Elaine and I broke our rule and got up early to go on a "venture" trip to Fountain Rock Park in Walkersville, near Frederick. It is a marvelous place with all of the following, and more:
A nature center, where live and formerly alive, native to the area, creatures abound.
A very large quarry, filled with water and surrounded by a boardwalk.
A trout pond. Limit: 2 fish, and you have to have a license and a picture ID. The pond gets stocked each year. Lots of geese swim on the pond.. but not on the quarry water, I wonder why.
Lots of geese poop on some of the trails... so you need to watch your step.
A butterfly garden.
Historic lime kilns. Lime would be quarried and then sorted and cut for various purposes.
A large covered pavilion with lots of large tables, where we sat and stuffed ourselves with "Ballpark Franks." These are fat hotdogs, which our leader assured us did not have garlic. We had brought some of our own, garlic-less, just in case. Every person brought a dish to share. Some really good stuff too. We brought some brownies that I baked last night. I forgot and included three eggs instead of two... so the brownies turned out more like chocolate cake than brownies. But they were good, and went fast.
(Elaine ate two hot dogs and a lot of goodies, and is sleeping it off. I ate four hot dogs and a lot of goodies, but I'm still functioning.)
Some Fountain Rock place names are memorable:
Fox Den
Caterpillar's Cocoon
Tulip Track
Poison Ivy Place
Quarry Walk
Hackberry Hollow
Raccoon Ridge
Woodchuck Way
Years ago, this land was owned by a man who grew watercress, apparently for all of the east coast. The lime in the soil is supposed to be beneficial to the plant. I've heard of watercress sandwiches, but I have never tried one.
Bus Trip to the Park
To get to Fountain Rock Park, we had to travel through a lot of Carroll County and some of Frederick County. On the way, we counted some signs:
Trump Signs - 8
Clinton Signs -1 (This is to be expected in a Republican bastion.)
For Sale Signs - 2
Yard Sale Signs - 14
Now what does all of that tell you? Not a damn thing.
In a normal election year, I would have expected to see hundreds of signs for the Republican candidate. Not this year.
By the way, have you noticed how the election signs are printed?
Clinton and her VP have equal sized name letters on her signs.
Trump has twice or three times as large sized name letters on his signs as his VP.
As I think I mentioned, somebody is sabotaging Trump signs in Westminster. Usually, in normal election years, the Democratic signs get sabotaged. This has got to tell you something.
Religion?
I am a very religious person, in my own way. Brought up as a Quaker and a Baptist, connected to a Catholic and a Lutheran, drawn to the Massachusetts founded Universal Unitarians, skeptical about most dogma, disciple of Darwin, and disdainful of the hypocrites I have encountered in my life. Some may know that I am also a Minister in the Church of the Modern Apostles... that's a story we can discuss at some point.
Anyway, now that you know all that, if you still like me, that pleases me. If you don't.. well, that's OK too... because I do like you, and that is all that matters to me.
This is preface to a quote that I believe came from John Wesley, cofounder of the Methodist Church:
"Do all the good that you can
In all the ways that you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can.".
If one changes the word "good" in that quote, one might be able to pinpoint Mr. Trump's philosophy, IMHO..
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