Maybe I should turn this into a quarterly update. Maybe that's already happened.

-The state economy looks dire. We could be looking at a potential 5 billion deficit for the next biennium. As expected, jobs are being cut and programs are being slashed. Thus far most of our grant based programs are safe, and the gov Pawlenty has promised that "children's programs will be sustained". Seeing as how he has great skill in saying one thing and doing another entirely, it remains to be seen what this will mean in the future. It didn't help that our insurance took a 28% jump this year. We switched from BCBS to HealthPartners, which allowed us to keep it at about a 24% increase, but we had some heavy hitters on the group plan last year. All it takes is a couple surgeries, a helicopter flight and a complicated birth to crank the rates up. Sorry if that sounds crass.

-We let our accountant go on Friday. Conventional wisdom holds that she was more of the scapegoat for poor communication on the part of our CFO, but there are systems in place that are designed to cloud the truth on this. Our office team is going to struggle with coming to grips with this, and there are clear alliances now. It's yucky, and makes me want to work from home.

+There is hope, though. I've got several little projects stirring out in the community, including a school based mental health position, a pair of group homes for young adults, an early childhood program, and another young adult transitional program. I'm also doing more legislative work with our CEO at the capitol, and this is exciting! I've got so many different issues to deal with (work budget, LGA for small cities and counties, emergency services budgets) on my own little level that these meetings tend to kill several birds with the same stone. Our local senator, who was elected by a narrow margin over the incumbent back in 2004 (and is a low IQ creationist idiot) is very vulnerable right now. It will be interesting to see how their individual positions take shape. This is now the time to say things that matter and allow your voters to see exactly how little you know.

+Three cheers for Lexapro. I started this back in December, and I think I have finally found the holy grail of SSRIs. It has a quicker onset (and predicably a quicker decay) than other SSRIs and typically has fewer side effects. It isn't the most effective for everyone, but I've found it to be perfect. It's typically prescribed for depression and generalized anxiety disorder. I think that GPs usually go to Paxil as their de-facto antidepressant of choice, which has had mixed results. The risk of a GP prescribing any kind of psychotropic drug is that psychotropics need to hold hands with traditional talk therapy in most cases; at least initially. This is not usually the case in these instances, hence the scare when teen suicides were linked to Paxil. Of course, if you're a moody teen and your doc prescibes you Paxil as a magic happy pill (without therapy), and you feel worse because you're not feeling better, you can imagine what the outcome will be for some of these kids.

+The all school reunion is this summer, and there are Bagley-ites coming out of the woodwork on Facebook. There are also some unflattering pictures of me from the 80s. Gawd.

+The dire cold spell seems to be lifting. We went through a stretch where we didn't see temps in the positive for a couple weeks. It can get difficult to stay positive through that, especially when coupled with a lack of daylight. Still, there is something invigorating about that deep breath of air that you can feel run through your nose, your lungs, your bones. Cold is purifying.

+I started reading "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven". Sherman Alexie is my hero. What's also funny is that I hear my little inner narrarator reading these stories with a thick reservation accent. If you've spent any time in northern Minnesota you know what I mean. He really, really gets it. They are powerful, darkly funny tragedies.

Cheers

Man, this page has been vacant for a while. Emphasis on the sub.

It's wicked, wicked cold here. It's been snowing since Friday evening. There are some areas that have had at least a foot dumped on them, and at the moment the temp is hovering somewhere around -32 with the windchill. My driveway is blown over and my car looks like a snowbank with 4 little wheels. Right now, staying inside all damn day sounds very enticing.

I'm finally over whatever bug it was that I've had for most of the month. Or at least mostly over. It seems like each year I'm sick for most of the holiday season. Thursday I left work early and hibernated for about 14 hours, and that seemed to push me past the sick threshold. Sleep, plus a regimen of antibiotics, cold and flu meds, cough syrup and vitamin C is doing the trick.

