At the Good Things Caf�...

... you don't have to believe.

At the Tree Face Caf�...

... it's free space to play.

At the Panther Mound...

... Caf�...



... you can hang out all afternoon.

At the Gaylord Caf�...

... write about anything you like.

I accidentally had the camera on some crazy setting as we walked around our favorite state park, Governor Nelson. We were sober, but the camera was tripping.

"Everywhere the same voice, its odd Eastern accent, which in anyone else would have irritated Midwesterners."

"You could follow without missing a single word as you strolled by. You felt joined to these unknown drivers, men and women smoking their cigarettes in silence, not so much considering the president�s words as affirming the rightness of his tone and taking assurance from it."

Wrote Saul Bellow in "In the Days of Mr. Roosevelt," quoted in a Martin Amis essay about Bellow's nonfiction, collected in a new book titled "There Is Simply Too Much to Think About," which I just added to my Kindle. I can give you some more context:
Click for more �

Artist whitewashes a crappy old motel, including the palm trees that surround it.

"As you walk the western edge of the trendy hamlet of Silver Lake on the city�s storied Sunset Boulevard...  you�ll see dozens of people standing precariously in the middle of four lanes of traffic to Instagram the piece, which is about as social-media ready as a public art piece could possibly be...."

Projection, as the work is named, could have been staged at any of the city�s derelict motels, really. But [Vincent] Lamouroux�who lived in the neighborhood years ago�had his eye on this one in particular. The Googie-style sign on top reads Sunset Pacific but everyone here calls it the Bates Motel, partly because it�s on the corner of Bates Street, but mostly because this moniker appropriately conveys its freaky Psycho vibes.

Vacant for over a decade, the motel�s ability to attract drug activity and gun violence has turned this stretch of Sunset into a kind of no-man�s land. During his days as a city councilman, LA�s mayor Eric Garcetti tried unsuccessfully to rehab it, sell it, then demolish it, calling it �one of the most troublesome properties in the city.�

No trees were hurt. They were sprayed with an impermanent "shading compound" that is intended to be used on trees. Not for art projects, but to protect them from heat and insects.

A very nice art work. I approve.

At the Cherry Caf�...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

At the Sunday Garden Caf�...

... things are very pretty right now.

In Governor Nelson State Park today, the weather was ideal.

... 55� and gently overcast...



None of the burdens of excessive sun and warmth...



Taps were stuck in maple trees...



A fingertip gathers a drop. Taste it!

Out in the hinterlands of Wisconsin.

Past Titus Lane...



... and Argue Road...



... we noticed some things in decline ...