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So last night I went down to work with Kurt on Ritual and then we went to the Royal Mile for supper and Severen joined us. We had a great evening.

I had to do some running around today and one place I went (twice) was the Doctor's to have some blood drawn for a test. (I hate tests) - Had lunch at the Grove and met the husband of the waitress. I had a nice time talking to him. Turns out that he is in a band. The Al Landin Band. Larry had Meat Loaf on the menu today and it was really good. I tell him that I come in there for the Culture. Ames has a Cultural District and it encompasses Main Street and probably 5th street (I am not sure) but you know that they do that sort of thing here. We have a part of Ames called the Historical District and they have rules so that the folks who live there cannot do certain things to their own homes. It has to do with control. People in power in this town seem to like to control things.

They are trying to pass a new rule about the way we maintain our homes. I suppose that means that they can come by and tell me to paint my home. I may move.

But back to Larry and the "Cultural District" - this group is trying to pressure Larry to give them money and join the district. Now really there isn't much "culture" there. We have a couple of nice coffee shops (one is a Chocolate shop) and we do have the Center for the Arts.(the Octagon) and I suppose you could count the Ames Historical Society but they are struggling and don't have much of a display place yet but really there isn't much there and I don't thing that Larry's business is affected much one way or the other by the "Cultural District." In fact there are probably more people coming to the area of Main Street to eat at the Grove than they are for anything else.

We do have a lot of Cultural events in Ames but most of them are centered somewhere other than at the Cultural District. It is sort of like the Chamber of Commerce. Does the Chamber really help the business? I generally go to a store to buy something because they have what I want for sale, not because they are members of the Chamber of Commerce. And the Chamber almost blackmails you to join.

Anyway I like the Grove and the gang in there and I will go there whether or not they join those organizations. Oh, and by the way. The guy I was talking to who is married to the waitress. He is a Mason. You can find us all over the place.

In other news. There is a guy who has a Poem a Day Challenge going. I did not find out about it until about 5 days into the challenge so I am playing "catch up." He gives you a prompt and then you write your poem and post it on his blog. I am putting mine there and also on my poetry blog. So if the postings here are scarce you can go read my dumb poems. At least he is causing me to write poetry again. I am finding it fun.

Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL. Hugs - j-bear.