State of the Laura

My mind is clear enough to write for the first time in almost a week thanks to me stopping my drug regime in anticipation of going back to work tomorrow.

Here's the skinny. Last Thursday morning I felt a twinge in my back that steadily got worse. All day Thursday I was in pain, but since I live with a certain level of pain and it wasn't that much worse than usual, I tried to ignore it and just get on with life. But Friday morning... I thought I was going to die. It hurt more than I had ever imagined back pain could hurt. I mean, I've had back pain for years, but it's been periods of intense but tolerable pain followed by dull aches followed by mostly nothing. But last Friday, it was intolerable. I was having back spasms, and every time one hit I couldn't prevent myself from crying. And sometimes crying out. It was that bad. I somehow worked through deadline but the instant I believed I was done with everything for that day's paper, I headed to the "urgent care" clinic.

Aside: I have had ovarian cysts burst. They are incredibly painful and the pain lasts for a couple of hours. The back spasms were at least as bad and only lasted a few minutes each... but they kept happening every ten or so minutes. The burst cysts would have weeks in between.

I was prescribed a couple of drugs, a narcotic pain killer and a muscle relaxant. I then proceeded to spend the weekend in drug-addled pain. Because the drugs didn't really work, but fogged my brain severely and put me to sleep. During that time, I learned about the deaths of two people I consider friends, and both of them hit me really hard. So I was still in pain and suffering from grief when Monday morning rolled around.

Hubby-Eric wasn't working Monday, so he took me back to the clinic where I was prescribed a different pain killer and a different muscle relaxant. Then hubby did the hard work of getting the prescriptions so I could just stay at home and try to heal. The new drugs worked, and I spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday out of it. Wednesday morning I felt better and decided I ought to try to go back to work on Thursday. My boss, the new publisher, informed me that if I was going to come back early I had to get it cleared with my doctor. I got an appointment for this morning.

After bawling me out about going to the clinic, my regular doctor told me I needed to finish the medicine and rest period (I thought my regular doctor didn't do same-day appointments. I have been taught otherwise). So I will be headed back to work tomorrow morning, instead of going back today. She also chided me about not getting my mammogram and decided to set up the appointment for me. *sigh* I'm not a good patient.

Today's mail brought a book from Amazon that I hadn't ordered... about how to deal with back pain. Since the primary chapters I've read so far agree with the advice of my doctor (stand up and move around frequently, stop slouching when sitting) I will try to work through it and see if it helps me in the long run. I got a text from my sister asking if I got the book, so that mystery was quickly solved.

I firmly believe that if I lose the weight I've gained back since moving out here, most of my medical issues will dissolve. Which means I've got to get serious about calorie counting again. Eric has promised to help me out.

I'm going to indulge in a little bit of sadness and grief now.

I didn't know Justin Manning for long. I met him online at theadiposetv's Twitch stream and chat, and met him in person at last year's Anglicon. He was an enthusiastic supporter of fandom and loved everything about life and fans. He was delighted to get to Anglicon and meet the Doctor Who: Legacy team and some other fans from the chat and stream. He volunteered at the convention, and put in a helping hand despite being weak from cancer treatments. He was impressive and, having seen photos of him from other friends on his Facebook page, I realize he was a great man who promoted friendship and fandom. I'll miss him.

On the other hand, I've known Jim Trull for as long as I've worked at the newspaper. He was one of the first friendly faces I got to know at certain meetings and such. I'm fairly certain I first met him while covering Noon Rotary, where he was a natural born greeter. He was always genuinely glad to see people and made you feel tall just to be around him. When I had to cover the groundwater meetings, I was delighted to see Jim there, because I felt like I had one ally in the room. I remember after the first groundwater meeting I covered, I went up to Jim and asked him some background questions about some of the discussion topics that I hadn't quite understood. He patiently explained the acronyms to me and, frankly, without him I feel like I would have been lost.

I didn't know Jim was the district manager of the local irrigation district until later, and then I realized just how important he was in the area. That he took the time to help a clueless cub reporter makes me adore him even more.

Jim passed away over the weekend, and when I learned the news I was in far more shock than when I heard about Justin's death. Justin had been fighting cancer. As far as I know, Jim was in good health. I saw him at the irrigation district meeting not so long ago. In fact, I want to share a little bit of his sense of humor.

One of the presenters at the meeting had a couple of photos of his crew laying pipe, and a machine that was binding the pipes together. It was pretty standard stuff. The photos were of the machine at the worksite, and one of the photos showed a worker and a case next to him that apparently contained part of his lunch: a bag of pretzels. The board members asked questions about the machine, and how much time it saved, and all that jazz. Jim looked up and asked in a serious deadpan voice, "And what do the pretzels do?" The engineer presenting had no idea what he was talking about. One of the board members sort of giggled and pointed out the bag on the photo... then they got back to business. A tiny moment of levity in an otherwise highly technical meeting.

Jim's daughter is also in Noon Rotary and I know her fairly well. His wife is the principal at one of the elementary schools, so I've run into her while working, as well. So my heart is breaking for them along with the general loss to the community. I think I've had enough time that I'm not going to break into tears while thinking about it at work, but I make no guarantees. Like I've said elsewhere, this year has truly started out horrible.

Today in Review

Since I seem to be gutting my memory each night and haven't really been taking notes about my life because it's been utterly crazy, I thought maybe I'll try to make up for my lack of posting about my week in review by giving you a glimpse of a day.

Last night it was raining a little as I came home. Nothing strange for me, a Seattle native, right? Well... I'm not used to the rain freezing as soon as it hits the ground. A couple of hours after sunset, that's what was happening here. By morning we had a giant sheet of ice covering every paved surface. The only non-slick spots were areas where the snow hadn't been shoveled, and those were crusted foot-traps.

Hubby-Eric, sweetheart that he is, interrupted my morning shower several times to update me on school delays and closures. Once I was dressed, I checked the newspaper's website and didn't see any updates, so I started to worry a little. The editor lives on the only real hill in town, and I wondered if he'd been able to get to work at all. So I left for work earlier than I'd planned, and got to work about an hour early. The two worst parts of the commute were getting out of my own driveway, which is just steep enough to be frightening when there is ice, and crossing the parking lot at work on foot. Luckily, I have stabilicers, so I was able to clack my way across the ice without slipping.

Aside: I really love my stabilicers, which I call my "spikes." I keep them in my car all winter. They are sturdy, can be slipped onto a shoe with one hand with a little practice, and are perfect for the light snow and heavy ice we tend to get around here. My co-workers all seem envious of them, so every time someone says they wish they had some, I send them the link to the website so they know what they are called.

As it turned out, the editor was on the job when I got there and had updated the website while I was on the way. The publisher was also in the office, so I wasn't really needed all that much. The editor gave me a story on the weather to do, so I called a few places, including a meteorologist, and got the piece put together. We heard over the police scanner that there was an accident, car versus telephone pole, and I was about to go out to it (terrified of driving on the ice again) when my co-worker arrived. Since her car was already warmed up and she was already out there, the publisher cautiously walked out and asked her to do it.

The rest of deadline was relatively calm. We're one reporter down for the next two weeks, which is terrifying since we've already been down one reporter since the old editor left, but we're just barely hanging on. The new publisher wants things done differently, and has strong notions of how to work smarter and what to do, but he's sometimes a little... um... I'm not really sure how to describe it. I truly believe he's trying to make us better, but sometimes I feel like he's determined to do it by pointing out everything we are doing wrong, explaining how we ought to have done it, and hoping we'll be shamed into not doing it again. And while that's not an entirely fair way to describe it, there are days I feel like that's what is happening and feel a great deal of despair that I'll ever get it right.

In any case, today was not one of those days, although I got shamed at one point. The good thing is that I noticed the problem before he pointed it out. The bad thing is that I didn't think to fix it. Still, I think the mere fact that I'm beginning to spot problems is a move in the right direction.

A digression: yesterday I was in my office when the police scanner crackled and I heard the local dispatcher say, loudly and with a hint of panic, "We need EVERYONE back here right now." That caught my attention, and apparently at least one officer wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly and asked for a repeat. The dispatcher said, "We're having a flood and we need everyone back here as quickly as possible!" I jumped out of my chair and was thinking about rushing to the police station to see the flood, but instead went to my co-worker who covers the police beat and told her. Within moments she was out the door toward the police station. She managed to get photos and first-hand reports of the flood. You'll have to check out the website for the full story, but suffice to say it didn't stop our police from doing their job, nor did any prisoners escape from the jail (which is what I thought was happening when I heard the first message).

Back to today: lunch was a calm affair at home. The drive was pretty good, since most of the ice was melted. I usually, but not always, go home for lunch. If nothing else, it's an excuse to feed Inkwell, who gets very annoyed if we don't feed him regularly. I tell him I'd give him the whole day's food at once if he wouldn't gorge on it until he throws up and then eat more, but he has major food insecurity issues, so he gets little meals throughout the day instead. Inkwell and I usually have a little wrestling match when I get home, and he also likes to play tag with me. Both actions tend to cheer me up a bit (except for the biting. I don't like wrestling with biting). I went back to work feeling better.

After lunch I got together with the production lead and had my first lesson in InDesign. Now, to be fair, I've used it sporadically since I started working at the newspaper. But I do not know how to lay out pages yet, and the goal is for me to lay out my own pages. I've been trying to get time for a lesson in, but my schedule has been unforgiving and the adjustments we've been making have meant no time for lessons. So I was glad to get the time today.

For my first lesson, I put together tomorrow's school page. I quickly saw why it's advantageous to have writers doing the layouts, as we can edit some stories a little to make them fit better. In addition, I learned how difficult it really is to fit everything. I know why the former editor relied on filler material to make sure he could make the pages work. The new publisher is absolutely against using briefs as filler, so I suspect everyone is having a much harder time getting pages to work now. However, we have some "new" tools in our toolkits, including using more pull quotes and sub-headlines. In any case, I got the page tweaked, and while it may change before publication, at least I understand the concept behind it now.

Anyway, after the lesson I worked on other stories until I started to feel the drain on my brain. I have one more story to do for tomorrow, but I'd like a little more input on it, and I'm hoping I'll get a response to my Facebook plea. Ha. So I'll head in early for sure tomorrow morning.

I'm still not "there" yet, as far as what the new publisher wants. My stories are getting closer to his expectations, though I still need to work on breaking a few bad habits. My biggest weakness is finding my own stories. For four years, the former editor assigned most of my jobs. I'm now trying to find my own stories, and that's difficult for me to do. I'm not yet thinking "oh, that would be a good news story," when I hear about something. And when I do, I sometimes completely forget about it before I can find a notepad and jot it down, which really frustrates me. There's a story germ that I heard yesterday that I remember thinking "hey, there's a story there," but for the life of me I cannot figure out what it was. It's enough to make me want to bang my head against a wall in shame.

Anyway, today was one of the first good days I've had in a long time. I suspect it won't last, but I felt like I ought to share. I had a good day. Amazing, but true.

Week in Review

Things are changing at work, and that's had a knock-on effect of causing a great deal of stress in the lives of most folks in the office. This, in turn, has led to me "shutting down" when I'm not at work. In short, I don't allow myself to think when I'm not at work, which limits what I can do outside work. Add in a nasty virus, and the last few weeks have been less than pleasant for me.

Things are sort of evening out... or at least I'm getting more used to the stress. I'm not sure which. So this past week I've felt like I'm coming out of a fog.

I'm not sure I can catch up with events, despite wanting to tell everyone how things have been going and the strange events that happen. For example, I got a reflective vest, had the word "MEDIA" printed on the back of it ($7 and 10 minutes at the local print shop)... and the very next day I followed a car chase and caught images of the perp being arrested by officers while wearing the vest for the first time.

I also nearly started a riot at a middle school, for which I am terribly sorry. I wanted to get a shot of some kids throwing balls at a particular teacher during a dodgeball tournament, but all the kids wanted to join in because the guy joined a team and threw the balls so hard that kids were knocked down when he hit them. Kids being kids, they ignored my instructions and went crazy and mobbed the poor man. I will never, ever do that again. And I didn't even get the shot.

We changed the way we do mileage to the standard method of recording start and end mileage as on the car's odometer. To make it really easy for me, I'm just writing down the mileage every single time I stop the car, whether I'm working or not. The upside is that I've got a detailed log of how much I've driven, and where I've gone. I did have to switch from a pen to a pencil because the ink kept freezing.

Snow in the Lower Valley meant a meeting I was scheduled to go to Thursday night was canceled. I heard the publisher talking about how there were still open seats at the local theater for Star Wars. After consulting with Eric, I bought tickets and we went to the 7 p.m. showing (about the time I would have been leaving the meeting!). Amusingly, when we got into the theater I looked for the perfect seat, about halfway up and in the middle. My publisher was sitting right there. So I sat next to him. Can't avoid my boss, even at the movies!

I'm still doing the usual writing. I sometimes have to cringe when I read my own writing. Bob was a fantastic copy editor who made everything I wrote stronger. We no longer have Bob as the safety net... and I feel my writing is still working its way up to how good it was when he edited it. The new publisher/editor also has different ideas that will make my writing much stronger, but it's very hard to adjust. At times I feel like I'm just setting up targets and having them shot down before I can even get them all up. I think I do something well, then I'm told by the way, this is a poor writing habit you need to break.

If I survive, I'm going to be a great writer. But I'm still not sure if I'm going to survive this process.

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of content here. I'm afraid my priorities go first to mental health, and that means turning off when I'm not at work.

The Week in Review

Yeah, I'm still alive. Sorry for the dearth of posts.

I admit I indulged in some stuperstition during the Seahawks game last Sunday. I have four Liberty Bottles... one is a Seahawks World Champions bottle. I use the bottles in platoon, so I generally use a couple or three a day. I've noticed that any Seahawks gameday on which I didn't use the Seahawks bottle, the Seahawks lost. As I am a reasonable person, I know it's total coincidence, but I made sure I used the Seahawks bottle on Sunday, just in case. It meant I drank I bit more water than I usually do, which is probably a good thing on the balance. And the Seahawks won, reinforcing the stuperstition. Eh, it's a win-win.

Monday morning came way too early, despite the shift off Daylight Saving Time. I could go into a rant about DST and standard time and how pointless it is in today's world, but I'm just going to continue to shake my head that we're still doing it. My preference would be to go on DST permanently, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Inkwell was NOT pleased with his lazy humans, who clearly are confused about time. Inkwell's stomach clock knew what time it was, so having his human feed him an hour late was extremely frustrating for the cat. And he let us know. It usually takes him a few weeks to adjust to the time change. Another reason I want to abolish changing the time.

Monday

There was a lot to do on Monday morning, including getting several photos ready from last week. We had a double-truck (two-page photo spread) planned to show off people's Halloween costumes, so it was a case of jumping right into the morning work. I also had football photos, the results from cross country and volleyball and a voting reminder story to write, along with my usual police logs. However, one of the police logs had a very interesting item that I needed to talk to someone about (it later turned out to be a dud) so I ended up being very stressed because I couldn't reach the person I wanted to chat with. Ug.

After deadline, we got our first taste of how the new publisher plans to work. For one thing, he started to edit the stories once they were already out on the layout table, which is... um... not the standard in our office. Part of the reason was some poor copy-editing, but most of the reason was a complete change in house style. Bob the editor had a specific way he preferred stories to be written, whereas the new publisher comes from the editorial side of things and has an equally specific, but very different, way he wants things to be written. The result is the three reporters and a reporter/interim editor have completely different style guides in our heads than the publisher. And that resulted in editing on the layout table and a VERY stressed production crew, who are used to only changing typos once the pages are laid out.

It wasn't pleasant, but we all got through it. I think we'll slowly get back out of house style and more into AP style as we go, but it will take some getting used to. Bob was editing at the paper for a long, long time.

Long Meetings

After the paper was out the door to the printer at 11 a.m., we had an editorial meeting. This is something we should have been doing all along, but it was not a priority for Bob, so for the past four years we haven't had any regular meetings. Having a meeting was a bit of a new thing for us. I had prepared some story ideas and a list of what I was working on for the week, since I figured that was the crucial stuff. We went over the schedule, hit some major points... one of the reporters had to leave for a noon meeting. The rest of us and the publisher stayed for another half hour or 45 minutes, until we had everything sorted out. Then I went home to a really upset cat, who thought I was three hours late, not two hours, for his lunchtime meal.

After lunch I returned to the office to get more stuff done, and I was there a bit longer than I intended, as I had an evening city council workshop meeting.

The short time I had at home is a bit of a blur for me. Eric has been subbing in a school district an hour's drive away. They pay enough more that it actually pays for the gasoline and car maintenance, but it does mean he gets home late some times. So we have a rushed dinner together, then I'm off to my night events. It can be very odd.

The council meeting was going great until a dead horse was hauled out to beat on. And beat on it they did. For almost an hour. They kept resurrecting it and beating on it some more, and by the end I found it slightly hard to believe they actually were arguing about it. The whole thing had seemed very straightforward to me... they'd already voted on it, the workshop was just about giving a little direction to the city manager. It should have taken 15 minutes at the most. So it felt very obnoxious to me.

Wastewater Tour

Tuesday was election day. I had a couple of stories to write up in the morning, including another reminder to vote, the council story, another sports story, another follow-up on the hospital... Just a handful of little things. I got through them, and the police logs, before deadline. I then had to take off for another city, because I had a 10 a.m. appointment to view some video of a sewer line and then tour a wastewater plant. On the way, I dropped off my and Eric's ballots.

You know how it's always a pleasure to listen or talk with someone who is really interested in a subject that you want to know more about? People who aren't just knowledgable, but also genuinely enjoy sharing information? That was the fellow at the wastewater plant. He's a very smart guy who not only knows his business, but actually feels very strongly about making sure clean water is going into the river, and not toxic human waste. He's a guy who has a deep, piece-by-piece understanding of the process... more than I'll ever comprehend. But he's willing and eager to share, and as a result, he's an absolute joy to chat with. It doesn't matter that the subject is a little crappy, his interest makes it interesting.

First I viewed a video of the sewer line in question. A guy who believes the city is responsible for maintaining the line to his house managed to get the city's public works crew to his place by calling the department of health and apparently convincing them that sewage was leaking all over the place. The department of health arrived, found nothing particularly wrong, then the city's public works guys used some cameras to video the entire line and prove, without a doubt, that the clog in the line was caused by roots near the end of his sideline. I feel for the resident to some extent, because Eric and I had roots in our line at Frankenhaus in Bothell, and it's very frustrating to get it cleaned out and only have it clog up again a couple of years later. In this guy's case, he had not just cleaned out the line, he had the whole thing replaced as far as he was able to replace it, just a year or two ago. Unfortunately, replacing the portion of the line that is inaccessible due to the right-of-way was too expensive, and that's where the roots had formed.

