To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

“The Jeffersons”  Theme song by Jeff Barry and Ja’net Dubois

Gosh,  I didn’t realize that it has been almost a year since I posted last!   <tch>  More about that later.

I signed up for BlueHost to house my blog and I finally figured out how to get it all set up exactly the way I wanted it so today is moving day.  Eventually I might figure out how to migrate all of these other posts over there.  I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

Part of the reason I decided to do this is because I want to do embedded advertising as a part time work at home  job.   I’ve done a bit of it (see my “Blue Hawaii post for an example) and the company I worked for really liked my work but after I started I was told that WordPress usually doesn’t allow this on their free server and they might zap my blog if they caught on.   That’s understandable when you stop to think about it.

So I went in search of a host.  It was a lot more complicated getting set up than I expected it to be.  I’m not particularly computer savvy.  But now it’s perfect and I’m ready to roll with the new and improved Living in the Edge of Madness.com.

Please come and pay me a visit.

B

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood it is today, folks! WISC-TV Channel3000.com Weather and WKOW Channel 27 Weather Central agree that the temperature is 27* but the sun is shining brightly and I’m inclined to believe WMTV-15 Trueview Weather’s optimistic belief that we will see temperatures of 30* by 2:00 pm has arrived here in the Capitol Square neighborhood. I just had the dog out for a walk and made a run to the store and I tell ya’, compared to last weeks deep freeze, it feels downright balmy out there.

I heard on channel 15 this morning that we got another 1/2 inch accumulation bringing our season total up to over 55 inches! Whoa… After the years of green winters we have had, that is quite a blessing. Of course now it is going to warm up so much rain is forecast and we will lose all that snow coverage which we really need for snowmobiling tourist dollars and farmland health.

Speaking of the store, it’s probably common knowledge by now that Capitol Centre Foods has changed owners. Within the last couple of weeks they have also changed their name to Capitol Centre Market. They’ve also spiffed the place up a bit and are offering a line of wine. I wonder what other changes are in store for when The Willy Street Co-op moves in across the street.

Speaking of the Willy Street Co-op there appears to be a sticky widget or two. and we won’t be seeing Willy Street II opening up here in the neighborhood anytime soon.  Apparently the landlord isn’t holding up his end of the bargain. Might there be a problem with cash flow there?  Rumor has it that Buckingham LLC hasn’t sold many of its pricey condos nor rented out much of the retail space.

You can’t blame the homeless for these problems Mr. Fisher You might be able to blame your lousy attitude and greedy heart.

The people who are going to want to live in downtown Madison are going to be young and upwardly mobile or empty nesters but they will also be lefty liberal, uber socially conscious in this writer’s opinion. Most likely, they’ll want to live downtown because they work downtown and walking to work will be more about their concern about the environment and their commitment to burning fewer carbon emitting fossil fuels than it will be about their convenience. They’ll enjoy the luxuries you’re providing but they’re probably also going to want a landlord who reflects their values.

Just because you build it they don’t always come. Liberals are notoriously picky about who they give their dollars to.

Just my two cents…

B

So then I thought I’d show him what we have been dealing with on a regular basis. This was taken two or maybe even three days ago. It was the day after the last heavy accumulation before we had the Hoar Frost.

Now that’s snow accumulation and did it stop anybody? Oh, hell, no. People go out there and go slip slidin’ away all over the place when we get that much snow. Into the ditches and each others’ front yards. Into the oncoming path of semi trailer tractors. We’re hardy pioneers up here. Unless we have to go to work and then it might take us awhile to find the snow shovel to get out of the driveway. You can always tell the new guys at work because they will get there on time in a blizzard, Until they realize that NO ONE makes it to work on time in a blizzard, not even the boss, so then they become slackers too.

Those big lumpets in the back are what’s let of the 6′ + piles of excess snow that was piled up there after the complex cleared off the sidewalks from the 22.9″ we got that melted away. We have now re-accumulated 12+ inches (prior to the stuff falling at this point) and it’s not even the end of January. It could snow through all of March and into April. Dear Gawd.

This is just typical Wisconsin Winter snow. It’s snowing again however and we have now crossed the line into “DOES THIS DAMN SNOW NEVER END?” territory. People are starting to get that glazed look in their eyes like if they see one more snowflake they might do something unforgivable.

B

There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing
Everything the traffic will allow
Nowhere could you get that happy feeling
When you are stealing that extra bow

Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

I’m in rehearsal for variety show The Fabulous Crone Show 2008: Supercrones. My skit is called The Antique Roadshow written by Gail Sterkel . It’s going to be fun.

I tried out for this on a lark. It was on my short list of things to do before I die—try out for a part in community theater. Not GET a part. Just try out for one. <heh> I don’t have a clue about acting and there I am on stage with people who have been in the biz 27 years or more. YIKES!

I feel so honored to have been chosen to be part of this. I always wanted to act and here I am acting! Cool Beans!

They’re very kind about helping me improve but did you know that you aren’t actually supposed to talk to the people onstage? You pick someone in the back of the audience and talk to them. Rarely do you actually turn your body towards the person you are supposedly interacting with because then the audience can’t hear you. Unless you are hooked up to a microphone of course. We won’t be.   At the moment  I am talking to a water fountain.

Here’s the release information we were given to pass along to family and friends regarding to the show:

The Crones are back – shorter, sweeter and just as much fun. Those brilliant, comical, thoughtful women who performed to sold-out audiences will present new acts for the new year. The Fabulous Crone Show 2008: Supercrones! is a variety show of women performers older than 50 directed by Jan Levine Thal and produced by Wendy Fern Hutton with a cast of 30.

Performances are Thursday-Sunday, Jan 31- Feb 3, 2008. — FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30, Meriter Main Gate, 333 W. Main (free parking across the street).

Sunday matinée, 2:00 pm, Madison Senior Center, 330 W. Mifflin (next to the Overture parking ramp).

This year the Crones will take reservations. The Fabulous Crone Show 2008: Supercrones! is two hours including intermission.

Make reservations 608-225-9664 and arrive early to assure seating. Tickets are already going fast. The show is still free (donations requested $5-$20).

The Fabulous Crone Show 2008: Supercrones! is a project of Positive Aging Theater, the theater arts company of the Madison Senior Center.

More info at www.croneshow.com

Come and support all of us Crones Living in the Edge of Madness. I promise it’s going to be hoot! Really. When I forget my lines and start stuttering it will be hilarious!

B

There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

Steven Wright (1955 – )

So… it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here. I almost feel like a stranger intruding on my own Blog. It’s interesting to look at the stats and see that people are still being drawn in like bees to pollinating flowers. It seems like everyone is sick to death of winter and they all want to escape to Blue Hawaii because that’s what they are reading.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know none of that answers the question of where has BairbreSine for damn near three months? I could say I was off having a glorious time basking in the sun on sandy beaches. Unfortunately, that would be a baldfaced lie!

I was dealing with PC problems that finally ended up shortly after Thanksgiving with no internet connection doohickey on my PC and no way to create one. The only solution was a complete re-installation of the operating system and from past experience that might not even work. YES, I’ve had problems like this before. sigh…

Frankly November is a rotten time of the year to have these kinds of problems. I’m always struggling with low grade depression which is probably due to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) The minute they change daylight savings time I go into a blue funk. So does my son. I don’t think we get enough sunlight.

At any rate, I was too depressed to bother messing around trying to fix my PC so I turned to other activities to occupy my time. Thank goodness I have a lot of interests. I read a number of good books and I’ve been into sewing lately so I made myself a sleeveless summer dress with a matching sun hat I just finished a red flannel shirt and will be moving on to a brown denim skirt and jacket. I’m enjoying working on these projects.

While I sew I’ve been watching movies I get from NetFlix. I absolutely love Netflix which I joined in November! I’m going through all the Shakespearean plays or adaptations or just movies about the royal families and having a wonderful time. I’ve seen Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter and it was wonderful. Kenneth Branagh in Henry V was marvelous. Just marvelous. I’m in heaven. I also saw The Last Temptation of Christ which I have always wanted to see because it caused such a stir. Wm Dafoe made such a good human Aryan Jesus. <snark>

I finally got the script for the skit I am going to be in in The Fabulous Crone Show. It’s a hoot and we are in rehearsals now. I just love the women I am working with. Finally I’ve met some creative HAPPY, normal women! YAY! I’ll make a separate post about the show soon.

Anyway I’m back.

B

Liar, liar, pants on fire
Your nose is longer than a telephone wire

Ask me, baby, why I’m sad
You’ve been out all night, know you’ve been bad

The Castaways

OK, here’s a question for all you dog owners out there. Do your dogs fake poop?

I take Igor out for one last walk every evening around 11:00 PM and we always walk the same route. He noses around until he finds a place he wants to pee and that could be anywhere but he always stops in the same spot to poop. A spot which he seems to need to locate exactly by smell–I mean he really snuffles around to find it and I’m patient, I let him take his time.

Then he takes the pooping stance. You know that “Omigawd I’ve got to dump a big one and it ain’t gonna be pretty” contorted dog stance? The one that makes you look away and pretend that that isn’t your dog on the end of the leash you are holding in your hand. The one that makes you cringe because it looks like something so damn painful is about to happen. The one where they get “that look” on their face, like they’re concentrating on something very important.

OK so he makes the stop and takes the stance and does the poop dance. You know, the poop dance. Those four or five steps a dog takes when they are are all hunched up in the contorted poop stance with that far away look on their sweet faces while they are actually realeasing the poop from their colon. THAT dance.

Ok, so Igor does the poop dance in the same place every night but I’ll be damned if I can ever find the evidence. I swear, there is NEVER any poop there. I thought, well,  maybe I just can’t see the poop. I’m old, bad night vision and all that but when I went back to look the next morning I could never find any evidence of any poop either.

Now Madison is a really clean city but I really, really doubt if there is a poop patrol out there cleaning up after Igor and me. But one never knows and Madison has laws about leaving pet waste laying around. I don’t want to be breaking any laws. Especially not shitty laws.

My friend Kathleen has started walking with us for the past few nights and she couldn’t see any poop either. So tonight she reminded me to take my flashlight and brought hers along as well. We decided we were going to solve this shitty  mystery. Dogs just don’t FAKE pooping.

Igor fakes pooping. Every.single.night. He goes throught the ritual of pooping but he doesn’t poop. He pretends to poop!

Why? Why does he assume the stance, get that look on his face, and embarrass himself and me every.single.night? What’s with that?

By the way, did you know that Dachshund literally means Badger Dog?  Pretty appropriate dog for Madison folks to have, eh?  There are all kinds of them in the downtown area.  Most of them are miniatures.  I have one of the kingsized ones.  Or maybe he’s a Large Economy Size.  Compared to the Mini’s, he’s a giant!  I’ve actually met one with blue eyes!   That is a really cool dog!

My daughter’s greyhound has red eyes though–that’s even cooler.  I thought it was my camera making her eyes red and kept trying to take the red out until I really looked at her when I was taking a picture of her to be sure the flash wouldn’t catch her eyes.  She’s ebbil!

B

Christopher Patton wrote in response to Gentrification Redux:

I don’t think urging people to use the police force as a proxy to handle ‘bad apples’ really solves the problem of homelessness or drug addiction. It is merely another attempt to push societal problems out of sight instead of trying to confront them on a personal, interactive level (Cliff Fisher and you might have more in common after all). If you truly value your community than you won’t relegate it’s policing to a group that upholds the power structure by treating already disadvantaged people unfairly.

I’ve dealt with alcoholics and drug addicts my whole life. I am, in fact, what I would consider a non-addicted alcoholic who made the decision early in life that I would not go down that path because the way I drank and the effects of alcohol on me WHEN I drank could too easily have led to addiction.

I was lucky because I became educated before the booze took over my life. Many of my family members and my children’s father’s family members did not have that advantage. Alcoholism and drug addiction claimed their lives. Some of them were homeless as well.

The one thing I know about an addict and had to learn through painful demonstration over many years of trying to save the alcoholics and drug addicts I have loved is that they will not give up their addiction until they become convicted that they have no other choice. They have to hit their own personal rock bottom.

People hit bottom when they have to suffer the consequences of their behavior. You may believe that involving the police in curtailing the abusive behavior of people who are drunk and strung out on drugs is treating an already disadvantaged person unfairly. I happen to believe holding everyone to certain standards of civil behavior is more than fair. It may be the best thing that could ever happen to an addict.

I’ve learned that the only kind of love that truly helps an addict or alcoholic is tough love. It’s the same kind of love a good parent gives their child. The best present I ever got from my son is a kitschy little plaque that begins “I had the meanest Mother in the world…She loved me enough to say no.”

I’m more than willing to interact with the homeless and would agree that there are definitely social issues that need to be addressed to solve the problem. I’m not advocating that the homeless be thrown in jail wholesale but I know better than to try to confront alcoholics and addicts “on a personal interactive level” while they are using.

They don’t have an interactive level in that state. It’s a waste ot time. Basically there is no one home because they aren’t going to remember the interaction the next day anyway.

B

He danced for those at minstrel shows
and county fairs throughtout the South
He spoke with tears of 15 years
of how his dog and him travelled about
The dog up and died, he up and died.
After 20 years he still grieves

Bob Dylan

Well Mr BoJangles, you left this provocative comment for me after you read “Praise God and Pass the Ammunition:”

“It’s ever so much easier to kill people who are not members of your tribe. People you have dismissed as less worthy of your empathy and respect. People you have already deemed damned to eternal perdition because they have not made the right choices in deities. People your God would call an enemy Unfortunately I believe that most if not all of American Christian churches teach this if not outright from the pulpit on Sunday morning then certainly by implication. Try reading the Old Testament of the Bible all the way through.”

Most wars in human history have been in started in the name of political ideas or religious beliefs. This is a passionate way to get the troops rallied when they will see little benifit. If you think it is in regards to oil or something people want, look closer. Believers in Christ hate the sin but love the sinner.

True believers would rather share the life changing power of forgiveness rather than kill someone. I have been to that little camp in Nebraska you are talking about and I have seen a lot of peace makers, not war promoters come out. If your judgement is clouded and you are having a hard time seeing your God.

Look to your neighbor first, before you make cynical judgements of the international wars around you. I do believe there is a God in heaven and I do believe his wrath is shown from time to time. But, more often, I see his mercy and grace upon a rebellious world. He gives us a lot more chances than we deserve.

I doubt you have ever been to a week of Pible Bible Youth Camp. Pible Bible Camp baptizes in the Lake of the Pibel Nebraska state park that is adjacent to the property, not the Little Blue River. It has been that way since Guy B. Dunning opened the camp decades ago. Your facts are less than credible on this subject, so it makes me question others. You may have had a bad experience that turned you bitter.

We may not think a like in thought, but that is OK. I welcome your firendship and a friendly, non-violent discussion.

I think that proves that not all of us are wanting to get rid of people that are not like us.

I decided this comment was so provocative and chock full of points to “discuss” in depth that I would give it its very own Blog! So here you are.  Let the discussing commence!

There’s an interesting thing about that word doubt Mr BoJangles. Used in this context, essentially you’ve just called me a liar. Ah, ah, ah…I can hear you protesting. Yes you did, you surely did. You could have found a far less provocative way to question my assertion that I was baptized in a river while attending Pibel Bible Camp than to question my “credentials.”

Here are some facts that you should check so that you feel more comfortable about my credibility. In 1966 or 1967 the dam at the lake at Pible State Park had either sprung a leak or the lake was deliberately drained because the dam was undergoing routine repairs. Maybe they were just digging all the sludge out.

I’m sort of fuzzy on exactly which year it was anymore because it really has no meaning for me except as an amusing incident from my childhood so I will admit that my pertinent facts are a bit fuzzy but I think it was probably 1967.  It’s sort of like remembering which year you got The Candyland game for Christmas.

Whichever the case, the lake had been reduced to little more than a giant mudhole and was not suitable for baptisms that year. Or anything else. I see from a visit to the State Park website that the lake has been “recently renovated” again.

That’s how I came to be baptized in the river nearby and you know, looking at the map of the surrounding area I’m not sure it WAS The Little Blue. It might have been The North Loop since it’s close to Loop City and Ord. Again, I’m fuzzy on my facts.  I haven’t been in Nebraska for 15 years much less to that area.

It’s been 40 plus years since I was baptized and frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass which river it was. There aren’t a lot of rivers in Nebraska but there is a Little Blue River in Nebraska. I was baptized in a river near Pibel Bible Camp in Nebraska in 1966 or 1967. Close enough.

Oh yeah, we had to travel quite a ways to get to that river so everyone who felt moved to answer the call to come to Jesus that week had to wait until Thursday evening to be baptized. Then we all traveled down to the river and it took a long time to baptize everyone with two ministers doing the baptisms and the last few to be baptized (including me) were baptized by candlelight and flashlight shortly after dusk. It was a very emotional experience.

Pretty sure I was 15 but I used to say I was whatever age I was going to be during the summer before I turned that age so I might have only been 14. Oh gee, I stretched the truth back then, too. LIAR, liar pants on fire. Sue me.

If you know any of the people from that time and place you may remember the man who baptized me. His name was Burklund. He came to be the minister at my home church in Clay Center, Nebraska that fall. He had a  daughter, Christie, who was just a toddler at the time.  She got leukemia but survived and grew up in Clay Center.

They also had a son my age and two other children who were younger but I can’t remember their names at the moment. You may also remember Kerry Hookstra who was a very popular youth minister in his late teens and early 20s.  He might have been from Omaha or Grand Island.  There were girls there that were from both places and he was with one of those sets of girls.  There were also some boys from the same church.  I remember Kerry’s name because I thought it was a cool name and there was a boy in Clay Center who had the same unusual name and I thought that was wild

I was very excited and proud to be chosen to be romanced that year by the most popular and best looking boy at camp–Jon Zlomke. Thinking I really didn’t have a chance amongst all the beauties who were vying for his attention, I pretty much ignored him. Besides, I wasn’t one to be chasing boys around. I was much to shy for overt flirting. He later told me that’s what he like most about me–I wasn’t boy crazy. When I got home my father made me quit writing to him. He wouldn’t let me date yet, not even by letter.

My name is Barbara Gavin if you want to check to see if I was ever on the roster at that camp or go looking for the baptismal records. I’m sure there must be a record somewhere that I am still a member of that church in Clay Center since I never moved my membership out. Unless they have ousted me for back taxes (tithing) or something and that particular sect doesn’t keep track that I’m aware of, at least not in writing.

So now we have my “credentials” ironed out and perhaps established to your liking, we can take up your statement that you “welcome a friendly non-violent discussion.” Of course you do. That’s why you called me a liar.

As for the rest of your comment, most so-called believers in Christ only give lip service to their beliefs until and unless they have need of said beliefs to justify what they are doing that makes their consciences twinge. That’s why there is such a revival of religious fervor during times of war, in my opinion. People turn to a power greater than themselves to justify their personal sins against humanity.

Well that and to hedge their bets just in case the other side can aim better than their side. Their are an awful lot of “convenience store Christians” in the pews when we go through troubled times. Not so many when all is well on the international political front and the Dow is gaining.

I feel entitled to say these things because at one time I was an insider. I watched it happen and I participated in the ebb and flow of my own Christian fervor. You question whether my experiences made me bitter and I have to truthfully admit that yes, I have had many experiences that could have made me bitter. I thank my ability to reason and my native intelligence that I was able to see through the bunk that is Christianity and dump it by the wayside before I got to bitter!

Had I not seen that my life is truly my own affair and the choice to live it with dignity and grace is my own to make, rather than groveling on my knees at the altar of a false god, clamoring for attention and begging for relief, I might have lost my mind. Ironically it is this prayer that taught me that naked truth and opened my eyes to the indisputable truth that the christian god I had been taught to believe in was sheer and utter nonsense:

Grant me the serenity;
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference,
living each day, one day at a time.

Based on The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.

B