Monday Recap

MANY OUTSTANDING MOMENTS during Granpda Weekend. Aiden hangin' with Huck; like Rick and Louis at the end of Casablanca, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The heart-melting smile the first time the little cowboy turned the light switch off by himself (it doesn't take much to entertain a 10 month old). The classic Bubblebath/Rubber Ducky Hour to bring a quiet end to each day. But for this extended four-day weekend, nothing topped the precursor to yesterday's mid-morning nap. 10:30 hits and like clockwork, a rabid case of the "crankies" set in...imagine Chucky having a really bad day. But a diaper change and a chilled bottle of 2010 Infamil Private Reserve...which usually sends him right into Sandmanland and...Mr. Cranky Pants still wants more. So, I fix him another bottle and when I return, he's not the least bit interested; instead, perfectly content to lay in my arms and have me rock him to sleep with a couple of less-than-stellar James Taylor covers, Long Ago and Far Away and Sweet Baby James. Fortunately, the lad has no musical ear yet, so my ick-apella lullabys were enough to put him to sleep...and I got to walk around the rest of the day with a case of the uber-warm fuzzies...

THE OSCARS FOR this family is as follows: didn't watch it, weren't all that interested in who won. I remember back in the days when Oscar Night was a "big" deal; in fact maybe the first actual "Must See TV". Mostly I remember the hosts. I recall Bob Hope when I was younger, then the Carson Years of the late 70's/early 80's, followed by the Billy Crystal/Whoopi Goldberg 90's, probably the longest stretch of great Oscar nights, highlighted of course by Crystal's opening sequences that were always funnier and more creative than any of the movies nominated. If the Academy was smart, they'd pay Crystal whatever he wanted, give him 100% control and sign him to a lifetime contract. As for last night, my thanks to gal pal Patty Santin for her live updates via FB chat while I was sitting at the keyboard catching up on work I put off to spend the last four days with Mr. Smiley Face...

AL GORE DEPT: Here in IF, two years ago we had our last substantial snowfall on June 11. Last year, May 21. Yesterday, March 7, was our third consecutive day with temps over 35 and the second in a row over 40, and in every yard on our street, it was hard to find more than a melting snowman's worth of the white stuff. Being a NoCal boy, I'm as happy as Tiger Woods in a hotel room full of b-cup bleach blondes, but I am wondering how the anti-GW crowd will explain this one. Maybe passing it off as a reasonable result from all the extra driving we've been doing since our community-minded friends at the oil companies lowered pump prices to less than $3 a gal? Uh....yeah! I am sure the eco-folks are glad the guys at ExMob are finally starting to see the light...

NEXT UP, MARCH MADNESS: Today, my 13 year old heads back to school, while the 11, 15, and 17 year olds have the day off. Reason: The elementary and high schools on this side of the Snake are on Trimesters, while the Junior High, located directly next to and across the street, respectively, from each, is on a Semester schedule. Public Education at its finest...Always a day late and several million dollars short, our local, county, and state governments, along with a couple of dozen large corps are hosting a mini economic summit and jobs faire at the Civic Aud. here in IF today. Among the scheduled speakers will be Idaho Governor Butch Otter and IF Mayor Jared Fuhriman. Coming on the heels of last week's Labor Dept. announcement that new job losses were 7.2% less than expected last month, do ya think if they'd had job faires like this all over the US two years ago, we might have avoided this whole economic slump all together? Personally, I think if the gov required the banks to either lend every last cent of bailout money to businesses for expansion or give it back, with interest, we'd have all been back in black months ago...Final madness of the month: my good friend Stacy Beintema, late of arch rival Foothill High in Pleasanton and the Grupe Co. of Stockton, CA, where in 1984 she lured me into the maelstrom of property management when I began my slow departure from the peace and quiet of the rock and roll biz, turns...a year older...on the 15th. Once again, the Ides have it, and I'd say she's doing ok. A retired SJCO cop for a hub (and a fabo guy in his own right), two awesome kids (one war hero and one recent Fresno St. grad who is taking the "girls always fall in love with men just like their daddy" WAY too seriously), and a fulfilling career helping people stay alive at the American Cancer Society. Not bad for a salty (not) old gal who still doesn't look a day over 35. Happy Birthday, B...

THIS WEEKEND WAS also my brother Bob's 48th birthday. He, his lovely wife Susan, and their daughter Alex celebrated a week early in Maui, where they took a much needed vaca. Not surpisingly, I received notice on their 3rd day in paradise that they had been "Bartmaned" again. It seems everytime these two leave the continental US, disaster ensues. Nine years ago, nary a month after their wedding, they hopped a honeymoon flight to Ireland (the lengths my lil' bro will go to play a new golf course!). In the middle of their trip...9-11. Last Saturday, it was the Chilean earthquake and the very real, albeit temporary, threat of tsunami waves overrunning the islands. In the end it was an oddly enjoyable afternon for them and the thousands of other tourists bunking beachside to pack up, cart their rental cars up to high ground and watch the tide come in and out until the all-clear was given. The NTSB has politely requested the next time they are looking for a get away spot, they should try Kansas. Happy Brithday, Bubba...

AND SO ANOTHER week begins. Senioritis has already started setting in on school teachers (along with some students), geese are starting to head back to Canada, ticked they missed the Olympics, and I'm sticking pins in voodoo dolls of my friends back in Cali who are enjoying their home golf courses while, because of the snow that remains, I'm lucky to scare up a good game of Wii Golf. But we live, we love and we pray for the best, all the while remembering how blessed we are just to be able to experience the madness.

Signs of the Times

WORRIED A LOT less about the state of our youth coming of age these days. Sure, today's kids face a much larger list of distractions and temptations than we did back in the days of drive-ins and a dime bag, and what we read about on the front page above the fold makes me cringe sometimes, and I'm still cool and hip and all that (can't you tell from my use of the words cool and hip?). But an old friend from high school now residing in Davis, CA tells me that last Saturday morning, a group of her son's friends showed up at the house to start his 16th birthday celebration right (and early), by taking him out to breakfast. That is so beyond cool...it's...BOSS! I'm going to go out on a limb here and chalk it up to good parenting. So kudos, not only to the kids who did the deed, but to the parents there in Bicycleland who showed them the way...

I HAVE A very good friend from my days in Stockton. Known him almost 40 years, love him to death. We even roomed together for a year or so durning the Ronnie Ray-gun era. For the last few months we've been going back and forth, debating this or that political issue on FaceBook; all of it well intentioned, most of it good natured. Yesterday, I learned the neice of a colleague from my BGP days was kidnapped down near San Diego and had been found dead. I posted a notice of condolence and later in the day, my childhood friend responded: "To bad that girl wasn't packing, then maybe she could have met the threat on equal terms." Here's a thought: maybe if there were real, tough, enforced gun laws, this 17 year old girl wouldn't have had to meet the threat at all. I wish the girly-men hiding behind the long-unnecessary 2nd Amendment because they are afraid someone is going to take their pop guns away were as tough as this young woman was forced to be. Rest in Peace, Chelsea...

THEN AND NOW: In 1977, at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium; The Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Heart, The Atlanta Ryhtym Section and Foreigner. Ticket Price: $12.50. July 12, 2010 at the Lodge in Sun Valley; James Taylor and Carole King. Ticket Price: $50. Of course, if you want to get in an hour early to grab the really good seats to this General Admission show, it's only $250. Oh, you wanna shake their hand before the show and go backstage afterwards for a glass of champers? $500 smackeroos...EACH.

