Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Small Town Life

Garrison Keillor starts out his monologue on "The Prairie Home Companion" by saying, 'It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon'. Well, it has not been a quiet week in my small town. Lots of excitement here.
Yesterday, there was an explosion of coal dust and resulting fire at the local power plant on the river. The plant is closed down for now. Thank God, there were no injuries.
This morning the online local news was about a truck that was too big getting stuck trying to cross our antiquated bridge. A.M. traffic was backed up two -three miles. This wouldn't be big news in LA, but it is in a town of 15,000.
Another local story in the past week related a police call to the local high school. It seems school officials found a student with a cigarette lighter in his pocket. Apparently this is contraband. They probably have security issues regarding fire or sneak smoking in mind, but this seemed pretty harsh. Our youngest thought high school rules were repressive. The school is built in a horseshoe shape. Students were not allowed to leave the building or cut across the courtyard to cross to the other wing. Hard to not go outdoors on those nice fall or spring days. He probably won't be surprised to hear they called the local police when they found a Bic lighter. I think I sound a little rebellious, but I did grow up in the 60's and dislike a heavy handed authority.
Well, it is life in a small town , right? The women's ministry at our church just started a ladies night out at Starbucks. Come for coffee. Bring a friend for a cup and a little teaching. When they publicized this, someone asked, "Which Starbucks?" We have four Starbucks in town now. I thought there were only two. Do you think this world is oversaturated with Starbucks?

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