The Curmudgeon Lasts a Month

Who knew I could come up with enough material to last a month blogging, especially with an emphasis on life in Owensboro. With no real promotion, I think I've gotten quite a few eyeballs to my site and I think those numbers are going to grow. I'm a bit of an internet geek and I think it is interesting to watch a site grow organically as this one has. Heck, I guess you could call this site eco-friendly, I've used no artificial fertilizers to grow its popularity, just a ton of bull*$%!. The blog is a bit wormy though!

Bear with me now, I know this blogging about blogging can be a little inane. I must say I have been not-wanting for material to write about, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't have enough good subjects to write about but I am happy with the quality of crap I've put out (this post being the exception).

I think I'll add a little bit more bluegrass to the mixture, I'm quite a fan of the stuff, but I warn you, my tastes can be a bit eccentric.

It has been quite a month for me, almost half of it I wasn't with real power and the town was torn all to pieces from the big ice storm. Maybe it was a sign from above of disapproval of this blog. If it was, it was a pretty big sign. I hope I haven't made the Big Guy upstairs that mad. I paid a visit to another country (the Bahamas), thats something that I don't do often. All-in-all, it was quite a unique month. I'll take the trip outside the country, that was quite refreshing, but I can do without another one of those friggin' ice storms, heck, I think now I could stand a couple feet of snow as long as that ice stays way far away from here.

Alright, enough with the self-promotion, back to being a crusty old curmudgeon. Shout out your thoughts or ideas from the peanut gallery (comments section), I'm a bit deaf but maybe I'll hear them, I won't guarantee I'll listen to them though.

Some quick rants

GM's balance sheet now stands at -60 billion and they want another 16 billion from the Government. At what point do you throw in the towel? I love a good GMC pickup truck but when do you quit? And how the heck does the CEO still have his job?

The local Toyotetsu factory laid off a quarter of their workforce. 175 workers were laid off. So far I think Owensboro has been pretty recession proof, but the loss of jobs are starting to mount. Our dependence on low-paying manufacturing jobs are going to start biting us in the you-know-what.

The Owensboro Airport board has hired a new director, the old one hasn't resigned yet though. . .huh. . .

eh. . .thats all I got. . .I've had a few other things preoccupying my thoughts. . .maybe some more on that later. . .lets just say that sometimes living in Owensboro can sometimes be personally frustrating for me. . .

I rant and rave on this blog about the shortcomings (and sometimes good things) about this fair city and have a little fun with it. I think everyone likes to put down their hometown. Sometimes though, the shortcomings of opportunities in this city can be really frustrating and I don't know if I have the patience or willingness to personally sacrifice certain things just to live in my hometown with friends and family. I've lived in other parts of this country and have seen what opportunities there are out in this here big ole' world of ours. Sometimes, wants for those opportunties put up a big fight against my satisfaction of living back home. We will see who wins this fight.

Chinese bluegrass

I don't care where the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) calls their home, right now it is the home of country music, Nashville trashville, the heart of bluegrass music is still located in Rosine Kentucky, the home of Bill Monroe. Now Rosine is right down the road from Owensboro and therefore, this region is the TRUE HOME OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC.

I won't go into the fact that I think the bluegrass community must embrace the newer bluegrass bands such as the Yonder Mountain String Band, I may save that for a later post. All I want to say here is that you've got to like what these guys are doing and give a BIG YEE-HAW out to Mei Han's Red Chamber.

Now that's Owensboro

After putting together tomorrow's post, I kind of came across a neat little epiphany.

Here's the backstory:

With the recent news that Owensboro can't come up with a new "Brand", I've been trying to help them out with a few suggestions.

1) Visit Owensboro, Future Ghost Town!
2) Owensboro! You Can't Get Here from There


Now here's one that dag-nabbit, actually makes a little sense:
(once again, feel free to use at no cost to the taxpayer)

Bluegrass, Burgoo, and Biotech - Now that's Owensboro!

We all know that the true home of Bluegrass is the 'boro. It's also the only place to get real Burgoo. And hey, we want to be a biotech hub so there you have it. We don't need no big-city marketers to tell us who we are.

