Extended hours

A faithful Tilda reader (and fellow Hillendale homey!) asked me what day the Unionville post office is open late. I didn't know but quickly found out for her: it's Wednesday. The window closes at 4:30 and then reopens at 5 and stays open til 6:30.

The rest of the story

May I channel Paul Harvey for this one item?
I'm editing a fascinating book (a welcome change) on the human implications of medical imaging (x-rays, CT scanners and such). In one chapter the author, Dr. Richard Gunderman, tells the story of Ritchie, a Liverpool boy in the 1940s who suffered a ruptured appendix and was in the hospital for a year due to complications. During his stay he developed a deep love of music. 
Ritchie was Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. He became the Beatles' drummer, and the Beatles' huge success greatly enriched their record label, EMI. With its windfall profits, EMI decided to expand into the nascent medical imaging business, and one of its scientists, Gregory Hounsfield, developed the CT scanner.
Had the CT scanner been around in the 1940s, Ringo's appendicitis might well have been diagnosed long before his appendix burst, and he would probably have been spared the long hospital stay.

Friday night lights

I was driving home from a wonderful dinner at the Taqueria Moroleon at 9:30 last night and was surprised to find that Newark Road, north of Toughkenamon, was lit up like a stadium. It seems they are installing new pipelines underneath the roadway and are doing the project at night, under portable floodlights. Because only one lane of traffic is allowed through at a time, I waited in a line behind one of Rob Pearson's dump trucks for a minute or so and then the flagger let us through.

Secret society

It seems that a underground society has been quietly forming in our area: people who miss Genuardi's! (The supermarket on Baltimore Pike east of Kennett was converted into a Giant this summer.)
In last week's column I mentioned a friend of mine last week who thought he was the only one, but others have subsequently revealed themselves to me:
"I MISS Genaurdi's!!!! Your friend is noooo way the only one. I miss $5 Fridays, and Giant is much more pricier... I now have to shop at Greg's Produce in Hockessin, a little bit of Giant, and now have to go towards DE more."  
Another said although she liked the Giant's produce, the new store's layout tried her patience.
Do the members have a stealth sign of recognition, maybe an old Genuardi's flyer or a Genuardi's bonus card?

Eye, me, mine

This may well be the buggiest summer I remember. Not, thankfully, those awful stink bugs, but rather moths, spiders, flies, mosquitoes and those tiny bees. I can't sit outside on the deck or relax in the hammock without getting an ankle-full of itchy welts.
Yesterday after supper I was out for my usual walk on our beautiful back roads, maybe two miles from home. I was wired into my 80s playlist and Boy George was crooning, "Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?" Just then a huge gnat flew straight into my eye. Impeccable timing!
A friend commented that it was lucky I wasn't listening to the Electric Light Orchestra's "Can't Get It Out of My Head" at the time.

The Great Ejection

My West Marlborough friend and neighbor Helen Martin told me that Tyndale Society (USA), of which she is secretary, will be holding a seminar at London Grove Friends Meeting House on Saturday, September 8, to mark the 350th anniversary of “Black Bartholomew” (August 24, 1662), "when almost 2,000 gospel ministers were ejected from their pulpits for reasons of conscience and England was left in religious turmoil from which it long suffered... The event marked the beginning of a period of severe persecution for Quakers and Roman Catholics also, and proved to be a watershed for the advance of religious liberty in general in the English-speaking world."
Speakers will include:

-- Dr. Carl Trueman, the Academic Dean and Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Chestnut Hill, will be speaking on "A Tale of Two Ejections: Richard Baxter, John Owen and 1662."
-- Historian Barbara Cross will share "Ministries Sealed by Suffering: Thomas Watson & Edmund Calamy," some forgotten heroes of the era.
-- Helen's brother, retired Avondale District Justice Tom Martin, will discuss "John Bunyan’s Imprisonment: Impact on America."
Something I really want to see is a unique folio copy of the "Book of Common Prayer" prepared for the Archbishop of Canterbury that is going to be on display. "This very rare 1662 book was the standard to which all university professors and English clergy were to conform."
The seminar will start at 9 a.m. and will run until 1 p.m. Suggested voluntary contribution is $10, and light refreshments will be served.
Helen asked me to say that everyone is welcome.

Around town

Random sightings around town today:
1. Route 82 has been repaved through Unionville, and double-yellow lines were added a day or so later.
2. Sure signs of fall: full parking lots at the schools, grape hyacinth leaves sprouting, and the first fixture card in the mail. And a sunny customer at the Willowdale produce stall pointed out that corn on the cob wouldn't be around much longer.
3. The Jennersville Starbucks is being redecorated.
4. Somebody's putting in a new fence over the hill; I can hear the rhythmic thumping of the post driver.
5. For the second time in recent days someone I know only through Facebook came up to me and introduced herself. It's fun to meet these online "friends" actually in person.