They don't make'em like they used to.

Spending the weekend with my mother, we talked about her keeping the place up, winter coming on, etc. She stays pretty active with a fairly large place to keep up. Her complaints usually include keeping the battery up on the pick-up truck and how the grass grows so quickly.

She had a man come by to cut some wood for her early so it could dry a bit before winter. Although he split much of it, there were some pieces she felt was too large for the fireplace, so she set out to split it on her own.

One log in particular wouldn't seem to split so she inserted a wedge in the crack of it and began to hammer it down with the butt end of a single bit axe. After a few mighty swats, the axe broke. I guess they don't make them like they used to.

In defense of the axe, it was an axe that my grandfather had and probably well over a hundred years old. Mama is only 87.

Nope, they just don't make'em like they used to.

Whoops!

OK, OK, I know. I've been hiding for a year on this blog. Maybe I've been in a funk, a mental block or whatever. One thing may be that I destroyed my 'good' camera and haven't had the drive to send out photos and tales. The last time I posted, Darlene and I were still in the 'Maui' mode.

For a while, I thought I had some kind of entitlement to states with palm tree in them.

Also, I've been in a new phase at work, flitting from one short term location to another. Over the past year, I've been in Arkansas, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, Florida, a couple of shots at Texas and a couple more in Louisiana. My bags are worn out.

I promise to be much better in the future.