Lincolnite

I know that Ken Svoboda (partially?) owns Ray's Lawn Care. What I don't know is the extent of his participation in the business. Without knowing that, it makes it difficult to determine what I should think about Ray's crappy median maintenance record. In articles about Svoboda and Ray's, the Journal Star sometimes implies that Ken Svoboda = Ray's Lawn Care, which makes me think he plays a pretty direct role in the company's day-to-day operations. Other times the Journal Star makes it seem like Svoboda's day-to-day influence isn't so great. Can anybody tell me more about Svoboda's involvement with Ray's? Just how much does poppy-gate reflect on Svoboda personally, as opposed to on his company?

In the biggest over-the-road news since The Archway, the City Council has approved a giant mural on the skywalk over 12th Street in Downtown. The mural will feature "10 people of various ages and ethnicities walking, some of them standing, with a brick wall in the background. It will cover the whole skywalk, which is 86 feet long." Sounds a tad hokey to me, especially for the Downtown art corridor, where one might expect something a bit more daring. Oh well, assuming the mural ages well it certainly won't hurt anything. The mural will be installed by mid-June.

Now that Star Ship 9 is little more than a pink memory, many Lincolnites are bummed that there isn't a second-run theater option in Downtown. That will change soon, with the renovation of the State Theater on O Street. The theater is being converted into a sort of "theater pub" that, in addition to second-run movies, will also offer appetizers and drinks. Patrons will sit in loveseats or at tables. I figured something was going on at The State because it seemed as though there had been an uptick in activity lately. This is much better news than I expected. It will be fun to see how Lincolnites take to the concept. I know I'm in.

Please tell me one of you took a photograph of tonight's beautiful sunset. I wanted to, but I drained my camera's batteries a couple hours ago filming Robbie eating his supper.

I noticed late last week that Kopeli and Wasabi were both tagged in an overnight graffiti spree. I wonder if Wasabi gets to ignore the graffiti ordinance since the building won't be around much longer anyway. Speaking of Wasabi, it's still open, but not for long. Go soon if you're going to go.

Apparently King Taco will be taking over the space on South 9th Street formerly occupied by Taco Inn. I wonder if it's a local joint, or if it is associated with the King Taco of Los Angeles?

One body was found in a ditch, the other in a lake. Now, they both have been identified. It is still too early in both cases to determine the circumstances surrounding the individuals' deaths.

Today's Journal Star features a nice story featuring good old fashioned mudslinging between Ken Svoboda and Chris Beutler. Nothing too exciting has been said so far, and in the end the points of contention really aren't all that contentious. I think it says a lot about this election that the candidates haven't picked on each other more, and that when they do there isn't much picking to be done.

Robert took another major developmental step last night. And by that I mean he literally took a step. Yup, at around 7:15pm last night, Robert took his first steps. And just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he repeated the feat two more times. The first time he did it he caught me off-guard. He was standing in front of me -- itself a milestone he reached only recently -- chewing on a toy. Usually he does one of two things while he is standing: he panics and sits down; or he lunges to the nearest person or couch. This time he did neither. He looked at the couch I was leaning against, took two solid steps, and on the third step he was there. It happened so fast I thought maybe I was calling "steps" what really should have been called "stumbles". Just for fun, I called up grandma and said, "Hi mom, Robbie and I need a ruling from the judge." I told her what had happened, and asked, "Did he just walk?" She said that it sure sounded like it. I wasn't quite convinced that I wasn't just exaggerating the memory in my mind. Robert must have sensed my doubt. Determined to prove himself, he took a couple more steps after I got off the phone. But these weren't very pretty steps. Certainly not as pretty as the first ones. Right before I started getting him ready for bed I gave Robert one more chance. I stood him on the floor, backed away, and knelt in front of him. Sure enough, boom boom boom, in three steps he was in my arms. And these were good steps. It was confirmed: my son can walk. Sort of. At ten months and six days he is on the early end of first-steppers, but he isn't off the bell curve or anything. (According to my mom he's got me beat by three whole months. Apparently I was quite content to drag myself around on my belly. My sister, on the other hand, took her first steps at ten months.) It seems like he has changed so much in these past six weeks. I can hardly keep up with all of his new abilities and behaviors. His first birthday is two whole months away. I can't even imagine how much different he'll be by then. Unfortunately, The Missus wasn't home for Robert's first steps. No worries, though. She doesn't have to work today, so hopefully Robert will show off his new tricks for mom. Robbie has never been the shy type, so I don't think it will be a problem.

