blue girl

The Price of Awareness

I was dusting the living room, watching MSNBC. The Skimmer came home from running errands.

"I'm glad you were gone and didn't just hear what I heard. Your head would have exploded! There was some woman from Money Magazine on and she was talking about what all is going to happen with health care next year. Premiums are going to increase 25% in 2010! The average family will be paying $4,000 a year! And guess what else?! Co-pays are on their way out. Know what I mean? The $20 you pay upfront? They're phasing those out and you're gonna have to pay 20 - 30% of the total services up front! 20 - 30% of the total! Who's gonna be able to afford that? What is going on is going on in this country? What?! You know why she said they're going to start doing that? So we all become aware of pricing. Now we have to pay for awareness. Now no one's going to go to the doctor. No one! I can't stand it anymore. I can't take it!"

"Turn that off. Turn it off! Stop watching it. It's going to give you a heart attack. And we can't afford that right now."

On Our Own

We've got a government bought and sold by corporations. It's evident in our defense policy, it's evident in our economic strategies, it's evident in the clusterfuck known as healthcare reform, it's evident everywhere one looks. And neither of the parties give a shit, because politics is all about money now, and corporations are the ones who've got it. They might still tell themselves stories about how they need corporations' money to get elected to do the job for their constituents, but there are very few people left in Congress for whom some corporate sponsor isn't their primary constituent.

And we're on our own.

From Melissa.

Magical Tree

I drove past this tree this afternoon and had to turn around to get a closer look.

Look how magical...look at all the different colors... and ... are those... Dennis Perrin's cousins I see?!

Might be. You never know.

I wish I had a beret...

Stay Off His Lawn!

Few things chaff my thighs more than damned teenagers who don’t know when to hang up the pillowcase and stop trolling for free candy on Halloween.

I have no objection to doling out some boxed raisins or wintergreen lozenges to a damned 3-year old in a Garfield costume but I get pretty incensed when some pock-marked 17-year old smelling of old bong water and sloth shows up at my door with a insolent scowl and a demand for free food.

(Snip)

And, Jesus Christ, if you insist on coming to my door looking to scrounge some hard candy at least work for it. These damned teens refuse to say “trick or treat,” won’t make eye contact and sure as hell don’t bother with costumes. They dress as “rappers” or “gangstas” and stick a sack under your nose while text messaging their location to other scurrilous moochers in search of easy prey.

If they intend to carry on with this shameless behavior the least they could do is dress like hobos or – perhaps more accurately – petty thieves.

Read the rest of Affronts to Old People #7: God Damned Teenage Trick or Treaters.

Old Donald Mills sure is cranky! And how does he know what old bong water smells like anyway?

A Form of Happiness

Dr. Worth: (to Jonathan) Lives don't change. We simply become more comfortable with our core misery, which is a form of happiness.

From episode three of Bored to Death.

Baja Mama

Blue Kid drove his cool, old car for the last time over the weekend when he drove it into the driveway, got out and said, "It's leaking something again and it smells like something's burning."

It's leaked things before. And it's had that burning smell before. But, whatever hose, belt, knob, widget, thingamajig, doohickey, something-or-other that's leaked or burned has always, to this point, been either fixable or replaceable.

This time the whatchamacallit was something called a blown head gasket. Fixable and replaceable but not worth it on such an old car, no matter how cool it is.

So, now we're on the hunt for another cool, old car. Not as old as the last one, though. Twenty years with over 300,000 miles was pushing it.

At least we never had to push it!

My mom called me today, "I saw a yellow Jeep Wrangler for sale! It's back on that street behind you across from the cemetery in front of that pretty farm house."

I've always loved Wranglers and so has Blue Kid. I drove over to look at it this afternoon. I saw it from a distance and thought, It looks like a Jeep Wrangler but it doesn't. Looks like a Jeep Wrangler on steroids.

I pulled into the driveway and got out to look at it. It had no top and no doors. The tires were as big as me. It was a muddy mess inside, full of water puddles and leaves. It had no fabric on the inside -- only metal. Metal seats, metal floors and a big metal roll bar across the top. And it was a stick.

And across the front of the windshield at the top it had a sticker on it that said:

GET IN, SIT DOWN, SHUT UP & HANG ON!

This isn't a car! This is a toy!

Blue Kid's not getting his hands on something like this!

But I'd like to.

Like a great pair of worn jeans: goes with everything

Headline and h/t Brando.

