happy new year, y'all

May 2006 be better than 2005.

I say that every year.

On the night of December 31, 1999, as the final year of the 20th Century approached, I fully believed the prospects for world peace were better than ever. The Berlin Wall was gone, the Pope had visited Cuba, and things just seemed to be headed in the direction of peace and stability. What a fool I was.

As we speak, there is one more tropical storm (Zeta) out there in the Atlantic somewhere, reminding us that our future and safety are not as much within our control as we would like to believe. I don't need to remind anyone that a great many people foolishly believe that bombing and killing will achieve something good. And, we have nearly three long years until the next presidential election.

Even so, as I think of my family and our extended family, which was extended even further in June, I can't help but think that 2005 was a very good year for us personally, and 2006 holds a lot of promise to be good or better. Please, God, may I not be fooled again!

catching up with Christmas

I've finally put up a photo of the tree (below). We'd need to put a hole in the ceiling to get a bigger one. I like to keep them up until Greek Epiphany Day, January 6. One of our neighbors put his out at the curb the day after Christmas, which is entirely too soon. We'll be caught up with Christmas when we get our cards in the mail, which for some reason always seems to happen in time for New Year's.

behold, Tannenbaum

Merry Christmas!

OK, it may seem a few days late for that greeting, but not really. This is the time when work tends to slow down and people start shipping themselves back home if they were lucky enough to come home for Christmas. No, that's not a contradiction. You can have two homes, and if you are fortunate enough to have a parent still living where you grew up, that's one of them.

We had three of our "kids" home for Christmas. We look at them and think, how did we raise four of them in this dinky little house? Our fourth "kid" was at home in Colorado, establishing a new Christmas tradition with his new wife - go skiing on Christmas Eve, and make your Florida family jealous. Some of our old traditions continue: One daughter had strep throat for the umpteenth time at Christmas, and another one expressed irritatation at being exposed to the bug. The one recovered and the other didn't take it home with her, so all's well. The five of us shared a warmth and a closeness on Christmas Day that is the stuff of fond memories. Stay tuned for photo with new camera.

the world is flat

Everybody, and particularly every Westerner under the age of 30, and every school teacher, should read Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat. We have a "flat" world because of satellite communications, fiber optic cable, and high-speed Internet access. You can have an X-ray taken today and it will be read by a radiologist in India or Australia tonight. Your doctor will have a report on his or her desk tomorrow morning. You buy a gizmo at Wal-Mart, and before you walk out the door their computers are telling their sweatshop in China to make another one and ship it over.

Buying Christmas gifts over the Internet is an example of how the flat world works, right here at home. I just bought a camera (not a gift, but a replacement for myself). Thanks to UPS's tracking system I know it left New Jersey yesterday and rolled into Jacksonville this morning. It rolled out this afternoon and I fully expect it on my doorstep tomorrow. I never spoke with a human being about it. They never saw the flash of green money or even heard the clickety click of a credit card in their machine by the cash register. There is no cash register.

I can tell you the time of day it was logged in and out by UPS but I can't tell you what the sales clerk looked like, because there was no sales clerk. That's one less sales clerking job that might have been taken by some kid trying to make money for school. I saved money on the camera and didn't have to drive around our plagued, traffic-choked roads trying to find a better price.

If you are the kind of kid who's still in school but just shuffling along, getting no education to speak of and no job skills, it's time to look at the big world around you. Don't think you can get out of school and get by with a minimum-wage job. They haven't learned to flip hamburgers and sell them through the Internet, yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Christmas trees

We've been slow getting the house ready for Christmas this year but we do have the tree up with lights on it. Last year we had a tree that seemed good when we bought it but looked puny in the house. This year we got one that seems to have grown on the way home from the lot. It is big and beautiful, and probably the heaviest one ever; I had to run out and get a bigger stand. I would put a photo here, if I had a digital camera. :(

We have good friends whose tree fell over after they decorated it, which reminded me of a story about my Aunt D., in Kentucky. She is the sole survivor of my parents' generation and I know why: Few things bother her. She has the belief, proven true after a lifetime of experience, that "things will work out," so why fret? She's not starry-eyed or naive. She raised seven children successfully. But there was one time when her kids were little and Uncle H. could not get their Christmas tree to stand up. It kept falling over and Uncle H. was cussing a blue streak. This was in the days when a tree stand was two pieces of crossed wood nailed to the bottom of the tree, and you also need to know they had hardwood floors. Aunt D. finally had her fill of the commotion and she came in with a hammer and a nail. Wham, wham, wham. "That'll fix the damned thing," she said.

