Thar She Blows (Blowing Rock, NC)

This is the Blowing Rock of Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  It is located at the peak of a cliff, which is shaped sort of like a horseshoe, the rock being in the center of the curve of it.  If you walk up to it you can hear the wind blow against it.

Remember in front of it is a big valley.  I think if you read Sam Carsley's and My Big Adventure With Paper Airplanes over the Etowah Valley side of Allatoona Dam you would understand perfectly why the wind does this.

Breakfast

"Oh no!  Not regurgitated worms on toast again!?" 

Deer Me!

Here is an interesting fact:  at the Kennesaw Memorial Cemetery is next door to the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park which is  populated with a lot of deer.  At funerals during a graveside service you can see deer gathering at the edge of the woods of the park looking  on.  Are they showing respect?  They sure are!  Respecting all those flowers around the grave.  When the humans leave the deer move in for a buffet.   

Good for them, the flowers are put to good use.

Fred, the White Wino, Has Body Guards

As I left  Krogers today after grocery shopping I heard on NPR radio about a white wino named Fred.  He has four body guards around him at all times to protect his life.  The officials are trying to find him a girl friend to have a "relationship" with.

"What the F...?" I almost said and almost hitting a car in the next lane the same time.

Why are they guarding Fred's  life with body guards?  I thought to myself, "I bet Fred is witness to a murder by a gangster !"  Fred was probably witting and leaning on wall in a alley drinking his wine when witnessed it and the murderer saw him and started chasing him but the cops drove by about that time and saw him running and asked him what was the problem and the gangster hid back in shadows.  He saw the police open for him to get into the squad car and he told them about the murder he just witnessed and then  they found the murderer and Fred picked them out of a line up.

But why are they looking for him a girlfriend to have a relationship with?

Then I heard the same news report on the radio, but I got to hear  and focus on the whole thing:

""Fed-Exed",  a male  White Rhino , has four body guards.  He is the last of his line unless he reproduces.  The officials are looking for him a female companion now to reproduce with so his genes will be carried on"

White Rhino and not White Wino.  Fed-Exed and not Fred , huh?

Never mind.

Birds Traveling North

On our walk yesterday morning at daybreak it was foggy.  I heard  from above the squawking and honking of migrating fowl, probably Canadian Geese.  Because of the fog I could not see what direction they were aimed at.  If I was a betting person I would bet their aim is north.

It is still very bad snow weather in Boston and that general area.  I thought I hope they are not disappointed when they arrive at their destination.

I think they know the weather  conditions  and what it will be by the time they arrive much more than we humans do.

This is the Lake Allatoona side of Allatoona Dam.  I took this when our son Adam gave me a lake tour as a gift.

If you were on top of the dam and looking down the other side you would see a huge cement cliff and many feet below is the Etowah River.  Over to the right of the river you would see a brick structure which is the remaining ruins of Cooper Furnace which was in full operation before the Civil War. 

AND!!! If you look  up in the sky you might see a few folded paper airplanes floating lazily down until they get too close to the edge of the damn and the west wind coming up the Etowah River hits the dam and go the only way it can, which is up, and scoops up the paper air planes and carries them high above the dam until it lets go and the planes start their floating back down again, maybe for all eternity.

My late friend Sam Carley and I launched the paper airplanes back in about 1961 and they were in their eternal routine before we left.  Sam was a Georgia Tech student and we were working out of his experiments.  *


*If you read this blog regularly,  you already know this, I have told of this scientific experiment  several times.

Another scientific experiment we made:  The theory of relativity  in its simplest form is that if you are  on a bus and jump up in the air you will land on the same spot you left the floor at.  It seems the bus should have moved out from under you so to speak.  But the reason it doesn't is that you are traveling the same speed forward the bus is, even when you jump straight up.  Sam just bought a used Chevvy green and white convertible.  He suggested we ride normal speed, throw a beer can up in the air and stop suddenly.  We did and WHOMP!  The full beer can put a dent on his hood. 

CAPE FEARSOME

Today, on my UNCLE JOHN'S BATHROOM READER PAGE-A-DAY calendar it tells what different words are to do with  land and nautical, such as ATOLL - An island in an ocean or sea that was formed out of a ring of coraL;  ARCHIPELAGO: a chain of islands grouped or clustered close to each other...... and also the word CAPE.:  a section of land that juts out into a body of water.  We looked up the definition of CAPE a few months ago before we spent a week on a CAPE in the Gulf, in Florida.

