Fernley Roof Update

Lisa left me a message this afternoon to report the good news that the contractor's workers showed up with a cherry-picker lift today ("worth its weight in gold," one of the workers told Lisa) and repaired the wind damage to the fascia. Because they were able to re-use some of the old material, they'll knock $75 off the final price. We got away rather lightly, I think; the total job will end up costing less than $900 and there was no other damage to the wood underneath the fascia. Lisa faunched slightly over the cherry-picker lift, saying how much easier the roof work in Mehama would have been with that equipment.

Lisa also reported that it's snowing today in Fernley. That's fine as long as it doesn't snow on April 21 when I'm driving the moving van full of furniture up there.

Small Town Politics

Last night I watched a rather contentious city council meeting of the City of Fernley over the internet. The subject was what to do about the bond debt on the water treatment plant. Although I'm not a legal resident of the city (or of Nevada), I do after all own a house there and pay the water/sewer bill, so I think I have a stake in this.

( Cut for those who don't care about Fernley's Water White Elephant )

Had I been at the meeting, I would have stood up and said, "I'm really sorry that the condom broke, but the kid is three years old now and the court has ordered you to pay child support until she's 27!" Complaining about bad decisions made in the past may make you feel better, but it's not going to fix the fact that there's a legitimate municipal debt that must be paid somehow. Either the city raises the money in some way or it defaults on the debt, the debtors take possession of the system, sell it to a private operator to pay off the debt, and the rates go up anyway.

TAANSTAFL. As Lisa said, "We're living in a desert! Pay the money already!"