The City of Lowell is getting ready to have elections for the city council members today. There should be a good voter turn out as most of the community is upset with city hall.

First, there was the tree trimming which was done under the supervision of Lowell Light and Power. I guess they call it trimming even though they cut down the entire tree. Some streets in town were literally “clear cut.”

Then there was the sale of Lowell Cable, which was also under the supervision of Lowell Light and Power. The cable equipment was declared to be “too old” so the whole system was sold to Comcast who apparently didn’t think that it was too old. This was all done with out notifying the community for their input.

Finally, there is the Boy Scout camp which the city owns. The city wants to sell the land to a developer. The citizens want to keep the land as it is and use it for a park. Once again, the elected officials are not listening to their constituents.

Three of the council members are running for reelection plus there are three challengers. It should prove interesting.

My wife likes tossed salads. I like them too but only on an occasion. And certainly not every night. In short, just plain tossed salads with dressing are boring to me. But, every now and then, I get a craving for a nice Caesar salad.

Normally, I buy the Caesar dressing that comes in that triangle shaped bottle. I can’t remember the brand name but it comes in a bottle that looks like an obelisk.

Unfortunately, my wife doesn’t care for that Caesar dressing. No problem, I’ll just buy a different brand.

Since I had a craving for a Caesar salad, I decided that I would go to the store and try a different brand.  At the store, I quickly scanned the “in store” brand. French, Italian, Thousand Islands, Ranch, all of the standard fare, but no Caesar. No surprise there. They only label the popular, fast moving salad dressings.

Next, I moved on to the Kraft selection. Again, pretty much the same as the “in store” brand. And again, no Caesar.

Wishbone? Pretty much the same as Kraft. Ken’s Steakhouse? Mainly Raspberry Vinaigrette. Ah! Certainly Newman will have a Caesar. Nope.

Out of the twelve brands of salad dressings, only two make a Caesar. Since my wife doesn’t like the one brand, I hope she likes the other.

We are getting a traffic light at a major intersection south of Lowell. It is the intersection at Cascade Road and Alden Nash.

Alden Nash is the main road south out of Lowell.  It is a major road because it provide expressway access for people living north of the expressway as well as people living south of the expressway.

The intersection of Alden Nash and Cascade road used to be set up so that Aden Nash had the right of way and Cascade Road had to stop for traffic. But, some one got the idea that it should be a four way stop.

A four way stop was not a bad idea but it created a lot of traffic backups on Alden Nash. Even though Alden Nash carried 90% of the traffic at the intersection, everyone had to make a token stop.

On some mornings, traffic could be backed up for over a mile on Alden Nash. And in the evening, traffic would be backed up on the expressway as people were trying to get off at the Lowell exit.

Finally, the county stepped in and decided that the four way stop needed to go. So, we are getting a traffic light.

This is where it gets interesting. In keeping with the standard rules and regulations for installing a traffic light, we are also getting crosswalk lights, curbs on the corners, curb ramps for the handy capped, and about 8 feet of sidewalk.

Of course, the nearest adjoining sidewalk and curb is about 5 miles away in Lowell. So, I doubt that there will be much need for the crosswalk lights any time soon. And given the conservative nature of Lowell Township, I doubt that they will rezone all of that five mile stretch any time soon.

So, while the cross walk lights may be useful for those who walk the road looking for bottles and cans, the general public will look at those lights and say “why?”.

Here in cubeville at the State of Michigan, everyone has mirrors mounted on their PC monitors. It is not that we are all vain, it is so that we can see each other.

It is kind of like being in prison I guess. But instead of holding our mirrors out of the doorways to our offices, we just mount them on our PCs.

In order to cut down on glare on our monitors, we move our monitors away from the doorways to our offices. And in doing so, when ever we work on our PCs, our backs are to the door. And, with our backs to the door, we can’t see people standing in our doorway.

So to resolve this problem, we all have mirrors mounted on the monitors of our PC. Thus, when anyone approaches the doorways to our offices, we can see them in the mirror. And, it is not that we are all that socially oriented, it just cuts down on people startling us as we type.

Of course, this isn’t fool proof. You still have to check your mirror regularly. 😉

We had some excitement in the office today. It was a cockroach and to hear people scream, you would think that Godzilla had just entered the building.

One woman got so upset that she jump up onto her office chair. Of course, the office chair swivels and rocks so she wasn’t up there long. In fact, after a couple of seconds, the chair shifted and dumped her off on to the floor, where she continued to scream.

The roach was constantly on the move from office to office. And since our office walls, here in cubeville, are an inch off the floor, the roach could easily move from one cube to the next.

It was interesting to track the movement of the roach. You didn’t have to see him, you just had to listen for the screams.

Eventually, the monster was captured and put on display. At an inch and a half long, people thought that it was huge.

Obviously, these are people who have never watched “Naked Lunch”

Halloween is always such a sad time at the State. You don’t know if some one is wearing a costume or if that is the way that they always dress.

