Blessings

Signs that the long Sleep of Winter is over.

Life returns to a slumbering earth.

Those in love begin to think of wedding bells

The first signs that the warmth of Summer is just around the bend.

From the first glimpse of Poppy buds, my heart seems to pump just a little faster. I know that soon the Rice Paper like petals will soon blaze their Orange glow across the edge of our lawn.

For weeks I have not allowed anyone near the tender shoots with weed choppers or mowers for fear of losing the beauty about to be born here and having to wait another 365 days.

Oddly there are no imperfect blooms. Just the glowing orange red with the deep purple eyes greeting the warm Sun of Spring. Sadly it seems I am not the only one who waits for this Heavenly display each Spring. As I try to daily chronicle the progress of each bud to bloom, with hopes that they will form seed pods to insure next year field of splendor, I notice large holes where entire plant has either been ripped or dug from their home.

To whom ever is in such dire need of this Gift from God, they have a surprise as these flowers can not be transplanted and  grow only from the sowing of their seeds. I doubt that they , whom ever they are, will even read this much less any thing to learn about Poppies.

So I will try yet again, as God will allow, to wait until next Spring to count His blessings in my field of Orange.

Two Wrongs Do Not Make One Right

Do not hide your wrong doings behind our children. Imagine where they could be today had you not done away with these programs in the first place.

For as long as I can remember my home town, Michigan City, Indiana, offered career courses at our high school.

I grew up with Isaac C. Elston High School and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic High School as the only available institutions of higher learning before either college or entrance into the work-world.

At Elston (City) there were “Shop” courses offered in Automotive as well as Machines. While not wanted to stoop to the “Back in my day…”, but in the late 1950s and early 1960s a young man or woman could graduate high school and be equipped to enter a job in a factory, office or even begin a family having taken Home Economics, typing, shorthand and bookkeeping, as well as be ready to head to college.

The A.K. Smith Center, was home to a complete auto shop where students as well as residents could take their cars to be worked on, from oil changes to complete transmissions replaced.

It was in the early 1990s that teachers as school administrators decided that these types of courses were not pertinent for our young people as to preparing them for life after school. Not everyone is potential college material. Not everyone wants to be college material. But in not preparing our young to take a place in society unless they go to college, we have built generations of seemingly hopeless and helpless citizens. We have equated their value to a piece of paper that in many cases is not even worth the ink it is printed with. 

Michigan City Area Schools (MCAS) has a history, recent history, of not really providing a well rounded education for the children of the school district. More worried about appearance then content.

Now, unable to admit they, (Administrators and teachers) rushed to eliminate programs that helped equip young people to enter into a work-world, they added to the fry many students that are presented a diploma that may not have the skills needed to read said diploma or even understand what that parcel of paper signifies beyond “party time.”

Shame on all of you who now hide behind the banner of wanting to help the “children”, when you have been far more involved with – class size, number of “teacher days” or what ever has preoccupied your thoughts while children have sat in classes un-taught and learning that no one really cares.

You also want the Taxpayers in the MCAS to give you the go-ahead to spend nearly $40 million dollars to rectify your screw-ups.

We all love these children and know that are not just our future, they are our NOW! But two wrongs will not make this or anything else right.

Vote NO on Tuesday, May 19!

Made the Cut

A few weeks back I was asked to submit several paintings, along with other members of the Michigan City Art League, for possible inclusion in the groups new brochure.

I offered two watercolor pencil works, the one above and my latest attempt of catching the spirit of my pug, AJ. Never in my wildest imaginings did I think either would have a chance.

First, I am not a watercolorist in any shape or form. Second, I am just overjoyed when anyone looking at one of my endeavors can even begin to recognize what it is I had tried to draw and paint.

Well, just today, May 12, I got a call from Rose Petersen, president of MCAL to inform me that my Spring Dune was picked to be in the new brochure.

Pinch me… I think I am still dreaming. This has given me a resolve to keep trying to expand my inner artist. It is so easy to become discouraged, when we look at our work through our own eyes. So often we are our own worse critics.

Thank you Rose and MCAL for this honor and from the bottom of my heart I will never be able to tell you or show just how much this has meant to me. It came just when needed the most.

Rambling On …

OMG! I have crossed into the Twilight Zone for real.

As I checked my morning paper The News-Dispatch I was some what surprised that they are actually attempting to get into the 21st Century by Tweeting.

You heard this right. The News-Dispatch is on Twitter.

Now I think this is a good move that they are making. Only hope they are more responsible in learning how to make it work for them and not against them.

As a former part of the print media as well as the Online world, it really pains me to hear of newspaper closing. Even the Boston Globe is having its problems.

It is very easy to most writers, editors and publishers to cast the stones at the Internet and say all their woes began with the World Wide Web. (Blame Al Gore for this as well, as the “Father” of the www.)

Several news outlets have caught on that it is better to let the world wide web work for you then to spend endless and meaningless efforts to thwart what is here.

CNN has a great relationship with the internet as well as Twitter. All hosts of CNN shows have Twitter sites as well as CNN itself.

The BBC as well at the New York Times. It is far past the time that regional and “small town” news media get with the 21st Century.

I am truly hopeful that with this step my own community will realize we are part of a much bigger picture.

We are a global people very hungry to know what is happening in every corner of the world. There is no “small news”, just something that someone somewhere is seeking to know. It is the media’s responsibility to bring it to the world’s attention, by every means that has been and will be made possible by the world of technology.

Welcome to the 21st Century! It is here and not leaving for another 91 years.

Wanderings Of An Aging Mind

Also Known As ~ Life Is A Crap Shoot

As many already have guessed, I am not among the clearest of thinkers and confess openly to being of the Senior Generation.

Most of this week after Easter has been a blur. Do in part to my battle with a Spring Flu-Bug. Add into this mix an aging (rapidly) mind and other, “out side influences”, it is often a surprise that I am thinking at all. But then my wanderings here could be proof positive that I am not and should be or could be helped by being placed in a, “home.”

As you may have guessed by the name of my blog, I do have a tendency not to always hit the bulls-eye in my ramblings. I am literally “just off center.”

Even AJ HoosierHugPug seems to have rolled a “snake-eye”, in his attempt to beat the house odds. Perhaps he needs to hang out with some one graced with more luck than I?

Now, where was I again? Right, Spring Flu and wanderings of my fevered aged mind.

Easter Sunday was a bright, sun filled day, with just a slight chilly hint that Winter wanted to linger a bit longer. Monday and Tuesday. found Winter’s bad boy, chilly rain, drenching any post holiday plans. It was during a fitful rainy-day nap on Tuesday that this Spring Bug caught me in his grip and is refusing to let go.

Wednesday & most of Thursday were total losses to wild bouts of stomach-tossing and fevered sleep. The haze of days where dotted with futile attempts from Tom, the hubby, trying to force Pepto Bismo, Alka-Seltzer and food into me.

Like most animals, excluding human males, I just wanted to die alone, with hopes anyone coming upon my remains would respect my last wishes.

Not only to my surprise but those of the hubs, I seem to have survived the worse of this bugs attack and will recover to pre-Spring-flu condition.

Not right on center, just off Senter a bit. But then, like most of us, this could be your “normal” too.