Saturday, April 2, 2011

I was not expecting to do much today, but the day turned out to be busier than I expected. I wanted to get a hot dog at the grand opening of the Charlie Roberts Auto Center, but on the way there I remembered that today was the last day that the Civil War Exhibit was at the Jasper County Historical Society, so I detoured to look at the exhibit and chat with an old friend. I would have been there two weeks ago and posted something about the exhibit if I had been in town, Their next exhibit will be a quilt exhibit, ready at the end of the month, and I will try to post something about that. The historical society will be open on the 16th and even without a new exhibit they have a lot to look at. I peeked at the new issue of Vintage Views and saw an informative article on the history of the old gas station that is now Rick's Pizza. I do not remember it in enough detail to write about it, but if you are interested, find the issue and look for the mayor's column.

The grand opening at Charlie Roberts Auto Center was to mark the new focus of the business, as a service center and a seller of pre-owned vehicles. It certainly is odd that Rensselaer no longer has a new car dealership, but we are living in interesting times. I had a nice chat with several people, some of whom read this blog.

Leaving there, I encountered a former colleague who is active in Lions, and asked him if the Lions were going to be sponsoring an Easter egg hunt in Brookside Park this year. He assured me that they were, but that he did not know the exact date. My guess is that it will be the 16th. Walmart will have an Easter egg hunt on that date at 10:00 for kids 1-10, as will Fair Oaks Farms. The Fair Oaks Farms hunt has an admission charge--read about it here.

In the afternoon I went out to SJC to hear a student music recital by a student who was in my Freshman Seminar group five years ago. It was very well attended and received. Noise on the way there reminded me that there was a track meet at SJC today, the last of the season, and being a track fan as a result of two running sons, I went over after the recital to see how the meet was going. On the way I encountered construction, and I always stop for construction. The baseball guys are building was seems to be a right-field bleacher section. Those baseball guys are always up to something, and they love their sport. I will have to check it out when the weather is warm enough to watch a baseball game in comfort.

The weather was actually pretty decent for the track meet and it had five teams participating. Below you can see the start of the woman's 5000 meter run. With the long races you can usually pretty well predict the outcome after about three laps--and sometimes after two.

Doesn't that picture make you think of summer? (Ignore that cold-looking person on the side.)

In my mail, two notes: (a) Ryan Musch has a logo naming contest and (b) on April 5 there will be an Evening of Poetry in commemoration of National Poetry Month at the City Office and Pub Dining Room at 7:00. For more info, contact the Prairie Arts Council at  prairie at rhsi.tv.