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This is depressing for us in Illinois. The most St. Louis area counties covid cases recently are found in 5 Metro East counties.
What is the deal here Illinois? St. Clair is in 8th place which is somewhat better than the others. Washington County was not listed for some reason and that county is certainly in the St. Louis tv viewing area.
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Just when we relaxed a bit over this Covid worry, here it comes again. The news is all over this virus once again and it is troublesome. Supposedly we who have been vaccinated don't have much to fear. We may get a small version, like a mild cold, but nothing which would hospitalize us. However, we could spread it unknowingly to someone we pass in a store who isn't vaccinated.
What shocks me is how low a percentage of people in many Missouri counties have ignored the vaccine. Our new cottage down in Crawford County is in a county where only 22 percent have been vaccinated. We are isolated from people where we are, but it will take some nerve to go into any store for provisions. And, Crawford is on the cusp of Covid traveling east big time.
Compare this to our own Madison County, Illinois which has 55 percent vaccinated. Not perfect and should be better, but at least it makes us a bit more secure. The comparison to other Illinois counties is interesting. In the Chicago area the percentages are in the 60's percentile. Cook County is 68 percent and DuPage County where I grew up is 75 percent. Here is a link to all Illinois counties.
The lowest counties in Illinois with some in the 30's and 40's are in rural areas. Only one county is in the 20's, Alexander at 20 percent. This place is the southern most country in Illinois, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River, county seat is Cairo.
Because of the new outbreaks, mask mandates are being talked about once again. The Madison County Board recently had a meeting on mask wearing for kids when they head back to school. Because of lots of parental input against any mandate, the board decided to leave this issue to individual school districts.
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MidAmerica Airport near Scott Air Force Base schedules some commercial flights with Allegiant Airlines, a company I'm not really familiar with. It seems their main focus is on flights to and from Florida, Georgia (Savannah), Charleston,Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Punta Gorda. I have no idea where Punta Gorda is but people must want to go there.
The main draw for many, and would be for me, is the ease of getting there and the ease of parking and getting into the terminal. I just don't know enough about Allegiant to feel comfortable. But we aren't going south anytime soon anyway.
Where we live we get a clear view from our back deck of the planes flying into MidAmerica. A few minutes ago, one went fairly low right over our garage. There aren't many each day, though.
And, we also get a good view of Air Force planes coming into Scott. My impression is Tuesday and Thursday are the busiest days for them and we can almost read the markings they fly in so low.
Kind of cool.
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We've been watching the vaccine issuance for some time now and we can't make heads or tails out of how this is being done in Madison County. It just seems like surrounding counties and areas are way ahead of us. We heard to today from someone who is sort of involved that Madison was just overwhelmed and is trying to keep up.
What I read is St. Clair County has vaccine times at several places. Part of St. Louis will be adding vaccines at Walmarts and Sam's Club. Around here? no. Walgreen's and possibly CVS is doing the shots, but when I check I get the notice that nothing remotely near us is doing this.
So, my question is, was Madison slow on the uptake with this? I have friends in the Chicago area, a major population place, and they have had both shots. Same for others in places other than here. It's very frustrating to read news reports that Illinois and even Madison will be extending the list of those who can now get the shots including kids. I mean, come on, those of us who qualified in group 1B have heard nothing except they were overwhelmed and now they will add even more numbers to this list.
We are doing our best to stay safe, staying home except for grocery runs and wearing two masks. But it's getting exhausting not letting our guard down especially when reading the cheers from so many others posting they got their shots.
I do recommend double masks, though. The paper type under a cloth mask feels much more secure. And, oddly, easier to breath.
And one more update I just read from the Post Dispatch. Missouri said it will double the doses to the St. Louis region after local officials complained. Now there's an idea for Madison County.
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We woke up to very cold temperatures and snow. The snow was maybe 2 inches or less, but miserable to clear off in the cold. However one thing never changes in this area and that is traffic reports of one accident after another during the morning commute.
