SUNDAY NIGHT COMING DOWN

Here it is, Sunday night again. We didn't win the lottery – again – and I have to go to work tomorrow. I DON'T WANT TO GO TO WORK! Even though the days just fly by during the week, they don't go half as fast as my days during the weekend. I always have so many things on my To Do list that I don't seem to get to my Want To Do list.

Saturday morning I spent spray painting protest signs. I get such a kick out of this, that 30+ years later, I am making protest signs. This time, instead of protesting the war, I'm protesting neighborhood rezoning. It would be a far nobler thing to be protesting the war, but I just painted Don't Rezone on 100 +/- signs, front and back with a group of my neighbors. Seems the local car dealer wants to buy three houses on the next street and pave the back yards for "employee parking". Then, since he has stated that he doesn't want to be a landlord, our theory is that he's going to sell the houses to a local developer who told one of our neighbors to get used to the idea, because the property was too valuable to just sit there. Since current lot sizes are much smaller, we speculate that he'll replace the three houses with six to nine houses.

Our neighborhood was developed starting in the early 50's. The first houses are four-room, 1-bath homes built in the post war boom. Our section was built in 1960. Although our house is just a standard ranch of the era, with very little closet space and small rooms, it has a very large lot for the city and is loaded with wise old oaks. We struggle to grow grass, because these wonderful old trees provide so much shade. Lots of our neighbors are the original owners of their houses. We have a lot of rentals in the area, but we also have a lot of young couples moving in because it is an affordable neighborhood. One thing this threat to our neighborhood has produced is a feeling of community. The rezoning request comes before the City Council in a little more than a week. I hope we win, but I feel like the City has decided our area is expendable; that our land is too valuable for a middle-class area with such a good location.

After my protest painting, when I managed to turn my hands a reddish-brown tint, I was off to my shopping chores. I don't know how I used to go to school, work full time and raise two children. Now it seems like a grocery trip turns into a day-long expedition. Sunday, all I managed was reading the papers, doing a little yard work and catching up on 24. I don't think it is a particularly good program, but DH loves it. We were Tivo-ing the entire season for a marathon watch, but we're upgrading to HD satellite this week and we'll lose everything on the current DVR.

Sadie and I did manage to knock out a few miles around the neighborhood this weekend. We did 1 mile yesterday and 2 today. She was dragging a bit today because it was around 80 and she doesn't do heat too well. I've entered the lottery to run the NY Marathon and I really need to get started training. Three miles of walking per week is not going to be enough. I just can't get up for it. I've been blaming it on the stress at work, but it could be middle-age, or menopause, or depression or who knows? All I know is, the best way for me to "win" this lottery is not to train while it is still early. Twenty-six miles requires a build-up; I learned that after my last marathon. I spent several years afterwards limping and having mysterious aches.

As I write this, I am listening to APM Word for Word. Arnold Schwarzenegger is talking about his awakening to "post-partisan" politics. It is an interesting concept that seems totally obvious but it has not been observed in recent memory. I'm not sure if it goes all the way back to Nixon, but surely it goes back as far as Clinton. The gridlock and sniping and demonizing of the other side have made politics irrelevant to most of us. The politicians, now more than ever, seem to be for sale to the lobbyists and we "little people" have felt powerless to fix government. The issues are so complex and the ad writers are so sophisticated that is easy to get distracted by the side issues or personalities or to vote our fears. I get a sense that after the midterm elections the pendulum is shifting; I think that people are wising up to the clever marketing that has guided past decisions. I signed up for Unity08, an organization that is petitioning for a national online primary to vote for a bipartisan ticket for the next election. I've long thought that we need a new political party. Both parties are now so vested in consolidating their power and getting re-elected that they have completely forgotten to do what is best for the country. Ross Perot was clearly not it. The idea of Unity08 is worth considering.