Pete Rose

Who says life is fair, even for jerks like Pete Rose? But fair is fair. Election to the hall in Cooperstown is not the same as election to the throne in Rome. The quote below is probably a measure that he is not a mental genius but a clue to his thought processes.

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.
Pete Rose

Malcolm Stephens Parcell (1896 – 1987)

EVENTIDE (THE CHURCHYARD)

Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell has Alzheimer's. I picked this off of YouTube to show what a great guitar player he is. Appeared on the Smothers Brothers show followed by his own show The Goodtime Hour.

Subject: Reading

THE SUBJECT IS READING.

I enjoy reading and get my books from several sources. I get most from my fabulous local library; they also provide me with video and music. I always have a book going on my Kindle E book which I think is fantastic. I can take it to bed with me and it is the ideal night time companion. When my eyes droop and all energy has given up I don't have to worry about falling asleep dropping my book and losing my place. It will shut itself off and when I turn it on in the morning it will have bookmarked itself. Great bedtime reader. My other source which I enjoy is buying used books from vendors through Amazon. Other than having to pay postage which is three dollars and some cents you can buy many of the books for one penny. My library accepts used books and if they're in pretty good shape will sell them for a pittance of their value, which goes back into the libraries coffers. Well whatever method you enjoy, reading is one of life's pleasures. Fellow blogist and good writer Bill Crider I apologize for not buying your books at Barnes and Nobel off the shelf each time. If economics were not involved I certainly would.

A Psalm of Life

Out of a clear blue my wife Hazel decided to recite this poem. She says it is the only one she knows by heart. She learned it in the eighth grade which would calculate out to make her age at about fourteen years, about fifty nine years ago. Pretty good.

A Psalm of Life
Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Water Damage

The picture is a bit of an exaggeration, but the feeling of desolation is probably close to the same. Water can be a destroyer.


Water outside of rivers, lakes oceans, and reservoirs can be a most destructive element. Does this sound like an introduction to a true life adventure? Well yes it is.

Hazel who has a hearing ability matched by few was awakened yesterday by an out of place sound. It was the sound of water being expelled full force from a broken feeder hose that when it is whole is connected to a toilet. In the time it took her to acclimate herself to what was going on, waking me and turning off the water valve the damage was done. All of the former might have taken five minutes but the damage was unbelievable. Water maybe half an inch deep had left the bathroom and had moved into two other rooms. It had found its way through the floor it was situated on and was cascading its way through the main floor at places where only water finds and was well on its way to accumulating there also.

It was five o'clock in the morning and I thought it was only proper that we should invite the plumber to the party and I did.

It is now the next day and after a full day of trying to correct the damage done that we could correct, but not the damage that will need to be corrected with replacement and check writing we are happy it ended up no worse than it did. Water within its natural barriers such as riverbanks or man made circuits, pipes and such is a needed resource, but water running amok is something that is best avoided if possible.

Chesapeake Bay and Skipjacks

Chesapeake Bay is certainly one of the most picturesque locations in America. I am quickly coming to the end of James Michener's Chesapeake novel. He labels his chapters voyages. The voyage I am ending now depicts the early, (late 1800's) to the early 1900's commercialism of the bounty of the bay. The craft of choice of the watermen were the skipjacks. When Hazel and I lived in Alexandria we ate occasionally at a restaurant on the Mount Vernon parkway and one of the favorites on their menu for us was Seafood platter Norfolk style, Oh yummy.

Watch the full episode. See more MPT Specials.

Birds

We have a small pond in our backyard in which we have species of many sizes and colors visiting daily. It is one of the best free shows around. Watching the posturing between the big birds and the smaller ones is a hoot. As I drink my coffee on my screened in back porch where I am seemingly unseen by the birds as they cavort is a true pleasure. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Flight

Sunset Departure :- By Mark Greaves

I find this a very evocative shot that seems to be begging a story or a poem to accompany it.



epilogue: The young pilot who wrote this poem was killed three months later.

Internet browsing

Browsing the internet is guaranteed to uncover some nugget of information that you did not know, such as this.....the koala bear, which has been known to travel a mere few hundred yards in the course of its life, working its way through the leaves of a eucalyptus grove.

If you see a person with a bag over their head, it's a politician.

That we hold our congress in such a negative view is not really news, is it?

Polls conducted after the debt ceiling deal have showed that Americans hold an increasingly negative view of Congress. A New York Times/CBS News polllast week showed Congress' approval rating falling to 14 percent, with a record 82 percent of Americans disapproving of the way Congress is handling its job -- the most since the Times first began asking the question in 1977.

A CNN poll this week showed, for the first time in its history, that most Americans think their own representatives do not deserve reelection.

Two from the turn of the twentieth century by Arthur Watson Sparks (1871 – 1919)

The Tea Party
Steel Mill

Tom Hamilton can get mighty excited

The Cleveland Indians made a baseball trade involving a Japanese outfielder named Kosuke Fukudome coming to the Indians from the Chicago Cubs. Here is an email from a fan to baseball writer Paul Hoynes concerning the trade.

Hey, Hoynsie: I think the Indians trading for Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome was a good deal. The way I look at it, it's a clear win since the Tribe gets a capable outfielder for two mid-level prospects. But the question is, how long do you think it will take for Tom Hamilton to get really excited, mispronounce Mr. Fukudome's name and get banned for life by the FCC? -- Ralph Steele Jr., Norfolk, Va.

Hey, Ralph: Now that's funny. A dangerous name to be sure if you're a baseball announcer.

-- Hoynsie

At the Races, Franz Dvorak

always someone doesn't get the message

World's Tallest

Soon to be the world's tallest building. Designed by an American, but not built in America.

a peep for peace?

Our congress is becoming our national shame

Well it looks like our best and brightest whom we shall call a congress, have finished their latest game of king of the hill and our novice president will sign the bill so our country can continue on until the next crisis. The very same problem they grappled with so long and so hard will again appear and allow these self important armies of republicans and democrats to don their armor and go at it again. Will they talk about it until then? Of course not, except perhaps some political schmucks will conjure up a plan to make the other side look like the schmo's they are. I can't decide which word best describes a congress as inept as this one, unless it was the last one, or God forbid the next. Oh hell, both fit.