Facie’s Ramblings

Happy 2015, everyone! I wrote my first check of the year just two minutes ago, and I used the correct year. Already 2015 is off to a good start! :-) Regarding the check, I have to give a shout-out to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . For only $13, I can get 52 weeks of the Sunday paper. Yes, the Trib leans right. So do I, sometimes (I lean left about as often nowadays, much to the disappointment of my family and a few friends). Regardless, once the P-G raised its rates to something like $60 every quarter to get the Sunday and Thursday papers, I bailed. I do think the PG has a good product, but I could think of many other things I would rather spend that money on. With the great Trib price, I can tip my carrier, donate to the NIE, and save myself several hundred dollars a year. As is typical, I did nothing for New Year's Eve. Well, I did get a lot done during the day. I dropped the kid off at a friend's house. I got four new tires (my third replacement set since I bought the c...

The P-G recently published an editorial/article from a mother of an autistic child in the Hampton School District. Apparently some parents of her son Jake's high school classmates felt that Jake was disrupting class too much and taking time away from their kids' learning, which they feared could ultimately hinder their kids' chances of getting into a good college. Not willing to own up to their feelings, these "concerned" parents sent an anonymous letter to Jake's mother Renee asking her to consider an alternative setting for Jake. Wow is all I have to say. Well, almost all. As I blogged about last year, there was a mildly autistic child in the vacation Bible school class I taught. It was very challenging for me, someone who had pretty much no experience in that area, but I was glad that child was able to do what all the others did that week. I think we all benefited from the experience, and I would not have traded that opportunity for anything. In fact,...

Well, I waited a day to pen my latest rant, so without further delay, here it is: Some people kind of suck. Let me start off by saying that I am not perfect; I have many faults, most of which are readily apparent to those who know me. But I really make an effort to treat those around me--family, friends, and strangers--just as I want to be treated. With kindness and compassion. I try to give a little. And I truly believe if people treated one another better, if they focused more on others and less on themselves, we could solve a lot of the world's ills. But lately it seems as if every time I open up the paper, read a magazine, or go online, I am bombarded by the transgressions of some celebrity (music, TV, movie, sports or otherwise) or politician. I sometimes wonder if it is not so much that people have gone downhill, but more that thanks to technology, we just get to find out about every bad deed five minutes after it happened. Or have we as a society become so self-centered,...

I was mentioned in a Pens article in today's P-G, on page A2. Unfortunately, not everything attributed to me in that article is accurate. Two days ago, I saw on the P-G site that the paper was looking for people to talk about their Game 7 plans and how other plans may have changed as a result of the game. I emailed the writer to tell her that my church festival was going on, and that in addition to volunteering Saturday, I also offered to help on Friday if needed. This was before I knew there would be a Game 7. Now that I knew there was a Game 7, there was no way I was going to work the festival that additional night. The P-G writer and I chatted on the phone, and she asked if I broke the news to my church that I was not going to help out Friday. I told her I had committed to Saturday only, and that I might not even get called to help Friday, but if I did, the answer would be no. However, the article reads: "She'd planned to volunteer at the annual festival at St. Maurice ...