No Need to get Huffy

A bright early Spring day found me with half an hour to kill while waiting for an errand to be completed.  Of course it was a perfect excuse for a walk.  After a long Wisconsin winter the sun was finally starting to take its duties of planetary heat supply seriously.

It was a little early for green growing things but its actually rather interesting to see the world with a degree of clarity that is lost when grass and weeds start their frenetic growth in a few weeks.

Down a dead end street I found myself in a little cul de sac.  No houses, no buildings. It seemed like the sort of infrastructure "left overs" that you get when a new highway transects an older road.

An isolated spot.  Hmmmm, what's this?

A can, presumably empty, of spray cleaner for electronics.  Note that the unused little red thing on it is the straw that is used to direct the spray to the right place.  A dead end road does seem like an unusual place to go to clean your computer, but I guess, "whatever".

Boy, that keyboard must have had some serious gunk on it!

But of course that is not what was happening here.

I had happened upon detritus left over from a sad little party.  At some point recently there had been a furtive gaggle of probably young folks sniffing this aerosol product for the high that comes from a combination of the chemicals and simple hypoxia.  The "bitterant" - a word I had never seen before - must not have had much effect.  Perhaps some people even like the stuff after the fashion of craft beer drinkers who favor triple hopped IPAs with names like "Bitter 'n Angry".

Abuse of anything, be it beer, pharmaceuticals or what have you, is always bad.  But our hypothetical craft beer drinker is probably going to do better than the Huffers. The convivial atmosphere of one's favorite pub is more wholesome than a trash strewn roadside. And while alcohol naturally can cause problems both short and long term, it will not in the course of prudent use just straight up and kill you as is the case with young people and inhalant abuse.

Back in my ER days we'd see inhalant abusers once in a while.  Usually there were extenuating circumstances.  You can for instance get some kind of a high from lots of different chemicals.  The electronics cleaner shown here is the Dom Perignon of huffing, but in a pinch there are less refined options.  Model glue for instance.  Even gasoline which can get interesting as pretty much all of these ill starred young people also smoke cigarettes.

And then there was that case a few years back where a guy was arrested at the local supermarket.  He had been seen by store employees going to a back aisle and opening up cans of "Kool Whip", an aerosol powered substance vaguely resembling whipped cream.  He naturally claimed that it was all a mistake, and that, "no officer, I was not inhaling from the cans".  

The fact that he had Kool Whip adherent to his hair, beard and mustache required an explanation that he just wasn't able to manage on short notice.....

The Tree and the Book

A variation of the basic Tree Shaped Tombstone is something I have come to call the "Tree and the Book".  It combines literal and allegorical images in an interesting fashion.  We have The Tree of Life, and a literal stump.  We have a book that could be telling the story of a life or of a family....and we have a literal Bible.  It is the sort of monument that encourages you to stop a moment and look it over.

The effect is something like a podium.  I can imagine somebody standing here giving an address to a scattered and quite undemonstrative audience.

First lets start with what I consider to be the classic style.  Waist high, book open for all to read. Interesting that the book is always turned to a middle page.  Family stories go on after individuals are gone.  And of course aesthetically the image is pleasingly symmetrical that way.

If a family opts for the taller, showier version then of course it makes no sense to put the Book on top.  In this case the volume is generally displayed  in a vertical configuration.  I am not sure if the inscriptions  shown in this type were better to start with or as seems more likely, if a more horizontal orientation subjects the stone to more natural wear.  Pounding rain, freezing and thawing ice, bird droppings...

This is what I was talking about.  Notice how the lower portion in particular is fading away from view.

Depending on the quality of stone and the local environmental conditions, even Books oriented more upright can show advanced degradation.

Most of the time the Book is open.  But not always.  Does this signify a Life closed? A family in which the last descendant passed away?  It just seems in some sense more allegorical.  With a literal Bible you would want people to be able to receive the Message.

Here is an Odd Fellow.  Figuratively.  The Book is made of a different type of stone.  Nicer in a way, but not weathering well.

And with a closer look we see that we have an Odd Fellow.....literally.  In place of the usual names and dates,  or the less common Scriptural reference, we get insignia of two different Fraternal Organizations.  The measuring calipers of The Masons and the linked chain of The Odd Fellows.

Because it's not just about being a Nerd

FIRST Robotics has a lot of slogans.  One is that it is about "More than just Robots".  And that is true.

By extension the organization has worked very hard to broaden the scope of the program so that it is not entirely populated by programmers and their kindred spirits.  That is to say, Nerds.

Tournament time approaches.  The other day my wife and I were trying hard to use a small store credit at a place that technically is an "Architectural Salvage" business but practically speaking is a huge 19th century barn full of random old stuff.  It was tough going.  We already have enough brass doorknobs and don't have any convenient place to install a stained glass window much less a bunch of decorations from a decommissioned church.

Finally my wife peered into a cardboard box and found something she thought would be nice presents for the FIRST team members.

Pocket protector/pen holders.  More or less the traditional badge of office for Nerds.  I like that these are from a wide assortment of companies.  Here we have the makers of paint, auto parts, assorted tools....and of Hostess Twinkies.

I know, FIRST is not just about Nerds.

But it is partly about them.

Wisconsin - Still Number One.

