Whine & Cheese

The title is just because we're going to a wine & cheese tasting, and I couldn't think of anything else to title this post.

Now for our next episode of "technology is pretty amazing".

I searched for my last name on facebook just for the hell of it and found a Mark Fermenich. So I sent him a quick friend invite with a note giving some of my genealogy and asking him if we're related. After some digging, it turns out we're 4th cousins! I mean, how often do you run into someone and figure out that they're your 4th cousin? Pretty nifty stuff.

---

Random thought: I need to stop using the "&" key so much and start typing the word "and" more.

---

So I fully intended for this blog to be a place for me to collect my political rantings and musings. But, as it turns out, as of late I haven't been able to work myself into enough of a lather to give enough of a damn to write about anything.

Is it because the political landscape is changing for the better? I don't know. Maybe it's because enough like minds have a voice out there now with blogs and webpages that I don't feel like I'm the only one who has this opinion and I must get that idea out there. Possibly driving an insight at 55MPH and living in Madison has mellowed me. I have been listening to a lot of James Taylor & Kenny Loggins lately.

One quick political blurb. I should expound on it more, but I'm not sure how to take it yet. On the McLaughlin Group over the weekend the moderator of the show said that Obama was an "Oreo". At this point I can't tell if McLaughlin really is calling Obama an "Oreo" or if he intended to phrase it that Jesse Jackson was saying Obama was an "Oreo", and McLaughlin was just saying it poorly.

Judge for yourself & let me know what you think:

Home is where the heart is, or where google maps has cameras.

Google maps is pretty darn amazing. Not only can it help you find where you're driving, but it also can evoke the bitter-sweet feelings of childhood & one's past.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=5674+n.+37th+st+milwaukee+wi&sll=43.122302,-87.958496&sspn=0.007941,0.012467&ie=UTF8&ll=43.124793,-87.957809&spn=0.00794,0.012467&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.120832,-87.958633&panoid=5fdCW0BBljmw9l_MkHUHQA&cbp=1,93.6418806700276,,0,7.129161625339512

That is a link to my childhood home in a neighborhood that was once a tight knit community. Eventually it was beaten down by the city's unwritten plan to lower property values on the northwest side in order to begin gentrification in the northern downtown & Riverwest districts.

Back to google maps, the first time I looked up this address & looked at the street view, a wave of emotions washed over me. Questions like, "I wonder what the living room looks like now" or "does the upstairs still have that smell of old wood" cropped up in my mind. I started "driving" up & down the street, and with every click I was reminded of other memories... Playing golf in the front yard. Sitting on the front steps of Becky's house learning the hard truths of how cruel women can be. Taking the shortcut up the stonewall behind Sullivan's to get to Joey's house.

I found myself wishing that I could get more detail to the photos. Then I realized, I really didn't want anymore detail. The more I looked, the more sadness I felt. The porch is gone, replaced with just a small platform & some stairs. The 40' spruces that shadowed the front yard are gone as well as the fencing & gate to the back yard. The things that made the house a home were no longer there. More detail to the photos would just bring that sad reality into even clearer focus.

I revisit that neighborhood in my mind quite frequently. At least once a month I have dreams that either use my old house, or other houses/yards in the neighborhood as settings. You can go back to the place, but you can't go back to the time.

So, I just don't get Obama.

Was he this much of a blue dog democrat in the past? I mean, I always knew that he was pretty centrist, but between the "We need to increase faith based initiatives", to voting for the FISA act, to being against gay marriage, yadda yadda yadda.

Thinking back, I blogged 4 years ago about almost the exact same thing with John Kerry. I realize that to do well in the general election, a candidate must stress any centrist roots they have. All the same, It's unnerving when they do it in a way that seems to spite the left.

In the end, he's my candidate, and he's the one I've been pulling for from the start. Lets just hope he doesn't blow this one & pick Hillary as his running mate. :p

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_el_pr/obama