respublica

Kahoks to DC

Last week one of the Collinsville High School classes took a tour of Washington DC. What was fun for me was our daughter Katie who works for the senate, gave them a bit of a tour.

This sums it up around here

I came across this picture the other day. I have come to really like a man who has a Facebook page filled with amusing and funny, out of the ordinary posts. The page is named, "Life of Fred Math (Fan Club)".

Well worth seeing what he puts up during each day. Here is the one which seems like home and so much like Dale.

Popular baby names in 2022

The state of Virginia's Vital Records Office has published the list of that state's 15 most popular boy and girl baby names for last year. This is interesting for the most part to see how our culture is reflected in newborns. Are the babies being named for movie stars, sports stars, politicians (no), or anything else.

The most popular boy name was Noah and the girl name was Charlotte.

The other boy top 15 were: James, Liam, William, Henry, Theodore, Oliver, Elijah, Levi, Benjamin, Owen, John, Jack, Asher, and Lucas.

The girls list: Olivia, Ava, Amelia, Emma, Harper, Evelyn, Eleanor, Sophia, Elizabeth, Lilly, Abigail, Riley, Nora, and Chloe.

I have no idea if Missouri or Illinois keeps track of these things but it might be fun to know.

Highway ladders are still a thing

A couple of years ago, KMOX radio traffic copter reporter, Rodger Brand noticed frequent ladders and mattresses along the highways. He decided it was time to start counting them up with the year's total in December. It turned out to be fairly large numbers of these things which could be a real danger to other drivers. By doing this he hoped drivers who hauled these items would pay attention to securing them safely.

Although he doesn't do this anymore that I can tell, I always keep this in mind when we are on the highway near trucks or cars with mattresses or ladders hooked up to their vehicles. We give them a wide berth.

So today I read this from a friend of ours: "Beware of unsecured ladders that fly off pick-up trucks as you’re driving on the highway. 3 Hours later, & 2 damaged tires, we’re headed home."

This comment brought me right back to Rodger Brand. And, yes, be watchful as you are driving near people with ladders or mattresses or couches or whatever attached to their cars or trucks.

 

 

One memorable weekend

Dale's mother passed away early last week and her funeral was in Chicago Heights on Saturday with a Friday visitation. All in all it was a beautiful couple of days as many many people came to share their memories of Norma with the family. The service was a testament to her faith and a witness to us attending. One of the things which stood out to me was seeing all the relatives, especially the great grandchildren.

Our grandsons were a joy to behold as they took part in each thing with composure, helpfulness and interest. It turned out to be a blessing in many ways.

But now we are home and of all things I suddenly decided our stove top really needed a good cleaning. What a weird thought after the past few days. It is stainless steel and the cook top need some work with hardened grease and food. Not terrible, but could just not stop looking at it. This got me to Google to find the best way to clean and the most common answer was Dawn dish soap in a bowl of hot water. Then take a cloth of some type, swish it in the soapy water and then lay it on top of the greasy areas. Leave it for some time and the wipe off. 

Seriously, this worked, worked fast and did the job. So glad it did not take all day.

Odd things go on after an emotional and sweet time. I needed to do something constructive. Also off the Wild Birds Unlimited to get more hot pepper bird seed. Looks like we may have snow tomorrow.

Here we go again Highway 40

Back in, I think, 2007, MODOT closed a large stretch of Highway 40 (64) for construction and replacement of some bridges. This did not end until 2010. We lived in Clayton those years and travel was tiresome. We rejoiced with thousands of other drivers when this was completed. Now MoDOT is hoping to close Highway 40 from Kingshighway to Jefferson to repair or replace 13 bridges which cross the highway.

According to MoDOT the bridge roads are in bad repair and need replacing. Highway 40 is a major east west road through St Louis and shutting down that stretch is going to be 2007 all over again. I've had to head back east to Collinsville from Concordia Seminary several times recently, mostly during the afternoon rush hour and the streets entering the highway are packed. Closing those miles is going to make the surface streets a nightmare once again.

It's possible to make a way to I-44 to downtown and back, but it won't be easy.

A Panic Inducing Bridge

This is one of those "I never knew this" articles. Denmark has an 8 kilometer bridge connecting Copenhagen to the Swedish city of Malmo. That is almost 5 miles. What makes this different is that the end of the bridge becomes a 4 kilometer tunnel under the Flint Channel. That is 2 and a half miles. It looks beautiful, but I am not sure I could relax driving under the sea.

Photos at the link.

 

Something good for the Fridge

I'm not much for buying every single, supposedly great, for the home. But I am seriously considering by these refrigerator shelf mats. They can even be cut to the size of your shelves as well as being easy to clean. How many times have I laid something in the refrigerator and got drips which dried on to the shelf making it difficult to clean. Often this meant taking out the entire glass shelf to wash, or being bent over trying to do it in place.

So I am heading to Amazon this morning and get some of these.

Illinois is number 1

Sometimes being number one is not a good thing and this title for Illinois is in that category. "Three Illinois Cities Among the Worst For Bed Bugs!

The Three cities are Chicago, Champaign and Peoria. Chicago is number one overall. Not really something to brag about.

Word of the Day

I did not realize the Merriam Webster Dictionary people put out a Word of the Day with definition. Today's Word is Countenance. We all probably know what this means, "facial expression" or some look on the face. But a joker added another definition in another place.

"We were curious how many insects were in the colony so we spent the whole day countenance."