I guess the Phish heads found their soup. Tell me again why the Taliban don't like us.

Well Richard Phish is finally over and many of us are grateful and hope it never happens again. For all the lovely "flower child" types who follow Phish around you have too many drugs and inconsiderate people. I am not one who follows the thinking of all the money it will bring into the area. I don't like turning a blind eye to the negative element that accompanies this concert venue. 75,000 people in an area as small as our community is, creates problems we don't need. There is a serious drug problem up here and bringing more of it in for this concert doesn't help. The first year they were here my husband I worked at a booth for our son's senior class, selling ice cream. We were so stoned from the smoke in the air we had trouble getting home. I'm not kidding. In the morning it was something to see the drug paraphenalia left on the ground over night . It was just left there to be used by someone else the next day. We never volunteered again for either of the other concerts. Lot of people didn't. Including local community organziations. but the almighty dollar allows for a lot. The kids who attend the Job Corp school at Loring were all sent home to keep them away from the infuence and temptations of this concert. if they should be protected why don't we feel that way about our own kids. There's my sermon the day. Thanks for asking.

Patty, how was the Phish concert? You must know people who went. I was reading about the Stones concert at Altamont Speedway back in 1969 recently. That was the one where the Hell's Angels went brutal on the crowd, and deaths occurred. I am sure that 34 years later, Altamont is still at the front of the minds that organized Phish at Loring Airforce Base.

Your weather sounds like ours and look like you've had some high temps too but probably without the standard a/c we all have here. Huge oak trees 30 or more years old in Buckhead have toppled over as the gound is too saturated so I can relate a bit. However the upside is the folliage hasn't been this great in over 30 years here. Some wild flowers in the woods have just come from nowhere and are striking, but.....so have the pesky bugs, slugs, and slimy crawly things as well as the everything else trying to come in an avoid the rain. I've had to really keep up on the pesticides. Thank goodness I don't have any little ones runnig around. Yankees don't do the cockroach routine you know, we hate bugs. Lately if you don't wash you vehicle every 3 days or so its get this black mold on it, ugh!! My vehicles are all white too so it shows. Well, have fun before going back to school. Sounds like you have a good summer anyway. One county here has been back to school for a few weks already and most go back next week!!!! Wow, but they say it help keep the city kids busy and out of the kind of trouble that leads to bad stuff. You know, latch key kids et al. We have many gangs forming here and most don't occupy their time with constructive activities either. The city is encroaching quicker that I'd like. We had a shooting in our little town last week and a back robbery yesterday!! We are protected here by good ol Smith & Weston and noone bothers to come down my drive anymore. Well, talk about rambling eigh..... ciao

Roland, I appreciate your thoughts. Didn't mean to avoid getting back to you but I've been wallpapering and sewing and otherwise generally doing summer projects now that my summer vacation is almost over.
So much rain here that our plants have toppled over with the weakened ground. Flood warnings are commonplace. Everything we do is indoors for the the time being. With school starting the 25th I hate to be stuck inside. Oh well.

Point well taken. And you ARE correct that most people in positions of "lesser authority" won't ever really give and honest answer to fear of many things. And, you are also correct about titles. Big business has known for years but not always instituted that. Believe it or not most people would rather have a position title that sounds better than to have more money. I have made a rep on that I judge on merrit and progress rather than title, gender, etc. It takes people that work for myself (or I like to say, with myself) awhile to figure it out but generally less than I year to find out I'm fair and that they can trust me. But, there is always the occassional person that just always wants their own way no matter what and, well.......they usually wind up leaving on their own accord. Enough said and your point well taken. We all seem to get into ruts sometimes. I enjoy be enlightened and try to use info for a middle of road or "flex schedule" type of management. I take the attitude, this is the position, this is what we need accomplished and this is the time frame. Then....whomever owns the position and I checque in from time to time to have them report progress or questions and its the results that I look for. Again, as long as the results don't harm another in the process.

Roland, good to see you back. I'm smiling while I write this you won't think I'm angry. :-)

I appreciate your comments and I'm sure you mean them in the very best of ways. But honestly, and this is not meant to criticize but to enlighten; very few working women who value themselves as employees actually like to be referred to as the girls. (even though if asked they may say it's not a probelm, they aren't likely to tell a man in a position of rank in the business world, but in the ladies room you'd hear a different story) It may seem PC to even consider this but guys and girls are different terms with one potentially just a little demeaning however unintentionally. This is one reason why you don't see stock boys, bag boys and the like; you see Associates. It may seem trite but the "title" of one's position can be very important to a person's self esteem. It's isn't at all about being too sensitive about one's own feelings as much as being sensitive to the feelings of others.

See what I mean? Now if you'd want to talk about Guys and Dolls, I'll sign you a song!