Ben’s Blog

Funny Will Ferrell & Jimmy Fallon clip for a Friday afternoon…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here so I thought it was about time to do a general update…

Things have been crazy the past couple months as Holly and I ran in 10 different directions trying to decide where we were going to live in the coming months/years.  We considered building our new “dream house” but suffered from a case of sticker shock, then thought about buying a house but suffered from thoughts of “that’s all we get for that price?,” while all along fixing up our house with the intention of selling.  That was until we heard what the Realtor thought it would sell for.  So, I think the plan at this point, as of today, is to live in our house for a little bit longer while making a plan to build soonish.  We’ll also likely take advantage of the crazy-low mortgage rates to refinance into a 15 year mortgage in order to pay down the principal faster; believe it or not the low rates make this less than $100 more than our current payment.  Now…if you ask again tomorrow and you might get a different answer.

Somewhere during the process of looking for money under various rocks I decided to sell my old Polaris snowmobile.  It gave me years of hassle-free use but it was getting to the age where I just felt a big problem wasn’t too far off…so I decided it would be better in another person’s garage.  When I got nearly as much as I paid for it years ago I immediately started looking for more stuff to throw on craigslist.  If it isn’t nailed down it might be for sale soon!

Onto the dog…it seems like a couple months can’t go by without a trip to the Vet for Bailey.  This time was a bit more concerning though as Holly found blood in his “stool.”  The diagnosis this time is Colitis – swelling (inflammation) of the large intestine (colon).  This was better than other things we thought it might be and should be controllable with food more suitable for a dog his age.  It seems that his old food just isn’t bland enough for his aging digestive system, but with his lack of teeth soft food probably isn’t that far off!

As a general public service announcement: don’t ever try to make a “sparkler bomb!” Sure it looks fun in the youtube videos but playing with something that sounds and acts like a stick of dynamite really isn’t a good idea.  Some minor property damage and a close call with some flying “material” left my brother and I in a state of shock, and me with a solid resolve to never put one of these together again….seriously; never.

Finally…I bought a used Howard Miller mantle clock (pictured above) today from someone at GVSU today.  You might not think that is very cool or exciting but I was pretty thrilled to find such a treasure at such a reasonable cost.  My dad must have passed his odd desire to collect clocks and pocket watches onto me, but there is just something about winding an old clock and hearing real chimes and gongs every 15 minutes.  After hearing this even Holly agreed that she’d like to get a full-sized grandfather clock whenever we do end up in a new house!

Of all the “news magazine” type shows that I love to watch, Dateline NBC isn’t one that I make an effort to catch often.  Since we’ve disconnected from cable, however, my options on Sunday nights are limited so I happened to tune in this past weekend.  Ann Curry did a story (America Now: Friends & Neighbors) on the increasing poverty in the US as a result of the recession; she focused on southeast Ohio and selected a couple families to follow for the story.  I was really moved by this, and have thought about it often since watching.

If you didn’t catch it you should try to make some time to watch it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38382773/ns/dateline_nbc-america_now

Let me first say that I am a big fan of Ann Curry…I watch the Today show almost every morning while getting ready for work and I think she brings a lot to that show.  I liked her so much I was rooting for her to replace Katie Couric, and most mornings while watching Meredith Vieira, I wish that she had.  That being said, I thought Ann was too nice, or simply chose not to ask hard questions while covering this story.

The story started with a local food bank that is supporting a growing number of people who rely on assistance to feed their families while operating on a shoestring budget.  It was really sad seeing the many people who probably couldn’t feed their families without this food bank.  The depiction of poverty in this rural area was surprising and Holly and I decided that we’d like to send a donation to the Friends & Neighbors Food Pantry.

While feeling very bad for the people covered in this story, I kept getting frustrated that more questions weren’t asked about what the individuals were doing to help get themselves out of poverty. Had these individuals considered moving to another area? Have they looked for ways to make themselves more employable? Have they contacted state agencies to take full advantage of programs setup to assist them? Do they think they’re making it possible for their children to rise out of poverty? I know these are easy questions to ask from my vantage point and there are countless hurdles for poor families to overcome to change their situations, but I felt the story glossed over everything that might involve the families helping themselves.

I tried to focus on the bigger picture, but it was hard watching a woman get upset about not being able to feed her children while smoking a cigarette…this after explaining that she pinches pennies to buy the cheapest groceries because even the pennies saved counted.  Even if you smoke the cheap brands, I’m sure that the money spent would equate to a couple more cans of food for the kids.

A similar moment came when Ann was interviewing a young mother of 3 who had lived in her van with the kids during the times that she couldn’t stay with her grandparents after fighting with them.  Ann questioned whether this woman had ever learned about birth control…she said that she had, but retorted: “accidents happen.”  There were no other follow up questions despite so many opportunities to go into more detail; instead they moved onto talking about the woman participating in a singing contest to win 50 dollars.  After dropping out of school when she had the second child before she would have graduated I had to ask myself at what point she thought a 3rd child was a good idea.

Judging by the comments left on the dateline page I saw that many others experienced the same frustrations.

Somewhere in the middle of all this the governor of Ohio was interviewed and stated that at some point “it became stylish to be selfish. It’s almost acceptable to be prejudiced against poor people.” I then wondered if my frustrations were just my prejudice and selfishness coming out.  I’m still thinking about that, but I think a little more in depth coverage was still warranted…

As an aside…throughout the story I was reminded of Jeannette Wall’s book, “The Glass Castle.”  I imagined that the people being interviewed were somewhat like Wall’s parents, and wondered if the kids had some of the same feelings/experiences that she had as a kid.  If you haven’t read that book I’d recommend that too!

A friend of mine shared this with me…satire makes anything better.