Caroline Kennedy spoke of his accomplishments, not just for his constituents in Massachusetts, but for the entire country. It was truly inspiring to hear what this man has done in his lengthy Senatorial career to make life better for so many people in this country. It makes me sad that he is so ill and that there is a possibility that he will no longer be with us in the near future, if, indeed, he is as ill as people are saying. Still, being Irish like Kennedy is, he's a fighter and I am sure that he will prove to be as resilient and relentless as he's been so often in his life. What also inspired me the other evening during his speech was to hear of his long battle waged to bring universal health care to all people, and that he plans on being on the Senate floor next January to keep up his fight. Naturally, the audience cheered raucously when he made this pronouncement. I am entirely sure that health care is as important to others as it is to me and to so many I speak to who are either, like me, underinsured yet employed full time, or just flat out uninsured and yet employed - or unemployed - and facing one serious injury or illness from bankruptcy. And that the old lion will still be there fighting the battle despite what may possibly be his waning days makes me so glad to know that he won't stop, even if or when his health finally fails him. He in effect passed the torch to a new generation to continue the fight when he's gone, and I hope that the younger generation is up to the fight and will not relent until everyone, north, south, east, west, young, old, black, white, straight, gay, healthy, ill, etc., from cradle to grave, has access to health care regardless of employment or health status.
I just hope that Hillary's gals will get over their loss and accept that Barack Obama won the nomination fair and square. I've heard it said that there are more disgruntled Democrats who wanted Hillary to win who are going to cross over and vote for McCain than disgruntled Republicans who are going to cross over and vote for Obama. That rather frightens me that so many Hillary fans are planning to defect parties despite the fact that we all know that Republicans have been bad for this country. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what they've done to make a mess of things in the past 8 years. The economy is in the dumpster, jobs have been lost by the millions to countries overseas, the dollar has been reduced to little better than a third world currency in value, energy prices have soared to record levels, more people lack access to health care, schools and the nation's infrastructure are crumbling, and of course, we're fighting an unpopular war that we had no need to go fight and now can't extricate ourselves from - I could go on at length as to what has happened since Bush took power, but it's apparent that something is rotten in this country and needs to be dealt with immediately. So if Hillary supporters are going to act like a bunch of spoilsports and go vote for the opposition, then they are going to get exactly what they deserve, a President who will continue the failed policies of the outgoing administration. I just hope that they heed Hillary's call last night to close ranks behind Obama and unify the Democrats in order to muster the strength to make it to the finish line in November and win the election. She made a strong case for why she feels that the party needs unity at such a critical time. Given that nearly every speaker so far has been someone who has come from modest means to make something of themselves instead of someone born with a silver spoon in their mouths, it speaks highly to what the Democratic Party stands for, giving ordinary people the chance to become something extraordinary. This is the message we need to get across this fall, that when you elect Democrats, you can follow your dreams to the highest star and make it. You can go as far and as high as you want to, and Democrats will make sure that you have the means to do so. I got a college degree because FDR left behind a legacy of social safety nets that allowed my family to prosper despite losing its main breadwinner when I was a toddler. My widowed mother was able to send all four of her children to college because of that. And that is what this country is all about and why Democrats need to win in November. I just hope that Hillary made it clear just how important each and every vote for Obama truly is. It's now or never. This election is a make or break thing for our country, the most crucial election in modern history. May it go the way we all hope it will and may the US once again become the beacon of liberty and hope that it's been for generations of people around the world. As Senator Ted Kennedy roared to a packed crowd at the Democratic Convention the other evening, "The Hope rises again. And the Dream lives On!!!" Amen to that, Senator, Amen to that!

