Lincolnite

Nebraskan Clayton Anderson is headed to space today. Launch time is 6:38 p.m. If you want to watch the launch live (or if you just want to watch a little NASA TV throughout the day), go here and click on "Launch Video Player" in the right column.

So you thought it was windy the past couple days, eh? That was just a light breeze. This is windy.

I like people like Mathew Wegener. He is excited about Lincoln, and I'm excited for him. Best of luck, Mr. Wegener.

According to a recent study (PDF), the arts and culture industry generates over $36 million in economic activity in Lincoln every year. That's not a ton of money compared to other industries, but hey, I'll take it. Learn more about Lincoln's art scene from the Lincoln Arts Council.

I am really fed up with reading article after article about school break-ins. Come on computer and electronics geeks -- I know you're reading this, don't try to deny it -- there has to be a simple and affordable way to cut down on these things. I'm thinking some motion sensors and a network of webcams could go a long ways toward slowing the damage and theft, or at least make it easier to catch the bozos who do this stuff. Or dogs. Very hungry, very angry dogs. I wonder how much money LPS loses every year to theft and vandalism? I would guess somewhere in the low six-figures.

Tonight will mark a significant departure from nearly a year of tradition for the Wilsons. For several years now The Missus and I have used Wednesday nights as our Date Night. Since Robbie showed up a year ago, he has always been invited to Date Night. But not tonight. Robbie is a toddler now, and we have discovered that toddlers and Date Night aren't very compatible. That leaves The Missus and I free to go just about anywhere for dinner. That's the good news. The (sort of) bad news is we may not be able to leave Robbie with a sitter every week (for reasons I won't get into), so Date Night might have to change from a night of going out to a night of staying in. That isn't the end of the world, of course. And we can always experiment with picnics. But if that's what happens, it will be different. So just in case tonight is our last weekly night out on the town for a while, I figure we should mark the occasion somehow. My first inclination is to hit 9 South Chargrill since we have already tried to go there twice and failed both times. But maybe we should go some place to mark the (potential) tradition transition. Or perhaps we should use one of the gift certificates we have sitting around. Hmm. I do know it has been too long since we have been to Ivanna Cone. If we end up anywhere near Downtown, we are soooo there.

A random thought for this morning: Now that Chris Beutler has settled into his new office, Ken Svoboda is back on the City Council, Roger Yant has faded back into the shadows, and Mike Deal disappeared altogether, I wonder what former Mayor Colleen Seng is up to? I know, I know, it's tempting to joke that she probably makes her own ceremonial ribbons at home and she cuts them with giant novelty scissors. Kidding aside, Ms. Seng has a lot of passion for this city and I hope she's putting it to use somewhere.

Now here's a smoking ban I can support. BryanLGH Medical Center, Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital will all go smoke-free beginning January 1. That's smoke-free for everyone, everywhere on the hospitals' respective campuses. If I were you I would try to avoid falling ill or scheduling surgery during the first week of January. There are going to be some very grumpy doctors and nurses wandering the halls.

I can't say that I'm giddy over the design, but the new mural adorning the skywalk on 12th Street near O Street is an interesting idea that played out well. I had to laugh, though, when artist Larry Roots said

When I was looking at this bridge and trying to transform it into something else, I thought it could represent, literally, a human bridge.

A human bridge? Now that would have been cool.

The City Council voted unanimously to allow commercial pet boarding kennels inside the city. The kennels had previously been banned. An earlier effort to reverse the ban some ten years ago failed. The kennels will have to sit at least 200 feet from residential areas. They may be placed in commercial or industrial areas. I generally support the ordinance change. It is unfortunate that it took the city this long to enact it. But there's a comparison here that intrigues me. There is another longstanding city ordinance that came up for review not long ago. It too involved blocking certain types of businesses from operating within the city. But that ordinance was upheld, while the kennel ordinance was undone. The other ordinance, of course, is our city's multiplex theater ban, which prevents theaters with more than six screens from being built within the city. The effect has been to grant a virtual monopoly to Douglas Theaters on first-run movie theaters. In both situations, current business owners opposed a change to city policy on the grounds that it would be unfair. The existing businesses had had to comply with certain rules, and new businesses should have to comply with those rules as well or they would have an unjust competitive advantage. In the case of the theaters, the argument worked. Lincoln's anachronistic policy stands. On the matter of commercial kennels, however, the argument did not prove persuasive to even a single member of the City Council. I wonder what the difference is? Speculate away. Or if you prefer, tell me why my comparison stinks.

