So in no particular order, here are some things I have come across recently that could be nice paintings and also mean something special to me.
What we all call "The River" is one of the most important recurring memories of my childhood. This is what it looked like before we tore it down and replaced it with a modern house.
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| The River, pre-demolition and rebuild |
The River, waterfront. I've spent countless hours fishing off of this bulkhead, and caught the largest fish I've ever caught (a huge carp) in the shade of this tree, in shallow water in the heat of the day (when they say fish don't bite).
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| The River, oblique angle |
In the Woodlawn Tract, very near home, the girls and I have hiked down this trail and visited this old ruin countless times. The archaeologist in me wonders...... (yes, I am an archaeologist by training).
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| House ruins, Woodlawn Tract, near home |
June 2012. Adirondack Lodge on Heart Lake in upstate New York.
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| Heart Lake, Adirondack Lodge |
Again in the Brandywine Valley, near home. I like the interwoven slices of fields of different colors.
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| Brandywine valley, near home |
Lackawanna State Forest, NE PA, June 2010. Brother Dave, Leo and I. My only real backpacking trip.
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| Lackawanna State Forest, backpacking trip 1 |
Lackawanna State Forest, NE PA, June 2010. Nearing the end of our three day trip. Fields of verdant green and a dramatic sky.
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| Lackawanna State Forest, backpacking trip 2 |
July 31, 2011. Custer State Park, South Dakota. The day we did Wind Cave in the morning...
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| Custer State Park, SD |
Gettysburg National Military Park. This Hallowed Ground. I've wandered the battlefield of Gettysburg maybe half a dozen times, and each time the weight of the place absolutely overwhelms me. I am due to go back... It's good for the soul.
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| Big Round Top, Gettysburg, Longstreet's view, July 2 |
The Round Tops, Longstreet's view, start of Day 2, July 3, 1863.
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| The Round Tops, Gettysburg, Mist and Trees... |
A real presidential president once said, on this most hallowed of ground:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these here honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Today, we get a president who speculates on whether ingesting disinfectants might help cure the coronavirus, and then denies, deflects and blames when universally called out for saying pretty much the stupidest thing ever.
It wasn't that long ago that we had just a handful of cases, and we were told that very soon it would down to near zero, and that people would be saying how miraculous it was.
Well, we are nearing a million cases, and have over 55,000 dead. That's more dead than in the entire Vietnam War. I guess we are still waiting on that miracle.
In the meantime, three mornings a week Amp goes to work in a dialysis clinic, in full PPE (personal protective equipment), head to toe, surrounded by Covid-19 patients. And then comes home to me and our 2 daughters. I'm proud of her.
We Americans seem to have the misfortune of being at the convergence of the greatest threat to the American people in my lifetime while being led by the most incompetent leader we have perhaps ever had. Just lucky, I guess...
But I digress. Sorry.
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