An emu's view on taking notes

Happy Thursday! Today’s theme: Mike empties out his notebook.

I’m a note-taking person. I have reporter notepads next to my laptop, on another table 10 feet away, in the car, next to my bed…you get it.

We all know the note-takers. I sat with someone at Cattle Dog the other day, and she took copious notes during our talk. Others are like those restaurant servers who can take an order from a table of eight without a single note.

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I’m a little in the middle. I often find myself taking notes during a County Commission deep debate, then realize that none of this stuff will ever see the light of day, so why am I writing it all down? My notes at the start of a five-hour public hearing are much more concise than those at the end.

While reporter notepads have always been my go-to, someone (Deb?) gave me an 8-by-10 spiral notebook that I keep on the desk. Along with writing notes while watching board meetings at home, all the JWC headlines are scratched out there.

Well, we just hit the final page. With our totally unrelated photo of my friend Steph the Barber feeding her emus, let's review the notebook highlights:

— “The only thing you should be losing next week is track of time.” Random quote. I think it’s from the sheriff about the county fair.

— Pine Ridge resident: “My road looks like a quilt.”

— Here’s a note page with a bunch of numbers…24% children in “horrific” poverty…5% rollback…1.79% inc. budget. I’m sure that made sense at the time.

— Headline that didn’t make the cut: “Birdies are safe when I’m on the links.”

— There are no dates on the pages, so I'm not sure when it starts. It looks like shortly after moving to World Headquarters III in late September. I just noticed a phone number with a 727-area code, “transplant center.” Sigh.

— Sales tax notes! These are fun. JK (Jeff Kinnard): “Keep it simple.” Oops.

— Very sad pages. Names of doctors and medications I can’t spell. An Oct. 24 phone call from a Largo hospital and I can’t comprehend a word the other person is saying. I wrote, “severe allergic reaction.”

— Notes for Deb’s obituary. I really don’t think I did her justice, not even close. She was so much more than that.

— “Blogging through the grief process.”

— I actually researched the number of widows and widowers in Citrus County. “Grief has lots of company.”

— Speaking of that, I do a fair amount of online research. I’m not glued to the computer, but my mind wanders into areas of curiosity, so down the rabbit holes I go.

I had an idea one day about how much Citrus County acreage is protected. Commissioners often defend their pro-development votes by noting that Citrus has plenty of protected land. My theory is that much of the protected land is within the Withlacoochee State Forest, which doesn’t help us being squeezed everywhere else in the county.

I’m looking at a note page full of numbers: 773 square miles of land, 166,696 population, 157,429 acres of state forest (41,227 Citrus tract), 1 sq mile = 640 acres. Citrus County is 494,720 square acres. And…that’s it. No idea what I did with all that. 

— I can guess what this is…”Lib Guy-DF-reduce books.”

— Greenprint. “Ways to protect our open space.”

— I sometimes jot down something I want for a blog at the perfect time. I scribbled, “Ferris wheel in every yard” with Betz Farm in mind.

— Several pages working through my taxes. Ugh. Let’s move on.

— A note that’s timely today: This week is ballot qualifying for judges and U.S. Senate. As of Wednesday, we’re looking at one circuit judge contest between Nicole Morris and Lisa Yeager, who narrowly lost a county judge race in 2024. Qualifying ends at noon Friday.

— Charlie Dean notes.

— Holder Industrial Park. “Potential for thousands of jobs.” 

— Headline I liked but didn’t use: “Bait, meet switch.”

— Proverbs 16:18, which led to the headline, “Pride goeth before the blog.”

— “Previous guy.” That’s the term Sheriff Dave Vincent uses for his predecessor.

— Bad headline I didn’t use: “Cementing our Field of Dreams.”

That closes the book on this round of notes. Guess it’s time to start another.

Have a wonderful Thursday, friends.

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