(A Brush Mountain Tale)
There’s a ridge above Catawba folks don’t linger on. Brush Mountain, long and dark, the kind of rise that carries a weight in its bones. The old timers say a mountain is like a hound… feed it once, and it’ll never stop coming back. But when you feed it blood, you’ve made a pact you can’t unmake.
In May of 1971, a small plane cut through the clouds over that ridge. In it was Audie Murphy, soldier, actor, hero; a man who carried more medals than his coat could bear, a man who walked through fire overseas and came out breathing when others did not. Folks liked to say he had death by the collar. But on that fog-thick morning, Brush Mountain decided otherwise. The plane hit the slope hard, tore open trees, and burned hot enough to scorch the stones. All aboard were gone in a heartbeat.
The sheriff’s men hauled what they could out, but the mountain kept the rest. Kept the smoke, kept the screams, kept the shadow of it all.
—
Porch Talk
Years later, if you sat on Cal Dempsey’s porch of an evening, he’d tell it plain.
“Brush Mountain ain’t right,” he’d say, rocking slow, his lantern throwing shadows across the boards. “That ridge pulled Murphy down same as a snapping turtle pulls under a duck. Weren’t no accident. Mountain drew in breath, filled the air with fog, and swallowed him whole.”
Somebody would laugh, usually a young’un visiting from town. Cal would just spit and shake his head. “You think I’m telling jokes? Ask the hunter heard an engine coughin’ overhead on a clear night, no plane in sight. Ask the woman seen a row of soldiers in the mist, marchin’ quiet along the slope, uniforms gray as ashes, and then*poof* gone into the brush. Ask the boys who dared each other to sleep by the memorial stone. Not one lasted till midnight. Said the ground was too restless, like it wanted to roll over under ‘em.”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Upon rereading Fahrenheit 451, I feel that a modern title could be “I Blame Our Screens” or “TikTok Wrecked Us.”
Day 21,015
Sunday started well with a breakfast of egg, veggie sausage, and cheese on maple biscuits, which was honestly better than a McGriddle. We are having the house AC inspected this morning. Afterward, I plan to visit a new mechanic named Jarl. On our ride home Saturday, the yellow check engine light came on… I hoped that tightening the gas cap would fix it, but it didn’t. Hopefully, Jarl can resolve the issue, and I also want to explore upgrading our headlights for better visibility.
Speaking of Saturday, we had a pretty successful outing for gathering little treasures. We picked up some cute stickers and four mystery date books: James, God of the Woods, Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, and From Blood and Ash. We also grabbed a bunch of craft supplies, including some wooden pieces to paint, craft yarn, and tiny watercolor paint sets.
Along with an autumn puzzle and some treasures for friends, I found some great Matchbox cars. I picked up three art cars, specifically two ’57 Chevys, with letters all over them and a smashed-up Mondrian design. I also grabbed a lucky cat, a hot dog, and a sushi car, which were all picked out for BHK. While we were out and about, we managed to spot a red, white, and blue train all painted up for America’s 250th.
Tonight, we are keeping dinner simple with quesadillas. For screen time, we will be polishing off Nautilus since we have one episode left. It was a cute, albeit non-canon, diversion for 10 episodes.
Day 21,014 – 570614024106
deer flyby
whoopie pie skunk
went to radford, visited a couple of neat spots. hot wheels store, paper assembly, and a creative reuse spot. picked up a couple of art cars, lots of art supplies.
Came home, watched a bit more nautilus, enjoyed some Arnold Palmers with BHK, and we read a bit, recharged a bit
Grapes!
Just sold off some excess grapes from the vines- made $100, and we still have plenty to snack on and jelly this season.
Kept mostly the green grapes, as they dont sell as well, but are still delicious.
Halfway through Nautilus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus_(TV_series)
Probably better than it had any right to be, honestly.
It took quite a few liberties with the source, but not so many that it is a crime against nature. (Fair to good acting, nice sets and FX, nice anti-imperialist message.)
Nemo is a little young (I always pictured him as 40-50 in the book), and his personality isn’t really the same as I remember. I miss the much larger crew, but they had some other characters to add for various reasons. I’d say it is more of a prequel, sort of a “two decades before the book” kind of thing.
https://archive.org/details/warnerbros.cartoonspecialnormannormal1968videodailymotion
Warner Bros. Cartoon Special Norman Normal 1968
deer flyby
Day 21,013 – 570613031302
Different AW, old chum.
An audiobook listing for “The Communist Manifesto” written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. On the left is the book cover featuring a sketch of Marx and Engels. On the right, the text reads “The Communist Manifesto,” followed by the authors’ names, and “Narrated by Adam West.” Below the title details, icons and text indicate it is an audiobook, unabridged, with a duration of 1 hour and 19 minutes, and eligible for a benefit or credit.
deer and birds
This is pretty neat, going to try it out later.
xpiatio.github.io/Hearthwave/
Hearthwave turns any home server into a shared radio station you reach from any browser. It transcribes what comes over the air and speaks what you type — so no one is left off the channel.
Via Wonder Woman #777 (2021)
— Scottobear (@scottobear.bsky.social) 2026-08-10T21:08:32.679Z
Roanoke Rambler and Fart Howler post racist, inaccurate AI slop
This is some garbage level reporting, with the AI formatting on top to take bad/incorrect information and make it into an unreadable, useless bit of text that only shows how little the Rambler now cares about content curation and fact checking.
AI can be a useful tool, but the way that article was slapped together and implemented was an embarrassment to news media.
Fresh skunks!
rocket the baby skunk(speedy baby) and angel skunk (has scapula and head marks) aug 12 2026
#backyardzoo #roanokeva #skunk
Best get put there and touch some rocks.
Do you ever think about how certain types of stones make certain Pokémon evolve and how you probably haven’t touched every kind of stone on Earth yet?
Food for thought.
Snoopy come home – 1972
Stills from the intro of Snoopy, Come Home (1972) dir. Bill Melendez
Oh, come on now…
Yeah, I’m not getting in a plane under this administration. Here I thought Reagan tossing air traffic controllers to the wolves back in the 80’s was a terrible idea.
Trains are very nice.
(Abandoned passenger train cars located at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. The train featured prominently in the center is an EMD E-unit locomotive.The tall building visible in the background is the Norfolk & Western Railway Office Building, now named the Robert B. Claytor Building)
I enjoyed Murderbot and Widow’s Bay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murderbot_(TV_series)
Maybe in my top two favorite overall shows of the year.( I loved widows bay, but the end of the season got a little soft at the bottom. Still solid A material though)
Murderbot, while not as brilliant as Widow’s Bay at its best, was consistently solid entertainment throughout. I hear there is a series of books, and I will likely investigate them before season two comes out (if it comes out, in these uncertain times)
Audiobook
Day 21,005 -570605113753
32 states don’t require clergy to report CSA??
Some U.S. states designate clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse, but 32 states explicitly exempt religious leaders from reporting abuse if the information is learned during a protected confidential rite, such as a sacramental confession. These exemptions protect the religious privilege of confidentiality, though legislative debates and legal challenges continue nationwide.
Yeah, no. Believe in whatever spiritual thing you like, but commit earth crimes on kids, freedom of religion can get waived on that, in my opinion.
To put this into perspective: when you see a therapist or other mental healthcare professional, for example, you work with them under “therapist-patient privilege”. This means that what you share with them cannot be shared with others; it creates a standard of trust.
However, if you disclose to your therapist that you have harmed or intend to harm another person, or have been the victim of child abuse, your therapist must report this.
Day 21,003 – 570603072516
Remastered return to planet of the apes
Too many people do this already, we don’t need more of it.
AI advice suppresses people’s willingness to say “I don’t know”, even when the advice is wrong and accuracy is incentivized
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5y6m4_v1
https://alternativeto.net/software/shutup10/
Good antibloatware for win 10 and 11
got more doodles with our macados order last night!
bunny and dino
A spent SpaceX rocket is on track to hit the Moon at about 5,400 mph this Wednesday.
This will be the second known time a rocket has unintentionally hit the Moon and both cases involve SpaceX hardware. Just saying.
I would think it easier to miss the moon entirely?
Kermit on Sam and Friends – A Horse Named Bill (1961) Final Episode – Aired 12/15/61 on WRC-TV