Tuesday, I visited our son Lee who lives on the other side of Hilltop.

The day before, he had both of his eyelids operated on. His face kind of looks like what Rocky Balboa’s did in his last fight. He’s doing all right except for the squinting. We had a good visit and Chatter the cat and I became the best of buds, although she does have some long claws.
Susie received a letter calling on her for jury duty. Due to her health problems, she filled out the necessary questionnaire stating the same, plus called the clerk’s office. The next day she was delighted that she received a very nice call from the new 15th Judicial Circuit Clerk, Albert Marano (Ex-Sheriff). They know each other personally and he was very concerned about her health…Albert is one of the good guys.
Thursday, I kept an appointment at Glotfelty Tire in Bridgeport to get four new tires put on the old Ranger and an alignment. They mounted the new tires, but they couldn’t align the front end because of a bad left upper control arm. I kept the old tires and on the way home, I dropped them off at my nephew Bobby’s garage (Matheny Paint and Body Shop). We had a good visit.
Friday morning, I took the truck over to D & J Auto repair in Viropa. I had Jim to replace both upper control arms and align front end. Now, the truck goes where I point the steering wheel instead of having to herd it down the road.
Time to climb upon that stump again, besides there ain’t much going on in PB this week. Wednesday, I read in the Exponent & Telegram that, “The city of Shinnston has taken final steps toward accepting a grant worth over $200,000 to help improve the rail trail system that runs from Shinnston to Fairmont” … “The state Division of Highways offered the grant, which will provide $208,518 toward the restoration of the rail trail; that is 80 percent of the total cost of the project. In order to accept the grant, the city had to provide the remaining $52,130.”
The first thing that struck me is why the WVDOH is giving out grants. Those grants are taxpayers’ money, no matter how the federal and state governments’ sugar coat the wording. The next thing that struck me is why the division is giving funds to a rail trail project (No doubt a noble cause to the users), but the DOH’s job is to take care of the highways…and the lord knows they need a lot of ‘fixin’.
The third thing is what is their definition of a trail? How fancy is it supposed to be – are they going to blacktop and install guard rails? To me, a trail is something that Daniel Boone blazed through the area many, many moons ago and he did it on a lot less money. I thought the idea of the rail trail was to get people back into nature…and mud holes are a part of it.
I went onto the WVDOH website to see about applying for a grant to fix the bad place in the turn (Has been over four years) above the old Williams Mine on Big Bingamon road, plus ditch the road and paint some lines on it. The website states that they are not taking grant applications at this time…I’ll try again later.
Until next time, have a great week and remember our Veterans.

-Pat