Are We There Yet??

Two Moments in History

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Exactly 146 years ago today President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the afternoon of Thursday, November 19th, 1863, during the American Civil War, just four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln gave what would become his most memorable speech ever -

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate ... we can not consecrate ... we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Is it any wonder that Abraham Lincoln is my very favorite President? I think not!

Speaking of moments in history, today is also the anniversary of the historic birth of Tisha, the blogosphere's favorite CrAzY Working Mom! Granted, it wasn't exactly 164 years ago or anywhere even close to that but it certainly was historic! If you've got a moment, pop by and wish her a happy day and terrific year!

Wednesday Wanderings ...

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0000

With a beautiful November day to enjoy yesterday (on my day off no less!) I thought I'd take some time to see if I could get some photographs of a train or two but alas, I may as well have stayed home and cleaned the dining room which desperately needs it!

I've been trying to catch a train crossing over the railroad trestle pictured above but have had absolutely no luck so far. The trestle crosses the Yantic River in between the Upper and Lower Falls not too far from my house and even though it's quite photogenic in its own right, I keep thinking how great the trestle would look with an actual train going over it. Unfortunately though the New England Central Railway, which operates on those tracks, apparently has pretty erratic schedules so there's no telling when a train might go by. After waiting there for well over an hour yesterday the only thing I was catching was cold so I finally decided to head south and see what I could find closer to the Groton/Mystic area.

After driving around some I found a railroad crossing in the Noank section of Groton that looked like it had some potential so I took up a position near the tracks and waited for a train or two to come by. Amtrak is the primary operator on the tracks at that crossing and several Acelas blew by while I was there. Obviously I was not having a good camera day as the best shot I got out of all of the ones I took was this one -

and even that one isn't all that great. Granted, the train was zooming past me at a pretty good rate of speed so getting a good picture was tricky but I'm sure a better photographer would have gotten a nice picture. At least I got a wave from the engineer and a cheery blast from the horn as they sped by so I guess the day wasn't a total loss. I'm thinking of trying my luck at the trestle again today but we'll see as there really are other things I could be doing before going into work other than hanging out by the railroad tracks!

Speaking of things to do, I have a couple of suggestions for you today! First off, you could pop over to Everything and Nothing and wish Akelamalu a very happy birthday as she's celebrating hers today over in jolly old England. Akelamalu is a bloody brilliant writer who always likes to add an unexpected twist to her stories and she also goes on some of the most amazing journies through England that has me wanting to go over there even more than I did before - as if that were possible!

After you stop in and wish Akelamalu a happy birthday click on over to PEA's Corner and enter her Christmas Giveway 2009 by simply leaving her a comment saying "Hey! Count me in!" - or something along those lines! PEA, a real sweetheart from Canada, has put together a wonderful collection of snowmen including a soap/lotion dispenser, toothpick holder, candle, and other assorted snowman goodies that are sure to put a smile on your face and holiday happiness in your home. "The more - the merrier!" for the contest PEA says and you don't even have to tell her that I sent you if you don't want to!

When you're done with those two things you're free to have a wonderful Wednesday!

Evra

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

In August of 2008 Amanda returned home from a summer visit to see her friend Darci in New Jersey with a couple of new found "friends" named Evra and Verde. These friends were actually Carolina anole lizards which are sometimes referred to as the American chameleon due to its color-changing abilities. When an anole is happy it can turn several different shades of green but it's color will be brown if stressed or ill - something that I became quite aware of as Amanda's anoles became part of the family.

When she first brought them home, Verde refused to have her picture taken but Evra didn't seem to mind at all and even seemed to enjoy striking the occasional pose for me. Verde died about two months after Amanda got her and shortly after that Amanda became much more interested in her corn snake, Solaris, so that made Evra more or less my lizard by default. All things considered, I didn't really mind as I rather enjoyed talking to the little guy and he was easy enough to take care of - mist down the habitat, make sure the heating lamp didn't burn out, and feed him some juicy mealworms once in awhile. Very simple - very easy.

When we moved at the end of January this year to our new place, I wasn't too sure how Evra would adjust but he really took to his new surroundings and was more often a happy shade of green than stressed-out brown. He esepcially seemed to like it when I would go outside and stun flies so that I culd then bring them in and let him get a little exercise before he'd catch them and eat them. I'd read somewhere that it was good to do that sort of thing once in awhile and even though just stunning a fly rather than killing it wasn't easy I was able to bring him a treat from time to time. He usually rewarded me for my efforts by turning green and posing for pictures afterward!

Recently I had noticed that Evra seemed to moving a lot slower than before and I started to get a little worried that he didn't seem to be eating too many of his worms. It had turned kind of cold so I wondered if that was the probelm; Amanda told me that lizards do slow down and almost go into hibernation in the winter months. They're tropical so I guess that makes sense but I had Amanda hook up the undertank heating pad anyway just in case Evra was feeling the effects of the colder temperatures. After that, he seemed to perk back up some and was more active again.

I thought that perhaps Amanda was right - that Evra had just slowed down a bit for shedding purposes or because of the colder weather - and that now that he had an additional heating source that he'd be fine but unfortunately that wasn't the case. When I got home from work Sunday night I walked over to his habitat to see how he was doing and I could tell right away that he was dead. When anoles die they apparently shed every last little bit of stress as they turn a very brilliant shade of turquoise green- it's really a very pretty color but it's not one you want to see if you've grown at all attached to the creature inside that skin like I did.

Now I know that Evra was only a lizard - and a very small lizard at that; he wasn't the type of pet that you'd play catch with or take for walks or curl up with on the couch but still, he was a pet and I had become fond of him over the past year. I cleaned his habitat when need be, misted him down, fed him his mealworms, and talked to him daily so even though he wasn't a conventional pet - he was still a pet and to see him lying there dead like that, well ... let's just say that I don't have a heart of stone in spite of what some may think. Crying over a lizard may seem silly to some but ... well, yeah ...

I found a small box and asked Amanda to put Evra in it so that I could take him out and bury him on Monday morning - which I did. I buried Evra beneath the same trees near the back of Yantic Cemetery where we had buried Amanda's second snake, Tardis, earlier this year. I figured the other residents at the cemetery wouldn't mind if a very small lizard joined them and if anyone else had wandered by they wouldn't think it at all odd that there was a woman crying in the cemetery.

Good-bye, Evra - I'm not sure where lizards go when they pass on but I hope there are mealworms and flies to chase and a nice big flower to sit on in the warm sun. I'll miss you.

No Guessing What's Under There Anymore!

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

The older I get the more old-fashioned I find myself becoming, especially when it comes to television and some of the things that you can get away with on there these days! Long, long gone are the days of Rob and Laura Petrie and Lucy and Desi Arnaz sleeping in separate beds, George Carlins's "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" have long since gone the way of the dinosaurs, a discreet kiss on the cheek is now a full-on hot and steamy locking of the lips, and clothing ... holy smokes, it seems like we're lucky that most people are even wearing it these days!

It's not just on TV, though, it's all over the place. Anyone besides me remember when showing your underwear was flat-out taboo and frowned upon in society? Not anymore! Now it's fashionable to have your bra straps showing no matter what you're wearing and boxers are worn as shorts more than they're worn beneath pants - pants that a lot of time have the crotch hanging down to the wearer's ankles! Of course, I still find that infinitely preferable than being subjected to someone's thong strap! Used to be that picturing people in their underwear was a tactic employed to calm down nervous speechmakers but you can't really do that anymore as a lot of times nothing is left to the imagination.

I just don't get it ... but then again, the older I get the more things I just don't get. Soon, though, my memory will be totally shot and I won't remember what things used to be like and none of this will matter, right?!?

Take This Tune

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Jamie's song choice on this week's Take This Tune, her Monday Meme where she gives us a video prompt complete with lyrics to a song and then asks us to write a post inspired by the title of the song or something in the lyrics, is James Taylor's western lullaby Sweet Baby James which was written by Taylor as he drove to meet his namesake nephew for the very first time. The song ended up being Taylor's signature song as well as the title of his second album that was released in 1970, the album that contains my favorite James Taylor song Fire and Rain.

Fire and Rain was released in February of 1971 shortly after my family had moved back to Connecticut from New Mexico when my Dad received orders for Keflavík, Iceland. At the time Dad was a mechanic on the F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber and it was his first deployment overseas since returning from Danang, Vietnam in 1968. He had the choice of going on an "isolated tour" by himself for a year or taking the entire family and being there longer; he chose the former. So, while Dad went to Iceland my mom and three brothers and I took up residence in my mom's hometown of Canterbury where she lives to this day.

As happened quite frequently growing up an Air Force brat, I changed schools midstream and found myself attending the Baldwin School in Canterbury for the remainder of my 7th and entire 8th grade years. It really wasn't all that bad as when my oldest brother and I began school we were introduced as "Steve, Diana, Patricia, and Dave's cousins" so we weren't exactly virtual strangers to the other students. At that time the grades were divided into the A, B, and C group depending on where you stood academically so in January of 1971 I was enrolled in the 7th Grade A Group - totally lost when it came to French but otherwise okay with the rest of the classes.

Even though I couldn't sing very well, one of my favorite classes was music which met in the combination school cafeteria/auditorium/gym - schools back then were nothing like they are now and Baldwin was pretty old long before I started there! Other than meeting in that area, the only other thing I remember about music class was that we learned Fire and Rain shortly after it came out. Even though I had no idea what the meaning was behind the lyrics (suicide wasn't really talked about back then), I thought it was a great song and I still do. All these years later I can still remember the lyrics and the poignant feeling of the song which, whenever I hear it, transports me back to a cold and rainy day in March of 1971 when Mrs. Kaminski handed out the mimeographed pages to us. It was a sad day weather-wise and there's no denying that Fire and Rain is a sad song, perhaps that's why I remember it so well. It's kind of funny - when someone mentions James Taylor I'm back in 7th grade again. Oh to know then what I know now!

"Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again."

As for James Taylor himself, I always thought that he should have married Carole King rather than Carly Simon as they could harmonize on You've Got a Friend like nobody's business but perhaps that's another song for another day. What do you think, Jamie?

Six Sunday Things

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Saturday was pretty much a wash-out here in New England so I spent the day in my pajamas lounging around the house watching bad movies, historical documentaries, and John Barrowman (rowr!) in Torchwood on BBC America. Torchwood is a spin-off of Amanda's favorite Doctor Who and Captain Jack, Barrowman's character, is quite easy on the eyes - much like David Tennant's Tenth Doctor! How bad can it be to spend a day with handsome British gentlemen on the TV? Not bad at all!

In addition to watching more TV in one day than I normally do in an entire week, I also attempted something new in the kitchen and cooked up a batch of chicken & dumplings as it seemed like the perfect meal for a chilly, rainy November day. A friend from work had mentioned chicken & dumplings on her Facebook status a few weeks ago and I had been wanting to try making it ever since. I more or less wingd it sans recipe and I'm happy to say it turned out quite well along with the mashed potatoes that are invisible in this picture. Amanda declared it to be very good even though she wasn't too keen on the corn. I know that most people use peas along with the carrots but she hates peas even worse than corn so I sort of compromised and went with corn though I guess I could have used green beans as she tolerates those the best.

