Six years ago? Geesh ....

HARD TO BELIEVE it's been six years since I gave my notice at The Herald-Whig. It capped 16 years at the paper and 24 years as a full-time journalist.

I have no regrets.

The decision was all about timing. We had just moved Second String Music to Fifth and Maine and we were expanding. My guitar lessons were beginning to grow, but I had issues scheduling because The Whig started scheduling reporters on random nights during the week.

I think writing about crime and courts for a dozen years took a toll. You saw the worst of humanity, yet you also saw the best and the courage of crime victims. I learned our criminal justice system was far from perfect, and there was no such thing as the truth - just shades of the truth.

I'd go to a courthouse, watch a hearing, and I'd walk out saying, "Wow, I've never seen anything remotely like that before, or that crazy." Then I'd go back the next day and it would be even nuttier.

I was tired, burned out. The newspaper business is a young man's game, though several experienced reporters are still plugging away at Fifth and Jersey. Most of the copy staff is new. The people in charge are new. The Whig realized our online presence was the wave of the future, so we were taught to shoot video, write blogs and become much more active on social media.

It was fine, but I wanted to write, and I didn't want to write about routine board meetings, the first snow of the year, health fairs and gas prices. Look, they were all timely subjects and certainly of interest to a lot of people, but not to me, and that's when I realized I had to get out.

Two years ago I came back to work for the sports guys, just a couple of nights a week, and maybe cover a game every now and then. They'd like me to do more, but I'm content just keeping the skills sharp and actually trying to figure out how to get into my Whig email. I get a lot of satisfaction from working with the young people David Adam hires every  year. Most of them are college kids, and they come in raw. The ones that stick it out get better and their work effort and appreciation for sports is contagious.

People still come up to me and say they remember reading my columns and stories. Last week a woman said, "How come I haven't seen your name in paper?" I told her I left six years ago. "Really? I had no idea," she said.

Humbling, to the last, just like the job.

Don't text and drive

MAYBE WE ARE noticing it more, but people seem to think it's OK to text and drive, or even talk on the cell phone and drive.

It's not. First of all, it's against the law. You can argue all you want about how unfair it is and how your civil liberties are being violated, blah blah blah. The fact is, people who can't take their eyes off their phones shouldn't be driving.

This morning at Sixth and Jefferson, a woman heading south almost crashed into me. She had two little kids in the back. She had her head down and was laughing at her phone. She even held it up as she went through the intersection. I got there a full five seconds before her, but I saw her texting on the phone, so I waited, and sure enough, she didn't come to a complete stop and just kept going.

The dogs and I weren't pleased. When I honked, she merely looked up, shrugged, then looked back down to keep texting as she headed south.

Sheryl says she sees it all the time. Maybe I'm just becoming more aware of it. On Maine Street the other day a driver was wobbling all over the place as she blabbed on the phone. I just saw a guy at Fifth and Maine stop at the last second for the red light. Fortunately it didn't interrupt his conversation.

What it really comes down to is this - do we need to talk to somebody or send them a text so badly that it's worth crashing into somebody else for? Can we put down the phone for a few minutes and not drive distracted? If somebody texts or calls, can we simply wait? Certainly there are exceptions, but not many.

The answer for many people in our cell phone-happy world is ... no. And that makes it dangerous for all of us.

Park it on the street, scooter boy

I TAKE THE scooter to the store a lot in the summer. Most of the time I park it on the sidewalk right in front of the store. Technically this is not legal, I guess.

Yesterday we got a visit from a QPD officer. He wasn't happy to have his time wasted. "Somebody called and complained," he said. He wrote me a "warning" ticket. I had no idea the fine was $4,000! I better start saving my pennies. We are not positive who complained about it, but we have some ideas. The bottom line is that you can't park the scooter on the sidewalk, even though it isn't in the way and isn't bothering anybody. The law is the law.

Parking around here is a bit of a sensitive subject. Do unto others .... but only for two hours at a time.

Sheryl doesn't like it when I park the scooter on the sidewalk, either. She puts it by the yellow line in front of the store on the Maine Street side. We both have our reasons, and basically it's to keep a small scooter from sucking up a parking space on either Maine or Fifth streets.

But. If you complain, and it's not legal, I will comply. So I am parking the scooter on the street, and it's taking up a parking spot, and I'll move it every two hours so I don't get a parking ticket. Right.

All caps, all shouting

RECENTLY THE GUY who lives in the White House sent out a tweet in all caps, threatening to not trust Russian translators and warning us to stay away from Canadians. Wait. What? Actually it was about Iran and how we'd wipe them off the face of the earth if they didn't stand for our national anthem at NFL games, or something like that.

I worked full-time in journalism for 24 years. My mother was an English teacher. So I know a bit about the language. To me, typing in all caps means you are full of bluster and you are lazy, or you didn't notice the "caps lock" button on your computer keyboard.

All caps is OK in certain instances. I got REALLY pissed off, as opposed to I got really PISSED off. See? It's the whole "less is more" thing, where strategic use makes it more effective.

This morning on our cemetery walk, Tucker and Genie chased a rabbit into a wooded area and disappeared for about 10 minutes, then came out wagging their tails like nothing had happened. "YOU MORONS!" I all-capped. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? DO IT AGAIN AND YOU'LL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES THE LIKE THIS WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN!"

Tucker looked at Genie and said, "I think he's threatening to put us on leashes." They both rolled their eyes. And I realized how dumb I sounded and looked, which is PAR FOR THE COURSE.

A long time ago there was a Facebook page about Quincy history. There was a woman who typed in long and irrational comments in all caps. I ignored it until one day when I pointed out to her all caps was distracting and made it seem like she was shouting.

Geesh. You would have thought the world was ending. The woman started WEEPING and CRYING and accused me of BEING A BLULLY (her spelling. Really. You can't make it up).

A whole bunch of people started bashing me and apparently since she was blind it was the only way she could see the letters she was typing and the words she was misspelling. When it was pointed out that she could make the letters bigger on her computer (Ctrl + really works!), the outrage became insane. So I left the page.

You just can't win with people who use all caps, so don't even try. If they want to shout from their keyboards, let 'em. Proper English is a dying thing anyway, with BTW and LOL and WTH part of our everyday vocabulary today. WTF? Look - the guy who is shouting at Iran is a CLA (Capital Letter Abuser) and I am CLU (currently laughing uncontrollably).

Shout and All Cap away. I just won't read it.

Katie plays Friday!

KATIE HOGGE IS playing Friday for our noon blues show in Washington Park. Katie, 16, is one of my long-time guitar students. She's an excellent player and singer, and I encourage you to come check her out. It starts around 11:30-ish and goes until 1 p.m. The weather will be nice, there's plenty of shade at the northwest corner of Fifth and Maine, and the Butcher Block will have the grill fired up. Oh, and it's free.

Katie asked me to play a few songs with her. She certainly has eclectic tastes in music, everything from Carrie Underwood to Echosmith to the Ready Player One soundtrack. Katie would like it if we'd learn the theme to Knight Rider, since she's obsessed with the show, but we've put that on the backburner for now.Maybe the best thing about teaching is the variety of music you learn. Seven years ago I hated country music, but now I at least have an appreciation for some of the great guitar players in the genre. The pop music of today is pretty bland, but every now and then I'll hear something wild and out of the ordinary, and maybe even with guitar in it (gasp).

My theory about live music is that it's not about hitting every note perfectly. It's about the energy and giving it your best, no matter if there's two people or 2000.

Katie has been working very hard to be ready for Friday's show. I encourage anybody who appreciates music and the talents of young people to come check it out. I'm very proud of Katie and she's come a long way on the guitar, and she has a bright future, indeed!

Huddle up to get through the storm

Tucker cowers in the corner ....

IT WAS beautiful last night on Sixth Street Thursday until about 7:45. Then dark and ominous clouds started rolling in from the north, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, and it looked like a massive storm was about to hit us.

It swirled all around but the rain never came until later. North of us, especially in Iowa, people weren't so fortunate, so we are grateful we didn't get hit hard.

Our dogs hate thunderstorms. Tucker skitters around and can't be still. Angus and Genie take the cuddle approach, as you can see in the photo. Sheryl will sometimes give Tucker a doggie downer to calm him down. But last night he suffered through the store sober as a dog.

Now it's beautiful in the Q-Town, and we are ready for another fun weekend. Soul Shaker is back in Washington Park tonight as part of the Quincy Park Districts summer concert series, and we take the park over tomorrow for Back The Red, White & Blue.

We weathered the weather. Let's rock and roll again!