Work is becoming rather stressful. The gov has slashed our state Health and Human Services programs budget by $73 million, and has cut county and municipality allotments by 22%. If there's any good news in this budget chaos it's that counties under 5000 and cities under 1000 aren't getting their state aid cut. Thus far our School Based Mental Health grant hasn't gone under the knife. I'mh hoping that since that money was contracted, and that services are happening in schools (the gov decided that k-12 ed was on his "safe list"), our program might be safe. This is not to say that other areas are going to take a hit. The COLA for MA providers that was legislated last session is probably not going to happen. Supplements for hospital MA providers are going away. With the amount of money that counties may have taken away from them, our contracted services with them could be in danger of being drastically reduced. God forbid we place even a 10% tax on clothing. Our state population is 5,167,101. At the most minimal, if we had a 10% clothing tax, and each and every person in the state made just ONE purchase of $25 per year, that would mean $12,917,752 in revenue. But our gov has made it clear that there will be no tax increases on his watch, or at least until the next session when the house and senate come under democratic majority. There needs to be a point where you simply have to understand that you need to generate money. Holding the line on spending as costs for services and compensation increases is counterproductive. But Pawlenty has aspirations for higher office, and he'll ride the deficit all the way to the White House if he can. Bastard.

Ok, good things now. Family all reports being healthy and happy. Well, mom is trudging through her seasonal respiratory crap, and dad was quite ill for a while, but mom still fights the good fight and dad is much better now. Thanksgiving was a great opportunity to see family from far and away (and by chance a rare sighting of the northwoods Dodge Dynasty in its natural habitat). My house is cozy and mostly warm (when I choose to kick the furnace up past 63), and my new couch and love seat make for great reading spots.

I have presents to wrap (and buy...ug). I may yet need to venture outside. I really should have brought my coveralls in from the car!

Hooray for Bollywood...


This has been a more or less rank-and-file week. There is a large discrepancy at work between our CFO's numbers for 2007 over-recovery and the auditor's. This is scary; to the tune of $350,000 scary. Lately he's been on a little thin ice, but this puts a rather large crack below his feet. We are still fiscally in the black and "healthy", which is not typical of non-profits in this day and age. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports daily about reduced giving, foundations drying up, endowments without money, and the sad state of affairs in general for the non-profit sector. We have yet to lay anybody off, and we still have a + monthly over recovery rate, but it isn't at the 10% that we'd like it to be. I think 2008 will see some trimming of the fat.

$1.97 gas made a comeback this week. So did $2.55 #2 fuel oil. My tank is inside, so I can use #2 without fear of it gelling in the cold. My furnace borders on archaic and runs at about 40% efficiency. Ew. There are so many things to purchase or budget for; a shed, a garage, a slab, a new furnace, a new lawnmower, a deck...I'm hoping that my furnace will conk out on me this year, because my homeowner's warranty would cover its replacement. I'm not sure if I'd go with fuel oil again. Propane and fuel oil are at about the same range right now, but my brother swears by fuel oil. More BTUs. We'll see.

DV8 had a practice yesterday. Originally we were supposed to record some tracks for a demo, but Mike insisted that we have practice at his house. Fine, but then don't be surprised when the recording sounds like shit because you live in a wood floor sheetrock wall echo chamber. Needless to say, the recording was scratched until we can use my basement studio. 19th Ave, our moneymaker gig, is not booking for 2009. This is a bit distressing, because it's centrally located for all of us, makes us good dolla, and draws a strong crowd. The owner has always been a bit flaky, and this may be another case of economy induced flakiness. Phil needs to get off his arse and book us if he's going to do bookings. My time is kind of a precious commodity lately, but I'd take it on if it meant that we'd actually play instead of bitch about not playing.

If Pink Floyd is indeed the soundtrack to the apocalypse, then I don't mind dyin'.


Here's the meme. As opposed to the mime.

From H-bird:

a. people who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog and replace any question that they dislike with a new, original question.

b. tag eight people. don't refuse to do that. don't tag who tagged you.
I tag...well, pretty much everybody who is on my friend's list. If you're reading this, you know what to do.

1. What are your nicknames?
I guess "Jon" could be considered a nickname of sorts. I've never been comfortable with "Jonathan", it's always seemed kind of stiff to me. I ran a sort of quasi-experiment back in the day when I was a server at the resort. I had two nametags, one with "Jon" and one with "Jonathan". My tips were a bit higher on average when I wore the "Jonathan" tag. Correlation does not equal causation, but it was interesting to note.

2. How do you style your hair?
Lately with the shortness I've been just putting in a little mousse and mussing it up into a sort of socially acceptable spiky tangle. I've had a Ceasar, which wasn't the best choice for me. When it was long and curly, I'd part in the middle and just go with it.


3. What's new in your life right now?
My house. I have a feeling that it's going to be an awesome summer house, but winter might be a little on the dry side. I really, really want to sleep with my windowns open.

