Slightly Off the Mark

Albion Fire Department Block Party Pictures

The Fire Department has never sponsored a block party before, so I'm not sure how to measure its success.

Certainly there was a lot of work put into it. Those can Koozies are cool, by the way. Also, I now know that Koozie is a name brand for cool can coolers. I bought two.

The Sweetwater All Stars Band? Also cool. On a related note, I thought the weather was perfect: a little warm, a little humid, just as end of summer celebrations should be, but not too hot.

The crowd seemed to be enjoying it. I had to leave early, and when I stopped to get food at El Mariachi Mexican Grill, it was standing room only inside. I assume some of those people also came out when supper was done.

The Albion Fire Department used the opportunity to not only raise funds, but show off their equipment. This baby was obtained through a partnership with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which runs Chain O' Lakes State Park in our response area. Emily was telling me just the other day of seeing firefighters up at Pokagon State Park use just such a vehicle to move an injured hiker back to the roadway.

And of course the fire safety house put in an appearance, although I didn't get a very good picture of our Fire Prevention Officer Phil Jacob--he's standing on the right edge of the image.

I only saw one dancer while I was there! I hope other people joined in later. As for me, whenever someone sees me dance they try to render medical aid.

It would be great to see this as an annual tradition. Until next year! I hope.

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Remember: Dance like your pants are on fire—the fire guys will put it out.

Why, Spotify?

The Easily Distracted Cemetery podcast on Spotify I mentioned earlier seems to have a very short blurb at the beginning for "Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All".

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0o0tytjO4lGjzIllNxkiCr

But the podcast wasn't about "Hoosier Hysterical". It was about "Haunted Noble County, Indiana". I didn't see it the last time I was on Spotify.

Or ... maybe it just happened to be there when I looked at the podcast? Like I said, it's short, but who put it there? who is FYP Book? Or is it only there because it connected my account name with my author name? Why would Spotify even care, since I don't have an audiobook version of that particular book?

Or is this a sign that I should start working on that audiobook version? It's not like I'm strapped for time (I said sarcastically).

I will never understand how the internet works.

Podcasts, Interviews, Ghosts, and Books

I did a podcast interview on "Fishers History Chat" almost a year ago, but didn't find out when it was released and so didn't do any promotion for it. So here, at the right time of year but in the wrong year, is a link to my interview with the Fishers, Indiana Historical Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=529dPp3Usr8&t=35s

Now, that one was for Hoosier Hysterical. (You can occasionally see Emily in the background!)

I also wanted to give everyone another chance to hear a fun Podcast Emily and I did last year while promoting the release of Haunted Noble County, Indiana. It was featured on "Easily Distracted by Cemeteries", by a group of Noble County locals who like to talk about ... well, you know. They split it into two parts:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ignH4zkUieJJ2gsCnXJhj

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pqVDUBBjzTr6tedKsMeSD

By the way, it turns out I signed up for Spotify at some point, for some reason. Probably to listen to movie scores, ABBA, Boston, or Fleetwood Mac:

https://open.spotify.com/user/31s6tejnbqq7xgnqbovocrfn2niy I have no clue what my actual username is.

Also, our TV interview about the haunted book is still up here:

https://www.21alivenews.com/2025/09/11/albion-couple-releases-book-about-haunted-noble-county-locations/

Here's an even older one, which aired before I even wrote the book:

https://www.21alivenews.com/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

As I write this I'm on for another podcast interview, which would be the third. I wonder if we should start a podcast of our own? Even a video podcast. I suspect it would be a time and money suck, but it might be fun.