CAPE also is  a cloth  some people wear on them, usually tied around the throat that covers the back.  In past times it was a symbol of elegance and wealth.  For some unknown  reason superheroes mostly wear CAPES (as my son Rocky demonstrates above).

Which reminds me of  an instance when I was about 4 or 5 years old.  My superhero I knew most about then was MIGHTY MOUSE.  My folks bought me comics to look at and MIGHTY MOUSE was one of my favorites.   My sister and I shared a bedroom.  We each had a twin bed.  With my cape on I leaped from one bed to the other to "Save the day."  On one leap I misjudged my distance or landing spot and hit my head on the bed post, which cut a big gash on my eyebrow.

I was rushed to the Old Hospital on Cherokee Street in Marietta and Doctor Haygood sewed me up.

I was a little ashamed of what I did - for being clumsy and escaping reality.  I remember our neighbor, Mrs. Strickland asked me how I hurt my head.  I told her I "ran into a door".  I think I was the first person to ever use that for injury.  I should have patented it.

Atlanta's Best Kept Secret No Longer a Secret

On WABE public radio the other day when I turned it on  Cascade Falls off Sand Town Road in Atlanta was being discussed.  I only caught some of it.  My ears perked up when I realized they were talking about a little known Civil War site.  It isn't well known because it is not in the history books according to the speaker.  He said it is not in the history books because the winner s get to write the history books.  He was saying at Cascade Falls the Confederates lured a whole company into the Cascade Falls area and it is shaped like a horseshoe.   So, the Rebs got the Yanks in the area which was a trap and decimated them - so said the guy being interviewed, which I  take it he was a historian.  Also mentioned it got its name because there is a waterfall that falls down some rocks, cascade style.  The radio people stopped and asked several people that visited the falls - they said it was the best kept secret.  I suppose  it WAS - not now.   Thanks WABE!  Did you know Atlanta had a waterfall?

Eating Animals

We watched the movie AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY.   Which I will get around reviewing one of these days.    A  conversation in the movie stirred my interest and gave me thing to wonder about:  While eating dinner the teenager girl at the table was asked by her extended family why she didn't meat, was a health thing or a religious thing.  She answered that she did not want to taste death.  She said when an animal is slaughtered for our eating enjoyment a second or so before the moment of death the animal likely knows it is about to die and releases several kinds of chemicals and  adrenalin.   I don't think she said but implied at the moment of death the animal's meat is suddenly marinated.  Adrenalin is a released into an animal to increase its heart rate to relax him and makes it accept  its own certain on coming death.... or that is my take on it.   Which of course can't help your own heart, if it is eating marinated meat that is pumping up your heart and relaxes you.  If you eat meat day after day you are just super marinating yourself for your moment of truth......maybe.

Which brings up another point about slaughtering innocent animals for food:  In slaughterhouses, the slaughter specialists, the ones that actually snuffs the lives out of the poor creatures - have a very high turnover rate.    Their nerves cannot take it very long.  

Now that we are talking about not eating meats for humane reasons, here is something  interesting in history.  One  well known world leader was a vegetarian for humane reasons.  He felt animals are cute cuddly and could not bear eating the lovable creatures of God.  His name, Adolph Hitler.

A Day At the Georgia Aquarium , 2008 (recycling my pictures)

Hawk or Buzzard?

We were eating lunch at Wendy's by the window and I saw a hawk or a buzzard circling high up in the air.    

I don't know how to tell the difference between a  hawk and buzzard high up in the sky gliding around and around, staying in the same area.  If it was a hawk, it would have been watching his prey, probably a small animal like a chipmunk, waiting for the right moment to dive and snatch it up.

And of course, if it was a buzzard it might have smell the rancid older of  meat decaying directly below.  What was directly below?  A storage facility! 

I wondered if a body might be hidden in one of the units.  But I didn't wonder too long, the gliding bird glided away.  It was probably a hawk, and the hawk saw his little buddy crawl down a hole and it  moved on to hunt some more small innocent playing animal.

BUT!   I wondered if what if the bird stayed and circled and circled and it was a buzzard?  Would that give the police a reasonable reason to think there was a dead body in one of the units?  And if so, can they start snapping the locks to find it?   Just wandering. 

3 Quarters and a Cooked Goose

Uh-Oh!

