The Red Brick Times

I was laid off from dear old SE Blue last Monday. Nobody's fault really (well, maybe George W.'s) and it was quite amicable as these things go. Work has slowed down throughout the industry, meaning not only didn't we have the usual incomimg workflow but firms that owed us for completed work weren't paying up on schedule. I'd been expecting this for awhile but the transition is still hard. I'm a creature of habit and wake up at the same time every morning but now don't have anywhere to go. Bummer. I'm ok financially, though I'd hate to seriously deplete my savings should this go on too long.

Spare change?
Posted 12:53 PM by whatley 0 comments

The carotenoids are coming! The carotenoids are coming!

Actually, they are always here, but we can't see them until autumn. See the Wayne National Forest Fall Foliage Report and learn that:

"With the advent of the fall season, slight color is beginning to show on the leaves of Wayne National Forest trees. It is the current weather of warm sunny days followed by cool, but not freezing, nights that will eventually bring the trees to their annual brilliance. The warm days allow lots of sugar to be produced in the leaf, but the cool nights and the general closing of the leaf’s veins prevent these sugars form moving out. Lots of sugar and lots of light spur the production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments that give us the reds, purples and crimson colors. The yellow and gold colors come from carotenoids that are always present in leaves and that is why those colors are almost always the same from year to year. The warm fall in SE Ohio this year combined with last spring’s warm west months could bring us beautiful color this year."

Wayne National Forest is down state, Athens County area. Also at the same site are postings of festivals and events in the area, including:

"Sternwheel Riverfest – Pomeroy Amphitheatre, Pomeroy, Ohio – September 25 – September 27 – Call (740) 992-2239 for more information - Chili Cookoff and contests throughout the festival Sternwheel boats race, while a Victorian themed parade and queen contest takes place down Main Street."

Big wheel keeps on turning....




Posted 8:29 AM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Speaking of campfires and leaping about and early-humanoid behavior, this Sunday, the 21 of September, the Rocky River Reservation of the Cuyahoga County Park System is holding their nth annual "Pioneer Days" exposition and all-day massacree for the impressionable public. Betsy and her daughter Sarah have been involved for years as park volunteers. They heat a mean Dutch oven or 5 and turn out comestibles in the tradition of our rugged ancestors, while Conestoga-ing, at home, to work. How about home-made biscuits, hot and crumbly, fresh from cooking? Others do various foodstuffs for tasting and sampling. Not intended as a complete dining experience, but as a way of amazing the populace and holding back abject ignorance of the fine utility line that separates us from fire pits and hunting-gathering.

Come down and kibitz with us as we tease and torment the all-unknowing. Would you believe that most people don't know why or how a Dutch oven works? Who'd of thunk it?
Posted 10:05 AM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Remember the fires Ralph and Mary used to have when they were on LaGrange Road? Lots of singing and fire-jumping and general foolishness. Big fun. Now that the nights are getting cooler it sure would be nice to do something like that again. Anybody game? Know of a potential site? I'll stock up on marshmallows as I await your replies.
Posted 10:01 AM by whatley 0 comments

Happy day after Labor Day to one and all. As promised I've fixed the Comment counting function. The side affect of the fix is that prior comments can no longer be read at all. But despair not! The fix is only active from here on and has not been pushed into the archives, meaning the comments there are safe and can be read from those archived pages. Now will you start posting again, hmm....?
Posted 12:37 PM by whatley 0 comments