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Reblogging ~

This is good. Really good. Cynics (you know who you are) — Read and Heed.

In Others' Words's avatarIn Others' Words...

All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

Conan O’Brien

I was quite a bitch in college, by all accounts.  At least, that was many people’s impression of me.  Not so much in high school, and not so much after, largely due to the birth of my son- but for those four years, I was pretty mean.  I was FUNNY, and I wasn’t usually unkind to my people, but in general?  I was quick to take offense.  I was fast with a cutting comment. I’d wager my good friends spent a fair amount of time saying to outsiders…

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There is a special time of day where the light is so luscious, so perfect, so golden and it sometimes takes my breath away. These wildflowers help to form a frame of sorts and, looking beyond these purple beauties, the late day sun has taken hold of the greenery. Bathed in subtle sunlight, the leaves seem to almost shimmer.

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An abandoned church or maybe a school where classes have long since been dismissed? Such a shame these old relics are left to battle the elements – and time – on their own and, as such, lose every battle. Still, I think there is a certain kind of beauty here yet for those of us who are willing to look for it.

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So. I thought this was a cool image but until this moment, had not really given much thought to the sign over the door, silhouetted here in this photo taken at dusk. This is the sign announcing the presence of the Iowa Distilling Company, the existence of which I was totally unaware.

Cumming is a teeny, tiny Iowa town near the Des Moines metro and its local claim to fame – for the bicycling crowd, anyway – is that it sports a parking lot / trailhead for the Great Western Trail. Oh, and it’s home as well to the Cumming Tap, a small bar that caters to area bicyclists.

At one point, Cumming – considered one of the smallest incorporated suburbs of the metro area – was apparently more of a bustling metropolis with the likes of other local businesses such as Sweeney’s Shamrock Oil service station but apparently those days are behind her…

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…but this tiny burg sure packs a photo op wallop!

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I don’t much indulge in hard liquor, the apparent mainstay of the Iowa Distilling Company – not much of a drinker, period – but I do think it’s kind of cool, all things considered, that such a small town (population: 383) would have so much to offer.