why not post a feel good story from your town and revive the spirit that made this country frickin awesome!
Were I grew up the local paper reported good things that happened in our community, lets see what happens with this.
This is a recent column in the local paper by a friend of mine, inspired by a fund raiser at our local pub (Howie, Dietrich & Hoyden might remember The Raven Cafe from their various visits here) for another friend & huge booster of local arts who's battling some serious health issues and the resulting bills. Politics here in a large town/small city can get pretty feisty, and because it's a small community there's no way to avoid it becoming personal.
Tom's column is a reminder that, in spite of all the rancor on the surface, this is a community that can come together spectacularly when someone is in need:
http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=1120&ArticleID=92931&TM=80998.56 (http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=1120&ArticleID=92931&TM=80998.56)
I live in the country, every morning just before the dawn, the birds are chirping , they must be happy. How do they know it's time to get up ? Yesterday morning a Cardinal ( Red bird ) was chirping it's head off and it was still dark at 5:50 am.
All the Forest creatures have stirred from their Winter daze, although it's done nothing but Rain , Rain , and Storm, the animals don't seem to let it get them down...just we Humans.
All the Flowers are blooming as if the Sun were shining , the Trees are all greening up even though the Sun refuses to shine.
Somewhere out there in the Forest is a bunch of Morel Mushrooms just waiting to be picked for a wonderful meal if they aren't under water.
If the Sun would shine it would be so beautiful out doors one might be tempted to take photos or write a poem.
The Earth is once again awakened from a very long Winter's sleep and put on her best attire , now all we need is some Sun to make us all forget the 5 long months of cold , Snow and Ice.
The Story is written , the Players are in place , the Orchestra is tuned to perfection, The Crowd has gathered, please Sun make your appearance ...oh...Friday you'll be in the area.....just for one day ....then back to ......the Rain.
I'd better have my Camera ready and my bike ready to go........you promised !
Dolph
I don't know whats going on over here in jolly olde England but the weather has been fantastic this month, it can't last.. [bang] but its a joy to be alive and as Dolph points out spring really has sprung... [thumbsup]
[coffee]
Quote from: geoffduc on April 24, 2011, 11:39:07 PM
I don't know whats going on over here in jolly olde England but the weather has been fantastic this month, it can't last.. [bang] but its a joy to be alive and as Dolph points out spring really has sprung... [thumbsup]
[coffee]
ah ha!
so you make the beast with two backsers stole spring
give it back
Blimey Jacob I didn't realize that we where having your good weather... :-[
Over here in the UK we're frightened to mention the weather if its good because it never lasts long... [bang]
You just have to make the most of it when it happens... [thumbsup] just ask Erica... ???
Anyway don't worry you'll soon have it back... ;) ;)
[coffee]
BTW hope you all had a great Easter... [moto]
we're rather stingy with any good weather we get here
being the bering strait's toilet and all
Quote from: DoubleEagle on April 24, 2011, 10:14:01 PM
I live in the country, every morning just before the dawn, the birds are chirping , they must be happy. How do they know it's time to get up ? Yesterday morning a Cardinal ( Red bird ) was chirping it's head off and it was still dark at 5:50 am.
All the Forest creatures have stirred from their Winter daze, although it's done nothing but Rain , Rain , and Storm, the animals don't seem to let it get them down...just we Humans.
All the Flowers are blooming as if the Sun were shining , the Trees are all greening up even though the Sun refuses to shine.
The Story is written , the Players are in place , the Orchestra is tuned to perfection, The Crowd has gathered, please Sun make your appearance ...oh...Friday you'll be in the area.....just for one day ....then back to ......the Rain.
Quite poetic [clap].
I too live in the country. So I "get" the picture you paint. Even though in my part of the countryside its autumn... and winter can already be heard tuning up backstage.
Quote from: ungeheuer on April 26, 2011, 03:29:42 AM
and winter can already be heard tuning up backstage.
Leonard Cohen fan?
We've got so much rain, my secret Morel patch is underwater. Hopefully this weather will straighten out and allow some of those wonderful fungi to pop up.
Unfortunately the town I currently live in has morphed from a great, authentic (semi-shabby/with nice areas) forgotten and overlooked waterfront community of the 1970's ,
to a destination community for the wealthy, semi-wealthy and otherwise "entitled types" who think they "have arrived" and now need this zip code to prove it
grand old houses on large lots are being torn down daily and for each one demolished, 2 pink brick McMansions are sprouting up in their place ......like mushrooms on a shit pile after an August rain storm...the people drive fabulous cars, live in oversized custom-built dwellings and are miserable angry sorts
I had one try to cut in front of me in line at the bank, she explained that "she was in a hurry"...I explained so am I,, I am older than you and have less time left so get behind me
the old sand pits and large tracts of undeveloped areas are now golf courses
we went from 2 topless joints in the 1970's to zero....the old shot & beer joints are now theme dining....but we have added 6 or more health clubs...where these desperate assholes hop on exercycles and treadmills like make the beast with two backsing gerbils... frantically trying to out-pedal or outrun their age and their assured demise
the town is now emblematic off all the things that are making this country less than awesome
we are all about saving Darfur...but we lay into the horn if the old lady who lives at the end of the street is taking too long to cross in front of us...oh we are so very make the beast with two backsing special here now
we need a big tsunami to hit the north shore of this island
THAT would be a good news story...
following the one announcing my move south of course
Sorry to hear it, Rat. It may not be in your town, but I hope it's still the case that there will always be great neighborhoods that most real estate agents are scared to show houses in - like ours. I've lived in some marginal places in Manhattan & DC, and I have to laugh out loud when I see people physically shudder when I tell them where I live. Sorry, Presskit, you don't have a "rough" part of town worthy of the name.
