My husband was in bed last night waiting for me to come up because I was putting some finishing touches on my daughter’s school fundraiser and picture forms when we both heard a bunch of sirens.  We live pretty close to the fire station, so we didn’t think much of it, even if it was odd that they were allowing them to wail so loudly just before midnight.  This morning a friend emailed me with the bad news, and I went to  the local newspaper’s website to see the details: our beloved community park, Imagination Station, burnt last night.

We still don’t know how it happened, but it’s obvious that this was not a natural cause – it was not lightning, and there is no electricity capable of sparking such a blaze at the park.  Unfortunately, this seems to be the work of people, and whether it was intentional or an accident remains to be seen.  At least no one was hurt physically in the blaze.  But many in the community are emotionally distraught, for Imagination Station was a wonderful park where citizens from throughout the area would spend warm summer nights, cool autumn evenings, and many a Saturday afternoon with their families and friends.  Funded by private donations and built by the hands of thousands of volunteers in 1994, it was a source of community pride.  Everyone came together to create Imagination Station; kids volunteered their cool playground ideas, while adults physically built the play equipment and still others provided thousands of meals for the builders.  The community worked together day and night, rain and shine for 6 days until it was finished.  The final product was amazing, impressing locals and out of town visitors alike.  And now much of it is gone.

Many people came out tonight to walk past the charred ruins.  In a way, it was like paying one’s respects, and many people stared at the blackened splinters in stunned silence.  There were whispers, “Who would do such a thing?” and “How did this happen?”, and one woman walked by slowly, saying quietly, “We will build it again.  And it will be more beautiful than ever.”  I believe her to be right.  People came together in 1994 and built an amazing park, and people will come together again to replace the one we lost yesterday.

“The Greeks built an Acropolis – And Noah built an Ark
The Russians built a Sputnik  But Bryan built a Park”
(Bryan Times, 1957)

**UPDATE**

There was an update in today’s (9/17/10) newspaper saying that tons of people have stepped forward and created a volunteer organization to rebuild.  It was insured, and Spangler Candy Company has stepped forward to cover any costs not paid for by insurance.  There is a Facebook page dedicated to the rebuilding of Imagination Station where people can share their memories of the park or volunteer for the rebuilding.
Unfortunately the fire investigation and the insurance company’s investigation will both take awhile, and nothing can be done until they are finished.  They hope to have the playground replaced by Spring, but that is still a long time, especially for those of us with kids.  Sure there are other parks in town, but Imagination Station was the favorite.   🙁  The little town made the big Toledo news though, they had a nice story:

Last night after waiting a week following my call back invitation, I got the details.  Not at all what I was expecting.  The call backs were to be last week and casting decided by Monday.  After Monday, I was becoming a bit concerned.  At this point, I was more curious about the filming then having a part or not.  We had attempted to film The Clinic a year or so ago, but that fell through.  So I emailed the writer of the play to see if he knew anything in his consulting role.

After returning from work last night, I opened up an email titled “Call backs.”  However, this was not for the film I was expecting.  The call backs are now on September 25 (the date we were to begin filming the short film).  The new film sounds like an original feature length film.  I was given a few scenes to memorize and familiarize myself with for the callback.

Not only that but underneath was instructions that all but a working title “Family Movie” was to remain mum.  I do know this much, if I successfully progress beyond the callback, I can expect a lengthy shooting schedule… months in fact.  Plus, a contracted, paid role!  Trying not to think that far ahead.

I am a bit excited.  I have read the scenes for which I will asked to read from and I think they look really good.  The fact that I received this news on September 15 has not been lost on me.  This is the third opportunity I have been presented (a job at Disney World, moving to a large city, and now…).  I think it is more than coincidence and I am at least going in and do my best…. but of course I will.  I would expect nothing less of myself and neither would any of my fellow tangenteers or readers who comment sporadically.  One step at a time.

