Yesterday’s Town Meeting was a wonderful demonstration of small-town legislative process–residents showed up in unexpected numbers (more chairs had to be found), some families brought children to see how it was done, and when votes were called, people raised their yellow cards as requested by our fearless Moderator. In addition, and on the fluffy side, it was fantastic to see people I hadn’t seen in a year, and meet and greet town safety officials and government officials by name. I think some of us don’t always appreciate the joys of small town. I know I do, having lived in the world’s third-largest city.

While the Owl does not have final counts on the number of voters or indeed a commentary on individual votes, that is not the point of this post anyway. The point is that with a single sentence at the microphone, one resident brought legitimacy to this endeavor. The legitimacy that justifies my 6 am writings on the couch with my dog anxiously awaiting a morning walk, my kids being ignored and getting their own breakfasts, my midnight wake-ups to worry about how I will write the next day’s post, and hurried emails to various folks for help or comments.

“I want to correct an erroneous report in the Weston Owl”

That sentence (to be double-checked on Weston Media when the film is ready) changes everything. Yes, with one remark, this resident has implied that most of my reports are NOT erroneous. Right? “An” means just one. Also, has the Town Crier ever gotten a shout-out at Town Meeting? Okay, probably. Maybe their staff make fewer mistakes. But there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

The Owl would have preferred a shout-out along the lines of “as the Owl so ably reported, though with one small issue”, but feels gratitude that people (besides my mom) are actually reading. The truth is that I am going to get things wrong. In case anyone has missed the irony of some posts, I have a staff of one who writes, edits, researches, and seeks new stories. My liability lawyer lives in Maine and doubles as a friend from college. I have no idea what I’m doing on wordpress.

I do have a great group of advisors and sources who I will not name here without their permission. There are several who will answer questions and correct my posts in the early mornings, sometimes before and sometimes after publishing. Online means I can fix my errors quickly — and I don’t know how some grammatical mistakes and errors always get through. I must fire my copy editor. Also, I do have an email at thewestonowl@gmail.com. It’s on the Contact page. I do not love being wrong, but I will always make it right. And so I will go back through my erroneous report and see where I got it wrong. All joking aside, I do thank this resident for making this all real.

In the last two weeks, the Owl also received two donations to cover help cover costs of website hosting. Yes, that donate link is also on the webpage. As of now, the Owl survives on donations and small mice, but remember the water bills are due. Support local media…and keep us honest.

And that’s my Sunday gratitude: I am now too legit to quit.