Motown Strong: Crunchy Frog?

Friday, July 24, 2015

Crunchy Frog?

THE FINE FIVE:

(1) Had a surprise phone call this morning from Trigg's Upholstery, letting me know the six dining room chairs I brought in Monday for a major re-do were finished. Picked them up in the afternoon. They look and feel great!

I went in to this project not really knowing how it would finish. Initially, I was told by a number of individuals that this was essentially a DIY project. I would agree; however, there were a few minor chinks in the idea. After going to the local Jo-Ann Fabric to estimate the cost of buying new padding and fabric, I brought the set in to Trigg's (recommended by Fawn Tenenbaum, who had used their services before, and whose father was an upholsterer) for a professional estimate. Turns out the situation was actually worse than I had realized; the padding in at least three seats was deteriorating, and replacing it would cause the seat fabric to look horrible. Additionally, the fabric design is no longer available, and the backs of the chairs are still in pretty good condition, so there is no reason to re-do them. Further, one of the chairs needed major repairs (it broke several years ago; it needed re-gluing, new screws, the works) to put it back together.

The end of it is that I am had the entire set re-done professionally. We found a fabric that worked well enough, color-wise and design-wise, to match fairly nicely with the chair backs. It ended up costing $437.81, or $72.97 per chair; this included repairing the broken chair and additional reinforcement of the other five, 2" foam for all six, the replacement seat fabric, etc. (I'm not sure, but I think they originally had 1" or 1 1/2" foam padding; after 40 years of use, it is hard to know exactly how much was there when my parents bought the set.) They did a far superior job than I could have, and much quicker. I highly recommend them for others in the area.

(2) Next on the agenda: finding a reputable furniture restoration company. I have two Mahogany end tables, a server table, a dining room table, and a china cabinet that need to be cleaned up, restained, and in some cases repaired, over the next few years. (I need to pace this, because finances.) A former student of mine from my days teaching at South Fork High School flagged me down; her father is an expert in woodwork and furniture repair. I sent her photos of the other items to get an initial estimate.

(3) Am I the only one who thinks, regardless of his ideas on bettering the nation (and some of them might even be legitimate), Donald Trump - for all of his media attention - is not the type of professional leader the United States of America deserves? He's brash, bossy, combative, and abusive. He's a boorish blowhard who is alienating so many people. I can understand, to a degree, the spoken word aspect of this; sometimes, the filter inside our brain doesn't catch everything, and we end up with egg on our faces. But it's a lot different when writing and posting something, whether in the newspaper or on the Internet. We have more time to stop, pause, and ponder, before hitting "send." Whether on Twitter, Facebook or other social media, there is always time to do this before publishing whatever your thoughts or arguments might be. Which is why I wonder, who the hell is running Trump's Twitter feed? An intern? A hired professional? Trump himself? The Democratic Party?

Yes, I realize this posted Tweet was from March 2013. But it's just a reminder that what you post online doesn't just disappear, no matter how hard you try or how badly you might wish it to happen. And your past can come back to haunt you.

(4) Tomorrow, Goodwill visits the condo to pick up a very large CD rack - the one given to me by Pete Bowers during my employment at WBFH-FM. It stands about seven feet tall, holds around 500 CDs, and is amazingly wonderful to have ... if you have a large CD collection. Which I don't anymore, since I donated about 350 to the Palm Beach County Library a few weeks ago, and only have about 150 left. And since I don't need something so large in my condo, it's better to donate and let someone else enjoy its usage.

(5) Next weekend, I head to Tampa to donate the bulk of my record album collection to my cousin's son. He collects albums; I'm sure he will get a kick out of the additional vinyl in his collection.

CAMPAIGN 2016 NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Politico: "Dennis Rodman endorses Donald Trump for president" - Your 2016 Secretary of State, everyone!

FACEPALM NEWS OF THE DAY:

From ESPN: "Colin Cowherd no longer on ESPN air after comments about Dominicans" - Featuring the most non-apology apology ever. He should do PR for Trump, who also doesn't apologize.

FLORIDA NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Sun-Sentinel: "First Pompano Church of Satan creeps closer to Pompano Beach commission invocation" - Complete with its own cheer team!

WEIRD NEWS OF THE DAY:

From CP World: "Pastor Commands Congregation to Eat Live Snake That Allegedly Turns Into Chocolate; Gets Arrested for Animal Cruelty" - The Whizzo Chocolate Company's Quality Assortment just got more assorted.