Update - why this is on my brain at midnight I don't know but I came up with a whole slew of ideas on the theme of "Now that's Owensboro!"

So
1) Great schools, Great living, Great times - Now that's Owensboro!
I've lost the alliteration on the following but they work
How about tailoring it for some Nascar notables
2) Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Green, Jeremy Mayfield - Now that's Owensboro!
Maybe a little local flair
3) "It's Hot Don!" - Now that's Owensboro
An economic push - a little gangly but it may work
4) Emerging Ventures, Life Science Partnership, Greater Owensboro Venture Club - Now that's Owensboro!
A barbecue flair
5) Moonlite, Old Hickory, Bar-B-Que Festival - Now that's Owensboro!
Local trivia
6) World's Largest Sassafras Tree - Now that's Owensboro!

Of course the curmudgeon's take
7) Empty hotels, low-paying jobs, aging population - Now that's Owensboro!

I think you can get where I'm going with this. Ideas, comments, concerns or complaints are all welcome in the peanut gallery (comments section)

A Failed Business Model: The Messenger-Inquirer

A warning - this is going to be a pretty blunt post, sorry if I step on some toes but that is just how it is going to be, and a disclaimer - I have no professional experience with journalism or advertising (as is probably already evident), therefore, you should not pay attention to anything I say below, I am just a regular joe with an opinion and an outlet.

Way back when. . .I spent some time living outside of Owensboro. . .way outside. Feeling a little homesick, I could always go to the Messenger-Inquirer's website and catch up on the local news. Heck, I could even get tomorrow's news if you visited the site the evening before. When it was time to move home, the first place I looked for apartments was the online classified section (this was way back when craigslist.com was just a California thing).

Then, the Paxton Media group bought the paper from the Dallas Morning News. After this, a paper subscription or online subscription was required to view stories on the paper's website - on this I call B.S. Now to be fair to the paper, the classifieds and the obituaries section is still available without a subscription.

Let's be frank, the traditional newspaper industry is dead. In our region, the traditional paper has a little more life because of the number of computer illiterate and older population that is unfamiliar with the new information age. In order for a newspapers to survive, they must transform themselves into a media outlet who's main reach to the population is through the internet. It seems that almost all the other newspapers in this region and Kentucky have grasped that concept and have moved to free-access over the web. If not free, then all that is needed is to hand over an e-mail address (which can then be unscrupulously sold off and I'm cool with that). For a list of those papers, just check the sidebar on this blog.

From my understanding, a paper makes its money from advertising. Don't you think that driving more eyeballs to your website by offering free QUALITY content would drive more people to your advertisers? If you guys can't learn how to make money off of online ads, then I suggest you find someone that can.

During the ice storm, complaints for news from outside the area was heard and the M&I opened their site for a couple of weeks, but now that the storm is over, apparently once again, no one outside this area is interested in our little community. If I was still living outside this area, I would not pay for access, I'm sorry, but your product is not worth the price.

And talking about price. . .WHY THE HECK DOES IT COST $1.00 A DAY FOR ACCESS TO THE INTERNET VERSION WHEN IT COSTS $0.75 FOR THE PAPER VERSION. Really, everyone else thinks it is cheaper to transfer the news via all those little electrons streaming through the tubes, does the M&I know something everyone else doesn't? I guess discouraging access via the internet is a way to boost paper buy rates, but as a matter of principle, I for one, will not buy a paper if you the internet version is not free.

Owensboro wants to be a hub for high-technology businesses and wants to recruit young, talented people to the area. What do you think their first impression of this area is when the local two-bit newspaper demands payment for online access when the New York Times or the San Jose Mercury News doesn't? If one of the most visible businesses in Owensboro is clinging to a failing business model, what does this mean for the rest of the businesses in the area. I wonder if someone at the M&I has even heard of a Kindle?

