Delmar DustPan

Well it is that time of year when Gardeners in this area are planning their gardens and maybe even starting a few seeds. I have a few bulb plants up and in bloom but the yard and flowers are still recovering from the fire and will continue to do so for the next few years. Besides looking over seed packets I have looked at some of the gardening blogs out there. A few blogs that I found interesting at this time of year (most gardening blogs will start up again in a couple of months) are;

The Real Dirt On Gardening - just a great source of helpful hints, from an opinionated person.

My Rustic Bajan Garden - Gardening in Barbados - lucky stiffs they can do year round.

Your Small Kitchen Garden - General garden subjects

Garden rant a little bit of everything

Garden History Girl combines my love of history and gardening at this British blog

The State Of Delaware is finding opposition for the minimum wage increase. Delaware wants to increase minimum wage from $7.25 to $7.75 and after that 50 cents a year until 2014 when it would be $8.25. The whole thing is a laugh; minimum wage should be $10 an hour. I don't see how you can live off anything less than that and not be on welfare. By keeping the wages unrealistic the business owners merely pass the buck back to the taxpayers to pay by increased use of welfare programs. A wage of less than $10 an hour is corporate welfare.

I read recently in a George Will column that the US defense budget is about 43 percent of the world's total military spending - more than the combined defense spending of the next 17 nations on the list. I have not tried to check the figures but if true, and I think they are true, how will our economy ever recover if we just continue to make war? Think of how many social programs this funding would improve or think out by cutting back we might not have a deficit. Our congress is made up of fools.

I often forget that Delaware has a poet Laureate. JoAnn Balingit is Delaware's 16th Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Ruth Ann Minner in May 2008. A few of her poems are Here

If I understand it right, homeowners who have had their homes incorrectly foreclosed on will receive a $2,000 check. What the hell good is that? I am sure they would rather have their homes back. $2,000 is what? maybe a couple of months rent for where they are living now.

Eastman Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection! They are one of the companies I never thought such a thing would happen to. They had hoped to make it in the digital camera world but could not, in spite of a number of patents, the quality of digital cameras in cellphones are making the demand for a stand-alone digital camera almost non existent. Kodak was delisted from the S&P 500 in December 2010, and was dropped from the Dow Jones industrial average in 2004. Amid its financial demise, Kodak's stock has also suffered considerably. Shares tumbled almost 90% last year to penny stock status, today it was selling for 41 cents a share.

The Delmar School District has One Seat up for election, it is a 5 Year Term Member at Large.

So far only Gregory A.Cathell, who currently has the position, has filed. He filed on 01/06/12

The terms begin July 1, 2012

If you are interested in running for the office you must submit a Candidate Filing Form to the Department of Elections for Sussex County no later than 4:30 p.m. local time on Friday, March 2, 2012.

Shortly after my youngest daughter arrived home from college for Christmas break I received a letter from Montgomery County Maryland and in the letter there was a speeding citation for going 12 miles over the speed limit in Montgomery County based on a speed camera. Wow. I certainly knew I was not in Montgomery County on that date but it turns out my daughter who drives our car to college was. So here was a citation for $40 in my name since I was the owner of the car. According to them all I had to do was to send them $40 and they would be happy and sign a statement that I was guilty. The other option was to tell them the guilty party's name if I was not driving the car.

In order to mail them Susan's name I had to pay $5.59 to send the letter certified to them. Nevertheless I did send the letter. All of this took place with-in the 30 days from the date of the citation. I received back the signed copy of the certified return receipt and I figured at some point in time Susan would receive the citation. So far Susan has not received a citation but I on the other hand received from Montgomery County an Over Due Notice tacking another $25 on to the $40.

I can see this entire matter will result in a bench warrant for me or the next time I go to renew my tags the State of Delaware will refuse to renew them due to an outstanding ticket.

Obviously I am pissed over this matter. If a policeman had stopped Susan for speeding the ticket would have been in her name. As it is my car is the one to blame so I am the one to blame. I am sure this same thing happens in Delmar with the speed camera set up by the elementary school. I can't help but think this a violation of the constitution. It is one thing for Montgomery to be dumb asses but I am embarrassed that Delmar would go the same route just to collect revenue.