Once it was clear there wasn't a story there, I toured the plant with the fellow who loves his job and took some photos for a little photo page. Nothing special, just a neat little feature to show folks what they are getting for their money. Then I headed over to the local restaurant for lunch before heading back to the office.

Election Day

Being election day, we'd had a few discussions on how to handle it. In Monday's meeting the publisher said the way his papers traditionally did it was to have a pizza party at the office at the time the returns are coming in and the reporters call all the candidates for comments. The stories get written that night, and in our case get posted online. So everyone is fed and also gets everything written ahead of time. So we decided to try it. This also meant that my attendance at a budget meeting that night was canceled so I could be part of our election coverage. I didn't mind.

So at 8 p.m. I was back at the office again, after a short afternoon with Eric and Inkwell. It turned out to be... well, I wouldn't say fun, but nearly so. It was nice to get the stories and the calls done and out of the way that night instead of waiting until the morning and it was nice to be with other folks to ask for advice/phone numbers/please answer that I'm on the other line. In short, it worked, and I hope we do it that way in the future if I stick with the paper.

I got home almost at 10 p.m., a bit past my normal bedtime, and slept the sleep of the just.

With most of our work already done, writing the election day stories the next morning was easy. I just updated them with the latest information, talked to the one person who hadn't answered my call the night before, and generally got 'er done. The result was an easier morning-after-the-election than usual.

I had no actual appointments or assignments Wednesday night, and that turned out to be important. Once I got home that afternoon I was so exhausted I pretty much collapsed. I went to bed early and slept almost ten hours straight.

Car Troubles

I'm still not entirely sure what happened on Thursday. I think I got to work and got stuff done, then the rest of the day is a crazy blue. I expected to spend extra hours at work then have the night off, but in the afternoon we got a call from the reporter scheduled for a couple of evening events... her car's alternator was dead. As a result, I ended up covering her event in the next town south. What was funny about that was that I had called the city administrator earlier in the day about sewer rates for my sewer story, and he had asked me if I was attending the event. I said, no, I thought my co-worker was assigned to it. When I showed up, I told him I'd begged and pleaded to take the assignment. He said, "Really?" and I admitted my co-worker's car had broken down.

But in the short time I was home from the office, before I headed down to the unexpected assignment, I got a call from hubby-Eric. He had a flat tire on his car. He was about an hour, maybe 45 minutes, from home. He had a wrench and a spare, but no jack. Since I didn't have a jack either, there was no point in me heading up to help him, so I went to my meeting and he called AAA. We didn't see each other until fairly late.

Friday was a relatively quiet day. I figured out who the local Christian school was playing in the tournament on Saturday and updated the website, then learned I was going for the entire tournament. There goes my Saturday. But I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

Saturday Volleyball

The drive up to Bickleton Saturday morning was strange. The entire Lower Valley was socked in fog. Naturally, I drove a little slower to suit the conditions... naturally, most people didn't. Fortunately I only had one tailgater and was able to get him around me when I went through a town.

Climbing up the hill... I almost wish I'd stopped to take a photo of the Lower Valley once I got out of the fog. It was gorgeous, but not a sight I'm likely to see very often. The entire valley filled with cloud, while the sun shone brightly overhead. Once out of the clouds, I actually caught up to the guy who'd been tailgating me earlier. In fact, they were headed to the same place as me, and it was a teenage driver coming to cheer one of the volleyball teams in the tourney.

So the tourney had an interesting set up. Four of the six teams in the District made it to the playoffs. The top two were headed to state. To determine who was going to state, they held a "win-twice" tournament.

The first two games were played at the same time and featured the number one team, my local Christian school, against the number four seed. The third seed team, another one I covered this season (Bickleton) was up against the number two. So I had one team in each of the opening games, which were played at the same time in the same gym. That was an adventure. I sat on the boundary, which was marked by a big divider curtain, and took photos of both games. When the games ended, I headed to the hospitality room and wrote up my story online, posting it live.

I then had a bit of a break because the next game was the two losers playing one another. Except my boss was emailing me to update me on how I was doing and ask for photos of another team at the tournament. I got what I needed, ate in the coaches lounge, and paid close attention. The No. 2 seed beat the No. 4 seed, which meant the loser of the championship match would play the second seed team.

Ok, here's where I disagree with the tournament organizers. The final two games were the championship game and the battle for the second spot at State. During the championship game, the two teams who won the first round were going to play all-out for the top spot, naturally. Then the organizers expected the LOSER of that tough game to immediately play another match against a well-rested team for the second place finish.

It wasn't fair to the team that lost the championship. The championship game should have been played immediately after the opening round so the loser would be the team that was rested for the final game. Instead, Bickleton was punished for playing with everything they had against the Christian school, because when they lost and had to face the second seeded team again, there was nothing left in their tanks. Oh, they gave it a good run. I would say a fantastic run. They worked their butts off and were sobbing from exhaustion at the end. But they were simply too tired.

Now, if this is some obscene lesson in how life isn't fair, I guess we'll just have to live with it. But generally speaking, it was a lousy thing to do to kids. And they apparently did it the same way last year, as well, so I feel they should have learned and ought to change it in the future. In fact, I was originally told that the championship match would be played right after the openers this year. I'm not sure why it was changed back.

My preference would have been to play the second set of games at the same time, like they did the first, after a longer break. Then the final game would have been between two equally rested teams.

I have no say in it, but I hope they consider a change in the future. It really was heart-breaking on many levels to watch my team fall through sheer exhaustion.

Dark Night

I headed home down the narrow winding road in the dark and rain, since a nasty storm had moved into town while the girls were playing. It made for a very long day, leaving the house about 9 a.m. and not getting home until 7 p.m. In addition, Eric was in Seattle, so I came home to a hungry and cranky cat who spent the rest of the evening basically velcroed to my ankle so I couldn't leave again.

I dreamed about volleyball strategy.

I haven't written any reviews, although, again, we watched most of our shows. I'll try to write them today and post them, but if I don't, I might try to write some for later in the week. As you probably can tell, I've been busy. When I'm not working, I'm generally doing my best to turn off my brain, which isn't conducive to writing reviews or posting blogs.

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

The Week in Review

Slow Start

After a relatively relaxing Saturday with Inkwell, I had a mostly pleasant Sunday. Inkwell surprised me by not waking me up until his feeding time on Sunday, which was nice. He slept on the bed with me since I closed the door to the guest room while I cleaned the sheets on the bed. He was rather irritated by that move on my part, but since Eric wasn't home, he just spread out on Eric's side of the bed.

I needed to do some baking on Sunday, but I didn't do it for whatever reason. In fact, I was pretty darn lazy all day on Sunday, which probably didn't put Eric into a good mood when he got back from the wetside and wanted to accomplish stuff.

Since I hadn't finished making the bed in the guest room, Inkwell once again slept on our bed, mostly around my legs. He was mightily annoyed any time I moved.

I was almost late to work again on Monday because Eric got into the shower later than I expected... but I realized what I was doing and managed to get to work in time after all! Huzzah!

On Monday I had Noon Rotary and City Council. For kicks, the editor threw in a finance meeting before the council meeting as well. It turned out to be a good thing he did, as the council meeting itself was short on substantial information, while the finance meeting had an interesting budget update to report on.

Crappy Presentation

Rotary was all about cow manure, which is why the guest speaker said, "I'm glad you all finished lunch before I started talking." The presentation was about a new way to process liquid cow manure, which is one of, say, three major things to come out of a cow.

LECTURE MODE ON: The average dairy cow produces maybe 75 pounds of milk in a day, and 25 pounds of solid manure. Another 100 pounds is liquid that isn't milk. Unfortunately, the waste from cows is a problem because it has a lot of nitrates in it. While nitrates make great fertilizer, a lot of dairies for a great many years had no clue that the wastewater their cows produced could leech into the ground and contaminate the groundwater. The groundwater group I've been covering (the nightmare meetings that everyone wishes they don't get assigned) is trying to solve the nitrate problem. Nitrates don't come just from cows... but while the exact cause of nitrates in groundwater is not certain, what is certain is that responsible dairymen want to reduce or eliminate nitrates in their waste. LECTURE MODE OFF.

So this guest speaker was talking about a really simple method for reducing the nitrates in liquid dairy waste. It's basically a giant compost bin (bunker) with worms that have been acclimated (trained worms!) to deal with the waste. The results in a test of the method in Royal City, north of us, have been impressive. They were hoping for a 70% reduction in nitrates: they've been getting more than 80%. This is good news and of great interest to everyone in the area, because it may result in significant changes in the local dairies, which are a vital piece of the economy.

As a result, although it was a "crappy" meeting, it was extremely interesting and actually a little fun to write about.

Lots of Meetings

After getting through as much of the next day's work as possible, I headed out of the office a little early due to the evening meetings. I had a quick dinner with Eric before going to the finance meeting. I had a little trouble getting out of my housing development. There seemed to be an awful lot of traffic on the side road, far more than usual. I considered investigating, but I didn't think I'd have enough time. I intended to stop at the credit union and get some cash, but there was a huge crowd there, and the line was practically out the door. I took one long look and just walked out. I still didn't have quite enough time to go investigate the traffic mystery, though. Thus, I got to the finance meeting a little early.

The new finance director for the city has been crazy busy trying to settle into her role. She was previously the financial analyst, but with the new job, she's actually been doing both roles while trying to get the 2016 city budget ready and clean-up past financial problems in the city's books. While I think she's got it mostly under control, I also think she's a bit overworked at the moment. In any case, she had a budget amendment for the council to make, and in the finance meeting she presented the case for it nicely.

