missing Mike Sullivan!

I was catching up with a former boss of mine. I heard he left our old law firm and started his own. I asked him how a mutual co-worker of ours was. The co-worker's name was Mike. He quickly e-mailed me back and said Mike died in March at the age of 49, of a heart attack. Very sad, not very surprised. Mike smoked like a chimney, and if you smoke like a chimney, it's not incredibly shocking to die of heart disease at the tender age of 49. But as a fellow paralegal, I really really admired Mike Sullivan, so much!!! He was quite simply the best paralegal I ever knew!!

We worked together for less than 2 short years, and I saw him run a Workers' Compensation Dept. by himself. Well, he was a paralegal, so he had to have a lawyer go to the Commission instead of him, b/c as a paralegal he couldn't. But that lawyer didn't have to do a ton of WC work b/c he already had over 120 PI cases that I was helping him with. The lawyer who Mike & I worked for was Jim. Jim was the man that e-mailed me today about Mike's death. He must have felt terrible, b/c Mike & Jim worked great together. They were a synergy. They worked so well together that we nicknamed them Batman & Robin. I could go on for a 100 pages about all the things Mike Sullivan did to help me be a better paralegal.

He was a great paralegal and an even better person!

Brianna learns to bike/My past

Brianna knows that we wanted her to get a bike, so she hasn't been shy about asking. We were delayed when we had to get a refrigerator when our old one died after 14 years. Yesterday, the day finally came where she got her beloved bike. I took her out on her first lesson. I taught her the same way I learned. I would go down hills because you don't have to work so hard at pedaling. & I wanted her to pedal down a grassy hill so that she wouldn't get scraped up if she fell (which is pretty inevitable when you first learn).

So, we went to this park not far from where her grandpa/my FIL lives. She learned quickly!! So quickly that I was really surprised. Then she said something pretty funny. I said, "Brianna, you are doing a great job!"

She associated "job" with being "paid", so she asked, "Do I get $3?"

I replied, "Brianna! I just gave you $54"

"What?"

"$54 was the cost of the bike!"

"Oh".

So, she kept learning and doing well. I was very impressed and now Brianna passed one of those little milestones that a kid goes through!

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MY PAST
When I was a growing up, I lived on a dairy farm. It was a good childhood, because there wasn't a better way to learn a good solid work ethic than working as a kid on a dairy farm. There were high expectations, and my parents and older brothers and sisters were not shy about telling me if my work fell below expectations. The lessons have helped me a great deal even now!!
Well, last night I saw a new show that will be on weekly on the HISTORY CHANNEL called Pawn Shop. The story is of a grandfather, his son and the grandson running a pawn shop. Seeing the dad chew out the son really seemed like a flashback of the old times during the 70s when my father and Jerome, my brother, would get into a bitter argument. It was amazing, the argument would on a rare occasion seem to last the entire time of milking (about 2 hrs.) Usually when they fought, it was "only" an hour.
Last night the young son was approached by a man who wanted to sell him a boat for $25,000. They haggled, and he bought a boat for $16,500, and the motor was shot on it so it couldn't move in the water. Thinking he made a terrible deal, his dad was furious with him, and the son knew there was going to be a big argument. Of course, the big argument happened with plenty of bleeping and deleting of swear words. The son also was knocking stuff off of the drawers. But lo and behold, everything worked out! They son took the boat to an expert repairman who charged him $4,000 to make the boat run again and make it look like new. The repairman said the boat was really the Cadillac of boats so they shouldn't have any problems getting $30,000 for the boat. (That would be a $10,000 profit for their pawn shop).
There was a scene where they were riding on this grand boat and father, son and friend were all smiles. It made me smile too! I wonder how many times Jerome and Dad were all smiles??

Another similarity was that the 3 men all gave a damn about their business wanted the business to succeed. So, I would be very surprised if they have an episode where they are having a hard time making a profit.
That's the way our father was, and his wife, sons and daughters also wanted the farm to succeed! Most of the time Dad was working, it seemed he was worried. Usually it was about a good cow that was sick. One time when we were milking, he said something that I would never forget. The 70s were a very good time for dairy farmers, much better than the 80s. He looked at the brothers and I and said, "You really have to be a screw up to not make money at dairy farming." He didn't talk much (except when he was arguing w/ Jerome), but that was one time when he didn't have to. It was one time when Dad really seemed content that he was a farmer. I later learned that there were many times that he was happy to be a farmer. One of the best college projects I did was interviewing my parents. My father told to me he loved being on the field and planting and harvesting crops.

The farm did very very well and earned trophies and many plaques because our cows gave so much milk. We had one cow who, during her lifetime, gave over 200,000 pounds of milk. We had another cow that gave over 32,000 lbs. of milk in 1 year. Our farm earned a number of plaques when they found out the average cow on our farm in 1 year would give 700 lbs of butterfat (cream) and over 20,000 pounds of milk.

Walter Cronkite and a little perspective

Less than a month ago, Michael Jackson died. Tonight, Walter Cronkite died. Michael Jackson's death is the more tragic. A man only 50 years old cut down while he still could have made music, and he still had kids to raise. Far more people will be sadder at the death of Michael Jackson than they will the death of Walter Cronkite. For the same reason, Cronkite's death doesn't carry the same pain and tragedy of Tim Russert's death early last summer. ($5 for each of you who remember Tim Russert!!)

I confess I never was that big a Jackson fan. I feel that Walter Cronkite's death means more. He was so trusted, so admired, so listened to!!!! He was the newsman and then anchorman for CBS for a long time 1962-1981. I know some reading this may have either been extremely young or not even born in 1981. I grew up with him. CBS was the only station my family was able to get because it was the only VHF station in the area. (NBC, ABC & PBS were all UHF stations and did not transmit strong enough signals to reach us situated in a valley ringed with high hills).

He was a calm, cool, collected voice. He loved the space program just as I did, & I listened to him cover the 6 space flights to the moon spanning from 1969-1972. He represented a time when the news was covered objectively. Journalists or political talking heads didn't have an "axe to grind" in those days.

I can't really say how terrible the death is or how awful it was, because at 92, what else is there to accomplish?? He was born in 1916 and died tonight. He wasn't in the middle of his career or leave young sons and daughters behind. His kids are probably approaching retirement age. He was 92; he lived a fantastic life. He accomplished so much and did the achievements of 5 men. He'll be missed, but he was in retirement for 28 years. He still was heard from and was seen in his retirement. Still, it's sad that a large group of people younger than 30 don't know very much about him.

I have very mixed feelings about Michael Jackson, but I can state unequivocally and without hesitation that I not only admired Walter Cronkite, but loved all the coolness, objectivity and professionalism that he stood for. All the tributes and statements made about Walter Cronkite are true. He was an AMAZING GIANT in the field of journalism. He is a symbolism of journalism that enjoyed a better more prestigious time and is a painful contrast to the lack of funds, cutbacks and subjectivity that journalism suffers now.

The death hurts more because it shows in bleak terms that the way news is covered may not be done quite as well as before. Someone with an opposing view can state that news is more available and easier to get than it was before. Consider this, however. There were many millions that saw Walter Cronkite (or even other objective, professional anchors at ABC or NBC). Those millions received news from a damn good source, and it made us a better informed, smarter country as a result. Now, there are some people out there that get their news from a Rush Limbaugh or a Sean Hannity. The mind reels at the contrast between the former icon and the latter 2 jokes.

Walter Cronkite was voted "The Most Trusted Man in America" back in the 1970s. Now, the 70s get criticized for a lot of things, but there was NOT a shortage of excellent journalists. "The Most Trusted Man in America" wasn't a priest, journalist, singer, preacher, or the president. Think about that for a second! The Most Trusted Man in America spent less than a 1/2 hour on TV and explained what happened that day. He was trusted precisely because he didn't have an axe to grind, wasn't partisan, and didn't exaggerate to make a point. His trust was extremely well deserved and never, ever lost! Sadly, we'll never see a journalist like him again on TV. No one will command the attention of that high a percentage of American audience that Mr. Cronkite commanded and very much deserved.

more on summer fun

I had a nice weekend and didn't go anywhere. Thursday night, I went to a community festival (Oakfest) where the kids could go on lots of rides. Then Saturday and yesterday, I went to the condo get-together and had a nice time w/ my neighbors. It's not about spending a bunch of money that I don't have, it's about having a nice time w/ people I care for. My kids were upset we didn't go to Oakfest more often, but if we don't have the money, then we can't go, that's that. We were going to go to Taste of Chicago, and see Buddy Guy. But they had him scheduled later in the evening & we would have only been able to see him for about 15 min. b/c our train left soon after he started his show. So we said, "no, doesn't make sense".

The money issue has been playing a more prominent issue because our refrigerator has been making very loud noises. It has always ran quiet before and now sounds like a buzzsaw, something is definitely wrong. In fact, MB told me just this morning that the motor is out and it's OPD! (officially pronounced dead). So we better start saving up money for that.

Which brings me to another issue. I was not looking forward to early morning today. I loved the relaxing 3 day weekend. But I am thankful for a job, and it logically follows that I'm thankful to get up go to work this morning. We need the money, and I plan on doing overtime to pay for all these additional expenses.

summer fun

part of the summertime festivities was our condo having a hula hoop contest. Brianna won 2 of the contests. Ted did not fare as well. I even entered. I wasn't the best but I wasnt the worst, believe it or not. The hoop stayed on me all of 2 seconds, lmfao!