Egg On My Face

OK. So with all the best of intentions it’s still a struggle to get postings on here with the regularity I want. Not that there isn’t plenty to write about, I just haven’t cracked the only 24 hours in a day problem yet. Don’t worry, I’m working on it. Rather than start at the beginning I think I better jump right in with the news. Seems I will be making a trip across the pond this Summer, heading for “The land in the shape of a hand.” That’s right loyal reader’s, yours truly is heading to Michigan. I should be making the trip about the end of June, and staying, regrettably, only for a week or so. The reason? Well, it seems one of my daughters, Autumn is due to get married and Dad wouldn’t miss it for anything. I only just found out a couple of days ago, and no, I haven’t met the young man in question, but I do have it on good authority that he worships the ground she walks on, and that’s about as much as any Father can hope for in a son-in-law. There’s a lot more to him than that, but I’ll let the story unfold over the next few weeks. Oh, by the way, The next play Autumn’s in opens next week in Chicago, at the Sideshow Theatre, here’s a couple links, one to the play, and the other to her most recent bio, on the theatre’s web page. More on all this as things develop. http://www.sideshowtheatre.org/current.html
http://www.sideshowtheatre.org/as.html

A lot more on my daughters, all three of them in soon to be released updates, but I think this will carry me for today.

In more mundane topics.
The Winter here is fading a bit. Most of it has been so much better than last Winter that anything now is endurable. Last year it was three months of rain and mud. This year has been far better, but I think everyone, myself included, is about ready for Spring. I’ve seen the first few Daffies in blossom, and the days are definitely getting warmer. There’s a picture of the four comedians, Katree’s Eriskay ponies coming down from the hills to the fence to plead for some oats. Also, if you haven’t checked it out yet, you really better see what incredible work Katree is doing. Here’s a link to her shop on eBay, as well as one to her page there. She’s selling all round the world, and is delivering a unique and beautiful product. And to think, she married a bloke like me.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Elvincraft-Homegrown-Yarns
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/elvincraft/

Has it really been five weeks I’ve been working at the College? Seems like a lot more. I have to say, I’m not at all sold on the work. It's doing housekeeeping, cleaning in other words. I mean, any work that needs doing, and that someone is willing to pay for is good work. Yeah, there’s plenty of things that some people will pay for, and others would say “needs” to be done that is far less than honorable, but let’s not split hairs, you know what I mean. The pay is poor, the work is mind numbing, and it seems less each day to be a stepping stone to something else than a dead end. The good points: I get two hours each week of free instruction in Gaelic, from a professional, right there while I’m on the clock. Also, I've been meeting some people who are both interesting, friendly, and good networking contacts, and in a few cases I hope will become good friends. The people I work with are a mixed bag. The last few weeks I’ve been working in an series of buildings with two other people, one from Poland, holds a Master’s degree in Engineering, the other from England did her graduate work in Parasitology. and there were were, all scrubbing bathrooms together. It does make for some interesting conversations. The College also feeds us our dinner meal, free of charge, and it’s a fairly comfortable place to work. But then on the downside: The pay is very poor, and the hours are not that great. 7 a day, 35 a week, and that’s considered full-time. I guess in a land where it’s likely to become law that you are forbidden to work more than 48 hours a week (thanks very much European Union) I should be feel lucky. Yes, you read that right…. Not that an employer could not REQUIRE you to work more than 48 hours a week, but that you were not allowed to do so even if you want. Anyway, I digress.

So in the face of all that it was not to hard of a decision to make, and a couple days ago I gave my notice, and will be finished there at the end of tis week. Yes, it's back to the restaurant, Creeler's, for yours truly. We re-open on March 2nd with both the restaurant and the cookery school. http://www.skye-seafood-restaurant.co.uk/ I can work a LOT of hours, at better pay, doing something a lot more enjoyable. I can still make a concerted effort to learn Gaelic, keep my contacts open at the college and watch for other things opening up there. The restaurant feeds me too, and I have to tell you, the food is a lot better there than at Sabhal Mor. Don't get me wrong, there's things I'll miss, and I hate to quit at anything, but one does what one must.

A Few Thoughts After the Inauguration

Along with the close to two million people who were in attendance, and the hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world, I watched last Tuesday as Barack Obama took the oath of office of the Presidency of the United States. As with so many others witnessing the ceremony, and his subsequent inaugural address, my tears were flowing freely. Tears of joy, tears of relief, tears that were a cleansing of the glass of history, they merged with the tears and the blood and the sweat of countless others.

The mountaintop of which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of so eloquently is a mighty summit, and to reach it, so look down on the other side is an arduous ascent, but it is one we must make. There is no other way that will not lead to our destruction. The history of America is one of hardship and triumph, and of continuous struggle. I believe that the election which we have just witnessed the culmination of in that inauguration is the latest chapter in the story of that long climb. These things are never a straight up climb. Anyone who has ever hill walked around here knows that often the route to the top meanders all around the hill, often you are climbing up, but sometimes you are descending for a bit, only to head back up again. So too it seems the way to our own summit has been, long, difficult, and replete with many downward bits along the climb. In recent years, recent decades even, it has been all too easy to see the downward portions of this climb, the way up seeming more obscured in the misty clouds, with dangerous chasms at every turn, threatening us at every step. With the election of Barack Obama I truly felt like we were again heading upward, again taking positive steps that would ultimately lead us to the top. It is not the simple fact of the election, historic as it may be. It is what that election, and the process by which it all came about symbolizes.

