Saturday

Pimp my rocket

If you grew up in Cleveland in the 50s and 60s you'll recognize the strange vehicle we saw as we walked to the corner of 32nd and Franklin.

It's a Rocket Car, of course, made from one of the stainless steel "rockets" that used to spin around at Euclid Beach amusement park. Back then it would have been hanging on cables from a tall merry-go-round type structure.

It was one of the low-stress rides that I'd use as a warm-up for the more exciting rollercoasters: the double-train Racing Coaster, the taller Thriller, or the rough and scary Flying Turns. On the Rocket Ships you swung around just brushing the treetops, with the wind in your hair and a good view of the people strolling by on the ground below.

The iconic rocket shape and gleaming stainless-steel skin takes you back a lot of years in a single flash. The fact that a company makes money taking people around the city on two of these babies show how strong our nostalgia is for the simpler days of Euclid Beach Park.

Peachicide

It was tough, but the books and articles all tell you to thin the young peaches so that they are about 6" apart. This is supposed to make the remaining peaches grow big and juicy.

Today I did my best, but it was hard to cut off perfectly good little peaches. I ended up leaving some more like 4" apart than 6", but I at least made sure that the clumps were down to 2-3 rather than 4-6.

This is the first time we've tried anything like this, so we'll see what happens to our peach crop. I'm concerned that fewer peaches almost guarantees that the birds will get them all.

Last year putting plastic netting over the tree seemed to keep the birds off, so we'd better get that out pretty darn soon.

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