Elmwood Cemetery - Fairport, NY

On one of our Saturday morning rides a couple of weeks ago, Mom and I found ourselves driving by Elmwood Cemetery. Located at the corner of Carter Road and Furman Road - around a mile from my childhood home. We rode by the cemetery every day on the school bus for 12 years. Mom was fascinated that this was the place where she and Dad will be buried, but with no markers yet in place I could not show her exactly where. I did find the stones of a number of family friends from my early years.The Wagners lived on and operated a large farm right behind us - through the back fields and woods to Furman Road.
Merton and Bernie Bridges lived on Carter Road - about 200 yards down the road from the cemetery. They were good family friends, and in fact we lived in their house one winter while they were on vacation in Florida I think? It was a hard time for us, and a place to live was a big help!
The Bilgers also lived behind us on Furman Road.... across the road from the Wagners. They operated a large farm, and Ezra was also a cattle dealer. I remember going to cattle auctions with him - quite an adventure! I also sometimes worked for him helping haul hay, and other back breaking farm work!Bob Drew was also a neighbor - a couple of years older than me - one of the big kids on the bus every day! He died far to early at only 34 years young. He lived right across Carter Road from the cemetery.
Howard De Nise owned the local farm equipment place. Trips to his place over on Ayrault Road were quite common - usually to buy parts to repair a broken down tractor, or other farm equipment. If Howard didn't have what we needed, it would be off to Knapp and Trau. As I recall, Howard De Nise sold Farmall equipment, and Knapp and Trau were John Deere dealers. Mrs. Trau was my teacher for First and Second grade!

I have no idea who Irene and Richard Lewis were - or are - Irene is still around it appears. I do however love these mirror image stones with their humorous messages. Irene's says "Everyone loves an Italian", and Richard's says "You Turkey" I'd love to know the story behind these stones!

A great little country cemetery with lots of stories to tell, and a great place to spend eternity, but just a note to Mom and Dad ------ No hurry!

CJ

Checking out the dog!Looking COOL!

At the playground.

Hanging out at the birthday party!

Have sort of left CJ out for the last few days -- with the birthday and all!

Grandpa and Maya's Wednesday Art Project

Somewhere around 20 years ago, I created The Community Puzzle. I subsequently sold the product to a friend, who has since sold it to someone else, etc., until it is now owned and distributed by California Paper Goods Company.

Intended as a less expensive version of the community quilt concept, each person can decorate a piece, or multiple pieces, and due to the universal puzzle piece design, anywhere from 4 to 40,000 (or more) pieces can be assembled to create a wonderful art project.

Since I have a few boxes of these puzzles still hanging around (contact me if you'd like to buy some!) I took one over to Maya's house on our regular day, and Maya and I had a lot of fun with the puzzle and her new birthday box of watercolors! I can't remember ever having so much fun with watercolors before???

Annual blooming of the Claire Hawkes Girlscout lillies!

Bulbs purchased 10 years ago - give or take - Planted in Dad's front yard. Nothing happened for a couple of years, but they have been magnificent every year since.

Last year's blooms!

Tenacity!

We're all used to seeing all sorts of serious "weed" plants that manage to find their way up in the cracks along the sidewalk, along the sides of buildings, etc. I even remember taking a photo of some grass growing out of the side of a bridge in Philadelphia almost 4 years ago! And thistles are one of my favorite plants --- they are beautiful, and can grow almost anywhere! The tomato plant above is growing out of a tiny crack between a garage and the pavement in the parking lot at The Southwedge Diner in our neighborhood! While tomatoes are not usually on any list of "weeds", this one sure is tenacious! For a longer view of where this tenacious tomato is located, check out the second picture in yesterday's blog. Click to embiggen - this plant is on the far left along the side of the building.

I also urge you to check out a new book I heard about on NPR the other day. Weeds by Richard Maybe!

Family at the diner!

Two meals at the Diner today.
Mom and Dad above -
CJ, Maya, and Casey below!
and Cheryl in the background.

Today is Maya's Actual Birthday!

Lightning McQueen before the party!

Lightning - less happy, but lots of happy people -
including the birthday girl!
And YES - the cake tasted great!The tires were chocolate covered donuts!

Congrats to Dad for creating the perfect birthday cake for the "Cars" fan in the family!

Maya's 2011 Birthday spinning tops!

Today is Maya's Birthday Party

Will post pictures of this year's top after the party!

Above - Self portrait taken by Maya with my camera!

Below - Picture of Maya looking through the castle she built!

On her bike!

Actual birthday is Tuesday, August 19. Can you believe 4 years have gone by since we first heard that cry outside the birthing room at Highland Hospital?

Check yourself before going out in public?

Or better yet, use the grocery store rule, and don't buy it in the first place?

Another good reason to eat at our local diner!

Leftover cooking oil headed for Buffalo Biodiesel

Wednesday with Maya and CJ

Our Rochester Fire Department brought a fire truck to the neighborhood "Music in the Park" evening in our neighborhood last night. They do this a lot to help the kids get used to the idea of firefighters, the equipment, the suits, etc. CJ and Mom waited patiently for their turn. The kids actually got to sit in the truck for a couple of minutes!Once his turn came, CJ seemed not too sure about the experience .....

and fairly quickly raised his arms in the universal "pick me up" gesture!

To his credit, he did it, and just wanted out --- no "real" upset! Maya on the other hand wanted no part of even going to look at the firetruck!

More NITBY - sort of.

Before - above
After - below

Actually located on the other side of the fence from those big electric things from a couple of days ago.

NITBY - Nature in the back yard!

Stopped by the raspberry bush to snag a treat when I spotted this guy/gal just relaxing. Unlike usual, it was still there after getting my camera off my belt, and I got a number of nice shots. Detail below...... these are nice ones to click to embiggen!

Monday with Dad

Dad and I have been trying to get a railing installed in their dining room to make it easier for Mom to get around the house. I can't begin to tell you when we first thought this was a good and necessary idea, but it was way too long ago. I bought the railings some time ago, and went to work on installing them, but discovered the wall seems to have virtually no internal structure. Could not find any studs at all behind the 1/4" thick homasote fiberboard (?) wall. Thus another delay to get two backer boards made that could attach at each end, and then attach the railing to that. Then the boards were a smidge too long. Two different neighborhood handipersons agreed to install the railings when my hip replacement surgery was scheduled, but neither ever showed up. So, today we decided it was time, and after about 2 1/2 hours work, we got them installed. At least I had the railing to hang on to when I hauled myself off the floor when we got done! :>) Odd colors in the picture below, but there they are!

When we got done, Dad offered to buy lunch at the South Wedge Diner. Outside Dad spotted a MG Midget. Since he used to drive a MGB, we had to check it out!

I've got to say that doing projects with Dad is just as much fun as it was when I was a kid!

Electric Starwars

I love the bike trails. Sometimes they take me by hidden nature (I ate several handfuls of raspberries at one stop). Sometimes they take me by hidden works of man - often not very pretty, but sometimes very intriguing --- as above and below behind a storage area for our local utility! As always - click pictures to embiggen - I actually found that word on another web site the other day. I should have known I didn't actually invent a word. Or did I? Maybe they got it from me?

Mechanical Giant in Human Form!

Below is a photo of an old newspaper clipping that I got from a friend who knows my interest in Automata, and other things mechanical. A huge mechanical man made near here in Tonawanda, NY in 1900 --- "This curious counterfeit of a real person was designed to pull a carriage from New York to San Francisco ......" From the New York Hearld - September 9, 1900. I have posted a quite large image so you can click on it and easily read the story. Picture is not quite as big as I wanted it, but is readable. If you want a larger image, comment below, and I'll send it to you.

The link below added a couple of days later after I heard from a friend. Additional information about this "walking" figure. Turns out the carriage pushes the man rather than the man pulling the carriage, but it still seems like a very cool thing. After all, aren't all automata fake at their very essence? For me, it is the ability to fascinate and make us think that is the essence of automata!
More information from my friend and automata enthusiast Dug North

Another license plate

I wonder which Diner? Owner? Patron?

Zwiggle Surprise Box ver. 1.0

Zwiggles were one of my very first toys. Originally random curvy cuts with a bandsaw - cut from scraps of wood left over from a local lumber mill. I would just look at the resulting odd shape, add one or two eyes, one or two cuts to create a mouth or two, add wheels, and that was a Zwiggle! This little guy was a particular favorite who seemed to pop up fairly frequently, and subsequently was turned into many things including a lamp! Video below!Here is an old blog post about a larger Zwiggle my friend Rick Shannon had.

Zwiggle Surprise Box Ver. 1.0 from Don Olney on Vimeo.

4th of July w/ Loretta and friends!

Our friend Loretta is 104! Just a few months shy of 105! This year, instead of Loretta coming to the picnic, we joined her at Linden Knoll where she lives, for a great 4th of July "picnic" of watermelon, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, ribs, pie and ice cream! And while she might not find find the picture below dignified, I find it remarkable that she was able to work that ear of corn just fine while some of the others ( around 40 years younger than her) at the table were cutting theirs off the cob with a knife!
Thanks to Loretta and friends for a great 4th, and I hope we get to share many more. You are a great inspiration to us all!

Lots of juicy raspberries soon to ripen in our yard!

These are black raspberries.... Dad has already gotten a few from his red raspberry bush!

Moonflower

Our friends Bert and Beth have a Moonflower plant that blossoms only after dark, and the blossoms have closed up by morning. They have a very nice and strong scent. Below is a video I found on YouTube. They unfold very quickly - some varieties in a few seconds, others in a couple of minutes.

11 mile bicycle ride

I made it to my favorite bench last week. 90 days after my hip replacement - not bragging - just sayin! This bench is along the Genesee River, just about exactly five and a half miles from my house. I stopped to rest a while, took the below picture of my bike, read some on my Kindle, and then completed the 11 mile round trip, including a fairly high curved bridge over the Erie Canal at the junction with the Genesee River.Below is the view downhill on the final serious arched bridge on the way home. I was able to ride over it both ways without walking, but on the way home I do stop for my last rest!

Triple Fail???

Fail number one is that I'm official old now if I wasn't before??? Prostate Cancer - survived so far! Hip replacement - going quite well! My latest - My veins are not far enough apart! Very Close Veins! (a very old joke my Dad told me when I told him about my latest!) I'm now wearing those old people compression stockings! They actually don't look bad - not at all like the brown things my grandmother used to wear. Did you ever try to fit your foot and leg into a bicycle inner tube? That is about what this is like, except that my legs actually feel quite a bit better with these on.

The folks at the medical supply place could not have been nicer! They actually measure and fit you for these things. I've been to shoe stores that took a lot less care! I'd mention the name, but I'm now going to reveal the next two parts of the triple fail. On a shelf in the fitting room was a three ring binder with "Referance Materail for Stockings and Braces"What the heck - I like these folks!

I recommend them highly! They just don't seem to have a proofreader on staff!

Removed - posted twice by accident

Maeve has gone home - :>(

Above - the commemorative cheesecake - shared with her cousins, Maya and CJ, and the rest of us too of course!

Below - Maeve on the way to her last day of internship with the Rochester, NY Public Defender's Office, and unfortunately for us, the last day of her staying with us! We had a great 7 weeks!

Click here to check out her stories!

Maeve on her way to work in KKBB sunglasses!