There has been a long period in America, and in the world as well, where it is so easy to see the negative. It has been a time of division, of strife and animosity of a very bitter kind. We have devolved into a society where worth has been measured in the wealth accrued rather than the way that wealth is spent, where enemies are listed and points made by the cleverness and virulence shown in belittling them. We shout our opponents down and shut them up, hoping to win the battle for public opinion with ridicule, outrageous slander, and misrepresentation rather than by the power and the eloquence and the righteousness of our own ideas and ideals. America is tired of the rancour, the rabid partisanship, and the divisiveness that has been the hallmark of American politic over the last forty years or so. I have to admit to having played my part in the growth of this. In naïve and strident political sloganeering, and radical organizing in the 60’s and 70’s, I earned my share of blame for the way things have become. Now it’s up to me, as it is up to each one of us, to do our share in trying to bring about a healing, to nurture the growth of something better, something that beckons to the higher nature of our angels, as Lincoln called it, something that can uplift, not tear down, something that can heal, not injure, which can serve to help carry us through to our highest individual aspirations, and our greatest common good.

Unplanned Absence

I hadn't really planned to take such a long "sabbatical" from this blog. Sometimes things just get in the way. I started a new job one week ago, and that, along with various other complications, all coming at the end of a somewhat trying holiday season contributed to a lack of energy, motivation, and gumption to just get on with it, and write some more. After the restaurant closed for the season on 4 January it's been a little chaotic. Creeler's ( http://www.skye-seafood-restaurant.co.uk/ ) was open 6 days a week right up until then, and kept me pretty busy. Just one day after it closed I was on to another job, one that swung around both day and evening shifts, and was fairly exhausting. It only lasted until a week ago, when I quit to start my new, new job, at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College here on Skye ( http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/ ). It's just a housekeeping job, but it's a foot in the door, and as part of the job, while on the clock during my shifts there, I get to take classes designed to teach staff personnel the Gaelic language. If i can manage to learn a passing amount, which remains to be seen, I can certainly then try to get other jobs there. Anyway, it's a living, and it's close to home, being just 6 miles down the road from our village.

Now all that is a pretty poor excuse for my long absence from this page, especially after only just launching it. With all that has transpired in the world over the last few weeks there should be plenty of grist for the mill of an old blow-hard like myself. The economy is still seeemingly going down the tubes, though hopefully it is beginning the long painful process of renewal. There was a new President sworn into office in the U.S., which should provide plenty to write about as well. And those are just two among the very many things happening, and don't even begin to address news from Skye, and all the other areas i hope to write about on this page.

So anyway, excuse my absence, thanks for still checking me out, and I hope to be writing more regularly from here on out. More from me soon.

Not Really Missing In Action

OK, so I know that postings have been a little bit sparse of late. I can only claim fatigue, and beg for patience. Last Saturday was the last day for the of the season at Creeler’s, until it re-opens in March. On Monday I started a new job, at the Hilton. Now that sounds like a pretty top end hotel for this working class stiff to be working at, but it’s not… it’s not even a hotel. The Residential Care Home in Broadford is named the Hilton Residential Home. So yes, I’m working at an assisted care facility, or nursing home to use the old, non-pc term for it. The similarities with the more famous hotel of the same name don’t end with the name however, as it is a top notch operation, and given monetary constraints, it is a very good place, with wonderful residents, and a very caring and professional staff. At any rate, I work there about 40 hours a week, but bounce back and forth between working day shift and working evening shift on an every other day pattern. It can be a little exhausting, an will take a bit of getting used to. Long term viability of maintaining this job? Well, I will likely be leaving it when the restaurant re-opens. In fact, there is another job for which I’ve been interviewed looming on the horizon, but as little said about that for now the better, as they are still considering among various people, and it’s far from in the bag.

Anyway, I’ll have more postings, and more interesting ones coming in the next few days, so just bear with me, though I will add this little rant that I wrote a few days ago.

I’m looking forward with great anticipation to the inauguration of Barack Obama. Really it’s all that comes after that really has me smiling. I know it’s naïve, and probably I’ll be disappointed in what happens, or doesn’t happen, but I can’t help but smile thinking ahead to it. There seems to be an air of hopefulness to it all. It has less to do, I think, with the fact that he’s replacing one of the most, if not THE most unpopular Presidents in history than it signalling a change in the political and social culture of the United States. The hope that there is something noble we can aspire to, that we can come together in cooperation rather than continuing to be rest apart by distrust, fear, and cynicism.

