We're all Thirsty

It's 87 out with 50% humidity. Makes you thirsty. Makes this butterfly thirsty as it takes a sip from the fish pond.
Took in a play, a musical called "Honk" based on the Ugly Duckling story, and pretty entertaining. There is a local educational playhouse up in Huron, Ohio's oldest continuously operating summer playhouse (60 years), where college students, professors, and other flock to turn out five plays in five weeks. Next week is a Neil Simon play and the conclusion is Brigadoon, if I recall correctly.

The play was followed by the traditional and required ice cream cone at the local ice cream joint right there on the main drag in Huron. The trick was to devour the cone before rivulets of sticky melted ice cream render your hand totally unworthy of driving a car home. I did not master the trick, and the kind worker in the window provided a wet napkin for mopping up. The cone was great though, but that ice cream...it makes you thirsty.

Meanwhile, down in our daughter's in-laws' pond, there's enough water to go around for everyone...
while a pair of doves watch from the wire

W.O.F. 21 Weird Bug Friday

OK, I'm going to roll with the insect theme that seems to be predominating this week. Here is a picture of a "little" feller that was hanging out on our deck two nights ago. This beetle probably measured two inches, head to tail. He's a big guy. The odd shadow in the above photo would be the result of using a close-up macro lens and a flash, whereby the lens itelf casts a shadow. Hmm.

The dude fell into the (not hot) hot tub later that night and my wife fished him out. Maybe he meant to be in there and is mad that we chased him out of the water. Anyhow, that's my entry for this nice, sultry hot W.O.F. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Practically in our own back yard

For tonight's dog-walk, we drove over to a county owned park about a mile from home. It is small in acreage but a very nice setting, a real break from the flat farm fields that make up most of northwestern Ohio. We hiked around for 45 minutes or so, enough to make the dog thirsty enough to take a good long drink from the fish pond when we got home. Scenes from the walk:

Blessed with a New Grand-Dog

rather humorous underbite - will she need orthodontics?

Well, our daughter found her growing family a new member this past weekend. This new pup (about a year old and pretty much fully grown) was free to a good home, complete with a really nice foldable travel cage and some other dog "notions".
Her name is Lily (unless they change it a little). She is a pug mix, and I know how several of you out there in blog land are pretty favorable toward pugs. She spent a trial night at our house (a "Three Dog Night", if you will) getting used to the other grand-dog, Ana, the Fox/Boston Terror - I mean Terrier - and our ol' spaniel. She passed the test and has joined our daughter and son-in-law at their apartment. Word is that all is well and, whereas Ana used to demand human attention whenever she was awake, she is now spending her time running all over the place with Lily, which is by and large a good thing for all involved.
We are so proud, doting grandparents that we are.

another lily, the day variety, this one in our yard

Relay for Life

Another local Relay for Life is in the history books. A considerable sum of money - maybe $80,000 - was raised for cancer research. For the fifth year, I stayed up all night until about nine this morning, pulling the night shift with my son and a friend of his. It is interesting, to me, to stay up all night once in a while. It is sort of like when our family traveled west in 1998. You know the west exists and may have flown over it but there is nothing like traveling through it to get a real sense of the land. Same with "traveling" through a night. We decided we like it best around 4:00 - dark and calm.
The hustle/bustle of Relay by day contrasts with the quiet at night, when people tend to hunker down in their tents and under their canopies.

Selling that ice cream!

We were busy raising money for cancer research, selling a lot of ice cream (weather was in the 90's), with one guy manning the bounce house - hugely popular with the kiddies.

The bounce house - a big hit

Members of our square dance club, enough for at least one square, showed up at 8:00 and we put on a very brief demonstration between all the other announcements and events. 9:00 was time for the lighting of the luminaries and a lap around the track honoring and remembering people who have dealt with cancer. It is a moving ceremony amidst what is really a celebration and a very upbeat event.
Then around 10:00 members of our team started heading home, one by one, until the woman still doling out the ice cream sundays took her leave around 12:30, and my wife held out until 2:00. Then it was down to the three of us.

Talk about a total non sequiter - at midnight or so, a demonstration from a nearby park district on turtles and tortoises. Not sure of the connection, but they had some nice specimens on hand!

It gets pretty surreal when you find yourself learning about turtles and tortoises of the world.

A half dozen of my son's friends were still hanging around at 1:00, and I joined them in a game of bocce, which was won, by some fluke, by the boy and me. Bocce is a fun and very simple game where someone throws out a small white ball, the everyone takes turns tossing their own balls, about the size and weight of a duckpin ball (for my Baltimore area friends) to see who can come closest to the white one. (It is especially fun under the bright lights of our football field at a time where most sane peopple in town have been sleeping for hours.)

Another victory between 3 and 4, when they held a Poker Run; for a small admission fee, you walk or run the track (as you are able) and they hand you a playing card for every lap; at the end, you make the best poker hand you can from it, and the winner takes the pot for their team.

I got about 13 laps in - a little over three miles and 13 cards, producing a full house - and the boy ran the whole thing, covering 6.5 miles or 26 cards/laps. He was able to produce a winning straight flush for his second win in a row, and the pot went to our relay team.

Pretty desolate at 4:30!

We then retired to chairs under our canopy and nursed our aches and sores.

Around 5:30 a breakfast crew arrived and served breakfast burritos and juice. I ordered a round for the lads and myself, and then they took off for home. I stuck around to help tear the camp down a bit, and got a picture of our team leader accepting a "gold" plaque for raising over $5,000, at the closing ceremony.

As with most people who get involved in Relay, cancer has touched us in a very close way, and getting involved just seems like a small but meaningful way to try to fight back a bit. I look forward to it every year, and to anyone who has never been to one, I'd urge you to go - it's actually fun and upbeat, there's usually music playing and good stuff to eat. And a few laps around the track at the pace of your choice can't hurt too much, either - I mean, unless you overdo it, like, say, me at 3:00 last night.

W.O.F. 20: Another Chicken

Sorry to be posting a bit early, but I will hardly be home tomorrow - off to work, then to a long overnight at our local Relay for Life - about which I will hope to post later this weekend.

OK, on to the chicken. This one is special. It belonged to my grandmother. It may very well be home made, but I don't think she made it. It was a doorstop, basically; it has a brick sewn into it.
Why is it special, you ask? Every time we visited with the kids, our daughter would pick that heavy chicken up and carry it all over Grandma's house. She would hardly put it down. I mean, she would walk laps around the house with that thing.

So this summer my Dad found the chicken and my sister said I should take it back home, which I did. Then I presented it to my daughter, who was visibly thrilled to be reunited with it. So now it resides with her. I hope she isn't carrying it all over their apartment...but that's her choice...

dove rescue

We needed to go somewhere last night so I took the dog for a quick walk before we left. When I returned to the yard, I knew we'd be late, as we had a new project - there was this very young mourning dove wandering around in our yard with no parents evident.
Since our neighborhood can be rife with cats looking for trouble, my wife grabbed a spare cage and some gloves, I flushed the little guy out of a bush, and we kept him in the cage indoors for the night, with a soft nest we had saved from some previous occupants in our yard, and some grain and seed and such. The guy appeared to be a fledgling, probably at least 2 weeks old - and could fly short distances yesterday.
Today we decided to see how far he could get on his own. Well, he flew up onto a railing on our deck (as in the picture below), and his next flight was to the peak of our garage roof. Then up into a high maple branch.
Needless to say, we have not retrieved him. He's on his own - and we do hear some cooing around the area, so maybe mom and dad are not too far away.

Watch this and Feel Better

A quick entry here: In case news of gas and food prices, war, economy in the dumper, pestilence, etc., gets you down, take a break. Watch this video of a guy dancing his goofy dance with people all over the world. You have my guarantee: you'll feel better.

Post Parade

The remainder of our Fourth o'July weekend commenced with a picnic down at our daughter's in-laws, then fireworks at the Fairgrounds.

Note to self: Henceforth, do not even THINK about parking in the Fairgrounds parking lot for the 'works. We drove right in and got a spot, enjoyed the twenty minute show, then spent well over an hour waiting to get out through the gridlock or lotlock or whatever you want to call it. My wife called the non emergency police number just to see if they were directing traffic anywhere and the dispatcher noted that the police were trying, somewhat in vain, to get TO the site to direct traffic. Seems like they have things like sirens and lights that could help in a situation like that. I'm just sayin'...

Note to police: Show up BEFORE the fireworks, stay for the show (you know, in case anything happens? Which, incidentally, it can. We watched a little episode of domestic violence play out right in front of our car. Fortunately, before it got too idiotic, two people walked away in one direction and the idiot perp walked back to his car, which was lotlocked in right next to ours, making for a bit of a nerve-wracking time there in the car.) Anyhow, if they show up for the show, then the police will be in position to direct folks out in a more efficient manner than the chaos, anarchy, and frayed nerves that we enjoyed.
OK, soapbox over. The actual show was great, including the "firebomb" (above). The show went 20 minutes, which, according to a certified pro fireworks engineer (or whatever) whom I know, is about the length that people really want. Any more than that, and we get restless, he says. Probably true. Maybe that's why sitcoms run about 20 minutes of content.
We spent part of Sunday watching a couple blue jays keep watch over their two young'uns, bringing them an occasional bite, but the young'uns were doing well by themselves on the mulberry tree, which is enjoyed by a variety of species, including squirrels.
Then yesterday, we took a walk down the local rails-to-trails, um, trail. It is a wonderful asset and I hope to bike it some day. As a walking trail, and being a former rail right of way, it tends toward being straight and flat, although there is a very nice and scenic river valley at about the point where we turned around and came home. It runs all the way to the next town, five miles away, and beyond. Long range plan is to be able to tour pretty much the north coast of Ohio by continuous trail.

Anyhow, for you plant lovers who know your plants, we saw two plants along the trail that we could not identify. I liked their symmetry. The first one has a sort of nut-like thing attached to it. Any ideas what these are?
Anyhow the hike was a success for the dog, who came home "dog tired"...

scenes from a parade

For the fourth year, I think, our church participated in the Fourth of July parade. We had a sort of Noah's Ark theme going, although we did not collect two of every stuffed animal available so we were perhaps not scripturally correct. Anyhow, we handed out water, a little candy, and quite a few dog biscuits! It was a fun morning. Here are a handful of shots, most from the perspective of someone on the float (as is the "banner" photo up top).
We were positioned behind a baton twirling group. They were quite cute and all, but we got to hear their routine, to a medley of sixties hits, forty-seven times (I exaggerate, but the Four Seasons are now forever singing "Sherry" in my head).
Here is the high school band, mustering and lining up before marching off onto the street.
And then, off we all went...

Weird Object Friday 19

This is not so much a weird object as it is a weird picture of a timely object. Last year on July 4, I was taking pictures of the fireworks (which may be obvious from the banner, etc.) and, as a couple rockets were spiraling up and up into the sky, I took this picture of the ascending projectile. Being that it was dark and all, the shutter figured it had to stay open for some time, so I got this neat effect of the spiral that makes it look like glow-in-the-dark DNA or something. Weather permitting, I guess I will be at it again tonight, playing with my camera instead of just enjoying the booms and flashes.

Reserved Seating is What Makes America Great

For a number of years, I got a kick out of how in my home town back east everyone would go out to the Fourth of July parade route, days before the parade, and stake their claim to a front row seat by slappin' some chairs down on some prime real estate and leaving them there until parade day. I was always smug about this - back here in the Midwest, we don't do it that way. We all just show up and get along, and there's room for everyone.

Well, not any more, as these pictures attest. We're all about lining up our prime spots in advance. This year it's a few chairs - I predict that in a few years, there will be many more chairs and blankets out there - and they'll be there DAYS in advance.

The whole phenomenon seems oddly American to me, sort of like Homesteading back in the day. Go stake out your property; everyone's entitled. So I am not totally down on the thing, although there is a sorta crass "me"-ism to it. We noticed when our kids graduated from high school that the same thing happens prior to graduation ceremonies. The day before, people came in and laid claim to the best seats in the house by leaving tape, or papers, with their name on it.

Anyhow, regardless of whether you are sitting smugly at home right now, knowing you have an ideal location squared away for tomorrow's Big Parade, I hope you have a great Fourth, and a decent Fifth and Sixth as well.

Our Other Pets

This blog has never acknowledged some of our pets that do not get much recognition. In fact, not one of them has been given a name (by us). They would be our fish.

We have gold ones and dark colored ones. We have had them for four years or so. Some of them have been with us for the duration. They spend their summers in a fishpond in the back yard, then we scoop 'em out and drop 'em in an aquarium in the basement to "winter over". Pretty sure the pond would freeze all the way down in a harsh winter, so we bail it out for the cold weather.

There have been at least a couple generations of new fish, some gold, some blackish. So, anyhow, this is my tribute to those l'il swimmers. You may need to click on these pictures to see all the dark colored ones that blend in. It may be interesting to see if the dark ones survive better - a sorta "survival of the fittest" thing.

We're pretty obsessive about these things. Whenever we scoop out the fish, for pond or aquarium, we also toss in all the snails we can find. We are under the impression that somehow these snails are nature's purification system, and they will help (along with the filter) to keep the water crystal clear. Uh-huh.

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In an unrelated matter, I didn't need to fill up, but I stopped at this one gas station on the way to work this morning because they have this "three cents off on Tuesday" deal, and that made it about $3.92. Later in the day, prices rose a bit, and you could not get gas for less than $4.04. So here I am, feeling all proud, like I conquered the oil cartel single-handedly. Then I realize, big whoop, I may have saved something like three percent, all told. On the nine gallons I put in the tank, we're talking "savings" of a buck eight. Enough to buy, well, a quart of gas..or milk... Sweet victory!