Storm Watch

I told the storm story on email and got some responses:

Friend wrote: I am watching the weather channell are you in the storm cellar.?
Reply: Not yet.
Friend wrote: they just said the M word (mansfield) as having 2" of rain

Response: That was last night. The storms rolled around us. This pile of rocks seems to split weather. Ice, tornados, etc go heavily to the east around Houston, or up Interstate 44. There was tornados at St. Mary's last night and Sedalia this afternoon. This morning in KS, Lawrence for one. Funnels over KC, J & Jwoke to sirens and went to their basement spot.

We did put some extra drinking water and batteries in the basement for flashlights & radio. Will probably pack a suitcase with blanket and extra undies, etc. to grab if we need to head out. Ch. 3 & 10 in Springfield are heavy duty storm trackers. When it's cloudy the weather channel doesn't tell us anything, but they were working last night. I have the perpetual weather channel thing on the computer. I get thunder like at the produce department when a warning updates. The icon is red. TV keeps the affected counties down in the corner. When it updates, the machine makes a noise. I don't remember it doing that last night, so maybe they added this aspect.

Our other warning system is Sillyvester the b/w cat. Last night when the storm thunder was rolling in, D. opened the basement door. Silly almost knocked him down running down there. No can find! After the storm was past, we hear a pitiful crying at the basement door. So, we've decided when Silly gets interested in the basement, we'd better be paying attention.

New Beginnings with Spring in the Ozarks

Big thunder boomies and rain here all night, but no storm damage. There will no doubt be some flooding in the "hollers", they aren't putting out weather channel warnings yet. People in other areas had the beejeezus scared out of them with high winds, hail and rain. Table Rock Lake and Branson were the worst last night. The TV people pre-empted much of the night with reports, etc. which is good. The rain has really greened stuff up. Forsythia is getting the yellow flowers. The one that got a good hair cut a couple weeks ago even has a few buds on it. Our neighbor and I were discussing how to trim the ones by the road as we don't want to give them a good hair cut. They are closer to the road, so their three big shrubs stop a lot of dust, noise and give them a little privacy screen. We have one right on the road that stops a lot of dust, with big lilacs paced across the grass toward the house. We're thinking that if we take the trimmer with us when we get the mail and whack a little, we can groom them, but not get us too dusty!

The local saying is that we are 2 weeks from a drought. I think we're cool for a few days.

Tolerance Brain Cells Surface, Thank Goodness

I am so pleased to see the reports this morning in the Springfield News-Leader that the political parties of Missouri are refusing candidates who support bigotry, namely white supremacy.

The time is long past for intolerance and bigotry. It has seemed that the Ozarks has failed to utilize its opportunity and exposure to civilization, preferring to remain in social dark ages. This is SO a "luzer" attitude for people who have to work harder for a living and shouldn't have the energy to be stupid and intolerant. Any time even one someone will step up and say no is encouraging. Having THREE political parties say NO magnifies the encouragement. What a hot chance to lose votes by including a disagreeable, selfish 'luser' to a candidate list. Good thinking, guys.

Any one individual can support ignorant opinions. These may be founded in experience and then allowed to fester and warp the view of one person. But, while I may tolerate ignorance, I won't imitate it and/or endorse it. And, I'm feeling kind of resistant to listening to the message of bigotry. I'm not interested in being the resource for the bigot to sound off and make a statement. The tolerance exists as long as the bigot keeps at arms length and beyond the fringes of my space.

Link

Sales Taxes Should have to Convince the Rabble

This week, Claire magically, State Auditor, has pointed out that transportation tax districts are expanding. So what? Well, these districts create a special tax, usually a retail sales tax, for a particular development to help pay for contsruction of roads, bridges, or other transportation items needed in the development.

She maintains that many of them are established without having to go to a ballot and seek the approval of the voters who will be paying the taxes. Or at least, paying most of the tax. It appears the voters who are landowners in a transportation development district are the ones who are to make the final decision. Such taxes can make a small way to build big bucks and these transportation needs are legitimate big bucks purchases. Improvement districts that become a term property tax assessment on the property owners are other ways to get the funding reservoir, but some things that need to be considered are the true uses of these improvments. Who will use the roads, bridges and culverts? Who will benefit down stream from the installation of flood control. Would an extra penny or portion of a penny on their retail purchases be out of line? Well, let them vote about it.

McCaskill isn't against the districts and their tax options. She simply says that there should be move oversight and opportunities for public awareness.

I don't support Ms. McCaskill in the general political arena, but this time, she has a point. It is my belief that a sales tax of any sort needs to come before the voters OFTEN. If the people seeking to apply a sales tax to my purchases cannot convince me or the rest of the rabble that their cause is justified, then they don't deserve the funding. Having some say in these little things that seem to multiply like chiggers into some very big and irritating things is a democratic facet of our political system that still belongs to the voter. I like that.