Jim Mathers

Well they opened the new bridge on I 35W in Minneapolis Minnesota today.  It was built to replace the bridge that collapsed last year and killed 13 people.  It’s hard to imagine that something like that could have happened but it did.  One good thing came out of it, it made our federal and state authorities start checking all the other older bridges to try and keep something like that from happening again.  Hopefully it won’t.

A fire engine and ambulance were first across on each side.  In each direction, a line of State Highway Patrol cars was followed by a formation of Department of Transportation construction trucks.  A cluster of awaiting vehicles went honking across for a few minutes, then traffic returned to the more typical of that time of day.  The September 18 opening was well ahead of the scheduled December 24 goal, earning the contractor, Flatiron-Manson, up to $19.6 million in performance bonuses.  Not too bad huh?  Wish I could get a bonus like that for completing a job early but all I get is a ‘good job’ and a pat on the back.  Guess I can’t complain because I don’t have to work as hard as those guys did.

Tags: General Interest, Outdoors, automobile, business, community, male issues, technology, travel by Jim
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Well it’s the first Saturday since schools started and you would think the kids had been held captive all week long.  They’re everywhere more than I have seen them in the past three weeks before school started back.  I guess they were getting bored and staying inside until they had to go back to school.  Now they’re at every basketball court, playground and fast food restaurant around.

I think it might have something to do with they’re like the rest of us and realizing that the weather will be changing pretty soon and we’ll be stuck inside for sure once old man winter shows his ugly head.  Oh well, they better enjoy it while they can I guess.  I know I did when I was in school.  I sure wish I was back in high school, not really!!!

Tags: Food, General Interest, Outdoors, automobile, education, play, sports, weather by Jim
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Sweetie and I had a great time in Georgia.  We went to the Unicoi State Park.  It’s just outside of Helen Georgia.  If you have never been to Helen Georgia, you have got to go.  It’s like an Alpine Village there.  Every shop looks like it came straight out of Switzerland or somewhere like that.  Of course they have chocolate shops, imported beer shops, glass shops and just about any kind of shop you can imagine.  We absolutely had a the best time.  Next time I think we want to rent a cabin instead of staying at the lodge.  Either one will be fine with me.

Tags: Outdoors, play, raves, travel by Jim
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Sweetie and I are taking a mini-vacation to Unicoi State Park in Helen Georgia this weekend.  It’s supposed to be a real nice place.  It’s like an Alpine Village with candy shops, glass shops and all sorts of things like you would find in a Swedish Village.  I can’t wait.  There are all sorts of things to do there so when we get back, I’ll let you know how it went and I’ll know more about the place myself then.

Tags: Outdoors by Jim
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Well that makes two days in a row that we have had a good old fashioned ‘gulley washer’ as they used to call them in the south.  I would not be surprised to find out it rained about 2 inches in just an hour.  It was raining so hard that you could barely see the road from inside the house.  We have needed a lot of rain and we have done far better than expected lately.  My yard is happy and so is my garden and flowers.  The extra work the rain brings with it doesn’t make me too happy but we do need the water so I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

Tags: Outdoors, going green, raves, weather by Jim
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