Posted on August 16, 2010
We just returned from Martin’s, our favorite supermarket around here. It’s almost a daily ritual to pick up a few things that fit in our cloth grocery sack. In fact, the sack has the Martin’s logo on it and gets us a nickel off each time we use it.
There are five other supermarkets between Martin’s and our home, but we usually bypass every one of them; and I got to wondering why. Two are certainly larger; one has a better selection of produce; and still another has great chicken dinner specials. But each of these has certain drawbacks as well. The only drawback to Martin’s is that it is the farthest away.
Once there, however, we are always pleased with the friendly and helpful personnel. The grocery carts work without wobbly, off-kilter wheels. And the cashier empties your cart for you as she scans the price, saving at least one handling of each item. There is a great floral department and an equally great wine selection too. About the only thing Martin’s doesn’t offer is film development; but then who uses old-fashioned film any more?
I don’t know what the other supermarkets could do to attract our business. We are not particularly cost-conscious shoppers, so coupons don’t draw us in. We don’t like a store to be so big that we need cell phones to track each other down. And we’d have to go through the learning curve of finding what aisle has the detergent and which one has the cooking oil.
Maybe that’s the real reason we like Martin’s so much. We’ve already got a mental map to work from.
See more 10 Minutes in category Small Town Life
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Posted on August 10, 2010
When I began this blog over six years ago, I decided I would not air family laundry or talk about someone who had disappointed me or even make critical comments (except in the form of political observation). I’d read too many blogs that sounded as if the writer hadn’t considered the possible fallout. Some were vindictive, others inane. Others just boring.
I still feel this way. I really don’t want to complain about a personal matter in a public venue. And, believe me, the Internet is totally a public venue. Think Facebook and Twitter and the other social applications that track one’s daily life.
At the same time, I seem to be in a period of flux in my own world. I’m struggling with a variety of issues that I want to write about. Like changing relationships, adjusting to surgery’s aftermath, becoming older in an increasingly younger society. I have lengthy opinions about each of these in my head, and I want to commit them to future scrutiny.
But what’s the best way? Do I reveal these concerns to the general public, that may or may not really care, or do I continue to write casual essays on my blog and find the time to write the serious stuff behind the scene on my computer? Or do I quit the blog in search of time for serious writing?
I don’t have the answer yet, because I’m not sure how much I want to make public. I still respect family privacy; yet I’m not sure I have the time to blog and write privately. There are already two novels and a variety of essays that are waiting for editing because I haven’t gotten back to them for final review.
See more 10 Minutes in category Things to Ponder, Writing
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Posted on August 9, 2010
Most of the stores I frequent are on the west side of town, while we now live on the east side. So, in the past few months, I have tried a variety of routes to get from the one side to the other. Which is fastest? Which has fewer stoplights? Which is most direct?
My scientific studies have determined that the shortest route with the fewest stop lights runs via Niles Avenue north to Napier, east to Colfax, south to Nickerson, east again to Pipestone, and south to home. It’s not an unpleasant route either. But there is one problem. The stoplight at Nickerson.
No matter what I do, I’ve never made that light. Not even once. And it’s a long red light too.
It used to annoy me. I’d see it change to green way down the road and try to pace myself to edge through before it turned. I’ve raced for it; I’ve dallied. But nothing works. So, I’ve decided to take a different tack. I’m going to see how many times I take this route and am stopped by the light. I figure that eventually the Goddess of Red-Yellow-Green will take pity on me.
See more 10 Minutes in category Things to Ponder
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Posted on August 8, 2010
I went into a local restaurant/gift shop earlier this morning to purchase a food item to go. But first I had to pass a phalanx of what looked like Cinderella costumes, witch costumes, and clerks dressed in ghoulish attire. I edged by shelves of smiling, toothless pumpkins too. Shell shocked, I placed my order with the restaurant hostess. Surely I was seeing things.
When it was time to pay, I questioned the cashier to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. “Am I correct? You’re displaying Halloween items already?” She nodded, took my money, and quietly added: “Yes. And if you look to your left you’ll see Christmas products on display.”
I slowly moved my eyes left, afraid that if I tilted my whole head, some witch would whisk a spell on me and I’d be compelled to buy something Christmasy. Sure enough, there were snowmen and Santas smiling at me. Almost waving. I thanked the cashier and quickly left.
My calendar says it’s the eighth of August. Labor Day has yet to roll around. So has Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day, although I’m sure there are people out there who don’t even know these latter two events. I predict that somewhere in the near future, we won’t recognize Labor Day either. We may not even recognize Thanksgiving. Why? Because retailers are showing their holiday wares earlier and earlier.
I understand the economy is rough and that the end-of-the-year holidays are often when retailers exchange red ink for black. I know because I handle the finances of such a retailer. There’s no question it’s tough out there. At the same time, I’m torn.
When I was young no respectable merchant put up Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving. The retail world took it holiday at a time. And Halloween wasn’t even considered a really big cash-register day. But times have changed. It’s anything goes, and the merchant who gets the merchandise on the floor the earliest may have an advantage. My only question is: Will Fourth of July be next to go? If so, we could be decorating artificial trees in preparation for December 25 instead of enjoying fireworks to honor our Independence Day.
If that happens, I plan to boycott Christmas and New Year’s indefinitely.
See more 10 Minutes in category Special Events, Things to Ponder
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Posted on August 5, 2010
The word ‘mistake’ is rarely used alone, which leads me to believe there are many kinds of them. A minor mistake, for instance, probably has little consequence in the big picture, although it might make you late for a dinner party or cause you to take the wrong turn.
A bad mistake suggests something more dire, as in a stock market decision that goes south. It probably will have some serious consequence; otherwise ‘bad’ wouldn’t come along for the ride.
A serious mistake most definitely has repercussions, make no mistake about it. For instance, having your girlfriend find out you’d had an affair has serious consequences to your relationship just as embezzling funds has serious implications for future employment. For future lifestyle too.
Then there’s the near-mistake, which actually doesn’t happen. But if it did, it would most likely be reclassified as a major mistake. Think of two airplanes sharing the same air space and coming within several hundred feet of each other. If they collide, the near-mistake most likely would turn into a fatal mistake.
I spent much of yesterday recovering from overdoing it at the gym the day before. Every part of my body ached, both inside and out. So I had a lot of time to ponder mistakes. Mine was, in the grand scheme, a minor mistake. Probably no harm done in the long run, but I spent an achy day as a reminder that mistakes usually involve poor judgment or misinformation or a bad choice. And that goes for all kinds of them.
See more 10 Minutes in category Things to Ponder
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Posted on August 3, 2010
I’m sitting in my office staring between the horizontal slats of the blinds on the window. It’s early morning, and I keep the blinds down because I usually arrive at my computer in varying degrees of undress. I don’t want to shock the neighbors this early in the day.
However, the first thing I do when getting out of bed is check “My Life.” You could say I’ve already acknowledged it if I’m able to get out of bed; but by that phrase I mean I review what’s come over the virtual transom since yesterday. There are emails from friends, various work issues (since I work for a company in New York and communicate primarily via Internet), and the uninvited spam. There are also several website to check that are related to my job.
Once I have a picture of the challenges the day might hold, I stare outside. Watch the pond this side of our home faces, waiting for the two fountains to turn on. Search the sky for clues to the weather. Look for the two ducks that have made the pond a temporary home. Breathe the peacefulness.
I end some days like this too. The front of our home faces west, so in high summer there is always a sunset to consider. Last night I sat at the same spot, the blinds still horizontal, which made it look as if pieces of the sun descended, one after the other, into trees on the far side of the pond. I admired every one.
Not every day is as tranquil. Some are crazy; others are non-productive; still others pass with the snap of a finger, and I can’t remember them at all. Is it because “Time flies,” or is it because we don’t always take time to orient ourselves. I don’t know, but I think that’s what I try to do each morning when I check “My Life.”
See more 10 Minutes in category Things to Ponder
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Posted on August 2, 2010
I opened my bookkeeping program, Quickbooks Online, this morning to find the following message: COMING SOON.
Usually when I see this message I’m interested. It means a new restaurant is arriving shortly or a new movie is about to arrive at the local cinema. Maybe even a rock band I want to see.
But when Quickbooks announces that something is coming soon, I tremble. The last “Coming Soon” changed the color of the various pages – no big deal – but it also came with a variety of features that I didn’t like. For instance, there used to be a feature called “Find” with which you could find a particular vendor that you paid on a regular basis. I found it very helpful. However, after “Coming Soon” arrived, I had to click through more pages to get to that feature. In addition, I had to figure out how to do this in the first place. So nothing came any sooner than it did before.