The replacement camera should be here in a week and I'll put up a photo of our tree. The new camera looks like a shrunken version of my old camera, which was beginning to look like a brick compared with what's on the market now. I have no idea what to do with 7.2 megapixels. The old one took photos with 2.1 megapixels when I set it to take the highest resolution, which I seldom did.

Happy Holidays? Merry Christmas!

An editor in our local paper today tees off on the issue of taking "Christmas" out of public displays, including Christmas trees, um, Holiday Trees, in town squares and shopping centers. The Nova Scotia logger who for years has donated Boston's official Christmas tree has said that, if he knew it was going to be referred to as a "holiday tree" in a city news release, he would have fed it into a wood chipper. Boston's mayor issued a statement saying he considers the tree to be a Christmas tree. Threats of lawsuits hang in the air.

I'm not sure who fatigues my rear end more, the ACLU or the radical religious right.

There was a time when the churches complained about the "commercialization of Christmas." Be careful what you ask for; you might get it. Christmas runs the risk of disappearing from public venues. It may have to take sanctuary in homes and churches (where it belongs).

In any event, a Christmas tree is not Biblical. The early Christians were clever enough to co-opt pagan symbols and Winter Solstice ceremonies (in Rome, "Saturnalia"). Why else would they put candles on branches of dead trees in their homes? December 25 is probably the wrong date, too.

The Puritans in England and the New World banned Christmas because its celebration had turned into a drunken carnival. Christmas was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681. Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

And a Merry Christmas to you during this "holiday" season!

saying hello to Christmas season

We have four weekends to go before Christmas. Cool weather is settling into Florida and we had a fire in the fireplace last night. (Why do we associate Christmas with cool weather? It wasn't snowing when the shepards had their flocks out in the fields at night.)

It is that time of the year again and I'm not going to allow Hurricane Grinch or Idiot Grinch to interfere. We also have a couple of December birthdays to celebrate, one for an uncle and one for an aunt who will turn 80 and 90 respectively.

So, it's time to celebrate. Lights! Music! The show is about to begin.

saying goodbye to hurricane season

It's over. Finally. It may seem odd to have the official season run this late in the year but on November 30, 1925, a hurricane came in south of Tampa Bay, crossed over Tampa, and caused death and destruction.

We thought 2004 was a bad year and it was, but then 2005 came along. I shudder to think about next year.

There are people in Florida still living with blue tarp roofs after more than a year, and FEMA's temporary housing is still occupied. Defenders of the Bush Administration blame the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans for the federal incompetencies of this season, but I don't hear them blaming Gov. Jeb Bush for their lingering incompetencies in Florida.

two post-break-in thoughts

Don't lay up treasures on Earth, where rust corrupts and thieves break in and steal. Lay up treasures in Heaven, which pays compound interest.
-- Bible (paraphrased)

When things go bad, don't follow them.
-- Sign, nondenominational church down the street

*&@#!! - part 2

In addition to the camera, cell phone, keys and a chocolate bar, the [horribly offensive expletive deleted] took my wife's little piggy bank, which was stuffed with quarters. It isn't the quarters she'll miss. The piggy bank was a gift to her when she was born. You cannot replace a thing like that.

The window is semi-repaired. The new glass will keep out the rain but the fasteners for the moving parts of the window might not be replaceable (it is an old window). I used a bolt and nut from my lifetime collection of spare bolts and nuts but they are too large to fit the clearance. I'll check the hardware store -- maybe I'll get lucky. That leaves the cut screens to be repaired, one inside the house and one section of the pool screen. It also leaves the wooden gate and fence section that the [vile expletive deleted] knocked down, not because he's strong but because the 4 x 4 post is rotted at ground level.