But, since Dale had to drive into Clayton to teach a class today, I was paying more attention to the traffic reports. Almost every report from local news stations mentioned how much better the roads on the Illinois side were than on the Missouri side. Every year it's like this. For some reason MODOT cannot get this winter weather clearing right. Each year I get on here on beg the MODOT people to come over to IDOT headquarters in Collinsville and take a lesson on how to do winter weather clearing.
But they don't it seems and drivers over there pay the price of accidents and sitting in long jams. This is not to say the Metro East has no snow/ice accidents but they are far fewer. It makes no sense.
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According to a senior meteorologist, the snowfall in our area in the Metro-East/St. Louis over achieved. Forecasts before yesterday's snow began falling, was calling for a dusting or as their newly coined weather term predicted, "Mood Snow."
Mood snow. now that's a first. The two-four inches was a surprise to the predictors. The Mood Snow they expected is described as snow or flurries that sticks to roofs, grassy surfaces and parked cars but not the roads. I guess this mood thing is the kind of snow that looks pretty but doesn't force us out to clean walks and steps.
So the snow over achieved its predictions which isn't a surprise around here. And, I see by traffic reports this morning that once again MODOT has not done the best job in getting the highways cleared while IDOT has. Some things never change.
Our birds were really after the seed we put out.
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The Edwardsville Illinois city council adopted a measure Tuesday night mandating face coverings while engaging in almost any activity outside a residence. Such activities include shopping or working at retail businesses; picking up food curbside or from a drive-thru restaurant; visiting a doctor's office; traveling on public transportation; and interacting with customers, clients, patients or colleagues at businesses or places of worship that are open to the public.
And there will be fines, first offense is $25, a second is $50, a third is $100; and the fourth or more are $250. Higher penalties, ranging from $50 to $500, are stipulated for businesses, stores, offices, property owners, managers or operators.
But what I most approve of is: Anyone not wearing a mask over mouth and nose in public spaces in Edwardsville may now be fined.
It drives me crazy to be around people in public places or working in businesses who have their noses uncovered which also makes the mouth part of the mask with a wide open gap. I see this and come into contact with, more people than I can count. So I'm happy to see Edwardsville taking note of the importance of getting the nose covered, not just the mouth.
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Last weekend I began a job we've put off and that is painting the front steps and porch. We've had almost everything else redone since we moved back except the front curb appeal. It was a debate on where to start so I ended that by painting the actual steps a brown color to mirror the cedar siding on the upper dormer. The steps were in worse condition than the actual porch floor. Then I scrubbed down the porch and hoped to get that done the next day, but then came rain.
We decided to paint the stair risers the same color as the house (I watch too much HGTV). We do like that look, though, and it's less tricky walking up them in the dark. I had to find a Benjamin Moore paint store since the color of our house has been the same for decades, Kennebunkport Green. It was that color when we bought it and it has been re-painted at least 3 times over the years.
I found the Troy Ace Hardware sold this paint so off I went. It's been a long time since I've been in Troy and it has really built up. And the Ace was just such a great find. I could have spent half the day in that store. It has so many interesting things to look at and I did a lot of that while the paint was being mixed. The paint guy was super nice. It took a bit of time to spell out Kennebunkport green for him to type into his paint machine computer but his mix was perfect.
I'd recommend them.
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We were mistakenly delivered the Belleville News Democrat newspaper this morning and frankly, it was sad. That paper used to be something of a "go to" paper for many in the Metro East for local news and sports. We used to get a kick out of the letters to the editor and the "sound off" page which shared reader's frustrations anonymously each Monday.
The reporters sent to any number of communities to write up city goings on and we got to know those whose beat was Collinsville. High school sports were given a lot of page time. Today I did not see any local by-lines, most stories were wire stories from the Associated Press. These stories could be read anywhere and had no relation to local readers.
I find this a loss to grieve over. It was also sad when the Collinsville Herald/Journal went out of business. These papers kept us up date on what was happening in our towns and the main news options now are Facebook postings or word of mouth. I wish it weren't so.
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Late yesterday afternoon a mattress hit the road on 143 near Edwardsville.
Mattresses 131
Ladders 127
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