Conversed with two friends this morning long enough to finish my first cup of Starbucks dark roast, with two splendas and creme…

I asked about sites in the area — of ruins, abandoned factories, or such structures which have fallen into disuse, decrepitude from their heyday.  I received several good leads.  Apparently there is an old iron train bridge in Carpentersville.  And mention was made of the old US Arsenal complex located in Joliet.  Regarding the old Joliet site, I found this in wikipedia.

At 2:45 a.m. on June 5, 1942, a large explosion on the assembly line at the Elwood facility resulted in 48 dead or missing and was felt as far as Waukegan, Illinois, over 60 miles (97 km) north.

I’ll check both of these locations out.  I am curious.  Ruins, graveyards of a sort somehow stimulate me to thought.

A case can be made that this world is about “falling.”  Nothing endures, everything falls to pieces.  No mere philosophical abstraction, or the experience of nostalgia for the past, amusement felt by playing the “goldie oldies.”  There is something indelibly tragic that everything passes away.  Is “history” an immense dustbin, or better, an immense dust laden warehouse, piled with discards?

However this needn’t be the last word:  Be amazed at the friends you’ve got there on your trip.