?`s and ANNEswers

Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

World Series?

Posted on October 22, 2005

I am as excited as the next Chicago person that the south side White Sox are in the World Series. I hope they win. I even hope they win in four games. But I take issue with the name of the championship the team is seeking.

How can it be called the World Series when only United States and Canadian teams play for the honor? Doesn’t the name ‘World Series’ suggest that the owner of the title has battled other teams around the world to get to Number One? Or Numero Uno? Or Nombre Un? I think it does.

I realize baseball is not a universal sport at this time; consequently, we shouldn’t act as if it is. So I propose the title of the championship be renamed to the North American Championship Series or some other similar title. As other countries embrace baseball, if they do, we can change the title to reflect the growing interest in the sport worldwide.

Calling it the North American Championship Series in no way minimizes the accomplishment. What it does do is define it for what it is, rather than bloat it to the rest of the world. There is no shame in being the best on a continent rather than pretending to be the best in the world.

Go Sox!

See more 10 Minutes in category , | Leave a comment

Limbo

Posted on October 21, 2005

Limbo is a state of suspended animation; you’re neither here nor there. And that’s what Chicago’s White Sox have been in all week, waiting to see whom they will play in the World Series (a truly misnomered championship, but that’s another essay!)

Last night they, and their hoards of fans, learned that the Houston Astros will be the White Sox opponents. But we’re still in limbo; and I suspect it has to do with prime time television. The first game of the 2005 World Series isn’t scheduled until Saturday night.

Forget that the teams’ pitchers might go cold with inactivity; forget that years ago baseball used to be over long before now; forget that weather is a spoiler. At this point, it’s all about how many people tune in to the appropriate channel, how many advertisers a network can line up, and how much revenue can be produced. It really doesn’t have much to do with baseball.

That’s too bad.

I recently wrote about Mr. Orange Arms, who is a shadow player in college football. Whenever he comes on the field at a game, play stops so that the networks that are televising the particular game can get their commercials in. I alluded then that teams have to wait, pace their energy, and perhaps stop in the middle of a play to accommodate commercials.

The baseball limbo seems to be the same kind of thing. Which leads me to think that the good old days, when you listened to radio to get your thrill and the play continued even if there had to be a break, really were good. Baseball and college football were played in real time, rather than in the artificial construct of prime time TV. There was no limbo then.

See more 10 Minutes in category , , , | Leave a comment

Trivia

Posted on October 20, 2005

By definition, trivia is trivial. It’s those small details that stick in the mind like flies on flypaper. Yet, there are some things I’ve learned in our bathroom remodeling project that are small details, but which are anything but trivial. Rather, they are the specifics you need to know if you want to get the project right.

Items to ponder:

1. When you are tearing out walls, it helps to know if they are plaster or drywall.


2. It also helps to close the heat registers and cold air returns throughout the construction area, so that the dust doesn’t permeate the rest of your house. (Unfortunately, we missed this detail and had to have a cleaning service come in to clean every item we owned . . . by hand.)


3. You need to find a tile for your shower and tub that has a bullnose. I chose a floor tile that I wanted to also use over the tub, but floor tile doesn’t usually have a bullnose. So I had to go back to the drawing board.


4. Drywall, the layman’s term, is also called greenboard, backerboard, or sheetrock. They have specific purposes.


5. The best decisions are made at the front end. The more you plan, measure, and determine where lights, mirrors, vanities are going, the less the frustration later.


6. In Michigan, if it’s a good day to go fishing it’s possible your crew will not show up on time.


7. It’s important to know exactly how many inspectors are needed to sign off on any rough-in work. Otherwise, if you move ahead without getting some inspector’s permission, you run the risk of tearing everything out.

I’m sure there are other important details I’ve learned, but I think this list suffices to prove my point. That is, you have to separate the trivia from the crucial, regardless of the project.

See more 10 Minutes in category | Leave a comment

Passion

Posted on October 19, 2005

According to Mr. Gay Hendricks, author of A Year of Living Consciouslyё your passion is something you do that makes you lose track of time. It is so fulfilling that it never feels like work. Since reading Hendricks’ theory, I’ve thought about what my passions might be. What do I lose myself in? Taking it further, what makes a day feel complete?

It’s fair to say my passion clusters around two primary activities: creating and organizing. And I manifest each in a variety of ways.