The end of the Beijing Olympics

The 29th Summer Olympiad, hosted by Beijing, China, came to an end last night in a glorious display of pageantry and breathtaking scenery. I hear that the Chinese spared no expense for the entire games and that the cost of it ran somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 billion. No nation henceforth could ever possibly muster that kind of money, meaning that the Chinese have, in essence, set an impossibly high new bar for what may be expected at future Olympic Games. Future games will doubtless pale in comparison to these ones, which brought us not only spectacular venues like The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, but heroics from the athletes to match. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt dominated these games with almost super-human feats of athleticism. They took our breath away, they dazzled us, they amazed and astounded us and we cheered along with them as they either blew their competitors away or finished by mere fingernails to win gold. We watched agonizing screw ups and wept along with competitors who fell way short of expectations after many hard years of training for their moment in the sun at the Olympics. We watched the grace, beauty and power of gymnasts as they twirled, leapt and spun in impossibly beautiful formations. We held our breath as teams fought hard against formidable opponents and vanquished their foes to win medals. We watched an emerging rivalry occur between the US and China in the medals count, and watched as well as Jamaica soundly declared itself the land of the fastest humans on earth on the track. We watched people overcome seemingly impossible odds to make it to the Olympic games and we cheered with their triumphs and shared in their sorrows. We felt a little lump in our throats as the Olympic torch dimmed and then went dark, signaling the end of these amazing, astonishing and historic games.

These have, without a doubt, been the most exciting and interesting Olympic Games I have ever watched, Summer or Winter. The athletes, the stories, the events, the venues, the very fact that these games were taking place, for the first time in history, on mainland China, made these games perhaps the most interesting ones to watch. Stories were aired about the land and people of China, their traditions, their culture, their history, and we learned a great deal about this mysterious country that is opening itself slowly to the world as it rises to the status of global superpower. Although it has a long way to go in the way of human rights, it is slowly becoming a more open society. The Chinese showed great pride in their country and welcoming the world to come visit for two and a half weeks and to see what they have to offer. Part of me wonders if this wasn't some kind of big propaganda show on the part of the Chinese to create an artificial atmosphere of global welcoming, but the other and less cynical part of me thinks that these games will hopefully change China, and by default, the world, in some small way. I like to think that China will emerge, someday, as a free country, and maybe it will in my lifetime. But in the meantime, they've built themselves an infrastructure in the Olympic venues that will doubtless be used for years to come to train their athletes to compete on a superior level that will also probably cement their place in their ability to garner Olympic medals, thereby continuing the growing rivalry with the United States for Olympic superiority. So here's to watching and waiting for the next Summer Olympiad in four years in London, England. May new stars emerge and may the ones who dazzled us this time continue to do so in the coming years.

So it's an Obama-Biden ticket....

Well, it's official - Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate. That wouldn't necessarily have been my first choice, but then, one has to consider the Republican attack machine ready to pounce on Obama's weakness in foreign policy at a time when there are wars going on in Georgia, Iraq and Afghanistan. So I suppose it should come as no real surprise that someone was chosen who comes with a great deal of depth in foreign policy experience to bolster Obama's perceived weaknesses in that arena. I just hope that Biden doesn't turn out to be too much of a liability to this ticket - after all, he's unsucessfully run for President several times himself, so those failed bids could really play against his chances of winning over voters who rejected him in favor of other candidates during his Presidential races. Add to that the fact that he's Catholic and it could possibly alienate some pro-choicers who would fear his sticking too rigidly to Catholic anti-choice dogma. After all, during John Kerry's failed Presidential bid, the whole abortion issue came to a head because of Kerry's Catholicism and there was a buzz about his being pro-choice despite his religion being staunchly anti-choice. So it remains to be seen whether this choice will sink Obama's chances or enhance them. It's too bad that John Edwards got caught with his pants down like so many other politicians have. An Obama-Edwards ticket was what so many of us had hoped for in the beginning of this whole process, but alas, yet another politician who felt invincible had to go commit an act of unfaithfulness against his cancer stricken wife and got caught having an affair and quite possibly fathering an illegitmate child on top of it all. Right there, I lost a lot of respect for someone who I had long admired for never forgetting where he came from.

I realize that the reason that Biden was chosen was his depth of knowledge and experience in foreign policy and that he's being used to blunt the Republican attack machine, that will no doubt go after Obama's rather lightweight record in foreign policy at a time when there are wars in Georgia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, I can't help but wonder if this selection will do for Obama what he hopes, and that is to guide him to victory in November. With wars raging around the world, two of which we are involved in, I can't help but worry that people will look to McCain to guide this country forward in a time of war instead of a relative political lightweight like Obama, whose thin resumé may turn out to hurt him in the long run. Even with the addition of Biden to the ticket, I don't know as this selection will necessarily be of great help to it. I also worry that someone of Biden's long time in Washington will have a difficult time in standing behind and deferring to someone as junior as Obama. I just hope that he doesn't hog the stage during campaign stops as he has a reputation for long windedness as well. He could well upstage his junior partner on the ticket and have a hard time playing the second banana to superstar Obama. Biden is also perceived as somewhat white bread and bland, and not terribly inspiring like Obama, so that could also prove to be a little problematic. Still, I do wonder whether America is ready to elect a black man with a funny name despite a white Catholic Vice-Presidential choice. My thinking is that Americans have shown a disturbing propensity toward voting against their own economic self interests and that despite a deteriorating infrastructure, failing schools, a burgeoning budget deficit, a weak dollar, a disappearing manufacturing base, a broken health care system, skyrocketing fuel prices, unaffordable higher education and other "kitchen table" issues, that somehow, Americans fill find a way to once again vote for the party that has long favored corporations and the wealthy instead of the party that could make their lives better in the long run. But only time will tell whether Americans are poised for real change or for just more of the same.

Hot week at work with no A/C

This past week at work has been miserable, working in a building with absolutely no air conditioning. It's got lots of enormous glass windows and skylights in the ceilings that, while they let in a lot of light, also make the building oppressively hot when the air conditioning goes off. I haven't seen any HVAC technicians wandering around the building attempting to fix things and set them to rights while the rest of us melt and wither in the heat inside the library. Patrons are also not coming inside because of the heat. It's actually cooler outside than it is in the building. I think that they ought to allow us to wear shorts and sandals if they insist on sitting on their thumbs about the A/C repairs. Sure, not having to cool an enormous $50 million plus building (counting in the many cost overruns during construction) must be saving them a lot of money, but it's making patrons and employees perfectly miserable. It's hard for us to maintain our demeanor when we're wilting at our desks and unable to get cool because we have to dress properly for work and have no A/C in the building and oversized glass windows making the sunlight outside even hotter inside. I don't anticipate that the ventilation problems will be fixed anytime soon. Given how short we are of money at work, I imagine that they're just waiting until it cools down a bit so that they no longer even have to use the A/C anymore. The ventilation has been perhaps the single biggest bugaboo in our building since the day we opened a few years ago. The HVAC company that installed our system practically had to set up shop and have an office in our building, but they've been strangely absent of late and I almost never see them anymore like I once did. Maybe that's because construction was finally completed about a year after we moved in. Yes, we moved into a building that wasn't yet finished, but that's because the public was clamoring for us to move back to our old original spot instead of our temporary quarters in the suburbs where we moved during construction. But that had free parking, unlike what we have now, and it was ample and close to a lot of convenient things, like a large mall, many good restaurants and gas stations and we didn't have to deal with the downtown hooligans who frequent the library now that we're back in our old location again. So not only do we have to cope with the "street people" again, we're wilting in a building with a frequently balky HVAC system that seems never to work right. And we've been back in our newly constructed Main Library since late 2004, so we're coming up on four years of being in this new mega-library, but they still can't seem to get the ventilation system to work correctly. Our office has been plagued by a sewer smell emanating from the one air vent in our office near my desk, but no one seems to be able to solve the problem, and in addition to suffering from lack of A/C, we also have to deal with foul smells in our department. I'm about ready to bring in my 20 inch window fan and a batch of incense to blow good smells around the office and cool it off at the same time. Well, if things don't change soon, I'm absolutely serious about doing this. I'm tired of working in a hot smelly environment when it's supposed to be a library. Sure, I've only got to last 4½ years more before retirement, but if they don't get some really good HVAC people to come in and fix the damned ventilation system soon, I'm going to have a mighty hard time lasting that long. So we'll see what happens in the coming days and weeks. They'd better get things fixed soon or there are going to be a lot of very heated and angry employees demanding to know what's going on and what's going to be done about it. And I don't imagine that the patrons are too happy about things right now, either, given how relatively few people are coming in compared to other days when things are actually working. I know that some folks come in just to escape the heat of summer, but when it's hotter inside than it is outside, then it's best just not to come in and wilt while you're trying to read, use a computer or do whatever. Better to go to one of our branch libraries, get cooled off and have the side benefit of free parking on top of it. And anyway, it saves gas to go to your local neighborhood branch instead of having to drive all the way downtown, fight traffic and have to pay to park if you stay more than an hour. Given high gas prices, I am guessing that this is exactly what's been happening lately anyway.

