today's oohs and wows

Today's Bradford Era newspaper dated 5/20/2010, page six, gives us the column 'Living with Children' title 'Rosemond:  This is not a parenting problem but a parent problem' that describes behavior seen from very young children.  One child jumps up and down in her crib (cheerleading practice or hopping mad?); another is awaiting a double-whammy toddler-age tonsil and adenoid removal procedure  --  whereupon I flash back to my own childhood and many ear-nose-throat troubles that put me in the hospital a few times, with a tonsillectomy scheduled as if those fleshy extensions were the offenders.  However, I have to give much MUCH credit to the physician called upon to do the surgery, who instead approached me alone while I was strapped to a rolling table and asked me if I wanted to have my tonsils removed.  Naturally I said "no" and more bed-rest was re-scheduled.  (Yay for Bradford Hospital!) Strep throat, as another painful example, produces beads of mucous in the throat as one indicator of incipient recovery  --  debateably one of many grief disorders.

Photos show:

Collapsed tent caterpillar on sidewalk along newly-renovated stretch of Boylston Street now featuring a new parking lot, YMCA and historic Old City Hall, as well as a church work-in-progress.  The tent caterpillar, while sharing space with birds, bees and bugs, is panned as a defoliant pest but the weblike white-fiber/silk tents in reality need not damage host leaves and trees because the caterpillars eat what they find lying around dead, same as other animals.  Boylston Street has suddenly and significantly changed, and their annual influx to some small extent is experiencing collapse in that city area.

A tiny maple-leaf seedling is sprouting from its position beside the stonework steps of the Italian-Americanization Society addressed on Marilyn Horne Way in downtown Bradford PA, nearby Veterans Square.  Queried by-mail about any descriptive brochures or other literature they might hand out, a club instead was formed.

A clay-look drainage pipe extends from a lawn addressed on School Street between Pearl and Mechanic Streets.

Another flood marker is shown at the corner of East Corydon Street and across Congress Street from the former Carnegie Library premises (now a restaurant with small private library).