We The People

 

We may be screwed as far as getting our Social Security and Veterans Disability Checks in November. I went on line and saw what Reuters had to say about Social Security and then went to the Veterans Affairs.

 I am hopefully optimistic about the out-come because "We The People" of this country will not stand for such a thing to happen.

 http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

Bill Kaufman

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From Reuters:

COLUMN-Will you get your Social Security check if the U.S. defaults?

  

Tue Oct 8, 2013 12:53pm EDT

By Mark Miller

Oct 8 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned last week that Social Security benefits might not go out "on time" if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling.

Should seniors and disabled American really be worried about their benefits if the U.S. government runs out of borrowing capacity later this month?

The answer is yes - but only if the Obama administration insists on making Social Security a pawn in the debt ceiling battle. And that's a move it has no business making.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/08/column-miller-socialsecurity-idUSL1N0HY0XP20131008

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http://www.va.gov/

Updated Oct. 7, 2013

VETERANS

FIELD GUIDE

TO

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Services to Veterans

impacted

by

a lapse in appropriations

               

               

Claims processing and payments

in the compensation, pension,

education, and vocational

rehabilitation programs are

anticipated to continue through

late October.

However, in the event

of a prolonged shutdown, claims

processing and payments in these

programs would be suspended when

available funding is exhausted

               

VBA Regional Oóces public contact

services will not be available

•

VBA’s processing of appeals and

remands will be suspended. In the

event of a prolonged shutdown, no

decisions on appeals or motions will

be issued by the Board of Veterans

Appeals, and no Board öeld hearings

on appeals will be held

•

Freedom of Information Act queries

will not be processed

•

Privacy Act requests will not

be processed

•

VA’s homepage (www.va.gov)

will be updated intermittently

•

VA’s main and hospital Social

Media Web sites will be updated

intermittently (Facebook, Twitter,

Blog, etc.)

•

Recruiting and hiring of Veteran

job applicants will cease

with the

exception of the Veterans Health

Administration

•

Presidential Memorial certiöcates will

not be processed

•

Interments at National Cemeteries

will be conducted

on a reduced schedule

•

Military services coordinator

operations will be suspended,

including overseas

•

VA Secretary correspondence with

Veterans and VSOs suspended

•

Outreach and Public Awareness

Activities

•

VetSuccess on Campus suspended

•

Vocational Rehabilitation and

Education Counseling will be limited

•

VBA will not be able to continue

overtime for claims processors

•

Claims processing and payments

in the compensation, pension,

education, and vocational

rehabilitation programs are

anticipated to continue through

late October.

However, in the event

of a prolonged shutdown, claims

processing and payments in these

programs would be suspended when

available funding is exhausted.


http://www.c-span.org/Events/VA-Secretary-Shinseki-Testifies-on-Government-Shutdown/10737441940-1/ 

I'm Gonna See Cher

 I have been wanting to see Cher for so long. I missed her in Las Vegas back in 2008 by 2 days but now Cher will be going on tour across the county starting March 22^nd 2014.  http://tour.cher.com/

I found out that she will be in Chicago on June 7^th 2014 and then again in Des Moines  on June 9^th 2014. I emailed my daughter to let her know. I was going to see Cher by myself in Chicago but my daughter said, “Why don’t you come out here and you and I can go together and see her?  We’ll go out and have dinner and then go the concert.” I said, “You have a date,” I’m so thrilled, just my daughter and me going to see Cher. That’s one of the things in my life that I always wanted to do. This is going to be sooo Cool. Now I have something to look forward to. I get to see two fantastic girls that night.

The 4th of July. The Birthday of our Country

                      The 4th of July. The Birthday of our Country

 It is funny or maybe not so funny that Obama can take a $100 million dollar Vacation to Africa and then Obama pledges $7 billion for power in Africa.
    Yet "Independence Day celebrations have been canceled at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and at the Army's Fort Bragg, both in North Carolina. The annual July Fourth celebration also has been scrapped at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga.

The reason is money — namely the lack of it."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/july-4th-fireworks-scrapped-number-bases

Something is Just Wrong Here. It's Just Not Right.

Meet Dan Rutherford Our New Governor for 2014

 I met Illinois State Treasure Dan Rutherford when he introduced Mitt Rommney at Pancakes Eggcetera in Rosemont Illinois on March 16^th 2012 of last year. He was the Chairman of the Romney Campaign here in Illinois. A few days later I met Dan Rutherford again on March 20^th at the Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg when Mitt Romney won the Illinois Primary. After Mitt had made his speech and the gathering was braking up I saw Dan Rutherford shaking hands with people. By this time I was extremely impressed with Dan Rutherford and how he managed Mitt’s campaign in the Illinois Primary. So I went up to him and said, “You did a great job,” and shook his hand.  It was an exciting night and I will never forget it.

  A year has gone by and I found out that Dan Rutherford is going to be running for Governor here in Illinois. I can’t think of a better person to fill that office.

 I got a letter in the mail saying that he would be at the Schaumburg Township Republican Breakfast. I really wanted to go. So instead of sleeping in on Saturday’s like I usually do, I set my alarm early enough this morning so I could get to the breakfast in time in order to meet him again and hear what he had to say. I was not disappointed. I even signed up as a member of the Schaumburg Township Republican Organization. 

 Well this is just the beginning and I am sure I’ll have more to say about what’s going on as time gets closer to the elections next year.

  Bill Kaufman

  

The Old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

UPDATED: 


                                The Old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

 This was originally the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge at 8201 W. Higgins Rd in Chicago near O'Hara airport. My grandparents James and Izora Moreland and my uncle William Moreland were the people that originally built it in 1960. They also built the homes on the other side of the Kennedy Expressway across from Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge.

                        
                                                   They Built That
 Here they are in front of their Real Estate Office at 5717 N. Milwaukee Ave in Chicago Ill.

They also owned and ran their Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge. It was a 4 Star Motor Lodge back then. My uncle was always proud of that rating. He kept it in top shape. He was the first to have Cadillac Limousines running to and from O'Hara airport for the guests.

       Above is a post card of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

The Morelands are having a family party at our Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge, 1971

    I started working there in 1968 right after I got married. I was one of the maintenance men but soon my uncle had me working behind the desk and doing ever other job that it takes to run a hotel. There are so many stories I could tell about that place. Some were funny while others were not. Then in 1972 my uncle called me into this meeting. All of the family were there. My grandparents, my aunt, and my cousins. The whole family had some part in running the hotel plus we all had shares in the business. My Uncle starts off and says, "We're selling the Motor Lodge." Well I almost fell over because I was young and just had a baby. I said to the whole family, "What am I going to do for a job?" Everybody laughed and said, With the money you will get you won't have to worry about that." Well I was worried. My Grandparents , my uncle and my aunt where planning on retiring. I still had my whole life ahead of me. 

After they sold the Motor Lodge they retired and bought a huge home called "WestGate" on lake Geneva Wisconsin.
 After they all passed away the new owners remodeled the whole inside. But for some reason unbeknown to me they never moved into it and then they tore in down. It doesn't exist any longer. 

        

 When the new owners of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge took over after my grandparents sold it, they fired all 52 employees. I was on my own. I eventually got my Real Estate License and sold homes in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for the next 10 years.

After the Motor Lodge was sold it became a Holiday and then as a Wyndham. By the latter 2000s it was unbranded and called The Chicago O'Hara Garden Hotel. Last year, the owners Sethi and his father were sued in federal court for $355,000 by the Wyndham hotel chain for failing to maintain sanitary conditions in the hotel, which Wyndham said violated a franchise agreement. The hotel lost the Wyndham name and was operating independently as the Chicago O'Hara Garden Hotel.
 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-15/news/ct-met-china-investment-visas-sethi-sidebar-20120715_1_eb-5-hotel-proposal-foreign-investors/2
 I don't know what happen to the hotel but if you look around the windows in the pictures I took you can see some burn marks. It looked like it had a fire, maybe, I'm not sure. Someone told me that the fire department used the hotel for practice just before they demolished it. 


  I suppose my Uncle would have been a little upset to see someone run his building into a pile of rubble but since he and the whole family are long gone now, I'll never get a chance to ask him what he thinks about it.

 As far as I'm concerned, I don't care. I'm glad to see it torn down. Yeah there is a story behind that too but I'm not here to write a book about the way I feel in this post. Maybe some other time.

