There is a car "warsh" (the New Yorker in me still puts an "r" in the darndest places) on Manchester Street in Concord that has a sign proclaiming "It's not how you go down the road, it's how you look doing it". Every morning I pass it and think "and there is the problem with the world today", then find myself swerving to avoid the idiot talking, or worse, texting on their cell phone instead of driving or the owl craning their head around to check out the sweet bike that just tooled by. I am thankful that I have become an observant driver who has learned the value of watching what the other guy is doing as carefully as I watch what I am doing while driving. It doesn't always save me from an accident, like from the guy driving on Loudon Road who slammed into me full speed a few years back, but it has helped me avoid a whole lot of other accidents. I learned a long time ago about the value of watching the other guy.

This is the first entry in what I hope will be a discussion forum about topics including the housing market and how it affects regular Joe and Joann; personal credit issues such as REALLY understanding how smart the credit card companies are and what you need to know when considering taking them up on their many offers to make your life easier and how in general to build your personal credit profile to be attractive and ultimately save money because you know how to handle money.

Well, the hard part is over. As of June 2^nd, I'm officially divorced. From now on my name will be Linda Thompson-Odum. I had to keep the Odum because that is the name I'm known by for my writing. It is the name editors look for, and students sign up for my writing classes because of that name. Maybe at some point I will be able to drop it, but I'll keep it for now.

As far as divorces go, mine was pretty easy. My ex and I agreed early on about the settlement, so we only had to go to court one time. The entire proceeding took maybe 15 minutes. Hum, 15 minutes to end a 14 year relationship. Seems a bit sad, doesn't it?

Governor John Lynch should strongly consider a 4-day work week for State employees.

We live in a time where rising gas and food prices are at the forefront of all our minds, and yet the cost of living increases State employees see each year will never offset these concerns.

The State employees of Utah are doing this right now.

The city of Birmingham Alabama is as well.

Many local towns and cities already operate on a 4-day work week. Not only would it help out State employees in the pocket, but it would help the environment with fewer cars on the road, but it will help the local economy as well. If fewer people are driving to work on a Friday, maybe they are hitting a State beach instead. Or going camping. Or taking a day trip. Either way, the money will go back into the economy and not necessarily directly into the pockets of the big oil companies.

A 4-day work week will make sense for many non-essential State employees. At the same time there will be agencies that can't do this, and maybe those agencies can look into a flex-time scenario.

I worked for the State of New Hampshire for almost 7 years and am well aware that this isn't just a cookie cutter scenario. It will work in some areas, but not in others. But working toward something like this might benefit everyone.

They've been on my mind since I heard the news. I have even dreamt about them. I didn't really know the women involved in the boat crash that occured early Sunday morning, but I had met Stephanie Beaudoin a couple of years ago at a mutual friends Easter brunch.  It's not that I can recall meeting her in detail, which I have tried in vain to do.  I seem to only be able to come up with a shadowy image of a woman who filled the room with laughter when she was in it.  Our friend who had hosted that brunch has been pretty shaken up by her death.  My S.O. seems to remember her with more clarity, and also knew the driver of the boat, Erica Blizzard.  Why they so permeate my mind has left me feeling a bit unsettled.  I can't explain it. I have so many other people to keep in my thoughts. 

My family lived in Dobbs Ferry, New York for the better part of my first 10 years of life. It was a good childhood filled with family vacations to Florida and the Adirondacks, chasing fireflies on warm summer nights, playing house in a mansion and knowing all the children in my neighborhood and school. It seemed like everyone knew everyone else. It was a community of children and parents who had known each other for years. My mom had grown up in this same town. My 4^th grade teacher had been her Kindergarten teacher.  

She acts like a jealous woman.  I'm not sure why since he's not hers to begin with, but I suppose that is telling in itself.  Although, if one were to delve deeper into the topic, jealousy concerns something one already has and is afraid of losing while envy concerns something one wishes to have but does not.  Either way, it has been going on for quite some time now, and only seems to be waxing rather than waning, as though her jealousy is feeding off of itself.

It is hard for me to believe that I've been living on my own for almost 6 months. Half a year!

When I first moved out in December, I was so busy adjusting to my new life that I never really looked back at the old one. Then spring came, and I began to miss my Hillsboro house with the gardens I had worked so hard to establish through the past 10 years. A little internal calendar went off, telling me that my crocus, daffodils, bleeding hearts, and peonies were waking up. It is also the time of year when the neighborhood comes out of hibernation and everyone would start to congregate outside, most of the time on my front lawn. I spent a couple of sad weeks thinking about what I was missing.

Breaking news out of California today. The state's Supreme Court just issued a ruling to a legal case dating back to 2004 regarding the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In its 4-3 ruling, the court found that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ruling will take effect in 30 days, and courthouses are anticipating a flood of marriage applications from same-sex couples.

No one likes paying $3.50 a gallon for gas; the impact of that can be devastating to individuals and families.

There are things we can do to impact our dependence on oil and maybe drive the price down including reducing the speed we drive, maintaining our automobiles, consolidating trips to the store, not warming up our cars, being conservative when using your auto’s air conditioning and keeping our tires inflated properly.