In some ways the idea of it all transcends the person. I doubt I’m unique in that for a long time I’ve believed that the problems we face, as a member of the Human race, are deep, complex. myriad, and solvable. I’ve wondered at the possibility of leadership ever coming around that could inspire and motivate us to push aside what are in fact minor differences in the face of those challenges, and work together to create the solutions. Not that they will be easy, rather I fully expect that there will be tough choices, and plenty of sacrifice involved. Sacrifice not just for the other guy, but sacrifice for me and for you.

Jumping Right In

So, after beginning this venture into the world of blogging on Myspace, I'm jumping in here as a way of making access a bit easier, less insular, and maybe even to widen my own horizons. This will be a way to write of the comings and goings here on Skye as seen through the eyes of this Michigan man, transplanted to the Isle of Skye. It will be a rant, an autobiography, a way of remembering and of expounding on the state of affairs of the world, and on small pieces of it.

I came to the Isle of Skye from Michigan, a land I never planned to leave. Thing is, you can go all your life knowing the where of where you are supposed to live, but what seems to trump that, or at least did so for me was the who, in who you are supposed to be with, and that's what brought me here. My first girlfriend moved to Scotland shortly after she was old enough to leave home, and for about 25 years we were completely out of touch with each other. Then a fellow, Tim, walks into the Health Sciences Library at Bronson Hospital, where I worked. "Do you know where Kate is?" He asked me. "No idea." Was my reply, I hadn't kept in touch, and could only assume she might still be in Scotland, which was what I told him. Turns out he had a phone number and an address, and gave it to me saying that I should give her a call. Well, we got back together via the internet and long distance phoning. After a couple of years of that, and a couple of visits back and forth I quit my job, put my house up for sale, packed away fifty years worth of life and moved to Skye. We were married shortly thereafter, and now we live in the house she had, on her croft in a pretty remote area of the Misty Isle (aka Isle of Skye). It's a 30 minute drive to the nearest town, and that's a pretty small one. i find work where and as I can, and try to make some kind of contribution to making our life here better. All in all, it's a paradise here, a paradise with thorns, i once called it.

So that's where we're starting from here. This will be very much a work in progress. Since moving here I've dropped a few steps in keeping up with the ongoing e-revolution and web advances. Baby steps, I tell myself. Except that I'm too impatient, and want to start running and leaping around right away. I welcome all suggestions, criticisms, and of course, praise. Tips on how to do this better, or things to add, requests and advise are all desperately needed if this is to be a going, and growing concern. I'll add here the welcoming blurb from my blog on Myspace, as that seems to be a fairly good jumping off point, then I'm going to post this and go look at how to put some pictures on here.

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14 December 2008

So who the hell am I anyway? I mean, anyone and seemingly everyone has a Myspace page, you can’t throw a stone without hitting someone showing something there. So why in the world would anyone turn to MY page, and who the hell is this Jim Shiley, anyway? Fair enough. So here’s where I’m supposed to tell all and reveal all huh? No fuckin’ chance! Well, OK, maybe a little bit.

I was your average youngest child in a baby-boomer household, three siblings born to Mom and Dad, who were married at the tail end of World War Two (The Big One), born just after Eisenhower was sworn in, with not all that much worth mentioning until long after he was gone, his replacement was gone, and HIS replacement was about out of there too. So that puts us up to about the time of Nixon, well, the tail end of Johnson if you wish. It’s easier for me to think in those terms, those being Presidential terms. Year by year is just too slow to cover the ground needed for the first fifteen or sixteen years, but with presidents I can skip at least four years at a time. Except for Kennedy. His was cut short. Something that I suppose I shouldn’t view through rose colored glasses like I do, being the student of history that I am, heck, with 38 credit hours of post-graduate work in History I guess you could say it was more than just a passing interest, but I digress. Kennedy’s murder (hey, let’s call it a murder, sounds a little less antiseptic than an assassination) had a big impact on me at the time, and more so as I got older. Anyway, skipping ahead through a lot of years we get to the Sixties. Well, we HAD to, didn’t we.. I mean baby-boomers always get around to ranting about the Sixties, don’t we?

I guess you could say I got involved in the Sixties kind of late. I mean, I was only 17 when 1970 was half over, and that was officially the end of the Sixties, as opposed to when they emotionally, and culturally ended in say, 1973-4-or 5. So instead of becoming a lawyer, a politician, or maybe say a History professor or deep-sea archaeologist dinosaur hunter, I ended up becoming an activist in the radical/revolutionary movement of the times. More fun some might think, but a whole lot less lucrative. I never really made the big-time with it, though I did have my moments. Imagine my surprise, pride, and amusement when I found on reading through some of my FBI and CIA files (Thank you Freedom of Information Act), that they had taken us, and me, more seriously than you could imagine. Almost as seriously as we took ourselves.

So look.. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover here. For cripes sake, I’m only up to the beginnings of the 1970’s, and here we are in… what century are we in now anyway? So this long-term rant will wind it’s way through the revolution, through drugs, sex and rock & roll, concert producing, wide ranging hitchhiking travels across America, lots of music, friends and lovers (sometimes they were both), various weird jobs, and strange people, marriage, children, divorce, more weird jobs and strange people, and finally, immigration to a wild and strange and awesomely beautiful land.

More from me later.