Tag: Heimatkunde
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Bungalow topology
On yesterday’s walk through an unfamiliar block, noticed an atypical house. It’s a rancher turned sideways, with the narrow end forward. These houses were a common way of creating ‘variety’ in the 50s, but not common around here. First thought: Ranchers were originally bungalows turned sideways, so a rancher turned sideways is just a bungalow…
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Fruitful branch
The rental house kittycorner from me has a landlord with a remarkable talent for selecting good families. Most are Air Force types from Fairchild. Air Force is a reliable source of good citizens. The latest family is pure 1950s Hallmark Americana, but not Air Force. Dad is always out working on the car, and his…
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What were they smoking?
This year I’m trying to regain my analog world after the NAZI TORTURE CAMP is done for a while. Taking more walks and longer walks, looking at blocks I haven’t seen in years. Today I noticed a house for sale, fairly rare this year. It’s an ordinary ranch type, renovated by NVest. The renovation includes…
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Jet activity
Just a note for future reference. For a week I’ve been hearing near-sonic jets flying overhead once or twice a day. I’m under one of the flight paths for the main airport, so I’m accustomed to the sound of ordinary airliners. They emit a steady faint roar, audible for about a minute, fading in and…
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Not the best idea
There are several of those ‘little library’ kiosks in the neighborhood. I doubt that they get much use, but they’re good follies in the strict sense. On today’s walk I noticed one kiosk repurposed to hold canned food. Probably not a good idea. A closed chamber with glass facing southwest is a solar oven. =…
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Rbird
As an old CW type, I always interpret in Morse. For the last week, one nearby bird (most likely a California quail) has been saying R all day every day. Slight variations in tone, always the same .-. rhythm over and over. I suppose he’s calling CQ to the nearest available broad, or just announcing…
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Sane politicians!
This is a recent interview with some Enid politicians. I was listening to it for background noise while doing graphics. My ears perked up when I heard one of the ladies joking about a previous politician who wanted to SEEment all the medians for global warming. I perked even more when Frank Baker discussed how…
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Rehankhilling, dehankhilling
Since March I’ve been doing longer neighborhood walks, inspired by Beatrix to reconnect the physical world. During the NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP period I was restricting walks to one standard path, operating in SIR! NAME RANK AND SERIAL NUMBER SIR! mode. Also, my walking capacity is much longer now after cutting down on carbs, inspired by…
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Deeply familiar
Vintage.es has some pics taken by an early railroad photographer in Kansas and New Mexico. The Kansas scenes are deeply familiar. Here is the railroad running along the banks of the Kaw. This is where Polistra lives. (See the icon above).
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Soundscapes
Sarah Hepola’s latest smoky podcast is intensely based in NYC, with NYC sounds in the background. She’s discussing the difference between NYC and Dallas soundscapes, garbage trucks and jackhammers vs crickets and frogs. Reminded me of a couple items I’ve done on the subject. From 2022, a fable based in NYC’s earlier soundscape, dominated by…
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Waiting for water
This winter was especially hard on plants. Nov and Dec brought heavy snow, which didn’t get a chance to melt until late March. My front “lawn” was mostly killed by the snow and the shovel-thrown salt from the sidewalk. Yesterday I noticed a few barely visible sprouts in the dirt. Overnight we had 1/3″ of…
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Wrong product
Article in Catholic Thing discusses adapting to a smaller church. The stats are clear and drastic. Catholics are dying and leaving fast, except in Mexican parts of town. And even there, evangelical churches are taking over from Rome. Example: In my working-class mixed race neighborhood, there are four Evangelical churches within easy walking distance. Each…
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Vector thinking 2
While writing previous item about lots and maps and houses, I asked “What if maps were done as vec…. The answer came before I finished thinking the question. Maps WERE done by vectors until quite recently. Metes and bounds was strictly vectorial, and it closely resembled the newly discovered bee vectors. The example given by…
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Liminal ramps
I enjoy the Liminal Spaces section on Reddit. The term is defined visually, not verbally. Seems to be long narrow repetitive views, like hotel halls or stairways or sewers. Many of the pics are from night-shift workers who have more responsibilities than duties. I used to work such jobs and enjoyed patrolling the rooms and…
Polistra's Mill 