Dispatches

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here. Or, Brigadoon, New Hampshire.

Took a drive yesterday. And, I came across a small New Hampshire town that was like the towns I dreamed about when I was young.

This lunch spot was packed at 1:30 and my club sandwich took about 20 minutes. I didn’t mind, I enjoy people watching. To a person, everyone waiting was cheerful and friendly, even to this outsider. Which is unusual for New England where we practice reticence as though it were the law.

I ate my lunch seated on a bench in the town square and couldn’t escape the thought that I just might be the luckiest man in the world. Just to have made it this far is a miracle . Nobody was betting on me, except my mother. The odds were good that I’d be standing in line to punch in/out at the fiberglass plant instead of enjoying my life the way I do now.

Inside, I’m still that rube who doesn’t quite understand how this good life happened. I haven’t traveled much, life was busy, so I’m still awed by places and events you’d find to be cornball. So be it. I do know this much: I am deeply grateful for these moments.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Why yes, yes this is a pedestrian suspension bridge.

[petaltexturedskies]

Katherine Mansfield, in a diary entry dated 14 October 1922, from Letters and Journals of Katherine Mansfield

[helpingthingsgrow]

Check, check, check, check, check, check and check.

[freiherr-von-naarenburg]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Well, it's early nights

And pillow fights

And your soft laugh

Fantasy world and Disney girls

I'm coming back

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Orienteering Merit Badge homework.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

Country shade and lemonade

Guess I'm slowing down

It's a turned back world

With a local girl

In a smaller town

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

The greatest achievement in the history of rock and roll music, Exile topped the charts on this date in 1972.

I won’t go on and on about its place in the Mighty River that is American music; I’ll simply state that if you didn’t know better it was easy to conclude that the musicians who made this music were members of a Black band from the American South.

This music will never be equalled.

[pdwsolutions]

“We must abolish the ATF before they abolish the 2nd Amendment”

#AbolishTheATF #RepealTheNFA https://www.instagram.com/p/Co6AulHuQwq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[usmcmuscle]

[csasso]

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯🇺🇸

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Phillips Exeter Academy, Class of 1945 Library. Louis Kahn, architect.

Friends, it wasn’t that long ago that giants walked among us.

Architects in planning rooms today have forgotten their faith in natural light. Depending on the touch of a finger to a switch, they are satisfied with static light and forget the endlessly changing qualities of natural light, in which a room is a different room every second of the day. — Louis Kahn

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life. —Frank Lloyd Wright

Friends, we get the architecture we deserve or at least the architecture we put up with. If you’ve visited Washington, our federal buildings from the 60’s and newer are, to be kind, uninspired.

Our President—yes I know you hate him, spare me the lecture-our President issued an Executive Order to mandate that new federal buildings refer back to classical forms. Whether I agree with the Order is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the President of the United States has refused to rubber stamp bad architecture. I’ll take that for starters.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Remember friends, there were days when giants walked among us.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

The Scots were wonderful guests and we want them to return. If ever a town was designed for thousands of good natured enthusiastic sports fans, it’s Boston.

We are the greatest city in the world. Come visit. We’re buying the first round.

[gadawg-404]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Well, this kinda puts a damper on my evening mood.

70 is a curious age. Some of us are working hard to defer or defeat the looming demons of cancer, metabolic diseases like Alzheimer’s or diabetes, and other illnesses like ALS, MS, or stroke. I no longer drink hooch and haven’t smoked in ages.

Others of my friends are saying fuck it and burning it all down, taking up hooch, dope, and fast food like they were some kind of secular sacrament.

I’m not gonna analyze the partiers and hope they don’t analyze me, but geez most of these folks led straight and sober lives until recently. They’re living life today as though it’s Cosplay for the roles of roadies in an Allman Brothers tribute show.

Stay tuned.