What do you think about this: a guy goes to the drive-up window at his bank, and they accidentally give him $3350 that was supposed to go to another customer.  He drives off.  He is now facing felony theft charges.

I wanted to blog about this because I really disagree with it.  Morally, it wasn’t right of the man to drive off with money he knew did not belong to him.  Ethically, he should have notified the teller of his or her mistake, and the teller should have thanked him profusely.  But I believe that to charge this guy with theft is wrong.  Sure, he took someone else’s money, but it was a bad decision made in the heat of the moment.  He saw a lot of money, it had been given to him, and he made a mistake.  It was a bad decision, and a greedy one at that, but deserving of a felony?  I think not.  If convicted, this man will have a felony record.  He will have trouble finding employment, and he will lose basic freedoms that many people take for granted, such as owning a gun or being able to vote.  I believe it to be a bit severe to slap him with a felony record when his crime shows no premeditation nor malice toward another.  For all he knew, he was given the money and he might not have realized that his taking it would have hurt anyone.  He did not hold up the bank, and order a teller to give it to him or use a gun to get the money.  Again, clearly the wrong thing to do morally, but were his actions criminal?

What do you think?  Check as many answers as you’d like, and feel free to add any thoughts or opinions you have in the comments section.

[poll id=”20″]

If you would like to  read the article before voting in my poll, below is a copy of the original article that was printed on dailyherald.com.  Hmm, I see that his court date is only days away.  I will post an update to this story if I come across one.

A man who reportedly drove off after a bank teller mistakenly gave him $3,350 that was supposed to go to another customer now faces felony theft charges.

The teller at a drive-in window of Chase Bank, 2555 Golf Road, Hoffman Estates, accidentally sent the cash to the wrong customer and quickly told the recipient to come inside the bank, said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Moe Ahmad.

But the driver, whose name and address was known to the bank because of his transaction, drove away, Ahmad said.

Hoffman Estates police arrested Luis Villarreal, a 26-year-old stay-at-home father, Thursday in his home in the 600 block of Alcoa Lane in Hoffman Estates. Ahmad said police found $2,920 in a diaper bag.

Cook County Associate Judge John J. Scotillo set Villarreal’s bond at $25,000 and ordered him to appear at 9 a.m. Sept. 16 in room 108 of the Rolling Meadows Courthouse.

Well, I’m really not sure I would classify it as a nightmare, but what else? What would you call a dream that had most of the WCCT regulars, Rosanne, the Flintstones (animated), large bats, broken windows, broken down garages, downtown Bryan Ohio, and seedy bars in it? I wasn’t frightened but I woke up very confused.

Now I just had to write that down so I could get some sleep. Just contemplating the dream has kept me awake for the last 1/2 hour. Maybe this will help clear the brain for a few better dreams.

Have a good one, and I hope this slight description doesn’t keep anyone else awake. I hope to forget the details of the dream by morning, so this is all you should hear about.

While going through my myriad assortment of pending comments I do every once and again come across some interesting peekers to my blog.  The newest is a 6 year old gymnast from Great Britain named Sam Ramos, who along with his parents and older brother, are an amazing team known as the Daredevils which has appeared on such programs as Britain’s Got Talent!  The little guy might not have the site the others do but just follow the link to his site and watch his amazing acrobatics on the trampoline and read the article from The Sun.  Pretty amazing stuff!

Let’s show the amazing kid some tangents love!

We took the kids to the county fair on Saturday, and we had lots of fun.  It may have rained most of the day,  but we stayed comfortable using  an umbrella and our stroller awnings for the little ones.  There was only one or two major downpours, and we spent those in the animal barns, looking over the fair kids’ 4-H projects.

