Hello on Wednesday Morning

Dear Friends,

Our day went as planned except for one bump along the way.

The REAM luncheon went very well. Linda did have to warn me to stop babbling at certain times during the meeting. Our guest speaker was excellent. He was a former teacher, Principal of a local high school in a neighboring town, and a Juvenile court judge who was forced to retire at age 70 because of an age requirement. He had a very difficult time during his first year of retirement, but is starting to adapt quite well during his retirement. He told several stories of the children 16 and under who came into his chambers whom he had to deal with. One story that really hit home for me was a 16 year old girl who had twins, and didn’t know how to take care of them. When social services went into the home, they found that the twins’ bottoms were raw and full of rashes. The 16 year old would party with her friends until 1 or 2 AM, and she would sleep until noon or later, and she would leave her children unattended. The children’s diapers weren’t changed that often which caused the problem. Her parents couldn’t help because her father was in State prison serving a 20 year term. The girl’s mother was out of the picture, and had her own drug related issues. Social services removed the twins from the home.
Among these not so happy situations, there were some success stories. This judge introduced Shakespeare to these youthful offenders. The Judge would offer a choice of participating in the Shakespeare program or choosing to be locked up. The children who did choose Shakespeare often ended up feeling good about themselves, and sometimes turned around their destructive behavior. The Judge did say that he, like many of us teachers, have former children who he has dealt with come up and thank him for turning around their lives. These “Thank you’s“ would take place at the Mall, or on the streets in general. The Judge has always kept his name and address in the telephone book, and he often gets telephone calls from people who were the success stories.

While on the way home from the meeting, I noticed that the Kia didn’t have an inspection sticker on it. We have been driving for three weeks without a sticker. Linda went back to the dealer and told them of the situation. The young kid who sold us the car was jokingly chastised, and his coworkers said that he would have paid any fines if we had gotten stopped by the police.
While Linda was doing her thing, I cut our lawn.

By the time she arrived home, she a little time to check the e-mails before we headed off to the Pittsfield Irish Sister City meeting. This is where a bump in the road occurred. During the meeting a verbal discussion got heated, and our President said that he was resigning his position. He picked up his things, and walked out of the meeting. The thirteen of us who were left finished the meeting, and tried to figure out what we should do next. We are hoping that our friend might rethink his decision.
The thirteen of us decided to still have the Annual Meeting on November 9, 2010 at our house.
I can’t go into details of what happened because I don’t want it to come back and bite me.
I get myself in enough trouble by what I say in my e-mails. Three or four times a week, Linda tells me that I shouldn’t have said this or that in my e-mails. You have to remember that Linda is from the school of “Don’t make waves!” She doesn’t like conflicts. She wants harmony in all things. I am from the school of conflict. I like to stir up the pot, and get people fired up on a particular issue.

5 of 13 members went over to Patrick’s Pub for some food and beverages after the meeting ended, and we discussed what our next move should be.


I am going to end this e-mail, and do the minutes of last evening’s meeting. Since the minutes go directly to the members of the Pittsfield Irish Sister Committee, I will have to report on what caused our President to get up and walk out the door. Linda wants to see the minutes which I prepare before I send them off to the members.

Social Calendar – Linda doesn’t have to leave the house until her knitting group meets at 6:00 PM at Panera Bread. I have an 8:45 AM eye doctor appointment. I hope that they can find out why I am having trouble focusing in one eye. I think that cataract surgery might be the only way to solve the problem. Linda had hers done when she was in her mid 50’s. Isn’t the aging process delightful?
Besides my eye appointment, Linda asked me if I had other things to do so she could be left alone, and not have to engage in any of my projects. “Separation is good” is starting to be a chapter in Linda’s playbook too.

It is 33.6 degrees on the north side of our house. I hope that our begonias survived the cool temperatures during the night.

Have a great Wednesday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad