Yesterday became a little cooler as it passed by but noticeably less humid. I guess that combination was all the roofer guy needed as he made fantastic progress. He arrived right around 7 AM yesterday and went right to work. After a short break for lunch, and I mean short for a workman working directly in the sun all morning, he was back on the roof and continued his progress until 4:30 PM when he called it quits for the day.
Gotta tell ya! In the first couple of days, my roofer guy has totally impressed me with his work ethic. And so far, the job isn’t shabby, either.
He was back on the job about 6:45 o’clock this morning. His first question to me was, “Would you mind if I worked on Saturday?”
I look forward to visits from my fearless friend. Today I’m getting one of those visits. FF has a standing Friday appointment when he another associate of his head to a local fish restaurant for a dip of fish chowdah. His associate works across and just up the street from me so FF occasionally stops by here for a visit before chowdah time. I have no computer issues for him to help me with so I’m sure we’ll have all the problems of the world solved in the couple of hours he’s here. He is bringing a Bluetooth device for me to try.
Congressman Tom Allen continues to try to convince his constituents that he is working for the benefit of Mainers. Now I can’t give you a source for this next statement except that I’ve read it in several places. It may or may not be true that Congressman Allen has never had one of his bills passed in Congress. I’d bet he has co-sponsored some that have passed. Anyway, I received another email from him yesterday seeking my feelings of various issues. I’ll probably not return the survey because I doubt he really cares.
He does ask and give me options on various questions. He wants to know if the current oil/gas pricing has affected us. Actually his choices on most were pretty reasonable. For example on the first one he asked, Have I been affected? Have I changed my home heating and driving habits? Have I been affected and am I worried about the winter? And have I not been affected and am not worried? Probably the only ones not affected are Congressmen who get a really nice income and have all their costs paid by you and me.
His survey also covered strategies for resolving the energy crisis, what we should do in Iraq, expanding funding for higher education, concerns about the health care system (and, yes, one of the choices was for universal health care), the effect of the housing crisis on you, homeland security, transportation problems, and the most important issues to you, with choices for all the topics, of course. We’ll see a report down the road on the results of the survey and I’d bet the results will echo just about what he could support.
I was just listening to a couple of guys on a morning talk show on WLOB Radio and Fox 23 TV discussing the contrast between New Orleans and the Midwest. It brought back to mind an email that made its way around the globe not too long ago where the creator was asking why there was no hullaballoo about Iowa like there was New Orleans. And both the email and the talk show hosts were right; there wasn’t any. No celebrities were running around blaming the U.S. government on its response to all the flooding there. There were no calls for investigations of FEMA and its failure to respond. There were no calls or demands for the government to come in and save the day. But the Iowa flooding and Katrina ravaged New Orleans were about the same.
I think the talk show guys hit that nail on the head when they pointed out the differences in the two societies. In New Orleans (like Maine is becoming) the people were totally dependent on the government and government handouts to survive for years and years before Katrina. When the hurricane hit, all they could do was wander aimlessly lamenting the lack of government action.
In Iowa, where the people have learned to be self-dependent, the people joined together both to help each other, to battle the raging Mississippi River, and to plan for their future. They simply went against the socialist dependency and fought back themselves. I wonder what would happen here if we faced a similar disaster. Would we be able to be self-dependent or would we be wandering aimlessly looking for the government to bail us out?
I think I know the answer.
I hear the pounding up on the roof so I think I’ll head out to watch working taking place.
GiM
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