On This Date in 1998

JoAnna went to bed at 7 o’clock this evening, a much-deserved early-to-bed time for her. When I returned home from a city finance committee meeting at 6:30, she was swaddled in a blanket, sacked out on the family room couch, not at all in tune with her surroundings. The TV was on for background noise, not for watching. She was out until 4 this morning, celebrating the Democrats’ good fortune and ending up at the Marriott Hotel for Russ Feingold’s acceptance speech at 1:45 a.m. Later Russ treated a small group of his supporters to breakfast at Denny’s.

I stayed up until 12:30 watching the election returns, getting a little nervous as Neumann started slicing away at Feingold’s early lead. Fortunately, all the money that the Republican National Committee poured into Wisconsin was not enough to buy a seat in the Senate – or in the House, for that matter. We were getting flyers in the mail on an almost daily basis on the “issue” of term limits, praising Jo Musser for her stand and exhorting the addressee to call Tammy Baldwin and tell her blah blah blah. I wish now I had saved one of these flyers, because I feel like writing some unknown and certainly disappointed folks a thank-you note – for all the money they wasted, for all the people they got fire dup to go to the polls to vote for the better candidate.

JoAnna went 3 for 3, the Senate Dems taking all three open seats. Jon Erpenbach here, Judy Robson in the Beloit area, and Jim Baumgart in your neck of the woods. The Assembly Dems actually lost 2 seats, thanks to an unfocused, late starting effort by their caucus staff. What a difference it makes when you have some vision and talent and spunk in the caucus director’s chair.

I watched Nightline last night. Ted Koppel’s guests included Orrin Hatch, Barney Frank, and Dick Armey. Hatch was actually somewhat complimentary of the Democrat’s efforts. He talked about the Republicans need to move on and pointed to the Bush brothers successful efforts in reaching out to women and minorities in their campaigns as a future model. Frank didn’t have much to rebut, but he did point out the growing schism within the ranks of the G.O.P. Armey’s appearance provided the perfect illustration of what Frank was describing. Armey acted as though the election had never happened. He said something to the effect, “We just have to hold our noses and proceed with the impeachment proceedings.” He rambled, he made outrageous claims, he contradicted himself, he irgnored Koppel’s efforts to get him focused on the election results. He got himself all worked up, on the verge of a Texas-sized hissy fit. At that moment, he became the ideal poster boy for everything that is wrong with the Republican party, its dishonesty, deceptiveness, and demagoguery. He was petulantly unrepentant for all of the Republican’s recent excesses. He obviously wants Clinton’s ass on a platter, and he wants it now. An earlier commentator on Nightline, a current or former White House staffer whose name I can’t recall, suggested that the Republicans might want to consider a change in leadership. After viewing Armey’s pathetic performance, which had me chuckling smugly from start to finish, I can see his point. What makes people so crabby and vindictive?

At today’s meeting, the finance committee approved a preliminary budget for 1999, which includes the library’s request for Sunday hours. The final hurdle will be a public hearing and council vote on the first Tuesday in December, a pro forma matter. Nobody appeared at least year’s budget hearing, (the only people in the audience were the city department heads), and this year no council member has expressed any reservation about the cost of opening the library on Sunday. We’ll probably be able to initiate this service on March 7. We’ll need the first two months of the year to hire additional staff and reconfigure our work space. I’ll be moving into what is now the conference room. Two other staff members will then share my current office, a move that will free up some much needed space in our staff workroom.

I had to miss Eddie’s teacher conference as a result of my meeting today. Since she wasn’t in a very communicative mood when I returned home, JoAnna gave me only the briefest of reports. I did learn, to my great pleasure, that Eddie has made great strides in the development of his learning and social skills since the beginning of the school year. This positive result is a combination of his special education reading classes, parents who work very closely with him on h is homework assignments every night, and the medication he’s been taking for the past six weeks. Eddie’s reading comprehension improves a little bit each week. What’s even more satisfying is his increased ability to deal with the occasional frustrations that occur when he encounters an unfamiliar or difficult word. This week, for example, I’ve noticed he has a lot of trouble with words that begin with “th”. This. That. There. Think. Thing. Every time he comes across these words, he has to stop and use a “pounding” technique he learned at school to sound out the words. I need to ask his reading teacher why that is. I would think they’d be part of his sight vocabulary by now. At least he doesn’t shut down and give up like he used to do.

I just checked on the boys, 15 minutes before their usual 9 o’clock bedtime. Andy was already asleep, his room dark but his portable stereo groovin’ to the sounds of the Will Smith CD I bought him a couple weeks ago. (He likes falling asleep while listening to music.) Eddie wanted me to tuck him in and turn off his light. I didn’t even have to tell him, “Time for bed.”

I’m looking forward to the remainder of the year. There’s going to be more time for family activities.

On This Date in 1998

Our fundraiser for Jon Erpenbach turned out to be a big success. It was scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 Friday evening. By six o’clock the house was packed. The block between Hubbard and South Avenue was solidly lined with cars on both sides. We were lucky that summer weather has continued through late September. In order to conserve space for mingling inside our house, we placed the sign-up table in the driveway, an area where half our guests ended up congregating after Jon and others addressed the crowd. Our guest of honor was Senator Herb Kohl, who is also the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. He was introduced by County Executive Kathleen Falk, whose campaign committee JoAnna served on. Also making an appearance was Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic candidate for the 2nd congressional district in Wisconsin. Jon’s sister, Mary, is Russ Feingold’s wife, so actually both U.S. Senators were represented. The event raised more than $3,000 for Jon’s State Senate campaign.

Both boys had activities Friday evening, so I was in and out of the house. I dropped Eddie off at his soccer practice at 5:30 and picked him up an hour later. Andy returned home from football practice at 6:15, and I dropped him off at the high school football field at 6:45. The Middleton and Cross Plains youth football teams were being introduced before the start of the high school game. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back in time for the pre-game ceremonies.

Andy and I stayed to watch the game, which was halted before two minutes had run off the clock – right after Middleton scored a touchdown. There was a lot of lightning in the southwestern part of the sky, and the officials didn’t want to take any chances. At the time, it was hard to tell if it was coming our way or not. After a half hour of waiting – and watching the lightning move off to the east – play was resumed. As they did the previous week, Middleton scored seemingly at will against a weak opponent, Madison East High, in this case. As the second quarter ended, the score was a lopsided 41-6. The lightning has also started to return, faintly visible in the east, at first, and the moving along in an arc to the north. The sound of thunder became more frequent and immediate. A very light rain started to fall as the clock counted down to 0:00. We wouldn’t have seen a second half even if we had decided to stay.

I had told Andy that we were leaving at half-time, a decision that he did not like. Fortunately, the other football parents I was sitting with in the bleachers had the same idea. Before we left, though, Andy said he had to “do something”. I watched him walk to the other end of the bleachers and wondered if he was going to try to pull a disappearing act. So I followed his trail. When I caught up with him, he was talking to a girl who is in his class at Elm Lawn. Her name is Kira.

Andy played football at 10:30 Saturday morning against a team from Stoughton. From a distance, they seemed to be evenly matched, but once again the Orioles’ (Andy’s team) offensive line could not open any holes for the runners. I think they managed only 2 first downs the entire game. They lost 13-0.

We listened to the Badger game on the way back to Middleton and then tuned it in on TV once we got home. As far as the sportswriters and fans were concerned, it was the team’s first big test of the year, a Big Ten season opener against Northwestern. Wisconsin took control of the game from the start, which made for uninteresting viewing. I had chores to do anyway. I cleaned the window s—inside and out – in the ”master” bedroom and then mowed the front yard. JoAnna did a lit drop with Jon, and the boys mostly hung out at home, although Meaghan did drop by during the middle of the afternoon. It was a warm, muggy day, just downright uncomfortable for this time of year, so I kept my chores to a minimum. Shortly after 5:00, Eddie convinced me to take him to Elm Lawn so we could fly a kite, a cheap plastic model that I bought last spring and had been collecting dust in the garage all summer. We had it up in the aira for more than 20 minutes. 


JoAnna and I went out on a “date” Saturday evening, Andy given the responsibility of being in charge while we were gone. We saw the movie, There’s Something About Mary, which has been the big surprise hit of the summer. Although we did notice a few 10 year olds in the audience, it’s a movie that I’d never take Andy to see. It’s hysterically funny – I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard – but rather crude and, at time, profane. The humor is inappropriate for pre-teens. It’s also not for adults who are easily offended. I’m sure the religious right considers it just another example of what’s wrong with Hollywood. There are no “family values” to be found here. The filmmakers obviously had their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks while making this movie. Nothing is taken seriously. It’s comedy that pushes the adjective “off-the-wall” to new heights.

I was up at 6 o’clock this morning, eager to attack a list of chores that I didn’t want to have spill over into the afternoon. But first I did 20 minutes of Walkfit and fixed a batch of blueberry muffins, from a box, for the family. Andy was up by ten of 7 and immediately parked his butt on the family room couch to watch TV. Eddie made an appearance a half hour later. By 8:30 JoAnna had hardly stirred. Once she got up, shortly before 9:00, she complained about not feeling well and went right back to bed.

So what chores did I tackle on Sunday? More window cleaning. Washing the mildew off the side of the house. (The bedroom portion of the house is what I accomplished today.) Planting crocus, narcissi, and scilla campanulata bulbs – a couple dozen altogether – in the front yard. I finished up in time to take a much-needed shower before the Packer game.

After Carolina scored a field goal and touchdown to take a 10-0 lead, JoAnna started to get nervous. “I had a bad feeling about this game,” she confessed, wrapped in a blanket as she lay on the couch in the family room, still feeling out of it. But then she always says that whenever the Packers get off to a bad start. After another interception of a Favre pass, she turned to another station and watched some old movie for awhile. I moved to the quiet of the living room but then rejoiced during the last three minutes of the game, JoAnna figuratively biting her nails the entire time. And the Panthers almost tied the game as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

So it was a busy morning, lazy afternoon. While I was doing my chores, the weather couldn’t make up its mind. It was cloudy, with a promise of rain one minute, clearing and pleasant the next. The afternoon turned beautiful, with a clear blue sky, comfortable temperatures, low humidity, and a pleasant breeze. After being outdoors for three hours with my gloved hands in a highly caustic cleaning solution for the first 90 minutes and my bare hands in the dirt the rest of the time, I just wanted to enjoy the interior comforts of home.

Andy and Meaghan played for awhile during the morning, but she had to go back home less than an hour after her arrival as it was her mom’s birthday and her grandparents were visiting. Andy spent the afternoon with Matt Ziegler a classmate and soccer teammate, at his house and out and about riding their bikes. They stopped by the house once to get a drink of water, and I could have sworn I saw a third person with them. A girl. Less than a half hour before his brief midafternoon appearance, the phone rang and a girl’s voice – not Meaghan’s – asked “Is Andy there?” I figured it must be Kira.

To take away some of the mystery of this new person in Andy’s life, I’ll tell you that Kira is in Andy’s class at Elm Lawn. I wasn’t aware of her existence until a week or so ago. According to JoAnna, she’s Andy’s girlfriend, this bit of new from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, i.e., Andy now admits to having a “special” friend of the opposite sex. Meaghan’s always been just a pal. At least that’s the way Andy sees it. Young love comes to Mayflower Drive.

As I did last week, I went grocery shopping after dropping Eddie off at soccer practice, a habit I need to break. Both this Sunday and last, the store was mobbed, people blocking the aisles with their carts every twenty feet as they have their noses pressed up against the displays as if they left their glasses at home. Fortunately, I didn’t have long to wait at the checkout line. J

JoAnna made pork chops and fried potatoes for supper. Because of our busy schedules, Sunday is the only evening when we can count on having a family meal. While I cleaned up the kitchen, JoAnna helped Eddie with his homework. He also read the first chapter of a book entitled Little Bear without any assistance from Mom.

“I didn’t lose my patience,” he told me. He does have a tendency to get easily frustrated when he stumbles over words he doesn’t know. That has been part of his problem at school. He reaches an impasse in something he’s working on and simply shuts down, unmoved by any encouragement that his teacher offers him. Although Eddie has completed just the first week of his drug therapy, we haven’t noticed any side effects. His pediatrician said there might be a tendency for him to “crash” at the end of the day, but we haven’t noticed that. We only give him the medication on weekdays, since it is the school environment where Eddie has most of his behavioral problems, although we do see examples of his impulsiveness at home. Fortunately, Eddie is a very bright kid; he soaks up information like a sponge. Otherwise, his tendency to get distracted by other things in the environment at school would leave him with huge gaps in his learning.

On This Date in 1998

Summer doesn’t seem to want to leave us, and I have mixed feelings about that. The weather of late has resembled a stretch of warm (and dry) late July. I feel like I am living in some fantasy called the Endless Summer.

On the plus side, we can pretend that Middleton has been moved about 10 degrees latitude south and that winters, or at least severely cold weather conditions, are a thing of the past. The leaves remain on the trees as if they’ve been superglued to the branches. Raking leaves is a distant chore (and, oh, how I wish that could always be the case!). The coleus and impatiens in the back yard are getting even more bushy and colorful. The boys can leave for school in the morning without having to wear a jacket.

On the minus side, the mildew on the sides of the house proliferates at a faster rate, expanding the scope of one of my annual outdoor fall clean-up projects, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves and scrubbing the painted surfaces of the house with a TSF-PF solution. The interior of the house tends to retain the heat of the day which makes sleeping conditions less than ideal, even with floor and window fans in operation.

JoAnna continued to be plagued by headaches, which she attempts to eliminate with megadoses of Advil or aspirin. JoAnna and I are both four-seasons people. We like it here along the 43rd parallel. I wouldn’t mind daytime temperatures in the high 50s to low 50s – sweater weather, or conditions where I don’t mind wearing a shirt and tie to work.

Last weekend, which included Labor Day, was somewhat of a football festival. We attended the Middleton High School game Friday evening. (They lost to a Belvidere, Illinois, team with a very effective running game, one that the Cardinals couldn’t shut down until late in the 3rd quarter, too late to make a difference in the game.) Andy played a scrimmage Saturday morning in Cross Plains against the other St. Francis Xavier 4th & 5th grade squad. (They won 20-6.) Parked in front of the TV, we watched the second half of the Badger game Saturday night, the Packer game Sunday afternoon (although JoAnna was the only family member who was there from start to finish), and the first quarter of Monday Night Football (at Andy’s insistence). So far this weekend, we have reduced our football-related activities. Andy’s team played its first regular season game yesterday, against a larger and faster team from Poynette. (Although, interestingly enough, the biggest kids were slower than our guys, and not that hard to block, according to Andy, and the littlest kids were faster.) Andy’s team was definitely outclassed during the first half on the short end of a 26-8 score. During the first quarter, Poynette seemed to run at will, pushing our defenders aside as if they were mere inconveniences. Our defense couldn’t stop them, especially on sweeps to the right, and our offense just couldn’t move the ball. I have to admit that I, along with some other parents, were surprised at how big some of the opposing team members were. A parent whose son played last year said we’ll make this observation all season long. The biggest kid on Andy’s team weight 125 dripping wet. Poynette appeared to have at least a half dozen kids who tipped the scale at 140 or more. Andy weighed 103 pounds three weeks ago, but football practice has reduced the size and jiggle of his little jelly belly, so I would guess he’s even dropped a few pounds since then. Fortunately, St. Francis allowed only one score during the second half. They had scored a touchdown late in the 2nd quarter on a broken play, a 60-yard run that probably should have been a loss considering the number of defenders that swarmed around the call carrier. Overall, it was a good game for St. Francis, a toughening experience.

Andy played a great game. He was the center on most of the offensive plays and the right end on more than half of the defensive plays. He had a lot of playing time. He also kicked off twice. From the evidence of the enclosed photographs, you’ll probably agree with me that he looks quite impressive in his football uniform. 

After a couple days of hysteria, it seems like the media – at least the print media; television will never get the true picture – is giving the Starr Repot some thoughtful consideration. First of all, I don’t think everyone is accessing the Internet or poring through special edition supplements to learn the details of Clinton’s dalliance with Monica. I find it so ironic that the family values-professing Republicans are gleefully promoting a report that contains what some pundits refer to as pornographic material. It’s a smart approach for the G.O.P, though. They understand that if anything will keep the American public titillated, whether they will admit to it or not, it’s a juicy sex scandal. On the other hand, most of the Republican leadership realizes that they can’t push this thing too far. The recent change of strategy is reflected in a headline in today’s New York Times: “Playing It Safe, Republicans Try Silence”. At least the reporter hinted as to why this is being done. “Republicans want to deprive President Clinton and the Democrats of ammunition to portray the Monica Lewinsky scandal as driven by partisan considerations to undermine Mr. Clinton.” Of course, that’s what the Republican strategy has been all along. What amazes me about the special prosecutor’s zig-zagging tactics is why everyone isn’t asking the question: How did we get from Whitewater (the original focus) to Monica Lewinsky? Well, there’s very obvious answer to that question, but it’s not necessarily the right one. Sex sells!

Based on what is happening in politics locally, I am still fairly confident that the Republicans are going to stumble and lost whatever advantage the Starr report might have given them. In the 2nd Congressional district, both the Democratic and Republican primaries were highly contested. On the Democratic side, Tammy Baldwin won what some consider an upset over former Dane County executive Rick Phelps and current state senator and blowhard Joe Wineke. On the Republican side, in a field of six candidates, a moderate women with pro-choice tendencies (Jo Musser) squeaked out a 500-vote victory over a mouthpiece of the Christian right (former Madison firefighter and minister – and how these guys have the chutzpah to anoint themselves is beyond me – Ron Greer, one of Reggie White’s newfound buddies). Rick and Joe quickly lined up behind Tammy in a show of unity. The Republicans had to cancel a unity breakfast when Greer requested a recount. Tommy’s lack of support for Musser might have also played a role in this decision. The rest of the country, especially Democrats, could learn a very important lesson based on what happened here after the primary election.

Even though Tammy is very open about her sexual orientation, I don’t think that is going to be a negative for her in the November election. She has a very strong, enthusiastic, and youthful core of supporters, which is probably the main reason why Dane County set a record for a turnout in a primary election. Her very effective campaign organization will continue to build on this strength.  Even though we supported Rick in the primary, we have given our unqualified support to Tammy.

Oh, by the way, I need to make a room reservation for Wednesday, October 14th. I’m conducting a workshop at the Manitowoc Public Library the following morning, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, and I want to spare myself from having to get up at 5 in the morning to get to my destination on time.

We’re all doing well here. Everyone’s in good health. The boys keep busy with school and sports. JoAnna, of course, continues to gear up for the first Tuesday in November. I’ve been very productive lately, even finding time to read two books a week during the past month.