The Cell Phone Series

I have had more opportunity to shoot a quick pic with the cell phone lately than with the Canon - that darn camera has just not been at arm's reach when a picture presented itself. So, at the expense of megapixels and resulting sharpness and so forth, here are a few recent shots.
My favorite of the lot. Crossing the mighty Maumee River on I-280 in Toledo, Ohio. A rare cloudless day. First time I had been on that bridge, and it has been up for a few years now.
Ollie was sitting in the kitchen and the sun was glinting off a crystal in the window, sending a spectrum onto his snout. The cell phone caught the blue, anyhow.

A really excellent sunset captured while walking around the block with Ollie.

I was coming out of the library in Fremont, Ohio, a couple weeks ago, and saw these "blossoms" of snow on a tree. Tried hard to pretend it was cherry blossom time. The temperature indicated otherwise.
Out for a lunchtime walk. A lone Norfolk Southern locomotive crossing the Sandusky River. A sure sign of spring: the fishermen and women are starting to line the banks of the Sandusky, fishing for white bass. Or is it perch first? I can never remember which is which.

And finally: They're baaaack! A bunch o'buzzards hangin' out this evening on a tree about a block from home. We get 'em every year. They stick around for a month or so, flying off each morning to do whatever it is that they do (I would prefer not to know), returning to roost each night in a neighbor's tall, thick pine trees. But before bed, several of them like to gather up here to enjoy what little warmth they can gather from the setting sun.

So I guess this is "green"because I am recycling someone else's words

I know this is sort of a cop out since I have not posted in ages, and here I am just pasting in someone else's words, but I liked this. And the sad part is, I guess I am one of the geezers who now remembers most of what the guy is talking about. So here goes....

It’s All About the Green Thing

By Jim Knowles

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But they didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But that old lady is right. They didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

How Do You Respond?

At about 6:00 a.m. Monday morning, just south of town, a 51 year old mother and wife, on her way to work, headed around a curve and down a familiar hill, right into a newly-formed body of deep and swift-moving water. Eight inches of melted snow had combined with an all-night driving rain to swell and flood the creeks and rivers of northern Ohio. Her Volkswagen convertible was buoyant enough to be carried 300 yards down the now-raging water, but within a very few minutes it sank in more than twelve feet of water.

The driver made a 911 call, and the dispatcher, by all accounts, handed the call well, sending rescue personnel on their way immediately. Eventually, three fire departments responded, as well as other emergency personnel and the state department of natural resources.

I understand that the sirens of the approaching vehicles could be heard near the end of the 911 call. Search procedures were begun, until the water craft rescue effort had to be called off because of the danger imposed by the unusually swift currents. Sadly, although personnel continued the search on land and, when allowed, by water, even searching under flood lights overnight, the car could not be located and hoisted out of the water until first light the next morning, when the receding water revealed the location of the car.

I have heard that rescue personnel have not taken this event easily, and I am sure there is a lot of second-guessing and "what-if's" going around. It appears, though, that the entire event was handled as well as possible, and that decisions (such as whether the driver should stay in the car or attempt to swim for shore) were made wisely, based on all known facts at each moment.

What I found extraordinary is how the community responded to Monday's tragedy. Calling hours were held at a local funeral home on Thursday night, and those in line waited as long as three hours to pay their condolences. On-line condolences poured in, and the next morning's funeral service was moved to our church sanctuary to accommodate the large number of attendees. Clearly, a large portion of those who came to the visitation did not know the woman or her family. It just felt right, to them, to go.

This was one of those events that touched nearly everyone in the community. The woman was a well-liked nurse at our region's best-known cancer center. I do not recall ever meeting the unfortunate woman, but her mother lives on our street. In smaller communities, virtually everyone seems to be, at most, two or three degrees of separation from everyone else so, like the REM song says, everybody hurts. I believe it is safe to say that it was a tough week for everyone in town.

I just realized that I have no real conclusion or ending for this post. I guess it is just an observation about how people can be touched - painfully, sometimes - by the things we have in common, and by the value and honor we can ascribe to someone's life, whether we know them or not.

Songs I've Liked #4 & #5

I was heading across town tonight when the Sirius satellite radio station I was listening to started plugging a temporary "Simon and Garfunkel Channel" over on channel 38. This brought back a wealth of memories, and I immediately tuned it in.

