Metropolitan Rural

I don’t know if I ever related the story from this past spring about our dogs getting themselves locked in our downstairs bathroom.  We had put them in there to keep them out of the way of workers in the house for something or other.  The larger of the dogs (Harley) has learned to nudge doorknobs with his nose as a sign that he wants to go out.  Well, the bathroom has a small latch below the knob that locks the door with a bolt lock.  He managed to do this back then and get them both locked in there.  I tried removing the door knob, only to shatter the glass knob falling on the tile floor of the bathroom.  No luck trying to get the lock open from the outside.  Luckily, we had the window open (it was spring and nice out) so I was able to get a ladder and crawl through the window and open the door from the inside.

Since then, we just used some tape to hold the lock open and we’ve used that bathroom to keep the dogs on a number of occasions (especially during thunderstorms).  Increasingly over the past couple of months, we’ve come home to one or more of the dogs shut in the bathroom.  We open the door and he (them) come rushing out all excited.  We really wish we had a motion sensitive camera set up there to figure out exactly how this happens.

Well, this past Saturday, Harley showed us that the power of his nose is stronger than tape.  Yes, we came home and he was not only shut in the bathroom, but the door was locked as well.  Oh, and since we shut and locked all the windows in the house before leaving for vacation, there was no external access now to the bathroom.  I went through several scenarios before finally freeing the dog.

1. I first tried the good old method of carding the lock.  I knew it was bolt lock and didn’t have a sloped side to card, but I also knew it was a very loose fit and maybe I could wiggle it enough to get it open.  No luck.
2. Knowing how door frames are made, I thought I could just take the piece of trim off the outside of the door and then remove the stop piece from the jamb.  That would surely give me enough space to wiggle that lock open.  Well, after getting the trim piece off, it was discovered that the trim was actually holding up the adjacent wall.  As in, the plaster is now sagging off the lath right next to it.  I also found out, they didn’t use to make door jambs quite so cheap and flimsy as they do now.  The stop and the jamb, in my case, was one solid piece of wood.  To add to that, the the jamb wasn’t even a butt joint to the top of the frame, instead, the two pieces were set in a half-lap joint.  At this point, my wife said she’s never heard me say they did something right.  She’s right, to some extent.  What’s usually done wrong though is the remodeling over the years, not the original building, but that’s a whole other post.
3. Getting a little nervous by now.  Since the plaster is loose anyway, maybe I can take a bit of it off and find the lock on the other side of the jamb.  No, I can see the tips of the screws sticking out from the strike plate, but I can’t get it the lock itself, and the angle is really funny to try and get a drill bit started.
4. Even more nervous by now.  Back to my first idea from the last time.  I wasn’t looking forward to breaking another glass door knob though.  My wife had the brilliant idea at this point to shove a few kitchen towels under the door to provide a softer landing area (as it turns out, the door knob did get a small chip, but it was not in a thousand pieces like the last time, great thinking on her part).  After getting the door knob shoved out the other side (the only opening here is for the knob post), we bent a wire coat hanger around and got it pushed through the opening.  I gave up and let the wife have a turn while I thought about some other ideas.  I eventually gave it one more try and did manage to mangle the tape loose enough that I got the lock open.  This proved more challenging than you can imagine since, peering through the hole, there was a cat on the other side who was enjoying playing with this fun piece of wire sticking through the door.

It’s a good thing I got it open when I did.  I had 2 more ideas at this point.  One involved a drill to try and find the lock mechanism from the outside of the door.  The other idea involved a 2″x4″ and a sledge hammer.

Of course, after finally getting them out, I disassembled latch and removed the mortise lock from the door.  I opened it up and physically removed the bolt lock from inside.  Everything is back together now with the lock no longer functioning.

Needless to say, it was quite a stressful experience.  On another note, anyone know a good plaster repairer?

So, Congress Nears Historic Vote on $700 Billion Bailout Plan for Wall Street.

Yet, 2 Senators are noticeably absent (in my mind). Take a look at this campaign trail map provided by Google.

Notice, neither McCain nor Obama has been in Washington, DC this week. Congress is debating one of the most important pieces of economic legislation this country has ever seen, and they are not at work. Instead, they are off collecting money and telling everyone what they WOULD do to fix things if we elect them. Forget that. Get back to work and SHOW me what you’d do. Both of you!

If I was your boss, I’d fire you both for blatantly looking for another job and neglecting the job you are getting paid to do.

Yesterday, I posted wondering if people really know what the purpose of crosswalks were.  This morning, I was given the perfect example of what I was talking about.  I had just gotten off the bus and walked down to the corner to cross the street.  I arrived just as the left arrow for cars headed my direction turned green.  I pressed to button and waited (I could cross half way and then go on, but I always wait until I have a walk signal).

As I’m waiting, there is a pedestrian headed my direction on the opposite side of the street.  There are cars turning left and right in front of him.  He walks up to the corner, turns 15 feet down, and then steps out into the street to try and cross.  Why he couldn’t walk straight across in the cross walk that was directly in front of him I’ll never know.  He only needed to wait about  5 seconds for a walk signal.

