Where has the day gone? I’ve been doing quite a bit, yet not much at all. I lost tack of posting anything “current”.
In The News
I have been working through years of newspaper articles where I have been mentioned. Instead of simply linking to each piece, I created individual posts so they appear in my chronological timeline and can be referenced directly. Each entry may include a summary of the article, reflections on how it connects to me, and additional context. I have been at this for a couple of weeks, and today the transition is complete.
With so many articles, I organized them by category so readers interested in specific topics can find what matters to them. In addition, I redesigned the original “In The News” page, adding new icons and summaries to better align with the cyberpunk archivist theme.
Free At Last!
We had heavy snow in my area, mostly frozen rain that quickly turned to ice, shutting everything down for several days.
Because of health conditions that limit sustained physical work, I was slowly chipping away at the driveway, focused on creating a safe EMS path to my door. While most neighbors had already dug out or received help, I was stuck battling the frozen mound at the end of the driveway. After asking for help, one neighbor offered a snow blower, while another showed up with a tractor and cleared in ten minutes what had taken me days.
He refused gas money, then also cleared around my mailbox and Little Free Library for the postal worker and neighborhood kids. That mattered.
I was raised to be self-sufficient, so accepting help is still hard. But this made one thing clear: I need a backup plan. Going forward, I am looking at rock salt and portable snow-melting mats so I can quickly create an EMS path and work outward. Independence does not always mean doing everything alone. Sometimes it means planning ahead, accepting help, and building systems that keep you safe.
Block Art
Stone Branch Center for the Arts checked in about the Warren Sentinel block prints and asked about progress, volunteer printers, and whether the Warren Heritage Society might sell a few. I am still sorting that out, especially since I sit on the archives committee and want to avoid any ethical gray areas.
So far, I have completed four Ayer’s ads, eight more tonight, and a large circus poster. There are about 60 ads in total from 1881. The work is slow because the original scans are only 300 dpi from narrow two-inch columns, and I am scaling them up to 4×4 prints at 600 dpi. Each piece needs careful black-and-white conversion and manual repair where ink was uneven or missing.
Despite the effort, I love these ads. They capture a moment in time — including concerns and ailments we rarely hear about anymore.
Warren Sentinel 1881
Courtesy of VirginiaChronicle.com
