Miscellaneous Musings

Since I have nothing topical to write about this morning, this post is going to ramble a bit.
I heard a radio announcer say that yesterday and the day before were the shortest days of the year. I don't think that's exactly right. A quick glance at the sunrise/sunset table shows that tomorrow will actually have one minute less daylight than today! According to the table, daylight minutes don't actually increase until the 24th!
Our Viking is home for the holidays! Yippee! I have a couple of projects in mind for us to work on while he's here. I'll tell you about one of them: I like the smell of pine from a freshly cut Christmas tree, but the odor always fades too quickly. So I was trying to think of a way to perpetuate the smell of fresh pine without cluttering up the house with boughs, etc. I'm thinking we might take a 3-foot length of drain tile (4" diameter PVC pipe with holes in it) and cap one end. Then we'll gather up a supply of fresh pine boughs, crush them, and stuff them into the drain tile until it's crammed full. Hopefully, we can place the pine-filled tile discreetly behind a piece of furniture and the scent will waft from the holes in the tile while the needles and sticks stay neatly contained. We need to make sure we don't place it near an open flame. It would probably go off like a Roman candle if a match fell in it.
Speaking of Christmas... What are we, a nation of masochists?!! Who decided that the biggest travel days of the year should be in December?!! The recent snow storm in Denver makes my point: Flights all across the country are still disrupted. Thousands of people are stranded in airports. WINTER IS NOT A GOOD TIME OF YEAR TO TRAVEL, PEOPLE! Truth be told, once again the MBA's have programmed us to get out and spend money when common sense tells us to stay home. Think of how much safer, more convenient, and pleasant it would be if we celebrated Christmas in SEPTEMBER!! According to this article, September might actually be closer to Christ's actual birthday:

The Gospel accounts indicate that Jesus was born before the winter season: Luke 2:8 "Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night." {Sheep were never in the field by night in Palestine after the third week of October.}
Inexplicable though it seems, the date of Christ's birth is not known. The gospels indicate neither the day, the month, nor the year. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, p.656, vol. 3, 1967.)

If you're still not convinced, I offer this article:

The Bible does not mention the celebration of Christ's birthday, and the early Christians seem not to have celebrated His birthday. However, to avoid persecution, they would hang holly on their doors during December just as the Roman pagans did for Saturnalia, their feasts honouring their god of harvest. Likewise, in September, during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah), they would borrow some of the custom to protect themselves, carrying on with their own customs behind closed doors. This added to the speculation that early Christians celebrated the birth of Christ in September. It is noted that Jerusalem swelled from about 100,000 people to over 1 million during the Feast of the Trumpets, which meant that there would have been little room at the inns of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns.

Curse you, MBA's!

I like store-bought Egg Nog. It tastes like melted French vanilla ice cream. I wish it was available year-round.
I like Christmas music too - especially Johnny Mathis and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
I like the movies, Polar Express and Holiday Inn.
I like mashed potatoes and gravy, but that's not the point.
See?!! All these things can be enjoyed even better in September than in December!
Good luck with your holiday travel plans, you may need it.
Jean Update:
Now, she is coming back on December 24th to finalize the closing of her cafe and prepare for her final move to Atlanta.
Barry, her ex, offered to finance the move and pay her first month's rent in Atlanta. Why is he being so generous? Guilt, imposed by his pastor.
Amazingly, incredibly, the wedding that Jean was supposed to cater in January - the one that she already took a $3,000 deposit on (and spent) - the one that she has no money to fund or refund - has been postponed until next summer! If she still plans to cater it, this delay should give her time to pay for it. On the other hand, if the bride-to-be wants her $3,000 back, well, that ought to be interesting. Maybe Barry will pay for that too.
It's a crazy world out there.
Happy Holidays!