I have read that the town of Trappe canceled the town's contract with RedSpeed USA, a speed camera vendor. It would be nice if they had done it for ethical reasons but instead it was because the state of Maryland would not let them set speed cameras on RT50 (cutting down on the revenue).

So if in another 30 days you read about an old, overweight, retired accountant being jailed for resisting arrest you will know why.

I guess everyone who receives the Wilmington News Journal received a letter telling them all of the new on-line features they would be receiving. The letter also said the cost would be $23 a month. At first I thought I would receive a phone call or something asking me if I wanted this service but the more I thought about it I decided I should call their customer service and ask. Sure enough, the new service is automatic and you are charged $23 a month. Well due to the cost of everything going up I had already cut back to only receiving the News Journal at home four days a week for under $9, there certainly was no way my budget was going to spring for $23. So I have cancelled my entire subscription to the News Journal today. The Customer service people offered me some options but I told them I thought the way the News Journal was going about this was crooked and I had no interest in continuing to deal with them. Now I don't know who I hurt more as I think the News Journal is a better paper than the Daily Times but you can't let people run over you and just lay there and take it.

The Last registration is on February 13 6 PM at Old Town Hall Building.

Picked up from WGMD

School board elections are coming on May 8. But if you’re planning to file to run, you have just under a month to get your paperwork in order.

According to the Sussex County Board of Elections, there is at least one seat up for election in every school district in Sussex County.

Indian River has four seats up for election; so far two people have filed for those seats.

Cape Henlopen has an open Area D seat up for election. And Delmar, Laurel, Seaford and Woodbridge all have at-large seats up for election, but with the exception of Woodbridge, candidates are lacking. Overall there are nine seats to be filled and only six candidates have filed.

The filing deadline is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 2nd.

The Salisbury City Council are expecting Lawyers to tell them what is ethical behaviour.

Click photo to enlarge ad

A former intern of President John F. Kennedy has a book out called "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath" in which she, Mimi Beardsley Alford, says as a 19 year old intern she had an affair with JFK that started in 1962 and only ended due to his death. Now those who read my blog know I do not hold JFK in high honors however if he did have an affair with this woman why has she waited all this long to tell the world about it and why altho JFK may have been trash would someone wait 50 years to tell the world that she was also trash?

Even more of a mystery is why with two previous whore chasing Democratic Presidents, JFK and Clinton, would the Republican party want to put someone like Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich up against President Obama, whom I have never heard a whisper of cheating on his wife. Does the Republicans really think that is not a deal breaker in getting votes?

Judge Robert Scott Davis, District Court of Maryland, District 2, Wicomico County, retired last month and his retirement dinner was held this past Saturday. Now I don't know Judge Davis but a couple members of my family do know him and attended the retirement dinner. My best wishes to him on his retirement. I do not know Judge Davis' future plans but I am merely using Judge Davis as a lead-in to my main complaint of the day. Government employees who retire and than go back to work, frequently for the same organization, the next week. Drawing not only their retirement at 80% of what they previously made but now another government check. This is a notorious thing done by school supervisors, teachers, Judges, state troopers etc and mostly it is done by those who made the highest level of salary.

I strongly feel that anyone who takes retirement should exit themselves from the work force. Let someone else have a chance to get a job after all that was one reason for social security that it would get old people out of the job market, that in combination with increasing child labor laws so teenagers can't work (a future post is coming on that) would allow unemployed people to get a job. But as usual once someone sucks at the taxpayers teat they just can't stop.

My posterboy for this is Matt Creamer, current Wicomico County Administrator - previous Wicomico County Administrator, who retired and was hired back by the Wicomico County Council as their Administrator, a position that never existed before. Now I don't know if Matt came back as a dollar a year person or a $150,000 a year person but he is drawing a county retirement. I strongly feel the job should have never been created and if it was should have been given to someone promoted up. by promoting up it should create a position down below in the food chain that maybe someone who is unemployed could qualify for.

Ever since the Tax cap was put in place the Wicomico County Council and more so the employees of Wicomico County including the school district has been chomping at the bit to get this removed. In spite of their alleged financial problems they continue to create new positions adding salary and benefits to the county budget.

In June of 2000 the Wicomico county council in an outward display of being a government hog, driven by the school system, voted 5 to 2 to increase property taxes to $2.71 per hundred, a 46 cent increase from the previous year and place a one percent transfer tax of real estate sales. It was too much for taxpayers to take. VOICE ( Voters Opposing Increased County/City Expenditures) was organized with Don Coffin as Chairman to oppose the tax increase. This created the most voter participation I had seen in a long while. Between VOICE on one side and a number of front organizations for taxpayer supported employees such as Coalition For Wicomico’s Future and United Students for better schools on the other side supporting maximum taxes.

Since the driving force for the budget increase was the school system they predicated all kinds of dired happenings to the school system if VOICE had their way and repealed the one percent transfer tax and the property tax increase. Old political hacks like W. Paul Martin and Betty Gardner came out against VOICE.

VOICE got a referendum on the November ballet actually two questions one repealing the one percent real estate transfer and second to put a 2 percent revenue cap on Wicomico County.

In an 11th hour attempt of a bribe to the voters by the Wicomico county Council they said if the voters voted down the 2% revenue cap and the repeal of the 1% transfer tax the council would drop the tax rate 11 cents from $2.71 to $2.60 and even hinted at 21 cents drop.

67% of the voters went to the poll and voted in a 2 % revenue cap for Wicomico County (18,741 to 10,061) and repealed the 1% property transfer tax (15,685 to 12,848). In 2002 the Charter revision was passed in Wicomico County. The Revenue cap was put in place because of the hog like behavior of the school board and county council. A few more votes were included against them due to the heavy handed manner of the teachers and school system in trying to shove an approving vote for the tax increase down our throat.

So once again what do we heard - the school system has asked a budget that they know will not be enough for what they want to do. My answer get rid of that layer of Administrators that make over a $100,000 a year and never existed 15 years ago and maybe they could find the money to teach the students in Wicomico County.

and speaking of sucking at the taxpayer teat in a recent newspaper article is this bit; One item on the list that Board of Education member Carolyn Elmore is fighting to protect involves teacher mentors --retired, experienced teachers who return for a stipend to help younger or less-experienced teachers adjust and adapt to the rigors of the classroom to become committed and more effective in their classrooms.

If the young teachers aren't doing the job dump their asses I know of a large backlog of people with teacher degrees dieing to get a job in the school system.

While I was sick this past week my computer also decided to become sick so I sent it down to Brainwaves. It went to Brainwaves about 10:30 AM and by 3 PM I had a phone call it had been repaired. Pretty Good turn around time.

Well today marks the two year anniversary of our House Fire. Horrible time back then, between the fire and the Governor's of both Maryland and Delaware shutting their states down due to the blizzards we were having, but today things are going well and I like our new house. If I were to layout the design again there would only be some minor changes made to the layout.

The house is new and and of course all the appliances are new. They were all purchased about December 2010 and they are not holding up as well as the house. Being an old person I foolishly like to think appliances should last twenty years before you have to replace them, this group may not make it out of warranty. It would seem one of the best buys made on our appliances was the extended warranties, which I always thought was foolish, but for once my wife was right. We are on first name terms with the appliance repairman.

To give you a list of what we have and some of their problems;

KitchenAid Dishwasher - currently broke - a small plastic wheel on the upper dish rack fell off and appears to have lodged in the motor - waiting on part.

Whirlpool Microwave - works fine but has way to many selections for an old person who just wants to heat up a hotdog

Whirlpool Gas range - works great

Whirlpool side by side refrigerator - in the first six months the compressor went up, we have had constant problems with the ice maker which is located in the door of the freezer. I guess two people don't use the ice maker that much and it freezes up. The first two times I thawed it out and had it working again, the third time we said we have a warranty let them fix it now Jason, the appliance repairman, comes by about every two months and fixes it.

Magtag Washer - a pulley broke about 10 months after it was purchased - again it didn't cost us anything other than time and inconvenience and it was under manufacturer warranty, but what does the future hold? And what if you were not retired and can sit home all day waiting for the repairman?

Magtag Dryer - so far no problems.

So there you have it, I can't say buying appliances made by a different manufacturer would have been any better as I think all of them are crap. I am sure if I check into it I can blame it on the Chinese, President Obama and Gov Markell.