Politics, It's like a Country Road

Have you ever noticed that as you drive along down a winding country road, that the road starts to become a very good analogy of what politics is all about? As in politics, it has a center, left, and right. Now as you go along that road, you can veer a little to the left or right, or you can drive right off the edge into pure hate and anarchy. Dept. of Transportation people just label their road with the names Left and Right and you should stay in your lane. In politics though, we have taken to calling OUR side of the road, "Conservative", and the OTHER guys call theirs, "Liberal". Now just as in when you are driving your car along this road, if you maintain a steady course, you usually arrive at your destination in good order. But you can by inattention or intention, veer off the road by a little or a lot. The degree of variance really does determine what is to become of you, whether as a driver or a person. Will you go 'over the edge' too the right and become a Neo-Nazi or someone of that ilk? Or will you completely lose your mind, and for some reason cross that painted double line into the LEFT lane? And have you ever noticed that those people, once they get in that lane, THINK that they are doing just fine, even though they are going in the wrong direction! I'm not to sure what name attaches to those of the "far lefty persuasion" that are driving along in the bushes on their side of the road, but whatever the name is, it should have something that Identifies them too us all, so that we can avoid them like the plague. After watching the Judge Roberts confirmation hearings, I came away again, wondering if there were really that many STUPID people living in Mass.! How can they keep electing that buffoon that sat there looking like a chimpmunk, as he rails against a MAN with more intelligence in his little finger than Teddy has in his whole body, and who makes Teddy, look like he just recently descended out of the trees? A couple of million years too late I might add. Some one else surely has to write down his questions for him to ask, because he couldn't come up with one on his own if it didn't have the word "abortion" in it. That was virtually the whole line of questioning that he brought with him to the hearing. The guy is a laughing stock to every other thinking person in this country. Teddy, Why don't you just pack it in and go back to Hyannis and finish drinking yourself into oblivion so that we all can rest more comfortbly knowing that you are no longer a member of the United States Senate! You are a DISGRACE! GO HOME!! Oh PS: Careful of those bridges around Chappaquidic,(sp) They are a bitch! TIFN

Bringing Home Billions of Buck$$$!

So I understand now that there are about 1 million people who have lost their homes and or business down along the south coast. I guess after Monday, that number will probably go to triple the present one. I also read/heard that the federal govt. has committed $60 billion to those people alone. That doesn't include what ever money has come to them by way of private charities. That is all well and good and I don't begrudge one thin dime to them. But! Where is the money going to come from to pay out that 60 bil? Already there is talk that the prescription medicine handout from Medicare may be coming under attack. But that is another blog. I have a suggestion as to where it might come from. How about if the first thing we do is to kick the UN out of the US? Send it to france where they can support and administer it in their typically incompetent manner. That would get us a few billion. Next we really should withdraw from NATO and close all our bases in Europe and let those folks fend for themselves for a change. We have been holding their hands and wiping their asses for them long enough. They OPENLY hate us now, and make no bones about it. SO let them hold each other in a firm embrace while keeping a close eye on all the Islamofacists in their midsts that are about to bring down the life style and ideals they have lived with for decades. The mullahs are working over time to finish them off. By closing all those European bases we could keep another $150 billion for our own people. "Foreign Aid". There is a sad chapter in American history. It started out all well and good but over the years has been corrupted to the point that we now give "billions and billions", so Carl Sagan would have said, to countries that openly oppose us and our ideals and actively engage in acts that are a direct threat to our countries safety and well being. The number to put in here is beyond my understanding, but have read somewhere that is close to a Trillion with a "T" bucks! It is time for the Congress of these United States to take a good long unbiased look at all the money that we give away to these countries. Just stop it outright! Then go over each countries past use of the aid, and whether it was used against us in some way. If each applicant does not measure up, or live up, to a strict new set of rules, then they either don't get it to start with, or it gets summarily pulled if they are found to be playing hanky-panky with the money. It is time to stop trying to buy peoples good will with dollar bills. They take it all the while laughing up their sleeves at us. PROVE too us that you are worthy of Aid, and MAYBE some will be forthcoming. For a while! TIFN

New Town Hall

There was a Town Council meeting last evening and one of the topics was about the new building that is now under construction! Before the first bucket of cement has been poured, it came to light during the meeting that this building is already destined to join the other town building fiasco's. It seems as though the structure, before any bid request have gone out, is going to exceed the 1.7 million budgeted by a nice round 10%! What the hell is going on in the town hall? Is there ANYBODY there that has a clue about doing this sort of project and getting it right? Remember the Library, the School, and now the new Town Hall? There has to be someone in charge of these projects who knows his ass from a hole in the ground! It would behoove the Council to hire a Town Public Works director and do it now, if one can be found. Another thing that amazes me is that in this era of skyrocketing energy costs, that there has been NO attempt to do anything to mitigate those costs! There are lots of things that could be done. There are items that can be incorporated into the foundation that would warm the foundation from within, and radiate that heat into the interior space as well as upwards to the floor above. Electrical dump loads fed by a number of solar cells on the roof would do that job. Water circulated through pipes in the foundation and fed by solar water heating panels is another option. According to the August National Geographic magazine, there are still plenty of grants out there for new construction municipal buildings if the cities and towns are willing to go after them. Another option, and I know this will bring the anti-WECS lobby out in full force and throat, is the use of some sort of windpower. In that same issue of the NG magazine there was a study someone did that put forth the proposition that if every house in Americe had a 1 kilowatt wind generator attached, the oil imports to this country would diminish to virtually nothing. Denmark gets 75% of it's power from offshore WECS and more are planned, as it is for most of the other Scandinavian countries.
So getting back to the new town hall, I can't help wonder why there has been absolutely no attempt to do anything in this vein. Somewhere in the not to distant future as I've said before, our children and grandchildren are to reap the results of what we should have sown! A big NOTHING! Everyone seems to think that reducing energy consumption is passe and no big deal. Well after getting your last bill from BIPCO, that should have put a huge hole in your complacency blanket! But I will tell you one thing for sure, my electric bill was a couple hundred dollars less than most of yours because of that "ugly", "noisy", "monstrosity" in my front yard! Somewhere in your future you are going to have to reconcile the need to have electricty to make all your appliances run with your "need" to see the water, or the shore or the dips and swales in the country side. Maybe after all the people who got the WECS ordinance gutted, leave the Island because there is not enough juice to go around, we can return to some sort of rational thought when it comes to renewable energy of all kinds. Get and read that copy of the National Geographic and it just might give you a different mindset. TIFN BTW, turn off those uneeded lights in the evening and then go watch your meter turn a lot slower!

Will It Ever End?

There is a letter in the paper this week from a Dr.R M Wood in which he attempts to save us from ourselves again,as have countless others before him. How REALLY interested in us is he? He starts his letter like this. "Parting words for the Medical Center. My summer visits to Block Island have come to an end".That certainly sounds to me as if he has NO intentions of coming here again except maybe in the winter. So of course on the way out the door he takes a few "artfully created" parting shots at the people who live and work here. Apparently he feels that no one should be paid anything more than the minimum wage to do any job, be it menial or one that takes a great deal of skill. Where does he get the idea of a 'severence package'? There is none as far as a couple of the board members know. Just another unsubstantiated stab in the back. "This present system provides several, (1) "highly paid" administrator(s), (actually less than other people in the town who do similar work),with full benefit packages to do these tasks". His words. Oh yes he mentions free housing for the administrator, but "artfully neglects" to mention that housing is free to one physician, as has been the case for fifty ears or more and was part of the lure to get and hold a doctor. No problem there. The other, gets a $22k subsidy over and above salary to help pay for their housing.
Does anyone recall what has been going on in the town finance office since all or most of the billing and collection was "outsourced". Of course it is ALWAYS smarter and more cost efficient to pay someone else to do the job even when qualified people are already on board and able to do the job.
I was glad to hear that the only difference between a doctor and a hair stylist, is a Nurse and a different supply list. Maybe I'll go to the Beachcomber next time I get sick and see what happens.
I wonder if Dr. Wood has any clue as to why the Med Ctr was set up as it was in the very beginning? There must have been some very good and compelling reasons. Look into that please sir before you advocate ripping apart, what has served the people of this town, and thousands of visitors for a very long time.
Now, all this advice on how to conduct the day to day business of the Med Ctr. which sees between twenty and fifty people a day, (conservative est. I think) is freely given by a Doctor who's practice is for the most part limited to incontinence in the fair sex, and who sees approx. eight patients a day, or so I am told by an, "un-named but realiable" source.So I personally would not put much stock in all the allegations and or fixes advocated by this particular person. Go to the meetings and find out, "What's going on up there" and why.

Unlawful? Underhanded? Unethical? Which?

Hi All, Here is a little scenario I want to put forth. What if a person decided on their own hook, and in their own home, to "call" a "meeting" of the "board" that oversees the process of the job held by this person? Oh yes, and be sure NOT to invite to the same "meeting", two of the members of said entity who will not acquiesce(SP) to your requests/demands without due diligence? Well this happened a couple days ago and the Board in question is one that we are all familiar with. I was not, and am not privy to what was said there, or what if anything was decided on, to be voted on at a later meeting. Everyone who did not have a clue, had a lot to say about what went on at these previous, OPEN meetings. Now it appears that 7/9 ths of this board has taken it upon themselves to hold some sort of a clandestine meeting without the knowledge of the rest! What does this sound like to you. I understand they were discussing staffing issues, and solutions to same. Having an invited guest as a speaker to tell them how to do their job was another highlight of the evening. I don't know if all members were "sworn to secrecey" or what, but if I had been one of the members invited, when I found out that a select few were intentionally un-invited, I would have left the room and urged the rest of my fellow mwmbers to do the same! This is just plain Bull****!! I thought the days of backroom politics were to become extinct in my generation, but it apparently has flourished here on this little piece of rock. I would encourage the Town Council to abolish the whole damn board and start anew with a new set of people. Ethicality here in this board, has leaked right out through the floorboards and into the bilges with the rest of a few things called honor and accountability. PISSED again, I say, TIFN

More Junk

Well, I have to eat some 'crow' this morning. It seems as if there really are some responsible boaters out there. There are a group of young guys who come over here quite often on their jet skis and park them on the earlier mentioned beach. I gusee they were a little upset with the way things looked, so they took it upon themselves to get hold of a bunch of trash bags and tools and proceeded to rake up the beach and pick bags of junk out of the base of the breakwater. Then they hauled all the bags to the dock and went to get the Harbormaster to back his truck onto the dock whereupon they loaded it all on board and drove it to the dumpster. I was flabbergasted and very impressed with what they had done. As they passed me by, I thanked them most vociferously on behalf of all the people who live here. Guess I should have waited a day or two before I unloaded on the boaters. It is never good to paint everyone with the same brush. Thanks again guys! TIFN

Uncaring and Uncouth Boaters

Did anyone notice that this weekend just past brought as many or more people to the Island than on the 4th of July? The traffic downtown as the boats came in and unloaded, was the worst that I can remember. We still DO NOT need traffic lights, as the local boys in blue did a real good job of keeping things moving and within five to ten minutes , traffic was all eased up again. Not so for the people "thronging" up and down the sidewalks but mostly in the street!
Looking at all the people in the streets, you might also have noticed all the small boats lined up along the east breakwater. I'm not sure what it is that lures those sized boats to the Island. Maybe it is the free use of the sand and anchorages they encounter over there. Apparently all during the weekend, they buy their beer, booze and food at Ballards and tote it back to their boats to consume. A better bet is that they bring it all with them. But what really gripes my ass is that they don't have the common decency to take it all home with them when they leave! Nope, it is much easier to stuff it in a garbage bag and leave it all in a pile at the north end of the east dock. I went down there this morning after having the pile of trash pointed out to me and I was really pissed that that they couldn't walk another 200 feet and put it in a dumpster. These people in their boats that go for upwards of $50-60 thousand care so little about this place that they feel no compunction about leaving their disgusting crap on the dock and all over the beach to! They even bring their dogs and let them use the dock and beaches as their own personal outhouses. If it was just them and their ilk using the area, I'd say let it happen, they have to walk in it! But there are a lot of other people who frequent the area. So after a lot of discussion amongst a bunch of us there at the dock, we came to the conclusion that there were no town employees who job discription included picking up this stuff. The herring gulls had done an admirable job of spreading it all over hells half acre, so one Captain of Interstates ferries, three or four guys who work for the local Parasail company and myself proceeded to clean up the mess, and it WAS a mess. It is also NOT in the job description of the Harbormaster or the people who rent the few charter spots to be janitors, although throughout the summer, they do this job and keep the docks in relatively sightly condition. Assuredly there is no money in the Harbors Dept for such a person as all the money gets hijacked into the town general fund and spent where ever the TM feels it should go! SO,,, maybe it is time for the town to get off it's collective ass and do something about that area. If a former proposal I had made had been acted on years ago about docks out there and rent charged, it probably would have been all paid off by now. There used to be docks out there back in the 30's and 40's. It is way past time that some sort of order be established out there in the wild wild east. TIFN

MOI? Socialist Scum?

This post is directed to the person who answered a post on The Block Island Blog, and identified him/herself only as Anonymous 6/27/05 4:49 pm.

With regard to the problem of the Old Harbor Dock, if the town could manage to put together three or four consecutive Councils committed to fixing the dock, it would have been done by now. Capital improvement money has been set aside for ten or twelve years in a row, but for some reason or other, plus changing attitudes and vacillating political wills, the Councils, and Town manager always find other ways to spend the money except for where it was designated to go. Institute the Port Authority and then keep the money there, and all reconstruction and improvement would be done! The way things are being done now, we are just shoveling 'you know what' against the tide!

About my feelings concerning the ferry companies. I think I well realize the fact the ferries are our lifeline to the rest of the world, for all of us. I don't believe I said anything about kicking them out. You must be the same person who is always trying to put words in my mouth. But, WE should have a lot more say in just how many people/cars etc. are being dumped here every day. NOT ONE of the ferry companies gives a good rats ass what the effect is to the Island or it's people. Their ONLY concern, as in every operating business is the bottom line.

I feel SO put upon, and put down, that you think my family, all of us, couldn't "MAKE" it out here without owning the LPG business or using the ferry to accommadate our business. We have managed to survive out here, one way or the other, for about three hundred years, without the 'help' of folks like you. What has been your contribution to the Island? Where are you from, and what do you do? You seem to be lacking in the cojones department if you are a guy. If a woman, I wouldn't know how to denigrate you without coming across as a mysoginistic ass. This business started out very small, and over the last thirty years of catering to everyones whims, we have managed to grow it right along side every other aspect of the local and national economy.
Does your business pay the ferry company $360 every time a truck with your goods in it comes to the Island? Four or five trucks a week in the summer time. That doesn't sound TO exorbitant does it? Do you have an insurance bill that tops $18,000 dollars a year JUST for liability? Do you have four trucks that cost about $75,000 ea to buy, and thousands more to insure and maintain each year. Do you spend about a month of 8/10 hour days, filling out paper work and forms in order to comply with all the rules and regulations promulgated by, the EPA, EPCRA, DOT, SARA, DOT-HAZMAT, DOE, OSHA,and about seven or eight more all to do with Homeland Security? As well as all the RI State ones? Well, Do You?

A philosopher/economist once said a long time ago that,"The only thing wrong with Socialism is Socialism, and the only thing wrong with Capitalism is the Capitalist!" So I and my children will continue to try and hold up our end of the equation and it has NOTHING to do with Socialism! I spent twenty years of my life trying, in some small way, to maintain the level of freedom that we enjoy in this country, and I resent to the highest order of magnitude, your claim that I might EVER have harbored any thoughts of Socialism! So spew your gutless invective somewhere else. I mean in another Country. Try up North, they are pretty well screwed-up, up there also! And too you I say, STUFF IT!!! But feel free to post a comeback here in this venue though! Oh Yeah, put your name up to, Oh Cojonesless one. TIFN Everett

Second Step Complete!

Well the "_Supreme_? Court" just took the second step in the gradual stripping away of rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment is now on it's way out the door. Every local crooked politician and Administrator will be holding open their pockets just waiting for the also crooked developers to stuff them full of cash! I can't believe that those nine people who are supposedly so 'learned' can give away what was earned at such a cost, so blithely. I had always thought that their job was to interpert what was "ACTUALLY WRITTEN DOWN" on that piece of paper? Not, what these 'oh so far Left leaning' nine THOUGHT the original framers MIGHT have been thinking! They cannot know that! Even though in their own minds it has become apparent that they believe they are clairvoyant.
The first step was and is the introduction of the McCain-Fiengold act that is still in the process of wending it's way through the halls of Congress. When it gets through, say good bye to this medium as an uncensored right to express your thoughts, as well as the daily papers. Well, actually the New York Times and the Washington Post wouldn't be such a great loss. Maybe some other at the least "objective" papers could take up the slack!
And while we are here, I think that during the next round of Senatorial elections, it would do the country as a whole a great service, to unseat the currently entrenched, petulant, do nothing, and whiney,occupants of the "worlds most exclusive boys club", and replace them with people who truly have the values and needs of the people of this country foremost in their minds. Immigration, Social Security, and a host of other problems that never get resolved because "the Boy's" are busy playing one up manship,CYA, and making your opponent out to be an incompetent ass! On that last count, almost all of the present crop of idiots qualify with a 4.0 GPA! TIFN

They're Back!!

Well here it is not even summer yet, and already the blood pressure starts to rise whenever I get in the car to go somewhere. What's the reason you may want to know? Well it is "THOSE PEOPLE" who can't for the sake of their own lives, figure out which side of the road to walk on, or in some cases ride a bike on! Now a lot of these folks are high priced exec's and people who can do complicated calculations in the business world. So I have finally come to a conclusion that was told to me quite a few years ago by an old BI resident. It goes like this. "Apparently, every car that comes to the dock in Pt Judith, is handed a 1, 2, or 3 quart Mason jar, according to the size of the head. Directly after being handed said container, the driver of the car removes his brain and puts it in the jar, and then puts it under the front seat of the car. There it remains for the entire time of the owners sojurn on the Island!" I HEARTLY CONCUR!! TIFN Everett

Busy Days of Summer

I have tried to get back to this blogging business a few times recently, but there is just too much going on these days. So I would inform all that posts will be few and far between for most of the summer or until I finally run out of things to work on around the house and grounds. Hah! That won't happen anytime soon! Hope every one has a good summer and check us out once in a while to see if anything has happened. In the mean time, go to Block Island Blog to keep up with another point of view. See you now aqnd again! TIFN Everett

Slow getting back in the saddle!

Hi all, I realize I have been remiss with this thing for a long time. Man that Extra Corporeal Lithotripsy put me right on my knees for a long time. It felt like I had been in a fight in a dark alley with a bunch of muggers, ALL delivering kidney punches!! It has been just like having a bad case of mononucleosis(sp), which I have had before. I was making a continual circuit from the couch, to the chair, to the bed, to the floor! No place felt good. Anyway it all seems to be on the wane and hopefully I'll be able to come up with a viable comment in a few days.
I did have a short conversation with Peter Wood the other day and he asked me where I ever got the idea that he changed or left out parts of letters to the Ed. when he owned the paper. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was completely in the wrong there. If so, let this serve as an apology. If not,????????????. TIFN Everett

So, You want to have a Colonoscopy Eh?

My Doctor here on the Island, Dr. Peter Baute finally convinced me that I should venture to the mainland and have a colonoscopy performed. He had mentioned because of my advanced age 66, and never having had it done before, it would serve me well to know just what was going on up there in the "hinterlands". An appointment was made with a local gastroentroligist(sp). That in and of itself was quite a feat, because I made the appointment in December for the 14th of April. So you can see right off the bat, I had a nice long lead time to get myself all worked into a dither about the upcoming event. Over the intervening four months, the forthcoming event had come up on numerous occassions with a varied list of people who were only to glad to give a ten to fifteen minute discourse on the whole subject. Without fail, everyone who had had the deed done, had all come to the same conclusion, "It was no big deal"! So over time my fears were somewhat allayed and on the morning of the 13th, my wife and I went to the boat for the trip over. There were three or four previous receipients of the procedure there and one of the last comments from one of them was,"Don't forget to ask for the warm blanket when they are all through"! What was that all about I says to myself as I drive onto the boat.
Skip ahead to 7pm of the same day when it is time to imbibe one of the two bottles of a concoction called, Fleet's Phospho-soda Bowel prep. It comes in an innoccuous 1 1/2 bottle and is a clear liquid. In the instructions it tell you to mix the bottle with a half can of ginger ale or sprite and to drink it down in continuous gulp. 'Nuff said, down it goes and then I decided to read the rest of the instructions. They mentioned something about it taking from 30 minutes to six hours for it to take effect. Well their timing was about twenty nine minutes off, for while I'm reading this thing strange and ominious rumblings are emanating from inside of me! I barely had time to drop the paper and make a mad dash for the bathroom while fumbling desperately with a suddenly re-calcitrant belt buckle! Ah, safe arrival, deposition of "product" as predicted, and on to the couch! Well that little sojourn lasted about ten minutes and it was on to repeat the previouly documented trip to the bathroom for the rest of the night. About half way thru the night I got a little smarter and switched to a pair of sweatpants. Now as I sat there awaiting my next lurch to the head, I read some more of the instructions. It said to drink 'copious' amounts of water to replace all that I would be losing. See, this nasty stuff pulls ALL the water from all the sourrounding area, tissues, organs, muscles, hell it even sucked the water right out of a glass I was holding in my hand without waiting for me to drink it! It then goes right into the bowel to assist in the reaming out of that organ by using the 'deluge and hot flush' method! By the time things began to calm down, at four AM, it was time for the second dose! Now I'm telling you, it was a struggle to get this dose down. There was a hell of a fight between the up and down and the in and out factions of my gut, but with a lot of will power and lots of deep breaths it stayed down and immediately started on it's journey to the end of the road so to speak. Well about thirty minutes into this process, I begin to have feelings in my 'right, lower, posterior, quadrant' that no one had mentioned to me as being a consequence of drinking this stuff! Over the next three hours, the pain back there became so intense that I could barely make my way down to the car. My wife then drove us to the South County Hospital where I was admitted to the ER in a state of total and excruciating pain. Well after a few questions etc., it was determined that I was in the process of trying to eject a kidney stone from the right kidney. It seems that all this unusual amount of water rushing thru the old kidney had dislodged a local resident who had been lurking there for some time waiting for the right time to wreak havoc on me! After a few shots of some mysterious, but absolutely welcome "juice" was injected into me along with what was to be 9 big bags of IV solution, a Urologist came along and told me after talking to the colon guy, that if they could control the pain over night with some stuff called "oxycontin", they would proceed to do the colonoscopy the following afternoon. The urology guy then mentioned that they would take care of the "stones" three days hence. So eighteen hours go by during which time I am taking these oxycontin tablets every twelve hours on the dot and it does a wonderful job of keeping the pain at bay. I can see why it has become the drug of choice for so many regular abusers of the stuff. I was in LA LA Land for three days and didn't much care about anything! On to the Colonoscopy lab where as advertised and predicted by all other receipents before me, it went well with no problems, and I received my warm blanket at the end of the procedure,which was a blessing as it was freezing assed cold in there! Especially when only covered with one of those,"my ass is hanging out in the back" Johnnies? they called them?
Well that was much ado about not too much I thought, as I came home on the boat for a couple of days before the next impending disaster. Now over the ensuing three days I was not at all hungry, 'by-product of the oxycontin maybe?', and ate very little. Before I know it, it is the day before the impending, "Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy" treatment. That name alone should scare the shit out of you! Only in my case it didn't!! It seems that one of the detriments to taking oxycontin for an extended period is to lock up all that previously ingested forage into a solid block of nitrogenous waste matter! But, according to this piece of paper I received with instructions for the Lithotripsy, I must have an empty bowel upon presentation of my self for the treatment! Guess what? Eighteen hours before the event you must subject yourself again to the injestion of ANOTHER of those little "soda bottles" of diarrheal death! After another fight between in and out, it stayed there and went to work. This time with completely different results!Man, what is going on? Last time I couldn't get to the head fast enough! This time as I lingered close to the door, ready to "run", nothing happens! Upwards of seven hours later as a severe pain has developed in the lower nether regions and I think I am going to have to go the ER again, this time for exploration of the same orfice for a different reason, the gates of relief clanged open with one hell of an explosion! The rattling of the door to the head alerted all in the other rooms as to the status of the situation, as well as my cries and sighs of contentment! All was well again in the nether realms. Off we go to the OR this time for the treatment. In the mean time I had had to stop taking the oxycontin for some time before the upcoming event, so as the day progressed the pain threshold got lower and lower till it became non-existant and began building at a rapid rate in the other direction. One of the questions the nurses would ask every time before giving you a shot was, "on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest, what is the level you feel you are at right now?"
Now a small discourse in anatomy. The kidney has a little tube about eight inches long that runs from the kidney down to the bladder where it emptis into. The INSIDE diameter of this little tube is about the same as the lead in a mechanical lead pencil. You know, so small that it is hard to pick up, and you almost can't see? Anyway this is the area that kidney stones try to traverse as they attempt to exit the body. Now this little tube for some reason is just innundated and infused, and saturated, and completely engulfed in millions of nerve endings! Getting the picture? Well I have had quite a few ladies who have been affected with stones relate to me that it was worse trying to pass a stone than to have a baby!And so a little more of a graphic illustration may help in picturing and feeling the pain of this all. Think of that little tube as a garden hose of about three quarters of an inch in diameter. Now think of that stone as being the size of a softball and you can feel it start to hurt already no? Now back to the nurse and her questions about pain level. When she asked me what the level now was I replied that it was at the top of her scale and it felt like I was about to have a baby and that the little bastard was covered with razor blades to boot! For some reason this cracked her up and she said this was the best level inidicator she had ever heard. I'm ever the wise ass, even when I think I'm dying. Off I go to the CT scan room to get a picture of the offending stone. After getting on the table and run through the machine a few times the guy says to relax and he'd take me back to the OR poste haste. As I'm lying there I hear this guy say to someone in the little alcove with him," Holy shit Ed look at the size of this sucker, there are two of them, one about 13 mm and one about 8mm!" If you want to know how big that is think of about a 9/16" to a 5/8" nut! Now think of that in relation to the lead pencil. Carry it to the garden hose analogy and it is like trying to drive a Mack Truck through that damn hose. NOW, you might begin to suspect what it feels like to push one of these babies out. Of course something that big won't physically go thru, so it has to be broken up into sand sized grains. This is what the Lithotripsy was for and it worked very well. The only problem will be sweeping all those little grains down the super highway one at a time over a six to seven week period. Not a project I look forward to with much anticipation.
So intrepid future colonoscopy people, when you go to see that doctor for the first time,be sure and mention to him if you are in possession of any of those little calcium or uric acid stones. It just might save you from the torture I underwent for a few days that felt like months!! TIFN Everett

Daisies

The wife, you know, the 'other' person who wants to rule the Island, and I went out for a Sunday afternoon ride yesterday, and one of us remarked on how more and more of the lots and edges of developed property were cleaned of brush and junk. Well that thought sent me on a little "deja vu all over again" visit to the past. When I was in grade school and high school, the self appointed grassfire lighter, bug burner and noxious weed eliminator, would head to the west side, (the Worst side)over too about Wardens Pond. There abouts, he would accidentally drop his match that he had just lit his cigarette with and also the cig. Damned if it didn't start a little grass fire! Well he would just move a few feet down the road and try again. No sense having that fire licking up his leg and denuding him of leg hair. After going thru the same routine four or five times, he would have a sheet of fast moving flame about about a hundred yards long and tongues of bright orange licking up to about thirty or forty feet in the air. Well pretty soon the siren would go off and all hands in the fire department including all male members of the school, 6th grade and above would report for duty to the fire barn which was where Aldo's is now located. There we would be equipped with a straw broom and a bucket to carry water in. We would then be loaded into trucks and delivered to a site down wind of the impending flames and up wind of a house that might be in peril. Our job was to fill the bucket with water from various sources, wells and cisterns mostly, stick the broom it in to get it, the broom good and wet, and then go get between the flames and the house and defend said edifice from those greedy,hot, devouring little tongues of flame. Most people kept the grass trimmed very short around the perimeter of the house just fore this reason. They used various forms of accoutrement's. Some times it was a scythe and sickle, and in some places a newfangled thing called a lawn mower! Damnedest thing you ever saw! It did nothing useful, but turned perfectly good blades of grass that would have done a fine job filling the haystack, into useless little pieces of grass that the cows wouldn't even eat! But I digress FAR afield. Most folks owned a varied lot of grass eating animals and they did an unusually good job of keeping things trimmed very short. So mostly all we had to defend against were the flying pieces of grass and straw that would find their way to the rooftops, This was a good place for all we nimble youngsters to be positioned so that we didn't accidentally get eaten by those voracious flames.
Daisies you say? What's with the title of "Daisies"? Well some of the good things that happened because of these unexpected fires, was that a lot of the not so good weeds were toasted and that no underbrush was allowed to accumulate. It also did a wonderful job of keeping the stone walls clear of brush. Now early in March, wherever you looked you would see blackened fields all over the Island. In a few places you could even see faint blushes of green trying to break out of their places of hiding. Give these fields a few weeks of rain and some warm weather, and by the time the Graduation exercises at the school rolled around, there were just ab-so-lute-ly millions of daisies of all kinds and colors proliferating in every square inch of Block Island's fields!! It was an awe inspiring sight. The kids at the school would go out with cars and trucks, and scissors and knives, and come back in a few hours with enough daisies to completely cover the wall behind the stage where the Graduation exercises were to take place that night! A grid of thin boards covered with chicken wire was erected against the back wall and the flowers were tucked in the openings by the more artistic of the female members of the school populace. Some times they even spelled out words or even pictures. IT WAS FANTASTIC! It was as close to the Rose Parade as we would ever get to here on BI. And it was "woe" of the highest order if you were afflicted by the pollen distributed throughout the room! There was always a full compliment of June Bugs winging their way busily around the room, to also add too the evenings entertainment. The ladies DID NOT like them landing in their hair. It was always a fun thing to watch them trying to remove them from the hair nest. Some tried to be oh so discreet about it, and others just yanked, hauled,screamed a lot. Sure was funny to us little guys. Damn, they were only June Bugs! But as the farming died out, along with the fishing, and people moved away from the Island, the fields were slowly given over to the assortment of "trees", shad, bayberry etc. That now infest the Island.
So as I ride around the Island on a sunny Sunday afternoon, in my minds eye I can still see those fields loaded with the daisies, and the possibility that in the near future, some semblance of those fields might again re-appear for all to enjoy as much as my generation did! SO THERE! No politics! TIFN Everett

Mr Smith's Letter- Rebuttal- NOT Forthcoming!

Hi All, In the last previous post I said that I was going to have a rebuttal to each of Mr. Smiths points in his letter. I do have one for each, but after talking witha couple of people involved with the West Side plan, it seems that most all of the salient points have been addressed to all those concerneds(sp,use?) satisfaction. So in the best interests of the project going forward without any more setbacks or delays, I am going to drop persuing this whole line of inquiry. Now some of you are going to say that I am chickening out and that may be. BUT! I don't want to be the one that keeps all these twenty families from getting a home!
I only have one other thing to say, and that is that Mr.Smith does not have the intrests of the lower, lower-middleclass people of the Island as his first or even second priority! Enough said!! TIFN Everett

MR. SMITH'S LETTER

Rebuttal to follow in a day or so....

P.O. Box 984
Block Island RI 02807
401/466-5995



February 22, 2005

Gerald Pierce
Block Island Economic Development
PO Box 619
Block Island RI 02807

Dear Gerry:

I am writing to make suggestions about the West Side Road project. My original concerns focused on the environmental impact. Since learning more about the project, I now have grave concerns about the impact on affordable housing, the impact on the owner-residents, and the impact on the community’s affordable housing needs in the future.

This is one of the three largest single building developments in the Island’s entire history. This project involves the town’s resources and public funding. Many of our decisions will be irrevocable. We have to get it right and come up with a plant that a wide consensus of the community supports. My interest, since I first heard about the project, has been to make it one that truly meets our needs, serves the needs of the future owners of the units, and respects the natural environment that each of us here is fortunate to experience.

In that spirit, I make the following suggestions:

1. This site has a steep ravine that the proposed plan seems to make no allowances for. It would be unwise - and incompatible with the values of Block Island – to alter, remove, or flatten the natural contours of the land.

2. This can be done by clustering some of the units and combining four to eight of them into single buildings. This will provide variety in the neighborhood and allow more open space – for recreation, gardening, and a sense of living in sync with the natural environment.

3. With such topography and for other reasons, it is not wise or necessary that every house have a basement.

4. Combining some of the units in one or two buildings allows for some occupants to save on heating costs. It will save on installation of sewer, water, and utilities, making the units more affordable. It will increase the size of yards for owners who want and need them. It will increase the number of residents with great views. As currently planned, the project has 70 percent or more of the homeowners looking at other houses from their windows, not at the Island’s natural beauty. Imaginative siting of the units can take care of this and save money as well.

5. Having all units of identical sizes is not in the interests of the future occupants nor does it help meet the housing needs of the Island to the maximum extent possible. A person living alone may not need two bedrooms, a second floor, and a basement for many years into the future, if ever. Yet to live in the proposed neighborhood, middle-income buyers would have no choice but to buy a two-bedroom unit. It is true that the basements and second floors would be unfinished, but the owners would have heating costs for that unused space. Their mortgage payments would reflect the additional construction costs. And what of buyers who expand their families and need three or four bedrooms? There is no place for them to move. And what of middle-aged couples with children who want to downsize when the children leave home? They will either have to stay in the same two-bedroom residence where they are or move off the Island.

6. By the same token, the lot sizes should not be uniform, but varied according to the unit sizes, to the topography of the land, and to wise planning. Some residents will want a traditional yard, but others will prefer a small plot because they will save on the purchase price and save the time and expense on yard maintenance. If everyone’s lot size is the same, no one’s needs will be met. If every lot size is the same, it is impossible to build within the contours of the land.

7. Clustering and combining some units will open up a significant amount of communal space. This will give young children space to play without having to cross West Side Road to the playground or to be driven elsewhere. It may also allow enough open space so that middle-school children and young teens to play ball or other games in their own neighborhood. It will allow all the children to grow up surrounded by the natural environment, as Island kids have for decades. If we make our single largest housing neighborhood one where this is not possible, we may lose the distinctive Island ethic of appreciation for the natural surroundings. The idea of same-sized lots for everyone is a suburban model, not an Island model. Knowledgeable planners have said that individual front lawns are the most wasted and unused space in America. On an island we obviously have limited space.

8. It’s important that affordable housing have opportunities for owners to downsize or upgrade. But the project as planned does not allow for that. That means that there will be a minimal amount of mobility in the neighborhood. There will be little turnover. Occupants will be locked in, and when we need to locate middle-income school teachers, medical workers, hospitality employees, or town employees in the future, the West Side Road project will have provided us no vacancies at all.

9. One of our most pressing affordable-housing needs is units for new school teachers, police officers, and health center employees who are single or childless and need housing for a couple of years until they decide whether they like living and working here. There are no units for those persons in the current plan.

10. In fact, as I understand the current qualification requirements, the newcomers would not even qualify for the ownership units. That means that we cannot use this new development of 20 affordable ownership units as a recruiting tool for the positions that we need to fill shortly.

11. Our second most pressing need is rental units for short-term employees who come to the Island. There are no units for these persons in the current plan. Substituting three to six rental units of varying sizes, in place of some ownership units, would meet this need and allow prospective buyers to become part of the neighborhood while they wait for an ownership residence to come on the market. It would allow flexibility for owners whose family situations change because of divorce or death or other factors. Management of rental units may be a challenge, but there are creative solutions: One would be to have the owner of one unit act as a rental manager (and thereby offset monthly mortgage payments). Another would be to combine rental management of the Searles Ball and West Side Road developments. A third would be to contract rental management to the Block Island Housing Board. Still a fourth is to contract it to the Women’s Development Corp.

12. The steep grade of the roads in the proposed plan may not meet town specifications. At any rate, it raises risks. And it raises construction and maintenance costs. It would be a shame if the homeowners association of this new neighborhood is saddled immediately with large expenses because of a road washout.

13. It is hard to see that emergency equipment can pass through the inclines currently proposed. Reconfiguring the units will eliminate this risk. The fire department should be asked to take a close look at the road configuration and provide a written report on whether it allows for necessary emergency access. That report should discuss whether the alternative cul-de-sac plan is an acceptable alternative.

14. The road in the current plan does not seem to allow adequate setbacks from the pond and wetlands, as required by town specification. They may not meet state Department of Environmental Management specifications.

15. The proposed plan contemplates an addition of 40 automobiles. The Island’s fragile environment can hardly accommodate that. The plan seems to send a message that two automobiles for each residence is the expected norm. The neighborhood would be enhanced for the residents, especially the children, if accommodations for some motor vehicles are in a cluster lot, much like the Searles Ball housing and the Old Harbor Meadow complex. Not every unit needs to have auto parking right next to it. By clustering some of the cars, there will be less wear and tear on the land, less uncontrolled run-off of oils and other auto discharges into the fragile wetland by West Side Road. And the neighborhood will be improved aesthetically.

16. And yet, the proposed plan seems to have no accommodations for visitor parking. By clustering some of the residents’ parking, that space could be used for owner-occupants and for some visitor parking. This might make the right-of-way to the Greenway trail accessible to more people. Why not provide space for one automobile adjoining some units and create a small cluster lot for other automobiles. The plan could also designate additional space for additional parking if it becomes necessary in the future?

17. A vast amount of the proposed plan is devoted to automobiles, either coming and going to the residences or parked. In fact, there is almost as much space devoted to motor vehicles as to human beings. This is an inefficient use of the acreage, and incompatible with the values of the community.

18. In the current unclustered proposals, most if not all of the units will not have adequate setbacks to allow an owner easily to expand the footprint or otherwise personalize the house. He or she would need to get zoning approval for a modest expansion. This would require moderate-income property owners probably to hire lawyers, engineers, and designers for a modest expansion. Clustering the units eliminates the need for setback variances in the future.



When I met with you and Mary Jane in January, she said that there would be no paving and no central air conditioning; I trust that this remains part of the plan.

Under the Community Development Block Grant interim financing grant, the project managers, before money is spent, must conduct an environmental review, with public comments. This provides the opportunity for us to consider these suggestions – and suggestions from others – and come up with a plan that a wide consensus of Islanders can support. We will then be able to have the plan presented to the Planning Board and Zoning Board with widespread support for it in the community.

The state agencies responsible for funding this project have told me that all of these modifications to the proposal can be considered at this point in the process and that the project plans can be altered accordingly. I plan to present these suggestions to the Planning Board. It would speed the process if we could reach an agreement before the project goes before the Planning Board.

Time is of the essence, for two reasons. The community needs the affordable housing right away. And all of us want to have an Island-based non-profit organization develop this project and fulfill the town’s needs rather than to risk leaving affordable-housing development to commercial developers who may use provisions of state law to bring to the community a bogus “affordable housing” venture.

Yours truly,



Robert Ellis Smith
Member, New Shoreham Town Council

Cc: Mary Jane Balser

Multiplying Blogs

Better beware when you turn on your computer because the Island blogs are multiplying like rabbits! Here is another one. http://www.adriansisle.blogspot.com . Some one with an undecipherable email address sent me this one last night. Well at least he/she is not in my address book so it might well have come from Osama himself! Anyway it is another view although a little hardline!TIFN OK I'm to stupid to make the link work, but if you type the address into the Gogle search block it comes up and then you can
bookmark it!DUH!a

The Council and the Road Contract

Hi all, I think a lot more of us should have gone to the Council meeting last night. Apparently the contract with the State about the road takeover, came up and there was heated discussion about it. It looks like from sitting on the sidelines, that the Town Manager/Council is trying to make the TRUE cost of this fiasco disappear into the nether regions of the projected new budget for this coming fiscal year. What SHOULD happen here is that every single damn dime and penny to be spent on the maintenance and upkeep of the roads should be in a separate category. That way we will all have an accurate depiction of just what it is going to cost us. If we don't get it right this time, right now, I doubt very much the State will agree to re-negotiate it at a later date. They KNOW that they are getting the very best of this screwy deal! Name one other town in this totally crooked state that has this same deal?

And BTW,has the Town Manager recently taken a bunch of courses in the world of Finance? If not, where does she derive the power to assume to direct the machinations of the finance office. She has NO BUSINESS trying to RUN that Office! That's what the Finance Director was hired to do. And why was it that last night when Councilor Balser brought up a couple of 'suggestions' as to what 'might' be done in the finance office, She was accused of trying to "run the Finance Office" by our First Warden Jack Savoie? But when another councilor was asked to give a legal opinion, no one accused him of trying to take over the Town lawyers job? Why that little discrepancy Jack? I think you have let your job title go to your head. What happened to that down to earth guy that started out on the council a few years ago? Been swayed to someone else's way of thinking? You folks all need to put all your perceived differences aside while you sit in those seats and do what you were sent there to do! And while you are at it , rein in Mr Smith as far as the West Side Road housing complex is concerned. It doesn't look good for ANY of you from where I sit! TIFN Everett

New Housing--Disaster in the making!

Well folks, this is addressed to the 20 to 50 young familes who are vying for one of the twenty homes to be built next to the E. Searles Ball complex. You had ALL better get out your letter writing materials, and in your most earnest and vociferous voice, let this Council know in the strongest terms you are able to muster, that you are incensed by what is going on behind the scenes! Your elected by 'proclamation' Council member, Mr Robert Ellis Smith has taken it upon himself, to inject himself into the process of bringing the project to fruition. Only in his case it seems he is working in the opposite direction. He is trying to get this project killed by putting himself where he was not asked to go, and has no business being! I don't recall Council members having to be in the vetting process for any of the other housing complexes that are now completed. Which of them was it that sheparded the Ambrose lane project? NONE! If you are one of the hopefuls, you NEED to get those letters written and it needs to be done and hand delivered to the Town Hall TOMORROW! This is not something that can be put off! There is to be a meeting between the people who wield the money, and MJ Balser and the aforementioned Council member sometime in the VERY NEAR future. The whole project could hinge on what he says to these people up in Providence. He is up there all the time and is in 'bed' with some of them to some degree. You all know how he feels about the project by his deeds and actions. He has forgotten just exactly what the hell he is supposed to be doing in that office! You are supposed to be looking out for the people of this town who live here, not kow-towing to the amorphous crowd of monied people from everywhere else! Look to your own backyard and stop trying to stab a bunch of fine, hardworking, young families in the back! STAND UP AND BE COUNTED MR. SMITH!!! I'M TOTALLY PISSED!! Everett

Navy Life -- #3 Final in this venue

After this one I'll move on to better stuff hopefully! And so it continues;

When you had committed a particularly heinous act that incurred the Company Commanders ire, he had a way of wreaking havoc on you that I still remember to this day. He would have you go to your locker and take out your seabag and commence to fill it up with everything you had in that locker. It went into the bag in the prescribed Navy order thank you very much! Then you would pick it up and go collect your 1903 .30-06 caliber bolt action WWI, 8.5 lb rifle and proceed to the aforementioned "grinder". Once there, you would commence to make as many circuits of said premesis as he thought necessary to bring you into line, and to help you mend your ways! He always preceded his awarding of punishment with a small speech that went something like this. "Foul Balls! The Navy does NOT like foul balls and I don't like foul balls, and Littlefield, YOU are a FOUL BALL!! Now get out there on the double and go round and round until I think you can stay within the bounds of the playing field"! It was absolutely miserable out there doing this in the middle of the afternoon for a couple of hours. It was, after all, June through September in the South! Oh yes, I forgot to mention one thing. Before you started loading up your seabag for this land-bound voyage, you would have to dress yourself in your very best set of Dress Blues! This is a dead of winter uniform too. Oh man did they ever smell by the time you had finished paying the price for your transgressions! This happened to me on two seperate occasions, and after the second one, I "saw the light" and realized that I should probably keep my mouth shut for the remainder of my incarceration. This I did admirably, considering that I was regarded as some sort of a wise ass by the powers that be.

Well after 16 weeks of being verbally assualted by the Company Commander and his henchmen, and having had our poor feeble brains stuffed with Naval lore of all types, we were deemed ready to graduate and to go inflict ourselves on the poor unsuspecting Fleet. Graduation day finally came and as our company, 252 lined up on the grinder with all the other company's, The Drill Team, me included passed in review with all the other graduating companies following us. For this day only, the Drill Team got to use chrome plated rifles with bayonets attached. They really flashed and looked good as we marched by twirling and flipping them in the air. For most of the guys, it was the beginning of a two week leave before reporting to their next duty station or ship. For a few others and myself, we got to hang around good old Bainbridge for another 6 months, because our schools didn't start out in Norman Oklahoma until April 1st.
In the intervening 6 months I found out that I did not like working in the Galley as a full time vocation! I had managed to escape during service week but now I was just a lowly old swabby like the rest of them waiting to go somewhere. That three month period of "mess cooking" was a miserable affair for the most part. There I was, right back in the same exact building where I had been eating for the last four months, only now I was one of the cooks. Well, not really a cook, more like a cooks slave you might say. We did all the stuff the cooks didn't like to do like peeling thousands of pounds of potatoes,washing dishes, trays, silverware etc., swabbing the deck. All the rotten menial jobs. One day I got promoted to the line where the Waves were served. Those are the Lady sailors in case you didn't know. We were to stand there at parade rest with a serving spoon and put the food in the appropriate compartment on the tray. You were NOT allowed to speak to them, nor were you to make eye contact with them. Well after I hd been there for a couple of weeks I started sneaking peeks at them to remind myself what a girl looked like! One day while sizing up a fine looking young lady, I managed to put a big spoonful of whipped cream right smack in the middle of her stewed tomatoes, insted of the strawberries where it should have gone! I had been checking this gal out for a few days and wondering if I had the gall and gumption to defy orders and say something to her.That chance was taken from me when she looked down at her tray, then up at me, and then said in her New York accent, "You dumb son of a Bi---, it's supposed to be on the strawberries"! She concluded her tirade with a few other "expletives deleted" that I hadn't up till that time heard come out of a girls mouth! Well there went my budding, in my own mind, romance! I didn't know such a sweet-faced young girl could talk like that! None that I had ever known talked that way. Being the thoughtful and gentlemanly person I was at the time, I immediately and without thinking of the consequences of my impending speech, answered her in kind, with all the Navy jargon, lingo and swearwords I had picked up in my woefully short Naval career! Needless to say, the large hand of the Chief avenging Cook descended onto my shirt collar and I was physically yanked away from the serving line. I was dragged/pushed to the DEEP SINK room where I was to spend the rest of my mess cooking career. The DEEP SINK room had this particular name because it had five or six very large, very deep stainless steel sinks in there. Now there was at least one logical thing in this mans Navy! This was the place where all the big old cooking pots and pans came too, to be restored to pristine condition before the next meal. They had to sparkle like they had just been bought brand new. This entailed some kind of steel wool that looked like it had been made out of a piece of chain link fence, and about twenty foot pounds of elbow grease per pot or pan. This was true of all pots and pans except for the sheet pans on which the cake and rolls were cooked. The Cook's liked them nice and black but still hygienically spotless. Needless to say I guess, is that the first thing I did was to screw up and get two of them back to that store-bought brightness before I was apprehended!

This room was a good approximation of Brer Rabbits briar patch. Nobody wanted to get put in there till the actual deed was done. It has been one of the best kept secrets in the US NAVY! Why do I say that? 'Cause this was the place that ALL the leftover food came too, to be disposed after the meal! Steaks, porkchops, all sorts of veggies, and best of all, all the left over desserts! It was all the stuff you could never get enough of out in front of the serving line. Now here it was , mana from heaven! Man, now when they had strawberry shortcake, I didn't have to worry about getting it in the right slot on the tray, all I had to worry about was which hand to plunge into the berry or cream pot and stuffing it in my mouth by the HAND FULL before the other nine guys ate it all up! One other advantage was that we didn't have to be there in the sinks thill thirty minutes after the chow hall opened. Then we were usually out of there an hour before the rest of the guys got through cleaning the whole chow hall from top to bottom. Every Day! The Navy was fanatical about cleanliness in body as well as domicile!

This unvarying routine was carried out with monotonous regularity until my three month tour funally came to an end and I was reprieved and sent on to my next job at good old Bainbridge MD. As I remember, I spent the next three months being what my rich Uncle euphemistically called a "compartment cleaner". Thats a nice sounding name for "MAID"! I swept, swabbed, scrubbed and cleaned like a fiend for the remaining time I spent there.

I did manage to get on the Base drill tem for that last three month stay there, and got to go on a lot of places around the area putting on demonstrations of our prowess with a chromed rifle with a 12 inch chromed bayonet on the business end. It is actually pretty impressive to watch those spinning rifles as they are tossed back and forth to each other with those shiny blades reflecting the sun. Lots of oohing and aahing as the watchers wondered who was going to get there nose cut off, or get stabbed in the heart first! Well the end of my house-cleaning career finally arrived and we were sent off to Norman Oklahoma where the Navy owned a prep school for prospective aircraft maintenance folks, one of which I so dearly wanted to be!

Next duty station was to be Quonset Pt. RI of all places!!