April 7, 1992

During the morning, I can avoid thinking about the election because of the need to focus on my ETN presentation, which goes well.  Like the Nuts and Bolts program, I feel as though I have skimped on the preparation time, but my delivery is smooth and confident for the most part.  Amazingly, about halfway through the program, I have to put a lid on the discussion so I can get to the heart of my notes.

After driving home, I find that I have no appetite for lunch.  I take a container of yogurt out of the refrigerator and methodically spoon out the contents.  The afternoon at the library is fairly unfocused.  I leave at 4 to pick up both boys at daycare.  We eat out at McDonald's -- yesterday it was Burger King -- where I chow down three chicken fajitas, a fast-foot entree I actually find myself salivating over.  I'm actually feeling less stressed out, even a bit more confident about JoAnna's chance.  I endure a rather comical Common Council meeting, but considering these are the folks that will be voting on the library budget later in the year, it's a frightening display of pigheadedness and ignorance.  Before the meeting, Bruce Kaufmann addresses Don in such as way as to suggest that Don has the election in the bag.  I remain poker-faced but am chuckling on the inside.

The results are a long time comin'.  Yesterday Tim said he'd have all the totals tabulated by 9:15, 9:30 at the latest.  Guess again.  Considering the speed with which he gets the checks mailed out, I certainly should have known better.  Still hoping for speedy returns, I wait with Jim Wexler and Mike Duren in the administrative office.  Who should join us but Don and his wife, who seems a real friendly sort but studiously avoids eye contact with me.  Once they learn about the delay, they decide to wait things out at the Village Green.  I decide to join the party -- in progress at home, the tension mounting each time the phone rings -- and it rings, chirps, actually, every five minutes. Around 11, Jim calls with the news that JoAnna has won, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th districts he clarifies after JoAnna hands me the phone.  But the 5th is Don's district  so we are heartened.  Fifteen minutes later, Jim calls to ask to speak to the new supervisor from the 26th district.  I relay the news to JoAnna across the living room and a joyous communal cheer raises the roof. JoAnna takes the phone and I give her the hug of a lifetime and feel the pleasant sensation of my eyes welling up with tears of joy.  It's a feeling that rivals the birth of a child.  I'm so proud and elated that I hug everyone in sight.  It's especially nice to have JoAnna's parents with us to share this fantastic moment.  For them it will be a memory of a special time that ranks with the best.  It will certainly be for me.

April 5, 1992

Russ Feingold is on JoAnna's side

If there's one image I'll retain from this day, it's JoAnna looking helpless and crying as the impact of Damon's latest lit drop hits her in the face.  I'm not as supportive as I should be, but maybe that's just as well.  I give her the time and space she needs to formulate a comeback.  And after Jim Wexler and I revise her first draft, we have a solid response.  Don's biggest mistake is not being secretive enough.  If he wants to have the last word, he needs to be sneakier.

The boys and I spend most of the day outside.  I manage to get some yard work done even though Andy has nothing on his mind but playing baseball.  We spend at least half the day outdoors.

Tuesday, February 18, 1992

Tuesdays @ 8:00 p.m.  We occasionally tuned in.



At least I didn't pass out last night before JoAnna returned home, but I am dead to the world once I fall asleep.  Eddie wakes up squalling around midnight, and I don't respond to JoAnna's rousings.  She's up with him for nearly two hours.  Then around 4, I feel a rumbling in my bowels that demands my attention.  For the next 2 hours, I made 5 trips to the bathroom.  Each time the diarrhea gushes out of my system.  At 7, when I should be getting ready for work, I feel too tired and weak and disoriented to proceed with the day as planned.  I call Jane Robbins and cancel our 8:15 meeting and then sleep fitfully until 10:45.  I consider blowing off the entire day but decide that being active will be the best antidote for my minor physical ailment.

After a trip to the post office, I arrive at the library at quarter to 1.  During the nearly two hours that I'm there, I'm actually quite productive.  At 2:30 I leave to pick Eddie up at daycare.  JoAnna and I think he might have another ear infection, but after a 45-minute wait to see Dr. Ellis, that turns out not to be the case.

I do go back to the library but not until 6:30.  A slow evening is interrupted by a very brief council meeting.  Sandy Allen calls on me to report on how the board responded to a complaint from one of Jim Wexler's constituents.  Then Don Damon volunteers to raise the money through the service clubs after I give him the price info.

November 11, 1991

I have no idea what to include in this week's newspaper column.  What better week for the WLA brochure on the service and economic impacts of libraries to appear.  Getting a head start on my goals and objectives for 1992, I draft some copy for an annual report.  I manage to avoid the notes for next March's building workshop.

During the evening, JoAnna meets with her campaign manager to discuss a timetable and strategy.  Except when it's necessary to take care of the boys, I'm part of the discussion.  Jim Wexler reports that Don Damon is planning to run.  The boys and I will be spending a lot of time together during the next six months.

May 7, 1991

I think I'm going to get some work done before the Advisory Committee meeting, but JoAnna calls to inform me she forgot her purpose and -- naturally, there's a second part -- to ask if I'll drop it off at the office.  So I make a big loop through Madison on my way to Lodi.  The meeting is eventful.  I return to Middleton just in time for the volunteer luncheon.  When asked, I deliver some off-the-cuffs remarks about the first year in the library that are smoothly delivered and apparently well-received.  During the afternoon, I drop off my 50-page syllabus to Kathleen Weibel's office, stopping at Prangeway on the way back to Middleton to look for specific songs from 1969 for my latest taping project.  The evening is middling.  I talk with Jim Wexler after the council meeting.  The parking lot change order was approved -- that's the good news -- but the bad blood between Julia and the "chamber" wing of the Council could place the library in a precarious position at budget time.