4. How many colors are you wearing now?
Six. Bulldog slippers, green flannel jammies, white T and my U of M hoodie.

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
I think I'm an extroverted introvert. I can socialize with the best of them. I don't feel uncomfortable in large groups, I don't mind BSing, I can listen with interest to any number of stories that people have to tell. But I don't really care to divulge much about myself. When you are a listener, it's funny to see how many people are ok with not asking your opinion about things.

6. What was the last book you read?
Right now I'm kind of stalled in the middle of Heart Of Darkness. I'm trying to keep up with the pile of magazines I get (Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Time, Guitar Player, League of MN Cities, The Smoke Eater). I have a strange guilt complex about not reading the entire thing cover to cover, so until I've fully read every word of an issue, it will stay on my "to read" stack, which seems to grow ever higher.

7. Do you nap a lot?
Not really. Out of necessity perhaps. When I was at the U, I'd power nap from about 3 to 4, before I'd have to take my evening shift at the restaurant. I'd usually get home between 11 and 12, and have to be up and on the road by 7 to make the hour drive to class by 8. I don't miss that.

8. If the person you secretly like is already taken, what would you do?
Cut the brake lines on the car of their significant other. Well, maybe just one. Enough to send a message.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Depression in general tends to peak more in the fall and winter. I know I'm very seasonal affective, so mixing that in with Axis I depression is a wonderful cocktail of despondence. Each year I vow to get on Lexapro for a few months. Each year I procrasinate.

10. What was the last thing you ate today?
Cuppa coffee. Spit most of it out laughing.

11. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
I can get what needs to be done done in a half hour. I don't like having to rush out the door, so I usually roll out around 5:45. I need to get back in my running cycle, so I'm thinking that 5:15 is in order.

12. What websites do you visit daily?
Gmail, Hotmail, GM-Mail, Facebook, LiveJournal, CNN, West Central Tribune, Garfield Minus Garfield, The Onion, Pills Clan Forum.

13. What classes are you taking right now? and if you're not in school anymore, what's your job?
I'm an administrator for a non-profit mental health center.

14. Do you like to clean?
I don't mind cleaning. I used to loathe it, but I've grown a bit more obsessive over the years. I can't STAND a dirty bathroom (public or private), so I usually make sure mine is spotless.

15. What's the last song that got stuck in your head?
Strange as it sounds, the first side of Megadeth's "Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?" popped into my head Friday morning, and I was forced to get it on iTunes. I haven't listened to that in years, but it still sounds damn solid. I've more or less left my metal days behind me, but I retain a few guilty pleasures.

16. What are you doing right now?
Jockin' the bitchezz, clockin' the dough.

17. What's better: eternal love or memorable love?
Memorable love. I'm a sucker for unrequitted love, I admit it. I don't think I'm prone to drama, but I do have a bit of a tragic bent. A good psychoanalyst could have fun with this one.

18. What would you do if you see $100 lying on the ground?
Get up and see if it was still there when I was standing.

19. Best time of your life?
The last couple months when I lived in Bemidji, back in 1998, were awesome. I felt like my life was changing for the better, I was moving onwards, I had survived some pretty dark and dangerous times, I had indulged in any number of debauched acts and lived to tell about it, I had found the love of my life and things were good. Times change, but I can still look back fondly at that spring/summer with joy.

20. Tell me something good.
What sort of socks do pirates wear? Arrrrrgyle.

So the subDaily has really been more subQuarterly lately. Not for want of postworthy items, but sheerly due to time. And maybe a little bit of interest...I blame the Facepage. And having to keep up a home. And attempting to squeeze every little bit of outside time out of this year before the weather turns inclement, which it appears to be doing this weekend. Rapid City SD reported 4 feet yesterday, and there is a fine dusting of white on my lawn this morning.

I'll post some vids I took of my house before I moved in. It is much more homelike now, as it is crammed with my stuff. Have I recently said that I love my house? I love my house! I am fascinated by some of the phenomena that occur here which contradict most common laws of physics. For instance, dust bunnies. There's a room upstairs that I've declared to be my spare bedroom. There's a futon, a dresser and a lamp. There is also a closet that holds my shoes, dress pants and articles of clothing that I don't wear very often. Suffice it to say that I don't spend a great deal of time here. Nevertheless, upon cleaning upstairs I've noticed that this room tends to collect the largest 2nd floor dust bunny. I'm not sure how this happens; maybe some sort of "path of least resistance" theorem applies here.

I recently purchased a bedframe at a yard sale which turned out to be far too big for both my bed and my room. The posts are 6', and the problem lies in the pitch where the dormer line meets the ceiling. There are runners between the top of each post, which after being set up look a bit ridiculous. I might consider building my own if I can't find something I like. Meanwhile I have to figure out how to get rid of this monstrosity. I paid $15 for this thing, and I'd be willing to give it away if someone just came and took it away.

I'm still in the process of buying stuff. Blinds, curtains, a new couch and a shed are on my short list of investments. I'm not too worried about privacy issues, as my shower is downstairs, but there is something fishbowl like about having a giant bay window in one's living room without any sort of barrier to prying eyes.

Nader didn't win again this year. And I had a really, really hard time marking my ballot this year. Fortunately this time it wasn't due to picking the lesser of two evils. I genuinely felt like I had two options that I could live with. So do I give my traditional middle finger to the two-party system, or do I cast my ballot for an historic candidate? Ideals won out over practicality again, but I still feel good about the result. What I find disgusting is the reaction from conservatives who were embittered against Obama from the start. The reactions at McCain's concession speech, random-sampled opinions from the blogosphere, even some of my friends...are disheartening to say the least. Not that I would have expected the "left" to have gone quietly into that dark night had the election gone to McCain, but I'd like to think that they (We? We. Sigh.) would've been a little more civil about it. McCain's more goonish supporters scare me. The outer fringes of liberalism are mostly harmless (unless you count anarchists as liberals), choosing to voice opinion through discourse and public outcry. The fringes of conservatism have guns. But in the infamous words of arch-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, "Get over it!". We won. So fuck them.

Halloween was interesting this year. 3rd Addiction played two shows, one at the Pavillion and the other at the Ka-De-Shack. The Pavillion gig was for a private costume party, and can be best summed up as...cold. There's nothing like playing for a crowd of 50 some people in a giant unheated barn. Somebody brought an ice cream pail full of warm home made chocolate chip cookies for the potluck table. Mmmm...beer and cookies. Needless to say, I'm not going to turn down free cookies. After the first couple of bites of cookie #1, I noticed a distinct taste that was attributable only to a non-traditional cookie ingredient. A couple minutes after consuming said cookie, it was apparent what said non-traditional ingredient was. I had another.

The Ka-De Shack gig was much warmer by comparison. And crowded. This band is getting tighter as we play more shows, which is encouraging. This had started as a side gig for me, but is becoming more and more fun to play. I dressed up as Buckethead, which creeped some people out. Something about the expressionless mask gives people the heebie jeebies. I'll post pix once I get them emailed to me.

Today finds me in the throes of excrutiating tooth pain. I've had a molar that I've known was going to cause me trouble eventually, and this week it happened. I spent last night in utter misery as my face melted. I like to think that I've got a moderately high threshold for pain, but there is nothing quite like tooth pain. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about it. This morning is actually better than last night, as it is more of a constant low grade throb than the piercing hot knife of anguish that it was last night. I'm off in search of some painkillers today that might let me sleep through this tonight. We'll see what I find.

Book Meme

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, team members experience the setback as having stimulated necessary learning and sent them into the future even more capable than before.

1. Think back to a time when your team recovered rapidly from a disappointing setback.

from Appreciative Team Building; Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, Cherney and Fry. 2001, iUniverse.


Lame.

After a refreshing (?) break, the subDaily is back in service. And what better way to celebrate (?) this than with the annoucement of my new house!

I officially close this Tuesday, after an over-extended closing period. Apparently Rural Development likes to take its own sweet time, and the schedules of ordinary people (who happen to have excellent credit, I might add, and could easily shop around for a different lender) mean little to them.

But enough bitching. As soon as I find my USB cable (and set up my desk), I'll post pictures of casa del Jon. The short story is that I absolutely love the place. I've moved most of my stuff into it already, although I'm still crashing back at the apt for the time being.

When all was said and done, I ended up with a honey of a deal. It was initially listed at 67k. She dropped down to 62k, and then eventually settled with my offer of 59,5k. The house was appraised at 64k, so BAM...instant equity. There was one day where rates dropped from 6.25 to 5.5, and I managed to lock in my mortgage at that rate, which then shot back to 6.25 the next day. So all in all, I can't complain about this at all. Well, other than the fact that I still need a garden shed, but who's counting.

