Feb 08

Vengeance, justice, hockey

Posted on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Winter Olympics, with some actual events but a much-too-large complement of non-sports on both the rink and the slope, start today. There’s a good chance I won’t be able to see much if any of it, but there was one thing from Sochi I did witness live.

That’s a puck sailing toward an empty net and hitting the upright as the US women’s hockey team blew a 2-0 lead to Canada in the last 3½ minutes of regulation and lost in overtime (i.e. the most Iowa State way possible).

Knowing that, and knowing what the team has gone through in the years since, and with the NHL boycotting the Olympics* on the men’s side, there’s no reason not to stand up and say…

GO TEAM USA! DEFEAT THE MAPLE MENACE!

*But in Soviet Russia, Olympics boycott you!

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Vengeance, justice, hockey
Feb 07

Animated annual report for Council Bluffs interstate project

Posted on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT has put out its review of the 2017 construction season for the Council Bluffs interstate project. A lot has been done, but there is so much more to go.

The biggest development was the opening of the new connection from westbound 80 to westbound 29/80 on the east side of Council Bluffs. That made the exit to southbound 29 a right exit and also relocated the South Expressway (former IA 192) exit to a point inside the interchange. Check out the “virtual ribbon cutting” for this interchange component.

There’s one thing that report doesn’t cover that I found elsewhere: A “constructability review” regarding the I-29/I-480 interchange, something not expected to start for nearly two more years. The meeting in June brought up the possibility of shutting down I-29 entirely to build this system. What’s not clear to me in the discussion is if it’s about shutting down I-29 between I-480 and I-80, or the whole thing farther north as well. Theoretically, all I-29 traffic could be dumped on/off of North 16th Street (way to take that off the state’s hands, CB), but an alternative using only state roads involves surface-street US 75 through North Omaha.

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Feb 06

The story of Albert the Bull

Posted on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The world’s largest anatomically correct Hereford was featured in a Super Bowl ad and got a mini-documentary. Story, Sioux City Journal; video (below), Cenex (the ad’s sponsor).

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on The story of Albert the Bull
Feb 05

Hampton-Dumont, CAL finalize sharing

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Last month, CAL officially agreed to send grades 7-12 to Hampton-Dumont, the Hampton Chronicle reported in multiple articles. (One of the articles was by Greg Forbes, who was laid off from the Sioux City Journal a while back and was named the editor [!] of the Chronicle nine weeks ago.)

An editorial last week disclosed more terms: The combined district will be HD-CAL, but presentation (uniforms etc.) will be phased in to save money. The mascot will remain H-D’s. CAL is moving forward with building improvements with the intention of staying open for a long time.

CAL is one-fifth the size of HD, so the name agreement at least is a boon for CAL. A new name would have been tricky because “Central Franklin” could be interpreted as a slight to Dumont (and Aredale, which is also on the Butler County side of the district but unmentioned). The combined high school in Hampton will take in students along IA 3 from the south end of former IA 107 to the south end of former IA 326, about 30 miles.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, Waukee is likely to give the go-ahead for a second high school and Ankeny is chasing its 11th elementary.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Hampton-Dumont, CAL finalize sharing
Feb 04

Yet for some reason I STILL haven’t gotten the call

Posted on Sunday, February 4, 2018, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants Fumble Entire Football Category, To Coach Trebek’s Dismay (NPR)

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Yet for some reason I STILL haven’t gotten the call
Feb 02

Old Cherokee, Lansing schools on ‘Endangered’ list

Posted on Friday, February 2, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

April 17, 2015: The Stone Schoolhouse in Lansing was in use from 1863 to 1973.

Preservation Iowa’s list of “Most Endangered Properties” includes two old school buildings.

First, as found in the tipoff for this blog post (Sioux City Journal), Wilson High School in Cherokee. The “Simplified Classical Revival Style”* building one block from the central intersection of the city has been abandoned for a decade. The photo with the Journal story shows a light pole with shields for three highways on it — US 59, IA 5, and IA 3, before the middle was truncated and the latter rerouted around.

