Woodstock CT Café

See the article about the race in the Norwich Bull. According to this article, 550 runners pre-registered but more were registering on site. We will report the final tally when we find it. Last year there were 720 participants.

From Susan Rioux: “…there were 795 participants that registered. This is about 70 more than last year. Things went really smoothly this year. I am so pleased with how things worked out. …It was so nice to see more dogs, strollers and kids. We are happy that this is a great, fun community event not just a race for serious runners. Judy meant a lot to many people and she continues to inspire people even years after her death.”

JMacht has a slide show of the early finishers and some other participants.

About the Race.

Click to enlarge all pictures.
1. Tense moments before the start.
2. The start.
3. We were already way behind.
4. The apparent winner passed us going the other way.
5. We fall further behind … even behind people tying their shoelaces.
6. The message at the start that gave us hope … Oops!
7. Should I or shouldn’t I?
8. Sunday … NOT!

We finished almost last … someone had to take the pictures .

from Kevin

I try not to drop into too many of these national debates but here it goes. I agree with Newcomer, both parties cater to their own special interests. Both sides talk about controlling the deficit but what that seems to be code for is preserve my stuff and cut your stuff. Even the group that claims to be all about deficit control (the Tea Party) for the most part is looking to cut the stuff of their ideological opponents but not willing to cut the stuff that they believe in to control the deficit.

As I understand it here is the breakout of our government spending:
* Military: 21%
* Social Security: 20%
* Medicare & Medicaid: 20%
* Other: 19%
* National Debt Interest: 12%
* Major Social-Aid Programs: 8%

We need to start looking at the top three, military, Social Security and Medicare. How do we control costs in these three areas? In my opinion anyone that doesn’t put these seriously on the table (and I’m talking about more than cutting an unpopular military jet engine development program) is not serious about controlling our national debt.

In my mind the biggest things to consider are figuring out how we can control Social Security and Medicare costs with an aging population, reduce military spending and resetting tax levels to where they were in the 1990s.

The military, I believe, is particularly egregious. We have prosecuted two wars in the last decade without substantially increasing the number of active duty personnel while still retaining the ability to project military power into another theatre if called on to do so. That’s just crazy. Just looking at our comparative spending on the military shows exactly how skewed we are compared to other countries and it’s eating us alive financially.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

We need to concentrate spending on what gets us by today and what we need to invest in to keep us strong tomorrow. Well that’s my opinion anyway (and you know what they say about opinions).

Thanks, Kevin

from Pro-Ed Funding

If traditional American values mean putting profits before people, shoving others under a bus in order to get ahead, horde gobs of materialistic treasures and waste precious natural resources in order to keep up with the Jones’s, fighting expensive wars while allowing our schools, hospitals, and highways to fail, allowing those who created this economic slump to go unscathed while the rest of us pay the price, giving tax breaks to the rich while cutting social security and medicare, letting corporations who pay no taxes receive taxpayer subsidies and use them to buy our elections, taking away worker’s rights to bargain while CEO’s are making record salaries, well then, yes, I do hate these traditional American values which the Republicans, the Tea Party, and the Fox news junkies embrace, and proudly wave the liberal American flag with all who stand with me in opposing them.

from Dawn Morin

For those that were not able to make the 4/12/2011 Board of Finance meeting/community forum, much was discussed.

Mr. Hosmer, the chairman of the BOF, expressed concern that the board is “operating in a vacuum” and does not have the true pulse of the community opinion in regard to what the people do or do not want to or have the ability to fund.

Through this meeting, many expressed their opinions in support of the proposed BOE budget. We learned some key things through this forum:

1) The Board of Education presented three scenarios of what would be cut from the education budget, based on 3 different increases that the BOF could put to referendum vote: .42, .5 and .75.  The .42 increase and .5 increase would involve cutting staff and programs, such as sports, which most of us feel is inappropriate, given that our K-8 system is already running bare-bones and physical activity is key to our children’s overall development.

Due to Prop 46, the maximum proposed increased budget amount that the BOF can put to referendum is .71. This amounts to: $71 per $100,000 assessed property value. For a $200,000 home, the taxpayer’s tax increase would be $142.

Individual families need to ask themselves if this is a burden they can shoulder. If so, please consider signing the attached letter.