Last night's rain sure was a drencher, no? At 625 Elm Street -- that's near 48th and Highway 2 for the uninitiated -- we received about 1.4 inches in around 35 minutes. That was plenty to turn the street into an impressive rushing river. The wake left by the city bus as it passed even came well into our (uphill) driveway. Did anybody top 1.4 inches yesterday? Was anybody near any of the impressive lightning strikes?

It wasn't until very recently that I fully understood just how profound the impact of walking can be on the life of a child. Once a child walks he magically transforms from a baby to a toddler. It's a marvelously rapid transformation. So fast you don't even see it happen. You just wake up one day and *poof* your baby is gone. In his place is this entirely new being, an intelligent, selfish, calculating toddler whose insatiable appetite for knowledge and penchant for reckless experimentation reminds one of Johnny 5. Robert is definitely a toddler. Sometimes I can't get over how old he seems. A silly thing to think about a kid who has only just begun his second year, but it's true. I love watching as he tries to figure out language. He knows that certain sounds mean certain things, and he has a few of those sounds figured out. Today he apparently learned "bott" after The Missus asked if he wanted a drink from her bottle of water. He proudly repeated "bott bott bott bott" all the way home. My favorite of Robert's words is Daisy. He says the dog's name with such enthusiasm, "Daisy!", as though he is seeing her for the first time in years. Robert really gets a kick out of her. Yesterday he even played peek-a-boo with her. I don't know how much Daisy got out of the game, but Robert thought it was a hoot. Robert's world expands every day. He walks wherever he wants to go, and he no longer waits to make sure mom or dad is tagging along. Around almost every corner lies a new mini-world to explore, and within each world are all sorts of fascinating objects begging to be touched, pulled, pushed, slobbered on, or squealed at. Robbie's new walking skills even earned him his first badge of honor yesterday: a nice scab on his chin. The first of many, I'm sure. One downside to all of this is that Robbie no longer wants to be bothered with things like meals or naps. He used to eat like a pig, but now he has a cow if he has to sit in his high chair very long. And naps? Bah. Naps are for babies. Let's play and explore! Incidentally, mom isn't sold on the no-nap theory. And the change at meal-time, though completely normal for toddlers, is still annoying, especially at restaurants. I know these next months are going to be a whirlwind of activity and change. I hope I'm ready! And I hope you all are ready for even more "Robert did the neatest thing this morning!" stories. For example, Robert did the cutest thing this morning when he gave me a big, wet, sloppy, open-mouthed kiss on the cheek. It was the first time he ever kissed me. (Well, the first unambiguous time, anyway.) What a way to be sent off to work.

In case you missed it in yesterday's LJS, check out this sober look at the City's budget. Has Lincoln's tax cut mentality painted the city into a corner?

Lincoln's relatively cheap electric rates come at a cost: the coal that produces much of our power creates a lot of carbon emissions. If Congress ever decides to tax carbon emissions, wave buh-bye to those cheap rates. Actually, I'm just using this post as yet another of my attempts to promote nuclear power. It's clean. It's safe. It's cheap. Learn more.

The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce is asking local businesses to Buy Lincoln First -- that is, to purchase as many goods and services locally as possible. How much of an effort do you make to purchase goods and services locally? Generally speaking, cost plays a big role in my purchasing decisions. Depending on the product or service being purchased, that may help or hurt the chances that I buy locally. Many other factors also figure into the equation: convenience, service, selection, past experience, first impressions, and so on. Regular readers know that I typically favor local and regional restaurants over national chains. No surprise there. For groceries I prefer the regional Hy-Vee over the local Russ's family of stores. The neighborhood hardware store recently lost out to Lowe's when it came to buying a mailbox, but in the past I've spent a couple bucks more to shop at the neighborhood store simply because of the convenience. One of the local advertising guides recently paid off for a small tree services company (Hi, Ed!). The Missus and I buy most of our athletic shoes from Ann over at Lincoln Running Company, but general athletic purchases tend to come from Scheel's or the web. Hmm, I should do an audit of my purchases to see where all my money goes. That could be interesting.