I think the calls for the M&I to open up during the ice storm shows that there is a demand for local news from people outside this area, however, these people, like me, aren't going to pay a subscription fee for this information. If the M&I won't open up, I think there is an opportunity for someone else to move in and be the source of Owensboro News. For my money (or lack of use thereof), I think the best free-access Owensboro news comes from Stuart Peck and the Owensboro newsdesk at WFIE.com (a local TV station).

Don't worry though, the Curmudgeon will always be free (I'm not fooling myself, I know you wouldn't pay for this crap). Lord help us all if this site becomes a leader for online Owensboro news!

Update even before post is published - just saw that the M&I is maybe putting some fresh efforts into their website development. Mr. Shafa's health reporting has been respectable, let's see if he can make a difference in their web department.

"How are you today?"

So I drove up to my local Taco Bell drive-through the other day and was greeted with:

"How are you today?"
Now being the sociable southerner I am, I answered back with,
"Fine, thanks," and wait, and wait, and wait. . .
Two minutes later "you can go ahead with your order anytime you want."
Well, why didn't you tell me that earlier, were you just busy or was I supposed to start blurting out my order.
This isn't the first time I've encountered this phenomenon and most of the time when I get the "How are you today" I just start in with my order and usually get a "your order comes to $x.xx, please drive-through"

This totally goes against my southern morals. When someone greets me with a "How are you" I switch into friendly smalltalk mode. I think it is rude to just start in with my order, but it appears to me that is what I am supposed to do. So now, I'm thinking I'm the rude customer with no cares about you or your family or that your cousin Ed caught a 10-pound bass the other day.

If my boss came up to me and I greeted him with "How are you today", I wouldn't expect a reply of "I need these 2 TPS reports by noon", I would expect an "i'm fine thanks and how about you" and at least a little smalltalk before getting to the meat of the discussion.

When I go into a drive-through, just ask me what I want to order, don't try this friendly greeting crap, it really doesn't work. The person behind the register doesn't give a hoot about how my day has been and all I want is a burrito and a coke and to get on with the artery clogging.

Burgoo!

Ah. . .Burgoo. . .great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert!

OWB EDC offers up a challege

Two pro-Owensboro posts in a row, no I'm not running a fever or on the take.

The Owensboro Economic Development Council recently offered a $15,000 grant to the best business plan offered up in a challenge.

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be must submit an overview of their proposal for a their business by mid-march. Businesses must have the potential for $1 million in revenue and hiring at least five people. The top four proposals must then come up with a more detailed business plan to be judged in April. The winning proposal gets lots of love and consulting from the EDC, $15,000 in seed money and free rent for six months in their new business incubator. The catch - well, your business must be willing to set up shop in Owensboro.

Wow, I have to say this is a great idea. The $15,000 is just enough seed capital to support a business getting their legs under them. The space in the incubator is of no cost to the EDC, it is sitting empty right now anyway, and Madison Silvert and the crew running this show seems to have a good head about them so you'll probably get some top-notch advice. My only suggestion - this challenge should be repeated, perhaps quarterly.

This type of project is the type of small step needed to get some momentum going for the small business/entreprenual spirit in the city. Now, we just need to keep making those small steps, many, many, many more small steps. Let's face it, the winner of this challenge at best has a 33% chance of succeeding (I just came up with that number) so we need at least three of these challenges to have one successful business with at least 5 new jobs and revenues of $1 million.

To continue with the EDC love, I've got to say the blog is a great idea. Yeah I know, blogs are so 2005, but Owensboro still has a newspaper that requires payment to read online! (more on that later, heh) so to see an organization in Owensboro embracing technology is somewhat refreshing.

Lets keep making those small steps.

Bye-Bye Big E

Seems like the ole Owensboro Powers had a card they weren't showing when they decided to increase taxes on insurance premiums. Instead of using some of that cash for a new parking garage downtown, they are going to purchase the shuttered Executive Inn and tear it down.

So now I guess you are expecting a rant about how this is a bad idea, well maybe my vacation has softened me a bit but this may not be a bad idea.

