Oh What Fun!

Today was one of those days when I got good and bad phone calls.

I needed to go to the accountants office to pick a fax to forward on to L. So I planned on heading over about the time they opened so that it would be one less thing to remember through the day. Before I could mosey out the door, my phone rang and I got what I at first thought was a pornographic call. You know, the heavy breathing and a few grunts with no response to my repeated hellos. Finally a synthesized voice comes on and wants to talk to the mayor. I admit I am the mayor and inquire as to the reason for the call. The voice comes back with a ranting litany of ills due to the way <City> Housing Authority is operated. I suspect that the person on the other end had fed a prepared rant into his synthesizer, because no matter how many times I interjected that <City> has nothing to do with the operation of <City> Housing Authority, the rant rolled on. Finally the rant ended and I once again pointed out that <City> has nothing to do with the operation of <City> Housing Authority. Got a curt "Well, uh, uh, you'll be sorry!" followed by a hangup. If I were less of a nice guy, I'd call the gentleman up around midnight and rant at him for something he has nothing to do with. But I won't 'cause I'm just not that into wasting time. {*grin*}

I proceeded to pick up the fax and then sent it off to L. No sooner had the fax machine beeped its last, then I got another phone call. This one was a fun phone call (to the right number even). The host of a Japanese exchange student wanted to arrange for the student to meet with me and give me a letter from the mayor of his home city in Japan along with a token gift. As his host pointed out, what he was really hoping for was to get his picture in the local paper presenting the letter and gift to me so that he could take copies of the paper home with him. So I set it up for him to present the letter and gift at tomorrow's city council meeting. What the exchange student doesn't know is that I then quickly drafted a letter to the mayor of his town and had a package of pins with the city seal put together that I will give to the student tomorrow. It will be interesting to watch his reaction. It would be even more fun to see the reaction of The Honorable Toshiaki Ohno, Mayor of Inazawa City when he gets the letter and pins (and the student's picture in the local newpaper).  If I had a bit more time, I would have given it to the wife of our Police Chief to translate into Japanese. (She is Japanese, met the Chief while he was stationed in Japan in the military.)

Well, I need to head for bed since i have a meeting about our water treatment plans with the EPA and State Department of Health early in the morning. Unfortunately, the meeting is in Denver so we are going to have to leave early for the two hour drive to the meeting. We'll probably get back here with just enough time to grab an apple before heading to the city council meeting tomorrow night. So don't count on an early blog entry tomorrow.