Nice Duds

This is a line-up of kindergarteners on their first day of school in the Pottstown School District. Notice anything particular about them? They look pretty cute, don't they? That might be because they are wearing their uniforms. Pottstown has decreed that all K-8 students must wear uniforms to school. This is the first year they are instituting this policy. The uniforms are pretty flexible. Khaki or blue shorts, pants, or skirts and blue or white shirts or tops. No flipflops or jellies. No restrictions on where you buy these clothes. You can go to K-Mart or Nordstroms. In fact, the district is even arranging some funds to subsidize parents on a tight budget.

The rationale behind this move is to lessen the amount of teasing and peer pressure that kids, presumably without designer labels on their clothes or the latest hot fashion item, go through. I can also see it as a benefit for parents whose kids have a tough time choosing what to wear each day. It seems to me it takes the emphasis off clothes and allows the kids to get on with the business of getting to school.

Some parents are objecting because they say it stifles creativity. I have seen some of the creative choices walking around the streets and I would counter that maybe it will promote better taste and open up other avenues for personal creativity.

Next year they are extending it to the high school students. Good luck with that.

The Case Of The Mysterious Painting

Where's Miss Marple when you need her? Here's what I found yesterday when I walked out to pick up the newspaper. This green trash bag leaning against the mailbox post with a tag on it with Bill's name. Not just his first and last name, mind you. Not just "Bill" and his last name, but his complete first, middle and last name. (Incidentally, I just noticed it looks like we need a new mailbox, but that's another story).

Anyway, I thought "what the . . .", but I picked it up and brought it inside. It was obviously something framed. Not too heavy, wood frame. . .a painting perhaps? My powers of deduction almost rival the great Miss Marple herself. But why leave it leaning against the mailbox? Not even on the front porch. Huh?

So I left it in the kitchen for him to find and went out on my errands. Sure enough, when I got back he asked me eagerly, "where did the painting come from?" "I dunno," I said eruditely, "it was just leaning against the mailbox."

"I just can't understand it," he said. "This is a painting of the horses I used to visit when I was a kid. These horses boarded during the summer at the old Black Horse Inn near our house and I'd go down there to see them and pet them and feed them. Where could this possibly have come from?"

The tag hanging from the bag had his name on one side and on the other it read:

Coo Coo, Tex and Butterball: the names of the horses he loved. And these are the very horses in the painting. There is a framer's label on the back, but when he tried to contact them, they were long out of business. So this painting has been somewhere for many, many years until someone decided to give it to Bill. Anonymously. He is really touched, but he wants to solve the mystery. He has one glimmer of an idea of who it might be who would know about him and the horses, but it's a long shot. If he figures it out or if Miss Marple shows up to help, I'll let you know.

Summer Afternoon

Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most

beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James

British (US -born) author (1843 - 1916)

Amy, This Is For You

Now, I don't even pretend to "get" this, but I thought maybe you would.*

Hundreds of Teeth to Attend Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd Show

August 19, 2008 – Susquehanna Bank Center officials yesterday said that this Friday's Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd concert would likely draw thousands of fans–as well as hundreds of teeth. "It's not quite sold out yet, but the arena will still be full of leather vests and confederate-flag t-shirts," said special events manager John Bender. "So obviously, that'll translate into literally dozens of teeth, as well."Tooth owners throughout the region were looking forward to the union of southern-rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd and rap-rocker Kid Rock. "It's gonna be a hot one, that's for damn sure," enthused Vineland's Rick Hopp, 31, the gaps in his teeth causing a slight whistle. "Nonea them fellas take no kinda s*** from nobody!" Thad Cresson, 40, of Schuylkill Haven, agreed. "When I heard they was playin' together, I thought I'd 'bout died an' gone t' heaven," he grinned, revealing a half-full mouth. "Ho-lee (expletive deleted)!"

Bender, meanwhile, predicted that the venue would likely host more teeth on Friday than it did at Saturday's Toby Keith concert. "We definitely expect to see more [teeth] for Kid Rock than we did for Toby Keith," he said. "On Saturday, we saw probably three, four teeth for every fan." Nonetheless, Hopp, a proud owner of a whopping fourteen teeth, was more focused on the upcoming performance than his bicuspids, molars, and lone incisor. "Ooh, daddy, when Skynyrd plays 'Free Bird,' you won't be able t' keep the smile offa my face. And it's a goddamn purty smile, too."

*It's just a joke, of course. From The Philadelphia Turkey

Boat Sketch

I got an email tutorial today from PC Photo about turning your photos into paintings or drawings. I fooled with it a little and ended up with this effect that I like. I deviated a bit from the tutorial in that where they say to use the Glowing Edges filter, I used the "Find Edges" instead. Then I did the rest of what they suggested. Below is the original.

Marsh Creek Grand Prix

Here's Chase on Friday night at his race track. He races cars that speed around the oval and he usually comes in first. This is a good thing because he likes to be at the head of the pack. When he's not racing, he's running around playing with the other kids who do much giggling and jostling.

Here's Saige in a pensive mood. It didn't last long.

Here's Chase's cute friend, Ethan (I hope this is Ethan). What a great smile.

Finally, a last one of Saige and her buddies. It was starting to get dark and my camera doesn't like the dark.

Return To Montpelier

The final leg of our journey found us back near Lexington where we stayed at Fox Hill, a comfortable B&B that sits in the valley between the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains. The photo is from our little private deck looking east toward the Blue Ridge. I took an early morning walk and got some pictures I like.

They had two hummingbird feeders on the porch and I finally caught those elusive little creatures.

This kitty seems to take visitors in stride. There are also a couple of dogs and 6 or 7 horses and a donkey.

Since we had seen most of Lexington on our way south, Bill decided the event of the day should be a trip back to Montpelier to check on the restoration progress. When we visited last year, things were pretty much in a state of chaos due to all the work that was going on. We were surprised to find that the completion date for this project is September 17, 2008. It looked to us like that was going to be a stretch, due to the amount of work yet to be done.

This was the front last October.

Here's where they are now. Looks pretty good.

The rear of the house last year.

This year -- getting there.

This year, the inside tour didn't permit photographs. The guide said they had been very generous in their photography policy until someone started selling photos online. So no photos inside anymore. The plastering is in progress, but that has to cure and then they will prime and paint. Of course, that has been ongoing for quite a while. All the walls were taken down to the bare studs. They left one room as an educational example of the work that was done. You can see pieces of the lathe and then layers of paint and wall decoration left over from the different families who lived here. We saw different areas of the house this year; they let the tours through but where they are allowed to go depends on who is working where, and they cordon off areas where workmen are busy but you are still constantly ducking somebody carrying a door or a window through the room you are standing in. And all through the tour you hear the noise of tools and machines and the conversation of the workers. The amount of work that has gone into this project is mind boggling. It still looked to us like there was a tremendous amount of work yet to do, so good luck to them on their target date. We are looking forward to seeing the finished masterpiece.