The first LP I ever bought was Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence". Got it at the little Hutzlers Westview record department down on the basement level, by the escalator. It probably set me back about $2.50. I remarked to my friend at the time "At these prices, I probably won't be buying many more of these." HA! Hundreds of LPs, hundreds of CDs, and now hundreds of MP3 downloads later, here I am.

Anyhow, I have a pretty good memory from every S&G single that was released, so I am picking a couple of their "mid period" tunes as my favorites here. In both cases, I bought the 45 single, then got them again in the "album" format.

"At the Zoo" was released in 1967 and reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was pretty typical Paul Simon lyrics for the time; full of metaphorical animal imagery. Sort of an "Animal Farm" set to music and full of political allegory that shot right over my head. I always thought the tune was pretty catchy, regardless of the cleverness of Mr. Simon's wordplay, starting jazzily around a major seventh, and building toward the last verse where the animals are described, one by one.

I was babysitting my sister the night after I bought the single, and I recall playing the song continuously, maybe twelve times.

Then there is "A Hazy Shade of Winter", with that common, catchy, declining chord progression, and a bit of the ol' Simon angst as he wonders what's become of himself as time passes on. Catchy tune, making it to number 13 on the charts in 1966, and, much later, covered more edgily by the Bangles, who took it right up to number two. And again, there was Paul singing about how those leaves that were green turned to brown, time marches inexorably on, etc.

These two songs are memorable to me, but they are probably not even my favorite S&G tune. That would most lilely be "The Boxer", one of their last efforts as a working duo. But they are the two that came to my mind first as I was flipping over to the S&G channel just in time to catch, of all things, "Hey School Girl", a very early effort that was a regional hit in New York City, when those two teenagers called themselves "Tom and Jerry", and their extraordinary careers (Paul Simon's continues with a new release sometime soon) were just taking off.

Five Oddball Things in our Kitchen

This picture is just tossed in extraneously. It would have been a more soothing photo if the photog's hand were not holding the dog's head down. The animal was unharmed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I have been derelict in my blog citizenship lately, letting days, if not weeks, slide by. I finally got a sort of "day off" today, when a rather intimidating snow storm hit our part of the world, and I decided to compensate for already having worked over 40 hours this week. Anyhow, in my down time, I noticed that some time last week, my sister put up this post asking people to show off five odd things that can be found in their kitchens.

Well, those who have been in our house know it is a museum of sorts, so this was no big challenge. I give you: the Kitchen Kollection (some of which has been featured in long-ago posts about Weird Objects).

1. THE BIG HAMMER. This inflatable hammer was "won" by this writer in some seminar where they presented the information in the form of a game of "Jeopardy". Somehow I won, and the prize was this hammer. It makes a little squeaky sound when you wallop someone with it. Kind of amusing.

2. MICHAEL JORDAN NERF BALL HOOP. Remove the hammer, and you discover that its holder is another artifact. You can tell this thing is ancient. Not only is Michael in uniform and playing, but he has HAIR in the backboard picture.


3. FISHER PRICE ACTIVITY CENTER: Ever since our kids were babies, we have had this "busy box" or whatever they call 'em on a closet door, down at cherub's eye level. The kids are all up and out of here, but this thing remains, occasionally used by a visiting toddler.


4. WIND-UP TOY COLLECTION: My wife loves wind-up toys, and displays a good bit of her collection in this converted spice rack in the kitchen.

5. COW PIE BINGO RENDERINGS: And finally, this piece takes a little 'splainin'! Once evening, our son and a friend drew these lovely diagrams on post-it notes. Have you ever gone to a county fair or a charity function where they play what is affectionately referred to as "Cow Pie Bingo?" Where they grid off a field with a couple cows, let people bet on a selected square in the grid, and then let nature run its course? That is what these drawings are attempting to portray. Why, I dunno. But I think they may fetch some big money at Sotheby's some day. For now, they "hang" in our kitchen "gallery".

Sunday Ramblings

somewhere down in there is our drinking water, chilled to perfection

Cabin fever kicked in a couple weeks ago; it is at full tilt now. The promise of the mercury hitting the upper 30's drove me - and I drove the dog - out to the reservoir, just to be SOMEWHERE. The scene was still pretty desolate, but there is a promise that this white stuff has limited time left in frozen form. And the dog had a good time.
This is one of Ollie's favorite activities - sticking his snout (or whole head if he can manage it) into the snow. Then he likes to propel himself forward by kicking with his hind feet. I am not sure exactly what the big rush is for him, but he seems to work one or two major face plants into every walk when there is snow available.

We didn't see any critters along the walk, but we saw evidence of them...

And actually, we did see the big guy who left these. And his rider...

Stopped at the stand of pines in the next picture, and listened for a while as the wind whistled through them. That is one of my favorite sounds in the world.
Today's other highlight was "acoustic Sunday" at the early service. Five of us busted out the acoustic guitars and strummed some of the classics, like Kum By Yah. It was a lot of fun, but I suppose I will be back to toting in the heavy keyboard next week. I think there are only so many songs with my limited range of chords in 'em. But I did also work in am 18-note solo on this bad boy, the recorder from my youth...

A Tail to Warm a Heart on a Cold Night?

I was down in Columbus last night. I had just finished the creme brulee, following an amazing entree of salmon with asparagus and potatoes, and enjoying the company of my fellow staffers at our annual dinner meeting. The cell phone buzzed and it was my wife. She just had a short story for me (mind you, we had chatted for quite some time a couple hours prior).

It seems a neighbor down around the corner, a 97-year old woman we know from church, had answered "yes" when Linda asked if she would like a visit on a night when there was no doubt that she was not venturing anywhere. She added to that affirmation: "and please bring your dog".

So Linda leashed up the lab and they headed over. Once inside, Ollie pretty much immediately walked over beside the octogenarian's chair and sat. She reached over and scratched him on the back. My understanding is that, for the remainder of the visit, perhaps half an hour, Mrs. Limmerman continued to scratch Ollie on the back, and he sat lower and lower, finally just lying on the floor right next to her.

When it was time to go, Ollie got up, and off he went with Linda.

I know it's a silly little scenario with no plot and no action, but the image of the elderly woman, so content to simply scratch a visiting dog while he just sat there (and the dog, definitely content to hang around and be the scratch-ee), stayed with me for the rest of my time in Columbus. In fact, I returned to my table mates and told them about it - and received a chorus of "aawwwww's".

I'm guessing that we will return to Mrs. Limmerman's house, all three of us, one day pretty soon.

Songs I've Liked #2&3: Strawberry Fields & Penny Lane

I can still remember being down in the basement listening to a transistor radio when the DJ announced that they were playing, for the VERY FIRST TIME, the Beatles' new double-sided single. Then the world of musical possibilities exploded again as the first sounds of the fluty mellotron introduced Strawberry Fields Forever.

The mellotron has been a fascination of mine since I first heard it, and when first hearing actually occurred is debatable. It could be in February '67 when the Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane double-whammy-single dropped. Another big early proponent of the mellotron, after they dropped an actual orchestral accompaniment for the likes of "Tuesday Afternoon", was the Moody Blues. Later on, King Crimson brought a majestic and ominous use to the instrument. And then many more bands adopted the distinctive sound.

The mellotron simulates orchestral sounds (and choruses, too) by playing recorded tapes of strings, or flutes, or people, back and forth, one tape for each key on a keyboard. This very mechanical process lends itself to trouble and break-downs, and the temperamental instrument actually found itself in some legal trouble, too, when musicians claimed that it was putting them out of work. Although it has found its way back, most modern bands shelve the thing in favor of a digital sample on a modern keyboard.

