How The New Financial Bailout Will Work

I’ve been listening carefully to the financial bailout hearings going on today in Washington.  I’ve meticulously drawn the plan as Sec. Paulson explains, and once put on paper it makes sense:

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Couple of Vinings

Sorta answered the “Miss Historic Vinings” question. Turns out Ms. Larrabee was Miss Cobb County 2006 and 2007.  Also was Little Miss Cobb County as far back as 2002. In addition to being Miss Historic Vinings in the Miss Georgia 2008 contest, somehow she was also listed as Miss Historic North Georgia in the Miss America contest 2008.  Good grief. According to a website posting of Kennesaw State University from 2007, Ms. Larrabee had been a student of KSU and was a staff writer for the Marietta Daily Journal, going on to mention her parents of “Glenville.”  So she doen’t live here either. There never was a “Miss Historic Vinings” contest in Vinings, to which the title came as a surprise to Gillian Greer of the VHPS, who was under the assumption she surely held that title by default.

More importantly, We’re still counting the days since we’ve had either gas at QT or Starbucks coffee in town (one on the hill doesn’t count). Truly inconvenient.

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Vinings Recession?

In the existing economic environment, which is chilling an otherwise perfect Fall season, comes the question is Vinings experiencing its own version of recessionary blues?

There are some visiable hints that all is not well with “Vininians” (a coined phase I use, uncomfortably associated by some with sausage). Take for instance the closing of Starbucks, the sporadic gas shortages at QT, diminished non-commuting traffic on weekends, a perceived fewer number of cars at local upper defined eateries, and a less than rush-to-lease perception in new commercial and retail space vacancies.

These observations are qualified on an instinctive perception of local hesitancy, which conforms with an overall economic slide in the Atlanta area, but becomes significant when the wealthy suburbs begin to exhibit fatigue.

Since there are few public venues of community exchange, one has to assume there is a “suffering in silence” going on, but then when things are booming there is also sequestered prosperity, so its hard to make a distinction between the two – Vinings style.

In keeping with my purpose of levity for those in need of some outlet of expression, the Palin Art Kit (just point and click anywhere several times with sound on) is offered to entertain disturbingly quiet hours.

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Miss What?

 Recently saw this in a Miss Georgia 2008 posting. How-when-what was there a Miss Historic Vinings contest?

I either missed it coming, or missed the call to be a judge… likely both.

Not being critical, Lacy is very attractive and sure she represented well, but next time lets’ at least have a Marti-gras parade so we can throw some old Starbuck cups or designer beads.

Maybe it was at the ice cream social?  No… maybe a poll at the fire station, nah.  ummm…

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A Vinings Ghost(s) Story

(lifted from the notes of Tony Doyle during  research on his book “Vinings Revisited,” of their own accord)

 

Around Vinings today, you would think that construction in the past 20 or so years would have exorcised any remnants of ghostly incidents in the process. Well, not so fast.

 

Looking into the history of Vinings turned up lots of interesting records and clarity on the past, but perhaps what has survived or been replaced, holds a few mysteries. Primarily because the tools of looking at history are too generic, such as the review of genealogy doesn’t note the crazy relative; civil war records speak more to the chess game of war than tragic-drama of place; the migration of Indian removal and settler descriptions are more matters of fact than the angst and myth left behind.

 

Vinings has evolved from the past with the speed of light over a couple of decades, reshaping the landscape and repackaged as a prosperous and prominent nexus of predictability – or is it.

 

Between the mountain (Vinings or Wilkerson) to the river, stirring in the shadows of skyscrapers and gated communities, it seems Vinings has its share of watchful presents (i.e. ghosts). We’re not talking little smiley Caspers on Halloween night, but surreal year-round apparitions, at least to those resolutely reporting a whispered story usually prefaced by “have you ever heard of….”

 

At some point, I had to consolidate these notes into a “Ghost” file, admittedly questioning my own reason for giving such stories credence. It’s not that I don’t believe in the possibility of apparition, but I am at a loss to qualify or quantify why so much in so small an area.

 

The following suspicions and related sightings seem timely to recognize, given the Autumn Equinox and Halloween.  These likely won’t accept candy:

 

1. Relates to the vow of past bartenders attending the second floor of The Vinings Inn to an “apparitional assistant,” who apparently also has a perchance of opening and slamming windows – giving further definition to the term “purveyor of spirits.”

 

2. A certain residential property has a non-paying resident of one floor, who intimidates the maintenance staff, and supposedly has been captured on a frame of a security camera.

 

3. Near the river, a private resident has a room on the ground floor their dog refuses to enter, and from which a periodic music sounds can be faintly heard from a nearby commode.

 

4. One of the newer office complexes in Vinings is suspicious of a rumor that a curse was put on the property during construction, and has subsequently experienced over time a crack in every single windowpane in the building.

 

5. The account of one older resident as a child following her uncle as he went to attend his liquor still in the woods and “disappearing” before her eyes into the foliage.

 

6. The cemeteries on the mountain have long been known for evoking a sense of uneasiness among visitors – and “likely” nearby offices.

 

7. A number of residences, businesses, and at least one church have historically experienced unexplained fires, to which one long term resident attributes to a torch bearing Union army ghost still under orders to burn the town.

 

8. The old fire station had a noisy back room ghost issue, which they thought was associated with an old oak tree in the back, but after removing the tree and replacing the station, the “feel” is the same.

 

There are a few others, but suffice it to say Vinings has its own Savannah-styled hauntings.

 

Interestingly enough all of these could be tied to a historic time, person, or event, but none of these connected “spirits” should be blamed further for their unexplainable evidences. Besides, there may be some risk in doing so, given that for the most part they don’t appear to intend harm beyond harassing those attempting intrusive observation.

 

Going to a degree of the explainable, there is a law in science called the “Law of Transformation,” which essential states that nothing is ever really created or destroyed, but only transformed from one material manifestation to another. Ummm.

 

The implication of this may be that “whatever happened in Vinings, stayed in Vinings – in one form or another.

 

Boo….

 

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