Happy Earth Day

I planted this tree... ehhh... 20 years ago in the backyard of my parent's old house on Mulberry. It's about the most "earth-friendly" thing I've ever done. Pretty sad, I know.

Alien Invasion

On Christmas Eve, Erica's niece, Krissa, was a very anxious girl awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. Nonchalantly, I began to ramble about how tough he is to get a hold of and how it's just about impossible to meet him in person. You had to adhere to a very particular set of criteria before he'd even consider taking your call. Before long, it had become quite the story and about the only thing I can remember of it was the subject.

The next time I saw her, she asked to hear another story. That gave me this idea: take an empty journal, write a story, include some corresponding drawings, read it to the three kids, then hand it over and have them write and draw one themselves so they could read it to me.

I started it off with my best effort a few weeks ago so the oldest, Bailey, has worked on his own story since then and he shared it with everyone Sunday. It was great. Better than great. Krissa is up next. She can't write yet, but has a wild imagination. I'm already looking forward to it.

I've included the text from Bailey's story exactly as it was written...

Alien Invasion
by Bailey Linkenfelter


One sumer morning in Arizona a little boy named Andrew was busy ignoring another alien story. He never listened to them cause he didint belive an them. About half way through the story he snuck through a tree hole. The story teller ran away. Why did he run away asked Andrew? There right in front of him a real live U.F.O. It was heading for the museum. Andrew jumped out of the tree and ran after it. It shot a beam at the museum roof. The roof was falling on all the 2,000 peapoele inside. Then Andrew got an idea. He pulled out his red water gun. He never went anaywere without it. He shot it at the ship. The ship fell on the wooley mamath sceleten. But that just made the roof fall faster. Andrew shouted exit exit exit. Right when every body exit a museum gaurd said you know you have to clean this up. Just then the alein got out of the ship and used his powers to make the gaurd's close fly off. I come from up there the alein said. He pointed up at the sky.

To be continued...

Blue

I took a drive the other night. I wound up on Rt. 50 heading west. I turned left on some beat up little offshoot of a road and headed down towards the river. I got to a curve and turned off into a small lot. It was quiet and there wasn't a soul about. The sun set and I would've been content to watch it rise again. The shot is tilted, not for an artistic effect, but because I had to set the timer and prop it up against the antenna of the car.

Babies become aware of their toes. Teenagers become aware of their independence. There's a blue in the sky that presents itself only after the sun has set. The richness of it is unmatched. Everyone's seen... maybe even acknowledged it. I first became aware of this blue while I was working at Kroger in high school. I'd punch out for my break, grab a snack and rest my legs on the bench outside. I just happened to look up one night and I thought, "Wow. That's a really blue, blue."

Then I found a twenty-dollar bill.

The Piqua Bike Path

I've talked about this run many times and have attempted to photograph it even more than that, but for whatever reason, I've been foiled in each attempt. I was finally able to pull it off over the Easter weekend. I woke up early Sunday morning and hit the trail. I've attached a map of my wee hometown for reference. The thumbnails correspond to the points on that map and are in order from left to right, top to bottom... but I'll take a stab at walking you through it.

I head east on Park Avenue from my parent's new house on Beckert. Nearly a mile down the road, I turn right onto the Canal Path trail. I immediately come to 1) Frantz's Pond which I've written about previously. Actually, if the image were larger, you could see the moon hanging in the sky over the treeline. I then continue on across High Street and into 2) French Park. When I was growing up, this was a junk yard. You wanted nothing to do with this area as the train tracks were behind this and off limits. According to my dad, this was a popular place for hobo camps back in the day. A left turn takes you down the hill and into downtown and eventually to the 3) Great Miami River. This stretch goes on for a while along the levy and under the 4) 25-A bridge until you eventually make it to the overgrown tree section of this trail. We would hunt for crawldads under that bridge and along the cement embankment into the river. Did a lot of fishing here as well growing up. Our first house was basically a block away from the Miami. Once you've gotten into the wooded part, you see that the path you're running on was actually the old tow path for the 5) Miami-Erie Canal. Segments remain along with the remnants of old locks along the way. I come out of the woods and into a roadside park, under State Route 66 and up into 6) Swift Run. We spent a lot of time up along the canal in our younger days. Fishing, swimming, riding bikes. You couldn't construct a better, more elaborate playground than the one we had in our backyard. How lucky we were. There are three 7) overflows that allowed the canal to empty down into the river during heavy rain. They came in handy on hot summer days. The path runs through the middle of Forest Hill Cemetery and then butts into 8) Fountain Park. Again, many days spent riding our bikes in and around this area. Before turning right onto Park Avenue and making my way back to Beckert, you pass by 9) Echo Lake. Still a nice view.

So that's that. Still my favorite run to date. Heading back Saturday for a wedding and plan doing the loop with a couple of friends.

Back to Work

I've come full circle, back to the OTR... where the cars look like covered wagons and parking is difficult to come by. Once I get into my routine, things will undoubtedly feel more permanent. At the moment, I feel like a lost dog. I hate the feeling. I've chosen to live in a way that needs footing. I need to be grounded or stuff like schedules just go to hell and you run yourself ragged trying to keep up.

The prospect of an actual home is looking more and more real. The fingers are still crossed and I knock on wood more now than I did this time last year.

Happy Opening Day. What was the reason for keeping Aaron Harang?