One Nasty Winter So Far

winter

This winter has been one snow storm after another. It has cost me lost days at work. It has cost me two meetings of the Friends of the Fairmount Library, which had to be canceled due to the snow and the bitter cold. And, in one of the few days so far this year that is clear, I have made it to Sam's Club in Kokomo to get groceries I was about to run out of: cooking oil, laundrey detergent, cat food and litter, and other stuff that I tend to buy in large quantities.

On this day, I managed to get my car stuck in the driveway due to the snow. I managed to dig my way out thanks to some help from my neighbors. They tend to have the same trouble, too. Since the polar vortex at the start of this year, the snow has not melted, but has added on to, layer after layer. The major roads are clear. The streets and main county roads are drivable. The other roads — well, you take your chances.

general assembly

There is something seriously wrong with our legislators this year. Mainly, it is the social/religious wing of the ruling party duking it out with the business wing on the anti-homosexual amendment. Also, the governor wants to shift the burden of taxation from businesses to farmers and homeowners, for that is what abolishing or phasing out the business property tax — from where local governments, schools and libraries get much of their revenue — amounts to. If the local entities are not getting their money from businesses, they will have to get it from someone else, for they will no longer tolerate any more attacks on their revenues.

I suppose all that outside money makes you very, very foolish.