My drive home from work each day is maybe a mile at best but on a fairly regular occasional I feel compelled to stop and take a photo of something. Here is one such photo I took last week that I thought was worth sharing. The sun was just setting and was at such an angle that the light was just skimming the tops of the trees. It was pretty cool and thanks to my trusty camera you can all enjoy the scene as well!

Saturday Matt and I decided to hang out for a bit and enjoy the nice weather.  I had been wanting to take some pictures around the falls for awhile so it seemed like a great day to try… except that once we arrived I realized i didn’t have the quick release for my tripod so i couldn’t do the long exposure images I had my mind set on. None the less it was still a nice day.

I remember going to this spot a lot when I was a kid and thinking it was really cool and it still is. Shoal Creek is a fairly large river, so when the whole width of the river drops 20 feet or so… it makes quite a sound…which in my mind is half the point of a waterfall. When I was little I remember how the area seemed dangerous because all of the rock surrounding the falls was really smooth and slippery.

Although it is known locally simply as ‘the falls’ the actual name is Grand Falls, and to me it kind of resembles a miniature niagara falls. Personally I think the falls is way undervalued as a natural asset to Joplin.  I would like to see the huge concrete wall and man-made dam torn down because it’s ugly as sin and makes a terrible backdrop for Missouri’s largest waterfall – but I don’t think this is likely to ever happen because I believe the dam creates a mini-lake in shoal creek which is Joplin’s vital source of water. I also think the area would be a lot better if the road (and especially the parking lot) was moved further away so that you could park in a designated lot and then walk a short wooded trail or something to get to the falls. I think that would be great because I feel the scenery and ambiance of the area is severely degraded by all the cars and the somewhat busy road that passes maybe not 100 yards from the falls itself.

In my mind, the area has the potential to be a state treasure if it were so treated…but I know things like moving a road and everything else that would have to happen to do this are extremely expensive and therefore unlikely to happen…so I can be content enjoying it as-is, which is still pretty neat for Joplin. It really is a cool waterfall and having not been there in several years I greatly enjoyed re-discovering it!

Here are a few other photos:

That water was really pretty and you could see big rocks and boulders in the fairly deep water.

 

 

A wider shot of the area from below the falls.

 

 

A cool gravely area looking downstream.

Not being a subscriber to cable or satellite tv, the upcoming dtv transition is of particular interest to me. I have one digital tv and two older analog tvs, all of which rely on old-school rabbit ear type antennas to receive programming.

For the most part this works ok except that I occasionally have ot get up and adjust the antenna to get a particular station, and Fox pretty much never comes in clear no matter how I adjust. When I got the new digital equipped tv in my living room I was interested to see what was up with DTV. Boy was I disappointed.

DTV does in fact look great, but that is assuming you can actually receive it – which I can’t most of the time, other than PBS. I bought a $60 amplified antenna from radio shack and that didn’t help – in fact it was worse. One time I picked up KODE (ABC 12), but only if I was physically holding the antenna in my hand. I have never picked up KSN (NBC 16), KFJX (Fox 14), KOAM (CBS 7), or MSSU’s digital 22 channel. Hannah, with her ‘converter box’ can pick up PBS and KODE and occasionally KSN or MSSU – but it’s not at all watchable (like when your satellite dish is covered in ice or something).

When I first stated with this battle, I wasn’t to concerned because the good people at radio shack said none of the location stations are anywhere near full power yet and if I can get the analog signal now, I should be able to get the digital signal later. But according to inside sources (and the Joplin Globe) I now know that at least KOAM and KFJX are already at full power and I have yet to even catch a glimpse of them. Which makes me concerned that come february I will have only PBS. Which honestly isn’t really that much of a problem because most of the time it is the only station with anything worth tuning into. So most of my tv watching is confined to PBS anyways by choice and if there isn’t anything good on PBS then I just find something else to do.

Has anyone else had any experiences with DTV? I like the quality, but unlike analog, if you don’t have a perfect signal then you can’t even think about watching it. I would imagine that anyone reading this probably has no clue what I am talking about because I think everyone I know has cable or satellite.

I have long been a known opponent to many of the operations of the carterville police department. When I was in high school they were notorious for pulling people over for the most insignificant things. I knew someone who received a ticket for traveling 33 in a 30. Most all of my friends have received tickets at one time or another in the ‘trap’ that is technically inside city limits, but is well outside of the ‘town’. So far I have been lucky enough to escape without any tickets…just a number of incidents where a cop will trail me for several miles outside of town and eventually pull me over for no logical reason, or just turn around and head back to town. At one point it was bad enough that it attracted the attention of local news media.

Anyways… a couple weeks ago I witnessed an ‘incident’ involving the carterville cops that was for once more a source of entertainment to me than irritation. While going out to my garage I noticed a bunch of flashy lights over by the front corner of my yard near the railroad bridge. I don’t really know how to explain what I found when I went over to investigate so I will just show you:

Hmm…what are all those people doing down there?

Is that a carterville cop car???

Yep.

How did this happen???

I still don’t really know exactly what happened, but according to the highway patrol, an officer from nearby carterville was involved in a high speed pursuit with a guy on a motorcycle. Somehow he ended up facing backwards about 40 feet off the road…my guess is he struck the railroad bridge while passing under it and lost control. There were no injuries so I had no remorse in taking lots of photos. There was no word on the whereabouts of the motorcyclist.

Me and a few co-workers like to go out for lunch, generally on fridays under various names… be it the exclusive FLC (Friday Lunch Club), Fried Rice Friday (at the food court in Northpark Mall), and the latest incarnation… Friday Thai-Day.

Against my wishes some fellow employees tried out the new Piya Thai Food restaurant in Webb City earlier in the week without me. They like it so we decided to select it for the site of this friday’s lunch. It’s in the old building that long time WC residents will know as the former Dairy Queen near the intersection of McArthur and Madison. It has also more recently been the House of Hu (Who??) Chinese food. I remember what a dump the old dairly queen was, so I am quite impressed with how it looks now.

It’s a small place with maybe 6 tables, but the service was friendly, the food was excellent and prices we reasonable. We each had a lunch special for $5.95. I had the pad thai and we all shared some custard dessert and friend bananas, both of which were awesome. Pictured is Adam’s classic fried rice. So if you like thai food, you no longer have to drive all the way to the south part of Joplin to get it! This is clearly an obvious candidate for my official seal of approval.

PS – Avoid the ground chilli powder they bring out to the table unless your name is Jimmy or find pleasure in excessive mouth pain. I’m pretty sure my tongue is still bleeding a little.

Since I was spending the weekend in St Louis with Hannah and her fam, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make the 15 minute trip over to the dome to watch my former high school compete for the class 4 state championship. To be honest, I was fairly surprised that this years team made it that far, but apparently they knew what it took to get things done.

This championship game was more exciting than other ones I have been to recently. When I was in high-school, the game was a blowout 44-14 victory and the last time I went it was an agonizing 1 point loss following a missed 2 point conversion. This year the cardinals played Jefferson City Helias in a fast paced back and forth game that was up for grabs throughout it’s entirety…literally. It wasn’t over until a cardinal reached up and grabbed an interception with about a minute and a half left in the game.

I always find it impressive to see just how many people make the nearly 5 hour trip to St Louis to watch the game. This year was no exception, with what appeared to be the entire town sitting in the stands. I heard there were some carthage players and fans sitting on the webb city side and cheering for Helias, but I didn’t see them so I can’t confirm this. Knowing how so many Carthage people hate WC more than they like their own team it wouldn’t surprise me.

All in all it was a great game and a fun weekend!