Light Bright

I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood of Wheaton. We're close to the train station into Chicago, but, for the most part, not much happens around here. That's really okay. I'm not sure I would enjoy living 3 blocks west or 2 blocks east, both of which are secondary north-south roads on which there can be a lot of traffic. So, it was with some interest that I received a letter right after Labor Day from our Park District. There was going to be a 5k race to benefit the FT Cares Foundation. Based in Wheaton, the foundation raises money to provide resources to other charities in the area. They called the run "Light the Torch" and you were encouraged to dress up in lighted clothing, carry lights or wear glow sticks, etc. Each runner and walker was given a glow strip they could wear.

The reason I received a letter about this was that the race course was right in front of my house.

I live by the water/first aid station on the right side of the race route. We received another reminder, stuck in our front doors on Tuesday. The race would start at 7 p.m. but the street would be closed at 6:30. We needed to remind people, and ourselves, of this so no one was on the race course. Any cars parked would be towed to side streets.

The barricades were left at the street corners on Thursday.

I've never watched a foot race. I had no idea what to expect. Neighbors had been talking all week about standing in their parkways and cheering, adding lights to the front of their homes since the whole idea of the race was to add additional lights. I noticed, when I got home, that some people north of me had luminaria along their section of the street.

At 6:30, as stated, the barricades on the side streets went up.

Neighbors south of me strung up Christmas lights. I thought, I could have done that, or put something in the front of the house. We knew the race would start at 7 to the west of us. We weren't sure how soon we'd start to see runners after the start. I decided to just sit on the front steps and watch. I had to find the Deep Woods Off to combat the mosquitoes, although I was surprised at how few there were.

At 7:15, a police car came down the street. My little camera doesn't do well in low light situations. There is probably a setting for low light, but I couldn't find it right away. About 2 minutes after the police car passed, the first batch of runners came through. Most of them wore only the event issued light stick and that chartreuse-color shirt. Slowly, however, the colorfully decorated runners started showing up.

There were family groups running and walking.

There were friends and people with dogs or strollers.

You can see that some people really took the "bring your own lights" suggestion to heart.

It was fun to watch the race. I had a mug of tea and enjoyed a wonderfully mild September night. A walker was the last person to come by. She was followed by a police car. Neighbors cheered her as loudly as the first people to come down the street.

The whole event took an hour and 15 minutes. The street was not reopened until 9:00 to allow all racers to clear the course. About 10 minutes after this walker passed my house, a car came down the street. That car was followed, very quickly, by a police car and they were stopped just north of my house. I could hear the officer saying, "Those barricades are there for a reason ma'am." That's the time one goes back into one's house for a refill on the tea.

If this happens next year and they use the same route, I need to put Christmas lights on my arbor. They couldn't have asked for a better night, which won't always occur. This was fun and a nice diversion to the usual life of the block.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

Does It Help?, Photo 25

Last Friday, all across the Chicagoland area, volunteers donned these white plastic aprons trimmed in red piping, and stood in intersections waving small bags of Jelly Bellies in an effort to raise money for the Misericordia Home. Misericordia is one of the largest organizations in the country devoted to caring for and providing opportunities to developmentally and physically handicapped people. They are affiliated with the Catholic Church but their facilities and outreach goes to all faiths, all colors, all economic levels.

I knew this fundraiser was upcoming. It had been in the news. Misericordia's street solicitations are the first of three I can remember; Lion's Club and Knights of Columbus. I wonder about the money intake from these. Because I knew about this, I went to the bank to get money so I'd have a dollar to stuff in their donation can. How many people actually carry money anymore? I almost never do. For an upcoming bit a travel, I'm trying to decide whether to carry money and, if so, how much? Ten years ago, that conversation with myself would have been unusual.

We are a nation of credit and debit cards. This past weekend was also a major comic book and etc convention in Chicago. In my World of Warcraft guild, people were discussing the upcoming Blizzcon event for World of Warcraft; Dragon Con, held in Atlanta over Labor Day; and the largest, ComiCon in San Diego in July. One member said, "Yeah I went to x and dropped over $5,000 on stuff." Aside from having the monetary resources, I wondered if he'd carried five thousand dollars around in his pants pocket or if most everyone at these kinds of places takes credit cards. At Misericordia's gift shop, they take credit, but it would be impossible to outfit the guys and gals walking the rows of cars with card readers, even the small ones I've seen on iphones.

So, I'm left to wonder. Are they seeing a drop off of donations from people waving bags of goodies while they walk between lanes of stopped cars? Do donations increase in general around this weekend because people who used to have change with them don't and then go to the web site to donate? Would there ever become a time when this kind of fundraiser's expenses, even with the candy and aprons donated and with volunteers doing the waving, aren't covered by income? Is this really about getting the name of the place in the mind of the public as opposed to making buckets of money?

Part of me thinks I could stuff a couple of dollar bills in the glove box of the Jeep for the Lions Club when they are walking the pavement. I wonder if these kinds of fundraisers are held across the US or are limited to certain regions. They had a lovely weekend to do this. I always feel really bad for them when they have to stand in pouring rain; well, they probably don't have to but I've seen a lot of dedicated volunteers do that.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

"Crowd Sourced"

I'm not sure if Oxford has added the title term to their venerable dictionary, yet, but I expect it to be added soon. If you aren't sure what it means, it means to turn to a wide variety of people to fund your endeavor. The "crowd", that's us, provides the money, the "source", to get something done. Crowd sourced things cover everything from movies to games to green projects. Kickstarter is, perhaps, the most familiar of places to find ideas, items and concepts asking for public donations to get them done.

A few of my friends have posted to Facebook about Kickstarter campaigns to which they have contributed. They have been very interesting, ranging from a movie about the green girl in the original Star Trek, to a company making miniatures for use in gaming.

I don't remember where I saw these. I've had the link in my email to remind me to blog about it.

I think these are an absolute stitch. There are three sizes, small, medium and large. You can use them for dogs and cats. Use one for food and one for water. The best part is that the ceramicist is a cat rescuer and fosterer and will donate a dollar from each bowl sold toward either a cat or dog rescue.

In the grand scheme of things, I need more cat food bowls like I need the flu. But, over the summer, Mija has developed these black spots in her chin. They don't seem tender to the touch, but she's not thrilled when I want to take a close look at them. They remind me, very much, of the acne Shakespeare had. He would get zits and then, in cleaning his chin, pop them which would cause all sorts of wounds and nastiness. The vet suggested switching from plastic bowls to ceramic as they had seen this before. Once we switched, the acne went away.

I have a couple of ceramic bowls and a couple of plastic ones. Once a week, I rotate the bowls so I need an extra set to have for when the current bowls are being washed. I could just go to the pet store and get a couple more ceramic bowls, but they wouldn't have character. I'm so about character. Plus, these have a gently sloping side. If you have pets, have you noticed them trying to get that last piece of food out of the junction between the side and bottom? There's not really a junction here. Every bit should be devoured. Uh oh. That means I'll really get yelled at when the dish is empty. I like that they are elevated, too. I think that will make it easier for the girls to eat from, particularly in the winter when the floor is chilly. I even thought about getting one just for me to use as a candy dish. Wouldn't that be cool?

So, I followed this link, http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chic-pet-bowls-fun-design-healthy-mealtimes-rescue-friendly, and checked out the site. You don't have to get anything back. Once you click the "contribute" button, you're taken into the donation part of the site and there is a spot to just donate money towards this. I want a couple of bowls, one for each gal. Plus, I like what she's doing so I rounded up my donation just because.

This is the kind of thing I can support. I've searched through Kickstarter and not been touched by things I've found. Cat bowls hand made by a ceramicist who is also a cat rescuer and a foster mom? Yeah. I can get behind that. You're welcome to link to this blog post about this to spread the word. And, if you've got a bit of extra cash lying around, I hope you'll consider helping fund this project.

Beverage:  Water

Deb