Clouds, Cruise and Commemoration #SkywatchFriday #AtoZChallenge

Today, for "C" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, it's going to be a busy blog post for me.  I participate in a skywatching meme each Friday, and I'm also doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

First, watching the sky for Yogi's Skywatch Friday, I am featuring some Clouds I saw from my front porch on March 31, just before a severe thunderstorm hit.  

We were on the fringes of the storm, but we still got pea sized hail.  Fortunately, nothing seemed damaged and Clouds qualify for "C" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Next, on the way to the Boston, Massachusetts cruise port in July, 2024, I saw this beautiful urban art:

Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, July 2024.  , I'd love to know who created this.

The next few pictures were taken at the Flynn Cruise port.  To my delight, there was artwork on this building.

 

These are hard to see so I turned one into a high contrast black and white photo.

The Boston skyline, as we embarked on the cruise

Sailboats in the harbor.

Finally, a Commemoration I do each year on my blog.   On April 3rd of each year, I Commemorate a mass shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York.  

On April 3, 2009, a troubled 41 year old immigrant walked into a building housing the American Civic Association on the edge of downtown Binghamton.  He shot the receptionist (she survived) and entered an adult classroom for immigrants.  Seconds later, 14 people, including the shooter (by suicide), were dead. 

Most of the victims were, themselves, immigrants.

This post of April 10, 2009 was my first blog post. 

 I will not forget, and neither will the people of Binghamton.  There has been so much mindless violence since that date, and it's hard, thinking of all the families who have suffered.

Here is a commemoration event held in 2025. 

It seems like nothing has changed except the number of dead and injured over the years, hasn't it?

I wish I didn't have to blog about it during a Blogging from A to Z Challenge whose theme is Beauty in our Land.

I will leave you with one more spot of beauty - Madame Alexander's Dolls, a tribute to one of the dead. Sadly, the museum I blogged about no longer exists, but the memory lives on.

Tomorrow, a happier D post.