Blog Post #1789

So, this is what it comes down to.

I'm using Ireland as click bait.

Don't worry.  I'm not going into a political rant.  Although, given the times, I really shouldn't ever rule that out.

Last night, I didn't take any Ibuprofen PM.  I didn't use Melatonin.  We had three dogs back with us, as Cocoa Bear was disturbed by the weather or air pressure or something.  All of this should have led to very little sleep.

But, although it took me a while to fall asleep, once I slept, it was pretty solid.  I slept through the night when I usually wake multiple times.  And upon getting up, I am much less groggy than I typically am.  I have a headache but am otherwise fine. 

I will experiment again with sleeping without inducements.  We'll see.  I hope it works.

Why do I difficulty sleeping?  Well, one, I'm old.  The older you get, the less sleep you need.  Two, I need to lose some weight and get more comfortable with my body.  Three,  my schedule is erratic.  Sometimes I have to get up early, sometimes I don't. Four, it's very difficult not to stress bout Trump.  The world is in a real mess, and I don't know how we're going to get out of it.

Whoops.  Political rant?  Sorry.  Hard to avoid nowadays.

I am in the withdrawal phase of my personality.  I just want to break off and take care of myself and my family.  But organizations I work with still beckon, so I have to compromise and stay minimally engaged. 

I'm not a hermit, but sometimes just being home sounds really cool.

I'm taking a look at this, and I'm not really sure what title to give it.  How about Blog Entry #1789?  And that's for real.  My quality may suck, but whoo baby!  I gots me some quantity!  That must be up there as far as blogs go.  Now if I only had traffic acceleration to go along with it.  I'm stuck at around 3,000 views a month.  Doesn't seem to vary much. 

Oh, well.  At least I'm persistent.  That's gotta for something, right?

OK.  Maybe not.

Sigh.

Themeless on a Thursday

Oy.

That's me.  Choking on a Thursday.

Usually by today, I've had a topic brewing and I can just spin it out in the thirty to forty-five minutes I have to write.

Not so this morning.

It's been a rough week, with work and theater and the loss of a dear friend.  March 15th was a major tax deadline for me, as I do a number of corporate and partnership returns that are due that day.

On the bright side, the play I'm working on, The Diary of Anne Frank. is one that my son Benjamin is in as well, in the crucial role of Peter Van Daan.  I love the opportunity to perform with Benjamin. To me, that creates some of my most treasured memories of theater.

The picture above is from a play we were in a couple of years ago, A Christmas Carol.  I played one of my favoritest parts, Scrooge, and Benjamin played multiple small roles.  It was a wonderful experience.

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I missed WACT's Hairspray.  I should've made a greater effort to see it, but time sort of spun away from me.  If anyone saw my list of favorite musicals, you would know that when WACT first did Hairspray several years ago, I rated it as the best musical I had ever seen.  Chelsea Nelson was ideal as Tracy Turnblad, and so was the entire cast, especially Michelle Lagoueyte as Penny Pingleton. Really, it was as good a community theater production as I had ever seen.


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Yes, I am a television watcher.  I watch an hour or two of scripted TV most evenings.  Briefly, my current favorites include Designated Survivor, Legion, The Americans, The Waking Dead and Supergirl.

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Yes.  I have a lot to say about the horrid "tax cut for the wealthy disguised as a health care plan".  Hopefully. I can mull it over and write something quasi-brilliant by Saturday.  Certainly, the monstrous reaction of Paul Ryan to the idea that his plan may cause 24 million will lose health insurance as a result, is one of the coldest, most repulsive things I've seen.  If you think that many people losing their insurance is a good thing, or just not particularly relevant to you, than you and I have very little in common.

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Double oy.  The clock is pounding hard.  My writing time has evaporated.  I must plunge into the accounting world again.

Another time, perhaps?

Patience.

Soon....THERE WILL BE THEMES!

Full Life Philosophical Meanderings

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.

No, seriously.  Don't.  And while you're at it, remember the past, too.

Why?

Why not just live in the present?

Why?

Because we're sentient beings, with a conscious and a mind, and we can retain memories and impressions. We have the capacity to learn and to anticipate.  It helps us feel things.  It lends us to empathy and caring.  It provokes us to dream, to imagine, to hope.

It also leads to resentment and desire for revenge.  It leads to hard feelings and failed expectations.  It stirs sadness and depression over people and things that have been lost.

What can I say?  There is no yin without the yang, no good without evil, no light without darkness.

Life is conflict.  Life is a journey.  Life is growth.

There are setbacks and horrors and the incomprehensible.  There are are wonders and beauty and moments of stunning insight.  Sometimes life seems a series of steps towards nirvana.  Sometimes it seems like a series of missteps circling us to a return to the dark ages.

Live as a full human being.  Remember the past.  Enjoy the present.  Dream the future.

One thing above all else should be abundantly clear from this short blog message -

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a philosophy major.

Carpet D Em!

T. M. Strait

Spectacularly Short Thursday Thoughts

Ready to wander down the watery highways of random thought?

The Democratic Debate was super fantastic!  Policy driven and focused, it was a hundred times more informative and purposeful than the Trumpified Crazy Town Express that were the Republican debates.  The DNC should have agreed to more debates - I think it does the American voting public good to see a major party discussing important issues in a mature way.

Who won?  That depends on how you turn the kaleidoscope.  Hillary was certainly poised and competent. By the cold calculation of debating rules, by the structure of the usual media spin, Hillary was the champ.  By the online polls and focus groups, Bernie was the clear winner.  Even if he wasn't as polished, even if he wasn't saying things in exactly the way the pundits like to hear, he was still connecting with people by the consistency and power of his message.