Next, I’m finally crossing (in the cross walk) and cars have green lights both directions.  The left turn lane that was turning now has a “Left Turn Yield on Green.”  Of course, that’s not going to stop those next couple of cars from trying to fly through the intersection ahead of oncoming traffic and directly at … ME!  I had to stop int he middle of the street to let one car go by in front of me (you could tell the driver’s wife was yelling at him about what he was doing).  There was a second car that actually turned left BEHIND me and crossed through both lanes and the left turn lane of oncoming traffic.  I was appalled.

Are these people in such a hurry they have to endanger their own lives and nearly run over a living person in the process?  Maybe you should leave home a few minutes earlier if you really need to get where you’re going so fast.

Have you walked around the city lately?

Have you seen people using crosswalks?

This past week or so I’ve been so completely disappointed in people and crosswalks.  I swear I’ve seen more cars sitting in crosswalks waiting for their lights than I’ve seen people actually walking in them.  And the number of people I’ve seen ignore the crosswalk, walk 50′ down the block and cross in the middle of the street, than cars blocking the crosswalk.

Has everyone lost their minds at the end of summer or did I miss a memo someplace?

Swimming is something that was never easy for me.  For starters, I had tubes in my ears at an early age and was forced to wear wax in my ears anytime we went swimming (which was normally to the lake and not to a pool).  So, I instantly hated it and chose to not go as often as I could get away with it.  It wasn’t until I was 20 years old that I finally decided that I should really learn how to swim.  I took lessons from the local red cross when I was home from college that summer.  It wasn’t as hard as I had always worried it would be and now I can officially not drown when I’m at the pool.  Sure, I can do the basics, but not much beyond that.

The rest of my family, on the other hand, are fish.  My wife was actually on her high school swim team and my son has always had the drive to spend hours every day at the pool if he has the chance.  We decided this year to look into local swim clubs and see what we could find for his age.  We found the Saint Louis Spirit Swimming team that meets just over at Webster University and signed him up for tryouts.  He breezed through with little trouble and got placed in the last tier learning group so he can work on his form with the last couple of strokes.

Now, I’ve been to the pool to play around with the kid on vacation, but I didn’t get he experience of going to the pool with him 3-4 days a week during the summer like my wife did.  I’ve now been to swim team practices the last 2 Saturdays.  I have to say I’m truly amazed.  No, he’s not the fastest kid in the pool, but man does he have some stamina.  The first practice I went to I pointed out a board at the end of the pool that was for the 100 mile club.  “You gonna get your name on that board someday?” I asked.  He just stared at me with this look like “are you kidding me?”  I convinced him that he probably swims further in practice than he realizes, so he asked us to keep track of how far he swims.  The wife has been keeping track of laps of different swims for the week since then.  This past Saturday he swam a full 0.9 miles in the hour and a half of practice.  Oh, and that was further than on Thursday which was further than on Tuesday.  We are already up to over 3 miles in just 4 practices.  I’m sure he’ll breeze past the 5 mile mark by the end of this week as well.

Isn’t it amazing what you can do when you take things one small step at a time?  As the old saying goes, “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.”

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

Thus are the cries we have all been hearing over the past 12-18 months. The housing market is in a tailspin and our financial giants are dropping like flies after being drawn to the bug zapper. The greed mongers of the last decade are now being circled by vultures and our hard earned tax money is being spent to make sure they don’t take the rest of us with them. While it is unfortunate that those of us who were financially responsible will pay even more to bail out those who were greedy or made poor, uninformed decisions, it is a necessary evil.

In these tough financial times, it will be those of us who were responsible during the binge that will come out ahead. The next few years are shaping up to be pretty rough for a lot of people. Now is the time people can make a real difference in their community. Think more frugally about where you spend your money. Is it worth it to drive across town to a Wal-Mart when there is a local store down the street with most of what you need? Sure, you might spend a bit more, but how much time and effort did it cost you to get to and from there? For us, since we bought our new car in December, we’ve averaged about $0.80 per mile we’ve driven in total costs. That means a 8 mile round trip to my nearest Wal-Mart would run me $6.40 in car expenses (not totally as part of that 80 cents is car payments and insurance that I’ll have to spend, but you get the idea). Oh, and so you know, I’m also not bashing Wal-Mart here as both my parents work happily for them it’s just not as close as my other shopping options in this instance.

For now, sit back, take a deep breath and realize, This too shall pass.  This country has been through hard times before and we will make it through again.  Tighten your belt and watch your pennies.  Oh, and don’t forget to smile.  After all, this isn’t the end of the world.

As I type this, the wife is at home with a small group of kids teaching them how to make ice cream.  We tried it out last night to make sure everything worked and so she would be more familiar with the process to help.  It was really quite simple.  They are making small amounts to cut down on the time and just make some samples.  I think they are getting together next month or something to try and make strawberry flavors as well.