I got a couple of souvenirs of the old place before they took it away.





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Update 

 Well it looks like Somebody tried to pull a scam and got caught. To bad they tore down the old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge. Now it will probably stay a vacant lot for a long time. I know my Uncle who built that Motor Lodge would probably be pretty pissed right now.

 

_________________________________________________________________________

Update

  

July 23, 2014

 Fortune

Whistleblower unmasked as partners battle over $14.7 million award

 

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Update

July 29, 2014

Well, I found out that they finally put the property up for sale. Back when my Grandparents and my Uncle sold it back in 1972, I remember my uncle saying that they got 1 million for the Building, I million for the land underneath the building and 1 Million for the property that was on the east side of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge at 8101 Higgins rd, They later sold the Howard Johnson Restaurant for 600K in 1984 or 85. That was a lot of money back then. Here is what they want for the property now in 2014.

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I Had a Dream Today

                                                     I Had a Dream Today


 I just woke up from a nap. While I was asleep I had a dream.  I was talking to someone, telling them about a memory I have of my Dad. This is that dream...
 
  While I was growing up I always remembered my Dad in a fresh pressed white starch shirt with a tie around his neck as he got ready to go to work in the morning. He would hug me before he left and when he did I could smell the Mennen After Shave lotion that he had on. He always smelled so good. I went on to tell this person that I used to wear it when I was a teenager but when I joined the Navy they didn't allow you to use it in boot camp. From then on I stopped wearing after shave lotion. 

 I started to wake up and the dream was fresh in my mind. That's when it hit me that my Dad died 9 years ago today on November 25th 1963. 

 I got up to make sure I had the date right so I looked it up on my computer. I also found out that today is the day my Mom and Dad got married back on November 25th 1937. 

Today I'm going to wear his Mennen After Shave lotion. It's funny how certain smells can bring back so many memories. It feels like Dad is right her in the room with me.


 Bill Kaufman

My Train Set

                                                                                                                                                             My Train Set

                                                 
My son always liked trains when he was little. We had a train station that was close to our house at the time.  So when he was 7 or 8 years old I wanted to build one for him. I had never built a train layout before so it was all new to me. I went to the hobby shop and picked up a book that showed different layouts and how to build them. Since I had gotten a divorce, I lived by myself in a little one bedroom apartment. There wasn't any room so I chose this one layout that was 4x6. It just fit in my little dining area. It was fun building it and it gave my son and I something to talk about when I would call him. Whenever I got stuck and didn't know how to do something I went right for a book that told me how to do it. It took a long time and finally it was done. It wouldn't have taken so long but I didn't have any money. My son finally got to see it and he was excited. He built the mountains and helped me with the landscape. We both loved it. During the Christmas season I put garland and lights all around the edges of the layout and I had the buildings all light up. I put the Christmas music on and watched as the train went around. My son lived with his mother in another state so he didn't get to see the train set during Christmas. I missed being with him.

I always told him that I built the train set for him and he could take it anytime he wanted too. But as the years went by my son grew older and I lost interest in our train set. I let it go and it got all dusty. The landscape looked terrible and the train wouldn't work anymore and that's the way it stayed. My son got married and moved away as far as he could. I still don't know why. I have been in this same apartment for 27 years now. I guess I got a little depressed last week because it's that time of the year when everybody decorates for Christmas. I looked over at the train set still sitting in my living area and thought about my son and how it use to be between the two of us. I really miss that. I didn't want to look at it any longer and I thought about throwing it away in the dumpster in the back of my apartment. I got up and went over to the train set and just looked at it for a while. I happen to see a bag of grass left over from long ago. I picked it up and wondered how it would look if I sprinkled a little grass on the layout. It looked cool. I had nothing to do so I got out the bottle of the white scenic cement and started brushing it on the layout. I sprinkled a little more grass down over the cement. "Hey, that looks good." Before I knew it I was hooked. I had to get this train set looking good again. In the mean time I sat down and worked on the train itself and got it running again.

 I decided to redo the whole train set but this time I'm doing it for me. I still have a long way to go before I'm finished with the scenery but I'm having fun. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I want to put the garland and lights around the layout again just like I used to do and play Christmas music. My only wish for Christmas would be if my son was with me when I turn on the lights in the town and get the train going around the tacks.