Fighting City Hall in the rain

Surely I was not the only one surprised to wake to a wet, dreary world this morning. I overslept just a bit because I’m not used to many morning deadlines, but Jordan had asked me to be ready to go in the house at 7:55 because we were to meet with an engineer from the traffic department at eight-thirty, and he might be early. Of course he was late. But we enjoyed sitting on the porch in the rain, waiting and watching for him.

You see, they’ve put “No Parking” signs in front of our house, forbidding parking from 7-9 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. for the safety of the children at the school across the street. I have lived in this house twenty-seven years, and this is the first time parking in front has been an issue. For our three-car family with a skinny 1920s driveway, it’s a real problem. So I appealed to city councilwoman, and the appeal ended in the traffic office.

The gentleman who came out this morning was not the one I had corresponded with nor the one who had chosen the date and time of the meeting “in the field.” The gentleman who showed up, fifteen minutes late—when Christian had to leave though I’d made that timing plain in correspondence—clearly had little grasp of the situation. What he had was a lot of generic excuses, so that we never got a real answer to the question of why our house alone was chosen and what the penalty for violation was nor how equitably it would be applied. Police park there during prohibited hours, as do many citizens—we have pictures. After a lot of generalities about safety, state law, and neighborhood requests, he left with a promise to take it back to the office and a warning that the whole process—whatever that is—would have to start again. I have already drafted a letter of protest to be sent to his superior and several others, including the councilwoman and the school principal.

So that was my cheerless start to the day, but it proved to be a lovely day. The rain continued, slow and gentle, through most of the day, though it is gone tonight. It is still damp, wet, and blessedly cool. And I buckled down and wrote 1700 words today—a real record for me when working in nonfiction. Not sure they’re all keepers, but I wrote them. And I made a squash casserole for my supper and had happy hour with Mary, who has been away for several weeks.

Last night we had happy hour with a new neighbor—interesting and fun, a lovely young woman who has four children and a surgeon/husband at the county hospital. They have bought an older home that has been vacant for way too long with all the deferred maintenance that implies and are fixing it up. Our neighborhood owes them a debt of gratitude for restoring the charm of an older home and for keeping it out of the hands of developers who would turn it into multi-family units. Fun to meet new neighbors with different backgrounds and different ideas about the neighborhood.

           

Lots of nothing—and maybe a lesson in political reconciliation

That’s the kind of week it’s been. Seems like there’s nothing going on, but really there’s been a lot.

Jacob went off to eighth grade Monday morning without notable enthusiasm for the prospect—he looked cute though. Temperature was forecast to be 102, so he wore his hoodie. Just in  case, I suppose. In Austin, grandsons Sawyer and Ford went back to school—eighth and seventh grades—and in Tomball, Kegan went to seventh and Morgan started her first year in high school. I tried to grab their first-day pictures from Facebook but couldn’t. In Frisco, Eden started her junior year in high school, while Maddie is junior at Colorado in Boulder. They’re growing so fast! I laughed at the friend who confessed she still thinks of Megan as a TCU student—only about twenty-eight years behind, but that friend moved away years ago and until recently didn’t keep in close touch. Nice to have her back in the fold.

School also started at Lily B. Clayton Elementary across the street from us and brought complications—the city has put up No Parking signs in front of our house, effective from 7:00-9:00 in the morning and 2:00-4:00 in the afternoon. For a three-car family, with a skinny 1920s driveway, that’s a real hardship. We also have new Stop signs, though thank goodness they are not in front of us. I don’t see how the No Parking is going to help—it should be down the street where the crossing guard is. An engineer from the city will meet with us “in the field” next week. Perhaps he’ll explain the logic.

Monday was much taken up by Jordan’s bad back and a doctor’s appointment. She has been referred to a specialist but won’t been seen until August 29. When you’re in the kind of pain she is, I’m sure that seems an eternity. There’s not much I can do to help, but I’m trying. Made Frito pie for everyone one night, and helped put together a big salad last night.

Tuesday I managed to get a whole lot done. Finished edits on my ranching history novel, and it has now gone back to the formatter for finishing touches. I’m excited about publishing it in September. And I put together what I think will be a huge issue of the Poohbah, Berkeley neighborhood newsletter. Lots of good stuff about who did what over the summer, back-to-school pictures, and marvelous photographs of the painted churches around Schulenburg plus the usual monthly features. Still tying up loose ends.

My former student, now a chef, came for lunch today and declared I had fixed the perfect light lunch. Always pleases me to get her culinary approval. Recipes will be on my cooking blog, http://www.gourmetonahotplate.blogspot.com, tomorrow. After lunch we had our own mini meeting of Better Angels, the group that tries to bring together people of opposing political views. I asked why she supports trump, and she said the economy is doing well. I fear that my protests that it’s not really healthy at all fell on deaf ears.

But on a lot of issues she agreed with me—the hilarious folly of this kerfuffle over buying Greenland, the unbelievable promise to the NRA’s LaPierre that background checks are off the table despite trump’s words at the times of the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. She’s not sure climate change is real and says there are two sides, doesn’t believe we could lose the earth, while I think it is desperate. We agree that we need health care reform and immigration reform—pre-existing conditions might be a deal-breaker for her, and she says trump is not the kind of person she’d ever sit down and have a beer with.  It astounds me that given that she still thinks he’s the person to run the country. We kept it light, but that is hard for me because I feel so intensely about the earth’s current situation. I did find that she was unaware of several things I mentioned—one of the reasons I keep posting on Facebook. We need an informed voting populace.

I have one other friend that I haven’t seen since trump took office because I can’t bear her support for him. I don’t know if I have the strength for reconciliation there, but today was a lesson for me.

Tonight, a relaxing dinner with Betty at the Tavern.

How much things have changed