Wisconsin is not a proud and haughty state.  Oh, we root for our sports teams and all, but in general we don't do much bragging here in America's Dairy Land.

But a few years ago we Badgers suffered a crushing blow, a crisis that shook us to the very core of what defines us.

California took over as the number one producer of both milk and cheese.

I think there may have been an over reaction to this.  I mean, how else can you explain this sign seen at a highway rest stop?

Ah, the wonders of Sphagnum moss.  Some fresh faced intern at the DOT or Commerce department probably took this assignment seriously, and regards this marker as his or her crowning achievement.  Wisconsin.  Number one in Sphagnum production.  No other states are even trying.  In yo' face California.

Never mind that Sphagnum does not seem to have been used for surgical dressings since World War I, or that the United States imports 80% of its Sphagnum needs from - gulp - Canada.

When Being Chubby is in Vogue....

I am surprised to find that our local grocery store continues to sell coloring books up near the checkout lines....still on the racks that held real publications until a couple of months ago.  It makes for some odd juxtapositions...

I guess I have seen things on the cover of The National Enquirer that look less realistic than Hello Kitty.

But Vogue and Glamour magazines have always featured impossibly gaunt, usually unhappy looking models.  This Happy Piggy would be a real departure for them.  She is probably happy because she gets to eat more than half a sprig of celery every other Tuesday.

Men in Black at the Old Guy Coffee Place

People handle retirement in different ways.  We should all try to be sympathetic because going from a full time, high pressure, high responsibility role straight to nothing is a jarring life change.  

As somebody who has retired fairly young from just such a job I feel as if I should offer a bit of advice to a guy I know who is going through this and might be having a bit of difficulty adapting.

He is spending too much time on Facebook.  Social media should be used for cat videos and travel photos.  Most people care more about your pets than your pet causes. 

And he calls.  Every few days.  On the Land Line of all things!  Whatta geezer! He never even waits for me to answer its just:

"Hello, this is Barack Obama".

For a decade - two terms plus your initial campaign - you have of necessity been neglecting your family.  You have had to face criticism every time you play a round of golf when something is on fire somewhere in the world...which damn it is always.  When you were center stage people even begrudged you the occasional vacation, pointing to a running tally of how much it cost taxpayers to shuttle Air Force One and the limos and the entourage.

Now, when you can do whatever you choose with nobody much caring you shouldn't still be Political.

I say this as friendly advice.  On the issues we have areas where we agree and disagree.  I have voted for you and against you.  I understand that there are causes you care about but perhaps even there you should ask if your personal involvement so soon after leaving office helps or hurts things.

American politics has unwritten traditions.  One is that First Family Children are off the radar screen.  So I have no way of knowing how a life of celebrity and often absent parents has impacted your daughters.  I wish for the best for them.  You have remaining a precious but very narrow window of time left to be "dad".  Take them white water rafting, or build a Habitat Home with them. Or anything else in the Real World that the still lingering Security detail deems suitable.  They, the kids not the Agents, will soon be gone.

It is another tradition that former Presidents restrain their opinions on the actions of their successors for at least a year.  It's a good tradition, one that your predecessor has honored not for one year but essentially for eight.  It probably does more for your legacy than anything else.  

Ah, here I go again.  A Retired Guy running on at length.  It's best done over several cups of coffee at one of the designated Old Guy Coffee places.  Gimme a real call some time, not the robo variety.  

I obviously have time in my schedule.  We'll get together.  The serious looking guys wearing sunglasses can buy their own coffee but you'll be my guest.

Brick Yard Dog

As is obvious from a casual visit to Detritus of Empire I am interested in Industrial Archeology. Old brewery ruins, mysterious foundations in the woods, that sort of thing.  But there is one category that I have been trying hard to avoid.  Brick Yards.

Oh, bricks are interesting enough.  Actually they are a nice bit of local history.  And I do, literally, stumble across them in my hunt for other stuff.  But for we retired folk there is a danger.  It is too easy for a mild interest to become a thing you collect.  Pretty soon you own a pick up truck to drive to Brick Swaps and have your entire back yard covered in a lumpy brick patio.

But Brick Yards are interesting darn it.  Clay pits.  Kilns.  Acres of drying racks.  So I sometimes take a peek.  Just out of curiosity you know. Not going to pick up any bricks or anything.

It helps to start on an avenue called Brick Yard Road.  Now, I must admit I initially misread this sign.  I thought it said Brick Yard Dog.

Here's part of the reason why.  On this road you have the local Humane Society and animal shelter as well as a Dog Park where the critters can run free.  Oh, also the Brick Yard Disc Golf Course which this sign actually directs you to.

Bricks popping out of the ground everywhere.  Guess this must be the place.

I am new at this brand of hunting, so I will be tentative in my conclusions.  But this hollowed out area "might" be the clay pit from which many millions of bricks were made.  Or it could be natural. Just as with brewery caves there are logical places where a business would situate things.  Bricks and their raw materials are just about the definition of heavy, so you really do not want to haul things up hill.

A pleasant hour was spent wandering about.  I am pleased to report that I did not walk away with a single brick.  But the temptations, oh they were there.  It is not fair to put free building materials and a shelter with cute adoptable pups on the same road.