Anniversary of The Fall of the Berlin Wall - part 1

Regular readers will recall that I was stationed in West Berlin during the 1980's, during the Reagan administration. My colleagues and I were surrounded by the Berlin Wall there - more than 140 miles of it encircled us.

The culture of the time sometimes held that Berlin was the flashpoint that might turn the Cold War into World War 3 - we were constantly reminded of that fact.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall this month, I thought I might go through some old photos to see what I might find of the Wall as it stood back then, as well as of various memorial installations I or my friends have encountered. I will also try to recollect some thoughts about how I regarded the Wall back then.

Of course, to my colleagues who were there as well, you are welcome to use the comment section on the blog to share any thoughts you would care to. If you are reading on Facebook, I will copy comments I receive there into a future blog post over the next week or so.

The photos today are of the recently installed memorial at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. During the early part of my enlistment, this is where I received Russian language training.

Also, a note of thanks to my friend Yiming for sending these - he was at Monterey at the same time I was all those years ago.

New Blog - Canine Renal Failure Specific

I appreciated all the interest in Gracie's kidney failure - the thoughts and messages were very touching and appreciated.

This blog continues to get search hits about the condition, so in response to all that traffic, I have started a second blog that will contain only those posts. It will take a few weeks to get them all transferred over, edit them to the new context etc., but if you are interested, here is a link:

http://graciedawg.wordpress.com/

Looking at the Oaks

I’ve been keeping an eye on the oaks. At the Hawksbill Cabin, most of the deciduous trees in the yard are White Oaks. Among the benefits these trees provide, such as shelter for the plentiful birds and squirrels in the yard there, are the bountiful crops of acorns every year.

Those annual acorn crops are one of the main differences I noticed between the White Oaks at Hawksbill Cabin, and the varieties of Red Oak we have in the Alexandria neighborhood. The acorn crop for Red Oaks takes two years to mature – and 2009 is a bountiful year for these trees.

For the last month, the sound of acorns falling from the street trees has been going on around the clock. There is either the ping/thud of their hitting parked cars or the click-click sound as they hit the pavement, followed by a first bounce of four to six feet.

Here is a comparison of the two acorn varieties – the long green ones are White Oak acorns from the cabin, while the dark round ones are the Alexandria red ones. The Red Oak acorns seem to usually fall out of their cups, while the whole thing falls from the White Oaks. Both are passionately enjoyed by the local squirrels, as evidenced in the photo here, and the White Oaks are the key reason we have so many deer in the yard at the cabin.

Here are a couple of views of the trees (and fall color) in the Alexandria neighborhood. The large oaks date from the late 20’s and early ‘30’s. We know that there was at least one and maybe two in front of our house at one time, but those have been lost at some point.

A young Pin Oak – a Red Oak variety – has been planted to replace the old trees; there are still five or six of the really old oaks in the neighborhood, but they are gradually succumbing to the stress of city life. Our Pin Oak is the smaller one in this photo.

New Market's Southern Kitchen

I think it may have been Chris and Jeneane that turned us on to it first, but we have been in love with the Southern Kitchen in New Market since we first visited a couple of years ago. They make a stop for breakfast there whenever they are out camping in the GWNF. Of course, we just drive over the mountain whenever the inspiration strikes – just as likely for lunch as for breakfast.

And apparently we are not alone. There are fans among my fellow H-burg bloggers, and there is a review here, with general favorable results: http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=427.

We like the décor. From the roadside Americana outside to the fifties era Formica (we took some inspiration from the chartreuse boomerang pattern for the Hawksbill Cabin kitchen remodel) inside, and the Wurlitzer jukebox – it all makes a comfortable post card dining situation. The geraniums greeting you road side are still in bloom right now, even in November.

