Tree_Fall

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How was the weather?

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There in May expecting rain but found it mostly sunny and cool. The only rain were moderate showers lasting about 30m. Weather aside, Como is considered more fashionable and having more to do.

One negative note about all IT town. Market day in Italian towns used to be varied and interesting. Now they are swamped by custom-built shop vans selling similar imports of dubious quality. There is no reason to plan an itinerary around those days like people did 10+ years ago..

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some shitty finish work up there

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I learned a lot about houses from a great landlord. Concerning flat roofs, "you can tell how recently the roof was worked on by how faded the beer cans are".

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put fertilizer in the holes

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When bacteria and fungus are making wood rot they quickly run out of nitrogen and rotting slows way down. Drilling and filling with high N fertilized keeps the process going.

The same need for nitrogen goes for decaying roots and all the ground wood that stump grinders leave. You'll have trouble growing anything including grass at the site because the decay process strips out nitrogen. Keep fertilizing.

Mound-seekers are an OK bunch of people who like really old stuff. The problem is that dirt is old, and when you pile up old dirt, is the mound old? I question the antiquity of the LSU mounds, It's a fun no-looser argument. No matter how sophisticated those ancient people were, they were historical flute music whom did not influence wider culture.

BTR is not a tourist destination, but there are things locals take visitors to see.

1.Rural Life Museum & adjacent Windrush Gardens, LSU Botanic Gardens.
2.Shaw Center LSU Art Museum, check to see if there is a play/concert at the theater.
3.Magnolia Mound Plantation - In town restored French era plantation house. Authentic but not showy. If you want showy there are several to pick from up and down river. South is Whitney Plantation places emphasis on slavery, informative,straight facts, not self righteous. Surrounded by active cane fields. North is Oakley Plantation w/ Audubon State Historic Site. The naturalist worked there.
4.LSU Center for River Studies - large-scale coastal model. Request a tour rivermodel@la.gov
5.Capital grounds including remains of Revolutionary War fort and Louisiana Museum.
6.Old State Capital Bldg. w/ Art & Sci Museum across street.
7.Bluebonnet Swap Park.
8.Knock Knock Childrens Museum...child required.
9. Mississippi R ferry, PLAQUEMINE / SUNSHINE . Briefly experience another era still part of rural LA life. free.
10. Food - I'd do Mansurs on the Boulevard, but many others. Pick local not national chain.
11. Lake Martin swap tour, an hour drive west, Personally, I'd skip closer Atchafalaya boat rides.

12. About Indian Mounds. The campus two may be extremely old, but unimpressive. Poverty Point World Heritage Site in LA is a 3 hour drive away. Two hours away is Emerald Mound in MS. The 1st is a large complex. The 2nd is BIG and near Natchez, another French-era river port town.

It's not what Congressmen know but what they shoot their mouths about.

In WWII Representative Andrew J. May (D-Kentucky), served as the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee. In a public search he disclosed the top secret operation depth of US subs. Japan quickly adjusted their depth charges with lethal effect.

With 535 members of Congress the intelligence community assumes that at least one of them is a spy, an informant, chatty when seeking sex, or as stupid as May. In addition there are over 15,000 congressional staffers. Outside of Congress over a million people have top secret clearance!

Need-to-know controls are in place and are effective in the short-term. long-term there are no secrets...Epstein's excepted, maybe.

Met Museum is always nice.
A warning: Lots of people visit NYC kin around Christmas. The Met and other museums can be swamped, especially if bad weather pushes them inside. Buying a membership helps a bit.

A recent addition to my list of things to do in NYC is to get measured for online clothing purchases at Proper Cloth. I go to the 5th Ave address LINK . Getting professionally measured and trying styles on, greatly improves online shopping outcome.

Sleep apnea. Your brain throws lots of bizarre stuff at you when the oxygen level drops dangerously low. Drinking can increase the frequency.

"Viking Cruise"
You'll be seeing lots of castles, Roman stuff, etc. A bit different and near Aix is Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole. It housed an mental asylum. V van Gogh was the most famous resident. It's both history and art themed.

A day trip to Camarque and Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer could be of interest to Louisiana people. It is the marshy Delta of the Rhone river with an ancient horseman, and heavily Romani (gypsy) culture. Tradition has it that the biblical "Mary's" who once lived there were Mary Salome, Mary Jacobe, and Mary Magdalene.

Your observation of how Paris handles disruption match mine. Wandering around Algerian areas in the suburbs can be scary. I have to wonder if new people will keep playing by the Parisian rules?

Most recent trip to France:
International flights Paris CDG.
Train from airport station to Bordeaux for a few days.
Looped by car exploring out of Dordogne and Aix then back to Bordeaux.
That required travel on major toll roads, easy enough. Train routes didn't match our needs.
Return train to CDG.

Two things that are less of a bother than people think.
Demonstrations - for the most part routine life goes on around them.
Strikes - much more organized than demonstrations. Train schedules may shift a bit, but things move along.

Avoid July/August when vacationing French clog the roads.