Meet Bob

How is it that a simple question can turn into complete angst? Meet Bob. Bob was born and raised in a very rural part of Idaho. He has definite ideas that will never change. He's also a thinker, and likes to think things to death. And then kill it some more. Just about the time that Bob has thought about a topic that has long since met it's long drawn out death, Bob will think about it some more. And then, when some unsuspecting person asks him a question about The Topic, Bob gets to pull out the loaded shotgun again. Here's an example of one of those moments:

Bob was talking to a guy who works out at Les Schwab today, and the Les Schwab guy asked Bob some questions. Here is how Bob related the conversation to me:

LS Guy: So you haul the county garbage to Southern Idaho, right?

Bob: Right.

LS Guy: So how much does it cost to haul the garbage down there?

Bob: $17.25 per ton, well actually they are giving us a cut rate at $12 per ton, and I haul about 30 thousand pounds per day times 8 per week, times 29 times twenty five, so do the math.

LS Guy: Well one of the County Commissioners came here today and was asking for our support in the concept of the new landfill that is to be built out at Nezperce that will be used for our county garbage. He said this county will be saving millions and millions of dollars, which would then be money to pave every county road.

Bob:(His voice now 2 octaves louder) The proposal for the new landfill says they will charge this county $29.75 per ton, so you tell me how that is saving the county money. It’s just like throwing our county money down the drain for that Lankford guy…you know, the one who murdered that couple years ago. A local attorney keeps having to testify three times per month at $10,000 a time, and for what? They ought to take that Lankford guy out and tie ‘im to a tree out in the woods and have the so called wolves that (quote quote) Idaho doesn’t have, and they can have lunch. That would save the county taxpayers millions and millions of dollars right there.

And that, my friends, is how you solve problems in a rural county in Idaho.