In the last decade or so, the "Big E" has gone through a series of owners ranging from fronts for ponzi schemes to car-dealers turned Donald Trump wannabe. After the last foreclosure on the property this spring, it appears that the property's prospects had deteriorated to the point that another less-than-reputable owner couldn't be found. Even the bank that owned the property had given up trying to maintain the property (well, I don't think they tried to begin with). The city and county had put together an offer of (I think) around $6 million for the property this summer that was turned down so it looks like the city's wait-and-see approach has knocked a million or so off the pricetag.

Owensboro was faced with the reality of having a deteriorating chunk of bricks and concrete overlooking all that new development that's coming. My understanding is that the hotel was in such bad shape that it would have to come down. It does to show the sad state of the city's economic environment that what should be a prime piece of riverfront real-estate would not be enticing enough for some developer to come in and redevelop themselves. The property will honestly be worth more once the hotel is gone. I think the city is showing a little forethought that this property could be an eyesore for years to come and is being proactive about the situation. What I don't want to see is the city razing the hotel and then turning around and selling the land for less than purchase price a year from now - then you will see a real crazed curmudgeon rant.

The fact that the money for this purchase was somewhat underhandedly obtained makes me think the city leaders have more cards up their sleeves than they are showing on this downtown redevelopment project. Since I agree with this move, I won't say much about their underhanded actions, but lets try to keep all the cards on top of the table from now on.

You can't get there from here - first Allegiant flight out of Owensboro canceled

Ah. . .you just can't make this stuff up.

First let me give a little backstory:

The Owensboro airport is guaranteed commercial air service thanks to the Essential Air Services act.
In November of 2007, thanks to some extra cheese from our U.S. government, Fly- By-Night-Airlines I mean Big Lie Big Sky airlines re-initiated flights out of the Owensboro Airport after about a year of no service. A mere two months later and Big Sky was pulling out. Thankfully, our government expedited the search for another carrier and extended a contract to Fly-By-Night Airlines 2 Great Lakes Aviation. Great! Service is slated to start in June July August September October November December Febtober 3 March 2009!!!! Meanwhile, the x-ray machines and baggage carousels gathered dust.


Image credit: Dennis Sylvester Hurd
Obviously, these are not the first passengers of Allegiant Airlines from Owensboro

Enter Allegiant. While this service was not part of the government EAS contract, Allegiant decided to offer two JET flights a week out of OWB (take note, this was announced in November - four months ago). Heck, this is great news, Owensboro has never really had any REAL jet service, all those EAS flights used those 1930's era turbo-props - you know - the planes that even an Armenian airline would consider not fit for service. And the airport fit Allegiant's plan, flying into smaller airports willing to let them come in for next to nothing in service fees.

The fanfare on the local TV news was whipped to a frenzied pace. Why they even had to reorganize the inside of the terminal to fit all the people that were going to use the service.

Fast-forward (or just stay put) to today, February 18, the day that would rejuvenate air service to Owensboro: The flight was canceled at 2:30a.m. by the TSA. Yep, after four months of preparation, it seems the airport board and the TSA couldn't muster a team to knock the dust off those x-ray machines. Details are sketchy but it appears the TSA is pulling a fast one for additional money. Wait. . .we've had four months to iron this out! I'm really at a loss of words for this one. How. . .why. . .WTF. . .really. . .

Which brings up the point, when you are flying out of an airport with only two flights a week, your travel plans can really get screwed. Passengers today either had to re-book through Evansville, drive to Lexington for another Allegiant flight, or try to book a last minute seat on the Owensboro-Orlando stagecoach route from what I understand. I think alot of those people lining up for flights are going to have a reality check when they realize that an overzealous bureaucrat or a haywire warning light on a single plane can ruin their vacation. After this, I sure as heck ain't going to go near the OWB airport.

Yep, February 18 will be an historic day for our little airport - the day that commercial service officially ended. Yeah, the TSA may get things straightened out for Saturday's flight and we may have a few months of service, but the damage is done. The airport power's-that-be may as well start working on their next marketing strategy - targeting training flights from Fort Cambell for Moonlight Bar-B-Que take-out. Actually a few of them may need to brush up on the phrase "You want fries with that?"

Of course, this brings up a great new slogan/marketing strategy for Owensboro: Owensboro! You Can't Get Here From There

By the way, I hope you'll note that most of the story links for this post was from wfie.com, the local NBC TV Station. In my opinion, they've got the best accessible reporting for Owensboro, but more on that later. . .


UPDATE 2/20/09-Allegiant's first flight out of Owensboro was rescheduled for Thursday morning and went off without a hitch. The curmudgeon still stands by its opinion that this screw-up still cost the airport a large amount of its what little reputation it had.

UPDATE 2 -2/20/09 - Seems like the airport's manager is no longer employed. I also heard that the airport is now charging $5 a day for parking (it used to be free). Any confirmation? If so, I would chalk that up under major blunder also.

I'm back, powered up, and Curmudgeonly as ever

Yep, I am back vacation with a nice suntan sunburn.

While I was gone, Kenergy was able to restore full power to my house. I was officially without full power for 14 days after the Great Ice Storm of '09.

Now back to it. . .

Doesn't this just make you want to see a game



This was a brawl at a recent Evansville Icemen game. I haven't been yet but after seeing this, I'm planning on it. Hey Owensboro, with that new ice rink, you think we could get a team?

By the way, I first came across this video on The Lighter Side.

Owensboro puts rebranding on hold, can't think of anything good to say

Well, they always say if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything. Maybe thats a stretch for this situation, but according to this report, the city of Owensboro has gone back to the drawing table for a new catchy slogan after their three suggestions were all put down by the community.

I'll tell you what Owensboro - instead of spending the $50,000 to let a professional come up with a slogan - I'll do it for $25,000. . .ah heck, I've got so much pride in my hometown I'll do it for free.

The good thing about my branding strategy is that you guys won't have to change a thing about your strategy for the city to fit with the brand. Why this slogan has a tourism aspect in it and really tells the world where Owensboro is heading. Are you ready for it. . .

Visit Owensboro. . .Future Ghost Town!!!


P.S. I guess i cant take full credit for this slogan, I did hear it from someone else. If you can prove you came up with it. . .why I'll split all the profits we make from selling it to the city.

Getting out of town

getting ready for my trip to the Bahamas has taken a little longer than expected so the posts no real posts today. I have a few scheduled for next week though.

Still don't have full power. I'm just shutting the house down and leaving, its not supposed to drop below freezing all of next week so I should be good.

Owensboro Downtown Master Plan - Part two

While well over half of Daviess county and Owensboro sat without electricity, the most important issue for a combined City and County government meeting last night was to raise the taxes levied on my (and everyone elses) insurance policies by 4%, excluding crop and health insurance. Surely this new tax revenue will be utilized for a sound investment in the city, maybe infrastructure upgrades????. . .well. . .ehh. . .sorry. . .no.

This new tax revenue will be used to float a roughly 80 million dollar bond that will be invested in the downtown master plan. Surely there is a pool investors setting on the sidelines just waiting for a commitment from Owensboro before breaking out the shovels and starting the redevelopment of downtown. . . .well. . .no. . .but 27 other cities that have done this same thing have seen dumptruck-loads of money just pouring in.

Man, for the elected officials of a small city like Owensboro to make such a commitment, they must be looking at one heck of a rock-solid redevelopment plan. . .well. . .no. . .just a couple of pretty pictures put together by the Gateway Planning Group, a private developer.

So, you just doubled the amount of taxes you levy on me for protecting my house and my car in case of disaster so that you could dump $80 million into a project put together by a private developer which is only a couple of pretty pictures, probably to risky for investment from a banking institution, with no commitments from any other outside investors?

OK, so if this were Bowling Green, KY, a growing city with a young population and a vibrant economy . . .a city the same size as Owensboro that is kicking its rear-end in every way, I would have no problems with such a proposal. But this build-it-and-they-will-come thing only works for baseball fields in the middle of a corn field in Iowa or somewhere. In my opinion, the city leaders have not proven themselves capable of handling a project of this scope successfully.

