2009 May | BoWilliams.com

Eating with the first grade

May 262009

I surprised Nathan and had lunch with him at school today.

First of all, God bless teachers and administrators. I successfully engaged Nathan and his classmates and prevented our table from heading in a Lord of the Flies direction, but I only did it for 30 minutes. If you do it 40 hours a week for three quarters of the year, my hat is off to you. Thank you.

And 200 voices under the age of 10 is a special sort of cacophony.

After giving him lunch money because he had left his in the classroom, my firstborn ambled out of the line with a chicken patty, a roll, a cup of ranch dressing, and a chocolate milk.

Yeah, and come to think of it, I didn’t get any change back from my $5 either. I’ll have to ask about that tonight. Anyway…

“Why are there no vegetables on your plate, son?”

“All they had was broccoli.”

“Ah. Well, fortunately for you, Dad has a couple of carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes he can share.”

Heh. Actually those aren’t particularly controversial for him, so he ate them.

It really was a lot of fun. This was me delivering on an earlier pledge to go, and I had just never gotten around to it, which I was definitely feeling bad about. This was my last chance for the year. I’m making it a more frequent event this fall.

Honor them by ensuring that our future was worth the sacrifice of their tomorrows

Current Events, History, Liberty, Politics, Religion No Responses »

May 252009

Race day!

Consumption, Family, Leisure, Sports 8 Responses »

May 242009

The 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 is today! I’ve heard noon CDT/1 EDT for the start time. Television coverage on ABC starts an hour earlier, I think, and if past races are any indication, there still could be a lot of pre-green flag grabass even at noon.

So who the hell knows exactly when the race will start, but monitoring from noon CDT on seems a safe bet.

Clan BamaDan is coming over to watch it with us, with board game hilarities to follow. That is, assuming none of our children get cholera in the next four hours. We’ve had to cancel plans with them three different times because of child-resident pathogens, so I’m pleased we’re finally going to spend some fun time together. We are definitely overdue some merrymaking.

The forecast has consistently said a 30% chance of rain for Indianapolis this afternoon. There’s nothing organized up there, so anything that does happen should be of the pop-up variety and easily overcome. I’m optimistic.

So here’s the grid. Danica’s starting 10th. Teammate Tony Kanaan, aka “the best driver never to win the Indianapolis 500,” is starting 6th. Those are my horses. I also have a soft spot for Vitor Meira, mostly because it seems like every time he has a good car, something not of his doing takes him out. He’s starting 14th. Finally, I like Sarah Fisher because she’s so down-to-earth and also self-financed, but it’s unlikely she’ll be a factor. She’s starting 21st.

Helio Castroneves is clearly the driver to beat. He’s the pole-sitter by most of a full mile per hour, which is pretty scary considering how close the rest of the field is. We might need him or his team to make a mistake.

I’ve made the pitch before—if you like auto racing and you’re not currently following IndyCar, do yourself a favor and watch today. It’s the best series going.

Yeah, this government- and union-owned car company thing is going to work out nicely

Annoyances, Current Events, Liberty, Politics 14 Responses »

May 232009

Take a moment and read this heartbreaking letter from Dodge dealer George C. Joseph in Melbourne, Florida. Here is an excerpt:

On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them…

Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler’s insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.

HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?

THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY…

Mark Steyn’s darkly amusing answer in The Corner to this fellow:

Get real, man. If you’re a Yemeni jihadist whose lawyer is now Assistant Deputy Associate Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, you’re entitled to the full protection of the U.S. Constitution. The rest of us have to take our chances. Be thankful your refurbished showroom isn’t being confiscated to re-house Gitmo detainees.

Are you getting it? Is it sinking in? The government is taking this dealer’s franchise away from him. The dealer himself will be stuck with his new car inventory, financed for about $3 million. The only thing he can do is try to sell them all before June 9, because on June 10 he can’t sell them as new. Chrysler has not only not offered to buy the vehicles back, but will extend him no factory incentives of any kind beyond the deadline.

Mr. Joseph will have to terminate the employment of 50 people as a direct result of his franchise being confiscated. Will the Obama regime reduce their absurd “saved job” count by this number?

Anyone care to guess whether he’ll be getting a federal bailout for that renovation loan?

How do you go from being a responsible and respected local leader owning and running a 35-years-and-counting family business to destitute in less than a month?

Change you can believe in, comrades!

Strange happenings at my childhood home on Google Street View

Liberty, Memories, Menagerie 6 Responses »

May 222009

As creepy as Google Street View is, it’s a blast to play with. I was surprised to discover that a Google car had visited my old neighborhood in Anniston. (There still aren’t any high-quality aerial photos.)

I had a good time “driving” around the old neighborhood. It looks small to me, even on a computer monitor. This is the house where I grew up:

The house itself looks essentially as I remember it, though the yard is quite different. In my childhood, it was full of pine trees, and the lawn is much nicer now.

I “drove” on down to the cul-de-sac and took a look around. On my way out, I noticed someone mowing my old yard:

He survives the last little click out of the cul-de-sac:

Then he vanishes–poof!:

Mysterious indeed are the ways of Google.

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