Flush it out

  

 There's a guy I see all the time on TV.  He sits there and doesn't say anything.  He seems contented.  

It's on channel 15, our local Alameda public service TV station.  It is not popular because it doesn't have Top Chef, or Alameda Okay Cookers, or the Amazing Race, or the Alameda Race Around the Island, or The Housewives of Alameda, or Alameda's Pretty Good Wife.  Those could be amusing, but there's no money in the budget for those frivolous shows.

But the guy listens to every planing board meeting and every city council meeting.  He sits right in the front row.  We can all see him (maybe I'm the only one watching) on the telly.

I like the city meetings.  I watch them if there is something exciting or controversial going on.  I can watch them in my PJs.  One time I got a call from a friend who said we needed to get over to City Hall to speak.  Out of jammies and into jeans.   

Once I got to speak at a meeting and my last remark was that I had a double date with my Tivo and my ironing board and they should be careful because I was watching them.  That got the people laughing.

Over the past three weeks I've been involved with sewers.  Thank goodness I haven't been in them but they are digging them up all over town.  My part has been on the drier side - that of figuring out how the draft ordinance may affect owners and the Realtor group.

First there was a public meeting, not to be confused with a hearing.  Then there was a meeting with the City Engineer (she's a woman - you go, girl) and the Public Works Director and his folks (not his parents but his underlings).  And lastly, and most briefly, with the City Manager (aka the Big Guy), who made sure that the ones who were presenting were going to be nailed if things weren't done as they reported it.

Last night I 'got' to attend another City Council meeting.  Some of us with the Association of Realtors were told to attend because 'only one person did not a crowd make.'  We were advised If you want to support something ya gotta have more than two.   Most of the people were gone.  We got the honored spot....dead last - but early compared to other nights.  Just after 10pm.  

It was late and I was exhausted.  I said something about being the sewer lateral police because...well, we work to make sure our clients stay out of trouble.  And I finished it up with....."Let's get this thing flushed out!"  They laughed.  And I went home...no chat, no nothing.

I left the meeting so quickly I didn't even see if the 'guy' was there, or laughed, or if he was asleep.  Oh well.  This time I had a date with my bed.

Live richly,   marilyn