Olympic glory

I have been very caught up in watching the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing on television. I admire the grit and determination of all of the athletes from around the world and I share in their victories and their defeats, their mistakes and their glories. It must be so cruel to spend years and years training only to screw up when it comes time for you to compete. I think that so much of that is mental preparation and conquest of nerves. After all, you are on the biggest stage in the world, the Olympic Games, with them being televised around the world to billions of viewers, so naturally, it's got to be nerve wracking to be hanging it all out there for the world to see. To have sacrificed so much to get there, to spend years training endlessly, spending untold amounts of money to do so, to keep on going even when you just want to throw in the towel, and then be rewarded with an Olympic medal, must be the essence of what it's all about. Most of these athletes are so young and could well compete in multiple games, as many have, and there is one 41- year old swimmer, Dara Torres, who swam to a silver medal who I have got to admire for not letting her age stand in her way. At that age, most of us are hanging it up on any athletic pursuits, admitting that the entrée into middle age is a reason to admit that you can't do things the way you could in your youth, but this woman has defied the odds and shown us that she can compete as well as any 16 year old. It's stories like that which make these games an inspiration to us older folks who are feeling the aches and pains of middle age creeping up on us. I've been training at a gym with a trainer for nearly 2 years now and although I can feel an improvement in my strength and stamina, I sure as hell am never going to be an athlete of any sort, but I do want to go into my middle years in better health.

What I have enjoyed watching is the unique spirit of the Jamaican sprinters, in particular Usain Bolt and Shelley Ann Frazer, who won the men's and women's 100M sprints in the track and field competitions. They have such a joy about them when they run and when they win, and it appears that this tiny Caribbean nation will be a force to be reckoned with in future Olympic Games when it comes to their runners, who seem to excel at these Games in the sprinting competitions. They've given everyone else a run for their money and have shown remarkable speed when they are sprinting down the track. They seem almost eerily relaxed as they run compared to everyone else who seems to be straining hard just to keep up with their competitors. It's a joy to watch them running and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future. And who can forget the remarkable performance of Michael Phelps, who seems to defy human ability and flies through the water as if he were born to it. Eight gold medal performances have sealed his place in history as the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. I've also greatly enjoyed the diving and gymnastics performances because of their sheer athleticism and grace. The athletes seem to be doing the impossible and making it look all too easy. Years and years of training is why. And a certain daredevil spirit that these athletes seem to have adopted in trying to push the envelope of what they do so that future athletes will have to come up to their standards of performance. it all makes for truly exciting watching and I will miss it when it all comes to an end later on this weekend. I've enjoyed every moment of it and I know that these games will be truly memorable to all of us fortunate enough to see them broadcast around the world. So now we must wait another four years for more Summer Olympic excitement. On to London in 2012 and more death defying feats of athletes from around the world! And then the summer games will be in Chicago in 2016, and since I will be retired by then, it's tempting to think about maybe even getting to go to those ones, since I have many friends who live in and around the greater Chicago area with whom I could consider staying! After all, it will be close enough to consider making such a dream a reality, something to think about eight years from now.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

This weekend I watched the HBO mini-series on DVD, "John Adams", based on the book of the same title by David McCullough. I found it compelling and fascinating and it was extraordinarily well acted. They had quite a stellar cast of Paul Giamatti (left) as John Adams, David Morse as George Washington, Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson and others. What I found to be most fascinating was how much difficulty there was in creating a country from scratch, from ideas, and then seeing it through to fruition. It was a quite a venture at the time and these men risked their lives to do the unheard of, to carve out a new country in a new land with new and never before heard of governance, a country of the people, by the people and for the people, as opposed to hereditary nobility ruling over people of a far lower class than themselves. Sure, it's taken its lumps over the centuries, and in the times in which we live now, the Constitution has never before been so threatened, so part of the reason I wanted to watch this series was to gain a greater insight into our Founding Fathers and see if I couldn't ascertain what it was that they wanted to create. It fascinated me that Adams at one point proposed calling our President "His Majesty" or "His Highness" or even "His Excellency", but naturally he was shouted down by members of Congress who were just shaking off nobility that had ruled over them for centuries and wanted a new government that conveyed no titles like that of royalty. And so we refer to our leader as merely "Mr. President" (ah, and may there someday be a "Madam President", if only someone could come along and successfully break that proverbial last glass ceiling that has yet to be broken in our overly paternalistic land!).