The main meeting was... well, I can't say it was quick exactly. Instead, it covered a lot of ground rapidly then halted depressingly on a subject that had been discussed extensively at the last meeting. The problem was that three of the seven council members were missing at the last meeting. All three were at this last meeting, and all three wanted to hear more about the subject. So the entire thing was rehashed in detail while I sat there wishing I hand a handy video game to play while I waited for them to catch each other up.

As a result, I wrote a bunch of brief stories on the council meeting, a long story on the finance meeting a had a couple of photos and that was that.

Inkwell again slept on the bed with us. I really needed to make that bed in the guest room!

Police Tales

One of my co-workers was on vacation this past week, and on Monday I forgot to do her police log. So Tuesday morning one of my main duties was getting that all caught up. I talked with the officer in charge of that, and he had some fun stories for me, including a tale of a very intoxicated gang member who apparently managed to shoot himself in the leg. I also got an answer to the traffic mystery from Monday night: a semi-truck had stalled/broken in a major intersection, blocking it off and diverting traffic into my neighborhood.

The rest of Tuesday deadline wasn't particularly wonderful, but we somehow got it done. Then I had more stuff to work on for Wednesday, including another attempt to get an interview. I left early again because of a council meeting the next town south, Tuesday night.

Crowded Council

The meeting was a bit different from usual. First off, there were extra people there. It turned out that Heritage University, a local school that a lot of local kids go to after high school, has a class on social services. And the entire class was asked to attend a local council meeting. So almost a dozen students from the class crammed themselves into the tiny council chambers of the town. Normally, when I go to council meetings at this town, I'm one of the only a couple of people in the audience, which is usually set up with between 12 and 15 mismatched chairs. The other people in the audience are generally either staff members who don't have seats at the "council table" (which only has five seats that aren't reserved for the council and mayor) or people giving a presentation to the council, or family members of the council.

Tuesday night, the mayor's family was at the meeting, taking up three chairs. In addition the staff seats were all taken, so that's city's new finance director was also sitting in the audience. Only 12 chairs had been set up, so with a dozen "newbies" coming in, the staff ran over to grab more chairs... many of which were literally covered in dust. The police chief ran to get some dusting cloths so people didn't have to sit down in the dust, although one gentleman defiantly proved he didn't care about dust and sat down in one of the dusty chairs and wiggled a bit with a big smile at the staff with dusting cloths. In addition to the 11 students, three-and-a-half family members, finance director and me, the family of the police officer being sworn in that night was also visiting from Spokane. There were five of them plus the officer herself. It was standing-room-only until the officer was sworn in and she and her family left.

The meeting itself was something fairly boring but quick, which is how I like 'em if they are boring. The main meeting lasted less than a half hour. I also arrived early for the study session and learned that the city is finally working on its 2016 budget. That became my main story, with several photos and a brief about the new employees, including the police officer. I tried to get an interview with the new finance director, who sounds like a fascinating person, but she was starting on the city's budget while learning the city's system and begged for three weeks. I wrote it down in my to-do list in Evernote call her back then.

Extra Volleyball Photos

One of the council members was absent due to a volleyball game at the high school (two blocks away) that his daughter was playing in. I had a notion that if the meeting ended quickly enough, I'd run over to the high school and get a few photos of the game along with stats directly from the coach so he wouldn't have to call me later. I expected the volleyball game to start at 6 p.m., so when I got there at 7:30 and the first set was just starting, I was a little surprised. But happy... I got my photos and stats, staying the duration of the game. Turns out the JV match went long, and it was senior night as well, so there was a celebration before the game. I arrived at just the right time to avoid the nonsense.

I headed home after the game, feeling pretty good about getting extra photos and already done with my stats. The rest of the night went quickly enough, although Inkwell slept on my legs again. Sometime in the morning I rolled over and partially squished him before realizing he was there, and after that he wasn't on the bed anymore.

Wednesday morning I was feeling a bit distressed from having a couple of outstanding stories that needed to be done NOW but I didn't have quite all the information. I did what I could and punted on the rest. I planned on getting a lot of work done after lunch... but then I got a call to go take a Student of the Month photo at one of the local elementary schools, and my afternoon vanished. Normally I like taking the photos, which are at local schools so I get to see and chat with local kids, but with so much to do, I was stressed.

I didn't finish my stories, and I had to go home to help Eric drop off his car at the shop, so I decided to try to write them at home Wednesday night. I was totally fooling myself. I didn't get either of the two most crucial done. Thursday morning I scrambled in the morning and got one of them done before I even headed to work, but the other one was a complete failure. I didn't finish it until Friday morning.

Inkwell gave up on sleeping on the bed with us as of Wednesday night. I'm not sure if it was due to being squished slightly the night before or for some other reason. Instead, he figured out that my chair upstairs is a fairly safe place to cuddle. I moved my computer downstairs to try to get stories done, so I haven't been sitting in it. I guess he found that reassuring.

Difficult Thursday

As I finished my story Thursday morning, I checked my email and discovered that I was scheduled for a press conference at 4 p.m. that had just been announced. It meant that Eric and I weren't likely to get out to pick up his car, and so I was even more stressed than usual. Eric assured me we would work with it, but I was still slightly angry and feeling put out about it.

Then I got in my car to head to work and got even more stressed, because the town was socked in with a very heavy fog. The drive to work was slightly hairy, with several drivers being incredibly stupid (c'mon people, no brights in fog!). Once at my desk listening to the police scanner, it became evident that scary drivers were all over the valley. The worst one was up northwest of town, a little too far to go in the foggy dark for what might not be a good photo. The accident was car vs tractor, and the radio chatter suggested the tractor was upside-down. The next day, when I chatted with the sheriff's office with it, the incident was apparently a mix of the car driver going too fast for conditions (although the official I talked with said they were probably going the speed limit or under) and the tractor not having hazard lights on or effective reflective stickers (covered in dirt and worn out).

I got through deadline without killing anyone, and after lunch at home with Inkwell I drove out to the next town over to take photos of a balloon release. It was actually a nice break from the office, and much-needed. I headed back to get some work done before the press conference and got to see my publisher dressed as a pirate, complete with a real sword. I even took a nice photo for the company newsletter. The city "Trunk-or-Treat" was Thursday night, and our office had a pirate theme.

In the meantime, a little bit of detective work had resulted in us knowing what the press conference was about. I was told to go out and get a photo of the area the new hospital was to be built on. While I was out, I also got an advertising photo, which is something editorial is generally not requested to do. The publisher asked me, so I didn't hesitate. It was explained to me later by another person in the editorial department that it has caused problems in the office in the past when advertising asks editorial to take photos. I was unaware of the history and I'm sure the publisher is/was unaware as well. I'll have to see if anything develops from it.

Hospital Hijinks

The soon-to-be interim editor and publisher wrote up a scoop on the hospital and as soon as I got back with my photo they posted it online. The only name on the story online was my photo credit.

A couple of hours later I was at the hospital where the media was gathering along many city leaders, some of whom knew what was going on and some of whom did not. The school superintendent chatted to me and flattered me with the notion that I would have qualified to be the school's PR person, a role which I would not seek and don't think I'm even slightly qualified for. He knew what the announcement was, and as I was standing there with him the PR person for the hospital came up, very angry, and asked if I had written the story we posted online. She had it on her phone, and my name was in the photo credit, so she asked me. I truthfully said I had nothing to do with the story, that I'd only taken the photo. She was slightly mollified, but I felt very uncomfortable due to how angry she was. My co-worker who was supposed to cover the presser with me arrived... as did the publisher. Still dressed in his pirate outfit.

The press conference went as expected, with lots of information about the new hospital which is being built on some property that, when it was sold, raised a lot of speculation about what was going to go there. It was a dairy, and the location is pretty much ideal for lots of things due to it being really near the freeway on one of the city's two big exits. I heard everything: truck stop, outlet mall, retirement home, shopping center, grocery store, and, of course, hospital.

Failing Grade

The publisher came up beside me and asked me if I had any questions to ask. I couldn't think of any. I realized a moment later that it was a test... he asked several very good questions that I had not thought of but wish I had. I'm still just a writer, I do not have the reporter instinct and I'm not entirely sure I can develop it. Four years I've been doing this job, and I still haven't figured out how to ask the right questions. For me that's worse than being a slow learner, that feels like not learning at all. It's enough to make me feel terrified about my future.

I will note that my publisher asked those questions while dressed as a pirate. I'm not entirely sure I could have pulled that off. Ever.

While my publisher was still standing next to me after the main business was done, the PR gal came up to my publisher and ripped into him about the early story, saying it was inaccurate. He took the abuse, and said we would fix it. He also said my co-worker had tried to reach her about it, but she hadn't responded to confirm what our sources had given us. Apparently there was a VIP tour earlier in the day, and my co-worker talked with at least two of the VIPs, both of whom gave us the information that the PR person said was inaccurate. My publisher calmly told her this while I stood rigid next to him listening and not looking. I was still feeling dumb about not having thought of those excellent questions, so I was a little shell-shocked. In fact, the entire event was incredibly demoralizing for me.

I stuck around to talk with some folks, including the hospital CEO, who jokingly claimed to have started some of the rumors about what the property was going to be used for himself. I was trying to get more information in my own way, but I didn't get much more than an earful about the publisher and how people weren't sure how he's going to fit in here in this town. The other thing I picked up was how happy people were to not have to hide what they knew about the property any more. I had hoped for some positives, but I just got more negatives and more demoralizing.

