“…My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation…”
Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

Mission accomplished.

"Autumn" (Alphonse Mucha, source: artwallpapers.net)

Today marks the autumnal equinox, otherwise known as the first day of fall.

Fun fact:

In theory, astronomically, the equinoxes ought to be the middle of the respective seasons, but temperature lag (caused by the thermal latency of the ground and sea) means that seasons appear later than dates calculated from a purely astronomical perspective. The actual lag varies with region, so some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as “mid-autumn” whilst others treat it as the start of autumn.

Less fun fact: I always have to look up the capitalization rules for seasons.

The Wikipedia entry for Autumn (source of Fun Fact the First, by the way) goes beyond discussing the season’s meteorological aspects to address autumn’s cultural associations with both harvest and melancholy, a predominant mood of “gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather.” The article’s literary examples of this autumnal mixed bag include several poems: Chanson d’automne/Autumn Song (Verlaine), Herbsttag/Autumn Day (Rilke), To Autumn (Keats), The Wild Swans at Coole (Yeats).  Here are a couple of my seasonal favorites.

Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost)

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Sonnet 73 (William Shakespeare)

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Fun stuff, right?

Autumnal & wintry melancholy aside, there’s a lot to smile about during September, October, and November. In these parts fall brings SEC football and the ability to wear jeans and long sleeves sans risk of heatstroke. I find great joy in carving pumpkins, falling leaves, and pumpkin spice in all its forms: pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spiced pies.

Fellow fans of fall foliage may wish to explore Alabama’s Fall Color Trail, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources suggested driving tour of fall color spots. Here’s a shot from North Alabama’s Mentone.

"Already Wishing for Fall" (source: Southernpixel's Flickr photostream)

To Autumn indeed!

I tweet. I used to Tweet, but the AP Stylebook took care of that; I am no longer a twit.  Anyway…

Twitter’s trending topics feature ranks the popularity of words and phrases employed by its users, displaying them on its home page and in sidebars throughout the site.  Trending topics- and the tweets themselves- often include hashtags: keywords or other descriptive terms designated with the hash (pound) symbol.

I present, for your reading enjoyment, #failedchildrensbooktitles.  Here are some of my favorites:

Charlotte’s Webcam (@younginn22)

James and the Giant Peach Schnapps (@fenrislorsrai)

The 30 % Cotton 70 % Lycra Rabbit (@Cam_STL)

Thomas the Tanked Engine (@JRai)

Go Dog Go.  Take the Cat with You. (@coloween)

And these, illustrated and published at Comedy.com:

Which #failedchildrensbooktitles are a win? Have any of your own? Let me know in the comments.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Comedy.com: 10 Favorite Failed Children’s Book Titles Illustrated
• Twitter
• Twitter: @APStylebook tweet
• Twitter search: #failedchildrensbooktitles

In Spring 2009, BG and I set about visiting all of the locks and dams of Alabama’s Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers and the Alabama portions of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  That Dam Project is my effort to chronicle our visits and share what I’ve learned along the way.

You may also be interested in my Delicious bookmarks tagged dam_project.

December on the Black Warrior (source: Diamondduste's Flickr photostream)

BG and I began our journey with a May 2009 visit to Holt Lock and Dam, one of several locks and dams on Alabama’s Black Warrior River.  From Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s River Facts:

The Black Warrior River watershed is 6,276 square miles, contained entirely within Alabama. Beginning in North central Alabama as three tributaries – the Sipsey Fork, Mulberry Fork, & Locust Fork – the river then flows southwest for roughly 300 miles past Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to its confluence with the Tombigbee River at Demopolis. The Black Warrior River watershed contains 16,145.98 miles of mapped water.
The Black Warrior River and its tributaries are a major source of drinking water for many cities including Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Cullman, Oneonta, and Jasper.

The Black Warrior has a rich history, from the prehistoric to the modern.   The river was named for Native American Chief Tascaluça (from “tasska” and “luska”, meaning “black warrior”).  Both coal and cotton have traveled the river, and river commerce prompted the creation of its locks and dams.  From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project History Page:

Between 1895 and 1915, a system of 17 locks and dams was constructed between Mobile and Birmingham. In those days, waterway construction was a slow and laborious task. Dams were built by hand of stone and mortar. Locks were walled with stone-filled timber cribs, and hauling was done by mule-power.

The original locks and dams were built to provide a six-foot-deep channel, adequate for the steam-powered tow boats and packets of the era. The Corps undertook a program to modernize the system in 1937. The 17 low-lift locks were replaced by six high-lift locks, capable of expediting present-day towboats and barges. The locks vary in maximum lift from 22 to 69 feet. The nine-foot navigation channel is maintained to a width of 200 feet. Tows of up to eight standard barges can be accommodated at all locks.

The waterway is now approximately 457 miles long. All of the original locks and dams have been replaced except for John Hollis Bankhead Dam on the Black Warrior near Birmingham. The structures at Bankhead were the last of the original locks and dams built on the system. Bankhead dam has been modernized and a new lock has been constructed to make it comparable in efficiency to the other locks and dams in the system.

In addition to transportation and hydroelectric power, the Black Warrior River offers opportunities for recreation.  Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Recreation page lists offers links of interest to the thousands who “fish, flyfish, swim, boat, kayak, canoe, waterski, wakeboard and take advantage of many other recreational opportunities along the Black Warrior and its tributaries.”

The Bankhead, Holt, and Oliver, and Warrior dams impound the Black Warrior River; Smith Dam impounds the River’s Sipsey Fork.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Black Warrior Riverkeeper
• Black Warrior Riverkeeper: Recreation
• Black Warrior Riverkeeper: River Facts
• Discovering Alabama: Black Warrior River Teacher’s Guide
• meLISsa BLOG category: That Dam Project
• mbfortson’s dam_project bookmarks
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project
• USACE Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project: History
• Wikipedia: Black Warrior River
• Wikipedia: Holt Lock and Dam

In Spring 2009, BG and I set about visiting all of the locks and dams of Alabama’s Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers and the Alabama portions of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  That Dam Project is my effort to chronicle our visits and share what I’ve learned along the way.

You may also be interested in my Delicious bookmarks tagged dam_project.

I don’t know when or why I became fascinated with locks, the mechanisms by which boats navigate changes in river levels.

Fascinated I am, though, and when my boyfriend BG told me that, in the adjacent county, there is a visitor’s center featuring exhibits on the locks and dams of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (TTW), my curiosity was piqued. Since then, BG and I have visited the center, the lock and dam at which it is located, and two locks and dams on the nearby Black Warrior River. It’s my hope to visit all of the locks and dams on the Black Warrior, Tombigbee, and Tenn-Tom.

I plan to write a couple of posts about the rivers, the Waterway, and the sites we’ve visited. I’m also playing around with some mashups that will allow me to overlay our trip photos on a map. For now, here’s a shot from our July 3 visit to the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam:

Tom Bevill Lock and Dam (Pickensville, AL)

LINKS IN THIS POST:

• Wikipedia: Lock (water transport)