I just ran across an unusual item. It is a Hello Kitty assault rifle.

This company has taken a AK47 assault rifle and given it a purple finish with Hello Kitty logos on the butt and magazine.

Somehow, I can’t see this being used by any paramilitary groups but I could be mistaken. Usually, the paramilitary groups are into camouflage of green, brown and black. Purple just doesn’t fit their color scheme.

I suppose, this would be a rifle for a preteen girl to use. But given that the Hello Kitty rifle sells for about $1,000, which is quite a bit for an AK47 these days, I suspect that only rich little girls will get one.

This company also makes a My Little Pony M4.

Can we expect a Sponge Bob 107 any time soon?

For as long as we have been in our house, (22 years) there has not been a door at the stairway leading down into our basement. Well, we now have one.

In an effort to contain the warmth of the basement and to keep the cold drafts out of our basement computer room, I installed a door. But the door is proving to be a challenge for the family who is not used to a door being at the top of the basement stairs.

Since we live in a split level ranch, we have a series of short stairways that function kind of like a switchback. As soon as you reach the end of one set of steps, you do a 180 and go down another set of steps.

Now, the family is used to going down these steps rather rapidly, rounding the corner and going down the next set of steps. And this is fine. The only problem is that there is now a door at that last set of steps.

You hear them going thump, thump, thump down the first set of steps. Then you hear them going thump, thump, thump down the next set of steps. Then you hear a bam! followed by some muttering. Fortunately, it is a hollow core door so it is not that hard.

We may have to paint the door with yellow and black strips.

The other day, I was walking back to my office from a meeting in downtown Lansing when I noticed the meter maid writing a parking ticket.

I always feel sorry for people who have to park in downtown Lansing because parking is so hard to find. People might have to walk for blocks to get back to their car before the meter expires.

With traffic lights and closed sidewalks, it could take some people an extra 5 minutes. And when they do get back, they discover that the meter maid has just written them a ticket.

More often than not, the people who use parking meters do not work downtown. They are downtown for a one hour meeting and don’t know where else to park.

So, since I had a pocket full of dimes and nickels I decided to help some hapless souls avoid the hassles of a parking ticket. So, starting with the nickels, I walked along the road looking for expired meters as I made my way back to my office. Once the nickels ran out, I started on the dimes.

Now, granted, a nickel or a dime doesn’t buy you much time. But I didn’t need enough time for the owner to return, I only needed enough time for the meter maid to pass. And since she had a regular route that she followed, I figured that by the time she came around again, the owner will have returned.

All and all, I made the day for 6 people and it only cost me 50 cents. That was fun. I will have to plan on doing it again.

“every body plays, every body wins”  Jerry Seinfeld.

Several years ago, my youngest daughter, Rachel, needed to buy her first car. Since she had no credit rating, I had to co-sign the loan. And because I co-signed the loan, my name, along with hers, was on the title.

The car is now paid for and the bank has released their claim on the title. So, Rachel, who now lives in Ohio, wanted the title changed so that my name was no longer on the document.

If she transfered the title using the Ohio Secretary of State, I would have to be present for the title signing as it would have to be notarized. If we transfered the title in Michigan, I could do it without her being present.

Since I didn’t really have the time to drive to Ohio, we opted for a Michigan transfer. So with documents in hand, I headed for the local Secretary of States office, which is just a couple of blocks away from where I work.

After about a 10 minute wait, my number came up and I proceeded to the next available agent. I announced to the agent that I wanted to do a title transfer. I then produced the original title, the loan release from the bank and the document filled out by Rachel authorizing the transfer.

The agent looked over the documents and then announced that she needed the registration and proof of insurance for the car. I told her that I didn’t have the registration for the car because the car was already registered in Ohio.

It was at this point that the “tilt” light went on. And just like in the movies where the killer robot is shut down by the good guys, the woman froze, head leaning to one side.

Finally, after a few moments, I asked “mam are you OK?” She affirmed that she was. Then she stated that she needed the registration. And again I told her that the car is now registered in Ohio and that all I want is the title changed.

She then checked her computer screen and announced that the plate had expired in September. I told her that I was aware of that and that the car now has an Ohio plate on it and is registered in Ohio. With that, she went over and conversed with an associate.

A few moments later she returned with her associate who announced that she needed the registration and proof of insurance. Once again, I told her that the car is registered in Ohio and now has Ohio plates.

Her eyes started blinking rapidly. (I had seen that movie before. The eyes of the alien killer robots started blinking rapidly just before their heads blew up.) She asked, “How did she do that?” To which, I shrugged my shoulders.

The associate then pointed out that with out the registration and proof of insurance, she could only transfer the title and not the registration. I told her that that was fine.

She then pointed out that she could not put an Ohio address on a Michigan title. I told her to use my address on the title. I figured that once the title was transfered, Rachel could do what ever she wanted with the title and the address.

Ten minutes and twenty dollars later, I was out the door, title in hand. Mission accomplished. Once again, I beat the bureaucracy!