Today COMING SOON screamed at me again. It was followed by the tagline “A refreshing look and customizable menus. Learn more on our blog.”
I feel a primal scream of my own coming on.
First of all, who’s to say what’s refreshing? The fact is I find that once I’ve figured out a way to do something on a computer, I’m pretty content with it. I stop thinking that there could be an easier way. Second of all, customizable menus don’t really appeal to me. See the previous sentences for an explanation. And finally, I don’t want to visit the QB blog to be told what various computer geeks have been up to.
I have nothing against computer geeks; in essence, they rule the world. At the same time, I wish they would leave well enough alone and go solve some of our other social problems.
Posted on August 1, 2010
“Hey, Mom,” my professor son said as we chatted long distance this afternoon. “It’s been thirty years since we did our first marathon.”
Kevin is kind to use the plural “we.” He did all the work; I went along for the ride. Actually, I was the ride since my son was only twelve. I drove him to downtown Chicago where thousands of people lined up along Clark and Dearborn Streets ready to head north. It was a spectacular September day. He stood in the street waiting for the starting gun, while I joined the spectators at the curb.
Once the hoard of runners passed, our plan was that I would jump in my car and, with the aid of a map of the route, drive to Mile Marker 6. I knew how long it would take Kevin to get there, so the challenge was to beat him and be standing at the curb again to cheer him on. Once he passed, I would run to the car and head to another marker. I must have done this four or five times, screaming “Go Kevin Go” when he’d come into view.
I hadn’t thought about the Chicago Marathon in ages until Kevin mentioned it today. Now I recall how exhilarating it was to be at the finish line when he crossed it. It was his first marathon, and he took second place in his age group.
“Fargo’s sponsoring a half-marathon this September,” Kevin said. “I’m thinking of running it. If you come, we can do it together.”
“I can’t run it, Kevin.”
“No, no. I mean you’ll pop up at different mile markers.” Then he added, “It’s strange. I’ll be older than you were when I ran that first one. You’re thirty years older too.”
Reality hits us all in the face from time to time. But I’ll be there if he runs it.
See more 10 Minutes in category Me/Family, Nostalgia, Special Events
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Posted on July 31, 2010
When we moved to our new home we brought the Wacker Drive Water Park with us. We could do no less with this instant family heirloom.
Earl’s son-in-law and grandson secretly absconded; no, appropriated; well, let’s say they rescued a three-foot column of the famous Wacker Drive in Chicago when it was being reconstructed several years back. Who knows where this piece of history would have ended up had they not sprung into action? The following Christmas found it in our living room at our other house.
We took the column, moved it outside in the Spring, and found a top that functioned as a birdbath. The man who mowed our lawn looked after it, since he can do anything with birds, flora, or fauna. Birds bathed and chirped in it regularly.
The WDWP has sat outside under the living room window since we moved, but no birds have visited it. We weren’t sure what we were doing wrong until Earl read an article in yesterday’s paper which, in turn, prompted a visit to a garden shop. Birds need some flat stones in the middle of the birdbath to perch on while they bathe. They also don’t like the water super high. And in the summer it’s important to change it a couple times a week.
This is Day One of the new, improved Wacker Drive Water Park. So far the birds are still skeptical, but they eventually found our feeders; so I’m confident they will eventually begin their daily baths in the water park Earl created just for them.
See more 10 Minutes in category Flora/Fauna
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Posted on July 29, 2010
My name is on a variety of checking accounts. Some are personal, others business related. Either way, I feel compelled each month to balance every one to the penny. In all fairness, I must admit in my business world I have an assistant who does most of the grunt work. Regardless, between the two of us we account for every dollar and dime that filters through the various accounts.
It’s come to my attention that this monthly habit marks me as a dinosaur. I’ve learned that young people today don’t bother with a regular accounting of their spending habits. My son the professor, for instance, never balances his account and takes instead whatever the ATM spews as what he has as working capital. This is foreign to me.
What about the checks he’s written that haven’t been cashed yet? What about any automatic deposits or withdrawals? He doesn’t seem concerned. And the thing is he’s never commented about overdrafts, so this must work for him.
I guess in this day of instant online banking one can always see what’s been cashed or deposited; one can also set up overdraft protection. One can probably hire an assistant banker or some minion to actually balance accounts. Yet, I probably will still plod along with the old-fashioned reconciliation method. Dinosaurs have trouble changing.
See more 10 Minutes in category Changing Scene, Things to Ponder
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