Rah rah rah....

So it's been a long time since I posted to my blog. I'm not sure why. I think it's partly that I haven't felt like I had anything interesting to say for a while.....well, except for some ranting about small-minded people and self-involved jackasses, but no one wants to read that. So I've taken a hiatus. Perhaps two and half years is more than a hiatus but I swear I wasn't in prison or under a psychological hold.

There is a lot going on today that wasn't when I last posted. Some of it is related to others, while some is just the kind of stuff that happens. But I feel like there's one common thread between so much of it. When did we lose sight of the actual work, the actual purpose, the actual job and start viewing everything like a football game? When did everything become about my team beating your team and then end right there? When did we completely abdicate any responsibility for independent, analytical thought and just figure we'll associate with a group and sign on to whatever they tell us? Oh sure, everyone says that they made an independent evaluation and chose the group they agreed with but I've never yet found someone who can actually back that up without resorting to "sound bites" and "talking points" that their group delivered to them.

When is it going to return to "these are the guys we chose to get the job done"? And when are they going to stop reviewing films and practicing for the next game and actually do the job?

I love my country but I don't like it very much anymore.

Ho, Ho, Oh, no.

So I expect that I'll have plenty of family stories to pass along. Most of them have been repressed to the deepest, darkest corners of my mind but they sneak out occasionally to conduct guerrilla raids on my everyday psyche. I apologize for that.

We met my dad for Christmas dinner the Saturday before Christmas this year since we weren't going to be in town on Christmas day. He wanted prime rib (but not too expensive) so we went to a little steakhouse in Orange CA. My wife, Shelle, and I arrived a little early to allow for a few prophylactic cocktails before my dad and sister got there. It's just prudent.

To start, Dad made a typical entrance. Between our arrivals, a small band started playing in the bar by the front door. Our table was on the opposite side of the building from the bar but that didn't stop Dad from loudly announcing that he almost turned around and left when he walked in and heard the band playing. For clarification, my father has several requirements for restaurants:
Don't be too dark
Don't be too loud
Don't serve too much food
We try to take these into account when choosing a place to eat. We are not always successful.

So even though the band could not be heard from our table, we had already failed on one of three requirements and passed on one of three....the place was well-lit. The success of the evening hinged on the size of the portions at this point. We were cautiously optimistic.

The waiter came to take our orders. This is usually a ticklish proposition. Pretty much all opportunities for Dad to interact with the staff have the potential to be problematic. This was not different. The meal came with soup or salad and a choice of one side dish. Dad had decided on the cole slaw for his side dish. When asked if he wanted soup or salad my dad questioned the mental acuity of the server with the statement "Why would I want a salad when I'm already having salad?" This quickly degenerated into a salad-based quagmire of semantics until I lost my patience and loudly proclaimed the obvious "Just have the soup then!". Naturally I was completely out of line. But we got our meals ordered.

At this point the real fun started. Dad mentioned that somewhere in his neighborhood someone had an electric motor that was interfering with the 25 year old AM clock radio in his kitchen. He listens to that radio all day long but especially in the morning and the evening. And this unknown motor was causing static for 30 second every five minutes for several hours every morning and evening. He was very upset about this so he....wait for it.....called the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC. Apparently the poor person at the FCC asked what my dad wanted them to do about the inteference. He naturally told them that he wanted them to come out and find out what was going on....I believe he was expecting a phalanx of Black SUVs to invade the neighborhood with teams of Ray-ban wearing, windbreaker clad G-men kicking in doors and perhaps spiriting the offender off to Guantanamo or Cairo or Leavenworth. You can imagine my father's disappointment when the FCC Rep told my father that they don't actually do residential field investigations.

So my father told us he was calling his Congressman on Monday.

And he had the soup.

You can't instigate growth by building homes

Prior to the last election I attended a debate by several of theReno city council candidates (incumbents and challengers) at the Nevada Museum of Art. When the question was posed as to the candidates plans to expand and enhance the local working economy, the only thing mentioned was a JOB FAIR. Really? That's the best they can do. There was no comment or discussion on targeting different industries, attracting new business or encouraging expansion. The only thing mentioned was having a job fair - the economic growth equivalent of a bake sale. All of this development is going to be nothing but a drag on our economy if we don't increase the business base of the city. If half the effort and incentives that are given to developers was applied to attracting industry we would have a stronger more reliable economic and job base that would be more than enough of an attraction to the developers. A community of second homes and speculation buyers dies at the whim of the markets. One based on people earning a good living and participating their community is inherently healthier. Do I think that the City of Reno is moving in the right direction under the guidance of the existing City Council? No. I don't think they have a clue.

Holiday Miss

Well I didn't want to kick this off on a downbeat but it just worked out that way. I just finished the 20th Christmas since my mom passed away. For the most part, it doesn't really bother me. But this year was demonstrably different. I don't know why.

There wasn't anything significantly different this year. I got to spend the day at home with my wife and dogs instead of driving around the western US visiting extended family. Perhaps that lack of diversion was part of it. I was suffering with a nasty head cold that I don't usually have for Christmas so maybe that limited my distractions as well. I think that part of it was that we were just so busy this year that we didn't do much that was Christmasy either. The lights on the house didn't go up until Dec 18th. We bought our tree on the 16th but didn't decorate it until Christmas Eve. I didn't get out to do any shopping until the 24th - but had a very successful shopping excursion then. We wrapped presents on Christmas Eve and didn't put them out until Christmas morning (we didn't want to dogs to get a taste for wrapping paper.)

So there was nothing wrong with our Christmas. Nothing at all. But I'm a 41 year old man and I sure missed my mom this year.

I am here to report that I have nothing to report.

More later.