The first day of fall 2025 opened with fog and closed with a thunderstorm so severe it shook my ridgetop home.
We suffered through relentless rain for the first half of the year before everything dried up and drought took hold again. Last night, though, was wonderful. Relentless rain, thunder and bright streaks of lightning kept me looking out the window. It was a nice night to read a mystery and to drift off to sleep with the rhythm of the rain on the window.
There’s just something about fog and rain that make the world seem a little more mysterious and more enjoyable. I don’t know what it is but I’ll enjoy it all while it lasts!
I once read the line “some folks feel the rain and others just get wet.” Whatever you do, please try to enjoy it!
Chillicothe held its annual ghost walk this weekend. I go for the history stories and for a glimpse inside areas of buildings not ordinarily accessible to the public. Some visitors though are deeply into the ghost story aspect of the tour.
This year’s tour featured four locations.
Guests got to go backstage, onstage and upstairs to an abandoned ballroom at the Majestic Theater. This is America’s longest continuously operating theater and a fun place to see a show. It was used as a makeshift morgue during the 1918 Spanish Influenza, creating a certain sense of intrigue around the spaces where bodies were stored and processed during that crisis.
The tour also went into the former Odd Fellows Lodge which was on the second and third stories of a stained glass shop. This building has many cool features that are remnants of the fraternal organization that once met there. That group did a lot of good for the community but the tour guides seemed ill informed, some even suggesting that something inappropriate might have gone on in their meetings. Still, I enjoyed seeing inside the building.
The Chamber of Commerce was another stop. This nicely remodeled building is a hub for much good in the county and has been on the city’s Main Street for a long while. The thing I loved best about this stop was the new mural on their building. Click here to see it!
The fourth stop this year was the Franklin House which is a beautiful old home operated by the historical society. I really enjoyed our visit here and would like to go back someday for a more in-depth tour. The home features mostly original furnishings, gorgeous stained glass windows, and some truly lovely architectural features.
This is an annual event so mark your calendar far for next September. It includes a different variety of locations every year so you have a different experience every time.
Chillicothe, Ohio has gained a new mural and it’s a fun one. It looks like a vintage postcard with every letter featuring a local landmark. It’s colorful, bright, and a nice addition to this historic downtown.
Interestingly, it was printed on vinyl by a local business called Square Ghost Creative. Then these vinyl panels were applied to the building using heat and glue. This is a very modern technique for a growing community rooted in history.
If you’re in Chillicothe, pop over by the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce at 45 East Main Street. Be sure to stop in some local shops and grab a bite at a local restaurant while you’re there!
While doing some yard work this week I accidentally uncovered this nest of pretty eggs. I was cutting a bunch of tall weeds and some bird had carefully crafted her nest in the top of a very small cedar tree beneath those weeds. Now the nest is exposed because of me and I’m sure the mother won’t be back.
This is your friendly reminder that, as you go through your day doing what you think is right, there could be unseen consequences for others.
It’s often unavoidable and usually not intended. All the same, your choices can cause a domino effect and you may not even know it.
Have a good Saturday, friends. If we are lucky, maybe some of this unintended consequences will be for the good today!
If you have a Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop in your town, you might be tempted to think it’s a one-of-a-kind place. After all, it’s a fun place that doesn’t feel like a chain, right? It actually is a chain with locations around Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Minnesota.
I didn’t realize it when I was in the store but the company was born in Pittsburgh’s popular Strip District in 2012. I’m no aficionado but it’s the nicest of these stores I have seen so far.
Grandpa Joe’s is known for imported candy, for vintage candies from when you were a kid, for bulk candy, and for a wall of craft sodas in glass bottles – about 250 of them.
There’s novelty items like socks, games, toys and kitchen stuff. Plus, their $5 candy buffet is something that appeals to the kid in us all.
All the bright, happy colors and fun merchandising make it hard to pass up a treat here.
It can be kind of overwhelming but their Pittsburgh store is really well done. I ended up leaving with a puzzle and a fistful of Juicy Fruit Bubble Gum but completely forgot to circle back for a bottle of something good from the craft soda wall. I like to choose two bottles – one I know I like and one that’s new to me and I failed on both counts!
Who IS Grandpa Joe? If you ever saw the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, you might remember the grandfather who spent twenty years in bed before making a miraculous recovery for a visit to the chocolate factory.
That’s the namesake for this store!
Learn more and find a location near you by visiting their website!
If you’re ever in Erie, PA looking for a bookstore, Werner Books and Coffee is the place to be. This mostly used bookstore has friendly staff and comfy places to sit whether you’re lingering over a coffee or sorting through the stack of books you just found.
This is very much a community bookstore where you’ll find book dragons of all ages happily searching for their next favorite read. The kids section is well organized and there were some youngsters agonizing over what they would buy when we were there.
They host book clubs and poetry nights and have a robust collection of local books. I thought it was interesting that they have several book clubs and that they aren’t focused just on today’s popular reads. One that caught my eye is reading Carson McCullers’ classic “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” which I hadn’t thought about since my English major days back in college. Other clubs were reading titles like “Remarkably Bright Creatures” which is an excellent modern fiction book if you ask me.
Even the coffee shop features sweet treats from local bakeries to go with your favorite warm drink while you study or read. Community partnerships clearly matter here and it made me wish for such a store closer to home.
They seem to have a book exchange program with relatively high standards and a terrific, if not small, collection of new books as well.
The staff is friendly and seems to know everyone’s names. We chatted with the gentleman who rung us up and he was telling us about a bus trip they were organizing to take their patrons on a bookstore crawl in Pittsburgh. My friend recommended some stores for a future trip and he and he was a little familiar with southern Ohio – he had also attended Ohio University and has a fondness for Athens County.
My friend left with a decent stack of books. I think I found one used and one from the new book section that I couldn’t leave without. The experience was so relaxing and nice I look forward to returning someday.
Werner Books and Coffee is located in a strip mall so there’s plenty of free parking.