Our walk Saturday morning started out almost in darkness.   In the sky I heard the squawking, honking,  and quacking of Canadian Geese heading back north.  I think they keep making their identifiable sounds so everyone can keep track of each other.   I hear the geese just about every morning lately.  There were many that morning, high up, flying in the "V" formation.  I'm sure the captain or the navigator is the lead duck, but I wonder how who gets into what position to make the V.  Do they have an assigned position, or first come first serve kind of thing?

Three front yards down from ours in the of a nearby street light  I saw three little  round things in the grass.  Curiously, I picked them up.  They were three quarters.   My first thought was, "I wonder who dropped these?"

The second thought was it would be too much trouble knocking on doors at 6:30am asking did they lose some money, and tell me how much and how many coins involved before I turn it over .

 I didn't want to return them to the grass.  They may or may not be found.  I placed them in a row, on the yard's driveway.   Being in order like they were is telling the person  that will find  them  by  they were placed that way..... "and somebody may be watching to see what you are going to do."

Whoever gets the 3 quarters it is their destiny.

About 40 minutes later, returning home, in full morning day light heard the desperate honks of a lone Canadian Goose.  I looked up and there it was, flying along, squawking loudly to connect up with the ones that left him/her behind.  He sounded like he was lonely and in bewildered.  That is sad.

I think I read a lone Canadian Goose just can't fight the elements alone.  A lone one will surely perish.   Don't geese have mates for life?   If so, where was the mate?  If the mate is alone with the group will probably be shunned from their clique of geese and perish also.   Nature has a cruel streak.

Weather and Bees

Killer Bees are no bees.

A friend said recently that she noticed the weather has sure been crazy lately.   She went on to say that Springs and falls are the ones doing  the craziest things in the past few years.

I have given  her statements deep thought, a whole lot of thought, at least ten minutes worth (I have a short attention span).  And I came up with  a theory of the reason we have had the crazier than usual springs and falls weather lately:

It is a fact there are less bees.  Scientists are still trying to figure out why.  Bees are essential to spread a lot of pollen, as much as we need to survive.  Sure, other insects and the weather spread pollen but not  as large quantity that bees do.  The experts say that we need the bees for our survival - their diminishing population could diminish or population - there just  will not be enough vegetables produced .

Maybe Mother Nature sensed this in her natural sense of keeping everything in harmony and stepped in to rearrange the progress.      Maybe arrange she arramgeed  the winds to cause havoc spreading seeds and pollen all over the place.  

But really, Mother Nature, covering my car with pollen - really? 

The Movie THE LIFE OF PI

Yep, Pi, as in π.

We went to a walk-in movie to see THE LIFE OF PI.   We both read the book and knew the story line and saw the clips advertising it so we felt it would be great on a big screen.  It was.

 

They gave us 3-D glasses.  Wow!  That meant we would see it in 3-D!  We might have been thrilled over getting to see it in 3-D if we were in a rage having to pay such a jacked- up price because it was in 3-D.  But, on the bright side the 3-D glasses were a quality than the kind you used to get with cardboard frames.  These were horn-rim 3-D glasses.   And they enhance the enchanting photography, which was spell bounding. 

 

While we  were waiting a sign came on the screen to ask us to please recycle the glasses and put them in the box for that as we left the theater.  Like hell!  We paid for them.

 

The movie story line went along with the book, which we were pleased about, however, so much deep mind-thoughts were in the book all of Pi's inner thoughts between him and bright stars over him at night could not possibly be conveyed to the screen. 

If you want to read what I said about the book:

http://ethunter1.blogspot.com/search?q=story+of+Pi

Our Honeymoon 45 Years Ago

This is where we spent our honeymoon 45 years ago.  After the marriage and reception we drove to Unicoi State Park to the Ranger's office/cabin - we reserved a cabin for a week.  I asked the ranger if he wanted to see our marriage license.  Embarrassed, he held out his hand as to block the thought and said, No, no.

He was a tall, elderly, timid, and lonely.  He told us his wife had died and he missed her very much.  He said they just finished preparing a large amount of vegetables and just got them into their new freezer when she died. Now, he had more than he could eat.  And he asked would we like to see the freezer on his porch.  I held out my hand to block the thought, and said, "No, no."  The fact is I wondered if he was going to show us that his wife was in that freezer too.