Never Forget This

Here is something for all of us to remember: NEVER BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ IN THE NEWSPAPER! Logically, the same holds true for radio and television as well. Why am I offering this reminder? I'll tell ya.
There have only been about a dozen times in my life when I've been personally knowledgeable about an event which was reported in the news. Every time, EVERY TIME! - SOMETHING IN THE REPORT WAS WRONG. The errors don't have to be significant but any error casts a shadow of doubt on the entire article!
Last Tuesday, one of our local reporters interviewed me for a story about my effort to silence train horns in our neighborhood. Based on my previous experience with erroneous reports, I gave the reporter several pages of factual information that he could refer to when writing the story. During the interview, the reporter noticed the airplane logo on my cap. When I explained that wifey and I had been controllers, he immediately forgot about train horns and started talking about airplanes! (He is a pilot and we all know how pilots love to talk about airplanes.) Well, when the story came out in yesterday's paper - not surprisingly - there were several errors. Here is the article with my comments/edits in parentheses:
“When I heard the train go by the first time I loved it,” said (wifey), who moved into a new Harborside Avenue house with her husband (me) last year.
”When they cross Bell Road and Hughes it’s like one long blast, and in the middle of the night it’s almost impossible to sleep.” (It's bad enough that wifey didn't make these comments in the first place, but these two paragraphs totally contradict each other!)
Relief may be at hand. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a rule on the use of locomotive horns at highway-rail grade crossing that allows communities to establish half-mile long quiet zones through residential neighborhoods as long as certain safety conditions are met.

The rule was issued in June, 2005, and specifies that trains traveling at 45 m.p.h. or below are required to sound their horns for 15 seconds before the lead locomotive enters the crossing. Trains traveling faster than 45 m.p.h. have always been required to blow their horns. (Huh? The first sentence implies that trains traveling less than 45 weren't previously required to blow their horns at all! All trains are required to blow their horns! The new rule says engineers should start blowing at least 15 seconds BUT NOT MORE THAN 20 SECONDS before entering the crossing.) According to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) website, “the operator should continue blowing the whistle [horn] until the lead locomotive passes through the crossing.”

However, by equipping the crossing with flashing lights and gates, power out indicators and constant warning time in the track circuitry, operators would be allowed to move through a crossing without sounding their horns at all. (Not entirely correct. The safety equipment listed is the minimum rrequired and adequate ONLY at lightly used crossings. MOST crossings require additional safety measures before horns can be suspended) The rule absolves the engineer of liability should a train-vehicle collision occur in an established quiet zone with all safety measures intact and working.

The FRA rates crossings by factors such as the amount of vehicle and train traffic, accident history, types of vehicles, speed that the trains travel and so on. If an intersection rates too high then additional measures must be taken, such as four quadrant gates, median dividers to prevent people from driving around the gates and wayside horns that sound like trains but are focused toward on-coming traffic, reducing their noise in the surrounding area by 98 percent.
Representatives of BNSF, the FRA, the State Department of Transportation and the city met Monday (Tuesday, actually) afternoon to talk about establishing three crossings as quiet zones, or at least putting in quieter (wayside) horns. “The primary consideration is safety,” said Chris Adams, grade crossing and trespass prevention manager for the FRA. When she first looked at the Marine Drive crossing she said “This is perfect for a wayside horn.”
At $75,000 apiece the devices aren’t cheap. “It would run into six figures to equip all the intersections here,” said John Shurson, BNSF’s assistant director of public projects, “and the engineer, of course, has the prerogative to blow his horn as long as he likes if he sees danger ahead.”
Both (wifey and I) worked for the Federal Aviation Industry (Huh? The F.R.I?!!) as air traffic controllers and know a bit about working through the system. (Me) has been working with city officials to establish the quiet zones for the Bell Road and Hughes Avenue crossings and helped bring about Tuesday’s meeting. “We knew there was a train here when we bought the house, (I) said, “[but the horns] are an unnecessary intrusion and unreasonably disruptive to our neighborhood’s peace and quiet. The [new] ruling may provide a solution.” (Not completely accurate. I said, "We knew the trains were here when we built the house so I was reluctant to complain at first. I didn't want to sound like the guy who builds a house next to an airport then complains about jet noise. Then it occurred to me, if a stop sign is adequate warning to keep me from pulling out in front of a 150,000 pound truck going 65 miles per hour down the highway, why must everybody within a 2-mile radius of a railroad crossing - that is equipped with signs, lights, gates, and bells - be subjected to 20-seconds of ear-splitting train horn noise from a freight going 10 miles per hour through an empty crossing? That's when it became clear that the horns are an unnecessary intrusion and unreasonably disruptive.")

BNSF will be implementing the horn rule on December 15. (What does that mean? The train horn rule was implemented in June of 2005! Is the reporter suggesting that BNSF is going to stop sounding their horns TODAY?!! NOT TRUE!)

That's the end of the article. I'm embarrassed to have my name attached to it. Oh well. People have short memories... I hope.

Close, but no cigar

Tomorrow will be our last day at the cafe.
Jean called this morning to say she decided to stay in Atlanta until mid-January.
That's interesting. She is supposed to vacate the cafe by the end of this month. She's the only one who knows what equipment is hers and should be taken out versus what stays with the property.
We'll make sure the freezers and coolers are empty, but that's all.
We almost made it to the end without confronting problem customers. Unfortunately, we had a couple of Canadian geezers stop by today that put an end to our streak of good luck. First off, they ordered a cheeseburger and a gyro. I made both exactly the way I've made every one before. When we took them to the table, they said, "Where are the French Fries?" Wifey told them we didn't realize they wanted fries, and we immediately dropped two servings in the fryer. Almost immediately thereafter, they came up to the counter and said, "The burger is cold and the cheese isn't melted. The gyro meat is cold too, it must have been frozen." Well, both meats had been sitting in hot water over steam for about an hour. They were exactly the same temperature that every burger and gyro has been for the last 3 months. But, we took them back and built new sandwiches. They ate the new sandwiches, along with the fries, and left. They must have been really happy with the new sandwiches, they left us a 3-cent tip!
I'm glad we encountered these people today instead of during our first day on the job. I like to think of it as a fitting conclusion to one of the most disgusting and mind-boggling yet fascinating and educational experiences in my life.

Pipe Dreams

There were a couple of articles in our local paper recently that made me shake my head in dismay.
Imagine you are a 50 year-old, ex-GI, living a normal life as a businessman and member of your community's planning commission, when you get a letter in the mail from Uncle Sam asking if you'd be interested in being reactivated? That's what happened to a member of our city's planning commission. To my utter amazement, his answer was, "Yes!" According to the article, he's now preparing to go to Fort Bliss for basic training before being sent to Iraq. Believe it or not! Maybe we're better off NOT having someone like that on our planning commission.
The second article concerned our little airport that is located in the middle of town. Half the community wants the airport closed and the property turned into an industrial site. The other half (maybe it's considerably less than half but they seem to have more than half the wealth) wants the airport expanded. For the last year and a half, the city council has been debating the issue. Their ultimate decision to keep the airport open was based largely on an "offer" from the FAA to pour $16 million, over 6 years, into airport improvement and expansion projects. Now that the decision has been made however, it appears the "offer" was indeed too good to be true. In fact, the FAA now says the MAXIMUM our city can receive is $150,000 per year. So, let's see, 16 mil divided by 6 equals about $2.5 mil per year expected versus $150K realized. Hmmm. That's only about $2.35 million per year less than expected! At this rate it will take about a hundred years to make the improvements they were counting on.

Sunday Morning

My favorite network program is CBS "Sunday Morning." If you're not familiar with the show, it's a weekly, 90 minute, magazine-style program hosted by Charles Osgood.
Today, they did a 10 minute segment on Johnny Mathis. I've been a huge Johnny Mathis fan since his first recording, "Wonderful Wonderful", was released in 1957. Interestingly, it was Johnny's producer, Mitch Miller, who deserves considerable credit for Johnny's success because he picked out the music that Johnny sang. Forty-nine years later, Johnny Mathis is still performing but it's the music he recorded between 1957 and 1963 that I like best. Three of his albums, "Johnny's Greatest Hits", "Open Fire, Two Guitars", and "Sounds of Christmas" are the cream of the crop.
I like Josh Groban best among today's young artists, but unfortunately, Josh's producer has done a pretty horrible job of picking good songs for Josh to sing. Apparently, they can't figure out whether they want Josh to sing opera, like Andrea Bocelli, or pop, like Michael Buble. Consequently, they haven't managed to capture either audience. That's too bad. Josh has a beautiful voice, great range, and amazing breath control. But talent alone is not enough. I hope someone writes a few good ballads for Josh before it's too late.

