Today

A Father's Day, filled with grey skies and softly falling rain.

I like a day like this - once in a while. To sit on the porch, in solitude- and listen. Nothing but the rain brushing against the leaves as it falls.

But given the choice, I would rather share the silence - and listen. Together.

---

Today, the solitude feels more like loss.

I don't have much to say today - but I don't want the day to pass without noting it; without ending it, like usual, with this...

Cat Food

I was going to post this as part of my popular* "Further Evidence..." series (here and here and... that's about it), but then I realized that this is really marketing genius!

This stuff hits all the high spending consumer bases: people who like rainbows: roughly 79% of the American population, people who like unicorns: roughly 37% of the American population, and people who like cats: roughly 3% of the American population (a small but very vocal - and very, very high spending portion of our great society).

Add that all together and you'll find that this stuff appeals to an impressive 119% of the American population! Like I said, Genius!

*Each post had exactly one hit each. That's a total of TWO hits, for those of you too tired to do the math.

Writing on the Wall

I came across this graffiti on last night's walk with Sam - and I'm having very mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I'm glad to see that at least a portion of our youth is taking a strong and forceful stand against Nazis.

On the other hand, I find it a little bit sad that kids today are even thinking about things like this. What happened to those carefree days when kids could focus on writing simple, uplifting messages like, "F**K Marco!" or maybe even dash off a few crude pictures of genitalia?

I guess those were simpler times.

A Walk Through Town

Today, Sam and I went on our longest walk of the season - somewhere around five miles. But since there were two of us on this walk, I consider it to be more like ten miles total.

Our first stop, or technically, our second stop, was at the Post Office. I needed to get some stamps and pick up a postcard I ordered from Bulgaria. For whatever reason, it couldn't be left at my door without a signature. So I went in and signed of my two dollar postcard - and now I feel like my signature will be appearing on items ordered from somewhere in Bulgaria, for the foreseeable future.

Then it was over to the Chamber of Commerce.  I've never been in the Chamber of Commerce before, and after today, I still haven't. They were closed. I went because apparently, over the years, they've produced Christmas ornaments of noteworthy places around town (keeping in mind that "noteworthy" is a relative term) and I had wanted to go in and take a look at their years-old overstock.

I'm not sure how interested I am in any of them but I've often wished that I had more memorabilia from my hometown, from back in the era when I was growing up there. So, I thought maybe my kids might someday feel the same way about their hometown because naturally, if I feel some way about something, then everybody else must feel the same way, too. Well, sorry kids. The place was closed. Maybe some other time.

Undeterred, Sam and I continued our walk all the way down to the bank on the other end of Main Street. Then we headed back home, stopping along the way for water, as well as making a stop at the hardware store.

Nothing particularly eventful happened this long walk of ours - other than the fact that we inadvertently managed to get some exercise- and somehow managed to avoid stopping to get an ice cream cone. So, I guess that was pretty unusual. Still, sometimes these uneventful walks are pretty good, too.

P.S. My feet were killing me. Sam still refused to rub them.

Tonight's Photo

 Helaina pretending to be casual as she walks across the infamous Bridge of Death.

Flea Market Treasures

Going to the flea market today was not without it's rewards. For example, Sam got this little treasure...

Yes, that item above is one in the same in both photos -on the left, a hunk of wood carved to look like a nut - and on the right, when you press the button - there's a Santa inside! You can't tell by these pictures but the Santa's arms and legs wiggle, making it far more valuable that the one measly dollar that Sam paid for it. This was Sam's find of the day.

I on the other hand, bought a few more unneeded old postcards to add to my unneeded old postcard "collection"...

This is a postcard of a now long defunct restaurant called "Turnbull's. Turnbull's stood on the other side of town, over on the other side of the rotary from where I currently live. When I first moved out this way, I would pass Turnbull's every day as I commuted to and from the little hilltown where I was living.

