WeShare Blog

I arrived at work this morning to find people dressed like pirates entering the back door at City Hall.  I wasn’t surprised, of course, because this is Albany where “Pirattitude” was invented.  Later this morning, Cruella DeVille, a group of Dalmatian puppies, and their owner appeared in my office.  Some kind of ghoul also stopped by and handed out candy.  Bob Woods in the office next door looks like a cross between Mary Poppins and Bozo the Clown.  Diana Eilers is attired in stripes, and I noticed an angel operating the copy machine as I walked by a few minutes … Continue Reading

People complain about taxes because they have little individual control over high they will be and they don’t feel they are receiving a good return on their investment.  The current presidential campaign is developing into a series of sound bites that boil down to whether people should be attracted by a pledge of no new taxes or taxing the wealthy to distribute to the rest of us.

My response to political leaders is that I’m less concerned about taxes than I am about the value I receive for my investments.  Some of my limited wealth has been going into retirement plans … Continue Reading

I received an e-mail from an Iraqi friend last month asking me to join him on Facebook.  I’m proud to say that I knew what he was talking about even though I had not previously seen the need to construct a MySpace or Facebook profile.  I hadn’t heard from my friend for awhile; so I decided to go through the Facebook enrollment process and see if we could get in touch.

I dutifully put in more personal information than I wanted to and even downloaded my picture from the City’s Web site that makes me look fatter than I really am.  … Continue Reading

I haven’t seen the television series “Heroes,” but the title has caused me to think about the many heroes I’ve known.  My family tops the list because, thanks to their efforts. I’ve been able to lead a happy and productive life.  I realize that none of us are perfect heroes and have settled for practically perfect as my standard.

Today we are honoring one of my local heroes by planting three trees at Lexington Park in memory of Dick Ebbert.  It’s hard for me to think or write about Dick without some sadness over the loss of his steady influence for … Continue Reading

Last month, my wife and I traveled to Southern California to visit my daughter’s family for a few days.  She lives reasonably close to Disneyland; so, we decided it would be a nice idea to take my three-year-old granddaughter and one-year-old grandson to see the “happiest place on earth.”  I had a few reservations about this adventure because some of my outings with grandchildren have not produced good outcomes for any of the participants.  I could envision soggy, unhappy grandchildren making scenes in … Continue Reading