Friday Movies and Monday People
1/22/2

Friday, we saw Black Hawk Down. It�s very good, but very gritty. And unlike the norm in most war movies, there is no humor in this at all. It�s ugliness and fighting. It�s like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan for 2.5 hours. If you want modern war with a little humor, see Three Kings.

We planned on seeing Vanilla Sky on Monday afternoon, but after the move, we were too tired. We went and got Chinese food at the place next to the Kroger�s in Madison. I didn�t go in. I just sat in the car listening to music.

Aisai ordered Mongolian Beef and was waiting and looking out the window at traffic. The guy at the register didn�t understand how glass could be used as a mirror obviously, since Aisai was able to see him unabashedly checking her out. Ogling even.

Or perhaps Ogling involves having one notice you...but then again, she did.

Another thing that was interesting was on Monday afternoon the front doorbell rang. Aisai was in bed. We had just gotten back from the move a few hours earlier.

The lady and her six-year-old kid at the door were looking for other young kids for him to play with. She explained that he had been complaining since Saturday that he didn�t have anyone to play with and so she told him that they�d go door to door and find someone to play with. Very nice of her, I think.

I could only point out some houses that had middle school kids in them. They had just moved up from Birmingham. Then the lady said something.

�He�ll be starting at Horizon Elementary next week. He has to get four teeth pulled tomorrow.�

I looked at her and said, �No, he wont go to Horizon. ... This isn�t Madison. We�re Huntsville with a Madison mailing address.�

She was a little confused and so I explained. It was very clear that her realtor had not fully represented the neighborhood.

My subdivision is, as I said, Huntsville with a Madison mailing address. If somehow Madison could take over, our property value would jump up 30% instantly. Madison is a very nice little city grafted onto Huntsville and essentially, but not legally, we are in it.

The big problem is that we are on the western side of Huntsville. Postwood�s Rule of East/West demographics states that the west side of any city will have the poorer neighborhoods, and in Huntsville�s case, this is correct. Not only that, but due to �Pass the Lemon� actions by the education administration, the good schools aren�t in the poor neighborhoods.

So, what�s pass the lemon? I went to a good school, Dead Astronaut High. If we had a bad teacher, our parents would complain and they would get them transferred at the end of the year. Since they were bad, they�d get transferred to a lousier school. As a reward for the good teacher at the lousy school, they�d get to be �promoted� to our good school. Thus, making the good school better and the bad school worse.

So, why don�t the poor people�s parents complain? I dunno. Maybe they don�t have enough time while they work two jobs. Maybe they are poor because they have vices like drinking or their spouse does. But they don�t and thus pass the lemon is a fact, not a theory.

I was able to point out some houses where younger kids lived, however. I could narrow it down to three. They kids there might be too young for him, really.

At home, neither Aisai or I are caught up on our chores. Also we have to go by the bank this afternoon since Aisai spotted that there is insurance on a loan of ours and it�s not needed and would save us $30 a month. Basically, it would pay the loan off if one of us died. However, we have that on the house.

I may nap before Aisai gets home.