Thursday evening was really not pleasant. I was doing serious soul-searching about whether or not I'm really cut out to be a reporter. I had originally considered going out to the city's Trunk-or-Treat, but by the time I got home after the press conference all I wanted to do was find a dark place to curl up and cry.

Editor's Last Day

Friday was my editor's last day. We worked our way through deadline, getting things done, but ... frankly, the editor has been the soul of the office for quite some time. He was joyful and looking forward to his break, but I was feeling stages of grief. I got a call at the end of deadline from the local beauty school asking if I wanted to get a photo of them all dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz. I headed down there and got two good shots, one of which we Tweeted and the other will likely go in Monday's paper. I took another photo with my cell phone, and gave it to my husband for his blog.

We had a surprise lunch for the editor, and we did manage to surprise him, for the most part. Several people came to say farewell, and we ate and I ran home to feed Inky and get some purr therapy. I went back and said farewell to the editor and left just a bit early because I was going to the football game at the local high school later Friday night. I also had the notion that I could go to the school hubby-Eric was teaching at and possibly get some photos of kids in costumes for the Monday photo spread of Halloween fun. He was teaching at one of the two middle schools in the district, which happens to be right next to the all-kinder school, so I started at the all-kindergarten school and got a couple of fun photos, then went over to the middle school to pick up Eric and get a couple of other photos. It was fun.

Snip Snip Here, Snip Snip There...

Eric and I then headed out to get his car. Once home I told him about the beauty school costumes, and we decided, since it was early enough, to go get haircuts. Huzzah! Eric got his hair cut by the Wicked Witch while I got my hair cut by the Cowardly Lion.

Hubby-Eric gets his hair cut by the Wicked Witch of the West.

I was lucky to get a good spot that night at the stadium, and I enjoyed the game. The local team has been doing much better this year than in the past, and it's fun to watch them play. I hope I got some good shots... I wasn't really sure. I stayed the whole first half and took some other photos, too, including a band member dressed as a shark. Right before halftime I was in the far endzone area trying to get a shot or two of the players headed my way, the area started to fill up with cheerleaders for the halftime show... zombie cheerleaders from the local Grid Kids program. I decided at that point to make a hasty exit before they attacked.

Halloween

Eric and I had a restful morning on Saturday. I did a little Halloween decorating and finally got the bed in the guest room ready for my folks. We had a LOT of candy for Halloween, about 1,000 pieces donated by friends in Seattle. Eric ran out and got more and my parents brought some as well. We had more than 1,500 pieces, ready for a Saturday night Halloween.

Eric got a couple of pizzas from Papa Murphy's and my parents arrived in the afternoon. We were all set early in the afternoon for a pile of kids. Eventually they started to show up, although the first kids by asked if they could go in our back yard to recover a lost ball. We let them.

The flow of trick-or-treaters was steady, but not as extreme as last year. In fact, it was about the calmest Halloween we've had since we moved here, I think. Maybe the prime Halloween years are over. In any case, I'd guessimate between 700 and 800 kids, and we left the lights on until about 9:30 p.m. Definitely a much easier night than last year. Eric and I spent some time on the porch giving out candy, because it was a warm night despite a little bit of rain. I let Inkwell out of the upstairs room while we were still handing out candy because we were outside so much of the time.

Some child left a part of his ninja turtle costume on our porch. I left it out under the light in the hopes that someone would come back and get it. If it's still there on Monday, I might save it to put out next year as "all that's left of the child the monster under the house ate last year..."

Anyway...

My folks left this morning. The pass was very rainy yesterday, according to my parents. The driving rain was bad enough to make visibility difficult.

I didn't get any reviews written for today. Sorry. Eric and I did watch Doctor Who early this morning, and we also saw The Flash and Gotham earlier in the week. But I haven't read any comics or short stories. So I'll double-up the reviews next week.

The Week in Review (and some from last week, too)

Things I forgot to mention last week that bubbled up from the memory hole:

I had known for quite some time that I'd won an award at the Better Newspaper Contest run by WNPA, but I didn't know until Monday, Oct. 12, what I'd won. See, the awards ceremony was that previous weekend, and that's when they announced the winners. The first I knew what I'd won was when my co-worker who actually went to the conference congratulated me on my first place award. I'd checked over the weekend to see if WNPA had updated their website with the winners, but the information wasn't there. In case you missed it, I won first place in the state, in all four circulation categories, for a B&W sports action/feature photo. It's quite an honor, and it adds to my first-place feature photo in one of the smaller circulation categories from three years ago. I'm an award-winning photographer twice over, now. Yay, me. In addition, I won as part of the staff that worked on the two special sections that got second and third place awards. So I'm multi-award-winning journalist this year. Again, yay, me.

For the record, here's what I've won in the Better Newspaper Contest since I joined the Daily Sun News:

• 2012 - First Place - Color Feature Photo, Group II; Second place - Topical/Non-Tourism Special Section, Group II, as a member of the staff.
• 2013 - First & Third place - Topical/Non-Tourism Special Section, Groups I & II Combined, as a member of the staff
• 2014 - Second Place - Best Government Reporting, Group II, with co-workers John and Jennie
• 2015 - First Place - B/W Sports Photo-Action or Feature, Groups I, II, III & IV; Second & Third place - Topical/Non-Tourism Special Section, Group II, as a member of the staff.

The editor also told me on Monday that he was impressed with my homecoming game photos. He said he was delighted with the quality of my photos despite the fact that I had to take a concert photo the same night as all the football and homecoming festivities. He pointed out this photo as a neat shot, with the quarterback in focus framed by two other players. He also enjoyed the circus catch photo I got from the game. Considering how much trouble I was having getting the camera to focus on players, I was just happy I got any shot at all.

Tuesday night (Oct. 13) while at the council meeting in Mabton, there was an executive session with action expected at the end. So I had to sit in the mosquito-infested courtyard. I wasn't entirely alone, though. A little black cat came up and rubbed against my leg. I gave it scritches, and it jumped up onto the bench next to me and demanded more petting. Then it climbed onto my lap, purring loudly. I told it I already have a black cat, and maybe it should go home. No collar. I was a little worried for its safety, but there wasn't much I could do. After I set it gently back on the ground, it proceeded to groom itself while sitting on my foot until the door to the council chamber opened and I was allowed back in. Then it sauntered off. The last I saw it was sitting under a streetlight delicately grooming a front paw as I drove home. Inkwell was furious when he smelt another cat on me. He claimed my shirt when I undressed for the night and curled up in it for hours.

About that photo I posted last week, of the skeleton playing the piano - yeah... the museum was being set up when I got there and they directed me to what they thought, and I agreed, was the perfect spot. I took my photo and showed it to the lady in charge, who looked closely and said, completely seriously, "You'd better take another shot. I think he blinked." The museum building is a perfect place for a scary tour, having served as a funeral home and morgue for quite some time. The folks at the museum had secured an old-fashioned "body bag" to use as a prop. It's basically a coffin-shaped wicker basket. When somebody died at home, which was common, they would place the body in the basket to take it to the funeral home. It was oddly chilling. And the basket was very nicely made and sturdy. A nice freaky thing for a deliciously scary nighttime tour.

Speaking of night, I finally got frustrated enough with not knowing what star/planet was glowing just below Venus each morning to look it up on Heavens-Above and was startled to discover I'd been looking at Jupiter and Mars. And if I strained a little, I could see Mercury almost on the horizon. That's four planets besides my own in one glance in the morning. Nice. I miss Jack Horkheimer, although the show he started is still going strong, it's just not quite the same without him. I've decided to embed Star Gazers on this blog on Mondays so I'll be sure to watch it myself.

Another interesting thing that happened last week... I was setting up a time to go visit Grandview High School to talk with the kids who are live-streaming high school sporting events. The teacher said to come during 7th period, so I had to write him a note that basically said, "Um, I don't know what time seventh period is...?" He apologized, saying he lives in the educational world and sometimes forgets not everyone does.

Huh. It's kind of amazing how much I remember once I have time to sit back and reflect. I guess not as much vanished down the memory hole as I expected.

Back to This Week

So, last Saturday, Inkwell attempted to wake up Eric about a half-hour before feeding time. Eric wasn't in the mood, and kicked Inkwell out of the bedroom and closed the door before getting back into bed and sleeping another two hours. Inkwell was NOT pleased with his humans. In fact, he was swatting at ankles for most of the morning.

For my part, I felt miserable, but the long sleep on Friday combined with a gentle sleep-in on Saturday morning helped me recover quite a bit from Friday morning. Eric made no demands on my energy... we watched some TV together and mostly relaxed. I got some dishes and bedsheets washed, but otherwise took it easy. Even the washing I took slow and steady to try to make sure I didn't get any more sick than I already was. Eventually I even got to the point where I could play with Inkwell a bit, though that took a lot of energy and he got bored quickly.

Sunday was equally lazy, although Eric pointed out that we somehow managed to get a lot of chores done for people who were doing nothing. I think it was all him, personally.

Timing It

Monday morning I had a little problem that made me late to work. During the summer, I'm not paying much attention to what Eric is doing, since he doesn't have to be out the door as quickly as I do, if at all. During the school year, I expect him to be up and going about the same time as I am, so I tend to time what I'm doing based on what he's up to at any given moment. This is normally not an issue, because he's usually running close to my schedule. But on Monday, he got in the shower "late". Not late for him, mind, just late enough that I got it into my tiny brain that it was a half-hour earlier than it actually was. So I took my dear, sweet time... and was almost ten minutes late to work as a consequence. *sigh* If this were the first time this had happened, I would have forgiven myself. But I've done it before, and I fear I will do it again.

