Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first US Swimming School opening (1827 in Boston, MA), it is the anniversary of the revolt in Egypt that toppled the monarchy and created a democracy of sorts under Nasser (1952) and the Gene Autry Show premiered in 1950.
Anyone that’s visited here in the past month was greeted by my morning doves on the parking lot porch. They made their nest on the window sill of the stained glass window. The chicks hatched last night. I could tell because mom was moving around a bit and when I got up on the rail, there were these cute little chicks stumbling around. That’s the second set of morning doves, the original are under the bay window in the Courtyard outside Allamanda. I love morning doves, they are so un-annoying and I think it’s so cool that they mate for life. Here’s a picture of mom, I didn’t want to disturb her too much by clicking pictures of the kids. 🙂
I went to Penn State and used Route 22 to get up to State College throughout my enrollment and then after to visit. I still have good friends up there, Tony and Sue. I went to school with them, Tony was a Horticulture Major and I was a Business Major. He runs a green house up there and has been a font of great advise on my gardens since I started this project here (and an occasional gift of a unique plant). So the news that they have finally finished upgrading Route 22 to a four lane highway all the way through was quite the good news today. They say it was a seventeen year project widening the road. I attended Penn State in the late 1970’s and they were working on widening the road back then. I don’t know how they add up years, but that’s a lot longer than seventeen years. The bottom ling, how ever they count, the road is complete. I’m going to have to schedule a visit just to see the new road, I’ve traveled that road so many times.
Daniel Smithbower was taken out of a zoning hearing in handcuffs yesterday. He’s the guy that owns Butta Bing strip club on Route 51 in Overbrook. When I was in high school, it was a very cool jazz club Sunny Dayes and at some point Smithbower took it over and turned it into a strip club. He had a fire in 2005 and it’s been sitting as an eyesore since. He claims he’s been trying to get it back up and running since. But the neighbors for the past six years have had to put up with that eyesore. The city zoning is looking into whether he’s going to be grandfathered because the city passed a zoning law that limits where strip clubs can be located. Obviously he thinks he should be. But they arrested him because he failed to show up for a hearing the city sent to him questioning him allowing the property to fall into such disrepair. Typical absentee property owner (he lives in Murrysville), I bet he would be up in arms is such a dilapidated building was next to his house.
The Wings Over Pittsburgh Airshow featuring vintage and modern aircraft is coming back September 10 and 11. They will be featuring the Heavy Metal Jet Team, the Sky Soldiers Demonstration Team, Smoke-N-Thunder Jet Show and Northeast Raiders Demonstration Team. There are aircraft on display, but I’m not sure if it’s at the main airport or at 911th Airlift Wing’s site. More info at the air show’s web site.
Manchester’s having another tour of houses for sale in the neighborhood. They way they ran it last year was you signed up for the tour and they had sign up sheets at the various houses. The price on the house included renovations with discounts on financing and construction. Some of the houses were just shells and for a price of $100,000 to around $200,000 you got a home in the historic neighborhood that was totally remodeled. You could upgrade the construction to include things like granite counter tops and additional bathrooms, if you want. They are show casing some homes like that, vacant lots with site plans for new construction and they will also be show casing some of the new homes being built on Columbus Avenue. People signed the sheets last year and it was first come, first serve. If the person on the top of the list couldn’t secure financing, they contacted the second person on the list. The tours start at Manchester Elementary School at 1612 Manhattan Street today, Saturday and Sunday. More info can be found at the Manchester Civic Association’s web site.
They finished the tile work in Bromeliad’s bathroom today and Dewayne finished trimming the room out today also. Monday they plan on installing the fixtures in the bath and cleaning the room up. Tuesday the painters start painting and later in the week the floor crew will be refinishing the floors. It’s really taking shape. I can’t spend much more time today on the blog, I’m sold out until Wednesday (yeah!) and need to get back to being an Innkeeper. I hope to get a few pictures posted possibly later this weekend, definitely early next week.
Remember to keep hydrated,
ed
