McDonald's restaurants to open at the Louvre

McDonald's restaurants to open at the Louvre - Telegraph

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(photo from Creative Commons)

Je me demande si les pommes frites seront populaires ?

~ John

Will YOUR Stimulus dollars be wasted in Obama and Durbin's home state?

REALLY high-speed rail a better option? - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

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Yes, that's right I said it. Your stimulus dollars could be wasted in Illinois--the home state of President Obama and Assistant Majority Leader, Senator Dick Durbin. Oh and let's not forget to include U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who is also from Illinois. That is, if they have it their way.

Why would I make such a claim? Well, finally I have found a very informative news article about the proposed high speed rail system to be built between Chicago, Springfield, and supposedly to St. Louis. (Please click the shared link at the top). As I read more and more of the article, I found the figures and statistics hard to believe. I worked for several years at a state funded administrative office as a Data/Statistics Specialist, and one thing I will never forget is hearing that "statistics can be manipulated" to help prove a point. Also some known statistics that don't support a claim can just be left out. My disbelief was also confirmed at the end of the article, where I read the readers' comments. Be sure and read the readers' comments at the bottom of the shared link!

As you might know I live very close to Springfield and keep up with all the news there. Our ABC television station is based out of Springfield. It seems like every single day and night for the last several months, this has been in our local news. Most of the local controversy has not been about the wasteful spending on this proposed project, but instead it has centered around the city of Springfield and whether this new set of tracks should go through Third Street in downtown Springfield as the tracks already do now. The City would prefer the proposed new tracks be built along some tracks that are on the east side of town. If the city of Springfield has it's way there would be would a "wrong side of the tracks" section of the city. Actually Springfield already is a much divided city with the east side being the "wrong side." But that's a whole other story! Anyway...

What really makes me angry about this whole thing is the fact the Illinois has been building a new interstate highway--I67 (U.S. Route 67) for over ten years. This project is called Corridor 67 and would be the only north/south interstate highway from the Quad-Cities to St. Louis in western Illinois. The economy of western Illinois would pick up, if the highway were complete. This is especially true in towns like Jacksonville, where east/west interstates (I72) would cross with the new I67. I live less than a quarter of a mile from one of the exits. Over ten years ago the state annexed part of my long front yard, taking out trees, ruining my driveway, and making my property smaller to widen the highway out front that is very close to an exit. Back then it was exciting to know that the project would be completed in about ten years. But it is no where near complete.

After the stimulus package was approved, the Illinois governor had a website created to allow the people of Illinois to see how the state is spending the funding received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus package). When the website Recovery.Illinois.gov was created, anyone could make suggestions on how to spend the money. As a citizen of this state, I submitted my request that some of the money be used to finish Corridor 67. In a matter of days I received an email saying something like, "we're sorry, but only 'shovel ready' projects are eligible for these funds." Finishing this project is not "shovel ready?" I beg to differ!

This proposed high speed rail project certainly is not shovel ready! They don't tell you about all the little details like how lots of overpasses will have to be built in all the cities that the 220 mph trains will travel, how a great number of farmers will lose land, and lots of new crossing bars will have to be built. Not all of these "extras" will be funded by the stimulus money either.

U.S. Route 67 is the route we always take to and from St. Louis, but it is not completed. We can drive on it south for about thirteen miles and then it merges to the old two lane highway running through several small towns full of stop signs, stop lights and a very slow speed limit. Most of the unfinished expressway between Jacksonville and Alton is in Greene County. Once you are out of Greene county, the road again becomes a divided four lane highway almost, but not quite to the Missouri border.

Heading north from Jacksonville to Quad-Cities (Davenport, Iowa area) the situation is the same. Part of the way is two lanes and part of the way is four lanes. As far as I know, there are no immediate plans to finish this project any time soon. In March, the Associated Press reported that the state of Illinois had a budget deficit of over 11.5 billion dollars. So why isn't the stimulus money being used on finishing the highway? Well, just go back and re-read my first paragraph and you will find your answer. How many decades will it take to balance the Illinois budget anyway? Nobody knows. Using the stimulus money for the highway just seems more logical, since we already have Amtrak from Springfield to Chicago.

As you can imagine, this is not a very safe highway to drive on--especially at night or in bad weather. Semi trucks use the route more and more and I'm sure each time they must think, "surely the highway is finished by now." But the highway is not finished. Earlier in the year a semi truck killed a pedestrian on this highway. According to the police report, the semi driver was negotiating a series of curves in the dark early hours, when he struck the pedestrian. No citations were issued and there were no witnesses. Some people think it was a suicide, but whatever the reason, one thing is for sure. If I67 were complete, it would not have happened, because the new highway would not be going through the tiny town of Carrollton.

But they want to build a whole new set of train tracks to Chicago just to save a little bit of travel time. Like the title of the link says "REALLY--high speed rail a better option?" This state needs to get it's priorities in order. Of course, that's just my humble opinion.

~ John

Pumpkins from our garden

Here's a couple of photos I took last week of some pumpkins we grew. There are a lot more, but I haven't had time to take some more pictures. Also all my gourd and mini-pumpkin pictures came out blurry, so I don't want to show those! Hopefully I will have some better pumpkin pictures soon.

White Wedding

It's been a long cold day. One of my friends did attend the wedding reception last night, but she did not stay long. She said they did have some hors d'oeuvres, but didn't see anyone eating. There were no table decorations, except the candle lanterns provided by the reception hall. She said of course, with free beer there would be a crowd! I haven't heard about the "wedding celebration" at the church yet. The two grooms forgot to pick up their boutonnières, and some kid came rushing in at 2:00 to pick them up, so I guess the celebration got off to a late start.

I'm over it and wanted to lighten things up with a wedding video! You may have already seen this earlier in the year on Boing Boing. If not, it is fun to watch. Well, I also have always been a big fan of Billy Idol and a long time ago (80's) I was Billy Idol for Halloween! I got a spiky haircut just for the occasion. I didn't bleach my hair, but I did have white temporary color on it!

Rambling Thoughts

Blame it on facebook! Or blame it on the rain, blame Canada (just kidding--love Canadians)! I didn't realize I hadn't posted anything in five days. Sorry! It's true that I have spent a lot of time on facebook, I can't really place blame on any one thing for not making a blog post until now. As you probably guessed, I have been busy! Oh yeah, if you ever read my "about me" info and wondered what "sometimes rambling thoughts" were, well now you know!

We still haven't harvested all of our pumpkins yet, but have several piles in the weed filled pumpkin patch. Actually, Ron cut all those pumpkins free and never told me or asked for help. I was hoping we would've had a frost by now so that the weeds and vines would have withered enough to see where all the pumpkins are at! It has been chilly, but not cold enough for that.

Since Fall is one of my favorite seasons, I've also been decorating the house with some Fall decorations. But as I'm sure you know, you can't just decorate over dust, you must clean first (not one of my favorite chores)! I'm still not finished! I also have a lot of Halloween decorations and will put some of them out. I love my artificial jack-0-lanterns! They make such neat night lights! My grandkids loved them and I would add to the collection each year. I'm afraid putting out Halloween decorations will only make me sad, since my grandchildren live so far away. I miss them terribly!

What I need to do is get my ass in gear and have an adult Halloween party! I started writing about this and it led to three paragraphs, so I deleted it and saved for a future Halloween post! I will tell you about some of my most memorable Halloweens. In the meantime, you might want to start reminiscing and put something on your blog about Halloweens past and your plans this year--if you have any.

I have a gay wedding to attend this Saturday, so I've been stressing about that too. What do I wear? Rather, I wonder if I can get away with wearing dark jeans with my nice suit jacket and tie? I wonder if I have any dark jeans that aren't too tight! Should I buy a gift? If so, what? The guys already got married in Iowa, but are having a "celebration ceremony" at their local church here and there is no reception. I've asked three people if they thought we were supposed to bring gifts! Nobody really knows! The couple have been together for a long time already, so it's not like they need anything! Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions about this?

OMG, I've had so many "anniversary" dates since the end of August. And when I say "anniversary" dates I'm not talking about happy ones. Some are death dates, and others are other types of "loss" dates. I know that sounds weird, but let's just say there has been a great number of dates that were sad. On those dates, and sometimes for days before and afterwards I would just be in a funk; not really wanting to do anything. Pathetic, I know. There's just so many people I have lost one way or another in September that it has been a little over bearing.

I did have some happy days in September though, especially when Ron and I celebrated his birthday (which I blogged about).

We have had so much freakin' rain this month! On one day last week, we got 4.76" in one day. Now it is supposed to rain for three days straight. All that rain means lots of mosquitoes, gnats, and even soybean aphids. The three kinds of annoying insects at once are like killer insects and they will bite! The gnats even leave big red welts that hurt and itch for like two weeks. Oh great! Not! The only good thing good about this weather that is that I will get to wear my new jacket that I LOVE! YAY!

I am still at work (came in late), but I am finished with my billing and reports. I'm afraid with my unreliable Internet connection at home, that I may not be able to log on at home. I have taken quite a few new photos that I can't wait to share on the blog. Some are of the things I spoke about above and some are ... well you'll just have to wait and see!

Until then, how about some comments!? I covered a lot here, so maybe you have something to say about one of my rambling thoughts! Until next time...

~ John