Desires, Energy and Efforts

I'm a new golfer by most standards. I started in 2009. Took a few lessons, bought some cheap clubs and joined a league. I was extremely embarrassing to watch. But I had the desire to learn the game, even though at 56 years of age I should have stuck to other activities.


Last year I missed a lot of golf due to work and community commitments. It bothered me a lot, but first things first. Responsibility can be a bummer sometimes. I got word that my league was informally starting a month early for those that wanted to participate and with the recent spate of nice weather I thought I’d give it a whirl. Never mind that we went from sunny and 80’s to windy and 50’s. I wanted to golf.

So I showed up, paid my fee and went out to play. Not totally miserable conditions, but 20 mph winds with 40 mph gusts are not the best conditions for a mediocre player like me. But I wanted to golf. So I did. My shots were not great and by the end of the 9-hole round I was ready for a hot shower, not happy with my effort and feeling a bit like I wasted that time.

I tell this story because sometimes we do things that maybe we shouldn’t. I really have been in a busy stretch of work and I could have caught up a bit on some of those things that we all defer with those two hours. But I wanted to golf. And by god, I golfed. Misspent energy? Perhaps. Mini-reward for working hard since last Fall? Maybe. But I didn’t really enjoy the round as much as I thought I would, even though it felt great to swing the clubs, see the familiar faces, and kidding around with the guys was fantastic.

I let my desire to golf divert my energy and efforts, even with poor playing conditions. That was the mistake. I will make a better decision next time and I believe that the golf will be sweeter and I’ll be more focused with my game. A good energy policy!

Which leads me to a whole different energy thought. How is it that there’s such a disconnect between crude oil prices (barrel) and gasoline (gallon)? I looked up crude oil prices on the Bloomberg website and gasoline prices on the U.S. Energy Information Agency website and got these figures:

August 2011	$100.46/barrel	$3.64/gallon
November 2011	$105.26	$3.37
February 2012	$112.71	$3.64
March 2012	$102.37	$3.84

Now, we’re seeing $4.00+ prices but the crude prices haven’t risen dramatically.  An acquaintance said that it’s all because of speculators.  I’m speculating, too - every time I buy a $10 worth to get me back to a place where gas prices are a nickel cheaper per gallon for a fill-up. It doesn't get me much profit, but I feel better about the effort.

Big Shaking in Michigan

Nope. Not the earthquake type, although we do occasionally feel a small temblor around here. I’m talking more about the political shakings. And right now, that’s mostly about Detroit’s financial crisis.

An ill-considered statement by a Detroit minister leads the news reports. “Before we let you take over our city, we’ll burn it down first,” said Malik Shabazz during an open meeting of the financial review team in Detroit. Hold the quips, it’s too easy. Certainly there’s a lot of emotion surrounding the Governor’s necessary intervention into the affairs of a municipality that can’t keep its street lights on, its citizens safe or even in collecting its own income taxes.

Yes, things have come to a head in the last few years under Mayor Dave Bing. They may have happened regardless of who was mayor. The groundwork for this crisis has been laid over a couple of decades at least. And there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Detroit has a Department of Human Services that was totally ineffective, even irresponsible, in its duty. It misspent monies badly needed by the residents and had to forfeit millions of dollars in federal aid. Emergency response times are deplorable and the bus system is totally, totally broken. The list could drag on, but I’ll stop there.

The real issue now is the culture of denial – ‘We can still run the city ourselves’. It’s followed closely by the culture of entitlement – ‘Just give us some money and we’ll make it all work.’ The Governor is wise to not just open the pocketbook. There has to be a third party that will be responsible for management and oversight. It doesn’t matter what you call him or her - emergency manager, court appointed receiver, or even pillager of the democratic rights of the citizens (as some activists insist).

And why, if the citizens are so concerned about their city did they show up in such embarrassingly low numbers (10%) for a ballot that decided whether there would be a new City Charter? I don’t get it. But I do get the fact that in this country you are always allowed to complain. And there’s no shortage of that commodity around this issue.

Detroit has a long and proud history. I hope we’ll once again see it as a vibrant urban center.

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On a brighter note, Michigan tourism was up 8% in 2011. It’s estimated that for every dollar spent in the ‘Pure Michigan’ advertising campaign, $4.90 came back to the State. I thought the reduction of the Pure Michigan effort was short-sighted and I’m glad to see that the increased budgeting has paid off. And that was in a colder, wetter summer than normal.

