Remember when Lloyd was all up in arms about the GDDG? (Goddamn Dollar General) store that was going to be built? And then it was built and now it sits there and we barely register it and sometimes we even buy something there although if we go once every three months I'd be surprised.
Still, if you need ice cream at ten o'clock on a Saturday night, they have it.
BUT, this newest proposal for development makes the GDDG look like a harmless minnow in the wide waters of the Mississippi.
The deal is, someone's trying to put in a Love's Travel Center on the property by the interstate exit and entrance ramps which is about half a mile from here, if that, and when they say Love's Travel Center they mean Love's Truck Stop and Travel Center and if you want to know what that would look like just google Love's Travel Center and see what we're talking about. Although they cater to semi's, they also offer some sort of fast food and a huge convenience store and of course bathrooms. They have overnight parking for diesel trucks and RV's as well as dumping stations for those RV's.
Did you know that it is more economical to run a diesel engine all night long than it is to turn off a truck and then start it up again the next morning? So. Diesel fumes at all times of the day and night. Human waste being flushed...where?
Lloyd has no municipal sewage system. We have septic systems. There is a municipal water system but it's hardly big enough to handle the needs of a fucking truck stop.
Let's add to that the gas and diesel tanks sunk into the ground. The amount of increased traffic and oh! By the way! The sign I've been blithely passing on my way into town a few blocks from here advising that a proposal for new zoning is in consideration is actually a notice of a sort of back-entrance to the truck stop from our tiny little road which already has too much traffic on it.
I'm just sick.
My across the street neighbor is doing a fantastic job of researching and spreading the news. She's the one who printed up and distributed the notice at the top of the page. Another neighbor is doing whatever she can to deal with the Jefferson County Planning Committee.
I told my across the street neighbor that if they pass this horror I'll be moving. As much as I love this house and this neighborhood, I will NOT be putting up with all that's being proposed.
Glen and I will probably go to the Planning Commission meeting on Thursday. I imagine it will be heated.
So there's that. On top of all the national shit and international shit, there is that.
Let me change the subject. Have any of you seen the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime performance?
If not, may I suggest you do?
I don't even know what two teams played in the Super Bowl but by GOD I was going to watch the halftime performance because if the idea of a Puerto Rican Best Album of the Year Grammy Winner was pissing off so many MAGA maggots, I needed to be a witness.
And so I did. I watched it.
Here's what I texted my children:
"I just watched Bad Bunny's half time show and I can't stop crying and I don't speak Spanish."
The production itself, the choreography of it all, the symbolism, the beauty, the energy, and the representation of people who, as we speak, are being hunted down by masked, armed thugs and held in detention camps which are little more than concentration camps, was completely overwhelming to me.
They had me at the sugar cane.
I can't embed the video because of licensing, etc., but here's the YouTube link.
Of course the Pedophile in Chief had a few things to say about the halftime show.
My favorite part is where he says, "Nobody understands a word this guy is saying and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children who are watching from throughout the USA., and all over the World (sic)".
Shut the fuck up, you hyperventilating hypocrite.
Just another day in Paradise.
But the response to last night's performance is heartening. So there is that.


I had no idea, stupid backwards me, as to who Bad Bunny even WAS but I watched the show and thought it was awesome! I am fairly well versed in spanish...but even if I weren't, I would have loved the positive energy anyway. DT doesn't even comprehend simple english, let alone anything anyone else is saying (as in ....we- the people?) ..so his response (as it were) did not surprise me one bit!
ReplyDeleteSusan M
I thought the halftime show was a small, perfect piece of art.
DeleteNothing Trump does surprises me anymore.
PS sorry to hear of the plans in your community.......ugh.....it stinks. glad you will make your voices heard
ReplyDeleteSusan M
I really do hope a lot of people show up for the meeting and are persistent in contacting counsel members.
DeleteUGH, Ms. Moon. I understand what it's like to get a letter like that. I know what it feels like to want to move after such news. I hate hearing stories like this, especially in a town like yours. I really hope it doesn't happen. Yes, that now with all the anxieties of the world. It's always something. Glad your neighbor is researching and hopefully your community can fight it and stop this. But, it all comes down to money, like everything and if there's money to be made, to hell with the environment is the mentality.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad Bad Bunny was the performer last night.
-Nicol
I can only hope we have at least one more honest counsel member than dishonest ones.
