Mooresville

I just got back yesterday from a 4-day weekend at Rusty's. I also realized I never posted my pics from Philly in the beginning of April. They're on the way!

Rusty:


Fred and George (I have become a crazy cat lady):


Chris insisting on taking my picture when I got home (I was not amused):


Narcissism:




Not from Mooresville, but just for fun:

Merry Christmas to Me

I bought myself a digital camera for Christmas. I had it shipped to work, so here are the first pictures, taken in my closet...I mean office.

My bulletin board:



My hideous teal bookshelf. I keep soap in my office because the cleaning people never replace the empty soap in the bathroom across the hall from my office:



The view out my window, a brick wall. Notice how the window is artfully held closed with a block of wood. You can't see it very well, but the blinds are closed at the bottom to keep the homeless people who live between our building and the one next to us from watching me.



My carpet stains. Mmmm...

Centralia 12/26/07: Part IV

This is the sign that greets you as you near Centralia. This is the old route 61 (the one with all the cracks) that has been replaced.

The amount of graffiti in the town is unbelievable. The batteries in my camera died when we got to the crack (of course), so I wasn't able to get any good pictures of it.

There's obviously a pyromaniac who likes to come to Centralia. Among the detritus were shotgun shells, a bottle of brandy, McDonalds bags, old spray paint cans, and many, many cans of cheap beer. I'm not sure that I want to know what the mattress and garden hose are used for.


They still decorate for Christmas. There was a nativity scene in the town square. The saddest part of the trip was that the mayor's house was torn down. Here's the story. Within 5 years there will probably be nothing left.

Centralia 12/26/07: Part III

These are various vent pipes around the town (notice one has become a kind of garbage receptacle and has some nice graffiti) as well as some pictures of the gorgeous Orthodox church.

Centralia 12/26/07: Part II

Here are some pictures from a cemetery that we missed the first time around.

Centralia 12/26/07: Part I

I'm sorry about the bluish tint; I'm not very familiar with the settings on Chris's camera. This first series is pictures of smoke coming out of the ground (it shows up much better on a 40 degree day than a 90 degree day!), views from various parts of town, and, to begin the group, a sign that greeted us.

Road Trip; June 25, 2007: Part IIa

The main reason of our trip was to visit Centralia. The mine fire began in 1962 as the result of trash burning. Some conspiracy theorists say the fire was started by the government because they wanted access to the coal in the area, but as much as I love a good conspiracy theory, I highly doubt that is true. There's no way to safely get to the coal underneath Centralia. Governments of all levels bungled Centralia, but I don't think it was malicious. Even though the land was taken by Pennsylvania by eminent domain and the town's zip code was revoked, people are still allowed to live there. The town received national media attention in 1981 when a 150 foot deep sinkhole opened underneath a boy who was luckily rescued. It took people over a decade to realize the extent of the damage to the town and eventually the population dwindled. In the 2000 census there were 21 people living in Centralia. I'm sure there are fewer than that today, as we only saw about 3 or 4 houses. The first stop on our trip was St. Ignatius Cemetery. There are more dead people in Centralia than there are living, and the cemeteries were very well-kept.

We could see this orthodox church in the distance from St. Ignatius. I'm not sure if they still have services there or not.


Here's the church close up.

Apparently Centralia had a large orthodox population.


This is the town square.