A BARFELYUK—

Barf.el.yuk; a Fogeyism noun, substantially less than desirable.
Barf.el.yuk.ed; verb, to treat or be treated thusly.

Yesterday Max and I were barfelyuked by the first snow flurries of the season.

When I first noticed them on our morning hike, a word of considerably less civility came to mind followed by my natural reaction, Yuk!

So, as we continued our drift along the trail and the flurries continued their gentle assault, I pondered this meteorological miasma--and this word was born.

By the time we reached the pedestrian bridge I was grappling unsuccessfully with the word as a verb in the transitive form. I quickly agreed with myself, it’s been much too long since any formal class work in English mechanics.

So, I scurried back to the computer and Wikipediaed the phrase “transitive verb”. Imagine my surprise when I not only found transitive and intransitive but ditransitive, ambitransitive, and so on.

That grammar lesson began to make my head spin.

So, I will continue to seek a semblance of correct use of the language while blogging and depend on you readers to reveal my clinkers.

Meanwhile, it will not be long, I fear, until this barfelyuking white stuff will arrive in measurable quantities.

A spry senior volunteer, Mrs. Goldie Michalovich, serves a lunch for the Butler-Clear Fork Nutrition Program at the nicely renovated senior center in Butler recently.

THERE IS A FREE LUNCH AFTER ALL—

More or less, there is.

Recently I’ve become acquainted with and welcomed to the Butler-Clear Fork Nutrition Program which last year provided 19,250 meals, largely to seniors at the nicely renovated adult center on Henry St. in Butler and through a daily, meals-on-wheels program.

With about 3,250 breakfasts annually, each Wednesday, and other special programs an average of 65 to 70 meals each day are served.

Participants may make a donation but that is not necessary.

The program is funded from a real estate levy which generates about $65,000 annually. They also receive approximately $10,000 annually from the county United Way program and an average of $15,000 yearly in donations.

D’Wisenbarger, program coordinator, explains they have been serving meals since 1989 under a block grant originally funded by the Richland County Commissioners and contributions.

Since 1998 the levy approved by voters in both Jefferson and Worthington Townships has continued to support the program for seniors and people with special needs in both townships.

While the program operates out of the Butler facility it does serve citizens throughout the valley and is run by volunteers. The adult center building was opened in August of 1997 and the nutrition program began operating out of there in October that year.

I already am in the habit of reading the weekly menu for the program in the Bellville Star and marking those days on my calendar when their yummy offerings rattle my culinary preferences.

Today I had ham and scalloped corn. Wednesday it’s going to be beef and noodles with a dessert and Thursday I will enjoy meatloaf and potatoes. Ahhh.

I knew the place was special when on my very first visit I learned the nice, senior volunteer lady who served the table (Mrs. Michalovich pictured above) was a very young 92 years of age.

I felt like borrowing her smock and proposing she take an honored seat at the head of the table so I could serve her.

But, she probably would have smacked me a good one for such impertinence.

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The levy renewal is on the ballot today in both townships and its approval will continue to cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $21 per year. It’s easy to spend that much per meal in a fancy Mansfield restaurant.

CRITTER NOTES—

Max and I were lazying along the driveway recently and behind me I heard a BIG splash! I thought a large fish had jumped really close behind me. Then, I saw the origin of the noise. A large buck Whitetail Deer was swimming across the lagoon. It didn’t take him long to disappear in the northeast woods.

I mid October I saw a Garter snake on the west trail; the first one of those critters in a long time. In fact, the first snake period. Max and I gave the little fellow his space and we went on our way after thanking him for the visit.

On October 20th I saw my first Juncos of the winter. They spent their summer breeding season somewhere up in Canada between Newfoundland and Alaska. Many will spend the winter here but others will go on as far south as the Gulf Coast and Mexico for their winter. That’s probably their more geriatric crowd.

Last week I was giving the camper its pre-winter bath and got stung by a Yellow Jacket. I guess he didn’t know I was kind to a large nest of his buddies earlier this fall. (See Fogeyisms – Sunday, August 19th, 2007).

And, Thursday as dawn pushed early light across the pond I noticed a dead Whitetail Deer laying ½ in the water in the northeast corner. She was an adult doe with no obvious signs of trauma. I like to think she died of natural causes. By this weekend Turkey Vultures were paying close attention to the area. It has been my experience the carrion eaters tend to be quite efficient in matters such as this.

