Tag: Personal stuff

Odds and ends number 27

I’m going to start out with the political but quickly swerve away. I know there’s a lot of talk about fees vs. taxes here in Maryland that I’ll cover more in depth tomorrow.

But there’s other items percolating out there.

You know my feelings on the ‘scameras’ that I expressed in the fight we had over them in Wicomico County. Oftentimes communities abuse the privilege they are given by the state, and I’m looking for Salisbury to do the same thing once they install theirs.

My blogging friend Bob McCarty documents another case of ‘scamera’ abuse regarding red-light cameras in Arizona, which got an innocent man sent to jail. As is normally the case, we have to follow the Benjamins here.

Isn’t that the usual role of government in this day and age – taking your money?

Okay, my political rant is over for the time being. Let’s look at sports.

As I write this I’m watching an Orioles spring training game. But there is another event going on which has drawn interest, and that’s the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Just for fun, several Red Maryland contributors and friends got together to hold their own bracket challenge, and it proved I’m a better baseball fan than basketball prognosticator. Out of 13 entries I’m sitting in 10th and, as is often the case when someone is to blame the Butler did it. Since I picked Florida to win it all their loss ended my chances of winning. I can finish no higher than 5th or lower than 11th.

But at least I’m ahead of a couple people, including Brian Griffiths, who created the group. (Update: I finished 10th of 13.)

Finally, as many dedicated readers know I had a weekend of local rock post yesterday and skipped Friday Night Videos on my most recent Friday. After some thought, I’ve come to a decision that I’m boxing myself in by holding political videos back until Friday; anymore they deserve the same kind of feedback and comment as press releases and news items because they’re replacing these more traditional items. If I see something worth commenting on I think the video needs to be placed up right away.

In the meantime, I’ve begun to pile up a number of good local music videos. With cellular phone and iPod technology coming to the point where the output is quite acceptable for public usage, I think there’s enough out there to make Friday Night Videos become what the original television series was – all music, all the time. Obviously this site will remain political but we’re getting to the time of year when other things like Shorebird of the Week and local bands get their share of pixels.

But I can use a little help in that regard. If you’re a local band member or supporter reading this and want a little exposure for your video, just send me a link. Ideally FNV would run about 30 minutes, which works out to 6 or 8 videos per week. I KNOW there are more than 6 or 8 talented bands around here playing more than 6 or 8 shows a week (not to mention a pretty sizeable backlog of stuff.)

So look for those changes, which may actually make my life a little easier too.

Happy new year slowdown!

Okay, real quick before I head to bed for the first time this year…

Due to a confluence of factors, including an accelerated pace at my “real” job and the fact I’m relocating in the near future (we’ll actually be living in the city of Salisbury again) posts may not necessarily be daily – but I will try. The hard part may be coordinating internet service with Comcast.

We actually celebrated the turn of the calendar in the new place, but most of our stuff is still at our present location. I could update my Facebook status with my Droid but have not added the functionality of WordPress quite yet. (Maybe once I get a little more acclimated to it – imagine me liveblogging on the fly!)

By the way, with a new quarter comes new advertising opportunities – I’m just sayin’…

So you have been warned. Happy new year to all of my readers!

Plowing the dollars away

Six years ago, I moved here to get away from this crap. Well, it’s apparently followed me because for the fourth time in about fourteen months we are getting hammered by a significant winter storm.

But the difference between living in northwestern Ohio and the Eastern Shore lies in preparation: simply put, this area has a hard time dealing with a clipper-type shot of a couple inches of snow, let alone a blizzard. To be prepared is to spend money on plows, supplies, and equipment that most counties and municipalities don’t seem to possess around here – meanwhile, private industry hasn’t completely taken up the slack because there’s a fairly significant investment in time and equipment required to tap into the market for snow removal. Perhaps a run of relatively snowless winters kept people out of that avocation.

One obvious question is whether additional investment is justified given the fickle nature of weather. It’s true that many experts tell us the next couple decades will be a spell of cold winters – as opposed to the predictions of global warming in vogue perhaps five years ago – but with the local climate a variance of just a few degrees may be the difference between a 10-inch snowstorm, a nasty ice storm, or cold rain. That’s not as common in northern climes where the tendency is for snow from Thanksgiving through St. Patrick’s Day.

