First? Frost of Fall

 Tonight's the night!

Put on the socks, wrap a quilt around my head and shoulders, wrap my hands around a hot cuppa (for me, coffee) and sit on the porch.

It rained today, so the light is shimmering.

The lowering temperature has the air smelling so clean.

The clean smell of falling leaves and fading greens; of pollen-heavy goldenrod and foxtails, and all those plants. Not so heavy, tonight, the pollen, because of the earlier, settling rain.

of long darkened evenings and darkening days and long nights ahead when warmth is the best aroma and even in our electric or gas or other technology age, the scent of warmth calls to mind woodfires and cooked food and family.

Too soon the coming cold will be tiresome.

Too soon,the wet, dark evenings will be an annoyance.

We'll be over it.

the plants will die, the greens will brown, and the trees will be bare.

But for now, for tonight, we can enjoy the changes in the air.

We can cherish the passing of the seasons.

We can await the coming hours of darkness knowing that, one way or another, the light will come again.

Eventually.

And the cuppa warms the hands, the nose, and the heart as surely as the socks and quilts warm the body

Local News(papers)

Once again, the whole block of local newspapers has been bought by a 'media group'. This time the block was larger, containing Clermont, Brown, Adams, and (I think) Highland County papers. Other buyouts have included different combinations of these papers, but not all of them at once.

This sparked some discussion -- again -- of what a sinkhole local papers are, how expensive to publish and distribute, etc. All stories that have been told; all details that have become cliche on the topic.

The "new" publishers speak of how combining reduces costs, increases coverage, blah, blah, blah.

What none of the papers are doing is reporting news that the customers are looking for.

We are all still wondering about the booms we heard all over Mt. Orab last summer. No word of their existence disturbed any of local newspapers.

There was an incident one evening of power outages, road closures, and even a medical helicopter called on the west side of Lake Grant. Neighbors on Pleasant Hill as well as those near the lake are still wondering what and why and even who, although we can all accept that that last info is more for family to share than news sources.

There was an armed robbery of a local business during Fair Week. You know, where someone's children were were working? Did anyone know it happened? Did a neighbor, who only wanted a cup of coffee, tell about it? Did someone find out from a son's classmate, because your local reporter was too busy at the Fair? (Watching tractors? Looking at cows?)

There are fires.

There are times when ambulances cross paths with other ambulances -- Georgetown or Ripley going north, Mt. Orab heading south. Has something happened, or is it 'just' people getting sick or hurting?

There are accidents, often closing roads and detouring traffic. A recent incidence closed 68 during school bus runtime, and there were rumors of body bags. Is this true? We don't know -- no media source has seen fit to tell us.

These are the stories we want to know about.
These are the questions we want answered.
This is news.

Yes, a week later, even a month later, is okay. Of course, by then we know if it was someone close to us or if it impacts us directly, but we are still wondering about WHAT HAPPENED? And WHY?
Can this be fixed?
Can it be improved?
Could it have been prevented?
Can we do anything?
Should we?

These incidences involve us.
They (can) involve our friends, our neighbors, our families. Our neighbors's friends and families.
These are our people. 
We want to help.
We want to know.

Our local newspapers should want us to know, too.

That is what local news is.

If you want to make money, report the NEWS.

"Nobody Warned Us"

There was a (dubious) news report out of Washington State that survivors of the massive landslide were commenting and complaining that they had never been told a landslide could happen.

 I call it dubious, first of all, because those people are still busy looking for loved ones, looking for beloved things.
Secondly, they are in shock and deep, deep grief, so that nothing said at this time should be reported as anything other than mourning. Not responsible journalism. (If such a thing still exists.)
Third, the statement just screams "Lawyer"! Not just lawyer, but the worst kind of lawyer: the ambulance-chasing, you-can-make-me-a-lot-of-money type of lawyer.

God help the survivors, the vultures are already circling, greedy claws extended.

No doubt, eventually, this will make it to the courts as a liability issue. Survivors will be looking to place blame. That's something very human of them.
No doubt some judge somewhere will think it should be heard, in defiance of all common sense.

Some building statements that shouldn't need to be made:
1) If you build on a hill or cliff or anywhere "UP" everything can fall "down."
2) Oceanfront property is susceptible to hurricanes
3)Other waterfront property is susceptible to flooding.
4)There may be water shortages in desert areas.
5)Water shortage areas will be susceptible to fire.
6)Anywhere that lightning strikes there could be fires.
7)Tornadoes can happen anywhere.
8) There is no such thing as "solid" earth.  The earth is liquid -- sometimes water, sometimes melted rock. Even the continents are on the move; afloat.

Just a few things to think about before you buy or build anything anywhere.
It shouldn't require an ambulance chaser, a political prosecutor, or a publicity seeking judge to air foolishness, stupidity, and naivete before the whole world.

Let them heal.
Help them struggle.
Neither money nor blame will replace what they've lost, and lost forever. Don't make them think it might.