Venetian Fest

Here's a shot of Elspeth and Alyssa in downtown Saugatuck on Saturday, July 26.

We were there to watch the Venetian Festival lighted boat parade and fireworks. The parade had some nice entries -- a 007 boat with a roulette wheel and a "Wizard of Oz" display. The girls liked the "Happy Feet" boat that had the movie showing on a large TV and penguins jumping down a slide -- all on a boat in the Kalamazoo River. I liked the "Gilligan's Island" S.S. Minnow boat.

The fireworks were longer than the Fourth of July display! Very nice.

Of course, town was packed. We had to park behind the high school and ride the Interurban to downtown. The kids loved the bus ride.

In other business

I recently finished reading "Oliver Twist." It's still powerful. I can see why Nancy's murder scene made people swoon and run in terror when Dickens read it aloud to Victorian crowds.

I've read the novel four or five times but find new details to amaze me. This time, I really put my focus on the symbolism of Oliver's innocence and how his violation is key to the plot. Odd how the plot is about Oliver but he himself does very little action. He's like a leaf floating in a raging river, always in danger of being swamped by the evil around him.

Funny how the musical "Oliver!" was spun from this. That's such a light handling of such a dark, criminal novel.

Now I'm just skimming through a history of the consuls of the Roman Republic.

Also, roof repairs continue at the house. The crew should be done this week. One of the workers handed me a piece of cloth on Saturday. That was the original roof, however many years ago, he said. People have just tarred over it and added wood on top of it.

Thought: Consider yourself at home.

Junk

Paul McCartney has a song called "Junk" on his first album. I believe some of the verses go:

Motor cars. Handle bars. Bicycle for two.

Sentimental jamboree.

If I rewrote that (not that I have the hubris to rewrite the master), it would read:

Bathroom pipes. Broken mattress. Bicycle from the basement.

Stinkie, dirty hamster cage.

Saturday was the first junk pickup in town in several years, so the curbs were loaded with the best local garages had to offer. Ours was particularly choice this year. I have, in the past, lamented that my trash was inferior to my neighbor's junk, but not this year, I can tell you that.

I had a bunch of galvanized steel pipes complete with rust and holes from the basement, a disfunctional fan (sometimes the blades turned, sometimes not), a mattress, porch furniture, Jayne's rusty old Schwinn (I cannibalized the good parts!) and soggy, slushly, moldy masses I could not easily identify from the basement flood last month on top of all the scrap wood and broken lawn tools (I get angry and throw things, OK!) you could imagine.

Well, the porch furniture went in a flash. All the metal was pulled up right away. The bicycle seemed to roll away itself despite the broken spokes and rusted chain. Someone even wanted to take the soiled mattress for his camper, but I advised him that it had been in the elements for a few months and the bugs probably wouldn't think kindly of sharing it with him. He scratched his chin and said he'd keep looking -- one would surely turn up.

So, the photo above (taken after the pickin' was done) does not do justice to my Taj Mahal of suburban scrap, but just close your eyes and imagine the beauty all topped off with a hamster cage complete with moldy water bottle.

Thought: If only I had put in expired medicine. Maybe Homer Simpson would have stopped by.

Vacation

We loaded up the family truckster and shuffled off to Buffalo to visit family over the last several days. Always an enjoyable time to see people and just relax on the back deck and talk.

We did go a few places, including Niagara Falls. Above should be two photos.

One picture is of Elspeth and Alyssa looking over the falls with a rainbow in the background. The other is of Alyssa on the Maid of the Mist.

Alyssa did not want to go on the boat! Such complaining all the way across the park, down the elevator, on the boat. Oh, but once she loosened her vice-like hold on me and realized everything was going to be OK, she let loose with some smiles.

Thought: All wet is OK with me.

Holiday

Above is a shot of the kids in the July Fourth parade in Saugatuck on Friday.

It was a great day for a parade -- cool (temps only in the low 70s) with low humidity. I rode my bike to the event while Jayne drove the girls. On the way out of town, I actually got stuck in a traffic jam! Stop-and-go traffic on a bike is tough.

Elspeth spent the night at a friend's house while we later took Alyssa to the fireworks. We stood on the bridge over the Kalamazoo River (Douglas side) and watched the sky. The fireworks are launched from a barge in Lake Kalamazoo.

To boldly not go. ...

I had mentioned in my last blog about work. My boss announced last week that he was leaving for a job in communications at a Grand Rapids hospital. I was asked if I wanted to apply for his position.

I know I was being asked because I've been with the company for 17 years, so people feel obligated to inquire. At least some people are polite if not sincere. Also, the people need to know where they should throw their allegiances so they don't look silly when a new person takes over.

I can do the job. Don't get me wrong. My ego is just as huge as everyone else's in the media.

Ah, but so much gets in the way.

I had applied to the position twice before and been turned down, the last time rather unprofessionally and, I thought, in an insulting manner. So, why try again? After two times, it just looks pathetic.

Also, I think the newsroom is peopled with some petty, nasty, self-absorbed children (I know! I'm the lead speaker at their weekly meetings!). Not all of the people by any means, but we have some key staffers who have back-stabbing and character assassination down to a fine art -- sometimes you can't even tell you're being ripped apart until your very soul is in a nicely filleted pile on the floor and you're presented with the bill.

I don't think I have the stamina to deal with that now. A few years ago, yes, but I often wonder if my very spirit has been broken. Or, if not broken, just battered and bruised enough to learn a lesson. I may never know.

The Gita talks about doing the work you are best at as a way to nurture the soul; "Star Trek" also explained it well when Spock and McCoy told Kirk that he was best as captain, not admiral ("Wrath of Khan" reference).

Thought: Now "warp" has a whole new meaning.