Clearly our Managing Editor Cheryl Mathis was inspired this week, and had three posts of high-level awesomeness. So, in honor of her themes, I put these humble questions before you.
1. Do you volunteer? Why or why not? Is there something you would like to work on that we simply do not have locally? For example, I would like to meet and help work on dark fiber utilization, but, no one knows what I am talking about, so I might just simply be delusional.
2. Have you been in your neighborhood long? Do you consider yourself part of your neighborhood? Who is the longest running member of your neighborhood? Do you see your neighborhood as a community?
3. At what point do you take yourself or your loved ones to the emergency room? At my buddy Eric’s bachelor party I ended up taking a total stranger to the emergency room for a head wound suffered at Malarkeys, and while I wondered how I got roped into taking some dude to the ER, I also wondered what would get me to the ER. Following my eye surgery, I went often.
4. How awesome is Cheryl?
5. What is your favorite street here in Wausau?
6. Does the City of Wausau and surrounding municipalities work together well? I mean we are all essentially in this boat together, tied together. With the other municipalities not having downtowns, should we all not look at Wausau’s downtown as our own?
7. Have you heard of the plight of the oppressed honey bee, exploited for the free range wax that goes into lip balm?
Jim Rosenberg
1:51 pm on June 5th
1. I think I volunteer, but my life is kind of a big, long continuum so I never really know when that’s happening.
2. Other than a few years, I’ve been in my neighborhood since 1958, which is pretty good, since I’ve only been around since 1956. It is a community, but probably more dynamic than many people realize. A few of the people to whom I delivered newspapers are still around.
3. I’m not much for doctors, so the ER would really be for emergencies. The walk-in clinic is a little lower bar to jump. Bottom line: if someone needs care to get past an injury or illness, then you need to get that person some help.
4. Can’t touch that.
5. For residential, Lillie Street is a very nice street in Wausau: http://tinyurl.com/qk6klv
I also like Third Street downtown a lot.
6. Burt’s Bees. They’re going union as soon as card check passes.
Saltpeter
3:01 pm on June 5th
1) I do volunteer, but not as much as my guilt conscience wants me to. And, it kinda goes in spurts.
2)We’re not really part of the neighborhood. Very secluded lot (actually 3 lots) with a small, contemporary home we built 30 years ago. In the summer you can’t see the house from the street. Woods and wildlife also make great neighbors and close to downtown, too! Wanna buy it? Cheap!
3)Something is wrong…..I agree with Rosey. If someone needs help, even my enemy gets the ride. BUT! I might not hang around long once we get there, if we’re not buds.
4)Don’t know the gal but she seems awesome. I’ll trust Dino’s judgement until proven otherwise. I’m also not worried about “otherwise”. How bad can she be? She’s taking care of the old hood!! That’s good enough for me.
5)Used to be Scott Street. Pun intended. Now, I’ll go with 3rd St., downtown. Broadway Lane is a cute little street on the southeast side.
6)Nice dodge Rosey AND card check is not going to pass. You were doing so good. Anyway…we should, but we won’t. It’s that simple. Power consolidation is tough…everybody wants some. Ask Jim.
7)I don’t think bees are oppressed. It gives them a reason to live with a contribution to humans. Otherwise they become like a mosquito or woodtick. Plus the wax is only a by-product of the honey process. They’ll make more! But…I am worried about them as a whole. They’ve been having a tussle the last few years. Plant clover!
Charles U Farley
9:40 pm on June 5th
1) I volunteer at my children’s school. I could say it’s because education is important, or it benefits my kids specifically, but it’s really because it’s just the right thing to do. Nothing peeves me more than some of my co-workers with kids at the same school who I know could easily be helping who choose not to do so. As far as where I would like to volunteer, some people from the WDH site may have observed I like math, a lot, and would love to tutor math. That doesn’t seem to come up in the volunteer opportunities, though.
2) We’ve been in our neighborhood just about 5 years. I’m really split on whether we are a part of it, though. On one hand, we’ve kind of grown into knowing our neighbors and developed a comfort level where we could stay here for the rest of our lives. On the other hand, aside from our kids, I could walk away from Wausau tomorrow and not miss it.
3) It depends on if I have insurance. When I didn’t have any, I suffered through major gashes, fevers, and a twisted knee that bothers me to this day that I would have gone to the ER if I had had insurance.
4) On a scale of i to 1 with 1 being ideal, she’s definitely more real than imaginary.
5) By name alone, Sturgeon Eddy. Every time we drive by, there’s a joke about how it was going to be named after Bluegill Bob, but there was a whole long thing with a lot of political fish intrigue that caused him to get muscled out by the bigger fish. By any other “real” characteristics, I like Bridge Street for the most part.
6) I stand by what I’ve said elsewhere: Schofield, much like short people, has got no reason. The should be no surrounding municipalities, just county and city.
7) As long as they rise up against the WASPs, I’m all for it.
Cheryl Mathis
6:56 am on June 6th
3. I took my daughter to the ER only when referred by her doctor or the walk-in clinic. My son when he has an asthma attack that we can’t control anymore. But the last time I went and did the ER duty with someone was my mother last summer when she fell off her bike. She had a bad eye injury, and everyone in the ER, it seemed, stopped by to see the gore. It was a long evening.
4. I rock, at least when I don’t have writer’s block.
7. Maybe I should sneak some hives into some city parks to help the honeybees repopulate. Hence forth, I shall no longer buy wax products. The end.
Sherry L. de Alvarez
11:20 am on June 6th
Not sure I’m really allowed to answer, since I no longer live in the Wausau area, but I’m a sucker for “surveys” and if nothing else, answering a couple of these gets me thinking. And who knows, maybe I can impart some considerations about life in general.
1-Well, I’m a missionary, so I guess you could say all I do is volunteer! … If by volunteer you mean “don’t get monetary compensation for what you do,” then, yes, that’s me. Why? Because I believe I was called by God to do this and I choose to be obedient to that call. Although it means I live in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, in a house made of cinder block and lamina (corrugated metal), with running water and electricity MOST of the time, I can truly say (and often do!) that I have never been so happy!!! I love what I do! (I teach kids of other missionaries called to serve here in Guatemala.)
2-Well, I have lived in Guatemala for almost seven years, but in this particular neighborhood for only two. It’s a piece of property owned by one guy who I am sure was here many many years before some developer bought the surrounding land to turn it into a middle class security-gated community. Our landlord has kept this land separate from the rest of the larger neighborhood, with six houses and one school all contained here on his piece of land. However, since our house is technically within the other neighborhood, we do have the benefit of the armed guards, so we are secure to walk/run in the larger ‘hood. (It’s complicated!) So, we are not part of the gated community, but live on the back lot of it. I definitely DO NOT feel a part of this community. I am very obviously the only gringa in the area, and thus viewed with suspicion although married to a local. The neighborhood gets together two to three times a week (and always once on Sunday for church and lunch) and we have never been invited…although we can see and hear them from our house and the kids run all over the property…including in our yard. It would be a very difficult situation to feel comfortable in if I didn’t have the missionary community to “live” within as well. I don’t feel threatened or anything here, but definitely out of place.
4-I don’t know Cheryl, but enjoy her enthusiasm!!
7-I had not heard about the bees, but will now apply my balm (which I always have on hand…but I can totally stop whenever I want…really…) with a greater sense of guilt.
Mohawk Matt
4:02 pm on June 6th
1. I don’t volunteer.
2. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for a month, and not one of my neighbors have said hello. I’ve never been a part of any neighborhood I’ve lived in since I moved here.
3. Don’t go to the ER, no insurance. It would have to be something bad like losing an arm or something.
5. Whatever street has no traffic while I’m driving.
7. Bees suck.
deepintheheart
7:31 am on June 7th
1) Sure do. Usually jump into some sort of organized group activity but also other stuff. Recently painted a mural at the local Boys and Girls Club. Salvation Army gift distribution is always a hoot. It feels a little wierd when people are “thank youing” me when I didn’t supply the gifts, but what the hell, I still feel pretty good, even if I am poaching thank yous.
2) Been in this neighborhood (subdivision attached to a golf course thing, surrounded by nothing but other subdivisions) for about 2 years. I know a few of the neighbors and try to help them out with stuff and be friendly. The newest neighbor could not figure out how to program the sprinkler system, so I offered to help her out with it. Another guy had his garage door break in a freakish wind storm, so he came over and asked for help getting it back on the tracks one evening. The next week he asked me if “I smoked weed. . . ” after I waved to him in the street. There have been a few community gatherings–picnics at the pool, chili cook-off, National Night Out–organized, but that is not my thing.
3) I would not go to an ER unless I was pulled from a wreck by an EMT and hauled there in hopes of reviving me. If another person was in a similar way, I would do the same. I ususally enjoy my visits there. Great place to experience real, human things.
4) Cheryl seems like a person in my neighborhood that knows all the teachers at the Elementary school and talks to them at the market. She could, quite possibly, be “awesome,” but I will never know her.
5) Any street or highway that carries me out of town. I am partial to I39, exiting in Mosinee, and turning into the airport.
6) All of your communities are tied together, like forlorn captives held by pirates afloat at sea.
7) I fully support the HBLA (Honey Bee Liberation Army) in their efforts to throw off this yoke of oppression and regain their rightful place in the ecological diaspora. Beware balm wearers. THE HBLA can sense your fear. . .