Lincolnite

The older I get, the more I begin to resemble "the" Mr. Wilson. I can't say that's something I'm proud of. Le sigh. I feel a bit like Ebeneezer Scrooge to be honest, or perhaps The Grinch. Only instead of Christmas, my sourpussish mentality kicks into gear around Independence Day - slash - Fourth of July. I just don't get it. Perhaps one or several of you can help me out. I of course understand the original intent of the holiday. Independence Day celebrates our independence. That's definitely worthy of a celebration. Or at least was worthy. It's a little difficult for me to get excited about an event that happened well over 200 years ago. Let's be honest, we all take our independence for granted these days. It's not like we need to gloat over the Brits or anything. We moved beyond that long ago. Okay then, maybe the holiday is more about celebrating our freedoms. Rather than "Yay, we're free from the Brits!", perhaps I should think about the holiday in terms of "Yay, we're free!". Except we're not in so many ways. Freedomwise we're doing pretty dang well relative to most of the people on this Earth, and that's awesome; bravo to us. But there are plenty of exceptions. And let's not forget our track record over the past several decades of bringing freedom and the American Way to various spots around the world. Some will no doubt accuse me of being a glass half empty kind of guy. I prefer to think of myself as a guy with high, but attainable, standards. Anyway, it's hard for me to see the connection between celebrating freedom and blowing stuff up. Particularly since we can only blow up certain things (there's a list) sold to us by certain people within a certain time range. There's some irony there. Do we really think freedom is best saluted by filling our air with thick, acrid, toxic smoke? By producing countless tons of paper, plastic, and chemical litter that gets strewn across our neighbors' yards and roofs? By filling our lakes and streams with the noxious runoff from all of this pyrotechnic bacchanalia? Perhaps a Tiny Tim among you can open my heart to the priceless joy that is Independence Day so that I, too, can see the point in all of this. There's a lesson to be uncovered here, though I don't claim to be smart enough to fully comprehend it. Freedom, by its very nature, produces imperfect outcomes. Freedom is messy and offensive and obnoxious. The end result, metaphorically at least, looks an awful lot like the chaos we witnessed last night. It's enough to make a man stand up and scream "There oughtta be a law!". But as more of us do that we are eventually left with very little at all to celebrate. It's a conundrum.

The talk about privatizing Lincoln's parking meter enforcement makes me wonder about parking meter rates. See, when a private company is responsible for something like meter enforcement, they typically get a say in the rates. In Chicago that has meant skyrocketing meter rates. Lincoln officials say that won't happen here. And it won't -- if contracts are written correctly. Current parking meter rates are $0.50 per hour. In contrast to meters on the UNL campus -- where rates vary somewhat by location -- City meters all use the same rate. That seems a little silly to me. Doesn't it make sense for rates to be higher in high-profile locations? For that matter, $0.50 per hour may be on the low side. Omaha's rate, for example, is $1.00 per hour, or $1.25 per hour in the Midtown District. Lincolnites will pitch a fit if rates increase -- we always do -- but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Far worse than a rate increase would be adding to the timeframe that meters must be fed. Currently meters are enforced 8am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday. That's ok with me. Do parking meters affect your Downtown plans? Would you be willing to pay more if you had to?

Remember our neighbor's barking dog? Apparently somebody came to the door earlier this week and asked if we would be willing to testify about the barking in court. I wasn't here so I'm not certain who it was -- either Animal Control or the Humane Society. In any event, I could find myself on the witness stand one of these days. That could get interesting. Hopefully things don't progress to that point. I would much rather the dogs get the love and attention they need so they don't feel compelled to annoy the snot out of the neighborhood. Wouldn't that be nice?

Congratulations to the High Flyers, a local volleyball team that is going to nationals. That's all the more impressive considering they're the only boys club in the state this year, and there are only six guys on the team. I wish boys' volleyball would catch on more in Nebraska. Volleyball is a fantastic sport and it's a shame that there's a bit of a perception that it's a sport for girls. There's certainly nothing "girly" about it. But I digress. Good luck to the High Flyers!

I'm finally back in Lincoln after about a week outside of Dayton, Ohio at the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championships. I had the opportunity to referee some great games, I reffed with some great people, and I got a little heat exhaustion. A good time all around. Nebraska had four referees selected to referee finals -- three from Lincoln -- which is a great number. Even better, Lincoln's Patrick Slane was selected to referee at nationals, coming up in July in Overland Park. Congratulations, Patrick! I was pretty distracted at the tail end of the trip. On Monday I found out our foster care license had gone through. Yay! We snuck under the wire since Cedar's is ending foster care services ... well, yesterday. Had our paperwork taken longer to process, we probably would have been delayed while Cedar's shipped our stuff off to a different agency. It was quite a relief to hear that we wouldn't have to deal with that. On Tuesday night The Missus called in a panic. Two boys were on the way to the house and I wasn't even in the same timezone. I would have left Ohio right then, but I was much too tired. I never would have survived the 13-hour trip. Long story short, they survived the first night and I was in the car at six the next morning. I arrived back in Lincoln to find two wonderful boys who literally welcomed me into their lives with open arms. So ... that's what I have been up to. What's new in Lincoln these days? I need to go catch up on my news and gossip.