Short Walk Through Long History

Pulled ourselves away from the computers and went for a walk down town.  Parked near the library, walked past shops and churches, through a residential neighborhood, down past the grist mill.  Walked around the town hall, which is under construction/renovation.  Circumnavigated the old cemetery, and marvelled at the hand-carved tombstones from the 1700s.  Many of them are illegible now, and some have subsided so that the turf covers the last line or two of inscription.  Some sort of preservation project must be going on.  There's little blue fragments of painters' tape with numbers marking many of the stones.  Is it more respectful to replace them or let them crumble, I wonder?  Interesting to consider that even our tombstones don't last that long, in the big scheme of things. 

So we may not be around long, but at least in this town we can walk around a lot of neat old things within a mile and a half.
   
Picked up a free Schwinn bicycle on the side of the road.  Looks like it just needs some lubrication and a couple of inner tubes.  Talked The Wife out of a second bike, a ten speed, which was going to need new gearshift cables and brake pads.  It was free as well, but we'll let someone else have that project. 
   
Now I'm ready for a nap.