Common Ground

Jenn, you immediately became part of the family. Pat and I thank you for the joy that you gave to our son, Michael, and to his son, Joshua.

Courtney, I know it was rough becoming part of a new family. I thought that there would be time to gently bond and share the love of two families melding into one. I never expected your future and life to be ripped away and so soon.

Sophia, even though you were not ready for the world, your father at least got to see you as a person and say good-bye though we were never even able to celebrate a hello.

Zack, we hope that Joshua and you continue to be close step-brothers. You ARE family and family is there to help each other through difficult times. Things will get better though nobody will ever forget.

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Friday, Jenn was bringing the kids home from school when a person who had their driver's license revoked and was under the influence of some substance, slammed into the back of Jenn's car, killing the three of them, injuring Zack and critically injuring a fellow classmate whom due to privacy laws, we don't know. I'm sure that the child and their parents are suffering the horror of a child being injured.

The driver who caused all of this must have been suffering his own demons. I'm sure he has a family who is suffering too. I was once told that we don't live in a vacuum. What we do affects many. Never has that been so apparent as it has the last few days.

Anyone who flys the airlines from time to time is familiar with the two pieces of reading material in the pockets of the seat backs. One is a catalog with all sorts of unusual devices and the other is a magazine written for the particular airline.  Sunday I was enjoying my twice a year flight to Colorado on one of Midwest's newer Boing 717's.  One with the nice comfy brown leather seats. As my first appointment was Monday afternoon, I asked our travel department for a later PM flight. Mine departed at 7:35 AM.

There was a fair amount of ground fog in the area and from 36,000 feet it looked like regular low level clouds.  It was when we flew over the wind turbines near Dodgeville or wherever, that I noticed the turbines were chopping up the fog! A very unusual sight. I tried to fire up my cell phone camera to capture the sight but when you are moving around 500mph, things are quickly in the distance. Besides, the cell phone might disrupt the navionics and cause the jet to do snap-rolls. (a little pilot humor)

After I became boared with the distant scenery, I pulled the Midwest magazine from the pouch and came across an article discussing how airlines and hotels are becoming more dog friendly for travelers. Some dog friendly places at several cities were mentioned.  In the Milwaukee area they mentioned the Granville dog park, which was called Milwaukee's only dog park (it is not) and also mentioned Petlicious Dog Bakery, which is located in Waukesha over on Silvernail.

While I like traveling, I dislike the business trips where I am away from my wife and my dog for any length of time. The cell phone keeps Pat and me in touch each evening. I've tried talking to Kanook but the sounds coming from the phone must not be much different from a squeeker in a chew toy for him. In my free time, I did "sniff out" some area dog parks.  Golden has a dog park that is on land donated by a former Coors employee. It's a bit hidden behind the baseball diamonds but never the less a dog park. In Fort Collins, where I held another class, they have a smaller neighborhood dog park about the size of a city lot. The entire lot is covered with wood chips so mud is never a problem.  Waukesha Dog Parks Organization has supporters who would like to see such neighborhood dog parks built here. In time, after a full season of observation at Minooka Park, I think such neighborhood dog parks might be considered.  Time and money will tell.

It's been a heck of a week.  Each spring I have my training tour of our stores around the country and I'm about to embark to Colorado after doing some night classes in Illinois and Wisconsin.  Tax time was this week also, and like many Americans, if we owe money, we wait till the last minute.  The good news is that my rebate check or "stimulus check" will cover all but a few dollars of what I have to mail in with my return.  I did smile when I drove to downtown Milwaukee to drop off my tax mail.  The traffic cones were set up and one of the persons collecting the mail was dressed as an eagle. All were cheerful, helping making the best of a painful situation.

My big cheer-up came Friday night when I found the Minooka Dog Park opened.  The county has been busy doing some improvements by fencing off muddy areas and laying trails of wood chips which will help reduce wear on the turf.  The "seasonal pond" is about the size of a small lake and looks to be possibly a couple feet deep. Last weekend Kanook joined the retrievers at Mitchell Park splashing in the marsh and ended up getting a bath in the self-serve grooming salon at Petlicious which is located over on Silver Nail. I was able to keep Kanook from running into the water on this outing.

Tonight there weren't too many people there, but those that were made for an enjoyable outing.  One couple had their recently adopted greyhound that retired from the dog tracks.  She was a little timid but appeared to be socializing well along with having some open area to keep the legs stretched out. Also there was a dad, his two small daughters and their golden-doodle. Kids like Kanook and he got along good with the "doodle dog" who had a great personality too. Once again it was proven that dog parks are as much for people as they are for dogs.

A word of appreciation for County Parks manager Duane Grimm and his parks crew is in order too.  Things are progressing nicely.

From time to time there will be a topic brought up in the council that comes from committee. If the topic is controversial sometimes there will be comments from aldermen that they have not heard from people with one side or another on the matter. I suggest that perhaps we need a change.

In this presidential election year, the promise of change seems to be catching people like honey draws insects. What troubles me is that in most cases we do not know what the change is going to be. We need specifics. Here’s one.

When it comes to aldermen or county supervisors for that matter, reaching a decision when it comes time to discuss and vote for a topic, they seem to rely on citizens searching them out to air their views. Lets face it; people have opinions but are usually too busy or unwilling to communicate their views. This should not mean that their opinion on a topic doesn’t matter because they didn’t put forth an effort to express it! This is how special interest groups get their agenda through, often contrary to the popular wishes of the taxpayers.

So how can the views of an apathetic population of taxpayers be made known to our representatives?  Ask them!

It’s time that in this age of instant communication, we utilize it rather than continue to do things as we have since two centuries ago.

The city wants to join the county in the ability to have the state transfer tax refunds to the city from people who allegedly owe money to the city.  I say allegedly because such process denies the person in question due process. It's a legal way of the city to zip in between the citizen and the bank teller and taking the money off the counter.

This manner of bullying money from citizens should be challenged in court, where the validity of the debt should have been argued before a judge in the first place.  Tell your alderman to vote against tax refund intercepts! While you are at it, tell your county supervisor that you don't like the county doing it either.  Let the citizens have their day in court!