My Dogs

I just  finished a book about one of my favorite subjects, dogs! Entitled “The Best Dog in the World”, it is a collection of essays compiled by Alice Hoffman. They are stories about how dogs can change a person’s life.  They are about all sorts of dogs, big, small, show dogs and rescue dogs and the ways they influenced their owner’s lives. Granted, not all of them are happy stories because sadly, their masters usually outlive their charges. There is lots of humor in the book also because any time you have a dog in your life; it usually brings happiness along with it!

    I am the type of guy who moves across the street when he sees a dog approaching. Not to get away from it but to get closer to it and hopefully, to pet it. I have always believed that to get a little dog slobber on me in the morning will help make my day a little bit better. Big, small, it doesn’t matter, as long as they will let me pet them!

    There haven’t been a lot of dogs in my personal life but each one of them has left a bit of themselves with me. They have all loved me without question. The first dog my family got was Villi. (Villi Von Veenersnitzal) He was a black Dachshund. I think he came from a shelter and he wasn’t trained. He and I got along great. I was probably in first grade when we got him. We’d wrestle, run around chasing each other and play tug-a-war. We became great friends. Since he wasn’t trained he didn’t think there was anything wrong with grabbing my hand or arm with his mouth. He never bit down or broke the skin. Some of my friends took this to be aggressiveness rather than playfulness and a couple got scratched, their parents were not happy!

    After a couple times dealing with frantic mothers and neighbors, Villi went to live somewhere else. I came home from school one day and he was gone. I was devastated, my heart was broken.

    Our next dog was a Basset Hound. Romeo was a rescue dog. On a Sunday near Saint Patrick’s Day there was a picture of him in the Pittsburgh Press. He was wearing a plastic hat with a shamrock on it. Even though it was a black and white picture, we knew it was a green hat! His right paw was cocked off to the side as if he was posing and his sad looking eyes and droopy skin made it look as if he needed to be saved. He needed someone to love him. After a lot of begging, we went down to see him and surprisingly, we came home with him.

    While Basset Hounds are quite lovable, they are also quite loud and they love to bark. Wow do they love to bark! They also drool a lot. Strings of saliva started appearing on the floors, furniture and even us. Showing him a dog treat could cause this and whenever he drank some water, not only did his jowls get filled with water, his long ears often hung in the bowl and soaked it up also. We learned from experience to stand back whenever he shook his head.

    He quickly became a part of the family. He loved to be petted and to have his loose skin pulled and rubbed. His eyes always looked so sad but I knew he wasn’t. When we were together he and I were both happy. He lay beside me on the floor while I watched TV, my hand rubbing his soft ears, both of us obliviously in the comfort zone.

    My mother had raised cats, and I had grown up with cats sleeping on the bed with me. When Romeo came along, the cat quickly lost her spot!

    Being a Basset Hound, a hunter by nature and by being blessed with a very sensitive nose, we quickly discovered that his nose was more in control of him than we were. When he smelled something, he let us know it. Loudly! He also loved to run, we had to be careful letting him outside, if he slipped out of our hands before we got him on his run…he was gone. Perhaps that is why he was named Romeo, because he loved to roam.

    I don’t remember how Romeo left my life or maybe I’m just blocking it out. I’m pretty sure he is buried in my backyard along with other pets, cats and dogs, mine and others. It is never easy when you lose a loved pet.

    I didn’t get another dog until the late 80’s. My daughter was just over a year old. I can remember watching her hold onto a small fence looking at a bunch of running, jumping, squealing Weimaraner puppies. One of them, Axel, (Axel Gutterzig Grauhunt) soon became a part of our family and Chelsey’s best friend. A beautiful grey color, he looked regal, he was a great dog. Watching him in the backyard, we could see how he loved to move, his lean body stretching out as he ran. He filled our lives with love and joy. 

    As time passes by, we as humans tend to forget the bad things and remember mostly the fun stuff, at least I do. I believe it’s human nature. I tend to forget about the times we went to the vets because of illnesses or accidents and remember more of the good times, such as when he got a small pumpkin stuck in his mouth, his teeth sinking into the rind and wasn't able to spit it out. Or the time he walked off the back deck, not realizing he was 6 feet off the ground. Oh, he made us laugh… He, like Romeo, loved to run and explore, when he got out, it was tough getting him back before he wanted to.

    As he grew older he started encountering some medical problems. At the vets one day I was told that it might be best for him if he was put out of his misery. I made a decision that I quickly came to regret. I brought his body back home to be buried in the back yard. Like a fool, I hadn’t given any thought to how my daughter would take this. It was just like what happened to me, she came home from school to find out her pet, her friend had gone and she never had the chance to say good-bye. I had lost a pet, but even worse, I had let my daughter down. This was a bad day all around!

    It is very hard to get over the loss of a pet. I found myself saying, “Never again, I just can’t do it! It just hurts too much!"

    It took a while but eventually another hound entered my life. I was simply going to go to the shelter and help walk the dogs, that was the plan. There was a class that needed to be taken before this could be done. Not a problem. Whenever I would go there, before I’d walk them, I’d visit the dogs in the kennel and give them treats while I talked with them. The more I visited the more the idea of another dog grew.

    Not long after I started, Red entered my family. Red was a Redbone Coon Hound. His coat matched his name. He was named by a class of school children, the name fit and so it was never changed.

    Red was a big dog, bigger than he thought. He considered himself a lap dog and that could hurt at times! He quickly claimed a spot on my bed and if I didn’t exert my dominance, he’d claim the larger portion of it. He had a loud howl and wasn’t afraid to use it.

    We went on many adventures. He even came along with us to chase trains! Ann Marie and I endured hours of howling as we drove to hikes or vacations. We even tried ear plugs to tone down the noise. Luckily, we always managed to tire him out and he’d sleep on the way home. Those drives home were so nice and quiet!

    Like the others, the good memories remain. The time he stole a sandwich out of Ann Marie’s hand on a hike or the time he thought that water lilies were solid ground and disappeared into the water after running onto them. I don’t need to remember the bad memories; it’s the good ones that are important!

    Time finally caught up with Red, I took him to his final visit with the vet and another tough decision was made. He didn’t like visiting the vet and often gave them trouble. This time he was too sick and tired to fight or even howl. This time he slowly walked away. I was asked if I wanted to go into the back with him while they prepared him but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t see him go. I was a coward, I couldn’t watch it happen. I already felt terrible bringing him there and agreeing to that terrible decision.

    To this day I regret not going in with him and comforting him as he was put to sleep. It has been over 5 years since he left and I still miss him. I still have that “never again” attitude, I find it extremely hard to overcome. The pain of losing a pet can be disabling. There is so much that you lose; friendship, companionship and love to name just a few. We have to remember, there is also a lot we can learn from our four-legged friends, trust, the idea of unequivocal love, devotion and how to share these things without saying a word.

    Thank heavens for memories. And also, thank heavens for the dogs I meet that are being walked around the block and for the owners who so happily share their pets with me, helping me overcome the sorrows that buried themselves so deep into my psyche.

    This book has helped me remember the joys of dog ownership and the benefits of having a four legged friend in your life. Perhaps someday, there might be another visit to a shelter in my future...

A Morning Respite

I woke up early this morning, well before 6. It's a bit earlier than my normal wake up time. Usually, I close my eyes and slip back into my dream world for another short trip into my imagination, but today I got dressed and took a walk around the block. The sun was less than an hour away from rising, so I had no problems seeing as I walked. Due to a slight haze, only a couple stars were visible in the sky. Traffic could be heard in the valley below me but after a couple minutes, the songs of the birds overtook it.

    The street was empty, no cars were “warming up” and no one was walking their dogs. It was only me and the birds. Returning to the house, I sat on a chair on the front porch and watched as Arcturus slipped between the limbs of a tree as it neared the western horizon. Lights on neighbors' houses turned on and off and the birds continued to chirp, heard but not seen. I sat and watched the sky as it brightened, and the last stars disappeared from view.

    I went into the house, back to where the radio was broadcasting noise about shootings, accidents and the weather to come. I brewed some coffee and went back outside to the quiet, the calm and the peacefulness. I sat down with a copy of The Sun magazine and read a story. While I read, robins chased each other around the yard. Woodpeckers rapped on tree trunks and dead limbs. The coffee smelled good and tasted even better. Two robins flew within inches of my leg as they played.

    Slowly the sun neared the edge of the hillside and colors returned to the edges. My morning respite was starting to turn into my Saturday. I took another sip of coffee and then headed back into the house, ready to continue with my day.

A Training Day

 It was 5 o'clock Tuesday morning and I didn’t think that I’d be going back to sleep soon. I got dressed and went out to see if I could find a picture or two worth taking. There was no specific plan, I was just going to take a ride and see if anything popped up.

  While driving along I am always watching the scenery, looking at the shadows, the people I pass, the buildings. I’m never sure what “it” might be but I’m always looking. It is amazing how many times I see something whenever I don’t have my camera with me! The chances of seeing something worth taking a picture of increases whenever I leave the camera behind! When I see something, I stop and take a picture. Sometimes they are good, other times, worthy only of deletion.

    I drove towards Pittsburgh going through Lawrenceville. Passing the “Doughboy Statue” and heading towards the railroad bridge, I saw my subject. I saw a line of hoppers slowly crossing the bridge. I turned the car around and started searching for the front of the train.

    It turned into a slow chase. We were both going in the same direction; the train was four or five blocks closer to the river than I was. I could see it as I passed side streets. While I had to deal with traffic and streetlights, the train just kept on going… As I gained on it I started to hear the whistle as it came to road crossings. I finally got ahead of it as we neared the 62^nd Street Bridge.

    While driving, I was mentally going over the various spots I could go to get a picture of it. I decided to go under the Highland Park Bridge for my attempt. Luckily, the train was moving slowly, and I had plenty of time to set up my tripod, frame my picture and take a couple test shots before the train came into sight.

    The headlights were what I saw first. I could feel the anticipation. The Carload Express engines passed followed by a long line of bouncing and rocking cars. Perhaps this was why the train was moving so slowly, the cars were swaying back and forth, the rails weren’t very straight or flat.

    After the train was gone, I returned home. I had gotten some pictures and I was happy. It was now time to get back to the regular day, time to tackle my chores.

    Later in the day after eating dinner, I was sitting at my desk when I heard it, another train whistle! It was still light outside, so I grabbed my camera and ran (?) out to the car.

    The train had just passed the crossing in Lower Glenshaw. Leaving the neighborhood, I heard the whistle as it came to the next crossing, just past the tunnel. As I drove, I started considering the places I could go, along with their advantages and their disadvantages. Some were far enough away that I could easily reach them long before the train did, but I wasn’t sure what the lighting would be like. Another spot was much closer, but the background would be a hillside of trees, in the shadows. The train might fade into the background there.

    I ended up going to my favorite spot, Bryant Road in Hampton Township. There weren’t many cars on the road and so I arrived rather quickly. I went down a dirt road towards the tracks where I could catch the train crossing the bridge over Pine Creek. I set up the tripod and framed my shot, took a couple test shots and then waited.

    A car pulled up and two guys got out. I was wondering if they were railfans or fishermen. They turned out to be the latter. We BS’d for a minute before they continued on to the stream, stopping briefly to touch the tracks to see if they could feel the coming train. The noise of the engines was getting louder.

    Just as they reached the bridge, the locomotive came around the bend. The lights of the engine came first, illuminating the curving rails. As the first engine passed, the engineer gave a couple short toots on the whistle to me as he went by. Of course, I waved back… it is what you do when a train goes by!

    The sounds of a train are always exciting to me; the noise of the engines, the squeals of the wheels on the rails, the knocking and bumping of the cars and especially the piercing blasts of the whistles. I have taken pictures of trains from above as they near a crossing, those whistles are LOUD!!! WOW, what a rush!

    I returned home happy and content. A train started my morning and then one ended my day. I've said it before; it doesn't take a lot to make my day! Some days you just get lucky and this was one of them!

The 70's

 Back in 1970 when I was only 14 years old, I never gave much thought to when, or if, I’d ever be 70. The 70’s were exciting times for me. I learned to drive; I graduated high school and got a job. I became old enough to vote and then, old enough to drink. I also lost my father, had bones broken, lost the tip of one of my fingers and found out I was a diabetic. It was a learning experience. I discovered it could sometimes be tough, but for the most part life was good and rewarding!

    During this decade I started exploring the world around me. I saw the beauty hidden in the mountains; I found the serenity of the deep woods. I discovered the peace obtainable while sitting beside a small stream. I found out how relaxing it can be to watch the moon or sun rise over a field or a hillside.

    Of course, it was more than just these things. Being on my own more, without the childhood parental constraints, I learned the importance of work, time and trust. Some experimenting with alcohol and various substances "may have" occurred. It was a decade of motorcycles, cave and cliff exploring, and camping. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the future. 

    As the years piled on and the 70’s passed, I experienced the joys and the losses that we all do. My life calmed down some and there were the joys of raising a family and learning to be a dad. (Can that even be taught?) Family members got married and the family numbers increased, but sadly, at the same time, decreased. Death is just another part of our lives. That is another thing we learn about in life, how quick it can end.

    Lord knows I’ve made more than my share of bad decisions and mistakes and God willing, I’ve learnt from them. I’ve been offered so many chances to learn, I’m afraid to think how many I’ve let pass by. It seems as if life is one long continuous learning process.

