The "The Lancaster That Was Stills Tells The Story of Lancaster, PA" Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading the "Lancaster That Was' column in my local newspaper that told the history of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 25 year increments.  Follow along and you too can see a bit of history of the city that I call home.  25 years ago today the National Christmas Center, a holiday paradise in Paradise, was gearing up to open its doors for the first time.  The 20,000 square-foot attraction was the brainchild of Jim Morrison, who worked with artists Mary and Ray Doub to bring it to life.  The center featured a wide variety of Christmas scenes, many populated by lifelike wax figures made by the Doubs.  The National Christmas Center brought holiday cheer to tourists as well as locals alike in it's location along Route 30 East until it closed its doors in 2018.  50 years ago today many people got burned out with their jobs, but not everyone decided to just walk away from it all and become a country music singer.  That's exactly what Lancaster City Police detective Ronald Hohman did.  The six-year veteran officer traded his badge for a guitar in early 1973 and took to the stage instead of the witness stand.  He sang and played guitar on a variety of classic and current country music hits as the frontman of Country Express.  He claimed his detective work became too all-consuming and life meant more than that.  75 years ago today surveying work was about to begin in November for a highway bypass around the city of Lancaster.  The project eventually became Route 30 as we know it today and stretched from the Manheim Pike to Lititz Pike.  It has since grown to more than double its original length. 100 years ago today violence broke out at an Armistice Day ceremony in Lancaster in 1923 between the American Legion facing down the Ku Klux Klan.  Armistice day, which became known as Veterans Day in 1954 was initially intended to honor the dead of WWI.  In Lancaster, the public ceremony, in which flowers and wreaths were laid on the steps of the old county court house, was organized by the American Legion.  Uninvited, a contingent of the Klan arrived, placing a floral cross with the initials "KKK" on it into the memorial area.  conflict broke out with Legion representatives removing the piece and the Klan putting it back.  Klan members claimed they simply want to honor their own war dead.  A Legion spokesman said the Klan was not welcomed since the KKK was against the American values soldiers fought and died for.  The Klan members eventually removed their flowers from the courthouse steps and placed them at the grave of General John F. Reynolds in Lancaster Cemetery. The "Lancaster That Was" is still a weekly column that allows the resident of Lancaster County to view the history of our great city and surrounding area.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Campagna's Lead 'The Streaks' To Victory" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sun is shining bright, my cats have enjoyed their morning meal and I'm reading the full-length headline across the Sports page in my Sunday News that states... "Campagna's help Streaks move on."  The "Campagna's" were my neighbors until my wife and I moved to Woodcrest Villa a little over a year ago.  Scott and Shannon Campagna went to Manheim Township High School where I taught Graphic Arts and Photography.  Scott was a great athlete who played on the high school baseball team with my oldest son, Derek, while Stacy, also an athlete, was one of my favorite students in my photograph class.  Their family lives in the house across from our former home on Harrington Drive in Manheim Township.  Their twin girls, Calli and Breanna, are seniors this year and have been stalwarts on the Field Hockey team since 9th grade.  This year they have led their team to the playoffs with their fantastic play!  The newspaper told the story that fall is Breanna's time of the year when she shines on the hockey field while spring is the time of the year for Calli's moment in the spotlight on the lacrosse field.  The twin-sisters are always together and have been best friends all their lives.  They are trying to help the Manheim Township High School field hockey team capture a PIAA (Pennsylvania Inter-scholastic Athletic Association) State Championship.  My wife and I have been following the two of them in the daily newspaper during field hockey season and it seems that both of them have been the stars of the team throughout the fall season.  Breanna has 18 goals and 14 assists while Calli has 11 goals and 6 assists.  They are the first two players announced during pre-game introductions and two of just three seniors, along with goalie Zoe Caloviras, in the starting line-up.  The two sisters are "Best Friends" both on the field and off the field and Manheim Township relies on the twin powers to navigate the team to wins.  To date... the team, known as the "Blue Streaks," has won the District Three Title and has outscored their opponents 11-0 in States.  Their coach, Jess Shellenberger, claims that her team this year is "a special group.  There's a good culture.  The kids are family.  They really are.  Everybody is hungry and they want to compete."  After graduation this year, Breanna will be heading to Wake Forest to play field hockey while her twin, Calli, is heading to Cincinnati to play lacrosse.  The twins play as one while on the field with each knowing exactly where the other is at all times.  The coach said, "I feel like the sisters know exactly where the other one is on the field and can get a pass to them."  Who knows how many times the Campagna sisters have made one of those passes turn into a goal for their sister.  Sad part of this story is that these seniors know their time together on the field won't last forever.  But, until then, they will enjoy every minute they get to spend together on the hockey field with their best friend.  My wife, Carol, and I are pulling for our former neighbors to win one for us.  Hey...I may be retired and not living in the same neighborhood, but I was, and forever will be...A Blue Streak!  "GO STEAKS, GO!"  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "The Masterclasses" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I recently found 10 practical tips that were from "The Masterclasses" by National Geographic Traveler, to help me, as well as you, if you so choose to use them, to succeed as a travel photographer.  Read the following and perhaps you might find a few tips that may help with your picture taking from time to time.  I know I will be using some of the suggestions and ideas.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Don't you just love this fantastic photograph! 

