So far I have a 4.0 GPA. Of course, I’ve only completed one course towards my program but it’s still a 4.0!  The class was more challenging than I thought it was going to be, which is a good thing.  I would feel ripped off if it wasn’t.  Plus the degree wouldn’t mean anything if I didn’t have to work for it.

I found out a might be able to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in about 15 months instead of an associates.  I’m hoping it works out that way.  If I can put to use my dozens and dozens of credits I earned at Richland, I’ll feel so much better about all the time I spent there – plus all the money my parents spent.  Cough. Cough.  If I can get a bachelor’s that soon, I’ll go for a masters and that opens up a lot more job possibilities.

First thing’s first though.  Trying to get colleges to accept all your credits isn’t the easiest thing to do.  Some work with their students better than others.

With another week off from school, I hope I can get some things done before I go back as a full-time student.  Life has been a little crazy lately and I’m enjoying my downtime.  I need it!

Did something this week that I had never done before and that’s help plan a funeral.  I was there more for moral support but it was quite an experience.  Though death is something none of us will avoid, we generally try not to think about it a whole lot.

Going in a room and looking at caskets is uncomfortable. I hope I never get used to it.  It’s a bit like shopping on a car lot.  There’s the stripped down generic models, the mid-size family sedans, the rugged 4x4s, the green eco-friendly editions, and the Ferraris.  It’s really silly when you think about it because who’s going to see the casket once it’s buried anyway?  Why spend so much?  It’s like buying a Corvette and knowing it will never be taken out of the garage.  W might as well buy the practical, fuel-efficient model that gets the job done.

It reminds me of a letter written to Ann Landers years and years ago about a funeral home that took advantage of a man who had lost his wife.  His wife had always had a bad back so the funeral home convinced him buy box springs for his wife’s casket to provide extra support.

We all want the best for our loved ones.  Nobody wants to pick out the el cheapo casket  in the corner, that’s only there to convince us to buy the sleek shiny looking ones.  There might be some family members we’d be willing to stick in there but…

The lady helping us said that if a person pre-plans their own funeral they’re likely to spend far less than if their family plans it for them.  That’s probably very true. Most of us are willing to be frugal and practical about it when it’s for ourselves but we want the best for those we love, especially at such a heart-wrenching time.

So if there’s any lesson to learn, it’s to pre-plan our funerals or at least write out our wishes before we’re sick or gone.  A lot of money would be saved and our family members would be spared a lot of pain and uncertainty.

I was going to write about my mom but it never turns out as good as I want, so instead for Mother's Day, I'll write about the other woman who has had the greatest impact on my life, my Great-Grandmother.

She was born in 1898, so in her lifetime she had witnessed changes like none of us living today have. Two world wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, The Great Depression, movies, radio, tv, Rock and Roll, civil rights movements, and so many other changes that would be too many to mention occurred during her lifetime. When it seems like our modern world is falling to pieces, I just think about all that she lived through and know that, we'll be okay.

I've written about her before. She went through several personal tragedies in her life. She watched her mother burn to death after her mother's apron had caught on fire. Her father was a rather cold and distant man but he too died young. She lost a young child to a tragic accident and a daughter in her 30s to cancer. She watched her sons go off to war and come back forever changed and haunted by the things they had seen. She had a mentally disabled sister, who she sent money to even though she had very little money to spare. Her husband was often abusive and an alcoholic.

She washed wealthier neighbors laundry to make money for her children, then grandchildren because my great-grandfather usually blew the family's money on booze. She'd have enough change to send her grandkids to the movie theater when my grand-father was abusive towards them.

You would think that she would have been beaten down and bitter but she wasn't. She taught herself how to read and write and did what she had to do to survive. She laughed a lot though I could see the stress in her face. She worried about each and every one of us, whether we lived nearby or a thousand miles away.

There was never any doubt that she cared and there was never any doubt there would be a meal prepared for anyone stopping by – usually fried chicken. Always fried chicken!

I loved her stories about growing up in Oklahoma and having to run through the fields with a metal bucket over her head when hail storms came up. She critiqued Little House on the Prairie for being inaccurate. She said she was poor but always had more than one dress to wear, unlike Laura Ingalls. However, nobody would ever want to wear anything she made because she was a horrible seamstress. Even her sons learned how to sew at an early age so they didn't have to wear anything she made to school.

I come from a long line of women who can't sew worth a darn. I still have the shawl my mom began crocheting in 1964 and never completed. I'm not sure what look she was trying to create with it but it's interesting!

She hated the aluminum Christmas tree she had and thought it looked ridiculous but I thought it was awesome! How 30-40 people fit in her little house at Christmastime I don't know but there was always a place for us.

She was old fashioned about relationships. When my parents were dating and my mom came through the door one second late, her full wrath would descend upon my mom. She would accept no excuses. I like that, especially now that I'm the mother of a teenage daughter and know what worries accompanies raising a girl.

The greatest thing that my great-grandmother gave us was her own example. She didn't have a formal education but she taught us more than can be measured. She didn't have a lot of money but was always willing to give what she could. She couldn't sew and luckily store-bought clothing solved that problem.

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to know her and hear stories from the early 1900s and realize that people really weren't that much different then than they are today. Moms and grandmothers still worry about their daughters and grand-daughters. Family still matters and legacies live on.

Posted with Blogsy

The city council has already approved a new TIF district for the construction of a new County Market grocery store to be located on Grand Avenue between Oakland Avenue and Route 48.  Several homes will be torn down to make way for the store.

I’m glad that this area is being revitalized and I’m glad there’s interest in it.  I was thrilled when the former buildings, which had become eyesores were torn down.  In fact I remember filling out a community survey 3 or 4 years ago suggesting the city look at this intersection and clear it out for new development.  I’m sure that’s why this is happening now. Ha! I wish I had that much influence.  Seriously, I am glad that jobs and new development are coming.

However, as much as I want to see new development in that area, I have concerns about the traffic and I’m not sold on a TIF district for a grocery store.  Personally, I think the area is more suited for smaller retail and/or office space. That intersection is heck to navigate on a good day.  Every weekday I hold my breath when  turning north onto Oakland off of Grand Avenue, after dropping my daughter off at MacArthur High School.  It is not designed well at all for pedestrians – or cars for that matter.

Grand Avenue, where MacArthur is located, is dangerous too.  There are no crosswalk lines painted on the road, no caution lights and I watch near misses nearly every day as kids cross 4 lanes of traffic.  That’s another topic though.

Besides the safety hazard for pedestrians, I don’t think a grocery store needs a TIF district.  This isn’t a mom and pop shop making it on a shoestring budget.  It reminds me of the ridiculous deal that Slumberland got for coming to Decatur.  Well, it was a great deal for Slumberland but not so much for taxpayers.  I like the store and have bought furniture there but I think the deal they got was too generous.  The city won’t be seeing much sales tax revenue from Slumberland for years and years to come.

It is maddening how much we have to give in order to get any corporation or franchise restaurant interested in Decatur.  We still haven’t attracted a restaurant in the available space next to the Olive Garden by Target.  For goodness sakes, that’s as a prime a location as any restaurant is going to get.  If they have good food, they’re going to rake in the dough.  Why hasn’t anything located there yet?  We can’t blame the economy.  Nearby cities have still attracted new restaurants in past couple years.  Does Springfield have to give half their sales tax back to get them to locate there?  Does Champaign have to bend over backwards like Decatur does?  I don’t know.  I’ll have to do the research.

I think I got off subject a little bit but not by much.

I am for TIF districts in truly blighted areas where local people are trying to improve an area with local stores and renovations.  I’m absolutely for that. It makes sense.  The downtown improvements wouldn’t be happening without the TIF district that has funded it.  Giving away our badly needed tax revenue to large businesses and corporations however just seems wrong and unneeded. I know that’s the game they play and force upon cities but it’s still wrong.

I hope there are plans to reconfigure the Grand Avenue/Route 48/Oakland intersections.

Also, I think there were better, or more blighted areas in town, that this development could have helped improve.

Well, it’s done now so there you go.  I hope that the new County Market is successful and I hope other new development is spurred because of it.

I’m halfway through my first term at college and survived the midterm.  It’s been good so far and I’m glad I decided to go back to school – not glad to have to get loans to pay for it but that’s the American way!

I’m looking forward to my observational field study for the wildlife/forestry class I’m taking at Oregon State.  Yeah, I have to write a paper about my observations but that’s my kind of observing!

I did notice something funny this week.  I have to take proctored tests at Richland’s testing center and I hadn’t been inside Richland for close to 10 years.  The main lobby and office hadn’t changed much but I did notice something totally different – everyone had laptops and smartphones and was tuned into them and out of everything else.   It’s a wonder we remember how to speak to one another. I’ve never been much of a talker anyway, so it doesn’t really matter for me.  But seeing all those students in the lobby, made me realize how much we all look like zombies and slaves to our mobile devices.  It was a different scene 10 years ago.  We just hid in books then.

With that said, this weekend I finally get a new phone!  I don’t care about the latest clothing styles, hair styles, cars, or many materialistic things but I do have a weakness for smartphones.  I’m frugal with most things but not with my phone.  It’s got to rock!  So I’m going with the HTC One and I’ll share my review of it when I have it in my hands.

Waiting for the weather to change

The weather has been so uncooperative.  I’ve been planning to shoot some video around town and put together something but I want to do it on a sunny day.  It’s hard to put together something that’s supposed to promote the area when it looks so stinking gloomy outside.  I sure hope summer is nice because we deserve a break.

Fish

I lost my entire fish tank to Ick.  My worst fear came true.  After introducing two new fish to my tank, that apparently had Ick, the entire tank became infected.  After 2-3 weeks of spending a lot of money – I guess I do spend money on fish as well as smart phones – I lost all of my goldfish.  The water was drained out and let to sit for about 10 days before filling it back up.  The Ick is still there, so I have the heater cranked up to about 90 in hopes of cooking them.

Instead of fish, I have pet parasites.  In about 6-8 weeks, I might be able to have fish again.  I’m going to make sure I use a quarantine tank from now own before introducing new fish to my tank.

I’m going to be an expert at keeping fish alive one of these days.

Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to play soccer

Over the past 5-6 weeks I have burned up countless tanks of gas transporting my kids to soccer practice and soccer games.  Between my daughter’s equipment and the gas we’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars.  If I knew it would be this time consuming and expensive, I would have talked her out of it.

The worst part is, my daughter’s team is horrible – absolutely painful to watch. They haven’t won a single game and worse than that, haven’t scored a single point all season.  My son’s team is better and they’re only 8 years old.

I hate to say it but my daughter isn’t athletically gifted.  An athletic scholarship is not in her future.  She better just crack the books. My son is surprisingly pretty good at soccer, though most of his games have been cancelled due to the cold and rainy weather.

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Well, I better get back to homework.  In a few weeks I’ll have a little break and hopefully then I can get that project done.  That’s assuming it isn’t still snowing in May.  At this point, I wouldn’t bet against it.