    The 1970’s are long gone but here, I find that I’m starting them over again. Moving into my own 70’s, I can’t help but realize things have changed; I seem to be experiencing a bit more pain than I did in the first set. I’m not quite as fast or strong as I was, perhaps that is because of the extra pounds hung on my frame. There is also a lot less hair on my head! Re-starting my second set of 70’s, I can only hope they will be as much fun as the first set was. I seriously doubt if they’ll be quite as wild but I’m still looking forward to them!

    To bring back a bit of the slang of the 70’s, I’m looking forward to a “groovy”, “far out” decade. “Look out baby, here I come”!

Headin' East

 Another trip across the state had been planned and so, of course, I started making lists long before our departure date. I always enjoy the preparations made before a trip. It is something I’ve learned to do over the years. Arriving at a campsite as the sun is setting and finding that I forgot the flashlight at home, or even worse, the food, makes me think twice before leaving home. The paper lists helps but still, I always manage to forget something!

    I enjoy making lists. Whether it is for a trip to the store or preparing to develop a roll of film, I grab a piece of paper and a pen. Trips; even if it is just a ride out into the countryside and back, I usually make a list. A trip that might involve 4 or 5 days definitely requires one! They aren’t just for things to take; they include sights to see, stores, restaurants or coffee shops to try and the times they open or close. Yah…it sounds a bit anal but it usually pays off.

    On this trip, we left on Friday morning. We were going across the state to visit my daughter’s family. We would be taking our “usual” route, crossing the state via rt.22. I have never been a fan of limited access highways, especially when you have to pay to use them. We also enjoy being able to leave the main roads and exploring when we want to.

    There was a hard rain the night before but luckily it had passed by and as we started out, the roads were almost dry. A couple stops were made for food and beverages and then soon, the foothills of the Laurel Highlands could be seen ahead of us.

    We had a variety of geocaches to try and find on the way. One of the first was at the Cassandra Railroad Overlook. This is an old bridge that used to carry a road across the tracks. Built in 1936 it was closed to traffic the same year. It is now used by railfans to watch trains coming up and down the long hill. Looking downhill, to the west, you can see the trains coming about 2 miles away! We found the cache but unfortunately, we didn’t see any trains. After waiting a few minutes, we returned to the car and our journey.

    Coming into Duncansville, we stopped at Connie’s Collectables and Quilts.  I did a quick once through and then left Ann Marie in fabric heaven while I walked down the street to take some pictures of an old gas station. The owner had just pulled up and I asked if he minded if I took some pictures. He invited me in and showed me around telling me about the history of the building. Originally a blacksmith shop it later became an auto garage. The current owner lived beside it as a child. Inside were a variety of cars, trucks and motorcycles, some in various states of disassembly along with all sorts of old memorabilia, such as hubcaps, oil and gas signs, old v-belts and even a belt pulley system that used to run the machinery. It was fun looking around!

    Down the road a bit further, we came into the town of Hollidaysburg. We stopped at Boro Coffee to refill our empty cups. This coffee shop is located in two 18^th century houses where canal workers lived. Looking at the ceilings we could see the hand-hewn beams holding the floors above. The windows looked out onto the railroad yards across the street, where the canal used to be. Hollidaysburg had a large canal basin here. Good coffee, sour-dough bagels and a view of moving trains made this another favorite spot!

    Not far away, across from the Blair County Courthouse, we visited the Next Chapter Bookstore. We talked with Dani, the owner as we browsed. Talking with the owners of book shops is usually an experience of sharing similar thoughts and ideas. We discussed books, the store, schools and book bannings among other things. From there we returned to rt. 22. We only stopped for a couple geocaches, anxious to see the grandkids. The next couple days were spent with the family. 

    On Saturday we watched as Jamie built and launched an Estes rocket and then later, Ann Marie and I spent some time at the Harleysville No Kings Protest. It was a great example of people peaceably getting together and voicing their opinions. That is what America is about! People were smiling and laughing and enjoying the day and the camaraderie. We both found the event touching and emotional.

   Later the family drove to Phoenixville where we strolled the main drag. We went down and visited the iron works, a beautiful building that is now an event center. We petted dogs and visited some of the stores including the Reads and Company Bookstore. The store was actually crowded; they were doing a good business on a Saturday night! It did my heart good to see an independent bookstore so busy! 

    We ate dinner across the street from the Colonial Theater where an iconic scene from the 1958 movie The Blob was filmed. This movie was Steve McQueen’s first lead role.

    Sunday morning we went to Skippack for breakfast and then visited the Pages and Parchment Bookstore. Mallory, the owner is one of Chelsey’s friends. Chelsey was there earlier in the week participating in their Silent Book Club. People bring whatever they are reading and sit, silently reading their books. It was a very nice shop and we ended up bringing home a nice selection of books from there.

    Later in the day we went to the Indian Valley Library where Mateo and Nico showed us around their library. As the boys rummaged through the shelves I explored their very nice Pennsylvania Room. The boys selected some books to take home. We were very impressed with their library.

    On Monday morning, after saying good-bye to the boys before they left for school, Ann Marie and I started back. We made a stop in Lenhartsville to get some kielbasa and scrapple at Dietrich’s Meats. We usually stop here on our return trips. Walking in the door you are greeted by the smell of smoke. They have a large selection of meats and cheeses along with other Pennsylvania Dutch treats.

    Just down the road we stopped at an old furnace. Someone had cleaned up the weeds and bushes around it and we were able to see the walls on the hillside behind it. I have no idea what the purpose of this structure was, when it was built or what it was named. I have seen pictures of it on-line but the people who posted them didn’t know anything about it either.

    We stopped for another refreshment break north of Harrisburg. While we were there I took some pictures of an abandoned “Gentleman’s Club”. Closed in 2019 the place was looking pretty sad. It was overgrown with weeds and trash. There were some really odd pictures painted near the entrance. I would think these pictures would scare people away rather than luring them in!

    Taking a chance, we stopped at a restaurant in Lewistown and had a good lunch. We enjoy trying out places that we’ve come across. Most of the time, we find spots worthy of putting on our “return to” lists. Sometimes we strike out, but that’s all part of the fun of the trip. Thankfully, the good places far outnumber the bad.

    West of Lewistown, in McVeytown, we stopped for our last, and our most interesting cache of the trip. It was one that neither of us had seen before. It was a plastic pipe attached to the back of a roadside sign. We looked it over, felt around but couldn’t figure out where the cache was. After giving it some thought, we realized that we needed to put water into the pipe and after we did that, the cache, attached to a fishing bobber, floated up to where we could grab it. Very tricky! It is caches like this that make the game so much fun!

    Other than a quick stop for gas, the rest of the trip was straight through. I got home just before 5 with 752 miles added to the odometer. It was another great trip through Pennsylvania. We enjoyed the time with the family and we had fun visiting all the various places, but as I’ve said before, it REALLY felt good to fall asleep in my own bed!

    P.S. Even though I made a list, I still forgot some shirts at home but luckily, I didn’t need them.

Books About Books

 The book is huge, over 700 pages and that makes it a difficult book to read in bed! There are times when it seems as if my bookmark hasn’t moved in days. Still, the story is good and I’ve fallen into its grasp. I have traveled through both time and space in this piece of fictional literature. I’ve gone to the far side of our globe and have seen both the beauty and the ugliness of the country where it takes place, a place that I’ll probably never visit.

    One of the many things in this book that pulled me into it is the love of books. While not a major part of the story, the importance of the written word plays a big part of this novel. Book appreciation is something I’ve always considered important and that has always drawn me towards certain books.

    I find that as I read different books I can’t help but notice the similarities between them and other books I’ve read. Things such as; certain themes, or locations, the use of an odd word appearing in two different books, sometimes one right after another, these things stick in my mind. I’ll notice how plots are similar or that the subject matter is often the same. Is it just random chance or is it my subconscious picking out the books I read without my knowing it? I often wonder about things such as this!

    So far this year, I have read at least 5 books that have had reading or books as an important part of their stories. Books about books have always intrigued me. I would guess that it is because of my love of the subject. Who doesn’t enjoy reading about or participating in favorite hobbies or activities we like?

    I don’t remember any books in my early reading history that involved this subject other than the Detective Brown series written by Donald J. Sobol. Written back in the 60’s, the main character was Encyclopedia Brown, a 10 year old boy. I was just about the same age when I started reading them. I could be like him! How much they incorporated books I’m not sure, but how could I not like a main character named “Encyclopedia”?

    As the number of books in my collection grew, books on this subject (books and writing) increased. I came across an old book called The Haunted Bookshop written by Christopher Morley. Printed originally in 1919, the bookshop is haunted by the ghosts of writers and the books that they reside in. The story is a mystery but I especially enjoyed the parts dealing with the store and its books.

    This book then led me to the author’s first book, Parnassus on Wheels, printed two years earlier. The story is about a bookshop set on a wagon pulled by a horse. A woman buys the shop and escapes her boring life with an adventure and a celebration of reading.

