Fly-over news

It turned out to be a pretty good week in the on-again-off-again-frozen-then-thawed-then-frozen area of Northeast Kansas. Mid-week we had the exciting basketball game between rivals Kansas State University Wildcats and Kansas University Jayhawks. The favored were the Jayhawks. The 'Hawks are always favored over the 'Cats. It is a much bigger school, with more funding and more national recognition, especially in basketball.

I have always felt more at ease around the KSU crowd than the KU crowd. KSU started out as a agriculture and mechanical school. And it still pretty much is. Which is probably why I like the people there better. They are less pretentious than the folks over at KU. I'm glad that KSU won that game. It seemed...I don't know...just - somehow.

That was followed by the news that No. 1 Son was promoted to Lance Corporal in his MJROTC unit, along with making the high school's Honor Roll. His grandmother took him to the Japanese restaurant to celebrate. He was excited about it all, and the food was good.

So things were going pretty well. The the Super Bowl comes around. I was rooting for the Giants because, like KU, I thought it was time for the Patriots to lose. I was getting tired of always seeing them win the Super Bowl. Call me the champion of the underdog or whatever.

No. 1 Son was rooting for the Pats. Poor kid, he was also rooting for the 'Hawks. I kept asking him, as the seconds ticked away at the end of the game what it felt like to back two losers in the same week. He did a horrible job of trying to deflect my taunting. I know he felt bad because I'm pretty certain he chose those teams specifically because I hadn't chosen them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; the Internet is such a wonderful creation. The best friend I have in the world I met while working in Alaska. He is now in North Dakota, while I'm stuck here in Kansas. But that didn't keep us for watching the Super Bowl together (if even virtually). We fired up the computers and IMed the hell out of each other, commenting on commercials and plays. It was almost-but-not-quite exactly like sitting right next to him - except, him being in North Dakota, and me being in Kansas, he couldn't drink all my beer!

The city council here in Topeka is still in somewhat hot water regarding their actions (hey, there's a surprise, someone finally catches on that the council is full of a bunch of corrupt pinheads). A couple of years ago, the citizens of this city, fed up with the crap the council and mayor were heaping upon us, voted to change the city charter to convert the government to a city manager form. We still have the council and we still have the mayor, but the city is pretty much run by the manager (and not very well, I might add) with the big decisions (the ones that affect our pocketbooks) being made by the council.

The council voted to approve several things, a new over-priced, under performing computer system, a raise in court fees, a (second) new helicopter for the police department, which the mayor vetoed (and rightly so). These were expenditures which were unnecessary, and generously unpopular with the citizens. Greater than 80% of citizens that weighed in on the matters didn't want these things that the council approved anyway. After the mayor vetoed the bills, the council voted and overturned the vetoes.

While all that seems normal on the surface, the problem lies in that the new city charter does not specify that the council has any authority to override a mayoral veto. This is a bad thing. The mayor, in essence, has the ability to squash any legislation the council comes up with, and there is nothing the council can do about it. The good part of it is that the city may be forced to back out of all of these stupid deals that were made, thus saving the average Joe taxpayers millions of dollars.

Rrrreeeddddbbbbuuuudddd...

It was a beautiful Saturday here in fly-over country. The sky was that unique shade of bright, happy blue that there really is no name for. The clouds were cottony, billowy and so white they almost shined. The whole scene looked like something off of a postcard. You'd almost half expect to look at that sky and see a little 'C' in a circle in the corner of your vision, claiming a copyright on the whole vista.



As beautiful, bright and sunny as the day was, there was some sadness involved. We removed part of a valued member of our yard today. We had a terrific old redbud tree in our back yard. It has, for the past seven years, provided us with spectacular blossoms to look at, and ample shade to protect us from the sun's harsh heat.



We usually have the family father's day celebration at our home. We cook steaks, and setup a table under the redbud tree. The whole thing was very comfortable and serene. The blossoms, the gentle wind, the shade.



But sadly, the tree did not blossom this year. It did not even leaf. It is dead. Folks in the neighborhood tell me the tree was over 100 years old, the oldest tree in the area. I don't know if that was true or not, but it makes it seem even sadder that the grand old tree just suddenly up and died.



When we moved in there was an old hackberry tree that was about 3/4 dead. We had a tree service take that one down because it was somewhere around 40 feet tall, and gigantic. I watched the tree service folks and how they took down the tree. I found it incredibly fascinating. The way they tied a rope to part of a branch, then again tied the same rope to the same branch somewhat lower down. This allowed the cutter to cut the branch and keel the branch from falling uncontrollably.



I remembered that technique today when we removed the first 1/2 of the dead redbud tree. If I owned a chain saw, we could have taken the entire tree down today. But I don't, so we had to use hand saws and axes to get down what we did manage to remove. The trick with the rope worked splendidly, and thankfully no one was injured, or even came close to being injured.



We are going to have to decide what to replace that tree with. I'd like to get one that gives good shade, and grows fast. I don't really want to wait 10 years before we have good shade again, but I may not have much choice in that.



As always, thanks for visiting!



(Oh, and for the record, I know it was "Rosebud")





Technorati Tags: News From Fly-Over Country, tree removal, redbud

News from fly-over country

It has been a while since I have posted anything really, so I thought I'd try to get something up today. It is a slow day at the office. The day after a long weekend usually is. None of the management is in (natch) and there is not that much to do. So don't tell the little dictator in the corner that I'm using work time to hash out this post (it will be our little secret).



The past couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity. Softball games started for Little Sister's softball team. Number One Son graduated from the 8th grade. Thankfully, and with a little prodding from mom and dad, he decided to attend the 8th grade after graduation party. I wasn't worried knowing it would be a safe venue being in the Church basement.



Last school party, he took the camcorder and had a lot of fun video taping the event and people. He couldn't this time because I allowed him to take it on the last day of school, and it came back in operable. He claims he has no idea what happened, but there as a smallish broken piece of plastic that looks as if it came out of the inside of the camera. I had to practically pry the thing open to get the tape out. Inspection of the tape led me to the conclusion that the tape had gotten eaten by the machine (it was all crinkled and twisted). Which led me to the conclusion that the tape was stuck and it was yanked or otherwise forceably removed which, in turn, broke the little internal piece that landed so nicely in the camera bag.



So now we have no video camera. I don't know if it is repairable, or even where to go to get it repaired. I supposed I'll have to scour the Sony website to see where the nearest repair shop is, then weight whether it is worth getting fixed. At about $800 new three years ago, I have to think it will be worth getting repaired. But if the repair bill nears the $400 mark, I'll probably shuck it and save for a new one. Bummer because we had this great idea for the comming election cycle of doing "Darth Vader for President" spoof commericals and posting them to the YouTube. The kids gave me a Darth Vader voice changing mask for Christmas, and I thought I'd dress up in a suit with the mask it it would be really fun to make and edit them. But that is out the window now. So if anyone wants to do it, take the idea an run with it. I did check, and websites like Vader2008.com are available if anyone wants to know.



Number One Son was sorely afeared that I'd be angry, but I was more dissapointed than anything else. I knew in my heart of hearts, that if he kept using it without my supervision, it was going to break. I knew it because, like most things, he just doesn't have a sense of responsibility about it. At least that is what it seems. He doesn't even care much for his own stuff sometimes, so I was terribly dissapointed, but I wasn't all that angry. Sometimes, things happen that just aren't worth getting angry over. Now, if it had been my still camera, then I'd have gone through the roof! (but then, I would not have let him take the still camera anyway).



All this begs the question, why does the still camera mean more to me than the video camera? I spent about the same amount of money on them both. But I do use the still camera considerably more than I do the video camera. Which is kind of odd since I really enjoy editing and sprucing up the home movies on the computer. Probably because for photos, I don't need any other device to view them. Once printed, I can give them away and others can enjoy them without the use of a computer or a television or any other device.



Little Sister did splendidly in her first softball game (apperantly there were two other games that were played but somehow didn't make it onto our schedule). She is really a good hitter. She seems to know where the ball will be, and simply puts her bat in the path of the ball. She scored and her team won (we don't keep score...officially). I believe this week we are playing her cousin's team (or it may be next week). That is always fun. Should be a better outcome this year since most of her cousin's team moved up to slow-pitch softball this year and other than her cousin, the team is fairly new to the game.



Number Two Son was sick most of this week. Seems to have the stuff that Little Sister had two weeks ago, and I had last week. That is some killer cold. Not enough that it makes you want to go to the doctor, but right there on the cusp. Coughing, sore throat and just generally having zero energy. I was barely able to put the coffee cup to my lips and sip. It was terrible, I'm telling you.



But he managed to get over it by Monday, so he was able to spend the day with me and poppy while we put up security cameras in poppy's apartment building. Our goal was to get all three installed, we succeeded in installing just one. Boy that was a bugger. Now I know whey those professionals charge so much for installation.



Well, that's the news from fly-over country. I want to thank you all for visiting, and have a great week!



Technorati Tags: fly-over country, news, topeka, kansas