Two ribbon cuttings

This morning Walmart hosted a ribbon cutting to mark their remodeling. The project took 12 weeks and the associates seemed to be happy it was over.

 Walmart has remodeling crews that go from one store to anther doing nothing but remodeling. Not exactly a dirty job in the sense Mike Rowe classifies jobs, but one that most people would not like.

Before the ribbon cutting the store honored the sales associates who had been with Walmart Rensselaer since the beginning twenty years ago. There were nine who showed up plus some that did not. They all seemed happy to be working at Walmart.

 After the ribbon cutting those who attended were invited to a enjoy a piece of cake. There were pictures from the ribbon cutting twenty years ago on the cake table. Mayor Wood was mayor back then as well.

 I did not think that the Walmart cake was as pretty as the cake that the Rensselaer Republican had a week ago for their open house. (I knew I could eventually work that picture in.)

 As someone who does shops Walmart irregularly, I could not tell what the remodeling did. The store did have a map showing where things are now as well as paper maps that shoppers could take.

Walmart's ribbon cutting was early--8:00 am, probably to disrupt shopping as little as possible. A few hours later, at 11:30 am Rensselaer had a second ribbon cutting, this one at Dales Steak and Chop Shop.

 While stores open and remodel, they also close. The This and That store, aka The Store with No Name, is gone.

In other news, the Hoosier State Amtrak line will continue service for the next year. In 2008 Congress decided to stop subsidizing Amtrak routes that were less than 750 miles and threw the responsibility onto the states. The Hoosier State runs from Indianapolis to Chicago, so it is much less than 750 miles. It runs a deficit of about three million dollars per year. The state decided that the cities serviced should foot some of the bill, so now Rensselaer will pay $18,000 a year to keep the service. Lafayette and West Lafayette, which contribute many more passengers, will pay a lot more. The Hoosier State passes through Rensselaer four days a week; the other three days are served by the Cardinal, which originates on the East Coast.

Our summer-like weather has ended and we may get frost next week. We have wimped out and started our furnace. (Speaking of weather, did you see what Mother Nature did to the Black Hills area? See here and here.)

The leaves seem to be turning a bit later this year than in previous years. My way of measuring is with cross country regionals. For a number of years I went to the amphitheater in Lafayette to watch sons run and the leaves were always very pretty at that time. Now, of course, the Rensselaer sectional feeds into the New Prairie regional and they have to compete with Chesterton, LaPorte, New Prairie, Valparaiso, and Portage, much tougher competition that what they used to find in Lafayette. If just one team from the Rensselaer team moves on to the semi-state, they are doing well. However, one recent change does help small schools. The top ten individuals from teams that do not move on qualify for the next round. It used to be that an individual had to be in the top 15 and only three or four individuals in the top 15 would be from schools that did not move on.

Update: I forgot to mention that PAC has a fundraising concert at eMbers tonight.  Also, I thought the list of cities that an upcoming group that will be coming in December to eMbers was interesting.