Time will tell what impact it has.  I don't think it hurt either major candidate,  We'll see.

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Benjamin had to drop out of a play that he had just been cast in.  It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in theatre, and letting the director know was a terribly hard thing to do.  He did it early, before rehearsals began, and I wish it didn't have to happen, but it did.  I pray that this doesn't hurt him in future casting decisions.  It means the world to me to watch him grow in his theatrical talents.

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Today is the final individual tax deadline (yes, some people extend all the way to October 15th), but I think I'm in good shape.  However, you never know what may come in at the last minute.  I will be glad when the weekend has begun,

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Football pours back into our lives tonight, with the Falcons confronting the Saints.  It's been a surprisingly good season for them so far, and we hope that continues.  I am wearing my Falcons tie today at work.

The Lions on the other hand - don't get me started!  What a miserable year, especially after coming off such a promising season last year.  I am not one for mid-season coaching changes but...Offensive Coordinator Joe Lombardi has to go NOW.  Stop imposing a system on your players, and start fitting a system to your players.

In college football, the Michigan Wolverines appeared to have accomplished their three year plan in five weeks!  Go Blue!  The Bulldogs?  They may need to be starting a fresh three year plan next year.

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Good luck to the Cubs!  This is the year Back to the Future had you winning the World Series!  Let's all get into our flying cars and go see it!

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I have started the long, hard slog to getting my novels published in some fashion, in some way.  I've started literary agent queries, and will be sending out samples to publishers who accept them.  I accidentally made a request for literary agents online, that instead got diverted to self-publishing companies.  Now they won't stop calling me.  Self-publishing is at the end of a long train of other options, not my first choice.

It's hard, because I could have copies right now.  I could sell them at the Heritage Center and Waygreen and other places, or even online.  But it is more important to me to find out if I can make enough money at it to fill in the gap of what we need when I retire.  So I go the long route, foolish or not.

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Benjamin has to read a poem in class today, and I am proud to say he picked one of mine!  And so things come full circle - as I  also read one of my poems in 9th grade, when I was supposed to have picked out a published poem from a real poet.  Oh, well!  We Straits!  What can you do?  He chose Pond Living is the Place to Be.

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Uh-oh.  I have to go to work now.

604!!!

T. M. Strait

Thursday Without a Theme

Yes, I know today is Throwback Thursday.

I just don't feel like throwing it today.

This seems to be a fairly recent invention.  I don't recall much about it even a year earlier.  It seems like an excuse to share an older picture on social media.  For some of us, that means YEARS ago, but for others than might mean last month.

Yes, I know my posts with pictures get more page views.

I just don't feel like hunting one down today.

So I'll just take the hit today.  Or lack of page hits, that is.

Yes, I know that I could rile people up about politic or religion.

I just don't feel like doing it today.

I could say something about the Israeli-Gaza conflict, but that might require more research than I can muster in my precious few minutes to write before I head off to the job that pays the bills.  Well, some of the bills.  Alison's job contributes mightily as well.  Suffice to say on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that both sides have legitimate grievances, and that as difficult as it may be, both sides need to negotiate in order to end it.  Or at least end the active killing of each other.


Yes, I could write a piece of fiction or poetry that I will enjoy but few others may see.

I just don't feel the muse this morning.

A part from one of my inter-related novel projects usually takes three to four hours to write now.  So even if I start one, I couldn't finish it this morning.  For a short story I have to have an idea on fire, which I don't this morning.  Poetry comes better at night.  I'm not sure why.

So this morning, this is it.  This theme-less broach of writing etiquette.

Or maybe musing on not having having a theme is like having a theme.

Whoa!

This is just great.

Now I have Keanu Reeves stuck in my head.

Twirling Topical Tuesday

I freely admit.  I'm fairly fried as tax season wanders on and slowly consumes my limited mental processes.  But I'll give it a try.

How 'bout those Winter Olympics?  Watched about seven hours worth of recorded programs in one hour - it's amazing how fast they can get down that luge when you fast forward at 3x.  For the record the 15 year old Russian figure skater could do what she does.....BECAUSE SHE'S FIFTEEN....yes, a highly trained fifteen, but it's hard for the adult women to compete with that almost boneless flexibility.  I am glad that the Olympics have been incident free....lots of vacant seats, though.

How 'bout that Writer's Guild?  We had a great meeting last night, centered around local newspaper writer and talent Gary Griffin.  He shared many stories about his years in the newspaper business, and reminded me what we're losing as we drift away from print media.  The sense of localness is being slowly lost, and certainly the idea of getting local news and information from multiple sources.

How 'bout that Chris Christie?  The great hope of centrist (ha!) Republicans is being devoured (not an easy job, in his case), as the worst fears about him, being a bully and one who uses powers to promote the interests of his "cartel" and punishes those that don't play ball, is being confirmed over and over again.  He might not only have to give up his presidential ambitions, he'll be lucky to remain Governor and stay out of jail.

How 'bout the Flying Dragon?  Kudos to the many Dragoneers valiantly struggling to keep that organization going in difficult times!  They are pulling out all the stops they can, trying to raise the base money they need to keep going.  If you have not given what you can, you need to do so today. They have a great play, Little Women, starting this Saturday at 7 PM.  Please come out and show your support!

How 'bout that Benjamin?  Got his progress report, and he continues to do well grade-wise. He missed all A's by one 89 in math.  And he is enjoying Cotillion, River Keepers, participating in two churches, and as always, mastering video games.

