advertisement

Life on the Illinois Frontier this weekend in Harrisburg

The Lyrid meteors are active after midnight between Cygnus and Hercules during the third week of April, peaking on April 22 and 23. These shooting stars often appear at the rate of 15 to 25 per hour. The dark moon will help you find them.

Saline County Historical Society will host Life on the Illinois Frontier from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 21 and 22, at Saline Creek Pioneer Village and Museum in Harrisburg. There will be reenactors, tours, vendors, food, music and demonstrations. Parking is a $1 donation to the Boy Scouts. No admission fee.

The 4C's free clothing and household item giveaway will be from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Wedensday, May 10, on the parking lot of Harrisburg Methodist Church. Donations are gratefully accepted. Start gathering your items, but please do not bring dirty, stained or torn clothing or non-working household appliances.

Stonefort Railroad Depot, Community and Hardware Store museums are open for the summer on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

This will be a mish-mash. I have to clear out all of those little snippets of paper that have been accumulating in my column folder. No order. Just things that I thought interesting or that made me angry.

Chickens with red earlobes lay brown eggs; chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs.

When decluttering, ask yourself, "If I lost this, would I buy it again?" It's the things you'd be willing to buy again that give you true satisfaction. It doesn't work with family treasures, but could with most collections, gifts and accumulations.

The IRS has told us that its agents will never phone to demand payment. Not any more. Congress has approved the use of independent debt collection agents to phone taxpayers and ask them for payment. One senator said that this program would create hundreds of jobs, all while increasing federal revenues. I can't see the hundreds of new jobs, and if I haven't been able to pay my debt in years, what makes him think that I can come up with the money just because a bill collector, who has no power except harassment, phones me.

Along with deviled egg kits, you can now buy a product called Ready EGG go! It's a hard-boiled egg, some nuts and some cheese cubes. Four different kinds of nuts and cheese.

The State Solutions, an arm of the Republican Governors Association, has purchased 15- and 30-second ads for more than $1 million, featuring Gov. Rauner with a roll of duct tape and a message of blame for Democrats. Don't look for them. They are running in the Chicago, Champaign-Springfield, Rockford, Quad-Cities and Peoria-Bloomington markets. Wonder why Southern Illinois is being left out? (How did we get so lucky?)

One of the cuts in the proposed federal budget is funding for the Delta Regional Authority. Harrisburg and other small towns in Illinois and neighboring states have received matching grants from the DRA that have helped update sewer plants, water lines and other infrastructure. Look for cuts to Amtrak's City of New Orleans. Never mind that the train is full going both directions. It isn't needed. Sure, my mother-in-law would have begged to differ.

On April 8, 1820, a farmer on the Greek island of Milso discovered the Venus De Milo. A tad more interesting than an arrow head.

To the entities who worked hard and long, thanks for the promise of a light at the bypass and Poplar Street. It was much needed. I have hated the bypass since its inception, so I am glad to see that it will be made a bit safer. Just remember. Not everyone obeys traffic signals, and many will increase speed to beat a red light.

SIUE has been very careful with money, cutting costs when possible, and has a pool of money that can be used when the state cuts funding even more. Trustees tried to get a proposal before the board that would make the university lend the money to SIUC. At least one trustee objected, so the matter will have to come up at the next meeting. Save your money and some politician will try to take it from you.

"A quiet house, an empty couch, a great old movie on TV and a perfectly fluffed pillow. I swear some days just have 'waste me' written all over them!" (Jim Davis)