October 31, 2009

"It was a dark, chilly night when there was a sinister rap on my door" (sounds like the first line to an old Mickey Spillane novel doesn't it?)
No, it's just Halloween and the Trick Or Treaters are out pounding the streets. All of them are polite, but in a hurry to see just how much sugar laced goodies they could possibly accumulate in one evening. It's almost as if they will never see any more candy after tonight.
Deborah is working tonight, so it is just the "fat-boy" passing out the goodies and trying not to eat them all before the evening is through.

October 30, 2009

Tomorrow is Halloween and it was time for the children to meet at the Civic Center and carve the pumpkins. Kathy Couey had the tables set up to cut the tops, remove all the seeds and goo
and proceed with the faces. There were six or seven kids in
attendance and every one of them seemed eager to get to the task at hand. I didn't stay until the end, but my guess is that everybody left with a scary souvenir of the occasion. They were all very well behaved including Kathy,

October 29, 2009

At 1:30 PM I met fellow Garden Club and council member at Chickasaw School Of Math & Science to participate in a National Neighborwoods Tree Planting for the month of October,
We brought our GOLD "ground breaking" shovel to dig an appropriate excavation for the tree.
After clearing a four foot circle, we started down with our main hole and hit a water pipe. Not letting that deter us. we moved about a foot away and this time hit a sewer line. Now we were getting annoyed and very tired,, but moved another two feet to a "no-pipe" area. Finally we let the kids put potting soil in the bottom and placed our Gardenia . The children helped fill in the root surround and we watered it in. There were two blooms on the plant so we broke off the flower so all could smell it. Several photos of the children for the National magazine press and we were finished with that project.
Later in the afternoon I met with our code inspector to go over plans for the expansion of an
existing business who wants to add a washateria and retail store. This rennovation will occur after the first of the year.

October 28, 2009

Last evening the planning commission met right before the council meeting to hold a public forum on the new sign, square footage and driveway ordinance proposed for a council vote.
All signs in Chickasaw must be of a "monument" type (that is to say: near the ground and no more than 50 sq. ft. like the new signs in Mobile). LED electronic signs are fine if they meet certain brightness criteria. There wil be NO "flashing" on and off signs. All new homes must have concrete, brick or paver driveways with sidewalks of the
same to your door. No more asphalt or crushed stone driveways. Most areas of Chickasaw will require building a 1600 sq.
ft. home on your lot with a minimum of 1200 sq. ft. in Norwood and the historic disctrict. Pirates Cove homes will be a minumum of 2,000 sq. ft. The ordinance will be presented by the council
at the next session. This afternoon I will be taking pictures for the city of children carving pumpkins at the civic center. (pictured is planning commission less the mayor who appeared just in time for the vote)

October 27, 2009

Last evening Commissioner Merceria Ludgood held a meeting at the J.C. Davis Auditorium to seek input from the North Mobile area population regarding our desire for new parks and recreational facilities. This study is a ten to fifteen year, long term plan to convert Mobile County land into "people oriented" football, baseball and playground areas. Many questions came from our city council and mayor (who is shown here describing county property that would be perfect for the program) Creola, Mount Vernon and Satsuma residents also participated in the questioning. Commissioner Ludgood thanked us all for having the interest in "kick-starting" this
investigation of what the county has in store for its future.
Tonight at 6:30 PM is a meeting of the planning board to continue its work on the new city sign ordinances before the council votes on their acceptance.

October 26, 2009

Today at Kiwanis we hosted 5 or 6 members of the Azalea City Chapter at our meeting. It was good to meet them and we had fun sharing stories about our fundraisers and elections. Since our planned speaker, Jenny Borne, did not show up to discuss robotics, Horace Allen told us about his recent bus trip with Bonnie to Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. We are still trying to plan our Christmas dinner around an open date using the entertainer we had last year.
Everyone enjoyed the music and dancing so much, we are hoping a date can be worked out.

(Horace Allen speaking. . . . guys at the back table are Azalea City Club)

October 25, 2009

Last night Deb and I attended the 58th annual Mobile Piano Ensemble at Davison High Performing Arts Auditorium. If you've never been, it is where up to twelve persons play grand pianos at the same time. . . . sort of like Ferrante and Teicher and Teicher and Teicher and Teicher and so on. . . We went in particular to see Jackie Benson our city and chambers webmaster (pictured receiving roses after her performance of Danses Andalouses: Ritmo.)
Lots of great classical and semi-classical pieces such as Chopin's Waltz in C# Minor, Debussy's Clair De Lune and Sibelius Finlandia were part of the expansive program.
Then Sunday afternoon was occasion for the St. Thomas Annual Church Picnic which is always attended by several hundred hungry people. It is a good oportunity to meet with old friends and talk and gossip and talk some more and have fun. Through the courtesy of our church's grounds keeper, "Shorty" Lumpkin, we always meet the last Sunday in October at Amelia Park in Saraland. Since all the church members bring a dish, it is like going to a Morrisons Cafeteria on steroids. Just for instance, their were 58 different desserts to choose from. (pictured are Charles and Margaret Czajkowski, and Deborah) (Me guarding the grill)