Google Earth is one of those programs that I love to piddle around in, whenever I remember it is there. Yesterday was one of those days. I updated it - there are always updates - and then typed in the address of the place I grew up. The expected satellite images did not show up. Just a plain background with an overlay of the streets. I was thinkin, "this sucks, now how do i get the images back", when I noticed a blue dot, and a YouTube logo directly over the location where my paternal grandmother and grandfather lived, until they needed an earthly home no more. They lived on the street above us, the corner. I could see their house from mine, and get there in a couple of minutes by cuttin uphill, across the backyards. I'm from a generation that grew up on their bicycles. We rode them everywhere, in all kinds of weather, by ourselves or in packs. This was also the era of the neighborhood store. Usually run by an older woman, who lived above the store, or just next door. We had both kinds. Both were located a couple of blocks down the hill, at either end of our street. We patronized both of them, with their old-timey candy counters, full of 2, 3 and 5 for a penny tooth decay facilitators. And of course, bicycle was the way we got there. Down was a breeze, but back up helped us work up an appetite for our brown paper sacks of candy. We didn't think anything of it. Every day, this was the route we took to get home from school. And, oh yeah, we walked. Didn't matter if it was cold, snowing, or raining, it's just how it was. As a matter of fact, it was more fun if the weather was doin something. But forgive my rambling. Back to the reason for this post. I clicked on the blue dot over MeMo's house. The picture was taken from the corner of her lot, just beside her driveway!! I lived the next block down, two houses past the last one showin on the right. You can see all the way down Rock street to where it turns at a 90 degree angle, to begin the final descent to the Potomac. Here is the picture and here is the link to the panoramio page with more info.
Here is pic lookin up the hill, 3 streets down, and a link to it's page.
Makes me wanna go home sooo bad. And now for the piece de resistance. The YouTube video. These folks are competing in the SavageMan Triathlon. They are using the switchback method of pedaling, which came to us kids naturally. They are havin a hard time after training, and on professional bikes. We did it with a sack of candy gripped to the handlebars, on schwinn's and spider bikes, with no gears. Right before they start the last block, where the road turns to mostly concrete, I can glimpse the top story of my old house on the far left. The brown rails at the top are at the edge of MeMo's driveway. When he swings around to face down hill, I can see my old bedroom window, on the far right, one street down. And I can't help but giggle as one of them crashes and burns across from my friend's house near the top. Believe it or not, coal trucks used to use this street. Sometime during the seventies, the town put up that silver guardrail, after a runaway. And one final thought. I bet I don't even have to tell you where we rode our sleds, do I?
Yesterday mornin was sunny and hot. Yesterday afternoon was another story. The light from the sky changed and the wind began to pick up. I grabbed the camera and went outside. The camera is a good excuse to be standin outside watchin the summer storms blow in. This one arrived courtesy of a 22 mile an hour wind. The temperature dropped from 91 to 75 in 30 minutes. Across the river, in Illinois, they got 4 inches of rain in a very short time. It also rained like a cow pissin on a flat rock in paducah (30 miles up the road). We were lucky enough just to get the cooler air. These three pics were taken within a three minute time span. Checked the details on the digital cam, to make sure. Nature is really cool, both literally and figuratively, sometimes.
The first two I took on the way in to the Dollar General (how we ever got along without it, I don't know, lol). It's not uncommon for me to be able to make the 12 mile drive without meeting another vehicle. If the mood strikes to stop in the road and snap a pic, I have no fear of disrupting the flow of traffic.
The next few are of a time honored summer tradition that we have in common with some members of the animal kingdom--let's go swimmin! These are this year's young geese. There are adults scattered through to supervise, of course, but most of these younguns cannot fly well, if at all. You can see that their wings don't have adult plumage yet, so they are not strong enough to get them airborne. I encountered them yesterday evening on a cruise through the game reserve. They were crossing from the water on one side of the road to the other. You can tell they weren't real worried about my presence.
