Excerpts from one ordinary person's life.

Here's a shot of the burning bush in the front yard. It's finally turning red.



This is what she does when she gets a cookie or a bone. She stomps her front feet down, barks at it, runs around knocking it with her snout, butt in the air, and barks more at it. She will toss it around, and then eat it. Silly girlz!!

I have been run ragged today. Instead of boring all of you with it, I will post a pic from where I live.



This is right across from where I work. It is the Clock Tower Building. Part of a large factory building complex that once belonged to the Coleco Industries. They made ColecoVision, Adam Computer, Koosas, Cabbage Patch Kids, Smurf Mobiles, Big Wheel, and other good children's toys. They went bankrupt a long time ago. The name Coleco is a combination of names. CO for Connecticut, LE for Leather, and CO for Company. Their full name was always the Connecticut Leather Company. Not many folks knew that. They were in leather way before they got into making children's toys. The toy business put them under, specifically the Adam Computer. I used to work in one of thier buildings called the Cabbage Patch. I made the dolls and koosas. I hated that job, but it paid well. Very well for the time.
This building is 5 stories tall and I see it each day when I work across the street on the 5th floor of the glass company.

On another note, now that this post has gotten too long to read, I have finsihed that crib blanket and posted it up in the etsy store. Maybe someone will want it, maybe not. But it's in there. I didn't think with all the things happening to me this week that I would get it done, but it's finally done. :)

I do hope all of you are having a wonderful day.

Names have been changed to protect those involved.
This is a true story of my friend.

The story of Woodrow.

Woodrow is a friend of mine. He is an Army veteran, and in his late fifties. I also know his daughter, whose name for the purpose of this story is unimportant. He worked in the factories around this area all his life. We are all part of the newly called "Rust Belt", we all had work at one time, now it's a dog eat dog world out there when it comes to finding and keeping a job. Even a low paying factory job.
Woodrow was a good worker. He showed up to work each day, did his 8 or 10 hours as required, and did his overtime Saturday as required, when required. He did little complaining, asked for little money, a "good soldier" they call it. He worked quite a while at this one particular area company. Anyone who stays at a factory job for more than a year now is considered a senior employee.
One day, that company he spent so much time at daily, killing himself working for for so little pay, decided to shut it's doors for good. Yet another statistic in this city's history. He and everyone else that worked there lost their jobs overnight.
Woodrow looked for work often, flooding the area with applications. Not having any luck at all. It takes up to 8 months in this area to find a job opening and be able to seize it before someone else does. There are few openings, and three times that in people applying for work here. He'd fallen behind in his rent by three months. His landlord evicted him, and eventually locked him out. He broke in, took what he could carry on his own back, including his pup tent.
He walked to an area I know very well from my own homeless days here in this city. I have explored that area extensively myself some 20 years earlier. It hasn't changed because nobody thinks to go in there. He pitched his tent in the Widow Susan Rd. area woods. He lived in that tent for 19 months. Even during winter, which is brutal here. When it got to 18 below zero, with wind chills up to minus 60, I told J I thought for sure he'd die out there. Not Woodrow. He was a Vet, he knew survival techniques. He stayed alive with a little propane heater. That spring and early summer, I saw Woodrow. He was telling me all about it. Proud of himself that he'd survived it. He asked me to look at his upper back, and see if there was something there. It felt like there was, but he couldn't reach it. He raised his t-shirt and I saw 3 ticks on him. I pulled them off of him immediately. He got sick a few weeks later. He went to the VA Hospital in Albany and he was tested. He had COPD, and he also had Lyme Disease from the deer ticks that had gotten him. They hooked him up with a social worker after hearing about how he'd gotten bitten by so many ticks. He now gets disability payments, and splits a living space with a roommate. He no longer lives out in the woods. I a just glad my firend is still alive today. This city almost killed him.

If anyone here thinks this is bullshit, you're wrong. This is what happens here in the city of Amsterdam. It happens more often than folks think. I spent my first two years here homeless. That was my own stupidity though. At that time you could find work much more easily, which I did, once I got my head out of my ass. ( I was a teenage alcoholic/drug addict runaway when I came here)

This city needs help. More than I can give it. I just hope our political heads can figure out what can save it, soon.

printed an opion article about the city of Amsterdam. On section D front page bottom. Saying it has developed a "Wild West of the Captal Region" reputation, and that the Grand St. area can be compared to Schenectady's Mont Pleasant section. I don't know anything about Schenectady other than that's home to GE, and crime is very high there. I can't make comment on the comparison. However, the wild west comment is true. It's not just that area, but the entire city does have a wild west feel to it. I see it every day, even in the last place in the world I thought I'd ever see it in, the workplace. (I have posted about such fights at work before)
It does mention how that particular section of the city was settled by Polish immigrants who slaved away in teh Sanford carpet mills and made a life for themselves and their families. It also mentions how the growing Hispanic population is largely jobless and on welfare. How can this writer just single out the Hispanics? I see it in all races here, not just Hispanics. Everyone here is hurting for meaningful work. Look at J. He isn't Hispanic, yet he is out of work 90% of the year. If I didn't have this job at the glass company I'd be out of work too. This is why I do as I am told, no matter how good or bad it is, and do the best I can to keep my job. Yes I hate it most of the time, just like anyone else I suppose, but it's a job, so I work it.
Yes, this city is rapidly going to hell, and there is nothing that can stop it, or so it would seem. We need companies to come here. We have a huge crop of unemployed who want to work. We have space for companies to come. If I knew what it was that prevented them from coming here, I'd fix it. I don't think there is an easy fix though. I just hope our city politicians can get the ball rolling on some kind of plan soon.
It's not good when the paper from a neighboring city writes poorly about our little city. Who knows, maybe if we get enough bad press someone will take pity on us and bring business here. Like they say, bad press is better than no press at all. It's advertising, but in a negative way.