I noticed this scene while driving back from an assignment a few days ago.  This is the bridal shop on Pleasant Street in Concord.

I found these strange ice patterns along a multi-use recreational trail in Concord... I think they look like vertebrae.

I spotted this mysterious object under the ice during an assignment on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010.  Can you guess what it is?

Concord Monitor photo / Katie Barnes

While waiting for an assignment to begin at the St. Paul's School on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, I noticed this cracked window pane in the art building. 

Buster stares down my camera at the Concord dog park in Terrill Park on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. Pet owners are trying to revive the Friends of the Concord Dog Park volunteer group that originally helped set up the leash-free area for dogs. See the story here.

Around this time of year back in 2007 I found myself wearing an oversized Santa hat surrounded by 7 grandchildren in the back of a pickup truck, riding around a field at the Monadnock Nurseries waving a hacksaw and hollering "yeeeeeehaawww... ...hold on tight kiddos', we be fetchin' y'all some Christmas trees."

A Muscovy duck, right, and a Pekin duck, left, get started on spring lovin' a little early at the Twist of Fate farm in Dunbarton on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009.

People in the business know. 

Flood the market now with great deals to bring in the buyers and where are those buyers next year?  

Crush and destroy vehicles that could have been resold and recycled and where does that leave the people who depended on those resold, recycled vehicles?  How will Cash for Clunkers effect my son who is just now becoming old enough to drive, but not old enough to make or borrow enough money to buy an expensive new car?  Used car prices were already sky rocketing before Cash for Clunkers because of the economy.  Now those prices will be well beyond the reach of most low income people because the supply will not match the demand.  Anyone in any type of business understands the correlation between supply and demand and the price of hard-to-find items. Not to mention low-on-cash vehicle owners who normally could find decent used parts for their older cars in "junk yards" are now going to find those used parts even more difficult to find, and more expensive when found.

I spent Sunday morning pulling weeds from my vegetable garden, the first decent garden I've managed to nurture in a couple of years.  It had been a difficult weekend with bad news, as it turns out, dropping in on us in threes.  Sunday morning for most Christians is usually reserved for communing with our God.  I don't sit in a pew on Sundays.  Were I to be asked about my belief in God, I would stammer and stutter my way through my answer.  It's not that I don't believe, but neither can I say I am faithful.