No Kings - NW corner of Broad and Main (the traffic circle) - SAT 2-4

It's important for Galesburg to get out and protest. Do we want the president to simply send in the troops any time he feels like it? It's one thing that we don't agree on what constitutes an out-of-control demonstration - what happened in LA was never out of control. It's more that he's picking a fight deliberately so that he can show that he'll use the Marines on his own people without hesitation. We are the enemy. The constitution is the enemy. Civility is not part of his consideration.

I'm a Door Dash driver in Galesburg. I've gotten to know the workers at most of the fast-food places. That's not to say anything, really, except that I love the place as a place to live and work. I would say that about the USA in general, as I have been in other places, except that it is coming apart at the seams so quickly these days. It's like it's devolving into civil war.

Stay peaceful. Stay cool. Don't back down. We have our constitution, and we believe in it, even if our own president doesn't.

Tour of Galesburg restaurants

These days I dash a lot in the mornings. That means I go to Starbucks a lot, and Dunkin', and McDonalds. I get a general tour of all the restaurants in Galesburg. Not quite all though; some don't do Doordash.

One of those I don't do is Judy's; I've only set foot in it once. That was to give Judy a book and to tell her I thought she was a social media pioneer, I admire her movies, and I want to write a book with her. Since then I've seen her a lot (I live on her block) but still haven't eaten a pancake. She gets a lot of business from out of town but not so much. from the neighborhood.

Tres Cafe is another one that seems to get people from far and wide, as opposed to people from right there on that side of the tracks. It's cornered by trains and sometimes the trains stop on the tracks, making us dashers sit or go all the way around on Losey twice just to get there. I'm curious about their food too. The fact is my wife has a sore back so we don't go to any restaurants, and those few minutes I'm inside, waiting for that order, are the few and only minutes I can be taking in the atmosphere. That is true for every restaurant.

I'm glad Arby's finally got doordash, as I kind of like going in there. I also like Masa's, Coney Island, McAlister's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Lenny's, Culver's, Steak 'n' Shake, Taco Bell (2), Joy Garden, Jersey Mike's, Chipotle, Burger King, the usual. I like them all, even the pizza places, though a lot of them have their own drivers, and they make me wrap the pizza up in my red bag which is not really a problem. I like the ones in Knoxville. I can tell you a bit more about them than you really need to know. I do Landmark, PHO and some of the fancy places too, and I like that because I feel that if you're going all out to get really good food you might as well get delivery too, kind of like the hotel rule.

Another place that doesn't have it is Taco Hideaway, which I just found out about, tucked out in a field out by the tracks in the southwest part of town. Check it out. I can't really describe it here except to say that I'd like that guy to try doordash, just so I could step in the place a little more often - it's hopping, or at least was, last time I was there. Another good place is the little one on Academy, near the library; my wife calls it Jarochitos but I don't think that's the right name. Delicious and very friendly! We go there for takeout, since we never do the dining experience.

I don't think I got them all, and I know there are others that just don't get doordash. It may be too complicated to get it, or maybe they have their own drivers, like Domino's or Alfano's. Pizza Hut kind of does both. I dash Little Caesar's a lot, but really if I had my druthers I'd eat at Smokin' Willie's or something, even if I have sodium restrictions. Smokin' Willie's had trouble when they moved and DD had trouble with it and kept sending people back over to North St. which was ridiculous, and maybe it was just too much for them to deal with. They are also like Perkins in the sense that they do orders in the order they come in, which forces dashers to wait around in busy times, and it's not a good way to do it. If you do DD you have to be willing to time your order for a quick arrival so that people get food on time, and dashers don't quit from not wanting to stand around. Our life is bad enough, we shouldn't have to smell all that delicious food and not even take a break.

That's a general report - that's Galesburg on your average day. Dozens of cool places.

April 19, No Kings Galesburg

Here are some pictures from the Saturday rally in Galesburg.

I asked around and the general consensus was, about 350, same as two weeks ago. It appeared to be mostly the same people, too. In the center of town, more drivers saw us, and most of them honked approval. The day was nice, not too hot or cold, very spring-like.

I get a little charged up when I'm pulled over by the police. Of course it brings up a few memories. But I'm reasonably sober these days: haven't drunk in over forty years, and don't get high even except maybe every few years or so. In any case, I was quite sober tonight.

But as I pulled out onto highway 150 at about ten o'clock, according to the policeman, I swerved across the line. That sounds like something I would do, I said, and I told him how my small car tends to swerve a bit even when I'm sober. It blows in the wind. I have to concentrate. So I admitted as how I might be guilty and he said he'd check my license and maybe write me a warning.

I had to get out of the car, because my cochlear implant battery had died and it was impossible for him to talk to my left ear, and impossible for me to turn around enough to use the right one. He seemed to have enough of a view of what was in there to not be suspicious though. Really I only had one teen who wouldn't look away from his phone.

It occurred to me that the teen, who we've been fostering, could have had enough issues himself that he didn't want to get involved. It could have been that he was not squeaky clean either and just didn't want to let on. It occurred to me that I really didn't know, but that I knew my own end, me and my car, we were clean. So as I stood there, I told him how I'd just seen him at the convenience store, where I was buying four sodas, one for my son and one for each boy I've been fostering or taking care of, and I think by the time he heard that he decided I wasn't worth bothering with. He was looking for a DUI. I was not a DUI. He pretty much said that.

I actually like most of the policemen I've met around here. They don't seem to have that jaded meanness that they do in other places. They do their job but they're also willing to let you go if they pulled you over by mistake, which has happened to me twice now. I swear they might just be pulling me over because they don't know me. Three years here, on highway 150 six times a day, maybe they just want me to prove I'm not trouble. But that's ok. The way I see it they're doing their job and as long as they're not out there targeting me or making me angry I'm ok with it. Maybe they just want to see how I respond to their flashlight all over me.

Not sure if this guy was Knoxville or Galesburg; he could have been either or they could be the same at 10:00 pm. He seemed to accept my explanation that I was from Galesburg and my boys were out in Knoxville. Glad it was me, not them. They're dying to get cars and are as irresponsible as God makes 'em.

Hands Off

The Hands Off rally in Galesburg on April 5 was a success in my view.

I saw over a hundred people there, maybe two or three hundred, though I'm no expert at counting or crowd estimation. It seemed like a lot for a busy town, though Carbondale, which is much smaller, had six or seven hundred in the pouring rain. Galesburg is a busy town, a working-class town, in my view, so when people actually come out for something like this, it's because they need to say something. That was certainly true for me.

I saw signs going in many different directions. A couple about Ukraine (mine was Greenland), a lot about social issues, one even mentioned the 401k (by the way, 401k holders lost as much as $50,000 on the day before simply because of the TH-FR-MON crash, the first two days had wiped out trillions of dollars. Hands off our retirement! Most of my friends, like me, are just coming into looking forward to a few years of kicking and using the money they'd saved over fifty years or so (unlike me; I was unable to save anything, really) - now they are in my boat, old and struggling. And angry.

I am personally more angry about the fascist tendencies, and the disregard for law, courts, and constitution. My next sign will say "I believe in the Law, the Courts, and the Constitution." Perhaps the police, knowing me, will laugh. But to me that's a big issue and I saw that, a little, on the signs. Lots of interesting signs.

You can use other sites to survey the kinds of things people said nationwide. It's a general concern 1) whether anyone notices or does anything as a result, and 2) whether the goons will come after us knowing they will be pardoned, knowing they're free from retribution. Personally, I feel that since everyone's a trillion or two poorer, a certain amount of protest willl likely be tolerated; they've got bigger problems on their plate than coming after some of us common people expressing our displeasure. But more important, I can't watch the dismantling of our democracy and do nothing. Someday we will look back on this time and say, what did you do when they were taking democracy away from you? Didn't you speak up??? I want to be able to say yes, loudly whether it did any good or not.

World-class potholes

If a pot-hole is big enough to fit my car in it, I call it world-class. The car will struggle with it because it goes all the way in and has to come all the way back out somehow. Sometimes I wonder if it will make it.

I grew up and learned to drive in Pittsburgh. That makes me an expert.

The biggest ones in Galesburg I believe are on Mall Road, which runs from between Perkins and the Mexican restaurant back to the Aspire near the Y, on Carl Sandburg Road. I believe Mall Road may be private which is why it could become severe and nobody would do anything about it. The city itself takes pretty good care of most of its streets.

On Mall Road you could lose a car like mine several times over.

There's a place near the towers on Henderson where you circle around to an alley behind a strip mall. That strip mall was near an old Goodwill but right off-hand I don't know what else is in the strip mall. All I can tell you is it is kind of up against that tower and has an alley behind it.

That alley, though, has a fine pot-hole.

I will keep you informed. It's been a long winter. I strongly dislike the highway (33) going to Kewanee - it's four-lane, it shouldn't eat cars.