Looking Foreward

So far this year winter weather and its problems have not hit our area. The storms that have brought so much grief to the country have gone around us and we have enjoyed a relatively mild winter. Whether this will change in the year to come I don’t know, but for the moment I’ll enjoy not having to shovel snow or endure the frigid breezes that Kansas loves to boast about.

Growing up in the New York City area I remember some of the winter storms of the 1940’s and 50’s that exceeded in depth the storm that is presently shutting the city down. Expectations were not as high and people usually coped with problems, helped their neighbor and survived the problem as best they could. My father was a superintendent with the subway system and I recall the problems he had that required his crews to hand shovel the surface portion of the line so the trains could run. It was a hard and thankless job but that was the way life was and people just endured until things got back to normal.

Today there is an attitude change and people react strongly to anything that upsets their perception of personal comfort and impacts their sense of self importance. So the action of the New York City Sanitation Department during and after last week’s snow storm doesn’t surprise me.

Sanitation Dept. trucks are used to plow snow when necessary and are, in my opinion, a prudent use of resources in a crowded city. But management of this city agency and the sanitation workers union are upset over budgetary constraints in these recessionary times and they ordered their crews to not plow “side streets” because it increases gas usage. They thought their actions would upset citizens, and lead to restoration of funding and it most definitely did upset people, but their plans went awry when someone spilled the beans and the reason for not plowing became apparent.

I believe that unions are an important part of society, but I also believe that the social contract demands equality and denying residents a service they pay for with taxes is an act bordering on criminality. I (hopefully) look forward to termination of management staff and possible decertification of the union. But I’m not holding my breath.

Consequences

When Barak Obama entered the White House he was upset to find a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office. His reaction to this gift from the British Government was to order it returned to the Brits because, for some reason the bust of Churchill affronted him. When he was told that the bust was gift from the British people to the American people he still insisted that it be removed and returned to the Brits. So much for protocol and international relations and today the bust is on temporary duty at the British Embassy in Washington.

Skip forward two years and the Brits are planning a royal wedding and are inviting heads of state from most of the world to attend. Most, that is, except for the President of the United States. So much for that shopping trip that Mrs. Obama might have been anticipating.

Christmas 2010

Luke 2: 8-14

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Words worth remembering: Peace on earth, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas,  to all

Thoughts around Christmas

My Lady is at her new job and two thousand miles away so Christmas this year will be lonely. But it’s not the first time this has happened to us. I’ve spent holiday seasons on deployment and one year driving a truckload of household goods during a relocation move. But it still brings an ache to reach out to touch and remember that no one is there. At least we have the phone and the Internet to bring us together.

For the past week the weather weenies have been talking about the massive winter storm that was forming in the Pacific. After it hammered California it was supposed to come east and bring lots of snow just in time for Christmas.

The storm arrived as scheduled and deposited the much proclaimed snow to a depth of about a quarter of an inch. In defense of the weatherman I can only assume that it spent all its energy bringing floods to the California coast and multiple feet of snow to the mountains west of here. While I can have sympathy for everybody trying to dig out I’m happy that it won’t be me wielding a snow shovel this Christmas.

Christmas Wish List

Admit it, most of us have a secret Christmas Wish List…a collection of undeclared dream items that we reveal only to our inner self. Unless of course you are writing a blog and need inspiration to fulfill the commitment you made to yourself to write a lively and interesting web diary.

My secret Christmas Wish List starts off with a desire for a personal time machine. That will take me back to the 1940’s when life was simpler, cheaper and a crisis was a flat tire on my bicycle. When people sat outside on a summer evening and quietly talked about the events of the day and hailed their neighbor walking down the street. Ice cream cones melting in your hand and Cracker Jacks at 5 cents a box.

I look back with fondness on those halcyon days but I suspect that my parents would describe that period in their lives in harsher terms. There was still the mortgage to pay, balancing wages and expenses was no less a struggle than it is today and manifest destiny had the country in the middle of armed conflict.

As I write down and strike items off my Christmas List I finally realize that what I really want are good memories of than and now and hope for future generations to have opportunity to have the same kind of wish list I’m building for my secret self.

On This Date

One hundred ninety nine years ago the first of a series of earthquakes that we now call the New Madrid Earthquake caused enough damage that for a period the Mississippi River ran backwards. There were about 2,000 earthquakes during this event lasting well into 1812. Five of these quakes were measured at 8.0 or greater.

It might surprise many people but the 120 mile long New Madrid Fault is the highest earthquake risk area in the US out side the West Coast and experiences more than 200 events each year. While damaging earthquakes are not as frequent as on the West Coast, when damaging earthquakes do occur the impact area is about 20 times larger because of the underlying geology.  The fault is located in the middle of the North American Tectonic Plate rather then along the tectonic plate interface the are the source of most earthquakes around the globe. A major earthquake of say 7.5 magnitude scale  appears to happen every 200-300 years so statistically we are highly vulnerable to a major event.

Earthquake, Flood, Storm all will impact your life, take time to prepare a family emergency plan and create an emergency supply kit. Contact your local emergency management office or FEMA for suggestions on what your kit and plan should contain.

Praise for the Written Word

          I deal with a lot of people who are in conflict over an agreement that they have with some one else. It can be a business agreement, a relationship issue or even what essentially is a  barter agreement is. The common factor I see is that they each believe that they have agreed to  something but  in fact they each misunderstood what they had agreed to.

            A recent example was a verbal agreement between two guys who had agreed to exchange work on dry walling a house in exchange for repair to a work truck. It would have worked out except the after the dry wall work was done the fellow kept adding to the repair work, first his truck and then his wife’s car. After some 18 months the deal fell apart when the otherparty decided “enough is enough”.

            That’s when I got called into the fray, trying to get both parties to agree that there has to be a limit to work performed under a verbal understanding that had no termination. All of which illustrates my point that whenever you agree to do something for or with another party you need to reflect your understanding of what was said with a written document. It doesn’t have to be a formal contract…it can be as simple as a note stating your understanding of the situation and what you believe you have agreed to do.

            By reflecting your thoughts in writing you reduce confusion and formalize wour thoughts and in the long run reduce your chances that you will have to sit down with a mediator or stand before a judge attempting to explain why you got into the position of neither party knowing what the other party understood the agreement to be.