we gave the fen some time to transition, and returned to find as usual a whole new fen in deep fall.  the contrasts of fading summer, onset of late fall, and all the colors of change in between, seem to be most dramatic and mystical at siebenthaler fen wetlands.  it’s just starting to take on that eery graveyard look it gets, while other plant life is suddenly taking on a last spurt of new life.  if you’re alert, you’ll spot my one tree that i’ve photographed in every season there, a kind of marker for comparison.  the two guys in camo waders (see next post) were probably working on maintenance of the boardwalk, much of which is done by volunteers.  i love the the way the cattails and dead trees silhouette against the big sky this time of year.  there were still big frogs jumping around in the deep green water plants in the deeper water on this very warm evening in fall.  i’ll do this in two posts, so please see the next one.

well, no surprises here.  of course the anti-monopoly amendment passed and the marijuana monopoly (legalization) lost.  there was no way the upstanding , churchgoing , beer-guzzling citizens of ohio were going to usher in the 21st century to THEIR medieval state.  clever doublespeak, repubs.

although on a bright note for this county, it looks like the levy for parks and trails may have just squeaked by, by a narrow margin, not sure yet.  the other two levies, for infrastructure and public health programs, appear to have done quite well, surprisingly.  but i guess maintenance of parks and trails, badly in need of funding, is not as big a priority in this post-industrial wasteland, where parks are built as an afterthought over toxic waste dumps and working quarries, destroying rare prehistoric fossils and evidence of evolution.  at least they finally figured out building housing and industrial complexes on essential wetland habitats was not such a great idea.

as for candidates, of course the status quo will be maintained.  boring business as usual.  there were only a few i could even justify voting for.  this is how ‘democracy’ drones on in middle america.

but we did our voting duty, and got our stickers!  at least the beers i guzzled afterwards were decent microbrews.  i will hand it to ohio–they do have many fine craft beers on tap here, to help me forget where we’re stuck for now.

a great place to debrief on election day, over pizza and beers, and the obligatory juke box ritual.

here’s how ohio conservatives think they can trick us ‘stupid’ people on the ballot.

one issue is an anti-monopoly amendment.  sounds great, right?  i’d be tempted to vote for it.

the issue right after it is for legalization of marijuana.  only it’s disguised deep inside an amendment to grant an exclusive monopoly for commercial production and sale of marijuana for any purpose, so you’d think monopoly=bad, right?

so you’d vote yes on the anti-monopoly issue, thereby canceling out the marijuana monopoly and thus its legalization, even if you voted for it.  trouble is, many people here ARE that stupid, which is what repubs apparently count on.

plus, it’s very hard to obtain non-partisan candidate and issue info around here, and believe me i’ve tried.  but we will not be deterred.

that’s my pre-election rant.  hopefully they don’t come up with an excuse to keep us from voting altogether.  that would be the final straw.  i don’t have a lot of confidence in this state of stupidity, after all the other discrimination and ignorance.  wish us luck.

it was a perfect day for climbing into cool natural caves and hiking trails along the gorge, with its rushing rapids and serene pools.  there are so many contrasting, dramatic colors, textures, and sensations this time of year.  plus it helps us to get outside of our heads and anxieties.  the tree cross section is from a tree hundreds of years old, whose rings represent historical events in ohio.  it began its life in the 1600s, around when the shawnee tribe came to ohio, and died around the time of the viet nam war.

it seems appropriate on ‘fall back’ day, when we ‘set back’ time (grumble cuss..), to comment on setbacks, of which there have been so many since the last time i mentioned them, that it almost seems like the normal way of things.  some folks wake up to an alarm, or coffee; we awake to ‘what calamity will befall us today?’  the theory that there’s a limit to how many catastrophic events can befall one in a short time period has long ago fallen by the wayside.  we’re almost getting philosophical about it.  but not quite.  i won’t even go into the latest set of setbacks.  i don’t want to lose the readership of the 1.2 people i may still retain.  so, i’ll just say, we still have a roof (for now) and hiking is still free.  which we shall now go do, on this perfect fall day, with that farcical ‘extra hour’ to do it in.  woohoo.  wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey!

here’s a picture of something.