Old Photos, History, Inspiration, and Loving Cincy

I just spent half an hour looking back at some old posts. I don't feel that I've had a really good post for at least a few weeks, and re-reading some old ones was a good inspiration.

A good blog post takes either time or inspiration. Inspiration in writing an essay only comes once in a while, and for me, cannot be forced ...at least while keeping this whole enterprise enjoyable. Without inspiration, a good post can also be made by doing some research and getting some information out there. Often this involves photos, either new ones, or better yet, old ones. And the older the better. My favorite posts are when I find some obscure old photo or artifact, and scan it for posterity. I'm always keeping my eyes open for that kind of stuff and love to happen across such finds while walking through town.

Today it was cold, but clear and bright. My wife was sleeping after working 3rd shift last night. So as is often the case, the kids and I spent the day out of the house tramping from place to place. It is days like this when I feel like we own this town. We met a few friends along the way, saw some culture, found some nature, and got some exercise. One neighbor said that our neighboring pastor, Fred got held up at gunpoint last night. I'm not sure that is true, but unfortunately it is definitely believable. But it seems like it's getting less likely to hear such stories. Maybe, but it still happens. I hope he is ok.

Anyway, the kids were in a wonderful mood today, mostly because we were out with no real agenda, and basically if a kid is outside, with no agenda, they are happy. We stopped in at Park + Vine and chatted, and bought some vegan chapsick. (I really didn't know vegans were anti-beeswax). Then we went to that fantastic Just Crepes for lunch. I try to support the places that are open on Saturdays. Daughter had the PBJ Crepe, and she loved it. The coffee was excellent. Then we met happened to meet our father-son neighbors who then accompanied us to the Natural History Museum. Daughter loved the Panamanian dancers in pretty white dresses in the rotunda. Son liked the different animal teeth/jawbones.

Then we went on a expedition to find a certain video and ended up in the Corryville Public Library, which is such a beautiful classical Carnegie library. We had a great experience there, as the librarian was very helpful and daughter found lots of books she liked about monsters. When we left this library we found a huge tailgate party going on for a UC game. Lots of joviality.

The last rays of the sun were shining on us, even though it was only 5pm. Looking at my happy kids and the library columns orange with sunlight and then taking a gliding ride home down Sycamore hill, the city, our home right in front of us, it felt like we were the center of this town, and that we owned it. But it was good, not like we owned it like we control it, but like we had ownership, like we helped make it and it helped make us. Then after being out in the cold most of the day we come home to our place, and we all snuggle down with homemade soup, books a video and hot cocoa. Life is good. And we are thankful.