Second, on the other side of the state, the Stone Schoolhouse in Lansing. It is on the same block as today’s Kee High, between that building and the football field. The roof is intact but the building “is basically abandoned with many openings to the elements and wildlife,” according to Preservation Iowa. As you can see in the photo at top, all the windows are boarded up.

*If that’s the term for the classic symmetrical multi-story pre-Depression brick building, I need to use it more.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Old Cherokee, Lansing schools on ‘Endangered’ list
Feb 01

Mike Pargeon, 1966-2018

Posted on Thursday, February 1, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I mentioned I was at the Traer post office last Friday. That’s because I had jumped over to town to get an oil change on the car. It’s a little extra effort, but I support a local business that way.

Mike Pargeon, AWE’s owner, was there, and we exchanged pleasantries. He had been a big help to me when a different place wanted to charge more (MUCH more) for work on my car. He and his crew knew what I needed and were never less than totally helpful. He was honored in 2013 with an Outstanding Service Award from the town of Traer.

Mike never came home from work Friday night. He died suddenly at the shop. He was so important to the town that the funeral will be Saturday at the school, with visitation the night before at the Memorial Building.

Posted in Tama County | Comments Off on Mike Pargeon, 1966-2018
Jan 31

New galleries of old photos

Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I worry the “Road Trips” page is a neglected section of this website, in no small portion because I haven’t touched it since relocating everything to this address. (In fact, pages still had links to Angelfire and mac.com pages, and no one ever alerted me to a bad link.) So I’m going to do something about that.

The sensible thing to do to catch up to the present is to go in order, calling back the past, with galleries reaching back nearly a decade (ACK). But if you haven’t seen the pictures, they’re new to you!

The first new one is an old one I never put on the list: the family’s 2005 vacation to the Carolinas. It’s done in my old photo gallery style, the one that requires me making my own thumbnails and hand-coding the whole thing. The format does come in handy when I want more than a blurb underneath. Aside from changing planes in Charlotte last year, that trip was my first and only to that part of the country.

The second is a catch-all of assorted trips in the second half of 2007. Most of the photos are related to a two-day trip to Green Bay and a two-day trip to northwest Iowa. These galleries were created with iPhoto. I noticed that the older galleries came from an older version of iPhoto, and the newer ones clean up the folder/link styles a bit. Newer galleries will link to 800×600 images instead of 640×480. (Please “open in new tab” if you want to keep the index.)

I hope to make more of these, because they’re a place I can share photos that are not related to highways or endpoints. When I put more up I will make blog posts alerting you to them.

Posted in Trip Reports | Comments Off on New galleries of old photos
Jan 30

‘Bluegrass Queen’ at Iowa’s doorstep

Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Who said Missouri wasn’t Southern?

According to KTVO and Bluegrass Today, a Missouri state legislator has proposed giving the title “Bluegrass Queen Rhonda Vincent Highway” to a portion of US 63 running north from Greentop MO. Greentop, the honoree’s hometown, is at the very bottom of the Iowa state map as US 63 continues south toward Kirksville.

If she’s the queen of her genre, wouldn’t it make sense to run it an additional three miles to Queen City?

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on ‘Bluegrass Queen’ at Iowa’s doorstep
Jan 29

A milestone without fanfare

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2018, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

If the price of a stamp hits 50 cents and media outlets give it scant coverage, did it happen at all? Is it a sign of how much people aren’t mailing things? Or is it related to the fact that stamps don’t have prices on them anymore?

The price increase, effective Jan. 21, was announced in October. There are scattered stories from smaller TV stations and newspapers; WBBM, perhaps the most prominent place I can find it, rolled it into a story about all price increases in 2018. (Did you know Chicago has an amusement tax?)

I learned about it when I stopped by the Traer post office — “We have the new LOVE stamps.” “Well, I think it would be a little weird to put those on my bills.” — and the price came out evenly.

Posted in Post offices | Comments Off on A milestone without fanfare