If you follow this blog, you may wonder why it’s been so long since there have been any new posts made. There are several reasons, but primarily because my entire household has been dealing with COVID for the last three months.
At first it was the youngest of the household, Kira. She had been sick for a while but none of us suspected COVID. Then the following day, I began to have post nasal drip and a sore throat. I tested positive on a home test, and proceeded to be in a state of semi conciousness for several days. As soon as I felt safe enough to drive I scheduled a PCR test at CVS. It confirmed what we all knew.
This silly variant would not let go of my body. For a period of 3 weeks I would travel to the same CVS to get the same PCR test every few days. I did not want to be a cause of spread, even though the FDA recommendations as well as IU’s were to quarantine for 5 days, and you were free to return to activities if you had no fever for 24 hours.
Then, our Queen was hit with it. Already dealing with sickness and pains that had kept her in bed for months; she was to stay there some more. She however, decided to seek treatment where I and her daughter did not. She received the anti-viral mediciation Paxlovid.
Our Queen is special you see. If there is a side effect, she usually receives it. If it can be an allergen, she probably has an allergy to it. This makes any situation with health related issues difficult at best.
Thankfully she took it in stride for the most part, she was unable to take her medication for anxiety and had a weird taste in her mouth due to the Paxlovid.
We are all for the most part better now. Kira seemed to pickup another cold of sorts, and Lyndsey and I continue to carry on with our various back and other issues due to the case of getting old.
While Amelia and I were spending a week away, I noticed a large disparity in the gas mileage my vehicle was achieving.
The vehicle in question, a 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
Normally, I get between 15-16mpg in this tank. It doesn’t matter how I drive, or the kind of road I’m on, those are the numbers. The only time that has ever changed has actually been for the negative. If I push it on the interstate and go over 75mph, my mileage will plummet to as low as 13mpg.
Normal mileage readings from my app.
But the opposite happened. My gas mileage increased to 19mpg. Most of my driving was highway/interstate driving. It has me puzzled.
Courtesy the app I use to track my automotive expenses.
The only thing I can think of would be the difference in terrain. The area around Indianapolis doesn’t have many hills.
Last week, I followed through with something my daughter has been working towards. She and I spent a week at a “Undisclosed Location” while she attended a Nike Basketball Camp. This camp is headed by Eddie Gill, a former NBA player.
Zionsville Middle School
Amelia will be going into 7th grade and has said she wants to be serious about playing on both the Basketball and Volleyball teams. Her parents are going to do everything we can to ensure she can.
This summer she is attending a total of three camps, the aforementioned one, a volleyball camp at BNL, and a volleyball camp at Butler this coming week.
Due to the crazy increase in fuel prices, I decided to get us a hotel room for the week. I did the math and it came to literally even itself out. I’ll get back to some curiosities on that later.
Amelia made some friends, which definitely helped. There were 120 kids in this camp, which lasted from 9am until 3pm daily. She picked up some skills and some life lessons. I hope this helps her when she tries out for the Bedford Middle School Stone Cutters team.
On the first day, Eddie announced that they would have theme days. Something neither of us had considered. Her friends helped with the first one, crazy socks. We then headed off to Dick’s Sporting Goods and picked her up a headband and basketball jersey. She picked out a WNBA Indianapolis Fever one that is Stranger Things themed.
A couple of the days I showed up a little early, and saw some pleasant surprises. Each day at the end, Eddie would try to make a backwards half court shot. If he couldn’t do it in 3 attempts, he would have to do 10 push-ups. If he succeeded the kids would be the ones doing push-ups.
In our off time, we got to be father and daughter. Something we are very comfortable and good at being. We had dinner with a work friend of mine one night, the rest of the evenings we ate somewhere or just vegged in our hotel room with the snacks and microwavable foods we purchased the night we arrived. I think it was a good quiet and stress free time for the both of us.
For the last day of camp, all of the kids were provided with a shirt to wear. I had also purchased Amelia a basketball. All of the parents were told to show up earlier than usual for the closing of the camp. What I heard from Eddie made me proud that I made that choice to send her to this camp.
