Picture of the day - February 3, 2008

"Windmills Galore"

Photo courtesy of Scott Snyder. Today's picture features a scene that my dad would surely have loved. After all, he spent a fairly significant portion of his long life on planet earth building windmills and whirligigs of all kinds, and he sure could amaze us all with his imagination and ingenuity when it came to turning ordinary items into spinning masterpieces after they had reached the end of their "useful" lives. Man has used windmills to harness the power of the wind for centuries, and for just as long we have marveled at the way an unseen force can set a heavy object in motion, creating the torque required to rotate a generator shaft or a rather large grinding wheel. God has given us so many ways to use His creations to make our lives better, and without a doubt the windmill is one of the most interesting of them all. But my dad didn't build his windmills and whirligigs in order to generate electric power or transform wheat into flour. No, his interest in all things wind-powered was rooted solely in his ever-inquisitive nature. Although he never made it past the 6th grade, he was a voracious reader who spent his entire life learning all he could about the world in which we live as well as how it and everything in it works. Plain and simple, whirligigs fascinated him, and by the time he "graduated" at the age of 82 he had become quite an expert on every aspect of their construction and implementation. I miss my dad very much, and every time I see a windmill out in some farmer's pasture field or barnyard it brings back those precious memories of the way he would sit on the porch and watch the magic of the wind set yet another set of blades spinning like there was no tomorrow.   Click here to comment on this picture.   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"