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What was.

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A few weeks ago, as winter was fading into spring, I drove by this scene on Route 40 north of Peoria. It was obviously the setting of a home, from days gone by.  The windmill looked in amazingly good shape.  The forerunner to the wind turbines that more than dot the Illinois prairie. It's a lonely tableau, with the road ending near where the house must have stood.  All kinds of questions: who lived here? When was the house built? When did it get demolished? Why? Did children grow up here? Was it a farm family? Did they put up Christmas decorations? Why is the windmill still standing? Where did the last family who lived here go? Wouldn't it be nice to have a time machine, if only to see what happened at this spot over the years.  The last remnants of the home that was.
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Black History Month 2026: The National African American History & Culture Museum

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I have wanted to go to the National African American History Museum since it opened in 2016. I wanted to learn more about the contributions of African American's to our country's history and what they have endured to make them. Our country isn't the clear cut beacon of democracy that we like to portray it.  Given the current administration, I decided I needed to go there soon while the museum was still open and intact. I planned a trip from February 21-25, 2026. I wanted to get this post up while it was still February, Black History Month, which it barely is. This post will mainly consist of pictures I took with my iphone in the Museum and around D.C. The Museum is huge. It starts underground with our--I'm trying to think of an adjective, but I can't--history of slavery. I'm mainly going to let the photos speak for themselves. But as the words in the above photo admit: it's not like they didn't know how what they were doing with slavery, but they wanted ...
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The Nighttime Mysteries

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Like much of the population over 50 in this country, I don't sleep well. So in the middle of the night as I lay awake, either never having fallen asleep or having woken up, I often say the Rosary. The Rosary is a Catholic prayer that takes about 20 minutes or so to pray. It is divided into five decades, with ten Hail Mary's and one Our Father and one Glory Be prayed for each decade.  While praying the Rosary, we focus on different mysteries of the faith for specific days of the week. Sundays and Wednesdays are the Glorious Mysteries (Resurrection of Jesus, Ascension of Jesus, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary, and Coronation of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth), Monday and Saturday are the Joyful Mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding Jesus in the Temple), Tuesday and Friday are the Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Jesus Carries His Cross, Crucifixion and Death of Jesus), and Thurs...
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