3 AM to 5 AM

A recurring theme of this blog since the Red Plan smacked me up side the head is my disturbed sleep. I crashed just after the ten O’clock news began. Claudia was watching Father Brown on PBS instead of news pablum and I crawled into bed. I know I fell asleep immediately because I didn’t wake up when she finally came to bed. I woke up at 3AM from a dream about the school board race. That was five straight hours of sleep. It probably isn’t considered sufficient to ward off Alzheimer’s but it worked for me.

Five hours of making apple cider probably helped me fall asleep. We got a little over three gallons. (So much easier to buy it in the store.) I’d spent about six hours over the past week repairing damaged cider pressing equipment. The cider is sweet, almost cloying, but its from our tree.

This morning I woke up knowing that I had one last long political job to do before going out and putting up lawnsigns for Alanna and Loren. I have to finish the job of filing six months of paperwork and get it off my floor. Last week’s rainy weather was great for starting this task. I filled up my recycling bin for the Friday pick-up but now have to categorize, label and stuff folders with the remainder. Once that’s done I’ll have the month of October to campaign for some sanity with few distractions.

Very recently I ran across an occasional acquaintance who always starts a good-natured conversation with me about the School Board. He asked me who I thought had done the best at the Chamber forum and I said I thought it was Loren Martell. He told me an acquaintance of his thought Alanna had done the best. I quickly added that I thought Alanna was a close second.

For the record, I’d say Loren had the most to gain. He’s such a known quantity based on his disgraceful treatment by our school board and his resultant microscopic column describing our meetings that his presentation had to be a revelation to his detractors. He was not only knowledgeable and articulate but soft spoken. Unlike Alanna, Loren took a macro look at the District and made so much sense that no one could fault his analysis…..except for me. I think he’s far too optimistic about our ability to lease Central High.

Alanna demonstrated deep knowledge of the District on the micro level – in the classroom with the state laws and federal demands made on our teachers. Alanna also had the most laid back, non threatening, and good-hearted manner whereas Loren was focused.

I was curious about where my occasional acquaintance got his view of the debate and it was apparently one of the DFLers who’s party gave the endorsement to Alanna’s alternative, Renee VanNett. In this DFLer’s view Alanna won hands down. I was gratified to hear this and it echoed what I’d heard from a couple other DFL sources – that the DFL had some buyer’s remorse for their premature endorsement which came before School Board filings opened.

I’m not the only critic of the DFL. The Trib tsk tisked the endorsements a couple months ago. The DFL rushed to replace the discredited members of the school board with new allies for the remaining Art Johnston persecutors. I’ve been quick to point out what I regard as weaknesses in these candidates: prejudgment of Art, failure to attend meetings, refusal to meet with me right here on my blog. As I told my acquaintance this may not encourage these new board members to work with me should they be elected. Oh well.

One more thought about political parties. In a lot of ways political organizations can be “us” organizations like a fraternity or a social club. When this happens they promote their team wholeheartedly without ever acknowledging that there may be other folks who are superior to theirs.

Fortunately for my favored candidates, most voters coming to the polls in November will pay scant attention to the phrase “DFL endorsed” when they cast their ballots. In fact, a lot of today’s fractious school board members were DFL endorsed.

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