There’s a new forum in town: www.atomiccitytalk.com.

Most of us in the Ridge’s online community found one another through a different online forum, hosted by the town’s daily newspaper. For a few years, it was an arena for spirited discussion on a wide variety of topics — politics, sports, advice, and the kind of general chat that used to occur in country stores, greasy spoons, and barbershops. However, when the original moderator (Shane) left for greener pastures, the quality of moderation began to slide… eventually, to the point where most of us just didn’t frequent the place any more.

I’ve been stopping by less and less frequently since late last Fall. I admit that it’s something I’ve missed; the conversation was intellectually stimulating and often more entertaining than the best stand-up comedy.

Now, there’s a new game in town, and it appears to have all the things I’ve missed about the other one! Topics of the last couple of days span everything from the Gore kid’s 100-mph Prius to the fireworks war… it’s everything that I liked about the old one, and more.

Farewell, Oak Ridger Forums. It was good in the beginning, but we’ve, you know, grown apart, and I need to take a new direction.

Aahhh… the simple joys of summer!  From left, my godson Buzzy, Texas nephew Quarterback, and Gamma show off a little on the tube.

Yes, there is another picture of yours truly on a slalom ski, but when I look at it, I see every potato chip, ice cream cone, and other indulgence I should have bypassed since February.  So it’s not here.

I have to admit, Kingston does the 4th of July right.

Oak Ridge usually has a little longer show, perhaps spends a little more on the ammo, but the community band concert and the fireworks are the extent of it insofar as public activities go.

This year, Oak Ridge had nuthin’ for fireworks.

In Kingston, it was a whole-day gig:  there were food vendors, craft booths, a car show, a bandstand with local performers playing all day, kind of like a smaller version of Secret City Fest and Independence Day combined.  They partnered with a nearby radio station and broadcast music over loudspeakers throughout the park, especially during the fireworks, where the show was somewhat timed to the music.

It really does seem odd to me, given the history of Oak Ridge and the reason we exist at all, that we don’t make a really big deal out of Independence Day.  There should be a parade, food and craft vendors, live music all day long, and the fireworks ought to be displayed over the marina, because it’s both cooler and prettier.

I know we used to do that, and moved it because of the traffic snarls.  But get real — if we can bus people from the mall parking lot to the civic center for Secret City Fest, we could bus people to the marina.  Or, (heaven forbid!) maybe we could all just walk a few blocks; most of us could use the exercise.

Perhaps this year’s glitch exposed some folks to other small-town 4th of July festivities, and just maybe we’ll all bring back some ideas to share for making our own celebration a bit more festive.

There’s more than a touch of irony in our most recent liberty lost: the right to celebrate Independence Day — our very freedom — with a municipal fireworks display, safely launched by the fire department.

Well we could, if we’d remembered to pay off Big Brother for permission first.

It seems that the State of Tennessee has passed a new law dictating that the person doing the show has to be state-licensed, having paid $150 to take a test administered by PSI Examination Services (snide aside: any relation to PSI Probation Services?) and having obtained a permit from the State at least 10 days in advance.

Something happened — or didn’t happen, in this case — and we don’t have a fireworks show.

It’s not a total loss; we’ll go to Kingston and watch them over the lake, which is so pretty, and they have a parade and all that stuff.  I wish Oak Ridge still held the display at the marina, as we used to, simply because the reflection off the water is spectacular.  It would be even better if there were a couple of food vendors (Fro’s Fish and a BBQ place come to mind) and maybe even a beer truck, and if the road were simply closed to traffic for the day.  Everyone could walk.

Sure, it’s a long way, but if we’re going to eat and maybe drink, we should walk.

I’m not looking to assign any blame locally for the snafu, because I honestly believe that the state has overstepped its bounds by requiring local governments — the fire chief, for heaven’s sake — to buy a stupid permit for our local fireworks display.  You know, the public display the thing that keeps most otherwise law-abiding people from shooting off explosives in their back yards and the street, simply because the City puts on a good show. 

Ah well.  At least I can pop Independence Day into the DVD player and watch it yet again.  I never tire of it.

Although most of the Ridge’s better read have already been made aware by bloggers here and there that there’s a new boat in town, I, alas, was in Nashville for the maiden voyage. 

Thus yesterday, RealtorChick allowed me the honor of being the first to actually ski behind the beast.  In the "if you’re going to do it, do it right" category, she supplied me with an honest-to-goodness ladies’ slalom ski for this adventure… the first time I’ve ever used a water ski specifically designed for someone like me.

Every idiot knows that there are differences between men and women; smaller feet (usually), lighter weight (usually), lower center of gravity, etc.  I’ll admit that, slipping into the water, it occurred to me that I’ve only water skied about once in the last ten years, though it used to be a several times per week activity for me.  I was sure that I hadn’t forgotten how, but not at all sure that I still have the strength and poise to pull up on the first try.

But I did.

Dang, that’s the boat to ski behind!  With the rope tethered about 6′ off the water in the center, there’s no difference in crossing the wake from one side or the other, as was always an issue in my ancient little tri-hull craft.  The beast of a motor will put out enough horsepower to go far faster than I was willing to try being as out of practice as I was, but I can still lean out and skim the fingers of my left hand across the water. 

We also planted the idea with the nice folks at the Flatwater Grill that they should prepare for a brisk dockside to-go business; we were the first to have our order delivered to the water, and yum, it was tasty.

Thanks, PunkHP and RealtorChick.  I’ve never known luxury like that on the water.

