Mostly Uphill Both Ways: The Life and Times of Joseph Aloysius Burke is finished, at least I think so.
This authorized biography of Joseph Aloysius Burke was written with the permission, cooperation, and participation of John Morris Benson, the creator of the protagonist.
The Roman Catholic Church had a prelate Joseph Aloysius Burke. Entertainment had a composer and pianist Joseph Aloysius Burke. Regular citizenry had a WWII veteran tavern owner Joseph Aloysius Burke .
The life and times of Joseph Aloysius Burke in this story started in a tarpaper shack on the flood plain between the Flint River and Walt Campbell Road just north of Joe Quick Road on the northeast corner of Huntsville, Alabama.
Joe was orphaned at birth and went into foster care at ten. He is fifty and retired in Vancouver, WA. Mundane days are mixed with ups and downs. Some days are toughened by his trying to further two childhood ambitions and shed nightmares about one of his life’s going uphill.
Etc.
Spoiler question: Will Joe’s life ever be a happy experience?
February has 29 days every fourth year for some scientific reason!1There are 1440 minutes in a 24 hr. day, 525600 hrs. in a 365 day year, and 1440 more in a leap year, … someone who likes keeping track has already done this, so …
But FYI, this post is not about science.
So anyway, then, I will not post on this calendar date again until I am no longer an octogenarian.
2024’s February had some very normal winter-like days2in the twenties with frozen white stuff, etc. in our area. It also had some very spring like days3in the low sixties with sun and no wind.
What does someone with plant something in his DNA do on February days in the 60s4Fahrenheit, not 1960s.? The answer my friend is not blowing in the wind. It is getting the garden ready, but with an awareness that an April snow fall a few years ago buried the onion sets.
As I approach being a nonagenarianite,5If nonagenarianite is not a real word, I hereby coin it. my garden is getting downsized. NO! Not to window boxes and tubs on the deck!
You know I have howevers, so this is it: I’m converting to a form of raised gardening – eight by four boxes with two-foot paths between. In as much as gardening is a domestic experiment anyway, I’ll try to condition the soil in each box for the type of plant put in.
I’ve already made the pH of my onion bed 6.8, but I’ve read it can be as low as 6.2.
Well so I don’t go on-and-on like I have a tendency so to do, I quit this forum for today.
Just say’n!
Notes
1
There are 1440 minutes in a 24 hr. day, 525600 hrs. in a 365 day year, and 1440 more in a leap year, … someone who likes keeping track has already done this, so …
2
in the twenties with frozen white stuff, etc.
3
in the low sixties with sun and no wind
4
Fahrenheit, not 1960s.
5
If nonagenarianite is not a real word, I hereby coin it.
OK! This isn’t the one I saw, but I saw one just like it two days ago.1The picture is from about this time last year.
Southwest Washington usually has a milder spring than most parts of the country, but seeing a dandelion doesn’t mean snow or freezing is gone for the year. However, they are surely a sign of spring.
It is possible, I suppose, for me to change my what some call obsessive actions to dig them up in an effort to beat the puffball stage.
Perhaps – meaning it is purely speculation at this moment in time – I’ll try them in a salad and let them grow.2If that happens, I will surely let you know.
One might wonder if dandelions have both medicinal and nutritional properties, why someone isn’t making a living from something that will grow nearly anywhere without purposeful care. Well, I wonder, but enough to enter that area of agribusiness.
I was already asked if I will have a garden this year.
I will but it will be different.
No! There will not be a patch of the afore-mentioned eatables. The entire garden area will not be rototilled, raked, etc. I plan to box small areas so I can treat the soil plant-nutrient specific.
Artificial intelligence isn’t as new as one might believe.1 And, AI – assumed intelligence, is probably older than the hills.
And AI did not develop itself.
Intelligent and talented humans got the concept and made it work.
Current publicity about AI has made many doubt, or maintain various levels of skepticism about, what they see and read.
Growing up, I thought my aunt had a studio photograph made of her and her two sons in about 1941. Yes, it was a studio picture of her and her second son. The however is, her first son died two years before. The studio photographer used darkroom techniques to put the boy into the picture with his mother and younger brother. Digital imaging and manipulation wasn’t available until nearly fifty years later.
One of my associates in the Army during the 1950s was a photographer. He was very good at image manipulation in the darkroom. He showed me how a combination of descriptive geometry and darkroom techniques could be used to confirm or debunk photographic evidence. I understood the geometry, but never fully developed the darkroom manipulation skills.
My job as a technical writer in the late 1990s gave me exposure to Photoshop. Machines in an operational setting needed to have non-essential items removed for illustration in technical manuals. Just for fun and practice, I started manipulating some of my own photographs.
On a trip to Europe, I took many photos with my digital camera.2Cellphones were not yet in common use. I had no plans to make Phake Fotos,3other than for my own use but my technical writing work experience gave me practice. I photographed the Český Krumlov Castle in Český Krumlov in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. When looking at my photos after returning home, I thought of presenting the castle from a view no one else had seen. Until now, I’ve mostly kept it to myself.
Oh, the brick wall with window does not exist in Český Krumlov. The brick wall with window is in Amsterdam4Well it was when we were there.. I used photo manipulation to remove the material between the muntins5 a bar or rigid supporting strip between adjacent panes of glassand made the spaces transparent. I moved it digitally to make it look like the view of the castle was through the window.
OH! How does AI enter the picture? Now high end cell phone cameras can do the same thing with a few clicks.
PS: I have photograph proof if you choose to believe what I’m saying.
Notes
1
And, AI – assumed intelligence, is probably older than the hills.
2
Cellphones were not yet in common use.
3
other than for my own use
4
Well it was when we were there.
5
a bar or rigid supporting strip between adjacent panes of glass
