GEEKNOTE: I'm sitting here listing to a Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording of Red Barchetta...on an LP. Somehow it fits the mood I've found myself in today. Red Barchetta was inspired by a short story "A Nice Morning Drive" by John Foster that appeared in Road & Track back in November 1973.
I don't subscribe to the myth that everything was better back in the 50's, but just maybe, in my own way, I'm feeling the vague discomfort that for all our advances, we would all be better off if we took more time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
That is definitely true of babies. Grandchild number five arrived last week. Reese and I got to spend some quality time together Saturday. I introduced her to the enjoyment of watching Gator football on TV. As you can see in the photo, she wasn't all that excited and didn't seem too upset that we lost. For the record, both Carolyn and I agree that, if we had known grandkids were this much fun, we'd have had them first.
It is definitely true of tooling around town. As a kid, I rode all over New Port Richey on a steel, three speed Western Flyer bike. My current bike may be carbon fiber and have 27 speeds, but the experience is a lot the same. I don't miss the old generator lights. The new LED lights are MUCH better and don't slow me down when I use them. We've even got a men's group that meets on Tuesday evenings for a couple of hours. Helmets and lights are more important than the bike. We've got a little bit of everything among the bikes that show up.
Stained glass windows just don't look quite as nice if you have to install hand rails right in front of them... I'm sure it is safer, but when is the last time you heard of someone falling out of a stained glass window?
I am familiar with these particular windows because I've taken a conscious effort to spend slightly less time with Microsoft Windows and more time surrounded by the stained glass variety. Being a geek at heart, I volunteered to run the sound board and this stained glass window is to my immediate left every Sunday morning while I'm sitting at the sound board up in the balcony.
Friday brought the Gulf High Homecoming parade right past our store. We went out and watched. It wasn't nearly as large as recent Chasco parades, but it had a charm all of its own. What we lost when professional floats took over the bigger parades in our town still exists at Homecoming.
One thing I DON'T subscribe to is the belief that our best days are behind us. Notwithstanding the idiots in Washington, it isn't true for our country and it isn't true for New Port Richey.
There quite a few things cooking these days. The city's new finance director starts this week and a new economic development director starts in a few weeks. Perhaps if we take a long hard look at the things we loved about our town back in the 60's and try to update them for today, we would have something we could be proud of. Dunedin, Dade City, and other nearby towns have made this work. So can we.
If you could turn back the clock, what would you want to have again in New Port Richey that we've somehow lost?
Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com
