Mad Science Supply & Surplus

GARFIELD, Pa. -- This Pittsburgh neighborhood continues to gentrify. Artistic endeavors abound. The Mad Science Supply & Surplus store sells, well, I'm not quite sure. Didn't have time to go in, but I will make it a destination next time I'm out biking. Maybe you can figure it out:

http://madscisupply.tumblr.com/AboutUs

They do stuff in LAB (Literary Art Boom, a non-profit outreach program) for kids who might grow into scientific sorts:

http://literaryartsboom.org/donate/

Other sights in Garfield:

Flying High, Flying Far

PITTSBURGH -- Even if I weren't so desperate to see signs of Spring, I would have still gone to see the Flight of the Butterflies, an Omnimax film at the Carnegie Science Center. It's about the discovery of the winter home of monarch butterflies. Their annual round-trip spans from Canada to Mexico and takes three generations of butterflies. How do they find their way to a place thousands of miles away that they've never seen before when I sometimes can't find my car in a parking garage?

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/omnimax/flight-of-the-butterflies/

The Science Center (loaded with kids and grandparents this afternoon) also has an exhibit of butterflies that aren't flying anywhere but look great behind glass:

End-of-March Madness

PITTSBURGH -- Snow at the end of March? How dare it!

We got some snow last night, late in the season for us, and we Pittsburghers are not happy about it. Growing up in Kane, Pennsylvania, a small town in the Allegheny National Forest, big snow storms were the norm. Humongous snow storms. Snow on Halloween (sometimes) and Snow at Easter (sometimes). The schools never closed. They were never even delayed back then. We stuffed our double-socked feet into our boots and trudged to school. And instead of making lemon aid out of lemons, we made snow forts and ice rinks and sled paths out of snow.

Our backyard, 1964. Thanks, Dad.

I'm reclining in the saucer.

Our own "sledding hill." Again, Thanks, Dad.

Evergreen Park that in winter was ever-white.

Working the head-to-toe bundled-up look. I hope I went to the bathroom before I got dressed.

This morning, the schools have a 2-hour delay. I know that navigating a city is different than a small town, but really, the 4 or so inches of snow on the ground this morning is now, a few hours later, mostly just mush.

Personally, I'm not much of snow person anymore. This has been a long winter, and I will say that we're all just so sick of snow that we've said some pretty nasty things about Punxsutawney Phil. I'll never again trust a rodent to predict the future for me.

Sunrise, Sunset

PITTSBURGH -- We're back from our version of spring break. Some photos from a sunrise in Atlantic City and from a sunset at Gettysburg National Military Park:

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Games played by soldiers during the Civil War.

These are small sections of the immense Cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg, depicting Pickett's Charge. http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/10:

Broken Boardwalk

ATLANTIC CITY -- Most of what I've seen along the Boardwalk has either been repaired or was not damaged during Storm Sandy. But at the very far end, down past our hotel, the stretch of boardwalk that was over the water is now just a series of weathered, mangled posts:

Debris that washes up on the beach includes man-made building material:

More damage close to the shore:

The Terminal Market wasn't terminal. It is open, along with a few other mom and pop convenience stores.

Small homes that are at least a few decades old now have the Revel Hotel and Casino staring down on them: