Libraries without books

If you don’t visit a library very often, one of the things that may surprise you is the lack of books in it. I had to do some research at the Parsons and Independence libraries concerning the demise of our local daily newspapers. It was a shock to find very few shelves at the Parsons library. Most of those shelves were nearly devoid of books. I didn’t see a lot of videos there either. Indy’s library never had a lot of books to begin with, but the loss of books from even a couple of months ago was a shock. Both libraries were giving books away without finding any takers. I can understand not buying books because of tight budgets, but the throwing away of perfectly useful books is as shocking as the fact no one wants them.

Death of the daily

I haven’t read the Parsons Sun in a few months since I had no reason to go to Cherryvale, the nearest place to pick up a copy of a daily that hadn’t been ruined by the Dumholtzes. I picked up a copy on my way to the job fair today. I never got a chance to read it until I got home. When I read the paper I found it was now a twice weekly paper. Worse, the Dumholtzes were in charge. Now the only daily in the area is the Independence Reporter and it won’t be for long.

The other other drought monitor

Nothing has changed at droughtmonitor.unl.edu. The spring has not changed since Tuesday. There is one other method of determining how dry things are locally. For the first time, I have dipped into my stored water supply to water my plants.

Some people like me do collect rainwater as a supplement to rainfall. It also helps replace the city water I get through the local rural water district. City water is expensive and not to be wasted on gardens unless absolutely necessary. Thus was just before the neighboring city declared a water emergency banning unnecessary water use. I will have to beef up my water storage capacity next year.

Job Fair Friday

The soybean oil plant is holding a job fair Friday and Saturday. With a starting wage of $20/hour all five sessions should be busy. They are looking to hire 50 people and will have to go through 500 suspects to get to 150 prospects to interview. Hardly anyone not in skilled trades makes $20/hour around here and they are offering $30/hour for skilled positions. It’s not as big as landing an Amazon warehouse, but it is better for the local economy. I might as well give it a shot on Friday.

Internet comes and goes

One of the bad things about living in a rural area is the lack of internet.  Theoretically there are several providers of internet service.  Getting it installed is one problem. Having dependable service is another. Getting a provider to stay more than a year is a bigger problem. In the last seven years five internet providers stopped providing internet. Most if my neighbors depend on their cell phones and hope for a good signal. I am within eight miles of two decent sized towns so internet and cell phone service shouldn’t be a problem ,but it is.

The other drought monitor

The website droughtmonitor.unl.edu is one way to tell if the local area is in drought mode. Another is to check the local spring about fifty yards from my house.  The flow rate varies widely and has been known to dry up completely. This morning I went to fill a jug for my container plants. The flow rate was under a half gallon a minute, less than a quarter of the normal flow rate. This confirms our severe drought status.