A little bit about a lot of things:

• Setting the record straight.....A story appearing last week on Newman’s proposed water and sewer rate increases did not fully reflect future-year sewer rate hikes built into the plan.

Notices of the planned rate hikes were mailed last week to residents and property owners, who have the opportunity to protest the increases.

As a reader correctly pointed out, the rate hike of roughly 25 percent planned for this year would be followed by a 15 percent increase in 2009, and 3 percent hikes each of the following two years. It was incorrectly reported in last week’s story as a series of 3 percent increases over each of the next three years.

The bottom line, though, is that the city’s proposal will increase the monthly residential sewer rate from its current $24.43 to more than $37 as of July 1, 2011........if my math is right.

The city is proposing increases in its water rates as well. Plans call for a 25 percent increase in the base residential rate and an increase of about 33 percent in rate paid for every 100 cubic feet of water used in excess of the 400 cubic foot base.

If all those numbers give you a headache (and those are only a tiny sampling of the various ratepayer categories listed on the notice) you’re not alone.

I hate numbers.

• The holidays are certainly a special time of the year, but they can also be a challenge in the newspaper business.

We have to shift our production deadlines, sometimes substantially, in order to accommodate Christmas and New Year’s. Some years the changes are minimal, but with the holidays falling on Tuesdays this year we essentially had to push our production schedule up by two days each of the past two weeks.

As a self-confessed creature of habit, I do not always deal well with having my usual routine disrupted.

I realized as we went through the holiday season, though, just how deeply those habits are ingrained.

Our weeks are not business as usual, Monday through Friday.

My week tends to revolve around Tuesdays. That’s our typical production day, when everything for that week’s newspapers has to be in and ready to be paginated and, in turn, go to print.

Each day has its own character.....while sometimes frantic, Tuesdays are followed by a relatively slow day on Wednesday. That much needed opportunity to slow down, regroup and start planning for the following week is followed by days that grow increasingly busy as the following Tuesday approaches.

When “Tuesday” falls on Sunday, it’s like the natural order of things is turned upside down.

But I didn’t realize just how oriented I have become to that typical schedule until last Monday – the day after we had put the Christmas week paper to bed – and and I walked in the door fully thinking it was Wednesday, to the point of briefly wondering why the heck NFL Sunday game results were in that morning’s sports section.

Much as I enjoy the holidays, I think it’s time to get back to a normal schedule.....

• One benefit of paying bills on line: You don’t have to remember to write “2008” instead of “2007” on the check. That’s a bonus.

• A Christmas gift from a co-worker graces my desk, offering words of workplace wisdom to ponder as we head into 2008. A sampling.....

“Everything can be filed under ‘miscellaneous’.”

“Don’t be irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.”

“If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.”

“If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”

“There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but there is always enough time to do it over.”

“Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

And my favorite.....”If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No sense being a damned fool about it.”

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