front door web

I'm on the front porch. The sun is setting. The neighbor is working in the sweet potato patch. If I could turn webs into gold I wouldn't have to work.

Is it work to make the web?

non-fatal in Mascot

I posted September 2007, eleven months ago, a deadly wreck at Mascot, the intersection of Stumptown and Newport roads. Notice the memorial cross on right edge of pic, beside first cop to arrive. Last week I rather soberly trudged off again, camera in hand. Happily, it was a fender bender.

Second police car arriving at left; cars in accident center and right.

If you are going southwest on Newport at speeds excessive of normal, this is a blind intersection. Could the township put up a sign to make this safer? Yes. Would it cost society more than it will cost to fix this fender bender? No. Is this sane?

How does it happen than one person dies and another walks away?

salmon supper

Last evening the Waterfields had supper with us. Anna, second from left, beside Dorcas, ends a six-year mentorship. Continuing clockwise is Chuck, me, Sue, and Maria.

Let's pull in a close-up of Dorcas and Anna. At church every youth gets paired with an adult just to be friends until high school graduation.

toad in grass

If all life is a web, then I guess someday when I sit down my knees will splay way out and if someone kisses me they will get warts. The two-eyes-forward thing already applies. From boyhood I seem to remember that toads pee on your hand if you catch them. I left this guy hide, camouflaged in the grass near our door.

more vacation

Well, enough americana and Lincoln. I do reflect that other countries have ended slavery without a war. And I do reflect that our name is the United STATES of America, not the United Peoples of America. The power brokers of the 50 states are truly united. If you subtract out the war hysteria patriotism, I'm not so sure how much the peoples are united.

Day four of vacation was wheels and no wheels. That Chevy up on stilts looks angelic, already living in eternity. I'm confused, though. Dashboard looks like a '57 with the fan speedometer, while the taillights look like a '54.

Took a tourist train from New Haven, KY, to Boston, KY. These wheels took me the 45-minutes round trip. Now, I can understand how those brakes work. Cotter pin. Shoe. Bolt. Nut. I could fix that brake.

Lincoln birth

Abraham Lincoln, what, the 16th president of the USA, was born in a log cabin. Forever it was believed that it was this one here. The history chanel, the guide told us, did the research which proved in 2004 that it was not this one. This is used now described as a surrogate one, so much like the original as to be believable. In the early 20th century it was housed in this Greek temple, a shocking contrast of architecture.

I would have build a larger log cabin to protect the humble "original." One door. One window. A chimney--what else could be part of the design.

Scholars do believe that the site is correct. Abe lived here--or suckled here--for two years, his first two. His father, Thomas, had bought the 300 acre farm on which this was located, for $200. Kentucky had just ceded from Virginia and land deeds were frequently contested and Tom lost the land for nothing and had to move on.

Close to the house is a magnificent spring which emerges from a natural tunnel and drops down three feet or so into a small pool. A white oak stump is the only remaining element (they told us)from the year of his birth and it is mostly rotted away.

then Kentucky

Vacation day two and we arrived at the destination--New Haven, KY. Day three we drove a few miles to Loretto. Here's the downtown, where the pickups look more expensive than the buildings.

Loretto is home to a catholic community including an art studio with fabulous stuff made from odd shaped tree parts. We rented a cottage pretty much secluded in nature, but not far off the road.

vacation pics

First night was at a B & B in Buckhannon, WV. Walked a lot. At the local eatery a local guy asked, Where in Pennsylvania? Oh, he takes the truck to Gap, Pa., often to get Amish funiture.

This day lily close to the door. It was the Victorian house that had wifi. Lost my electric toothbrush there. Only thing we lost.

numbers play

I like today's date--8/8/8.

spider again

After the Kentucky vacation, another spider gets my attention.