Fort Scott Bugle

"A Wake-up Call to the Community from one member of the Peanut Gallery."

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

"Gravity issues in Fort Scott"

Have you ever noticed that there is an apparent variation in gravity depending on what part of town you are in? For example here is what I've observed...
Take the Miller Block, (Please!,) ...there must be a lack of gravity in that location of town. Seems to me that what is left of the fire damaged walls are somehow just floating in mid-air. The engineers who planned the stabilization must be aware of the lack of gravity too, considering how they left such big gaps inbetween those uprights and crossmembers. They must have figured that if a section falls out somewhere below the top, the remainder will stay standing because of the lack of gravity on that corner.
There also seems to be the same lack of gravity up on "Tower Hill" because according to Public Works and the City Engineers there is an "elevation issue" with the new water tower. It was explained that when you increase elevation you decrease water pressure. That seems odd. Why don't most towns bury their water towers then? Maybe it's because Fort Scott and the Gravity here is different than in other towns, or, depending on which place you are in town. The engineers surely took into account the lack of gravity on the hill when they decided to put the new water tower where there make it the height that it is.
Okay, that was two locations that have an apparent "Lack of Gravity." But I have also heard of places that have more than normal gravity pull. Such as the parking lots or sidewalks around the Taverns. Ofcourse this seems to flucuate though. Usually the longer the day goes on the more the gravity pull at those locations, (or so I've heard.)
Then we have the Courthouse. Apparently there is an increased gravitational pull there also. At least in the Treasurer's office. According to the County Commission minutes the pull was sufficient enough to pull some of the roof mix off of the roof and through a window and into the check writing machine a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully the pull is not too great at that location, but rather just great enough to keep the new roof intact and not pull it, or any rainwater, down into the building.
And how about "The Smoker?" According to the engineers and codes officer the gravitational pull at that location must be absolutely incredible. (It was a tavern you know.) But apparently there the force of gravitational pull is so powerful that if a wall were to fall, it would not fall out and away from the building but rather in a near vertical straight line down. That is amazing. (That seems to prove my theory on gravity and taverns.)
Even around my house there seems to be variances in gravitational pull depending on what area you are in. For instance, there is this chair in front of the TV set in the living area, there is a great gravitational pull there, as well as on the stairways. (Doesn't matter whether you are going up or going down.) Also there is a very noticable pull of gravity in our bedroom, mostly in the location of the bed.
The lack of gravity around our house is only apparent in a few areas, like the gas boiler. There seems to be nothing holding back all of the heat that rushes up and out the top of the house via the flue. There's another location in the basement that seems to lack gravity... The workbench. Funny that there is enough gravity to hold down some projects that need to be worked on but not enough to keep me there to do them. (Ofcourse that's not really saying much.)
My wife would probably say that the gravity flucuates in the house quite often. For instance on the top floor there is enough gravity at certain times to keep me there to start projects, but then the pull changes before I can finish any of them.
Strange thing gravity is. Like right now it's pulling me away from the computer to another location...