i lost my cell phone

again.

I Need Ideas

I know. This is weird coming from me, a self-proclaimed "idea-person" (ie, I'm more about ideas than action.)

Here is the deal: I have (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles) a Saturday off at the beginning of July. In fact, I have a 5 day break over the Independence Day weekend (Thurs-Mon).

This needs to be taken advantage of. I'm thinking some sort of trip needs to be taken.

The problem is (and it's significant), I'm pretty broke. And any extra doe-rae-mi should be put aside for my relocation.

Anyway . . . I'm looking for ideas . . . any thoughts, anecdotes?

this is it

the 300th post to the HIA news!

I found my cell phone

You can reach me now.

Topeka

So the theme this month is "origins of city names"! Last week my neighbor comes running over to tell me about a program by some neighbor down the way on the origin of the name Topeka. She said, Topeka is an indian word for "a good place to dig potatoes" When I moved here I heard Topeka means "a good place to grow potatoes". I sort of thought, "highly unlikely, the plains indians didn't grow potatoes". My neighbor explains to me that the potato that was referred to was the prairie potato or better known as the prairie turnip - scientific name Psoralea esculenta. Now it all made sense. This member of the bean family has an enlarged root that was a main staple of the plains Indians.
I've tried growing it with little success. Seems it only does well when growing in its native habitat. For all you S. Dakotans, it is found across the state of SD too.
What is also interesting about Topeka is that there is also a Topeka, IL and Topeka, IN. The Kansa indians were located from there. So now i wonder if those were the good places to grow potatoes and the city of Topeka, KS just inherited the name.
Here is the link to the story.
http://www.barbburgess.com/research-topics/prairie-potato-topeka/topeka-s-roots-the-prairie-potato

Alabama City a Symbol of Hope

"Since the beginning of man's awareness, the rainbow, spanning the horizons, has been a mystic symbol, displayed in the heavens to signal the passing of yet another storm and the birth of new hope for mankind."

Quick Answers to Burning Questions

I squeezed a few research minutes into my busy social calendar. I have been to the hotel breakfast twice already, and plan to make another trip to the front desk to check for the books I am impatiently awaiting to arrive from Amazon sellers. I also need to take my work clothes, caked with puke-smelling mud down the hall to the washer machine. I can't really count that as part of my social calendar since I don't usually run into people in the hall. Now, if I were taking them into the Rainbow City laundromat, then I would count it. I almost always have a conversation there. Like this one last week: "Excuse me, ma'am. Did you just take your clothes out of this washer? Would you mind looking to see if you find a sock like this one?"

I don't have a car this weekend, so I'm not going to go anywhere. I lost my cell phone, so I don't have to worry about all those people who never call me anyway interrupting me. I should have time to do even more research. Here's what I've found so far:

"Rainbow City was named after U.S. Highway 411, called Rainbow Drive, which runs through the middle of our city. Some of our older citizens say it was named after Alabama’s Rainbow Division that fought in World War I."

"The 42nd Rainbow Division was formed in August 1917 of National Guard units from 26 states and the District of Columbia. After Chief of Staff Major Douglas MacArthur remarked that the Division "would stretch over the whole country like a rainbow," the coalesced national guard units were christened Rainbow Division. As the war progressed Douglas MacArthur was promoted to commander of the 84th Brigade and finally to commander of the Rainbow Division."

I don't know about you guys, but I think it's funny that a town might have been named after a highway.