Tina, Talking.

Coming out of semi-retirement

**Somethings going totally wonky with the links I've put in here. I'm way too tired to figure it out, so I'm just typing them fully below the paragraphs with the apparent typos. I'll try to fix them soon if I can wake up!**

Well, I was catching up on some blogs I’ve been neglecting to read, and I saw this post at Brewed Fresh Daily...it just so happens that I took a big step to lessen the impact of my family on the Earth today. And it’s not as creepy as it sounds (I sounded like Charlie Manson there for a minute!)

biodegradable trash bags: http://www.brewedfreshdaily.com/2005/08/27/biodegradable-trash-bags
Brewed Fresh Daily: http://www.brewedfreshdaily.com

We have had an exceptionally difficult year. I’ve been in a situation where even though I wasn’t being encouraged or supported on virtually any level (I have not had issues financially -- this is all a different type of support I’m talking about), I couldn’t really expect to be, because outside of my parents and a few close friends who knew what was going on and were great the whole time, everyone else was in a worse situation than was I. Mainly family, I mean. There are friends of mine who I enjoyed less stressed out time with, but mostly because I didn’t let on all that was happening until recently, when things are beginning to clear.

And as they clear, I’m finding myself in posession of not only the support and encouragement I’ve been wishing for (or at least movements toward that end), but also things that I want to do that I’m going ahead with. It sounds silly, but this is something that hasn’t much happened around here for a while. ‘A while’ meaning, ever.

So, one of the big things I wanted to do, and I’ve got help with now, is get the family (immediate) onto a better environmental track. We -- well, I -- really do try to keep things reasonable. We use mild detergents and soaps without phosphates and all that. Organic and locally grown and raised food to the best of our abilities. Our house is not too big for us; we could manage to go a little smaller, but we’re doing all right there, I think. We reuse and recycle everything that’s possible for us in this area. I certainly reuse and recycle a ton of stuff into art and I take apart and remake a lot of old clothes into different clothes, or use them as patterns. I encourage the girls, especially (since they’re still impressionable) to not overuse water and paper. Mike’s a little tougher on that front, but I’m working on it. I’m working very hard on simplifying our posessions and home; thinking about Hurricane Katrina this week made me wonder what I would take if I had to leave on short notice. I know for sure we could have everything we need in a car-load, but we’re so inundated with stuff now, it’d take us a week to find the essentials.

Our environmental conscientiousness was, however, sorely lacking in one area -- our vehicle(s). We don’t really live in a place where we need two cars. I haven’t looked at a bus schedule lately, but it’s possible that we could (if not for Sage going to a school out of the district) get by with no cars -- Mike’s schedule makes it so it’s always seemed kind of iffy relying on public trans. at night.

In any case, not only do we sure not need two cars, but we definitely didn’t need one of them to be a Volvo wagon. It was a good idea at the time we got it. Super safe, lots of options, just a generally nice car. But it got to be too ridiculous to repair, to the point where we weren’t even sure that it was being repaired, rather than we were giving the repair guys a thousand dollars every few weeks just for kicks.

Then, last week there was a day when I was running low on gas, and I stopped on the way to dropping Sage at school, and (because I was also short on time) put 10$ in the tank. By the time I went to get her that afternoon, the low fuel light had come back on. Something had to give.

This afternoon, it finally did. I am now the proud owner of a car that gets twice the mpg of my old Volvo, and the Volvo is now gone. The new car is not a hybrid, which is unfortunate. The hybrid I looked at was listed as getting poorer mpg than the car I got, and cost over 2x as much. Didn’t make economic sense at the least, and it would’ve taken me too long to figure out how it gets that kind of gas mileage, but is still somehow enviro. friendly.

Anyway, I’m happy with the new car, and we’re going to be spending a few weeks doing test runs to see how much of an issue it would be to get rid of the other car, too. And just have this new one for everything. Neat-O, huh?

