The U.S. Census

Last Thursday even though it was raining, we went to the town 15 miles away for a little beginning of summer party. It was ironic that it was cold and rainy but at least it wasn't snowing. The Lambs had a good time and got lots of treats. The Lambs planted flowers and I won a gift certificate for the meat market. We ate brats there for supper.

On Friday when we opened up our door there was a note from the Census that they had tried to talk to us but we weren't home. There was no date or time on it and we rarely use our front door so we had no idea when they had come. It said we could call from 8am-11pm so we called them Friday night. Yes, they had come on Thursday night. When would we like to meet with them?

We went along with Ram to the pastor's conference so we made the appointment for Wednesday morning at 9. That was a mistake after getting home late on Tuesday. Ram and I got up and dressed and the Lambs were still sleeping when he came.

I was not impressed with the way our census taker dressed. Jeans with holes, an old t-shirt and a sweatshirt. We had the short form to answer for him.

The note that we received in our door said his office was in Shakopee (by the Twin Cities). We had visions of this man getting up at 5am to come out here and meet with us. He told us he was from a town about 20 miles away and he has to try 5 times before they send someone from Shakopee. He said most people in our small town were helpful and one on the city council really helped him a lot. There are very few street signs in our town and very few people have house numbers on their houses. He said just one person from our town refused to talk to him. I thought his job would be easy after that man came last fall with his GPS device and entered everything about our small town in his computer!

We told him we would have gladly mailed the form in if we would have received it. We figured we didn't get a form because we have a P.O. Box. He thinks it is because they were doing work on our sewers in town. But that doesn't make any sense because the sewer work makes it more difficult for the census taker to come to our house instead of just letting us mail it in. Ram's parents said they haven't heard anything from the Census yet this year.

We talked to the Lambs about the Census even though they were sleeping when he came. Lamb 1 was mad that he missed him and refused to listen to me talk about it. The interesting thing was the Census asks about your family on April 1, and Lamb 3's birthday is on April 2! I had to think for a minute since Ram has also had a birthday since then.

I'm looking forward to the census being completed to know how many people are in our town. I'm hoping our town has increased instead of decreased. It is always interesting to tell people that your town has 113 people though!