Quite unfortunately it doesn't appear like we are going to be able to get Rufus to come into the house and make himself at home. As I mentioned the other day, we were trying to take in one of the neighborhood strays who is a very handsome cat and quite friendly but every time he comes in the house, he simply sits at the back door and howls to go back out. It's a shame as I really like Rufus, which coming from me as a non-cat person is quite the compliment. Amanda would still like to have a cat, though, so we are keeping our eyes open for other possibilities pending approval from my landlady to have one. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't mind but I do believe a deposit may be required.

Remember our trip down to Baltimore for Edgar Allan Poe's funeral back in October? Well, Amanda's favorite illustrator who was one of the speakers at the funeral put up a video on YouTube yesterday and much to her delight it contains a picture of her and Darci at the previous day's book-singing. The video also highlights the best parts of Gris Grimly's eulogy and Amanda totally loved hearing it again. I was rather flattered that several of my pictures from the day were used in the making of the video which you can watch by clicking here if you'd like. I believe it gives me a few extra 'cool points' amongst Amanda and her cronies.

A blogging friend (hi Gracie!) sent me an email yesterday asking me about doing a calendar with some of my photos on Red Bubble saying that if I did, she'd dearly love one. Hmm ... truth be told, I haven't done anything with my account on Red Bubble in a long time but perhaps I will put together a calendar just to see what it looks like. The tricky part would be picking just the right picture for each month but it could be kind of fun, too. Gracie, I will let you know! Any suggestions for photo choices?

Finally, a big thank you to my mom who decided to give me my Christmas present quite early this year in the form of a Comfort Furnace infrared heater. My mom knew that I was majorly concerned about what the cost of electric heat was going to be like this year so she did some research and bought me a unit that claims it will heat 1,000 square feet. I don't know if that's accurate or not but we set it up in the living room last night and it did a great job there as well as into the dining room and the kitchen. Havng a brick house it's been pretty chilly in here lately but for the past two days it's been quite comfy cozy without the added stress of the electric bill. My mom is truly the best and in this case, I don't mind Christmas coming early at all!

Wishing everyone the best Sunday!

Recovering a Little Style

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:28:00 +0000

For quite some time I had been thinking about getting my hair cut as it had reached that "it's driving me crazy!" stage but I was honestly too scared to actually go to a stylist and have it done. Having had my fair share of bad cuts over the years, I am a firm believer in a person suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome whenever h/she steps into a styling salon and that was what appeared to be my problem.

For years I hadn't had to worry about a bad cut as my friend Trisha, who used to be a professional stylist, still did cuts for her friends out of her house until returning to school full-time while also juggling a full-time job. Without Trisha I found myself wandering through the wilderness with an unkempt mane and no idea for which direction my hair should take. It had really gotten out of hand and into my face and I knew something had to be done but what? Not that it always looked quite as bad as it did here at the Jersey Shore back at the beginning of October but still ... with hair like that, it was't just the zombies that were there for the Asbury Park Zombie Walk that were frightening!

A couple months ago I stopped in at at the local Smart Styles in Lisbon to get my split ends taken care of and ran into exactly that of which I was afraid of - a bad stylist! The woman who "cut" my hair did an absolutely horrible job but I didn't complain, gave her a tip anyway, and then kicked myself for my lack of a backbone for days later. Obviously that experience hadn't helped the situation any and so I let my hair go for even longer - dull, lifeless, lank, and getting in my face way too often for my liking!

Finally the time had come to take my fears in hand so I set off yesterday morning for the newly opened Hair Cuttery - again in Lisbon - and hoped for the best. As I sat nervously waiting for my turn in the chair I kept hoping that I was doing the right thing and that I wasn't going to walk out looking like my hair had been done by Ash Williams and his chainsaw hand from the The Evil Dead movie! Thank the heavens and all the stars above that I got a stylist who actually knew what she was doing and I emerged with a cut and style I like, a little bounce in my previously lifeless hair, and the stylist's business card which is going in a place of honor on the refrigerator door!

I will be the very first one to tell you that I have absolutely no clue what to do when it comes to "fixing" my hair and am a complete and total inept klutz when it comes to hairstyling appliances like curling irons and even blow dryers so a simple style is essential. If I can't wash, towel dry, and throw a little mousse in my hair before calling it good, I am pretty much done for. Rebecca, my new-found stylist, grasped that completely and gave me hair I can work with - thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm always going to miss having Trisha as my personal and favorite stylist who offered up tea and friendship along with a great cut but I'm finally out of the wilderness and can get my hair into some semblance of order and out of my face!

Friday Photos

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Long day at work yesterday so I'm pretty beat as far as posting anything new here goes except that I did have these autumn pictures I wanted to share so this seemed like a good time!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday even if it is Friday the 13th!

Thursday Things

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Where did the warm weather go? It was definitely nice while it lasted but alas, it's back to November in New England and the colder weather has returned - quite possibly to stay until May at this point! Should it wish to make a return appearance, though, I would have no complaints at all!

Amanda is finally going back to school today and feeling a bit better. Her new doctor diagnosed her with bronchitis on Tuesday which is what I was leaning towards when she started complaining of her chest hurting when she coughed. Thankfully it's not the flu but I guess we'll be living with the threat of that over our heads all winter.

I got my seasonal flu shot at work yesterday - a nice perk that we get courtesy of the company I work for. H1N1 shots are limited to road personnel due to the limited availability but that's okay as I know that they're the ones that are constantly exposed to any number of things and are the ones in the most need. I'm just thankful to be able to get the regular flu shot every year.

I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes before going to work yesterday and I must say that it was quite delicious! This time of year just screams "comfort food!" and that's exactly what I've been fixing lately. I know that technically it was Prince Spaghetti Day but hopefully Miss Bee will forgive me!

Speaking of Miss Bee, if you get a chance today please send up a special prayer and positive thoughts for her husband Sarge Charlie who is battling non-hodgkins lymphoma and is in the middle of his chemo week when he feels the most run-down and ill. He's putting up a magnificent fight and the tumor has really shrunk so even though he's got his bad weeks, they are worth it as the chemo does its job against the cancer. Go Sarge!

Finally, we may be having an addition to our household soon in the form of this fella here -

"Rufus", as Amanda has named him, is one of the neighborhood strays that Elizabeth, the adorable elderly woman that lives in the apartment behind us, has been feeding for the past couple of months. When I was out raking leaves the other day, Elizabeth came out and was talking to me about how concerned she was that he had no home for the winter. While Elizabeth and I talked, Rufus played in the leaves that I was raking and did a wonderful job of acting quite cute. I got the distinct feeling that Elizabeth was trying to talk me into taking him as she told me that she'd had him taken to the vet where he got all of his shots and was neutered but I wasn't too sure. I sometimes have allergy problems with cats but it doesn't appear that Rufus is the type that sheds all over the place so he might be okay.

I didn't commit to anything but once I mentioned the situation to Amanda she was all over the idea of adopting Rufus like a hobo on a ham sandwich! She's been wanting a cat for quite some time and pulled out her best wheedling ... "he'll keep me company while you're at work", "a cat is better than a mousetrap", and the age-old, "I'll feed him and empty the litter box - honest!" Uh-huh, where have I heard that one before? Still, I'm not without a heart and the idea of the poor guy having to spend the cold winter outside plays to the soft side that I try not to let too many people know I have!

Currently Amanda is in the process of getting Rufus used to her and Elizabeth has turned over the daily feeding to us (she even stopped by Tuesday evening with a bag of his favorite cat food!). Hopefully once he trusts Amanda he'll decide that our house isn't a bad place to live - in which case I guess I need to go buy that litter box Amanda has promised to keep clean! I'll keep you posted!

Veterans' Day 2009

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~ Elmer Davis

Thank you to the brave men and women of America's Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard who have served or who are serving so that we may continue to be free.

Tuesday Tidbits

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Mother Nature has been very nice to us here in Connecticut the past couple of days by giving us the gift of some really nice weather before Old Man Winter permanently shoulders himself onto the scene. Yesterday it was actually warmer outside than it was in the house so I opened a lot of windows to let the sunshine and natural warmth in. What a treat - particularly after the really chilly days we've had already!

Truth be told, I am scared to death of what this year's heating bill is going to look like. After we moved in last January I was really dismayed to get a $300+ electric bill after only about the first 20 days here. Electric heat is definitely not the way to go so I'm trying real hard not to use it if at all possible. Rumor has it ceramic heaters work really, really well so I may have to get me one or two. After all, 110 costs a lot less than 220 to use when it comes to voltage!

While on the subject of heat, we have a lovely fireplace in the living room that Amanda would really like to use though I'm not sure how much heat it will produce. When we moved in I asked my landlady if it was a working fireplace and she said that it should be but that it might be a good idea to have it cleaned out first as the tenants before me never used it at all. I guess that means I should call and see what a chimney sweep charges before trying to light a fire and smoking out the place! I must say that the idea of having a crackling fire at Christmas time is awfully darned appealing!

Speaking of Christmas, now that we have a nice big living room along with that fireplace Amanda is insisting on a full-size real tree this year - something that we haven't had in years. I have boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments that I've not touched the past five years or so due to space limitations at my previous humble abode and I think Amanda is right in that it's time to break them out this year and deck the halls like I used to do. Of course, I may have to buy some new lights and a tree stand but that shouldn't be an issue. Hmm, maybe we'll even go out to a local tree farm and cut down a fresh tree - think of the photo opps!

As for Amanda, she's been out of school since last Friday with a sore throat and a couple other mild complaints that I don't think equal the flu but I'll be taking her to the doctor today to have her checked out "just in case". I'm more concerned that she might have strep throat (something that runs in my family a lot) or borderline bronchitis. She's only got a bit of a cough but it's starting to sound more like barking and she said her lungs hurt afterward.

She'll be going to see a new doctor as her pediatrician whom she'd had for a long time told me that they no longer consider her a patient as she hadn't been to see her in several years. Amanda had her last physical at the school-based health center and had no need to go see a doctor but I guess if you're not sick every once in awhile you get dropped from this particular doctor's practice. Luckily I had no problems getting her primary care physician changed through her health care provider and we'll be going to see the new doctor for her throat but it definitely caused a delay in getting her seen. Fingers crossed that it's nothing that will cause her to miss a lot more school time.

Speaking of school, Amanda and I will be taking a drive up to Beverly, Massachusetts on December 5th to check out the Montserrat Art College at an Open House for prospective students. She'll also be having a portfolio review done at the same time, something that is very important for artists like herself. Montserrat offers portfolio-based scholarships and if Amanda is going to actually be able to attend an art college that's something she could really use as otherwise she's going to be in debt up to her eyeballs in student loans by the time she's finished. Something she may very well be anyway as college isn't something I can actually afford without moving myself into a cardboard box by the side of the street!

Oh, and before I wrap this up I wanted to share something that my blogging friend extraordinaire on the West Coast - Jamie - sent me the other day. The email read -

"In the process of doing some other research, got hit by a resemblance. I know Amanda is into Poe and other denizens of Massachusetts, but have you ever noticed among the well known how much she looks like Louisa May Alcott .... good dress up for next Halloween. In addition to the sweet kid stuff she did write some pretty adventureous and ghost filled other items."

