a blog

I wasn't going to blog today but then the jobs report came in and WOW!  It was not the CURRENT jobs report that is amazing but it's the revision of the previous jobs reports which has been revised MUCH higher.   damn you obama!!

Unemployment plunged to 5.6% and previous jobs added an extra 30,000 to an already amazing total. The only downer is that hourly wage fell. The American economy is on fire. I wonder when Wisconsin will start to get better . . . .maybe in 4 years? 

As for Columbus.  We shall see if we actually get the 16/60 reconstruction perhaps next week.  With the Dept of Transportation hundreds of millions in the red some projects will be cut as Wisconsin is in a deep deep deep hole financially!  It's a classic guns and butter scenario, give property tax help to the citizens or give money to road projects.  

The citizens voted to abandon roads so they can get property taxes lower - BUT they still complain about roads.  Can't have both. We will see in Walkers  State of the State address. 

DJ works at the DOC and they now have a mandatory 45 hour work week because they are in dept so far they cannot hire more people. 

One thing I know is that I thought the Columbus budget process was complete debacle with numbers changing daily and at one point we were talked into spending $100,000 to help property tax this year so we could save $75,000 next year (or something like that).  I know I learned a lot and at least next year I will know what I don't know (if that makes sense) and will ask a lot more questions. 

In yet more news, Water and Light has been looking into Water Plant #1

and what to do with it.  10 years ago a study said the plant was in it's last years of life and here we are 10 years later.  Do we spend a LOT of money to fix it up?  Do we build a new plant?  We have a lot of good water in Columbus with great redundancy.  If one plant goes off line we are fine . . . . . unless there is a large fire.  IF both go off line we have about a day of water.  

BUT - we have redundancy so no fear.   My question is always - do we need to soften water?  This is why our water is expensive - it's pre softened.  Do people want this? 

If we built a new plant, should we soften the water? 

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A few day ago I was turned onto what is called the best board game on the planet Twilight Struggle which is now on it's way to my house. I read many many reviews and they are all out of this worlf glowing. 

But the WORST game in history according to Boardgamegeek.com how has tens of thousands of ratings?    tic-tac-to  WORST GAME IN HISTORY! The hall of shame also includes War (the card game), tic-tac-toe, Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, The Game of Life and Monopoly.

LUCKILY Columbus's very own game Crombolaya is not on that list. You can read more about Crombolaya in This State Journal Article. The world championship was played this year in Columbus.

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nuff said