Save the Boobies!

Saturday, 05.22.2010, downtown Detroit was PINK.

Comerica Park was the starting point for the 19th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Detroit. Although I didn't run the race, I joined my PINK posse of sisters (in every way) to walk with thousands of others, united, to raise money and awareness of Breast Cancer.

I couldn't help but to feel good among all the strangers supporters joined with a common thread. Celebrate Life, Love, and Hope. Always hope, ( it DOES float you know) hope for a cure to this awful disease.



Sunday was [insert fake shocked look here] a day of relaxing and fishing on Lake St. Clair from the early fog covered morning until the early evening sunset. Don and I both caught fish, but mostly caught a lot of long anticipated sunshine. Let the summer begin!


With Memorial Day coming ... 3 days off work ... I see fishing in the near future!

She Doesn't Miss the *313

I was unloading my camera and sorting through my photos, downloading them to their appropriate folder when I realized I have quite a few of Don's daughter Tyler.

Tyler, aka Chick, was home a couple weeks ago. I spent more one on one time with her this last visit. She's a beautiful girl, inside and out, and wise beyond her years.

She's been living in Naples Florida for a year, but the burbs of Detroit is her home. I think she could forget about ever living in Michigan (because of the winters), but her roots, family, and friends are the beacon that brings her home.

I know Detroit has a bad reputation (understatement) for crime, thugs, drugs, etc., but our kids have grown up in the burbs and are sheltered from that reality. On the flip side, they have lived with it as always being a common occurrence heard on the news and see in the papers ... all that real crap that goes down "in the hood." Dare I admit we all get a bit desensitized to it?


On the way home from the airport, she and Don stopped at a bar for a drink. (Yes, she's over 21) After getting a table, Don went to get them a drink. Before he got back, some dudes started a brawl. A fist pounding, blood splattering, call the cops and an ambulance brawl. Welcome back to the "D" Ty!

The next night, she went out with her girlfriend. Sure enough, another fight broke out. Girls fighting this time. These places really aren't in Detroit, but the outskirts of.

Ty's reaction was, "Yep, home, back in the "D".

Ty, I couldn't love you more if you were my own daughter!


*313 is Detroit's area code

I Wish Congress Would Read This

Born, raised, and living in the 'burbs of Detroit all my life, I breath and eat because of the auto industry. I'm reprinting this column written by Mitch Albom. Is is SO worth the read, please do so.


If I had the floor at the auto rescue talks
By Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press columnist
November 23, 2008

OK. It's a fantasy. But if I had five minutes in front of Congress last week, here's what I would've said:

Good morning. First of all, before you ask, I flew commercial. Northwest Airlines. Had a bag of peanuts for breakfast. Of course, that's Northwest, which just merged with Delta, a merger you, our government, approved -- and one which, inevitably, will lead to big bonuses for their executives and higher costs for us. You seem to be OK with that kind of business.

Which makes me wonder why you're so against our kind of business? The kind we do in Detroit. The kind that gets your fingernails dirty. The kind where people use hammers and drills, not keystrokes. The kind where you get paid for making something, not moving money around a board and skimming a percentage.

You've already given hundreds of billions to banking and finance companies -- and hardly demanded anything. Yet you balk at the very idea of giving $25 billion to the Detroit Three. Heck, you shoveled that exact amount to Citigroup -- $25 billion -- just weeks ago, and that place is about to crumble anyhow.

Does the word "hypocrisy" ring a bell? Protecting the home turf?

Sen. Shelby. Yes. You. From Alabama. You've been awfully vocal. You called the Detroit Three's leaders "failures." You said loans to them would be "wasted money." You said they should go bankrupt and "let the market work."

Why weren't you equally vocal when your state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks to Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and others to open plants there? Why not "let the market work"? Or is it better for Alabama if the Detroit Three fold so that the foreign companies -- in your state -- can produce more?

Way to think of the nation first, senator.

And you, Sen. Kyl of Arizona. You told reporters: "There's no reason to throw money at a problem that's not going to get solved."

That's funny, coming from such an avid supporter of the Iraq war. You've been gung ho on that for years. So how could you just sit there when, according to the New York Times, an Iraqi former chief investigator told Congress that $13 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds "had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste" by the Iraqi government?

That's 13 billion, senator. More than half of what the auto industry is asking for. Thirteen billion? Gone? Wasted?

Where was your "throwing money at a problem that's not going to get solved" speech then? Watching over the bankers?

And the rest of you lawmakers. The ones who insist the auto companies show you a plan before you help them. You've already handed over $150 billion of our tax money to AIG. How come you never demanded a plan from it? How come when AIG blew through its first $85 billion, you quickly gave it more? The car companies may be losing money, but they can explain it: They're paying workers too much and selling cars for too little.

AIG lost hundred of billions in credit default swaps -- which no one can explain and which make nothing, produce nothing, employ no one and are essentially bets on failure.

And you don't demand a paragraph from it?

Look. Nobody is saying the auto business is healthy. Its unions need to adjust more. Its models and dealerships need to shrink. Its top executives have to downsize their own importance.

But this is a business that has been around for more than a century. And some of its problems are because of that, because people get used to certain wages, manufacturers get used to certain business models. It's easy to point to foreign car makers with tax breaks, no union costs and a cleaner slate -- not to mention help from their home countries -- and say "be more like them."

But if you let us die, you let our national spine collapse. America can't be a country of lawyers and financial analysts. We have to manufacture. We need that infrastructure. We need those jobs. We need that security. Have you forgotten who built equipment during the world wars?

Besides, let's be honest. When it comes to blowing budgets, being grossly inefficient and wallowing in debt, who's better than Congress?

So who are you to lecture anyone on how to run a business?

Ask fair questions. Demand accountability. But knock it off with the holier than thou crap, OK? You got us into this mess with greed, a bad Fed policy and too little regulation. Don't kick our tires to make yourselves look better.

I just want to add, the auto industry isn't looking for a free ride, just a loan to help get through this restructuring time. Loan is the operative word.

Thank You

Thank you for leaving comments and humoring encouraging me to see my NaBloPoMo commitment through. Thank you for well wishes on this nasty bug I am caring around. Thank you for the e-mails sent with notes directed at specific things I have shared on here. Although I don't leave comment for comment, I read everyone and I appreciate them.

On the lighter side.

For the next 25 days, I will be posting a different "Christmas with Santa" photo on my sidebar. Just a way to count down until the big day.

I recently read Detroit has the #1 position in crime rate stats. I was born in Detroit and raised in the 'burbs of, so I guess I am just calloused to it. I don't freak out about it. I know where to go and not to go when maneuvering downtown. Detroit has a lot to offer in arts, entertainment, and sports. I can't imagine having to avoid going there.

Here is a little smirk ... Christmas Shopping in Detroit: