The end of summer

The high today in Denver is supposed to be in the low 80s.

The high tomorrow in Denver is supposed to be 50 with significant snow above 9,000 feet.

Autumn arrives overnight.

Wonder what the weather is like in Austin?

I hate home owners associations

I'd never thought about home owners associations until we bought our first house in Austin. We'd gone through financing, inspection, resolution of inspection issues and were at closing when one of the documents we had to sign if we wanted our house was the document selling our soul to the local home owners association.

Now my guess is that when originally conceived, home owners associations were probably a fairly harmless little thing. But not today. Today, home owner associations are bureaucratic, red-tape manufacturers with the power to fine you and prevent you from selling your house if you don't conform to their rules. I can't believe anyone who believes in private property rights or individual freedoms actually thinks these things are a good idea.

The worst thing about home owners associations are the nattering ninnies who run them. These people have far too much time on their hands and appear to be, in my opinion, not the brightest bulb in the set of lights. Let me give you an example.

We just got our HOA Newsletter. It appears to have been mostly written by a man named Erik. One of the articles Erik wrote was about the horrible problem of people parking their cars on the street overnight. He wanted to remind people that the HOA Board is now enforcing a rule that says no cars may be left on the street overnight. He also detailed the reason for the rule.

"Parking on the streets is considered unsightly and hurts our property values."
and
"Cars parked on the street block the view of drivers, placing people at significant safety risk, especially children running or biking from the sidewalk."

So I'm now to believe that my property value is going down because there are potential buyers scouting my sleepy little neighborhood in my sleepy little suburb at 2:00 AM? That's silly. I'm sure that 100% of the people scouting my neighborhood for a house are doing so during daylight or evening hours when parking on the street is allowed!

And while I understand that cars parked on the street may block some views and be a hazard to children I'd argue that the bigger hazard to the kid walking or on a bike are the parents at home who are letting that kid walk and/or bike at 3:00 AM.

I would rather pay taxes to the federal government than pay my HOA dues.

China vs. Mexico, Spain and a host of other countries

As I mentioned in my previous post we are beginning to look at elementary schools. Our local school district has decided that every elementary school student should have the opportunity to learn either Chinese or Spanish.

So here are my questions. Should my two kids learn Spanish or Chinese? Which will be more useful? Which provides the most interesting window into a different culture? 20 years from now, which will be more beneficial in the job market? Which one will open the door to better trips for me when I retire?

Living what you believe

In 1990 I was visiting an elementary school in Alabama during recess. What I noticed was a bit shocking for me. The kids were all playing in groups. All of the groups were racially integrated, gender integrated and even, to some extent, age integrated. What determined the make up of each group was the clothes the kids were wearing.

Kids with more expensive clothes were playing with other kids who were wearing more expensive clothes. Kids with cheaper, more worn out and ill-fitting clothes were all playing together. The kids on the playground had literally grouped themselves based on family income bracket and I knew this by looking at the clothes they were wearing.

Ever since that day I've been a huge believer in school uniforms. I think they ought to be required starting in Kindergarten and ought to stay a requirement all the way through high school.

Tonight, however, I was looking at the website for the local elementary school my oldest child might attend next year. I was surprised to find that they require a school uniform four days a week. (Kids are allowed to wear their own clothes every Wednesday.) You'd think, given my strong belief in the importance of school uniforms I'd be happy, right?

Not me, my gut reaction was, "Screw them. They can't tell my kids what to wear." My gut reaction was to protect my kids' independence and freedom to choose to wear what they want to wear.

In the end, my head will over-rule my heart on this one and next summer I'll gladly shell out the bucks for the appropriate articles of clothing. But I'm not going to feel good about it. I'm going to feel like I did when I was a kid and my parents made me eat liver.

Identifying with where you are from

I'm in Austin, Texas, a place I called home for eight years. Last May we moved from Austin to Lone Tree, Colorado.

What is interesting to me -- and something I hadn't thought about before -- is that I am still more of a Texan than a Coloradoan. I am completely comfortable in Colorado and I love living there. But being back in Texas reminded me that I am still much more at home in Texas and have a much better sense of who Texans are and how they are shaped by their state.

I'll become a Coloradoan in time but I'm not there yet.

The other interesting item is something I wrote about on this blog shortly after we moved. That is that I love the strong sense of identity Texans have as Texans and Austinites have as Austinites. It is fun for me to be back in the middle of that bravado.