How 'bout that blood pressure?  On a more personal note, I've been taking more readings of it lately, and I'm not sure how my medication is doing.  The one and only pill I take is a blood pressure medication that I've taken for about 14 years now.  I am trying to improve my diet and get more exercise (a real struggle this time of year).  As far as not getting so stressed about things, I'll do what I can but I'm not really up for a personality transplant.  The inevitability is that I will probably need a stronger medication, and I am really resistant to that.

How 'bout that clock on the wall?  Speaking of pressure, I see that my allotted writing time has shrunk to squat.  I will squirrel my brain and try to come up with a more thematically sound topic tomorrow.

We'll see.

Weekend's Demise and Other Monday Musings

Another weekend is in the history books.  Now I'm left with the impending week of work, which should be very intense, very involved.  Can't believe people actually expect their W-2s.  Unbelievable,  And we've added an audit to the schedule.  This may be a difficult week to keep up with the blog.

Which would be a shame, because the numbers continue to come up.  Even a segment of History of the Trap has been caught by some other site somewhere, and the page views for that have risen dramatically, far exceeding any of my other fiction posts.

But I'm going to do my darnedest to keep up, even if the posts are short and/or picturey. I'm struggling to accomplish something, and for better or worse, outside of family and work - this is what I've chosen.

Today the appliances for Glenwood may be selected.  The competitors are Sears and Lowe's.  We looked at some choices and narrowed down the list, and Alison is going to go late this afternoon after she drops of Benjamin the Cha Cha King to Cotillion, I think we're going with white, although she had some stainless steel back ups as well.   I'm happy with anything that makes ice or cooks pizza, as my color coordination and interior decorating skills are somewhat non-existent.

My father in Michigan worries me.  He is still recovering from a flu, and his voice is hard to understand, as he is coughing and gurgling.  My understanding is that parts of Michigan have been hit hard by the flu.  His retirement complex was on lock down for awhile, with everyone getting lunches in their rooms instead of at the dining area.  I'm looking forward to him feeling better soon.

The Golden Globes were on last night.  I'm a sucker for TV and movie award shows, so I watched it some, albeit recorded and I fast forwarded through healthy chunks of it.  Les Miserables, the film that has not and probably won't come to Waycross cleaned up, including winning for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical.    I've added the book to my Kindle, so maybe I'll get some background that way, because it may be months before I can see that movie.

Speaking of movie musicals, I had a friend comment on seeing Phantom of the Opera (the movie of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical), and it made my realize that I had never seen it.  I had gotten it into my head years ago that I wanted to see it performed live at a theater before watching the movie.  I had heard that it was an unbelievably spectacular stage production, and it sounded like something that would be great to see.  But I've never gotten to see it, and now years have passed by, and I just don't know.

Well, with completion of this post the weekend has officially drawn to a close.  I must finish getting on my CPA disguise and see if I can bluff my way through another day,  My "performance" at Higginson & Paulk, at now 13 years, 7 months and 14 days, is starting to run longer than Cats!

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Charging Through Time and Other Monday Musings

This is October first.  How the heck did that happen?  Where in the world did the month of September go? We push through months so quickly now.  I was startled to see several houses with Halloween decorations already up.  I have seen postings on Facebook already promoting haunted houses.  Halloween City is up here in town, and  friends have already talked about getting costumes.  The store are rife with Halloween displays and candy.  And I'm just thinking - isn't this at the END of October?  Why are we already pushing things that far that fast?  I mean, what's next?  Christmas displays?

Oh......yeah...they probably are.

There are events in November that are ticking closer.

My son Doug's wedding is coming November 3rd. Plans continue afoot for that.  Even though it's coming in a hurry, the planning for it has been at a more involved level than anything I've been directly involved with. It will be on the beach at St. Simon's near The King & Prince   It will have a mix of Hindu and Christian traditions.  Once the planning is done, it should be quite fun and memorable.

The Adventures of Robin Hood will perform the weekends of November 9th and November 16th.  I hope that whatever events are competing with this production (the fair, the latest Twilight movie) will not overwhelm this production.  We have a great cast, and I think it will be a fun and entertaining show.  Of course  I am tremendously biased, as the script was written by myself and Karissa Cook.  It is exciting to see these young thespians already bringing our words to life.  If you are in the Waycross area, you will want to see this show.

The election will be Tuesday, November 6th.  Things are looking up for the Democrats right now, but there are a lot of negative, vile ads yet to be run.  The most discouraging thing to date so far has been to watch the press focus on the debate coming up this Wednesday night.  Everything looks like it's going to be focused on who has the best one liners and zingers.  Hey, kids!  Policy don't matter!  It's like we're electing Head Comedian instead of the leader of the free world.  There you go again, mass media AND low-information voters!

The charge through time continues in other ways.  We attended a nice event at the Okefenokee Heritage Center, honoring the 100th anniversary of Ol' nine the train that is there, and the newly restored Hilliard House   While there, we completely lost Benjamin, We searched the train and the entire grounds.  We had the announcer use her microphone to call for him.  Alison was starting to scour the parking lot.  Then, after many minutes, I saw him coming up with a girl around his age, a girl who had been assisting with the event.  He told me that she had taken him on a "private tour" and that they had been inside some of the buildings there. Benjamin will be 12 December 7th.  I don't believe anything untoward happened, but I have to tell you, I am so not ready for this.

But it doesn't matter.  Time keeps charging forward,  ready or not!

Four Day Break and Other Monday Musings

I took Thursday off in addition to Friday this week.  That is officially over now as I prepare once agian to return to work.  When Monday hits, it doesn't matter whether the break before has been one day, two days, three days, four days or even ten days.  The reality is - you're going back.

