dusk

I’m leaving Tennessee for Arizona this morning (see Tour Page for details).  I’ve been charged by my seven year-old with the task of taking a picture of a cactus while I’m away.  But she’s half-hearted about it, knowing that the perfect cactus specimen is no match for what we just left in Cherokee National Park.

Seven weeks ago, I went with my son's fourth-grade class to the 4-H center in Columbia for an overnight stay. It was a good time there. I'd do it again. Several parents went along. That evening, four of us dads got up a basketball game. I was reluctant. I was just getting over an upper respiratory infection and didn't want to get hot and start coughing, but what the heck.

Photos by Mark Austin.

Last Tuesday I was trying to get the family packed and ready for our trip to Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Just as dusk was approaching I decided that I had to at least mow the front yard before we left. I pulled the mower around to the front of the house and got started.

Ryan’s dusting in Hickman County

Show showers at dusk in Stewart County

A dusting in Springfield
As you can see some areas already have a dusting of snow, but the snow is melting as soon as it falls in others.
The temperature dropped to 32 degrees by 8pm in Nashville… many areas north & some west of town [...]

Listen, I’m all about America as the land of opportunity, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick and Mark the Match Boy, and all of that, but . . .