It’s always amazing to us how much our 6-year-old  loves going on all the most extreme carnival rides, and my husband and I took turns with her on this:

and this:

To her disappointment, she is not yet tall enough for this, but maybe next year:

My little guy took his nap at the fair, and when he woke up, we stopped for a snack.  He began to cry; at first we thought he was just crabby from his nap and that his sister had taken his cookies.  But then his cheek up near his eye began to swell up and turn black and blue.  When he said, “Bug hurt me”, we knew that he must have gotten stung.  We made a precautionary visit to the fair’s EMS squad, and they were excellent with him, even  though he wanted no part of it.  He soon got over his ow-ie with the help of some fair rides, but if you look at his right eye, you can see that he was sporting a minor shiner:

I know, the clowns are scary enough, but our son loved this ride despite how upset he looks – it was just his swollen eye.  When the ride stopped, he got off the clown and immediately climbed into another one.  Hey, you can’t expect a 2-year-old to understand the concept of fair tickets being $.75 each!!

I’m happy to say today that the swelling on his face is down a little bit, and good thing too – I got tired of the scrutinizing looks from people who were wondering, “How did that cute little boy get that black eye?!?”

Still working on a title.  I want something that somewhat describes me, but not something a lot of people use.  In this example, there is a gospel group called the Singing Disciples, so maybe that one is not so good.  The singing photographer?  Erm, no.  I would stress my born-again life over my car job.  The Singing Teacher is likely popular too, and teaching is such a small part of my life now, reduced to just once a month.  Can you tell I have a fixation with singing?  I can’t say “acting _____” though because it sounds more like “temporary ______” rather than focusing on the actor me.  I’ll come up with something eventually…

I have now closed comments on the one post that was getting a bunch of spam.  I’m not sure what I would do if one of those spambots latched onto a more recent post.  I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it I suppose.  Moving on now…

Musical:  Going well.  I went from using two canes as per script to just one.  A couple weeks ago I brought up the point of cane usage to the choreographer and almost got taken out of Facade for it as it would change how I move.  The only dance number I’m in.  As for the other big one at the start of act II, let’s just say there is a good reason I am not in it except for a short scene.  Tonight is a full run-through of act I, and given the rehearsal is four hours we will probably run through it more then once.  We’re supposed to be off book, but I think it will be reasonable to use my music for any off-stage singing, such as the background vocals in Alive.  I’ll soon find out if they feel the same.

Work:  The one I have been training is now out of training, so time to move on to other things.  What?  Another trainee?  Two trainees??  Sigh.   Just throw my quality control manager title out the window as it has been weeks since I have done any of that and seemingly weeks more before I can.  Well, as long as the company doesn’t mind then neither do I.  At least some pressure has been removed with the one former trainee taking over three stores I was training him at- no more trips to Naperville or St. Charles! Well, after tomorrow at any rate when I just have to watch over him at one of the stores in case of problems.  I still have the huge Elgin store for the time being and I can finally give it better attention, but then there are the new trainees.  Well, I’ll see how it goes.

Church:  Still working away serving two services for 4th and 5th grades.  A couple that started this year have sort of unofficially taken over one of the services with their ideas they are implementing.  While they don’t see themselves as the volunteer heads of the 4th/5th grade ministry, I am trying to take it in stride by thinking of them as such as the one we last had went and got himself married and so he has, shall we say, a new focus.  Interestingly enough, the one before him went and did the same thing, but it wasn’t his reason for moving on- he was graduating from Moody and got a (paid) position elsewhere if I recall correctly.

Books:  After reading a the Wheel of Time series for about five months straight, I am now on break from it for a short time.  I was all set to check out the next book which showed as one copy available last night only to be on the hold shelf this afternoon.  It’s just as well since rehearsal really picks up for the next few weeks so I won’t have enough time to read it anyway- I can hardly finish one of these 700-page tomes in a month as it is.  I am not even a third of the way through the series, and not yet where I left off way back when.  Mr. Jordan, you certainly wrote a good series.  I certainly hope you accepted Christ in your life so I can meet you one day on the other side.  Hopefully Brandon Sanderson completes the epic in a way that would please Robert Jordan.

Gaming: Nothing really to say at this time.  For a future post.