2) In regard to elderly residents, for whom even a modest increase would be a burden, there is a program which they may apply, through the town, for a “freeze” on their taxes due. The difference is made up through state funds which Woodstock would receive directly from that account.

The town sends info about this program with the tax bills and advertises two times a year to notify residents. However, there seem to be many who are not aware of this program. If you have friends/neighbors who are elderly and may express concern that any increased tax rate would place undue hardship on their household, please let them know about this relief program. This program is also available to Veterans who served in a time of conflict.

3) If the BOF proposes a budget for referendum vote and it does NOT pass, the BOF must, BY LAW, then submit a LOWER budget for subsequent vote. So, even if you vote NO to a budget because you feel it is too low, the subsequent budget MUST be lower, therefore require even MORE CUTS by the BOE and Town Hall.

The BOF will be making their official proposal of the referendum budget on Tuesday, April 26th @ 7:30 p.m. @ the meeting in Town Hall. We need to let the BOF know if the majority of the community will be willing to back a .71 mil increase budget. Barring residents writing their own letters, which would be great if they have the time, we can get them to see that hundreds of us are of that mindset by signing the attached letter, which I will take to the Town Clerk on Monday, April 25th to become part of the record of correspondence to the BOF. It is important that this be delivered in advance of the BOF meeting.

Hopefully, if we can present them with a mass show of support, they will have to consider bringing that .71 increase to referendum, as it is the will of the people.

If you are in agreement, please print & sign the attached letter.

If you can, share this letter with friends and neighbors and try to get at least TEN signatures, in addition to yours. (Just be sure that the person has not already signed someone else’s copy, so that we don’t have any redundant signatures.) Then, return the original, signed letter to me by Monday, April 25th @ 10 a.m.

You may do so via mail or you may email me to arrange to personally deliver the signed letter to me.

Please don’t just drop it off at town hall, as it will have more impact to deliver them en masse, and we’ll have a count of total supporters. Thank you all for your input and support! If possible, attend the 4/26/11 BOF meeting at Town Hall.

Dawn M. Morin
62 Lebanon Hill Rd, 06281
or dodobaskets@hotmail.com

The letter:

April 20, 2011
Town of Woodstock Board of Finance
415 Rte. 169
Woodstock, CT 06281-3039

Dear Members of the Woodstock Board of Finance,

We, the undersigned residents of Woodstock, in regard to the 2011-12 fiscal year, respectfully request that the Board of Finance bring to referendum vote, a budget with the maximum increase allowed by Prop 46.

Sincerely,

from Dean

If you think that everything is so great in MA and RI, those two states have been controlled by liberals forever. The only thing cheaper in those states is gas, they get their taxes from other sources.

If you want to call liberals/progressives evil, well shame on you, people like you are the problem. You want to demonize a whole group of people but never want to solve a problem. You ae probably just one of those people who want to keep more in their pocket and damn everything else. That view point is hardly what makes this country great.

Since you think that liberals are evil, lets just go back 2 years when the so-called conservatives were in charge and their record at that time.

The worst recession since the great depression.

TARP, bailout of banks

The greatest debt in this country’s history, of course it has only gone up.

The greatest expansion of the federal government in history with the Medicare prescription plan. How did we pay for that, cut taxes of course.

Skyrocketing gas and food prices.

The worst growth over a president’s term since the depression.

Two wars, one not won, the other we were duped to get into.

I could go on and on.

There is plenty of blame to go around to both sides. Blaming one side just points out that you really dont care about the answers.

Jog with Judy is today .

This year will mark our 6th Annual Jog with Judy Road Race in Woodstock, Ct. The Woodstock community lost Judy Nilan, a social worker at Woodstock Middle School, while she was jogging near her home. She is still and will forever be missed by her friends, family and colleagues.

This road race was developed by the staff at the Woodstock Public School system to honor Judy and to give everyone a way to remember her in a positive manner. She loved to run/jog, so it seemed perfect. Three teachers, Chris Mayhew, Jen Prather and I took on the challenge of organizing this road race. (Jen Prather has taken a leave of absence and Sandy Sanderson has replaced her). We were so astonished to see over 800 people come to the first race. What makes this race special are the volunteers and donations from businesses that give generously to help keep this wonderful day alive. Last year, our 5th year, we had about 720 people come out and support the race.

