December delivers

Cannot complain about snow in New England-one comes with the other in a manner of speaking. We had a good bit of snow here in my corner of the universe--the newspapers suggest about nine inches and that sounds about right. It's more at one time than I remember in a couple of years and when this happens, I always find myself going 'so what happened to global warming?' as if one has anything to do with the other.

Tried snow blowing some of it last night and overdid it a bit. Wound up getting all ghastly ghostly pale and throwing up (not in the snow) and the evening sort of blurred to an end. Not to worry. Much like you, probably, woke to more than enough this morning. Actually not too much more than we had last night, but not helped, in my opinion, by the lack of municipal snow removal equipment.

Nor pointing fingers (well, not much anyway), I drove through Norwich and Lisbon (not the one in Portugal) and Montville, Waterford and New London and never saw a municipal snowplow--or much evidence that they had been out with any frequency. The neighborhood snow removal was kind of fun, if that sort of thing can ever be fun, and put me back in touch with my neighbors with whom I rarely interact (not that they are upset about that).

Because we just got our snow blower repaired we were able to help out clearing some of the snow from alongside the cars parked on the even side of the street. Norwich has a sort of snow parking ban where everyone needs to vacate the odd numbered side of the street when snow falls. In theory, it makes removal easier, but I do think if the city, like NYC, went to alternate side of the street parking in two days, with everyone having to move their cars, we'd be able to clean up the whole street on both sides, though I'm not sure where we would put the snow.

Of course, since I'm still battling a cold that's left me woozy and dehydrated (or more woozy as my wife might point out), I may not be the ideal person to suggest how Norwich cleans its streets. But based on what I felt and saw today, we each have enough neighbors to lend a hand, or a shovel.
-bill kenny

Days off and off days

I work at a job where I get time off in hours-sounds complicated and maybe it is, but not not to me. For every two weeks, I work (80 hours) I get a day (8 hours) off. Around Thanksgiving, I and my boss realized I was heading towards a 'use or lose' situation so I've been on vacation since Thursday and will remain so until Tuesday, 6 January. Despite all this 'free time', I'll still 'lose' something on the order of 80 hours of vacation time as one year transitions into the next one.

I hate going on vacation--I very much define myself by what I do, so days off are like being in limbo or on hold. I'm not actually 'doing' anything so I'm not being anyone. To compound matters, I've picked up a cold that's actually bronchitis and has made my day a bit more unpleasant than sitting around and doing nothing normally does.

We had snow yesterday afternoon and I had just gotten the snow blower repaired so my timing is better than usual (assuming the repair holds). I suspect I'll have short entries for a while since between the cold medications and the mind-numbing lethargy of sitting on the couch, I'm having trouble focusing much less concentrating.
-bill kenny

Herd of Cattle or a Swarm of Bees

I joined twitter the other day-actually, I'm not sure 'joined' is the correct verb; maybe 'signed up for', or 'linked into' is better although I think some time ago I did join something called Linkin. Maybe. I have no idea what these things do or are (or which is which and why). I got fifty-six plus years into this rodeo without them. so maybe I could, or should, have continued in that direction.

This is who we are. A sentient, self-aware species yearning to be individuals, right along with everyone else surrounding us. Each of us, heck with that!, ALL of us, all six billion or so on this planet, want to be able to rush to the shore or scream at the sky 'hey! look at me!'

If there is a God, how does He (or She; how ironic would that be to learn God the Father is actually God the Mother? And stuff like picking on your brother, taking the last cookie, not making your bed is REALLY the important stuff while faith and food works are as may be? What a hoot.) possibly keep track of us all?

I know that I need only look to the lilies of the field who neither toil nor weave and I realize that not one swallow falls to earth without His knowledge but am I the only one who has days like those of the fisherman who prays, 'Lord, Your ocean is so large and my boat is so small'?

I spend more time on line in conversation or interaction with real people, though at least in theory, the ones on line are as real as those in the flesh and in the here and now. My children are very much at home in this Brave New World, barely rememberingthe quaint old days of dial up and now part of the migratory electrons that are so many virtual meeting places. Each of us can stand alone-but it's easier to stand alone when you are together.

Maybe that's part of what separates us from the beasts (and all this time I thought it was these nifty thumbs), our knowledge of our finite future. The realization that tomorrow will dawn for some, though not all, of us and that there will be a day when the last person who knows of our existence, themselves, passes from this earth and we cease to be part of the communal context and conscience and become forgotten. And someone, someplace scrolls over whatever has replaced what we now call this community of connectivity and marvels at the primitive beauty of that which we've left behind.
-bill kenny

Clothes Call

Standing in line getting coffee at the in-store Dunkin Donuts in the Norwich Stop and Shop, four people in front of me, on Sunday, at least two of them dressed as if coming from church. That always guilts me out as a FARC, fallen away roman catholic, so I compensate by imagining one of them having a berry smoothie and a breakfast sandwich to chase Holy Communion. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned....America runs on Penance.

Anyway. All the time in line and it took me a minute or so to pick up on this, but there are two people, a couple--early twenties getting S&S doughnuts from over at the bakery. They may be talking to one another--I can't tell from the distance I'm at. I can tell the diving for doughnuts portion of the program is taking forever....I'm talking (without actually putting a watch to it) maybe a minute a decision per doughnut.

The thousand yard stare through the glass doors before one of the two opens them and then almost another minute, not conferring, mind you, before picking a doughnut up. All this in the time it took for the four customers ahead of me to get coffeed and sandwiched--and still these two are diving for doughnuts.

He had on one of those Hollister sort of hockey shirts, at least that's what they look like to me-stick of a guy with unwashed hair and sleep in his eyes. She hadn't been awake much longer and had done that woman's trick with hair when they yet haven't washed it, she had it up with a hair tie. She had no makeup and she didn't really need any but she looked very young without it but he looked like he might still be in high school by comparison.

She wore a grey sweat shirt with NFA Wrestling in red lettering that made me smile. My two children went to NFA, Norwich Free Academy. Pat played soccer and Michelle was in the band and orchestra. I don't remember either of them ever speaking about women on the wrestling team. So the doughnut diva was wearing someone else' s wrestling shirt, and judging by the size of the guns, or lack thereof, on the Hollister dude, it wasn't his shirt.

He kept glancing around and I recognized his look. I took to calling it the "Walk the Line" look, because I think that's what Johnny Cash had in mind when he wrote the song. And I knew it because I've had the look myself for 31 plus years. You find a someone who chooses to be with you (that's why the shirt doesn't matter my Hollister friend; the original wearer is gone) and you remain vigilant because it's so difficult to believe this person will stay. For what it's worth, it's how you live everyday and come to appreciate that someone more and more.
-bill kenny

Not Knowing Jack (Lord or London)

Have you noticed how often our United States is less than the fifty we actually have? I caught a TV spot last night for somebody's restaurant (obviously not Alice's) boasting about always using 'fresh, never frozen' beef, or meat or employees (I was distracted, cut me a break!). While the announcer is talking and we're seeing cascading lettuce, tomatoes and onions or something that could be an onion, there's little, tiny words, barely visible on the screen, about how that statement only applies to the '48 contiguous' states', which is grown-up-speak for 'on your bikes, Alaska and Hawaii.'

Contiguous ranks right up there with disambiguation, which sounds like a made up word (okay, actually all words are made up, of course, but I meant by a prankster or someone learning English by correspondence course during a postal strike) which, has nothing to do with either Alaska or Hawaii, but seems like showing off by using a lot of letters for possibly nefarious purposes.

There's a different commercial for another restaurant chain where the pitch is 'buy this plate of now dead, cooked fish for only this much money, it's yummy' and the little words pop up in the corner of the screen to tell me the price is higher in Alaska and Hawaii (and in Puerto Rico; perhaps because of their continuing disambiguation?) though I would hope the fish are both as dead and as yummy as elsewhere.

'When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there', to quote Christopher Columbus' mother (just one more thing- she looked nothing like Peter Falk), though I was somewhat surprised to learn he'd gotten lost just getting to the piers. Learn something new every day. I can't help but feel sorry for Alaska and Hawaii--the last two states to get their silk jackets and be allowed into the union and we still string them along.

Sure, we say to Alaska, you can be the biggest state (Texas doesn't mind, much) but we're gonna put this hunk of Canada between you and the State of Washington. As for Hawaii, it's like the kid always picked last for baseball (he's not very good, but he lets us use his bat), 'okay you're gonna play deep center field. Keep going back....no, more than that...a little more...just a bit more.' Until he disappears. If he's lucky, we remember to call him in when the game is over and he wonders what happened to his at-bats.

It just needs to stop. How can we have a family of nations when we cannot even unite the states? How would the rest of us feel if Hawaii and Alaska just blew us off. You fly into Juneau and the TSA guard asks for your passport. And you cry out 'but Alaska is a state! I don't need a passport to go from one state to the next!' And the TSA guard gets a tight little smile when he says, 'isn't that nice? Help yourself to one of those frozen meat hamburgers and take a seat, foreigner.'
Or you hit the Big Island to soak up the rays and your hotel clerk says, 'so you're from Norwich, Connecticut, are you? Your English is quite good-I can barely hear the accent! No, little man, I don't think you'll be enjoying Tiny Bubbles anytime soon. She has a headache from trying to read the small print on her TV.'

And we're left to watch Dan-O struggling to To Build a Fire and wonder what went wrong.
-bill kenny

It's a Wonderful Li(f)e

Probably not just me. It feels a little harder to 'get into the spirit' (of either generosity or mindless consumerism, depending on whether you're a half-full or full-of-it kind of guy) this Christmas season. I'm reaching the point, maybe you too, where there's less and less of the daily newspaper I read--skip the front page and the national section and the finances and the international pages and the political analysis and....wow, what's left? The professional Armadillo Full-Contact Wrestling League standings, Hi and Lois in the comic section and the personal ads over in the classifieds (not that ANY of us know anyone who actually reads those, or would admit to reading them). I don't even watch theTV news anymore (Is it true Jay Leno was named the host for Meet the Press?)

Go on line and look at news headlines this time a year ago and we were no happier than now, with, in retrospect, less reason. So while the 'how did we get here?' seems to be a sticking point, I'm more concerned that it's keeping us from getting to the heart of the matter and moving onwards and upwards.

Everyone has competing theories for our economic state so let me offer mine, based on ZERO knowledge and less expertise (I'm being honest (to myself) which is more than we might be able to say about others), you can shake your head in disbelief and dismay and then we can proceed to the "we gotta get outa this place" portion of the proceedings.

Businesses, I submit, used to be formed for the purposes of making something and were a creation to benefit all of those involved in that endeavor. Instead of 'we are together to make/do/be something' the mission statements now are 'we are in business to make X% return on our investors' money'. The visionary who brought us together and got us to the mountain has been replaced by a guy who knows how to count. All of a sudden we're out in the tall grass and can no longer see the path. And no one knows how we got there or how to get back.

Back in the day, when money was something and there was no cell phones, video on demand or even (shudder) Home Shopping Network, I was in the US Air Force with someone with a wry sense of humor who had a sign on her desk that said 'I am now starving on the salary I once dreamed of making.' Today, we would have outsourced her and her sign. We already outsourced our sense of humor.

Look at the house in which you live or where any of us lives. How much physical improvement did you make in it in the last five (ten? fifteen) years? (I don't know enough about things to know what the 'typical' municipal assessment and re-evaluation cycle is.) Your house is appraised and assessed at more this time than the last time, even if you did nothing. That's vapor (please don't be angry, I don't mean it personally). But then, you go to the bank with that vapor number and get a new line of equity. Now we've transcended vapor and are into voodoo (again, my apologies if you're a follower of voodoo, I use that term in a non-religious way).

All of this works as long as each of us keeps moving-- like lemmings? Okay, sure. Lovely animal, beautiful plumage said someone, once, somewhere, perhaps. That movement for the last three to ten (or more) years (depends on who is telling the story and how much supply side cider they've had to drink) has been circling the drain, didn't matter until--YIPES!--suddenly it did.

As I noted at the top, that's how I see us getting here. Bottom Line: Not everyone is gonna get their money back from the Building and Loan, George Bailey. Ask Mr. Potter. It's a Wonderful Li(f)e. When will we decide to stop using the past to keep us from the future? Does today work for you? There may not be a tomorrow, that's why I'm asking.
-bill kenny

Addition by Subtraction (this week's Norwich municipal meetings)

With ten days until Christmas, unless you're an automaker from Detroit, the municipal calendar thins out for the holidays as more meetings are rescheduled because of time constraints, and (I suspect) some of the agendas of meetings that are scheduled are slenderized if not tenderized-more on that in a moment.

This afternoon at four, the Design Review Board meets at 23 Union Street (that's next door to City Hall) but the City's website has no agenda (not required by public law) or minutes of previous meetings (very much required by public law). When I point this stuff out, I'm not punking anyone at City Hall-but obliquely (well, not so much now, of course) those on these citizen committees that they have a responsibility and requirement to report in a timely manner. And NOT doing so lets everyone down. And--WHAT?!?--oh. It seems we need to pack some of our scruples and values here at Tilting so I'll step down from my soapbox and let the movers use it. Sorry.

This evening at six thirty is an informational session by the Norwich Semiseptecentennial Committee before the City Council meeting. I attended one of these on this event some months ago and came away disquieted by how little money had been raised and how much still needed to be done (and how few of those questions came from the City Council). Based on everything I've read in the meantime, I see no reason to not be as concerned as I was at that time.

I applaud those who've volunteered their time and talents and wish them well, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a Plan B, Plan C and as many more letters in the alphabet as needed. This was a big, challenging project when economic times were good a year ago (though a year ago we didn't think times were so good, funny how that worked out) and now seven months away where are we?

Actually, that's a question, in a much larger sense, I have for the City Council, who meets at seven PM in City Hall. I was troubled, to say the least, when I reviewed their meeting agenda and saw NO mention of a report by the committee of five attorneys created at their 18 August Council meeting, (page 16) to review the Charter of the City of Norwich. This despite, per that same August ordinance creating the committee: "the Council requests that said report be submitted to it by the first (my emphasis) council meeting of December 2008."

It's already two weeks overdue, gentlemen of the City Council. Will Charter Review and Revision (such a hot topic in the Council elections last November) join ethics review, the implementation of city-based business contracting preferences, and noise ordinances as issues you started to work on and then, well, lost interest in or did you just lose your way?

I'd suggest you pull your socks up and buckle down this coming year (and that way those of us in the cheap seats won't have as many potshot opportunities). The budget formulation will, no doubt, be brutal, but there are so many other issues of import that you haven't affected in any meaningful way. I'm not angry with you--though it probably reads that way. I am disappointed.

Tuesday at 7 PM is a public hearing in Council chambers by the Commission on the City Plan, and this should be an interesting evening though hopefully not just for the commissioners.
There are, in reviewing the agenda, what seem to be three topics: a proposed 90-unit active-adult community development between Hunters Road and Merchants Avenue. The Ponemah Villa development is to be built in a heavily settled area with municipal utilities and includes units in size from single- to four-bedrooms, a community center, parking, and recreational trails through the heavily wooded property. This project has already been approved by the wetlands commission.

The actual first agenda item, a somewhat controversial (there's an understatement!) - and similar - project on Scotland Road was rejected by the Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission, and could be withdrawn--but that will have to be done once the hearing is called to order. Right now it's on the agenda.

There's also an application for a sober house on Bentley Avenue. There have been a lot of headlines on this house in recent months; actually on the way it opened and the methods used by those who own it to operate it. Our 21st Century Well-Meaning has created a not-so-cottage industry generating billions of dollars supposedly 'caring for those in need' who never seem to get better and whose numbers never diminish.

I'm not sure when we're helping them or helping ourselves. The owners of the property at Bentley had a similar operation, opened in much the same surreptitious manner not that far from where I live. And when found out, after their lawyers did some sabre rattling of briefs and writs, they closed up and defaulted on the loan they used to buy the house. And those whom they were supposedly helping were left to own devices. Same shirt, different day at Bentley.

There are other, important, meetings slated for this week--and I'd encourage you to seek them out at the City's fine website, though you may need to do some calling around (the site lists a Board of Education meeting for Tuesday in Room 210 of City Hall that may not be happening).

Yes, it's hectic at the holiday season but for those among us who have volunteered to serve on the countless advisories, boards, commissions and committees that make wherever we live a better place for all of us, we owe each and every volunteer a 'thank you' for their efforts on our behalf, not just because it's Christmas time, but all the year through.
-bill kenny