under the kitchen sink

Okay, let' s see now. This one is for cold water. That one for hot.

Lying on my back, head under the sink, I see light through holes where the sun don't usually shine. I opened the hole far left to add a spray hose. Camera all manual, except the focus. Shadow thrown by the shop light.

The last time a faucet was installed, solid copper pipes led from these couplers to the faucet. Now, flexible hoses are used.


Let's see. We invented plumbing. Maybe we are the best civilization.


When I walked into this room for the first time in 1951, holding the hand of my mother, eyes all agog, I saw a free standing sink at this same place. In the spring I discovered the sink drained straight through the wall and into lawn. Why not re-use the water, I guess.

Toadstools?

Mushrooms cuddling? Toadstools? What are these growths in the lawn?

Here are some definitions: "an edible agaric (contrasting with the inedible toadstool)"--whatever agaric is. "Fungi of Basidiomycota with a cap at the end of a stem arising from underground mycelium."

Well, my Latin is not very good today, so whatever that means.

I remember seeing things like this which had popped up overnight when I was a kid. I was so fascinated. I don't think my parents (or any of my fiends' parents) ever bought mushrooms at the local pop and mom grocery. What a waste! Buying air. It's not food. It won't fill you up or stick to your ribs.

I knew enough to know that some people eat them. My Mom knew enough to tell me that some are poisonous. Which ones? She didn't know. I don't know. There was no internet to tell us how to tell the difference. The online dictionary reserves the term "toadstool" for the bad ones. So am I looking at a scrumptious topping for my hamburger or agonizing indigestion and possible death?

I'll never know, because I had to mow them down.

It just leaves me with the thought--why isn't the atomic bomb cloud called the toadstool cloud?