Larry McMurtry....

folks, Larry McMurtry has written more books than most people these days have ever read! My personal favorite of his--and practically any other-- is "Lonesome Dove". If you have missed this book, it is a great loss. The TV miniseries was a pretty good re-creation. Not perfect. The book was damn near perfect.
I mention all this because a month or so ago I finished his "Buffalo Girls". One reviewer called this "Lonesome Jane", since it is about the legendary American personality, Calamity Jane. It was a good read.
More than that--a little bell rang in my head about the fact that I had never gotten around to viewing the HBO series Deadwood. Hubs and I are done with the first season now, having gotten the DVD's from our public library. We are loving it, swear words and violence and all. Thanks, Larry McMurtry; thanks David Milch, etc. Thanks, Wild Bill Hickock, Thanks Martha Jane Canary!!! Looking forward to finding the 2nd and 3rd seasons. Bring it on!

Another Chicago-land Flood...You saw it on the Weather Channel..

Adams Street Bridge, looking east. Chicago River full of garbage and nearly overflowing.

Water up to the steps of the water-taxi boarding area! No water-taxi today.

At River Road and Dempster St. looking N-NE; an inbound Metra train leaves DesPlaines above cresting River.

DesPlaines River at crest last Saturday, River Road and Dempster St., looking south.



First, It Rained...

Last week, a dramatic "training" rainstorm doused Chicago-land for two days.

From the Adams St. Bridge on the Chicago River. The water is very high.

As sometimes happens, sewage has to be dumped into the Lake--no one likes that. Too much water!

Photo-editing Again

One of my great-great grandmothers; I tidied-up the image without making major changes. I know her name and a lot about her. She lived from about 1845 until ~1930, in Kentucky. She was a young lady (as teenagers were then called) during the Civil War: the family was able to conceal her riding horse from one rampaging army that pillaged the farm, but the next day the other side came and took the horse. Her husband died in the late 1890's and she wore mourning til she died decades later. This photo is probably to commemorate his death. My Mother remembered her in the 1920's, still in long black dresses. 

Here!

Have a close look at "Springtime"!  PS: happy #5 to L'il Pearl and the Blonde Guy in CA!

At Least I had Time to Read...

I mentioned Hubs' and I were sick lately; several days I couldn't go to work. But when I felt like it, I read and finished a book of 2 novellas and a dozen short stories by Robert Penn Warren. Likely, by now he is best remembered for his novel, "All the King's Men", thought to be based on the career of populist polititcian Huey Long. The collection I read was called "The Circus in the Attic", also the title of one of the novellas.

The writing is excellent and smooth; the feel is similar to, but not as engaging, imo, as a good ol' Faulkner book.  Still.... My favorite story was a gem called "Backberry Winter"; it could be called a horror story
since there is a sense of dread thru the story of a cold day in June, just after a bad storm; out of nowhere walks "Evil" in the form of a strange vagrant who visits a prosperous Tennessee farm in the early part of the 20th century, looking for a handout.

The book may be difficult to locate; the edition I read was published in 1962; the material was written between 1931-46, referring to areas in Tennessee, Kentucky, Western Illinois, etc. Some language is certainly not PC! But the author's ability with description let's us feel and understand what is was like to get around in a pre-automobile world, for example.

Rites of Spring...snail's eye view.

Every Spring, the snowdrops bloom first. It is such a mircle that I always have to go out and take photos. This year, pretend you are a bug or a chipmuck and behold the glories of the Very Large Snowdrops!