Time and Ingredients are Running Out

We ran out of catfish and tuna yesterday, so catfish dinners and tuna pitas came off the menu.
If we don't sell the last four of five slices of pie today, they will have to be tossed and we'll be out of desserts.
The BBQ pork, okra, and collard greens will probably be gone by this time next week.
Wifey and I are not even going to open the cafe next Tuesday and Wednesday because we have previously scheduled appointments on those days.
We don't plan to open on or after the 20th either because our "Viking" is coming home for the holidays that day and we're not going to miss a minute of our time to be with him!
Therefore, a quick glance at my calendar shows we'll be at the cafe just 5 more days, after today. That's no so bad.

Light in the tunnel

There's an old saying about seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn't necessarily mean an escape from the darkness is at hand because it might be the headlamp of an oncoming train!
Jean called from Atlanta last night to say she's excited over the deal she's hoping to seal to take over a bakery down there. The bakery is for sale and the owner wants to move back to New York, or somewhere. She liked the location and its performance history and its earning potential. She said that the seller, "Just has to get over the fact that I don't have any money!" As of last night, she said negotiations are going well. The seller may let her take over management for just 1% of monthly gross until she pays off an amount equal to the down payment and secures a loan for the balance. She is going to work at the bakery today and tomorrow. That ought to be REAL interesting. If she does it right, she'll impress them with her baking talent and her people skills. If she makes a huge mess and forgets to turn off the oven, she may blow the whole deal.
That's why I'm withholding judgment on the source of that light she sees.
UPDATE: Jean just called to say that she's going to stay in Atlanta and work at the bakery until Christmas! Yikes! I didn't expect this. I didn't expect this. I didn't expect this.
And I don't like it.

A tough day, in a way.

I'm having a bit of an internal debate over what to include in this entry. Considering that I am NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP, it seems appropriate to report the facts as they occurred.
Considering that Jean is going through some extremely tough financial times right now, it seems appropriate to avoid publicizing her situation.
So, I came up with the following solution: The following entry is not about Jean. It's about someone entirely different, named... um... "Jane".
Yesterday, when wifey and I were at Jane's... um... "flower shop", the phone rang. The caller was a computerized voice from the natural gas company. The voice said that the gas would be cut off in 48 hours unless the overdue payment is received. When we told Jane about it, she said she would call the gas company today.
This morning, we went back to Jane's flower shop. We found a note stuck to the door that read: Your electricity has been turned off because of overdue payment. Sure enough, the electricity was off. We wondered what would happen to all the "flowers" in the coolers and freezers and decided we would need to move everything from the "flower shop" to the freezers in Jane's house if the electircity stayed off for more than a couple of hours. We drove back home, called Jane and told her about it. She seemed surprised. She thought her ex-husband had paid the over-due bill. Jane said she would call both utility companies and get back to us. Sure enough, about an hour later, Jane called us to say the power was back on and the gas company wasn't going to cut off the gas.
I don't know how she did it.
Wifey and I drove back over to the "flower shop" and found the electricity back on. We fired up the equipment and were ready to open shortly after noon.
I don't know how many, if any, customers we missed by opening late, but the rest of the day's business was pretty dismal.
Restauranting... er, I mean Flower Shopping is such a crap shoot. You have to have plenty of fresh "flowers" on hand to attract a wide customer base, but if no one comes along to buy them within a few days, there is nothing to do but toss them in the dumpster. Meanwhile, operating expenses keep piling on.
Today was a mix of panic, relief, boredom and a touch of despair.
I didn't make any mistakes today. That's a good thing.