9/11/2001

September 11, 2001 was day we won’t forget, a defining time in our nation’s history, and the first of its kind for the generations who hadn’t been exposed to such feelings of terror nor national vulnerability before that day.  This blog post is a day late, but I spent some time yesterday reflecting on the sacrifices made and the lives forever changed on that September day in 2001.  Alan Jackson wrote a poignant song about September 11, 2001 that asks, “Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?”, and I think that everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they learned that the United States was attacked nine years ago.  I remember receiving emails from my friend who was serving in the Air Force at the time:

To All My Friends and Family:
I just wanted everyone to know that I’m okay.  We are not going anywhere.  Our jets are on standby, but that’s it.  Also, Jerry made it home okay, for those of you that were worried.  I love you all, and I miss you.
Love,
Kel

Hi Everyone,
Things are still going as well as can be expected.  We are currently
working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week.  Please, I’m asking everyone,
do not call me during the day, because most of you know that’s when
I sleep.  I’m working 7:00pm to 7:00am.  If you absolutely need to get in touch with me,
you can call me at home between 5:30pm and 6:00pm, or in an
emergency I can be reached at work. (Mom and Dad you
can call me anytime, even at work if you want)  Also I check my
e-mail a few times a night, so I will respond to everyone as quickly
as possible.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but I
only have limited info at this time.  For everyone wondering, we
currently have 1/3 of our jets standing by with a full load of fuel
and equiped with armed missles.  If anything else happens, the jets
will take off and patrol from South Carolina to the Southern tip of
Florida (the Keys)  They will shoot down anything that comes within
that area.  They will give the planes one warning and if they don’t
turn back, our jets will shoot them down without hesitation.  We are
very tired and will be even more worn down by the time this is all
over.  Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week will do that to you.
Again, if anyone has any questions, please e-mail me.  I love you
and miss you all.
Love, Kel

Her emails illustrate the widespread uncertainty coursing throughout the nation at that time as well as the need to keep close contact with friends and family.

One of the most moving experiences I’ve had was visiting the 9/11 museum in New York city a few years ago.  It was a somber experience, and there was scarcely a dry eye left amongst those who came to learn, reflect, and pay tribute to the victims of 9/11.  The victims, their families, and those who were affected in other ways by the infamous September 11, 2001 were in my thoughts and prayers yesterday, as well as they are today, and I’ve included the following video if you’d like to reflect as well.  God bless America.

Back in June I started to post about some wildlife adventure. I never got back to it, but the story was strange enough, so I will keep it in this post.

As I sit here listening to the rain hit the ground outside, I am reminded of all the good things about living in the middle of nowhere. I really like the time I have by myself, and being away from the hubbub of the world is a welcome relief. I’m just sitting here enjoying a peaceful day.

There were turkeys and deer in behind the house this morning. Even the dog’s barking did not hurry them on. They kept their pace, eating, smelling and doing whatever those animals do. Like I said, a peaceful day.

The place here is full of memories. Memories of my girls growing up. Memories of family. This is a place of laughter and tears, it lives.

I’ve had some problems living in the woods over the years that most people won’t see, but they were worth it to me. It is my little place of refuge from the world outside. Yes, I think I could be a hermit, if there was just someway to make a living at it. I don’t feel like the hunter/gatherer type. I like a few creature comforts. Heat, food, internet… But the isolation… I could live with that….

The sound of the rain, what a calming affect that has.

———————————————-
I had a little adventure with the local wildlife today. A chipmunk decided that the airfilter on my truck would make a good place to rest. It may have been, but wasn’t after I started the engine. Poor little thing. The truck didn’t care for it either. Sad for the chipmunk and sad for my wallet. It was quite a bill to get the truck running again. Something I could have done myself, if I had just realized what it was. The sad part about this. It happened before. The last time is was only a nest, no little animals. Same symptoms, same hurt to the wallet. All I can say is I should have known.