My guess, though, is that we’re going to be putting up with a blizzard or two and its inconvenience pretty much every winter for the foreseeable future. It never hurts to be prepared, but I’m thinking that preparation will have to be personal since I doubt the local and state governments will have the resources to keep the roads clear. They were busting their budgets just to get through last winter and, alas, the money’s not there for budget increases.

In this latest case, we were taken a bit by surprise but so far people seem to be taking it in stride. Stay warm, stay home, and read some blogs to get caught up after the holiday weekend.

Wishes for a Merry Christmas 2010

As I have done for several years now I’m taking Christmas Day off from posting, so this is my Christmas wish to the world here on Christmas Eve.

Last weekend we had an interesting experience, as the three of us strolled through the Walk Through Bethlehem that Lynnhaven Baptist Church in Pocomoke City performs. Obviously the church is using this unique method to share its interpretation of Christ’s birth and thousands of people have made this an annual tradition.

But what struck me in the diorama were those playing the Roman soldiers and government officials; remember, the story of Christ’s birth centers around the demand that Roman inhabitants return to the city of their birth for census and tax collection.

I don’t think the acting was that far off when government soldiers and tax collectors portrayed themselves in the presentation as rude, arrogant, and all-powerful. They harassed and bullied the people who were just trying to live their lives and comply to that which the government ordered.

Yet in the midst of chaos, a miracle occurred.

While I tend to look at things through the political lens, there are things that transcend politics and human nature is one of them. It was only through divine inspiration that this nation was founded, and while we pay homage to America on a number of occasions during the year we only pause to celebrate Jesus’ birth once.

Truly we should be thankful for the freedoms we have and make sure that those who serve us in government don’t fill the role of arrogance and lust for power and wealth exhibited by the Romans. But let’s not forget the reason for the season.

As has also become tradition, I leave you once again with my friends from Semiblind and their rendition of the Christmas classic ‘O Holy Night’.

Merry Christmas.

How the poll goes

As you can see over to the right of this article, my “best local blog” poll is taking a hiatus for the holidays, replaced by an RNC poll that I’ll leave up for a few days. But I found the opening round results of my local blog poll quite interesting.

Last year, I had three finalists – afterthegoldrush, Salisbury News, and Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom. Since I only had twelve competitors last year, the first round of four polls cut the field to six (4 winners + 2 wildcards), then the semifinals cut the remainder in half (the two winners + a wildcard.) afterthegoldrush was a wildcard in the first round that survived, won its semifinal, and defeated Salisbury News 152-146 in the final poll (4TF received six votes.)

But in 2010 I expanded the field to 24, and since I want to maintain 3-way races the eight round winners will be joined by just one wildcard into one of three semifinals, with the three winners moving on. From here on out, just like the NFL playoffs, it’s win or go home.

Of the three who were in the finals last year, two have survived into the semifinals. Here is the list in seeding order, based strictly on the number of votes with which each won its individual round.

  1. Random Thoughts of a Citymouse (191 votes)
  2. Right Coast (175 votes – wildcard)
  3. The Salisbury Grinch (93 votes)
  4. afterthegoldrush (65 votes)
  5. Salisbury Soapbox (56 votes)
  6. Delmarva Shorebirds Blog (40 votes)
  7. Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom (37 votes)
  8. Delmarva Sportsmen (17 votes)
  9. Delmar Dustpan (8 votes)

While many contenders garnered more than eight votes, they didn’t happen to be in such a weak first-round draw. That’s life. In the semifinals the rounds will be made as equal as possible.

This poll will return January 3rd with the first of three semifinals, with the winner being crowned later in January.

Weekend of local rock volume 36

It’s a Christmas tradition around these parts – maybe not on the scale of trees, mistletoe, or boughs of holly, but 16 years seems to be a long enough run to call it tradition. Consider it a more modern forum for caroling.

The 16th annual 12 Bands of Christmas was, as always, presented by this guy.

Skip Dixxon has probably seen or been in hundreds of local rock shows, so he knows just how to put together a party. One oddity of this lineup was its popularity for other venues, as I’ll get into shortly.

My friends from Semiblind began the show at 6:00. Normally they appear later on the bill, but Jim and Michele had their own acoustic gig later that evening in Milford so Semiblind went first with a little bit more of a rockin’ countrified set than normal.

Dust n’ Bones did their own set of hard rock covers before exiting for a show in Salisbury later that evening.

The next band was the bluesy jam band Monkee Paw, who stopped by before doing their own gig in Bethany Beach. It’s good to see that bands are being employed in these parts but had the time to drop in to do a half-hour or so set.

Livin’ the Dream put the host to work on the drum set as they cranked out the hard stuff, including a couple from KISS, and gave an impromptu bass lesson to a lucky and nubile young lady in the crowd. It was fun.

The newest band of the night, Gabriel Nation was making its debut – they weren’t even sure they were keeping the name. But they played the stuff their borrowed drummer knew.

Switching to some originals, we were treated to a staple of Skip’s events – the blues-rock of Melodic Groove. The Crisfield-based trio was rocking the joint as we reached past the halfway point.

It wasn’t just the long, long, Santa hat – Crookedfinger played a couple in their set to get us in the Christmas spirit. But they also tossed in a couple originals and some interesting mashups to keep the crowd into it.

The party needed some Gravy, said Skip, and they delivered a solid set of classic rock covers even with some sound issues involving their keyboard player. It took until the second song to get him squared away.

Don’t try this with your guitar at home.

A band new to the area, Maddam Ink came down from Philadelphia to introduce themselves.

I liked them enough to give them two pictures, and hopefully they will make some return visits to the area. It was good exposure for an up-and-coming band.

I hadn’t seen Gravitate before, but they kept the party going through their interpretation on a number of classic tunes. Even the bullhorn (seen on the stage) was employed a couple times, which is a touch I’ve only seen with one other band (Funksion, out of the Norfolk area.)

We wrapped up the night with the high energy of Witches Brew.

I added a couple shots for them just so you could get an idea of their frenetic pace.

They closed out the show by reprising hard rockers from Nirvana, Judas Priest, and AC/DC, among others. So much for a slow letdown.

The summary: music fans at Pickles Pub in Ocean City were treated to eleven bands in eight hours, at the best price possible – free. Next year, make it part of your Christmas tradition!

A half-decade of monoblogue

It’s the same bat-time, same bat-channel as I’ve done this retrospective the last couple years. And aside from the terrible twos when I was busy at a convention, each previous year I’ve done an anniversary post.

I use these retrospective posts sort of like a President uses the State of the Union address, except I don’t bring in a number of guests to pander to the viewing audience. Each year as time passes I assess what I’ve done for this enterprise, good and bad, and figure out just what I’d like to say about it. And obviously with each passing year I believe things get bigger and better – maybe not necessarily in audience numbers or influence (although both were pretty close to a peak this year) but in terms of self-satisfaction. There hasn’t been a year yet where I didn’t think I did a better job than the last, but I can always find room for improvement too.

It goes without saying that monoblogue had a different appearance this year than in the past. This time last year I was playing around with a new look and found a theme I liked – it was adopted earlier this year.

The reasons I wanted the new look were twofold: I had a legacy theme which precluded me from the usage of widgets, meaning I had to painstakingly fix the two sidebars to get the look I wanted with the information I wanted to share, and the change allowed me a more flexible base for advertising. (In case you’re wondering, the theme is called Black Lucas 1.2. I haven’t run across any other blogs which use it, so I like that uniqueness.) It also provided a cleaner look where the headlines popped out and weren’t buried in the overall text of the story.

Another big change was the number of truncated stories. Beginning in March I had an Examiner.com blog and gained a second one in May. At the moment they both lie in a semi-dormant state, simply because I found writing for Examiner wasn’t all that lucrative considering the time investment. I’ve also found their new interface and site backend to be most annoying and their advertising too obtrusive, even when I put the finishing touches on articles. Knowing a number of other Examiners I’ve noticed their output has decreased as well, since it seems to be a site which focuses more on lifestyle and celebrity than politics. But I’m not shutting the doors there quite yet, as there may be a call to resume on it once the General Assembly session rolls around.

A more successful endeavor was being hired by Pajamas Media to cover the 2010 election here in Maryland. I had to step up the quality of my writing and subject selection in order to be included – listen, when you’re competing with guys like Victor Davis Hanson for space you’d better have your ‘A’ game on. (Plus I was well-compensated.) I was thrilled about giving Chuck Cook and our other ‘Off-Shorebird’ friends some well-deserved national ridicule – the video I shot has over 1,200 views. (Even better, Andy Harris was elected despite their efforts.)

