Welcome to Winston-Salem

The first person to welcome us to the great City of Winston-Salem today was Bert Gutierrez, a reporter with the Winston-Salem Journal. It was a bit strange, actually. Stacie and I were playing with the boys on our bed and I decided to get up. I looked out the window and saw a car parked in the driveway that I had never seen before. So I went down to take a look and quickly discovered that no one was at the door and no one was in the car. My "spider-sense" tingled a little bit, so I grabbed my trusty sidearm and walked out to see what was going on. And I found no one. That got me a little freaky, so I ran back inside thinking someone had gone in the back door. Nothing. So Stacie and I walked back out and a guy comes running down the street from one direction and another carrying a big camera came from the other. It was Bert and a Journal photographer, Bruce (Chapman?). What am I famous for THIS time, I thought.

It turns out that Bert was looking to speak with folks in the neighborhood about the annexation issue and how it might affect us in terms of the financial commitment and the services we would receive related to it. He got a call and had to leave for a few minutes, which left me with the photographer, Bruce. I quickly told Bruce that I did not want my picture in the paper. I felt bad, though, because I took this picture of Bruce while we were talking:

I feel a bit guilty about not letting Bruce snap my pic, but he would have 300,000+ looking at mine, and there might be, what... 6 of you? Hopefully this pic did a professional like him good. His sweet Nikon D2H is a bit more superior to my humble Nikon D70, but I think my camera takes great pictures. It's just that I don't take great pictures.

I also told Bruce that I didn't really want to talk about the whole annexation process with Bert. To be honest, I am not nearly as informed as I should be about the matter, even though it affects me a great deal. In the last year I have a.) had a new baby, b.) lost my father, and c.) had a child undergo major surgery. I haven't been on top of things recently unless they were "life and death," such as these events. But after thinking about it a few minutes I decided, "What the heck?"

Bert came back and Bruce took off. Bert seems pretty quiet and unassuming - good traits, I imagine, for a reporter. I shared with him that I don't feel any different today than I did yesterday, which was a typical response he had been receiving. I also shared with him that, more than anything, the annexation is two things. First, it's an inconvenience due to needing a new roof, a new central air unit, and having 2 grand in Gabe's medical bills staring down at me. I really can't afford to save up, as Mayor Joines recommends, for the lump sum payment on my taxes to the city nor the fat payment I will have to pay for the sewage line to the utilities folks. At least not without having to put more important needs off longer than I should/need to.

Secondly, it is a big expense for nothing different. I have a septic tank that works fine. Why do I need to pay for a sewage line in my front yard just because my next door neighbor wants it? I see the Sheriff's deputies in the neighborhood often enough. Will I see the Winston-Salem police any more? I doubt it, being on the edge of the city. I have a fire house right up the street from me. I already have city water, and I pay them for it each month. The guys with Ernest garbage were on time every Monday morning. I will, for all intent and purposes, be paying more than I was before for what I truly believe will be equal or even less service. That bugs me.

Bert was gracious with me despite my being uninformed on several issues. I certainly agreed with him on one point that had been brought up in the paper before concerning people with 25 feet of road frontage in a cul-de-sac paying far less than their neighbors up the street with 100 feet of frontage. That doesn't seem fair now does it? And my neighbor, who asked the city for the sewage hook-up, is the cause of our having to have it. Everyone on our street above him will have to pay for the lines. No one below him will have to worry about it. What a good neighbor. And he doesn't even live there! It is one of several properties he owns in the county according to the Forsyth Geo-Data Explorer tax record system.

I chatted with Bert a bit longer and asked him if I could snap his picture for my blog. He was reluctant to be in my blog, which was OK. He didn't know me from Adam. So we said our goodbyes and he left to search for more to the story. A few minutes later Bert returned and told me he felt bad about the possibility of using me in his story and not letting me put him in my blog. So I snapped this pic of Bert and his car:

I like that Bert. He stuck around a few minutes and we chatted about how we both have three boys and about his being fairly new to the area. He was genuinely a nice guy. Here's to hoping he doesn't make me look like a "dufus" in the morning paper!

UPDATE: Bert was in the neighborhood this evening and saw my wife in the driveway. He told her that he looked at his map wrong and it appears that the opposite end of the street (the lower half, not us in the upper half) will be the ones who get the sewage lines. Not us. Whoo! I hope he is right. It would be a bit of a consolation in the matter, and save me a few bucks while we are at it! Thanks, Bert! You are alright!