We have new keys. Some but not all of the mess is cleaned up. The good stuff he missed is in a new safe deposit box. The [nasty expletive deleted] did me one favor, though. He forced me to confront, and discard, a truly strange assortment of old socks, old shorts, and one silly tank top that crept into my dresser drawer years ago and hid from public scrutiny until the contents were dumped on the floor.

Here's one note of levity which demonstrates how smart the [can't say that word either] is. I have an exterior light with a motion detector. He saw the motion detector, assumed it was a camera, picked up an eight-foot section of landscaping timber, and knocked it off its mount. He didn't break it, though. It hangs from its cable and still works. If it was a camera, it would have gotten a really good photo of his stupid face.

*&@#!!

This turned out to be a truly crappy day. Between the time I left for work at 11:15 a.m. (yeah, late, but I'm still on California time and didn't have an appointment until 1:30) and when my wife got home at 2:30, some kid, or pair of kids, broke a rear window, entered and ransacked our house, and stole her new cell phone and my not-so-new digital camera that had 50-60 photos from San Francisco that I hadn't downloaded anywhere.

I'd give him the camera if I could get the memory card with the photos back. I don't even care about the scenic shots, just the photos of Megan and Conor, and Megan and her mother. The [bleep] also stole the extra key to the new car, so Nissan is going to re-key the car. He took a house key, so a locksmith will be here tomorrow. You can't get a window guy to come out to replace one pane of glass so I'm taking at least half a day off to repair the broken window in addition to cleaning up the mess.

Good news: The cops got some good fingerprints including a set the tech called "juicy."

The [bleep] didn't find my father's .380 automatic or my grandfather's old revolver, which is good because if they ever catch the [bleep] I'd like to have target practice on his hind end although the cops might take a dim view of that. It isn't so much the sense of being violated as the aggravation of having to clean up the mess.

It was interesting what he didn't take - he wasn't interested in baseball cards or wine from Napa Valley or what's left of a bottle of tequila or this computer or the TV set or a few other goodies that were more or less hiding in plain sight. Oh, yeah, one more project for tomorrow morning is to open a safe deposit box for all the stuff he overlooked. The cops figure it was a kid looking for cash. Fortunately, we don't own much worth stealing. I don't expect the kid to return because he seems to have spent a lot of time and effort for nothing special. The camera can't be worth much on the street and the cell phone is your basic upgrade without all the fancy bells and whistles. Hmmm. . .I don't see Megan's ancient lap-top. Did I toss it like I was told to or did the kid steal it? I hope he stole it, because whoever buys it will come back and beat him senseless.

And this is certainly a great way to get into the Christmas season.

over the river and through the woods. . .

Let's start that song over. How about, over the Gulf and over the woods and over the Plains and the Rockies. . .nah, that won't rhyme. We aren't going to Grandma's house, either. We are going to visit Megan in San Francisco for Thanksgiving and I'm more than ready. She went to S.F. with no job and no permanent place to live, and found both in short order. It's been more than a year and a half since our last visit - entirely too long.

One reason I'm ready to get out of town is - my faithful readers may remember me describing the Big Project I had to do a few weeks ago. This week I had Son of Big Project ("SOB" Project) which I had to finish and file today. I think I did a better job on the SOB than on the earlier one. Last time, I was defending my city. This time, I was defending an employee. Our office works hard to defend the employees. A city wouldn't run without good employees. This was a "high-tech" job. When computers came out I didn't know what a lawyer would do with one. This week I was finding cases on line, checking to make sure they were still good, and composing the motion on my computer. The last step was to file it electronically. I don't know how to do that and don't want to learn. We have some very good secretaries and they need to know there are some jobs only they can do.

Now, I don't want to see a computer for a week. All I want to do is laze around my daughter's apartment, eat, and get in everybody's way. For a week. Can't wait.

Gamma? Gimme a break! [revised]

The projected track of Tropical Storm Gamma now runs east, south of Cuba. Not good news for Jamaica, but it may remain a tropical storm and not turn into a hurricane. See it here:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at2+shtml/204548.shtml?5day

it was a church

Earlier this week, while in a department store shopping for shoes (a task I dislike above most others), I almost literally bumped into a local judge. Not to name any names but he was a central figure in a famous right-to-die case that came to its inevitable conclusion this year. We chatted for awhile and I invited him to attend our Methodist church because I know he was invited out of Calvary Baptist Church here in Clearwater. Maybe he'll accept that invitation but not anytime soon.