    Since then, I have added many other books about books to my collection. A definite favorite is the book 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. This non-fiction book, written in 1966, is a collection of letters written between the author and the employees of a book shop in London. It is to me a wonderful book dealing with caring, friendship and of course, the love of books.

    Another favorite is The Book Thief written in 2007 by Markus Zusak. This fictional novel is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. A young girl steals some books and learns from them, finding a haven from the war in the books she has stolen.

    The The Midnight Library was written by Matt Haig in 2020. In this book, a woman who had attempted suicide finds herself in a magical library. Each of the books in this library offers her an alternative life. With each life choice come both good things and bad. “We” don’t always get what we hoped for.

    This previous book reminded me of another one, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Written in 2012 by Robin Sloan, this book tells the story of a young man who takes a job at a bookshop in San Francisco. He finds out it is a front for a secret society. Ancient books and manuscripts mixing with puzzles and secret codes that may possibly lead to the secret of eternal youth make this an exciting read. It takes us on an adventure that blends the ancient world with our modern civilization.

    My bookshelves are filled with books that mention books and reading in their pages. I am always on the lookout for another to add to my collection. Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter to me, I find them all exciting.

    So what exactly is it that I find so intriguing? They show me the behind the counter activities, how the book trade works. They tell stories about other book lovers, like me. People who can escape the everyday world by diving into another world printed on paper. I’ve read and learned about how books are made, how authors come up with their ideas and how companies decide which manuscripts to publish. I’ve read about how people, known as book scouts would search through bookstores and rummage sales for rare and collectable volumes. (Wouldn’t that be a fun job?) I’ve gone along with people who shared their love of books with others and gone into other dimensions and to other planets through the wonder and workings of books. 

    In case you’re wondering about the 5 books I was talking about earlier, the ones that caused these thoughts about books to begin, here is a quick once over about them…

1)    The Untold Story of Books by Michael Castleman. (2024) This is a history of publishing, from the Guttenberg Bibles and a bit before, to our modern digital age that we live in now.

2)    Camino Island by John Grisham. (2017) A fictional story about a writer who is enlisted to infiltrate a group of writers on an island off the coast of Florida. She is hoping to find some stolen manuscripts that a bookstore owner might have hidden.

3)    How to Resist Amazon by Danny Caine. (2019) The author, a bookstore owner, tells how Amazon manages to sell books at such a great discount. Books play such a small part of this massive industry that they can afford to take a loss on them while reaping in profits on other items. Meanwhile, book shops and stores have to deal with Amazon’s discounts, deals they can’t afford to offer without bankrupting themselves. The workers at Amazon and its offspring’s are paid poorly while the owner has become one of the richest men in the world.

4)    The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (2022) A woman in trouble finds a hidden door leading her into a secret library where she can be protected. People here are able to hide in the book stories! Unfortunately, someone is attempting to break into the library and she must help to defend it.

5)    The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (2023) This is the thick book that I am still only half way through. In one of the sections, a boy is taught to read by reading Moby Dick and then Great Expectations. He recites the stories to his family and then after being let go from college, he spends what money he still has on books to take back home to his village.

 

I am a sucker for reading and so, I can’t help but enjoy reading books about books. Like any hobbyist, I love anything dealing with the subjects I’m enamored with. I can’t help it; call it an addiction perhaps, an addiction that I don’t want to kick! 

Bad Luck?

 It was Friday night; it was dark and windy outside. It was also the thirteenth day of the month, Friday the 13^th!

    I was listening to a talk during the astronomy club’s monthly meeting. While the speaker was talking I was copying some things into a Word document. I could hear the wind blowing through the trees outside, at times, loud enough to cause a little apprehension. During the day the yard had been covered with broken branches and papers from the neighbor’s trash. The branches I’d have to pick up later but the papers would long be gone by morning.

    Suddenly, the lights flickered and then went dark. The speaker on my screen froze in place. I looked out the window and all I could see were the lights of a couple cars in the valley below. All the buildings and parking lots were dark. Even the traffic lights had gone out.

    I saved my document and shut off the computer. Then I went outside.

    The sky was clear, which certainly goes against Pittsburgh weather norms. Any time that an astronomical event happens, chances are that there will be clouds in the sky! Our sky is almost always cloudy.

    I grabbed my coat and went out for a walk around the block. I saw someone’s flashlight playing across their house and then it went out. I didn’t see anyone else. No one else had bothered to step outside and look around. Most of the houses were dark. A couple houses had solar lights on their sidewalks and porches, but they were unobtrusive. No flickering lights from candles or beams from flashlights could be seen.

    Coming around a bend I came to a house that seemed to be glowing. They had a noisy generator running beside the house and a couple lights lit inside. That house was the only bright spot in the neighborhood. The rest of the neighborhood was dark, and I walked with my head tilted up.

    Orion was spectacular; I definitely could see more stars than usual from my normally light polluted neighborhood. To the left of Orion was Sirius with Jupiter near Castor and Pollux higher above it. Off to the right were Aldebaran and the Pleiades. I watched a satellite pass through Auriga, easily seen and followed even with my poor eyesight.

    A car sitting a couple houses away started up, turning its headlights on. The reflection off of the chrome bumper of the truck it was facing caught me directly in the eye. Hoping that it would soon leave, I went behind my car, in the shadows to wait.

    I decided to take another walk around the block. The beautiful views of the sky kept me company until I got to the house with the noisy generator. He now had a couple spotlights on, shining onto his driveway, his neighbor’s houses and into my dark-adapted eyes.

    (“Thank heavens he had those lights on, he was protecting our neighborhood from bands of roaming vandals, muggers and rapists!” He was “protecting” us from seeing the stars above. I have to admit it…I did call him a few choice names!)

    Once I was past the noisy, glaring house and back into the quiet darkness, I started thinking about how this resembled the neighborhood of days gone by, before we became the frightened society that we are now. People’s porch lights would go out a short while after dark. If they did stay on they were only normal light bulbs, no flood lights or LED bulbs. The cities weren’t as brightly lit and we could see SO many more stars than now. The stars are slowly disappearing, and it is because we are afraid of the dark. What a shame!

    I passed a man in his car listening to the radio, his interior lights were on, I could see him but he had no idea that I had passed him. A bit further on, the car that had flashed me before was still sitting with its lights on. A woman sat inside, the interior lights on also, checking her phone for who knows what. I covered my eyes to avoid getting blinded and passed her by. She didn’t see me pass by either. Their lights hid me from them!

    I sat for awhile in a lawn chair in the front yard with my binoculars. Orion had moved behind a tree, a bit closer to the western horizon. Behind me, the Big Dipper was standing on its handle. Occasional blasts of wind whipped by. For the most part, it was nice and quiet. I was starting to get cold so I zipped up my jacket and returned to the inside.

    I lit a couple candles so that I could write a few notes and then went to bed and snuggled under my covers for a good night’s sleep. I originally thought that it was bad luck that my power had gone off, right in the middle of a meeting no less. Instead it was just the opposite. My Friday the 13^th ended up giving me a couple hours of quiet and dark sky. Who says Friday the 13ths are bad luck? Not me!

The End of a Short Month

It was the last day of February. Posts on Facebook were talking about an astronomical parade of planets that would be happening that evening. Like so many things posted on FB, I didn’t have any real desire to see it. I knew that 3 of the planets would be setting soon after sunset and two of the others would be visible only with optical aid. It always sounds so much more interesting than it turns out to be.

    Instead of watching the parade of planets, I decided to watch an occultation instead. Io, one of Jupiter’s moons was going to be disappearing behind the planet. I always enjoy seeing an object in space moving in real time! The occultation of a star that is light years away will be almost instantaneous. The star is a mere pinprick of light, gone as soon as it passes behind whatever covers it. When a planet’s moon crosses behind the planet, it might take a few minutes for it to completely disappear since the moon is an actual disc that we can see through a telescope. The increased time makes the movement that much more obvious and that much more exciting.

    The day was clear but of course as evening approached, while I was setting up my telescope in the front yard, patches of clouds started drifting in. The majority of the sky was clear but this is Pittsburgh, I knew that the sky will be covered soon. 

    After everything was set up I watched Jupiter and its moons. Io was close to the planet and on the far side, Callisto sat a bit further away. Ganymede and Europa sat further out on either side. With Io disappearing behind the planet and Callisto soon to be crossing in front of it, I could imagine how they were all orbiting the planet. The seeing was steady and I was able to add a doubler to the eyepiece to increase power without getting any distortion.

    Io slowly got closer and closer as I watched until it seemed to touch the planet’s surface. Clouds came and went as I watched and they actually helped me out. The planet’s disc was bright yellow and the moon was both smaller and a fainter orange. The brightness of the planet made it difficult to accurately see the moon as it neared. The clouds would change the color of the planet to grey and as the color faded, the moon became easier to see. This helped when the moon’s disc was partially covered! I thought a couple times that the moon had disappeared only to see it again as the seeing changed. 

    The moon was drifting behind the planet in line with northern cloud band. It was sometime after 7:29 that I lost sight of it. I then turned the telescope to the moon and enjoyed just roaming across the lunar landscape. The craters alongside the terminator were exciting to explore.

    I was wearing only a sweatshirt and the temperature was dropping. The clouds were also increasing so I decided it was time to call it quits. I didn’t need a flashlight to tear my set-up down. The moon was 93% illuminated; I could see my shadow as I was carrying things into the house.

    I missed the planetary parade, but then again, I wasn’t out there to see it. I saw the event I wanted to see and the clouds held off, for the most part, until I was tearing things down. My neighbors generously left their porch lights off and no cars drove by, shining their lights on me. I talked with some of them as they walked their dog and got to pet him for a bit. Petting the dog was "almost" as exciting as watching the moon disappear.

    All in all, not a bad way to end a short month! Come on March, bring it on!

A Good Day

 The alarm went off earlier than usual. It was Friday the thirteenth and Ann Marie and I were going out for an early morning ride. I walked over to the front door and took a look outside. The bright star Spica could be seen peeking through the branches of the tree across the street.

    Knowing that an ISS (International Space Station) pass was going to be happening soon, I got dressed to go outside to watch it. Due within a couple minutes, I returned to the door only to see it appear above the house across the street. I was able to watch it without even leaving the house! Now that is the way to observe on cold days!

    After eating breakfast, I went to pick up Ann Marie. Going out to the car I noticed the thin crescent moon hovering above another neighbor’s house. Four days away from new, it was only 16% illuminated. I think that crescent moons are so much nicer to see than full moons, since they are harder to find and we see them less often. Seeing one without searching for it makes it even more special. What a great way to start our journey!

    We had some rough plans to head towards Apollo and the Kiskiminetas River. Our plans are always open to change. We had some geocaches to find and hopefully we would also find a coffee shop to refill our car cups. The first stop of the day was a visit to our favorite bakery, Stocklein’s. This bakery, originally opened in East Liberty back in the 1930’s, was relocated to its present location, Penn Hills in 2009. We like it because of how everything there tastes like the baked goods from our childhoods.

    Our first geocache was an interesting find. It was hidden inside an upright post. A piece of cord hung inside it, wrapped around a bolt. It took us a couple minutes to figure out how to get the cache. We had to pull on one side until the cache was raised up to where we could grasp it. We found most of the caches, but a couple were inaccessible because of frozen piles of snow.

    While driving we passed a small coffee shop and promptly turned around to check it out. At Bear Roots, (on rt.66) the woman behind the counter put a fresh pot of dark coffee on for us. While we waited we looked around the shop and watched as cookies were made being in the back. Along with our coffees we got a couple cookies to take along with us. They were desert later in the evening. Our bill came to $13 which was appropriate for Friday the 13^th!

    We drove along some nice back roads, a couple paved only with gravel. They were covered with snow and ice but we had no problems traversing them. We drove through woods and fields and in places we were on top of hills, giving us nice views into the snow covered valleys below. We passed cemeteries both large and small, along with Churches and old cabins.

    When we reached Cochran Mills we turned back. At one time there was a community here. The first mill in Burrell Township was built here in 1800. Before long more buildings joined it along with housing for the workers and a small settlement evolved.

    One of the residents of the town was Elizabeth Jane Cochrane who later became well known as she wrote under the name of Nellie Bly. In 1887, she wrote about the injustices and evils of the Blackwell Island Lunatic Asylum by going into the asylum under cover as a patient. She also wrote about her journey around the world, challenging Jules Verne’s story, Around the World in Eighty Days. She accomplished the trip in 72 days.

    The town was demolished in the 1930’s. Supposedly there are still foundation ruins of some of the buildings along Crooked Creek. We didn’t attempt to find them, preferring to stay in the car rather than hiking through the snow, perhaps we will do it another time.

    Returning towards home, we stopped at the Pittsburgh Mills to meet our friends Frank and Kelle for lunch. After a filling meal we all went and found a couple more caches hidden around the mall area. Then we returned home.

    As far as Friday the 13^th’s go, this was a good one. Really though, I can’t remember any Friday the 13^th that was bad. It is just a number; of course it’s one with a bad reputation. It’s sort of like how the full moon is supposed to cause more crimes. I figure that every day will be good if you look for all the good things in it. By concentrating on the better things in our days, they tend to stay productive and worthwhile. Always keep looking for the positive and hopefully our days will all turn out well.

    Two of my favorite words are; triskaidekaphobia (meaning the fear of the number 13) and triskaidekaphilia (meaning the love of the number 13).  In case you’re wondering when the next Friday the 13^th will be, it will be next month and before the year is over there will be another one in November!

Chances are, they'll be good days!