************

Sage asked a few minutes ago if she could deadhead my petunias for me, which required me to go take them off the hangers, and put them where she was, give her the scissors, give her explicit directions (even though she knew when to do, and has seen me do it a million times -- did I mention I’m not getting petunias again?). It’s not hard to guess that it was only another minute until she cut several long green stems with multiple blooms still blooming on each. But she did pile up all the cuttings (dead and healthy) and ask me if she could start her own compost heap. So I am getting through somehow. Next week, building solar panels?!?

************

Has everyone looked at the wonderful houses discussed on NPR this past week? Tumbleweed Houses ? Jay Shafer builds them, and they're absolutely wonderful. I would love to see one in person. What a super cool vacation home that would be! (I don't truly see how the four of us could work it out as we are now, unless we were out in the middle of the wilderness, which has it's own other set of contingencies).

************

I can’t remember if it was George that posted that environmental footprint thing the first time I did it, but I’m going to re-do it and see if I’ve gotten any better, by their standards, over the last year. Last time, I got a 6.5 planets needed if everyone lived like me. Which isn’t too bad. Ummm...I’ll be back with that link as soon as I find it! Found it, linked above. I retook the test, and I’ve got it down to 2.4 planets needed if everyone lived like I do. Getting better.

Earth Day Footprint Quiz, at: http://www.myfootprint.org

No one told me we were throwing a drought!

I'm very conservative about water usage anyway, so I don't expect all my flowers to be sparkly all the time, but this is ridiculous. I watered the vegetables this morning, but not the flowers. I thought they could wait better than the veg. could.. And they did all right. The Petunias are OK, and all the new, not yet blooming things are fine. The Clematis is about done for now, but that's expected, too. It's the roses that blew me away this evening.

We went outside for a while to sit on the porch, and I brought out some scissors to prune some of the roses, and maybe tie some back or whatever -- they're basically crowding us out, pouring over the rail, and they bloomed really early this year because of the heat wave. I was shocked when I walked over there, to see this:

Not only are they wilted for the most part, but some of them are already dried! It was like a living plant made of potpourri. Very very odd. I couldn't believe it, and I started picking the dried flowers, and putting them in a bowl. Here's what I ended up with (This picture was taken less than 30 seconds after I walked in, so it's not like they dehydrated for hours.):

Odd.

I do like that photo, though. I may try and print it on fabric later and sew it into something.

I'm on a real nice photo jag lately. Got some good ones of the kids. I'll post my favorite in a minute.

I wonder, if I had grapevines, if I would have dessert wine? I guess I'd probably have prioritized my watering differently had I been a winemaker.

Stop Loss Measures

I think the main reason I can't support Wal-Mart in Cleveland is because allowing it to happen shows a frightening lack of understanding on the part of those who would welcome it. A lack of understanding about poverty. Being the big city with the highest rate of poverty in the country (within the margin of error, but certainly within the top three), we need to be approaching every issue with an eye toward both bringing families and individuals out of poverty, and preventing more from becoming (statistically) impoverished.

While I am not a huge supporter of the military establishment, I see the thought process behind, and the sense within their stop-loss measures. They're not getting enough recruits, so they are not allowing current members to leave. Not necessarily nice, not what the troops planned for, but there's no other feasible option.

Here, we have a lot of people living in poverty. Yes, one of our main goals should be to increase the conditions of their specific lives. But we also need to put in place whatever stop-loss measures we can come up with to make the number of people living in poverty stop increasing. Wal-Mart has been clearly identified to increase poverty and decrease the general living conditions of the working poor; it's also been shown to increase reliance on government assistance, which in a city like this is a big deal. The first thought any of the people in a position to assist with this decision, and any major decision in town should have been "Will it increase the number of poor people in Cleveland?" and the answer to that question is inescapably, "Yes."

So the answer to the Wal-Mart question as a whole should have been "No."