That got me to thinking, as I looked at their new "church" building, just what kind of church do they have left? I know of one prominent "pillar of the church" type of man who left the church recently because of its treatment of the judge. He was a young lawyer on the Deacon Board back when my father was a deacon. My parents left the church years ago because the pastor (at that time) was getting into deep right field and making comments about women that set my mother's teeth on edge. The Baptist Church has drifted further to the right since then, to the point that it now dis-invites a respected judge (himself a conservative Republican) from its membership rolls because of the judge's decision that was, by the way, upheld by the appellate court. (I left the church back in the 60's, much sooner than my parents did, after Tallahassee's Baptist church voted to keep its membership all white.)

So now I'm thinking, this new building may suit the Baptists just fine. They don't need a traditional church building now. The old stained glass windows didn't seem to inspire them appropriately anyhow.

this. . .is a church?

This building will replace the old Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida (see below). To be fair, I tried to find a good angle for this shot, but if this building has a good angle it isn't visible from the road. If this building has stained glass windows, like the old church, they are not visible from the road, either. This building screams "insurance company headquarters," not "church." The only church-y thing about it is the cross, made of I-beams and attached to the wall with straps, like an afterthought. Methodist churches have plain crosses. Baptist churches usually don't, or at least that's what I learned growing up in one. The old church does not have a cross. Click this photo for a larger image. Larger, but not better. No, not better at all.

this is a church

This is the old main sanctuary of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida. This view is from what used to be a main corner of downtown when Clearwater had a downtown. I grew up in this church, and in this town. It is hard to get a good photo of the church nowadays because the trees around it have flourished. The Baptists built a huge new sanctuary on the west side of this building years ago. The property has been sold to developers, who will tear it all down. Last Saturday, the interior of the old sanctuary was stripped of its pews and the pipes from the organ were lying across the floor.

Christmas already?

I was thinking today that I'm ready for the Christmas season this year -- but not the kind that comes in stores. Maybe it's a desire to retreat from the world after one helluva year of hurricanes, floods, Tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, and war.

Tonight I heard and saw the first Christmas commercial on TV this season. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for sleigh bells, if I'm not riding an actual sleigh. I'm not ready for anything they sell in Wal-Mart that's colored red and green. I'm definitely not ready to hear even one more rendition of Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," one of the most insipid songs by one of the most insipid singers.

The one thing that gets me into the Christmas spirit without fail is to read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." It is not a religious book, but Dickens understood what it's all about. I think our political and business leaders ought to be compelled to read it again, too. If they would learn what old Scrooge learned, this could be a better world.

city elections, and the results are in

We had an election in our fair city today, and you can go here to read all about it:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/09/Southpinellas/_A_city_united___Bake.shtml
I make it a strict rule not to talk about work for the obvious reason. I like my job too much to consider an alternative. But: This is the fourth city I've worked for in my checkered career. The other three -- when I started working for them -- had elected officials who were good, solid, "center field" people who understood good government and tried to act responsibly. In all three cases they were replaced by people who drifted into left field, jumped the wall and went to straight to hell, dragging the concept of good government with them, while I was there or shortly after I left. I was beginning to take it personally, as though it was my fault somehow. But tonight's election reversed that trend. A good mayor was re-elected. Time will tell if a good city council will be even better but the writing is on the wall and it is encouraging.

trying to reason with hurricane season

Pardon me for obsessing over hurricane season but it ain't over yet. This week the St. Petersburg Times published a graphical prediction of what a Category 4 hurricane could do if it came up out of the Gulf and used Tampa Bay as the on-ramp for the rest of the state. (Click to enlarge.) With the exception of Highway 19's bridge over the Anclote River, north of Tarpon Springs, our bridge routes will be out of commission and, if the bridge over the Anclote River fails, our peninsula will become two islands (the white zones in the map). I could launch a boat from our front yard, but my cousin's house, a couple of blocks to the east and down-slope, will almost surely be flooded.