Musings

We began the day (a bit late; time change, you know) with gorgeous sunshine, but by the time we’d strolled to Île de la Cité, clouds had rolled in, and were transitioning from white to grey. So, here, around the backside of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris (so fancy architecturally—not from pure decoration like the door-façade—that it seems like this is the end that might make you want to become Catholic*), you can tell we’re probably about to get a message from gawd. Or something. (Meteorologists call it a on-again-off-again light rain, trying to become full-on light rain. Légère pluie here.)

Still, we persisted with our footwork, crossing the bridge to the other island, Île Saint-Louis. Here, the légère pluie lost its intermittent quality. We did manage to find the restaurant we’d lunched at aeons ago, and the “little” church I remembered (crane your neck; the streets are narrow, and the roofline is high).

Undaunted by the pluie, we turned southish, detouring through part of the Jardin du Luxembourg. We traipsed around the back of the Sénat (or maybe the front; qui sait?), where I lost count of the number of guards we saw (distracted perhaps by the flowers and their plexiglass guard-stations, with all their electronic communication gear quite visible).

We had quite a trek, in short. Then, The Guru got the SIM to start working, but it may be out of data-money—there’s always something.

* Consider that the exterior long was painted quite colorfully, which would have made this view POP. Note, too, that the building is owned by France (or is it the city?, at any rate, not the Catholic Church), although managed by the clergy.

Posted at 1:00 PM | 1 Comment »

Snail Shell Harbor, Fayette—such a poetic name!

In the absence of pressing chores, we headed off to boost the haul of the state park system with our admission fee—and visited Fayette and Kitch-iti-kipi (the Big Spring). We prefer to stroll the streets of this ghost town in bright sunshine—and today we were certainly sun-warmed!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Hot history

The fire-folk are fundraising—to stabilize and upgrade Atlanta’s oldest firehouse. Old buildings are expensive to keep. In this case, I understand the urge to keep rather than replace. This one suits the neighborhood, with all its architectural detail and rich-colored brick. Time to buy a t-shirt!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Fire station 19

Weather and remodeling over the decades mean that most of these concrete walks that were original to the Va-Hi bungalows in this neighborhood—including in front of our home—are now gone. I have walked past this house dozens of times, and this is the first time I have noticed that its walkway survives. I’ve always enjoyed the delicate rolled molded margins that no doubt stymie lawn upkeep.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Comments Off on Detail underfoot

That is: Spencerville Oh-Aich.

This canal, the Miami and Erie, was Spencerville’s economic lever for several decades. Today, sections of the canal sport duckweed and make “lazy river” sound like whitewater. This section has a bit more energy, but no more cargo.

Today, Spencerville was cranking up for a weekend of fried food and carnival rides, which took over the main street, but lacked attendants and patrons when we passed through before lunch-time.

We followed the canal for quite a ways, and even saw one spot where it flowed above a natural river—rather strange.

Economics two days in a row? Apologies!

Posted at 7:09 PM | Comments Off on Economics of Spencerville

View to southwest.

Hey, I’ve been escaping reality by spending time with Google Earth. Check out the 3-D version of the two-tiered Pont du Garde Roman aqueduct, northeast of Nîmes.

Posted at 12:23 PM | Comments Off on Flying (sorta)

Carrier. Container. The side (shown here) and the top used different terms. Either way, you stack your devils if you buy one of these.

I didn’t.

Mental exercise: think back to pre-plastic days, when you had simple organic materials at hand. What did you do for containers? Most organic materials didn’t seal the way plastic does. What’s the impact of that? Submerging in salt water (think sauerkraut) or sealing in fat (a surface layer in a ceramic vessel)…that kinda sealed stuff. But a flexible plastic skin? Nothing like it. And…?

Now, eggs back in the day. Well, you could keep it at room temp, or hard boil it. I remember with great fondness boiled egg sandwiches we had the day long ago we toured Calakmul. Hit the spot!

Pardon for the wandering post; I could have…oh, never mind, I’ll save it to use in a day or two….

Posted at 7:02 PM | 1 Comment »

Photo not from SDB, but from ML.

On Sagitaw Farm stationery…

July 27 1963

In 1889 Grover Cleveland gave to Riley H. Fuller, SR. 171 and 8/10s acres of land in Luce County which he, his heirs and assigns were to hold forever. Lincoln’s 1862 homestead law limited the area which could be homesteaded to 160 acres but he was permitted to take title to some fractional lake lots. His homestead [certificate] now in the possession of Cassius C. Minier, was number 989 issued by the Land Office at Marquette and was one of the three earliest ones issued in Lakefield Township. The other two were issued to Robert Bryers on the west side of Round Lake and to Darbey (?) Tait for the land now occupied by Stone’s bar. The Tait certificate has been destroyed. The Bryers certificate is owned by his granddaughter, Erma Richards.

In 1841 when section 36, T45N, R12W, was originally surveyed by the U.S. there was evidence of an “Old Indian Sugar Bush” on what is now Sagitaw Farm.

The date and Paragraph 1 are typed. Paragraph 2 is handwritten by Francis F. McKinney in blue ink.

I wonder how long the “forever” of the first sentence lasted….

Posted at 5:26 PM | 1 Comment »

We crossed into GA over the steel bridge in McCaysville, which we’d never traversed before. Even with a quick stop at TJs, we were home with the car unloaded before noon. Yippee!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Re-entering GA

Today’s chore list took us downtown. What a pointy capitol building!

Plz forgive if I got the capital/capitol spelling(s) incorrect. Hurts my head to sort those two out!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Capital idea