Janet's pirates for Ben - street rant

Ben loved this envelope from Janet - as well as the riddle and stickers. Nanna kept the LEGOs that her boys collected (way back when) and Ben's favorite pieces are the pirate set - so this was a perfect theme for Ben.

It is a coincidence that my rant is directed at the place where Janet lives - but it is not her hometown - so, I don't think she will be offended by my rant. Who knows - she might even agree with me.

***

Buckle your seatbelts, Nanna is going to launch a Hulk-sized rant. Just skip it if you have other things that need to get done.

On the day During the heat wave) that the AC decided to take a break and Nanna had to find alternative activities that involved one adult staying at the house to wait for a repairman - she found two fabulous aquatic parks in the suburb to the north of DSM. 

The addresses are 2350 SW Prairie Trail Parkway - and - 1220 NW Prairie Ridge Drive.

In the olden days - and I am talking colonial - all the roads were twisty-turny paths that evolved into crazy twisty-turny neighborhoods that are still twisty-turny 500 years later - in the New England states. The midwest is a VAST PRAIRIE - with no reason for twisty-turny streets. The grid system worked for so many years.

Now - suburbs have reverted to twisty-turny streets. And on top of it they pick words like Prairie - and they add two more words - and they end up with 75 different streets that start with Prairie. Ridges, Trails, Parkways, Streets, Drives, Boulevards, Roads, Views - the list goes on and on. My least favorite word of all -vista. Good grief -- there are NO VISTAS on a prairie unless you build a tall building - and even then it's not a vista -- it's just scenery. To qualify as a vista - you need something more than trees and bumps - aka *hills.* 

WHY do they need three words for street names? The one that bugs me the most is Wistful Vista Drive. I think the street namers were drunk and there was a contest to see who could come up with the dumbest  name that would still be OKed. 

Thank you for letting me rant - as I wait for the guy who told us a couple weeks ago that our AC was in great shape for the upcoming season. At least MrW and Hunter were agreeable about taking the kids to a *fun-zone* - an indoor jumping and climbing place.

Here's what was inside Janet's envelope: