SSDD...Again

The title says it all: SSDD.

Job Hunt
Lots of leads, no interviews.

6 Degrees
I've heard it said that if you get to know some one, you will find you have a lot more in common than you think, and I've found that to be true. There seems to be 6 degrees of separation with almost anyone in life. Case in point: I'm volunteering for the Alzheimer's Association and I've been suckered, er, volunteered to be the Food committee Chairman for the Memory Walk in October at Chastain Park (more about this, later!). I talked to the woman in charge of organizing the Memory Walks, Rhita. Rhita is in her late-50's, early 60's and what we found out in just talking for about 1/2 hour: She's from Washington, DC, she grew up in the neighborhood near the National Cathedral, (I grew up in the DC Metro area), she moved to Miami and got her post-graduate degree from UM and lived there, (I lived in SFla and worked in North Miami Beach), she lives on N. Druid Hills road and shops at Publix (I live less that 2 miles from her house). I probably fed her when I was the cooking wench at Publix. So here is a perfect stranger who is a neighbor, and in some ways has been a neighbor all my life!

Just try it, start talking to a stranger or a person you don't know very well and see what you have in common. A woman I went to Biloxi with, spent 24 hours with and have been sporadically communicating with since then, could be a distant relative. Her maiden name is the same as my mom's cousin here in Atl. Small world.

Volunteering
I have been volunteering 3 days a week for the Alzheimer's Association for a shortwhile. It gets me out of the house, I'm doing something people appreciate and I'm making new friends. I wanted to get involved in something important other than ushering or selling t-shirts and they seem to be really 'desparate' for help. I choose the Alzheimer's Assn because it's close by, not because I'm related to an Alzheimers case, although my sister's father-in-law had it and some of my parents friends suffer from it. (Different from old-age dementia!) The Memory Walk is held all around town, the closest to me is Chastain. It's in October, a 5K or a 1K, so think about starting a 'team' or walking on a team. It's good exercise and it's for a good cause.

Random Thoughts

Drilling for oil is NOT the solution to the energy issues of today. We need to decrease the cost of gas TODAY, not 10 or 20 years from now. Oil is a finite resource, we need to find something else to run our cars and engines on.

Clayton County is having a primary for their school board candidates July 15. There are 32 candidates running for 7 spots. Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy to see so many people concerned and wanting to change things. There is at least one current school board member
actually running for re-election. I think I understand what SACS was saying when it talked about a dysfunctional school board. They just don't get it.

A lot of major cities are having the same problems: out dated, failing infastructures. The Atlanta Sewer system (to name one), DC is having issues with the electric grids. No one wants to raise taxes to keep their cities running. There's too much corruption, too much poor management, too many favors handed out. Atlanta is now talking about forced time off for all city workers without pay, and cutting the police budget by about $1 millon. If the city councils would cut out credit card abuse, cell phone abuse, awarding of official cars, $20,000 individual budgets for each city council member, to name just a few, then we wouldn't have to cut police and fire budgets. The same with the Federal Government. Get rid of pork projects and use taxpayer money to fix problems.

More to come...
As things happen, I'll be posting. Thanks for taking the time to read. You're opinions are welcome but if you have to start calling me names, don't bother, I won't read them. As my Dad says 'Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one.'