Sights Around Brighton

We're awfully used to seeing hot air balloons around here. In fact, they're quite commonplace.  We have an abundance of wildlife and because Brighton is at the crossroads of two major highways (I-96 and US-23) you never know what (or who) may happen into town.

At Monday's 4th of July Parade, we had a couple of A-10's flyover during the parade, a bi-plane streaming smoke, and a small group of private planes flying in formation, too.  Here's one of the entries into the Brighton Optimist Club's Bike Decorating Contest - a plane of a different sort.  This pedal powered airplane is almost an annual entry into the contest and is always a crowd pleaser.  I'm not sure of the manufacturer's name, but I did see a similar one on an episode of Antique Roadshow a year or two back, and it was worth a significant amount of money in it's original paint. This one has obviously been repainted.

The Chessie System tracks also run through the area.  I grew up in the Delray neighborhood in SW Detroit and you could not get in or out of that area without crossing railroad tracks-at least until I-75 was built.  I thought I'd seen every kind of locomotive and train car there was until yesterday. I was taking Fourth Street and there was a fuel oil truck with a stopped train. Not sure if they were refueling a piece of equipment on this car or if this car powered the entire train, but I had never seen one before. It's called a 'rail pick up' unit.  Very interesting.

Plenty of reasons to keep a camera with you. Don't leave home without one!

News That Makes You Go hmm . . .

Hey, hey! Stolen cars are at their lowest rate since 1987. There's good news.  Guess the high price of gasoline is deterring more than the 'Club' and lowjac.  And better yet, Detroit's not in the Top 10 City list for stolen cars, either.

Verizon is doing away with unlimited data plans.  Might as well.  My Blackberry Curve chokes when using the IE web browser so often it's almost useless. I downloaded the BOLT browser (free) from the Blackberry store and it works much faster.

And what's with the price of coffee?  Are they making *that* from oil, too? I'm cutting back to half a pot for the family in the morning (one cup each) and skipping it at restaurants, too.  Analysts blame it on the demand for green coffee (green coffee beans are those picked, processed wet, dried and then milled, but not roasted. That  is usually left to the bean purchaser) and also to poor growing conditions in South America. I'm betting the speculators are driving prices more than anything else.

The FDA approved some new graphic warning labels for cigarette packages.  Now we need financial advisors to start advertising on them, too. (That might deter people more than image of a diseased lung.)  I was in a local store recently and saw a Marlboro pack price of $6.25!  No wonder the new 'growth' industry seems to be tobacco shops.  Rolling your own is more popular now than it was in the late 60's.

NPR covered a story about a facebook post from Lab42 that says of the surveyed men, 27 percent who judge themselves to be overweight ate at fast food outlets more than seven times a week. Crap! How did that happen! I just bought a new belt.  (The study group was composed of 500 men aged 18-35.)

I'm busy unsubscribing from all the things that I signed up for that sounded like a good idea at the time, but that have proven to have absolutely no value to me.  First one? Groupon. Nice coupons if you live in Metro Detroit, but at an hour away there was never anything that made me want to jump in the car and drive for.

I'm extending that to magazines, too.  I love golf but when you get all of these great 'ideas' about how to hit longer tee shots or make better chips, it just seems to confuse my game.  I'm actually hitting straighter and playing more consistently now that I quit reading golf magazines - and watching golf improvement shows. Tournaments are different. Let me know if you want to camp out in front of a TV to watch a tournament some time.

Screech Owl

At this year's Free Fishing Derby For Kids, conducted by the Brighton Optimist Club, there was an unexpected visitor.  A fully grown Screech Owl, brought by the Howell Conference and Nature Center. With a damaged left eye, it will likely not survive in the wild, but it sure did interest and amaze the kids (and the adults!) who were at the event. This is a relatively small bird, maybe 7 or 8 inches long.

This was the first time the HCNC was at this event, the 25th anniversary edition.  They do great work and have an absolutely wonderful facility, too.

Trip to the 45th Parallel

Michigan is such a great State. It doesn't matter if you live in the west, southeast or north.  So many great things to do and so much great scenery to travel from one region to another. 

Friday morning my wife and I left early (6am) for a trip to Gaylord.  The weather was rainy and dreary when we left Brighton, but we hit some open sky and sunlight just north of Bay City.  It was an amazing transformation of mood. I had a meeting at 11am that was an excuse for a short vacation.  A 2pm tee time had already been booked.  Normally, I forego I-75 for the 27 route, but that day I decided to take I-75.  My wife doesn't really like huge bridges, but she took Zilwaukee in stride.  We stopped in Standish and had a great breakfast at Wheeler's, then proceeded on our trip.

