At this moment, Jan. 28., the sun is shining and I can feel the warmth coming through the back door glass. It is still about freezing out, however, and practically everyone I know is suffering through the same weather. My sister in Michigan is reporting single digit temps every night and less than 20 during the day. My daughter in Pensacola just texted (and I could almost hear the sadness, and said most of her plants even in a greenhouse were brown and dead. My Orlando granddaughter said she and her husband had actually turned the heat on twice in their house and she was getting ready to protect her outdoor plants.
My Tennessee daughter is home now and her chickens survived a good snow, still laying eggs but it was in the low double digits there. Even my granddaughter in Oregon is having chilly weather although hers is not as bad as here.
This is crazy weather and also a bit scary I find. People, including myself, have been speaking about flooding and we all know of the fires but here we’re freezing instead. I just don’t like cold anymore. I wonder what is coming. Is cold going to be our nemesis?
Okay, here’s a pet peeve. Or maybe just an annoyance. I recently bought a small microwave and it has the usual keypad PLUS a lock feature which is the most aggravating thing. You have to press LOC to get the door open and my oven is not in a well lit spot so I have to use a light to see where the LOC button is. I guess it’s a child safe feature, but it sure is a nuisance. I heard a male friend telling his wife that he was going to figure out how to disable the LOC when he got home. I don’ know if he did but I sympathized.
And while I’m on annoyances. How about drivers who don’t dim their bright lights? Or the people who seem to feel a need to drive as close as they can? Yes, now I’m sounding like a cranky old woman!
The Belle River bridge is really, really low now so be careful if you come here. My car is little and when I go onto the pontoon bridge I have to drive slow. Slow, so the front of my car doesn’t hit the metal surface. And I don’t cross with a big truck just in case they have trouble. I think the leveling mechanism is working, but the water is dropping so low, the bridge doesn’t quite keep up as quickly as it usually does.
I recently attended an Assumption Parish Police Jury meeting and one of the items on the agenda was to write a letter to someone in the state and ask them to send an engineer to Belle River to study the bridge situation and make suggestions.
I spoke to a friend about the bridge problem and he said there was only one solution other than build a whole new bridge, a raised one. He said make the pontoon at least 3 feet wider so the displacement would help level the barge. But he also said the reason the bridge was not rebuilt back a few years ago when the ones at Bayou Pigeon and Stephensville were was because there was a problem getting land to enlarge the bridge approach. I have no idea if this guy really knew what he was talking about, but maybe a state engineer will come up with a solution. The bridge warning signs are back up but the bridge itself requires very, very slow driving. Have to admit, the river is nice and quiet with no boat traffic.
Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lindacooke1939@ gmail.com.
