Pine Bluff headstones' differing views of mortality

Inez is buried in the newer part of Graceland cemetery in Pine Bluff.  Graceland itself is a newer subdivision of Bellwood cemetery on Pullen Street.  The cemetery and the street can be seen from the Martha Mitchell Expressway.  Bellwood has a large Jewish section, where Sol Dante is buried.

Yellowstone Park July 11, 2018 (and some June 1968)

Waiting for Old Faithful on the old observation deck of Old Faithful Inn, Steven in green shirt.  He and I were here with the rest of our family in 1968, 50 years ago, and the photo below shows Greg, Jeff and me (and maybe Arch in front of Jeff) watching Old Faithful.

 Just before Old Faithful erupted (back to 2018 now), a crow landed on a  roof-pole at the Inn and cawed.  You can see same poles in 1968 photo.  No crow though.

 Yellowstone Lake and West Thumb Geyser Basin

The ranger stations at the entrances  to the park hand out these fliers along with a map and other info.  One fellow who was in the park about three weeks after we were didn't heed the warning due to being drunk and disorderly, like he had been earlier at Grand Teton Nat'l Park and was again later at Glacier Nat'l Park.  The rangers, not the bison, finally got him.

Bison along the highway north of Jackson.. Traffic was stopped briefly because some of them were crossing the road.  The Snake River is nearby on the other side of the road.

Dad managed to get some up-close bison photos in '68.

Steven with camera, 1968.

Rest of family, except Dad who of course took photo.  I got a tiny piece of rock in my right eye while we were riding horses on a trail in Yellowstone during this trip. An optometrist in Cody, Wyoming used tweezers (and eye anesthetic) to get it out.  I wore an eye patch for the rest of the trip, but we were finished with our vacation by then and were just driving back to Pine Bluff from Wyoming, no doubt stopping somewhere to see something but there aren't any photos after Yellowstone.

On top of Signal Mt, Grand Teton Nat'l Park

Steven and me on top of Signal Mountain, with the Tetons and Jackson Lake in the background.

Looking the other way on top of Signal Mountain: Drew, Steven, and other tourists.

Drew, Steven & me on the shores of Jackson Lake

Steven & Drew, Grand Teton National Park. Drew works in the grocery store at Colter Bay Village, which also has a campground, cabins, and a marina. Previously, Drew worked at Breckenridge, Colorado, and in the fall and winter he plans to relocate to Park City, Utah.  He works for Vail Resorts.   Photo was taken in a picnic area at Colter Bay on the first day Steven and I were there (Sunday, July 8).  Steven and Drew are facing the lake and the Teton Range and the late afternoon sun.

Drew and me on an island in Jackson Lake on Monday, July 9.  Steven took the photo.  The three of us kayaked around on the lake, shared sandwiches, chips and a six-pack of local beer, and swam a little.  Chilly water, but not too cold to get used to, nothing like as cold as the water in the streams.

Special Blue Plate broken today

I had two of these and two bowls of the same material, given to me in 1996 by Deborah when I lived on Hopkins Street in San Marcos.  I only have one of the bowls remaining now.*  Before I found this plate broken like this while I was washing dishes in the kitchen sink today, it had acquired a small chip along the rim that caused it to spark in the microwave, making me think at first my microwave had gone bad.  But I figured out what the problem was before I replaced the 9 year old microwave, not pictured here.  The plate is sitting on a GE toaster oven. I'm standing on the counter next to the sink.  There is a large chipped off part of the formica in the counter visible, not my doing.  It was there when I moved in.

The other blue plate I had was actually warped slightly.  When my friend Pat Calkins visited me in Austin in the spring of 1998, we used the blue plates and he commented on the warped one.  I said, "yeh, they're from Walmart," but he liked the artistic nature of the warped plate.  This is one reason we were friends: he was thoughtful about stuff like that.  The photo of Pat and me I posted after he died in 2016 is from his visit in 1998.  He lived in Fayetteville, AR at the time.  He would have been interested in the way this blue plate broke cleanly into three pieces with the center part having a little protrusion, which actually should be pointed toward the bottom of the photo where one of the breaks occurred.

*24 July 2018 update: the blue bowl got broken today when I dropped it while washing dishes. Shattered in many pieces.

Molly the beagle in Dermott, Arkansas

Small animal footprints seen at farm recently

Don't know what kind of animal, but searching for similar prints identified online leads me to guess the hand-like prints are from a skunk.