Miles and miles of waterways and no where for the water to go

Also: A re-tooled tourism board; touching words from a New Zealand native; wandering the show

Reportedly, my home state of Nebraska has more miles of waterways than any other state. I saw it on the internet ... so it could be true ... seems like it might be.

Regardless, I can tell you there are a heck of a lot of rivers, creeks, streams, channels ... lots of waterways. Some are a couple feet across most of the time. Some are gullies that are dry 99 percent of the time and run like raging rivers one day every other year.

Along with the copious streams, are bridges. The vast majority of them short wooden structures over small creeks, but wide enough and sturdy enough to accommodate a combine.

Flooding can be a problem there. That’s for sure.

The temperature can swing up and down out on the prairies. That’s what usually leads to problems. It will rain hard one day, that night the temperature plummets and you end up with a thick sheet of ice under a foot of snow ... and then in February you get three feet of snow one day, then it’s 70 degrees the next and all of the snow (the heavy kind of snow that holds a lot of water) melts in hours ... and all that water overwhelms the waterways.

So far, all my relatives and good friends are in places above the flood water.

But Nebraska is going to have an insanely large area with infrastructure of all sorts, including Offutt Air Base, to mop up, fix, rebuild.

This part of California understands. We appreciate everyone who has asked about our family back there. Steve Miller is Editor of the Appealdemocrat

* Thumbs Up: It looks like a newly re-tooled tourism board here will get serious about pulling in some business. And it looks like they understand: you don’t need an ocean, the Rocky Mountains, or Disneyland to attract tourism dollars.

A couple years ago we had a great time with some folks at the local Brews, Blues and BBQ celebration (the fundraiser put on by the Early Riser Kiwanis Club). A tourism event? Well a couple years ago we sat next to a couple from Sacramento who read about the party and drove up and had a great time ... and they stayed overnight in a local hotel. We do dozens of parties and festivals -they could attract out-of-towners. Tourism can be come from local festivals, local amenities, local opportunities ... or just simply from being en route from Place A to Place B and a convenient place to stop, eat, fill up, sleep.

It’s time that we got more scientific about it and really marketed ourselves. So kudos and good luck to the Yubasutter Lodging Association .

* Thumbs Up: We appreciated seeing the story about a local woman, a native of New Zealand, who sent a message of hope to our local Islamic Center, after that monster of a person opened fire at mosques in Christchurch, killing 50 people between the ages of 2 and 71 and injured another 50.

Elizabeth Gleeson-preston has lived in Yuba City for 20 years, but hails from Christchurch.

“It’s hard when somebody is just so evil, to kill just for somebody’s cultural beliefs, it’s just not right,” she said.

* Thumbs Up: It’s inevitable that we’ll sooner or later make it to this weekend’s Home, Garden and Recreation Show at the fairgrounds. It’s one of those things we do here that’s bigger than you expect for a town this size. It’s just fun to wander around and see the grand accumulation of goods and services that are offered by an incredibly entrepreneurial bunch of people.

It opened yesterday and continues today (Saturday) and tomorrow, open at from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* Ugh: Three for the price of one: 1. A grandma was talking about her new hearing aid: “It’s the most expensive one you can by. It cost $6,000.”

“What kind is it?” asked her grandson. “It’s 4:15 p.m.” 2. I bought a pair of shoes with memory foam insoles. No more forgetting why I walked into the kitchen!

3. To the thief who stole my anti-depressants: I hope you’re happy.