Spotted earlier today

At the hospital this afternoon for my wife's follow-up visit with a specialist.  We got there early enough that there was time to roam around the floor.  

I found that we were in the right place to use the glass-enclosed bridge over the road.  The bridge connects to another building on the hospital grounds, and contains several small tables that go along with a mini snack bar.

The view was good from the bridge, and at one point a spotted lanternfly landed on the outside of the glass.  I decided to take the picture because I remember how we were informed they were invasive and had no predators.  We were called upon to smash every one of the insects, which I resisted.  

This one being on the outside meant it was safe from humans, if not necessarily from predators, since as it turns out there are some.  Nature!  There's just no stopping it.

Reasons to be cheerful

Seen just before the end of a 20-minute walk around the neighborhood.  Thankful I can do it without any physical difficulty.  Other guys I know haven't been as fortunate.  

"I owe it all to clean living and a Happy Heart."

Out in the country

Yesterday, Pat and I drove west just to get out of the house and stop scrolling.  In a few minutes, we were in rural farmland, and she enjoyed the scenery.  

At one point, we approached a traffic circle I hadn't used before, and I took the time to make sure I knew where traffic was coming from, how much of it there was, and that I would be safe getting into the circle.  A split-second before I applied the gas pedal again, the car behind me honked impatiently.  I'd expect that in the city at a red light, but at a traffic circle way out in the country?  What is it with these people? 

At the former Farmer Brown's Market out past Kutztown, I stopped at a Dollar General and got some snacks.  The parking lot was across from a working dairy farm where Pat and I once saw a newborn calf in a field.  I remember there were two adult cows, and they stared at us with a look that seemed to say "This doesn't concern you.  Keep moving."  

Before leaving the lot, I didn't bother consulting the map app before turning onto a road I hadn't traveled before.  It was headed north, so I knew at some point it was going to run into I-78, so no worries.

Shortly before reaching the interstate, I saw a sign for a covered bridge, and pulled off the road to get a snapshot of the Dreibelbis Station Bridge.  Hadn't heard of it, so a nice surprise for both of us.

My Day(s)

Keeping my attention:

Checking the Internet Archive a few days ago, I learned that a book I was interested in had been added to the IA collection.  "The 168 Days" was written soon after the FDR proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court had been rejected, and while I'd known about it for some time, only last year it was made available online.  

Through that book listing, I learned about the Bellamy Salute, which was supposed to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance and predated the Fascist and Nazi salutes that resemble it.  Just the same, in 1942 the hand gesture while reciting the Pledge was changed to placing it over the heart, the one I remember from grade school.

Then yesterday, I learned about the following.  After reading Fred Allen's autobiography, Much Ado About Me, I knew he had written for Variety, and here's an excerpt from a piece from 1923.  More than 20 years later, the anti-South jokes in the original article were flipped into pro-South and anti-North jokes and delivered by Senator Claghorn, voiced by Kenny Delmar. (Yes, Delmar.  I noticed that too.)

Return visit

On April 16, I was looking at the wood violets on the formerly landscaped area of our back yard, when a movement nearby caught my attention.  A garter snake slithered away from me, but I got one adequate photo of it.  

Yesterday morning around 8:30, I went out the front door to show a contractor where I wanted him to start work. On the way back to the door, I saw a garter snake on the mulch beneath a small tree.  At first, I wasn't sure if it was alive, but it moved its head just a little, and I realized it was warming up in the early morning sun.  

One snake spotted in more than 25 years, and in the 26th year, two sightings in just over a month.  If it hadn't been for the contractor, I wouldn't have seen this one, so maybe I should get outside more.

Nope, not really close

From time to time I look for interesting rabbit holes at Duke University's Library, the Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions (ROAD).  Last night, I saw a photograph of the illuminated billboards at Broadway and 37th Street in New York City.  

Inexplicably, its date is given as 1898, considering that one of the billboards promotes a production that claims it has been seen by President Taft, Vice-President Sherman, and Speaker Cannon.  It took a few seconds to confirm William Howard Taft was President from 1909-1913 and that the play, "Tillie's Nightmare", ran from May 5, 1910 - July 09, 1910 for 77 performances, and again for 8 more in December 1911.   

It should come as no surprise that a popular Broadway show was turned into a moving picture, although under an altered title.  The female lead remained Marie Dressler, while the male lead role went to a rising star who had already appeared in dozens of short films for producer/director Mack Sennett.  

The days just fly by

Enjoying every day with my wife, my best friend of 41 years.  After her long hard 2025, we appreciate her good days even more.

Walked a mile, rebounded for 15 minutes, ate only one full meal and part of another.  Vice:  12 oz Mexicoke.

Afternoon napping

From left:  Nelson and Kit Charlemagne

Waiting with faint hope

To begin with, I was pretty, pretty, pretty close to 40°33'56.9"N 75°35'07.2"W in the map screen shot immediately below.  

The next image gives you an idea of what I saw looking west from nearby Grange Road, April 21, 2024.  One white flower was visible in the middle of an open field, and I walked over for a closer look.   

Soon the flowers were gone and the field was planted in soybeans.  But next spring, April 29, 2025 to be exact, the same kind of white flowers reappeared, shown in the third image.  They're called ornithogalum nutans, or drooping star-of-Bethlehem, and evidently their bulbs are pretty hardy, if not always welcome.

Finally, a view of the same field looking south, January 6, 2026.  The area shown in the prior pictures hasn't yet been dug up or graded, but in my experience, there's not much reason to be optimistic.

Until the early part of the decade, the roadside was seldom tended, and wildflowers grew all along it, including chicory, hawkweed, red clover, and Queen Anne's lace.  A short distance away, purple asters thrived near the bypass.  All that has changed, and I'm glad I took pictures while I had the chance.

March 13:  Township appears to have scraped off all remaining topsoil and piled it up for transfer somewhere else.  And that's that.

May 3:  A recent township public meeting announced that a new police station will be built on the site. Late last year, the township bought the property from the estate of its former owner.  The house on the property would be razed, and several tall trees have already been cut down. That includes the biggest one in the center of the above photo, lined up roughly between the 2nd and 3rd orange cone.  

Shrug

And then things started happening, and writing in here went to the bottom of the priority list.  Let's see how I feel in a few days before going any further.

It just so happens

To create that post a couple of days ago, I went into my cache of 20th-Century photos taken in NYC.  There was one image that showed huge marquees for On The Waterfront, Brigadoon, and one I’d never heard of, entitled Susan Slept Here.  Guess what I’m recording right now from TCM?  

Beyond this point is more detail which I want to remember, but that I recognize will be of interest only to me.  You’ve been warned.

I don’t usually go into Bluesky, but this morning I did, and almost immediately saw a post from the New Yorker from one of their film critics.  It said that he’d been discussing Susan Slept Here with someone, and how it was a sharp portrait of mid-1950’s capitalist America, and… it was going to be on TCM in about 15 minutes.  I powered up the TV and the TiVo just after the opening credits began.  

What do you have to say for yourself?

Getting done what has to be done, whether it's getting PG to her medical appointments, keeping the household chores up to date, or fulfilling my duty as a citizen by reporting to the court house and making myself available for a jury.  Well, the last one wasn't necessary, as word came down this afternoon that those scheduled to report tomorrow morning were no longer required to show up.  Can't say I'm sorry for that, since PG has two appointments on Wednesday and another one Thursday morning, and I need to drive her to them.  

Trying to appreciate each day as it happens.  I saw it put in a different way:   if you count on a bad situation resolving quickly, or if you lose hope and feel that a bad situation will never get better, it can break you.  One day at a time, or The New Normal, is the least likely to send someone into the abyss.

Satisfied with the new mini-trampoline so far.  I was on it for 25 minutes today; five minutes here, 8 a little later, then 12 late in the day.  Anything to keep me from rotting, immobile, through the weeks of winter.  One thing I have to unlearn is that when I'm relaxed, I tend to close my eyes, which is bad for balance on the rebounder.

Besides that, by end of day, I had done some charting of one old videotape; I practiced my instrument or watched/listened to instrument-related videos for about an hour; and did the chores that needed to be done. 

Tomorrow, nothing on the schedule since jury duty is out.  Let's see how disciplined I am then.  

Saturday Evening Post

It began with a New Yorker reference to Rodgers and Hammerstein.  That reminded me that R&H had not always hit the mark, and I picked up a prior thread of misses like Allegro, Me and Juliet, and Pipe Dream.  

The latter referenced one of the stars, Judy Tyler, and I looked up more information on her 1957 death in a car wreck at age 24.  The online bio included a link to a JPG of an Earl Wilson column from 1955 that I, of course, wanted to read.  In it, she came off as ambitious, to say the least, and intent on making it clear no one else deserved any credit for her success.   

But shortly before the customary closing "That's Earl, brother" that I remember from growing up in the late 1960's and early '70's, in the dot-dot-dot section was a line about a Jelke Girl.  That's how I learned about Minot "Mickey" Jelke, scion of the Jelke Good Luck margarine family.  With a few years to wait before coming into a 7-figure inheritance upon turning 25, he decided to put that time to use by becoming a pimp.  (He didn't get away with it.)

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Otherwise on this Saturday:  Pizza and Pepsi for the main meal, with a pastry from a local Italian shop for dessert.  Walked a mile and a quarter afterward.  

Good Quality Time with my little cat in early afternoon.

Mid-afternoon, got blood orange juice for PG from Whole Foods, and I picked up some whole milk yogurt.  

Took a back road home and checked for whether a lone little patch of purple asters along the road was still in flower, which it was.  This picture is from a week ago, when I had time to stop and appreciate them from close range.

On the road

I usually take a walk around the neighborhood in late afternoon, when traffic in the area has thinned out, but today's mid-afternoon forecast was calling for rain in the near future.  A quick look at the radar showed the leading edge of the rain far enough to the west that I thought I'd be OK, so I put on my walking shoes and went outside.

  

I took one of my usual routes around the neighborhood, which led me into a nearby park.  The road into the park also contained a small lane facing traffic for pedestrians, and that's where I was when a car approached me.  

Instead of passing, it slowed to a stop next to me and the passenger-side window went down.  A young woman leaned across the seat, and with a smile, she stretched a hand toward me.  In it was a small clover.  "Four leaves?  How about that?" I said, and she nodded.  I took the clover and thanked her, we wished each other luck, and she drove on.  

I've had some unexpected experiences on these almost-daily walks: finding several coins, seeing a deer, a fox, even a coyote; and one evening, in someone's front yard I counted seven cottontail rabbits.  But until this afternoon, never a human stopping to hand me a four-leaf clover.  

My guess is that she was having a good day and wanted to share it with someone else.  At least I hope so.  

For what it's worth, less than a minute after she gave me the clover, it began to rain lightly, and it continued the remaining half-mile back to the house.

Kind of stands out, doesn't it?

If we are to believe Google Lens, this is a solitary Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), "a large conifer native to eastern North America."

Also seen in the park:  Swamp Rose Mallow, White Vervain, Prunella vulgaris (aka Common Self-Heal), and a lot of purple loosestrife.  They're the reason for the wiggles in the path on the lower right below.

My Day

(1) caregiver (meds, prescriptions, appointments)

(2) TP volunteer image-link fixer

(3) info on cat-calming products

(4) make vanilla pudding?  make cinnamon buns?

(5) cranberry juice sweetener - how much / proportion?

(6) Dr ___, GI specialist - look up

(7) Take a walk and look for interesting images

I was strolling in the park one day

A couple of brief stops along the way, first to watch a bluebird whose box I'd walked by, and then to admire a patch of Dame's rocket along the creek.  Interested today in the distance, not the time on task.

I didn't bother

Things I saw but didn't photograph:  At the traffic light exiting a shopping center, across from the former world headquarters of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.   In the grass between the sidewalk and a chain link fence, two Canada geese were walking.  As I turned onto the road, I saw several goslings walking with them.  

I took a shopping list into a store, and in one aisle I found someone else's shopping list.  Both lists had been written on paper that bore the name of the same children's charity.  

At the end of the day

   

The worm/caterpillar on the left was dangling at eye level over the sidewalk from an oak tree on the next door neighbor's property.  Between its size and its constant motion, I knew it would take a miracle to get a good focused image, and after four blurry tries, I settled for the one you see above.  What it is doesn't feel as useful to remember as just recording that it was there, and that I almost walked into it.

And now, what you've no doubt been waiting for:  Google Lens guessed that the thing in the photo above right is possibly an x-ray of a tibia, or else an image of paint peeling from a Ford F-150.  Guess I'll have to try something else.

Later:  Blue-tailed damselfly?  OK, I can accept that.

Ancora Imparo:  (1) learned that the WIN/Shift/S combination that does screen grabs also records videos, the way Dropbox used to do.  Used it to save a clip from a post on Xitter that showed a dog jumping ropes being twirled by a human and two other dogs.  (2) learned that FastStone accesses the latitude and longitude recorded on pictures taken with my Samsung Galaxy, and it can place them on a screen in Google Maps (Windows 11).  The grab below shows where I saw the insect on the right above.

Lots of unnecessary eating today, so I needed a walk late this afternoon.  The timeline on Google Maps (Android) isn't as detailed as it used to be, so when it told me just now that I'd only walked half a mile, I had my doubts.  (There should be an app for that.  A free one would be best for my budget.)

EDIT:  Did some searching and eventually settled on MapMyWalk.  Yesterday's walks totaled a bit over a mile and a half.  

Extra pep

Pretty good at staying focused today.  Besides the longer walk, I took an hour for practice at home and filled it with meaningful action.  No naps, and just one Pepsi in the category of junk food.  Good cereal for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch, and... and... no memory of what I ate at 5:00.  I think it may have involved whole milk yogurt from Whole Foods.

I wish this photo had been better, but at least I got a picture. There were a couple dozen rabbits in the yards I passed during my walk, including this one, who was stripping a young plant of the highest leaves it could reach.  

Google Maps and my timeline say I walked a mile and a half this evening.  Must have had some extra energy and motivation.  

  

This was in the field that last year grew soybeans.  Nothing planted this year, from the looks of it.  Nature is taking its course, with unpredictable results, like this large, brightly colored volunteer.  (Yes, yes, it's out standing in its field.)  Google Lens made a guess, but an unlikely one; I doubt that it's a plant that their AI says is native to Australia.  

Otherwise, I did some reading for pleasure, spent a minimum of time on Xitter, and burned a CD for PG with music I believe she'll enjoy.