Studying demise of rural dream
My brother-in-law gave me a video to watch about a study that was made in Cottonwood County in Southwest Minnesota titled, "Death of the Dream." It is a study of the demise and decay of the many farmsteads that once dotted the landscape. It was the time when free or cheap land was available in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, when dimension lumber became available and farm families were able to build new homes as they became profitable operations.
Usually, four farmsteads were established per section and all had a tree belt to the north and west of the buildings. They estimate now there are at least 100 abandoned farm homes in this one county alone.
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One of the segments told of three bachelors who lived on one of the farms described above. One day, one of the bachelors married and his new bride moved in with the three of them.
The married one overheard the other brothers saying that the cooking sure got better "since we married Edith."
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I don't know what it is, but there's something neat about stepping out into 100-plus-degree heat. Kind of like stepping out into 10 degrees below zero.
But the feeling is fleeting.
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Have you ever noticed that Salina is nearly always the hot spot on the TV weather map? Seems like they are a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of central Kansas.
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The three-block section of South Main from A Street to D Street is smooth as glass now that it has been resurfaced. First chance I got, I took a spin on it and it is nice, indeed.
Since Main Street is redone now all the way from D to Third streets, I was thinking it would make a neat drag strip. But the little stop-sign islands at Main and Grand would be in the way.
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Priceline isn't everything it's cracked up to be. At least not for us.
We are meeting our family in Seattle soon and needed a place to stay, but the rates were more like buying the hotel than just renting a room. So decided to try the Priceline route, where you can make an offer via the Internet.
You indicate the area where you wish to stay and then, if a hotel accepts your offer, you get the room. Typically, you can offer 40 percent less than the rate and be successful.
We did that and were successful.
Then I went to the hotel's Web site to learn more and found that the regular rate was less than what we paid at 40 percent off of Priceline's price.
I then called Priceline and they gave me the hotel's rate. Big deal. A lot of time spent for nothing.
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When we called son Dan to see if the hotel we booked was a dump, he was already in the area (his neighborhood), so said he would stay on the line and drive over to it.
I quickly went to the Google satellite maps and followed his path from above. He gave his position, so I asked if there was a clump of trees on that corner. He said yes. Then I asked what the big white round building was on the same corner and he said it was a car dealership.
