QUARANTINE BLOG # 522

September 3, 2021

We’ve all been annoyed at one time or another by inconsiderate parking: someone who takes up 2 or more parking spaces, parks in a handicap spot without the proper documentation, blocks in a trash bin or a pedestrian walk way.  Spencer’s Gifts used to carry stickers to draw attention to the selfishness – peel off the backing and put it on the windshield and when the driver returns he reads, right in the middle of his line of sight, “Did you have to park like this, or are you just selfish?”  Actually, it said more than that, but this is a family blog.

Here are a few ways some annoyed people tried to get the point over to the selfish parkers.  These are offered for information only, not as a suggestion for you to act on.

I don’t know what this parker did, but the ring of shopping carts is a clever work of art.

Don’t block in a fire hydrant, or the firemen may be forced to do unusual things to connect their hoses – like break the car’s windows.

Evidently this parker took two spaces once too often.

Folks couldn’t get to the trash bin, so they used the closest receptacle.

This parker apparently did this a lot, and was fortunate to receive only a note.

👉  If you’ve ever driven on I-90 you’ve seen the signs urging you to stop at South of the Border.  

Or maybe you’ve been on I-95 in South Dakota and highway is lined with billboards for Wall Drug Store.

You know they are tourist traps, but somehow you stop anyway.  They are right off the Interstate, so it’s a quick off and back on.  But how about those billboards that direct you to travel destinations that aren’t so easy to find, and once you get there, you are really disappointed?

I know it’s September, but maybe you have some vacation time left, and want some unusual places to go.  QB is glad to help your search.

Farnham’s Fantasy Farm is a roadside attraction you might want to miss.  The private residence houses an interesting collection of oversized lawn ornaments out in the middle of nowhere.   Actually it’s in Unger, WV somewhere between Virginia and Maryland (about 40 miles southeast of Cumberland, Maryland), down twisting country roads that you don’t want to drive after dark.  But if you brave it, you’ll find giant fiberglass statues.

You may want to stop at Gilgal Sculpture Garden, a small public city park, in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The park, which is filled with unusual symbolic statuary associated with Mormonism, notably to the Sphinx with Joseph Smith’s head, was designed and created by LDS businessman Thomas Battersby Child, Jr. (1888-1963) in his spare time.  The park contains 12 original sculptures and over 70 stones engraved with scriptures, poems and literary texts.

Maybe you’ll want to take a 2 hour round trip detour off of I-70 to see the World’s Largest Ball of Twine (well, maybe not, depending on the category – there are at least three claimants to the title of LBT – Largest Ball of Twin, not a popular abbreviation for the people the Apostle Paul described in Romans 1:26-27).

The largest ball of twine built by a community is in Cawker City, Kansas, where Frank Stoeber created a ball that had 1.6 million feet of twine and 11-foot-circumference when he died in 1974.  Cawker City built an open-air gazebo over Stoeber’s ball where every August a “Twine-a-thon” is held and more twine is added to the ball.  As of August 2014, the ball measures 41.42 feet in circumference and is still growing.

If you want to make a LBT pilgrimage, don’t miss the largest ball of twine built by a single person, located in Darwin, Minnesota.   It was rolled by Francis A. Johnson.  It is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 17,400 pounds.  Johnson began rolling the twine in March 1950, and wrapped four hours every day for 29 years.  I guess there’s not much to do in that city of 350, an hour west of Minneapolis down Highway 12.

In Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, James Frank Kotera claims to have made the heaviest ball of twine ever built.  He started it in 1979 and is still working.  Kotera estimates, by measuring the weight of each bag of twine that he winds on, that the ball weighs 19,336 pounds, making it the heaviest ball of twine ever built.  Lake Nebagamon is 165 miles northeast of Minneapolis – I guess it’s those long winters!

So what did you do on your vacation?  Went to see a 10 ton ball of twine.   Excitement supreme.  Did I hear someone say, “People have more fun than anybody”?

👉  Some comic panels for your amusement:

👉  Today’s close is from Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me, by Beth A. Richardson.

God with me lying down,

God with me rising up,

God with me in each ray of light,

Nor I a ray of joy without God,

Nor one ray without God.

Christ with me sleeping,

Christ with me waking,

Christ with me watching.

Every day and night,

Each day and night.

God with me protecting,

The Lord with me directing,

The Spirit with me strengthening,

For ever and for evermore.

Ever and evermore. Amen.

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