Brighter and Cheerier

If this picture looks familiar to you, you've been reading this blog way too long. It's from a September 2005 entry, wherein I was complaining about various electronic devices in my house no longer working. It was around that same time, although not recounted in the 2005 post, that my computer monitor also went out. The monitor, a cheap, bottom-of-the-line flatscreen from Office Depot, was purchased only about a year earlier, replacing a big old warhorse of a CRT monitor purchased back in, like, 1999. But when the cheap flatscreen went out, the CRT was pressed back into business, and remained my computer monitor ever since.

I'll say this about that old monitor - it refused to die. Every month, the screen faded a little more and the image got darker and darker, and then highly annoying stripes began appearing over my screen, but just like the frog who doesn't notice that the jacuzzi's getting warmer, I was gradually adapting to the deteriorating image quality.

Until today, when my new HP2009m flat-screen monitor arrived UPS. The new picture is much brighter - almost too bright for my eyes, accustomed to the subterranean darkness on the old screen. But it makes everything look cheerier and happier, and in turn I'm cheerier and happier. And also, I quit using Microsoft Internet Explorer for my web browser a week or so ago and am now using Google Chrome. It is much quicker and cleaner, which also makes me happier. Sensation giving rise to perception giving rise to emotion . . .

Meanwhile, the Tanyard Creek Park debacle finally made the newspaper. You can read the article here. However, in keeping with my brighter mood due to my brighter monitor, I can also share some good news regarding this sad affair. According to an email I received this morning from one of the participants of the TCP negotiations,

"The negotiations with the PATH Foundation and Parks Dept seem to be progressing. On our initial walk through to get consensus on the trail adjustments required by the Tree Conservation Commission, we were denied all requests and they had not appropriately erected the tree protection fencing. The subsequent letter I sent to Council members and endorsement by others in the Community Group may or may not have shifted the attitudes of the PATH/Parks folks, but now we seem to have quite a few changes happening. The letter made its way to [editor John] Shaffner and was printed in part in the Buckhead Reporter last Friday. We had made a conscious effort to avoid all press while we were negotiating in good faith with the city, but we had exhausted all diplomatic routes with the city.

We now have verbal agreement including major changes in construction access and construction method to minimize impacts to the trees and reduce tree removal. HOWEVER, until we get it in writing and signed by all parties so that these changes are legally enforceable, I hesitant to celebrate. Brian Daughdrill, the attorney representing the Community will be drafting the agreement. Because the agreement will be along the lines of a Private Development Agreement or Letter of Understanding between the CHCA [Collier Hills Civic Association] (maybe also Brookwood Alliance) and the PATH Foundation, we will need to circulate it to the board for approval before I sign it.

So, in keeping with the brightness metaphor shining through this post, there finally seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel.