Karen’s Opinion

There are so many sides to issues. The Tucson shooting has many of us questioning how such a tragedy can happen. I don’t like what happened but it seems as if the media will not stop talking about it. They drag it out with their questions that will never be answered. There, I said it. I’m tired of hearing about it. Sue me.

A gym teacher at our local high school has been dealing with a few belligerent students. Said students refuse to suit up and participate in gym. They are required to take so many credit hours of gym in order to graduate. The teacher decided to take large cardboard boxes and make the non-participators sit in the boxes during gym classes. The kid’s parents found out about it and got mad. The teacher got in trouble. I shake my head as the kids are laughing. They didn’t get punished for their disobedience. If, as a parent, I found out my child wasn’t suiting up for a required gym class, 1. I would tell them to get suited and participate 2. I would tell the teacher, while I didn’t appreciate the form of punishment, I admire his efforts, 3. I would punish my child at home. He would wish he could go sit in a box.

If our kids don’t suffer consequences for their actions, why should they be accountable to anything?

There is a monument down the road from our house that is always well maintained. Someone has planted pretty flowers in red, white and blue colors around the base of the monument which makes me think that this memorial means something to someone. I did some research and discovered that it pays tribute to the U.S. armed forces. These monuments were placed as early as 1945 after World War II. The blue star was used on service flags to denote a service member fighting in the war. After reading an article on Wikipedia, I am interested to know why our area was chosen for such an honor. What is the criteria? The original signs were placed by the National Council of State Garden Clubs. I have a friend who is a member of our local garden club. I am going to ask her if she knows anything about the sign in our county. Anyway, it is honoring our servicemen and our county is honored by those who have and are serving.

It is so sad that many people are having trouble paying their utility bills. In fact, some have resorted to using space heaters to keep smaller areas of their home warm. Use of these types of heaters is a dangerous proposition.

My regular readers know that my husband and I own a carpet business. I have been online in search of some carpet cleaning information for a client who has fire damage. I ran across a restoration service company that had some interesting information besides information on carpet cleaner products Austin.

Did you know that much of the material found in furniture, flooring, and appliances is synthetic. When burned, synthetics create a variety of complex chemical reactions. After a few days, these items go from cleanable to unsalvageable. One should not rely solely on fire damage insurance Austin but prepare their household to ward against accidental incidents such as fire.

If one is forced into a situation where running a space heater is your only option, it is wise to keep curtains and other combustible items away from space heaters.

While getting information on how to clean carpet, I also found useful information on how to tackle the horrible job of getting rid of pet urine. Their recommendation of a carpet cleaning extractor Austin is one of which I agree. They readily admit that at best, this may not solve the problem. Pet urine is the worse problem I come across in my daily dealings with carpet. I love my animals as much as the next person though so I know that it is a problem that is not easy to solve.

I hope that gives everyone some helpful information with which to start the new year.

Have you ever heard of Duckpin Bowling? I never had until a friend was telling me that she and her family played. There is only one place in Indiana where you can play and that is at Fountain Square.

As described at Fountain Square’s website:

the game was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1900 and it was one of Babe Ruth’s favorite games! Ten-pin bowling used to strictly be a winter sport and most alleys closed during the summer except for a few that remained open to play odd bowling games using the smaller balls. Summer bowlers suggested that it might be interesting to trim the standard pins down to match the size of the small ball. Because it was much harder to get strikes and spares, the rules were changed to allow three bowls on each turn but only counted as a score of ten if all ten pins were knocked down with the third ball. Duckpins became so popular that during the 1920′s duckpin bowling spread along the east coast, from New England to Georgia. Today duckpin houses are still found only in the eastern states with the exception of our two locations here in Fountain Square, the only authentic Duckpin Bowling in the Midwest!

We might have to try this after the Butler ballgame this afternoon.