A few days ago I did a search for Joseph Kappes on newspaper.com. There was around 70 results and most were for the Joseph Kappes I was looking for. The first result was from 1896:
From the above I got the idea that in the 1890’s Joseph Kappes gave up his land and sold his equipment because he was retiring from farming. However later that day while reading some of the story of his daughter, Rosa, I found that Joseph Kappes appears to had taken up farming in Minnesota. At least Rosa’s story indicates that she followed her parents there. How that enterprise turned out for him I don’t know. I do know it didn’t go well for Rosa and her husband since they returned to the area in 1898. So now I have the mystery of what happened in Minnesota. All I know now is that for some reason Joseph Kappes went there sometime in the mid-1890’s and that he was in Pesotum by 1903.
Last year at this time on Facebook I got an offer to get a book made of my photos on Facebook. I was skeptical about if quality prints could be made from the low resolution photos that I upload to Facebook. Still for the number of pages that I would get I found the price reasonable. And since the book was already assembled there was no work on my part. So I ordered one and was pleased with what I got. So this year when I got an offer I could not resist the temptation. I ended up ordering two different books. One is based on photos during the whole time I have been on Facebook and the other used photos taken this year. Anyway I am wondering if anyone else has ordered one of these books? I am looking forward to getting the ones I ordered.
I am still in the process of picking photos for the photo book I plan to make. I imagine this will take a while. Below is the first photo that I picked.
If you are in Central Illinois today you might have noticed that it is cold. For some reason that has made me feel a little like Christmas. I think part of the trouble I had this year with Christmas is that the weather never felt like Christmas weather. Today the weather feels that way. So I think I will leave the Christmas lights on one more day even through the 12th day of Christmas is now past.
For quite a while I have been promoting Krampus on Facebook. Now I am seeing that Krampus has become fairly popular. I had no idea that I had such an influence on popular culture. Today I found out about a rival for Krampus. Her name is Gryla, the Icelandic Christmas Witch. Gryla does all the nasty things like making pies out of naughty children. She also has a giant man-eating cat that eats anyone who isn’t wearing new clothes. And to add to this she has 13 mean sons called the “Yule Boys”. So it looks like Gryla could hold her own against Krampus. I am not a superstitious person. So the idea of Krampus and Gryla mostly seems somewhat humorous to me. And maybe an antidote to some of our over-sugary Christmas ideals. Still there might be some advantage to having mythological creatures for some to project their fears onto.
Some people seem to have a need to believe in demons. And maybe having figures like Krampus and Gryla is a good safety value. Otherwise superstitious people tend to demonize and therefore dehumanize other people. Once they do that it becomes possible to inflict any kind of harm on those you believe to be demons. So maybe it would be a good thing if the belief in beings like Krampus and Gryla let some people project their hated onto mythical beings. Anyway it seemed like a good idea when it first came to me.
One thing about Christmas that is difficult for me some years is how up to the day of Christmas things are turned up full volume. And then once Christmas day is past the volume is turned all the way down. One day it is full celebration mode and the next it is back to day to day life. The decorations lose their luster and some people even start turning off the lights the next day. And all the Christmas music falls silent. I have often found this to be jarring. Not so much this year. I never really got into the Christmas spirit this year so I am not missing something I did not feel much of. Still in many years I have advocated following the observation of the 12 days of Christmas. The season would wind down and end on The Feast of Epiphany on January 6. Most years I follow this and leave the Christmas lights on until Epiphany.
Today I am already on to thinking about a project for next year. That project is to make a book of some of my favorite photos. I can’t say exactly why I am doing that other than having a desire to have what may be a more permanent record of the images I have made than what digital storage provides. I’ll probably talk more about this as time moves on. So that is all for today.
I am having a hard time getting in the mood for Christmas this year. And I am one who most years does enjoy Christmas. I like seeing the lights and hearing Christmas music. Still this year while Christmas is only a few days away I am still miles away from feeling the season. And I don’t think it is worth the time to give why much thought.
I ordered a few corvid-19 tests yesterday. I didn’t know there was such a thing until my sister mentioned she had ordered some. Anyway I figured they might not be a bad thing to have on hand. I imagine it also might be time to order some KN-95 masks again. A while back when I ordered some I thought that would be the last time. Now it looks like we could be in for a rough time in January. I hope not, however it doesn’t cost much to be prepared. I suppose my main concern isn’t so much about getting Corvid-19 as it is that many of my family and friends have medical conditions that could require emergency attention. If the hospitals that provide such care are jammed with Corvid-19 patients then they might not get the quality of care that they need. So far we have all been fortunate and I hope that good fortune continues.
I have to admit that so far coping with the pandemic hasn’t been difficult for me. I am retired and I have never been a real social person. So not being able to go out and be around a lot of people hasn’t been something that I miss. I suppose the most trying part has been seeing how ignorant and gullible many people are. I was aware of this shortcoming in many of my fellows, however the pandemic has shown almost daily the tragic consequences of ignorance. Mostly I cope my remembering that I have no control in the matter and by trying to limit my exposure to the news.
Wish I did have more holiday cheer to spread. I will end with a photo of some of my holiday solar lights. Finding out how these things work was pretty interesting to me. You can do a Google search and easily find a few articles dedicated to the subject.
I first heard about blogs back in the late 90’s. I kinda liked the idea and even signed up for one with something that I think was called Blogger. After I signed up I don’t think I ever made a post. Since then I have started some others, however I never made much of them. Probably the longest lasting one was a blog I had with posts about old cameras. I made at least one post to that one once a week for over a year. And that actually was a bit of work. That one still exists, however I have only made one post on it in the last five years. http://beacon225.blogspot.com/
My plan here is to write down some random stuff until that stuff looks like a post. My first thought was to pick some topic and write about that, however I find that I am usually bored by the topic before I get done with the post. Or I start to feel like a am pontificating. The first topic I was going to post about was how the lack of good broadband in rural areas is one reason why people in rural areas feel they have been passed by in the modern world. And I think it is anger about being left out that has lead so many of them to be Trump supporters. Anyway I think better broadband for county people would be a good idea. I did find while working on the broadband post that my local electric coop is working on new broadband options. I hope they come up with something. Right now the best option seems to be Starlink. So far people who have it seem happy. I am on the waiting list and probably won’t get service till sometime next year. I don’t care to be funding Elon Musk’s trip to Mars, although I wouldn’t mind if he went and stayed there, so I hope the Coop comes up with an alternative.
I got this photo from an old newspaper. It took a lot of editing to make it look even as good as it is here. The photo is from 1939 in Villa Grove IL. Today I posted it on a Facebook group for Villa Grove. It appears that there are a few people who remember when this gas station existed.
What happened to the young man in the photo? 1939 was two years from the World War, and he was an age where he would have been called up. Growing up in the midst of the Great Depression and then going off to war just as you hit adulthood was a real challenge. I believe that is why men from that era always seemed so self-confident to me. Once they made it through the difficult times that they grew up in, the prosperous peacetime that followed the war didn’t present much that they couldn’t handle.
Well this seems like a post so I will close for now. Thanks for reading.
