Wild Tuesday

Today turned out to be an interesting day, full of adventures here in Rensselaer. My first hint that today might be interesting came when I was jogging north of town. I noticed that there were "Road Closed" signs pre-positioned on the roads with railroad crossings. However, it was not until I got out to the intersection on Airport Road that I found an intersection that had actually been ripped up.
It turned out that today was the day that the Tie Guys came to Rensselaer, that is, the railroad work crews came through town replacing ties on the railroad track. It was pretty impressive, but if you were driving, maybe less so. By the afternoon there were only three railroad crossings that were open in Rensselaer: McKinley or U.S 231, Melville, and Webster. (That means Mattheson, Jefferson, Cullin, Franklin, and Scott were closed.) I will have one or two posts about tie replacement in the next few days--I need more time to organize pictures and video.

Then this afternoon the Tuesday night Farmer's Market featured the Newton/Jasper Community band. There was a really good crowd, and there was also a pet parade, so a lot of dogs and some other animals were brought to the Court House Square.
Alliance Bank was a sponsor, and their staff was giving away pop corn.
The band started playing at 4:30. About 5:00 the rain started. Not a light sprinkle, but a heavy downpour. Someone opened the Court House, and people sought refuge there. The popcorn stand was abandoned. The band did not play on. It was a mess.
Some people did not get inside quickly enough and got very wet.
I will try to post more about this also when I get time to put together text and video.