Last night jmaynard and I went to the grocery store for the usual items. We saw, and heard on the sound system, that Hy-Vee had a new item: sushi. I stopped and boggled when I saw it. Sushi is not something I expected to see in Fairmont, let alone in a Fairmont grocery store. I had some reservations about prepackaged sushi, but more curiosity. We ( Read more... )

One of the things I did when I returned home from Florida was stop in at the local Hardee's and have a roast beef sandwich. I normally do not go to Hardee's, or to any fast food place except Subway nowadays, but I had had a desire for their roast beef on my trip back. Alas, I seem to have this unfortunate ability to pick a Hardee's that, for ( Read more... )

Streetlight.

What did you just picture? A bright somewhat orange light? A bright pure yellow light? A stark blue light that seems to be at once too bright and too dim?

The first thing I picture is generally that last choice, the bluish mercury vapor light that was the only streetlight I saw around when I was quite young. They cast light, and ( Read more... )

The Shell stations in town that closed rather suddenly in late August have now reopened. A big sign proclaims "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT" which doesn't hurt, considering the circumstances surrounding the closure. While they reopened about a week ago, I only stopped in the one closest to home this noon and it looks almost unchanged. Almost. There are a ( Read more... )

The local Wendy's that was planned and under construction for a while is finally opening. I'd heard the target date was this past Monday, but slippage was to be expected. I drove past the site Monday evening and the entrance was blocked off.

Tonight the entrance wasn't blocked and there were a (very) few cars in the parking lot and no obvious ( Read more... )

As jmaynard and I were walking a bit downtown after supper we heard someone behind us say, "Sir?" and we both stopped, a bit surprised as we hadn't expected to be addressed at all, let alone rather formally. The young lady who got our attention said she just wanted to say how nice she though my hair was. I thanked her, and she apologized for breaking the ( Read more... )

The weather forecast, on Friday, for the Amanas in Iowa was for a nice, clear weekend. That being the case, and having some stuff to pick up on the way, jmaynard and I left our cloaks at home. Naturally, the forecast changed and Sunday was a day full of light rain, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. Note: Always take a cloak, just in case.

My big ( Read more... )

This weekend the two Shell stations, or Food and Fuel convenience stores that sold Shell gasoline, anyway, in Fairmont closed. The local paper has an article but that doesn't shed much light on what happened. The closings were sudden. Around 12:30 Friday afternoon I stopped at the one closest to home for something. There was no indication of ( Read more... )

There used to be a store in Fairmont, On Cue. This was part of a chain of stores. The main attraction was the music collection, a good number of CDs. But not just CDs. On Cue had video, a small selection of electronics, maybe a couple guitars, a fair number of books, and the smattering of tee-shirts and posters.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't ( Read more... )

A few posts ago I mentioned that the house I once rented was for sale. The last time I drove by, the realtor's sign had "SOLD" on it, and the realtor's web site lists it as a pending sale. At $24,000 I'm not surprised it wasn't on the market for very long, even if the house is rather small.