This break was not really one of leisure.  I had a specific task that I wanted to achieve   I have taken on the responsibility to complete a script for the Flying Dragon Arts Center's upcoming November performance of Robin Hood.  I've done a number of writing projects, but I had not written a play before.  I spent most of Thursday writing large chunks of Act 2.  On Saturday, I reviewed what I had done with my collaborator, Karissa Cook (whom her boy Noah came over earlier in the day and got to play with my son Benjamin), who has done much in the way of suggestions, reviewing my impulsive grammar, keeping me on track, formatting the play into something readable and presentable.  One of the great things about theater is that it does take a lot of people working together to make something wonderful.  Young actors, parents contributing time and costumes and all kinds of help, stage and scenery from the Jeffords and others - it will take many, many people's talents and time to make this work.

Of course, for every choice made, there is another choice foregone.  I had hoped to try for Waycross Area Community Theater's (WACT) A Christmas Story, as I thought it might give Benjamin and me a great opportunity to act together.  But I don't think that's a commitment that we can take on in addition to Robin Hood.

We also prepared the house for pictures today.  The real estate agent listing our house is coming to take pictures to run on her web site listing.  I had no idea all that it would take to make our house "presentable".

I sped watch the Emmy's through the miracle of the DVR.  One of my favorites, Modern Family swept the comedy awards, but most of the awards went to shows I don't watch.  The humor in the show, what I saw, was fiarly middle of the road, not truly awful but not truly great.

Mitt Romney's presidential run continues to implode.  I think it's hard for the very conservative people around where I live to comprehend that, so they're starting to get more surly.  On the national front, some of the big money donors, like the Karl Rove controlled super pacs. are thinking about focusing more on the Senate.  That's good that they are giving up on the presidency - not so hot about the Senate as nothing much will happen in this country until the Republican filibuster in that body is over or diminished.

My predictions this year aren't complicated so I can quickly repeat them here - President Obama wins re-election at a margin greater than his victory over McCain/Palin, the Democrats retain the Senate and perhaps gain a seat or two (so the filibuster-control the Republicans have will stay - the new majority is the new 40), and the Democrats will gain a moderate number of seats in the House but not wenough to wrest control from the Republicans.

Well, work time beckons.

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Getting A Move On and other Monday Musings

Everybody feels more comfortable one place or another.  We've lived in the boonie outbacks of Pierce County for about seven years now, but quasi-country living really is not naturally suitable to either Alison or me.  Alison prefers living directly in town, in a secure neighborhood where she is able to comfortably walk and knows the neighbors.  Me?  I would like to live in a 2400 square foot condo in a university town set near the mountains and the ocean.  Since her vision is more practical, we're going with hers.

We've been looking off and on, particularly in the City of Blackshear, just to see what was available.  The homes have usually been more expensive in the city (city being a relative term, as we are only talking about a town of a few thousand),  A few weeks ago we added a residential area in neighboring Waycross called Cherokee Heights.  The homes there were priced better, more in line with the county area we live in.

But it was hard for us to move too hard, as we had not put up our home for sale.  We had seen many homes for sale for months on end in the two county area, and were worried about how long it would take us to sell.  On Wednesday we made inquiries of a realtor that we were told would be an aggressive and helpful agent for us.  She gave a good starting selling price on our house, and said she had somebody ready to look at it on Friday.

We did a marathon clean-up and jam-up, and the people saw the house.  And two hours made an offer to buy it, a good offer very close to our asking price.  We are still negotiating some fine details, and it could still fall through, but we thought that was a very exciting and fast start.

And we suddenly have to scramble to find something quite a bit faster than we anticipated.  We've found some good ones, but nothing that rings all our bells yet.  So keep your eyes and ears open for us.  The city of Blackshear near College Avenue or Cherokee Heights in Waycross.

I have finished the first act of Robin Hood, and although it needs polishing, I think it's going to be a fun play enjoyable for both children and adults.  We have a tentative cast, although I'm not sure it's been announced yet.  Rehearsals should begin very soon.  I had not expected to get so involved in Robin Hood, but it's hard to pass up an opportunity to write, and I do love the Flying Dragon.  So keep checking here for progress!

The Lions almost came back last night, but an offside kick went slightly awry, and it was hard to overcome an excellent 49er team in their windy home stadium.  If the Lions ever string together two good halfs in the same game, they should be quite awesome!

Finished The Passionate Friends by H.G. Wells, written in 1913.  The book had amazing feminist overtones, with a woman pretty much demanding the same sexual opportunities of her Victorian male counterparts.  Interesting to see that kind of talk from that long ago.H.G. Wells was not just a visionary when it came to scientific breakthroughs, he was also forward thinking on many social and political issues.

Blog progress has stagnated a bit, but I am doing my best to get it growing again.  If you like teebee, don't miss my Ripping Good Yarn series about the TV fall schedule.  I also have the Saturday Political Soap Box, which is trying to stay focused on issues.  There is the ongoing saga of History of the Trap, which I hope to accumulate and make available on Smashwords.  And the odd pseudo-poetry I do on Thursday Midnights.  There will continue to be stuff about family, pets, Flying Dragon, other stories, musings, and what ever else that crosses from brain to the keyboard.  So keep watching!  Something is bound to splat across that you would like!

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

A Long Season Begins and Other Monday Musings

A long season of college football begins.  I am a Michigan Wolverine fan, and it does appear to be a long, rough season ahead.  I have a lot of faith in Coach Brady Hoke, and I believe they will improve as the season progresses.  At least one can hope.

Meanwhile, based on their disastrous performance against Alabama, I'm going to have to listen to another full year of "SEC is the only football conference that counts" talk.  I am so sick of it I could chuck a tuna bunwich!

How bad is the "SEC is king"  bias around here?  I advocate that a college football championship should be against conference champions.  The top five or six champions automatically qualify for a national championship playoff, with the remainder being wild cards selected by polls/coaches/computer or whatever. I mean, conferences should MEAN something, and winning a conference championship should MEAN something.  But oh, that's not good enough for the SEC fanatics around here.  They're not going to be happy until an unlimited number of SEC teams can qualify.  You just can't bend far enough backwards for them!

It's the start of a long pro football season.  Both the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions got off to winning games, which we're grateful for, but there are many tough opponents and games ahead.  It is discouraging around where we live that there are so many Jacksonville Jaguar fans.  We live in GEORGIA, not FLORIDA, people.  C'mon!

It's the beginning of a long play season.  I have made a larger commitment to the Flying Dragon than I expected with their production of Robin Hood.  I have taken on the task of writing the script.  I am writing as fast as I can, and have one scene left in the first act.  Unfortunately, the start of rehearsals are just days away and the cast needs to be solidified.  Wish me luck.

Benjamin begins a long season of band.  He has his Baritone Horn, and he's doing pretty good, but we are having a hard time enforcing home practice.  Any band parents out there, please let me know.  how much do they really practice at home?  I have no direct experience with it, and can't tell if he's able to skate, or if we should be enforcing a practice time.

It's a long season of accounting leading up to tax season.  We have corporate deadlines the 15th, and final individual deadlines October 15th.  As the holidays approach and pass, I partly enjoy them, and I partly click off more time that brings me closer to the submarine ride that encompasses January through mid-April.

A long new TV season is about to start.  I hope to do a Ripping good Yarn blog post detailing the good, the bad and the ugly of that.

It's a long, hard political season.  I love politics, but I am not looking forward to the barrage of negative ads headed our way, particularly from the wealthy super-donors of Mitt Romney, including the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the Super PAC of Karl Rove.

It's a season for a final countdown to the marriage of Doug and Ramya.  It has been interesting ride in preparing, and there have been enough twists and turns to make me feel like I'm in the movie Father of the Bride (even though I am the father of the groom).  I know, however, as it gets closer, there will be many moments to treasure.

Life is busy, but life is good!

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Monday on a Tuesday

Labor Day weekend is almost a pure holiday down here in the South.  There's not much discussion about what it really means.  There is much discussion about how we need to grasp the real meaning of Christmas.  Everyone is made very clear that Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and even Fourth of July, has to do with the military and soldiers.  There seems to be no doubt about the purpose of Valentine's Day and Halloween (besides being a way to sell candy and costumes).  But Labor Day?  Except from a handful of my liberal friends, there seems to be little or no discussion as to the holiday's true purpose.

Not that people aren't out and about.  We went to St. Simon's, with my middle son Doug, scouting some of the locations for his upcoming wedding.  It was the first time in my many visits to the island that I set foot onto the resort The King and Prince.  Very fancy place, and the reception room they will use had a spectacular view of the ocean.  The beach was as crowded as I'd ever seen it.

We went to restaurant at the marina called The Coastal Kitchen, testing it out as a place for the rehearsal dinner.  This time the potential room for the dinner would be a beautiful overlook of the marina.  If they can accommodate a group that will be about half vegetarian, I think it will make an excellent choice.

I have decided to take a more active role in the production of Robin Hood.  What this means to any potential participation in A Christmas Story, I don't know.  But I am enjoying rewriting and working on some scenes, and I see a lot of potential for our Flying Dragon children to have a good ol' time.

We stand on the verge of another political convention, and although this is essentially my team, I'm not much more enthusiastic about it than I was the RepubliCorp one.  I do think it will be a well-managed convention with a clear message.  Infotainment at it's finest!

Today is what they call a furlough day in Pierce County.  It's a fancy way of cutting pay to those working in the school system.  The war against public employees continues, led by the Republican dominated Georgia state legislature and Governor.  When educators try to blame Barack Obama for this, it just makes me want to laugh and laugh and laugh.  And then cry just a wee bit.

Sadly, this week also saw the passing of Chase Brauda, a young man who had been valiantly battling leukemia for more than a year.  His family and friends will miss him a great deal.  The community has shown a great deal of support to Chase and his family, and I know that support and prayer will continue,

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Benjamin Baritone Blows and Other Monday Musings

The Baritone Horn has done arrived!

Benjamin went to Band Fast Start on Saturday, and he has returned with his Baritone Horn.  Not a tuba, but not a tiny instrument either, he now officially has a baritone horn to tote around.

He is making noise from it, most of which suggest flatulence more than music.  But he is trying and practicing, and we have high hopes for more distinctually musical noises in the future.

My routine has been nominally interrupted by working Fridays, but that should come to an end if not this Friday, then by next.  I got spoiled to the new schedule very quickly, and although I don't mind the work, I will be very happy to restore my new routine.

None of my entertainment plans come through as far as movies and/or television.  I saw no new movies, either at the theater or at home.  I have the True Blood finale recorded but have yet to watch it.  I did catch up on Hell On Wheels, the railroad western, which was entertaining but has failed to grip me yet as a favorite.  So far it has reminded me of a milder version of Deadwood.  But I'm interested enough in the stories and characters to let it play out.

My attempts to establish a Ripping Good Yarns group on Facebook is a-floundering.  I was hoping that it would generate it's own traffic, as people shared what they were watching or reading.  Instead, it is showing less and less activity.  I'm not much of a quitter, however, and I intend to do what I can to juice it back up.

The Strait Line, however, continues to accelerate nicely.  I am already at record levels in page views and ad revenues for the month, and there are still five days to go!

I attended a local Open Mike Night at the Okefenokee Heritage Center, where I got to read my story Old Pat T and the Great Bathroom Wars.  I got a great response, and was happy that it inspired others to get up there and tell childhood reminiscences.  Benjamin also got up there, impromptu and unplanned, and told an elaborate joke.  He got the biggest laugh of the evening, and he was boisterously applauded.

Flying Dragon ended its fabulous run of Annie.  The new facility allowed for a comfortable and intimate theatre experience.  There were many, many fine performances throughout the whole run.  The idea of changing out cast members as often as they did (four casts, and even variations within those casts from performance to performance), may on the surface seem ludicrous, complicated and unwieldy, but when I think of all the children who got opportunities to shine because of it, it makes it all worthwhile.  Flying Dragon, I salute you on a fine run, and for giving so many of our young people such a wonderful experience!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

The Purpose of Hinesville and other Monday Musings

Saturday we took a trip to Savannah and our path took through the city of Hinesville.an area most closely associated with the military base Fort Stewart.  But Benjamin did not know that.  Looking up briefly from his video game, hearing us talk about Hinesville, he asked  "Is this where they make the ketchup?"

Other than our surprise visit to Heinz-ville, our trip to Savannah was fairly uneventful.  Alison clothes shopped but came away with nothing.  I think some of my female readers can identify that sometimes it's just very hard to pull the trigger and buy something.  Whether it's price or fit or style. making a commitment can be hard.  We did get to eat at Carrabba's, an excellent Italian restaurant of which we had a gift card and a coupon of $10 off for.  Benjamin ordered a full adult meal and ate every bit of it.  It was Manicotti, and we thought, he is a MAN now, eating off the adult menu.  An appropriately named meal.

Benjamin will be playing the Baritone Horn in the band.  He does not have it yet, but it will be here Saturday.  Then we will see how we, including the dogs, react.

My middle son's Doug's wedding plans continue apace.  It is down to a decision between The King and Prince on St. Simons, or the Jekyll Island Convention Center.  Any opinions would be appreciated.  But please hurry, as the wedding will either be in late October or early November.  Yikes!

I have worked the last two Fridays.  It is unclear to me whether I will need to work the next two or three, but we will see.  It hurts my fiction writing the most, as I generally need more time for that.

I enjoyed seeing Annie a second time this last last Friday, with a new cast.  I amazed at how well our children's theatre, Flying Dragon, can pull off the many cast changes that they do.  I know it makes rehearsals a challenge, but it is a joy to see so many kids get to have a shining moment   Musical theater is at it's best when the singer fully engages the audience with their physical movements and facial expressions.  A stand out in that regards was young Lilly Varnes, who sang a song as the young actress come to New York city to make a name for herself.  She was animated and alive, and as she is this coming weekend's Annie, I am very much looking forward to seeing the show again.

As best I can see, the introduction of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate has been a complete bust.  Yes, some of the extreme right base is excited about him, but weren't they going to be voting for Romney anyways?  All but the most deluded are seeing through the smoke and mirrors the Republican ticket is trying to put up around Medicare.  If Orwell was listening, he would be a-flippin'!

Entertainment wise, the weekend was pretty much a bust.  No movies and very little TV, not even much reading.  I would love to take a day and just read a book from cover to cover.  Throw in some Bonbons and I would be set.

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Lewis Grizzard and Me

Hey!  I knew Lewis Grizzard!  Okay, well, not really KNOW him, but there was at least something.  Hopefully enough that this title will catch attention and spin off into the Google engines as a rapidly and highly ranked search choice. Not that I'm trying to manipulate the system or anything.

In the late eighties and nineties, I worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  I was a prominent writer and editorialist - SCRATCH THAT.  Actually I was an accountant, a bean counter, a numbers cruncher.  A very lowly figure well beneath the notice of the great and famous Lewis Grizzard.

I became the General Ledger Supervisor working with a staff of three.  One of our areas of responsibility was the write and initial approval of expense reports.  We had to make sure they added up and all receipts were accounted for, and that all expenses met the general standard of acceptance of the Atlanta Journal-constitution.

Without going into specifics, Mr. Grizzard's expense accounts were very interesting and very....different.  We would often have to question his reports.  When we did, we did not get to talk to Lewis Grizzard directly.  He had his own "corporation"  and it was one of his "corporate" people that we talked to.  After losing objection after objection, we gradually had to accept that the same rules that applied to everybody else simply didn't apply to him.  Not that we didn't stop trying.

The most entertaining one is one where we got this humongously large bill from Houston's Restaurant in Buckhead.  Apparently, one of his buddies, a sportswriter, had just been fired by the paper, and he just came into this restaurant/bar and said, "Hey, ever'body!  Drinks are on the The Atlanta Constitution!"  Yes, the expense report was approved.

I saw him once, at a party for the 1988 Democratic Convention held in Atlanta.  He had a female on each arm, and he may have glanced at me, but in a way where they're really just looking right through you.

Even though many people I know and respect read and love Lewis Grizzard, I have to admit my connection to him as a man above the rules kind of diminished my enthusiasm for him.  What little I've read of him seems okay, but I just can't get him to him at the same level as others do.

Alison's mother, Rose Aldridge, wrote for The Blackshear Times, including a column that was very interesting slice of life stuff.  She won a number of awards for her writing.  I've always felt she should have collected her columns and have them published.  Maybe she wouldn't become as famous as Lewis Grizzard, but maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to cut her a little slack on her expense report.

School Daze and Other Monday Musings

Is this the perfect attire for a brand new middle schooler?  I pray the answer is no.