If they cared about the future of Cleveland, they'd see there was no other feasible option.

A couple of the facts from Purple Ocean.org are listed on Brewed Fresh Daily today. Look it up. It's scary, folks.

Wal-Mart, rant continued

First, here's a link from a few months ago, before I was lulled into complacency, I was reading up on the arguments, and liked this site: Spread The Facts On Wal-Mart.

Second, just as suspected, plenty of local blogs are posting today about working against this development. Democracy Guy talks about what can be done, and mentions next week's meetup to collaborate.

Genevieve at Ex Machina also mentions the meetup, and is an artist, who George, at Brewed Fresh Daily mentions today, asking for more opinions from artists on just this topic. George, I'm going to be trying to send you a trackback on this, but if it works as well as the regular pings I send you, I may end up just commenting ; ).

I'm an artist, I'm horrified, and I'm going to be doing my best to get to the meeting mext week.

And I also want to mention that yes, a bunch of yesterday's post was a little ranty. I don't mean to be hurtful to anyone, I just wish people could see past the end of their own nose once in awhile ... and wouldn't it be good if one of those with depth perception was a politician?

If that damn flying Smiley-zorro price thing shows up here ...

OK. I know I told everyone I was going to be writing about race in Cleveland, and I will be, but as often happens, something possibly more crucial, annoying, and in some ways related has intervened.

After much handwringing and letters to the editoring by many of us around here, it’s been determined/decreed that the feared Wal-Mart will be coming to Cleveland. The only way it seems to me that it won’t happen at this point is if it’s all a big scheme by Jane Campbell and that she’s planning on at some later date supporting the actual people of Cleveland and forbidding Wal-Mart from darkening our Steelyards. I give that about the same chances as ... well, none, OK?

I am a staunch supporter of locally owned businesses. A locally owned and operated business employs my husband and supports my family. I choose independent retailers over national chains, often to my own fiscal detriment. Among larger stores, when we have no comparable options, or no other place to get the items in question, again, I choose with my conscience over convenience.

I absolutely recognize that I am in a privileged position to be able to make these choices (If this hadn’t come up, I was even going to post today about the NYT Class In America Series , with it’s really cool graphic, but that’ll also have to wait a few days). I do not fault anyone who is in a position where choosing Wal-Mart for the cost saving aspect is a necessity. I will not fault anyone who will anxiously await a job at Wal-Mart, or who knows that a job of any type will mean so much to them and their family.

These are the people I fault:

Frank Jackson -- for not saying, at any point in the last several months, “My feelings on Wal-Mart are beside the point. Joe Cimperman’s got some good legislation here that could benifit the city for years to come (not to mention help my run for Mayor, because 90% of the informed public is against this particular development), and we need to get it enacted, whether Wal-Mart remains interested or not. Let’s do this now.” Because if he had said that, chances are the law would be in force now, and Wal-Mart would not be coming.

Mitchell Schneider -- for obvious reasons (shortsightedness, general sneakery, selfishness, etc...)

Jane Campbell -- because this seems to me to be her way of saying she’s not going to run for re-election. She’s going to take a bunch of contributions to her war chest from developers and other people unconcerned with the future of Cleveland, and she’s going to leave the city at the end of her term. Because she’s unconcerned with Cleveland, it makes no difference to her if more people end up on welfare. After all, she’s losing support as it is. Our city ranks highest in poverty. And if she does run, she’s just made her re-election so much less likely. If she takes her war chest elsewhere, she will have a much better chance. I can’t imagine she doesn’t realize this. And I know that this announcement coming when it did (following the DFAS realignment possibility) was no kind of coincidence.

It’s very sad to me. The reports are out there, showing what the addition of a Wal-Mart to a struggling area does. I don’t know that there’s anything left to do, but if there is, some of the other local bloggers who have started discussing this, like Democracy Guy , Callahan’s Cleveland Diary , and Jeff Hess will clue me in, I’m sure.

