More than complicated

Complicateder than ever! Our supervisor thought that Keene, New Hampshire was in the New Hampshire, Manchester, Mission…………but it is not. It is in the Boston Mission………Wow, I never thought we would be in two different missions during this mission experience.  Life sure is a Wheee! kind of experience.

I also did not think we would do much traveling during this mission but this coming weekend we are going to South Royalton, Vermont, to the Joseph Smith Memorial for a get together with the other senior missionaries.  We may be finished here by the last weekend in May and they want us to be in Keene ready to start work in the first week of June.  Somewhere in all of this I expect to visit the quilt shop at Center Harbor, Lake Winnepesauke in New Hampshire, just to touch base.  AAGGHHH!  So much to see, so much to do, so little time.

Well, I got to thinking about the problems attendant to the painting of the memorial bridge here in Augusta.  Of course we will have to have someone in charge and he will need a corner office with a window, a computer, a desk and comfy chair, piped in music, coffee maker and internet access.  He will also have a book of rules to play by and a fat paycheck and a bonus at the end of his term as overseer and with a termination of work a severance payout for his service.  He will also need a bevy of curvaceous secretaries who will also need desks, comfy chairs, reams of paper, copy machine, water cooler and coffee makers and let us not forget the internet connection – they need to have email……..a modern necessity.  The chairs will have to be ergonomic – must preserve their posture.  Breaks are necessary at regular intervals, time off for hair appointments and visits with grandchildren.  It is a job connected with local government and funded by taxpayers so the sky is the limit for their needs to be met.  We should not neglect to supply a carpeted floor, janitorial service to keep it clean and designer cubicles for them to work in……………..does that cover it?  Actually, he just might be housed in a single wide work  trailer parked at the bank of the Kennebec just under the bridge area, filled with a time clock and time sheets and work orders and tools.  Not very glamorous is it?  But the fact remains, the projected cost of the Bridge painting is $7,000,000 and I guess the paint does not come from Wal Mart.  The painting is not to include the visible railings on the top of the decking, just the metal structure holding the bridge up.

I also wonder if the steel balls they will be shooting at the bridge structure to get rid of the paint may happen to miss their mark and end up in the Kennebec.  If these steel balls fall into the river and get eaten up by the Sturgeon that live in the river, will that instantly affect them and turn them into steelhead trout?  Just wondering.  Will the EPA have a man or bevy of men in boats moored under the bridge to take note if any paint chips fall into the Kennebec and if it becomes a measurable environmental hazard to the fish and or people who live here in Augusta.  I also wonder if thee will be any way the department of Homeland Security can get into the act?  Is it any wonder our government costs as much as it does – a lot of overkill happens to prevent court cases over minor infractions of some obscure law or other.  Why have we become so litigious?

I have still been thinking of the witch hunt they are conducting over the Secret Service scandal in Colombia.  It might be more productive if they focused their efforts on finding children who have been abducted – like baby Ayla who disappeared here a week before Christmas.  They seem to need to see heads roll over this secret service debacle but their efforts could be better spent looking for Ayla than trying to mop up spilled milk in Colombia………..Ve haf vays of making you talk!!!!!!!