If I could think of a good title, I would put it here!

It was kind of good to have an easy day yesterday. Everything was closed so work was quiet and I didn't have to drive to Des Moines to teach. All in all a pretty good day.

Drew and I had to go over to the other house and shovel the sidewalk and the steps to the house. We also shoveled a path up to the house. I will go over this weekend with the snow blower and get the rest. I just wanted to do enough yesterday to avoid a ticket.

The city of Perry is not resident friendly. You can't park on the street AT ALL when it snows or they tow your vehicle. They have a compliance officer that drives around all day checking to see if you have too many tall weeds in your yard or a tree that is a bit over grown, haven't shoveled the sidewalk and any other thing they can think of. If you have a violation, they give you a warning and you have 48 hours to fix it. If you don't you get a ticket. They also publish your name, address and violation, even for the warning, in the paper. We also have the candy ass garbage bastards. Speaking of which, it is trash day. The chamber of commerce just doesn't understand why people don't want to move to Perry. Give me a break!

Two games tonight. Drew at 4 and Jess at 6. They are both here in Perry so that is good. Jess has her last regular season game on Friday in Carroll. It is about an hour away but I think I will go since it will most likely be the last game of the year I can see. Wednesday is their regional game and I teach class so I will miss it.

I was talking with Drew yesterday and we were talking about one of his friend and his dad is a construction worker. It was just a normal conversation but by what he was telling me, this kids dad is a no nonsense type of person. I got to thinking, it really doesn't matter what you do for a living. If you are working class, I think you have a normal scepticism and bitterness. I know people who work hard in physically demanding jobs but have money so it really isn't about what you do. I think it is about knowing that in a blink of an eye you can be in financial devestation and probably have had to make tough decision and go without. Living like this isn't easy and I think it changes you. Makes you a bit harder, more cynical and I am not sure if you can ever go back. Life is like that. Environment is almost everything.

This may be why elected officials are so out of touch with people. Even our city officials are business people in the community so they don't really stuggle. They are completely out of touch. Our Mayor, who I can't stand, said on the radio the other day that she would raise taxes if she could. We are one of the highest taxes communities in the state by the way. She said, if people want services, they should have to pay for them. She is very financially secure and completely out of touch with the rest of us. We already pay through the nose but she doesn't think it is enough. Whatever!

Alright I am done ranting. Trash day tends to get me going!

The weekend is just around the corner. Who knows what today will bring. Check back tomorrow for more of the exiting saga of Rich.