I provided Amelia with some sharpies and instructed her to have each coach sign the ball. I know they would appreciate it, and down the road – she will as well.
Eddie Gill signing Amelia’s basketball
I have to say, the entire Gill family is just adorable. Eddie, his children and wife all actively run the camp together. Amelia said that a person from the team that won the NCAA championship this year was there as a coach as well. She told me that she wants to go to this camp every year now. I will need to make some adjustments on our lodging, but as long as she keeps up the good work ol’ dad will fulfill her wishes as I know these camps are a way to help increase her skills.
Amelia & Eddie
I hope this is the start of something beautiful for my daughter, that she will cherish for the rest of her days. Sports have been good for her in many ways. I just want her to know that her dad will never make her feel that she is less than just because she doesn’t meat some imagined goal.
Who started out so young and strong only to surrender.
I grew up thinking I was born in the wrong time. The music, the things, the surroundings I had were not always of the age I was in. Music of the 60’s and 70’s filled my life instead of the music of the 80’s and 90’s that I was living in. To this day I’m typically twenty years behind musical changes.
My father always told me he that “saw” me in several songs from his youth. Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender” being one of them. He never explained it any further, and so I will be spending the rest of my life trying to solve the riddle he left me with.
Fate gave me a gift however, as two days prior to him coming to the area I discovered, and immediately purchased some decent seats to his show. Had dad still been with us, I would have taken him. I ended up asking 3 people, eventually going with an old work friend. I may have upended her plans for the evening, but who really wants to go to the gym over a concert?
We hadn’t seen each other in the flesh for around five years. So it was good just to be in the same space with each other again.
Back to the subject at hand, there are two lyrics that I think I’ve nailed down that my father saw in me:
“Caught between the longing for love And the struggle for the legal tender” “I’m gonna be a happy idiot And struggle for the legal tender”
I have to say, my father wasn’t necessarily wrong with his findings of his less than 10 year old son. One of my largest struggles has been the balance between love and struggling for that legal tender. Happy however? That’s one descriptor that has never suited me or my personality.
As a now almost forty two year old, the same things can be said about me. But my old mans impression of his boy will forever stick with him.
I shot a few snippets from the show, but this is the only song I shot fully. I only hope I continue to make my old man proud. I hope that he sees me from wherever he is and is proud of all that I’ve had to overcome since he left us. I hope he is proud that his son still doesn’t give up to the challenges put in his life.
In the end, these seem to be the lyrics that have pinned me, much like my old man:
“Gonna pack my lunch in the morning And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around I’ll go on home and lay my body down And when the morning light comes streaming in I’ll get up and do it again, Amen Say it again, Amen”
It’s been three months since I’ve written in my blog, and to me that’s a genuine dis-service. Life has not been easy on me for a few months. Between my back issues, increasing and ever present tensions at my employer across the board, and some financial difficulties, I just want to hide.
And so that has been a lot of my life as of late, hiding. I go to work because I would lose everything I have if I didn’t. But then? Then I hide away. Spending much of my time in my bedroom either asleep or with something on my TV while I doze in and out of consciousness.
Spoon Theory is a good metaphor for how I feel.
The things that used to be easy, take much of the finite amount of energies I do have. I have been doing a lot of looking within as of late, and I don’t like what I see.
I purchased a new dishwasher, which led into me replacing my kitchen floor. I didn’t want to put this nice appliance in with such a hideous floor, one that had been there since quite possibly the mid 1980’s.
I take pride in my abilities to do manual labor, but my body has been saying no to such ventures more and more to the point where I just need to stop trying and start giving into what my body is telling me.
The existing floor is (or should I say was) was compromised of two layers of linoleum. Full of bumps and holes and all of the bad parts of the 80’s. I first wanted to go with a classic black and white checkerboard look. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a supplier that had what I was looking for that was as durable as I wanted. That’s when I made the choice to upgrade to tile, an area that I’ve never worked in before.
