Well, the Gretna Theater's annual Gala was this Saturday, and, as usual, the Good Doctor, Rene, and Larry pulled off another great event. We love going, if not just because it connects us with the family that lived in our house before us--the Coghlan's, and with our neighbor, Reba. And its Mr. Coghlan that seems to be the theater's most remembered and cherished director. When we purchased this house, we asked for one piece of artwork to remain. Jack went along with that request, and let us select one out of three or so that he left behind on the closing day. He told us that they were all done by a family friend. Now that I have lived with that piece for a few years, I certainly recognize Coghlan's style and signature, and spotted another of his paintings Friday hanging in the doctor's office.
It was also interesting to see the finished construction work at the Hershey Hotel, and they really had the grounds loaded with potted plants and new trees. The food and champagne was great-especially the crabcakes and beef. And, we sat with the Meloni's and their crew, who turned out to be a fun crowd.
Although we left the event without reaching our spending limit, we still caved and made some spontaneous auction purchases. Last year, I made a potty-run and came back to find that my better-half had gotten caught up in the auction fever and won a helicopter ride for three. So, this year, I avoided consuming too many liquids so that I could stay and keep a governor on her while the hi-priced items were being auctioned. She broke free once, and started bidding on this beautiful ring that was valued at well over $1000. I have to admit that she has been buying me some very pretty jewelry this year and, well, this was a very pretty ring... So, I was tempted to let her go. But, when she counter-bid at $500, I thought that we were wading into dangerous territory since neither of us knew if it would even fit us. So, I flashed a grin at her and she turned her paddle over on the table--thank god!
This year, we won autographed Hank Williams Sr/Jett Williams music memorabilia that my country music-star grandfather will love (he used to be a back-up performer for one of the first country radio programs in Wheeling, West Virginia, and taught a number of the industry's icons their first guitar chords). One of the disc sets in the package was a compilation of recently discovered audio recording of Hank Sr.'s radio performances, so my grandfather is going to love it.
We also got a weekend getaway and the helicopter ride again. That pilot is awesome--its worth it just to meet her.
I kinda liked the football autographed by JoPa, but I was alone in that sentiment. Apparently, "he signs everything"--and that from a Penn State season ticket holder.
We donated a couple of things for the auction, including two of our Penn State season football tickets and was glad to see items donated from other local Gretnans. This year, let's make more a showing and really drum up some local donations for the next Gala.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
If you won't keep up, then your elected duty obligates you to step aside.
Before the Chautauqua was "born", the internal combustible engine was regarded as too unreliable to have any future--steam wasn't quite cutting it as a source of power for this type of engine. With the discovery in the late 1800's of a chemical that was much more powerful than even dynamite--naptha, the future of the internal combustible engine became explosively clear.
However, that future was as a work engine.
At about the same time, the founders of the PA Chautauqua were outlining the characteristics of this community and providing future leaders with a job description. However, for the founders, the thought of every Chautauqua homeowner owning and operating--within Chautauqua boundaries, their own private internal combustible engines was unfathomable. So, when creating the Chautauqua, was it really possible for the community's founders to account for or address leafblowers, lawnmowers, sand-rakers, pressure washers, etc?1 Put this way, probably not.
Neither could the founders predict that amplified sound would become so prevalent and powerful, as the first audio amplifier was not invented until 1906. 2 They could never have predicted that today's Chautauqua-ites would be exposed to a daily cacophony of car stereos, personal listening devices, home stereos, televisions, amplified live music.
And, even though Faraday invented the electric motor in the mid-1830's, the Chautuaqua founders probably also never suspected that each of us here would be subject to the constant hum of the electric motors of our--and our neighbors', air conditioners, refrigerators, furnaces, garage door openers, hard-drives, generators, or blowers and deflators for amusement-park inflatables.3
In social terms, with the incorporation of the Chautauqua many, many decades ago, it probably is redundant to say that they also never would have predicted that christians--even catholics and mennonites would be urging their faithful to support the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals in marriage, in ordination, and in the loving community of christian fellowship within their church. Yet, that is exactly the society that we live in today4,5
Even though it was really difficult to predict the future characteristics of this community and its inhabitants, the founders still provided a way for us to address the changing technological, social, and local characteristics of the times. It assigned our elected representatives the responsibility of protecting the health and welfare of the community. This is the function of local government, of state government, and of federal government, across the board.
