Wednesday, March 5, 2014 | MyConnection 3A
Community Connection
Time for February to disappear Like any business, there are days when you hear the expression “I’ll be glad when this day is over” a lot around here. Personally, I am glad February is over. The Little Black Dress does not like the term “hate,” so let’s just say I am not fond of February. As in the whole month. Because if something could go wrong, it did. We’ve already explained about those two blank pages where t he spor t s sec t ion was supposed to go. In a nutshell, our plate maker, which burns pages onto metal plates,
which are then put on the press, decided it didn’t want to play anymore. And so we were forced to run those two blank pages. I am not fond of February. Next up was a newsprint shipment. Now newsprint is pretty important for a newspaper because that’s basically what it’s all about. No newsprint, no print edition. Pretty simple. Now newsprint comes in huge rolls that can only be moved by a forklift. And it comes in two sizes - a full roll (equating to two full pages opened up or 25 inches wide )
JOHN WINTERS and “dinkies,” (a single sheet 12.5 inches wide) We got our shipment at the first of the month. The rolls are wrapped in brown paper, and to save space, two dinkies are packed together. In other words, it’s hard to tell whether a roll is a full roll or two dinkies until you open them up. This becomes important. So we are going through the daily allotment of newsprint without any problems. But pretty soon the press guys open up a roll and it’s two din-
After the horror Last week found me racing against the clock to finish my column before an ice storm took out the power. Here’s where I left off … … Right in the middle of a prepositional phrase, I heard a distant “craaack” as an icecovered limb fell, possibly on a power line near me. Another minute, another “craaack.” The lights flickered. My heart skipped a beat. As the third “craaack” echoed across the nearby creek I looked out the back window and saw a huge sweet gum tree begin to dance. It shook, it shimmied, it groaned, squeaked and tottered. Then it started leaning right toward the house. The lights flickered again. My heart raced. So did my digestive system. Another flicker, longer. I forced myself to look outside. The nightmare had started. The sweet gum was falling, huge, ugly, ready to crush anything in its path. The End was near. And I could only watch as it ... Didn’t do a thing. Like a limp-spined politician testing the winds of public opinion,
the tree didn’t commit to falling — or anything else. It just leaned over and leaned back. Period. End of tree story. Beginning of icy nightmare. Or what passes for an icy nightmare in 2014. The power went out. The house was cool. We wore (lots of) extra clothes. The water was off. We drank bottled beverages. The oven was dead but gas stove burners heated bottled water for coffee and tea. W hen t h i ngs got rea l ly uncomfortable, my wife and I sat in the car, turned on the heater and were toasty warm in minutes. We got our news on the car radio. It didn’t sound any better than the TV version. After dark, candles were OK, flashlights were better. Small lights that attached to book covers and cap bills provided plenty of reading light. The morning after the power went out, the ice started to melt. By noon the roads were clear and stores were open. Power was being restored rap-
ALEX mcrae idly. Except on our street. Valentine’s Day dawned. The power was still out but our love blazed like a, a … whatever. We exchanged gifts in the car with the heat blasting away. Power was finally restored. It was g reat to have heat
kies. They check another roll, same thing. Best we can tell, the paper mill switched our order. We got way too many dinkies and not near enough full rolls. I am not fond of February. We a re now i n wh at i s known as “slight panic mode.” We trade 12 rolls of dinkies for six full rolls with the Fayette newspaper. We are still cutting it close. But we aren’t too worried. We had a shipment coming, set for last Thursday. On Wednesday of last week, the ice storm hit. And that storm knocked out anything and everything in Augusta, where our paper mill is located. And the paper mill informs us they have no idea when we will get our next shipment. They have no power, trucks can’t get in or
out. I am not fond of February. We are now in “slightly more panic mode.” It’s kind of tough to print a paper without, you know, paper. So we also went into “total conservation mode,” meaning we did anything and everything to conserve paper, going so far as to run two dinkies side by side (which is highly unusual.) At the same time last week, we are gearing up to do a double run - printing the next day’s paper as well as the previous day’s, which we couldn’t because of the storm. And I’m down at the warehouse and we all notice it is awfully quiet. Now, even when the press isn’t running, it’s still loud down there. We have four large air compressors that help power the press and inserter machine. The lights are on, but
not the compressors. We have three-phase power going down there and determine one of the phases is out. So we have two dailies to print and we’re getting close to deadline. And we are going to run out of newsprint in a few days. And we don’t have enough power to even run the press or the inserter. I am not fond of February. Long story short, Georgia Power comes to our aid. And honestly, they said the problem was fixed by using a hammer to hit some transformer or something that got stuck down the line somewhere. We got our power restored. We printed the papers. And on Tuesday, we somehow got our newsprint shipment delivered - with about one day to spare. I am not fond of February.
and water again. We turned on T V a nd watched endless — and expected — tales of “surviving”and “toughing it out” through what some insisted was a “Storm for the Ages.” I wasn’t among them. I’ve weathered plenty of ice storms and cold spells and power outages and the short-term inconveniences those events bring. But I’ve never really experienced life-threatening cold for days on end. I know someone who has. Gene Cook was still a teenager when he parachuted into France hours before Allied
troops hit the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Gene’s unit plowed through France into Belgium. That’s where he was a few days before Christmas when the German army launched a last-ditch offensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The fighting went on for weeks during the coldest winter in decades. When they weren’t freezing — some to death — Gene Cook and his fellow GIs were being shelled by German artillery and trying to sleep for a minute or two in foxholes so cold that groundwater froze around the sol-
diers’ feet and legs. Supplies ran short and food was so scarce that Gene Cook celebrated Christmas Eve 1944 with a cup of hot water f lavored with candy. He called it Life Saver soup. Gene Cook survived. He has never forgotten those who didn’t. And he has never forgotten that brutal winter of 1944 and 1945 in the Ardennes Forest. Gene Cook knows what real cold is. I don’t. When the latest ice storm passed through, I thought about him and my winter weather “complaints” melted right away.
Ferst Foundation doubles efforts for children’s literacy By Celia Shortt celia@newnan.com
The Coweta Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy is looking to double its program enrollment this year. “We want to get them (the books) to children as close to birth as possible so they get the full cycle of books by the time they are five,” said Janie Lore, a member of the board for Coweta’s Ferst Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides age-appropriate books to children every month. Their mission is to provide that material for every child in Coweta County under the age of 5. To those who register, they send one book a month per child as well as tips for parents on how to maximize the books for their children. Lore says they send out
about 1,000 books a month now but want to have 2,000 children enrolled and receiving books every month. Their goal is to make sure as many children as possible are ready for kindergarten. To receive a book each month, parents or caregivers should go to cowetaferst. org and fill out the form in its entirety and mail it to Coweta Ferst Foundation, PO Box 336, Newnan, GA 30264. They must have a mailing address in Coweta County to receive their books. If not, they should check to see if their county has a Ferst Foundation and is enrolling children. Once registered, the child or children will begin receiving a book every month at no cost to the parents. The books will continue coming until they turn five.
Solution to puzzle on page 2A
v
yP ewa
avin
g
e cret n o C n alt & llatio h a t p s s n •A ock i R & ding • Gra tes tima s E e • Fre 770-252-8691 • Dri
www.southsidestriping.com
Newnan
I-85 at Bullsboro Drive 770-253-3995