More talking with the kids -- it's getting confusing!

A few days ago Sage was being really sarcastic and horrible to me, and I asked her why she would want to treat her mom like that. She thought for awhile, and said “I guess God made me do it.”

“What?”

“Well, if God made me, which he did, then he also made me act like that, so it’s OK. He wants me to do it.”

We had a long discussion about free will, and how there are lots of people who do bad things, and God -- if in fact he did make everyone -- didn’t want anyone to be mean. I made the mistake of bringing up Jesus and his crucifixion; again, because I underestimated her knowledge and comprehension. I knew she knew the story of Jesus (We’d discussed it again at Easter when the girls both asked me if Jesus was visited by the Easter Bunny. Um, no.), but I mistakenly thought she’d assume, as would most kids, that God didn’t want his son killed. Wrong.

“I guess God wanted them to be bad and do that.”

So I was stuck. Because whether I believe the whole story of Jesus’ life and death and all that, of course an adult who does could grasp the signifigance of God giving his only son’s life, with full knowledge of it, and Jesus forgiving them ... But she’s 5, and I was totally stuck.

We left it at “God makes all of us able to make the right choice or the wrong choice.”

We didn’t get into why he would make that possible if he only wants good choices, or what would happen if everyone chose one or the other, or how people can make different choices at different times. I just wanted her to stop backtalking.

But I know for sure I’ve got to make some plans for the future and discussions like this. Even though she’s so young, she’s thinking about it. And it’s confusing her -- and me, about how to respond.

Just like the more recent discussion we all had in the car.

We were driving through Lakewood, and we passed the Military recruiting office. It was good that the girls didn’t shout anti-war sentiments to the soldiers on the street like they did when we first moved here (we were not used to seeing members of the military so frequently). But Sage did have a bizarre observation.

“Their pointy hats remind me of the Ku Klux Klan.”

Hmmm. Their hats weren’t all that pointy, anyway -- they were the shape that look like the hats you can make from an easy origami book, so more like 2 rectangles pinned together, but maybe it was the wind and the tilt that made them look pointy to her.

“Sage, I don’t think anyone in the military would like to hear you say that. Really, no one wants to hear that they resemble a Klan member at all.”

“Oh. I think a good costume for Halloween would be one person dresses up like Martin Luther King Jr., and their friend dresses up like the Ku Klux Klan.”

“Just -- absolutely not, Sage. That’s not a good costume. You could get in a lot of trouble, and make a lot of people really mad. It’s just not something that’s funny, no matter how costumey it seems.”

So, we spent some time talking about Prince Harry and his Nazi costume last year, and why the Klan wears hoods anyway, and how it’s just not something to make light of. And then Solana chimed in with “We’re white anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”

And I gave my standard “Not really, but even if we were, it would still be wrong to support intolerance, etc...etc...”

And she repeated “But we’re white.”

Not so much, Lana.

Your dad might be, but Sage and you and I have a different story. A story that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently due to the discussion of race on a lot of local blogs. A discussion that I do intend to join very soon -- but one that, at least from my perspective, is so complex it really requires some thought. I hope to post later this week about ‘race in Cleveland’, and ‘race and Cleveland’, all that good stuff. And maybe I’ll get some of the other NEO bloggers to drop by and comment. It is important stuff, especially in this election year for us. And it’s stuff that I will be discussing thoroughly with the candidate I support as well. All in good time.

Mini-Con

So, this past Tuesday, amid much turmoil on the homefront, I took some time out to head down to the Little Bar and go to our little Amazing Race mini-con. A lot of the forum posters at Television Without Pity get together from time to time, from my perspective mostly for The Amazing Race parties (I fully acknowledge that fans of other shows may have more frequent or bigger gatherings -- it's just that of the shows I watch, this is the one that stands out).

A bunch of people showed up, I hung a route-markeresque flag and we settled in.