The city wants to attract young successful people with families back to the area, so the next time you see a young successful person with a family (either here in Owensboro or out of town), ask them if they want to live in a fourth floor apartment above a bar in downtown Owensboro. I like to think of myself as young and successful and while the thought of living over a bar at first seems like a great idea, on second thought, I like the quite solitude and hangover-free Mondays that the county provides (that doesn't make me un-successful does it?)

Yeah on paper this type of project looks good and will attract the more successful hi-techy type, but I don't think jumping in feet first to a project like this is the way to go about it.

Just wait until the city starts using eminent domain to seize downtown properties just to hand it over to private developers to fulfill this plan.

More to come. . .

The Great Ice Storm of 09 - Day 7 1/2

Hang on to you hats folks and bundle up, its going to be a cold one! We are looking at lows in the lower teens tonight and another full day tomorrow below freezing. The power situation for me is the same (half the house with power, no furnace). While the house was at a toasty 66 last night, I'm fighting to keep it above 60 tonight. To be honest, 60 is not bad (I'm in a t-shirt) and I could live with this situation for a while but I hope it is warm enough to my waterlines under the house from freezing (yep, I've got several faucets dripping).

The local shelters are expecting more people tonight as the lingering cold weather is pushing more people out of their homes.

The temperature today stayed in the teens and a cold wind decided to blow through the region, keeping the wind chill close to 0 and shaking loose some of those loose branches still remaining in the trees. Once again, falling branches apparently have an affinity for power lines, causing a fresh batch of consternation to the crews still trying to clean up from last week.

Kenergy (the electrical company serving most of the counties in this region) started with 42,000 accounts without power, now the number stands at 22,000. So, after nearly a week of work, half of the people who lost power still don't have it back. OMU (Owensboro's electric company) has power to 60% of the residents. Statewide, over 200,000 still don't have power. The CEO of Kenergy is stating that out-of-town lineman that also worked on the Katrina disaster believe the destruction here is about the same.

Apparently Owensboro and Daviess County can consider themselves lucky. 90% of Webster county is still without power and other communities aren't even that lucky.

I noticed several people at the gas stations filling up their gas cans so their are still plenty of generators out their cranking away.

I myself put in a full day of work today. I started to notice yesterday that most people at work and about town seem tired, some people including myself are on edge (I won't be at ease until I have full power back). I was making smalltalk to the Fedex guy today and asked him how cold it was outside . . ."it's cold. . .I need to be wearing more layers. . .I'm living out of a suitcase and it doesn't have enough layers for today." Now Fedex guys are used to working hard in the cold, but you could tell this guy was tired.

In what has turned out to be a stroke of luck for me, I have a vacation planned starting Saturday. I am heading south (Bahamas) and staying there for a week. . .if I can just make it till then. I'll try to soak up some extra sun for my friends I'm leaving behind.

Once again, I am extremely lucky to have what I have.

Great Ice Storm of 09 - FEMA's response in the Blogosphere

Look's like FEMA and the president are getting quite a negative response in the blogosphere for their response to the Ice Storm. A word of caution about the blogosphere - 1) it tends to run towards the negative side of things, 2) Politics (aka a democratic president's response to an emergency vs. a republican's response) can turn any subject into a simmering pot of you-know-what.

• You Should Have Gone To Kentucky, Mr. President
  
• Why Isn’t Anybody Concerned About Kentucky?
  
• Kentucky Fried FEMA
  
• where’s the outrage?
  
• Does President Obama care about Kentucky?
  
• KY citizens still suffering effects of last week’s ice storms - no outcry about FEMA’s lack of response.
  
• Is the Ice Storm President Obama’s Hurricane Katrina?
  
• UPDATE: 24 Dead and Obama Still Hasn't Arrived
  
• Where’s FEMA?
  
• AP sanitizes FEMA from Ice Storm report
  

The Great Ice Storm of 09 - Day 6 1/2

Not much new today, it was back to work for me. I'm thinking my power problems are going to take a while to fix, since Kenergy has to get involved. The next two days are supposed to stay below freezing with a few warmer days coming after that.

