This time last year I headlined this space, “Take 2009, Please!” Today, I offer thanks for the blessings of 2010 and the dear friends, who were always near and full of encouragement. Love you all, just forgive me if I don’t load facebook apps to tell you so. A short sermon follows:
2011 is going to be a difficult year for our city’s homeless people and for the folks I have shared space with at the Tenn. Career Center, aka unemployment office. I am finding a role to play in this picture, not a major one by any means, but a role. Some of you have seen my begging for computer gear on facebook. There will likely be more of that as I set up pc stations at the St. Andrews Center, and eventually in other venues. Do respond as you are able.
While bits & bytes won’t feed the 5000, learning pc skills will help them fish for employment in waters that are as unfriendly as those below the dam during flood season.
2011 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of TVRM, the local railroad museum. That group knows something about surviving hard times. They were on the verge of foreclosure, with the bank threatening to even take their tunnel. Can’t you just imagine a nearly 1000 foot-long drive through window. The judge could not either, and the group was allowed to redo the debt. (They subsequently paid off every penny). Now their 100+ year-old locomotive No. 630 is almost ready to resume service pulling excursion trains. Join me this Spring, at track-side. Bring your camera!
2011 looks to be the year of the conservative in politics. They act like they just discovered it. If only the Conservatives had been practicing what they preach for the past decade this country’s finances might be in better shape. I was conservative (not the same as being one) when it was not trendy. In 2011 I will attempt to continue conservatively, as a good steward, in the tradition of John Wesley’s “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can.”
So welcome, 2011, to my world. 2010 is in my memory book (not to mention tattooed on 2 dozen facebook photo albums). It was a very good year., thanks to all of you who made it so.
Tags: camera, Chattanooga, conservative, economy, homeless, John Wesley, locomotive, news, people, photograph, politics, railroad, unemployment
