Every now and then, it’s a good idea to unclog your mind and give a voice to the random thoughts that just sort of orbit around your brain. I always write my random thoughts down on a scrap of paper or the back of a business card and toss them on my desk.

I can always tell when my mind is cluttered because my desk is messy.

Well, it’s time to clean up both. So here are some random thoughts that I’ve removed from my desk and, hopefully, my mind.

Flood threats roll on past

We were lucky this past week. The floods never really came. Missouri, for the most part, was spared. The usual areas flooded, such as Rosendale, Agency and Big Lake. But it was Iowa’s turn to face the raging rivers and swollen creeks.

This, of course, leaves St. Joseph with about 60,000 sandbags and no high water spots to use them.

So, what do you do with that many sandbags?

Here’s one suggestion: Let’s stack them in city hall to separate Mayor Ken Shearin and City Manager Vince Capell. Perhaps we’ll have enough left over for a protective barrier around the mayor’s assistant’s new $3,000 desk.

It’s quite an investment. We should take care of it.

What’s that look like?

Speaking of the new desk, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a $3,000 piece of furniture that was just a desk. Does it have a hide-a-bed somewhere in it or secret compartments like the ones in the “National Treasure” movie sequel?

How does one desk cost that much taxpayer money?

I guess it could cost that much if it were made out of petroleum products.

Or corn.

To avoid further controversy, here’s some advice (and a shameless plug for the News-Press) for the mayor’s office and really anyone at city hall who needs new office furniture: Check out our sale ads in Sunday’s newspaper. You can usually find something on sale at Office Depot, Office Max and sometimes Target.

Easy to rise, slow to fall

Speaking of petroleum products, we’ve managed to avoid — by some miracle — $4-a-gallon gas prices thus far this summer. Isn’t it ironic that whenever the price of crude oil rises, convenience store workers are out that very afternoon resetting prices at the pumps and raising the price on their signs?

But when the price of crude does go down (and it does occasionally) it takes several days, sometimes even weeks, to see that reflected at the pump. I guess it must be a timing thing …

Thank goodness for Stonecrest

A story surfaced last week that the Stonecrest Homes Association recently held a series of meetings to discuss, among other things, how to properly display flags in their neighborhood. The association only wants short flagpoles that are attached to houses. It wants to prohibit people from digging holes in their yards and setting poles.

The restriction was proposed at the group’s last meeting, then approved by a majority vote of those in attendance.

Personally, I don’t have an opinion on whether flagpoles should be attached to houses. But I can offer a strategy for opponents of the restriction.

Simply make a TV commercial that shows Stonecrest Homes Association Vice President Curtis Walker wearing a straw cowboy hat and dancing with two obviously biracial women.

As Curtis dances, an announcer says, “Curtis Walker recently attended a cocktail party at a friend’s house in Lake of Twelve Oaks. Now he wants to tell us how we can display the American flag… Curtis Walker … A Stonecrest address with Lake of Twelve Oaks values …”

OK, OK … I admit that’s ridiculous.

But hey, it seems to be working for Sam Graves.

Steve Booher’s column runs on Mondays.