respublica

Advice from the state police

This information was put out by the Illinois State Police:

"If you’re traveling on the roadway and you see a large object in the lane that may cause a crash, you can call 911 to report it. For instance, a pallet in the middle of the lane of the roadway.

Or a hot tub.
Or a refrigerator.
Or a ladder.
Or a couch.
Or a patio furniture set.

If it is a large object that can cause a huge crash, call 911. If it’s a dead squirrel, let it be and don’t call it in....a dead squirrel is not an emergency."

I was glad to see this even with the bit about a squirrel because it will hopefully have drives alert to things that could turn up in their driving lane. Also, the comments to this on Facebook were interesting and scary at the same time, making me not want to drive at all. Here are some of the things those commenting came across while driving the interstates.

A full size wooden swing set standing upright in the middle of the expressway

Tires...of course

A five inch wide full length fire hose in the left lane

A window air conditioner

An open suitcase with its stuff flying all over

Wood pallets

A dishwasher

A hot tub

A recliner

And on and on including endless mattresses and ladders.

Be wary out there everyone.

I'm low on storage

My iPad often brings up a message that I'm perilously close to using up all my alloted storage. I've had this iPad for some years and have no intention of spending anywhere from 400 to 800 dollars on a new one. What I've learned is that text messages take up an enormous amount of usable space on the iphone and ipad. By deleting them, a whole lot of space comes back. Also deleting all those emails and especially deleting for good the already deleted emails brings back even more space.

My concern with deleting texts is that many of them contain photos family members sent me and if I don't want to lose them for good, I have to take the time to get them off and onto a computer before deleting. This week I was so uninterested in going through all that that I just deleted. I figured if the family members sent them to me, they'd still have a copy.

Also, for some reason I've been paying 99 cents a month for extra icloud storage but I have never been able to figure out how to get anything into it. I have 44 Gigabytes available but no way to move anything into this.

But by deleting all kinds of texts and several years of emails I never knew were still on the ipad, I freed up over a gigabyte of extra space.

Seeing discrimination in everything

This out of Gaithersburg, Maryland is a good example of how weird we've gotten. "At many pools, there’s a whistle blown every hour or so alerting everyone that it’s time for adult swim! But if that’s happening at the pool where you live, it could be breaking federal law." So no more adult swim for 10 minutes each hour out in Gaithersburg. 

It seems, according to a spokesman for the local homeowners association, one man who lives in the neighborhood and happens to be an attorney, pointed out that adult swim was discriminatory and so they changed the rules.  Supposedly adult swim is a violation of the Fair Housing Act in that it discriminates against families whereby some members of a family can swim and others cannot.

We've lost our minds. If I had to guess, this attorney had a kid who got ticked off that he had to get out of the pool for ten minutes.

Gardens dry out fast

Yesterday I was doing some more planting around the campus (basil because it's so popular) and I noticed how dry the garden ground was even with the moisture we've had. With high temperatures it doesn't take long to dry things out. So this morning my plan was to get the new sprinkler hooked up in the big vegetable garden next to Sieck Hall. It's kind of an effort dragging the hose from the wall of Sieck, hooking it up, going back and turning it on and then replacing everything afterward.

So hurray. All of a sudden were getting a nice downpour of rain which means not having to go through the sprinkler effort and just leaves it easier to weed later today.

Speaking of sprinklers, what junk they mostly are. Very rarely do they keep working for a whole season. The ones I'm referring to are the oscillating kind which go back and forth or you can set them to do only one side. For some reason no matter how fancy, they quit doing what they're supposed to do after some weeks of use. I"ve googled to find the most reliable sprinkler and as always the reviews will say, "It worked great until it didn't."

And that's the truth. So I decided to get a fairly sturdy one, but I wasn't going to pay more than 15 or so dollars, they just aren't worth going higher. I got this one at Home Depot for 14 dollars, it beat Amazon's price by 6 dollars. It has a metal base and a brass fitting for hose attachment. I'm interested to see how it works, but just as happy to put it off for another day. Thanks rain!

Actually the best sprinkler is the small flat one like this:

We have a couple of these but they do best in small areas not big garden beds. They saturate quickly and last forever and we use them for the flower beds we have circling trees.

 

Same old same old beginning of the work week

Memorial Day may have made this work week which began on a Tuesday, but that didn't stop the ladders from falling. Two went down on local St. Louis roads, one on 70 at Goodfellow and a second over in Illinois on 55/70.

Mattresses 56

Ladders 53

Ladders are catching up big time, must be because of all the construction projects going on these days.

Bikers who read the signs

We had a huge line of people on bikes heading for our chapel plaza this afternoon and as it happened I was standing there watching them head toward me. I was curious to know if they'd read the "foot traffic only" sign and go around. As the lead cyclist got up to me, he stopped and raised his arm to stop those behind him. He then got off his bike and started walking through the plaza. Everyone behind him followed suit. It turns out this was a group of local police and other security types from hospitals and universities. They musts have been riding through the area to acquaint themselves in case they would have reason to be here or other areas in the future.

Everyone was polite and I thanked them all for getting off their bikes and all were very congenial and thoughtful. If only locals were the same.

 

Memorial Day in Collinsville

Lots going on in Collinsville this past weekend. The big news was the official opening of the water park, now under the auspices of the city rather than the now disolved park district. There were food trucks, swimming, bands, and fireworks which wowed the big crowd. I'm very happy about how well done this day was put together.

Then on Monday, there was a short parade and program honoring those who died in service to the country. Quite a few people lined Vandalia street to be a part of this.

Dale and Mayor Miller

Ferdie and I with the mayor

People were really nice with Ferdie, especially giving him some shade in the heat.

Downtown looks so good with the banners recognizing local service people who served through the decades. Each has a photo and times served.

 

 

Getting eaten up by tiny gnats?

This is the time of year when the mean and tiny gnat-like bugs swarm around as you are outside. They bite and leave a terrible itch behind. We've been hit with them every time we go outside and everyone you see outside is waving their hand across their faces to get those bugs away. The problem is the itch, it lasts a long time and is really miserable, often leaving a welt.

But help is on the way. Last year around this time the same thing was happening with these biting gnats and a man from up near Springfield happened to be on the seminary campus and told us the best thing to do to keep them from biting. He said, go out and get some vanilla body spray and spritz it on your exposed body parts and even clothes if you want. It seems these bugs do not like the vanilla scent and will leave you alone.

So we tried this and believe me, it works. If we have that Vanilla spray on, we do not get bit. Some of our guy sem students who work on grounds just laughed when they hear this and had no intention of putting on body spray. But they weren't out helping on landscape for long before getting bit up while those of us with the Vanilla were not, that they changed their tune.

So if you're in the same boat, go get some vanilla body spray. Dollar General has had it, Walgreens, maybe Walmart, Target does. You may have to re-apply if you are outside a long time, but the bottle lasts a long time. And the good thing is, these monsters go away in a few weeks.

A question about Memorial Day

Why is this weekend so big on mattress sales?

End of the week count

We end the week like we began, mattresses and ladders on the highways

Mattresses 55

Ladders 51