3-08-2012- ohioans are like timex watches

        we take a licking and keep on ticking. anyone or anything that can stand our weather, surely has the wear with all  to handle most anything. we lead the nation in raising presidents and at same time serial killers. surely that must stand for something. a test for our ability to diversify to push anything and everything to the limits. from airplanes by the wright bros. to light bulbs by edison. we have lead the nation over the years in innovation. 

        this old truck was photographed along an old country road in woods county, ohio. its rusted corpse symbolic of earlier hard times when innovation was new. having a new model come out every year has lead us to some amazing differences between yesterdays machines and today's, they both have done the same job but the latter does it more efficiently and quicker and on better roads than there used to be. it all makes a difference and when you add in all those yearly changes , a totally new truck emerges. in fact the only thing that hasn't changed is the people. at least physically. 

     while looking at this pic ignore the big ignoraminus humanoid holding down the bench with the shit eating grin on his face and focus on the area behind him as this is the area devastated from tornados  moving through wooster area and destroying the research center grounds including secrest arboretum. i had visited  a couple of years earlier and had taken photos at  this spot once before and once after the devastation.. i plan on returning back to take more pictures this spring. to see the devastation of an area i hold dear to me as i attended college a stones throw away from this spot , and had spent time over the years , coming back in the spring especially and at other times to enjoy the beauty of this area. mom and i had spent a few mothers days here when she had no other things going on. she also loved the trees and the blooms of the spring are intoxicating. a lot of the flowering trees were spared thankfully. 

          

        this is the same bench where i sat for the above photograph almost 2 years later , showing the destruction of the tornado that roared through this area. you can clearly see the lack of vegetation behind the bench . what is even more amazing about this story and i think i have said it before but mom and i was in medina that day and started driving to new philadelphia , ohio,  to her bank and then we were headed home. along the way if there is something to see we usually take time to drive past or sometimes get out and look. this day it was a drive through the research center and we spent all of fifteen minutes there and heard of thunderstorm warnings and figured we should just keep heading home. by the time we arrived home it was just beginning to blow good here , and then we turned on the news and saw that tornadoes had virtually followed us that day hitting in medina first then travelling down to wooster and hitting and causing major damage there , then heading further south to new philadelphia and doing damage there also by ripping roofs and downing trees. the damage that happened here at wooster could have happened only about a half hour after we through. making mom and myself one the last 2 people to see the secrest arboretum as it was before it was devastated that day. i still find it hard to believe it happened. there wasn't a mobile home anywhere close. 

          as a warning it is getting close to tornado season and i now have alerts from weather service sent directly to my cell phone in text form through the weather channel for free. it works most places and i usually have phone with me all the time . seems to work out well even at night with no electric. check it out.

       this is a pic of my old dog bud who traveled with me to new mexico and is ignoring me as i take his picture . he is pretending he doesn't know me and is hoping a stranger will take him away. why because i made him sit there in front of all those horses. just a neat pic from riudoso ,new mexico quarter horse museum . if you ever happen to be stumbling around out there stop in and enjoy this museum.