Michael Louis Scott June 1997 to Date
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Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 10:45 P.M.: I relaxed a bit. I ate a bowl of corn chips and three 1.5 inch by 5/16th inch by 1 inch slices of Kraft Cracker barrel Baby Swiss cheese. I drank some ice tea with the corn chips. I recall, when I finally gave up the lease on the Farm House in Knollwood, Illinois, we sublet the place to students from Northwestern University, and we sold them the furniture including additional items in the house for around $200. Basically the farm was on 40 acres about seven miles northwest of Lake Forest College with the Knollwood Country Club on two sides, Interstate 176 on the north side and with an old railroad track bed running east to west along side of it and woods to the west for about a mile before there was the main Chicago to Milwaukee railroad line with a rail switching yard and a number of older railroad cars and odd railroad items. One could frequently hear railroad cars being coupled and uncoupled all night long, so it was a relatively quiet area. Back then number 2 fuel oil was .12 a gallon and we even toyed with the idea of buying old Mercedes Diesel automobiles, so one could run them on the Diesel fuel oil instead of paying about .27 a gallon for premium gasoline. I also recall there was a large colony of dormant bees in the front porch roof and walls, which possibly became more active in warmer weather. The house was warm enough with a barn for storing two cars and a manure pile. We used the Culligan man for water filtration, but high amounts of sulfur in the water are suppose to be very good for longevity. Back then a lawyer named Mr. Michaels in Lake Bluff, Illinois rented the farm, but I am not sure if he owned it or if he represented the owner. It was sort of my version of the Doonesbury Farm like this where I presently live is Flanders Farm. Well, anyway I had one of my 15 watt candelabra bulbs burn out in the right most sconce above the primary computer, so I replaced it with another used one, which is a tricky procedure reaching over the computer monitors. I was just able to do it. I have two new four packs of General Electric 25 watt Candelabra bulbs, which I will eventually use when the 15 watt ones start going out. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 8:40 P.M.: Back in the old days at college at Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu in Lake Forest, Illinois from 1968 to 1972 beginning in the fall of 1970 through 1971, I rented a farm house west of Lake Forest, Illinois in Knollwood, Illinois at 1014 Rockland Road halfway between Libertyville, Illinois and Lake Bluff, Illinois, and I shared it with four other roommates initially. I recall the rent was about $250 a month, and we split it about evenly. We needed to furnish the house, so I went to the Salvation Army in Waukegan, Illinois, and for $50, I bought a gas stove, sofa, dining room table and six chairs, and a full size bed, mattress and box spring along with a desk and chair, coffee table and a round hallway pedestal table, refrigerator and other miscellaneous items for that $50 price, they also delivered the merchandise in a big red truck to the Farm about 20 miles away. To compared the local Fairfield Country thrift shops in this area to what items cost out in the Midwest of the United States of America today, one might find this web site interesting http://www.salarmychicago.org/frames/extd_your_help/donations.htm which goes to show that prices seem to have risen outside this area also. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 8:15 P.M.: I chatted with a friend. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 7:10 P.M.: I chatted with a relative. I reheated in the microwave oven the garlic herbal chicken that I made last night along with the steamed white rice and cooking juices. I also put about 3/4 inch of water in the larger rectangular microwave container with sliding tops that I bought at Wal-Mart for $10 in the microwave cookware kit, and I put in about four stalks of broccoli crowns, and I pushed the Vegetable button on the microwave, and the broccoli came out just fine. I had the dinner with iced tea. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 6:00 P.M.: I went out after the last message. I went downtown. I found a empty package of Camel cigarettes with a British customs stamp on it. It was one of those half size packs that the British use. Thus somebody from the United Kingdom or someone whom had traveled there recently was parked or walking downtown. I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue. I sat out at various locations. I stopped by the new Blimpie Sandwich shop, and they have a nice warm sandwich shop and coffee beverage area. It is run by the same group that have Zyn Stationary. I also stopped by Harringtons of Vermont, and I told them about my idea for Jack Daniels smoked hams cured in Jack Daniels whisky. I noticed they have some nice French Roquefort cheese there along with their other specialty items. I put another United States quarter at the base of the north lamp at the senior center, so there are now two quarters, in case anyone finds them, and wants to make a telephone call. Friend of Animals was protesting at the movie theatre on Greenwich Avenue against people whom wear fur. I stopped by the 70% off rack at the Greenwich Hardware store. I stopped by CVS, and I bought a 16 ounce jar of CVS lightly salted dry roasted peanuts for $1.50. I then walked up to the top of Greenwich Avenue as usual. I chatted with the proprietor of the cell phone store. I stopped by the Subway sandwich shop, and they have a very good product too, plus they bake their own fresh bread and rolls, but alas they have no warm place to sit down inside, so it caters more to the office and automobile crowd. I suggested that someone should put a fish and chips shop on Greenwich Avenue. I then suggested Bang and Olufsen that they should make large LCD screens for computers, which they do not. I then completed my walk. I next drove down by the waterfront on Steamboat Road, and I walked out to the end of the pier. I then drove around the Grass Island area. I returned home, and I drank some iced tea. I had a telephone message on my answering machine. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 2:00 P.M.: I watched a bit of television. It is amazing how the television media in the United States of America focuses on such a limited number of characters. In one hour walk on Greenwich Avenue in the daytime, one sees more characters than all the United States of America television seems to be able to show in a year. Thus the old U.S.A. television is a very limited media in terms of what it covers. Well, I guess I will now clean up, and I will go out to see what is happening in the broader world around me, which includes the 20 million people in the New York City area, some of whom occasionally venture through this area, and then the local merchants whether they sell coffee, rags, or gasoline seem to make a little bit of wampum off the traffic. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 12:30 P.M.: I had a call at 6:30 A.M. this morning. I was up at 11 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee. I was rethinking my list of the world's major population groups, and I mentioned in last night's notes that in a world population of 6.5 billion people, there are 2.5 billion people whom speak various dialects of Spanish, 1.2 billion of Chinese origin, 1 billion from India, and there are also 1 billion Muslims, so that leaves 800 million people from everywhere else in the world. Thus with the world's minority populations so spread out all over the world, it is important this large minority group of 800 million people have better communications to stay in touch. Thus the internet helps facilitate this activity. In the last two decades we have had a large influx of Spanish speaking people in this Fairfield County, Connecticut area, but there were large Spanish groups already in the Manhattan area before this occurred. Basically most of the Hispanic groups here claim to be from Columbia or Brazil. However, on a number of times when I explored the Port Chester, New York flea market, the most common flag displayed was the Cuban flag, so although nobody says they're from Cuba, the fact that they were trying to sell large numbers of Cuban flags would seem to indicate to me that a large number of them are Cuban exiles who had earlier resettled into the Miami and south Florida area, and later moved up north. Also Chicago use to have the second largest Cuban exile community and then Union City, New Jersey. Thus where ever they come from, the Hispanic groups seems to have melded into this area in much the way they have in Southern California. Apparently in Mexico the going wage is $1.50 an hour and here the Hispanic population is earning upwards to $8 an hour and more. Of course this area is a lot more expensive to live in than in the Latino areas of America. I suppose if the wage scale goes any higher, the Hispanic community will price themselves out of the labor market, and other groups like the Asian, Canadian, or European groups might displace them at the higher wage scale. Whatever, the case the wealthier people in this area seem to need to employ the Hispanic work population to maintain their environment, so they can continue to work in their more highly paid Manhattan area. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 1:25 A.M.: About an hour ago, I ate a couple bowls of corn chips. I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon. CIO Note: <888> 02/08/04 Sunday 1:10 A.M.: Basically in the world of International Business and International Economics, most of it is irrelevant as it relates to this area. Basically the only economic trend in this area for all of these years is that the Scottish are probably one of the most frugal people in Europe, and once they chopped down most of their forests, they had to start paying the German wood choppers which included the Kaiser for forest timber. Thus the Kaiser made money which he leant the Rothschild family which in turn used it to develop other forest areas, so hopefully the Germans could continue to make money off the frugal Scottish. Thus we have had this Western Expansion for the last 400 years for lack of timber in rugged highlands of Scotland. However, if one ventured into the north country of this area, there seems to be plenty of timber that is well managed. Thus although the bankers seem to know it all from the Harvard Business School, they only know about managing other people's property, it does not mean the bank itself actually owns the property. From my perspective, locally in this area, once one gets on Greenwich Avenue or any other primary commercial street in this area, one of the business entrepreneurs in this area which is well known was P.T. Barnum whose motto was that a "Sucker Was Born Every Minute". Thus when dealing with the carnival or circus school of business, one should be careful on weekends, and wait until the regular more reputable business people set up shop on weekdays. From my perspective, since I am only about 1/8th Scotch Irish, 1/4th French, 1/8th German, and 1/2 Dutch, I have a more continental viewpoint that the more isolated frugal Scottish whom seem to have their original sheep skin to fall back on in times of trouble. However, more than likely the real Scottish being cheap never leave Scotland, but only let those leave and represent them whom might have some sort of idea of what the Scottish mentality is all about. Thus since the Dutch and French are neighbors of the Germans, it would seem to me that whomever the Scottish have chosen to represent them would not be as intimidating as the real Scottish are. The real Scottish are a quite formidable people which is why a great many of them served in the British Armed Forces in the Commonwealth. The Dutch were more merchant seamen and traders whom seemed to prosper off the existing trade between foreign nations and the larger hemisphere of the Eastern Hemisphere whom were land locked. Thus from my viewpoint if one wants to conquer the ocean or the people whom live peacefully around the ocean, your only chance might be to join some local Navy and see the World. I mentioned tonight at the Food Emporium, one character in Nantucket use to sell smoked pheasants, but one never saw any pheasants around Nantucket, so it was a curiosity as to where they came from. However, I use to see a few in near back country here in Greenwich, and when I was out at Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu which is a much colder area, there were quite a few pheasants, since they like the corn fields in the fall after the farmers harvest them, since there tends to be a bit of grain left in the fields to feed on, if the hunters or wolves do not get them first. However, if one does not harvest a field of corn, one is more than likely to end up with a lot of crows, and then one would end up trying to "Eat Crow" as opposed to "Judge Crow". Basically on the waterfront, the sea gulls know quite a bit, but once one goes into the interior of the country, the Crows know a lot more, since they see a lot more of the land. The crows obviously try to keep an eye on the waterfront, but frequently they get run off by the sea gulls. Back during the great wars of this century when there were shortages of food in this country, I believe they use to send hunters to Gull Islands like Nantucket to shoot the large flocks of sea gulls for additional food, but like in the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" that probably back fired, since although one might see quite a lot of sea gulls for hunting, when a few thousand suddenly turned into a few million more than likely the sea gull hunters ended up a sea gull droppings. Thus in nature and conservation, one has to be careful about what one hunts or harvests. Basically an area like Scotland in the old days was just a front outpost for the larger Eastern Hemisphere which like to keep an eye on its shores. Thus I would imagine even before the first Europeans ventured into the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere had problems with individuals from the Western Hemisphere showing up and trying to blend in. Whatever, the problem is locally, it is my viewpoint the large numbers of so called Hispanic workers in this area might actually be Asian that speak Spanish, since having been to Spain, I have a viewpoint as to what the actual Spanish people look like. Moreover, I mentioned tonight that Spain tends to be a very "Old World" country, and they do not try to do everything the modern way, but frequently use old Time Tested methods. Thus since certain areas of the world have lots of personnel like Chinese areas of influence, Spanish speaking areas, or India places of influence, they frequently use large numbers of people for certain tasks instead of more modern expensive procedures, which they use in more modern industrial areas. Since there are suppose to be 1.2 billion people of Chinese connection, 1 billion of India connection, and 2.5 billion people whom speak various dialects of Spanish that adds up to 4.7 billion people on a planet of 6.5 billion people whom have some sort of large affiliation, which leaves the other 1.8 billion people as a lose connected minority watching all of the other larger numbers come and go about their various businesses. I sometimes think the various two great wars of this century were caused by large numbers of people working their way from the sub continent or Asia towards what they perceived to be a goal somewhere in Western Europe, which may or may not have made sense, since all the places along the way or further due north from their regions might have more insight into their goals. I believe Gingus Khan was from Mongolia, so just because the horses took off for better feeding, we now deal with a larger Arabic speaking group whom refer to the Khan family, and it would seem to me the indigenous people in the areas where this Khan family have traveled would have their own perspective and viewpoint as to what their mission was in their travels. Possibly the American Indians were also descended from the same tribe of people, but Gingus Khan had horses where the American Indians supposedly did not have horses until the Spanish arrived. Whatever the case like the circus people they seem to have built up some sort of political base, but whether it will fly on Monday morning when more level headed people prevail is open to question. CIO Note: <888> 02/07/04 Saturday 11:05 P.M.: Free words of advise. Large numbers of elderly people tend to live during the winter in warmer areas where they grow large amount of vegetables on a year round basis. Also elderly women tend to outlive their elderly husbands. Also in the old days elderly women would live on tea and toast. Today in the modern world of communications, we seem to have locally here a bread factory and sufficient energy to make toast. However, we also know that they produce tea in warmer areas of the world along with the vegetables. Thus basically from a philosophical point of view the "the Whole World is Run by a Little Old Lady whom Owns a Vegetable Garden". However, the transport and grocery people up north tend to be a more mercenary group of people since they have expenses to pay, so basically they are looking at the bottom line here and not the overall picture. Whatever, the case it pays to be frugal and to buy sale items when they are on sale. Since a large number of the local young people are so busy working in business on their individual shopping sprees, they frequently do not have the time to watch their Ps and Qs which is derived from the old Wall Street expression of Prices and Quotes. However from what I know, a lot of the people here have quite a bit of long time experience working here, however when they try to transfer that experience to other areas, it is not necessary applicable, because other areas also have individuals with long time experience. Basically, I just speak about what I know locally. I do not try to comment on what I see broadcast on the electronic media. The town of Greenwich is suppose to have a budget for essential services, so assuming their regular personnel are not on vacation, the town should be able to provide the general services, it usually does on a year round basis. However, it is the nature of this area that for people coming from the south it tends to be cold in the winter. It is also basic reality that we can not change the weather in this area as it occurs on a four season basis. Thus when it is cold in this area, the people whom might own property here on a year round basis and whom only occupy it during the warmer months might not realize it takes another group of people whom are use to colder weather to maintain the property when they are not here. Also some people whom are from colder areas on a year round basis find this area enjoyable during the winter months, since it is not as cold as the colder areas. Thus on a four seasons basis, one might see different people coming here for various periods of residence, since we are suppose to be an international business community besides a suburban bedroom community. Thus if one is newly arrived in this area, and one has business or family connections in this area, it would seem reasonable that one would contact them when venturing into this area. CIO Note: <888> 02/07/04 Saturday 9:50 P.M.: I went out, and I went downtown. I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area. I sat out at various locations. I stopped by CVS, and I bought two 1.76 ounce tins of Altoids one citrus sour and the other tangerine sour for $1.99 for one and a penny for the second plus .12 tax for $2.12 total. I also stopped by the 70% off rack at the Greenwich Hardware store and Bang and Olufsen http://www.bang-olufsen.com/ which has very high tech Danish electronics equipment. I chatted with one of the salesmen about technology. I suppose one could configure a large high resolution LCD screen for a computer, but I am not sure if the internet has the content that would need such a screen. Also such a configuration would be quite expensive. I completed my walk. While I was standing at the Senior Arts center, I found a U.S.A. quarter that someone had dropped from a bench in front of the building in a puddle of cold water. I put it on the pedestal base of the north lamp in front of the building. Unfortunately, one can no long make a telephone call on Greenwich Avenue for a dime or a quarter, I think a local telephone call now costs .50 or two quarters. I then drove down by the waterfront, and I walked out onto the end of the pier. I next went by the Exxon gasoline station next to the Greenwich Library, and I bought $9 of regular unleaded gasoline at $1.899 a gallon for about 28 miles per gallon this week. I used more gasoline this week because I made the trip to Bridgeport, Connecticut this past Thursday. I next went by the Food Emporium, and I bought the second to the last of packages of boneless breasts of chicken at $1.99 a pound for $4.46, two eight ounce bars of Cabot's www.cabotcheese.com Vermont 50% less fat cheddar cheese for $1.49 each bar and a pound of Nabisco Original Premium saltine crackers for $2 for $9.44 total. One of their customers fell on his butt as he was walking from the parking area down the steeply inclined driveway that had frozen over. Although they have cut groves in the pavement, it still ices over at the entrance to the Food Emporium. I suppose they should put more sand in slippery locations which tends to stay in place versus melting like salt or salt substitutes does. However, I would imagine the store employees do no like cleaning up after the sand tracked into the store. We have the same problem at my building in that the sidewalks were not sanded, and one of the tenants is now wearing a neck brace from having slipped and fallen. When one has days like today when it warms up and melts in the daytime, and then it freezes again at night, and it can become very hazardous when walking. Also rubber sneakers or athletic shoes tend to be more slippery and hazardous, and there are better winter type shoes that have better traction. I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea. I took the five halves of boneless chicken breasts, and I rinsed them in cold water, and I dried them with a paper towel. I put three in a Rubbermaid container in the refrigerator for cooking later. I put two in a Pyrex pie dish, and I rubbed all sides with about two tablespoons of olive oil. I then turned the bottom side up, and I seasoned them with Old Bay Seasoning, garlic powder, celery salt, chicken and meat seasoning, ground black pepper, basil, oregano, Italian spices, parsley, and Hungarian paprika. I then turned them bottom side down, and I poured on about three tablespoons of La Choy low sodium soy sauce and about a quarter of a cup of Rene Junot White wine. I then seasoned the tops of the boneless chickens breasts with the same herbs and spices as the bottom, and I minced one clove of Elephant garlic, I spread the pieces over the tops of the chicken. I then baked them in the Farberware convection oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. I had one of the chicken breasts with steamed white rice with the cooking juices from the chicken and steamed fresh broccoli with a small bit of olive oil. I refrigerated the other cooked chicken breast with the remaining rice and cooking juices in a Rubbermaid container, to reheated tomorrow for dinner. I had the dinner with iced tea. CIO Note: <888> 02/07/04 Saturday 2:55 P.M.: I chatted with a friend at 7 A.M. this morning. I was up at 11 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee. I just finished my house cleaning and watering the plants. I ate a Quaker low fat white cheddar flavored corn cake with some iced tea. I listened to the Emerson wireless headphones while doing house cleaning playing 106.7 FM. I am recharging the Radio Shack rechargeable Nickel Cadmium AAA batteries that I used, and they should be charged at 10 P.M.. I have a fully charged pair in the Emerson wireless headphones. I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up and go out. CIO Download 3.07 Mb. Share with your friends:
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