The View From Here: Tree Cutting, Vote Getting, Candy Collecting & A Limerick

By Ken De Laat

Wow. Consumers Energy  wasn’t kidding when they sent out word of the Reliability Roadmap initiative they unveiled in late September. 
https://www.nearnorthnow.com/the-pulse/consumers-vows-more-reliability
The first step listed in their press release read…
 “Tree Trimming: Significantly increasing and staying at the cycle time needed to keep our lines clear of interference from trees, which is the most effective way to prevent and shorten power outages and improve system reliability.”
Or in simpler language “We’re amping up the tree cutting.”
Trees Inc. trucks have been seriously clearing the area around power lines. In fact their Grant office has been hustling to hire some folks to keep up with the cutting.
Granted, from what we’ve seen and heard the cuts have been deep in some places and the roadsides are a feast for kindling collectors but hey, if they can  achieve the #1 goal of
“ No customer will be without power for more than 24 hours.”...
Well…
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There is an election Tuesday and on the ballot is a renewal of financial support for the Career Tech Center and county-wide Special Education services. A yes vote does not, repeat… DOES NOT increase your property taxes.
This is a no brainer. Not only do these programs provide a broad spectrum of services for our special needs kids but with the trades taking center stage with an emphasis on promoting these careers to students, the classes offered at the CTC are more vital than ever.
Of course you could stay home next Tuesday like somewhere around 80% of registered voters do when it isn’t a national election. When candidates are involved this inevitably leads to people getting elected by drawing something like 11% of registered voters. This opens the door for fringe candidates often leaving us with
​inadequate and ineffective representation.
  But if you care about the young people in our community you might care to get yourself  to the polls this Tuesday and give them a big Yes.
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Snow on Halloween? It’s been years since I did the door to door thing with kids or grandkids but I am a veteran of the white stuff during the haunted holiday along with a couple of freezing rain nights that brought about early endings to the candy collecting. 
And speaking of Halloween a recent broadcast on NPR explored the never ending myth of drug laced candy that persists despite no evidence of any incidents. 
No surprise here. I never knew of any drug user who would willingly give away any part of their stash. Ever. 
But given what people are willing to believe these days the ongoing survival of this conspiracy theory is all but solidly assured.
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Having recently returned from Ireland where limericks are a popular genre for expressing oneself we were inspired to put this one together.

There once was a bitter old bloke
Who called N3 “Everything Woke!”
He thought his signs wise
But to no one’s surprise
Most saw them as just a bad joke

Gach rud dhúisigh