Chemtool Fire part 2

I ended with the first part of the tale sharing how a modified one-mile evacuation map was released. 

This is a significant part of the tale here because you see every year on Father's Day weekend a large music festival takes place. This festival includes carnival rides and food,  beer tents, and big-name country music stars. Well, most years it's country music stars, some years they have done other genres of music.

The original evacuation map that went out included the park on the north shore of the river; the new maps that park, known as Settlers Park, was excluded. Basically, the park is 0.2 miles outside that mandatory evacuation zone -- a zone that was still in place!

Chemtool Fire

Monday, June 14th about 7 am Rockton Police were called on scene to Chemtool on Prarie Hill Rd in Rockton IL.  By 730 am my Facebook newsfeed was full of people asking what's going on, what's on fire, what are the explosions they are hearing. 

I step out and see this:

Federal Plus Loans

Chef is finishing up culinary school; like many, he does have student loans. His loan totals are small and modest compare to others. He has $5500 total in student loans, which is just under half of the total cost of schooling.  The other half was paid with scholarships, grants, and out of pocket by us. 

This morning I was reading a news article about Federal Parent PLUS loans. The couple featured owes nearly $500,000 in loans. This happened because of deferments, forbearances, and high-interest rates. The couple has even filed for bankruptcy and lost their home. It's mind-boggling how quickly that can happen. -- however, even with bankruptcy they still owe on the parent plus loans. (Not all debt goes away with bankruptcy.)

Nikki's Thoughts ...

My thoughts are all over the place and I can't help, but think I'm being called back to blogging. I did it when the kids were younger and enjoyed the interaction. I meant many wonderful people many of whom I'm still friends with and will be for the unforeseeable future. 

This blog is going to be shaken up some. Sure it will still include some homeschooling, but not as much seeing both the kids are high school graduates now. Yes, that's right Webprincess and Superstar are adults now, 19 and 20! Wow, in my early years of blogging they were just kids, 7/8. Seeing they are adults now there social media nicknames have changed. Superstar is now Chef and Webprincess is now Cadet, but Cadet is probably not fitting, seeing she's no longer active in CAP (Civil Air Patrol), maybe I should nickname her Artist. She spends her free time drawing and her art is impressive.