Grey Skies and Thoughts

I'm pretty sure I don't have Seasonal affective disorder, SAD, though I do more often feel lowercase when Autumn rolls around except when some asshat is guessing a leafblower to move the autumnal deciduous celebrants from their lawn to the sidewalk and street to share with the rest of us. And do yourself a favor and don't get me started on my mood when winter arrives.

Out for a quick walk yesterday morning (it is Walktober in these parts you know so I thought I should get with the program even if only in a limited manner) with overcast skies, for the most part, and temperatures warming up from the lower forties where they spent the night into the upper fifties as I made my way.

We're had a dry time for the last couple of months, except when I have gotten the car washed, of course, and then everything short of a rain of frogs has happened. I mention the lack of rainfall because I stopped at the Lower Falls of Uncas Leap and it is, as always, beautiful, but it was more rocks than roaring and rushing waters than at any time I can remember over the last nearly twenty-eight years.  

Suspect the rains, soft and otherwise, will fall in due course and then I'll complain about that as well.
-bill kenny

More than Meets the Eye

You may have seen this photo earlier last week (actually considering how quickly it went viral it would have been harder to NOT have seen it).

But the story behind the photo is heartening to me because it demonstrates how we can get along by going along, even with other species. That's my lesson for Sunday.
-bill kenny

Ring Around the Rosary

This is from almost exactly ten years (and a day) ago. At the time I called it:

Gratitude is an Attitude

Was in my neighborhood Mickey D's yesterday morning for breakfast-I've discovered almost nothing goes as well with my local almost newspaper as an almost-breakfast. I'm the only person I know who admits to eating in fast food places, though they seem to be everywhere and always filled with people. 

I smile when I hit these joints (yesterday was a blustery day around here, even Winnie agreed the weather was bad) not because I'm happy to be in the places but rather the contrast between the television portrayal and the reality always cracks me up. I get the same meal every Saturday morning because my middle name is Patrick and NOT Adventure and it's always the same 'associate', silent and sullen behind the counter.

Do you remember when we were kids and how the cafeteria ladies always wore hairnets if they were on the serving line? What happened to those rules and who decided a ball cap (if we're lucky, otherwise a visor for the most part) offers the same protection from hair in my food as the old school hairnets? 

When I sat down at my table and looked up there were two women seated across from one another at a table near a window, closer to the outside than I cared to be, heads bowed, hands clasped, saying a prayer before beginning their meals. From their age and attire and the simple silver bands on their left hands I realized I was looking at two nuns in mufti and not folks who were seeking Divine Help for the McGriddle.

I flashed on a childhood recollection of 'saying grace' at our family table before tucking in-a prayer that, as we grew older in my parents' house, became more of a race to see who could finish first and get started while the food was still hot since Mom always made a big deal about letting things get cold as you picked at them. I can only hope the Lord grades that kind of behavior on a curve but fear I know better.

I smiled, here in the present, to realize that it was good that someone (in this case, TWO someones) remembered to say thank you as the rest of us were oblivious to the gift we were receiving this day in Southeastern Connecticut. 

For many of us, it was a day to miss if not mourn what we did not have, rather than celebrate what we did possess. Later I learned it was Saint Francis of Assisi Day (the Hallmark store has no cards; I checked) and smiled again as I thought of the two witnesses on their pilgrimage through the world and why, for more reasons than are between Heaven and earth, breakfast is still the most important meal of the day.
-bill kenny

Words Fail

Ukraine.
Australia.
China. 

I already have plans for the next presidential election. Guess who ain't in 'em.
-bill kenny

Auto-nomic Response

My wife and  I live in a medium sized city in Southeastern Connecticut with a whimsical, at best, local bus service and NO ferries, jitneys, trams or trains of any kind so privately-owned vehicles move up the list almost to 'required appendages.'

The capital of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, is about an hour or so drive from Norwich. I have no idea if you were to attempt a journey by 'mass transit', how you would do it but I daresay it'd take more than an hour and perhaps more than a day. I've read some interesting articles on the impact of the automobile on the American Way of Life (the right to keep and bear cars should have been included in the Bill of Rights, seriously) and live through much of it daily. 

When you look at our older cities and neighborhoods anywhere across the nation especially the Northeast, you can see from the center to the outskirts, like the rings of a tree, how the internal combustion engine became the infernal comedic device in so many instances, with us as the punchline.

If you don't think God has a keen sense of humor and a delightful sense of irony, why else would he have installed every insurance company known to man (and a couple to the beasts of the field, according to their logo) in and around our capital city making Hartford Ground Zero for the insurance industry? What a crack-up He is! Can I get an Amen (with a collision waiver? Alleluia!)

Ours is not a state, and this side of the Connecticut River most especially, not a region where relying on buses and trains gets you anything more than frostbite and long hours of travel. Sort of helps you get a better understanding of how people get addicted to a variety of controlled and uncontrolled substances--and you can make a short movie of mobility junkies, getting a hit off the gas pump--taking a deep drag off the high octane bong and snorting a line of Ultra 93. Talk about Mercury Blues.

In Connecticut (not that we are alone in this but I am most familiar with how we do business), our idea of addressing issues like soaring energy costs and greenhouse gases is to build MORE roads, with more lanes so people can get to where they're going even faster. As for arguments that an investment in mass transit will yield economic development benefits as well as improve our urban and suburban quality of life, we can't hear you over the noise of the traffic congestion our mentality has created.
-bill kenny

Waiting for More than Godot

This time a month from now will be the day after our municipal elections. At the risk of provoking an eye-roll from you because I will not be changing the subject anytime soon, let me suggest now is the time for some form of public interaction between and among those seeking seats on both the Board of Education and our City Council. My mom used to say if you don't ask you don't get; fair enough. I'm asking. How about debates and the more of them, the better and soon.

I don't mean to hector or lecture (but am willing to do both), there was an opinion piece in The Bulletin from Mayor Nystrom three Sundays ago on why a Republican majority is needed to keep spending in check which prompted a response from Alderman DeLucia Sunday a week ago about how a Democratic majority is necessary to deliver an honest budget. This past Sunday was a letter to the editor supporting a vote for Republicans but (stop me (I dare you) if you've guessed this already) I won't be surprised if we see a letter supporting Democrats next Sunday. Sorry, but that's not good enough.

In a city with an operating budget just a shade under one hundred and thirty-nine million (with an M) dollars, and an education budget at just north of eighty-one million dollars, there's too much at stake in the here and now, to say nothing of our future to allow the elections for the city council and board of education to happen with so little public discussion and debate about how the next chapter of our story should be written. 

I've noted before, it's not my place to suggest for whom you vote (and it's none of my business) but historically, we clock in at less than half of all registered voters showing up at the polls for municipal elections and not having any real sense of the issues, costs and returns on investment facing us in terms of infrastructure, education, public safety (just to tick three of the Big Ticket items in any budget), to say nothing of the positions of those who've volunteered to serve in city government how can, or should, we decide whom we should support? 

Start working on your questions now, I have a list as long as my arm and, say some, as big as my mouth (that stings but it's a fair point). Here’s some of what I would ask:

What do you see as the three greatest opportunities and three greatest challenges facing Norwich and what knowledge, skills, and abilities do you offer to help us succeed? 

If elected, how would you integrate your talents and intentions with those of everyone else we choose on November 5th?

When I got here in 1991, the City Council and the Board of Education were already pointing at one another as the 'the bad guys' for funding gaps for the Norwich Public Schools while pledging to work together 'going forward.' Almost thirty years on, but not forward, we're still nowhere near a framework in effectively providing the quality 21st Century education knowledge and skills delivered in an economically efficient manner our children will need to succeed in the world we are leaving them.

What do you see as your role in enhancing our community's quality of life and in spurring economic development that attracts businesses and families to make Norwich their home, too? And how would you help create the environment that allows and encourages that growth?

What lessons have you learned from our past efforts and how do you apply them to what you see as the next chapter of the Norwich story?

People prefer problems that are familiar to solutions which are not. How would you move us from continuously talking about our challenges to mobilizing to roll up our sleeves and developing solutions?

And lastly: When can you start? 
-bill kenny

Fine Line between Petard and Libtard

"There’s letters sealed; and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,

For ’tis the sport to have the enginer

Hoist with his own petard; and ’t shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines

And blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet

When in one line two crafts directly meet."

— Prince Hamlet, in Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4

Couldn't happen to a nicer, or more orange, guy.

-bill kenny