I’m feeling the itch to go on another southern Indiana day-long road trip. Some previous trips:

• July 2022 visit to Geode Grotto. Also visited Jug Rock and Hindostan Falls on the same day.
• I never properly documented this one, but I went on a long trip from New Harmony to Troy in August 2023. Pictures here and here. I wish I had documented it better at the time. It was a really good day. Apart from visiting New Harmony and Christ of the Ohio, I visited the grave of a gypsy queen in Evansville, explored a Catholic cemetery, drove the Ohio River Scenic Byway, and visited the Monte Cassino Shrine.
• Ancestor grave visiting in October 2023

I note with some disappointment that a few new businesses in my town are called Star City [etc]. When I was growing up, it seemed like every other business was Stone City [etc]. That was, of course, because of the local limestone industry. (We are, for good reason, the self-proclaimed Limestone Capital of the World.) The industry still exists but it is a shadow of its former self, for various reasons. Now businesses seem to be turning to the mascot of our high school for their naming. Is it a big deal? No, but it does represent a fading and forgetting.

This humidity we’re having. My in-laws want a polyurethane finish on their table and chairs. When I spray a coat on a chair it goes cloudy. (I’m doing this in my detached garage with no AC.) So I’ve brought a chair in to my nasty but climate controlled basement and will try it there. Fingers crossed

The Adam and Eve story has always been a fruitful (heh) one for me. Two times I reflected on it: here and here.

I’m nearing the end of the table and chairs restoration project for my in-laws. It’s taking me a long time—thankfully they’re not in a hurry. I’ve had to learn a lot as I go. But now that I can see the end, I’m planning more restorations. Like this rocker. Looks like I’ll be learning rush weaving!

Robin Wall Kimmerer:

People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, “Plant a garden.” It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people. A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate—once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself.

Something essential happens in a vegetable garden. It’s a place where if you can’t say “I love you” out loud, you can say it in seeds. And the land will reciprocate, in beans.

Jon Stewart on why “get on board or shut the f* up” is not exactly a pro-democracy rallying cry.

As if I wasn’t already behind on my projects, I picked up a chair today for $5. I don’t know anything about identifying chair styles or age. Obviously that square of wood nailed to the top of the seat isn’t original. Maybe it used to have a drop in seat or was a rush seat?

Steve Robinson on the death of his father. I know what this kind of conflicted memory is like. I’m grateful to him for honestly expressing it.

For as long as I can remember, my heroes have almost always been old men. Maybe because my first hero was my maternal grandfather, who died when I was eleven. As I think about it, this tendency is probably something that has shaped my life in certain ways.