"Busy, busy, busy..."

Do I sound like a magician aiming to get my magical hat back from a snowman?*

Lest you think I've gone off on a hibernation jag, we've had several new counties in my region join our program, and it falls to each of us to travel and formally orient the new representative along with our counterpart from the state. Vague enough? It's not confidentiality reasons that prevent me here from from describing, generally, my work, but personal choice. Maybe one day -- (I 'd prefer to tell friends in person exactly what it is I do) -- but for now, mostly I only reference my work in terms of travel.

So last week took me to Neillsville in Clark County, and today to Superior in Douglas. It's been frigid cold, but our work car is a 4-wheel drive Subaru, and even my '95 Corsica has loyally started up, no troubles/no plug in's/no battery inside overnight. She's a workhorse, all right, though I don't ask much of her in this weather, considering the job is walkable. And not to brag, but I'm pushing 200,000 miles, if you consider closing in with 15,000 to go not jinxing myself.

That's what I wonder about people with their hearts in the right place investing in the hybrids, and all those eager to tell you about their newest, greenest purchases... How many cars will they go through in the time others take to invest in and keep up but one? Just a thought.










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*Bonus points if you pick up on my trivia...

UPDATE: And and how about that new New York senator? Although the daughter of a lobbyist, you get the impression she worked her way up. And an alleged blue dog democrat who apparently is capable of nuanced thinking on gun rights/controls issues. Good luck to her.

And to whomever thought/thinks it's a good idea to offer up for Treasury Secretary a man who conveniently was unintelligent enough to pay his fair share of taxes: way to go on the "fresh start" thinking. I don't think enough folks yet realize: the change we want to see is not a shift from this team to that. It's waaaay bigger a job than that. Makeover the country so that we no longer hold in esteem the fellow who "got away" with something, who pushed himself ahead of the pack only based on shady networking and dealings. Make us admire what we formerly referred to as the "little guy" -- the one whose house maybe isn't the biggest on the block, but what's inside, the family and the values, is the most secure in the neighborhood, because, as the rap lyics go... "everythingyou have is yours and not stolen." Or paid for by others.

Because really, isn't that what this Geithner was doing? Letting others pick up his slack, when he realized his non-taxpaying error and didn't step up to correct it? No thanks. I'm all for forgiving mistakes, but again, we're attempting a major attitude overhaul here, right? A tricky fixer in the treasury is not going to fix our big picture problems in the long run, no matter how good he might be able to make things look on paper.

Something tells me that if you undertake a big job, some commitment to the task -- starting with basic "must play by the established rules" -- and some level of love of country that makes you understand why you pony up every April, even if you think you could spend that money more efficiently than the government 3 ways to Sunday, must be present. You can't really teach that kind of character at a late age, now can you? Character, of course, referring to demonstrated traits, not to Mr. Geithner or his type of latter-day "success story" himself.

I wonder if our current media will sleepwalk through covering this administration as well. Too busy on the presidential puppy stories, and with the Blagojevich hairstyle beat, I suppose...