Lebanon needs you Saturday - (good) weather or not

If there were the perfect weekend of the summer to get away for a little holiday up northern Maine or Downeast this might be it.

Here's the lineup: 81 mostly sunny on Friday, 84 mostly sunny on Saturday and 87 sunny to partly cloudy on Sunday. That's like three of the five good days we get here a summer!

But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

We'll be here in Lebanon, sweating it out, literally, over three budgets that residents rejected last month: Fire and Rescue, CEO, Transfer Station.

We'll be there, and we certainly expect ALL the principals will be, too.

But what is most important is that YOU are there.

The Open Town Meeting is the closest thing in this country we have to democracy in action. When you look at Washington these days, it could be the only thing.

Your town needs you on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Lebanon Elementary School.

Your town needs you to come and have your voice heard.

When turnout is low, bad things can happen and you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

In the few days left, please bone up on your Town Meeting rules.

A primer on rules can be found here.

Print it out and keep it in the bathroom for the next few days. Keep a copy by the nightstand to read to help you go to sleep. Have one in your car so if you get stuck in traffic on Friday with all those folks headed to the mountains or the ocean to have fun you have something to while away the time.

Beyond reading the primer, we urge you to learn all you can about the three budgets, including how much they have risen in the past few years, and why, and consider if they could be run more frugally or not.

Remember, you're the taxpayer, so you're the boss.

But remember what happens when the boss doesn't show up.

I think you know what I mean.