Lincolnite

I don't know about you, but I am most definitely not ready for sunset to come earlier and earlier every day. Tonight's sunset comes at 7:49pm, for cryin' out loud! That's much too soon. I shouldn't complain, I suppose. Surely early darkness is a small price to pay for fall's beautiful temperatures. This time of year means lots of open windows and fresh air. In a house with three boys, two rats, and a dog, we need all the fresh air we can get. Nevertheless, early darkness bums me out. I know I'll get used to it, but it's one of my least favorite things about winter. It ranks worse than icy roads, frigid wind chills, and snow-covered driveways in my book. Perhaps I'll just wear a bright headlamp all winter. Hey, speaking of autumn I wonder how bad the Asian lady beetle swarms will be this year. I get jumpy every fall ever since a bizarre, insect-infested camping trip at Indian Cave several years ago. That may have been a fluke, but it was a memorable fluke. If I remember correctly that year's Asian lady beetle population exploded in mid- or late-October, but my defenses go up each September. Yick, I still remember trying to sleep in the camper that night. Ugh. Anyway, what aspects of fall are you ready or not ready for?

I don't usually talk much about sports here on Lincolnite, but gosh darn it I'm ready for college football season to start. I suppose technically it has already begun. I say it starts tomorrow. I'm going to take the two young boys to the North Star vs. Benson football game this afternoon (4:30pm) at Seacrest. We started talking about football a few days ago and ever since that time they've been hooked. I have only been to a couple high school games in the past decade so it will be a fun time for me as well. The real news of the weekend is tomorrow's Husker opener against ... who are they playing? Oh right, the Hilltoppers. Poor guys. I know I shouldn't jump to conclusions, but if this were 2054 John Anderton would have already arrested Bo Pelini. The games within the game are what most interest me. Will the Huskers come out strong or flat? How will the defense stack up relative to last year's crew? Who will get reps at quarterback? (I don't care about the starter. Starting is a symbolic but mostly meaningless statistic.) Will there be more than a dozen supporters for the visiting team? Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch or listen to the game. I'll be reffing soccer up in Omaha. I might catch part of the fourth quarter, as long as the match doesn't go to overtime. Oh well, there's always the endless stream of post-game chatter to keep me company on the way home. Are any of you brave enough to make some bold predictions for the season?

Lincoln's Own KLKN is off the air for local Time Warner Cable subscribers thanks to a dispute over retransmission fees. The fight is pretty simple to summarize: KLKN wants more cash, TWC wants to pay less; KLKN wants you to believe TWC is a bully, TWC wants you to believe KLKN is unreasonable. It's all standard stuff. Of course none of us can really say who is right. We don't know the specifics of what they're fighting over. Perhaps KLKN is being unreasonable. Perhaps TWC is abusing its position to bully the little guy. I can say that KLKN implying it belongs in the same group as ESPN is pretty silly. After all, KLKN's primary added value over other ABC options available on TWC comes from its local content, and -- no offense KLKN -- it's not the strongest local content out there. All of this does have me wondering how much TWC customers pay for KLKN, KOLN, and other major network affiliates. I assume we'll find out soon enough how much KLKN is worth to TWC since our cable bills will be lowered accordingly since we aren't receiving KLKN right now. You wouldn't charge us for services not provided, would you Time Warner Cable?

Hey, you know what's bad for computers? Spontaneous power outages caused by lightning! Amirite? Some of that lightning last night was pretty impressive. Apparently one of the bolts knocked out power around 11:00pm at our house. I was snoozing peacefully at the time but the various clocks around the house told the tale. More impressive than the lightning itself was its wake. Did you hear some of those thunderclaps‽ Of course you did. It was pretty darn difficult to not hear -- or at least feel -- the rumbling. I was impressed, and I was shocked I didn't spend half the night consoling frightened youngsters. Did any of you see any flooding from last night's storm? I heard there was a flash flood warning issued overnight. I hope it didn't involve anybody's basement. For that matter, I hope it didn't include our basement. I probably should check for wet spots. We've had a water-free year so far, but I'd best not get complacent.

Would anybody out there like a 1993 Ford Tempo? As-is, best offer takes it. It ran as of a couple weeks ago, but just now it didn't feel like starting. I don't know engines so it could be a 15-second fix or a $5,000 fix. Act fast if you want it -- if it's unclaimed in 24 hours, it's going elsewhere. On the flip side, it looks like we need to get ourselves a minivan if we are going to be able to do all we want to do with foster care. Do any of you have a minivan you want to get rid of and, in exchange, receive a pathetically-small amount of cash? Or maybe you want to donate your minivan to a charitable organization (for tax purposes), and perhaps that organization would in turn like to donate the van to the cause of foster care. Hey, a guy can ask, can't he? Meanwhile, I'm going to go look for change in the couch cushions and then see what the classifieds have to offer.

Republic Parking System, the company that runs Lincoln's public parking garages, is taking over parking enforcement Downtown this week. I'm very eager to see how Lincolnites take to the new enforcers. They are required to not resemble police and -- get this -- to "be polite and courteous to all citizens". I'm all in favor of civility, I just find it amusing that "be nice" is part of the contract. That should be a part of the contract of anybody who deals with the public. Meanwhile, LPD Chief Tom Casady is off the hook and no longer has to handle parking issues Downtown. I'm sure he'll continue to receive calls, emails, and letters about it, however. From now on he can just smile and forward those issues over to David Landis in Urban Development.