Each year, we gather at the beginning of Roseland Park Road ready to begin the race and share memories of Judy. All the hours we put into organizing the race finally ends and we can see our efforts shine. It is an amazing day even if the weather is not great. There is food, music, balloons, smiling faces and people from all over. I, personally, will never forget the first race we had. The runners and walkers were told to start and I watched this huge sea of people going down the road. It was quite a sight. I stood there shocked to see so many people coming out to give their respect for Judy and what she believed in.

Judy was a social worker at Woodstock Middle School. This is where I met her and watched her as she planned activities for the students. She was passionate about programs that were geared towards character education as well as drug/alcohol awareness programs. She also liked programs that helped students improve their self-esteem. When she organized a project, she did it BIG. She knew that for such programs to work, you must to get the attention of kids.

All money collected (excluding race expenses) is put into a Judy Nilan fund. Any teacher/staff member in the Woodstock Public School system may fill out a request for funding of a project that fits into the category of character education, self-esteem, and drug/alcohol awareness. Each request must be written out in detail and show how the funds are going to be used. There is a committee comprised of the race coordinators, the principal, the social worker and the school psychologist. We meet and discuss each request and vote to allocate funds for the project. Read the rest of this entry »

TEEG offers a scholarship award of $500.00 to a college bound Thompson, Woodstock or Pomfret resident. Applicants for this scholarship should be students pursuing higher education or a training program after graduation who have participated in extracurricular activities and volunteer service that has benefited their fellow students or the community at large.

Applications for this scholarship are available at the Guidance Departments at Pomfret School, Woodstock Academy, Tourtellote and Marianapolis. Scholarship applications are also available at TEEG.

Applications for the TEEG scholarship must be submitted to: TEEG Scholarship Committee, P.O. Box 664, 65 Main Street, North Grosvenordale, CT 06255 by 2pm on May 16th.

from John

My asparagus popped up on the 17th of April. Last year it came up at the end of the first week of April and the Forsythia came out in the first week last year. Before last year the asparagus always came up in the forth week of April. I’ll supply a picture shortly .

Here’s the proof. The blue arrows identify the newly sprouted asparagi.

“I have had some bad luck these last couple of races,” said Westover, who averaged 5:54 per mile. “I have been training and then getting sick a couple of days before, so I really wanted to come and run a good race, but it was tough for me today.”

Westover, who lives in Walpole, N.H., has already qualified for the 2012 Olympic marathon trials. She had an opportunity to run today’s Boston Marathon but declined in favor of the Vermont City Marathon, which will be held May 29 in Burlington. Westover is a four-time Vermont City champion.

from John

This is the start of last year’s Womens’ Boston Marathon. Here’s Meg Gatten Westerling’s daughter Heidi Westover at the start (blue arrow). Heidi finished 4th among American women and 18th overall. I’m proud of the fact that Meg is my cousin and Heidi is my cousin once-removed.

from Con

It does seem that the “They do it too!” argument is effective as a counterpoint AND as a tool for deflecting all attention away from that original point raised – this Article seems to be about SLOGANS utilized by Conservatives in an ill-conceived effort to indoctrinate American Citizens into thinking like them. I argue that it wasn’t always like this (though I admit it’s quite cyclical) and that currently these efforts have a ‘dumbing down’ effect, if I am to take seriously the debates in which I engage on blogs, websites and the like – the American Citizens arguing with me often indulge in puerile insults and rhetoric.

That is, the one tendency that is constant is their steadfast desire to hurt me in some way. I’d sure like to get to the bottom of this. Aside from the obvious reasons regarding always wanting to hurt them with whom you have heated debate, what makes these Conservatives truly angry at them what disagree with them? They just lash out. I’ve been threatened physically several time and had to report it – I mean there are kids involved; I’m not going to abide that garbage. Yet they seem to THINK they’ve done nothing wrong and are still the Chosen Ones when it comes to The Constitution.

It’s utterly amazing how many Constitutional Scholars exist in the Conservative blogs! Who knew? Problem is, they mostly read the text and fail to understand the jurisprudence the Supreme Court has developed all of these years all based exclusively on The Constitution.

But back to this anger; if anyone can explain it, I’m sure listening. Do this: go to http://www.humanevents.com and 1) Read whatever Article OR COMMENT about which you are most knowledgeable AND disagree with; 2) Post a comment of intelligent, honest dissent/disagreement, being sure to bring down that house of cards (there always is one) and wait. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s hear some running stories. I’ve got one more that I will eventually reveal . John

Becki and I will participate in the Jog with Judy 5-K Race. We invite Cafe’ers to join us. I’ll be waring my “YOU MORON” cap but nothing else .

These pictures were taken in the fall of 1960 and remind me of running cross country that fall at Norwalk High School. We beat Darien and Brian McMahon that year – that’s all that counts. Jim Monroe in the back row was the center on our basketball team. I can remember passing him at Greenwich. He was lying on the side of the road – he looked up to me and said with some distress “I can’t go any further…”

On one day I had just started a race. After the start of the race as I rounded the track to head out onto the 3.2 mile course, Read the rest of this entry »

REP. ROVERO AND FIRST SELECTMAN GROH TO HOLD OPEN OFFICE HOURS IN THOMPSON

Public invited to discuss issues

     State Representative Danny Rovero (D-Killingly, Putnam, Thompson) and Thompson First Selectman Lawrence K. Groh will hold open office hours on Saturday, April 16th from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Thompson Library.
     “I always encourage my constituents to take part in the political process by contacting me, but it’s not easy to get to the Capitol,” said Rep. Rovero.   “Meeting people in person, placing a name to a face often results in great ideas and solutions. I hope to see you on April 16th.”
     This is a chance for residents to share their thoughts and concerns, ask questions, get help or just meet.
WHAT:   Rep. Rovero office hours
WHEN:   Saturday, April 16th
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
WHEN:   Thompson Town Library
934 Riverside Drive,
North Grosvenor Dale, CT

from Pro-Ed

Allow me to provide some comic relief:

There was this little boy, who after watching TV one night asked his father, “What is politics?” And the father said, “Well, let me explain it this way. I go to work every day and bring home the money – so I am what you call a Capitalist. Now your mother takes the money, pays the bills and makes sure everything runs well – so she is called the Government. And because we take care of you, you would be the People. Now your nanny is the Working Class and your little baby brother would be what we all consider the Future.” The little boy said, “Okay,” and went out to play. Later that night, he was awakened by the baby crying. He got up and went into the baby’s room and, WOW, did it stink ….very bad diaper. So he went into his parent’s room, but his mom was sleeping and his dad was missing. So he went looking for his dad and he heard sounds from his nanny’s room. He tried the door, it was locked then he looked through the keyhole and saw his dad and the nanny going at it together in the bed. So the little boy decided to go back to sleep. The next morning when he saw his dad he said, “Dad, I know what politics really means now!” His dad very proudly said, “Well, great. Tell me in your own words.” “Well,” said the little boy, “Politics is when the Capitalists screw the Working Class, while the Government sleeps, the People are ignored and the Future is in deep shit….”

from Con

First, I’m genuinely confused: WHO are you talking about/referring to (to Ishka)?

Specifically WHO do you mean when you say “The person for writing this article…[sic]” and “What THE WRITER accuses the conservatives of…” (emphasis added). WHO is ‘the person’, ‘the writer’?

Anyway, your rather weak and very standard, over-used argument that ‘they do it too!’ does not in any way refute any arguments or assertions made. Please – address those arguments head-on, based on The Merits and in accordance with rules of Debate and honest Rhetoric, like the good old days. We don’t see enough of that today. I agree that there is intellectual dishonesty and Sloganeering perpetrated by both sides and both engage in idiotic tactics and arguments.

My point is that Conservatives are expressing lowly and dishonest, judgmental sentiments these past few years that I’ve not witnessed before: a kind of perverse Unity that is ALL about SLOGANS and sound bytes, truly simple thinking (vis a vis Sarah Palin, et al), far too much hyperbole and over-exaggeration and, most ugly and powerful of all, the repeated, haughty assertion that all Democrats and Liberals literally HATE AMERICA. HUH!?! Where the hell does that come from?

THAT is something you do not see coming from both sides. Conservatives spawned and nurtured this unique, ugly tool of divisiveness (which is, BTW, truly a great disservice at a time when Unity is needed almost desperately in America). Read the rest of this entry »

Click to read the whole misunderstanding