Odds and ends, 7/16/07

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. I took it last year on the last day of summer vacation. It shows my older son, Joey, skipping a rock on the Ohio River.

When I was his age, every year on the last day of summer vacation, I would go down to the Ohio River at the mouth of the creek that ran through my father's farm. I would spend up to half an hour looking at the flat rocks and picking the best to skip. Between throws, I would remember the summer that was coming to an end: Taking in hay, picking apples, going to the fair, waiting for the bookmobile visit every Tuesday morning, hoeing the garden, walking on the river bank and who knows what else that I can no longer remember.

Last year, Joey and I went to that same spot on the last day of summer vacation. Like his dad, he prefers to spend summer days outdoors. We skipped rocks and walked along the river bank. I showed him a large boulder on which his great-grandfather may have had his picture taken a century ago.

We're going back this year. We might take his seven-year-old brother along. Adam would probably like that.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a great time on one of the walking trails at Beech Fork State Park. We climbed the hill to the overlook. We looked at the various plants along the trail and talked about how some leaves have parallel veins and some have branching veins. We talked about this and that and other things about the forest. As we talked, I wonder how my soon-to-be eighth grader could know so much about science and social studies yet struggle with those subjects in the restricted, confined atmosphere of a middle school classroom.

I told my sons that I found it odd that so much science discussion in the classroom and so many science channels on TV focus on the faraway, but so little has to do with the grasses and trees around them.

In a week or two, we will visit my newest Top 10 spot along the Ohio River. We'll walk a quarter mile to a half mile on the river bank to see what's there. If we get any good photos, we'll share them.

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Money magazine has come out with its list of 100 best places to live in the US. A few places in Ohio made the list. I didn't recognize any names from Kentucky, and certainly none from West Virginia.

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Want to see who West Virginians are supporting for president with their money? Check out an interactive feature at the New York Times Web site. I was surprised at who the leader was.

Oh, it was John Edwards. To save you the time and hassle, here are the contributions from people living in ZIP Codes 25000 through 25999, in the order they are listed on the site:

Clinton, $32,070

Obama, $10,767

Romney, $10,950

Giuliani, $22,100

McCain, $6,000

Edwards, $77,704

Richardson, $2,250

Dodd, $0

Biden, $2,300

Brownback, $14,333

Paul, $1,061

Hunter, $500

Huckabee, $0

Kucinich, $0

Thompson, $0

Gilmore, $0

If my math is right, that breaks down to $125,391 to Democrats (Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Dodd, Biden and Kucinich) and $54,944 to the Republicans. John Edwards alone outdid the GOP.