Instead, our neighborhood spent Sunday with folks from up and down the block helping our neighbor Johanna empty out a garage that had been stacked to the joists by her late partner, who was a great friend of mine and, as I've discovered since his death, more than a little bit of a hoarder. I recruited our new neighbor renting the tiny house across the alley to come look at an old motor that was stashed under a stairwell - Bill's a nice young guy who works at a local automotive machine shop. He and his girlfriend just moved in & I don't know him well beyond chatting about the V-8 he's been fighting to shoehorn into an old Chevy truck - the swap (for an I-6 with a cracked block) went well, but he's got limited free time to clean up all hour-eating details that go with re-configuring the engine bay.
He could have said no, I've got to get my work truck sorted; instead, he and Hannah came over and pitched in all afternoon at Johanna's garage; before all was finished, I discovered Tom had a fondness for old Chrysler V-8s that I never knew - in addition to the complete 318 under the stairwell, we uncovered another pile of heads and two more 340 short blocks, one of which had been prepped for a hot-rod rebuild and then left under a tarp to rust. He offered to help Johanna figure out what - if anything - those and the boxes of old carburetors, pistons & connecting rods might be worth. Then he offers to haul a load of trash, and the next thing you know his work truck (complete with the open headers & the impossibly short clutch linkage that he was going to spend the day addressing) is overflowing with rolls of musty carpet and other assorted junk. All this for a neighbor they'd never even met before that afternoon.
But maybe it is too good to last; later that afternoon, I went across the alley with a token 6-pack of thanks and watched as a new, black sportscar turned down our dead-end street. Bill, I said, that might very well be the first Maserati that's ever rolled down Campbell Street.
My town doesn't have a dead dog in its resevoir like the town next to mine does. From the looks of it, its been there a long while.
My town has a gun club with 24 hour access, that I just joined. Other than I can't think of much to say nice about it.
Quote from: triangleforge on April 26, 2011, 09:54:48 AM
Sorry to hear it, Rat. It may not be in your town, but I hope it's still the case that there will always be great neighborhoods that most real estate agents are scared to show houses in - like ours. I've lived in some marginal places in Manhattan & DC, and I have to laugh out loud when I see people physically shudder when I tell them where I live. Sorry, Presskit, you don't have a "rough" part of town worthy of the name.
well the other town is asheville and that is another story...it is home.... people act like neighbors...if you're out digging a ditch someone will come by and ask if you have an extra shovel...there is a sense of community rather than a sense of competition....seems folks are far more interested in who you are as opposed to what you have down there....maybe because folks don't have all that much in my part of the town....
I am the last person on my street up here to still cut his own lawn...I do it out of spite...they hate my motorcycles....they hate that I bought my house ages ago when they were dirt cheap....I am one of those "legacy people" that they can't get rid off fast enough because I think they are a joke with all their petty conceits and pretensions
Everyone up here in NY metro still has their Obama stickers still on their cars....and their "think globally-act locally" stickers on their Hummers....limo-liberal country....but I guaran-make the beast with two backsing-tee you if I parade a black family or two up the front walk on a Sunday when I put this dwelling on the market....one of my pissed-off neighbors will come over with their check book asking me how much I want....
The town was known as Cow Bay for centuries,,,, then it was re-named Port Washington in honor of George.....I suggested to my real estate broker neighbor whose husband works for big time financial brokerage the other week that it should be re-named again to Port Kardashian...since that seems to be everyones aspiration, hero and role model
she didn't "get-it".....I am so overdue to get back down South
The view from my room is this....
Trees in bloom and an old man is playing with his black lab across the street in the park.The swingset is empty now the young lady with two sprogs has gone home in search of lunch and a clean diaper for her youngest.The sky is a mix of blue and clouds with rain threatening. I live in a 1950's neighborhood with mostly 3 bedroom 1000-1200 sq feet homes. The yards range from immaculate to I dont give a shit, cars park occasionally on the street, most in their own driveway. The immediate neighbours are steller people with the exception of the asshat who has two dogs that constantly bark that lives next door. I live with a super guy who is kind and thoughtful, he gives the post,garbage and meter readers cards at xmas. We mostly know our neighbours here, its feels like a proper neighborhood should ...Kids, a park, people say hi and shoot the shit not each other. Its nice. In the 30th largest city in America with a population of around 2.5 million I have found a decent place to live and call home.
Thanks America, for letting me stay and play. [thumbsup]
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/5659539402_b25b1bdf13_b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23081877@N02/5659539402/)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a295/giacco/home.jpg)
(http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/large_wingfoot%20park%20blims.jpg)
Akron is pretty cool if you like old, shuttered factories and/or watching blimps.
(http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/217242_194118423965560_100001022103264_543379_3456966_n.jpg)