Rain (Updated)

We got a bit more than an inch of rain last night. That is from two weather reporting sites in Rensselaer, one downtown and one at the airport. You can access them from a page that Mary Ann of Remington (as Chad the weatherman at WLFI refers to her) keeps. (Scroll down to the bottom and the two are the Rensselaer Downtown and Rensselaer Official Site links. A link to this weather page is also in the sidebar, at the bottom of the Rensselaer Links section.)

The rain, plus the 2/3 of an inch we got earlier this week, have caused a tiny rise in the Iroquois River. That this much rain had such a small effect tells us that the ground was ready to absorb a lot of water. After a very wet April and June, we got very little rain in July, but the river was still above the median flow.

It has been a slow week for me, hence the absence of posts. The Rensselaer Republican had a piece on filming at SJC. The filming was for web videos that will promote a book the author, who writes for young adults, has coming out in November. The promotional page is http://simoneelkeles.com/; it looks like a lot of work was put into it. (I saw a lone football player on campus early this week, but I assumed that he was part of some football camp. I was probably wrong--he was probably part of the filming.)

Again this year I have not done anything with the Chautauqua. Maybe next year. Speaking of Remington, there will be a 51-mile organized bike ride on September 21 starting from Remington. Stops along the way will be SJC, Fair Oaks Farms, and Carpenter Creek Cellars.

The monthly newsletter from the Jasper County Economic Development Organization highlighted the new water system that DeMotte has installed. Demotte had been the largest Indiana community without a water system. They held a ribbon cutting on July 22 to celebrate completion of the $14-million-dollar project, and now businesses and residents will be connected. From the name, Northwest Jasper Regional Water District, it appears that the utility serves more than just the town of DeMotte.

Next Saturday Demotte hosts its big festival, the Touch of Dutch festival. I ran a few times in the 5K that is associated with the festival, the Rotary Ramble, but never paid much attention to the festival itself. Usually I wanted to get out of DeMotte before the big parade began.

Update: I should have included a bit about work on US 231 in downtown Rensselaer, but I did not read the Rensselaer Republican carefully enough last week. On Monday through Wednesday the highway will be closed from SR 114 to Park Avenue from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm. The detour will be SR 114 to Melville to Drexel back to 231. (People who know their way around town can find shorter routes than that.) IDOT will be working on wedge and leveling operations, whatever they are.

Cones were arranged along the downtown strip of the highway on Sunday evening, ready to be deployed on Monday.