respublica

At the end of another week

Mattresses 39

Ladders 33

Last year at the end of the first 3 months of 2017 the tally was:

Mattresses 32

Ladders 43

 

Finally talking about Missouri lane lines

 At last one of St. Louis' local news outlets did a story on how highway lane lines disappear when the pavement is wet and also dark. I've harped on this for years, at least since 2012. Driving in the midst of traffic and not being able to see any lane lines is one of the scary parts of living in this area and if other states can use paint which stays bright why can't MoDOT. So I was amazed and thrilled that KSDK had a news story last night on just this issue. They linked it to Facebook as well where so far there have been over 1000 comments, 541 shares and 2.9 thousand likes. Glad to finally see this issue, which obviously affects so many, brought to light...so to speak.

Back in 2012 I put up a post on lane lines on Washington DC highways, lines which were so bright and clear it was heart-stoppingly beautiful to those of us not used to having visible lane lines. It was so astonishing that while Dale drove I took a 15 second video of how the road looked and put it on a blog post. Take a look and see if you aren't envious.  The way YouTube has me set up is that after this short video another of my videos will show up. Just ignore if you don't want to see family videos.

KMOX, Charlie Brennan and Dale

Dale will be talking with Charlie Brennan on KMOX at 10:45 this morning. Charlie has long been a booster of the seminary and a great guy.

Probing the sun

When it comes to space exploration the sun is the one place we probably all figured no one would go. But we were wrong. Stories today announce that NASA is readying its Parker Solar Probe for a mission to touch the sun.

Longtime CBS White House correspondent, Mark Knoller, added to this story by quipping, "Reminds me of the old joke, its easier to travel to the sun if you go at night."

Glitter Beer

Beer fans have had myriad choices in recent years. Locals have begun their own brewing, often opening up brew houses which bring in lots of customers. No longer are our choices the big 3 in beer, AB, Coors and Miller, now we have ales of all kinds, IPA's, wheat beer, fruit beer and on and on. Go to any grocery or liquor store and the beer variety is amazing in its creativity. How many new ingredients can be used in a new beer?

Here is the latest beer invention and it's a bit over the top-Glitter Beer. Like many breweries in the country St. Louis has at least one trying Glitter Beer, the 2nd Shift Brewery. Their premise is "Were not going to pretend, we’re SUPER fascinated by glitter beers. Not enough to make a whole batch of it, but enough to do one keg of it!"

So what is the glitter? Do you go to MIchael's craft store and buy a lot of glitter? Well, no. Here is one description of beer glitter from the Dirty Bull brewery in North Carolina. "We use only the best, locally harvested glitter from free-range, grass-fed raised unicorns. But actually, it’s a food grade, FDA-approved dust that brewers can add to the keg as they fill it with beer. "The glitter is called Luster Dust, which is made from sugar, maltodextrin and mica-based pearlescent pigments. The final result is nothi"g less than enchanting.

I think they were pulling our leg on the unicorn thing.

 

The fashion trend of the spring

Yesterday afternoon I'd finally had it with being stuck inside during all the unrelenting rain and decided to take a walk around the Galleria. I haven't been to the Galleria or any mall since before Christmas so was interested in what was what. First of all skinny jeans and slacks for women are everywhere and if they weren't the skin tight style they were close with the very narrow opening through which you have to squeeze your foot in and out. This type of pant was designed by sadists. If it wasn't skinny jeans and slacks it was a sort of cargo type with pockets all over. Or yoga tights. Every other female out yesterday was in some sort of yoga tight.

But what really stopped my in my tracks was the racks and racks of flowered dresses with manikins right up front displaying them. I mean, really flowered dresses, something like mid 1950's curtains. Flowers are now on blouses and skirts and pants. Who knew?

I love flowers, we plant lots of them. But not everyone can pull off dresses like this.

Lost dogs

I follow several Facebook pages which deal with local lost dogs. The Lost Dogs of Madison County, Collinsville, Clayton etc all let dog owners publicize their lost dogs and hope that someone will find them. Some stories are just heartbreaking like Summer, a service dog who was in a car accident with her owner last week and was so frightened she ran away. This is in Collinsville and everyday someone has an update of a sighting, but no one can catch her.

This morning a post related that she was seen at 255 and Simpson Avenue which means she's traveled west from the accident site and is now near the racetrack.

If ad blockers don't block what's the point

Sometime back I was so frustrated with ads which slowly covered news stories I was trying to read that I downloaded an ad blocker to avoid this. I did some checking with web pros to see which app would do the best job, picked one, and hoped for the best. Frankly, it just doesn't always stop the full page ads which cover the stories. Some news outlets must have found a way to end run around those blockers. It seems to be the major news sites which do this the most and I've begun merely reading the headlines and forgetting about the actual story.

Some, including the Post-Dispatch, make readers answer a survey question before the story appears and the question usually has nothing to do with anything so I just close the site out and move on. As to the constant ads, who of us really clicks on them? So what is the point?

Get ready for the bridge to get lifted

I have to remind myself not to be tempted to go into Illinois this coming Saturday as MoDOT will be picking up and moving the four eastbound lanes on the Poplar Street Bridge 9 feet to the south. The Post-Dispatch calls this an unusual maneuver and I'd have to agree.  If you've been on that bridge lately you'll have noticed it's just crammed with work of all kinds.

This means the access to eastbound Poplar will be shut off sometime Friday at Jefferson. MoDOT recommends going over the Musial Bridge which means taking surface streets well before that to get to Tucker along with hundreds of others. We'd like to be in Collinsville for Easter church, but who knows at this point.

Maybe there will come a time when drivers can cross from either direction without maneuvering through constant work. I dream of this.

If you could pick the worst place for a ladder to fall

It would be on 64/40 between Big Bend and McCausland. And that's where one fell this morning during the rush hour. And, a mattress also this morning fell on 64/40 near Highway K as well as another on 170 near Olive. And, busy morning, a ladder 64/40 just east of Lindbergh.

Mattresses 38

Ladders 32

What's going on today with people not fastening their ladders and mattresses securely?