Happy Kansas Day, Happy Explorer Weekend

I tried an experiment this weekend by bringing along a companion for one of my exploring adventures. The day was windless and warm. Perfect. And my companion, or brother, had his navigation device that allowed us to visit other bridges by a more direct path. My plan was to go back to the highway after every bridge so that I could regain my bearings. Below are two of our sites, though there were 2 other bridges that we visited. It's different having a buddy, but it's nice to have another set of eyes and another set of thoughts when you visit a new place. I think having someone with me made me more adventurous and more apt to climb in places that I may have otherwise hesitated.

Stoecker Bridge

The bridge is a WPA project and I was inspired to go and find it by a piece on HPPR ( if you're interested the podcast is the one entitled WPA projects) which replayed as we drove to it. The picture is a little bit washed out, but the black and white picture was better than the color ones.


My companion in the arch. One arch had water flowing (mostly frozen) and the other side was dry.
This is the bridge and the brush from the other side.

We took turns picking up this block. We estimated that it was 90 pounds based upon my ability to move it, but not lift it and Matthew's ability to actually raise it off the ground.

Ness County Bridge

We found the other bridges to visit using a historic bridge website. This spans a fork of the Pawnee River.


There were a few of these little bridges in a single arch around the area too. We also found what looked like an old school with a WPA sign on it.

Happy Birthday Jeanette

And a belated happy bday to Jonathan!

You're making me dizzy

I'm at home for lunch which I haven't eaten yet. Instead I am writing to you. Is it possible for a song to make you dizzy? I have put number #3 from the current Paste cd sampler on repeat. I did this yesterday and so anytime I get into my car I'm listening to a song possibly called "Carousel" possibly by a girl named Sydney. I can't really know for sure because the cd jacket was an invisible piece of plastic that I can see because of my magic powers. As for evidence of being dizzy I walked into a door today and hit my cheek very hard. I tried to turn the door handle, but I missed and my body kept walking even though I hadn't actually opened the door (you are possibly wondering why I didn't just walk through the door. I can turn my magical powers on and off at will. I usually leave them off while I'm at work in order to ensure that I'm on an even playing field). Also, I fear that I have failed to finish my homework assignment for today. I am taking my first class since I got that JD thing. I can't find my syllabus because I keep remembering to take it places with me and then I don't look at it when I'm in those places and I leave those place along with the syllabus. Anyway, I may have to go out of "hibernate" mode this afternoon at work in order to stop time and finish my homework. I am afraid that this leaving behind of things that I need is also a symptom of the dizziness caused by listening to #3 on repeat. I am not tired of listening to #3 and don't want stop if it is not the cause of my problem.

Has anyone had any experience with song-induced dizziness?

PS #3 also confirms that I am attracted to circus music.

A Wild Phantom Identity

I haven't had a participation blog in a long time. Due to the fact that the last three books that I've read are about as different as books can be, I thought I would make a list of lessons from the books and let you guess which book belongs to the corresponding lesson.

1. Instincts are a heritage.
2. Games can ruin everything even if they are kindly intended.
3. Leaving your man is essential to fully realizing one's potential.
4. Knowledge is senseless without rhyme and reason.
5. London is too weird to be real.
6. There are too many things to learn and to see to ever be bored.
7. Useless tasks are the thief of time.
8. Dogs are a good companion.
9. The person who knows you best still doesn't know you.
10. Dreams can be very long or very short.

Your book choices are: Identity by Milan Kundera, The Phantom Toolbooth by Norton Juster, The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Write down numbers 1-10 and next to the number write down the correct (or your best guess) book which taught that lesson.

P.S. thanks to Dad and Spencer for the reading recommendations. You were right, TCOTW and TPT were great reads. Also thanks to the thrift store in Arizona for the $.50 copy of I, I'm still trying to decide what I think about it.

A day for the unprejudiced heart

I was looking around Youtube and the web in general so that I could listen to a particular song this morning. The song is a wish for a nice day from someone with an unprejudiced heart. Anyway, I picked this random girl singing the song in her room with the guitar, because it works a lot better as a "love" song when the high pitched mice aren't singing and isn't love part of a good day?

"If I had words to make a day for you" . (I didn't actually watch the video so much as listen to the song. I don't really like to watch people singing in their rooms, but this is pretty).

Today should be less terrible than yesterday. I don't have anything emotionally draining scheduled.

p.s. oh yes, the movie is "Babe".

You can't reach me

I speak often of needing the sunlight. Today I need the clouds. I need them to confirm the struggle of everyday life. Instead, it is sunshiny and beautiful and everything happening today conflicts with the sky's message.

Tonight it may blizzard. The kind with crazy winds and paltry amounts of snow; just enough to ruin vision and slicken steps. Perfect. If I'm going to feel like I can't see far enough, I would like to not be able to see far enough. If I'm going to feel like I've fallen I might as well stumble.

(or maybe I'll just eat a little lunch, regroup, wipe the tears from my eyes and enjoy the afternoon before the storm... I guess we'll see).

I cry at movies

It occurred to me yesterday my emotional spectrum may actually grow during my entire life. (I know there is hardness and dullness that comes too, but I haven't been dealing with that lately). I'm not sure if this is true or not, but this is what I'm thinking:

I watched Juno last night (really sweet and edgy). There were moments in the movie when I cried (this is normal behavior for me. I've heard so many people say "I don't cry at movies, but PS I love You made me cry and cry". I didn't cry during PS I Love You. The only good things about that movie were the Irishmen). It occurred to me that a lot of the movie watchers were tearing-up during the show. I wondered if we were crying about the same things. For instance, how can a mother who has experienced labor not think of giving birth to her own child during a labor scene? How can someone who got pregnant as a teen not think about the moment she herself had to tell her parents? There are a lot of those moments in the movie that a lot of people may have experienced. There are moments in the movie that a lot of people haven't experienced. Yet we all cried (or were emotionally touched if you aren't a crier like me). A lot of movies are like that. For me, there were moments of poignancy that could not have been personally poignant to the person sitting next to me (no, I was never a pregnant teenager and I've never given birth). Not because she is inferior, but because she is not me. I'm wondering if she had moments of poignancy that are personal to herself. Life is a lot grander than a movie, so I suppose that everyday is like that for everyone. Memories just keep filling a life and so the moments of poignancy must begin to fill every nook of the action happening around you. Or maybe I'm just being sentimental.

Old friend of a friend

One of my great pleasures in college was getting to read Ed Skoog's weekly column in the Collegian. If you go to the "Podcast & Audio" section on this page, you can listen to his poem read by an actress and then hear Ed discuss the poem. I still remember his op-ed piece on Calvin Hall and the poem about Mrs. Wefald walking her poodles. I hope the kids at KSU have someone as gifted writing for them these days.

Resolution: Revelation and Revolution

As for the New Year tradition, writing down a resolution is the surest way to guarantee that I won't accomplish it. I try to think of changes as guidelines, and I give myself permission to ignore any guideline I give because with that permission in place I'm more likely to follow the guideline. I just don't like it when I boss myself around and am prone to breaking rules out of spite.

Here are some hopes for the New Year over which I have no control:
A happy spring
Something good in my life that brings me joy
Focused goals
Love
A respite from toughness

I guess you would call those prayers since I have no control over them. What else can I do with hopes like that except pray?

As for my guidelines and resolutions, I'll just have to tell you about them in person if you want to know, but one of them is to be more open about myself. I'm sure if I try to break it that you will be able to cajole me into following through. I will be a revelation and ideally my whole life will undergo a revolution.

Unfinished Business

I've had some requests recently about Christmas quotations. I am dutifully passing them on such as they are.

1. "I'd never seen spaghetti before[I went to college]"

2. "13-- that's when girls get hot".

3. "I like him. He has white hair."

4. "I'm Jesus."

5. "Don't get frosting on the Holy Family"

6. "Oh, no! I dropped a choking hazard"

I felt like I did not end up with a very extensive list, so I wasn't too excited about it. However, the more important list is pictured: The 2007 Fantasy Championship Team, the Coconspirators.