Otherwise, things have been progressing as you'd expect. Allergies have been more or less under control this season, with only a couple days where I would have rather been dead or otherwise incapacitated. I haven't taken any considerable time off yet, a day here and there, and I am in dire need of some vacation time. I managed to scoot up north to my parents' for a labor day, but otherwise I'm still biding my time until I can save up enough scratch for something fun. And warm.

The band is on a bit of a hiatus, although I've hooked up with some other folks and have been playing bass with them off and on this summer. I have a few gigs coming up, two over Halloween weekend, that promise to be lucrative.

That's all I've got in me this morning. I'll post pics of the house in the near future. Salud!

...the SubDaily Rant is officially on summer vacation. If there are house matters or other important updates that are worth posting, I'll be certain to put something up. I'll be checking friend updates weekly, but otherwise we'll see everyone in September!

So, here's the skinny. She has the house listed at 67,000. Seems relatively low, I understand, but you also have to consider the market I live in. The seller is a well known flipper (not the dolphin) who specializes in lowballing people selling properties under duress, prettying them up and putting them on the market at an obnoxiously inflated price. You get the general idea. The difference between urban and rural flipping is that in a small town, EVERYONE knows what you're doing.

I'm not saying that a seller who puts time, money and effort into improving a house is not entitled to a profit. But when you buy a house at 34,000 in April, polish the floors, paint the walls, put in a new sink and countertop, install new cupboards and some tile, some new windows, but do NOTHING to address the eventual need for a new roof...don't be surprised when I put in an offer of 42,500. Bam.

I have no idea how old the furnace it. I don't know if it even works, all I have is their word that they used it to warm the house to help dry the paint. How the hell did they do that when the fuel oil tank is bone dry? The shingles are old. They aren't curling, but they would likely have to be replaced in 2 to 3 years. I could do that on a Saturday with a couple guys and a couple cases of beer, so I'm not too worried about that. But it IS an issue. There's no garage. Not even a shed. Not even an apron. There's a track that has been driven next to the house that is more of a de facto driveway than anything. It's a 1940s house, so we're talking 2x4 joist construction. That means considerably less insulation space. The steel siding was installed right over the orignal 2 inch wooden siding. This does contribute to the overall R value, but I have no idea if they put any foam core in between those layers. The siding sticks out a good 3 to 4 inches away from the foundation block because of this. There is little overhang from the roof, so ice can jam up fairly close to the house.

My offer contained the following stiplations. Finish all work started on the property (I won't go into detail). Seller is to pay for a cleaning and inspection of the furnace, and any and all repairs to the furnace. If the furnace is found to be in need of replacing or mechanically unsound, seller will go halfsies on a new high efficiency furnace of comparable capacity. Seller will also split the cost of a home warranty for one year. I feel that 42,5k is a good starting point for this.

My offer was rejected, and the realtor (who is working as a dual realtor) informed me that Mary Jane (the seller) was "insulted". Bullshit! It's a game, and I'm playing her game, and if she wants to play the guilt card, I can say that I'm insulted that she thinks I'm going to be suckered into buying a 2 story house on a lot with nothing else for 67k! Bah. I haven't even tested the water yet. There's no softener, and I don't know if there has ever been a softener. All those years of hard city water, which has a high iron content, might have built up and contricted the pipes over the years resulting in diminished pressure. But since they haven't finished plumbing the sinks yet, I can't test that!

I'm not declaring shenanigans just yet, but I'm close!

So I haven't updated for some time now, and I know that's how I've started the last 3 posts, but busy things are afoot. Here's one...

http://barbaralent.edinarealty.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=80dc6834-9346-47eb-ae1c-92a32fce5317&Listing=32013373&IRPAgentID=9406396&Image=1&First=11&Last=20&pagesize=10&SearchType=&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=&UseColorBar=false

I put in my offer after some pretty diligent investigation and research. Post a response if you want to know all the gritty details!

Monday is seeing a return of grey yucky skies, and it seems apprpriate. Things are beginning to green up around here, so that helps to alleviate what could otherwise be a dismal situation.

I drank my summer's share of cheap beer this weekend. I also spent $65 on candy, drove in a parade, almost bought a 1969 Chevy Van (I still might), spent quality guy-time with Troy, found out more than I ever wanted to know about bull riding, and was mildly sick by Sunday night.

I submitted a new grant this last Friday, I'll post the result of the review team. Fingers are crossed.

Some are mildly disturbing, some are funny, some make no sense, some are lovely.


"...means 9 months of trouble!"


If this is too terrible to watch, move on to the next one.




This is more about John than mom, but still. At one time we all probably have had similar sentiments to one degree or another. Some last, some don't.


This is probably the weirdest, spookiest song the Police ever wrote. You were warned.






Ok, this is the last angsty mother vid. I promise. But hey, Mastadon is teh roxxorz.


I pity the foo who don't watch this all the way through.


Wait...I mean, I pity the foo who don't watch THIS all the way through.

And there you have it. Enjoy.

I'm not one to be particularly mushy or all sentimental, but this story caught my eye and I thought it was worth posting.

College softball opponents show sportsmanship by carrying injured home run hitter around bases

AP The Associated Press
Published Friday, May 02, 2008

PORTLAND, Ore. — With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence.

 

But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single.

Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count — an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

 

Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky.

The umpire said there was no rule against it.

So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky’s legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg.

“The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt,” Tucholsky said. “I told her it was my right leg and she said, ‘OK, we’re going to drop you down gently and you need to touch it with your left leg,’ and I said ‘OK, thank you very much.”‘

“She said, ‘You deserve it, you hit it over the fence,’ and we all kind of just laughed.”

“We started laughing when we touched second base,” Holtman said. “I said, ‘I wonder what this must look like to other people.”‘

“We didn’t know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run,” Wallace said Wednesday. “That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her.”

Holtman said she and Wallace weren’t thinking about the playoff spot, and didn’t consider the gesture something others wouldn’t do.

As for Tucholsky, the 5-foot-2 right fielder was focused on her pain.

“I really didn’t say too much. I was trying to breathe,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“I didn’t realize what was going on until I had time to sit down and let the pain relax a little bit,” she said. “Then I realized the extent of what I actually did.”

“I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation,” Tucholsky added.

As the trio reached home plate, Tucholsky said, the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.

Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, a 14-year coaching veteran, called the act of sportsmanship “unbelievable.”

For Western Oregon coach Pam Knox, the gesture resolved the dilemma Tucholsky’s injury presented.

“She was going to kill me if we sub and take (the home run) away. But at the same time I was concerned for her. I didn’t know what to do,” Knox said.

Tucholsky’s injury is a possible torn ligament that will sideline her for the rest of the season, and she plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in business. Her home run sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington’s chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.

“In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much,” Holtman said. “It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run.”

Abundant apologies for not posting for close to a month. Or not. There certainly are many things afoot that make great fodder for posting, but by the end of an average day I'm pretty spent and ready to do something other than continue to process what has been going in in a psuedo public forum.

I've been steadily trying to figure out what my new position is supposed to do. Thus far, administration has entailed some icky personnel matters, making and completing reports, conducting phone interviews, attending meetings, searching for grants, damage control, and searching for possible additional revenue sources. I am begninning to believe that I am working for a tyrant. We're a large agency, with close to 100 employees spread out across roughly 33 counties. This organization was started under the philosophy that people should be able to manage themselves in a team structure, and if unified by the common principle that there are expectations of accountability that need to be adhered to, the teams can pretty much guide themselves. This might have worked well 10 years ago, but it seems now that the teams are taking on a whole new level of autonomy which, frankly, both frustrates and frightens our CEO. When teams decide to do things in a way that he may not agree with, then the teams are guilty of "fucking it up" instead of making self managed and informed decisions. He recently made a statement that he feels the board of directors is "useless" and too large. Well, it is of his own design. It is comprised of representatives from all of the teams from all across each region, and if Frankenstein's monster is too scary for him to deal with, then perhaps he shouldn't have pulled the switch to give it life. A big agency requires equal representation if it is going to work according to the original model, and the stronger the teams become the more it threatens the vision he has for it.

I feel myself being pulled in about three directions; the clinical staff, the administration, and the office staff. I try to stick by what is ethical, and there are definitely situations where I find myself being asked to compromise those ethics. It has only been little stuff so far, but there are big things afoot and I can only hope that I can represent my integrity sufficiently without subjecting myself to the wrath of tiny little men with visionary delusions. Let me tell you, one of the few things I am hanging onto right now is the integrity that my dad demonstrated to me through years of teaching and dealing with the school system. He is a man ethically beyond reproach, and if I can aspire to a fraction of that sort of principle I'd be well beyond some of what I've seen and been asked to participate in.

