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I attended the CCDA meeting last night which is SIM City for adults! Once again I left feeling pretty good on the direction that Columbus is moving. Lots of things going on that are just not ready to really go public yet. I'm just glad that real life SIM City has their natural Disaster switch turned off finally.

Every time I start a new SIM game I forget to turn off the Disaster button. Notice when I moved to Columbus we had floods, yup!! for got to turn it off again! My bad! Sorry. At least we did not have the Monsters! That would totally suck.

One noticeable thing that happened at the meeting was the very first LED Street light went on in Columbus JUST as the Columbus Energy Czar, Steve Sobiek pointed to it (sort of creepy if you ask me but I was not going to say anything because his finger obviously as some sort of powers that I did not want him to test on me). The LED street light was also held up my recycled street poles (perhaps made of old milk cartons??) Columbus is making a name for itself as being a very very GREEN town and perhaps one of the greenest towns in Wisconsin.

There is optimism that the MaySteel plant will have a new occupant in the coming months and there has been progress on the Grocery Store front (perhaps one and the same??)

Heck - I feel the biggest news is that PERHAPS Columbus will be the host city for SAGBRAW. The 2nd largest bicycle tour in Wisconsin (some say #1 but it's the little sister of GRABAAWR) but is is the oldest bike adventure and limited to 1000 riders (there is always at least 1000 riders). I've been on both rides for a total of 6 tours and this is a pretty big deal. People from all over the WORLD go on these week long 500 mile tours! I guess there are still negations going on with the school showers and the massive amount of toilet paper involved.

Being the "host city" is not THAT big of deal as in reality it's only 1 day bikers will be here. The final day is more of a "let's get out of here I'm sick of being on my freaking bike and man my ass hurts" day. But that first night people are active, antsy and looking for things to do and spend money on. CHING CHING!! You can sell 2000 pounds of pasta with ease and a LOT of beer will be consumed! I LOVE these rides as it is a carnival atmosphere, a moving city where each person can consume 7000 calories a day and lose weight!

In fact my first real writing came from doing GRABAARW as I wrote my experience daily for BikeWisconsin and their website. In 1992 we started in Boulder Junction and woke up in our tents to 22 degrees and frozen water lines (this is also the year I had my photo taken with Tommy Thompson), in 1995 we rode 90 miles in a 125 heat index and three other days in temps over 100, and in 1993 we had major floods to deal with. Awesome fun stuff.

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Seems the movie "Where the Wild Things Are" is creating a stir. Children are getting scared to death and many people are saying this is NOT a child flick but very grown-up with a lot of talk that involved death and threats of violence to children. Some kids are OK but others are freaking out when One Wild thing has his arms ripped off. Well - that is to much for me for sure! What is this, like ET meets Private Ryan??

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Back to the CCDA meeting . Seems we're looking at putting up a big monument between the to Columbus Ramps onHwy151. 19,000 cars pass that area every day and most do not even know there is a town nearby. So they want a big WELCOME monument. I suggested this would be the perfect place to put Udey Dam with COLUMBUS THE DAM CITY painted on the side. OR OR - hang it OVER the highway!!! A giant guitar was talked about or maybe a giant carriage proclaiming COLUMBUS THE CITY THAT REFUSES TO MOVE INTO THE 20TH CENTURY! but I think that idea was scrapped also.

Of course the answer is right in front of their eyes but, no, no one seems to take me seriously anymore!

I keep coming up with the good ideas but I'm just poo pooded and my ideas are just shoved to the back of the refrigerator like old pie.

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Speaking of old things. The meeting was held in the $1 Anchor Bank building and we had a tour of the complex (can I call it a campus??) I know where I will go when we have the nuclear threat like on Jericho (another town of 5000). There are places with 1 foot concrete walls in the basement (I looked but found no money laying around, Anchor Bank did a good job of cleaning I guess).

It's nice to see the building in use.

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Movie Star Wife is having a flu shot clinic at 10-2 Tuesday at Pick N Save Columbus in the Cold and Flu aisle (I just sneezed . . . hmmmmmm I find that disturbing). Actually the real wording was a "Flu Clinic" with nothing about shots at all! So if you HAVE the flu go check it out (Clean up in aisel 7).

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I have thoughts about giving the City Council pay raises. Perhaps I would agree to a pay raise if they could justify what they have done. One thing is that I believe is IF they get pay raises then our Mayor is REALLY underpaid as he does a LOT more then the rest of the City Council, but I do not know the complete facts so oddly I'll be silent on this (which is odd because normally I don't need no facts to back my opinions!).

Have a good Tuesday!

Rod

Have not blogged here for a while - first thing I see is a missing photo on top - I'll have to look for that!!

So I have been thinking about what to do with this blog. At first I thought I should just take it over and get rid of the Public Enemies Blog which is now about anything I can think of (but still rather entertaining . . .to me).

But this is more "Columbus" so . . . . perhaps I'll just post Columbus musings here.

SO - here we go.

One thing I really hate when watching our beloved TV is when a local talking news head comes on and says there is late breaking exciting important news, tune in at 10:00 to hear it. Well, FU!! If it was THAT important tell me now.

Well, I'm going to do that today. Make sure you buy the Columbus Journal Saturday as there will be some interesting news.

Speaking of Udey Dam - OH - IT'S NOT OVER, IT'S NEVER OVER. Without going into details (I don't know any details) it seems the DNR has decided to play their Wild Card when it comes to the Udey Dam debacle. I didn't know they had a wild card but it seems that they did and played it.

