Going Back In Time - 1944 vs 2014

This is really incredible -
First picture during war in 1944 -
Click on picture and see it as it is in 2014 - 70 years later

You can keep clicking picture to go back and forth between pictures
REALLY ASTOUNDING!!

https://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/2014/apr/image-opacity-slider-master/index.html?ww2-dday

HAPPY DOGS VIDEO!!

Cleaning Venice Canals??!!

Venice canals drained and cleaned, circa 1956.

More recent pictures click here

Maintaining Venice's Canals
By Durant Imboden

Robert Benchley, the humorist who wrote for The New Yorker, once arrived in Venice and sent a cable to his editor that said:

"Streets full of water. Please advise."

That pretty much sums up the challenges facing the Venice public-works department. In most cities, repairing the streets is a straightforward process of tearing up the old pavement, grading the surface, and covering a base of dirt, gravel, or crushed rock with a fresh layer of concrete or asphalt. In Venice, however, the streets consist largely of canals--and before the streets can be repaired, somebody has to get rid of the water.

The first step in canal maintenance is to erect one or more cofferdams. These temporary walls seal off the canal from adjacent waterways such as the Grand Canal or the Venetian Lagoon.

Once the cofferdams are in place, the work crew uses pumps to drain the canal. Then comes the hard part: removing the thick, charcoal-grey layer of silt and sludge that may have accumulated over several decades.

At the dredging site, a canal worker uses a small dragline (i.e., a duty-cycle crane) to dig up the sludge and transfer it into a wheeled vehicle with a tilting hopper. Each time the hopper fills up, the vehicle's driver backs along temporary rails until he reaches a barge. He tips the muck into the barge, then returns to the waiting dragline. This process is repeated hour after hour, day after day, until the canal is ready to be flooded and reopened. Shovels are also used when needed, to clean out whatever the dragline leaves behind.

Two factors make the job more complicated than it might appear at first glance:

Ancient pilings. Venice's palaces, churches, and other buildings are supported by thousands of wooden pilings that date back hundreds of years. As long as they're submerged, the pilings won't rot--but when they come in contact with the air, deterioration begins. This requires that exposed wooden pilings be protected during the cleaning of the canal.

Public utilities. Today's Venice has water mains, electric power lines, fiber-optic cables, and other utilities, just like any other city. Work crews must be careful to secure exposed utility lines and avoid damaging them while cleaning out the canals.

In The World of Venice, Jan Morris describes the stoical men who clean Venice's canals:

"Far down in the gulley of the empty waterway, beneath the ornate doorways and marble steps of the palaces, you may see the labourers toiling in the sludge....Their bodies, their clothes, their faces are all smeared with the stuff, and if you engage them in conversation their attitude is one of numbed but still mordant resignation."

As the saying goes, "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." That's reason enough to drink a toast of thanks to the canal workers of Venice as you sip Prosecco on your next gondola ride.

Funniest VIRUS PUNS!!

Here they are - some of the funniest VIRUS PUNS all in one spot! 

Some of these are laugh out loud funny!!

Broadneck High School’s Class of 2020 Senior Prank Maryland

Carla and Carl Cavedweller are social distancing champs!
From Santa Cruz Boardwalk Sky Glider
Santa Cruz, California
Beach Boardwalk

STAYING HOME . . . 

I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone.   He asked me what I was wearing…

2019: Stay away from negative people. 

2020: Stay away from positive people.

The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house, and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

This virus has done what no woman has been able to do … 

cancel all sports, shut down all bars, and keep men at home!!!

Do not call the police on suspicious people in your neighborhood!

Those are your neighbors without makeup and hair extensions!

Since we can’t eat out, now’s the perfect time to eat better, get fit, and stay healthy. 

We’re quarantined! Who are we trying to impress? We have snacks, we have sweatpants! I say we use them!

Day 7 at home and the dog is looking at me like, “See . . . This is why I chew the furniture!”

Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands???

I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6 foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

Me: Alexa what’s the weather this weekend?

Alexa: It doesn’t matter – you’re not going anywhere.

Can everyone please just follow the government instructions so we can knock out this corona-virus and be done?! I feel like a kindergartner who keeps losing more recess time because one or two kids can’t follow directions.

I swear my fridge just said, “What the heck do you want now?”

When this is over I am wondering what meeting do I attend first … Weight Watchers or AA?

Quarantine has turned us into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers, and we get really excited about a car ride.

Saw my neighbor out early this morning scraping the  “My Kid is aTerrific Student” sticker off her minivan.  Guess the first week of home-schooling didn’t go so well!

Pollution levels dropping at record breaking rates. Fewer cars on the road, fewer cruise ships on the seas, fewer planes in the sky.    Same number of cows.

NO SPORTS! BUT… if you dump a bag of Skittles in the toilet, squint your eyes and flush it’s almost like watching a NASCAR race!

Remember when you were a kid and you would say “don’t touch me, you have cooties”? Ding ding ding…Round 2. Just older now.

As soon as the stores open up again, let's all run out and get some really great teacher appreciation gifts, like the thrill you got finding that the store had a package of toilet paper!

Since we are stuck at home we should call random numbers in India and ask them about their extended car warranty ...... college loans due .... emspfennsbbw (unintelligible babble about something).

Wonder how many students are missing their old teachers because their new one is too mean?

Publix and other Florida supermarkets are announcing special early morning hours just for people 60 and older. The other 10 people in the state are thrilled to have the stores to themselves the rest of the day!

Day six of no sports: Today I watched birds in the backyard fight over worms. Cardinals were beating the Blue Jays 4 to 2.

I'm putting 4 beers in every room and getting dressed up … then I’m going bar hopping!

I need to practice social distancing from the refrigerator!

*****After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house (basement, garage, closets) but lacking the time . . . this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason. 

GOTTA KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR!