a new boss

It looks less and less likely that I have to worry about privatization, at least for now. The city just hired a person to run the sewer and water departments, I don't think they would if they planned on contracting out. This could help me, if he splits his time, I would be top man at sewer, I could get a promotion. He starts next month, so we'll se what happens.

where are we going

I see the government spending more and more to try and win a war someplace we don't belong anyway, and I see conditions getting worse and worse on the rez, for people who were here first, and for hispanics and black people, I just don't get it.
Somewhere we lost it, somehow America no longer walks in beauty.

I can't believe they blocked the minimum wage!

I am really disgusted. Today republicans in the senate blocked the minimum wage hike, and why?, to hold out for more tax breaks for the wealthy. I just can't believe the gall. This is a slap in the face of all of those of us who work for a living. I am especially upset because of all the native people (and hispanic) who simply cannot find anything better because of their background, but who work hard to support a family. I really hope those responsible pay for this next year

We sang great

Well, the powwow at Hamilton is over, and after all my concern I think it went really fine. There is more on the weekend at Inlali dancers blog.
I believe we really showed that we can do the job. We came through with every thing we were asked to do, we never had to repeat a song the same day, and our voices were strong and blended well. It just felt really, really good, and I think that came through. Of course, since we were the only drum, by the end of the day our voices were starting to give out, but we're only human.
The only thing I can see we still need work on is keeping the songs off the beat. We still have a bad tendency get on the beat, though we usually manage to get back off again. We'll work on it.
All in all, I'm very happy with the way things went.

big weekend coming

Well, the weekend of the mini powwow at Hamilton is here, I feel good but a little nervous. The Black Fox drum really needs to do a great job. We're the only drum apparently, we can screw things up or make it great. We've got a couple of things to live down, although we did okay at Chillacothe. We need badly to prove ourselves to some people.
Our practices have been great lately, but they're just practices. This is the real thing. One nice thing, our new buffaloe heads make the drum sound awesome.

I got my ski weekend

Winter really hit when it finally decided to show up. After warm temperatures and no skiing for week after week, this weekend we had an ice storm, and tonight it's supposed to go down to zero.
I did get to spend the weekend skiing at Chestnut Mountain. Friday I left early and beat the ice completely, tho apparently only by a few hours. Friday the snow was still thin and icy, but the temp dropped all day, they started making snow by noon, and the skiing got better. By saturday morning there was plenty of snow, all runs were open, and the snow was about as good as it ever gets around here. It was cold and windy all day though.
I left for home sunday expecting to run into ice, but it stayed above freezing here until sometime in the night, so I lucked out then too.
Now all the midwest areas should really be pumping the snow out, so maybe the season won't be a total loss.

weather back to normal

It looks like we're getting back to normal winter weather. I know most people hate it, but it means they can make snow again. Pretty soon the local ski areas will be back at full speed (at least I hope). I'm spending the weekend at Chestnut, so I hope they're pumping snow.
I just read about a federal judge nominee who was forced to back out of his nomination because of protests from the native community. He had apparently run roughshod over sacred sites while working for the dept. of the interior. This is something I never thought I would see happen. Maybe progress is being made.

I got to ski

I took off work yesterday, I went up to Chestnut, and I actually got several hours of decent skiing in. I really needed it. Of course it got too warm by noon, this weather is really bizarre. I hope Snowstar survives the year, it's my home area.
I'm really impressed with how the drum group is sounding, we are realy getting good.
I think we are going to blow them away at the dance at Hamilton.
After all these years of work, we have earned a little respect. As long as a certain Omaha (the tribe, not the city) person who will be nameless isn't there, if he is there, we are leaving, period.

I got hammered

I finally got my car fixed, and the bill came to just over 1100 dollars! Man, what a kick in the teeth. There went my christmas. I'm going to be paying for this for a year.

Hopefully, I will finally get to go skiing at Chestnut tommorrow, if so it'll make me feel better for a while.