DeletePuerto Ricans are American citizens. Bet DT would change that if he knew.
ReplyDeleteRemember when he was throwing paper towels around after the hurricane in Puerto Rico? He wouldn't even do that now.
DeleteBad Bunny has been the MAN for eight years, that darling youngster is rocking this nation to the core FUCK ICE FUCK TRUMP though he says it more eloquently. I have watched the half time show about twenty times now. plus all of th extras. and now, I MUST learn Spanish, we all must.
ReplyDeleteGood luck stopping "progress for Lloyd" . Seems we are always up against it! Of all the battles we have only won one.
If this project gets okayed, I'm out of here. I just don't see how it could due to the lack of amenities for such a huge operation, mostly sewer and water. And no fire department except for a very poorly staffed volunteer one and there's no law enforcement in Lloyd per se. It's all in Monticello which is about twenty minutes away.
DeleteSometimes, all I watch is the halftime show. It's amazing how quickly they put it together. I was not really aware of Bad Bunny, but if MAGA had their panties in a twist, I had to love him. The camera work was stellar. The choreography, wow. But the show by Prince will always be #1 for me. That is on YouTube also.
ReplyDeleteWe were told years ago that the cornfields that surrounded our house were being sold to install a trailer park. The potential noise, traffic scared me to death. Turned out to be false rumor, but the thought of losing our peace and quiet was so depressing. I can sympathize with your plight.
On a side note, may I say you have an excellent blog roll. Of course you already know that, but if your readers have not sampled these fine folks, they should.
I ONLY ever watch the halftime show if that. It really was miraculous how they got that thing literally off the ground in that amount of time. The camera work WAS stellar. I had that thought many times while watching.
DeleteI'm glad they didn't make a trailer park out of those cornfields. I think I'd much rather have a trailer park than a behemoth of a gas station.
I really should go through that blogroll. It needs updating badly. But thank you.
The 142.3 Million people who watched Bad Bunny's halftime show would like a word.... If the orange buffoon hated it so much why was it playing on all the monitors in his gold plated house of ill repute in Florida at his Super Bowl watch party last evening? He's just pissed because the NFL Commissioner wouldn't change his mind about Bad Bunny when he told/asked him to. Loved that for him.
ReplyDeleteI was crazy proud of the NFL for supporting that choice. I read that Jay-Z is one of the people who select the halftime entertainment and he sure got it right this year.
DeleteIt really was hysterical seeing all those people watch Bad Bunny's performance. What hypocrites!
We're probably about a kilometre from Highway 21 and you can hear it all the time, especially when the trucks use their air brakes. I'd move too. I hope it doesn't happen but money always seems to win.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I watched the halftime show and I liked it. I would have enjoyed it more if I spoke Spanish, but no hablo espanol sadly. And trump, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits and groin.
We're about 3/4's of a mile away from and interstate but the noise from it is very slight and you just get used to it. Hell, I've got a train track right in my back yard! And that is not hyperbole.
DeleteBut a truck stop/travel center? That's just all kinds of NO.
This is horrifying news! All that diesel shit only half a mile from your home? I'd be planning on moving too. I know how much you love your home and I truly hope it doesn't happen, but I suspect by hook or by crook someone somewhere will get it approved. The lack of a sewage system bothers the heck out of me. Dozens of truckers per day and night and no proper waste management? Not to mention the smell and constant noise that will be generated. At least you have an escape route in the Lake House, though that might not be a permanent solution for you.
ReplyDeleteI will watch the Bad Bunny video now.
This is not dozens of trucks a day. This is hundreds or quite possibly thousands of vehicles a day, including trucks. This is a gargantuan operation.
DeleteThe cabin is no solution for me. I'd probably rather live next to a truck stop than there. It's in the middle of nowhere and I don't enjoy being there. Glen would love it.
I only watched a bit because I don't understand Spanish, but I sure do wish I could still move like those dancers can.
ReplyDeleteI felt like I didn't need to know what the words were. The energy gave me all I needed to know. Plus- that big sign saying, "Love is Stronger Than Hate."
DeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the Super Bowl half time show with Bad Bunny. It was just so full of positive energy ! I am 75 years old and was not really familiar with Bad Bunny and now I am a fan. (There are just no words to descibe my disgust of Trump with his response to the half time show)
ReplyDeleteLinda from Alabama
Hello Linda! I think you may belong here.
DeleteI love what I saw of Bad Bunny and can explanatory separate video explainer about the meaning and history behind it, packed with significance, even to the special pale blue of the flag
ReplyDeleteI scrolled past the felon, no need to boost his signal.
I hope you can put sand in the gears of that proposed "development".
Yes. There are many videos with explanations for a lot of what was going on in that performance. I got a lot of them without explanation. But not all.
DeleteTrump hasn't got the heart or brains to have the slightest clue about what anything symbolizes. Except gold. Gold is good. Gold is always good.
And that's what he knows.
As to the development- me too.
Oh dear, those development plans do not sound positive. I hope that community outrage can get it moved to a more remote location away from Lloyd in general and your home in particular. A truck stop like that is self-contained -- why is there a need to locate it in a community instead of out on a highway somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI watched Bad Bunny's halftime show and loved it! The music, the energy, and all that it represented! And of course Lady Gaga too, be still, my heart!
This really is a smart location for a travel center/truck stop. Right off a main interstate, exits and entrances already in place, and it would be the first big truck stop before Tallahassee for westward bound travelers. These things are springing up all over.
DeleteLady Gaga was perfect!
Bad Bunny versus the Felon. And everybody loves Bad Bunny.
ReplyDeleteGreat music, great dancing. There is absolutely nothing to not like about Latin music and dancing.
The proposed industrial park/development sounds horrific for the community. I hope the community can rally and stop this.
I think we know who would win the Bad Bunny vs Asshole Criminal popularity contest.
DeleteI hope our community can fight this too. It's horrendous.
I finally watched the half-time show in its entirety. Powerful. Moving. Made me truly proud. I LOVED the final God Bless America. ALL of America.
ReplyDeleteI hope you all win out against that awful development plan. What a mess.
Did you cry, Mitchell or are you not a crier? I was sobbing by the time the final God Bless America happened.
DeleteThe proposed development plan is freaking me out far more than I thought anything like that would.
Oh, I cried.
Delete❤️
DeleteAnyone who travels knows just how enormous and awful those Love stations are (and bright! think they are lit so you can see them from outer space). Did they think your little town was going to be a pushover? They guessed wrong, I hope. Loved the show, and Ricky Martin! He looked and sounded fabulous, didn't he? Was nice to see him included.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the light pollution? It's like EVERY kind of pollution, all wrapped up in one gargantuan behemoth of a development.
DeleteRicky was indeed great. I would expect no less.
At one of our homes, a Meijer was proposed about a mile away. Months of back and forth and it was denied. My husband said ‘we’re selling’. I said, ‘it was shot down.’ He said, ‘the next time, it’ll go through.’ I was skeptical but he was right. Now, it’s a whole road of stores. We sold and moved into a small town up the road. No less congested but still walkable. Ack! i hope you have a better outcome!! Give’em HELL!
ReplyDeleteI watched Bad Bunny. Not my taste in music but i don’t have a problem with it. To each their own. I loved when he named off all the countries. I looked into visiting Puerto Rico. It might be too warm for us but we’ll see.
I have thought about your comment all day, especially the part about one thing not being approved but that eventually, one will be.
DeleteI feel almost certain that will happen in Lloyd, too.
I've never been to Puerto Rico but I'm pretty sure I'd love to go and of course, I can handle the heat. And islands get those ocean breezes, not to mention the fact that if it's too hot, you just jump in the water!
I know exactly what a Love's Truck Top and Travel Center is. OMG Mary, how awful to have that so close. The one they built here about a mile before the first exit to this town and the one closest to our little neighborhood so it doesn't really impact us but they built it basically behind the backyards of houses in another little town. And a mini truck stop is being built right in fucking town here. It's also about a mile away from us but in the other direction. We do not need a fucking truck stop, mini or not, in town! Traffic and pollution aside, the aesthetics are horrible. Especially when they are building a similar one on the outskirts of town diametrically opposed. Fuckers.
ReplyDeleteThis would be basically in the backyard of homes too! This is a smart choice for such a business in that the exit off I-10 here is the first one for westbound travel before Tallahassee. I get why they'd want to build it there.
DeleteBut oh my god. I'm freaking out.
