Dog Treats, Town Hall Meetings, and Off I Go
Last call for the dog treats I mentioned in this entry. I'm baking the final batch today and will be mailing out samples for taste-testing tomorrow. Everyone should get their box-o-treats mid next week. The initial testing with Ferguson went well, so I took a couple of the treats over to my parents' house. Their neighbor has three dogs, two of which have the run of the neighborhood. I gave Sunday and Oliver (the dogs) the treats, and they gobbled them up, though it was obvious they each had a different favorite.
Speaking of next week, I'll be going to my grandparents' vacation house on Sunday morning. I'm unsure when I'll be back, though I may stay up there for a full week. We'll see how things go. I'm going to bring a small library of books I want read. My grandmother's cousin's son (whom my grandmother raised as her own child for several years) said he may pop up there with his wife next weekend. There are three bedrooms in the house, so their visit will be a nice break in routine without putting me out of the sofa.
I plan on posting a video blog today or tomorrow, depending on when I can get it recorded.
Yesterday evening I went to a town hall meeting on a potential city-county government several of the lawmakers are proposing in the area I live. There are several small municipalities bordering Charleston as well as a wealth of unincorporated rural areas that they would like to eventually pull into the city. Charleston has a meager population of 50,000 and falling. The economy here is somewhat stifled and stagnate due to the declining population and restrictive laws regulating companies. They are in the midst of making some changes to those laws, but consolidating the city and county governments would cut back on operation costs for the government, as well as giving Charleston the ability to boast of a 200,000+ population. Because, to be truthful, there are 200,000 people here, but they are broken up into what I call neighborhoods. The people here call them towns. Go figure. I consider it all of Charleston, myself. At any rate, I live in an unincorporated, rural area. A state senator who is championing the bill to push for city-county government has been traveling to local communities and answering questions about the proposal. I knew very little about the local political climate here and virtually nothing about city-county government when I went. The meeting was very informative, and I thought he did a fantastic job of answering everyone's questions in a realistic and pragmatic way. And I think city-county government, if done carefully and well, could be a great boost to the local economy. If I'm going to live here for any length of time, then I would love to see the city grow and attract great companies. Unfortunately, I was the youngest person there by far. Everyone else in the room was 40+. Why is it that people in their 20s and 30s around here have absolutely no interest in politics or the economy?
Speaking of next week, I'll be going to my grandparents' vacation house on Sunday morning. I'm unsure when I'll be back, though I may stay up there for a full week. We'll see how things go. I'm going to bring a small library of books I want read. My grandmother's cousin's son (whom my grandmother raised as her own child for several years) said he may pop up there with his wife next weekend. There are three bedrooms in the house, so their visit will be a nice break in routine without putting me out of the sofa.
I plan on posting a video blog today or tomorrow, depending on when I can get it recorded.
Yesterday evening I went to a town hall meeting on a potential city-county government several of the lawmakers are proposing in the area I live. There are several small municipalities bordering Charleston as well as a wealth of unincorporated rural areas that they would like to eventually pull into the city. Charleston has a meager population of 50,000 and falling. The economy here is somewhat stifled and stagnate due to the declining population and restrictive laws regulating companies. They are in the midst of making some changes to those laws, but consolidating the city and county governments would cut back on operation costs for the government, as well as giving Charleston the ability to boast of a 200,000+ population. Because, to be truthful, there are 200,000 people here, but they are broken up into what I call neighborhoods. The people here call them towns. Go figure. I consider it all of Charleston, myself. At any rate, I live in an unincorporated, rural area. A state senator who is championing the bill to push for city-county government has been traveling to local communities and answering questions about the proposal. I knew very little about the local political climate here and virtually nothing about city-county government when I went. The meeting was very informative, and I thought he did a fantastic job of answering everyone's questions in a realistic and pragmatic way. And I think city-county government, if done carefully and well, could be a great boost to the local economy. If I'm going to live here for any length of time, then I would love to see the city grow and attract great companies. Unfortunately, I was the youngest person there by far. Everyone else in the room was 40+. Why is it that people in their 20s and 30s around here have absolutely no interest in politics or the economy?