On Our Vacation

One of the interesting places we visited was the Sleepy Hollow cemetery.



On the hillside behind where this picture was taken, some of the greatest authors in the history of American Literature are buried. They all lived in the area near here. Walt Whitman lived here too, but he's not interred at this cemetary, so I won't make "Anonymous" fret by referring any more to a poet who might have been gay.

Here is Henry David Thoreau, one of my favorites (for the unaware, he wrote Walden, the book that the boys in Dead Poet's Society read and use)



Right next to him is Louisa May Alcott:



Then Ralph Waldo Emerson:



And lastly a little further along is Nathaniel Hawthorne:



How strange is it that some of the greatest writers in American history are all buried within 20 yards of each other, let alone in the same cemetary?

Cool things that I did on vacation.

Primary Spousal Unit and I have decided to blog about and post pics of whatever we want to, in whatever order we like. I like this approach more than feeling bound to some kind of order.

We flew in to Newark Airport in New Jersey. My first reaction upon exiting the airport: "What stinks? Is that garbage or a dead body?" Deciding to be charitiable, I took another wiff inbetween train transfers on two other occasions on the way to the inlaw's place. As far as I can tell, New Jersey either locates all of their public transportation next to open sewers and landfills, or the state reeks. I have no pic of the horrid smells of New Jersey, but rest assurred that if I did, this is where they'd be:

So I'm home now.

Highlights and pics to be done tomorrow.

I'm thinking of naming the skunk Shiloh.

edit - I think Lucille might be even better.

So, I'm in New York.

So Today's My Birthday

And I'm another year older. We're taking off for NYC tomorrow to go visit the inlaws and see the sites. So what did I get for my birthday? It hasn't arrived yet... but we're getting a pet... a skunk! These photos are not pics of the actual skunk in question. She (I think we're getting a she) will be about 6 inches long (and 4 or 5 weeks old) when she comes and will take about 18 months to fully mature into a 20-28" adult skunk. Yes, the stinky part's removed, though we will have to get her spayed (going into heat and not mating can KILL a female skunk, think about that, lonely singles!) I get to pick a name for her. I'm still mulling that one over.