Visitors are dwarfed by the rock formation of Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills. Julie Maxwell is in the light sweat suit to the left of the big rock. Husband Kevin is to her left in blue with a white cap.

A SUNDAY DRIVE—

Kevin called our 210 mile drive that Sunday “meager” and by their standards it really was.

Not too long ago he and wife Julie buzzed up to Niagara Falls for a day-trip. But, even that was dwarfed by their grand-daddy of a Sunday drive this year, a whopping 880 miles in less than 24 hours from Mansfield to a segment of the Skyline Drive in Virginia and back.

Kevin Maxwell is my late bride’s brother and they enjoy multi-state drives like most of us journey to the local custard stand.

Our recent 200+ mile jaunt took us to the Hocking Hills where we visited Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Old Man’s Cave, Conkle’s Hollow and Cantwell Cliffs, and were home before supper time.

I’m convinced we travelled at least another 50 miles that day—on foot, and, most of that vertical.

But, oh my gosh, what grandeur!. Collectively, these places are a fairy-land of enchantment. Trails wander through forests with trees that grow in the rocky chasms more than 150 feet tall just to reach sunlight.

Ash Cave and Conkle’s Hollow are blissfully level walks where a randomly pointed camera will always record a post-card quality image. Always.

It is indeed a rewarding day trip, and, whether your philosophy is inclined to the geologic or the theologic most will agree the creative forces have been very kind to the Hocking Hills.

The above photo of Ash Cave in Hocking Hills State Park is but a pleasant example.

A JEWEL IN THE WOODS—

Drops of moisture take on the appearance of crystal jewels in soft afternoon sunlight along a wooded trail.

The water on the maple leaf is hard to explain. There had been heavy frost overnight in the local area but, none here, and no other precipitation that day of which I am aware.

This arouses the curiosity of my scientific nature. Perhaps the droplets are the result of that magical dance along the fine line of temperature-dew point spread where water vapor cannot decide whether it wants to be a liquid or a gas.

Regardless, the creative side of me says--simply be thankful and enjoy these visual delicacies whenever they occur.

Amen.

Photo notes: This picture was done by extending the camera’s lens to full telephoto and manually adjusting focus to the macro mode. Then the picture was composed and sharply focused simply by moving the camera until that was achieved. The exposure also was manually controlled and slightly underexposed to lessen the shadow detail so it did not compete with our center of interest for the viewer’s attention. Caution: this kind of photo work leads to muddy knees.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS—

San Marino

This country reportedly has the second oldest life expectancy in the world with folks living to an average age of 81.6 years. This tid-bit showed up in a recent email from Brad Crownover and I had no idea where it is.

Now I do—and it is a fascinating place.

It is a land-locked country within the Apennine Mountains of northeastern Italy and is the oldest constitutional republic in the world.

It was founded in 301; almost 1,200 years before Columbus discovered our neck of the woods. San Marino’s founder, named Marinus, was a Christian stonemason fleeing religious persecution of the Roman emperor of the time.

Its population was estimated to be 29,615 in 2007 and it is 23.5 square miles in size. By comparison, Ohio townships average 36 square miles in size.

It is the third-smallest country in Europe, with only Vatican City and Monaco being smaller.

Ed note: A Wikipedia chart varies somewhat with the source in Brad’s email and does not even list San Marino. Wikipedia has the US at 38th in world rank with an average life expectency of 78.2 years; 75.6 for men and 80.8 for women.

FROST!

The season’s first frost in the form of thick and icy embroidery sparkles the edge of these berry bush leaves Monday morning October 29th while the rising sun amplifies the seasonal colors of the foilage.

Overnight temperatures were likely below freezing far and long enough to signal the end of our growing season.

I did a little research so I could explain the phenomenon of frost and ran into words and phrases like—deposition point, spicules, specific heat, thermal emissivity, absorptivity and superincumbent air.

As I pondered composing this stuff into readable material for the blog my head began to hurt.

I was driven to the more practical side of the event.

I concluded, while frost means a respite from the chore of mowing it is usually a very short vacation between stowing the lawn mower and first needing the snow shovel.

Yuk.