We are in the process of trying to build a new fire hall, and the circumstances or atmosphere in town have changed considerably in favor of an earlier date for construction. Maybe. You have to understand that we are also in the process of updating our wastewater treatment facility to the tune of $1.9 million. This is being borne by the taxpayers, which sucks on a number of levels. It means a hike in sewer rates in an era of already prohibitive costs of living. The timing of it is due to a level of immediacy imposed the the MPCA, who believe that the best way to encourage repair to aging sewer systems is to levy fines instead of offering incentives to repair or replacement. There were monies available to other cities through a Department of Economic Development series of grants, and although we were able to tap into some of this for HRA administered home improvements, we weren't able to apply for anything to offset the costs of the sewer project. There are also a series of grants available annually for wastewater projects, but the state generally limits this to 10 per year, and we were about number 12 on the list when we had to begin the project. Licensed in and ruled out. The good (?) news is that the rate hike we had to impose is substantially less than what was originally anticipated. We ended up raising the base rate per month to $15 per apartment and $25 per home, and leaving the gallonage rate the same ($2.55/1000 gallons). We had originally faced a hike of $30, and in reality we have about a $10 increase for apartments and a $15 increase for homes. The algorithm for businesses is based on the residential model with an adjustment for the high gallonage. The loan terms require us to put 5% of our repayment into a reserve account, and at the end of the 20 years we use this to pay off the remainder of the principal. Bearing this in mind, the possibility for asking taxpayers to kick in a small amount for the construction of a new fire hall seems much more likely. We would, of course, look for grants and contributions from businesses in our area. Beyer Built Lumber, Bonanza Valley Bank, the Commercial Club, Canadian Pacific Railroad and the townships could all be tapped for potential dollars. We're looking at a total construction cost somewhere around $700,000. There are some funding options we can pursue through the Rural Development Agency too, so what was originally looking like a project a few years out-say 2012-might be starting in 09 or 10.

This is exciting to me on multiple levels, all of which are interrelated. I don't know how long I wish to stay in Brooten. I'd like to buy a house, I'd like to finish a graduate degree, I'd like to do a number of things which living here is simply not conducive to. Still, I've managed to get myself into the heart of many different things here, and I've had some discussions with our current mayor about his plans whether or not to run again this year. If I'm looking at moving on, I'd certainly be interested in having a stint as mayor overseeing the construction of a new firehall be the capstone of my civic involvement in a small town. I know that seems grandiose on the surface, but I'm really not doing this to satisfy my ego. I honestly believe that what I'm doing is helping a small community stay viable and meaningful during turbulent times. Something like this would look good on a resume, and when the opportunity comes to move on I'd like to think that the time I spent here was not idle or wasted. When people ask why I choose to live in a town of 700 people they often have their minds made up already as to what their own choice would be. It certainly didn't begin fully under my own impetus, but one makes the best of the cards they are dealt.

I'm playing in 2 bands now, guitar/vox in one and bass in the other. The bass gig is fun, since it's with some local yokels who have been mainstays here for some time. I don't have to do much other than show up, plug in and play. I expressed that I'd really be doing this on a hired gun basis, and I guess they're ok with that seeing as how they don't make me set up or tear down equipment. Good work if you can get it. I saw the Black Keys at First Ave recently, and it was a hell of a show. The sound coming out of this 2 man band was thicker and fuller than many larger enembles I've heard. A lot of that had to do with the analog sound gear they were pumping their sound through. Tubes for the win! If they are playing anywhere near you, I'd recommend spending the dough to catch them. You won't be disappointed.



I'm off to shovel, as we have been innundated once again with close to a foot of snow. In April. I am not amused. The wind is blowing like mad, and this is hot on the heels of a weekend where we were enjoying temps close to the 70s. Bah.

Sometimes I take it out of the shed and blow the cobwebs out of it. 

Future of BSU hockey rides on bonding bill.

 Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

(read the rest here, if you dare)

I feel guilty enough already just taking a compliment from somebody.  Now THERE'S some repression for you.

Gary Gygax, 'Father of D&D,' Dies at 69. 

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html

or...

I haven't laughed this hard in quite some time.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/page/5

It was no "Maximumrocknroll", but it was a dusty, rootsy, punky rag that could hold it's own against anything the hipsterz came up with.

http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/letter/