At this moment I am listening to perhaps the most boring audio recording in the history of audio recordings. (Well, except for anything by John Cage.) It is 8 hours and 8 minutes of the sound of me sleeping. In other words, it's eight hours of not much of anything. Why would a guy record himself sleeping? The Missus claims I snore, or breathe heavy, or whistle like a teapot, or something like that. I don't necessarily doubt that's true, but sometimes I wonder if her description of the volume of my breathing is a bit ... exaggerated. A couple times she has even accused me of breathing too loud while I was awake and consciously trying not to make a peep. Sometimes I think she just needs to turn down her hearing aids. If she had hearing aids. More seriously, based on a number of factors I have wondered for years if maybe I have sleep apnea or some mild sleep disorder. An audio recording isn't exactly the best way to diagnose a sleep disorder, but I figure it's a start. So far I haven't heard anything interesting. I scanned through the recording and I didn't notice anything too obnoxious. There's a little light snoring here and there, but nothing that could make the nightstand shake. I'm going to run the file through some audio software to see if I find anything interesting. And just so this isn't the most boring thing you read all day, please go read the most boring thing ever written.

I don't think he has a pizza's chance in a room full of graduate students, but mayoral candidate Roger Yant's latest ideas are worth noting:

1. Set up police substations in the public schools and staff them with six officers. Yant would use existing officers, rather than hiring additional officers
2. Get LPD involved with initiative 287g, which would allow LPD officers to carry out immigration law functions typically handled by the feds. Yant would fire Police Chief Tom Casady if Casady did not want to get involved.
3. Move the Harold Warp Pioneer Village from Minden to Lincoln.

To me, these three proposals clearly illustrate why Roger Yant is not qualified to lead our community. In addition to being extremely expensive, the first proposal would draw police officers out of the community, and it would practically turn public schools into de facto prisons. The second proposal's merits are debatable, but Yant's propensity to threaten to fire anybody and everybody who disagrees with him is obnoxious. And the third idea is downright bizarre. Trying to increase tourism dollars in Lincoln is fine, but if you're going to propose stealing a small town's attraction, shouldn't you at least run the idea by the folks who will be affected before making it a campaign plank? I sincerely appreciate Mr. Yant's efforts, and I'm glad he is trying to bring some new ideas to the mayor's race. I just don't think he has what it takes to lead a community of nearly 250,000 people.

I'm a fan of LB571, which would allow unmarried couples to jointly adopt children. Unfortunately, the debate is probably more likely to be focused on the (perceived) perils of allowing gay couples to adopt, rather than on the benefits of placing more family-less children with loving and capable parents. I should note that I am not inherently opposed to requiring somewhat stricter rules for unmarried adoptive couples than married couples to the extent that those rules are designed to protect the adopted child, especially in the event that the couple breaks up. Let's not pretend that being married automatically makes a couple more suited for parenting than an unmarried couple, though. Generally speaking that's probably true. But the fact that an unmarried couple is willing and able to make it through the adoption process probably makes them more qualified to raise a child than a good chunk of married couples.

I don't know if he meant to, but Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady pretty much summed up the excesses of American politics -- and really, of American life in general -- with this quote:

A luxury once tasted becomes a necessity.

Oh the roads that sort of thinking has taken us down.

My apologies for being quiet these past few days. I'm a bit swamped right now. As Linda Richman would say, please talk amongst yourselves. I'll be back soon!