March 10, 2009

My counterpart in Saraland, Mandy Trout, (President of their Chamber Of Commerce) was kind to invite me to lunch where the guest speaker was Thomas Woelker, V.P. of ThyssenKrupp Steel LLC. a 4.2 billion dollar company building in Calvert, AL. about five miles away from the Ciba Geigy Plant my father built in 1952.

He was an interesting speaker, sharing with us the progress that has already been made with their large site and the berths now being constructed to unload the many barges coming in and out daily. The company will hire as many as 3700 employees

by 2011.

March 9, 2009

Today at Kiwanis lunch we heard from Noco Howell of the Silver Haired Legislature who is looking for a replacement in her duties. We hope she continues to serve since she has done a remarkable job. There was discussion about raising money to support public meetings regarding the threat of Mobile County to close our Math & Science Schools and combine then at Shaw School in West Mobile. My household was taken over by furious cake baking by Deborah for the Womens Club scholarship fund raising project. (see Deb's proud work) Tonight the Historic Society met to elect new officers and hear from a termite exterminator executive about our propensity toward those adorable creatures in our sill plates and joists My wife was elected Vice President AND we learned who to call when the 'mites swarm.

March 8, 2009

I belong to a train club and volunteered to landscape a 24" X 60" module that will be used in the upcoming Train Show in Fairhope March 20-22. So when I came home from church, I spent a couple of hours working on the project. Lots of paint and glue and sand and gravel. When I started to get hungry, I bought a sandwich on Springhill Ave. and visited the Frisco 1527 Steam Engine down the street. Just to keep it all in the train context, I ate my sandwich at the locomotive. For me, a good way to start the week.

March 6, 2009

Friday was spent going to lunch with a couple of my friends, making up some balanced line cables for the new church sound system and winding down the evening by going to our Knights of Columbus Fish Fry. Some mighty good eatin' and the attendance was far better than they had anticipated. It was a wise person who thought to buy that extra couple of ten pound boxes of fish.

March 5, 2009

Last evening I attended Parish Council where we discussed having a Sadar Supper before Good Friday. It is normally a very sparse meal containing one bitter item.

This afternoon, Ervin Dailey brought over a water color he had commissioned a local artist to paint of the Chickasaw Caboose. We had lunch together at Dreamland and discussed the Noth Mobile Gumbo-CookOff being held by our Chamber Of Commerce on May 9, 2009. I snapped a picture of Ervin for JoAnn Mc Knight at the Mobile Press Register to be used in her article. Ervin and I came up with a cure for

for all the strife and bad politics in the world while we ate. (water color of caboose)

March 3, 2009

Although most of the microphone wires have not been run, we did get a chance to hook up the mixer and amplifier to test the speaker. It sounds excellent, but I got so caught up in the installation, I missed the Garden Club meeting. At 7:00 PM we had
a Commercial Development Board meeting, where we discussed the need to carefully
follow our strategic plan on what type of businesses move into the city. Guests at the meeting were Adam Bourne, Gerald Easley, Sher Graham, Deborah Hayward and Ross Naze.

March 2, 2009

Arriving at St. Thomas Church at 9:00 AM we took measurements of the EV speaker, then went to pick up the 25' high Genie Lift in order to attach the speaker to a roofing
truss. Several trips were necessary to pick up white paint, a 3/8" thick "flying" plate and assorted bolts. I took a one hour Kiwanis lunch break to hear Dr. Ervin Dailey report on his annual trip to Kiwanis Alabama located in Prattville. We spent the better part of the afternoon hanging the central EV speaker and soldering "speak-on" connectors to the cable attached to its back. At 6:00 PM I had to be at the Chickasaw Civic Theatre for a board meeting where a motion was made to appoint a negotiating committee to meet with the Mayor. Everyone involved will be so happy when this Theatre lease matter is completed.