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.

The City Council went ahead and approved a 2 a.m. bar closing time, to nobody's surprise. The change goes into effect on September 17. It's a substantial change that will take all the involved parties a little while to get used to. Look for "aftermath" -type stories in local media in the weeks and months that follow. In an ideal world there would be no closing times. There's no good fundamental reason for bars to ever have to close. But over time our culture has decided it's a good idea to push every limit with alcohol. Drink more! Drink longer! Behave like a douchenozzle! It's no wonder city councils everywhere feel a need to step into this realm where reasonable adults really ought to be able to take care of themselves. Instead, we get paternalistic -- if not authoritarian -- proclamations like this gem from Doug Emery: "This is a privilege, this is not a right. It can be taken away." Thank you for your graciousness, oh wise and benevolent City Council! Ugh. Yet as repugnant as I find the attitude underlying his statement, I can hardly blame Emery for taking the tone of a father warily extending curfew. Lincoln's Downtown bar owners and patrons aren't exactly golden children. I hope the folks involved here demonstrate a modicum of responsibility so that adults in this town can be treated like adults. It would be a shame if, shortly after the change goes into effect, we find ourselves watching the news and muttering "This is why we can't have nice things".

Matt Olberding's post about Chipotle moving one block east brings up the topic of Catalyst One. Remember that one? You're forgiven if you had forgotten. It has been over four years since a "huge" project at 14th and Q was first announced. Chipotle's pending move is -- I hope -- a good sign. It signals a bit of faith from the folks at Chipotle that their building will actually be torn down. That, or they're just tired of the uncertainty surrounding their current building and they want to go someplace more stable. Let's hope it's the former. I'm having a bit of a hard time picturing exactly how the building that will house Chipotle is going to be set up. I hope it includes an outdoor seating area of some sort. I'm sure it will. Outdoor dining space is pretty well standard these days in Downtown.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you Lincolnites plan to attend the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island this year? Naturally there is no right or wrong answer. Folks will have all kinds of different reasons for going or not going to the Fair's first opening outside of Lincoln. As for the Wilsons, consider us firmly planted in the "not going" category. Our reasons aren't ideological by any stretch of the imagination. We just don't think the experience is worth an hour-and-a-half drive plus entrance fees. The drive wouldn't be quite so off-putting if it weren't for the fact that we would have to do it with three boys sandwiched in our backseat. As for the entrance fees, well, I happen to prefer the Lancaster County Fair's fee structure ($0.00). I do plan to go to the State Fair some day. We have family in the Grand Island area so there's an opportunity for a multi-purpose trip. And frankly, I'm curious about what kind of show a brand-spankin'-new fairgrounds can put on. If you go, please let us know what you think of the new fair experience. And if you don't go -- particularly if you normally did go while it was in Lincoln -- what's keeping you home?

Here are two headlines that don't belong together: Nebraska lawmakers eye massive HHS department for cuts Senators take a look at child welfare reform in Nebraska Nebraska wants to cut $235 million from HHS. Meanwhile, child welfare reform is imploding in large part due to lack of funds. Talk about a pickle.

That went better than expected. The first arena bond sale resulted in a lower-than-expected interested rate, providing a $50 million savings over the lifetime of the bond. That's not a bad way to start. Now if we can just get construction and operation estimates to come in about 20% below expectations, and revenue to be about 10% above expectations...

Mayor Chris Beutler and the City Council want Lincoln to move to a biennial budget, and they'll ask voters to approve the plan on November 2. One of their justifications is that City staff have to spend a huge amount of time every year prepping the budget. Spreading that process over two years will ultimately save time and money. That makes sense, of course. But one of the Mayor's numbers threw me for a loop. According to Mayor Beutler, he and his staff spend "an estimated 18,000 hours per year on the budget". That's a ridiculous amount of time. If you break it down you will find it is equivalent to 450 work weeks, or 9 full-time employees working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year just on the budget. Does Lincoln really have 9 FTEs working solely on the budget all day, every day? That seems high. There are four FTEs in the Budget Office (PDF), according to the proposed 2010-2011 budget, though one of those FTEs is devoted to grants. Is there enough work for five or six more FTEs elsewhere in City Hall? To be clear, I'm not ruling out the possibility that it really does require 9 FTEs to put together a budget for a city Lincoln's size. To this budget-ignorant observer it just seems a tad excessive.

The Wilsons are showing up all over town. Our son Robert has appeared in a television advertisement for Harris Music Studios and a giant photograph at Applebee's for the Lincoln Children's Museum. Soon you will hear The Missus and me on the radio. Now we just need to work on a newspaper ad, a billboard, and a bus wrap. Last night The Missus and I recorded some bits for a radio advertisement that will soon air on My Bridge Radio (95.1FM in Lincoln; other frequencies across Nebraska). The piece will help promote foster parenting through Christian Heritage. Christian Heritage wants to dramatically increase its foster parent numbers to help ease the burden on current foster parents and to help provide solid homes for kids who might otherwise slip through the cracks. There is a tremendous demand for good homes for these kids, but not much supply. Hopefully hearing The Missus and me will convince a few individuals and families to sign up. Not Christian? Don't tune out just yet. This push is sponsored by Christian organizations but there are plenty of non-religious ways to participate in foster parenting. Just ask and I'll help you get started. The most surprising thing about last night's recording session was discovering just how invested I am in foster care. I got a little choked up more than once, and depending on which clips they use you may hear it on the radio. There's a saying that if you don't know what decision to make, just flip a coin; you'll know the right answer because once the coin is in the air you will realize which outcome you're hoping for. Something similar can be said of promoting a thing. Once you start trying to sell others on a product or idea, you learn just how much you believe in it. I believe in foster care. Call 402-421-KIDS or 1-866-381-KIDS to get started or to learn more about the opportunities available.