The Revitalization of Columbus

Today - a busy day

Cubs should be very afraid
The Revitalization of Columbus
Public Enemies
Where is my Economic Stimulus Check
The Battle of Greasy Grass
Live TV

Remember when I said the other day the Cubs were looking a lot like the Brewers from last year? I commented that their starting pitching was not making it through the 6th inning and the bullpen was getting tired, exactly the problem the Crew had last year.

Last night the Cub starter went 4.2 innings and they needed four relievers to finish the game! Meanwhile the Brewers won their eighth game in the last nine. Don't look behind you Cubbies!!
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I attended a meeting titled "Revitalize Downtown Columbus" last night and you would think that more then three business owners and building owners would actually care about making Columbus better. WTF??

The PROBLEM with this town is that the people who run the downtown business's for the most part just don't care! OR, is it they did not know about the meeting? I did see a tiny 1 inch article in the Columbus paper on Saturday. We need some way to inform Columborians of news, we need our own newspaper. (no I'm not volunteering).

I read all the time the whiners in the Columbus Journal's (once a week inside the BD newspaper) Letters to the Editor about people being unhappy, yet, when there is a meeting where are they????? Sitting at home in front of TV eating bon bons, shaking their fingers at the kids telling them to get off their lawns??? I think I'll have to submit my own letter and rattle some business cages!

Did you know that 75% of the buildings in downtown Columbus are occupied? I had guessed 40%. Here is ANOTHER problem. No one is ever OPEN!! When DJ and I moved to Columbus we made an effort to do all of our shopping downtown. What did we find? Closed signs. 5:00, roll up the streets. There will be no gift or antique buying today.

There are a lot of opportunities here for small businesses such as a taxi service. When someone get's off the train and wants to go somewhere they are out of luck. I have had people contact ME to ask how they can go places once they get off the train. Heck, if I have people asking me because they read the blog, think how many that DON'T read this blog are lost.

I sat next to Steven Sobiek, the new Director of Economic Development, nice guy even though he lives in Fall River (I won't hold it against him unless the Capri moves to FR) and I wanted to say "what this town needs is a way to walk people through the puzzle of starting a business". But I didn't. I know several people (again through the blog) that are interested but don't know where to start (they want to buy/rent the "ebay" store on the corner).

There is a bubble of enthusiasm in Columbus right now and we have to figure out how to get others involved. If I can get seventeen people to give up a Saturday to paint a train station why can't we get people that are financially involved in Columbus to give up an hour of their time for a meeting that directly involves them. Are they afraid of success??

Boyd Kraemer (City Administrator) and Steven Sobiek have a tough job but I do like their enthusiasm. Boyd scared me at first (I think he was a teacher, I was not a big fan of teachers 40 years ago . . long story . . . does everyone have dreams of high school - not finding a locker or a room?) but he seems OK. I'm here to help guys!

OH - I was talking to Boyd and he mentioned that the Train Gang was in the Beaver Dam Newspaper yesterday. If anyone has that copy or wants to take a photo of the article I'd love to post it.

ALSO - to Boyd or Steven or Nancy. I'd love to have a digital of the reconstruction of that area next to the City Hall. We need to get people excited about improvements and the best way is to show them what things will look like.
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Public Enemies - from Marcella

I headed down around 4... caught some traffic and therefor decided to go to the Jefferson Park area first. We found basecamp, it was where we thought it would be. However, Johnny's trailer was not there, Michael Mann's bus was, but the entire area looked rather deserted and I didn't have a good feeling about it. We followed a few yellow PE signs to the set. From what we gathered, it was an interior scene that would be a women's jail. By the time we had gotten there they had already finished filming in this location. We decided to head over to Surf.

The scene being shot on Surf was completely interior as well, the sign saying "set 3rd floor" confirmed this as well. The question remained however, now where was basecamp? All the trailers had been cleared out of the location in the Jefferson Park area. Becky and Sarah were walking around looking, as was Terry. My mom, friend, and I decided to head back to the car and search that way. With little effort our mission was accomplished.

We staked out a spot in a nearby parking lot and waited. Our original impression was that it would be a late night, and we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. A quick phone call changed this plan when we found out that Johnny had wrapped. Dinner was taken to go and we darted back to Basecamp. We ended up having a picnic on the blanket while waiting for him to come out.

Becky and I were first in line, and completely unprepared when Johnny suddenly appeared in front of us. He signed autographs for people and it would have been the perfect evening and time (seeing that we were first and Jerry hadn't quite come around yet) to get a picture with him. Did get a hug, and the Sweeney DVD signed for my cousin. She's a big musical fan while I'm a big JD fan. We definitely have Sweeney in common ;) It was nicer then last night, and the area was more secluded. I would guess maybe 25 people? We started heading home close to 11.

Thanks Marcella
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Where is my Economic Stimulus Check???

Well - I did a bonehead blunder when I did Turbo Tax. LESSON LEARNED.

I paid my TurboTax fees with my tax refund you made 2 mistakes. First you paid $29.95 for a "refund processing fee." dumb dumb dumb idea. I paid $30 for the privilege of paying TurboTax to take my money out of your tax rebate.

I paid $30 to Santa Barbara Bank & Trust to "loan" me the money for the TurboTax payment. My tax refund then went to the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and then they send me what's left over.

THEN

Because Santa Barbara Bank & Trust is technically getting my tax refund direct deposit from the IRS, I won't get my stimulus payment by direct deposit. That's because the US Treasury doesn't have my bank information because TurboTax didn't send it to them.

Because of the timing of the Economic Stimulus Payment Package most tax preparation companies didn't have a chance to prepare for it. So in TurboTax's defense, they probably just didn't have time to make it work.

As luck would have it my last two digits are above 88 so I will get my paper check LAST, about July 4th.

On a side note President Bush said that 130 million households will receive a check. In the last U.S. census the U.S. only had 105,480,101 households. I hope we get one of the extra 25 million checks floating around.
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Today in 1876 was The Battle of Greasy Grass . . . . . sorry, being an American Indian I forget you guys changed the name to Big Horn.

Here is an actual photograph that Michelle took at the battle - she is AWESOME!!


Anyone interested in ghosts should check out this site which talks about theGhosts of the Little . . . Bighorn ( gag).
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AND FINALLY - There is NOTHING like live TV. Check out some of these live news clips.


Have a wonderful Wednesday.

HEY - I'm looking for a nice Chicken BBQ recipe for this weekend, something Caribbean. ANYONE???

Rod Out!