Monday Musings - September 2, 2019

Howard County Crews Fixing Water Break
Elkridge, MD
September 1, 2019

1. Happy Labor Day! By definition it is the first Monday in September. Enjoy the holiday if you do not have to work. I do not have to work!

2. August us behind us and now we are already two days into September. Time is flying past, undaunted.

3. We enjoyed having the family over for a Labor Day feast yesterday. It was complicated by the lack of water as a valve broke and it took a few hours for the county to repair it. It was repaired, coincidentally, just as we needed water to boil the corn-on-the-cob.

White-marked Tussock Moth Caterpillar
Elkridge, MD
September 1, 2019

4. While cleaning up around the pool we discovered the most interesting caterpillar that I have seen in a long time. It looked like an alien from another planet. It turns out to be a White-marked Tussock Moth caterpillar. It was fun to watch for a while. I looked it up to see if it was an invasive species that needed to be eradicated. We let this caterpillar go on its way.

Jupiter Inlet Webcam
6:59 AM September 2, 2019

5. I am watching Hurricane Dorian very closely and there are hurricane warnings posted for my community in Florida. Hopefully the storm will be gentle as it cruises by off-shore.  

6. The news seems to get worse and worse every day. 

7. Today in History. On September 2, 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions. By the 1980s, these money machines had become widely popular and handled many of the functions previously performed by human tellers, such as check deposits and money transfers between accounts. Today, ATMs are as indispensable to most people as cell phones and e-mail.



Headlines

Along Hurricane Dorian’s Tortured Path, Millions Are United in Fear - The New York Times

Hong Kong Students Begin School Year With Gas Masks, Class Boycotts and Protests - The New York Times

Italy’s Politics Go to the Beach - The New York Times

China, U.S. kick off new round of tariffs in trade war - Reuters

Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week


It's fitting that on Labor Day, we meet beside the harbors, the waters I should say of New York harbor, with the eyes of Miss Liberty on our gathering and in the words of the poet whose lines are inscribed at her feet, "On the air bridged harbor that twin cities frame."

Through this "Golden Door," under the gaze of that "Mother of Exiles," has come millions of men and women, who first set foot on American soil right there, on Ellis Island, so close to the Statue of Liberty.Address at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New JerseySeptember 1980


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD