Good morning CabinGirl! I’m having an incredibly hectic summer. Local activists here are putting together a suit against our idiot county commissioners, who are behaving remarkably like dubya and his old pal Mitch Daniels, our not-so-popular guv. The arrogance is more than annoying!!!
Hope everyone here can do a little slacking for me while I’m away;-)
One of not-my-man mitch’s agenda is to eliminate township government in Indiana. The commissioners just enacted an ordinance to take control of the six independent county fire depts. away from the elected township trustees and give control to a board of fire commissioners, appointed by the county commissioners, of course. This action removes one of the primary responsibilities of Indiana township government. The other two responsibilities (at least in rural areas) are poor relief and property tax assessing. Recent legislation is pushing many small counties to outsource property assessment due to the much higher level of expertise involved than in the past and I figure that once the duties are down to poor relief, they’ll figure out how to outsource that too.
Our trustee is not a highly literate individual, but has been wonderful at facilitating solutions for families and individuals in need of immediate help. He has looked after older folks and made sure they were protected from financial predators when they were unable to do so for themselves. I can imagine what will happen when these services are outsourced to some contractor. Need a place to shelter your family for the weekend? Sorry, it’ll be a recorded message you’ll get until someone staffs the phone on Monday morning.
Normally, a shift from trustees to a new tax district and appointed board would be done by public petition, but our commissioners decided to do it by legislative fiat instead. Four of the six volunteer fire dept. oppose the move and it appears the public is strongly against it as well. Many of us, including my friend the attorney, believe the whole mess was done contrary to Indiana Code, hence the suit to be filed next Tuesday, 9-11.
She gets all hyper in the evening and runs around barking and jumping on everyone….so just the presence of the leash calms her down. She always looks mournful.
It’s nice and cool out right now so I’m actually gazebo-blogging until it gets too hot…..which will be very shortly, I’m sure. Is CBtE looking forward to high school?
I’m glad you’re having some cooler weather. Apparently it was hot here yesterday (I didn’t really notice).
He’s been looking forward to it all week, and has orientation this afternoon (followed by an optional trip to the waterpark for the “new” boys tomorrow afternoon), but last night he got annoyed and did the “I’m not going, why are sending me there, yada yada yada,” thing. Which means he’s nervous.
Most of his friends are going to new schoools this year, so at least he doesn’t feel like he’s the only one not at the HS.
I love that man-boy thing of becoming surly and negative when they’re scared. He’ll be fine after the first week. Are you going to make him go to the waterpark?
NB is liking school but has decided to stop taking his ADD meds…..so we’ll see how that goes. What usually happens is that he falls way behind without ever realizing what’s happening.
But sometimes it’s hard to respond appropriately to negative and surly…ah, the joys of boys. 🙂
I’m leaving the waterpark up to him. It’s a “dad” weekend for him, but he elected to stay home last night so we could take him to the orientation today, and then he was going to catch up with his dad tonight, so we’ll see. I hope he’ll go so he has some folks to look forward to seeing on Monday.
Good morning SN! I haven’t seen that much clear desktop at my home office since I installed the desk nearly 20 years ago. My life is normally controlled chaos and is sometimes less than controlled as well.
Mrs. Dem and the other Dem women are yard saleing at our place today. Guaranteed chaos there;-)
Thanks. And thank even more for the write-up on the fire district controversy — I’ve been meaning to ask you about it; the paper has done a really lousy job of presenting the issues clearly.
The spider basically had to build it big to have something to attach it to, which is part of what’s weird about the web — spider don’t normally build webs on shrubs out in the open.
to tell you the truth I was a little disappointed that there had been an umbrella, because I had you pegged as the brave kind who doesn’t use them. Like me. Real women like us don’t mind getting soaked, do we, Andi?
Thanks — I just with we both didn’t have drought to empathize over.
I’d been worrying a lot about fire in the woods so even though the rain is way too late and too little to help the trees this year, I’m glad to have that risk reduced.
Hi Andi! We had 2 1/2″ at our house. No wimpy umbrella for me last night either! There have been a couple of small brush fires recently, normally unheard of in the summer here. Thankfully, nothing serious and now we should be ok for awhile. I’ll keep an extra close eye on your neighborhood;-)
Good mid-morning all! It was nice to sleep a little extra for a change. Time to clean up the kitchen and go spring my mom from assisted living for lunch with us.
He did go to the waterpark, which was a HUGE help in making him feel comfortable heading out this morning. He was so relieved to know that the other boys’ parents were MAKING them go there too. 🙂 He was also impressed with how many kids are from other countries (I think it was 15 states and 10 countries last year, not sure what the geographical breakdown is this year). I’m hoping it will be a good experience for him.
And might I say that he looked very handsome in his khakis, shirt, and tie this morning?
First day back at work (blech!), but it’s fairly quiet (yay!) Hope you’re all doing well. I am rested and optimistic, always a good thing. And rare for a Monday, so I’m gonna live it up. paz
it was well-paced and I managed to squeeze in the mandatory two-day vacation from a vacation afterwards. I ate more al pastor tacos than I care to admit publicly, but that’s what trips like that are for, right? 🙂
SoCal was hotter than Hades for until Wednesday so I was glad to head south and enjoy the cool breezes off the ocean in Baja. How’s September treating you and the rest of crew so far?
hi, Andi! I’m starting to think that my entire office was used as hosts for an alien species because they are all eerily productive and even took care of most of my duties while I was away. There weren’t even any voice mails waiting on my direct line – truly bizarre.
Not that I’m complaining! Unless, of course, mantis-like creatures erupt from their chests, then I may have to become alarmed.
he has. There was a moment of hysterics at first but then he assumed the position where he sits on my foot and inches his way to the ground until becoming fully unconscious.
Energetic and lively, you are always on the go.
You’re doing a million things at once and doing them well.
You tend to motivate others and raise spirits.
It’s actually a pine cone. They’re very fond of pine nuts. You can always tell when the Yellow-tails have been visiting by the large number of pine cones scattered under/near the pine trees. Unfortunately, they carry cones off with them and help spread the pine trees into the native bush, where pines are a pest species.
We intend to cut down all of our pines once the native trees we’ve planted around them mature a bit. We’ve cut down all the smaller pines already, and pull up any we find growing out in the bush.
Oh, and we’re having a lovely drizzle this morning, with occasional bouts of actual rain. Of course, I’m in the middle of rerouting the rain water pipes, so two are completely unconnected and we’re losing at least half of the run-off at the moment. But I can hardly complain.
This morning’s other visitor. The aptly named Silver-eye. (Depending on you monitor resolution, this fellow should appear just a bit larger than actual size – they’re about half way between a finch and a sparrow, and dart rapidly about in small flocks.)
New day, new cafe!
Good morning everybody!
Good morning to you, and good night to us. Enjoy your Saturday everyone.
Good night!
Good morning CabinGirl! I’m having an incredibly hectic summer. Local activists here are putting together a suit against our idiot county commissioners, who are behaving remarkably like dubya and his old pal Mitch Daniels, our not-so-popular guv. The arrogance is more than annoying!!!
Hope everyone here can do a little slacking for me while I’m away;-)
Suing the county comissioners? What have they done?
BTW, I’m sure FM can do the slacking of two people… 🙂
One of not-my-man mitch’s agenda is to eliminate township government in Indiana. The commissioners just enacted an ordinance to take control of the six independent county fire depts. away from the elected township trustees and give control to a board of fire commissioners, appointed by the county commissioners, of course. This action removes one of the primary responsibilities of Indiana township government. The other two responsibilities (at least in rural areas) are poor relief and property tax assessing. Recent legislation is pushing many small counties to outsource property assessment due to the much higher level of expertise involved than in the past and I figure that once the duties are down to poor relief, they’ll figure out how to outsource that too.
Our trustee is not a highly literate individual, but has been wonderful at facilitating solutions for families and individuals in need of immediate help. He has looked after older folks and made sure they were protected from financial predators when they were unable to do so for themselves. I can imagine what will happen when these services are outsourced to some contractor. Need a place to shelter your family for the weekend? Sorry, it’ll be a recorded message you’ll get until someone staffs the phone on Monday morning.
Normally, a shift from trustees to a new tax district and appointed board would be done by public petition, but our commissioners decided to do it by legislative fiat instead. Four of the six volunteer fire dept. oppose the move and it appears the public is strongly against it as well. Many of us, including my friend the attorney, believe the whole mess was done contrary to Indiana Code, hence the suit to be filed next Tuesday, 9-11.
Good morning, id!
You should treat us to a diary on your local battles.
Good morning ask! See upthread for one area I”m working on.
Thanks!
Keep up the good fight.
Let’s see if I remember how to do this:
Is that her leash on the couch with her? No wonder she looks so mournful.
She gets all hyper in the evening and runs around barking and jumping on everyone….so just the presence of the leash calms her down. She always looks mournful.
She looks so un-hyper in that picture. Who knew?
I think my dogs are a little relieved not to be walking this morning…we’ve been racking up the miles this week.
I’ve missed seeing HJ. And the other pic is very nice too — for one with a cat in it. 😉
Esperanza looks dashing, as always. Hope you’re doing good, SN.
Nice office. I wish my table was that cleared off.
How are yout his AM?
It’s nice and cool out right now so I’m actually gazebo-blogging until it gets too hot…..which will be very shortly, I’m sure. Is CBtE looking forward to high school?
I’m glad you’re having some cooler weather. Apparently it was hot here yesterday (I didn’t really notice).
He’s been looking forward to it all week, and has orientation this afternoon (followed by an optional trip to the waterpark for the “new” boys tomorrow afternoon), but last night he got annoyed and did the “I’m not going, why are sending me there, yada yada yada,” thing. Which means he’s nervous.
Most of his friends are going to new schoools this year, so at least he doesn’t feel like he’s the only one not at the HS.
How is the NB liking school this year?
I love that man-boy thing of becoming surly and negative when they’re scared. He’ll be fine after the first week. Are you going to make him go to the waterpark?
NB is liking school but has decided to stop taking his ADD meds…..so we’ll see how that goes. What usually happens is that he falls way behind without ever realizing what’s happening.
But sometimes it’s hard to respond appropriately to negative and surly…ah, the joys of boys. 🙂
I’m leaving the waterpark up to him. It’s a “dad” weekend for him, but he elected to stay home last night so we could take him to the orientation today, and then he was going to catch up with his dad tonight, so we’ll see. I hope he’ll go so he has some folks to look forward to seeing on Monday.
Good luck to NB with the no-meds this year.
Good morning SN! I haven’t seen that much clear desktop at my home office since I installed the desk nearly 20 years ago. My life is normally controlled chaos and is sometimes less than controlled as well.
Mrs. Dem and the other Dem women are yard saleing at our place today. Guaranteed chaos there;-)
Ooh, I love yard sales! Are you selling anything interesting? BTW…that’s my kitchen table, so there’s really no room for eating most days. 🙂
Had some nice furniture and electronic stuff yesterday that went almost immediately. There’s still a huge Barbie castle, however.
Ooh, does the Barbie castle have lots of lead paint on it? Those are the best kind.
Good morning, everyone!
Back to hot and humid in NY.
… localized.
Ooooooooooo! Lovely!
Thanks. And thank even more for the write-up on the fire district controversy — I’ve been meaning to ask you about it; the paper has done a really lousy job of presenting the issues clearly.
Wow. Very cool, andi.
Morning. How’d the first week of school go?
Pretty good. This week it’s CBtE’s big sendoff.
I’ll be glad when October gets here and we’re settled into a routine.
I’d hate to see the spider that spun that enormous web.
It’s probably not that big. I see lots of pretty small spiders (bodies are about penny-sized) with really large webs.
From that perspective it looks like it’s swallowing the lake. Are you done splitting firewood? It’s hard to think of cold weather right now.
Well it was big but not that big. 🙂
The spider basically had to build it big to have something to attach it to, which is part of what’s weird about the web — spider don’t normally build webs on shrubs out in the open.
Wood is all split and stacked.
I’m off to run errands. Have a good day in the pond, everyone!
A lot.
We got drowned bringing in the groceries. The dogs were soaked; the house was full of wet dog smell.
Yay!
Morning/Afternoon/Evening All.
Yay rain! I’m so jealous.
I’d like to say I’d share it with you but actually “It’s mine! Mine, I say!”
Good morning, Andi!
How you must have enjoyed that soaking. I’m imagining this classic scene:
It was just like that — well, so long as if you leave out the dancing, singing, music, and cop. 🙂
so..there was rain, an umbrella and steps involved. And three wet dogs.
I think the coast is supposed to get some rain from Gabrielle but not here. Drat.
Okay, okay I lied … there wasn’t an umbrella either.
to tell you the truth I was a little disappointed that there had been an umbrella, because I had you pegged as the brave kind who doesn’t use them. Like me. Real women like us don’t mind getting soaked, do we, Andi?
Woo and Hoo!
It’s wonderful news and we can totally empathise.
Thanks — I just with we both didn’t have drought to empathize over.
I’d been worrying a lot about fire in the woods so even though the rain is way too late and too little to help the trees this year, I’m glad to have that risk reduced.
Hi Andi! We had 2 1/2″ at our house. No wimpy umbrella for me last night either! There have been a couple of small brush fires recently, normally unheard of in the summer here. Thankfully, nothing serious and now we should be ok for awhile. I’ll keep an extra close eye on your neighborhood;-)
Good mid-morning all! It was nice to sleep a little extra for a change. Time to clean up the kitchen and go spring my mom from assisted living for lunch with us.
The forecast is back to no-rain. 🙁
But at least it’s Monday so it didn’t ruin my mood.
Good morning! First day of HS for CBtE today. 🙂
I hope it goes well for him — I hated high school.
Time for me to go stumbling into the dim light. DST sure does make walking in the morning difficult.
Ta.
I hated high school too.
I need to get myself together and out for the walk too. I’ve done a little too much procrastinating this am!
Hi CG.
Congrats to CBtE did he do the water park thing to get acquainted?
He did go to the waterpark, which was a HUGE help in making him feel comfortable heading out this morning. He was so relieved to know that the other boys’ parents were MAKING them go there too. 🙂 He was also impressed with how many kids are from other countries (I think it was 15 states and 10 countries last year, not sure what the geographical breakdown is this year). I’m hoping it will be a good experience for him.
And might I say that he looked very handsome in his khakis, shirt, and tie this morning?
Sounds like a great start for the year.
A pic of the dapper young man would be nice, but I understand if you’re reluctant to post it here.
(psst…you have mail.)
Good morning!
Admiringly stiff upper lip.
Good morning all. Looks like rain is coming but at least the heat is gone.
Hi boran. We were supposed to get rain today, but it still hasn’t shown up yet. Not that I’m complaining…
[Waves at everybody]
First day back at work (blech!), but it’s fairly quiet (yay!) Hope you’re all doing well. I am rested and optimistic, always a good thing. And rare for a Monday, so I’m gonna live it up. paz
How was the vacay?
it was well-paced and I managed to squeeze in the mandatory two-day vacation from a vacation afterwards. I ate more al pastor tacos than I care to admit publicly, but that’s what trips like that are for, right? 🙂
SoCal was hotter than Hades for until Wednesday so I was glad to head south and enjoy the cool breezes off the ocean in Baja. How’s September treating you and the rest of crew so far?
I ate more al pastor tacos…
Those, and carnitas – yummy!
Great diary, and don’t stop!
Great to have you back (though sorry that “back” has to include back to work).
hi, Andi! I’m starting to think that my entire office was used as hosts for an alien species because they are all eerily productive and even took care of most of my duties while I was away. There weren’t even any voice mails waiting on my direct line – truly bizarre.
Not that I’m complaining! Unless, of course, mantis-like creatures erupt from their chests, then I may have to become alarmed.
and then working from home will be perfect.
Speaking of dogs — has Bud forgiven you yet for going away?
he has. There was a moment of hysterics at first but then he assumed the position where he sits on my foot and inches his way to the ground until becoming fully unconscious.
Sort of like this:
My dogs take days to forgive me and give me the stinkeye every time I get into the car for at least 2 weeks.
Bud is definitely the champ at totally-relaxed sleep.
with equally silly results:
Energetic and lively, you are always on the go.
You’re doing a million things at once and doing them well.
You tend to motivate others and raise spirits.
You are most compatible with chocolate ice cream.
What can I say? At least, it was not vanilla….
**You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream**
You are kind, popular, and generous.
You tend to be successful at anything you try.
A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd.
You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.
What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatflav
oookaaay.
I couldn’t do the quiz ’cause there were no answers that were I would choose.
I actually do a pretty mean imitation of a social butterfly when I am forced to. It’s all an act, I can assure you.
I’m thinking you’re Wasabi ice cream.
Yep, I always associate someone who sits in a lobby full of family and friends and fervently hopes no one notices with being a social butterfly.
And maybe wasabi tofutti — ’cause there’s nothing authentic about any sweetness I display.
Ah yes…but later that night you wouldn’t have believed the social butterflying I was doing!
Not only wouldn’t I have believed it, I don’t believe it. ;P
I excused myself to be the unofficial photographer, whose photos turned out better than the official wedding photog. IMHO.
I had the same problem – no “right” answers.
Morning All.
The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos came for breakfast, and took a few pine cones “to go” as well.
Unfortunately it was overcast and the sun not yet over the hills, so my photos were all a bit too dark, even with photoshoping.
I like way birds are silhouetted.
It looks like the one in front has something in its mouth.
It looks like a chocolate cupcake with a creamy buttercream frosting.
Projecting is nice…
What?! Is that what I’m doing?
It just seemed like wishful thinking (yummy).
Not chocolate, only humans can eat chocolate.
It’s actually a pine cone. They’re very fond of pine nuts. You can always tell when the Yellow-tails have been visiting by the large number of pine cones scattered under/near the pine trees. Unfortunately, they carry cones off with them and help spread the pine trees into the native bush, where pines are a pest species.
We intend to cut down all of our pines once the native trees we’ve planted around them mature a bit. We’ve cut down all the smaller pines already, and pull up any we find growing out in the bush.
Oh, and we’re having a lovely drizzle this morning, with occasional bouts of actual rain. Of course, I’m in the middle of rerouting the rain water pipes, so two are completely unconnected and we’re losing at least half of the run-off at the moment. But I can hardly complain.
More Little Pied Cormorants in the Derwent just north of Hobart.
that is a stunning picture. I love the absolute straightness of the ripples in the water as backdrop to the curvy branches and the birds. Very neat.
Beautiful notes to the song of water. Wonderful pic.
I was wondering the other day, when I`d hear news of the black cockatoos. Thanks.
Well, I certainly “hear” the Yellow-tails when they are here. They never really shut up. If they are around, you know.
If you go to this page there are sound files for Red-Tail and Yellow-tail Cockatoos. Turn down you volume before you open them.
This morning’s other visitor. The aptly named Silver-eye. (Depending on you monitor resolution, this fellow should appear just a bit larger than actual size – they’re about half way between a finch and a sparrow, and dart rapidly about in small flocks.)
but I believe this one is saying,
“Who you lookin’ at?”
The blossoms on our plumb tree, between rains.
I love your bird photos (the flower is nice, too).
These are great, keres. I love the eyes on this one.