The Wedding

This past weekend, June 13th, marked the wedding of June's son Adam to his girlfriend of many years, Anna.

For as long as I have known June and Adam, there was no doubt that he and Anna were going to get married at some point in the future. They were equivalently High School sweethearts who, now in college, decided to get married over the summer so that they could finish out their degrees.

When I showed up to the Amphitheater at Greenbo Lake, I saw the usual spread of chairs out in the green lawn and picked up that it was an outdoor wedding. True to Adam's style, I also noticed that the groomsmen, bridesmaids and others in the wedding party were in garb. Here you can see a picture of Anna being escorted to the altar by her father in a kilt.

The wedding march itself was a piece of bag pipe music that I only know as Scotland the Brave. It was a very cool service. Adam's younger sister was there to shoot the place with her camera - a budding photographer. I've seen her work and the girl has a very good idea for capturing the shot.
It was a small ceremony - perhaps attended by no more than fifty to sixty people - but no less enjoyable. It should be a lesson for the times and perhaps a good theme for their marriage:

"Keep things simple".

One Word

CHEEZECAKE

Tseo says Hi

Two posts in one day...

Amazing.

Once I got home from the lake, I decided to fire up the outdoor kitchen again and cook something for lunch. When I was finished and putting things away, I saw something gray walk down from the hillside and into the back yard. Originally I thought that it was one of the stray cats in the neighborhood coming down to eat at the bowl of food I put out for strays.

Well, I was half right.

Someone's been busy...

Today, like other Tuesdays, is a day that Josh and I get out of the house for a while and try and do something adventuresome. It does not always work since we're trying to keep it cheap so we're usually just traveling to local parks, lakes and the like.

Today we went out to Turkey Creek Lake on the west side of Portsmouth and went creek-walking.

As soon as we showed up to the park, there was something that was different about the place. Large stones that had been part of the hillside since I was a kid had slid down and altered the landscape and the creek had altered its course. As my eyes followed up the length of the creek I was surprised to find that someone had been busy.

Stacked stone sculptures and monuments are as ancient as any human civilization. A rock might point out a boundary or barrier between one area and another. Circles of stones (some as large as those creating the stone circle of Stone Henge) are ancient symbols dividing the ground within the circle and the ground outside the circle as separate; perhaps as simple as the difference between the mundane world and the spiritual world.

Stacked stone monuments, such as the structure above, were commonly found across the European landscape as markers for everything from trails, burials, environmental dangers, etc. They require only time and patience to build since there is no mortar and creek stones are fairly plentiful if you just hunt around for them.

The thing that I find most disturbing about the discover and construction of this stone monument is that =I= didn't do it.

Given the time and inclination, this would have been something that I could have and probably would have built. I didn't think that there were people in this quaint corner of Ohio who would even contemplate the idea of creating a stacked-stone monument. Anyone can stack stones to create a small dam in a creek but it takes patience to collect the stone and stack them so that the shape is maintained.

Near the monument was yet another piece of construction - something that I found rather curious.
A few feet from the monument, someone had stacked and piled stone, sticks and leaves in what I can only best describe as a spiral. This picture doesn't quite capture the design that well, but if you look below there is a close up of the various layers of the form.

The dead sticks are piled at the center of the spiral and then, as it expands, the channel is filled with leaves that are only slightly wilted. I would surmise that this structure (or at least the leaves) were harvested and piled over the weekend since they haven't completely wilted.

So then I thought:

Who would have created two ancient symbols of stone; the monument and the spiral?

I have my own theories as to who -could- make such things but not necessarily if they would or not.

Again,

Someone's been busy.

A strange thing on the way to the campus

Today was one of those days that everything was just... odd.

Josh and I walked down to campus today so I could check on a student's grade. The student claimed that she didn't receive a final grade in one of my classes and I knew that she was there and I remembered grading her paper. So all I could assume was that there was a typo somewhere in the steps to post her grade.

Out of 184 students it's bound to happen and it's easily fixed.

So while on Offnere, a main north-south artery in Portsmouth, we were walking by a building that we have passed several times when I happened to read the billboard outside. Much to my shock, Josh claims that the sign had this message on it for some time now and that I've just missed it. Truth be told, I can't remember ever actually looking at the sign before today more than a casual glance and I am fairly confident that I would have picked up on the word 'Murder' sometime before now.

Today, for some reason, it finally registered and I was a bit surprised to say the least. Not only has some woman lost her husband but she's also offering a reward to the capture of whoever killed him. This is not something that I would find uncommon - but the fact that she's advertising that she's investigating her husband's murder, may suggest that she's either unsatisfied with the work of the local police department or feels that she can find more information than they can detect by throwing out the promise of some reward. There's also the more curious alternative that she is advertising her own interest in her husband's murder to possibly remove the air of guilt or complicity from around her shoulders. I would love to hear about something so dramatic as that, but I doubt anyone in this town could try and throw up any kind of plausible deniability such as this.

I have no idea who the man was who was murdered, how he died or even what the case file might reveal as to a possible motive, but I'm curious.

Strange. Very strange.

Projects:

Chalkboard: 95% (just need to attach the supports and mount it to the wall.

Wallpaper: 50% (no movement)

Driveway: 6% (Thought about it again today)

Mother Nature... WTF?

Ok,

So I'm all about a crisp spring morning but FORTY-FIVE DEGREES!?!?!

This morning I got out of bed to the smell of brewing coffee (roommates are so handy and since this one is a *twitch* morning person, he has become the in-house Barrista) and stumbled through the house. When I spied the thermometer / clock thing in Josh's room I saw that it was only 45 degrees outside.

WTF?

I know that classes ended a wee bit early this year, but the last I checked we shouldn't be having March-like mornings in MAY.

Someone needs to check Mother Nature's Adderall prescription.

Brr.

-Tom

Week 1, down

... Fourteen to go.

Project Updates:

Chalkboard: 90% complete
Wallpaper: 60% complete
Driveway: 5% (ok, so I've -thought- about doing it a few times)
Painting Car Port: 5% (yup, you guessed it.)

The chalkboard that I've been working on with Josh is almost complete. This past Friday I got the board and we primed it with two coats and then put on two of the black, chalkboard paint. Today was the application of the cork board border. I know me and I will definitely have a few dozen things posted up on the edge of reminders and designs or projects that I'm progressing. The wallpaper has all but been removed from the walls of the middle, or "living" room. I have to continue to scrape and sand the wall here and there to remove any loose bits of paper that refuse to be scraped free. This is, essentially, the easy part. Once all of that is complete then I can start the arduous task of -FINDING- a replacement wallpaper. Putting it up is fairly easy.

As for beating the driveway into submission or painting the carport - well, both of those have suffered this first week of my summer vacation.

I'll post some pictures of the two projects that have gotten any kind of attention as soon as I figure how to yank them down from my new phone.

Until then -

Go see Star Trek.

-Tom

Freedom

Well, it's that time again.

As of 5 p.m. this afternoon, I have posted the last of my exam grades, handled the last of the emails sent to me by students hoping / pleading for "understanding" or "assistance" with their grade.

It may be yet another constant in the universe, but whenever I assign extra-credit for my classes, the only students who actually complete it are the ones who don't need the extra points. All those who blow it off are those who could have really used the help by the end of the year?

What does this mean? Well, it means that I can usually shut down any of the begging, pleading, and general childishness that I get from some students by simply asking, "Did you do the extra-credit?" When they reply, "Well, no, but I had a good reason." I usually end the conversation. Life is too short to hear yet another excuse for poor preparation or performance.

Now that I'm on my summer break (aka, being unemployed), I can work on my house projects. Last summer started off with fixing a bathroom sink. This year it's been ripping down wallpaper in my living room. The old wallpaper was put up some time ago and needed to be replaced. It shouldn't cost too much to repaper the old walls, but more on that later.

As for now it's late and I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I plan on attacking my driveway with a sledgehammer.


See ya.

-Tom

A Squatting Ent?

You find the mythical world in the strangest places sometimes.

This is a shot of a strange bit of greenery in the local cemetery.

Does it not look like some huge ent has leaned up against a tree and is watching something in the distance.

Btw, if you were to line up where the figure is looking, the first thing he would be watching is a funeral home.

Makes ya wonder.

-Tom

Merry Moving Day

Well, it's come.

Today is Moving Day.

Josh is in the process of gathering up his stuff to move into the dorms today around 1 p.m. We've already hauled most of his furniture to his parent's place and now he just has the little stuff that he'll take with him.

Well, I shouldn't say "little stuff", because he's got the idea that he's going to take a TON of things along with him. Josh plans on hauling all of his kitchen stuff with him so that he can cook in the dorms. He's never lived in the dorms and is operating on the idea that the dorms are just like an apartment.

The dorms are very similar to an apartment (two large bedrooms with three people each and a connecting living room) and there's a small kitchen area there for people to store food or to cook.
At 25 years old, Josh will be one of the oldest people in the dorms.

I'm sure that this will be a very interesting experience for him.

Once he's moved his stuff out, I'm going to be cleaning and rearranging the house a bit. The house has had a 'cluttered' feeling ever since Josh moved in. There just wasn't much room to put all of his stuff away so a lot of it sat in baskets and boxes in the front room. That combined with some stuff that I am storing for some other friends just junked up the front room.

Not that many people came over to the house, but the first thing that they would see was all of the stuff cluttering up the front room and it just bugged the hell out of me.

Oh well, that'll be fixed soon.

More later.

-Tom

...Giveth and it Taketh away

The very day that I got approved for the next batch of "Summer Funds", my computer chair decided to break. I've had the chair for at least the past five years if not longer and when it finally gave up there was no repairing it.

I'm quite certain that the metal bits in the chair weren't designed to be used for as long as I have had the chair so when they finally broke - several of the bits actually 'ripped' apart.

So, as soon as I get some funds back in my wallet - the universe decides to encourage me to spend it quickly.

Oh... joy.

Boomdiada

Because I can't get this blasted song out of my head.

I had to share.

Click here.

-T

What goes thump?

There are many things that make noise,
crickets, cats, and cicada and boys
but few of them make a thump in the night.

Now even if you allow
for the occasional growl
there are few things that go thump.

But that is exactly what awoke me at four in the morn,
a thump that sounded as loud as a horn.

The thump was that of a tree as it fell,
more accurately as it's crashing death's knell.

With a strong summer blow,
the trees twisted to and fro
and one did go thump in the night.

As I launched from the door
to see ever so more,
I spied what had given me such a fright.

'twas a branch and a limb and two trunks did fall,
for when one tree fell
it took them all.

Now I know the answer
of what goes thump in the night.
It's the sound of a tree
attempting to flee
and forgetting that trees can't take flight.

(This post brought to you because I can't get that damn 'Hippy Grandma' out of my head)

-Tom

I've been blogged!

Ok, so it's only Em's blog about my outdoor kitchen, but still.

Have a look here.

-Tom

How to freak out your host in 13 steps

Step 1: Wake up at 8:30 a.m. and realize that the 'small' leak you discovered in your car yesterday may not have been so small with the torrential down-pours that we've been having of late.

Step 2: Investigate the 'small' leak and discover that not only is your driver seat wet, but there is an INCH of standing water in the floor board. Yes, an inch.

Step 3: Momentarily loose your icy facade and grumble out demonic slurs upon the birds and squirrels within ear-shot.

Step 4: Investigate the leak further to discover that what attempts you have made to seal what -might- be a leaky spot has been completely ignored by the rain as though it were the Maginot Line.

Step 4.a.: Wonder if Saturn was invented by the French.

Step 4.b.: Scribble note to self, "Saturn. French? Dig!" in notebook.

Step 5: Check weather.com and discover waves and waves of rain clouds heading for your position.

Step 5.a.: Fully understand what it might feel like to be the commanding officer along the Maginot Line after the first wave of German soldiers have gotten past you and then find out that there are more coming.

Step 5.b: Consider your options and decide that rather than use a French answer to this problem, try Welsh.

Step 6: Realize that your car, though parked under a friend's deck, is also pointing nose-in to their garage.

Step 7: Decide that the best option is to simply remove yourself from the field of battle until you've properly prepared yourself. (And hope your hosts won't freak when you want to borrow their garage for the rest of your visit.)

Step 8: Investigate their basement.

Step 8.a: Realize that for the years that your hosts have lived in their house, you've never seen them use their garage as a container for anything other than boxes (both full and empty).

Step 9: Organize their basement / garage into a space that's large enough to accommodate your car.

Step 9.a.: Move piles and piles of card board bits thither and yon. (Can I use thither in a thentance?)

Step 9.b.: Discover lost pages for the Pilgrim's Journal in the piles of empty boxes that have been scattered about.

Step 9.c.: Fight overwhelming urge to tidy your host's garage / basement.

Step 9.d: Become stumped at the presence of a weight bench in their basement cocooned by box-debris.

Step 9.e.: Really fight the urge to tidy your host's garage / basement.

Step 9.f: Discover that the large lump under the pile of boxes is actually a couch. (so that's where that thing went.)

Step 9.g: Really, no kidding, fight the urge to tidy your host's garage / basement. (This is where I'm channeling my inner Welshman. Yes, I'm still Irish but I bare a striking behavioral resemblance to a certain Welshman named Ianto and we'll leave it at that.)

