Phineas is a nine-year-old parrott and has a life expectancy of about 60 years. All pets should live so long. Phineas is attempting to do a hand-stand despite not having hands. A real trooper. The woman in the background is probably not a bird person. [flickr]
Category Archives: Snapshots & Fragments
Perfect Day in Seattle
No-sweat e-ticket check-in. Barely had time to take off my shoes before I was through security. Zero delay on the flight to Seattle. And now I’m sitting in the bar of the Edgewater Hotel, sucking down micro-brews (and free wi-fi). Christ, can life get any better?
On Wednesday, I’m meeting The Other Steve Mays for drinks. Tomorrow we do Pike Place Market. Watch for photos.
Dunklin County Courthouse

When I was a lad, the Dunklin County Courthouse was kind of a “big deal.” Big physically. Big because it was the center of “downtown Kennett.” And big because important, powerful people worked there. Or so it seemed. Photo by Charles Jolliff.
Wildflowers

A few miles south of Freeberg, MO on Highway 63.
Mase becomes Mays

A year ago I posted a photo of a gravestone that I assumed belonged to a distant relative. I was puzzeled by the different spelling (Mase). A few days ago I received an email with some answers. Some distant relative was browsing the web and came across smays.com and discovered the photo (his grandparents). He provided all kinds of names and relationships and a little info regarding the name change.
Only Joseph and one of his brothers for some reason chose the Mays spelling, and of Joseph and Nancy’s children only Vernon and one of his brothers chose to revert to Mase.
Cousin (?) Vernon put me in touch with another relative who has been researching all of this for 30 years and she provided images from an old family bible that has entries dating back to 1825. I’ve never been into family history but can see how this might get a little addictive. And what will genealogy be like 100 years from now with all these blogs out there (here).