Another thing I found particularly interesting was the fact that Adams and Thomas Jefferson (portrayed by Stephen Dillane, left), were almost yin and yang to each other. Adams yang was loud, obnoxious, outspoken, pugnacious but a deep thinker, to Jefferson's more cerebral and aloof yin character. And yet despite being occasional bitter rivals, they also were great friends, especially toward the end of their lives as they watched all of their fellow Revolutionaries pass away. They'd both lost family members and were, in their old ages, reflective of what they accomplished as they faced their twilight years and concerned for what the younger generations were doing with what they laid the ground work for. Adams thinker easily complemented Jefferson the writer, and together, they both created this country and united it behind a common goal. They were the brains and brawn behind the Declaration of Independence, and they both knew it. They both made great personal sacrifices to see the new nation brought to fruition and they recognised the cost to their families and to their personal lives, but they were both immensely proud of their service to the country as patriots and presidents. They both made mistakes (Adams most egregious being the Aliens and Seditions Act, and unfortunately, history has managed to repeat itself with the USA Patriot Act, very reminiscent of the Aliens and Seditions Act. Well, I guess some folks are perfectly ignorant of their country's history, particularly its darker moments.......). But throughout it all, our country was extraordinarily lucky to have the confluence of so many brilliant minds in one place and at one time to create our country that has lasted down through the ages. The Yin and Yang of Adams and Jefferson was probably just the right formula that this country needed at the time to bring us our independence from Britain. And that they both met their demise on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, strikes me as no coincidence. I truly think that it was meant to happen that both of these framers left us on a significant day to both of them and to all of us down through the ages. Somehow, fate saw to it that both of these men died together so that they could join eternity together forever. And may they ever be remembered by their countrymen for what they lived and died for, a free country of the people, by the people and for the people, just as Abraham Lincoln saw it four score and seven years later in his immortal Gettysburg Address.

Summer's bounty

One of the great things about living here in Kent is the weekly Haymaker Farmer's Market held each Saturday downtown. There you can sample the local produce - garlic, onions, corn, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, celery, chard, peppers, peaches, apples, and a whole lot more. You can get fresh breads, coffee, cookies, snacks and even herbal body products, one of which I have found has worked miraculously on my aggravating rosacea. It's a lovely homemade soap called "Make My Face Clear" and it works wonders for my skin, far better than the expensive prescription that the doctor gave me to clear it up. I also love the Farmer's Market because it's expanding rapidly and more and more people show up, so it's becoming quite the social meeting place to see old friends while you shop the summer's harvest bounty. The idea of supporting local agriculture is also encouraging in this day of the disappearance of the family farm to rapid suburban sprawl. That such huge crowds are coming each week to the Farmer's Market speaks well of the fact that people seem to want to support local farms and agriculture and they also want to know where their food came from. The book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver, seems to have spurred a movement toward localization of one's food supply. Eating fresh local produce means your food tastes better and is fresher and better for you. So far, we've had one "summer's bounty feast" at my mom's, made up of fresh locally grown corn on the cob, green beans, a tomato salad and blueberry pie for dessert, all locally grown items. And it was heavenly! Food tastes better when it's fresh, not shipped thousands of miles cross-country. One must, in these days of high gas prices, consider the carbon footprint of food shipped from Florida or California as opposed to food from a local farmer. Most farms that come to the Farmer's Market are organic, meaning that not only is is fresh, but free of nasty pesticides and other chemicals, further reducing the carbon footprint of using petro-chemically based pesticides. So you're getting a double blessing by shopping locally. It thrills me to no end to see the expansion of the Farmer's Market each year as the local food movement continues its exponential growth. So many cities now feature Farmer's Markets as a result of this movement. And given recent food scares in spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro for sickening people around the country, eating locally grown produce also makes more sense for protecting your health, further adding to the increased popularity of the local food movement. I think that this movement will continue to catch fire and will lead to more and more people wanting to take up farming or maintaining their own local food gardens if they have enough land to do so. And that can only be a good thing!

