Slightly Off the Mark

A Brick and a Paver ... But I Repeat Myself

Okay, so, I got too busy watching the road construction work to prepare a photo blog, so I'm giving you another photo blog of road construction.

You're a brick for reading any further. That's a real expression: It means a good, reliable friend. The only time I ever heard it was on the TV show "I Dream of Genie", in which the main character accidentally turns his friend into ... a brick.

But this is a real brick: specifically, one of the brick pavers that, according to researchers, was laid down around and near the courthouse in Albion in 1913, then paved over in the early 60s. The pencil was put there to add perspective, but it's actually bigger and heavier than it looks. The brick, not the pencil. (The carpet is in our living room, and is about as old as the brick.)

That means this brick was laid well over a century ago, and hasn't seen the light of day in over fifty years.

It was my understanding that all the bricks under Orange Street, which is also Indiana State Road 9, were going to be dug up. If so, they only extended south from the courthouse a block or two, because in front of our house they're just reconstructing the top surface.

Did anybody beside me have nightmares about steamrollers when you were a kid? The only time I ever saw them was in movies when they were about to, or actually did, roll over someone and leave them two dimensional. They're not powered by steam anymore, but they're still kind of scary.

Now that they're no longer digging down a few feet, the work is going a lot faster--you can see one strip already paved, and all the old asphalt already removed. I always wanted to drive a skid loader; I wonder how much damage would result?

If I had one of these trucks, I'd name it the Duke of Oil. You old timers, you get it.

Say, the neighbors have mowed their lawn--that's a good idea. I should do that. Someday.

See how they patched an entire section of road before ripping it up and paving it again? I did a deep research dive into that, which is one reason why you're not getting horses right now. When there's an area that has particularly deep damage, like a large pothole, they go further down to repair that first, so it doesn't just spring up through the new pavement later. It's trying to get ahead of a problem, which is not something we usually associate with a government related operation.

It's not uncommon to send a man walking in front of the machinery, in case there are any dangers like ice fissures, velociraptors, or bureaucrats. If the worker is killed, their kids get a free ride to collage as long as they major in engineering or big game hunting.

If your street is closed and you can’t get out of your house, you can still find us online:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Road construction now means it will be easier to get to the library later.

Medical Diagnosis: Death by Healthy Food

I left work an hour early the other night after I started to have, um, digestive issues. I don't like to abandon my partners, even for an hour, even though nothing was happening. It's like smacking Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) right in the face. But at some point bathroom trips stop you from being of any help, anyway.

When I got home, I discovered my wife was also feeling ... digestivy. In fact, we spent the next two days cursing the fact that our house only has one bathroom. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

But with both of us sick, we decided to track down the source. Naturally, I assumed we had the hantavirus. That's the latest in vogue disease: You're not anyone if you don't get the plague that's striking everyone.

But it turns out hantavirus isn't that easy to get, not to mention the symptoms were all wrong. I feel like I've been failed by social media. What the heck was I supposed to do now? Go to a doctor? Do people still do that?

A stomach bug? Maybe, but it didn't feel right. (Actually, everything felt very wrong.) Just the same, I washed and disinfected everything in the house either of us touched. Believe me, it was a chore getting the couch into the washing machine.

We drink a lot of iced tea, and have a habit of sharing it between us. The way I see it, we sleep together anyway--if one of us had a bug, we'd share it by snoring. Her snores are kind of cute. Mine once broke a bedroom window. But after a few days we were feeling relatively better, and I haven't heard of anyone else having this particular distress, unless you're counting what was coming out of that Artemis rocket. So, no bug.

When we finally settled on a cause, I realized we'd never be able to convince anyone.

In recent weeks we've been trying to eat better--more healthy, balanced, all that crap I spent my life avoiding. It was either one of two things: The sudden change in our eating habits, or some kind of bad germs in some food we aren't used to.

I'm still not sure if my job was trying to kill me off, or attract me back to cover shifts.

We had salad and baby carrots as an appetizer, three meals in a row.

So I told Emily it must be listeria, and that we had in fact ingested big heaps of green letteria, which is a legitimate medical term I just invented. The only glitch in that theory is that all the symptoms didn't quite line up, but if it keeps me from having a salad before pizza I'll just muddle through.

But we're all better now, other than the allergy attack when I mowed the lawn, which I guess could also be blamed on green growing things. As a compromise, yesterday we had a pork roast with potatoes and carrots, and at work I ate an apple, orange, and a handful of M&Ms. Okay, a bowl full.

It's all about moderation.

If you’re feeling well enough, here are some places to find us and our books:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Books have no calories. I mean, unless you eat them.

Old and Strange Vehicle Photos

It's photo Wednesday again, or whatever day you happen to be reading and I happen to be posting. Staying on a schedule has turned out to be harder than I thought, especially since I'm editing one book and still working on the first draft of another.

The subject wasn't hard, though, because as I looked through old photos I found a number that had two things in common: old or unusual vehicles, taken at an inopportune time. In other words, snapshots. For instance, in the above photo I was taking pictures of an unusually large load that was being escorted through town at the time. Then I caught sight of this car, which I've seen drive through town many times, but never managed to capture before.

It was the same in this case. (I was stopped!) I had already brought out my phone to get the car ahead of me, when I saw an Avilla Fire truck go by and tried to get them both in the frame. Which is dumb.

(By the way, these were all taken at least a couple of years ago, so ignore the license plates.)

Elvis has stopped for Starbucks!

This truck, you'll agree, can go for hundreds of miles with that spare tank on its back.

A pretty much normal car, but as I was photographing it, it was photographing me.

I was parked right outside my job as I arrived for my shift. I didn't bother to ask the other dispatchers if anyone could afford it.

This was apparently just being used as a passenger car. I never saw the driver, so I can't tell you if it's his or hearse.

Emily and I both like camping, so I showed her this. But she said no.

In my unpublished novel We Love Trouble, a couple and their dog travel around in a huge RV towed by an equally large pickup truck. I'm thinking of going to a former fire truck as above, but the logistics of maneuvering that thing around are pretty intimidating.

You can’t find our cars here, but here are some places to find us and our books:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter