An appropriate memory to share today

Lil' OB, Sept. 27, 2014

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My little chickadee

Frank-n-Goat

Just stick with me on this.

Yes, that is the Goat standing next to a life-size stick figure with a Frank Sinatra head. That wood thingie you see is a would-be palm that folds down. During the month of November, Ol' Blue Eyes gets installed on the exterior walkway of the Cleveland Metroparks' Brecksville Nature Center. The staff then removes the resident bird feeders and fills his wooden palm with sunflower seeds. Eventually, the chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers find Frankie's hand and start feeding from it.

Y'all see where this is going?

Over winter break, Frank gets retired and for scheduled hours, the birdfeeders come down and anyone can mosey into the nature center for a handful of seeds and feed the birds (I wrote about this last week for Freshwater). Despite having lived just a few miles from the Brecksville Reservation for more than 20 years, I did not know about this program until I penned that story. Hence, the Goat, Lil' OB and I went and fed the chickadees earlier this week.

Lil' OB meets a new friend while we warm up by the fire inside
the Brecksville Nature Center

Aw, readership ... it was just about the best thing ever. Those tiny birds check you out a few times, and then land right on your fingers and pluck a seed from your palm.

If you're in the area, get your person over to Brecksville and do this one. It's a short, sweet activity that will be long on memories. Sorry I did not get photos of the feeding, but sometimes your ol' humble hostess likes to simply enjoy the moment instead of recording it.

~tweet tweet~

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Ten years ago today

Goat and Lil' OB

Lil' OB and humble hostess

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Goat in paradise and other delights

Dearest readership,

As is obvious I am inundated with work, but I offer you these images. Call it a respite from the violence and frigid temperatures and blistering politics.

Goat in paradise

Lil' OB at the lunch counter

Falling down

**sigh**

Entrance Push

Erin is dumb

Hot gumballs

Hey!

Pizza sky ...

... and simplify

Ain't that the truth

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Dear anti-living wage bunch,

I have seen your posts on social media.

They often depict a clerk or service provider as stupid, unable to make change, misspelling something obvious or just as a lazy ne'er do well. Then comes the clichéd and unfunny punch line: THIS PERSON WANTS $11 AN HOUR! Bloated indignation in the comment section ensues.

So you're against a living wage. Okay, fine. While I think you're wrong, this post isn't about the politics of the issue. It's about your rudeness. It's about you casting an entire class of hard working people as idiots.

Including my kid.

My then-16-year-old worked for a year for pennies over the minimum wage at a fast food complex near a major highway. Before she left the job on account of being out of town most of the summer, she waded through her share of experience.

Let's start with driving the Mini (standard transmission) through harrowing snow storms to get to her job on time, a particularly challenging task on account of some of the hills around here. The parking lot designated for workers at her place of employment was almost never plowed, so upon leaving, she'd have to enlist the help of her coworkers to dig/push her out while you were on your third Budweiser, belching in front of a Duck Dynasty rerun (Gee ... I probably shouldn't generalize like that, huh?)

I often told her that her job was more important than people understood.

"People are out on the road in a storm," I'd say. "They're stressed out by the weather. Maybe they're trying to get home. Maybe they're going to work. Maybe they've been on the road for hours and have hours more to go.

"When they come in and you serve up a smile and a steaming cup of coffee, it gives them an instant lift and sense of relief. They can recharge, take a few minutes and relax before they go back out in the weather," I told her. "What you do is important."

Every word of that is true and you know it.

Last winter was brutal. It seemed the kid had to work every time we got pounded with a blizzard. Not one word of complaint came out of her mouth. She'd often get home at 10 or 11 p.m. knowing full well she had to get up at 6 a.m. to get herself to school and two other kids who depended on her for a ride.

Then of course, there were the customers. Some were decent. Some were indifferent. Some were awful. Which one were you? The kid gave her best to all of them.

To that end, she has a standing invitation to return to that job.

Here's an idea: Maybe you can find a cartoon of a bunch of minimum wage workers digging each other out of a snow drift. Or dealing calmly with irrational screaming customers. Or cleaning tables, floors and equipment in between rushes. Because the inaccurate and insulting depictions you are posting say more about you than they'll ever say about the millions of hard working people you take for granted.

As for my kid being unworthy of $11 an hour, she's worth twice that and then some.

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Pass the damn tissues already

First day of kindergarten

First day of senior year

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The eyes of Lil' OB, vol. two

A collection of eye candy courtesy of Lil' OB, who took these photos during her recent trip to London, Paris and Madrid.

Captions by your humble hostess. See volume one here.

Tower of power

Bad behavior caught on stone

Horrifying display case

Brain trees

Skyweb

All she ever wanted was to be a clown

Street walker

Light and angels

Who knew?

Egg building and people

Thanks for the tour, Lil' OB!

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The eyes of Lil' OB, vol. one

It is with unprecedented joy that I present to you with a collection of eye candy courtesy of Lil' OB, who took all of these photos during her recent trip to London, Paris and Madrid. 

Look for volume two later this weekend. Captions by your humble hostess.

Tubeville

Chick surprises date

Big columns, little people

Dude, they're not listening to you

English sk(eye) bubble

Issue of the day

Important European goat

Skyfall, English Skyfall

Big puppets

I'm a little bewildered myself

European turtle party

Unidentified rock gathering

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