Musings

Returning to Georgia, we avoided a traffic blockage on I-75 by taking the old road for a stretch, including passing by Lake Allatoona. Long ago, I spent months finding and recording sites on the land around the lake. Eons ago….

Our traipsing later took us by this urban art. I found the multiple figures influenced by a diversity of styles and subjects quite interesting, especially in their juxtapostion. From left, I see an unfinished face? with goat horns?, somewhat bulbous words/letters, a cat with a crown, a looming serpent, a prehispanic central Mexican-ish figure in profile, a step pyramid, a long-haired woman, and a scythe.

Posted at 9:18 PM | No Comments »

Today, the sun rose, as it does.

Then, my activities were hijacked by The Rhubarb Situation.

My cousin discovered that the red dots on the leaves of our rhubarb were in all likelihood a fungus, and spores…and, well, we may not be subsistence farmers, but Things Needed To Be Done. Now.

Thus, rhubarb hijacked my day. The upshot is that my rhubarb patch is picked over, and the stems processed into sauce, and the leaves (and their spores) sequestered in a gar-bag, sealed up ready for The Dump.

All good, except that isn’t what I had planned for my Friday. Not that Other Activities were more rewarding, or whatever. Just, it’s that my choices had been confiscated. Such is life.

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How many marketing whizzes does it take to come up with a silly name for a fruit with a blotchy rind?

Posted at 10:37 PM | Comments Off on Name game

Watched Monday’s keynote for WWDC with one ear (as in partly listened, and minimally watched), and a couple of sections featured the phrase “natural language.” As in, talk to this new enhanced Siri or just the phone as if it were a person. The phrase sounds faintly spooky to me. Languages other than English coming soon.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Data center usage boosting

From what I’ve read, the dominant deciduous canopy tree in southern North America several hundred years ago was the American chestnut (mixed with oaks). Now, it’s just the many species of oaks. Looking up, oaks, shown here, do not look like the maples I grew up with. I do not know what a group of mature American chestnuts look like; I guess very few do, as the chestnut blight fungi have nearly extirpated the (eastern) populations.

Posted at 8:45 PM | Comments Off on Tree lore

Despite it being dry, the lupines are rolling into blossom-time.

I discovered this decoration after driving to Marquette via the Seney-Shingleton stretch; clearly, it has lasting power.

That distorted building in the reflection houses the Vierling, a long-time restaurant-bar on the corner of Front and Main. We’ve been going there since the first time the Guru came to the UP.

Here’s the view from the Vierling. That construction site will be a five-storey Hilton property atop a parking garage, which means it’ll block this view of the Marquette harbor. Progress.

This is the remains of the ore dock, with no attachment to the land that would facilitate human exploration. I guess the powers that be figured these ruins were safe to leave unsupervised.

On our return leg, we stopped on the dune-top on the west side of the Au Train River, where it dumps into Lake Superior. The lake-ice has shifted the river mouth so that there’s no beach on this side. That winter-ice is powerful.

Posted at 7:36 PM | Comments Off on Sight-seeing, west

Bug pile, east Defiance, Ohio.

Construction crew, southwest Archbold, Ohio.

Train, west Archbold, Ohio.

The Bridge, Straits of Mackinac.

Lake Huron, view east from St. Ignace.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Progress

If you know this statue, you know two things. One is that the accompanying golden mare has been missing for several years; there’s no information about what happened. The other is that the golden foal is at the entering-Kentucky-northbound-on-I-75 rest area. Yes, we are northbound!

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I took the coffee grounds out to the compost early this evening, and could hear music in four different directions. It seems the civic association is scoring big (they organize PorchFest).

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It’s PorchFest in our neighborhood this weekend. When I went on a quick errand, I could see terlets and supplies and road blocks and stages and golf carts here and there. Rah! Wait, I don’t remember seeing garbage cans…must be they’re on the late delivery list.

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on Rock on