It’s been really really dry here for several weeks.  While we’ve had a little bit of rain on a couple of days in the last months or so, much of the state of Arkansas counties have banned outdoor burning of any kind to minimize the potential for wildfires.

The weather forecasters had been predicting rain for this weekend and, as the weekend approached, were warning that there was some possibility for severe weather accompanying a strong cold front that was to come through the area.

Saturday night and early Sunday morning, radar showed that there was a sharp demarcation along the front. With the mild weather we had left windows at the front of the house, protected from rain by the porch, open.

Around 2:30 A.M., I woke, for some reason, just as – or after – power was lost to our area of the county.  We live on a state highway between two towns with a main power line running along the highway, servicing the home along the highway and down branch roads.  Often, if we lose power, it is out for everyone along that stretch of road.

We’re set up where we can run power from our motorhome’s generator to power part of the loads in our house.  Unfortunately, the motorhome was parked too far away for the 30 amp power cable to be connected between the house and the motorhome – and the motorhome engine battery was dead!

So I improvised with extension cords until I could get the engine battery charged so I could move the motorhome.

Power was restored at about 6:20 P.M. 

It could have been worse.  For a time, power restoration was predicted for 12 P.M. – tomorrow!

I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone use the interjection, meh.

Used as an expression of boredom or indifference, meh is supposedly the verbal equivalent of shrugging on one’s shoulders.

Meh was apparently popularized after its use in the animated TV series The Simpsons. I can quite happily say that I have never watched a single episode of that show, now in its 29th. No particular reason for it – we’ve both caught glimpses of it here and there as we’ve changed channels or it’s been mentioned in some other show – but neither of us have had any particular reason to watch – meh…….

A humorous definition is found on T-shirts available from Amazon: “Meh – the universal, non-committal answer to every question ever posed. It’s the answer that doesn’t actually give any answer.”

Merriam-Webster definition of meh: used to express indifference or mild disappointment.

Others:

1. Urban Dictionary
2. Wikipedia
3. Dictionary.com
4. Oxford Living Dictionaries
5. Macmillan Dictionary BuzzWord
6. Collins English Dictionary
7. Cambridge Dictionary

21^st Century Digital #31

Cities of the Dead Cemetery tombs, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2007.

The above-ground tombs in New Orleans cemeteries are often referred to as “cities of the dead.” Enter the cemetery gates, and you will be greeted by rusty decorative ironwork and blinded by sun-bleached tombs. Crosses and statues jutting from tomb surfaces cast contrasting shadows, adding to the sense of mystery. Votive candles line tombs on holidays, reminding you that the dead have living relatives who still care.

New Orleans has always respected its dead, but this isn’t the reason that our departed loved ones are interred above ground. Early settlers in the area struggled with different methods to bury the dead. Burial plots are shallow in New Orleans because the water table is very high. Dig a few feet down, and the grave becomes soggy, filling with water. The casket will literally float. You just can’t keep a good person down! The early settlers tried placing stones in and on top of coffins to weigh them down and keep them underground. Unfortunately, after a rainstorm, the rising water table would literally pop the airtight coffins out of the ground. To this day, unpredictable flooding still lifts the occasional coffin out of the ground in areas above the water table, generally considered safe from flooding. (Experience New Orleans)

Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2010630059/. (Accessed March 06, 2017.)

Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith

Credit line: Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

Popular Mechanics, March 1952

Making history are these four bulbs as they glow with the first electricity ever produced by atomic energy. (Experimental Breeder Reactor I)

For the first time in history, useful amounts of electricity have been produced with atomic energy. The Atomic Energy Commission announced that although the power generated was only 100 kilo-watts and the project was entirely experimental, the result is another milestone in the atomic age. Heat energy was removed from an experimental breeder reactor by a liquid metal of a type not revealed. Sufficient heat was transferred to generate steam for driving the turbine and generator. Power generation is an incidental part of the breeder-reactor experiments being conducted near Idaho Falls, Idaho, but it is providing data about the handling of liquid metals under radioactive conditions. The principal function of the breeder reactor is to convert nonfissionable material into fissionable material more rapidly than the nuclear fuel is consumed, a process that would contribute to expansion of our atomic program. It can never be used to generate large amounts of power, but it is providing information that will be valuable in designing atomic power plants of the future, say scientists at the Idaho laboratory.

Heat from the atomic breeder reactor made the steam that spun the turbine and generator shown above.

Scientists and technicians recorded their feat on the power-plant wall.

Today, Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR1) is decommissioned and has been designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Located about 18 miles southeast of Arco, Idaho.  At 1:50 PM, December 20, 1951, it initially produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs.  I took the photos below during a 2010 visit to the site:

EBR-I subsequently generated sufficient electricity to power its building, and continued to be used for experimental purposes until it was decommissioned in 1964. (Wikipedia)

21^st Century Digital #30

Grain elevator, Idaho. 2005.

Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010630913/. (Accessed March 06, 2017.)

Credit line: Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith

Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

from Popular Mechanics, June 1950

Increasing traffic in 1927 forced abandonment of Menor’s Ferry, for 35 years the only connection between the east and west sides at Jackson Hole, Wyo. Instead, a steel bridge was built near by over the Snake River. After 22 years of inactivity. the ferry has been restored by Rockefeller interests. The replica was achieved by examining old photographs and original remnants of the rotting ferry gear. New visitors to this ferry at Moose, Wyo. may ride across a real piece of the old West.

Carrying this old Conestoga wagon and team of horses, the ferry makes its initial trip across the Snake River after the restoration.

Menor’s Ferry – the current is the ferry’s “motor.”

A winch changes the angle of the boat in the current and, thus, its direction of travel.

Additional images and information:

An early photo of Menor’s Ferry in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Note the covered wagons on the left.

Another early ferry photo from before the river was bridged.  Note the early 20th century auto on the ferry and the dirt road on the far side leading from the ferry landing.

Menor’s Ferry after restoration completion in 1950 carrying covered wagon and team of horses across Snake River.

The current Grand Teton National Park ferry, operated seasonally by National Park Service interpretive rangers and able to carry up to 20 passengers, was built in 1999.  The photos below are from a ride we took on it in July 2010.

National Park Service interpretive ranger operating Menor’s Ferry, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

On board Menor’s Ferry, looking across the Snake River towards Bill Menor’s cabin and store.

21^st Century Digital #29

Only steps left after 2005 Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi coast, Mississippi, 2006. March 3.

Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010630054/. (Accessed March 07, 2017.)

Credit line: Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith

Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

21^st Century Digital #28

Bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln and his horse at the Lincoln Summer Home located on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in northwest Washington, D.C. 2008.

The sculptors are Stuart Williamson and Jiwoong Cheh; working for the design shop StudioIES in Brooklyn; New York. The statue differs from so many others of Abe in that this one actually shows him with a slight smile; as if Lincoln is greeting a valued friend or relative upon arrival at his summer home.

Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010630142/. (Accessed March 07, 2017.)

Credit line: Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith

Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

21^st Century Digital #27

Scenic Seward Highway in the Chugach National Forest, Alaska. Chugach Mountains 2008. August 6.

Seward Highway showcases the natural beauty of south central Alaska between Anchorage and Seward. From jagged peaks and alpine meadows to breathtaking fjords and crystal lakes, find a concentrated series of diverse landscapes and experiences.

Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010630954/ (Accessed March 11, 2017.)

Credit line: Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith

Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image