I have to say it. I love these new stairs. I've been zig-zagging my steps to keep from wearing out the middles of the mats. May take a pillow and blanket and sleep on the landing tonight.
I knew if I kept looking long enough someone would post a picture of the Scotts 5 & 10 in my home town. It was my favorite store. This picture was taken in 1980, 10 years after I left. My mother and I would go shopping downtown, maybe twice a year, only on sale days. Started about the time I was old enough to walk. The streets and stores were so crowded you had to hang on to keep from getting lost. I did get lost once. My father would drop us off downtown in the morning. We would spend the whole day shopping, take the bus back to its last stop, which was within walking distance of my grandmother's house. Then my dad would pick us up. Scotts had a lunch counter that ran the whole length of the store up the side street (drawing below). There was a huge mural of a jungle scene with animals on the wall that ran the whole length of the building behind the counter. You always had to wait to get a seat. The reason this store was so special is that I don't remember ever eating out in Ohio. Ever. Even on vacations. Too expensive. On shopping days there was no other choice, and we usually ate lunch at Scotts. I'm sure if there had been a place to eat it, my mother would have packed us a lunch. lol Shopping centers then began to crop up on the edges of town, which made it so much easier than going down town shopping. I forget when we stopped going. I was still pretty young, not yet a teenager.
There has been almost no human activity in our neighborhood because the university has been closed. Rarely see a car. Animals are out and about more. I happened to be in the yard 4 times at night recently, and on 3 of those occasions I saw at least one deer in the back yard or across the street. Put out the trash at night and you hear things scurrying around near the porch. Possums walking around in broad daylight. One night last week I saw at least 10 lightning bugs. Haven't seen that many in years here. Usually none. I wonder if that also has to do with the lock down? The term "lightning bugs" sounds so childlike, I figured it was a term only kids used. The map shows where people commonly call them "fireflies" and where they call them "lightning bugs." There is speculation that the difference has to do with the prevalence of wildfires and lightning strikes because residents are more familiar with whatever happens in their area. Map of Wildfires Map of Lightning Strikes
Ran across this last night about patience, or maybe too much of it. Posting it in this thread because I don't like arguments. . I Can’t Imagine That Kind of Patience by Russ Dean, Pastor, Park Road Baptist Church, Charlotte, NC (excerpts) "I marvel at the long-suffering tenacity, enduring strength and peaceful patience of my black sisters and brothers. From slavery to Jim Crow to separate-but-equal to all the insults of prejudice, the slights and jokes, and the injustices large and small that continue under the blind eye of a nation’s legislated equality. It started before the nation was even born, more than 400 years ago. "I can’t imagine that kind of patience. "Most white people don’t understand – don’t particularly want to understand – so our black sisters and brothers bear their burden while many of their white friends, neighbors, co-workers and community leaders condescend politely with a quiet indignation. Like, ... “Slavery is past history. Get over it.” "... many of our parents have enjoyed wealth that finds its basis in the benefits that followed World War II, the GI Bill and other benefits that were largely denied to black soldiers. ... We pride ourselves in the great character of that Greatest Generation and the financial success they created and have passed on to their children. That wealth disparity hangs like a weight around their necks, but our black friends mostly sit by, working for change, and waiting for us to do so. "I can’t imagine that kind of patience. "So, when an unarmed black man is killed again and again and again at the hands of law enforcement, I can at least begin to understand the anger that finally explodes into the streets. I don’t condone or celebrate looting or setting businesses afire, any more than the vast majority of peaceful protesters, but I can begin to understand how the fire of that anger accelerates from a smoldering protest into a raging torrent of destruction. "The protests and demonstrations this time are different. They may be a sign that something really is changing, even with the long-suffering patience of the black community. At least I pray that is so. I can’t imagine the kind of patience my black friends and colleagues have displayed over the decades of my life. I’m grateful. And I’m sorry. "I don’t want to imagine more than we’re seeing now of what black impatience looks like, but it’s past time, and it’s not my imagination. Something is changing. "I hope I have the courage and commitment to be impatient, too."