Take creating. I’m always tinkering with words, trying to learn piano, working on a crocheting project, and attempting a new recipe. All of these are creative endeavors in my book, especially because I cannot leave written instructions alone. When the piano piece calls for a certain key, I’m prone to play its sharp or flat cousin. When a recipe calls for something I don’t like or stock, I choose a substitute. It’s a given that I need to add, subtract, or otherwise alter to make something my very own. (This is not to say that everything I change turns out for the better.)

Take organizing. I’m always grouping, planning, managing people, data, and ideas. Who knows, maybe I’m just a meddler; but I love to structure plans and projects so that they run smoothly. On time and in budget, as the current saying goes. (Again, I don’t always succeed.)

The truth is my days fly by. I suspect some of this is due to age, but I’m hoping just as much is due to my filling the time with passion instead of obligation. If your days don’t fly by, maybe you want to evaluate what’s missing.

See more 10 Minutes in category | Leave a comment

Re-Evaluation

Posted on October 18, 2005

Ten days ago, give or take, I wrote about our going to the South Shore Club each morning to shower while our own showers are inoperable. In so many words, I said that the SSC would never really compete with a health club Earl and I belonged to during our Chicago days.

That’s still true. At the same time, I’m learning the benefits of SSC and beginning to feel at home there. I am even considering keeping my membership after my bathrooms at home are functional again.

People at the SSC seem friendlier and less concerned about their image than they did at Chicago’s East Bank Club. In turn, I feel more welcomed, since I have never been particularly athletic. And I hardly have a workout wardrobe that screams “Look at me.” In fact, people at SSC don’t “dress” in full regalia and make-up to work out either. Instead, they look sleepy, maybe even a little resistant to morning.

So I’m adjusting to easing out of a warm bed, putting on my clothes, and driving five miles down the road to shower. At the same time, I’ve moved my daily walking routine from the road in front of our house to a treadmill. There are no cars to careen by me, no pebbles to jump into my shoe, no winds to contend with.

Which means I’m actually exercising harder and longer before I hit the shower.

See more 10 Minutes in category , | Leave a comment

Endurance

Posted on October 17, 2005

I’m tired tonight. Tired of the whole remodeling project going on in my house, tired of other people traipsing through it, and tired of their using the one remaining half bath or pounding away while I try to work.

At the end of a big project, people often say, “Well, if I knew then what I know now, I’m not sure I would have done it in the first place.” This applies to getting married, having children, changing careers, moving across country, building or remodeling a house. They are all on-the-job training sorts of things.

As for me, what I say is that I wish I had done this earlier and gotten it behind us, so that we would already have been enjoying our fancy bathrooms. Instead we put it off, thinking maybe the next owner would tackle the four inch tiles that dominated both bathrooms on the floors and ceilings.

But as time passed, we decided we wanted to update those bathrooms, not so we could sell the house at a better price but so we could stay here and enjoy the comforts that updating a room can bring.

The truth is we’re on schedule; and demolition, the worst part of everything, is behind us. Now it’s just forging along to the finish line, which is probably another three weeks away. We can do it; in fact there is no other choice at this point. But I would caution anyone who takes on a big project to consider not only the time and money involved but also the endurance factor.

And this applies equally to getting married, having children, changing careers etc. too.

See more 10 Minutes in category | Leave a comment

Tradesmen

Posted on October 16, 2005

There’s been a parade of tradesmen through my house lately as we remodel our bathrooms; and, even though they have different jobs to do, they all act pretty much alike.

For the most part, they arrive around eight in the morning, forming a ring of trucks in our driveway. It looks as if some wagon master has commanded the familiar circular formation in anticipation of Indians coming over the hill.

They all wear jeans and ugly, hard toed shoes. They are oblivious to mud and dirt and traipse around the back of the house to where we’ve built a ramp that enables them to walk up to our deck and enter the Construction Zone from our master bedroom sliding door.

Everyone hauls his own tools, as if not bringing the right one to the job site and having to borrow someone else’s is the sure sign of an apprentice. The plumber would never ask the electrician for a wrench or hammer. So at the end of the day, there’s a sorting of items that were pulled from various toolboxes by one person or another and then dropped to the floor for his possible future use.

Cell phones hang from every belt. And each one brings his own coffee thermos and cigarettes too, although I haven’t hung around during a break to see if these things are also off limits for sharing. At least they all know instinctively not to smoke in my house.