Granted, it does take time for our leaders to keep up with social and technological changes. For example, as a nation, we didn't recognize the need to protect the quality of common resources, such as water and air, until the 1940's. That's not so long ago, considering that we have been an organized representational form of government since 1776 and we have been dumping pollutants into our air and water since the industrial revolution, which also began in the late 1700's. You have to ask yourself "why did it take so long to formally acknowledge that you shouldn't poop where you eat"? or that you shouldn't throw your refuse and pollutants into the public resources (air and water) that we suck into our lungs and pile into our bellies? In any event, now we know that we have to protect those things that are essential to our health.
So, I have been asking myself how long it will take for us to formally acknowledge that our common resources, like air, can be violated by more than just contaminating it with exhaust, runoff, fossil fuels, biohazards, etc. But this resource can be violated in other physical ways as well. And, how long will it take for our leaders to recognize that it is their responsibility to protect us by keeping up with the times and making the necessary adjustments. So, if we invent things that are just relatively new ways of contaminating that resource we require to remain healthy, that means leaders must do things to protect it.
This "go see what mom says" only to be told "go see what dad says" is a complete failure of elected officials to protect our general health and welfare. Boro Council and Chautauqua Board both have a responsibility to protect the physical quality of our air from contamination from the unfettered and unregulated operation of internal combustible engines, electric motors, or amplified sound. But now that they have their water authority, their sewage system, and their state-fuel-funded paved roads, neither body can seem to find anything better to do than to obsess about making new ordinances that target only one homeowner or another or that add another paved way or sign to our 87 acre site.
If they can't keep up or won't keep up with the times, then they should do the ethical thing and at least step aside. There are plenty of competent replacements around. Plenty.
Sources:
1 http://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13869#v=onepage&q=&f=false
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_amplifier
3 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfaraday.htm
4 http://www.pinkmenno.org
5 http://www.dignityusa.org
However, that future was as a work engine.
At about the same time, the founders of the PA Chautauqua were outlining the characteristics of this community and providing future leaders with a job description. However, for the founders, the thought of every Chautauqua homeowner owning and operating--within Chautauqua boundaries, their own private internal combustible engines was unfathomable. So, when creating the Chautauqua, was it really possible for the community's founders to account for or address leafblowers, lawnmowers, sand-rakers, pressure washers, etc?1 Put this way, probably not.
Neither could the founders predict that amplified sound would become so prevalent and powerful, as the first audio amplifier was not invented until 1906. 2 They could never have predicted that today's Chautauqua-ites would be exposed to a daily cacophony of car stereos, personal listening devices, home stereos, televisions, amplified live music.
And, even though Faraday invented the electric motor in the mid-1830's, the Chautuaqua founders probably also never suspected that each of us here would be subject to the constant hum of the electric motors of our--and our neighbors', air conditioners, refrigerators, furnaces, garage door openers, hard-drives, generators, or blowers and deflators for amusement-park inflatables.3
In social terms, with the incorporation of the Chautauqua many, many decades ago, it probably is redundant to say that they also never would have predicted that christians--even catholics and mennonites would be urging their faithful to support the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals in marriage, in ordination, and in the loving community of christian fellowship within their church. Yet, that is exactly the society that we live in today4,5
Even though it was really difficult to predict the future characteristics of this community and its inhabitants, the founders still provided a way for us to address the changing technological, social, and local characteristics of the times. It assigned our elected representatives the responsibility of protecting the health and welfare of the community. This is the function of local government, of state government, and of federal government, across the board.
Granted, it does take time for our leaders to keep up with social and technological changes. For example, as a nation, we didn't recognize the need to protect the quality of common resources, such as water and air, until the 1940's. That's not so long ago, considering that we have been an organized representational form of government since 1776 and we have been dumping pollutants into our air and water since the industrial revolution, which also began in the late 1700's. You have to ask yourself "why did it take so long to formally acknowledge that you shouldn't poop where you eat"? or that you shouldn't throw your refuse and pollutants into the public resources (air and water) that we suck into our lungs and pile into our bellies? In any event, now we know that we have to protect those things that are essential to our health.
So, I have been asking myself how long it will take for us to formally acknowledge that our common resources, like air, can be violated by more than just contaminating it with exhaust, runoff, fossil fuels, biohazards, etc. But this resource can be violated in other physical ways as well. And, how long will it take for our leaders to recognize that it is their responsibility to protect us by keeping up with the times and making the necessary adjustments. So, if we invent things that are just relatively new ways of contaminating that resource we require to remain healthy, that means leaders must do things to protect it.
This "go see what mom says" only to be told "go see what dad says" is a complete failure of elected officials to protect our general health and welfare. Boro Council and Chautauqua Board both have a responsibility to protect the physical quality of our air from contamination from the unfettered and unregulated operation of internal combustible engines, electric motors, or amplified sound. But now that they have their water authority, their sewage system, and their state-fuel-funded paved roads, neither body can seem to find anything better to do than to obsess about making new ordinances that target only one homeowner or another or that add another paved way or sign to our 87 acre site.
If they can't keep up or won't keep up with the times, then they should do the ethical thing and at least step aside. There are plenty of competent replacements around. Plenty.
Sources:
1 http://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13869#v=onepage&q=&f=false
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_amplifier
3 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfaraday.htm
4 http://www.pinkmenno.org
5 http://www.dignityusa.org
Saturday, October 10, 2009
OMG! Pictures of Progress
Just found some "Before" pix of our first big house renovation project: an abandoned house with beautiful bones that had spent the last 30years of its 115 year old existence being totally neglected. As we revisited these photos, we are both gasping in horror. How easily we forget the details of certain trauma... I will spare sharing with you the full extent of our pain, but will post here enough for you to see what "lovingly renovated" means.
This tour will take you from the first floor, through to the attic. Its a three story brick twin whose ceilings are all about 9 feet, or more (including the basement and the attic). The guts were completely removed, yet we preserved as much original detail as possible, including the trim, wood floors, stained glass, pocket doors, claw foot tubs, etc. Everything that could be recycled was recycled, from bikes to metal to gypsum. Still, we hauled over 26 tons of debris and personal effects out of that place. We also did things like furred out the walls and added non-toxic insulation (soy-based and sprayed in with non-toxic materials).
When we acquired it, it had been un-inhabited for nearly 15 years (some renters stayed their after the owner died), yet the utilities were still "live", including water and electricity! (you will see scorch marks on the walls at the switches). The back corner (in the kitchen) needed to be rebuilt, and the roofs over the bays had been leaking for decades. And I really can't explain what was going on in the bathrooms, except to say that it was the usual stuff that you have to watch out for in a bathroom--only that no one watched out for that stuff for a while.
The single mom that last lived there with her very young children had moved only two doors down, where they still live today. And, I have to admit, that fact has been the most curious and difficult thing to reconcile during this process, because Mom didn't even want her boys' hand made mother's day cards or their birth certificates. Its possible that the boys may want them some day, so I haven't been able to throw them away yet and I have been trying to develop a relationship with the one who still lives with Mom. He seems like a nice kid, maybe just a little "un"guided.
The before pix will be followed by the "after systems replacement and drywall" pix for whatever particular room is shown.
Have fun!
