Morning With Bubba

Bubba Starts His Day

It was a sunny morning again and Bubba’s sleep had been interrupted by the phone ringing with that music theme from the old “Twilight Zone” TV show so he wasn’t in a hurry to answer it. That tune only played when someone called who was trying to sell him something he didn’t want to buy.

Everyone, including Rambo, was now awake. Rambo was bouncing around the front door whining. So, Mrs. Bubba got up to take Rambo outside for his morning “watering the trees” exercise. Bubba headed for the kitchen because he knew Rambo was soon going to be DEMANDING his breakfast. His demanding was just whining and grumbling but we knew what he was trying to say. So Bubba proceeded to fix Rambo’s breakfast. When Rambo came back inside he ran right to his dish and the chomping began.

Bubba loaded the coffee pot and hit the start button. Then remembered he needed a coffee cup under the brewer so he grabbed the cabinet door handle and quickly yanked it open… almost. The door came to a sudden halt when it whacked Bubba in the forehead. He shook his head, grabbed a cup from the cupboard and got it under the coffee spout just barely in time.

He looked at his watch and frowned thinking, “8:30? Dang it. I forgot to set the alarm to get up in time for the Ham Radio club meeting again.” They meet every week over at the Home Plate Cafe in one of the side rooms. Then he grabbed his coffee, got dressed, then got on the computer to see what was happening with the forums he monitored. Right away he noticed several postings about the Three For HSV candidates forum attended the night before. They were all good posts mostly complimenting the candidates on a job well-done and it made him smile.

Bubba Reviews the Three for HSV Forum

There was a good crowd at the Coronado Center for the Forum. There were cameras set up to video record everything and microphones set up in front of each candidate as well as two different places in the isles for people to ask questions from the audience. This was a good thing. It appeared the candidates actually WANTED to answer any questions from the audience. He thought it sure was a lot different than attending Board Meetings where the audience gets only one question and only two minutes at the mic whether their questions got answered or not.

Rambo Demands His Treat

About this time, Rambo started whining and pawing at Bubba. Rambo wanted his “Greenie”. The greenies are a doggie treat designed to help dogs brush their teeth. It took a few minutes of crunching to get it broken into pieces so the gnawing and chewing would brush his teeth. You never know what Rambo had been doing to get such bad breath every morning and you probably don’t WANT to know, especially when he is licking your face. Bubba gave Rambo his Greenie and watched him trot proudly into the next room to chew it up.

Rambo Approves of the Forum

Bubba went back to the computer and played more of the video from the Forum. Tom Blakeman was the MC and asked everyone to keep it to one question each for now to give everyone in the audience who wanted a chance to ask their questions. There were several good questions asked and now and then the audience would break into applause. One thing he noticed about the candidates was how they were all three very eager to grab a mic and answer any questions, even some tough and possibly embarrassing questions. The tough ones usually got a LOT of applause from the audience. It was kind of funny when the someone from the audience would ask a question for all 3 of the candidates and they would all 3 grab their mics, look at each other, then in unison say “YES” and Rambo would bark at the video. Bubba looked at him and said, “Rambo, Inside voice” and the barks would turn into grumbling and growling.

While the video was playing, Bubba became very happy because the Candidates really DID want to answer all the questions presented to them. The only answer of “I don’t know but I’ll find out” was about the POA budget for the outdoor pool project, and it was explained as not having access to the pool bids and no access to itemized information in the expenditures column of the budget published by the POA. There were only general categories and no line item expenditures or actuals listed. All three candidates made comments on what good jobs many of the POA employees were doing and how difficult it was for them to do because they didn’t get proper direction without proper goals and objectives set up for them.

Bubba Has Good Feeling About These Three Candidates

There were many tough questions asked about the scrambled Profit and Loss statement, the new budget, the existing management structure and the Village outdoor swimming pool. Almost everyone agreed they wanted an outdoor pool but some wanted it “NOW” and others wanted to wait until after the budget crunch we are in was resolved. But without having the line item expenses identified it was impossible to tell when the budget would allow this expense. All three candidates did a magnificent job with their responses. I won’t go into details about what the Candidates and audience members said because it would take hours to cover it all. However, you can get this information from the video posted at:  Vote Three for HSV Forum. After the meeting was over Rambo was grinning. Bubba had a good feeling about the steps these candidates wanted to take to get the P/L statements, the Budget and the pending projects straightened out and properly prioritized. Bubba was FINALLY feeling warm and fuzzy about the future of the Village.

Rambo Surpises Bubba

Bubba thought Rambo should have really good breath now because he had to give him at least three more Greenies to keep him from barking during the discussion of the outdoor swimming pool. Bubba also noticed that Rambo’s tail was wagging while he barked and grumbled during this discussion. Rambo liked it.

After the video finished, Rambo was looking at Bubba with that, “Gimme a cookie” look on his face, so he smiled and patted his lap and said, “Rambo, come give Daddy a big hug”. Rambo jumped up into his lap and started licking Bubba’s face. He laughed until he took a breath and was staggered by Rambo’s breath. “ACK,” he said and Rambo jumped off his lap heading for his safe place under the table. Then he looked at the bag of Greenies and discovered he had grabbed the wrong bag out of the pantry. Right there on the bag it said, “Doggy Fish Jerkey!” Bubba held his breath and raced to the bathroom to wash his face.

Be sure to check out this stellar video. I hope you enjoy it as much as Rambo and I did.

Regards,

Bubba/Frank, and Rambo

Bubba McGillicuty aka Frank Shears (Staff Writer at Hot Springs Village People)