Those Forgotten Industrial Weeds

When I first started this great foray into the world of industrialism -- now having flown many sorties -- one of my word pictures loomed prominently in my thoughts both day and night. That was the forlorn image of weeds sucked into the mud at the side of the road, having been sucked there by passing industrial trucks speeding past.

A couple of examples from April:

1 - You know you're getting to the industrial section when the sidewalks disappear. And what appears are parking strips next to the road where there's a lot more weeds. They have a dirtier look, since a lot of trucks speed by, sucking them closer to the ground one direction, then sucking them closer to the ground when leaving.

2 -  Some grass, some weeds sucked down into the mud.

I still think about the weeds out there, only not as much, thanks to my busy schedule. Since then, of course, I've been heavily involved in the Residential Industrial Movement (RIM), which has gone from small to large and nothing left to conquer but the world itself. Let alone a few weeds. Still, I know they're out there, somewhere...

What made me think of them this morning was something very similar, the various itches I get in my ears. I've never seen inside an ear. There's folds, a hole, and darkness. If they were any farther down the body, we'd need underwear for them. But being out in the open, it seems quite a bit of wind gets in there. I have a fan here in my room and I can hear it very well. The obvious conclusion is that a lot of wind is finding its way into my ears. And if there's a bunch of hair in the inner ear, like you'll occasionally notice some sticking out, I'm thinking the wind must be sucking it down into the wax, causing itching.

It's just a minor point, but one that I think is important enough to mention. Somehow, if I don't want my ears to itch, I'm going to have to keep the wind down.

How are the RIM's trucks doing with the mud and the weeds? There hasn't been one report of an RIM truck sucking weeds into the mud. I'm not saying it hasn't happened somewhere, maybe somewhere where there's a lot of rain and mud with weeds just happening to be there too. But by and large, if the reports are correct, our trucks are being very very careful.

I don't mind forgetting about some of these things. It's not a pleasant thought to me, the image as it's portrayed. If I am forgetting, that's good because it shows we're making progress. It means everything is a great success.