Scribe-ls

My nerves rattle every time I hear about big businesses cutting wages or laying off staff because profits are not at projected levels.  Wait a rotten, stinking minute.  You're making a profit, that should be enough.  It's not like small business, where the profit is what mom-n-pop live on; the executives and other fat cats are living mighty well, thank you very much, before profit is even arrived at! 

If you're making enough to pay any kind of dividend after setting aside for future needs, what's the beef?  Investors rankling for more money than they're getting?  What, exactly, is wrong with a sane 3 to 5%?  Oh, yeah, that's right, chubby dividends boost trading; we're talkin' fast money, pal.  Garbage.  Easy come, easy go.  Speed kills.  Let's put our feet back on the dirt and do right.  Retain jobs and retain an economy before China, Mexico and the Middle East buy the whole country cheaply.  Otherwise, we'll be thinking these were the good old days as we struggle in a new culture. 

When did it become uncool to speak plain, American English?  In re-reading my own post I see that I used the word "bistro."  Forget that.  It's r-e-s-t-a-u-r-a-n-t.  Maybe even c-a-f-e.  Better, d-i-n-e-r. 

Part of our economic problem is that we've become so engulfed in trying to live the life fantastic, to emulate what used to be called the jet-setters, that we've backed ourselves into corners trying to pay for it and it's causing a pain in the economic muscle.  We're responding to that pain by tightening our purse strings as we cower in the corners like scared misers, which only worsens the situation. 

It dawned on me that if we get back to acting like Americans, instead of trying to emulate "Euro" this and "Euro" that, we'll bring about a resurgence in our culture and economy.  Rather than pursuing hoity-toity ideals of "designer" goods and "upscale" dining, we need to return to something best expressed in the Wizard of Oz by Dorothy:  "Me?  Why, I'm just a plain old girl from Kansas!" 

There's nothing wrong with wanting good quality, but let's get real. Impractical prices, expensively ambient stores and glossy images don't necessarily indicate quality, nor does something being from or resembling something from Europe.  We forget they've their share of shysters, too.

If a product is good, it'll stand on its own.  We don't need gilded bulldroppings, we need goods and services providing value and usefulness commensurate with their prices and you can find those in some of the humblest places.  I remember from childhood and old folks' musings that this is the way we were and it worked.  America was strong. 

Let's regroup and let it be the way we are. 

How long is it going to take and how bad must it be before the business world reacts naturally to the economic climate?  I'm not an economist and am sure I'll be shredded as a result of this post because it strays far from the current conventions. 

Instead of trying to keep prices unnaturally low by stealthily reducing product sizes and boldly cutting staff sizes, I believe business should respond exactly oppositely in a measured manner and let the Federal Reserve go apopleptic.   Rather than aggravate and feed the situation by laying off people who then cannot afford to buy anything or keep what they've got, why not honestly maintain, or nearly so, product standards, raise prices and raise wages?  Maintain levels of primary purchasing by producing product to the usual standards; reducing primary purchases just causes contractions at the supplier level.  The result is more unemployed or wage-cut people who can't spend while the remainder is starkly afraid to.

This false anti-inflationary activity is making the problem worse.   Yeah, yeah, uncontrolled inflation is a nasty monster, but I intuit that the economy reacts like a muscle - if we tense up, the cramp will only get worse and take longer to fade.  Let's loosen it up and bravely spend a little.  EVERYONE. 

Fine, make your statements, but make them on your own time.  When you force your ideas on people it's propagandizing and that makes you no better than the ordinary fascist pig. 

If this was to have been a paid performance, payment should be withheld because Ms. Marie didn't perform the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, as agreed. 

There is a time and place for making statements, for expressing one's thoughts, never is it on someone else's dime or by deceit.  As much as we all have a right to expression, others also have a right to opt out from partaking of it and Ms. Marie denied that to many.  While being graced with a thrilling musical talent, Ms. Marie appears to have gotten short shrift in the other graces. 

Goco80401 can be credited or thunked for this one, with his pithy remark about some of our lovely on-off ramps around town (he asserts they had to have been designed by primates on hallucinogens).  Naturally, I thought about some of my "favorites" and it is probably a pretty fair guess that nearly everyone has at least one dreadful ramp that brings on that liquid-guts feeling when avoiding it is impossible.

There are a couple of ramps that have terrified me from my very first attempts at them as a young driver almost 30 years ago.  Yes, even then these were fear-inducing whirly-rides that required a steady putt-puttin' around the bend then a hallelujah of a foot-stomping leap of faith in your vehicle to enter the screaming flow of oncoming traffic on the target highway.  Slightly less terrifying now after numerous uses unscathed, if not unscared, is the ramps from south-bound Wadsworth onto either east-bound Sixth Avenue Freeway and the ramp from north-bound Ward Road/44th Avenue onto east-bound I70. 

Anyone who's driven around the west end of the Metro surely recognizes these.  The Wadsworth-Sixth one is part of an old modified cloverleaf interchange with a huge curve that make any speed over 35 a sure bet for an unsuccessful attempt at orbit.  After tootin' around this like old Mr. Magoo in his jalopy, you have about ten feet to reach traffic speed (speed limit 65, real speed at least 75), oh but wait!  There are vehicles trying to merge off right here, too, to get onto Wadsworth.  Their drivers barely dare to decelerate at all as no-one observes the spacing rules.  Yeeha!  Once you manage the weave here, you're faced with mergers-on, as well, while right-lane-riders gunning for the Sheridan exit are threatening to push.  On a good day, you might get lucky enough to have an opportunity to hop left a lane, otherwise it's a careful balancing act of braking, accelerating and hoping.  Once you're successfully on, you've definitely had your daily cardio workout.

Ward Road and I70 is enough to cause night-terrors.  There is no luxury of 10 feet to accelerate, it feels like six feet, and you've come up a bit of a hill on the ramp. The oncoming traffic on east-bound I70 has the advantage of a slight down-grade and amnesia of the fact that thte 75 miles per hour speed limit (85 real speed!) ended miles back.  Not to be overlooked is that the onslaught usually includes at least one semi, as not all of them take the break at the truck stop right there.  More often than not, you've also one sniffing up your tailpipe as you're straining up the ramp trying to achieve something close to a safe merging speed while simultaneously trying to gauge a jumping-in point.  Yiiiiikes!  Thank goodness there isn't the added spice of a forward off-ramp or another on-ramp.  You've got plenty of time to move it, move it, move it before the Kipling exiters scream across the interstate from the left lane.   

Welcome to the wild, wild west, newbies.  It takes grit to drive our highways.  Hope you've got some!

Anyone who grew up in the Denver area knows Taco House.  I think we're down to two of 'em, south Federal near Alameda and north Wadsworth near Colfax.  If you grew up modestly, Taco House was a family night out.  We'd dress up a little bit and pile in the car to go to this 'real restaurant.'  The rule was:  if you're going where someone waits on you, you dress up and behave nicely. 

No matter that then as now, Taco House was completely lacking in pretention.  Hard floors, bare booths and tables, paper napkins, cheap flatware and plastic drinkware.  There might be a decoration or two, a sombrero and some maracas, on the wall, but no ferns or objets d'art.  What was there, though, were "people next door" types working and dining surounded by reassuring cleanliness.  A menu of what was then exotic Mexican dishes such as tamales, enchiladas, tacos and burritos rounded out with rice and beans came priced at levels even Dad could accept.  The food arrived hot, fresh and flavorful.  It was ever so slightly greasy and it was good, being not too spicy or too bland.  Best of all, the waitress was johnny-on-the spot with chips and hot sauce (this was pre-"salsa" days) and very attentive to every detail.  You could get a whole meal for a bargain  at $2.50. 

I stopped in recently at the Wadsworth location for a quick, very affordable bite that didn't come out of a fryer.  It hasn't changed a bit, except the meal with a small drink is now $5, and that is a good thing.  We don't need attitude or contrived ambiance every moment, with a price-tag to match.  Sometimes we just need to eat and to be and that is the feel there.  That is is why I love Taco House. 

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/Business/D
etail?contentId=6666980&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCo
de=TSTY&pageId=4.5.1

The link is to a Fox News story about riots in South Korea over the go-ahead by their government to import American-produced beef.  Not just little, teensy, riots, but humdingers with thousands of people. 

I find it amazing that just about anywhere else, people feel some sort of loyalty to locally produced foods at least.  Here, we take just about anything from anywhere and don't say boo as long as we can go get it for sub-par prices at the big box or the dollar store.  Then we pine for the ranchers and farmers who give up and become developers.  We're all nuts.

Is anybody else feeling the bite this summer concert season?  I have a feeling some are....

