Ghost Towns, Today and Memories.

While we were in West Virginia we visited a ghost town. Nuttalburg, WV was a coal mining town in the New River Gorge. It is at the end of a long lwinding, narrow road, with several tiny, narrow bridges, a few places where wash outs had made the road even narrower, and some spots where you just had to question whether the trip was worth it. It was.

West Virginia is a place of magic, a land filled with deep, tree covered draws, steep, forested mountains and after a rain it is easy to imagine the white, cotton mist as a living thing. We met so many welcoming, wonderful people. The WV Department of Natural Resources does such an extraordinary job it is hard to think of them as merely human. And Nuttalburg was no exception. They mapped the ruins, describing the function of each, explaining the location, most importantly maintaining them in such wonderful condition, much better than the road.

This is the chute that moved the coal from the mine down to the railroad tracks. It was very elaborate. Careful plans were made to ensure that the coal was not damaged or reduced in any way, as it was conveyed down the mountain. Of course the miners had to walk up and down a long steep path to get to the mine. But, that’s the price of being human.

The ruins probably covered a half mile, a narrow strip of a forgotten time, hopes, wishes, prayers. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to hear the children laughing and playing outside of the ruins of the school house. Children with their own dreams, children whose parents made the long trek from all over to scrape out a living in the coal mine. Families whose lives were bound up in the mine, the coal, the trains that took it away. 

At the far end were the ruins of the company store. People traded their time for wages from the company and the wages from the company to the store owned by the company. It was a closed system,  the circle of life. Everything was there, everything rode the rails in or out. It was a perfect circle. It made me a little uncomfortable, it seems there should be some homage paid to the sacrifices made, the work, the industry, the ingenuity of these people. 

Today, I woke early and sat on the deck, and I thought of those people whose lives were tied to the mine, the railroad, the river, the company. Did they ever have the opportunity to set, drink coffee in solitude and wonder about the nature of living, the cost of being human? In a hundred years would people have different dreams? And, I couldn’t find any answers, so I looked at my pictures, said a silent prayer for all of humanity, past, present and future, and wrote this post. It’s the way I escape.

Life, mysteries, and some satisfaction.

Deep inside I am still pretty shallow. Philosophy, spiritualism, these are ideas foreign to me. Mostly cruising along, auto pilot engaged. Truth be told auto pilot might be too kind, and cruising is certainly an exaggeration. Stumbling blindly and hoping not to stub a toe or break my nose. In many ways life always seems like a string of random, mostly benign, sometimes cruel occurences. Sooner or later all of us would end up a victim of circumstance. For most of us it would be completely inadvertent, left a few minutes too late, try to hurry across the street and get smashed by a garbage truck.

It makes life seem kind of silly when you think the end is going to be so accidental. I could live with that, though. Even find some comfort in the realization that there was no pot of gold at the end of any rainbows. I didn't need to worry too much, because in the end it didn't matter. It made things simpler.

This year we went to North Carolina for vacation. Stayed in a small house right on the beach, and the ocean, in all its glorious magnificence has caused a reevaluation of "life through accident avoidance". There is something about the ocean, something primitive and awesome. Something majestic, and terrible. You look and understand why it has called men to a greater destiny.







Playing  the part of servant and master the ocean has lured humanity to glory, riches and unkind fate. Its siren song is powerful and irresistible. For as long as man has been dreaming he has been dreaming of the sea. And as long he has been able to build he has been building boats. Food, transportation and dreams, the ocean has provided all of these.

It demands payment, though. Many have paid the ultimate price for her services. Grabbing the
unsuspecting, pulling them down to a inescapable, cold, awful end never to be seen again. Even in a time as civilized as today a walk along the beach at night reveals swarms of skittering crabs. Waiting to feast on anything unfortunate enough to land on the beach.  It is easy to find the hollowed out shell of a fish, picked clean, and left to bake in the sun after the midnight feast.

It is the circle of life, and it plays out daily. And somehow I find comfort in that. Knowing that the ocean is always there. Looking on the terrible beauty of the crashing surf. Watching the small  boats filled with men dreaming of catching trophy fish. Walking past anglers standing on the beach with lines running out to deep water hoping for something to tell their friends. Men, machines, and dreams dwarfed the enormity of nature. Somehow it makes a little more sense.

Dreams Interrupted, Why,, oh Why?

It was the strangest thing, a day that started with a quiet, gentle rain shower. It was kind of peaceful, and kind of jarring. A peaceful dream of rolling hills, missed exits and giant, monolithic facades carved into the hillsides of Eastern Nebraska was interrupted by the polite pitter patter of the refreshing spring rain.

It was an odd dream. I was driving across Eastern Nebraska by myself, in my car (a RAV4). We are from Nebraska so it is not that odd, but we don't go there often so it is kind of odd. I never go by myself so that is a little odd. But my car is a lot better than my wife's car so that is not too odd.

I missed an exit, which is not strange, I miss exits, turns, landmarks all the time. I took the next exit, which is normally my reaction to a missed exit, and I have a lot of experience. But, I missed the ramp back on the freeway, which is a little unusual. I am so experienced at ending up in the wrong place starting over is almost as natural as starting.

Then, in my dream, I improvised, which is not that strange, because improvising is what gets me so many places that are not the destination. I went cross country, reasoning, in my dream that I have a four wheel drive vehicle, which is a little strange, I do have four wheel drive but I never use it, it just came on the car. I would never use it to cut across a field to get back on the highway.

And here is where it got strange. It was not just cutting across a field, it was driving up the side of snow covered hill, a big hill. Bigger than most of the hills in the part of Eastern Nebraska that I was dreaming about driving through. On the top of the big hill was a small path, not a freeway, just a small road, barely big enough for my car. So, I drove along the narrow road, on top of the snow covered hill until it became so narrow that there was no longer enough room for my car.

I had no choice, I started backing up. which is not normal at all, because I am awful driving

backwards, even worse than when I drive forward which is an adventure. If this had happened in real life I would probably be forced to leave my car, and walk back to Ohio. I love my car, but leaving it would be much better than backing off the side of the cliff the hill had become and dying in the flaming wreck at the bottom.

But here is where it gets odd. As I was backing up I noticed a huge, ornate, exquisite, wonderfully detailed building carved out of the mountain side, the mountainside in eastern Nebraska. Which is odd, there are no mountains in Nebraska. Even if there were nobody would have spent the time to carve such a masterpiece out of the stone.

Naturally, I stopped backing my car along the harrowing, dangerous single lane mountain top road and got out to take a picture. Which is exactly what I would do if confronted by something so odd, so that is not odd, at all. But, the rain woke me up before I could take the picture. Dammit, I was so close. It was so cool, you would not believe it. But, you will have to trust me.

Hurry, this is a limited time offer.

In an embarrassing effort to make an easy, fast dollar we, here at Life Explained, have decided to auction off dates with several key members of the "executive council."* Things are a little tight since we launched our new Android operating system.

Turns out an "operating system," is not really designed to perform surgery. Wow, that was embarrassing, and expensive. People don't like big, clumsy robots taking out their tonsils, and some sundry, mostly unnecessary tissue, and parts in the very near area. They are particularly upset if they are there to have their teeth cleaned. Wow, do they get mad.

That is not really important, though. What is important is just in time for the holidays we have launched "date a difference maker." Don't know what to get Grandma for Christmas how about a dream date with Dr. Dawg? Or Bob from accounting, or Bob from R and D?

Don't have a date for the company holiday party, don't despair, "rent a successful person" is here. For a limited time we will auction off an evening of dance, drink, delightful conversation, and impressive credentials.

Look, whatever your needs for the coming season of festivity, it will be so much better with some daring, dashing, darling of industry, and innovation doting over you as your envious family watches, seething with bitter resentment. Nothing says holidays with the family like insane jealousy, are we right.

Legal note: beautiful scenery extra, not all dates are actually "dream dates" in fact some may be very dull. Impressive credentials are open to interpretation, just try to get your lawyer to prove that we are not impressed. Go Karts, bungee jumping, white water rafting, hang gliding, parasailing, any kind of sailing, really, anything that requires flying, or driving fast and pinball are not allowed, due to the extreme danger, also no girl movies, what do you think they are, a bunch of sissies?


*Not really an executive council, but several of the "people" who have been here the longest, and seem to have more going on upstairs, at least when it comes to keeping a job for a while. Not that people who haven't been here that long aren't important to our success, they are. But, we had to pick somebody to auction off, and since the people who have been here the longest were at the meeting when we decided to raise money they decided they were the best looking, not that we feel appearance is the best method of finding a date, not that we don't think appearance is important, we do, just not the only factor... never mind, it isn't that important.

Dreams, food, and shoes. that about covers it.

We, here at Life Explained, are developing a machine to capture and interpret dreams. Using patented technologies that are so complicated, so technologically intensive we could never hope to explain the process. We were lucky to actually construct the silly thing. It was really kind of an accident. Dr. Dawg fell asleep with the remote and his Chardonnay spilled onto the DVR button, and his stethoscope got tangled up with the cable running to the WiFi router.

When we thought we were going to watch the news in the morning we ended up with a long, drawn out series of food, from scrambled eggs, bacon and toast to prime rib, potatoes au gratin, and apple pie a la mode.

We all sat there, stunned at the delicious parade of food that was cascading across the screen. People were scrambling for the refrigerator, or their phones to order something to eat.

Dr. Dawg said "Hey, those are my dreams from last night. How did they end up on television. And, would somebody find a county fair and get me some corn dogs?"

It only took us a few minutes to figure out what had happened. We were thrilled. This was the breakthrough we had been waiting for!

We jumped, immediately, into action, after getting something to eat. We wired up some diodes, a few sensors, and some wires and stuff, and got to work. Most difficult was writing the program to decode the hidden meaning buried deep in the vivid imagery that construct dreams. 

It didn't take long to figure it out, it was built in the classic C++ language.  Using the standard translation of constant comparison, and evaluation. Everything revolved a central core, with a standard for deviation, and symbolic reference. 

People couldn't wait, every associate signed up and we had to use a lottery to choose the order.

Turns out everybody, man, woman, dawg, all dream about the same things. Finding the right pair of shoes. Turns out that was drove most of the innovation throughout the history of man. You just can't be happy if your feet hurt, and if your shoes are comfortable, you don't really need much. 

Now that we know we can move onto more important things, maybe lunch.