Da bank

 It's been a week now since the last post.  I thought that that post about deer slaying right in the city limits would have roused Beagles (I picture him in a shirt with lacy sleeves like Claude Strawberry in Hee Haw) to chime in, but nothing from him this whole exciting week.

Did I say exciting week?  As serious scholars of Uncle Ken will know, when I first went in for cataracts I only had one eye done, because, though faulty, I could see up close with the other eye and I didn't want to lose that ability to see with my nose pressed up against the paper.  I didn't want to be like so many of my friends who whenever they want to read a menu have to whip out their reading glasses.

But that other eye kept getting worse, not only was sight blurry, but it was also dark, something had to be done.  I suppose I could have gone for making it my reading eye, but I remember the thrill I got just looking at things through my super eye after the first operation and I wanted to have that thrill again.  

Well Old Dog knows the drill, they wrap you up like you are about to have your appendix out or maybe they are going to go exploring, and then they just fiddle with your eye a little bit, uncomfortable but no big deal, but no happy juice, no nothing, bam, they are done and you are crawling back into your Earth clothes with a humongous bandage on your eye.  The next day you come back in and they take off the humongous bandage and bam, now I had two super eyes.  It was pretty cool, but not as much of a thrill as getting the first one, and now when I bring the paper close to my eyes the writing never becomes clear, and I have to drag out those stoopid reading glasses, then remember to take them off when I am done, on, off.  I am hoping this soon becomes one of those habits that you just do without having to think about it.

That was Friday and Saturday.  Monday at sunrise I was getting on that old grey dog for the four hour trip down to Nap Town.  Rolling out of the city and into that beautiful midwestern landscape with the sun peering over the horizon was quite the adventure of with two super eyes.

After many beers Monday night Tuesday found us driving east into the odd state of Ohio in search of  Newark Ohio and its Sullivan bank.  I had seen this bank maybe ten years ago and it was a wreck then, it's proud visage marred by neglect and ugly alterations during the times it hosted a jewelry store, and soda fountain, and a butcher shop.  But civic pride and a big grant from the feds to clean up their sewage problem which maybe had money left over they have been able to restore the outside, and are about to begin on the inside.

And improvements seemed to be going on all over the town.  These towns where Sullivan built his banks were all set on becoming the next new metropolis and they had a big courthouse building surrounded by brand spanking new two or three story buildings in that ornate 1920's style.  But growth never came so they were never replaced with glass and steel towers.  They look pretty crappy when they go to hell, but when they are restored they have a charm that these modern buildings can't touch with a ten foot pole.  And the latter is what is going on in Newark, which ten years ago looked like an industrial city on the skids with hard eyed citizens just waiting for you to duck into an alleyway so they could slip in the shiv.  Last week it looked like a place where you could get a fancy latte and sit down with a well-dressed crowd and discuss Spinoza while bright young folks brought authentic color swatches into the shining new bank.

And that is all folks.  How was your week?