My father came from Fountain County, Indiana. He was so far south in Fountain County, he was almost in Parke County – but he wasn’t so that isn’t relevant. It would be relevant if  The Bridges of Madison County had been named The Bridges of Parke County; it could have been, there are covered bridges there too. But it wasn’t and so mentioning Parke County doesn’t make you think of  Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep and covered bridges. But, maybe now, the idea of covered bridge country is in your mind.

Anyway, this lady named Firma who lived in those surroundings painted a lot of pictures of peaceful country scenes, and sometimes she painted them on old metal things that were used in that era. We have some at the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse and just thought we would share a bit of our atmosphere.

The signature.

*******

The whole saw.

*****

Some sort of sifting-like thing with holes made into a lampshade.

****

Ash shovel or coal scuttle . . . something along those lines.

Out by the hedge is a large dumpster which needs to be filled in the next couple of days before they come to pick it up. Unfortunately, most of the things to go in it are either one floor up or one floor down from ground level. And, then, of course, it the rule about no toxic stuff or old appliances. Rats. I need a truck that comes along slowly and picks up old microwaves and computers for a small fee; I don’t want to wrestle one of those things into a sedan and drive it to a recycling center because of the loading factor.

So, for now, clutter is going into the dumpster and the garage has a stack of toxic/old appliances. I have a lot of special things lying around which others see as clutter so I can’t run around telling everybody to grab something and head to the dumpster. I think I am going to have to be like Snidely Whiplash and sneak around and take other people’s clutter to the dumpster.  I will have to practice saying “Gee, I haven’t seen that lately” a lot.

I would like to have a tilt-a-room into which I could put throw away stuff and them let it tilt toward the dumpster. I could stand somewhere and film the avalanche of junk heading into the big brown receptacle. I can spend upwards of 15 minutes daydreaming about my tilt-a-room. I can spend 25 minutes maybe walking around looking at my stuff before picking up a ballpoint pen that doesn’t work and deciding I can toss it. Soooo, I guess it is less the effort of getting stuff to the trash than it is the deciding to let it go.

I am not a hoarder; I am a potential hoarder. I think that is because I can see a story in everything. Maybe they should duct tape me to the wall and duct tape my mouth closed and then just go fill the dumpster.

I had my hair colored yesterday and spent some minutes looking at the magazine Traditional Home. There is no “stuff” anywhere. Course I didn’t see any people either. Oh, yeah, they were probably outside pulling stuff OUT of the dumpster.

So, why did I get a dumpster for the driveway? For a moment did I think I had a bit of a chance of being like magazine people? Or even the basic housewife person? I would be bored to death in those rooms! I’ll bet it was an act of charity – I felt the need to provide dumpster-divers with new territory. Yes, I’m not throwing out trash; I’m filling it with someone else’s treasures.

I hate it when I manipulate myself, but sometimes it’s the only way, dontcha know.

It was a cool Indiana morning today. Lots of water on the car -it’s dew, not rain.

As I stand at the trunk, I look to the North:

And then to the field to the east with the sun angling in:

Turning to the house and using digital zoom, the light in the window:

And now, the view from the back porch door:

But, hey, the big ball of green is gone – the rain forest on the deck is gone.  And, yes, half the deck is crushed.

Below you can see the bit of damage to the porch eaves. It could have been worse.

Ah, the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse sorely needs some attention. Look at what has happened to California LemonHead:

One spike missing on her head; her Lucky the Bear Pendant fallen off; her bloomers fallen down and the only resting place she can find is Sydney’s rear quarters. PLUS, just this weekend, I had to sew her wings back on.

She just said, “Speaking of rear quarters, AJ, you’d better get yours in gear.” She didn’t say it too nicely. (Oh, that’s Rose’s dress down there under her bloomerless legs. I guess we might have a bit of a state of emergency here.)

I remember just yesterday it was the first day in June and I was thinking of my sophomore English teacher and the memorization of “What is so rare as a day in June . . .” She was probably younger than I am now and we thought she was old. Probably very nice- looking in her day, but we didn’t think of that then. I do remember she told a story about cracking a rib when her hand slipped on the side of the bathtub while giving her cocker spaniel a bath. Maybe, that was a big lesson: Stories are the little things of life, described in a way that draw you in as if you were there.

And we are past the longest day of the year, which is actually not my favorite day; my favorites are those three weeks leading up to the longest day. I love having the light around late . . . but not because of Daylight Savings Time late in Indiana. Can’t forget that. Although “that boy” Mitch Daniels decided to annoy the H out of my mother by making us observe it. The Bully.