I have been in love with Carole's music for 40 years and JT's almost as long, and to see them together accompanied by all the old gang from the Troubadour days; guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, famous in their own right as "The Section", is something not even I would have dreamed would happen one day. Now I've worked with and love them both, and $50 for a general admin. show isn't all that bad.But an extra $200 to get in an hour early? And another $250 for a quick handshake and a glass of domestic? Yeah, I know...this is a benefit for one of Carole's Rocky Mountain causes, but Geez Louise! Dylan was right: the times, they are a changin'. What's that?...Oh yeah, of course I'm goin'. Whatya, NUTS?...

THERE IS A call center here in IF, Center Parnters. For the last few weeks, I've been hearing radio ads stating "We're expanding and we've got a position just waiting for you!". I'm thinking hey, maybe the recession has turned the corner? Cool beans. Yesterday, I run into a friend of mine, Patti, a trainer at CP. I ask her what's going on, wondering if maybe they reeled in some new accounts and bought the building next to them (for all the "expanding" going on). Seems it's not so much they are expanding as it is they can't keep anyone employed. Word is, and not from Patti, middle management is squeezing the front liners so hard, they'd rather be unemployed than work for "The Dragon Lady". I've heard of promised bonus structures changing without notice, quotas raised and hours to meet them cut, etc., etc. I'm guessing that word of mouth in our little hamlet won't be filling those phone desks anytime soon. I've heard similar management/employee squabbles from current and former employees at Qwest and Wal-mart. Bus101: "Good attitude creates good job performance". Management training ain't what it used to be...

ONE OF THE several pies I have my fingers into these days is a non-profit I started last year to help raise funds for the teachers, students, schools, and academic clubs here in IF. It's had a slow but steady first year; we've given a couple of scholarships, helped some schools add some much needed equipment to their classrooms, etc. I read in the local fishwrap a few weeks ago about one of our high school's choral groups losing the funding for their accompanyist. I called the instructor and then went out and managed to get some very nice raffle prizes donated from local businesses, figuring they could probably earn about a half to three-quarters of what they'll need for next year in about a week. Several days later, I receive an e-mail telling me that her kids had gone out and got together some prizes for a Silent Auction held at a recent performance, and that comparatively speaking, she was rather disappointed in the prizes we were offering, and therefore she was going to have to pass "this time around". When did we start criticizing the manner in which someone does us a favor? Even better was the instructor's "this time around" conclusion. I adore teachers and their profession, so maybe it's just that this particular teacher is involved in the arts. You know how those performance types can be. Oh, that sound you hear? That is a fog horn, noting that for this particular instructor, the ship has sailed and there will be no return to port. And yes, after finding other student groups in need who appreciated the opportunity, there was more than enough money raised to have paid for her accompanyist. Here's hoping, sincerely, that acapella is in vogue next year...

I FEEL SO much better now, knowing that our vaunted legislature in Boise has our backs; more importantly, the backs of our teachers and students. When asked about yesterday's 128 million dollar cuts in the 2011 State Education Budget, 4% of which will come from teacher's salaries, State Senator Jim Hamond (R-Couer d'Alene) responded: What's likely is that we will not damage our schools, because those teachers in the classroom are there, and they want to be paid well, but they're not they're for the pay. They're there because the love the kids and they love improving their opportunities by providing the best education they can." And this guy was elected? Here are my questions to Senator Hammond: Does that mean that if they don't come back to work becuase of what you've decided on their pay, that they don't care about the kids? Since you did not cut the pay of the legislators, who like to present as fact that you are in this position not for the money but so that you may serve yor constituents, does that mean that because you made these cuts to teachers salaries and not your own that you are there for the pay and that you don't love the kids or want to provide the best education you can?"...

AND FINALLY, I'm driving down Broadway yesterday afternoon, where I see the requisite homeless/down on his luck/unemployed man, with his requisite pup, at the turn-into Wal-mart; a sturdy leather leash in one hand, a Starbucks Grande Sumpthin' in the other. I roll down the window and ask him how someone in such dire straits could afford a $3 cup o'Joe and our down and out man about town replies, "Well, I dint get no foam". Times are tough all around.