Saturday, February 18, 2012

2-18-12 Saturday news

About 5:00 this morning Bruiser decided he needed out of my room. I sleepily opened the door and then closed it back after I saw that Sammi had neglected to turn the lights off downstairs.

At 6:45 this morning I awaken to the sound, not of knocking, but of a successive drumming on the door loud enough to be annoying. Bruiser is on the other side, standing up on his hind legs and pushing back and forth on the closed door to rattle it in its frame. Stinker.

Since I was up earlier than I'd planned, I decided an egg was in order. We have super pulpy fresh OJ in the fridge, which always makes me want an egg and bacon. We don't keep bacon in the house, but we do have bacon bits, which work just as well for the flavor without all the the calories. Or, should I say, we DID. The egg was already on the griddle, the toast popped, when I grabbed the slender little glass bottle from the door of the fridge and stared in amazement at the completely baconless interior. My daughter, I can only assume, the one who doesn't turn off lights, apparently also doesn't throw away containers when they've been emptied of their contents. What she was putting bacon bits on is anybody's guess, but she used them all and left the container as some kind of insult. Grumble, grumble.

While I'm in grumbling mode, let me pile this one. This morning, after getting over the baconless moment, I attempted to reproduce the fun accident of my last egg, wherein it flipped over and split apart at the yoke to form an eye. Not just any eye, either. We're talking full on creepy yellow Eye of Sauron eye. It worked so well next to the burned toast, staring angrily at it on the plate. (Bob always turns up the toaster to "burn" mode and I always forget, on the rare occasion I make toast, to put it back to lightly golden, so the entire bread isn't crust.) I was so delighted at my composition, I took a picture. However, I neglected to download said picture and then took a number of other pictures of Bob's packing on Thursday night which he downloaded on to his computer. When I asked him about the egg picture yesterday morning, it was already gone. This is why I don't share or play well with others. Grump.

So, this morning, without bacon, and without any luck at reproducing Sauron egg,  I do at least have lightly golden toast, and my own flavored coffee first thing, and the Highlands Ranch Herald on the table to peruse. This little community paper arrives on the driveway once a week in its green plastic wrapper and I generally try to save it for a weekend morning. Well, a weekend 15 minutes. It's not a big paper. But it is nice to have that tactile experience of actually turning the pages of newspaper over breakfast from time to time.

Our three front page stories for the week:

An 89 year old veteran Larry Barton is finally awarded his military medals in a ceremony, after 67 years, including his purple heart. Forgotten Heroes is a Highlands Ranch based group headed by its founder, retired Brig. Gen. Sal Villano, who helps families navigate the insane red tape of the government to bestow honors rightly due to veterans. The final sentence of the story was Larry himself: "Sal Villano and his people did in two months what the military couldn't do in 67 years."

A piece on the complete lack of cemetery space in Highlands Ranch has led two churches to begin construction on columbarium gardens. If you live here and want to be buried here, you're going to have to come to terms with what the entire British Isle has accepted long ago: cremation is the way to go. There are no and will be no cemeteries in Highlands Ranch. The land is too valuable.

And the top story is that one of the newest Metro District board members has resigned because the rest of the board didn't welcome him after he unseated a long-time and well-liked incumbent. He calls them "thin-skinned and entitled" and the spokesman for the board calls him "abrasive" with a "victim mentality". Reminds me of when Hank Hill joined his board to get lo-flow toilet measures rescinded.

Inside, a few small stories, in between mostly ads, including a column on how the Douglas County School Board did not endorse Mitt Romney, just all seven individuals who serve on the board did. "'That's an important distinction' a [unnamed] school district spokesperson says." Snort.

In Business, (a one page section) half the page is devoted to the debut of Lone Tree Brewing Company, one of 120 craft breweries in the state, including the oft repeated phrase, "Colorado is the Napa Valley of beer." Cue Homer Simpson.

The Sports section does a full page on "Creativity is the Name of the Game" about how much money isn't covered by our school districts that parents of athletes must fund and how the fundraising bar gets raised every year. You see, here in Douglas County, if your kid plays a sport at school, you fork over $100-$150 dollars for the privilege. Per sport. The budget shortfall projected for next year means that this fee will probably go up. More generally, Samantha's school day is going to eight periods in the day next year, as opposed to the seven this year but, get this, as a junior, she is only allowed to take six periods before she has to pay for a seventh or eighth. You read that right. As a senior, it shrinks to five before the checkbook comes out. She still has to take all her required "core" courses. See how this works? No room for the arts. Mercifully, choir has been exempted from the rule.

Anyhoo, the last two page section of the paper, before the two pages of classifieds and, count 'em, EIGHT pages of "Public Notices" is entitled "Life." It's actually composed primarily of very short pieces about the Arts but maybe that's a little too liberal and free thinking a title for these parts. The Littleton Wind Ensembles is playing its 30th season and is debuting with "It's a Small World." I read that a couple of times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

I have managed to stretch out my enjoyment of the paper to half an hour reporting the news over breakfast so that the alarm, set last night when it didn't occur to me that Bruiser always has other plans, has gone off. Time to hit the showers and meet Tammy at the movies. Stay tuned for more riveting Saturday news... ;)






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