April 2010 – Page 2 – red paper boat

Cemetery Stories

April 25, 2010December 29, 2015 Shelly

I usually don’t pay much attention to headstone inscriptions while I’m actually photographing them, aside from doing my best to make sure the text is as legible as possible. It’s not until I get home and have time to transcribe them that the stories they contain begin to unfold. This is an especially sad one.

L. E. Stump / Born July 5, 1861 / Died Oct. 11, 1862
E. F. Stump / Born Nov. 7, 1867 / Died Jan. 1868
M. Stump / Born Nov. 10, 1870 / Died Nov. 13, 1870
J. W. Stump / Born July 6, 1876 / Died Oct. 18, 1877
Infant / Born & Died / Nov. 15, 1872

Five children of Millie and Christopher Stump, all dead. One didn’t even live long enough to be named.

Photography, Videos

Spring Storms

April 25, 2010January 8, 2016 Shelly

It poured rain earlier this afternoon, and then everything was quiet for awhile. At sunset, I looked out the patio window and saw some amazing mammatus clouds to the northeast.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Rainy Day

April 24, 2010December 27, 2015 Shelly

It was grey and wet and gross today, which is seasonally appropriate, but kind of a drag after the gorgeous weather we’ve been having lately. And it’s supposed to stay like this for a while, too. The plants sure are enjoying it, even if I’m not.

Cable is fixed! It took trying three different DVRs before he found one that worked, and that one looks like it fell off the back of a truck, but I don’t care. Much. It is kind of irritating that one of the scratches is across the display, so some of the numbers are a little distorted. A minor irritation, sure, but it’s one of those things that will bug the crap out of me. Not as much as not having cable, though! And I didn’t, this morning. I got up and things had gone from bad to worse. Not only was the DVR not working, but all the stations were black screens. The tech said they’d pushed out a big update on Monday night, and I’m betting that’s what killed it.

All’s well now, though. Well, except for the fact that I lost all the programs I’d recorded. Hrmf.

Photography

Look at the Bones!

April 21, 2010December 29, 2015 Shelly

Yes, more dead stuff! You can take the girl out of the goth, but apparently you cannot take the goth out of the girl.

My mom gave me two boxes of deer bones, the last time I visited, and they’ve been sitting in the back of my car ever since. I finally got them out and took a good look at them today. Or, at the skull, at least.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Ten

April 21, 2010December 27, 2015 Shelly

I went on a cleaning binge this afternoon. After washing the crock pot insert, I turned it upside-down on a towel, so it could air dry. I noticed that the bottom was wonderfully oxidized.

In other news, I stayed home from work today, and it’s a good thing I did. Maintenance is prepping the apartment above mine for new tenants (yes, the amazing dream neighbors moved out last month). The carpet guy was here today, and apparently he left the machine turned on, so that it was spewing water everywhere. This of course meant that I once again had Niagara Falls in my bathroom. Aieee! Water everywhere. So I had to clean the bathroom from top to bottom, because everything was drenched.

I also had to deal with Comcast’s sucktacular phone system. I had the worst time trying to get through. I don’t know if there was some sort of technical glitch or if this is a new “feature.” I got stuck in an endless phone menu loop, then gave up and tried an alternate number printed on my bill. New endless loop, so I hunted online and found a third number. That one finally worked. Yay! All that because my DVR quit working last night. I’m guessing the hard drive has died. This would not have been a big problem, except I didn’t watch Lost when it was broadcast. I decided I’d watch it after it was finished airing, so that I could skip commercials. Bad plan! We are not amused. So after getting thoroughly frustrated with Comcast’s wonky phone system, I have an appointment for a tech to come out on Friday morning.

And because shit always happens in threes, the wireless router decided that this morning would be a good time to give me fits. Or so I thought. I moved my laptop into the living room, next to the modem and router, so that I could troubleshoot more easily. After plugging the modem directly into the laptop, and still having some weird problems, it occurred to me that I should try restarting the computer. That should always be the first step in troubleshooting, because chances are, that’ll solve it. And it did. Apparently something didn’t load correctly when I started my computer the first time, so I got (more) frustrated for nothing.

Cemeteries, Photography

Flowers for the Dead

April 20, 2010December 23, 2015 Shelly

Japanese Azaleas

Golden Ragwort

I love how intensely pink the azaleas are. They don’t quite look real. The golden ragwort was everywhere at Splinter Ridge Cemetery. The pops of bright yellow were cheerful and sunshiny.

There are few things more picturesque than wildflowers in an overgrown cemetery.

Cemeteries, Ladybusiness, Photography

Wife

April 19, 2010December 23, 2015 Shelly

Wife. Like it’s a job description or some sort of military rank. Which I guess maybe it is, sometimes.

Cemeteries, Photography

Extremes

April 18, 2010December 23, 2015 Shelly

I also went to Splinter Ridge Cemetery yesterday. It’s still in use, so there were some kind of amazing memorials.

Wind chimes and piles of stuffed animals around a baby’s grave and a large memorial for a young woman who died a few years ago. That, too, was decorated with gifts, including a ceramic piggy bank.

The graveyard was dominated by one huge monument. Very fancy, in the shape of an arch with an urn on top. It also featured the clasped hands that typically symbolize marriage in graves of that era.

In contrast, there were numerous graves with no permanent markers. Owen County is poor, and a lot of families there just don’t have money for a headstone.

Cemeteries, Photography

Mount Moriah Cemetery

April 18, 2010December 23, 2015 Shelly

Today’s cemetery trek involved not just a drive in the country, but a drive in the way deep backwoods country. Pot-holed and patched blacktop gave way to gravel, which gave way to dirt. The scenery was gorgeous, and the weather couldn’t have been nicer. Bright blue sky, a refreshing breeze, and cool enough not to get overheated.

I ended up going to two cemeteries. Mount Moriah Cemetery was the first. It was kind of a let down. There are some old–for the area–graves there, but most of the older markers have been damaged. It looks like someone tried to clean them with something that stained the stone. They’d be good candidates for rubbings. The cemetery is still in use and isn’t in bad shape, but there are several stones that have fallen. Some are buried in the ground. Too many names have completely worn away. There are also a number of plain fieldstone markers.

Shadows

Old Gateposts

Fieldstone markers

Concerete Grave Marker

Cemeteries, Photography

Union Headstone

April 15, 2010December 23, 2015 Shelly

Grave Marker Depicting Union Battle Encampment
Isaac S. Buskirk, 14 November 1845-11 July 1864
Mount Gilead Cemetery, Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana

He was only 18 year old when he died, six months after enlisting with the Union army. This is the most elaborate Civil War headstone I’ve seen so far. Most of them are plain stones with just a simple shield decoration.