We’ve found the portions large enough to satisfy. For breakfast, the meal might include a western omelet with biscuits and sausage gravy – which always reminds me of having breakfast with my grandfather at a drug store counter in Sanford, Florida – or one of the hearty combos, eggs over easy. For lunch, it’s got to be the two piece fried chicken dinner, shown here with homemade potato salad (Mary likes the beets).
The Southern Kitchen also has a nightly dinner special, although we’ve yet to make it over there in the evening. A last note, they have a legacy dish, peanut soup – it’s worth a try if you’d like something you haven’t had before. It’s been a menu standard there for more than 50 years.

Battle of the Species: Snake on the Terrace

So, once again, I was working on a chore, whistling while I worked, and suddenly, I hear a plaintive, “JIM, what kind of snake is this?” Mary had once again nearly put her hand on a snake, this time resting peacefully on the hose bib at the front of the house. As before, she calls me for help AFTER she has disturbed it.

Once again, we had a nonvenomous species here, which I have tentatively identified as a milk snake. While there is a lot of good material on Wikipedia about these snakes, I am quoting from the Iowa state on Herpnet – link: http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=26, and the extensive description is summarized below.

In researching this snake I encountered two interesting factoids. The first is that the color variation of this snake can range from the golden brown we saw to a number of other patterns, including red, black, and yellow, so that the snake mimics a coral snake – which would be dangerous. The second factoid of interest is the source of the name – as quoted in the herpnet article; it was once believed that these snakes drank cow milk!

“The milk snake is a medium sized Iowa snake that is 24 to 52 inches in length, but quite often maintains a slender build. It is nonvenomous. Although this snake's blotched pattern remains consistent, its general coloration is quite variable. Some specimens can be beautifully light colored, having a light gray or brown ground color and bright to rusty red body blotches. Others can look a lot like fox snakes having an overall brown coloration. Still, others can be a dark gray with little or no difference in color between the ground color and blotches, only the black borders (which are always present) indicate the presence of blotches.”

“Milk snakes feed on a wide variety of animals including mice, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, reptile eggs, birds and birds’ eggs. They are a type of kingsnake and will consume venomous snakes when they chance upon them. They are at least partially immune to the venom of the venomous snakes in their range and many venomous serpents will use defensive tactics other than biting to protect themselves from kingsnakes. Young snakes comprise a large portion of a baby milk snakes diet, but they are not found to be the most significant food item for adults (Breckenridge, 1944). Adults consume mainly rodents. Milk snakes are constrictors and kill their food by suffocation.”

“Milk snakes are so named because it was once believed that these snakes would enter barns and steal milk from cows. This is false; snakes only drink water. They would become sick if they were to drink cow’s milk. Snakes also have sharp teeth; no cow would stand still for that! The milk snakes were in the barns actually helping the farmers by looking for rodents to eat.”

This is the second time I’ve seen one of these rare snakes – they may not be so rare, but are rarely seen, since they are nocturnal. The first one I saw was a dead one, similar in size to this one (by the way, the bulge in the snake body here indicates that it had recently eaten). A link to that earlier sighting, now two years ago, is here: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2007/10/battle-of-species-2-snakes.html

This time, I coaxed the snake up onto the rake I was using and then tossed him into the front yard, away from the house. I am happy to find these nonvenomous species around, like I’ve said before, and especially ones that are known to eat young venomous snakes. But we prefer to keep them outside – AND away from the house.

Clarendon Construction October 2009

Here with a monthly update on the progress with the two buildings going up near my office.

First, big mixed use building across the street. They've reached the top now, and it looks like this new addition is higher than anything else in the neighborhood. A lot of action going up around the penthouse - there may be more than one of them.

And this shot also shows some of the exterior detailing going on in the lower right.

Then the mid-block building. They are still down in the hole, but yesterday I did see concrete moldings getting moved around so fast progress with floor pouring is going to start happening.

Since these photos were taken two weeks ago, I've noticed that quite a bit more of the exterior moldings have been installed, and they are already working on duct work and interior infrastructure as high as the ninth floor. Yesterday morning they were installing exterior elevators so the could do masonry and detail work - I will try to get a photo of that in the next week or so.