Speaking of the election, on the whole I was pleased I didn’t join the stampede toward attempting to be a video star. I’m a writer, and that’s how I choose to present myself. Putting an amateur in front of a camera rarely leads to a good result and that’s particularly true when he’s trying to overshadow the candidate and become the star of the show. You probably don’t know this but at one point I was approached by a candidate about doing a ‘Meet the Press’ style video featuring other local bloggers and I but nobody wanted to work with anyone else. It’s probably better this didn’t come off.

That was part of the reason I used the Right Coast videos, for Matt Trenka isn’t a blogger so it wasn’t about promoting his website as much as it was about informing the electorate.

And since practically all these videos had viewership in the low three-digit range, to be honest most candidates would have done better to go out and signwave or make phone calls during the time spent.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for the year was not getting any traction as far as advertising goes; in fact I lost a longstanding advertiser (I had their text-based ads for nearly three years) because their business went south. I got some advertisers during the campaign season but this year I was determined to keep free advertising to a minimum.

To this end I have taken a few steps to see just what my audience is, and quite honestly I’m surprised by its reach. If you’d asked me beforehand I would have guessed about a 50-50 split between local and the rest of the state; it’s actually closer to 2-to-1 outstate. Salisbury makes up just over a quarter of my readership, and my Google Analytics readership map is freckled by dots all over the state’s center. (That is probably due to my Facebook marketing, since a whole lot of my friends live across the Bay Bridge.) 

So I can’t just cater to a local audience or advertisers – they have to think more regional in scope. Of course, I’m not turning away local advertisers and for some businesses (like restaurants and retailers) there’s nothing wrong with expanding the market area. I’d love to have wineries, breweries, or others who look for the tourist trade as advertising clients!

As you may know, I’m not a super-aggressive salesman (Hard$ell is a good band but it’s not my nature) because I prefer to just put out a good product and let it sell itself. But losing that text-ad client put me in the red for next year because they covered my server fee after about six months. In this case, I may have to do a little more to spread the word.

Last year I had an ambitious goal to increase my readership sevenfold by making my weekly readership numbers my daily ones. In truth, with being on Pajamas Media and other media outlets (let’s not forget my op-eds as well) there were days I achieved that – just not on this site.

Perhaps there’s only so much I can accomplish by keeping a local and state focus, but if I can make it a profitable enough venture I have a good base of operations from which to work on higher goals. Given the rapid amount of change in my life and this business over even the last year I really can’t say just what will come next around the corner. I’ve been fortunate enough to have opportunities presented to me and some are panning out even as I write this.

My chief goal over the next year as I begin another half-decade of this enterprise is to provide the utmost in quality while maintaining a reasonably decent quantity of work. I’m not going to be able to type out six good posts a day, but keeping my present pace of one to two (occasionally three) a day is doable with my other existing workload. I did my 2,000th post in mid-June, since then I’ve cranked out over 250 more.

So there you have it. Perhaps this is one of my wordier and more verbose posts but that’s how I write. As long as I continue to earn the respect of my peers and can advance in the writing profession life is good. And monoblogue has succeeded in that aspect beyond my wildest expectations.

The oddities of politics (well, at least a couple)

I’m still coming back off the Thanksgiving holiday which featured a goodly amount of food (including some good bread pudding thanks to Kim’s family and great pumpkin pie at Jim and Michele’s) and the news is still on the slow side – when the President getting busted on the lip by a wayward elbow in a pickup basketball game is breaking news you know things are slow.

Anyway, there are a few oddities I wanted to point out. One is a bit stale and the others arcane, but all seem crazy on the surface.

Up Baltimore County way, their Republican Central Committee chair is in a bit of hot water because he wanted the two Republicans on Baltimore County Council (along with his committee) to support a Democrat as the Council leader.

Unlike the other 23 jurisdictions in Maryland, Baltimore County elects its Republican Central Committee chair directly at the primary – it’s state law. Not only that, it’s unique to the GOP in Baltimore County as the rank-and-file Democrats don’t elect their chair – so what gives?

Even Tony Campbell himself doesn’t agree with the concept. So why is it in place? I have no idea when or why this was put into effect, but given his recent struggles I hope Campbell follows through with his promise and the General Assembly takes care of this oddity.

But wait, there’s more!

