brainsplotch

I'm a little nervous these days, and that's because the Capital Area District Library here in Ingham County, Michigan, has its millage up for renewal on August 3. Not only am I a patron of the Capital Area District Library (CADL), but I am also employed there. 90 percent of CADL's operating costs come from our millage, which is derived from homeowner's property tax in the county. Since property values have decreased substantially in Ingham County (and the rest of Michigan, for that matter) over the last four years, CADL will not receive as much money as it did before. Therefore, if the millage does not pass, the library system will close (and yours truly will be out of a job by the end of 2010, as will all of my CADL cohorts). But the loss of the library system will have more far-reaching consequences beyond my own self-interests. Everyone in the county, and all of our non-Ingham County patrons, will be without a library system. They'll have to look elsewhere ...

Hi folks, I’m back again for what, these days, amounts to my monthly blog post. So what’s been going on since the last time I wrote in this blog almost a month ago? On June 12, I was stressing out about Tom Izzo’s flirtation with the NBA. Well, thank God for all of us MSU fans, Izzo is staying put. It was a tense few weeks, that’s for sure. It’s a little sad that at a time when the nation is experiencing its worst ecological disaster in history (BP oil spill) and the economy continues to be stagnant at best, I’m most nervous about whether my alma mater’s basketball coach will take another job. Got my priorities in the right place, don't I?! The school year has ended, and now my sons (ages 8 and 5) are on summer break. Every other week (when they are not staying at my in-law’s house during the day), they will spend at the summer “kids’ club” (or “day camp,” as they called it when I was a kid back in the ‘70s). Wow, I sure wish I could go to kids' camp these days! There is natu...