Catch-up

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Last week I heard someone refer to "the acceleration of time compression". Interesting term and definitely true.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was great. It is probably the first year I was not stressed about it and I think I owe that 100% to Maria, my cleaning lady. Although I was never a spectacular housecleaner, I did stress so much about it, especially if someone was coming to visit-let alone 30 people.

I think every person I know who makes stuffing feels like theirs is definitely the best and only tolerates others'. I have made the same dressing for years and years with very little changes to it and any changes I did make were not permanent. I am not sure why but I have definitely been disappointed in mine the last two years. This year Janet brought a huge pan of stuffing and she definitely gets the honors for hers-much better than mine. Excellent.

We had just the right amount of food-although the death-by-chocolate seemed to get wiped out in about 30 seconds leaving me not even a taste of it this year.

The crowd was great. It is always a nice mix but everything just seemed to flow this year.

That seems to be the end of the good news. Everything else is so bleak. The auto companies certainly have everyone worried. It is such a hard issue. We are all certainly entitled to be angry with their very poor management, arrogance and future planning over the years but, at the same time, we cannot afford, as a country, to let it collapse. One of the most consistent numbers I see is that one in ten jobs in the United States is dependent on the auto industry. Having been in a union myself for 20 years, I understand their role and the stand that the union leaders take. But sometimes, just sometimes, a cut in wages is better than no jobs. There are a lot of people out there who would like to go back to their jobs--even with a cut in wages. The question then becomes, if they get the money, if they get the big three up and running again, who wants to buy a car now? I am not sure that I would want to buy a car from a company that may fail anyway in a few months. A difficult time for sure.

Everyone feels the pinch, everyone. Last Monday morning, Liz and her co-workers at the March of Dimes were very surprised by layoffs. Although everyone has the shared anxiety about the economy in general, they were not expecting this. Especially out of the blue at 10A on a Monday morning. When it becomes personal and very good friends are giving you the things they are clearing out of their office, it becomes scary.

Cuts in the budget are responsible for the proposed closing of the ladder company of NYFD on City Island. What it means is that we will still have fire men but not enough to man the ladder truck at night. It has the potential for being very scary although most of the buildings on CI are only two stories high. The exception? Pilot Cover-senior apartments. Could it be any worse than that? One of the fireman from CI decided to try to impress the higher-ups that this was not a great idea and started pulling false alarms on the island. Not the brightest move in the world as he was arrested this week. Let's throw into the mix that he was raised on CI and still lives here. Pretty stupid move over all.

The City Island Theater Group held its annual meeting last week. It has had a successful year and is now making plans and commitments for 2009, its ten year anniversary. Yours truly had the good fortune to be elected to its board.

Finally finished "The Kennedy Women". It was a pretty sad look into this very male-oriented family. I do understand that it was all very cultural-the male-centric Irish culture and all-but it was definitely sad to read to what extreme it was manifested. With the emergency of Caroline Kennedy as a person of interest for the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, it makes the book even more interesting.

Our chat book that we are going to discuss tomorrow night. Although it is fiction, it is still pretty overwhelming to think of the impact that one or two foolish hours has on the lives of so so many people. It just seems like more and more people make such foolish decisions any more. This one could be attributed to youth, anger, alcohol. But then anger and alcohol probably are on the top of the list pretty often. It does seem like there are some older people making some pretty foolish decisions lately also-the governor of Illinois. Do they really think no one will find out about any of their stupid decisions?

I thought about that a lot when I was reading the Kennedy book. How Jack and Bobby were such heros of their times and how they would have never survived the public scrutiny that public figures face today.

When my nephew and his wife were here this summer, they told me that Harlan Coben is one of their favorite authors so I am giving him a try. I think this is his first book in this series and I am enjoying it quite a bit. It is definitely moving very quickly.

Last Thursday was the third meeting of the "Ladies Who Knit....Or Crochet....Or Don't". It is such an enjoyable and comfortable night. Vicki, who works for "The Wine Enthusiast" brings one bottle of white wine and one bottle of red wine each time. If we were going to have officers, she would definitely be president. We decided that it is time for us to be more productive so I am going to contact the Visiting Nurses Association of the Bronx which is looking for knitters and crocheters to make things for their patients. They provide yarn and patterns. Like I would need more yarn. This seemed like the best choice to us because they know their patients and they know what they use and it will be distributed locally.

Am pretty much ready for Christmas as far as shopping is concerned. Just have to get moving on the decorating. Have cut back considerably on the baking but still will do the favorites.