No man is a Treasure Island

One of my favorite movies is Walt Disney's "Treasure Island" starring Robert Newton, as Long John Silver and child-star, Bobby Driscoll, as Jim Hawkins (1950).
What a great pirate Robert Newton played! He was the best.
Bobby Driscoll did a good job too. His young Jim Hawkins character had the right amount of fear, excitement, and courage to be believable.
So, why am I writing about this? Well, I'll tell ya. It's because I stumbled across a brief bio of Bobby Driscoll this morning that I want to share. Here it is:
The story of Bobby Driscoll is one of the saddest incidents in Hollywood history. Driscoll had quite a bit of prior experience as a child actor, winning a special Academy Award for juvenile acting a year before "Treasure Island" was released. He went on to provide the voice of Peter Pan in the Disney animated movie of the same name. But after that his acting career was practically over. Although married with three children, in the 1960's he became involved with heavy drugs and soon disappeared from site. His mother eventually persuaded Disney to launch an investigation into his whereabouts. The investigation determined that the body of an unidentified homeless man, found a year earlier in an abandoned New York City tenement and buried in a mass grave on the Hart Island Potter's Field, was that of Bobby Driscoll. He had once been quoted as saying, "They carried me on a satin pillow, then dumped me in the garbage," and that truly turned out to be the case.
Ain't that a shame.

Confession Time

Father, forgive me for I have sinned. It's been 62 years and 6 months since my last confession."
Our first day at the cafe started off with a bang. Three young construction workers came in for lunch at 11:15. They ordered three different chicken sandwiches - two of which I have never prepared before. We got through that okay, but preparing their sandwiches used up all the grilled chicken. So I grilled some more, hoping that no one would come in and want a chicken sandwich before I was done. Sheesh, it sure takes chicken a long time to cook when you're staring at it and flipping it over and over and over and over.
A while later, a lady came in and ordered a chicken sandwich with everything on it except onions. Guess who forgot NOT to put on onions until AFTER he put on onions? I said, "I did a Jean!" Instead of picking most of the chopped onions out of the lettuce and tomatoes - like Jean does - wifey insisted that I toss the whole bun and start over. That is the right way, of course, so that's what I did.
Just before closing, a lady ordered fried fish with french fries instead of the standard side order of hushpuppies. Guess who screwed up again and dropped an order hushpuppies into the fryer with the fish?!! God! It's embarrassing!
Now I am willing to confess that Jean is entitled to make a few mistakes now and then without me shaking my head in the background like some holier-than-thou know-it-all. Today, I had my comeuppance.
All day I kept feeling like wifey and I needed to get into some kind of rhythm. We were both trying too hard, I think, and we didn't function like a well oiled machine. We were a greasy machine by 5:00, but not well oiled, so to speak. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Twists and Turns

Never underestimate the power of.... guilt.
Jean's moving dilemma may be solved. Barry paid her a visit yesterday and made her the following offer:
A. If she wants to stay here, he will finance the new restaurant with no strings attached.
B. If she wants to go back to Atlanta, he will finance the move.
He said that he, "has sinned against her and God for not being a better husband".
She said that she was, "torn between wanting to take him in her arms or knocking him out".
Ya gotta like that.
This time, her mind is really made up. She's going back to Atlanta. She said Barry is free to pay for it and stay here or pay for it and go with her but she's going and he's paying regardless.
She said that Barry is even going to drive her to Seattle to catch her plane to Atlanta next Tuesday. That will save her $66 in shuttle fees. She'll be there 5 days visiting her family, trying to sign a contract on a bakery, and arranging to rent a house.
Good luck, Jean.
When we went in to open the cafe this morning, we discovered that the refrigeration unit on the prep counter quit working. She's got no money or motivation to fix it, so it will stay inoperative for the rest of the month. That will add a twist when wifey and I work to keep the place running next week while Jean is gone. We're just going to limit the menu to what we're comfortable making with the supplies available. If that means we're down to plain burgers and fries by the end of the week, so be it.
Next week's entries should prove to be interesting. I hope they're nothing more than that.
Can you be arrested for food poisoning?