Back on the drainage problem ... The more I read about ground squirrels the more I think they are the main cause of the basement water problems. Every time you walk out the front door you see 3 or 4 scurrying into their holes. One article says to try emptying the cat litter pan into their holes, so I tried that. For a couple of days I didn't see them, then they came back. A week later there are at least 7 new holes in the front yard. I did see an orange cat twice lately, but if every house in the neighborhood has this many ground squirrels, I believe there are too many for one cat to handle. There is no sense digging a drainage ditch until this is solved, or goes away magically. This afternoon I filled up the new holes with cat litter and filled in the deep hole I dug before. It was not where I want a ditch anyway. I was just trying to try to find out what was causing the sinking. Noticed a new ground squirrel hole in the inside wall of it! After tamping the dirt down more solid, it is now short about 6 inches of being filled. I may just order a load of dirt dumped onto the driveway to fill in holes. I've done that before, twice. I may have no choice but to trap them. Release them on the other side of the lake. Maybe they will go over the Mr L's house. I found 2 live traps online that are supposed to catch more than one at a time. TOMAHAWK CHIPMUNK MULTIPLE CATCH TRAP - $64 CHIPMUNKINATOR - $50 If I could just make them relocate to the back yard, it wouldn't be so bad, so I'll keep trying a few more weeks to at least annoy the heck out of them. Trap and release would take a lot of work and planning ahead. And of course this will never end, unless we get a large influx of cats this fall when school reopens. What a nuisance.
Akron, Ohio... By the way, the creators of this video claim they ran across nearly 50 references to Akron in movies and chose these 16 clips. Most people probably never heard of it.
I think most times they are making fun. Akron is not a very interesting city, used to be mostly a lot of ugly factories and smoke stacks. Ohio is not a very interesting state. They used to make jokes about Cleveland (Ohio) also.
That's pretty much the same over here then. There's also a city the media used to make fun of. And there's one larger city that must be mentioned in every single episode of a series so the rules say.
Almost everyone my age says they have an excellent long term memory, but shorter term not so much. So I wonder if it's possible to permanently correct old memories? In other words, if you learn years later that you remembered something incorrectly, will that memory be forever corrected, or, as you age, will you eventually revert back to your first (incorrect) memory? Whenever I remember something from long ago I can't resist trying to fact check it for accuracy on the internet. Often you can learn something new doing that, and things that didn't make sense at the time suddenly fall into place. That's when it gets interesting. So far I think I remember things pretty accurately, but not always in the proper sequence. Every few years something happens to remind me of the Kent State Shootings. This time it was an old ID dated May, 1970, I found in the bottom of a junk drawer recently (which explains the temporary avatar). I always end up looking at all the new information and photos that have been posted on the internet about the event since the last time. There is always more, and it always puts me in a dark mood. The Neil Young video didn't help this time. A haunting presentation of the original by CSN&Y. Activities for the 50th anniversary of the event were cancelled this year because of the Coronavirus. A shame for the planners who probably spent all year making arrangements. There might have been even more new information otherwise. This time the first thing I thought about was Merrill Hall. It was the math building at the time, and is now the oldest building on the Kent State University campus. It is beautiful if you like old buildings. I took several classes in Merrill Hall up through August, 1970. In the spring of 1970, I was living a quarter mile from Merrill Hall in an apartment complex on Morris Road with 3 other girls. In spite of that most of what I learned about the shootings, and the weekend before, was by word of mouth. We were under curfew at night all weekend, and I always obeyed rules. I regret now I didn't at least try to go out to see what was going on at night. Some pictures On Sunday afternoon I went for a walk on campus, and remember seeing the National Guard vehicles parked in front of the building. Right across the street was the Student Union which I practically lived in when I was a commuter. Right next to the Union was the burned out ROTC building. The building was empty at the time and scheduled to be demolished that summer. From another angle showing Merrill Hall in the back. This is all as I remember it, but things start to get blurry after that.
I'm in central Maine, and I saw fireflies last week (or maybe the week before) too, and I also haven't seen any in decades.
Thank you @Nancy Hart for the video. I never knew who sung that song or the title of it but I liked it because it mentions my home state. Moving on to the fireflys or lightning bugs as we called them here in Ohio. I haven't seen any yet but when they do arrive there are plenty of them.