This weekend many of us got a taste of what it was once to be home with the session done. I know my colleagues from the far corners of the state suffer the most when this goes long. Jobs wait, or don't wait. Children grow, fields lie untended, yards, families alone for a month longer than the usual stretch of three.
If you look at the Senate calendar on line, it may look like we have a lot to do. Those are almost all bills vetoed by Governor Otter that we are having to pass again. Senate Republicans have held some of these on the calendar, skipping over them, hoping they will slip through after deals have been made so that the bills are not veto-fodder for the governor again.
So yes we are back, after the House left for three days. The seventy or so of them are back there across the muraled hall, bells signalling votes, Republican leaders deeply dug in and preparing to adjourn again. The games and fights go on within all the factions of their party and we stay, longer and longer with no end in sight.