A loss..

We are dealing with our loss in our own ways...
Here is another poem of comfort that speaks
to me of the ways I knew our co-worker, our
teacher, our friend...

Mending Wall-

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

Robert Frost

(explanation forthcoming....)

An Ice-Dream Deferred...

So I am leaving work and I start craving an ice-dream cup from Chik-fil-a. I pull into the restaurant and park. I wanted to go through the drive-thru but the line was too long. I walk inside and to my delight there was a line with only one customer waiting. It was a man and his two daughters (around 6 and 4) and they were placing their order.

I wait.

When the line to my left moved two customers, I decided to see what could be the problem. I started to listen.

“Honey, what do you want?”

The customer, dressed in his suit, was allowing his two daughters in plaid school girl uniforms to decide what they wanted to order. It’s great when kids can make choices, but this ten-minute decision process was getting ridiculous.

At six, my mother would ask me what I wanted and she would place the order for me. If I did not know, I had better decide quick and in a hurry.

“Does the cole-slaw has carrots and raisins, cause I don’t like the raisins…”
“Well, it does have raisins and carrots because it is pre made…”

What? The manager was talking to the little girl as though she was an adult.

SHE IS SIX YEARS OLD!

It is great that she is being taught to make decisions, but the line at Chik-fil-a is not the place for her life long lessons in fiscal or physical responsibility.

Give these girls a kid’s meal nugget and a couple waffle fries and keep it moving…

In frustration, I left, with out an ice-dream. I guess some dreams are simply not meant to be.

No Longer King of the Hill…

The metro Atlanta area boasts some colorful characters in the realm of politics and public service. Vernon Jones (former CEO of DeKalb County), Myron Freeman (former Sheriff of Fulton County), Ron Sailor (State Representative who has missed the most votes during the current legislative session) and Joyce McKibbens (mayor of Lithonia) have all garnered media attention as much for their public actions as they have for their public service (or in Sailor’s case, the lack thereof). However, for the past four years, it has been Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill who has stood as the most colorful character in the bunch.

Hill was defeated in last night’s election and I am remiss. Victor Hill was a rabble rousing lil rascal and made great fodder for the Atlanta media. I cannot imagine a week’s news broadcast without the lil guy. What will Monica and Bill Jim talk about not that lil Victor is on his way out of office?

Consider this:

On his first day in office, Sheriff Hill fired twenty-seven sheriff deputies, reportedly because he wanted the department to look like the constituents they served. He even had the policemen taken from the building under the cover of snipers and loaded into a padded wagon to be escorted from the premises.
-Atlanta Journal Constitution

And this:

A former Clayton County Sheriff’s department employee claims that Sheriff Hill used money from department vending machines and forfeited drug money on art pieces of black cowboys and lynch mobs. Vending machine money, according to the former employee, once went to an annual Christmas party.
-Creative Loafing (July 1, 2008: Thomas Wheatley)

Victor’s term in office was hilarious (to me at least… I live in DeKalb County, not Clayton).

I’m going to miss you, lil man...

I pooted? No, I voted!

I pooted? No, I voted. Georgia held statewide run-off elections this morning and I cast my ballot for State Senate and DeKalb County CEO. I also cast my nominations for the 2008 Black Weblogs Awards.

Have you considered "the new intellectual pursuit" for category 30: Blog to Watch?
The criteria reads:
"This category highlights the best “undiscovered” blog in the blogosphere; keep your eye on this one! This is for that great blog that not everyone knows about…but should!"
Vote here at:
http://www.blackweblogawards.com/database/step1.php

Tales from the Hood

Hi, hater! I know you wished you lived in my neighborhood, because if you did, you would have access to some things found in no other part of the country!

When you live in my hood, you can see some fine orthodontic work on display so you too can bling when you smile!

The shrimp steak and cheese is a culinary creation only found in a Chinese restaurant in my hood!

Until the Cheesecake Factory serves the steak-shrimp burger,

-Zack Kirk