1. "Plan ahead":  "Do your research and get familiar with your own equipment before you travel...Get ahead of the game, pre-visualise and make a plan.  When I go to a place that I'm not familiar with, I can start recycling and adapting those ideas to suit the environment."  Renato Granieri, "The Art of Wildlife Photography in travel."

2. "Maximize your time on a shoot":  "There's never ever enough time on a shoot.  Mostly, though, we only have a day or two, or sometimes just a few hours, to capture animals for a story.  Regardless of the weather conditions, I'll head out and see what surprises me.  Getting out and seeing what's happening around you is the only way to guarantee you're going to get images.  Don't talk yourself out of shooting just because the weather isn't perfect."  Teagen Cunnif, "The Art of Wildlife Photography in Travel."

3. "Use local guides to your advantage": "Choose experienced safari guards - they know where the animals will be and can predict behavior.  When you're choosing a safari operator, pay specific attention to what's written about the Guides on the websites and look for places that have mentioned that their guides are highly awarded or extensively trained.  There's. really big difference between a guide and. guid with photographic knowledge; communicating to a guide who understands composition and lighting is so much easier."  Teagen Cunnife, "The Art of Wildlife Photography in Travel."

4. "Use kit to connect with your subjects":  "I bring a little Fuji Instax camera with me.  And that's for when I'm going into more remote regions so that I can not only ask for a photo, but give one back as well.  For me, I've found that this opens doors to getting people to sit for portraits.  Because, if you're always just showing up and you're this guy with this big camera coming up in front of them, there's a little bit of shyness and reticence.  But, if you can sit with them and open up a little of dialogue, even if you can't exchange in the same language, that's a really great way to get them involved."  Matt Dutile, "Picking the perfect kit for your assignment."

5. "Stay safe as a lone traveler". "I alway dress to blend in.. for example, that I'm wearing to photograph a high-end restaurant and what I'm wearing to go and photograph agave fields is going to be different.  I want to been in so that I feel comfortable and so that the people around me feel comfortable.  There are certain places that you're going to stand out, but try to be aware of what's going on around you."  Lindsay Lauckner Gundlock,  "Picking the perfect kit for your assignment."

6. "Stay inspired". "Ive been doing this for 15 years now, but every week I seem to discover a new photographer that I've never heard of.  As long as someone's out there creating amazing images, I'll always be inspired by that.  Another part is looking at art, or a place itself.  We are storytellers, so I think you can be inspired by the story of a place, a people, an idea, all on its own."  Matt Dutile, "Picking the perfect kit for your assignment."

7.  "Use social media to find contacts."  "Go on social media.  Often, when people get hired, they might thank the person who gave then the job.  So, follow other photographers and look in their captions and actually read who's hiring them, who did they work with, and then follow those commissioners."  Holly-Marie Cato, "How to go professional."

8.  "Present your work to photo editors."  "Something that I've always done is to create a PDF or something that sort of has a layout that looks like the (finished) article so the the photo editor can kind of get n idea of what your story is.  When you do that,, you might realize that you don't have the right photos for a story - and that really teaches you what storytelling is."  Nori Jemil, "How to go professional."

9.  "Know your destination."  I think if you're especially iinterested in photographing some region of the world, it really helps to be there.  Spend time there and get to know the local traditions, the language or local culture.  That can definitely help when presenting a story."  Ulf Svane, "How to go professional."

10. "Shoot with passion."  "I'm really strong on finding your niche and making sure you're passionate about it.  I could say "build a portfolio", but often, and I think especially with Instagram, you could build a portfolio of work that you don't even like.  If you want your work to last, if you want to be able to sell that work and really make people believe in it, then be passionate about what you photograph."  Holly-Marie Cato, "How to go professional."

The "Making A Difference" Story

It was a an ordinary day.  Just opened the cover of my November 2023 Reader's Digest and began reading.  Story after story after story; all interesting...but not just the right one for a story that I can share with you on my blog.  Finally came upon a story titled "Life Advice From 1,000 Strangers."  Story was about a young man named Imran Nuri who was faced with a quarter-life crisis and traveled the country seeking guidance!  Story began with...From the time he learned to walk, Imran Nuri heard from his parents time and time again 'You must strive to be the best at everything' after all, it was that thinking that led them to realize their American dream after moving to the United States from India in 1991.  Nuri graduated from Ohio State with honors, then moved to Chicago where he landed a prime job as a national marketing director for a company connecting health-care professionals with hospitals.  Great job, but at the age of 24 he quit his job, emptied his savings account and returned to Columbus to fine-tune an outrageous plan he'd been hatching.  He was going to drive his 2018 Toyota Camry to every state in the lower 48 on a 100-day trip to find 1,000 strangers and ask them to share one thing they wish they'd known when they were younger.  Nuri was hoping for answers that might help him navigate the rest of his life.  He had no set plans except sleeping in rest stops, showering in gyms that accepted his gym membership and buy cheap food.  His parents were mortified!  It was too dangerous for their only child.  So...they proposed to enroll him in graduate school to get an MBA.  No Way!!  He remembered all their stories from the 20s and 30s in India and wanted none of it!  "I am young, healthy and unmarried and have no mortgage.  Wouldn't you have wanted this chance when you were my age?" he asked them.  They were sold!  On May 9, 2022, the night before he was to depart, he couldn't sleep.  There was something that no one else knew about him that he was struggling with that evening.  Imran Nuri didn't like taking with strangers!!  He just couldn't muster the nerve.  This upcoming trip depended on his ability to get strangers to talk with him about ideas more intimate than idle chitchat about their life's experiences.  Than he thought..."I'm about to do something really crazy, and I think it's going to be really transformative.  I wonder whom I might be when I return."  Well...he followed his map that took him north into Michigan than east to Pennsylvania, then north again to Maine, before heading all the way south to Florida.  From there he drove west to the California coast and then headed north to Washington where he took a right turn that would take him home.  He'd zigzag to make sure he visited every state along the way.  Can you imagine that at 24 years of age?  Nuri wanted only the names of those he would chat with along the way, but not their occupation so he wouldn't pre-judge them.  He didn't want a résume, just unfiltered advice that might help guide him on his personal journey.  He had a 50-year-old twin-lens camera and a recording device to document each person with whom he shared time.  He made sure to take all his photos in black and white so as not to make one look more important than the next.  His first stop was a scraggly guy who limped past him and just stared at him.  He thought perhaps he should just pass by, but then that wasn't his mission.  "I thought I was going to be killed.  I'd chosen the worst possible person for my first conversation."  He was tempted to get back in the car and drive on, but he walked up to the man and introduced himself and gave the same talk he had planned for everyone he stopped.  "I'm driving around the country to talk to 1,000 strangers.  I'm asking them for pieces of advice about things they wish they knew earlier.  If you've got a couple of minutes, I'd love to hear what you think."  The old guy, after a long period of looking at Nuri, said, "I wish I would have spent more time with my parents," he said.  With that the ice was broken for the rest of his trip!  They talked for quite some time and than Nuri thanked the man and headed on to his next stop.   Many days he would eat at roadside stands and sleep in his car.  Over the next few months he approached people of all ages and races.  Some kept walking, some said they had no time to talk, but many were happy to open up!  When he arrived in some locations he wondered how he would be received, due to his brown skin color.  He had experienced moments of subtle racism while growing up, but only experienced a few hard looks along his latest travels.  Some strangers told him they had never met anyone of Indian heritage.  Perhaps his longest conversation was with a woman in a mortised wheelchair who was moving across a shopping center parking lot in Wilmington, North Carolina.  She had a hugh smile on her face when she began telling Nuri that she had worked her butt off her whole life...than she got sick and ended in the wheelchair.  She advised him to "Have fun, enjoy life and make a family!"  In Colorado Springs Nuri encountered a guy who would have at one time intimidated him.  He was a giant with a big beard and a body covered with tattoos.  "Life is about the human connection," the man told Nuri.  Nuri asked about his tattoos and learned that the man had stage 4 terminal cancer.  He was getting matching tattoos with everyone in his hometown.  Touched...Nuri asked if he would get a matching tattoo with him.  The bearded giant gladly agreed and the two of them had matching tattoos of a  roll of film.  It was Nuri's first tattoo!  His trip progressed through Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana as the trip wore on.  On the last 15 minutes on the last day, August 6, 2022--88 days from when he started, Nuri turned down the quiet street that led to his childhood home.  It was a route he'd taken thousands of times.  But now, he was traveling with the spirits of the 1,300 people he'd talked to on his 15,000-mile trip.  He said, "I felt every emotion at once,"  Accomplishment, joy, relief, ecstasy, exhaustion, pride, amazement and disbelief.  Three months earlier he wondered who he might be when he returns.  He knew now!  He was a better man!!  And it was at that point in time that Imran Nuri began to cry.  Today, Nuri is back in Chicago, employed as a senior marketing director for a new company.  He's not the man he once was.  He seeks answers to questions, which leads to more questions and more answers, a cycle that provides not certainty, but meaning.  He says he will continue to search and learn.  His journey taught him that life isn't to be talked about, but to be lived in all its messy beauty.  Joy and sorrow, passion and regret, confidence and doubt, success and failure.  He hopes that strangers know that they made a difference, that he honors their advice and is grateful for their gifts, which he will draw on for the rest of his life.  And...as for me, well it was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.      

The "The Scary Face On The Shelf!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in my lounge chair watching television.  As I looked left, toward our sunroom, I saw one of our many large seashells that we have collected while on one of our many Caribbean trips.  The sun illuminated it and made it look even larger than what it really is.  I can still remember buying that particular shell after arriving home from Pinel Island, which is part of the island St. Martin.  The shell was beautiful and I knew I would never find a shell that large that was perfect, so I bought the shell from the vendor who sat in the parking lot every day.  To this day, I'm not sure it was a shell that he had found on the island, or brought from another nearby island, but it really didn't matter, so I purchased it.  As I continued to stare at it, and the outdoor light began to change, it took on a totally different personna.  It now looked as if it were the head of a person.  The shadows produced a pointed chin on the bottom with a few wrinkles in the mouth area with an open mouth showing the small lips.  Directly above the open mouth was a pointed nose that stood away from the rest of the face.  Directly behind the nose was a fairly pointed cheek bone.  Directly above the cheek bone was the eye with the eyelid raising above the eye.  To the top of all of that was the forehead or perhaps what looked to be a soft hat that sat on the head of the person.  Now...the rest of my family has a very hard time trying to imagine what I have just written.  How about you?  Can you see what I see?  Please tell me I'm not crazy?  Now, I know I shouldn't have typed it that way, since many people do think I'm crazy from time to time, but that's another story to be dealt with!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

A large conch shell from the Caribbean.

A rather unusual face that I have seen on the shell

The "The Fever Is Intense!" Story

The island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten

It was an ordinary day.  A day with a bright blue sky and mild weather...and the fever has taken over.  Not just any fever, but the Caribbean Fever.  And...not just the Caribbean Fever, but the St. Martin/Sint Maarten Caribbean Fever.  Spent last evening talking with my wife about perhaps taking another vacation to the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten.  The island is a two country island with St. Martin being the French side of the island while Sint Maarten is the Dutch side of the island.  And yes...there is a dividing line that you must cross every time you go from one side to another.  Not the type of line where you would be checked for passport, etc. but just a little sign along the side of the road telling you which side you may be in at the time.  Some people enjoy being on the Dutch side while others enjoy the French side better.  We have a friend, Barbara, whom we met years ago when we made our first trip to St. Martin/Sint Maarten who lives on the Dutch side of the island, part-way up a shallow mountain.  We first met her husband while buying some rum in his store in Philipsburg.  While talking, we found that he met his wife during a trip she had taken to his island home and before long they were married.  Barbara was a resident of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, my home state, before she packed up and moved to Sint Maarten to be with the love of her life.   Carol and I eventually made a visit to see her and a friendship grew over the following years.  My wife, Carol, and I have talked and talked about making another visit to our favorite island, but it just hasn't happened...as of now.  We were scheduled for a trip before Covid hit, but that never took place.  So...the other night I asked her what she thought about another trip to the Caribbean.  I could see the smile on her face, but I know that our age is a big factor.  We both can still walk and carry a suitcase.  And, it won't get any better...so if we ever will be able to take a trip...it will have to be sooner rather than later.  I know...there are so many plans that have to be made being that we have pets, family commitments, etc., etc., etc., but we traveled before while having the same two cats and having the same relatives, so the only drawback would be our health and being able to walk around on the island.  So far we have only talked about the trip, but this time it will have to get past the talking stage.  Once we decide to take the trip, we have to make arrangements for a place to stay and plans to rent an automobile.  I realize that there are plenty of reasons not to try and travel because of our age and health, but our love of the island might be just enough of an initiative to sway it in favor of traveling.  Only time will tell...and we don't have much of that!  I'll keep you informed...!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.   

The "Counting The Facial Expressions On a Cat" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting at my computer, pushing the keys for this story as my smallest cat, "The Gray Lady," attempts to push me out of the way so she too can push on the keys with her paws.  Sitting next to me in a window that I have opened about three inches, is my largest cat, "Snickerdoodle."  He is about twice the size of "The Gray Lady", but the servant to her!  I have written about them a few times in the past 6 years or so, but never get tired of including them in a story or two once in a while.  My desk from where I type my stories is in our second bedroom which we use for guests when they arrive from time to time to visit with us at Woodcrest Villas in Lancaster, PA.  I was recently reading that cats have 276 different facial expressions which can be identified if you take the time to do so.  I'm wondering who it was that decided that they have 276 expressions and not...say...263 or 138 or even 27!  Who in their right mind would take the time to figure out how many facial expressions a cat might have unless they are getting paid to do so?  And then...yes, I too would do that if I was on the clock!  The story I came upon began with...Ears flattened, constricted pupils, a lick of lips.  If you've ever wondered if your feline friends' furry faces were saying something whenever they got together, chances are they were.  In a study published in the journal "Behavioral Processes", two U.S. scientists counted 276 different facial expressions when domesticated cats interacted with one another.  The study demonstrated that cat communication is more complex than previously assumed, adding that their findings suggest that domestication has a significant impact on the development of facial signaling.  The author of the study explained that domesticated cats are typically more socially tolerant than their wildcat counterparts because of the way they live in proximity to humans, so the researchers were expecting to see expression in both positive and negative contexts, but were surprised to observe 276 morphologically distance facial expressions.  And...who did the counting?  One ear raised a bit more than the other might have been because there was a small bug in the cat's ear when they were counting.  I know it's a neat survey, since I am a cat lover, and would love to earn money counting cat's facial expressions, but come on people.  Isn't there anything else to do like count how many hairs there are on the left foot of a Husky dog or how many feathers there are on a two year old pigeon?  Both of my cats were born outdoors in the neighborhood where my wife and I lived until a year ago.  They are close in age with the male a week or two older, I think!.  They both showed up on the rear deck of our home, searching for food when they were just learning to walk.  Snickerdoodle, the male, was the larger of the two and seemed to always be at the back door looking for food.  

The Gray Lady on the left with Snickerdoodle on the right!
He is telling her what movies are in town this week.
I can tell that by the look on his face...can you see it?

The Gray Lady was a very small female who wanted into the house in the worst way.  Well, one morning, while putting food out for Snickerdoodle, my wife Carol, grabbed him around the waist and brought him in the house where we immediately took him to the room that we used for an office.  He was extremely scared.  In the meantime, The Gray Lady, saw what had happened to her "buddy" and wanted the same treatment.  We decided to try and "humanize" the first cat before trying to approach the second one.  Well, she would have nothing to do with that and somehow snuck in the back door a few days later when we were putting her food on the back deck.  Oh well!  What's one more cat!  They hit it off pretty well except for the fact that The Gray Lady wanted to be the "boss" of Snickerdoodle.  We had no choice, so she became the "spokescat" for the two of them.  And...it remains the same today!  He is more than double her size and weight, but is afraid of her when she puts her ears back and stares at him.  He takes off to find a hiding place in the house.  Well, getting back to 276 different facial expressions...let me tell you that I actually can identify about a half a dozen different expressions on each of the cats, but that's as far as I can go.  How anyone could have found 276 different expressions must have been good!  The story I was reading did talk about ears and whiskers and how they moved forward or in reverse and how small the pupils constricted and how flat the cat made their ears.....etc., etc., etc.  The end of the story finished by saying they now have another goal for the future which is to conduct a follow-up study to determine what the expressions really mean.  Boy...if I only could have found a job like that when I was out of college.  Might had taken it instead of teaching high school Industrial Arts.  But then again...the cats might have driven me more crazy than my high school students did.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The "Botanical Chemy" Story