I knew my writing was suffering on Friday, I felt like I was wading through mud to get words onto the page. I found out on Monday just how bad some of my writing had been when I got back a couple of the assignments I had "finished" before leaving on Friday morning. Ouch. The editor made them bleed. Stupid, little mistakes all over. The stuff I usually catch. I really don't like being sick. It makes me a crappy (crappier?) writer. Deadline wasn't too bad, and I headed home for lunch and did some reading on a book I needed to review for Friday.

Bad News After Lunch

After lunch the other shoe dropped. We've had the new publisher for less than three weeks, and he's been taking a wait-and-see approach, trying to understand how the newsroom here is run before making any changes. So far, the impact of his presence has been small. However, that changed on Monday. He called a meeting of all the reporters Monday afternoon and he and the editor broke the news: The editor is calling it quits. The editor who has trained me for the last four years is headed off into retirement-land for a bit, although I'm sure with his nature he'll be working on something before the year is out. His final day as my editor, though, is Friday, Oct. 30.

That wasn't the bad news, although it was pretty depressing. I have known for some time that the editor wanted to quit. I just figured he would give it a few months under the new publisher before he left. The suddenness of his departure surprised and dismayed me, but the bad news is that the interim editor is one of my fellow reporters. This is not unexpected, but it does put me in a difficult position. We'll be down one reporter, because I'm going to assume the reporter stepping into the editor position will not want to cover meetings and such. We'll also be taking orders from someone who has been a colleague. The short summary of the situation is: I'm really not happy.

I want to write. I love to write. Writing is what I do, it's what I am. I don't want to deal with personnel issues. I don't want office politics to disturb me. I just want to write.

I wonder if I can learn how to freelance?

Anyway, after the meeting I stayed to finish some work, then took off for home where I promptly set about trying to destroy any thoughts I had in my head. I read a book I'm reviewing for the paper, played a little Doctor Who: Legacy, teased the cat and generally turned myself off for the night. I don't require drugs to get into a different mood: music and books work better for me. I managed to completely forget about it that night, which was what I was aiming for. Call me a coward, I just didn't care to face reality.

Reality is that I've been a reporter for four years under a single system. I know how to do *this* job, but I haven't been exposed to other ways of working. I want to learn, but there are easy ways to learn and difficult ways to learn. I'm as stubborn as the next person about change being forced on me, and this feels very much like a change I'm not ready for. I'm just not pleased. Hopefully, I'll get over it.

It wasn't until I was in the shower Tuesday morning that I remembered Monday's news. My morning soured after that, although I had no deadline problems or extra stress. After deadline, I headed to Grandview to visit Bill's Berry Farm for a possible photo feature.

Donuts

Now, if you haven't heard of Bill's Berry Farm, it's a working farm that's also a tourist spot here in the Lower Yakima Valley. They are known for their seasonal flavors of donuts, and as soon as I mentioned I was going a co-worker handed me $20 and said "get donuts". I was amused.

I've been down to the farm once, but I didn't get donuts then, so I didn't know what the big deal was supposed to be. All I knew for sure was that I wanted a nice feature with kids in a pumpkin patch and the corn maze. So I headed out there and arrived at the same time as about a billion preschoolers and their parents.

I'm exaggerating slightly. But they were all over the place. Suddenly four people held up letters, "A", "B", "C" and "D" and the children flocked to the proper letter while the parents tagged after them (and in some cases dragged the children). I picked a likely-looking group and joined them. I asked the parents if it was ok for me to take photos of their kids, and there was absolutely no objection from anyone, so I hopped on the hayride with them and we all went out to the pumpkin patch. I got a few good shots, then allowed the hay ride to leave without me. I got a good look at the corn maze, and decided to head back to the main area, get the donuts, then go to the corn maze to get photos.

I mentioned to the gal making donuts that I'd never had any and showed her the $20 the co-worker gave me. She said that would get me two dozen, then gave me a fresh hot donut to try. I took a bite and was in culinary heaven. It was a pumpkin spice donut, and it was really good. I texted my co-worker and asked if she wanted two dozen and she texted back, "DO IT!" So I waited until the fresh donuts were made, put them in my car, drove down to the corn maze and went to get photos of the corn maze.

I had never been in a corn maze before. In fact, I didn't think much of them. How scary is a maze of corn? In this particular maze, children needed to find seven markers with pictures on them. I, on the other hand, needed to find children to take a photo of. So into the maze I went, reminding myself of the trick to getting out of a maze as I went. I shortly ran across a group at one of the markers and took my photo, then decided to continue further into the maze to see if I could get a better shot. Ha. That was a dumb decision.

The entire remainder of the time I was in the maze I didn't see another person. I could hear them just fine, just around the corner, only there was no corner. Just through that wall of corn and pumpkin vines, maybe. But I could see the trail I was on and the corn and the sky, nothing else. I started taking every left turn I found, which I'd been assured would eventually get me out of the maze, but it was a long slog. I think I ended up walking the entire perimeter of the maze before I finally found the exit/entrance again.

I don't think I'll be trying that again any time soon.

Once back to my car, I opened the door to a heavenly smell. My car was pumpkin spice donuts. It was amazing. I drove back to the office in pumpkin spice donut bliss. I didn't eat any, but I felt like I was rapidly gaining weight just smelling them. I was very popular once I arrived back at the office with the donuts, and I did indulge in a second one before I headed home for lunch. Mmmm.

After lunch I had an interview with a local vet for our veterans section. We ended up talking about a lot of things besides his service, but it was a good interview and I appreciated him taking the time.

Volleyball and Mariachi

After the interview I headed home for a short rest before the volleyball game. It was the local high school against one of the state powerhouses, so I wasn't expecting much... but it was way worse than that. It was difficult to watch after having seen some truly great players on my other teams this year. After a full set, I decided I had enough photos and wandered over to the mariachi concert to get the sight of volleyball out of my head. I went ahead and took a couple of photos there, as well. Always good to have potential page-fillers.

Once home I stayed up and waited for my other volleyball coach to call. It was a relaxing evening. I had to elevate my foot as my heelspur decided to make a dramatic return after I'd wandered the corn maze.

Wednesday morning wasn't too bad, except for the Rotary meeting right in the middle of deadline. I headed over to the hospital for the meeting only to learn there was no guest speaker. There'd been a bit of a muck-up, and two guest speakers had shown up the previous week. I listened to the various talk between members and such and got a photo of the student representatives as well. One person said my article about the Burke Boxes had inspired someone to sponsor the boxes for next year, which gave me an unexpected boost. I love hearing that good things happen thanks to my articles.

When I got back a co-worker was rushing out the door to a fire. Having the police scanner up in the office is really annoying, but we do sometimes hear about things we wouldn't otherwise. It often tells us stuff we don't need to hear, but every once in awhile there's relevant information.

DeLorean Day

We also got a call Wednesday morning from a couple who own two DeLoreans, asking if we wanted them to come by for "Back to the Future Day". Heck yeah! I arranged for them to show up for a photo-op in the afternoon. I got pretty stoked about it, and told Ileana on the production team so she could see them when they arrived. I was thinking about "posing" the cars near the Bonnie Dunbar statue (astronaut/future?), but co-worker John suggested the Museum to tie in with the time travel concept. I agreed, especially since the statue would be very difficult to arrange. The town doesn't have a proper clock tower, though if school was out the clock at the high school might have worked.

The girls (the three female reporters) went out to lunch on Wednesday, too, to compare notes on the new situation in the office and discuss decisions and complications. It's clear that none of us are happy about it. But we had a good whine-fest with our Chinese food.

After lunch I waited around for the DeLoreans to show after finishing most of the work I could do. While I was trying to work through other assignments, I heard the police scanner crackle and an officer say, "There's a couple of DeLoreans on Lincoln Avenue." Thus I knew they were on the way. I alerted the folks in the office who gathered up front, and we greeted them with cheers. Then Ileana and I rode over to the museum in the DeLoreans. Yes, I rode in a DeLorean on "Back to the Future Day". It was ... just cool. Just so satisfying on so many levels. It was a short ride, but it was like the perfect dessert... it just hit the spot.

Also, it's a very comfortable, if very low, seat. The ride was gentle and smooth. They said the DeLoreans are great touring cars due to the comfort, and said they've gone on a lot of trips in them. The biggest problem is that it usually takes them awhile to get going in the morning because so many people want to take photos of the cars in the hotel parking lots!

While we set up the photos, people kept stopping to take their own pictures. One guy got his picture then jumped in his car and raced away with a squeal of tires. He was back a few minutes later with his son and bemused wife.

With some difficulty I finally got the photos I needed for the paper, then we stuck around for a short time in the parking lot of the museum letting people look at the cars and take photos. Ileana and I basked in the glory. It really was totally cool in a 1980s sort of way. Ileana also took a rather impressive selfie in the car with the flux capacitor, while wearing the hat.

We walked the couple of blocks back to the office after the DeLoreans left to get to a showing of the movies in Yakima. The editor later told me that he'd gotten a call from the owner of the car who told him my coverage was the most accurate of the three local papers that had stuff on them during the week. I noted that my coverage was probably also the shortest... but my editor was impressed anyway.

After the DeLorean ride, the rest of the day was a let-down. Well, not really. I was floating for awhile with the sheer joy of having ridden in a DeLorean on *that* day. I finished the book I was reviewing and slept the sleep of the just that night. By Thursday the excitement wore off, which was good, because I had a long trip Thursday morning after deadline. During "down time" I was able to finish my book review - that's how long I have to wait sometimes for my police logs in the morning. I was still in a good mood through deadline, and when my co-worker Julia and I had both finished all our morning assignments (including the DeLorean photos) we headed out to Bickleton.