So, for a simple, family fun time why not try to make some on your own.

• 1/2 Cup - Half and Half
• 1 T - Sugar
• 1 t - Vanilla Extract (although the boy suggested you use a bit less)

We mixed those together and put them in a small zipper bag.  We then placed that in a larger zipper bag and filled the larger bag with 2 Cups of ice and 1/4 Cup of Rock Salt.  A lot of shaking and in only 10 minutes we had a nice little bit of vanilla ice cream.

The wife found this on the PBS site for the show Fetch.  Check it out, there are lots of cool things to do with the kids there.

I read a post this morning that was on Mayor Slay’s website late yesterday about Chrysler.  Apparently, Mayor Slay and County Executive Dooley made a trip out to the Chrysler south plant in Fenton to talk with the UAW about the proposed closure of the plant.

As is typical from any politician, the focus of this article is on the short term, local impacts of the shut down.  Yes, the 2,400 lost jobs will definitely be a tragedy to those families.  Local businesses will also feel a bit of a pinch as there is suddenly a lower income base from which to draw customers.  You can always expect this from politicians who are forced to pander to the public in order to plan for their next election.  It’s always about what you’ve done for me lately.  Rarely does the public look at the long term impacts of a politicians decisions on a global scale.  Instead, we concern ourselves with how I was benefited yesterday by what they did for me.  It’s terribly short sighted of us and leads us into a spiraling effect of always having short term solutions with little, true long term-planning.

So, what is the long term impacts of closing or keeping open a large manufacturing plant like this?

• Closing:  In the long run, these 2400 people will find other jobs.  They will likely be making less than before as they had a very specific skill set that isn’t highly sought after in the US these days.  That’s unfortunate, but skills change over time.  After all, you don’t see too many wagon wheel makers these days either!  Many of these jobs they will fill will likely be from new businesses creating jobs that didn’t exist before.  That will lead to economic growth, not only for the region, but for the US in general.
• Staying Open:  This is the easy thing that the workers and politicians would love to have happen.  It’s current, it’s known, it’s not scary.  However, what cars do they make?  How do you expect a company to continue making a vehicle that isn’t being purchased?  Where do those vehicles go?  Nowhere.  They will sit and wear out, prices will be slashed, they will cost more to make than they will get back for selling them.  How is it good for the economy to produce an unneeded good just to keep someone working?  Great, we have 2400 people getting paychecks, but with over inventory of a good, the downward price pressure to liquidate those goods can push down the prices of other goods.  While this may seem  like a great thing to a consumer, it also means that the producer of these goods that now have to be cheaper will, in turn, require their workers to work cheaper.  This is called a “deflationary spiral” and is the opposite of inflation.  Sure, we’d all like lower prices, but only at our current pay.

Mayor Slay goes on to write statement supporting Obama partly because of his stance on trade (NAFTA in particular) and in wanting to punish employers “who send jobs overseas.”  As a, slightly Republican, fiscal conservative, I will admit that I am in fact on the fence still in this election.  I love the inspiration that Obama has given to many people in this country and believe we could really use an inspirational leader in this generation.  However, his economic policies and stance on NAFTA has me almost shrieking with horror.  Over many hundreds of years, trade has allowed this country to become the great country it is.  By trading our valuable goods and services to another country for their valuable goods and services, we are each able to focus on our strengths and have more money and more goods available in both places.

A 2003 report from the Congressional Budget Office shows the effect of NAFTA.  They concluded, that without NAFTA, both US imports and exports would have grown about the same, though slightly less than they had with NAFTA.  It doesn’t appear that there was a rush of all jobs running to Mexico when NAFTA was signed, they were already on the way there according to the study.

I’m not trying to downplay the hardships that will be felt in the short term by those who will be out of work soon in Fenton.  I’ve been unemployd for months at a time myself and it’s no picnic.  However, I’ made it through the short-term impact into a much better place today.  I just really wish, just once, I could hear a politician be honest and say it’s just going to be tough for you, but it will be better for everyone in the long run.  In essence, stop telling people what you think they want to hear, and tell them the truth.

We just made our way back from our family vacation on Monday.  It was 10 days of mostly good family time.  We made a few stops along our way out to Black Mountain, NC for a 5 day family conference on Unschooling.  It was the 7th (and last) Annual Live & Learn Conference.  If you are not familiar with the term Unschooling, which I’m sure very few people are, there is an excellent write-up over at Wikipedia.  We are relatively new to the concept and had a wonderful time meeting and learning from others.  Add to that spending 5, beautiful days in the Smokies and it makes for an even better experience.

While vacation left me thoroughly energized and refreshed, the start-up business I’ve been working on is in the midst of taking off (our first customer is waiting in the wings for us now).  I’m really hoping to get back into writing as I always seem to feel better when I’m writing.  There’s so much to say, but I have to admit, I’ve been paying very little attention to politics and general goings on around St. Louis the past few months.  It’s been more of a vegetative state as I recovered from over working and over teaching earlier this year.

Don’t count me out just yet!