No lines this evening at the local gas station for propane or gasoline, I guess everyone is all gassed-up.

It looks like statewide at least 24 people have died due to the storm, 10 from carbon monoxide, and at least 9 from hypothermia.

The report card for FEMA's response is still out for review. FEMA says that responded quickly once the governor requested assistance, which was Thursday, two days AFTER the storm hit. The director of emergency management in Hopkins county has still had little to no communication with FEMA. It was only on Saturday that the governor mobilized all of the Kentucky National Guard. It's looking more and more like our governor has been caught asleep in his warm, well-lit govern's mansion.

Finally - some pictures of National Guard troops doing something. Supplies started being distributed in Owensboro Sunday.

The Great Ice Storm of 09 - Day 5 1/2

I've got power! Well sort of. . . My area was put back on the grid this morning. However, the line leading to my house was hit by a falling limb and is partially down. The force of the blow did some damage to the weatherhead leading to the meter of my house and apparently pulled a wire loose. I think I have two of the three phase lines connected to my house which means half my house has power. Unfortunately the half that doesn't is the part that powers my furnace. I can run electric heaters now so the propane burners have been turned off (its up to a toasty 66F in the house). Tonight i'll get to sleep in my own bed and be able to stretch out. The couch I was sleeping on was kind of cramped. Tomorrow starts the quest to get my weatherhead/meter fixed. I'm sure Kenergy (the electric company) will have to be involved so it may be a while. Then it will be time to tackle all the downed limbs.

It really appears like the utility companies are starting to make major headway, large chunks of the grid have lit up over the past 36 hours. OMU (the city) appears to be making more progress than Kenergy (the county), but I imagine their grid was not as expansive and susceptible to tree damage. I believe most of the city will try to get back to normal operations tomorrow. The city school system is planning on opening up Tuesday, I don't know about the county schools, I would imagine they will be closed until next week at least. The outlying counties are also starting to get some of their basic institutions, hospitals, gas stations, grocery stores, etc. . . on line. In Muhlenberg county, they were not expecting to have any power for another three weeks or so but they figured a way to reroute some power and some of their vital infrastructure is also getting power. I believe that the utilities have knocked out the easy problems now and are going to be starting on some of the more complicated areas.

Cell phone service has been working reliably since saturday, it also appears like the phone system is working pretty well. I don't know or care about the cable tv system.

There have been a few, not too many, house fires, possibly due to failure of temporary heating, one person that I know personally has lost everything but the clothes on their back and their vehicle. There have also been some cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, but I haven't heard of any deaths yet. . .

Now to curmudge - One of my friends had a superbowl party tonight thanks to a generator, a big screen TV, and satellite television. They live in a more remote area of the county. As a was driving to their house, I did have to drive over four or five sets of downed lines. Multiple rows, think five to ten in a row, of powerpoles in that area had been splintered to toothpicks. As I looked over theses poles on my drive, I noticed they were all older poles. The poles in my area of the county were all relatively new, as a matter of fact all the poles towards town are relatively new and none of them were downed. As a matter of fact, most of the poles that I have witnessed down looked to be older poles. This brings me to the belief that, when all this is over, their should at least be an investigation as to whether or not Kenergy (and OMU, and the other utility companies affected) have been properly maintaining their infrastructure. Of course, most of this older infrastructure is probably now being upgraded, although it is a little too late. I'm not trying to fault the utility companies for these massive problems, but I think a rigorous review of the situation should be undertaken to determine whether or not this situation could have been prevented. If it could, then heads should roll. With that said, I must say that the utility companies, given the current situation, have been doing a phenomenal job, I can't imagine tackling the task they have on hand now. With all this economic stimulus money floating around, I think the least the federal government could do, given the fact that they seem to have done little to nothing during the first parts of this disaster, could feed a little of that money into utility infrastructure upgrades for Kentucky.

Thats all for now, going to work for a bit tomorrow, probably going to take some vacation for some of this week just to get the home situation better stabilized. All-in-all I've gone almost five days without true heat or power but haven't missed a hot shower or meal yet so I consider myself extremely lucky.