Playing catch-up

This is a bad sign. I couldn't even get through my first week without missing an entry... or two. I can't promise I'll be more consistent in the future, but this entry will sum up what the last few would have.

Thursday:

I discovered just how low the dress-code bar has been set. The other reporter showed up in jeans and a T-shirt. Wait, it gets lower. Pain stained the T-shirt. Yeah. This isn't a hard bar to make.

I discovered how lazy a day print day can be. I showed up at 10:00 or a little later. This seemed a reasonable hour to arrive, but left me short on rest. Neither the other reporter nor the editor showed up before 11:00.

I'd say I got about 50 percent of my work done in this hour. I made a few calls. I talked to a few people, and I started putting the bizarre town meeting to words. I didn't do a whole lot for the rest of the day. Mostly, we chatted. I was fine with this. It was still work, technically. I need to know the things about this area that they told me about, but it was certainly laid back.

Friday:

A couple stories are coming together for me. The first is a trend story of sorts. We got a lot of rain in June, the second most in state history. This is easy pickin's. To top it off, I've talked to a few people about how the wet weather has effected business.

It stopped one guy cold. He cuts down trees, and refuses to do this work when it's wet. Cutting down trees involves climbing trees. Rain makes trees slippery, thusly making this already-hazardous work downright dangerous. He already fell out of a tree once due to rain. He says he won't do it again, and that means he didn't really work this month. The highway department also told me they haven't been able to finish their hot-top or road lines, and I heard something about a local school not being able to finish their roof repairs because local contractors have a back-log. I have to check that last one out, and I'm going to check out more types of businesses as well.

The other story is the federal welfare change. I talked to a couple state legislators. They're going to get back to me. This story, I think, could be big. If the state drops its responsibility, it'll fall to the towns. They'll have to draw welfare funding from somewhere, and 70 percent of local taxes in this area go to education. Crack that math.

The day ended with a new story. Vandals destroyed headstones in a nearby cemetery that dates to the 1800s. I got some pictures. The historian in me says this is a tragedy, but I don't know anything more about the crime itself. I'll find more on that Monday.

Weekend update:

I spent a night at home. My mother went camping and asked me to watch the dogs. I informed my friends that I moved away. For the most part, I forgot to inform people as I left. Things happened so fast.

I left home early to cover a Sunday fourth of July celebration. I didn't get back from that until 10:30, and I drove 83 miles round trip. This is one disadvantage of living outside your circulation area.

I have to hand it to the town, though. They put on a pretty nice celebration. It started with an ice-cream social, proceeded to a folk concert and ended in fireworks. A guy gave me five bucks. I talked to him an his wife to get some quotes. They asked me if I had gotten my ice-cream. I said I didn't have any cash. No lie there. I stole 75 cents from my mother so I could pay the toll on the way back. I get my first check Wednesday. Until then, I'm living on plastic. Anyway, the ice cream was pretty good.

One last note: I do plan on changing the layout of this page. I've done some artwork and everything. I just have to figure out how to work with Blogger's formatting.