I feel like very little is in reach with all the pressures right now.  The price of everything is going up, up, up and the family business is suffering a recession to boot because clients are scared to spend money.  (Thank goodness one of us has a job outside!)  So, concerts, which after fees, a couple of pops and parking rarely come in for less than $100 for two people, are out of the question for the time being unless a really big deal hits the scene. 

Hey, but one did; a particular fast food chain (locally based, hint, hint) is running a great deal in which you buy a certain meal package and take the receipt to get a free concert ticket to some good shows.  The ad was in the Denver Post on May 31.  For a music-lover like me, it's a joyful thing that brought tears to my eyes.  Maybe it won't be such a dud summer after all...and maybe musicians won't be facing that awful demon of near-empty venues.  And maybe I'll rethink my snotty attitude toward fast food...

I have to grit my teeth every time some yuppie blathers about how everyone needs to be environmentally responsible and go get a more gas-efficient vehicle.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just up and be so selfless.  Last time I checked, most people are in hock up to their necks paying for their cars (I am) and the notion of suddenly hitting the local dealership to get a Yaris or SmartCar to conserve gas inspires hysterical giggles. 

I'm almost two years into my car, an Aztek, a cross-over by Pontiac.  That means I am most likely upside down in it, which is fine as I know it'll all catch up in the end.  I bought it to meet my transportation needs, not as an investment and am very pleased with it to date.  It's big enough to be comfortable (I'm not petite, but certainly not as big as they come either) for me and my dogs and all the gear to make a weekend in Hartsel pleasant, or a couple weeks' groceries and all the other Saturday errands-stuff.  It's not the hugest thing out there (I think that's the Tahoe or maybe a Humvee).  I've checked the gas mileage, which is about 22 mpg, mixed, and that is after resorting to "regular unleaded" with the recent price escalations. 

Essentially, buying a new gas-miser car is going to cost me lots more than simply keeping what I've got and being even more thoughtful of how much I drive.  The payments will be higher than what I've got now, if I could scratch up the ridiculous cash they want for a down payment.  Additionally, insurance will likely be more because while the Aztek is a sturdy vehicle with no pretensions of zippiness, therefore a lesser risk profile, these little Minis, Yarises and SmartCars crumple if you sneeze at them and inspire traffic-darting (uh huh, I've seen it!).  Would I like a car that gets 40 mpg?  Sure, if I can keep my Aztek for real stuff and use the littly for the 10-mile daily commute (round trip) and maybe zippadeedoos down to Texas or up to Wyoming to satisfy the gadabout urge.  Realistically, though, with our budget, one car each is it, and we're grateful for that, so it isn't going to happen. 

At any rate, the trust-fund-fed utopianists can make their suggestions all they want, but I'll keep on keeping on without guilt.  I have a good car kept in good tune, I manage my driving carefully and once in a while enjoy a little outing.  How far do THEY drive to and from their plastic offices each day? 

Driving up to Estes Park via the "scenic route" of Highway 287 all the way up to Highway 34 and then west, I was taken aback by the wild and crazy growth up north.  Gone is the two-lane toodle up from Arvada to Loveland.  Highway 287 is four lanes all the way with speed limits up to 65 miles per hour.  Zoiks!  The only saving grace is that exorbitant gas prices have greatly reduced leisure traffic up there for the time being.  Also, much farmland has been supplanted by shopping centers and subdivisions, and I really miss the cows and crop dusters. 

I know...growth happens and most of it is okay in that inevitable sort of way except the neo-urban garbage plunked down in southern Broomfield and (I think) northern Lafayette (Prospect).  While I understand we've a whole crop of suburban-raised younguns who want to have the look and feel of hip urbanism without the icky things like bums and genuinely old warehouses (and the cost), it just blows me away that these phony-baloney warehouse-y looking, densely packed structures of condos, apartments and business are dropped right out in Green Acres.  They don't fit the surrounds at all and stick out like sore thumbs.  They're so trendy and dense I've taken to thinking of them as "future blight."  These younguns are going to soon tire of living in fake urbanity and take their money and return to more traditional suburban styles. 

Anyway, there were still cows and crops here and there, which was nice to see.  We've got to raise the food somewhere.  Up Highway 34 the cute little Cherry Store is still there, selling cherry everything in a perky red-and-white setup.  Most of the funky old motels and cabin outfits remain, although many new log palaces perch on the canyon walls.  While not a member of the Flat Earth Society, I have to admit that it's reassuring some good things remain the same. 

Max Wagner has once again proved to be a great producer in putting on the Estes Park Jazz Fest (in conjunction with the Art Walk).  He gives attendees at the free outdoor festival May 17 and 18 a good sampler of the one true American art form: jazz music in many of its varieties. 

