Editor's Notebook

Wow! I suspect you are as tired of reading about this newspaper’s internet problems as I am of trying to fix the problem but fixing the internet has been my focus for nearly two weeks. In addition to reporting our email was still not working as we began assembling this week’s edition on Monday I have a funny to report related our website at superiorne.com.

The internet experts have been arguing about how to properly fix the problem and talking about things like ip addresses, DNS addresses, MX servers, name servers, SSL. POP, and IMAP. For all I know they are speaking Greek. And the experts don’t agree. Frequently, they have been pointing their fingers at one another and trying to deflect the blame for a mistake.

One of the experts said we have been changing too many things too fast and not allowing the system to properly propagate.

For a time Friday and Saturday, our web site address was bringing up a funeral home’s web site that was supposedly under construction.

If it hadn’t been for the fact our readers were not reaching our site, it would have been rather funny. The site appeared to be being developed for a mortician. The home page linked to other pages which discussed the various services a funeral home would offer and more. One of the services offered was transportation. The internet advised the company was ready to transport anywhere in the entire world. That seemed a bit strange but I accepted it. When my grandfather worked with his brother-in-law in the funeral business, the business required considerable travel. Grandfather didn’t make any out-of-the-country trips but he made many out-of-the-county trips getting and delivering bodies.

I realized something was wrong when I went to the auction site. There it was reported the company offered internet based jewelry auctions. Do you suppose they were removing the deceased’s jewelry and offering it for sale to the highest bidder?

The good news is that when I checked the email for the first time Tuesday, more than 700 new emails were delivered. It must be back.

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While I don’t have all the answers when it comes to the internet, I do know about hardware cloth.

Monday a Lawrence area resident was looking for 4-feet of hardware cloth. I was asked if I knew what hardware cloth is.

While I don’t have any hardware cloth for sale, I believe I have a rack on which the Mullet Store once displayed hardware cloth on.

I remember going to a hardware store or lumber yard and buying the metal cloth by the foot. Just like buying wire or rope, I told the clerk how much I wanted and it was unwound and cut to the desired length.

In case you don’t know what hardware cloth is. Let me explain. Hardware cloth is an old term for a welded wire mesh or fabric, woven into a flexible metal fabric. I suspect it got its name for being a type of fabric often sold in hardware stores. Depending upon its use, it can be made with various sizes of wire. When made in a course mesh, I’ve heard it called hail screen. It can be used for making animal cages or fences, strainers and filtering screens. While I normally think of it being made of galvanized wire, it can be made from a wide variety of metals.

Hardware cloth is formed by parallel rows of wire intersecting with columns of wires much like the spreadsheets associated with computers. An electric welder may be used to weld the intersections or the wires may be woven in a variety of patterns.

The product is sometimes called wire cloth or simply a screen.

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Visitors heading to Lovewell State Park this week may find their favorite route is closed.

Monday the Jewell County Sheriff’s office advised the county highway department was repairing North Shore, or Y road between Highway 14 and xxx Road and that traffic would be detoured.

Apparently some drivers don’t know the meaing of closed for law enforcement advised when the road is closed traffic would not be allowed.

The notice didn’t specifically say how the road was being repaired but I recalled stories from my days working at my father’s gasoline station.

When hotmix was being laid over the original armor coat, a flagman was station directly in front of the station. Motorists could reach the station via the south drive but a ribbon of fresh, uncompacted hotmix had been laid down the hill in what was the northbound lane.

After making his purchase, a customer driving an open Jeep drove out the north drive and proceeded down the hill driving in the uncompacted lane. He vehicle left deep tracks in the asphalt. As the Jeep didn’t bog down, he must have had it in all-wheel drive. The flagman waved and hollered but the Jeep proceeded down the hill.

Because of the sharp drop of the hill, the contractor had delayed compacting the asphalt mix until the spreader crew was out of the roller’s way.

Another time a driver stopped at the gasoline station and asked us to rub down her nearly new Mustang. She had driven the car through freshly sprayed asphalt and had speckled the vehicle. I will never forget how hard I had to scrub to remove the tar from the young woman’s automobile.

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With schools finishing up the spring semester, it is time to be thinking about this newspaper’s alumni reunion coverage. With the pandemic easing, a number of classes will be gathering for reunions and a few alumni associations have scheduled reunions.

To honor the 50th year classes, this newspaper would like to republish their senior class pictures. We published most of them in the spring and summer of 1972 but newspaper photos do not reproduce as well as the photos copied from yearbooks.

Thus we are asking to borrow the yearsbooks produced by the area schools 50 years ago. The books will be returned after we have scanned the photos. We already have the Jewell and Superior books but we need all the rest.

And when the reunions occurr, we would like to publish a group photo of the returning graduates. Those digital photos may be submitted to [email protected].

 

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