What was interesting was the symbolism. The powerline segment? Power outages are a regular thing there due to hurricane Maria. 2017. The little boy sleeping on folding chairs? His own childhood as he waited for his parent to finish work. Dreaming big impossible dreams, and being awakened by a future self handing him a Grammy. An amazed little boy realizing all his childhood dreams HAD come true. That wedding? It was real. A celebration of hard work, hard times, a celebration of his people and culture. I thought it was good, myself.
ReplyDeleteHe has a charity for Puerto Rican Children, which distributes hundreds of Thousands of dollars. He udrs his music to bring tourists to the island generating 500 million so far.
There is quite a bit of yelping about his crotch grabbing. All I am going to say about that is at least he was grabbing his own.
Kid Rock? Yeah. He's a poster boy for Christian values. Note sarcasm. Lyrics to Cool, Daddy, Cool: Kid Rock – Cool, Daddy Cool Lyrics | Genius Lyrics https://share.google/05UCkT5LFZ21C0H43
There was a lot of complaints about his crotch grabbing.
Ignore that last line. sorry
DeleteHa! At least he grabbed his own crotch! Too true! And despite my lack of Spanish, at least he didn't praise the idea of child sexual abuse. FUCK Kid Rock. Jesus.
DeleteAs more and more details came out about the symbolism of so much of the performance, I was even more amazed. I got a lot of it but there was so much more.
I am sorry to learn of the news near your lovely home. We live in Georgia and Data Centers are going up all over. Local Commissioners are approving them behind closed doors then hold meetings which are pointless. They say "well it's better than a large neighborhood". It was all signed sealed and delivered behind closed doors and they do not care. They do not represent the people. It is all about money. Maybe we will move - but where?
ReplyDeleteI'm so damn ignorant I don't even know what a data center is. Okay. I just looked it up. No on that too. I know that city councils can often have things decided before the public is even alerted and it may be worse in small towns than in large ones. I don't know. I just hope we really do have some commissioners that are honest and care about the lives of the people in this county.
DeleteUgh. So sorry about the truck stop. I'd fight it too. I hope the county commissioners listen to you. I haven't watched Bad Bunny's show but Dave did and he said he enjoyed it, which surprised him because, as he put it, "I don't even like rap!" (Is it rap?)
ReplyDeleteIt's not rap, it's Reggaeton which is a very interesting genre having arisen from the culture and music of many different places. Or at least that's what I read online. I'd heard of it but I had no clue.
DeleteThis truck stop thing is really freaking me out.
OK, here's a change of subject that you in particular (since it concerns camellias) should get at least a moment of heartwarmingness (heart-warmth?) from:
ReplyDeleteMy house came with a large unfamiliar shrub that smothers itself in stopsign-red flowers in late fall, and that was my introduction to camellias-- or at least the hardy ones, given that most maps show the 6b/7a boundary as going right through my yard.
Last spring I planted a Lemon Glow camellia (rare, and unusually hardy), and it looked fine through our recent stretch of single-digit temperature until...well, a couple of days ago it looked frozen to death. (We are having an exceptional cold spell-- not only extremely cold, windy, snowy, and icy, but prolonged with no respite. Not good for a little shrub's first winter.) Very saddening.
But over the course of a day, 1) I learned, via Google, that it might re-leaf come spring, 2) I learned, via you, that your camellia buds survived your frost, and 3) after a temperature climb to the mid-twenties, my shriveled shrub spread its leaves again and looked just fine-- deep green against the snow-- with maybe just touch of freezer burn on a few leaves. A beautiful little survivor! With what look like the beginnings of spring buds! Do camellias send each other telepathic encouragement across the miles?
That's a beautiful story about a hardy camellia! Thank you! Sometimes the most delicate-looking of flowers are the hardiest and camellias fit into that category, I think. I'm so glad yours survived.
ReplyDeletePerhaps all the camellias everywhere are cheering each other on, encouraging them not to give up. That is a lovely thought.
I Hope you don't have to Sell your Beloved Home over development. It's hard, almost everywhere ends up having development and encroachment now. So it could become constant moves. Your concerns are valid, even in Urban Areas we contest some of the development. They want to build those massive Data Centers in and around Phoenix, its a Desert, Water a precious resource, not enuf of it to operate Data Centers that consume so much of it... short term greed causes long term problems. I Loved and was Moved by Bad Bunny's Performance, Message and how well done it all was to promote Unity and Love.
ReplyDelete