Greatest Fourth Quarter Ever

Kathleen, her husband and Baby B went out to dinner last night and the three of them got sucked into the show that was on the nice flat screen at Flipper's: Greatest 4th Quarters Ever! And after watching a rather uneventful fourth quarter segment between the Redskins and Eagles, Kathleen determined...

The problem was the producers' apparently incorrect understanding of both "Greatest" and "Quarter".

(snip)

Somewhat Interesting Last 90 Seconds: yes. Greatest 4th Quarters Ever: Fail.

Her post reminded me of my favorite, most exciting fourth quarter ever. I didn't watch it on a nice flat screen, I was there. It was 1977, I was a freshman in high school and our varsity team was playing for the Southwestern Conference Championship. I still remember the blizzardy night, the agonizing feeling of defeat and then the last second win, but only remember the details because I have the newspaper clipping in my old scrapbook...

Olmsted Falls wins title in the (flea) flick of time

By TIM ROGERS

It was the kind of play of which legends are made.

They come along maybe once every 18 or 20 years and as the story is told and retold, the legend grows, sometimes out of proportion. You can almost see the old-timers 20 years from now, recalling the night little Olmsted Falls won a share of the Southwestern Conference football championship during a driving snow storm on an incredible last minute play.

With 2:17 to play last night things were looking bleak for Olmsted Falls. Fairview's Dana Destro had just gathered in a 12-yard scoring pass from Dave Eucker to wipe out a 3-0 lead the Bulldogs had tried gallantly to save since the second quarter when Dave Rutz kicked a 27-yard field goal. Fall's hopes for a share of the SWC title took a nosedive as Fairview put itself in the lead role as The Spoiler.

And it looked even worse when the Bulldogs had to give up the football on their own 35 with 1:22 to play. More than a few of the hearty fans started the long walk to the exits.

But on Fairview's first down, Eucker was forced out of bounds to stop the clock. On second down he was dropped for a seven-yard loss and a third down running play netted another five yard loss. Fairview lined up to punt with 52 seconds to play, getting off three plays in a scant 18 seconds.

Falls got the ball back on its own 17 with 45 seconds to go. Quarterback Brad Owen, who up until now had completed just two of 11 passes, dropped back one more time. He let it go in the direction of split end Jeff Apple. The ball was deflected, but Apple was able to snag it and just as he was tackled, he lateralled it off to Jim Owen, the Bulldogs' hard-running tailback. Owen, who had gone over the 1000-yard mark for the season in the second quarter, broke a tackle and suddenly was in the clear.

Those fans who had committed themselves to staying to the bitter end were now on their feet. Could it be? Owen won the race down the sideline, completing the 73-yard play with 31 seconds to go. Falls wins, 9-7 on a flea-flicker.

"You don't win too many like that. We never dreamed we could win it all." Cromwell explained after riding off the field on the shoulders of fans.

Wally Hood was the coach the last time a Falls team won the SWC. Earlier in the week Hood, now the head coach at Ohio Northern University, sent the Bulldogs a telegram, telling them it was time for another championship.

But he didn't say anything about winning it in the last seconds on a play they'll talk about for years.

Being an old-timer (!), I remember the instant everyone realized that Jim Owen was in the clear. It was windy and pouring the snow and everyone was jumping up and down and screaming and cheering at the top of their lungs. 73 yard play with just seconds to go! It was fantastic!

Somewhat Interesting Last 90 Seconds: Absolutely. Greatest 4th Quarter Ever: Total WIN!

Kathleen, I wish you could've seen it.

All Fall Down

For The Skimmer, just to let him see what awaits him at home. I can hear him now, "You're helping me!"

"But, why?" I can hear myself saying. "You're so good at it!"

And they have not all fallen down yet. Only a little over half have.

The trees that Naked Boy cut down have been retouched back in in this last shot. Even a bad Photoshop job looks way better than the barren wasteland that is now our view.

God's Country

Driving deeper into the Cuyahoga Valley after leaving the pumpkin farm on Saturday, The Skimmer pulled over to the side of the road and I jumped out of the car and snapped this shot of the beautiful church at Hale Farm.

I could hear this blaring from the radio in the car as I walked slowly sideways down the steep, muddy hill and into the weeds and tall grass.

"Be careful, Blue Girl!"

I looked back at The Skimmer and smiled. And I stopped shakin' it long enough to get off the shot.

It was not the perfect soundtrack for that moment by a long shot, but perfect enough in its own way for me to always remember it.