Looks like you really can't park there today

We went to the race track yesterday for the free hot dogs and some gambling.  I believe the FT and her dafter may have come out ahead.  Male members of the traveling party did not.

But it is just purchasing entertainment and I personally felt like I got about the right amount of entertainment for the currency that I turned over to the parimutuel clerks.

We can now see a very nice fireworks display from our yard so we did that, all in all a fine celebration of the national birthday.

Today I watched some bicycle racing, it looks to me like Froome has clinched le Tour.  It smells very bad even from here but it was a pretty interesting day what with the giant rain storm in the middle of the stage.  It was at least something out of the ordinary.

There is an organization of Laotian people here in town that holds an annual 4th of July weekend cultural and sporting event.  It draws people and futbol teams from all around the country.  We even had one of the early round games on the field next to our house on Friday.  But most of the event is held over at Como Park.  Many, many people attend and I guess parking has become an issue.

So first off, you cannot park there at all during the State Fair.

And then due to proximity to Como Park a special residents' only permit parking restriction is enforced from May 1 to September 30.

And then today even if you have a permit you can't park on this side of the street.

I think no really means no this time.

A bonus for everyone is a view of one of the decorative street light posts still in use in the Como neighborhood.

But the big news here today is that the power went out in our neighborhood this afternoon and stayed off for one hour and nine minutes.

I wasn't home for the event but TOPWLH recorded the times.

I didn't even have to be home and that is part of the rationale for the reason why the neighborhood power failure inconvenienced us not even slightly, this thing.

Located at the corner of our house and rigged with a switching mechanism that causes it to turn on as soon as the electricity goes off and providing enough power to run the entire house, our natural gas powered generator.

The utility company's power was out for a couple of seconds, just long enough to reset the digital clocks in the house back to flashing.  Then our generator comes on and power is restored.

I love it when a plan works out.