missouri

The Cicadas are Here

Cicada on hardware cloth with red eyes

There are annual cicadas. Then there are 13-year cicadas. And 17-year cicadas. Then there are days like today when 13 and 17 year cicadas emerge from the ground around the same time, creating a fairly odd event in our backyard.

Cicada holes in ground

My daughters are helpfully pointing out a few of the thousands of holes in the ground around our yard—sites where cicadas have been emerging for the past two weeks.

Almost every day there's a new batch that starts climbing up the garden, the trees, the house, the barbecue grill, the kids toy box, the toys the kids leave in the yard... pretty much everything.

And then for a day or two you see them shedding their old skin, emerging, walking around a bit drunkenly, then eventually flying up into the trees.

Buying and Owning a Gun

Purchasing a Gun

Note: This is coming from the perspective of someone living in Missouri—certain parts of the process of purchasing a firearm are different depending on where you live. Make sure you know what different rules may exist in your locality!

Purchasing a gun is not too difficult, but it takes more effort than, say, purchasing a bottle of soda at a convenience store. Rules and regulations for gun ownership and the purchasing process vary greatly from state to state, from city to city, and even from store to store. In Missouri, there are only a few requirements for gun ownership:

Crestwood Mall - Ghost Town

[January 2013 update: there is only one store still open in the mall—a LensCrafters. It's weird. I went to the post office the day before it closed, and the mall seems to not even be heated anymore (glad I brought my coat!). Entire portions of the parking lot (including all underground parking) are barricaded off, and the place looks even more like a post-apocalyptic site!]

A week ago, I needed to drop off a package at the post office, and I noticed there was a post office inside Crestwood Mall—an old shopping mall in southwest St. Louis County. Since this post office was on my way to another stop, I decided to venture into Crestwood Mall to the once-mighty mall that was in dire straits.

When I pulled into the mall parking lot, I noticed a few things:

  • There were two other cars in the entire lot where I parked.
  • There was a huge, black crow sitting on a handicapped parking sign, watching me walk towards the door.

Not very encouraging.

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