Paul McCartney's mellotron work was but one source of fascination for me on hte new Beatles single. The disc showed pretty clearly the yin and yang between Lennon, who wrote the autobigraphical "psychoanalysis set to music", the "hazy impressionistic dreamworld" of Strawberry Fields Forever, and McCartney, with the easy melody and high brass of Penny Lane.
Both songs were nostalgic recollections of the songwriters' past, recalling places from the Beatles' Liverpool youth. And now the songs are drenched in nostalgia for me. In their time, they burst through the bonds of the basic pop tune, so much so that they purportedly led Beach Boy Brian Wilson to throw up his hands and set aside his "Smile" project, which only saw the light of day as a complete work in the last decade. Both songs were recorded along with those that made it onto "Sgt. Pepper", and some people (including George Martin) feel it was a mistake that the songs did not make it onto that landmark LP. Instead, here in the U.S., they were tacked onto the "Hits Side" of our domesticversion of "Magical Mystery Tour".
"Strawberry Fields Forever" took considerable work to record, and the production was about as high tech as things got back in the day. The Beatles recorded two fairly dissimilar takes, in different keys (like a C and a B-flat). John pronounced both versions worthy, and asked George Martin to fuse them together. And he did, by speeding one up a bit, slowing the other down a smidge. The artificial resulting tape speed added to the ethereal sound of the song.
For me, and really for about everybody I know, the era of the Big Release of a Single is long gone. This Beatles blockbuster was folliowed, pretty much the next week, by the Turtles rolling out "Happy Together", an eminently memorable ditty that was also, interestingly for me, on the first pop or rock album I ever heard in stereo. For me, really, another "big release".

Another interesting factoid about the Beatles' one-two punch: In England, they recorded sales for each of the songs separately, somehow, and while Penny Lane made it to number one, Strawberry Fields peaked in second place, nudged out by Engelbert Humperdinck's "Please Release Me". Some noted that the Beatles twofer, in total, sold nearly twice as many copies as Mr. Humperdinck's single.

Sundries

A little catch-up is necessary. I have been busy with this computer, but doing a variety of things. Facebook, for example. But also, I got this slick USB vinyl-to-MP3 player, and my latest project involves converting a lot of my hundreds of LPs in the basement to electronic signals and binary codes and all that stuff. The setup looks like this:
I am learning to work out some of the bugs, but it is coming along.

I need to update the wildlife report out in the back yard. Our new squrrel feeder pretty much fails to get any species to sit in a chair properly, but over the past few months we have had a few "customers", and the squirrels are warming up to the concept.
Then, late one night recently, my wife caught a flying squirrel at the feeder. This was after midnight, when that particular type of animal seems to come out to eat.
Took the ol' tree out Sunday. Figured it was about time, Epiphany over and all. Plus, this tree was ready. Check out the rich carpet of needles left behind. (And yes, the tree was replaced yesterday by the computer, etc., in the top picture). We have never had a tree give up the needles like this! And trust me, it was generously watered!
I have mentioned previously, I think, the seven dogs with which I spent some time over Christmas. Now there is an eighth. Our neighbors have taken on a new pup, a Rhodesian Ridgeback or some such thing, named Kenly or Kenlee...it's an amalgamation of a couple kids' names. Anyhow, K. came over and had a bit of a play date with Ollie a couple days ago. She is substantially smaller than our dog...NOW.
I close with a shot of a botanical miracle. This is the mother in law's tongue, as they call it, that graces my windowsill at work. This thing has survived my care for maybe 15 years. I water it every Friday, and that's about the extent of my TLC. It is a fine example of perseverance, I guess.

Gathering No Dust

holiday self-portrait

Well, here we are nearly one whole percent done with 2011 already, and about three-fourths of the Christmas lights are already darkened in our neighborhood. We, however, are never willing to part with the festive spirit of the season, and our lights blaze on crazily, illuminating the dead pines gathering at the street's edge awaiting the final ride to the chipper.

The "holiday season", as some like to call it, was the usual whirlwind, but a very fulfilling one nonetheless. I did not capture it very well with a camera, or even the cell phone, and some of the pictures I did manage to take have little to do with the actual main events of the season. I tend to refrain from tossing up group photos without warning and first right of refusal to all participants, so you will not find any of the gatherings 'round the tree; at least not those involving humans.

I counted seven dogs that I spent some serious (or, better put, extensive) time with between Christmas and New Year's. That would be the Grand Dogs (Ana, fox terrier resembling chihuahua; and Lily; one of those Puggles where God broke the mold after this one was designed); sister's knucklehead dogs (Athena, a Boston terror...I mean terrier...really, she calms down and is pleasant enough after the initial bark-down; and Bella, a pure Pug - also Moxie, new Boston on the block owned by my niece); and Auggie, the schnauzer that we dog-sit from time to time. And, of course, our Ollie.