After placing the picture from the link that Jamie sent me side-by-side with a picture of Amanda I'd have to say that there is most definitely a bit of a resemblance there:

Amanda has pronounced it as somewhat creepy but I think it's kinda cool! Perhaps Louisa has chosen to come back as an illustrator this go-round rather than as an author! Perhaps there are outside forces (cue Twilight Zone music here) that want Amanda to go to college in Massachusetts! Hmm ... !!

Ah well, while I ponder the possibilities I hope you have a great Tuesday wherever you may be!

The Holy Trinity of Holidays Has Become Hallothanksmas

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Way back in the time of the dinosaurs when I was a kid, holidays had a natural progression that spanned three months and didn't overlap at all. Halloween was the first holiday and eagerly anticipated not just because of the sugary loot that we knew would be ours after ringing on a lot of doorbells but also for the excitement of what we were going to dress up as. Carved Jack O' Lanterns, scarecrows stuffed with leaves, Kleenex ghosts, scary stories, and fun parties were all a part of one of the best holidays ever.

Thanksgiving was next in line with construction paper Pilgrim hats, turkeys drawn by tracing our hands, and a big meal where family and friends gathered around the table for the best feast of the year. Mom's best dishes were broken out of storage, you could eat as much as you wanted without getting yelled at, and items like cranberry sauce, mini-gherkins, and olives made an appearance on the table for perhaps the first and only time of the year in a cut-glass dish that you always forgot even existed!

Not until Santa arrived at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade did Christmas come into play. The day after Thanksgiving was when Christmas lights began to shine all over the place, carols were sung on the radio and everywhere else, the Nativity scene appeared in front of the local church, pagaents were reheased and performed at school, and you could go to the store to visit Santa and climb onto his lap, tell him what you wanted for Christmas, and maybe even walk away with a small candy cane secure in the knowledge that he'd do his best to get you your heart's desire. Christmas Eve could never come quick enough or be over soon enough as you waited in anticipation of Christmas morning to see what might be under the tree. It truly was magic and the most wonderful time of the year.

Now that I'm older the Holy Trinity of Holidays that I remember as a kid all seem to have blurred into one big holiday called Hallothanksmas - overlapping and wrapping around each other so much that you can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins. I have to be honest with you - I don't like it.

I hate the fact that when you go into a store two weeks before Halloween you're confronted with shelves and shelves of Christmas items already jockeying for place next to the plastic pumpkins and costumes and I hate it even worse when even before the ghosts and ghouls have had a chance to return to whence they came, stores have now moved into full-blown Christmas attack mode and TV commercials have done the same. Alas, Thanksgiving seems to be completely lost in the shuffle as the media starts to make their predictions for whether retailers are going to have a naughty or nice year and Hollywood pumps out holiday movies as soon as possible to also cash in on the bountiful spending of the season.

It's all very sad if you ask me and I want my separate holidays back. I don't want my holiday cheer to be drowned in the commerciality of the season where the focus now seems to be more on what you want and what you get. That's not what the holiday season is supposed to be about but retailers seem to run right over Thanksgiving in their hurry to cash in on their own tidings of great joy in the form of greater consumer spending.

I know it's never going to happen but I really wish that we could enjoy November and Thanksgiving before Christmas encroaches. I don't know when the holidays all changed but I sure do miss having one in October, one in November, and one in Dcember. I can't possibly be the only one, can I?

Leaf Me Be!

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

On the side of our house stands one tree - one rather large tree - that started dropping its leaves back around the beginning of September and continued to drop them until about a week and a half ago. As those following me on Facebook know, I have been battling fallen leaves now for several weeks and I vowed that Saturday was going to be the end of the battle.

With rake and bags in hand, I faced my foe in the yard ...

... about two hours, seven more bags, one cranky teenager, several passes with the lawn mower, and lots of sore muscles later I am happy to say that I think I am finished ...

... now to wait for the Norwich Department of Public Works to come by and remove the bags containing the bodies of the dead (leaves)!

I do love fall but this part I could do without! I think I'm finally done, though ... or at least I sure hope I am!

Well, It Used To Be An Award ...

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Last week Sandy of Traveling Bells passed on a blog award to me that she had received called the Over the Top Award. I thought it was lovely but the rules called for a) passing the award on to five other bloggers and b) answering the following list of questions with one word. Well, as you all know, I am rather bad at writing anything short and that includes one word answers to questions so as I thank Sandy for thinking of me with the award, I am a) not passing it on to anyone else and b) not answering the questions with one word. Go figure, eh? Sandy, I hope you don't mind too much!

1. Where is your cell phone? On my nightstand
2. Your hair? Desperately in need of something!
3. Your mother? Took her to lunch yesterday and did some shopping afterward.
4. Your father? Waiting for my mother in heaven.
5. Your favorite food? Mexican
6. Your dream last night? A large combination lizard/praying mantis had attached itself to my right hand and I couldn't get it off!
7. Your favorite drink? A good cup of coffee!
8. Your dream/goal? To be able to retire someday
9. What room are you in? The extremely messy and disorganized dining room - Amanda, come pick some of this stuff up!!
10. Your hobby? Photography it seems!
11. Your fear? This winter's heating bill!
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? A relationship with a nice guy would be wonderful but I suspect I may be right where I am now.
13. Where were you last night? At home watching old black & white scary movies with Amanda (ah, Vincent Price!)
14. Something that you aren't? Physically fit.
15. Muffins? Sure!
16. Wish list item? Zoom lens for my D60
17. Where did you grow up? My father was career Air Force so all over the place - Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
18. Last thing you ate? Chocolate cake last night while watching old movies with Amanda.
19. What are you wearing? PJ's and a warm robe!
20. Your TV? In need of replacement!
21. Your Pets? Evra seems to be doing okay though very sluggish (Amanda says that's normal); Demise is sleeping in her hamster habitat; and we're thinking of adopting a neighborhood stray cat that Amanda wants to name Rufus.
22. Friends? I am thankful for all of them!
23. Your life? A lot of time at work but I don't mind.
24. Your mood? A'ight at the moment!
25. Missing Someone? Jamie
26. Vehicle? Gets fantastic mileage which is good with all the little side trips we've been taking!
27. Something you're not wearing? Make-up, I rarely do make-up at all.
28. Your favorite store? Michael's or Borders
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? This morning at Amanda modeling her new snuggie!
31. Last time you cried? At the funeral for the owner of my company on Thursday.
32. Your best friend? Lives too far away in California.
33. One place that I go to over and over? Other than work?!?
34. Facebook? Indeed!
35. Favorite place to eat? The Olive Garden comes to mind - especially if I have great dining companions!