So just when you thought this whole Udey business was coming to a close - OH - DNR says Game On.
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So I was reading between the lines from the conversation I was overhearing and here is what I think I might of might not have heard.

You know that they SAID they were tearing up the parking lot next to the Capri for the new Columbus Visitor unmanned kiosk (not sure, must be some Russian space thing)? Well, I think I might or might not had heard that this will be the future home of . . . . you guessed it, The Udey Dam. Yea- it will be Columbus's newest "go to" exhibit of ancient cement.

But - that is totally ridicules and I'm not sure if that is actually feasible. HOWEVER - I DID hear that within the next 6 weeks (or was that IN 6 weeks) the powers that be are hoping to have a major announcement about a grocery store.

There have been meetings with a major chain and things are moving along. Coincidence? Udey Dam? Major grocery store? Could the store be INSIDE Udey Dam? Killing two birds with one stone (if you are into killing birds with stones).

Seriously though - The Grocery store is getting closer and there is some major news about Udey coming this weekend.

HOWEVER - the REALLY interesting news is the WWII Museum. Here is what I have heard. When the CDA heard of this project they classified it as a "long shot". But things have progressed and now Columbus is one of I believe 3 towns on the short list for what would become one of the worlds largest WWII Museums. (I'm now being serious).

You heard that correct! One of the worlds largest collections of WWII vehicles. Along with this would be a hotel and a restaurants. It seems collectors of WWII vehicles are getting together and wanted some place to show off their vehicles and are looking for a major museum and Columbus is in the running.

Something else going on is that Columbus owns 80 acres of real estate and a year long study is being performed on how to make this 80 acres into a go to destination park! (meaning a REALLY nice a park). Maybe . . . . .a MUSEUM?????

They have an intern from UW Madison that is making this a major school project and he seems to be really amped on making this area into something special.


HOWEVER - there is some other news I'm a little miffed at.

It seems our hero, Steve Sobiek, saved Columbus like $1.5 million dollars. How did he do this? Well, what SOME people call that big rusty building or as some people lovingly call it "That piece of sh*t rust bucket" was sold to some huge company up dare in Minnesota. So instead of Columbus footing the bill for it's assumed demolition (like Udey?) someone else has to do it.

BUT - I feel this was a big mistake by Steve and I'm surprised hero #2, Boyd Kraemer, has not taken away the keys to Steves electric car.

You see Boyd has been pushing to get some sort of big "WELCOME" sign beckoning people into Columbus. BOYD - this has been staring you in the face!! I'm surprised you have not thought of this!! Come on dude - think outside the box!

Anybody that lived in Columbus had a slightly exciting night last night as a train of storms cruised through about 7:30ish.

The first set of storms produced a nice 0.65 inches of rain in perhaps half an hour and when it exited we were a wonderful full (not photographed) rainbow. Here is the beginning of it.

Did you know that in Greek mythology, the rainbow was considered to be a path made by a messenger (Iris) between Earth and Heaven? In Chinese mythology, the rainbow is a slit in the sky sealed by Goddess Nüwa using stones of five different colors. In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is called "Indradhanush", meaning the bow of Indra, the God of lightning, thunder and rain.

After Noah's Flood, the Bible says that the rainbow gained meaning as the sign of God's promise that terrestrial life would never again be destroyed by flood (Genesis 9.13-15).

Scientist now believe it is light that is first refracted as it enters the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. LOL - right, good one!! phhht! Like THAT is believable. I'm going with the Chinese on this one!

BUT - let's move on to the exciting stuff.

So things calmed down and DJ ask if that was it and I said there is another blob coming in about an hour.

About an hour later it was getting darkish and DJ says "Rod, look out the front window" and I get up and HOLY CRAP!! I run back and get my camera.

This storm only added about 0.11 inches of rain but Josh calls and says their power is out (they live under the 1st photo).

And the night ends uneventfully!

First photo explained

This is a wall cloud which is caused by the ascending (up) and converging inflow of air. This updraft consists of moist, rain cooled air from the normally downwind downdraft.

Since temperature tends to decrease and dew point is increasing as the updraft entrains this air, saturation occurs sooner as the air rises (as opposed to when it hits the rest of the cloud base) . Wall clouds may form as a descending of the cloud base (as this was the case) or may form as rising scud consolidates and organizes.

Also of note is the Shelf Cloud also called a arcus cloud. A low, horizontal cloud formation associated with the leading edge of thunderstorm outflow.
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Events:

Maxwell Street Days
Maxwell Street Days will be downtown beginning at 9:00 am

Picture Car Parade
The parade will start at 11:00 all at the Columbus High School, down Farnham to Park Avenue, ending at the Middle School.

Games, Food & Drink, Live Music
Fun games will be held from 11:00 to 2:00
Lice Music can be heard between 11:00 to 2:00 and lice 30's style music will be from 3:30 to 6:00

Fallen Firefighter Ride
A fallen firefighter ride of 500 motorcycles ill be on Dickason Boulavard between 2:30 and 3:15

Wagon Guided Tours
Wagon guided tours of Columbus will be available between noon and 5:00

Public Enemies Display
he Antique Mall will have "like" items from the movie on display. Photos of the making of Public Enemies" will be displayed at businesses throughtout thwo.

30's Style Contest
Sign up for the 30's costume contest beginning at 6:00pm at Jodeeo's, 200 E. James Street.

Bowling Special: Cardinal Ale House & Bowl
From 11:00am to 5:00 pm: 30 cent bowling, 30 cent show rental, $1.30 mugs of draft beer, AND old time photos can be taken and purchased.

For more details call
920-623-5540