We found a tile we liked, and since my girlfriend’s place has a tile kitchen I knew I wanted it to have a heating system. So I pulled a very expensive trigger.
Mittens in LTR or Leather finish
I wanted to do the prep work, so they could just come in and lay the tile. I “thought” I was proceeding properly, but learned yesterday I was wrong. Part of our contract was for me to remove the appliances, trim and ensure the subfloor was at least 5/8″ thick. I missed a little detail though. They wanted it to be in OSB.
The subfloor of my entire home is comprised of what is commonly called chipboard. It’s essentially dust from woodworking that’s glued together and compressed to form a dimensional, workable piece of wood. It has a couple of real negatives. Water will cause it to disintegrate, and it isn’t as solid as other forms of sub flooring, something needed and in most cases required for tile.
My first step in preparing the area was to remove the way the water line for the ice maker was configured and install a “box” in the wall for it. Oddly, while doing this I discovered that someone had already drilled a hole for this purpose but never completed the task. Someone had just drilled a hole in the floor and ran a line through it.
I will fix the additional space I had to cut below after the tile is installed
Last weekend, I began the real preparations as I thought they would be. My neighbor helped me pickup some 4’x8′ sheets of 1/4″ luan plywood. This is commonly used to make flooring smoother or increase the thickness of the floor. I was using it for the latter purpose.
I removed all of the appliances, sans the dishwasher and was going to begin on removing the existing flooring on Saturday morning. I woke to discover my wonderful girlfriend had removed the vast majority of it while I was sleeping.
Her at bottom, her daughter at left
We both felt that the lower layer of flooring was much better looking than the one above it. I wonder why they put new flooring down that was less durable and definitely not as visually pleasing?
I took all of the old stuff downstairs, and cleaned the floor. We noticed some spots seemed to have black mold on them, probably from water leaks over the years. So I bought some mold killing sprays and sprayed them down.
Then I brought that luan up and called it a night. I only had 1 day left, but those activities alone had taken all the strength I had out of me. My injured back was also screaming at me.
So I laid 2 sheets of the luan down, removed the dishwasher and thought they would just lay the rest of the luan down. Boy was I wrong.
Now I’ll be spending roughly $500 more on this project, not due to what I did – but because of what my body couldn’t do. Something my soul used to love doing. My soul needs that harmony back in in some way. I just need to learn the lines of what I can and cannot do.
No, unfortunately it isn’t running again. I sadly have not touched the car since I had to have it towed back home from Greensburg. The general consensus is that whatever the issue is, it’s not one that will require the engine be pulled. One uncle strongly believes that I have a bent push rod.
In anticipation of the issue being larger, over this time I have procured some parts that are period accurate and performance upgrades. An Edelbrock 3890 TPI base, and a set of SLP Runners.
This post is more about a little thing I did over two years ago. The interior was really in need. When it comes to upholstery work, there is only one person on this earth that I trust, and that’s my uncle Ed. While there were still rumblings about some virus in China, I made a mad dash to Oklahoma with the driver seat.
The 30+ year old upholstery was in such bad shape that a seat cover was required due to the rips alone.
The lower portion was just as bad
While out there, my uncle gave me the good and the bad news. While he could repair the damage, what I wanted, it would definitely be noticeable. While minor, none of the new fabrics available look exactly the same as 30+ year old sun bleached fabric.
Thankfully, they no longer live in the stone age and have internet access that even satisfies me. So I began the hunt for new seat covers. While they can be had quite easily for these cars, that embroidery is the white whale. Most are generic, available in colors that did not come from the factory and generally the polar opposite of what I’m looking for.
I’m a professional googler by trade. This shouldn’t be “that” hard. I was really surprised to find exactly what I was looking for on of all places eBay. So I immediately purchased them. A set for the front seats only, a decision I now regret. I will find a cover for the rear at some point however. After a few hiccups with delivery, requiring I actually speak with a FedEX dispatcher and having him follow google maps to the location of my aunt and uncle’s residence, they were delivered.
A couple of weeks ago, my uncle sent me some photos. My driver seat is done.