If anyone else wants to steal the list of questions and do a quick meme, I think that would be grand - award or not!

Taking a Moment

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:09:00 +0000

May God bless and keep watch over the victims, families, and friends of those involved in the Fort Hood, Texas shootings on Thursday, November 5th.

I'm pretty sure that this is not how the Creator expects people to treat each other.

Someday people are going to stop doing such horrible things to each other ... maybe.

Who You Gonna Call in Derby??

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:39:00 +0000

While out in the side yard raking leaves this past Friday afternoon I received a rather interesting text message from another Connecticut blogger whom I have had the extreme pleasure of meeting several times - Princess Patti of Ansonia in the Valley aka the Late Bloomer Boomer. The text, which was a Facebook message, read: "Do you want to go ghost hunting with me tomorrow night? I was just invited .. really!" Obviously it got my attention so after wrangling a few more leaves into bags I came into the house and emailed Patti about her very interesting message.

It seems that Patti, who is an ace reporter for The New Haven Register, had been invited by Valley Arts Council President Rich DiCarlo to go ghost-hunting in the old Sterling Opera House in Derby on Halloween night along with several other invitees. Not knowing a thing about the Sterling Opera House I did a little quick research that revealed to me that the Sterling Opera House was the first structure in Connecticut to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places (very cool) and that it was in the process of being renovated after quite a few years of standing empty on Elizabeth Street in downtown Derby, the smallest city in Connecticut.

Built in 1889, the theater opened on April 2nd of that year and remained in use until 1945. As one of the premier vaudeville houses in the area, the Sterling Opera House can boast a pretty good list of "people who performed here" including Harry Houdini, George Burns, Enrico Caruso, Lionel Barrymore, John Philip Sousa, Red Skelton, and even the former ex-heavyweight champion boxer John L. Sullivan who performed the role of Simon Legree in a production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". In 1936 the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart addressed the local Women's Club there and one of my favorite dancers, Donald O'Connor, once upon a time tripped the boards of the Sterling's stage.

The building was designed by H.E. Fricken, one of the creators of the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City, and he combined several different architectural styles in designing the Sterling. He used the Italianate Victorian style for the exterior and roof-top as well as the interior walls and doorways; the interior seating plan, influenced by German composer and theater director Richard Wagner, is in a triangular arrangement which gives all seats an unobstructed view of the 60-by-34 foot stage; and acoustics at the Sterling were second to none with even just a whisper being clearly heard from all areas of the auditorium.

All in all the Sterling was quite the place in its day but after its closing it pretty much fell into disrepair and is now undergoing the lengthy process of renovation. The outside is looking pretty good but as for the inside ... well, let's just say that it could use a good dusting for starters but the architecture and design are absolutely beautiful - something I found out first-hand on a somewhat dark Halloween night!

Of course I just had to take up Patti's offer to explore the building with her but first I asked if I could take my friend Amy along as Derby is a bit of a drive from Norwich and if I was going to go into an old and dark building that possibly had a ghost or two on Halloween night I wanted some company on the ride home "just in case". Plus I knew that Amy would be totally up for going along! Patti checked with Rich who said that it would be no problem - just make sure we brought along flashlights and cameras - so after making sure that Amanda was all set for her Halloween plans with friends, off we went.

Amy and I met Patti in the parking lot of the rather old Derby train station just at the time the heavens really decided to open up and drop some serious rain on top of us. But of course! Once it slowed down some, we followed Patti over to Elizabeth Street and parked outside of the Sterling Opera House which looked rather ominous in the darkness. The plan was to meet everyone else at 10:15 so in the meantime we walked around the Derby Green a little bit as the rain had miraculously stopped and Patti filled me in on a bit of the history of the area.

Apparently there was supposed to be a psychic along for the evening along with a paranormal investigator but the psychic must not have known h/she had other plans when they agreed to come out for the evening as h/she never showed up. With that absence, there ended up being just the three of us along with Rich DiCarlo, Mike - another Derbian whom Patti was very familiar with - and the paranormal investigator whose name I never got!

As Rich unlocked and opened the doors the first thing we were met with was the smell of old ... really, really old. Ah, I thought, this should make for quite an interesting evening -and blog post, too! With flashlights in hand we made our way up the first rather steep staircase after being told by Mike and Rich to be careful where we walked as there were soft spots and holes in the floor. Did I mention the place was old?!?

Once we got upstairs we all gathered in what was the orchestra section of the theater and waited while Mike turned on what few utility lights they had rigged around the room. Following that, Amy took off with Paranormal Guy and Rich while Patti and I made our way up to the first balcony with Mike. Even though we were there to try to find a ghost or two, I have to say that I wasn't really at all scared - just more fascinated with the building than anything. Even though the place had definitely seen better days, it was easy to picture what a grand and glorious place it must have been when it was open and patrons were filling the 1,250 seats.

