Ramblings, yappings from da Porch

So, awhile back I got tickets to check out Diamond Dave and the boys in Nashville later this month. And today, I see that they're playing in Knoxville on Aug. 4. What the deuce? Someone suggested I sell the Nashville tickets and hold off, but I figure the band will have broken up by then.

A couple things/feel like rambling.

Best Buy should rename its Geek Squad the “We Suck/Suck Squad.”

The other day I posted about a proposal from the Charter Review Committee that would require the pension board to increase its membership to include finance experts (whatever that means) and to send its annual operating budget to the mayor and County Commission for approval. Well, as one pension board member noted to me yesterday, four commissioners and the mayor sit on the pension board, so aren't they pretty much doing that already?

My Twitter account got one of those viruses where it sends messages to contacts. If you got one it wasn't from me. I think the problem has been fixed.

County Mayor Tim Burchett over this weekend was in Athens, metal detecting with his former finance director, Burton Webb. He took me metal hunting with him once. Just goes to show that he'll hang out with anyone. Heh.

There's some rumors going around that the school folks have six votes on the County Commission to raise taxes to fund the system's proposed $35 million education plan. At this point, that's BS. That could change, but I doubt it. (At the most, they'd pass a waaaay slimmed down version, but I don't even see that happening.) All sides will meet May 22 to talk more about it. Expect someone to have a substitute plan in place before then. (No, this has nothing to do with a slimmed down version.)

And speaking of school stuff. The other day I saw a large, dark bird circling above the Andrew Johnson Building. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything.

Finally, I know it's unorthodox, but taking a whiz on campfires always seems to extinguish them. What say we send a couple hundred homeless and a couple dozen kegs down to the mulch fire and see if we can't put this thing out.