Step 9.g.1: Fight the urge to sing 'Captain Jack' by Billy Joel while writing this blog.

Step 10: Finish cleaning a space for your car and go back into your host's house to ask if you can do what you've been preparing to do for the past thirty minutes.

Step 11: Quietly creep up the stairs to their bedroom since they're still not moving this morning. (around 9:30 a.m. - which may be early for some people and especially if there's a baby involved.)

Step 12: Ask the question: "Can I borrow your garage for the rest of the day?"

Step 12.a: Wait for their sleep-induced, mental-lethargy to catch up with what you just asked.

Step 12.b: Explain the situation about your car and pause dramatically for appropriate snickers and repeats of "What? What?" from your half-asleep hosts.

Step 12.c: Wait for one of them to say, "It won't fit." and then explain that you've already made a spot for your car.

Step 13: Gratefully accept your host's permission to use their garage for a while and move your car out of the range of fire (or rain) that is headed your way.

Step 13.a: Wait for them to fully wake up and wonder if your asking to borrow their garage was actually a dream or something.

It Happened alright.

Well, It Happened.

Last night I went to see the movie "The Happening". I wasn't too sure how it would turn out and the only thing that I read about it was something close to "Nature Strikes Back". But, as it was an M. Night Shyamala(h)-ding-dong movie I was hoping that there would be his usual plot twist at the end like he's done with Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village.

However, what I got was a whole lot of wasted time. The movie's plot was so completely out in left field that I was reeling from it within the first ten minutes. I tried to find some redeemable quality in the concept, but all I could see was a bunch of shock-based scenes intended to give the audience a scare in between their moments of confusion.

The filming of the movie was so terrible that you ACTUALLY see the boom mike coming down from the top of the screen to follow the various actors who are on camera. Now normally I would have chalked it up to a single mistake that they didn't catch in editing but this happens over and over again. It's so noticeable because the microphone has a big red line around the end so you can see it switching direction from one actor and then to the other.

Normally, in disaster movies such as this, the audience can become involved in the movie by watching the characters figure out the 'rules' to the disaster. Either it's something as simple as: "Get out of the city" or "Stay in the light." But this movie's plot is so far out there that there isn't really a 'rule' that you can hold onto. Anything and everything that is green wants to kill you. The end.

So, there's about two hours of my life that I will not be getting back.

Grade: F

Flying a Kite

On June 15, 1752, Franklin successfully drew an electric charge from a rain cloud using a key tied to a kite.

Franklin a truly interesting person. His inventions and ideas on politics and technology were, in some ways, revolutionary; literally.

I wanted to blog about something this morning and found that I was more interested in a kite than the actual holiday celebrated today. The accomplishments of a man flying a kite with a brass key during a storm is more interesting, to me, than a holiday celebrating a figure that I've never known.

Similar to discussions about mysteriously ephemeral figures and prophets, I have heard my friends relate their thoughts on the matter and regail me with all of the stories associated with their childhood, but in the end I am left ignorant.

Perhaps my lack of faith in the figure celebrated today is connected to the lack of faith in the figure celebrated in late December and again with the first days of spring.

So, today, as families gather and phone calls are made back and forth - I will think of a man on a hill with a kite and a key.

At least -he- kept a notebook. :)

-Me

Fluffy Muffin Taters

Must


Not


Kill.


The coffee house has been besieged by a middle-school, girls, soccer team.

My monastic mental discipline has allowed me to fend off the Urukai-like assaults to my senses, but the sheer vacuum of cogent thought is starting to suck my mind out through my right ear.

I am not sure what they're talking about, but the few syllables that break through my rapidly failing shields have formed the phrase:

Fluffy....Muffin....Taters.

I'm afraid.

-T

Denison-Trip

I'm sitting in a very nice coffee house in Granville, Ohio near Denison University. Jim and I drove up at o'dark-thirty this morning for a meeting.

The coffee house is not what one would imagine as being a traditional caffeine den as it's built within a beautiful house on a road near the river. Aptly named, it is called the River Road Coffee House.

Within five minutes of stepping through the doors I am immediately filled with sense of both longing and disappointment. I would love for Portsmouth to have such a coffee house near campus - but I don't think it will happen for several more years if at all. This place, the River Road, has a very warm and inviting atmosphere. It encourages people to spend a few hours and relax. Just from where I'm sitting, there are tables full of laptops and text books and students / professors a plenty.

Ahh... Academia.

Feels like home.

More later.
-Tom