Aspirations

It's an old question, probably older than I am, usually aimed at small children for the entertainment of adults: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And typical answers – at least, when I was a kid – were things like 'ballerina' and 'cop'. Not me. I wanted to be an astronaut, the first female astronaut. But I think even before I got to high school, the Russians sent a woman cosmonaut into orbit, so that didn't work out for me.

My next choice was to be an astronomer. To that end, I majored in math in college. I was incensed when I went to see a college counselor about something, and when he saw I was majoring in math, he asked, "Oh, do you want to teach?" And then, as it turned out, LIFE intruded, and I had to abandon that dream, too.

There was still one dream left, but I was so busy dealing with LIFE that this final dream became only a hobby. Chances are, it will serve its purpose of entertaining me through what's left of my life, but accomplish little else.

It seems almost cruel to ask kids what they want to be when, as adults dealing with LIFE, we know they have very little chance of fulfilling their dreams. When they look back through the decades and realize how paltry their life has actually been, that they spent it pushing papers, or brooms, or water leaks, rather than chasing crooks or dancing on their toes, will they feel anguish over dreams that never survived? Maybe that's why adults do it; because their see their own dreams withering away. Maybe the pain makes them do it.

Hire the Big O

A few years back, the City of Omaha started a new campaign to encourage its citizens to support their local merchants. It was called "Buy the Big O". Basically, the idea was that if you lived in Omaha, you were supposed to buy whatever you needed – groceries, clothes, a meal, a movie ticket, a car, whatever – in Omaha.

Makes sense, right? To the politicians, it did. To the citizens trying to stretch their shrinking paychecks as far as they could, it did NOT make sense. Spend $25 on a pair of slacks in town when they could get the same slacks off the internet (on sale) for $12 and $5 shipping?

And then the city officials had another 'bright' idea and imposed an additional tax on restaurants, bars and caterers. I heard many citizens ponder the possibility of slipping into the suburbs for their entertainment.

And then, not long ago, I heard about a city department that was looking to hire a person. Wow! A job opening! In the midst of such bad news from city hall for so long, this news was like a breath of fresh air. Until I heard they'd chosen to offer the job to a person from Lincoln, a city some 50 miles away.

Now, I've nothing against the people of Lincoln. Evidently, they are just as qualified as the people of Omaha, and no doubt Lincolnites need jobs just as badly as Omahans. However, if Omahans are supposed to 'Buy the Big O', then it only seems fair that the City should make an effort to 'Hire the Big O'.

Snow Birds

When I was young kid, doing my homework at the kitchen table on cold winter nights, I sometimes heard my folks talk about snow birds. Once in a while, I even wondered what a snow bird was like. Were they tiny like a canary or big like a hawk? I assumed they were white, or else why would they be called snow birds? If they were known in the middle of the US, did they spend the summer in Canada, which I assumed had snow all year around. (There's so much more they could teach in geography classes!) I even wondered why I never saw one, no matter how hard I watched for them during the winter.

Eventually, as I grew up, I forgot all about those elusive snow birds.

About a decade ago, I met a man, well past retirement age, who was working full time. I knew what his career had been, and learned that he had retired, but now was back again, 'part-time'. Eventually, I asked him how he could be working part time when he was there 40 hours a week. "My wife and I are snow birds. I only work half a year, during the summer." He went on to explain that early in October, they went to Arizona, and they came back late in March.

I finally have my explanation of a snow bird. Not a creature that comes with the snow, but one that heads away to avoid it. And now that winter has definitely arrived to the midwest, I wish I could be one of those snow birds. Do you suppose if I tried real hard, I could grow feathers?

Looking Ahead

So, a new year has started. People traditionally look back at what has changed over the last year, and what they'd like to accomplish in the next year. And they do this, from what I can see, at a time when they've over-indulged, in eating, in consuming sugar (Christmas cookies and candies), in spending money and probably in drinking alcohol to celebrate the arrival of that new year.

Is that a good time to be doing this re-evaluation and planning, when you're hungover and depressed?

You've put on a couple pounds, so you rashly decide you must lose 100 pounds this year, meaning working out 3 hours a day… You charged a couple hundred dollars on your credit card, so you resolve to live on ramen noodles for a year and get that credit card completely paid off… Yeah, those kind of plans are going to work.

Me, I've been making my plans for a couple weeks now, even as I decided whether or not to have that 12^th cookie, or what gift to buy for my sister's daughter-in-law's best friend. But that's the way I am; I tend to make plans. It gives me something to think about, things to look forward to, lets me figure out how to deal if something goes awry.

I'd love to lose 100 pounds this coming year, but first I'm going to diligently do my physical therapy to strengthen my muscles so I can get to doing some sort of regular exercise.

I won't be eating ramen noodles all year, but I will be careful with my grocery budget, and I will work at reducing my credit card debt.

I've also got some traveling planned, just as soon as the weather lets Midwest roads thaw a bit. Told ya, it gives me something to look forward to.

So, my advice is to make some reasonable plans, with milestones you can actually attain. And every once in a while, let yourself have some fun.

Work Hours

When I was growing up (centuries ago, seems like), everybody talked about 'banker's hours'. I wasn't paying much attention at that tender age, but apparently, bankers started work in mid-morning, and closed up before most folks got off work. Oh, and they probably had a long lunch in there, too. Looking back, I wonder how people managed to do any banking at all; there was no direct deposit, no drive-up windows, no evening or weekend hours when the bank was open. But it must have been nice to BE a banker; no getting up before the sun, no late hours, and you got all sorts of holidays off.

But times have changed, as people say. I have a friend who works in a bank. She doesn't work in the lobby, helping customers; no, she works in one of the back offices where they push papers around and never really even touch money. So, she's a banker, since she works in a bank. But bankers hours have changed. She and her co-workers arrive before the bank lobby opens, they work a full day and trudge out as the guards lock the building up, past the ATMs and the still-open drive-through windows to their cars in the parking lot. And this year, when Christmas and New Year's Day happen on the weekend, they don't get any time off for them. Some of the back offices in these large banks have more than one shift. How would you like to be a banker working the 'graveyard' shift?

No doubt in my mind; bankers hours aren't what they used to be.

Grinch Days

I always like Christmas. It almost always disappoints, but I still like the season.

I DON'T like seeing Christmas decorations going up before Halloween has arrived, nor when the Christmas music starts almost before those Halloween costumes are discarded. It seems to me that each holiday deserves its own bit of time, and Christmas does not need to infringe on months that already have celebrations.

So, here's to the tree - which is looking a little bare this year - and here's to all the season's goodies – which I'm not supposed to eat – and here's to all the pretty lights – which I thoroughly enjoy. Hope you have a good one.

Bicycle to Nowhere

Okay, planning bicycle routes for an entire city that has (virtually) none can't be an easy job. Still, I have to wonder that that bike czar in Omaha is thinking. I haven't seen a LOT of progress so far, but a few streets have been reconfigured to introduce a bike lane on the side.

Last winter, St Mary's underwent some major reconstruction between 29^th and Leavenworth, about 3 blocks. It now has a bike lane on the right side … for 3 blocks. Where the bikes are supposed to come from to use that bike lane, or where they are supposed to be headed, I haven't figured out.

Further out on Leavenworth, the two-lanes-each-way has since been reconfigured into two lanes headed downtown and one lane headed out, to make way for a bike lane. This puts a bit of a crimp on the evening traffic that used to head out of downtown using Leavenworth, but I'm sure the bicyclists love it. The new bike lane appears around 53^rd Street and continues all the way to 60^th Street, where most of the automobile traffic turns south, but I believe the bike lane continues down the steep hill into the park. I suppose people might be willing to take their bikes into the park, but why/how did they all congregate at 53^rd Street?

These bike lanes I've mentioned are one-way, headed west. I have not yet seen any bike lanes headed east. Is that a hidden message, like, "Go west, young bikers?" So, I suppose he's doing something during those 40 hours a week he supposedly is working. But it has been several months. I don't spend all my time driving around Omaha looking for bike lanes, but … how hard can it be to decide to put a bike lane here for 3 blocks, and another here for 6 or 7 blocks … and not bother to connect them up?

I don't know how much longer his 'grant' job is going to last, but I certainly hope Omaha sees more out of his office than this little bit of nonsense.