Bickleton

Ah, Bickleton. It's not really that far away as the crow flies, but it's a longer drive due to twisting roads up into the hills. Bickleton is a small town, sort of, as it's not incorporated. We cover their schools and other major events along with the Goldendale newspaper. On Thursday, we headed out to report on the town getting a water system.

Before the water system, residents had to have their own wells. That's all good if your well-water stays healthy, but there have been more and more problems locally with nitrates in water and other issues. The folks in the town have been working for seven years at getting this system, so it was a big deal. Julia and I sat through the presentation about the water system, then went out and got photos of the reservoir and the construction on the fire department, had lunch, then headed back to the office.

Once back at the office, we had a little time to piece together a story. I had an appointment in Grandview that wasn't at a set time, so as soon as I could I dashed out the door. The interview was with a woman who is opening a dance studio, and the work she's done on the building is impressive. She and I had a good chat, and then I went home and pretty much fell over from exhaustion. I had to stay up and wait for my coach's call, but after that I feel into a very deep sleep.

Answering to the Scanner

I woke to the alarm on Friday morning. I usually am awake before the alarm, but Friday... nope. It was the alarm intruding on a dream that got me up. I got to work in good time and zipped through my corrections. I was just starting on the police log when a call came over the scanner of a structure fire. It was on a road that was totally unfamiliar to me, so I Google'd it. I realized it is actually fairly near, so I checked with the editor. He gave me the go-ahead, so I drove out that way.

The place I was headed is near Emerald Road, which winds through hops fields on our side, then becomes a road cut into a hillside as it reaches the next town over. It's also near the Yakima River, which means that at 7:30 in the morning in the fall it's very foggy. Oddly, the fog-banks were very well-defined, too, so I would drive through a clear-ish morning and then up ahead the road would be blocked by a cloud. As I got nearer to where I thought the fire must be, I went into a fog bank and started to feel frustrated about finding the place. Then suddenly I was in the open again, and right in front of me I saw the billowing clouds of dark smoke on the hillside above the road.

It wasn't hard to find from there. The location was up a gravel road, and when I got close enough to see the fire truck I pulled off the road as far as I could do safely, and walked the rest of the way in. It's a darn good thing I parked where I did, too.

When I arrived, there was one firefighter and one truck. Just one. Nobody else. I had my camera snapping away as soon as I was in sight of the fire. It was a heart-breaking sight. The house was completely engulfed in flames, totally involved. There were three folks on the road watching the fire, and I walked over. As I approached, the woman came over to me and explained that she'd called emergency services after spotting smoke coming from the garage. She said there had been a dog in the house, and it hadn't gotten out.

One of the men turned out to be the owner of the house. He said his son lived there, but nobody was in the house at the time of the fire. More fire engines started to arrive. Once they had a couple more hoses on the thing, they were able to knock it down. My car was parked just barely outside the zone of the fire trucks.

After I'd gotten some good shots, I called the boss and suggested he hold a spot on the front page for this photo. Then I took a photo of the fire with my phone and tweeted it to the newspaper Twitter account. It was not easy to turn my car around and get out of the area. There were just a few too many emergency vehicles by the time I left. I counted seven trucks and a police car. I passed another coming in as I left the scene.

Back at the office, I stopped to show the editor the pictures. He was chatting with the publisher, and they had me pick out two shots for the front page. I headed back to give Ileana the memory card and she noted, "you smell like smoke."

Nonsense

Once that adventure was done, cutlines written and in the file, the scanner woke up again. This time the fire was in town. Another possible structure fire, fairly near my house! I drove out there quickly. The fire was at an apartment building. One of the four buildings in the complex had burned down not too many years ago, but when I got there it was clear the fire wasn't in the same building that had burned before. I arrived before the fire department and was stunned to find people still in the building, ignoring the fire alarm. One kid asked me "should we all be getting out of the building?" and I think I also screamed "Yes!"

There was a woman in the window of the apartment above where the fire was supposedly in. She started yelling in Spanish that the fire was below her. I told her she needed to get out of the apartment. I had a woman who speaks Spanish tell her that. The woman told her, then turned to me and said, "She doesn't really walk at all." I was stunned and half-ready to go up and haul the woman down over my shoulder. I could smell smoke, and if there was really a fire, she was in a heckuva lot of danger. Then the fire dept arrived and I summed up what I knew to the fire chief quickly. He was in the supposedly flaming apartment in moments, and came out again looking less concerned. After he talked with the apartment manager and the woman upstairs for a few minutes, he gave some orders to his fire truck and crew, then came over to me.

There was a fire. It was in a pan on the stove. The woman in the upstairs apartment smelled the smoke and called the apartment manager. *first oddity, why call the apt manager first?* The apartment manager came over to check after awhile, and then went into the downstairs apartment. *second oddity, why not call the fire dept. if there's a risk of fire?* After seeing smoke, the apartment manager searched the apartment for the source, found the oven, and turned off the stove. *third oddity, why on earth would you go into what you think is a burning apartment, and keep going when you see smoke?!?* Add in the fact that a woman who apparently can barely walk is in a second-floor apartment, and I'm still shaking my head in utter disbelief at the whole thing.

In any case, the firemen entered the apartment that had the stove and checked for any other dangers, then set up a fan to clear out the smoke. The fire chief and I chatted a bit. He said the three older buildings in the complex have no sprinklers, so they take calls at this place pretty seriously. I showed him my photos of the earlier fire, since he hadn't gone out to it. Then I headed back to the office, still shaking my head at people who seemed to have no common sense at all.

Car Crash

I wasn't at the office all that long before another call came across the scanner. A head-on collision just north of town. I headed out again, letting the editor know where I was going. I got passed by an ambulance on the way, but I made fairly good time and was able to park near the wreck but still out of the way and get some photos of a victim being loaded up in an ambulance. I talked with the fire chief again. I said, "No offense, but I hope I don't see you again today!" He said, "Now you know why we need more people!"

The investigation still needs to be finished, but from what I saw, it looked like a teenager in a pickup truck didn't stop at a stop sign and was hit just at the front of his vehicle by the car on the road with the right-of-way. The teenager wasn't seriously injured, but the driver of the other vehicle was taken to the hospital. I heard him answering questions from the paramedics, but it sounded like he didn't remember what happened. From the path of the car and the marks on the road, it looked to me like the guy with the right-of-way attempted to swerve when he saw the truck run the stop sign, which resulted in him doing a terrifying u-turn into a dirt lot. A few feet to his left and he would have hit a pump. A few feet to his right and he would have crashed through a ditch. In any case, I'll be checking the police logs on Monday for more information, and to see if my guess is correct.

Home again

Lunch was quick, and I was back at work and getting through Monday's stuff before I knew it. Once the day was done, I went home and pretty much crashed. I slept about three hours, maybe three and a half, before I woke up and had dinner. Eric left this morning for Seattle, while Inky is patrolling the house protecting me, and sometimes coming up to inform me it's feed-the-cat time. I expect to be extremely lazy today.

A couple of odd notes for the week...

Inkwell knocked down my Halloween flag from the front window and ate the string that was holding it up. He's had an upset stomach from it, and has been passing "cat seeds" that are tied together. There are times I really wonder why we have a cat.

A woman came in looking for the paper that had photos of the mariachi band. Apparently my page-filler actually sold an extra paper. Yay, me!

The Week in Review

It's been a very long week.

I wish I could say more, but I really don't have a lot of energy to write. I started to fight off a cold on Tuesday, and have been struggling to keep up the pace ever since. About 10 a.m. on Friday I finally gave up and took the rest of the day as a sick day. I slept until well after Eric had gotten home.

Let's see if I can remember any highlights...

Monday I had a council meeting. It was a fairly normal one, except with cake for the retiring finance director. There was a tense moment that later became a tense story. I was not happy with the situation and I'm still a little queasy about the story.

Also on Monday I took a museum photo that featured a skeleton playing a piano.

Tuesday I had a council meeting in a different town. I was so wiped by the time I got home from my regular day on Tuesday that I fell asleep on the couch until Eric got home and helped me wake up in time to go to the council meeting.

Either Monday or Tuesday I went and talked with kids about live-streaming sports events and wrote up a story about it. That was fun.

Wednesday was my light day, but I still had several appointments to go to. When I got home I crashed into bed and didn't wake up for hours. It wasn't enough.

Thursday was the heavy day, with a morning event, an afternoon event and a volleyball game. The morning event went fine. When I pointed out the afternoon event ran for two hours, the editor decided we could skip it, sparing me hours of tedium. The new publisher wanted to try live-tweeting a volleyball match, and I was game for it, so I stayed for the whole thing and did it while also getting some good photos for the paper.

Again, Friday I was starting to lose the battle with the evil cold, and left work "early" after a half-day. Under the new publisher, we have a bunch of paperwork to go through before we leave sick, so I tromped around the office trying to figure out what I needed and how to fill it out while stressing about the really simple typos I'd made earlier in the morning.

I usually try to take notes about my days during the week so when I get to the end I can write up a detailed report with happy little anecdotes... but this week was too stressful. If I wasn't working I was sleeping or trying desperately to rest my body for the next hurdle. I'm actually amazed I made it until Friday. I know some interesting things happened this week, but most of it is already gone down the memory hole.

I'm glad I've had the weekends off for the last two weeks... but over that time I had seven nights with night events to cover out of ten nights. That's just a little too many. We really need a sports reporter to free up our evening/morning schedules. Right now I'm barely making it. And it's not any better for my co-workers, who are also feeling the pain of too many night meetings followed by early mornings. The schedule is not sustainable.