India Flint

It was an ordinary day.  Reading another story that was published in the "What Women Create" magazine.  Story was about a woman named India Flint.  Now...if I were a woman...I would have loved to have been named India Woods.  Perhaps the most unusual name I could have imagined.  India's work conflates the visual and written poetics of place and memory, using walking, drawing, assemblage, dyeing, stitch, image-making and text to interpret country.  Guess you figured by now that I didn't come up with all those fancy words, didn't you?  Hey...they sounded good in the magazine...so I thought I'd use them.  India's parents were two fascinating people who arrived in Australia with their families as refugees from the mid-century war in Europe and met at a University.  India's father was a scientist and musician who studied both piano and violin while her mother was an artist, poet and dreamer who wove cloth in traditional Latvian patterns; designed and knitted complicated snowflake-patterned ski sweaters and made ceramic dinnerware.  She evidentally was born with Lativian patterns in her blood!  Though so different, her parents shared many interests, among them language (both German and Latvian were spoken in their home) and gardening; creating magical green places in which India's imagination could run wild. Her father raised trees from collected seeds, grafted multiple fruit varieties together before it became fashionable and grew splendid vegetables. Her mother filled just about any available space in their garden with flowers, especially roses.  If she sat down to rest, she would pick up her embroidery. She could grow chrysanthemum plants from a single leaf and spent summers putting up preserves, making jam and cooking cordials to help them through the winter.  Her mother also sewed all their clothes, even her fathers, and is wasn't until she became a teenager that she was permitted to wear jeans.  Each Easter her mother would gather herbs from the kitchen garden along with strawberry and colder leaves and dried grasses and they would sit down together at the kitchen table, carefully layering the fresh offerings inside dampened onion shells before resting an egg in the middle and then tying the whole thing up with thread, much as a spider might tie up their lunch.  It was a tradition that pre-dates Christianity and has been handed down the Latvian side of her family for as long as anyone can remember.  The bundling took place on the Saturday of the Easter weekend.  The eggs were then placed in a pot with leftover onion shells and brought to a simmer for 20 minutes before the heat was turned off and the stew was allowed to cool.  When the table had been cleared, they would unwrap the eggs, marveling at the prints on each one.  After drying, the eggs would be buffed to a glow.  Onion-dyed thread would be carefully wound onto paper spools for later use in embroidery.  Nothing was ever wasted.  It was no small wonder that she grew up fascinated by plants and with a leaning toward the creative arts.  Today, India is happily realizing the long-held dream of designing her own home which is to be built within sight of the sea.  It was in 1998 that India gave the name to her art as ecoprint.  For some time she considered calling it "eucaprint," but as the technique can be performed with almost any form of vegetation, that made no sense.  Bocoprint would have been be a snappy choice, but lacked the romance of the process, really best described as botanical alchemy and compressed as botanicalchemy.  She is still learning the practice, but someday hoping she can offer the outcome as a course at the School of Nomad Arts. I wish her all the best in her adventures and hope she will find her calling in the arts.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  Following are a few of India's work...

The "Quotes and Sayings That May Help Lead You In The Right Direction" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out one of my personal sites that I have been collecting and adding to for quite some time...like years.  My site has a HUGE list of "quotes" and "sayings" for just about any occasion.  If I need a quote or special line or saying,  I will pull up my site and begin a search so as to have the best choice available to me.  Thought the other day that maybe I could share a few "quotes" and "sayings" with you in case you might need a "quote" or "saying" in the future.  Feel free to use what you want...since I have done the same in the past.  I must admit that only one of these quotes or sayings is my own (the final one), but then again, who is good enough to come up with "just the right" saying or quote when needed.  My guess is that you will recognize some of what you are about to read.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.   

People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.

Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.

 We always may be what we might have been.

Seldom does an individual enter upon an highly creative effort in any field of endeavor before the age of forty.

If success comes early, it can mess with you. As rough as my early days were, I wouldn’t change five seconds.

The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.

I’m very grateful at my stage of the game to have all this happen. It makes me laugh and laugh; it’s ridiculous, because underneath I’m the same person I’ve always been.

There is a fountain of youth: It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.

It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.

There is nothing better in life than being a late bloomer. I believe that success can happen at any time and at any age.

This is one of my all-time favorites...since I am almost there....All I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75, I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish, and insects. When I am 80, you will see real progress.  I am at the end of the quote and my progress should arrive soon!!

By being authentically who you are, you might be a little slower in becoming successful, but you’re going to be slowly gathering people who are your tribe, your kinda folks.

Luckily for me — and anyone who’d have to tolerate my antsy early retirement — our research reveals a deeper paradox that offers true hope: We older folks don’t have to assume we’re has-beens. That’s because creativity itself has no age.

Perhaps I would have preferred to start off at 20 or 30, but I don’t think I would have been anywhere near equipped to know what it takes to be in business.

Forgiveness is a reflection of loving yourself enough to move on.

You only struggle because you're ready to grow but aren't willing to let go.

Forgiveness is just another name for freedom.

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. The past is closed and limited; the future is open and free.

The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.

You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.

What we find in life is based on where we put our attention. When we focus on the small worlds our thoughts create, we miss out on the beauty and possibilities we are meant to enjoy.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.

To me, the sea is a continual miracle; the fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves, the ships with men in them. What stranger miracles are there?

The sea, that great library of books one cannot read.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) / it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of the ocean.

No water, no life. No blue, no green.

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.

Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.

When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.

A wave in the sea, seen in one way, seems to have a distinct identity, an end and a beginning, a birth and a death. Seen in another way, the wave doesn’t really exist, but is just the behavior of water, "empty" of any separate identity, but "full" of water.

I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought, and the shells and pebbles and the seaweed with tiny living creatures attached to it never lost their fascination for me.

In one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans.

He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.

Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.

If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

[People] make their best work when they’re riding that wave and a little bit uncomfortable. Sell your own myth, but never buy it.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Great people do things before they’re ready.

Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.

Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place you belong.

And the thing about blooming is, nothing about the process is easy. It requires every part of you to stretch upward, with your roots firmly planted in the ground; and in the sun, and in the rain, and wind, you stand anyway, even against the pull of the soil. And through it all, one day you will see all along you were transforming.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

Ego says, ‘Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel inner peace.’ Spirit says, ‘Find your inner peace and then everything will fall into place.’

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things are.

If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.

Like the rainbow / after the rain / joy will reveal itself / after sorrow

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.

When you’re happy you enjoy the music, but when you’re sad you understand the lyrics.

The good life is not one immune to sadness but one in which suffering contributes to our development.

Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?

Trying in the wake of rejection is a kind of faith … A tribute to anyone who’s ever chased anything.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.

Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.

You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.

Cats never listen. They’re dependable that way; when Rome burned, the emperor’s cats still expected to be fed on time.

A house isn’t a home without the ineffable contentment of a cat with its tail folded about its feet. A cat gives mystery, charm, suggestion.

Cats are people, and the sooner the world accepts that fact, the better off the world will be.

A cat can make you feel well rested when you’re tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song.

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human mind.

When I am feeling / low / all I have to do is / watch my cats / and my / courage / returns.

I always eat dessert first, because life is so uncertain.

Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.

For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be tomorrow.

Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

Please do not take life quite so seriously — you surely will never get out of it alive

Serenity now!

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.

I wrote the books I should have liked to read if only I could have got them. That's always been my reason for writing. People won't write the books I want, so I have to do it for myself.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

Old friends are the great blessing of one's latter years — half a word conveys one's meaning.

When we’re together the years fall away. Isn’t that what matters? To have someone who can remember with you? To have someone who remembers how far you’ve come?

The best kind of laughter is laughter born of a shared memory.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

Love is the closest thing to laughter and the closest thing to tears. Love is the motive power of everything in the universe that has beauty in it. Love is the reason for everything and the reward of everything.

Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.

Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.

Words have no wings, but they can fly a thousand miles.

If you can walk, you can dance, if you can talk, you can sing.

Goodwill toward others is a precious treasure.

You must never feel badly about making mistakes … as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.

And...when life is over...we shall surely know!  So be it!

The "A Visit To Long's Park In Lancaster, Pennsylvania" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Weather was nice so I thought I would head over to Long's Park which is a hop, skip and a jump from my new home at Woodcrest Villas.  I have been making visits to the park for as long as I can remember.  My parents would often take my brother, Steve, and I to the park to see the fish that swam in the park lake.  Also enjoyed riding the swings and going down the huge sliding board they had near one of the many pavilions that filled the park for those who enjoyed bringing their noon or evening meals to the park.  Quite a few years ago they added a big "band shelter" where concerts would draw large crowds during the summer months.  I have written several stories about my experiences at the park and today I thought I would add a few more photographs to show you what a nice place the park is to visit during any season of the year.  If you live in the Lancaster area, I'm sure you have made many visits to the park, but for those not familiar with Lancaster, you are more than welcome to visit Long's Park and have a picnic lunch or perhaps visit when there might be a craft fair or a Sertoma take-out meal.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One of two entrance signs when you arrive at Long's Park

Another entrance sign to Long's Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

One of the first places you will pass is the pond
which has plenty of wildlife in and around it. 

Some of the wildlife that lives in the park.

One of the sculptures at the park.

The band shelter with plenty of space for visitors.

One of the many playgrounds that are in the park as
well as a mulch site for the city of Lancaster.

A "Be Kind" sign for all visitors to the park.  No matter what
language you speak...you will find "Be Kind" in your language.

  