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHO'LL YOU RUN IN TO!
So I was coming home from working out this afternoon and I usually stop at a local Subway and get a sandwich, chips and a drink as an "after-workout" meal. Typically, I stop at one of the two that are on the way home, but today, for some reason, I bypassed both of them in favor of one about a mile or so east of here in a local small shopping plaza that I sometimes go to when I am down that way. Upon entering, a guy saw me and said, "Hi, Sally!" Uh, oh, another one of those embarrassing moments when I struggle to figure out who is speaking to me! I wracked my brain to try to place this individual - who is he and why do I know him and what from? The face was achingly familiar but my brain went blank for a name, until he mentioned visiting a "Peter" up in Shaker Heights. Suddenly, the lights went on! OH MY GOD, I hadn't seen this old friend, Deane (that's him, right, in the photo above), in probably well over 20 years, and here he was in a local Subway having lunch! So we sat and chatted over our sandwiches and we both realized that we could have sat for hours and talked, but he'd bicycled all the way in to Kent from Chagrin Falls, so he wanted to start getting back there since it was a journey of some 30 miles. He now lives in Baltimore and works in advertising and graphic design, having left his home in Seattle where he lived for a while and moved closer to where he grew up in Washington, DC. He mentioned that he was divorced and was visiting his ex-stepdaughter in Chagrin Falls, which is why he was in the area. We reminisced a bit about old times, caught up on what one another have been doing since we last saw each other, probably sometime in 1982 or so. We've both aged considerably since then, both of us grey and sporting slight middle age paunches. He was balding when I met him and he still is, so that was nothing new, but his face sports a few wrinkles that weren't there when I last saw him (as do I!). What's funny was that when he first spoke to me at Subway, the first thing I recognized was his voice - again, familiar, but why did I remember it? I hate those times when I am trying desperately to place someone in context of where I know them from and why and for the life of me, I cannot recall their name! Fortunately, he began to fill in details when we first began chatting and suddenly I could easily remember to whom I was speaking, much to my relief! It was just so great to see him again and to catch up a bit with each other, and I hope that this opens the door to staying in touch from now on. He gave me his card and so I know how how to contact him. After all, I've not been so good at staying in touch with old friends over the years and as a result, I've lost touch with far too many of them. So maybe now's the time to re-establish contact with at least one old friend who I saw today and had a great lunch with. That truly made my day today.

Home from summer travel

I know, it's been a while since I posted to this blog, but I have been away on summer travels for a few weeks, so you will excuse me if I've been slow to update it. Well, I made it down to Elkins, WV in late July to the Augusta Heritage Center's Irish Week. I had a perfectly grand time of it, despite having to climb up and down the steep hills on the campus of Davis and Elkins College in an air cast. As mentioned earlier in this blog, I'm still having to wear it 24/7 for at least another month, at which time I will be evaluated for possible surgery. So anyway, I was able to survive the challenge of the terrain there and still manage to have a good time. I had the very good luck to be put on the ground floor of my dorm so as not to have to climb up steps in a cast, which I deeply appreciated. My roommate in my dorm was a fellow librarian, Janet Wagner, from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She was taking piano accordian and was a newcomer to Augusta. We got on well, and she seemed to have a very good time during her week there. I do hope that she comes back and takes another class. There were a number of Augusta newcomers this year as there are each year and I do hope that most of them come back again. Not surprisingly, the numbers of attendees at Irish Week was down this year, and a lot of the "old regulars" didn't attend this year as they have in years past. It could be that we are seeing a changeover as we do from time to time in who comes back and who doesn't. The folks who used to be "regulars" when I first started going stopped coming after a while, and then a new bunch of people began coming and became yearly "regulars", and now perhaps we have a new bunch of people who will return year after year and become another generation of "regulars". I'm already seeing that in folks like my friends Dan and Ginnie and others who have been coming for a few years now and return each year. So perhaps those who'd been coming for a number of years like Jeff, Bob, Dave and others who haven't come in recent years are falling away and being replaced by new "regulars" like Dan and Ginnie. That seems to be a kind of trend I've noticed for nearly 20 years since I began going. I make new friends and reconnect with old ones each year, and every July, it begins again, a magical week of music, singing, friendship, dedication and sorrow at parting when it's all said and done. But we always know that each year, we'll come back again and spend a week in each other's company and learn from one another new songs, new tunes and new friendships, some of which will last a lifetime, and others that are fleeting like the winter's snows.

My next stop was the annual Pennsic Wars near Slippery Rock, PA. After coming home from Augusta, I had hoped to go directly to Pennsic, but between needing down time, running errands, packing and weather delays, I did not get there until the Wednesday night after coming home from Elkins. I was there a grand total of about 10 days and as usual, had emotional ups and downs that are associated with camping with 10,000+ people in all kinds of weather and camping conditions. Our camp is pretty decadent, sporting a dining pavilion, a kitchen complete with hot water for dishwashing, four propane powered burners on which to cook meals, a large food prep area, a pantry, a larder tent and plenty of large coolers for refrigeration of perishables. Our courtyard has many tiki torches and tea lights in glass cups where tent stakes are so that people can see at night, and we also have a shower complete with hot water. Our kitchen sink has a solar powered light so that we can see to wash dishes at night and our shower also has a solar powered light to allow nighttime showers to be able to be taken. Our gate has a solar light over its entrance as well. We don't do anything half way in our camp. The main problem with this is that it takes forever to set up and tear down and much manpower to do so, and in recent years, we've been shorthanded since fewer people come to Pennsic as gas prices keep rising. The date that Pennsic takes place has also been recently changed so as to start in late July, and that has affected attendance as well, since its traditional dates have been moved back a week in order to accommodate students and teachers who need to be back earlier and earlier to start school. But for the rest of us, the date change has interfered with other traditional summer activities and caused a significant drop in attendance instead of what was hoped would be a rise in attendance among students and teachers. So we get fewer people coming to camp with us and those of us who do show are really put to the test to get more work done with fewer hands. It's hot, exhausting and time consuming work that can cause tempers to flare and I wonder to myself if how much work it takes to do set up and tear down has caused fewer people to come, especially the first (set-up) week. Typically, no one gets to leave camp the first week and all we do for a solid week is hard physical labor. People come to Pennsic to vacation, not to work their butts off for a week and then a full weekend for tear down, leaving very little time for actual relaxation. But having a really nice camp is, I think, worth the effort. People come to visit and they oooooooh and aaaaaaaah at how nice we live in our camp and they longingly say, "Gee, I wish I could live here!" And some pull us aside and say to us, "What do I have to do to be able to camp here, anyway?" So we are the envy of a lot of those who stop by our camp, so all that hard work is worth the admiration of our visitors! So now it's over for another year, our camp is packed away in a derelict semi-trailer we bought several years ago that is stored at the campground, and I'm back home again trying to get back into the swing of normal life after three long weeks away.

Oh, and a very HAPPY 81st BIRTHDAY to my beloved mother, pictured left! She is a true example to me of graceful aging, refusing to act like a little old lady in a rocking chair and instead keeping busy and active and not letting her age stop her. I can only hope that when I am her age, that I am as busy and active and leading as full a life as she does. She is true to the example that life begins after retirement. She's taken university classes, traveled to Europe, spent time drawing and painting, started blogging and inspired me to do the same, gotten into digital photography (something I have yet to get at all good at doing), kept active in community activities like the Kent Environmental Council and the Kent Historical Society, stayed physically active by working out and taking water aerobics since hip replacement surgery last year and just generally been an inspiration to me as I face my own retirement in a little less than 5 years. Thanks, Ma, for everything and for being the best parent you know how to be. I'm lucky to have a mother who has always been an example and an inspiration to me. I can only hope to be half the woman that you are.