1ST FLOOR
Kitchen
2ND FLOOR
Hallway
This ceiling is where a street cat had given birth to her kittens. As I was taking down the plaster, I saw what looked to be two rats staring down at me. It was two newborn kittens--so new that they were still pinkfaced and had not opened their eyes yet. Dead ones, live ones, fertile ones, newborns--found 'em all in this house. It didn't take Momma-cat long to reunite with her babes after we relocated them to the back yard and designated the area off limits to humans and debris. They were gone in a couple of hours.
Back Bedroom
Guy with the flashlight is the structural engineer. A great guy with an even better laugh.
Middle Bedroom
This room has one of the bays in it that I mentioned earlier
3RD FLOOR
Back bedroom-also with bay windows. When we removed the king size mattress you see on the floor there and pulled back the wall to wall carpeting under it, the floor was actually gone already, leaving us to fall, with the dusty remnants of the underpad, between the floor joists to the second floor below. And there you have it, a wonderful justification to pressure the architect to deviate from her dogged adherence to "maintaining the architectural integrity of a 115yr. old house". In other words, an opportunity to do something more modern and creative.
Looking down from the attic
Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?
This tour will take you from the first floor, through to the attic. Its a three story brick twin whose ceilings are all about 9 feet, or more (including the basement and the attic). The guts were completely removed, yet we preserved as much original detail as possible, including the trim, wood floors, stained glass, pocket doors, claw foot tubs, etc. Everything that could be recycled was recycled, from bikes to metal to gypsum. Still, we hauled over 26 tons of debris and personal effects out of that place. We also did things like furred out the walls and added non-toxic insulation (soy-based and sprayed in with non-toxic materials).
When we acquired it, it had been un-inhabited for nearly 15 years (some renters stayed their after the owner died), yet the utilities were still "live", including water and electricity! (you will see scorch marks on the walls at the switches). The back corner (in the kitchen) needed to be rebuilt, and the roofs over the bays had been leaking for decades. And I really can't explain what was going on in the bathrooms, except to say that it was the usual stuff that you have to watch out for in a bathroom--only that no one watched out for that stuff for a while.
The single mom that last lived there with her very young children had moved only two doors down, where they still live today. And, I have to admit, that fact has been the most curious and difficult thing to reconcile during this process, because Mom didn't even want her boys' hand made mother's day cards or their birth certificates. Its possible that the boys may want them some day, so I haven't been able to throw them away yet and I have been trying to develop a relationship with the one who still lives with Mom. He seems like a nice kid, maybe just a little "un"guided.
The before pix will be followed by the "after systems replacement and drywall" pix for whatever particular room is shown.
Have fun!
1ST FLOOR
Kitchen
2ND FLOOR
Hallway
This ceiling is where a street cat had given birth to her kittens. As I was taking down the plaster, I saw what looked to be two rats staring down at me. It was two newborn kittens--so new that they were still pinkfaced and had not opened their eyes yet. Dead ones, live ones, fertile ones, newborns--found 'em all in this house. It didn't take Momma-cat long to reunite with her babes after we relocated them to the back yard and designated the area off limits to humans and debris. They were gone in a couple of hours.
Back Bedroom
Guy with the flashlight is the structural engineer. A great guy with an even better laugh.
Middle Bedroom
This room has one of the bays in it that I mentioned earlier
3RD FLOOR
Back bedroom-also with bay windows. When we removed the king size mattress you see on the floor there and pulled back the wall to wall carpeting under it, the floor was actually gone already, leaving us to fall, with the dusty remnants of the underpad, between the floor joists to the second floor below. And there you have it, a wonderful justification to pressure the architect to deviate from her dogged adherence to "maintaining the architectural integrity of a 115yr. old house". In other words, an opportunity to do something more modern and creative.
Looking down from the attic
Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?
Found Dog
This cute mutt was running around SR117 Friday and Saturday, and was taken by the Humane Society on Saturday morning.
If he's yours (I think its a male) or if you know who's looking for him, please contact the humane society. Maybe his finder will post in a comment below the number of the shelter that has him or who she called.
So far, all we know is that he is a good dog without a collar. Don't know yet if he has a chip or tat.
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