Different Approach
Weekly update 2/14 to 2/20 #56
While sitting down to write this week’s column, my youngest daughter referred to the snow as "Mother Nature’s dandruff." I am sharing this to remind you that everyone approaches things with a different approach. For her it is often humor. Before we get too far off on that though let me share some of my week.
Any week that starts with a meeting related to a coming snow storm is bound to be an interesting week. Late in 2019, I worried about a snow storm hitting. Then 2020 came and went without any major snow events. Now that first weather related milestone is past us, and I have to say I am proud of our team at the city and even prouder of our community as a whole. Sixteen hour days are never easy, especially when they are back to back for several days in a row. Team members from several departments jumped in and went above and beyond their regular job description to tackle double digits amounts of snowfall. The community support was also great to see. From doughnuts for breakfast to pizza for lunch and even steak dinners, the citizens stepped in and said thank you for your tireless work and showed their support. Does this mean we didn’t have our hiccups? No, we still had troubled spots. We still had learning moments that will make us better for the next time we see major storms. Thank you crews for your work, and thank you community members for making them feel appreciated. Together we are better.
My work visit this week was with Water Pollution Control, WPC, on a day that was in the teens. I fully expected to have a frozen kind of day, but they took pity on me and sent me to the lab to learn about how we make sure our facility is running. I learned how we test and what things we test for and why they are important. I got a chance to flash back to biology class and check out our “bugs” that do the hard work at the treatment plant. If you ever find yourself in a position to take a tour at WPC, I hope you will. I find it interesting how they process over four million gallons a day and all the steps to get it back into the river after the process is done.
Speaking of WPC, this week saw the retirement of Rick Steward after 42 years. Rick is a wealth of knowledge and will be missed. From finding centuries old logs to dinosaur bones, Rick has seen it all during his time. Thank you, sir, for your dedication to the rate payers of Seymour. I hope you enjoy your retirement, which from what I hear will be spent in the woodshop creating items big and small.
Recently, I found a quote from John Wooden that read, “Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.” We all faced the same storm dropping double digits worth of snow. Most made the best of what we were dealing with. Several businesses chose to close down for a few shifts to allow their workers safer conditions for travel. The county didn’t enter into a red travel warning lightly, but they did for about 16 hours. As I traveled the last few days, I found signs of fun that were had in the snow: packed runs on hillsides from sledders who I can imagine laughed and enjoyed, snowmen partially melted from the day's heat, igloos from the adventurous souls who wanted to do something different with their day or days of slowdown. Yes, I even saw the side effects of having to dig out the end of the driveway. Over and over again though, I found more reminders of those who “make the best of the way things turnout;” whether it is by cracking a joke about Mother Nature’s dandruff or enjoying the snow. I am proud to be in a community with those good-natured souls helping motivate us to try and look at things from a different perspective.