boats nets lying off off the sea-beach, quite still, boats separate, row off
TWO boats with nets lying off the sea-beach, quite still, Ten fishermen waiting—they discover a thick school of moss- bonkers—they drop the join’d seine-ends in the water, The boats separate and row off, each on its rounding course to the beach, enclosing the mossbonkers, The net is drawn in by a windlass by those who stop ashore, Some of the fishermen lounge in their boats, others stand ankle- deep in the water, pois’d on strong legs, The boats partly drawn up, the water slapping against them, Strew’d on the sand in heaps and windrows, well out from the water, the green-back’d spotted mossbonkers.
A Paumanok Picture by Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass (Boston, Thayer and Eldridge, 1860).
two years, ten years, and … people ask what place is this? ask where are we now?
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?
I am the grass. Let me work.
Grass by Carl Sandburg as published in Cornhuskers (1918)
Yesterday I stood in history or maybe, stood on history.
I was on the front steps of the United States Customs House in downtown Savannah, Georgia.
The building opened in 1852.
The building is kitty corner to the Savannah City Hall on Bay Street and it was on Bay Street, on December 21, 1864, that General William T. Sherman reviewed his Army of the Tennessee after the March to the Sea that started in back in Atlanta, Ga on November 15th.
In the sketch of the event, General Sherman is in front of the old City Hall building and there across the street, is the once again, UNITED STATES Custom House.
In the pictures of me taken yesterday, I am in front of that self same building, 161 years later.
On the steps of history.
Then this morning I was reading an article about the restoration of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
That building has been in place … since 1100.
Oh …
Before that my morning Bible reading was in the book of Judges and the story of Samson.
Samson, the feller who fell for a girl who lived in … Gaza.
Samson is thought to have been a Judge back in 951–931 (BC).
Oh …
Still, I was sitting on granite steps that had first been sat on 175 years ago.
walking along when out of orange colored sky flash, bam, you came by
I was walking along Mindin’ my business When out of the orange colored sky Flash, Bam, Alakazam Wonderful you came by
I was hummin’ a tune Drinkin’ in sunshine When out of that orange colored view Wham, Bam, Alakazam I got a look at you
One look and I yelled “timber” Watch out for flying glass
‘Cause the ceiling fell in And the bottom fell out I went in to a spin And i started to shout “I’ve been hit, this is it, this is it”
I was walking along Mindin’ my business When love came and hit me in the eye Flash, Bam, Alakazam Out of the orange colored sky
According to Wikipedia, “Orange Colored Sky” is a popular song written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein and published in 1950. The first known recording was on July 11, 1950, on KING records catalog number 15061, with Janet Brace singing and Milton Delugg conducting the orchestra.
The best-known version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole (with Stan Kenton’s orchestra) on August 16, 1950, and released by Capitol Records as catalog number 1184. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on September 22, 1950, and lasted 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 11.[3] (Some sites list a 1945 date for this recording, but this is apparently in error.) A number of other singers have recorded it, including Cole’s daughter, Natalie.
Some where there is an interview with Natalie Cole about how as a kid, she loved this song.
Not for the way her Dad sang but for all the wonderful nonsense words.
Who wouldn’t love hearing their Dad sing out Flash, Bam, Alakazam.
It was wonderful enough for us kids to hear our Dad sit at the piano and sing Lulu’s Back in Town.
It was a wonderful life.
A little odd, maybe a lot of odd, but wonderful any way.
The picture is of the night sky over Bluffton, SC and seen while out on a walk with my wife.
no phone no wifi a day in the wilderness back to caveman days
I was working happily at home when around 11 a.m. my wifi went out.
As we get internet service and TV from the same place, I checked the TV and it was out.
No worries, I had a fall back plan when working from home.
The T Mobile unlimited data hotspot.
But my phone showed no bars and displayed the dread SOS that only 911 calls might work.
I checked with our apartment complex office as our service was paid for through our rent but they were out.
I drove to the local library and their service was out but someone with a different phone service was reporting a major outage for the county.
For the first time I knew for sure it was just local.
From the news:
The city of Beaufort said at 11:15 a.m. that its facilities were all without internet services.
Downdetector.com showed outages across South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Teachers also reported the internet being down in Beaufort County public schools.
By 12:45 p.m., Sparklight reported that “a portion of Hargray customers are experiencing slow internet or internet outages due to fiber damage caused by a third-party.”
At 4:13 PM EDT, the IT department where I work said that local provider, Hargray, had suffered 4 near simultaneous cuts in their main fiber ring in the Savannah/Pooler areas. A fiber ring can remain operational with 1 cut, but 4 at nearly the same time is catastrophic. The cuts were made by 4 different companies, in 4 different locations, also one I have never seen or heard of before. This Fiber ring supports all Hargray customers phone and internet services, hence the extensive service area affected, (Fl, GA, SC, NC, AL). Hargray has located 3 of the 4 cuts. Crews are onsite and hope to have the 3 cuts repaired in 3-5 hours. They believe this will restore the ring.
By that time I had got in the car and drove until I found cell service which was about 20 miles away.
I was stunned that we could lose both WiFi and Cell service on a perfectly sunny clear day.
