April Snow Showers

Believe me, that’s depressing, though certainly normal.

Another milestone in my life: I have more vacation time accrued than I have need to take. I work an average of 18 hours per week, 10 months per year. I just spent two months off where I accomplished a big, fat, “Zero” on my “to do” list and yet they tell me that I have to take a week off or I will lose 4 days of vacation. If it was up to me, they could just pay me for the days and I’d go to work but they say they can’t. Darn unions. As they say in the letters to the editors of men’s magazines, “I never thought it would happen to me.” So I guess I’ll work a couple more weeks and then take a week off to do nothing again. If the cat would up and die, I could go somewhere where it’s not snowing.

• Okay, you can all rest easy now. Someone important has come out and told us that the election results are now official. No armed insurrection is necessary at this time. Check back in November.
• The new Waukesha mayor and the old Waukesha mayor are working amicably towards a smooth transition. In that spirit, I pledge to not make fun of the new mayor for at least a month.
• Besides, Waukesha’s new mayor might be a young pup, but at least he can legally drink. Mein Gott, they’ve elected Darth Vader’s little brother, Chad:
• I don’t understand Dick Leinenkugel’s thinking here. Democrats aren’t going to vote for him if he’s running as a Republican and Republicans aren’t going to vote for him because he just spent 18 months carrying Diamond Jim Doyle’s  remaining campaign cash to the trunk of Doyle’s get-away car.
• Being a conspiracy theorist who doesn’t trust Democrats, here’s what might be going on: Doyle and his Dem cronies have decided that Feingold is vulnerable, especially if Tommy Thompson decides he wants to feather his retirement nest egg. The Dems are depending on Republican voters to be as stupid as Dems think Republican voters are. They believe that Leinenkugel’s name recognition will make him the prohibitive favorite in the Republican primary. This will, they believe, discourage Thompson from running because, at this stage of his life, Tommy really wants to be waited on, not do the cooking himself. Thus the winner in November will be either Feingold or Jim Doyle’s caddy. Maybe Diamond Jim has decided he wants to be considered for Justice John Paul Stevens’ SCOTUS position when it becomes vacant and wants a friend/lackey on the Judiciary Committee. I don’t know that Feingold and Doyle are that close.
• Frequent Chronicle commenter Steve Edlund was elected to the Waukesha School Board. Good luck, Steve. Some hard years coming up for the schools. The board needed some new blood.
• Alderman Vitale reveals to the Freeman that he planned to retire as alderman after this term anyway. Thank you for your many years of service and enjoy your retirement.
• The Journal-Sentinel’s Laurel Walker agrees with me that anti-incumbency led to the defeat of many candidates locally. Anti-pseudo-high speed train sentiment may have had something to do with the defeat of mayors in Brookfield and Cooney, according to the Freeman. I guess I hadn’t considered that, but I think it all plays into the general feeling among voters that government at every level is on the wrong, pardon the phrase, track.