Monday's Misadventures

My Monday , the last day of February 2022

Enter

You sent

Well the day started out when I reached out to turn off my CPAP machine and my glasses jumped off the stand and hid. I swear I heard them giggling while I was trying to find them.

Also, my internet was out. Again.

My sister Rita happened to be in town and she came  by and crawled around on my floor patting the carpet and moving stuff around, instead of me doing it for the thousandth time. Or was it the millionth?

She didn't have it easy finding them, although I think the only giggles she heard were ours, at the ridiculous situation.

But she did find them, in a place that had been checked multiple times. 

But she did it!

Yay Rita!

Now that I have my glasses again, I can get started on today's life, which was going to laundromat and grocery store and pharmacy. 

I went to Marathon laundromat in Mt Orab because they are a better value laundromat and because I have prescriptions to pick up at Kroger's, which is across the road. I can get it all done. 

Every other machine is out of order.
Because of that I had to use two smaller washers, so I ran out of money. 

No biggie, I'll go to the ATM at the attached Marathon Mart. What a joke. 

The ATM is not being serviced. 

They don't do cash back at the register, either. 

 I don't get to dry my clothes. At least not here and now. Unless I want to leave my laundry and my parking space.Guess I'll stop off in Bethel to do that job. My luck, their ATM will also not be working.

I was running out of belief in my day.
I should have stayed in bed when my glasses went into hiding, and my internet was gone.

When I went to Kroger, I decided I may as well shop since I needed to Cashback. (ATM costs @$5, Cashback is fifty cents). So after I have cashed out and put my card away, the girl tells me she is running a cashless register. 

I have to take my receipt to customer service to get my $20.

At customer service there was a line (of course) and the person right in front of me was buying money orders - you know how time consuming that can be- and then his bank wouldn't do the card transaction the way it was supposed to. "This is why I buy money orders," he said. (Been there done that.)





So I came home, my clothes still wet, and put groceries away. My clothes shouldn't mildew overnight, and if they do, I'll just have to figure it out.

And when I got home, I still had no internet . I am in an outage. Yay me.

At least this time I have data and telephone.

When I came out of Kroger's, I couldn't find my car. I walked right to where I had parked it and there was this shiny almost black car sitting there.

So I walked around the other lanes, went back to store and walked back out to the same spot where I had parked it.
And it was there this time!
I owe Hailey a big apology. My car really does look completely different when you approach it from the passenger side. (She made the same mistake once when I picked her up at school.)

But I had no need to look for the helpers, because they were looking out for me. At the laundromat, in the store, and several times in the parking lot.

That makes it, overall, a very good day.

What Happened to Summerfest?

short answer: Karma

opinionated answer: greed.


Tomorrow is the first weekend in August. For the last three or four years, this has meant Summerfest for Brown County; for Mt. Orab.

Big name (once upon a time) entertainers, as the culmination of a summer's worth of free "Music in the Park" concerts.
A celebration of selling and crafts and community. Many of our local businesses were proud to be sponsors and do their part in creating this wonderful time.
A gathering of friends and neighbors meeting greeting and enjoying one last big thing before cool weather and school schedules and the slo-mo rush into the holidays.

The owners of Georgetown Rent-2-Own even moved their traditional back-to-school bash to the Mt Orab park, because they would be able to reach more of their neighbors, friends, and customer base. For many years they have been doing this giving back, and they did it in a big way. (Because that's how we do things here in the country.)

in 2013

last Georgetown bash

The weather was good, the friendliness was fun, and , hey, we would all run into old friends or maybe make some new ones.

The second year of the Bash being in the park, the Powers-That-Be decided that after a certain time, the bounce houses and other attractions would need to be paid for. Those collecting giveaway school supplies could eat and play until noon, which was the somewhat liquid cutoff for collecting the supplies.
Okay, this was a little different, but maybe it was fair enough. Parents and families do realize that bounce houses cost, the electric to run the fans cost, etc. Once the supplies have been picked up, and the kids have played a while, if one doesn't have the money, one can leave, or at least look around elsewhere.
It was kind of a drag, but the children who were dragged out at 8 or 9 am to go get notebooks and a hot dog were usually readily coaxed onto new and other interests.

Last year, a new "player" enetered the field. Mt. Orab Auto Mall declared itself to be THE sponsor of Summerfest, with a little help from those nice little humdrum everyday neighborhood businesses.

And the first thing we, the humble but poor citizens knew, a decision had been made to CHARGE ADMISSION to our super great summer fantastic wonderful free community event.

Huh? This humongous "SuperBusiness"  which considered itself the great savior of commerce in Mt. Orab signed up to provide an influx of cash -- and the first thing we hear is that our free party will now have a fee!

EVEN THE FREE GIVEAWAY had to pay admission fees.
(Some of us held out a hope that it would be as the year before; fees after a certain time, but No. To enter the free public neighborhood park where the giveaway was being held, one had to pay admission.)
To Get into a FREE public park.
To collect FREE school supplies.

Now, if youre a parent struggling to buy notebooks and folders -- and at back-to-school prices! -- it seems reasonable that IF you have the money you may as well go buy the stuff, doesn't it? Especially if you have many children.  You could even do so without the carnival atmosphere and prices and being out in the heat all day long. Shop in air conditioned storesc, maybe even without the whiny, hungry, thirsty, bored children along.


Is it any surprise that this year has seen fewer (if any) commercial sponsors?
Is it any surprise that out local businesses, who together made other Summerfests happen, don't want to have their efforts minimized?
Is it any surprise that they don't want to be shoved aside by Outsiders with more money? (And fewer local ties?)
Is it any surprise that no one arranged entertainment such as we have become used to?

Is it any surprise that this year's "Summerfest" has become "Buy local Brown County Day?
Is it any surprise that the evening before the "Big Day" there is one booth set up in the park, and one flatbed by the bandstand?
No rows of booths, tents, campers.
No food trucks.
No coolers.
No bounce houses awaiting inflation.

Is it ANY surprise? 

Warren's First Year of World.

Tomorrow is Warren's last day of school for the year. The time flew by.

It has been a good, great fantastic year for him. Finally becoming aware of colors and shapes and numbers -- although we still have a long way to go with that one.

He still communicates uniquely -- that will likely never go away as it seems to run in the family. He uses his own made up sign language, a lot, but it's a lot easier to interpret when there's a color or a shape to go along with the sign! And, of course, there's the familiarity factor. (If he's ever telling you about the "red-blue, he's talking about the Food Court here in Mt. Orab. Why red-blue? It has red letters (that he calls numbers) and blue awnings.) But you'll only know that if you know him.


He was, in my judgement, about 18 to 20 months behind in speech and comprehension of 'things' (colors, shapes, counting). He's made up a lot of ground, closing the gap, again my uneducated but not inexperienced judgement, down to 9 - 12 months.
He's a smart boy. If we keep working with him, maybe he'll close the gap this summer. Or maybe he'll just learn at his own pace and in his own way. Maybe the challenge will be helping him accept his differences in learning and applying lessons.


As long as he keeps learning, we're all good.




And isn't that true of all of us? When we quit learning, we are in a world of trouble.

Local News(papers)

Once again, the whole block of local newspapers has been bought by a 'media group'. This time the block was larger, containing Clermont, Brown, Adams, and (I think) Highland County papers. Other buyouts have included different combinations of these papers, but not all of them at once.

This sparked some discussion -- again -- of what a sinkhole local papers are, how expensive to publish and distribute, etc. All stories that have been told; all details that have become cliche on the topic.

The "new" publishers speak of how combining reduces costs, increases coverage, blah, blah, blah.

What none of the papers are doing is reporting news that the customers are looking for.

We are all still wondering about the booms we heard all over Mt. Orab last summer. No word of their existence disturbed any of local newspapers.

There was an incident one evening of power outages, road closures, and even a medical helicopter called on the west side of Lake Grant. Neighbors on Pleasant Hill as well as those near the lake are still wondering what and why and even who, although we can all accept that that last info is more for family to share than news sources.

There was an armed robbery of a local business during Fair Week. You know, where someone's children were were working? Did anyone know it happened? Did a neighbor, who only wanted a cup of coffee, tell about it? Did someone find out from a son's classmate, because your local reporter was too busy at the Fair? (Watching tractors? Looking at cows?)

There are fires.

There are times when ambulances cross paths with other ambulances -- Georgetown or Ripley going north, Mt. Orab heading south. Has something happened, or is it 'just' people getting sick or hurting?

There are accidents, often closing roads and detouring traffic. A recent incidence closed 68 during school bus runtime, and there were rumors of body bags. Is this true? We don't know -- no media source has seen fit to tell us.

These are the stories we want to know about.
These are the questions we want answered.
This is news.

Yes, a week later, even a month later, is okay. Of course, by then we know if it was someone close to us or if it impacts us directly, but we are still wondering about WHAT HAPPENED? And WHY?
Can this be fixed?
Can it be improved?
Could it have been prevented?
Can we do anything?
Should we?

These incidences involve us.
They (can) involve our friends, our neighbors, our families. Our neighbors's friends and families.
These are our people. 
We want to help.
We want to know.

Our local newspapers should want us to know, too.

That is what local news is.

If you want to make money, report the NEWS.

Public Park, Back-to-School Bash, and Summerfest

It's summer time, and time for the summer fun. It's August, too, which means summer is winding down.

Take your kids out and spend the day at the community park here in Mt.Orab. It has playgrounds (one for 2 and under, one for 2 and up), basketball courts, picnic tables, a shelter, trees, and grass. And bathrooms nearby. They have concerts throughout the summer. Music in the Park. Bring your lawn chairs.

For many years, Rent-2-Own in Georgetown had sponsored an all day back-to-school bash in August. They made a festival of it, with food and bounce houses and free school supplies. (I believe it ran from 10 until 3 or 4, but I'm not certain. Most of the hot August afternoon, with waterslides and a sprinkler cave among the bouncies.)

A community project; a way to help; a way to 'payback'; a way to make a difference

I don't know how long R2O had been doing this when my granddaughter started school. If they did it when my girls went to school, I never heard of it. If it existed then, it was kept low-key. (maybe customers only? I honestly don't know.) By the time Hailey was school age, though, it was touted in the local papers as one of the annual events of the season.

Three years ago, Brown County decided to have a "Summerfest" It would be a big ol' sponsored summer festival like every town every where used to have before lawsuits and insurance and the entitlement to have "fun" with no responsibility and no accountability took over the world.
Vendors could set up booths.
There could be car shows.
There would be concerts.  Big name concerts.

And it would all be wonderfully free for the public; for the citizens of town and county and as many neighbors as could be drawn in.

There would be entrance fees for EVENTS. There would be fees for vendors. For the concerts, they would even create special seating areas that could be paid for ahead of time.

And there would be sponsors. Local businesses would do their part in underwriting and sharing expenses for this great community service. Sharing cost, building a reputation, and the tax write-offs all made this a winning proposition.

The Back-to-School Bash was moved to this venue. It was, to the public, a good fit.
The goals were the same; the reasons were the same; the feeling was the same, plus so much more.


The second year, after the back-to-school products had been distributed and that part of the day was done (the giveaway was 9 - noon), the organizers of the fest imposed an additional charge for the bounce houses. You know, the ones set up in the PUBLIC COMMUNITY PARK? The ones that have been provided free for however many years, at a PRIVATELY OWNED location?

Okay. Unfair, disgusting, and outrageous, but easily avoided.
Take the kids early, leave early, and let them do without your business in all other aspects of the fantastic "free" summerfest.


********************************************************************************



This year Summerfest is NOT free.
It will still be held at the community park.
In fact, you will NOT be allowed to enter YOUR public park without paying an entry fee.

Guess what, folks.
You wont even be allowed to go wait an hour in line with your cranky, sleepy, hot, and hungry children (school children MUST be present) to pick up your FREE back-to-school bundles without paying an entry fee. 

(Ah, for the good old days, just 3 years ago, when one could show up at lunch time, after the children awoke and were just beginning to get bored.)

No, it isn't a huge amount of money. That's not the point.

Two FREE events are no longer free.

OUR OWN PUBLIC PARK will not be free that weekend.


The organizers mouth the tired old line about expenses and losses and all that crap. What, the businesses don't want the tax credit anymore? The local businesses no longer want to build ties to the community?

If that's the case, and if they want to turn this event into a moneymaker (a money-getter) instead of a public service (money-giver), they certainly have that right.
On private property.

Not in a public park where kids have been going to play for however many years on their weekends.

Everyone is excited about the fest, the events and concerts and whatever else.
Everyone, that is, except the families who will have to stay home because they can't afford to go to the festival AND -- whatever else they need to do. Eat? Drink? Stay cool? Put gas in vehicles? Add more to their school supply lists?

Why?
Just tell me why.

the Grand Mall Opening

Well, this weekend was the grand opening of the Mt. Orab Auto Mall.

The automall that tore up and tore out acres of green space and replaced dirt with tar and trees with cars.

The automall that has destroyed habitats and changed the nature of our corner of the world. (Or, at least, our leaf of the clover -- the leaves are gone.)

The automall that will supposedly generate lot of tax moneys for the community, without providing a lot of jibs. Because the taxes on one sold car equals the annual income of several minimum wage workers. (That's a very rough estimate.)

The automall that will have few benefits for the working poor of Mt. Orab and Brown County while making the rich richer. Without much expenditure.

The automall that as well as making the well-to-do better off, gives the politicians and 'community-minded" (eg, self serving)  reasons to loudly and publicly pat themselves on the back and fool the ignorant onto thinking they have done something real for a community that has many needs.
Needs that have little to do with new cars or used car salesmen.


But, this I will say.


They sure do know how to throw a party!
I don't know who or how or when and where it all happened, but their grand opening celebration -- concerts, fireworks, concerts, and who knows what-all --was one of the best conducted and best managed events I have ever seen. Traffic concerns, traffic flow, food, drink, bathrooms -- all coordinated. All taken care of. (Although God help anyone who needed the police that night.)

I was impressed with their handling of the crowds and the traffic.

I was impressed with their handling of events.

I was impressed with many aspects of their Grand Mall event.

But I would still rather see the trees behind the Kroger store than pole lights and the hard glare off shiny metal death traps that I'll never be able to afford.
I would rather see the deer by the side of the road (not in it) than car carriers (and helicopters, but that is not part of this.)

But, man, if I ever have an event, I'd sure like to hire their organizers.