My Microwave is Dead. Long Live My Microwave.
I placed my cup of tea in my microwave oven and hit the 'time to cook' button. Nothing happened. No beeps. Nothing. So, I figured maybe it needs a re-boot. Unplugged it, waited, plugged it back in, nothing. Can't even set the time.
Now I wasn't exactly heart broken that a three year old $49 microwave had bought the farm, I never was very fond of the thing to begin with. It was really too small anyway. The reason it was too small was because when I bought it I needed a small one to fit the space.
When I moved back to Buffalo I took an apartment in the upper of what was once a single family home. Space was limited, especially in the kitchen. The only logical place for a microwave was on the counter under the cabinets. Which meant I was going to need a small microwave, something like two cubic inches or so. I actually had to develop a unique form of origami to get a bag of popcorn to pop correctly. If I didn't carefully fold the corners of the bag it couldn't rotate properly on the turntable and therefore would cook unevenly.
I was actually thinking of replacing the damn thing anyway. I also was planning on ripping out the timer circuits. Microwave timers are really quite useful to an electronics tinkerer. Wouldn't that be the one circuit that decided to die. The only one I was planning on salvaging? But it actually isn't dead. After a more thorough examination I have determined the '30 second' button still functions.
I can load the oven and press the '30 second' button and it will cook for 30 seconds on high power. Or I can repeatedly press the button and the cook time will increase for 30 seconds. So if need three minutes I press the button six times. But I miss the full programmability of the timer. I would routinely take advantage of the ability of all microwave oven timers to allow a chaining of cook sequences.
Some people don't realize you can push 'time to cook' 3:00 minutes, power level 10, 'time to cook' 2:00 minutes, wait, 'time to cook' 4:00 minutes, power level 5, etc... Which is one of the reasons those timers are so useful to electronics hobbyists. But mine is broken.
But, the damn thing still cooks, and being the chea^H^H^H^H frugal man that I am, I'm finding it hard to replace a working (somewhat) microwave. Even though I was planning on replacing it anyway. Now that I think about it I don't really use it that often anyway.
Maybe I'll buy a new, bigger, microwave next month, or the month after, or......
Well, I gotta go. My tea is ready.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Not.
I'm a resident of the Seneca-Babcock area of Buffalo. I almost wrote that I was a life-long resident, but that isn't exactly true. I spent a few years in Syracuse and a few years in Poughkeepsie, with weekly and sometimes daily trips to The City. Which at least gives me some perspective.
This is a tightly knit community. Many of the families living here have been here for sixty years or more. Nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc...If you drew the family trees I expect you'd end up with something akin to hedge row.
And as in any community there exists a set of norms, mores, and values. It's what defines a community. It actually surprises me sometimes when I review the police logs for the 'A' district and find hardly any calls from within the neighborhood proper. Not to say we don't have our share of problems. But, they're our problems. One way or another they are dealt with.
Yes, it's true, outsiders are met with suspicion. I suppose that could be said in Tikrit as well. But that doesn't make us racists. Or does it? People tend to characterize it as fight or flight. We didn't flee. Does that mean we are fighting? Fighting what?
The particular incident was reported in the Buffalo News as a racially motivated attack. The phrase which irks me the most is from the News report "that Buffalo police said was racially motivated."
Did the Buffalo police issue an official statement that the attack was racially motivated? Or is this implied from the charges brought? Or it is the opinion of an interviewed officer? Just because racial slurs were apparently uttered during the heat of conflict doesn't mean the conflict was racially motivated. But, that is for the courts to decide.
Personally, I was quite satisfied with the News' reporting of the anti-discrimination rally held in Seneca-Babcock. It did seem to capture the local residents frustration with the apparent grandstanding of outside groups of what is seemingly an internal matter.
More troubling still was the editorial of 07-20-05 "Make Seneca-Babcock Proud."
"police say an attack Saturday on a black man was due to the color of skin.." Again, did the police actually say this? Who said this and why? By the way, I was raised as a polish catholic and pride is considered a sin. And what the anti-racism demonstrators met the other day, was not a group of anti-anti-racism demonstrators but a group of proud city dwellers who refuse to let their nieghborhood be taken over by mindless hoods.
Sinners all of us.
Crime and Punishment
I just finished reading
"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's one of those 'never got around to reading' books that's been on my list for awhile.
Actually, I read two different translations because the first was quite unimpressive. Unfortunately the second was equally unimpressive.
Yet it did seem to capture an ongoing theme about life in the city not far removed from the present day. It seems the present day struggles are still very relevant to past struggles. Namely the apparent need for a silver bullet type approach to solving problems and a need for accountability.
But at least the main character had a nobel purpose in mind as justification for committing the central crime. Unlike some of our local elected officials and civil servants.
See, I've been following the Housing Court/Nowak debacle and I have to admit I have met Judge Nowak and totally agree with the approach he has been using to address the issues facing the city's housing stock.
It is real, it is pragmatic, it is innovative, and I believe it will work. Or at least it is a better tact than what has been tried in the past.
What is a crime is the way the old school politics come home to roost. The punishment should be directed to those aligned with the old order.
New Buffalo. It's time has come.
Big Russ & Me
Well not Big Russ &
me. Because I don't remember Big Russ. I did live upstairs from his brother Francis in a double at the end of a deadend street in South Buffalo for quite a number of years. But I don't remember Big Russ, or Tim.
I do remember
relievio. A game from a simpler time. I don't think our neighborhood actually played relievio per se. But we played
Block Chase, a game similar in concept. Sometimes thirty kids playing team chase confined to a city block, with the church stairs serving as the "prison."
Capture the entire other team and your team wins. However, any free teamate could set all his comrades free by setting one foot on the church steps. Providing they could do so untouched by the guards.
There is no way I could ever give an unbiased review of this book so I won't even try. All I can say is that if you grew up in Buffalo, especially South Buffalo, in the same era you will idendtify with this book.
...all you had to do was show up on someboy's porch and sing out his name: "Oh Mike-y. Can Mike-y come out and play?"Relievio. Childhood games. PSP - Not!
A Summer Read
Technically it's not summer yet, but try telling that to anyone in the Buffalo area the last week or so. Whatever happened to spring around here?
Anyway, last year I started reading "Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. I couldn't seem to get into it, so it kinda got misplaced (never really missed) 'till last week. I spotted it on the back porch while bringing my bike in after a ride, just before it got really hot.
Then it got really hot. Since reading is a very practical thing to do on very hot days, I finally got around to reading it. I kicked back on the front porch, in the almost shade of one of the last Elm trees left in Buffalo, but more in the shade of a red maple, and dove right in.
When I finally came up for air I started to have vague recollections of a cheese pizza with one topping. Then I remembered that was the example my economics professor kept coming back to in his lectures. Supply and demand. Rents, wages, profit. Taxes.
On the expenses of the sovereign or commonwealth....the expense of defense, the cost of standing army. The expense of justice, people need to be secure in their persons, property and contracts. Of public works, roads paid for by users. Public education? It's interesting to read something written in 1775 about public education, Mr. Smith's thoughts' ring loud to this day.
All in all it was a very interesting read, albeit a rather repetitious one. It was doubly enjoyable in the current local political climate. Wanting to remain as motionless as possible this past week also helped me get through it. Your mileage may vary.
I suggest an annotated version.
Surprise Windfall
$45.00
Thus was the amount of the unexpected check I found in my mail box yesterday. Was it a scam? Was it your typical junk mail? Nope. It was from The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
Seems I made a boo-boo on my tax return. I had actually sent a check for $55 (on April 15th) but made a transposition in my figures. I have never agreed with the concept of over withholding of income tax, and typically try to adjust my withholdings to match my eventual tax liability. Actually, I still accomplished my goal in the case of my state and federal returns this past year, but I can't help but chide myself for filing a return with an error.
And being corrected by the state.
But I digress. Having a degree in accounting I can't understand how so many people over withhold on their taxes. Why would someone lend the US Treasury $1000 to $2000 per year interest free while paying on mortgages and car loans at whatever % interest?
And to top it off, how many of people pay exhorbinant fees for "refund anticipation loans." So, I'll lend you my money for free for a year and then pay somebody else to get it back in a week? Not a fiscally prudent move.
Well I'm going to deposit my $45 windfall comforted in the knowledge it will cover the taxes on my phone bill for the next four months.
The End of an Era
For the past forty plus years a group of guys have been getting together on the first Saturday of June at local groves to spend a day eating, drinking, playing horseshoes, and just having a good time. We held our last this past weekend. A victim of changing times.
It was the last hurrah for the Babcock Boy's Club Alumni Association. Started by former members of the Babcock Street Boy's Club, the Association was dedicated to giving something back to an orginization that shaped the lives of countless members.
The Babcock Street Boy's Club was started in 1926 to address the issue of juevenille delinquency. It was a place where the local boys could hangout away from the temptations of the street. Over the years the Club filled the needs of local youths by providing activities to occupy the time of kids which would otherwise be a bunch of street thugs.
Programs included baseball, basketball, hockey, football, billiards, ceramics, woodshop, photography, archery, radio room, weight room, and many other activities. The emphasis was always on team work, self-esteem, character, and community service. Former members early on recognizied the importance of such an institution in an urban envrionment and formed the Alumni as a way to support the orginization and continue the sense of community inspired by the Club.
Over the years, the Alumni, through the help and support of hundereds of members, contributed to the financial well being of the Club by volunterring time and energy, and raising funds to suport the continued existence of the Club. It was never a top down approach. We always asked the Club "What do you need?" and tried to fill that need. Times have changed.
Programs now seem to be selected based on what grants can be obtained by a staff of professional grant writers. The youth aren't consulted. The Allmni's input and support were rebuffed. We lost nexis, we lost members, we lost focus. The traditional was supplanted by the corporate type mentality of the machine. Write the proposals, get the grants, run the programs, record the demographics and move on.
It was with a heavy heart that we gave up trying to fight the system. Many of our members (i.e. former members) will continue to serve the local youth by pledging our support to our local community center, where our voices are still heard and respected.
After all, these are our nieces, nephews, sons and daughters. We have a pretty good idea of what works and how we want our youth to be raised. We don't have all the answers, but for over forty years we had input and a sense of contributing. We no longer have that in respect to the current situation at the Club. So, we move on and throw our support to the community orginizations which are more aligned with our culture.
