Tonight's recap

Good Queen Swirly (9:44 a.m.)

But why?  (7:30 p.m.)

Two of the many seen along the way.  (7:35 p.m.)

Back in my own yard.  The Indian Blanket flower that began as a volunteer

 in late June 2020 is still thriving, more than five years later.  (7:47 p.m.)

Google Lens says, "The image displays a cluster of Verbena flowers, 

also known as Vervain."  (7:48 p.m.)

Welcome to the new arrival

I found some old nasturtium seeds in the garage and planted them in a planter this spring.  Just three seeds sprouted, and until a day or two ago, no flowers had been produced.  

 

Nice

Rabbit Holes

For the first time in months, I uploaded a photo of mine to Pinterest.  While on the site, I saw someone else's upload, and it had to do with a Chevrolet dealer in Allentown.  An hour later...

When I moved to the area in 1987, there was an appliance dealer whose building had obviously been an auto showroom in years past.  The Pinterest pin provided more detail, and what with one thing and another, I learned that the used car lot on the southwest corner is still a used car lot today, only under another dealer name.  The showroom/appliance store on the southeast corner was torn down in 2006 and a bank erected on the site.  The Esso station on the northwest corner became an Exxon, then a Hess, and today is a Speedway gas/convenience store.  The diner on the northeast corner is still a diner, although last time I drove by, it appeared to have gone out of business.

Then there was the 1971 purchase of a former A&P store a little south of the corners described above.  The A&P had been there for something like 25 years, but it was a small neighborhood grocery store, not a large supermarket, so it didn't fit in the company's plans.  A newspaper ad from the following year, found on WikiMedia, showed the rebranded building.  Then a look at Google street view from May 2008 showed the same building, which now housed a restaurant, but still had the Centennial peak on its roof.  However, in a 2011 photo of the building, it had been remodeled and the peak removed.  As of today, the same restaurant was open in the building, as it had been in 2008, but the outside had been landscaped and looked much nicer than before.  

That's where I stopped with the former Allentown A&P and looked at the Pleasant Family Shopping graphics that showed a newspaper ad for a grand opening of a Centennial A&P in Sandusky, Ohio.  I didn't dig as hard here, settling for learning that the building that opened in 1960 had been replaced by a huge Kroger Marketplace.  Enough for tonight.  That was interesting.

Because I Can

  

PG can't walk very far anymore, so if I want to take a walk around the neighborhood, it has to be done alone.  If I see something interesting, I take a picture to show her afterward.  This is what I'd call interesting.  Farther away in the yard were two more cottontails, but they would have been tiny specks compared with these three.  

Google calls this Wild Bergamot, aka Bee Balm.  There was a good-sized patch of it near the creek that runs through the local park.  

The oregano in our back yard has grown to a few feet tall, and its flowers are attracting numerous honeybees.  (Oregano honey?  Hmm.)  No picture yet, due to the quality of the light.  When it's nice, bright, and indirect, as in the bee balm snapshot above, I'll haul out the phone.  

Some Fun Now

I was watching an episode of Victory At Sea when this screen came up.  Automatically, I tried to figure out when this footage was taken.  

At far left, I can read "Chester Morris", but not the name of the film or the theatre.  A little to the right, there's "Special Agent" at the Central, I believe, and above that I have no doubt that "Bengal Tiger" is at the Strand.  

Some minutes later, I have learned that all three films were released in mid-1936, and that the Morris film is named "Counterfeit."  What's more, the three stars of "Bengal Tiger" are Barton MacLane, June Travis, and Warren Hull.  The New York Times of July 29, 1936 notes that the film is scheduled to open on this day.

But information available says that "Counterfeit" was released May 25, 1936, two months earlier, and that bit about "Second Smash Week" doesn't add up.  Not a big deal, though.

Now all I want to do is screenshot it, and that's where it got weird.  WIN/SHIFT/S caused the YouTube screen to go black, first in Chrome, then in Edge and Firefox.  Anything I'm doing wrong to cause it?  Search says try double-clicking and then choosing save from the menu that comes up.  Nope -- the save function is there, but it's grayed out.  Then to Reddit, where they said hardware acceleration should be turned off, but that didn't change the result either.  

By this time, I would have used my phone to get it over with, but I'd left it downstairs.  A few more minutes, and I think I've found the answer:  It's a feature, applied to copy-protect copyrighted material.  OK then, I'll just bookmark it and come back tomorrow with my phone.

Which I did...

So anyway, the Globe is now the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.  The Central became the Columbia, the Gotham, the Holiday, and more before being demolished in 1998.  Likewise, the Strand was razed in 1987.  

Once more, adding to the sum total of human knowledge.

A long day

Swirly's been under the weather, up one day, down the next, and after the past weekend Pat and I wanted to take her right away this morning to our usual vet. Trouble was, they said they were completely booked for the day.

We went to one of the 24-hour vets they recommended, and within minutes of getting there, Swirly was checked over and triaged, and we all sat down to wait our turn. Then a person arrived whose dog was having seizures. Then a couple walked in with an old dog with difficulty breathing.

It took longer than anyone would have wanted, but staff members kept us informed throughout, so we never felt like saying "Remember us?" Eventually we and Swirly were taken back to an exam room, and after they took a closer look, they found one bladder stone stuck to her fur, and more still inside. Vital signs good, no damage to kidneys, but a UTI in progress.

She's staying overnight with an operation scheduled for tomorrow, and we should be able to pick her up before the end of the day. Jack and Jennie loaned us one of their dog enclosures on short notice, which will really help with our Good Queen's recovery.