When we met on Election Day night, we selected our new county chair among the nine of us. Strangely enough, though, we didn’t officially take office until November 16, two weeks after the election. Yet the MDGOP had to do some business prior to this date and our chair (elected among us on November 2nd) represented the county at this meeting.  What’s really funny is that last term (which was my first) we weren’t sworn into office until the convention, two months after we were elected in the primary! Insofar as I know, this only applies to Republicans too.

In our case, there wasn’t much of a change since our chair is the former vice-chair and had attended state meetings before in place of the former chair when he was away. But what of a county with a lot of turnover? This could be really confusing and the potential is there for inadvertently tripping over the letter of the law.

I believe the time has come to clean up and synchronize election laws that need some pruning. Certainly let’s change the Baltimore County law, but why not set the Central Committee terms to begin on a date certain for both parties? If two weeks after the election is the day, then we should set our organizational meetings accordingly. (It may be a MDGOP slipup in this case.)

The other change from 2006 to 2010 that I would dearly love to see reversed is the elimination of the non-continuing account.

When I ran in 2006, I was able to close my financial books on the campaign once the results became official. Obviously at 5 bucks a month I didn’t want to keep the bank account going – especially for an unpaid volunteer position as mine is – and there were only a few transactions to account for on the financial report. All told there was less than $200 involved, mostly from my own contributions. (I also had to count monoblogue as an in-kind contribution.)

This time, my only two expenditures were the $10 filing fee and this website. I promised my new treasurer I’d make it as easy as possible for her! Problem is, I now don’t have the option of a non-continuing account since I’m done for four years and don’t see a need for a campaign warchest!

Compare this to my days in Ohio politics where being elected to the Central Committee positions required no filing fee, there was no need for a treasurer or associated bank account, and the only requirement to get on the ballot was a petition signed by 5-15 registered party members in the precinct. Yes, there was a difference in scale between a precinct of a few square blocks and running countywide, but the idea should be to encourage involvement, not make it more difficult. I beat enough of a field of 13 to make it this time so bring them on!

I can understand the need for these laws for state and local elected officials who are paid for services, but for an unpaid party position? I say bring back the non-continuing account for those positions only.

Obviously others may have their ideas for election and campaign finance reform, but there are a start. It’s worthy to think about this now when there’s just 44 days before the ’90 Days of Terror’ begins.

In print: Will Atlas shrug in Maryland?

I wrote this on Tuesday and sent it to several state newspapers. As of yesterday I know it was in the Daily Times Thursday and on the Carroll Standard Wednesday. This is my draft version, other outlets may have edited it to some extent.

**********

For Republicans in Maryland the 2010 election was a complete shock, especially compared to national results. Despite victories here and there for the GOP we now know our state government will lurch on to follow economic basket cases like California or New York, where free-spending Democrats believe that taxpayers comprise a never-ending gravy train.

The title of this piece refers to Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged. A book which doubles as a parable, its theme is how society reacts when the producers withdraw from an intrusive, overbearing government. In Maryland this scenario played out on a small scale via the so-called ‘millionaire’s tax’ in 2008 – instead of creating the extra revenue predicted, overall tax receipts fell well short of projections. Those who could afford to do so voted with their feet and left Maryland for other states which encouraged their presence by featuring low tax rates and a regulatory environment more conducive to business.

For those departing it was their manner of ‘going Galt,’ a phrase inspired by the character in Atlas Shrugged who led the exodus of those tired of the overtaxation, overregulation, and general disgust from those in government toward citizens successful in the private sector.

With this backdrop, Free State Republicans are in the process of choosing a leader for the next four years. Given the hand with which they have to play, the next state government term will need to be spent both fighting a rear-guard action to slow down Annapolis’s march toward oblivion and educating the public as to why it’s necessary – needless to say, voters missed the GOP message prior to the election.

Or did they? Maryland Republicans put up the candidates who, for the most part, were tacitly endorsed by party brass. Many among them were willing accomplices to the Democrats on their destructive course over the last four years – although some would argue that ship began sailing decades ago. In either case, no course correction was made with this election and Republicans need to work on making sure voters are aware of the fix surely required four years hence.