Is this really the same seat?
I didn’t really have many words. I’m simply blown away at the result. Dad would be happy to have his handiwork on the car he never spoke about. My mind is only on getting the passenger seat out there to have that seat redone as well.
Like just wow!
He then cleaned up the frame and seat tracks. Automotive seats are something he does all the time. Trust is everything to me on the progression of this car. I trust this man with my life, and I know dad would have trusted him as well.
Looks like a brand new seat
So, as soon as I can figure out a time that works I’ll be westbound and down, loaded up and trucking. To see my family that I haven’t seen in years, provide them a laundry list of things I said I would bring, join the Cherokee and lord knows what else.
While annexation in Bloomington is primarily a dead issue, areas 1A and 1B were not successful in completely squashing the attempt. They did however achieve enough verified petitions for remonstrance to have the case reviewed by a judge.
I have been keeping an eye on the social media site NextDoor, where my Township Trustee typically makes her official statements. There seemed to be an outcry of people wanting to raise funds and hire an attorney to use this final tool given to them by the state.
I told her when this all began that I would do whatever I could, whenever I could. So I began a gofundme for the explicit purpose of raising those funds, based on the leadership I had been provided by my Township Trustee.
I did not want to share this personally, this issue does not affect me directly. Legally I have no say in how this annexation goes as I am not being annexed. Sure I can have an opinion, and I do. I would rather leave opinions to the side however. I did feel that informing the local press might be a good idea though, so I reached out to a personal hero who was a journalist for a long time to seek guidance on writing a press release.
He gave me a extensive and amazing primer that I followed. I then sent it to 3 outlets, with another asking for it the next day.
This led to being interviewed by 3 news outlets and a journalism student that another friend decided he would sic on me. Thanks Leo.
The first thing to hit was the front page of the Herald-Times on March 8th, 2022.
Then, on Friday March 11th I was on WFIU and WTIU (our local PBS affiliate). They used an audio clip of me and a video clip.
Meanwhile, it appeared to me that the wind that was in the sails from the people I looked to in this entire situation had to step aside. I’m no politician and I will never understand the games they play.
I felt a large responsibility to all of those who had donated. With the help of some volunteers upwards of 30 attorneys were called. Most of which have either not returned calls or stated that they had a “conflict of interest.” The lawyer I was originally told was going to take the case had to step down for similar reasons, and another I had spoken with was relying upon a local attorney to file the case before he would become involved. There is one local attorney that several referred me to, but I have still not received any communications from him. He is apparently “the” guy for this exact situation.
If you were paying close attention to the video clip, you will notice the County Residents Against Annexation sign. I had seen them in some of the more influential and better off areas of the county, but not mine. We had our own signs. It soon become clear that they were some sort of power as people would cite them as they stated they could not longer help with this effort.
Nevertheless I persisted.
I had a phone call with the president of CRAA, who introduced herself to me by boasting about accomplishments and listing “things” she had done, overall trying to somehow impress me. It only did the opposite. She then crossed the boundary, she asked that I give them all of the funds raised in the gofundme.
This is my response to that question.
I have since received several negative messages about this organization through the gofundme. I’ve received many messages from it, I have responded to most of them in kind.
CRAA from what I know has not focused on the area I live near, but the areas ripe with cash and/or retirees. I do not know them from Adam nor will I speak on behalf of them.
I will however work with them (as difficult as it has been at times) to complete the mission, to let the residents use all tools legally available to them to stop this over reaching annexation by the city of Bloomington. An action that is really tantamount to a tax heist. When looking at the balance sheet, across the board the only org with a positive change are the city’s coffers. Even the public schools and county library will lose money. For me, that’s a non-starter.
I have not hidden behind an organization, I have used my name. In the end when dealing with community issues that is akin to putting it all on the line. The only way to be is to be honorable and moral. If I didn’t follow the will of my community members, I can literally see a “torches and pitchforks” situation occurring.
This has definitely been a very interesting experience in local political theater, reaffirming why my feelings of anarchy run deep to my core. My love for my immediate neighbors however will never fail or falter.
I’m writing this blog post early on a Saturday morning while I give technology assistance for a series of talks being given by pediatric healthcare professionals, one of which being my own pediatrician who was also the pediatrician for my own daughters.
The first part of the week was extremely difficult on my body, still primarily in significant amounts of pain from my still not completely but partially diagnosed problem. The department I work for remodeled two office spaces. While they hired moving and setups to move the equipment out, they wanted me to move it all back. Sigh.
So I got to work on Monday, and spent most of the week ensuring it was all done. That said, in their grand plan they didn’t consider the infrastructure that was also needed to be moved during this remodel. Since I wasn’t even consulted about any of this, a new and ever increasing trend, I am going to let them lay in the bed they made. I had to run a cable across one room so a computer would have network access.
A office, created from what was open space
Then, the real bang for the week. I seem to have become a “figure” in the county’s continued fight against Annexation by the city of Bloomington, which I have written about before: https://lee-lawmaster.com/no/ https://lee-lawmaster.com/a-nail-in-the-coffin/
My township trustee typically places her official communications to community members on the social media site NextDoor. On one post in particular, many were asking about how we can take the next (and final step) in fighting annexation, taking our case to court as we are allowed to by law. I use the word “we” metaphorically as I am not a member of any areas that are being annexed. Several asked about the creation of a go-fund-me as a common place to donate funds to hire counsel and get the process started.
This is when my “man of action” senses took over, and I made one. I then told all in that thread about it, providing them the link and told them to share. It has kind of blown up.
The township trustee said we would need a minimum of $10,000 to hire counsel, so I set the goal accordingly. I have heard from several in the business community who want to provide large donations as well. Per state law, if the case is sided for the remonstrators, they (members of the class to be annexed) can receive up to $37,500 back for legal fees.
Unaware of what attention this was getting, not seeing any mention of this on any other social media platforms, I reached out to a man I admire. He’s an amazing photojournalist and a self described pirate. He runs a respected news outlet locally that I try to support as much as possible, The Bloomingtonian. He asked for a press release and the wheels started spinning in my mind. I also had a phone conversation with the man that runs B Square Beacon. He said that he would put it in his daily release as a bullet point. I had never spoken or interacted with him before, it was kind of exciting.
I can barely write, now to write a structured document that you spread far and wide? HOW? So I reached out to a hero and friend of mine that knows a thing or two about press releases, Joe Nickell. In his very peculiar yet amazing way he gave me a 101 course on how to write one, including a couple of his own examples. I was off to the races.
Using Joe’s guidance, I wrote it and sent it to both places I previously mentioned plus the Herald Times, our “local” paper that has been taken over by a mega corp. Then I told my friend Michael Leonard about it, who runs The B-Town Bee and is a former long time columnist with the Herald Times. He said he would sic one of his journalism students on me, and HE DID. Gee, thanks there pal.
The Herald Times government reporter wanted to interview me, and before I knew it I was getting texts from an unknown number that was that journalism student. The reporter for the Herald Times said that they are putting a piece together for publication on Monday. The journalism student interviewed me as well, and introduced herself as being with the IDS (the IU Student newspaper) instead of being personal.
I have had almost daily calls with my township trustee as updates to the ongoing situation and feel as if I’ve become a central figure to this. I was just trying to help my neighbors, I love my neighbors and I love the area in which I grew up and live to this day.
I also received an odd email from a person representing a “news” site I had never heard of, The Lawrence County Zephyr. My youngest daughter, who lives in Lawrence county had never heard of it either. I sent him the press release and he published it.
The Gist of It
5 of 7 areas Bloomington wanted to annex received enough petitions for remonstrance to stop it, pending any litigation the city may file due to their believe that a state law that created an expiration date for utility waivers is unconstitutional. 2 of the areas received enough petitions for remonstrance to take their cases to court and be ruled by a judge.