A few short years later, it was a place frequented by Mom and Dad - and most of the other senior citizens in this neck of the woods. I think I may have had dinner there with Mom and Dad at least once. Pretty good corn relish, as I recall. If only they were still around. In a couple of more years, I could really cash in on that senior citizen's discount.

Here's a postcard of Sliding Rock, in North Carolina. Sliding Rock was one of the places we would visit during our summers with Nona and Eleanore. Though I was never insane enough to slide down the wet rock into the bottomless-pit-of-death at the end, I personally know people who have.

I've written about the Barefoot Trader before. Suffice it to say that this is another place from my distant past, which holds fond memories. The Barefoot Trader was a gift shop at Cape Cod and was one of the places we used to frequent when I was a little kid.

If you look carefully, you might notice the giant tiki head off to the right of the doorway. It looked pretty great lit up at night. What you won't notice is the abandoned house next door which, rumor had it, was populated by flying monkeys - exactly like those on The Wizard of Oz. (I should note that the only one I ever heard speak this rumor was Dad.) The postcard's a little blurry - but then, so are my memories.

This is a postcard of the Hyannis airport. Technically, the Barnstable Municipal Airport, also technically, Boardman/Polando Field. This is also at Cape Cod (as is Hyannis). I never visited this airport but I went by it many times.

What I remember most about the airport is that we used to eat at a small diner directly across the rotary from it, and at the end of our meal, Mom and Dad would enjoy a cup of coffee (allegedly). And what made the coffee so enjoyable was that they would shovel us kids out to the car while they slowly (and I mean slowly) sipped their alleged cups of coffee, leaving us kids with little to do but avoid my big brother and watch the searchlight shine on the top of the airport tower (and wish it was the bat-signal, calling Batman to save me).

Here's yet another postcard from Cape Cod. This is another place I never visited but had driven by it a number of times. There are no special memories about this place, I just like the way it looks. 

I like nighttime scenes, especially from places at Cape Cod - in part because they look kind of magical to me. This, I'm sure, is a carryover from when I was a little kid. We would go tooling around at night and everything would be lit up - and that alone made everything look great. Being able to be out and about after dark when, under normal non-vacation circumstances, I couldn't, only added to the intrigue.

I also like the idea of a motor lodge (or, if you prefer, the more impersonal "motel"). Something about it seems kind of quaint to me. But then again, I don't have to spent a lot of time in them.

According to Google Maps, this place is still there and it looks pretty much the same, thank God. The owners should get some kind of award for this.

By the way, this was the only postcard I bought today that had any message on the back...

I don't choose postcards by whether they have any writing on them or not, but I like it when they do. 

I like old postcards because each is from a particular moment in time. And I like the ones that have messages on them because it places them in an even  more specific - and personal - period in time. It's like a brief snapshot from someone's life. 

This one, for example, was written on June 30th, 1970. This particular family left Cleveland on a Saturday and drove to Albany, where they spent the night. Then they drove from Albany to Cape Cod, where they're staying for a bit playing "put-put" golf. Apparently, "Joan" and "Eileen"love "put-put" golf to the point where they each got a bad sunburn. Regardless, soon they would be off to New Jersey. 

There's more there, but you get the point.

So this was my haul from the day - five postcards. All of which, I guess, was worth the few dollars I paid. Pretty cheap for some pretty good memories.

To the Flea Market

Today we made our first visit to the flea market. Judging by how many times we've gone in recent years, it could be our last visit, as well. It''s not that there's anything wrong with the place - other than the usual - the crowds, the heat, people with junkier stuff than even me - it's just that we don't get there as often as we used to.

Much of the fault for that - probably all of the fault for that - is on me. For me, going to the flea market is a lot like going on vacation. It's not about the place, it's about the people you're with.  The fun is in sharing the experience with people you love.

Going there without the whole family - or most of it, anyway- is kind of depressing. But we went anyway. And since it was my idea, I have no one to blame but myself...