And while it may not be popular with the Democrats or the press, Republicans in Maryland indeed can’t just be the party of ‘no’ – we must be the party of ‘HELL NO!’ Sometimes there can’t be a compromise made; as Rand herself pondered, what is the compromise between food and poison? We must refuse the siren song of budget ‘fixes’ involving new and expanded taxes, and fight tooth and nail against additional regulations and misguided ideas like the ‘green jobs’ boondoggle.

Our best new Chair will be the one who realizes there can be no compromise in our principles; instead he or she will intuitively know Maryland Republicans need to present a bold palette of ideas and candidates in 2014. Our new leadership must convince our state’s producers help will eventually arrive.

Give us anything less and Atlas will fail.

Michael Swartz is a member of Wicomico County’s Republican Central Committee and a freelance writer who covered Maryland’s 2010 election for Pajamas Media. His home website is monoblogue.

A return

It’s a slow news day (unless and until a catfight breaks out among the crazier sleep-deprived Black Friday shoppers) so instead I’m going to post a heads-up for an upcoming event.

You may recall about this time last year I began a poll for the best local blog. Well, this year it returns with an expanded field of 24 contestants including defending 2009 champion afterthegoldrush, which edged out Salisbury News in the final poll.

Beginning Monday I’ll start the first of eight first-round polling battles, with the 8 winners and top runner-up in votes advancing to three semi-finals which will begin after Christmas (hey, it takes awhile to run eight polls.) And since it’s all in fun and I’m being as fair as I can, I excluded myself from the competition again.

Except for two that are not currently linked, the competitors can be found among those linked as Delaware and Eastern Shore blogs on the right sidebar (but not all of them – I tried to include those which regularly update and that I knew were from the lower Shore and slower lower Delaware.) Not all of them are political, but I excluded a couple personality-based blogs from the mix.

So let’s see what my local readers (which run about 1/3 of my audience) like among my local peers. Check back often to see who’s winning and help out your favorites!

Thanksgiving 2010

As I have in years past, I take time a day or two before Thanksgiving to write an annual message. It may or may not be autobiographical (generally it is) and it may or may not be philosophical, but nonetheless I take the time to populate my website on Thanksgiving because I feel I owe it to my loyal readers to provide daily content. A few dozen take me up on reading it.

Last year at this time I detailed my economic struggles, and they continue apace – however, I am thankful to have found a part-time job which is helping a little bit, not to mention the few extra dollars I make as a scribe. Depending on how things go forward with Pajamas Media, I’m up to two or three regular (paying) writing clients.

(I’m told this new job outside the house will pick up once the holidays are over – let’s hope that’s more true than when I lost my last full-time job only to be told I’ll be rehired ‘after the holidays’ – too bad I didn’t verify in which year those holidays would be. Can’t blame the old boss, though, since he has a smaller company now than when I left.)

It’s odd that I seem to have swerved into a bit of a tradition here. For the third year in a row, I’m having dinner with my friends Jim and Michele in Delaware and for the second year in a row, supper will be consumed with Kim’s family at her mom’s place in Oxford. It’s different than a Swartz family gathering, but it has advantages nonetheless.

Of course, the disadvantage of leaving family to move three states away is that one can’t always be there to gather with them. But this year that longing will be compounded by the loss of my brother LJ – future family gatherings will never be the same. For example, there are only two cutthroat UNO players to avoid sitting next to instead of three. (Those who know me best and most intimately will understand the humor there.)

Yet as the universe of readers here keeps expanding and time marches on as it forever has, I realize that there are days we need to ponder that which we should be thankful for and to Whom the thanks should go.

While it’s difficult letting go of the political world for a day and nearly impossible to not pay attention to the football game on (after all, I am a Detroit Lions fan and we almost always ate as their annual Thanksgiving game was being played) I try to manage because the best part is having great company for the day.

Years ago, in what seems like a galaxy far, far away, I was married to my first wife who had an elderly father that lived alone. Our first thought about Thanksgiving was making sure he had a place to go and wouldn’t be by himself on the holiday. As for me, I think I have managed to spend the time with family and friends either here or back in Ohio (a couple times) since I moved here. I still appreciate those who hosted me on Thanksgivings spent far away from my own family opening their home to me and being friends.

So I hope your Thanksgiving goes well, and if you have a job you got the day off. (Is our society really better served with all the stores open for shopping Thanksgiving Day?) Give thanks to those you’re with, for you never know if they’ll be there with you when the next Thanksgiving rolls around. Time has a way of being cruel.