Bob Roller

Loading a semi truck with corn harvested from our field. This corn will be sold at the cash value price and sent directly to market. In the background you can see the crushed gravel “Hardscrabble Road” where most of my family has lived for a century. This is the setting for my second book (due soon).

My younger brother’s tractor hooked to an auger that is filling the grain bin we rented from a neighbor with beans from our field.

We finished combining corn last night. With beans done last week, our harvest 2025 is complete.

Yields were good, but the market is poor. So it goes.

#Iowa #Midwest #Farm

They are driving Ubers and checking in on each other. The Swanson’s are doing yard work or working as per diem paramedics in the city and looking for opportunities to eat breakfast food with the Leslies.

- A furloughed fed from Iowa

Last year on Halloween I went to work in full Ron Swanson mode, complete with mustache, bacon, woodworking tools, and grouchy attitude.

Absolutely no one noticed anything unique or special about me that day, and it’s the greatest work compliment I ever received.

No! My writing is bad enough. I don’t need AI to write poorly on my behalf.

I put the effort into my own crappy writing, dang it.

As an interesting twist of fate, I’ve spent the past month furloughed from my job and working my side gig as an event paramedic in downtown DC. I get to be the onsite medical provider for the APHA conference on Wednesday, and I’m pretty stoked for it.

#MedSky #PublicHealth #Paramedic

Quote post a favorite picture of yourself from any era.

My good friend’s teenage son took the selfie I snapped on a weekend Buc-ee’s trip and made this. Perhaps the greatest AI image ever. I asked my family to use this as my obituary picture many years from now.

Me at the hospital after running an EMS call.

All night long. Let’s goooo!

Dark and quiet in the tunnels. Definitely a “Mines of Moria” feel.

Some neat graffiti

Sideling Hill and Rays Hill tunnels abandoned by the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 1960s

Took the bike to Breezewood, PA to ride the abandoned section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and its tunnels. Good way to welcome the start of Spooky Season.

Finished up the Imelda mission. Was proud to serve.

Ham steak cooked in the cast iron pan with honey & brown sugar glaze was a hit with the kids.

Open face roast beef sandwich with mashed taters and beef gravy.

I spent a lot of time riding shotgun in Dad’s pickup as a kid hauling horses and livestock everywhere, and these formative experiences gave me a healthy appreciation for diner food.

One of my favorites is the Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg. $10 for this after a hard day hike was worth it.

My copy of Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light.” I missed his book talk at Gettysburg last night, but today I got to see and feel much of the equipment described in the book.

I’ll close by saying they I’ve visited a lot of Civil War reenactments, but this is my first for WWII. I appreciated the expertise of the reactors who let me handle the equipment and ask a zillion questions. Sitting down to a book tonight, I feel better able to understand what I’m reading.

#BookSky

Finished with a brief stop at the Gettysburg Visitor Center Bookstore. Never disappoints

The milk house connected to the barn was the Secret Service office. As a former dairy farmer, I’m never going to look at a milk house the same way ever again.

Mamie Dodd Eisenhower. Famous Iowan! #Iowa

The house itself was pretty cool, including the putting green on the lawn.

Interesting field stations and medical evacuation setup

Jeeps!

Gettysburg is one of my fave places, but I’ve never visited the adjacent “Ike” Eisenhower farm until today. Bonus for the WWII reenactment camp on the front lawn

Nice hike today in Catoctin Mountain Park. The rain (mostly) held off, and the leaves are just starting to change out here.

#Hiking

Finished the afternoon with a bike ride on the C&O Canal from Point of Rocks to Brunswick.

YouTube video by Appalachian Trail Conservancy Sign the Petition: Kevin Nealon & Appalachian Trail Conservancy Redefine “Take a Hike”

Kevin Nealon's "Take a Hike" Petition supporting the ATC is pretty rad.

youtu.be/22qElprCLw0?...

#Hiking #Backpacking #AppalachainTrail

YouTube video by harneyjt A River Runs Through It - Ending (complete)

My favorite Robert Redford film is his adaptation of Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It. I saw it in a tiny Anamosa, Iowa theater with my Dad and brothers after a hard day on the farm. I always enjoyed the ending but understand it better now.

youtu.be/OsDnrFBpsBk?...

Trip to the used bookstore on the way home.

Weather was perfect today, and I took the kids for a brief hike along the AT to the (OG) Washington Monument. The interpretative signs placed along the way were a hit for my young readers.

#Hiking #Trails #AppalachainTrail

#booksky

The dance recital. Even Radar got into it.

Kids wanted to camp in the backyard, so we made it happen.

Bonfire, reading by flashlight, and a dance recital set to the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” soundtrack

Patrick Swazye

Burgess Meredith

Oliver Platt

Scott Glenn

My 7yo is studying tall tales in school, and I remembered that Disney made a Tall Tales movie in the 90s that we watched last night.

I did not realize until the opening credits was this movie had one of the best ensemble casts of the decade.