Village Green/Town²

This is a happy little stop sign. It's happy because yesterday road crews from Howard County ame and trimmed away all of the plants growing on it. There's nothing more energizing than a good haircut, eh? I drive by this sign almost daily, and I've been watching it slowly taken over by vines. Yesterday morning, when I went over to photograph Pete's SnowBalls, I had an idea. I snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook. I received a response from Candace Dodson Reed in less than a minute, telling me exactly what to do, with follow up from Regina Clay. By the end of the day, it was fixed. I posted the picture because I didn't really know what department was responsible, and because I knew I probably knew someone who would know. It turns out that I did. And the reponse time was awesome, I must say. But that's not the only lesson I am carrying away from this.  There's more. Not only did this matter get handled within the day, but I also was given information on ...

First in line was a rather rumpled, portly fellow, early thirties, scraggly facial hair. Not at all an impressive sight, yet I overheard him speaking to the woman politely as she completed his order. Next, a young man in his early twenties with Downs Syndrome, clearly able to walk over, place an order and successfully handle the change of money, and return home. It was a nice afternoon and I didn't mind waiting in line. It was my last stop after running a bunch of errands, and it was a treat for myself: a watermelon snowball at Pete's. If you're not from my side of town, you may never have been to Pete's. Here are some reviews , one from the great hocolocal HowChow himself. Here is a lovely hymn to the joys of Pete's in blog form. ( Scroll down to the end.) Here is a picture of Pete's. If it lacks appeal in this shot, that is because this was taken this morning at nine am when Pete's was closed. What's missing from this scene i...

(Noun)  1. waste of time - the devotion of time to a useless activity; "the waste of time could prove fatal"     waste, wastefulness, dissipation - useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly; "if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste"; "mindless dissipation of natural resources" --from Free Dictionary.com So, the test scores go down in Howard County. You can read about that here . You can read the Superintendent's piece on it here . You can read a thoughtful interpretation on HoCoRising here . In short, test scores went down because what we are teaching has changed, but the tests haven't. I have seen a variety of points of view on this, but not the one I care about. Here goes: Under these circumstances, taking the old MSA's was a waste of time. Yes, I know that assessment is required by law. "They had no choice." But still, I want the weight of this to s...

Last day at the beach has its traditions. Breakfast at the Royal Treat. Rushing around to buy treats to take home: chocolate taffy from Candy Kitchen, caramel corn from Fisher's. Something new in the mix this year: Alice is taking Margo to get her first henna tattoo. Last day at the beach. What did I want to do that just didn't happen? An evening walk on the beach with Richard. Flaming coffee at the Back Porch Café. Riding a "surrey with the fringe on top" bicycle on the boardwalk. Tropical frozen cocktail with a little umbrella. Last day at the beach. Is what I *didn't* do what's important? Are the things that got away the things that should define my trip? When I look back, do I want to dwell on what didn't happen? Wow. It is tough to overcome this mentality.  Let me go back for a minute to the Church of What's Happening Now. It takes some readjusting. But then it comes into focus: laughing and joking in the car, overcoming fear in the water, watchin...

We interrupt this vacation with an important message about healthcare. Yes, healthcare. Because it is, of course, while you are out of state on a long planned family trip that you will be awaiting lab results for your child. And of course they will indicate that she needs twenty-eight days of antibiotics and you left home without your insurance card. Thanks to the ease of cell phones, we can talk to the pediatrician at length. Thanks to computers, she can send the prescription information to a local pharmacy at the beach and it will be ready within hours. Thanks to our health insurance we can afford to pay for it. But wait--we left the card at home. There was no easy fix for this. We had to pay the full cost of the medication: $148.00. We can submit the receipt when we get home and hope for reimbursement. Now, we're lucky enough to be able to swing this, but there have been times in my life when I couldn't have done it.  As I walked around the CVS as my husband paid for the pre...

In the summer of 1986 I was about four months pregnant and visiting Rehoboth for the first time with my in-laws and our best friends from college. My first husband and I were young, relatively broke, and grateful for an all-expenses paid vacation. I hated Rehoboth almost immediately. I had grown up swimming in Lake Erie and on Cape Cod, where there was no developed boardwalk. When we moved to Connecticut, our beaches on Long Island Sound were equally boardwalk-less. I was used to beaches in their natural state with no commercial development accompanying them. That was what I wanted: beach, shells, smooth stones, dunes, beach grasses. I was not a happy camper. Still, I was completely unprepared for what was to come. I was twenty-six, pregnant, and a wave took me out in a matter of seconds. I was less than five feet from shore, with water up to my knees, and suddenly--boom--faceplant. I was stunned. I tried to get up and couldn't. As the water pulled away from the shore, it sucked me...

You know you have picked the absolutely best spot at the beach when the lifeguards set up their chairs directly in front of you. It is both the Good News and the Bad News. Good because we will be the very safest swimmers in the water, bad because, well, really, it's blocking our view.  Ah, well... I am low to the ground in a beach chair, bare feet in the sand. I'm shaded by an umbrella, a mild breeze is blowing, and the sound of the waves is at the center of everything. At the moment, in this moment, nothing else matters. George and Alice are in the water, Richard and Margo are shopping for sand toys, and I am here, stationary, like the center of a clock from which the hands are turning, like the spokes of a wheel. I spend a lot of time in real life feeling like I am caught up in the spokes, spinning in the whirlwind of daily events and too much information. Spinning without forward motion or progress. How restful it is to be still. Comedian Flip Wilson created a character who ...