Saw a lot of people, too, including a third cousin whom I did not know existed until the wonders of Facebook brought her into view. It is pretty exciting and fun meeting relatives this far along in life.

Christmas itself was wonderful; our band played a Christmas eve service, the Sunday morning service, and a couple pieces leading into the more formal, later-in-the-evening Christmas eve service. Fairly rigorous, but really fulfilling and fun, too. Christmas Day itself was filled with my time-honored tradition of failing to get out of the PJs, and being extremely lazy.

We used to stay at my Dad's house when we went to visit my old stomping grounds. Now we stay with my sister and her family (and the aforementioned Athena and Bella, who many of you are familiar with courtesy of her blog, plus my niece's pup, Moxie). She and her husband are excellent hosts, and the arrangement has worked out well (we hope they feel the same...). However, there is some sense of loss and change as we drove by the old house and found a cadre of contractors hard at work, transforming it into a more salable property, which will end up being very little like the house in which I grew up. But it is all for the good, as no one in our family needs the albatross of a vacant property, and the rejuvenated house should make a fine home for its next occupants.

OK, here are some really random pictures that do not really lay out the feeling of holiday cheer and Christmas charm, but since we are already three days and one full work day (and counting) into this new year, who's looking back?
One of my introductions to the world of blogging was "Weird Object Friday", which was a lot of fun. This little stocking stuffer would be a good candidate. A group of us had a big laugh over this gift. I will not keep you in suspense - It is an egg cracker and separator. It does not work very well, at least in our experience as novices, but it makes a good conversation piece, and I am just glad it is not some sort of arcane medical device for poking or prodding...

That is pretty much a fail right there...

Here, below, is my favorite oddball shot. We have some fish in the basement that winter over down there because our pond tends to freeze all the way down. We brought the aquarium up near the back door so a neighbor could feed them easily while we were away. This shot is technically not very good, but for some reason, I like it. It looks like something went very wrong...

And let's bring on the Dogs of Winter...

Ollie and the Grand-Dogs, awaiting another handout.

I am pretty sure that bone chewing could, if harnessed properly,
provide one fine an alternative energy source.

Who can do this with their tongue?

The Dogs of the East: Moxie, Athena, and Bella, just hangin'.

Knowing how to show us a good time, my sister Margaret took us to the local Costco. Being a transplant flyover bumpkin, I had never been in one of these establishments. The enormity of the place, the size of the inventory, all stacked up to the warehouse-scale roof and gleaming brightly in those suspended industrial strength lights, was just overwhelming. I tell you, I was in awe. Judging from the bustle in that place, I feel emboldened to proclaim that we Americans just might be turning the corner, economy-wise. Way to go, consumers!

Finally, I end where we began. We kicked off the Christmas break with a visit to our daughter and son in law's, where we took in their church service and ate at one of those TGI Fridays. Partook of their special where for a decent price you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Now, I know the saying that presentation is everything, but if they really feel the need to bust out the large plates for my desert, it seems like they could toss a couple more slices on the plate in lieu of that artistic slime trail, eh?

I have no pictures of this, but I also got out to a (vinyl, old school) record store with my son, who swears by LPs as the only way to go, and a more contemporary independent CD shop with childhood bud Gerald (and with whom "flipping the bins" is a sacrosanct tradition going back to a long walk in the snow to E.J. Korvettes to purchase the Beatles' White Album, and even earlier), and the brother in law (who later on paid for the oven-fired pizza, for which I am grateful) and son (who is now back at his graduate studies and complaining about how, for the first time in his life, he has to suffer the indignity of not one or two or three, but four 8:00 a.m. classes.

Anyhow, all told, I hope you had a nice break, and that you can think back to some fond and lasting memories. However, we now return you to 2011, already in progress.

Amidst the Holidays

It gets weird when the kids get big, grow up, become adult-like. They are no longer within your grasp. They come and go; free will seems to be at work. Anyhow, we went and visited the daughter and son in law, an hour away, two days before Christmas. It was a nice visit, and we were introduced to the X-Box Kinect, an interesting piece of technology that seems to know what you are doing out there, flailing about in the middle of the living room, chairs pushed safely aside. Well, almost safely, but that's another story.

The son came with us, and he has been back here around the house for most of the time. The daughter and son in law showed up late Christmas eve and stuck around for Christmas morning and the opening of the gifts, returning later for a game and a laugh.

Now we are contemplating a trip back to my homeland, abbreviated to only two full days, but still worth the drive, just to see my small family back in the land where I grew up.

Linda has suffered through Christmas with a bad cold (as if there are good ones). Let's say a vicious cold. Missed the Christmas Eve service. Missed the service this morning. Missed the quick, fast-food breakfast with the kids after church. But she's up and moving about now, packing and committing to making the trip.

Trips back "home" are always fun affairs, staying up late, sleeping in, then running around to make the most of the remaining hours. The return trip is usually kind of bittersweet - great recent memories recalled, a return to the comforts, pets, and Christmas presents abandoned all too soon for the road. Of course, our son will shortly be on his way to the bright lights and the big city, which is only right; not too long ago, we spent New Year's out for the night with sizable groups in that very same city.

I guess today is the eye of the holiday hurricane; a little recuperation, a little tinkering with my new toy (a USB turntable, for converting my considerable LP collection to MP3s).

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you are in a position to be looking forward to 2011.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot

No, that's not my house. It's a few blocks away, and every year we circle around the loop to gawk at it, at least three or four times. Ohio Edison is very fond of these people. They do it up big wattage style.

Seems like a new fad on the scene is musical lights. There are at least two houses within a block of us that are treating their neighbors to the sights AND sounds of Christmas, piping out electronic bleep versions of the old chestnuts. I am okay with it, since the volume is kept pretty low, and hearing any Christmas tune chord progression tends to implant the song in my head for more than a few minutes, which is fine with me, as it often blots out those creeping thoughts of stressed-outedness.

'Tis the season, and if you let it, it can wear you down. We all have our checklists and try to move through them as best we can. On top of that, however, I have a couple deadlines at work which require a concentrated effort. Fortunately, the family has gotten easier and easier to shop for over the years, and sometimes a big package from some far away place only accessible via the World Wide Web can take care of someone's "list". And Linda and I seem to get easier to please, too, as there is some recognition that a house full of "stuff" does not really beg for more "stuff". A couple good books, the newest World Almanac, something to do with music, a sweater, and maybe one surprise, and I'm pretty well pleased.

I think I have at least all the major events leading up to the 25th charted in my internal Blackberry brain. The square-dance party Saturday; potential in-law meal on Sunday. See the daughter and son in law next Thursday. Work in a band practice or two for the flurry of activity at the church between the Christmas eve services and the Sunday morning-after (Boxing Day for the Canadians and British Empire affiliates among you) service-as-usual.

Christmas Day at our house is, as far as I am concerned, as it should be. I go nowhere; dinner has already been ordered, picked up, and put in the fridge for the re-heat. Getting dressed involves sweats and slippers. It is a day of peace and quiet, which is part of the point. An oasis of rest between the gift purchases and the gift returns. A time to ponder the whole Christmas story, read the silly poems, but also perhaps a gospel chapter or two; get out the book about the dog that had a Christmas eve adventure; play a game; work on a jigsaw puzzle. Enjoy the solitude with the family; a little snowfall helps embellish the whole scene. In many respects, it really is the best day of the year. Nothing fancy; nice, plain, and simple, like a birth in a manger.

pictures don't do it justice

Had to make a road trip to a town along the Ohio River today. Picked up a co-worker around Akron and took a succession of back roads I have never seen in my life. It is amazing how much there is to the Buckeye State. It is also interesting to be in an area with towns named Lisbon, Calcutta...

I recommend the Route 7 trip along the Ohio River valley. The panorama presented is an odd mix of natural topographic beauty and icons of an industrial age that has largely passed. One particularly fascinating icon for me was the W.H. Sammis power plant. Its smokestack, at 305 meters, is one of the tallest in the world. Plus, Route 7 tunnels right under the plant's baghouse, the part of the plant that filters out much of the noxious stuff. Barges with coal on the adjacent river were offloading as we drove by, but I could only safely keep the camera phone trained on the plant directly ahead of me...

That stack on the left is MASSIVE!

Perhaps next trip I will try to capture some of the more pristine natural beauty in between the electric plants and abandoned mills...