At quitting time they disappear, some saying goodbye while others race off. I sneak into the Construction Zone and take one last look at the day’s progress.

See more 10 Minutes in category | Leave a comment

Differently Abled

Posted on October 15, 2005

While deconstruction and reconstruction pushed on around me, I needed a break from the dust and dirt of my present lifestyle. So I started reading The Ha-Ha, a first novel by Dave King. The title itself was enough to draw me in; and, no, it isn’t about some funny joke.

A ha-ha is a rather obscure gardening term used to describe a boundary wall, which is hidden so well that it doesn’t obstruct a panoramic view.

But my essay isn’t really about a gardening term or even about the story’s plot line. It’s about how author King solves a problem that has baffled many. Quick! What word comes to mind when I ask: What do you call someone with a physical, mental, emotional, or intellectual handicap? Are they disabled? Challenged? Disadvantaged? Incapacitated? Handicapped?

Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in the mid-nineteen nineties, so I supposed the official governmental phrase is disabled. However, the National Library of Medicine cross references this with the term ‘handicapped.” Linguists will argue about the nuances of both words forever, while psychologists will consider the emotional effects. That’s just for starters.

Howard, the main character in The Ha-Ha, is unable to speak due to severe injuries he received in Vietnam. At one point in the book, he volunteers to help with a summer baseball team. Robin, a friend of his, provides introductions between him and Ed, the coach. “Hey, Ed,” she says, “did you know Howard’s differently abled? He doesn’t talk much but don’t treat him like he’s an idiot, okay? He could be the smartest one here, you never know.”

Differently abled.

I read and reread the phrase again and again. What I liked was that ‘differently abled’ suggested a positive, rather than a negative, approach to the very person it described. It didn’t focus on what he couldn’t do; instead Robin let the coach know Howard could hold his own.

I thank Dave King not only for writing his novel, but also for creating a phrase that deserves public attention. I suggest we all start using it and see what happens.

See more 10 Minutes in category , | Leave a comment

School Bus

Posted on October 13, 2005

Our new routine is to get up each morning and go to the health club before dawn. Around here dawn comes late, so I’m pulling out of my garage about seven. As I turn the corner onto Bacon School Road I see three students huddling together in the dark, waiting for the school bus. Further up the road giant headlights lumber toward them and me.

School busses have always reminded me of egg cartons on wheels and their young passengers, each seated one behind the other, are the eggs that need to be transported ever so carefully.

The boxy orange bus passes me on the way to pick up its cargo, and I hug the edge of the road to give it room. Up ahead is another egg carton, traveling in the same direction that I am; and I follow it for about three miles. I’m thinking I need to leave at a different time, since the school is on the route to the health club; and I could experience this pattern Monday through Friday.

I watch the bus flash its lights and make all the traffic behind it stop. I’m amazed that children are climbing onto busses so early, but when Boxy Orange and I arrive at the school it’s pulsing with activity. Busses are pulling in one driveway, stopping in front of the school, emptying, and then pulling out the other driveway. Everything is done in shadows, and I wonder if school actually starts before the sun comes up.

As the bus that led my line of traffic pulls into the schoolyard, I continue on my way, recalling that the only time I ever rode a school bus was in first grade.

See more 10 Minutes in category , | Leave a comment

Harriet

Posted on October 12, 2005

I’m confused about Harriet. As in Harriet Miers.

She is President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court to replace outgoing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. By many accounts, she is a fine lawyer; by equally many accounts there is little record of how she would side on important issues. This seems to be a frustrating factor for right-wing conservatives. It could be frustrating for liberals too.

Her main claim to being a Supreme Court Justice seems to be that she has worked long and hard for President Bush. So I wonder, is this a patronage job being offered? If so, it’s out of line. The Supreme Court of the United States is not a patronage position; it is a lifetime obligation. Even though any sitting President has the right to nominate his (or one day her) person of choice, it shouldn’t be on the basis of loyalty; rather it should be because of that person’s legal acumen.

My personal opinion, due to time restriction based on television exposure to the situation, is that Bush should withdraw this nomination and seek someone else. I say this as a liberal, knowing that some other nominee might tilt the Roe vs. Wade controversy even further toward the right wing. But I do it in the belief that we need the best judges on the Supreme Court rather than political appointments.

In other words, what we don’t need are hangers-on.

See more 10 Minutes in category , | Leave a comment