Mother said she couldn’t die because she had to vote against “that boy” because of this; I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t think he could run again. We sent emails, but “that boy” just sent back a generic email that our email was received via a wet behind the ears  staffling – a form letter email. Auuugggghhhh.

She was about 80 when this fast time thing got stirred up again. 80. Her whole life in Indiana. Her parents’ lives on the Indiana-Michigan border. Why, her mother graduated from Lima High School (Howe) in 1900. The Depression, WW II . . . and Governor Daniels couldn’t respond to her. Oh, fie on him. FIE. FIE. FIE.

Of course, I’ve touched this subject before. It’s sort of like a boomerang.

I have a dumpster in my driveway that needs filling so I’d better get busy . . . I guess the “My Man Mitch” sign can go. (Oh, was that the echo of the boomerang?)

Over 50 years ago my grandmother casually stuck a willow branch in the ground and it grew. A lot. I pulled into the yard Friday and it was down, the victim of the tornado or tornado-like winds that came threw the area.

SIGH

Cameron, Summer and Alison with remaining trunk in background.

After the shutter snapped, Shane wandered up with the question, “Wubba, anyone?”

A section of the collapsed tree.

Striving for prime sawing position.

Cameron reminding me of TR on one of his adventures.

Portrait of a tired person who can pull a smile out of his pocket on a moment’s notice.

Back in the electronic media age – Serious internet outage; tornado; tree across road; tornado; giant willow down on deck at Mother’s; internet outage continuation. Finally, resolution . . . but guess what? Der Bingle had rented a chain saw because he finds the idea of the giant willow too tempting to not varooooom .  I am thinking he will open the back porch north door and chopping his way out until he reaches the far away edge of the collapsed giant. Probably see him in October.

It seems that just about every darn camera is omitting viewfinders from their point and shoots – even the travel zooms, which by definition just might be used in bright sunlight. The argument is that the LCD is so good you don’t need it. I happened upon this place and I am going to show it to you without you having to click.

And here are the words that are underneath the picture of this device that has Panasonic written right on it:

Oftentimes when you’re shooting outdoors in bright, sunny conditions, glare can make it impossible to see your camera’s LCD screen. Panasonic’s DMW-LVF1 electronic viewfinder is the perfect solution to this problem. Just attach it to your compatible Panasonic camera’s hot shoe for a bright, clear view of your subjects, even in strongly back lit settings. This viewfinder also comes in handy for low-angle shots because it can be tilted vertically from 0 to 90 degrees. And it displays the same information as your cam’s LCD, so you can monitor exposure and other camera settings without taking your eye off the scene before you.

And, of course, others are taking up the slack when it comes to other cameras. HoodMan and  look at these reviews.

And, of course, there is this little piece which includes this paragraph:

It’s a sunny day and you get out your digital camera to snap a shot.  The only trouble is you can barely see the screen because of the glare from the bright sun. Except that when you go to look through the view finder, you find that your hi-tech camera may not have a view finder.  So, you aim, you shoot, and you hope for the best.  It happens to many of us.   The Xtend-a-View Pro, by Photosolve, makes efforts to resolve this problem.

So, excuse me guys but I want an optical viewfinder back on my camera, and don’t give me that drivel about it not being as accurate as the LCD because when the sun is out, the LCD is useless and that isn’t accurate at all.

I want lots of pixels, lots of zoom and an optical viewfinder. Got it?

I have a regularly scheduled quarterly appointment in Fort Wayne at 1 pm today. It is a fifteen minute in and out doctor thing.  And it’s in the middle of the day. Why can’t this guy be in his office in the morning? Huh? Is he not aware that AmeliaJake has things to do on Summer days? It’s not like there is a Crate & Barrel in Fort Wayne – although there is a GoodWill right across the street from his office.

See, this is an example of my talent for complaining about anything; I actually staked claim to the 1 pm time slot because in the winter that middle of the day scheduling is helpful – if there has been snow, it has been scraped and if it is getting ugly, I can cancel. There’s plenty of time to get home before the five o’clock darkness comes.

BUT IT IS NOT WINTER RIGHT NOW. I don’t want to traipse down there all cleaned up and then come back to decide whether to preserve my cleanliness or go for the dirt of the attic and recently delivered dumpster. I guess I will just have to treat myself to something.