respublica

Lying down on the highway to end the week

A mattress in the St. Charles area.

Mattresses 40

Ladders 37

This morning I saw a news story on a ladder flying off a truck and right into the window of the car behind it. The car had a dash cam running and caught it all. Very frightening.

Frost free

Eastbound 64/40 near Ballas, a refrigerator was in the lanes. Now this is a bit of highway debris you wouldn't want to come across.

New week, new tally

Mattresses 39

Ladders 36

Ladders are catching up

This is one of those weeks when...

I am having trouble figuring out just what day it is. So many things are being crammed into each day that each day seems two days long. But, yes, it's Wednesday. I'm pretty sure. Today will be no different with the added forecast of up to 45 miles per hour winds this afternoon. After seeing how wind can take down big trees, I'm not comfortable with windy forecasts.

And as an update for this week:

Mattresses 38

Ladders 32

One of each has fallen already this week.

Crowds!

Today is the Cardinals home opener and tons of people are heading downtown for the parade and ceremonies and finally the game. Frankly I just don't like being in large crowds and don't understand how so many people get a kick out of it. By the time the games starts, you'd be worn out. I know the local news will be showing the excited crowds all day long and I'll be thankful we have a tv to watch it all.

But speaking of crowds, this popped up today attached to a story about the Taste of St. Louis coming back to downtown St. Louis after 4 years in Chesterfield. It's a photo from a past Taste of St. Louis downtown.

I just could not do this.

Speaking of Opening Day, this is an awesome Busch Stadium photo taken by the man who does many St. Louis photos with a drone and uploads them to "St. Louis Above" Facebook page.

End of the week numbers

Unless something falls the rest of the day, the final numbers for the week are:

Mattresses 37

Ladders 31

A ladder fell during last evening's rush hour on 70

Another tally

Mattresses 37

Ladders 30

This mattress along I-44 near route 100

I missed a couple of ladders this week and one fell on 64 and a second on 44.

Early morning drop

A ladder fell already this morning on 270 at 55

Mattresses 36

Ladders 28

Morning traffic report

This notice from Y98's traffic reporter, Lance Hildebrand, had me pondering just what the heck this was all about. Seeing as it was in Collinsville I was pretty interested. He said, "Along westbound 55/70 near HWY 159 near Collinsville, a report of a person laying in the grass near the highway."

Also an update:

Mattresses 36

Ladders 27

Ladder parts all over

This morning on 255 at the 55 split, a ladder fell and was hit by another vehicle leaving parts of the ladder all over the lanes. 

Ladders 33

Mattresses 26

Yesterday while I was walking Ferdie near the Collinsville American Legion on 159, a man driving a large pickup truck in the left lane had the tail gate open suddenly and out fell a large tool box and what looked like a huge rectangle of connected car or truck batteries. He realized something fell and stopped in the turn lane while cars coming along behind suddenly realized they didn't want to hit those big steel objects and had to suddenly get into the right lane. The man got out and walked into the left lane and slowly picked up his stuff one at a time and put them back in the truck. He then drove off, I guess confident this wouldn't happen again. 

I told Dale later that we need to make sure our tail gate is locked so that anything in the truck bed wouldn't slide to the door and bang it open. He thinks I'm paranoid, but better safe than making a mess on any highway.