Stolen from B Square Beacon and highly appreciated
State law states the court filing has to be done within 15 working days of the auditors released findings. Hence the rush. This is the only tool my neighbors in 1A have to use to stop this annexation from happening. We cannot leave 1B in the cold, and have been inclusive of them as well.
This annexation has been full of drama, with the state passing a law that was later ruled unconstitutional that stopped it for a few years. It’s also wide swathing with little promises for a big price.
Personally I call it a tax heist, as the tax rates for these areas will in some cases more than double, with those funds going to the city. My own tax rates will rise 26% per a county council member. Many question if any services the city promises will deliver will ever be delivered. This can also remove choice from the table for many people in these areas. The police department is under staffed and under paid, this will add to the stresses they are already facing, creating an even more hostile police force. The public school system that covers most of the county, MCCSC will also lose over 1 million dollars annually, at last I read.
Thankfully in the time period between when the first attempt was stopped and the second began, our township fire departments got together and created a Fire Protection District, which is protected from annexations. Originally the city was going to severely gut these fire departments, which are a staple in the communities they serve. A major factor in my choice to purchase a home where I did was it’s vicinity to a particular fire station.
It has required an increase in property taxes – but one I appreciate. Something the city does not exactly understand. They just put out bonds for millions of dollars and increase taxes on it’s residents to pay for it. Members of the city council have stated that they don’t listen to the people that elected them. I want nothing to do with the city, and showed as such during the first “informational” meeting they held. This meeting was just city hall full of signs, there was no actual meeting.
Over the years, my stepmother has found odds and ends that were my dad’s. When she does, she lets me know about the items and asks me if I would like them. One time she found a bowling trophy, and I definitely wanted it.
While it was sitting on my couch, it fell off onto my carpeted floor for some reason and the pot metal figure broke. What do I do? The trophy wasn’t exactly important, but the information contained on it was to me. It documents a time and age that no longer exists.
I reached out to the Engraving & Stamp Center, which is the only place I know of locally that creates such items. The timing was bad unfortunately, as the COVID-19 Pandemic had just begun, and the climate was strange for just about anything.
I made an appointment, and we found a figurine that was almost identical to the original one. I was told I would get a call back when it was done, but didn’t hear anything back until yesterday.
My father’s bowling trophy – restored
It’s not a large trophy, my own baseball trophy is larger. It’s the words on the plate that matter more.
WESTINGHOUSE MIXED 82-83 HIGH GAME HDCP . -285 RICHARD
Westinghouse was the company my father worked for from 1969 until 1999 when they shut down. He was 6 months shy of receiving a full retirement when they closed, and spent the rest of his life trying to get “something” of those 30 years he spent there as an employee.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather worked there as well, with her retiring shortly before they closed, and he passing away on his job in 1988.
The name Westinghouse doesn’t mean much to most anymore, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. The income derived from the positions my family held with the company provided us with a decent life, a life that didn’t worry about where we would get our next meal, or if we would have a roof over our head.
Locally, they produced power distribution equipment, such as lightning arrestors.
My father has a different award regarding what they produced at the factory, this is more about the community that was found in the blue collar side of my home town.
They all had bowling leagues, softball leagues and I’m sure other sports leagues that included their own fields on company property and comradery that I haven’t experienced really. RCA and OTIS even had Christmas events for the children of employees, where each child got to meet Santa and receive a Chistmas present.
When I was 12, my mother was working for General Electric (one of the other large manufacturers in town, that I would eventually work for) and was playing in their softball league. She recruited me to help with her team. This was my first experience first hand with the social lives of the industrial workers in the area. I was told that I would be playing for the C-83 team, not knowing a thing about the organization of large industrial complexes, I took my cubs hat and took a square piece of paper that said 83, displaying C 83. We played a game against C-80 (the area of the plant where I would eventually work). It was a great time.
Sure, there are recreational sports leagues for all. There’s just something special when those leagues are with the people you work with. This is the Bloomington I grew up in. This is the Bloomington I miss. This is the Bloomington that made it a small town. This is the Bloomington that it seems to want to forget. This is the Bloomington I will never forget.
