IT’S JUST A STATUE!

In my opinion Mt. Rushmore should never have been made into a national monument, because in essence, it’s a statue. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great, but as I said, it’s just a statue. It may be an utterly massive statue showing all of America’s greatest presidents, but it’s just a statue! I know I may be starting to get incredibly repetitive, but I really want to make my point. Yes, I am actually a junior ranger there so I know I shouldn’t be insulting it, but…IT’S A STATUE, A BIG, BIG STATUE!!! See, I just don’t understand why they make it such a big deal, sure whoever made it was probably a great person to learn all sorts of useless facts about, yet it’s still just a STATUE!!! I wonder, if I made a big statue of Elvis Presley out of a mountain, would it become a national monument?

The Biggest Ball of Twine in the World

Right now I’m in the RV, headed away from Cawker City. In Cawker City lies the world’s biggest ball of twine! It was pretty ghost-like in Cawker City, not much but the ball of twine. But what was really cool was how in all of the old shop windows there was a re-worked famous picture so that the ball of twine was featured. So, for example, there was a fake picture of Picasso’s Sunflowers, but lying there, on the table was the ball of twine. Or, there was a twine-a-fied version of American Gothic, where the woman was holding a ball of twine.

I think that it’s really cool to visit almost-ghost towns, because they’re a great way to find out all sorts of information about stuff you’ll never need to know. Here are some facts that you will never have any use for, but I’ll tell you them any way; The ball is 11 feet tall, 42 feet in circumference, it weighs 19,092 pounds (which is 5,042 pounds more than the RV!) It is also started in 1953, making it 56 years old. So, all in all, I think that was a great experience that I’ll luckily never need to have again. I hope you like the weird twine pictures my dad took.

Here’s a picture of me adding more twine to the ball!

Here are some of the other Twine-art masterpieces:

The Mysterious Book, Number 2

A Little Treasury of American Poetry, edited by Oscar Williams is the title of the book my grandmother gave me. It was my grandfather’s when he was little. Here are some of my favorite poems;

Glyph (from the Washoe-Paiute)

Truly Buzzards
Around my sky are circling!

For my soul festers,
And an odor of corruption
Betrays me to disaster.

Meanness, betrayal, and spite
Come flockwise,
To make me aware
Of sickness and death within me.
My sky is full of the dreaded sound
Of the wings of unsuccesses.

I really liked this poem because of how it seemed so… other-worldly. It was translated directly from the glyphs of the Washoe-Paiute.

I think whoever is reading this poem will really like it, it’s called “I saw Eternity”.

I Saw Eternity, by Louise Bogan

O beautiful forever!
O grandiose everlasting!
Now, now, now,
I break you into pieces,
I feed you to the ground.

O brilliant, O languishing
Cycle of weeping light!
The mice and birds will eat you,
And you will spoil their stomachs
As you have spoiled my mind.

Here, mice, rats,
Porcupines and toads,
Moles, shrews, squirrels,
Weasels, turtles, lizards-
Here’s bright everlasting!
Here’s a crumb of forever!
Here’s a crumb of forever!

I enjoyed that poem because of how it made me look at eternity in a completely different way.

I thought both of the poems really made me look at things a different way, and I’m looking forward to reading more poems as we travel.

Monthly Budget Report Number 1

I have now “closed up the books” for the month of August and found out some interesting facts, such as, the fact that we spent 26% percent of our budget on gas. Currently we are 1.4% over budget, which, considering the fact that we bought many staples is actually quite good. Our major expenses were gas and groceries which totaled 50% of our monthly budget. We also spent a large amount on admissions (17%). In the future I think we should be driving less to reduce gas costs. I also think thank we should be more careful when buying gas, because if gas is 20 cents cheaper, it makes a big difference when you’re driving an RV that gets eight miles to the gallon with a 55 gallon tank! Another point I will make sure to get across to my family is that we should buy more fruits like apples, and not stuff like strawberries which are out of season and are usually imported, and thus cost more. Finally to lower admissions I would like us to stop going to places that we go to just out of boredom, so we can go to better places that we will enjoy more.