Has it REALLY Been Almost Five Weeks?!?

As I've said in a previous posting, I really underestimated the sheer amount of time involved with providing daily inputs to an online blog. My last entry took me a week to put my thoughts into words and that effort has to come out of the 24 hours I'm alloted each day. With my other responsibilities weighing on me, I must choose between what will be accomplished and what will wait until the next day. Needless to say, blogging has not been near the top of my to-do list...until this evening.

What has rustled me out of my 'slumber'? A lot has happened locally and in the world in the 34 days since I've logged in. Our family took a long-deserved vacation down to San Antonio and Houston during a 2-week sabbatical from my job. We used to live in the 'Alamo City' during a military assignment in the late '80s and early '90s (our oldest child was born there). We got the chance to have dinner with our former neighbors (they have two children of their own) and the years seemed to melt away during our shared time at the restaurant.

After we returned, I attended a work golf outing at a local country club. Since these events usually start early in the morning, I had to get up at 5:45AM for a 7:00AM departure. When I turned on the television, the first thing my foggy mind noticed was that I was seeing a British news channel on my set (we used to live in the UK and I am familiar with their screen logo) in place of MSNBC. As the fog of slumber started to lift from me, I started to comprehend something 'big' was happening. Video of passengers standing outside of Heathrow Airport was being shown and the superimposed text indicated something to do with a terrorist attack either happened or was pre-empted. At 6AM, the US news channels started to do their own coverage of the events out of Great Britain. I had to peel myself away from the screen in order to shower and leave for the course so I had a long 'blackout' period where I was 'stuck' with the then-current information until I could get to a radio, television or computer several hours later.

As it turned out, the alleged terrorists were nowhere near carrying out their intended actions (no passports or tickets) but the U.S. told the Brits to round them up as soon as possible (Scotland Yard wanted to continue their surveillance to determine if there were more individuals involved than those already identified). As more information was trickled to the media, some news outlets openly wonder if this is another attempt by the Bush administration to push bad or embarassing news off the front page of the nation's newspapers (the recent defeat of Iraq War supporter Joe Lieberman to an anti-war challenger in the Connecticut Democratic senate primary) by superseding it with another 'victory' in the on-going global war on terror. As the host stated, their listing of terror warnings could also coincide with the opening of major chain stores (more on that below); however, the sheer number of coincidences is startling to anyone who chooses to accept the notion that elected officials might choose to put their political needs before the safety of their constituents.


The Greene Town Center finally opened to the public this past Thursday after resolving a lengthy dispute over tax incentives with the Beavercreek School District. Located approximately halfway between two existing malls along Interstate 675 on the outskirts of Dayton, this venture hopes to increase our retail appeal to those outside of the local area and bring commercial prosperity (jobs, money) to the region to reverse recent economic downtrends. Detractors believe this new shopping facility will only attract customers from the older malls and hasten Dayton's already steady demise to its surrounding suburbs. We haven't ventured over there yet but it does look nice (at least from the photographs we've seen in the DDN--which has been non-stop 'Greene' since the cover story in last Sunday's edition). In fact, the coverage has been so over-the-top that today's op/ed page had a special section specifically addressing readers' comments about the fervor of the paper's advocacy for this new shopping center.

On Friday night, I participated in my first fantasy football (FFB) draft. As a person who normally follows the sports pages, channels and websites, I was totally unprepared for the depth and breadth of statistics, ratings and opinions a FFBer must have access to in order to pretend to be an owner/general manager of a football team. We have 10 teams in our league split between two divisions. Each team drafted 18 'players' (some of your picks are entire defenses of current pro teams) and assigns their starters in preparation for our first week of the season (coincides with the NFL schedule). Since I'm a Philadelphia Eagle fan, most of my picks revolved around them (Donovan McNabb as one of my quarterbacks, kicker David Akers, and the entire defensive team). LaDainian Tomlinson was my first round pick (I had the #3 overall) since Larry Johnson and Shawn Alexander were already taken. I even worked out a draft night trade (got Adam Vinatieri for Shawn Graham--turns out that the other 'owner' lives in the same apartment building as the Bengal kicker). I don't know how the season will play out but I know I will have something to talk about around the office come Monday morning.

We are also in the mid throes of (hope Jon Stewart doesn't mind too much) 'Indecision 2006'. With the fate of the Congress (and Bush's second term--and perhaps his presidency if impeachment is in the cards) hanging in the balance, Ohio once again will be a major focal point in the national election process. Already, we have seen national 'heavyweights' in the state stumping for our statewide and Congressional candidates. John McCain was in Columbus last week with Mike DeWine dutifully in tow and he dropped a 'bomb' in terms of dissing the White House on their 'misunderestimations' about the Iraq War--never mind that McCain echoed those same sentiments in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Hussein government in the spring of 2003.

We can expect plenty more from both parties (Hillary, Edwards, Giuliani, maybe even the president himself) in the coming weeks. The airwaves are already getting their fair share of 'mud' from the campaigns. The station I listen to at work has been targeted by the Blackwell for Governor campaign so I get to hear them try to 'out-value' an ordained minister at least three to four times a day (guessing the frequency will increase as November 7th aproaches). DeWine was already cited for 'doctoring' a photo of the Twin Towers (a cheesy graphic with fake smoke superimposed over a photo of the buildings prior to the attack) in an attempt to taint his opponent (Rep. Sherrod Brown- OH13) and his Congressional voting record on terrorism-related legislation. With so much as stake in both Columbus and DC, I'm guessing we've only scratched the surface of the all-out war that is surely to come.

I know I've probably missed some other things but those can be topics for another day...nice to be back!