Long time, no blog, but enough for the excuses.

For those of you with children in school you may be interested in the Ellensburg School District 2010-11 calendar which is now posted on the district’s website. I should note that I actually participated on the district’s calendar committee (as a parent of a Lincoln child), which set the start and end dates, Christmas vacation and other days off not dictated by national holidays. A separate committee set the early release days. That said, I like the calendar much better than the one we had this year. Early release days will be back on Fridays. They just don’t work well on Mondays.

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Following up on an earlier post, it appears that Ellensburg’s Brent Wyatt is off to a pretty good start on the Lakeland Flying Tigers, part of the Detroit Tigers’ minor league system. He’s hitting .325 with a .398 on base percentage, both pretty solid numbers. It’s a long way to the top if you want to play professional baseball but Wyatt fans should be encouraged by his progress.

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I’m a little bit behind on the DVD trends so I still rent at Hollywood and Blockbuster. I don’t know what this means in terms of the future of the store, but last week there was a hand-written sign posted on the door of Hollywood saying it will no longer be stocking new releases. That can’t be a good thing unless it plans to become a classic DVD store, stocking hard to find, out-of-circulation releases. That would be cool, but I don’t think that’s what the little sign foretells. I may have to look into that Netflix thing. Although, there is always the $1 Redbox machines. I’m just not really encouraged by the trend of putting them outside.

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I would have to say the  letter of the week award goes to Ellensburg High sophomore Kati Camarata for her letter on our sexting story. I can’t say I agree with all her points, but she did a very good job presenting her opinion. People complain about youngsters, but I have to say that I’m almost always impressed by the young people I encounter in this community. I can assure you they have much more on the ball than I did as a teen.

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I’ve never been a huge Widmer fan (an Oregon brewery, known primarily for its hefeweizan), but I’d have to say the Pitch Black IPA it put out this winter (W-10) has been a revelation. It’s a seasonal that went until the end of April. You can probably still find some in the stores. If not, keep an eye out for it next year.

There are going to be three letters to the editor in Friday’s newspaper from Morgan Middle School students asking people to clean up after their dogs after the animals poop on the Morgan field.

First of all, kudos to these middle school students for writing letters to the paper. It is great to see.

Secondly, this is not just a Morgan problem. We had a reader comment on the very same topic concerning the Lincoln Elementary School playground a month ago.

Before moving to Ellensburg, we lived in Roslyn — the land of the free-range dog. Roslyn is a great place to live but the irresponsible dog owners are more than just a nuisance. One day when Aidan was a baby I was taking him for a walk in his stroller. I was less than a block away from our house when we were surrounded by a pack of snarling dogs. The leader was a stray, wolf-like looking dog that one of the neighbors thought would be fun to feed. The other dogs were just local animals people did not bother to keep in their yards. This would have been an ugly scene if another neighbor had not run out of his yard, swinging a shovel to disperse the pack.

One of the first things I noticed about Ellensburg was the lack of stray dogs. People take the leash law seriously and contain their dogs to their property. The other thing I noticed is some people have no trouble letting their dog do his duty in a grade school playground without bothering to clean it up. I witnessed this at Lincoln soon after I moved to town. Aidan was playing at the playground and some guy let his dog loose to do his business and then strolled away after the deed was done. I yelled at the guy to clean up after his dog and he just shrugged and walked off.

Why someone would think it was fine to let a dog poop on a field where hundreds of children play was beyond me. I think the vast majority of  dog owners in Ellensburg are responsible (I can’t say the same about cat owners, but that’s a different topic), but there does seem to be a core of people who just don’t get it, or don’t believe it’s their job to clean up after their dog.

It remains one of the odd mysteries of this town.

I’m still trying to come to grips with the idea of Elton John playing in the SunDome. Just picturing him a strolling through downtown Yakima killing time before the show is worth a chuckle.

Elton John will be the biggest musical star to have played the SunDome, but I attended what I think was the first music concert soon after the SunDome opened — the B52s. It was the Love Shack tour for those who remember such things. It was a good concert, but not many people attended. I think the show drew about 2,500. I’m sure Sir Elton will pack the place.

As far as I know, Brent Wyatt is the only local resident currently playing professional baseball. He is in the Detroit Tigers minor league system and is playing this year for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Florida State League. This is the High A level and is a step up from where Wyatt played last year.

He seems to be off to a good start, hitting .308, and has not committed any errors, but he is not playing every game. The other shortstop on the roster is hitting .143 so Wyatt might start seeing more regular action.

I just thought I’d give a heads up to any of his local fans who want to follow his career.

What’s life without its embarrassing moments, right? It would probably be better, but unfortunately things happen.

Yesterday I was riding my bike home from work. In my route I go out the backdoor of the Daily Record and cut down the alley two blocks to Second Street. I do this because our house is on Second and it has less traffic than other possible routes. I do, though, have to cross a few busy streets.

I was riding up to the stop sign for Main and I thought I could make it across, but quickly realized I was more likely to become a hood ornament, so I stopped. I didn’t stop gracefully. I should mention I wear a backpack to carry my work stuff and other items. I consider the backpack to be a “contributing factor” in what was to occur.

I lost my balance at the intersection and fell over like a domino. Seriously, I made no attempt to break my fall. I think once I tilted in one direction the pack shifted and egged me along. Why didn’t I stick out my leg? Who knows? The whole thing kind of caught me by surprise. I’m sure it was a humorous scene for anyone driving by. I refused to make eye contact with passing motorists, but it’s possible in this day and age that someone took a cell phone picture.

For those of you who are concerned, I was not hurt. Bruised, yes, but only to my ego.

During my week off I read “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” by Joseph Ellis. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001 and is available at the Ellensburg Public Library.

It’s an excellent book, especially if your historical knowledge is limited to what you can remember from high school.

What I found most interesting was how the many of the Founding Fathers held opposing views on what type and scope of government best reflected the spirit of the American Revolution. It seems like people cite the Founding Fathers as believing this or that as if they were some sort of monolithic voting block. The fact is Jefferson and Adams agreed on little, although they managed to salvage their friendship. Adams was more closely aligned with Washington. Madison and Monroe were in Jefferson’s camp. Hamilton was aligned with Washington, although he did not seem all that popular with anyone.

In general the Washington-Adams block supported a stronger federal government, while Jefferson-et al were more of the state’s rights group. One of the key issues that divided them was the federal assumption of state debts accumulated during the Revolutionary War. Both sides punted on slavery.

The disagreements among that generation are the same ones we debate today — namely the scope and powers of the federal government in relation to the powers of the states. You could time machine these guys into the health care debate and they wouldn’t miss a beat.

After I finished the book it occurred to me that it would be a wonderful book for the members of the local Republican and Democratic parties to read and then meet to discuss in a book group forum.

If nothing else it highlights the fact that in a democracy issues never tend to get completely resolved even after 234 years of discussion.

Last week I began my new bike-ride-to-work regimen and wondered why I hadn’t started years ago. It was wonderful cycling to work on beautiful calm, clear mornings. It felt so good to fill my lungs with fresh air before getting sealed in the office for the rest of the day.

“I don’t know why everyone doesn’t ride to work,” I told my wife.

This week emphasized why — cold, bitter windy mornings, in fact it snowed a tiny bit today. One day my hands were so frozen I couldn’t undo the clasp on my helmet. I had to sit at my desk for wearing my helmet for about 15 minutes before my fingers were up to the task. Of course, that did provide me with extra protection against workplace head injuries, which are more commonplace than people believe.

I’m still riding, I’m just not quite so enthused, and I’m madly searching for my fingerless gloves. Oh well, summer isn’t too far away.

The other day I was in the midst of a conversation and suddenly stumbled to a stall as my mind tried to remember the word for dying of thirst — the word equivalent of starvation. I couldn’t think of it and just kind of mumbled into a different topic.

I was more than a little worried. A writer’s greatest fear is that he will lose the ability to quickly think of words. It’s like an athlete losing a half-step. It’s tempting to say, it’s no big deal, that it just takes a little longer to come up with the right phrase. But you’ll never hear an Olympic sprinter say, “Oh, I’m a couple of seconds slower, but I really have better form now and enjoy taking more time on the track. I never realized how beautiful it is out here.”

No, you slow down and you’re done, you’re passed by someone faster.  

Later that day I tried to look up the word only to find there is no word for dying of thirst. That’s a relief, until it occurred to me that I should have known that.

I’d been thinking about getting my mountain bike fixed and road ready for the past six years more or less. But I decided Aidan had finally outgrown the bike he’s had since age 3 and while at the Recycle shop in Ellensburg looking for a bike for him, I decided to finally take mine in.

After riding to work for three days now I feel much better about myself. It’s a pretty short trip so there’s not a lot of exercise benefit, but I no longer feel guilty about driving a car eight blocks. I have reduced my carbon foot print. I already e-mail Al Gore and he’s going to send me a certificate of accomplishment. Of course the energy that goes into producing the certificate and shipping it cross country far outweighs the reductions obtained by my riding to work, but it’s the thought that counts.

Anyway, that’s not actually my point. I’m wondering if I can now wear that garish Tour de France style spandex to work. I can see where the padded, reinforced or whatever cycling shorts could be appealing. Thinking ahead to the summer, though, I can envision the vast expanse of spandex required to cover me, shimmering with sweat, creating the illusion of a water source much like a desert mirage. I can see how that might attract easily confused small animals. I guess I still have some time to figure that out.

Although their idea was shot down by the Cle Elum City Council you have to admire the owners of Cook’s Family Restaurant for trying to get creative.

Family style male strippers will not be appearing in Cle Elum. The concept does bring up some new ideas. How about family style bikini barista stands? They could employ nursing mothers. Maybe Cle Elum just isn’t ready for contemporary family style fun.