We had enough time to look around Gaylord before my short business meeting at Treetops. I met up with the rest of our group in the lobby and half of our four couples could actually check-in even though it was around 10:30.  Of course, my room was not ready, but then again I hadn't expected it to be.

Our business concluded, we had time for a quick lunch before golfing the Traditions course. The original Treetops course, it was designed to be junior golfer friendly and I was amazed that you could pull up adjacent to each and every tee box.  I mean right next to it. Open an inviting is how I would describe this course.  Even I didn't lose a single golf ball. My score was less than illustrious, but I'm seriously behind my golf pace of 2010.  At this time last year I had played almost 30 times.  This was my third outing for this year.

Friday evening the group got together for dinner at the Big Buck Brewery.  The Red Ear Ale was smooth and tasty. My wife enjoyed her pale ale.  I was somewhat disappointed in the 10 oz prime rib dinner.  I really should have asked the waitress for her recommendation.  In the past I've been very pleased with their burger and sandwiches.

We finished off our short stay with a round of golf on the 9 hole par 3 course, ThreeTops.  A cute play on words.  The entire course is up and down - literally.  Elevated tee with sunken green, sunken tee with elevated green, or elevated tee and green with a deep valley betwixt.  I've never played anywhere with so many extreme up and down lies.  If you didn't hit the green it was a challenge.  I ended up losing one ball, too.

Our group checked out after this round and headed back home.  In contrast to the trip up, I drove straight through on the way back.  I had a serious case of the 'drowsies' going after reaching the half way point and did have to make a quick stop south of Birch Run.  The Arbie's drive through provided a shot of alertness with a Jamocha Shake and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

It was great to see that the construction projects were not active for the Holiday weekend and we literally cruised in both directions. It would have been nice to spend another night 'up north', perhaps at Mackinaw City or Traverse City, but the almost constant recent rain at home and my lack of garden maintenance required me to get back and face real-world responsibilities.

Hey, What About Me?

A lot of big news in the last couple of days.  OBL finally caught and justice administered by Navy Seals and a quick burial at sea, US Intelligence pouring over a trove of captured documents. US Army Corps of Engineers treats Illinois to a night time display while destroying a Mississippi River levee to save Cairo,IL from flooding. Canadian Conservatives win big and the BQ separatists seem to be reduced to a non-issue.

And from Detroit, the cry is raised, "Hey, What About Me?"  OK, not quite literally, but that's the sense of it. 

Mayor Dave Bing is trying to rejuvenate the city, and had offered abandoned homes for sale to policemen for $1,000 to get them to move back.  What good would that do? Well, it would help eliminate some vacant homes, hopefully start to stabilize neighborhoods, and put the properties back on the tax rolls for just a few things.  Cities don't just happen 'downtown' or in the Greektowns or at the casinos, or the sports arenas.  Their roots are in the neighborhoods.  And Detroit has some pretty bad neighborhoods.  Many look more like a war zone than anything else.

So now we have citizens saying, "Great, but what about me? What will you do for me? Lower my taxes?"  This sense of entitlement is the root of a lot of problems in big cities and in America. Yes, Detroit has a close to obscene tax rate (65 mils). Some folks in the really nice areas like Boston-Edision or Indian Village pay a lot of money ($7,000 happens a lot in those areas).  But in the other neighborhoods, that's not the case. 

I checked my childhood neighborhood (Delray in SW Detroit).  A lot of those folks are paying between $450-$900/yr of taxes.  Nicer areas in NW Detroit can pay up to around $3,000/yr.  It depends on the value of your house. My quick check is neither exhaustive nor qualitative, but I didn't se one single property that had a taxable value (TV) the same as the State Equalized Value (SEV), they were all sustantially lower on the TV.

Folks, it took DECADES for Detroit to get into its current predicament. It may take another DECADE to see momentum build in a turnaround.  Do what you can do to make it a better place. Band together with neighbors, clean up the trash, encourage police to return to the city and you'll start to see better emergency response times and things turn around.  It won't happen overnight. But if you give up except to fight the little bright spots like this program, it may never happen. And in the meantime, your neighbors that have the ability to move to the suburbs will do so.