Here it is again!  School Daze are here!  For some of my Michigan friends, and friends in other places outside of Georgia, this may seem extraordinarily early to start school, but here it seems to creep ever earlier and earlier.  Conversely they stop school in mid-May.  I'm not sure what the reasoning is.  You would think if they were trying to save money, the sweltering month of August and its associated air conditioning costs wouldn't seem like a first choice.  But regardless of the reasoning, school time is once again here.

And this year, to add to the excitement and fun, Benjamin will be starting middle school.  He is a sixth grader at a brand new school.  He will have to cope with a kaleidoscope of changing classrooms and a wider variety of subjects.  He hopes to be in band, preferring the trumpet.  He is looking forward to participating in Drama.

We have other friends and family faced with this same opening day.  Our good friends Ken and Kimberly Beck will have their daughter, Elizabeth in middle school, sharing the same homeroom as Benjamin, while meanwhile Emily continues at the elementary school.  Karissa and Jeff Cook also have their children going to diverse places, Noah to elementary and Eli to daycare, and have to figure out their transportation options.  Dean and Leslie Crane will have both of their two in the public schools this year.  Alison's step-sister Chrissy, will be starting to teach Social Studies this year at the high school.  And this is just the very tip of the people we know who are effected by this big day.

Sadly, as important as public education is to the lives of so many, it is under constant siege by the conservative right-wing majority that dominates the state.  Pierce county has enjoyed one of the finest school systems in the state, but is under relentless pressure to do more with less.  The good employees are doing every thing they can to answer the challenge, but it gets more difficult each year.  Georgia will never be the growing, dynamic state that it wants to be unless it works to restore and nurture a first-rate education system.

I attended a family reunion Saturday, a group on Alison's father's side.  I don't think this particular group met often, and I did not recognize 97.85% of the people there.  But there was some good food there, and it was free.  They had a great corn souffle that was fantastic, and reminded me of the Strait reunions and Thanksgiving from when I was a kid.

My father is in the course of getting more care at Independence Village in East Lansing.  This is being done through the auspice of hospice care.  This does not mean what I thought it meant - I thought that was a service for the terminally ill.  But what they're going to do is make him feel more comfortable staying in his own place.  Should another health crisis come about, they're going to do everything they can to make sure he can stay where he's at , instead of being shuttled to different hospitals and rehab centers.

We finally saw The Dark Knight Rises Saturday.  It was better than I expected, and I have a full review under the blog entry Ripping Good Yarns: The Batman Horizons.

With the new school hours, my opportunity to blog shifts a little, but I will do my best to accommodate it.  The blog continues to grow in page view traffic, and I thank all of you who visit, and even if you don;t like everything, that you can find something that suits your individual interest.

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Monday Little Shop of Variety Pack

It's Monday.  I find myself once again in search of a theme.  I don't think another variation of  'ugh, it's another work week' is quite what I want to do.

We picked the Benjamator form camp on Saturday.  He was in really good health and very good spirits.  We were very happy that it was a positive experience for him.  When we came in he was up front of the gathering campers doing a stand-up comedy routine.  I don't know where that boy gets stuff like that from.

We took a trip Sunday afternoon, with a good friend and her boys, to see a community theatre production in a town about 30 miles away (Alma, Georgia) and saw the musical Little Shop of Horrors.  It was magnificently performed, in a beautifully restored downtown theatre. There were tremendous performances by some actors I had witnessed in the past, including Chelsea Nelson, Michael Lee and Jennifer Goodson.  Others I were seeing for the first time blew me away, especially Jeoffrey Wages and Sarah Crutcher.  I hope to have pictures and more to post in a story later this week. Me and technology...we're like two peas in vastly different and highly separated pods.

I thoroughly addressed some of the issues associated with the awful shooting at the Batman movie in my Saturday Political Soapbox.  I just want to reiterate that for those of you think it is improper to talk about American violence and gun control so close to such a tragedy, I think you're wrong.  I tried to hold my thoughts in the Gabrielle Gifford shooting, and by the time I could talk about it, it was already too late.  People had moved on to other things and didn't want to talk about it anymore.  So, no, I'm sorry.  There is no waiting. Victims need to be honored and remembered, the perpetrator deserves our scorn, the police and investigators deserve our prayers and support.  But I'm tired of these things occurring and then nothing happens, nothing changes.

As far as The Dark Rises, I did not get to the theatre to see it.  And it looks like next weekend is out too.  I'm looking forward to it some. although it may be a little more dark than I like.  The highlight for the summer and the year for me continues to be The Avengers. Saw at home Martha Macy May Marlene and Columbiana.  Martha Macy May Marlene, was a little too disjointed for me, ended in the middle - I had to have Alison help me realize when they were in the present and when they were in a flashback.  The whole movie was kind of artsy-fartsy, with more fart than art.  Columbiana, about a girl who becomes a hitman (person?) was not a great movie, but it did at least have a chronological  plot I could follow.

We have high hopes that this coming weekend I will get to see my oldest son Greg.  He lives in California as a film editor, and my opportunities to see him are pretty rare.  So we are very much looking forward to that.  My middle son, Douglas, looks like he may be moving out to California too.  So it looks like I might have to get out to California at least some.  I'd build a second home there, but I don't think I could afford even a first home out there.  I think we would have difficulty affording a van down by the river.

I've managed to get through this whole post without groaning about the coming work week.  So I think I will quit while I'm ahead and can still suppress the "Oh, Man!  I can't believe it's Monday!" blues.

Until next time,

T.M. Strait

Benjamin Goes to Camp and other Musings

Let's open up the ol' hatchback this morning and see what we've got inside!

Why, lookee here!  It's Benjamin Strait, headed off to summer camp at Honey Creek for the third year.  He now call himself a "veteran"!