It was a little loud because of the crowd downstairs, but we had closed captioning on, and pretty much knew it was going to be a non-elimination leg from the start. I did have a few moments of fear for my beloved Boston Rob. So glad he didn't have to get Philiminated. But I know he's practically asking for it. He's just so darn cute. And, as expected, there were those in the group who do not share my love of all things Rob and Amber -- and I respect that. I don't want to watch him get humiliated, but if I'm going to, I might as well do it at a bar, with friends who will enjoy it even as I don't, right?

So, the show ended, and a few of the group had to leave right away (work schedules) and some of us stayed to talk. As it got later, the group dwindled further, until there were just four of us, waiting for some of my other friends before we headed next door to do a little peeking around; we had good reason to suspect a famous musician, of whom we are big fans, would be out and about that evening. Out and about meaning, he was supposed to come there for dinner. I'd enticed my new Amazing Race friends to join us. It was bound to be exciting.

We couldn't find F/X to watch the Shield while we talked (probably mostly because I kept thinking I was looking for A&E. I blame the gin.), so I'd stopped the TV on Bravo, and Queer Eye was playing as we talked. Not too loudly. Just playing. Oh, and it was only the four of us, in a room that I've seen hold probably 100 people. Not crowded.

A group of maybe 8 walked up the stairs, led by a nice looking guy. They hesitated at the top of the stairs, and made some comment about how the TV was too loud. I got up, and said "I'll turn it down".

And I did. We could still hear it, I guess, but since we weren't paying attention to it, it was mostly background. I don't necessarily remember exactly how the ensuing exchange went -- again, I blame the gin -- but it was something like this.

The guy: "That's still too loud. We can't stay up here."

Me: "I turned it down. You can stay up here. We're not really watching it."

The guy: "No. We're going downstairs. And I'm talking to the owners about this."

Me: (totally belligerent and sarcastic) "Yeah, do that, why don't you? Talk to the owners! That'll work."

They proceeded down the stairs. I turned to my friends and said "That guy looked really familiar, does anyone know who he is?"

My lovely and helpful friend replied (in a voice that made it clear she'd known the whole time)"Joe Montana"

First time I meet these people, and I'm acting like I run the whole town. I'm very lucky that they're all so anxious to see me get in a real barfight that we're going to do this again, soon.

And Joe looks really good. If I'd have had any idea that he was going to be in town, I'd have been so nice.

Come to Cleveland, famous people -- we really are nicer than this post would make it seem. You just have to tread lightly around our Amazing Race parties. I'm sure it's a lot like L.A..

Just a few quick notes!

Hi everyone!

A special hello to anyone who's come here from Jeff Hess' blog, "Have Coffee Will Write" , a Clevelander who's doing a lot of good thinking about the area, and also doing a good job of keeping people up on his thoughts....

Unlike myself, perpetually random in the blogging.

I am still up to my ears in costumes for Sage's big school musical, coming up tomorrow! (Have I mentioned yet, "Never Again!"?)

Still really anxious to get back to working on something I want to rather than something I have to.

I love it that I got two hits today from people looking for 'Oblio', or 'Oblio Music'. I can't believe I rank so high, and that so few people discuss him, but I guess there's no accounting for taste!

I'm headed outside, to spraypaint the next 60 or so costume pieces. On the one hand, it's good that the weather's been nice enough to allow outdoor painting. On the other hand, Forsythia, Dogwood and Magnolia.

Sneezingly...

Crying ...

I don't cry all that often. I've cried twice today from laughing (plus once from being mad, which kinda makes it look like this has been truly an unusual day, which it has.)

The first time I cried from happiness was upon reading at Pulitzer.org that The Cleveland Plain Dealer's own Connie Schultz was just awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Really super nice. And no one from our paper's gotten a Pulitzer in 50 years.

The time I cried when I wasn't happy ... Well, the less said about that the better; Rest assured that I'm doing all within my power to prevent the situation continuing.