The Week in Review

First full week with the new publisher... success so far?

Movie Night

After a very lazy Saturday, Sunday was also not very productive. The biggest thing that happened on Sunday was a trip to the movie. I'll review the movie tomorrow, but today I want to mention the timing of the movie...

First off, unlike Eric, I require 8 hours of sleep a night to not be a zombie the next day. Because I get up at 5 a.m., the math says I need to go to bed by 9 p.m. if at all humanly possible. This past week, everything conspired against me hitting that proper bedtime. Including, sadly, Eric (assisted greatly by my own thoughtlessness).

Eric suggested we go to the 6:45 showing of The Martian, and I was good with that. If I'd spent a couple of minutes actually thinking about it, I probably would have suggested we go to the showing right before that one. Because a two-hour movie with previews that starts that close to 7 p.m. isn't going to get out by my bedtime. But did I think about it? Nope. After the movie I got a bit grumpy because it was, in fact, past my bedtime. I'm afraid I probably took it out on Eric.

We were the first ones into the theater, as is often the case for us and movies. We sat through the entire pre-movie slide show, with Eric doing remarkably poorly on some of the trivia questions. There was also a short film in there somewhere that was mildly entertaining. Mostly I was just bored. There's only so many times you can watch an ad for a local hospital without thinking "I get the point already!"

The previews were equally frustrating. Some were fun, others were awful. There was a preview for some kind of Star Wars movie that's coming in December. I told Eric we're going to that one. I was also somewhat excited about the Batman v Superman movie (but only because I was watching close for the "Aquaman scene").

I'm slightly embarrassed to say that the only other trailer I remember was one for a movie that you would have to pay me to sit through, Zoolander 2. The only reason I remember it is because it started out really awesome, with Stephen Hawking-like narration, before... well, before it became obvious what it was about. Actually, I found the trailer amusing. But that's about as much of the movie as I'm willing to watch.

The theater was fairly empty, possibly because we didn't opt for the 3D viewing. There were enough people to get that feeling of being in a theater but no so many that we had to listen to conversations or babies crying. So, a decent crowd. Eric and I stayed for the entire credits (which we do for every movie), much to the consternation of the guys cleaning the theater. We apologized, and offered to let them start while we were still in there, but they said it was against the rules.

Once home, I had to get to sleep fast. I had a big Monday ahead.

Monday Timing Issues

I was Monday-style groggy on Monday, but fortunately not much worse than usual. Deadline went fine, as did the bits after, when we're all working on the next day's stuff. I made a few calls, set up an appointment, had a decent little morning. I took a slightly longer lunch than usual because I knew I was covering the council budget meeting that night... but Bob the editor also assigned me a JV football game before the council meeting.

The timing was pretty bad. I got sent home at 1:30 p.m. and did some housework. But Eric was teaching in Mattawa, so he wouldn't be back until 4:30 p.m. at the soonest. That meant we weren't going to have a sit-down dinner together. At about 4 p.m. I made up a batch of Kraft Mac&Cheese. Usually we share a box. I eat half unadorned, and he puts all kinds of spices and stuff in his. I served up my half, covered the rest and headed out the door, leaving a "sorry" note for Eric.

Once at the game I attempted to get a roster of the kids, but it turned out they didn't have one. I made little mental cursing noises and asked for the best way to get the names. They suggested I ask coaches at halftime. Well, it would be cutting it close, but I was fairly sure halftime would come before the meeting started. So I started taking photos.

The JV team was doing pretty well. Wenatchee looked like they were going to dominate, but once the local boys got their feet under them, it suddenly became no contest. I got a lot of good shots, and started writing down jersey numbers of guys I got good photos of. I stuck around until halftime, when the local guys were up 19-6, and talked with a coach to get all the names, which was good. Then I headed to the council meeting, which was a fairly straight shot just across town.

On the way, there was a blockage... I saw flashing lights and wondered if I needed to get out of my car to take photos, but the ambulance and cop were already leaving. So I just headed to the council meeting instead.

Budget Meetings!

Most council meetings are attended by several non-council members besides myself and city staff. Larry and Don are two guys that come to almost every meeting, just because they are concerned citizens who want to know what's happening. There's usually a representative of one of the local churches who offers an opening prayer during regular meetings. Sometimes people come due to particular concerns on the agenda we printed. And several family members, usually wives, of council and staff members usually attend as well. At this week's budget meetings, however, it was the council and the staff members who HAD to be there, and no one else. Nobody who didn't have to come showed up.

The meeting was long and points of it dragged on. It's a tough type of meeting because you have the city council, elected officials, listening to a bunch of city employees, who have been hired for their expertise, explaining why they need money to run their departments. And there's never enough money to go around. So the trick, for the council and the city manager, is to determine what needs are the greatest and then direct the funds that way. It's not something I would be inclined to get involved in... my personal feeling is that if you have a great city manager, you trust that person's decisions. But the council has to weigh in and point out problems or things that will cause an outcry. So that's their job.

But in the meantime you have a budget that has estimated expenditures that are almost a million dollars more than the estimated revenues. Something's got to give. And each department KNOWS that their needs are the greatest. The result is a lot of very earnest presentations and tough questions from council members. While in the sense of keeping an eye on what's happening the meetings are actually quite fascinating, I was exhausted at the end of Monday's meeting, which went more than three hours. I didn't get home until 10 p.m. It was really not pleasant at all.

I came in Tuesday and talked with the editor about my Monday meeting and the fact that I needed to be around for my coach to call Tuesday night, but I had another council meeting. He told me to leave the meeting at 9 p.m. no matter what happened so I could take the call. Glee!

After deadline on Tuesday I had an interview that went way longer than I expected it to go. I took a very short lunch and got back to work as early as I could, then again went home a bit early to cut hours for the Tuesday night council budget meeting. Because there was no JV football, I was able to be around Eric for a few minutes, which was nice. Then off to the budget meeting, which was mostly about the police department.

As instructed, I left the meeting at 9 p.m. but as soon as I got home I turned on the live audio and listened to the remainder of the meeting. Thus I got to hear the council recess the meeting a bit after 9:30 p.m. and schedule another meeting on Thursday night. After groaning, I resolved to argue with the boss that I could listen to the meeting at home.

Fortunately for me, the editor agreed, and I ended up spending Thursday night listening live to the audio stream of the meeting. It was much easier on my body, but I felt like I missed a lot of nuance that I normally would have picked up on. I wouldn't mind relying on the audio every once in awhile, but I'd hate to only do audio or mostly do the meetings through audio. I'd feel like I missed too much.

Resting

Back to Tuesday, while I got to bed late, at least I spent most of the later time at home, so I was less stressed when I went into work on Wednesday. Except for a little problem. I'm not allowed to work overtime, and I was getting really close to going over by the time I went into work on Wednesday. I alerted the editor to the issue and got sent home early enough to avoid any department of labor problems.

Wednesday night was lovely. I actually got to be around Eric and Inky and not stress overmuch for a few hours. But with another meeting Thursday night and Homecoming Friday night, I was not able to fully relax. Four nights in a single week is just too many. I can handle three without much complaint, and two is ideal if we have to live this way. But four is too many, even with one of them at home. Listening to audio and taking notes is still work.

Thursday morning as I left the house, I noticed the moon and what I think is Venus glowing softly through a hazy fog. I thought, "That would make a great shot." But the problem was that I'd have to get out my camera, put it on the tripod, switch the lens, set up the timer and then take several tries to make sure I actually got the shot. And that would make me really late to work. I considered it, seriously. I wish I had done it. But in the end I just went to work.

I'm told that the difference between a writer and a non-writer is that the writer writes. I suppose the difference between a photographer and a non-photographer is that the photographer stops and takes those photos they think might come out nice. Regrets... I have a few.

Homecoming

By Friday I was definitely dragging badly. I struggled through the day, and was much irritated to have to take photos at the homecoming game AND a concert being held at the high school the same night. Seriously. Who schedules a community concert at the high school the SAME NIGHT AND TIME AS HOMECOMING?!? Really? I've seen some pretty messed up scheduling before, but that's got to take the cake.

In any case, finding parking was such a nightmare I eventually parked at my co-worker's home across the street from the high school and hiked in. The concert was lovely and I wish I could have stayed to listen to more, but I knew I needed to get to the game if I was going to get any good shots at all. Sure enough, I was late enough that I had a lot of trouble. It was exhausting and irritating and by the time I was home I just wanted to die.

I don't remember crawling into bed. I don't know if Eric stayed up to read. All I know is that I woke up between 8 and 9 a.m. this morning feeling a little better. I napped again after breakfast, and began to feel even more human. But I'm still tired.

Next week I have night meetings on both Monday and Tuesday. I'm not looking forward to either of them, particularly Tuesday, since the volleyball coach will be calling that night. I just love having meetings when I'm expecting phone calls.

Changes

We're hoping for a few changes over the next few months, as the new publisher settles in. The first, and biggest, change would be the hiring of a new sportswriter/editor who is completely in charge of the sports pages. If we can find the appropriate person, it would free the rest of us from having to deal with sports reporting, which takes a great deal of time in the mornings and is half the reason we're expected to be in the office at 6:30 a.m. Should the ideal candidate be found, we will start working differently - hopefully more effectively. Until then, it's going to be split shifts.

Other changes will happen as they happen, but that's the big one. It's also the one I'm kind of praying for, since it'll open up our schedules quite a bit.