Pet Peeves, Politics, & Potpourri 3-9-11
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[By Jack Hargis
Here's a quote by Charles Kuralt I like. So true. "With the interstate highway system, we can now travel coast-to-coast and see absolutely nothing."
Since I vowed not to write about my GREAT grand-son Riley, I decided to introduce you to my two grand-sons. For the sake of anonymity, I will refer to them as "Jim", he's 30 and works for TG in Perryville, and "Corey", he's 26 and is a detective for the city of Carbondale. Both are married. They are pretty smart on computers, the X-Box, the Wii, and can do almost anything on their smartphones. But sometimes they will do something that indicates they are not the sharpest knife in the drawer. One day last week, "Corey's" wife suggested they take the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. Upon returning home they found they had no house key. No problem, said "Corey", as he headed for the keypad on the garage door, forgetting the garage door was locked because the opener had broken the day before. An hour later, using some kind of scrap metal he found, he managed to remove a window. He says the window is a little drafty but nothing that a little duct tape won't fix.
"Jim" and I built a two level deck on the front of his home last year. We used hanger brackets to support it, then screwed on the deck planks. One day "Jim" decided his son, Riley, would really enjoy a swimming pool, located on the lower level.
He bought an inflatable pool 10 feet long, 4 feet wide and about 20 inches high and filled it almost to the top with water. You're guessing what happened, right!
The weight of all that water demanded that the brackets shear off the heads of the fasteners holding the deck in place, which is what they did.
Now "Jim" has a nice pool in his back yard, large and deep enough for several people, and "Corey" has a house key on a chain around his neck. Lessons learned they will never forget.
Sailors have more fun!
Jack Hargis is a columnist for The Randolph County Herald Tribune.