From the first balcony we continued upstairs to what could definitely be called 'the cheap seats' on the second balcony. As Mike explained, these were the seats that were generally used by servants and such of those more wealthy patrons who attended performances at the Opera House. The seats were more like very narrow church pews and had to be horribly uncomfortable even back when people were smaller. Mike explained that in the renovations those seats would eventually be taken out and replaced.

Mike had to leave after he showed us the way back down from upstairs so Patti and I spent some time taking pictures from the stage before hooking up with Rich who then took us downstairs for a tour of the old Town Hall Offices and Police Station. I'll be doing a separate post on that part of the evening so as not to overwhelm you with too many pictures!

When we came back upstairs we found Paranormal Guy doing some filming and picture-taking on the first floor with Amy nowhere in sight. Uhm? Amy? Turns out she was upstairs on the second floor by herself (that girl is brave!) and when she came downstairs to join us she told us that we all needed to go upstairs and take a look at one of the staircases as she had been seeing some strange lights on it but wasn't sure what to make of them.

All five of us trooped up to the staircase outside of the first balcony that led up to the left-hand side of the second balcony as Amy explained that she had been watching different plays of light on the stairs. She didn't think that what she was seeing was a result of cars going past outside but she wanted our opinions on it - if the lights were to come back - so we all took up a spot in front of the stairs and stared intensely at the stairs.

After a fashion a small light started to descend from the top and stopped in the middle of the stairs. There were no cars going past outside at the time so we knew that couldn't be it. Amy, who has no problems in speaking to those who aren't there, asked the light to repeat itself and after a short pause, another light came down the stairs from a different angle. Okay ... again there were no cars going past. Soon a car did come down Elizabeth Street and as we watched the play of light across the windows that were quite a distance above us, nothing appeared on the stairs. Hmm ...

Amy again asked for the light to reappear and a very short time later a much brighter light came down the stairs and this time turned the corner to go down the next set of stairs. Along with that light came a rather cold blast of air and Rich, who was closest to the stair railing, showed us that the hair on his arms was standing on edge. Again no cars were going past outside.

Rich decided to try to see if maybe there was some other light being reflected in from one of the other windows and as he tried positioning himself in various spots, the biggest light yet came down the stairs and stopped in the middle of the staircase as it sparkled and moved. Again, no cars were going by and another blast of cold air gave all of us goosebumps and made Rich's breath visible. There was no way that it was cold enough in the building for anyone's breath to be visible but Rich's was and the backs of my legs were getting darned cold.

Paranormal Guy was videotaping during this whole time but when the lights started really playing around with us, he started having battery problems with his video recorder. From what I've heard, that isn't all that unusual when dealing with spirits and both Rich and Patti had been having intermittent problems with their batteries all evening, too. I did manage to get one picture of a small bit of light on the stairs during all this but otherwise I had no pictures with orbs or anything else suspicious while we were at the stairs. Be interesting to see what Paranormal Guy got with his equipment - if anything.

Finally we decided that we had asked the light to show itself more than enough times and we went back downstairs where we snapped a few more pictures and then decided that, being as how it was around 12:30, it was time to call it a night. Amy and I had a long drive ahead of us and even though we had the whole daylight savings time hour to fall back on, I still had to be at work in the morning for my double shift and I wasn't going to be getting much sleep.

It was most definitely worth the drive, though, and I'm really glad that Patti invited us along with her. Even though I didn't get any pictures of shadowy figures like Rich got back in 2007 - which you can read about in Patti's article in The New Haven Register - I still had a good time exploring a place that was obviously seeped in history - and dust! Plus we had that whole "light on the stairs" experience to mull over. Was there something there? Well, all five of us saw the light and felt the cold and we just couldn't come up with a logical explanation for any of it so perhaps there was. Perhaps there are some opera lovers still hanging out at the Sterling waiting for the doors to reopen and some new talent to take the stage. You just never know!

There are lots of orbs on some of the pictures in the video above but are they signs of ghostly activity? I'm not sure but I don't think that they could all be considered dust as I took over 300 pictures and the vast majority of them have no orbs or anything on them. Perhaps Rich can get the guys from the Discovery Channel's Ghosthunters to come in and see what they can find; I do he's working on that and if they do an investigation, I'll definitely watch that episode!

A Tuesday Tease

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Lots to do today and it seems like no time to do it so I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a bit longer for my post about the trip Princess Patti and I took to the old Sterling Opera House in Derby on Halloween night. I apologize sincerely but when you've got over 300 pictures to go through, it just seems to take awhile!

In the meantime, being that today is Election Day, I thought I'd post just a couple of pictures from our trek through the basement of the building which used to be the Derby Town Hall once upon a time. It was pretty cool down there in an old and dilapidated, paint-coming-off-the-walls-in-flakes kind of way!

In this picture Patti is checking out the old voting machine that we found in the former Town Clerk's Office. Obviously it hasn't been used in about 40 years ...

Hmm, I wonder who won that year??

Don't forget to go out and exercise your right to vote and then have yourselves a good Tuesday!

Derby in the Dark

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Just a quick update for those of you on Facebook that knew I was going to do some ghost-hunting on Halloween night ... I did make it back safe and sound with some rather interesting pictures to show for the night but have yet to go through all of them what with needing to go to work and earn a paycheck and all that fun stuff!

My friend Amy and I went down to Derby on Saturday night to meet with some blogging royalty who had asked me to join her on a ghost-hunt at the old Sterling Opera House. Patti had been invited by Rich, curator of the building, and for some reason she thought I might like to tag along, too. Hmm, I wonder why?!?