And then just now, surfing all around to fill the time during a longish download (I know -- I have nothing to complain about. 121 MB, about 10 minutes, I think. But that's long for me, and I still have flashbacks to 1996-ish when I was using a 14.4 dial-up AOL connection, and getting kicked off while trying to download a wallet sized photo. God forbid a program or music. And I remember standing with a friend watching her spend 45 minutes on a 2.4 dial-up connection, going into a chat room for our first time ... after all 45 minutes, she and whoever else was in there had gotten to 'What's your name?', and then we had to let her mom back on her computer. And it was amazing. Just the speed of light. Well, unfortunately, my impression of the speed of light has changed. And I'm kinda impatient.), I came across the following:

Lame Excuses Roommate Has Given for Breaking Dates or the Smiths Lyrics?

And just couldn't stop laughing.

It reminded me of another story, and that may be part of why I couldn't stop laughing.

The same friend I mentioned above and I were at another High School vintage friend's wedding. Talking to yet another old friend at the reception, I mentioned that I hadn't been able to stop crying on the way to the ceremony, and no, we hadn't been lost too badly, we had just passed the church by about a block, then turned around.

"So, why were you crying so much?"

"I just don't know! We were having so much fun driving out here, just listening to tapes, talking," (Yes, I am that old -- we were listening to tapes. It was about an hour drive.)

"Wait a minute, what were you listening to?"

"Oh, you know, The Smiths."

"Tina, listen to yourself! The Smiths? Crying? Hello!?!"

Turns out he wasn't exactly right, but The Smiths had definitely contributed to the outburst. We had fun talking and catching up.

And now, I'm happy for The Smiths, or a random mention of them, to bring to mind this conversation and evening from probably 7 years ago. We really did have a nice group of friends. I wish I were in closer contact with some of them.

And I love the list about the Smiths from McSweeney's.

****

In addition to finding that list and laughing about the Smiths, blah blah blah, during that horrifically long download, I also looked up the friend with whom I had that conversation (wherein he went on to gently remind me that The Smiths as a group, and Morrissey himself were not really the most cheerful bunch around) on Google, and though it was hard for me to find him, I did. His band's got a website Here:Kopaz. Which band name I truly should have been able to remember.

If he sees that he's getting references to here, and follows back (Or if someone else from there comes here) :

"Hi! Get that new CD out. I'll bring a group to a show this Spring/Summer. Let me know!"

T.

I Love Cleveland Weather!

Seriously. This is my favorite kind of weather around here.

It's still cold in the mornings, like in the teens or twenties. But it looks warm. It's sunny enough most days that the girls try and talk me out of making them wear coats on the way to school. But it's still cold, and that's fine.

In the afternoons, it stays sunny for the most part, and it's pretty out, even with the remaining snow. In the car, or in the house near the windows, it's too warm sometimes. Our drafty old windows are pretty nice about now. It's temperature regulation, until dusk.

And even though I'm surprised each time it happens, for most of this past week as we run errands or whatever, we leave our coats if we don't have far to go. And it feels fine. I'm shocked when I look at the thermometer in the car and see that it's only 37 or 42 degrees out. Because to me, now, that's temperate!

The snow's melting, birds are making nests, we're getting close to time to plant the garden, and the sun is shining. But there's still snow and ice visible just about everywhere. And it will snow again -- it's practically guaranteed. And it's totally why I have no problem with the weather around here.

Do you think anyone in places with 'good' weather enjoys a day like today? You have to have a bunch of days that are super snowy, where you can't even drive, to understand why this is great. And you also have to have a bunch of days over 95 to truly appreciate it again when it cools back down.

I probably wouldn't choose to live somewhere it was hot most of the time. And while Newfoundland often looks good, I don't think it's for me. I need all kinds of weather (natural disaster-type excluded) to enjoy all types of weather. And I do.

Here's to another day of sunshine and a balmy 40 degrees!