So there's my youngest, a confident veteran, so anxious to get started at camp he could barely say goodbye to us, making good friends within thirty seconds of his arrival.  Thank goodness he's not like his shy Daddy, who would've started to make friendships a few hours before camp was to end.  We have prepared a a package of cookies to mail to him.  I'm sure he'll share in a fashion because as he told us from his experiences last year "candy and cookies are currency."  Well, that fills with confidence.

We saw a house right next to the big city of Blackshear, contemplating a move into that huge metropolis (about 3,500 people!).  The house was interesting, good square footage, a property loaded with fruit trees and vines, but in the end, it wasn't as nice as the house we have, and would have cost more money.  As much as we want to move closer in, we find it hard to justify spending more money just to wind up with a house that is inferior to the one we have.  So we stay in the boonies, keeping our eyes open to an opportunity that may not happen.

We went to a birthday party for the incredible Emily Beck, the very smart and talented daughter of our friends Kimberly and Ken Beck.  She turned 9, is an avid reader, a lover of tech, and will be playing Lilly St. James in Flying Dragon's upcoming production of Annie.  If you are in the area, this is a production not to be missed, and will be the first to be performed Flying Dragon's new air conditioned Tebeau Street building.  I will posting dates and other information very shortly.

We also went bowling with our good friends Karissa and Jeff Cook, with their boys, seven year old Noah and three year old Eli.  Great fun was had by all.  The children had a bumper guard on their lane.  Most of the adults wished they had the same.  I was unprecedentedly awful, but at least kept my ball in the right lane.

Things look pretty good for the President's re-election.  Mitt Romney was or was not involved in Bain in some mysterious way that is just confusing everybody.  Suffice to say, whatever they did while he was or was not with them, did they do anything that violated the cultural and business practices that he had set for them?  I don't think what they did in closing and outsourcing businesses was out of the norm of what they were designed to do.  Bottom line, Mitt Romney was a vulture capitalist.  Either you're okay with that or not.

Started The Big Bang Theory this weekend with it's first six episodes.  Hilarious program!  The lead actor, Jim Parsons as Sheldon, reminds of a cross between Mork and Spock.  The only downsides of the show is the laugh track (most of the comedies we watch now do not have one), and the occasional overreaches into crudity.

Well, I can see that my little zone to write is up.  My real job beckons.  And, boy, I'd sure hate to refuse that call!

Until next post,

T. M. Strait

Post Vacation Blues

The reality has hit. The routine is back.  We hit our cycle of vacations all in June, and we're pretty much done for several months.  Start the countdown to Labor Day Monday, and perhaps a couple of days in October and a few December days in Michigan.

Whether vacation is as relaxing as days on the beach, or is an extension of family like our trips to Michigan, they come to an end and routine is started back.  The realization that I still work for someone else for a living smacks me in the noggin.

Not all is created equal.  Looking across my friends and associates from Facebook, some seem to be on vacation quite a bit.  Others seem never to vacation at all.  As I've talked about in other posts, Americans take less vacation than almost anywhere on Earth. Regardless of how many or how long you take vacation, unless you are retired or independently wealthy, they do come to an end.  And then it all comes back.

So now I go back and am jolted back into work patterns again.  Within a day or two, the adjustment is made, and resignation to one's fate gradually takes place.  Much of my work is routine, but there is variance, because as a CPA generalist, I deal with a wide variety of clients and accounting systems.  It can be frustrating, but it does keep me mentally on cue at least some, as I often have to interpret ways of thinking and logic that are quite different from one another.

And I am very fortunate in my family, friends and church.  The routine does make it easier to establish a more regular diet, exercise, participating in storytelling, maintaining my blog.  So maybe the routine is not so bad.

On the other hand, we have Labor Day marked on our calender and the countdown has begun.  And we're already thinking of where we might go for a short trip in October.  Routine and drudge punctuated with hope and dreams.  Isn't that the way things should be?

June Musings!

Hope to have other reaction later, but here is my brief, instant reaction to the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act -


YIPPEEE!  YIP YIP  YIPPEE!  YAHOO!  HUZZAH!  GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH!
CAN I HEAR A WOOP WOOP?
LET THE FUTURE BEGIN>>>>>>>>>NOW!!!!


So you know, same ol' same ol'.  Yes, there are pitfalls ahead.  If America elects a Republican President, retains a right wing extremist House of Representatives, and manages a sixty plus majority in the Senate, than we might possibly be plunged back into the stone age.  And some states may choose to slow track this whole thing, pushing back medicaid expansion, and thereby increase the costs of the whole thing, which even though Republicans cause the problem they will be going "See! See! It's increasing the budget!"  Oh, good grief.

Today was my Dad's 90th birthday.  My sister helped organize a great party. I hope to publish pictures soon.  My older boys were not able to be there, but they were to talk to Grandpa via Skype. as was Carol's son Nicholas. Dad seemed appreciative, but a little worn out from the day's activities.

I don't know where the Fall election is headed.  By all logic, President Obama should be elected in a landslide.  But who knows what whims will influence things when the time comes?  It's a pretty scary thought.

I have fallen behind in seeing movies again, both at the theater and at home.  Prometheus will now have to wait to rent.  I still have high hopes of seeing The Dark Knight Rises in the theater.  And I have Chronicles on my Netflix list.

The Strait Line, at last check was at 1,375 page views for the month of June.  This exceeds last month's record of 1,025 by 350, with one day to go.  Woohoo!

Next week should feature some stories with more pictures in it.  I should get back on track with History of the Trap.  I would also like to publish one or two more things on Smashword.

Until we meet at The Strait Line again,

T.M. Strait