Delta raced her little car today — it went straight up the ramp, not touching either side, and made it all the way to the top.  That alone puts her in an elite class of racers today.

I don’t know whether she’ll place, but this IS nationals, and it’s her first year in TSA at all.  That  she completed four events is an accomplishment by itself.  I hope that her enthusiasm is not diminished if she goes home without a trophy (which will likely be the case); I hope that I can convey the purpose of this event, which is experimentation and learning.

However, the fact that she received several compliments from the judges lifted her spirits quite a bit.  We learned this morning that they didn’t finalize in Cyberspace… and don’t know why.  That’s one of the things this organization could do better — to provide some sort of feedback to the kids so they know what someone else did better, so they understand what to improve next time.

Even the Transportation event (the little car pictured) isn’t judged on time trials alone; there’s also a notebook which constitutes 60% of the point value. 

In any case, it’s been both fun and educational.  And, since this morning’s BEP Review Committee meeting was canceled (with no notice to us), at least I got to be here to watch the races.

Most of the competitive events here at the TSA National Conference have a finalists process, given the huge number of students (about 4,500) involved.  Generally, the finalists’ lists have been posted within a few hours of the event, so that students may arrange their schedules accordingly.  For example, if a team makes the top 10 through judging of their display and notebook, they then go on to an interview process where the judges ask them questions about their entry.

The event that I coach, Cyberspace Pursuits, is a web design challenge.  The kids spent most of the school year building and perfecting a web page about their TSA chapter; the page was uploaded to the www and the URL e-mailed to the event coordinator about six weeks ago.  It’s my understanding that the judging was supposed to take place two Saturdays ago… but something is wrong.  The results aren’t posted yet… and they’re the only team that isn’t.

Trouble is, the interview is scheduled for 11:30 today, but several of the kids have conflicts — two of the three on the team have conflicts beginning at noon.  IF they make the finals, they would have to be there for the interview promptly at 11:30, skip lunch, and go on to their next events.  At this point though, we have no idea whether there’s a conflict or not.

I won’t even be here to shuttle them between events, as I’m taking advantage of being here in Nashville to attend a BEP Review Committee meeting today with one of our new City Council members, Charlie Hensley.  It’s very nice to have City Council members interested in education issues, so I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to show him around.

Keep your fingers crossed for these kids.  There’s some serious competition around, but it would be nice to make the finals so they have the experience of the interview process.  Most of my team are 6th and 7th graders, so they’ll have another opportunity next year… but we’re still hoping for the best.

One of the many wonders of the Opryland Hotel is the "dancing waters" show in the "Delta" section of the hotel. I didn’t bring a tripod, but managed to capture a halfway decent shot by balancing my camera on the bricks.

Today was a day to oversee the kids getting their exhibits set up, get everyone registered for the competition, and generally make sure all the last-minute details (like going out for duct tape) were managed.

Tomorrow starts the convention and competition in earnest; after the opening session, little Delta has two written exams, 90 minutes each, back-to-back. She’s not worried in the least.

Back home, it’s a relief to know that some of my favorite people are working on a new project — a fun one — that will give the online community in the Atomic City a new gathering spot. It’s too early for detail, but suffice it to say that the days of our having only one market for the free exchange of ideas is nearly over.

Meanwhile, I’m here watching the next generation of inventors and innovators show off their efforts. That’s pretty cool.

Everybody: just breathe.  No more speeches, no more waving of signs, no more antagonism — at least for a little while.

As AtomicTumor said last night: "Time to take the freaking signs down now."

I spent the late morning and early afternoon taking down my signs — feeling intensely grateful that I only put up a hundred or so, as opposed to the thousand that some candidates put out.  I ran into Ray Evans at my first stop (Glenwood Elementary), where he was finishing up his sign collection, having started about 6:30 this morning.  Tom Hayes must have gotten an early start too, because there were precious few of his left anywhere in town.

My sign man still has the list of signs in people’s yards, but those I could remember to check were mostly already down.  I took the ones that weren’t, and hope that everyone else who has one will just put it away.

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HWTFM was (being a numbers geek, much like yours truly) intensely interested in knowing how many people cast single-shot votes in the City Council race.  Given that he hangs with a slightly different crowd than I do in his civic activities — much more in touch with the environmentalists than I am — it seems he’d heard quite a bit about a single-shot undercurrent.

6,414 people voted; there were 16,304 votes cast in the City Council election, leaving an average of 2.5 votes cast in that race per voter.  There’s no way to assess how many cast only one vote, since some may have voted only for two… but it’s enough of a discrepancy for me to believe that there was some of that going on.  In the school board race, the average was 1.6 votes cast per voter.
*  *  *  *  *
Early voting hit a new record this year: 3,005 of 6,414 (46.8%).  However, it was only a 32.6% voter turnout — perhaps high for city election standards, but dismally low overall in my opinion.

For the rest of the day, I will take my kids to the pool, read a book, and prepare a nutritious home-cooked meal for my family — something they haven’t had much of lately.  It’s good to be back to normal.

Delta asked today what commencement means; she knew it was the end of something, but also that it literally means "beginning."

That’s sort of what I feel like tonight was — the end of a reasonably short but rigorous campaign, yet the beginning of a brand new four-year term.  When this term ends, I’ll have only one child left in K-12.

To each of you who voted, wrote a letter, prodded or encouraged me along the way, put up signs, and everything else — thank you very much.  It’s humbling, and I owe you all.

Now, a bit of sleep is in order.