Saturday started off with the cool trad tones of the Estes Park Big Band and man, it swung.  Next up were Brad Goode and the Ken Walker Trio shaking it up with some modern in amongst the swinging melodies.  For a traddie like me, some of it was a little out there, but hey, you've gotta keep your ears open and let the music in.  The Air Force Falconaires played tight trad and swing jazz with acumen and the vocals were gritty and sweet.  Topping off the day with panache were George Whitesell and His All-Stars with Jill Watkins performing largely jump and blues to rattle the rocky surrounds.  Watkins can sing it like nobody can, with outstanding projection and a whole lotta soul.  Anybody who didn't have a good time listening to George's crew has no-one to blame but themself. 

Sunday the 18th has a whole new lineup with the smooth crooner and reedsman Max Wagner joining the Ken Walker Trio to start the day at noon in good jazz form.  The OTones Brass Band comes next with a mixed-up New Orleans sound, then Javon Jackson and the iconic Les McCann, finishing with The Dexter Payne Quintet with Derek Banach.  See this link for a real run-down:  http://estesparkcvb.com/events.cfm?mode=cat_overview&l
isting_cat_id=1440. 

I can't think of a better way to spend a warm, sunny day in May. 

The brown bag printed with the National Association of Mail Carriers logo and instructions for joining in their food drive on May 10 sat on my counter all week, being moved here and there for food prep and cleanup.  I'd look at it sometimes balefully, thinking, yeah, right, load up the bag!  As if I'm not spending enough!  As if we're not cutting back!  Yet, I couldn't bring myself to throw it out and kept shuffling it from here to there. 

Hearing an interview with a food bank user on NPR yesterday didn't help my ambivalence at all.  In their effort to illustrate the effects of the economy on the middle class by interviewing a middle-class mother using a food bank in Iowa, they instead gave me yet another reason to feel disgust with my "classmates" and hesitate in sharing.  The words of  the woman interviewed impressed me that she was using the food bank to supplement groceries so she wouldn't have to spend so much on food and inconvenience a two-income lifestyle now challenged by the recession, not to supplement otherwise insufficient food to adequately feed her family.  It made me angry.  When I give food that I buy with my hard-earned money (sometimes stripping my own pantry of back-ups) to the food bank, I am expecting that it will feed people who would otherwise go hungry, not somebody who doesn't want to give up non-necessities like sports for the kids, movies, cable TV, professional haircuts, soft drinks, and so forth. 

So I stood in front of my pantry this morning, thinking about that interview and feeling quite a bit grumpy about the whole idea of setting out my back-ups for the mail carriers' drive.  I went and picked up the bag, thinking to throw it out or use it to stack newspapers for recycling, but simply could not do either.  In spite of the jerks out there abusing the food banks, there are many more people who do truly need the food and my not giving will make the impact of the jerks all the worse.  Thin, wan mothers who feed the kids first.  Old men with $25 left over out of their pension after paying rent and medical costs.  Teens with addict parents.  So, into the bag went most of my backups and a heartfelt prayer for the well-being of whoever gets them and the mail carrier who will deliver them. 

Hi, kiddo.  I am so sorry to hear about your juvenile diabetes.  While it is indeed very treatable, better now than ever before, it's a life-threatening illness and represents a change in day-to-day life for you.  My son who is now about your age, was diagnosed at four years old and we all mourned, became angry with God, tried to pretend it wasn't so and then finally grew to accept it. 

You're putting forth a very brave face and that is good, yet I see the sadness in your pictures and want to let you know this old mom says it's okay to feel upset, sad and scared.  It stinks when everyone else around you who doesn't have "it" says over and over "you'll be fine."  It's true, but gosh let's face it, it's frightful.  You probably will have some close calls as has my son, complete with ambulances, trips to the ER and hysterical family members.  You will get through these and bounce right back.  The important thing is to let everyone around you know you have diabetes (you'll be surprised how this big news will fade from public memory) by wearing your ID: you won't believe how quickly a young person is written off as under the influence of something when he's "only" suffering an insulin reaction, and that is the biggest hazard you face even being a sports star.  The notion of keeping a sugar source in your pocket shouldn't be scoffed either because it buys time to at least tell someone what's happening so they can help you.

So, listen to your doctors and your body.  You will be a-ok and find that the changes aren't unbearable, but for now, it's okay to cry.  Hugs to ya.