The joy of living in your hometown

It's great having family around. It really is.

Unless various family members keeping winding up in the headlines for getting arrested for various crimes. Here's the latest ...

http://www.4029tv.com/news/15970713/detail.html

Jen suggested we drop the "F" and become the Aldons. Mark called said the River Valley branch of the family is giving the NWA branch a bad name.

More details here ...

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/04/24/news/news03.txt

Fort Smith in the news

Those are the old barracks at Fort Chaffee. Last count, 12 were burned completely down thanks to a wind-driven fire.

The area is under something called a "Wind Advisory," which I'd never heard of except in relation to "area lakes and waterways." It's been blowing at a steady 40 mph most of the day, with gusts up to 50.

Fire crews have given up trying to contain the fire, which is now a major grass fire on the Chaffee property.

Closer to home, the wooden privacy fence owned by our across-the-street neighbor has toppled. Some branches are down. I've not looked to see if any shingles have blown off our roof.