Dreams continue to resist destruction

Thanks to everyone who helped put on the 2014 Dreams Die Hard Diner (number 32)--and to everyone who came out for New Year's Day breakfast and made it a great start to the year.

These guys cooked a lot of eggs, bacon, sausage, and spuds while honing their complaining skills.  "Whadya mean, they want their eggs well-done? What'r they tryin' to say, anyway?"

In the middle of the world

Michael Fishbach saw Nancy and Miika's Nepal picture and sent this picture of himself at Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world, a park located in Ecuador on the equator. (Or almost on the equator, it turns out.)

On top of the world

Noted uphill walkers Nancy Raskin and Miika Rollet during their recent hiking trip in Nepal. If you want to see more pictures and hear a few stories, they are doing a little presentation at the community center on January 16 at 7:30 PM.

Ginger the wrecking ball

Polly Lorien made this animated GIF of her daughter, Ginger, knocking stuff down.

Paige and Water Trough Ice Disks

This reminds me of the lines from Robert Frost's After Apple Picking:

...Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take...

Deer Apples

Compound signage on Highway 19E.

Rag Ice

If you are impressed with my chunk of rag ice and want to make your own, here's how it's done. First you put a bunch of rags in a bucket of water and add some bleach (for the bright-white aesthetic). Then leave the bucket outside on a very cold night (or maybe two). Then, when you realize you need the bucket for some other purpose, bring it in the house and run warm water on the outside of it for a few minutes. Then take it outside, turn it over, and, voilá: rag ice.