jormagund

Crop dusters. Saw several today as I made my way across Illinois, Iowa, and into Nebraska. I would certainly never believe it if someone told me this was a chore. Not with the aggressive, swooping turns I see them make. Clearly whatever farmers are up there piloting these planes are imagining themselves making strafing runs on some battlefield of their imagination. Or perhaps performing precision maneuvers with their wingmen as part of a Blue Angels display. Speaking of flying a plane across the mid-west, if you're looking for an easy read with an interesting philosophy on our existence... check out Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Very enjoyable.

This is America's bread basket. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to say corn-basket lately... since that is what everyone seems to be planting. Yeah there is still an occasional soy field. But the ears are dominating the landscape, I tell you.

I saw a pretty horrible accident this morning, as I happen to do from time to time. You know how many of those orange DOT dump trucks often have some kind of fancy crash-barrier on the back of them? Well, someone apparently managed to run into one full-speed this morning while heading west on I-80 just outside of LaSalle, Illinois. Ouch. It must have happened only a minute or two prior, because no police or rescue was on-scene yet. The driver was pretty well pinned in, slumped over, with the front and top of the car quite crushed. Rather gruesome. To be perfectly honest, I'll be surprised if they live.

When you are driving you have one and only one thing you ought to be paying attention to. The road. Be safe out there.