The "Save The Bats Campaign" Story

The title of the story was "Going to Bat for Nature," and it had absolutely nothing to do with baseball!  Had to do with the Gray-Headed Flying Fox which takes to the sky when necessary.  Found mostly in Australia, thousands of gray-headed flying foxes take to the air as darkness descends upon the country. They have a keen sense of smell and night vision which makes for great night-time hunting!  Luckily for other animals, the flying foxes search the landscape for fruits such as figs while pollinating trees along the way.  The Gray-Headed flying fox can travel up to 30 miles in one night searching for food.  They are the largest native bat species in Australia with a wingspan of up to 36 inches.  Now...that's a big bat!  And...what's interesting is that they are only found in Australia.  But, due to human growth and droughts, their numbers are diminishing.  Their numbers were in the millions in the early 1900s, but as time passes, their population is now under half-a-million.  Today, their species in listed as "vulnerable" by the Union of Conservation of Nature.  As their habitat lessens due to human growth, the bats tend to search for food closer to people which creates a threat to the bats.  Humans place mesh over fruit trees to keep the bats from eating the fruit.  And, barbed wire is also used to snare the bats as they fly.  To go along with all that, neighorhood people are not happy to share their neighborhoods with the bats which can be noisy at dusk and dawn and can poop everywhere.  As a result, local governments try to get rid of the bats with smoke guns, loud noises and fireworks.  But, it's not been very effective so far.  Australia's bushfire seasons of 2019 and 2020 was devastating to the flying fox population, killing tens of thousands of the wildlife.  But, the fires also represented a turning point for the bats' reputation.  Because they fly long distances during their nightly travels, the bats play a role in re-polinating much of the scorched land.  Pollen sticks to their fur, and they also ingest fruits, which makes them great seed-speaders.  A single flying fox can spread as many as 60,000 seeds per night.  So, they are needed to regenerate all of the land.  And, it was determined, that the flying foxes were the best way to do that.  In 2020, the New South Wales government posted a video praising the bats for their super-pollinating powers.  So, last year, when 85,000 flying foxes descended on the city of Tamworth, news coverage wasn't all bad.  One local resident called the bats "flying vermin and. complained about the smell, while others focused on how the flying bats are an amazing sight.  One resident compared the bats to a local music festival and proclaimed "We've got to live with them, they are great for our ecology.  And, I think we need to learn just how precious our wildlife is."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "So What Time Is It?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Driving past what at one time was the Hamilton Watch Company which was located at 917 Columbia Ave. in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  My mother worked at Hamilton Watch for a few years before leaving to raise her family, of which I am a member!  You probably guessed that...didn't you?  Well, Hamilton Watch closed their doors several years ago and the building sat empty for some time.  Now, it has been made into what is known as the Clock Tower condos.  The Clock Tower Condominium complex now consists of 135 units on 14 acres that at one time was the headquarters of Hamilton Watch which was founded in Lancaster in 1892.  At one time there were more than 2,000 workers at the watch making plant.  But, in 1974, Hamilton was sold to what is now The Swatch Group, and the company shrank local production until it stopped assembling any watches in Lancaster in 1992.  The new condominium complex was completed in 1999.  But...the hugh clocks that still stand atop the two 90 foot towers have become unreliable.  The hour hand of the west clock tower turns only sporadically.  The east tower's four clock faces are close to the correct time, but you wouldn't want to set your watches by them!  

The East Clock Tower

The clocks are run on a system that was great for the 1940s and 1950s, but now the clocks don't always display accurate time.  But, thanks to some recent timing, there is renewed interest to make the clocks run on time!  A $100,000 fundraising effort was recently jump-started with a $25,000 donation from Hamilton, the now Swiss-owned watchmaker that recently opened the downtown building that at one time was Bowman Watch and Technical School.  Perhaps you recently read my story about my visit to the store where my father went to learn the art of watch making and repair.  Hamilton Watch always took great pride in their watches and the correct time...so having a few Hugh clocks that don't yield the correct time for all in Lancaster to see when they drive buy the watch towers, they are going to fix them!  But, since it takes more than a new battery placed in the tower, it's going to be a bit pricey!  It will take approximately $50,000 to restore the clocks so that those in the condominiums, as well as all who drive past the location on Columbia Ave., will be able to set their watches to the correct time.  As far as the two existing clock towers, the East tower was constructed in 1874 by the former factory's original owner, Adams & Perry Watch Co. 

Looking at the inside of the East clock tower.

The East Tower was rebuilt in 1910 when Hamilton Watch took over and than also added the West Tower.  Each tower has four clock faces that are connected to a central motor by long shafts.  The faces of the East clocks are 6 feet in diameter, while the West  clocks faces are 7 feet in diameter/.  Originally the clocks were powered by a pendulum system.  Hamilton, which pioneered the electric watch, replaced the old mechanism in the 1950s with one powered by a small, electric motor.  Hey...I could have guessed that!  Today, most of the faces on both clocks show a slightly different time.  Great if you want to pick the time best for you, but for accuracy, they need to be the absolute correct time on each face.  They said that part of the problem is that the gearing is loose after all these years.  When the wind blows you can actually see the hands moving.  To make the repairs, many of the parts will be remade by Electric Time and then shipped back to Lancaster where watchmaker Brent L. Miller will oversee their installation.  The new parts will include new versions of the Wooden clock hands, one of which has already fallen off.  And, to top that off...the refurbished clocks will be connected to satellite, meaning it won't need to be reset if the power goes off since it well be able to sync to the correct time when electricity is restored.  The time change for daylight saving time also will be automatic.  We will see...won't we!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.