defy gravity

If you check real quick, the New Yorker might still have this on their site. Go to the bottom of the page, Quantum Levitation.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/to-do-list-betrayal-in-the-bachmann-camp.html

Three reasons it caught my eye. One, music appears to defy gravity, too. Two, home town makes the big apple site. And, three, one of the credits at the end of the clip shares my last name.

first Christmas gift

At work, I got my first gift of the season, along with each of the other staff members. Thanks for reusing nice Nescafe bottles, for a home-grown, hand-made treat. Here's how fast mine went in one day.

moon over lights

Our village has a lavish display of lights this year, at the edge, just over the goat path. Tonight the moon is 100 percent full. So...I tried to capture the effect. I didn't know I moved the camera once. The goof turns out best--my little thought for the day. The tall post is to capture Santa's attention as he passes overhead.

Thanksgiving column

Here's my column on Thanksgiving, as it appears in the Mennonite Weekly Review. Photo here is online freebie.
http://www.mennoweekly.org/2011/11/21/when-saints-met-originals/

buggy graffiti: A loves K

A neighbor got married yesterday. In the dark of night this buggy was pushed up against my walnut tree to make a statement. Graffiti scrawled on it proclaimed that A loves K. I guess that says it in a nutshell. One hopes that K also loves A. Or, is the message that A or K ditched the relationship? The preachers had said this and that for over an hour. Is it possible that they missed the essential point and the teenagers had to say it? By dawn's early light, the wash was hung, the bench wagons were being loaded.

fodder's in the bale

"When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock" is the first line of a James Whitcomb Riley poem from America's era between the Civil War and WWI. In Monterey nowadays the fodder's in the bale. What I see today is almost the same as this photo I snapped two years ago.

weekend away II

On Sunday we stopped at the Maryland location of the Chesapeake & Ohio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal_National_Historical_Park%20Canal historic site. The canal was begun in 1828 and ran, when it was completed in 1850, 184.5 miles from Washington DC to Cumberland.

weekend away

This weekend, on a getaway close to Springs, Pa., near the western Maryland border, I ventured back a country road and saw this farm and its fence. The weathered wood of the fence posts exudes character. The junk is another thing.

day away at North East, Maryland

That's the name of the town; it's 42 miles away from Monterey, on the Chesapeake Bay. Go another 9 miles and enter Elk Neck State Park and walk a mile to the preserved lighthouse, which was last used in 1948, when the woman (see life-sized photo cut-out at door) retired. Step inside and look up at all 31 steps. Then climb an 8-step ladder and squeeze through the hatch to the look-out. We both made it to the top and down again. Cecil County bird club had a watch point along the trail where we sighted several eagles and ospreys. That was our Sunday sabbath.

more buggy wreck

In these four photos, the last taken at 8:24, we see the horse back on the road and the buggy uprighted. After this, three men pushed the buggy across my newly plowed field to the school house lane. In less than ten minutes Eby Road was open for traffic. This is how Americans get things done.

buggy wreck

At 8:20 a.m. I heard noises right in front of the house. A front-loader driven by an Amish neighbor, interestingly, spooked a horse bringing a few children to school. I grabbed the camera and will let the pictures tell the story, from passengers escaping, to unhitching the horse.

rubber roof

During the first hurricane this summer the flat roof started to leak. We had discoloration of the dry wall and a drip. Today R&L Siding is putting on a rubber roof, the rubber being Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer, which is an elastic polymer, is often used interchangeably with the term rubber. Two-inch insulation goes beneath it. The crew is multi-cultural.

tall corn

Monterey corn has outgrown the Broadway musical's line: the corn is as high as an elephants's eye. An elephant stands 10-13 feet at the shoulders. Its eye is positioned below the shoulder top. Here's a stalk of corn. It measures 153 inches, 12.75 feet, as long as a Mazda Protege

road maintenance

The township did a chip and tar on our road. Once the surface was brushed, the tar sprayer came, followed by the chip spreader and the roller. We were free to drive on it.

corn is high

It rained and the corn jumped up, as locals say. Pipeline workers entered the fields of 11-foot stalks to do maintenance on the station behind our house.

Pittsburgh-2

An owner of a sub shop renamed his sandwiches on Menno themes. Most buses were lavishly painted with ads.

baby quilt

During the cookout, Joel and Steph presented a quilt for Sarah and Ryan's baby soon to come.

church convention in Pittsburgh-1

We spent last Wednesday and Thursday in the vast Lawrence convention center in Pittsburgh, enjoying the people, street scenes, and urban density.

cookout on the 4th

On the 4th I tried out my new open fire grill, using the fire wood from the wild cherry tree felled by a storm two years ago. See the results on the cutting board. And see the first local corn of the season along with the other treats in the backyard. After nighfall, we blew off some legal sparklies. The next morning I picked up the trash.

turn 67 in style

Here's one way to have a birthday in style: spend it with two people you didn't know ten years ago--your son-in-law and your daughter-in-law, who have since become treasured parts of your life. Drive to Timonium, Maryland, catch the light rail to Baltimore's Camdem Yards and watch the Cardinals beat the Orioles 5 to 1. Daughter Sarah is in her 37th week expecting so Dorcas took her out on the local town. Joel shot this pic on his i-phone while we waited for the train in Timonium.

And thanks to everyone else who wished me well. Let me scattershot some names: Hunter, Rolando, Doug, Pat, Larry, Matt, Becky, Amy, Patrick, Terresa, Katie, Sandra, Irene, Edna, Dwight, Dean, Beth, Harry, Linda...and all the rest.

police lock down neighbor farm

Just took this photo of a neighbor farm. A helocopter circles above and police train guns on the house while a troubled man inside is reported to be barricaded. Check http://www.lancasteronline.com/ for details.

Della dogwood blooms

I thought there was a song about poppies. If you are feeling romantic, check out: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/w/whenthepoppiesbloomagain.shtml.

But the big news is that the Della dogwood, named in honor of Dorcas's mother, planted after her passing, is in flower for the first time. My links not working, so here's a song about dogwoods: http://freelyricshut.com/tag/dogwood-bloom.

field trip

"Field trip" took on a new meaning when the fire/rescue truck arrived for a demo. The field in this case was just across the lane from the school. Head attire required for both settings. And, see the team of Belgiums, top right?

seeds and speeds

I'm not late. My blog server failed. Here's the end of April stuff.

While a small island country watched a prince get married, my brother turned 75 and invited me to have lunch with this group. Easter gathered the larger family together at my sister's retirement community dining hall. She treated. Thanks, Evie. And I did the annual rototilling of the garden.