Book Report: THE LIFE OF PI by Vann Martel

THE LIFE OF PI was a very good book and very different.  Pi is the self-inflicted nickname of the protagionist.  Pi's real name was Piscine Molitar Patel.  His cruel school mates nicked name him "Pissing Patel" which he hated.  Even his brother called him that.  And their teacher slipped one day and called him the same.  He decided to go by "Pi" instead.  I won't tell you how he got his co-students in India to change their mind-set.  You will have to read the book or see the movie which is coming out in a week.

The book has won all kinds of awards.  So, I thought this would be a good bandwagon to jump on.

Pi's family owned a zoo in India and with his detailed long descriptions of animals habits was very interesting, educational and entertaining. 

As a younster in the local town he had a facinaiton with all the religions represented and drop by the different places of worship to talk to the leaders.  He talked to a Rabbi, Priest, Muslim leader, and Hindu.  He saw the good in all religions and wanted to be part of all them, which caused some confusion with the religious leaders and his parents.  I think the result of his diversified religious learnings came into play later in the book.

His father got a good offer to move to Canada and operate a zoo there.  They sold some of their animals to other zoos and  some they shipped to the zoo they were going to.  The animals were on the same cargo ship as they went on.

The ship sunk in the Pacific.  Pi and a few animals were the only survivors.  Pi had to learn how to catch fish and eat them raw and share them with his animals aboard.  One by one each animal was eliminated by fighting among them.  Finally the only two passengers of the life boat were a huge tiger and Pi.  They kept a healthy distance from each other but grew to know each other and respect each other, but still feared each other - it was healthier that way.

Or did he share the boat with a huge tiger and other animals?  Or was it a figment of his imagination?  I think this is where religion came back into the picture.  He was the sole survival of the ship, no question about that. But it was the other details about the animals and a carnivious island which caused eye-brows to rise as he told his story.

I thought it was a good book and hard to put down.

The Brick stirred Up Memories

The Waterman Street School brick that Walker Gaines gave me Thursday triggered some memories.

I remember in the 7th Grade one school night I was playing in the front yard after dark.  A streetlight was in front of our house.  I begin to notice a bat would  fly quickly under the light.  I sat down and studied the situation.  I finally figured out the bat would swoop under the light when a moth or someother bug attracted by the light would be near. 

Then I experimented.  I threw up a rock and the bat materialized and charged at it but it fell to the pull of gravity before the bat could reach it.  I tried again and again, each time getting lower and each time the bat would swing in lower.

I had a plan.  Cars passed now and then.  I wanted a car to hit the bat.  I knew this was risky.  The rock could hit the car instead of the bat.  As the car approached I would have to shoot the rock low and hopefully it should shoot past the oncoming car before actuallyu approached the "X" spot and the bat should be right behind the rock chasing it and wham!   I practiced my throw and watched the cars that sped down the street now and then. 

I made my move.  A car was speeding down the road and when it was about 15 to 20 feet  before the "X" spot I threw the little rock.  The stupid bat, as planned, fell line right behind it, and SPLOT!!!  The car missed the rock and hit the bat.  Was I a genius or what?

I went over and studied the bat.  It looked dead.  I put it in a netted orange sack, put it under a box and got ready for bed.

The next morning I carried the bat in the net to school with me.  I don't think I told my parents.

I wanted to show it to my teacher Mrs. King.  Mrs. King was very nice and flirty with me so I naturally liked her.  I wanted to impress her with the bat I caught.

The bell had not rang yet.  A cluster of us were standing in the hall just outside our 7th grade classroom.  I showed off the bat in the netted sack and was running my mouth about probably how I killed it when a girl classmate said, "Look!"

I looked down and the dead bat was prying itself loose from the bag by making one of the net holes bigger.  Then it was airborn.

Oh shit!

In a matter of minutes the bat was flying up and down the hall with hordes of kids running crying and screaming.  Cliff the janitor was chasing it and swinging a broom.

Miss Whitehead, the principal, came up to me, red faced and shaking, said, "Eddie Hunter what were you thinking?  Don't you have any sense?"    The look on her face looked to be complete hatred or fear, I wasn't sure which - after all, there was a bat flying rampant overhead.

I thought that old bat (pardon the pun) came close to having a breakdown I think.
I don't remember the fate of the bat.

HAPPY FIRST FULL DAY OF AUTUMN

And look what is just around the corner.

Willow and the Hummingbird(s)

The title of this suggests there might be more than one hummingbird zooming around our heads on the deck and fussing at us, but who knows?

I'm just fumbling with my new camera, trying to learn something.

Click to make the picture bigger.

Happy Parents' Day!