Anyhow, because Derby is about 75-80 miles from where I live I asked if I could bring Amy along with me as she loves that sort of thing plus I'd have some company along for the ride back in case I'd managed to scare myself out of my wits! Rich said "sure!" so off we went ... on Halloween night ... to an abandoned building ... to see what we could find!

Pictures and a post to come soon but in the meantime, I need to go do that whole "earn a paycheck thing" again! Hope everyone has a grand Monday!

The Quinebaug River's Tunnel Dam

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:29:00 +0000

A reader left a comment on my post about the Taft Tunnel this past Tuesday that I thought I would address today as it just so happens that I have pictures of that of which she wrote:

"Sher said ... I've been there. But you were lucky to have a train come through that day. Now in the last picture, if you continue down along side the tracks (along the river) you will come across a small man made dam. It's an interesting area to hike."

Sher is absolutely right that there is, in fact, a small dam in the area of the Taft Tunnel which is appropriately named the Tunnel Dam and is located just a bit south of the railroad tunnel itself.

The dam is quite interesting in that it's an L-shaped dam - something I hadn't seen before I came across it last April, the first time I went exploring the Taft Tunnel. The dam is obviously used by Norwich Public Utilities as there's a power station located right next to it on the Norwich side of the Quinebaug River but I couldn't seem to find any information on their website in regards to it so honestly have no idea how old the Tunnel Dam is or much of anything else. Sometimes you can dig up all sorts of good stuff with a web search and sometimes you get nothing ... this is one of those cases!

One thing I do know, though, is that there is a fish lift located on the dam just as there is one on the Greeneville Dam and a fish ladder on both the Taftville Dam and Occum Dam.

The picture above of the Tunnel Dam fish lift comes courtesy of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and their paper on Fish Passage Issues Impacting Atlantic Coast States presented at a workshop on April 3rd & 4th, 2008 in Florida. The 260-page paper is somewhat daunting and technical when it comes to fish lifts and ladders and the such but I got a pretty good idea of what they were all about and how important they are. After all, fish can't very well go jumping up and over the dams that are put on rivers and they need some way to be able to get upstream to spawn or their numbers will die out, right?

Norwich Public Utilities offers tours of the fish lift at the Greeneville Dam in the spring, something I'm going to try to remember come next May so I can check it out and most likely take lots of pictures!

In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures of the Tunnel Dam which was running pretty good on Monday after all of the rain that we got last weekend. I'll be showing you some more dam pictures I took soon but for now, everyone have a great Saturday and a Happy Halloween!

The Blush of Mother Nature

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Before my adventures with the Taft Tunnel and a Providence & Worcester train this past Monday, I made a stop by Mohegan Park in the center of Norwich to see if there was any foliage left there to take pictures of. After the deluge of rain we'd had this past Saturday, I wasn't too sure what I was going to find left on the trees but I figured it was worth a stop to take a look around.

My last trip to Mohegan Park was this past January when there was snow covering the ground and it was lot colder than it was Monday! The time before that was in November when all of the leaves had already hit the ground but I'd just gotten my Nikon D60 and was trying it out; the geese were very co-operative that day!

Mohegan Park is one of those "hidden jewels in your own backyard" kind of things like I mentioned in yesterday's post about The Quiet Corner and even though it's not that far away, I tend to not get there as often as I'd like. Of course, when I do get there, I seem to take pictures of the same things I've taken pictures of before! Regular readers will probably find these places to be very familiar!

This is Spaulding Pond - obviously the centerpiece of Mohegan Park and very pretty. Off camera and to the right side of the picture, is a small swimming area that I used to take Michael to when he was little in the late 1980's and then the girls to on hot summer days in the late 1990's. As a matter of fact, I used to be taken there when I was little myself, probably in the mid-1960's, so it's obviously been there for quite some time!

Years ago Mohegan Park had a zoo and a monkey cage and all sorts of stuff but all of those things are part of the past now. I seem to remember that there used to be a rollerskating rink of some sort either in the park or nearby but that's one of those memories that I just can't quite seem to grasp onto. Anyone out there remember what I'm talking about? We used to go there for Girl Scout outings long ago.

Even though there were a lot of trees that were bare this past Monday and there were an awful lot of leaves covering the paths, there were still a few trees that had reached what was probably their peak of color - like this one to the right. With a beautiful blue sky in the background, autumn doesn't get much better than this!

When I lived in California all those years ago, this was the time of the year that I missed the most in New England. Granted, you get some color in California (especially in the mountains) but I'm afraid it just doesn't hold a candle to what we here in New England probably take for granted most of the time. Living elsewhere, I've learned not to take it for granted at all and am probably driving you all crazy with so many foliage pictures lately!

A friend of mine in the Air Force long, long ago once said that "Autumn is the blush of Mother Nature as she disrobes before Old Man Winter" and I've always remembered that as I think it describes the fall colors perfectly. I'm glad I got the chance to head over to Mohegan Park on Monday as the rest of the week so far has been rainy and blah; I'm afraid that by the time the weather gets better again, there will be no leaves left on the trees and the autumn colors will just be memories or images caught on pictures.

Speaking of images caught on pictures, I've got a few more posts to "blush" through in the next couple of days - I hope you won't mind!

A Drive Through The Quiet Corner

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:38:00 +0000

As mentioned previously, my cousin and I took a bit of a local road trip last Friday in search of foliage in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut. Sometimes when you're out traipsing around the rest of the countryside, it's all too easy to forget that there is beauty in one's own backyard - or in this case about 30 miles or so north of one's own backyard - and I was rather looking forward to exploring the back roads of the northeastern corner of the state in spite of the fact that it was somewhat overcast and darned cold for mid-October. On the bright side, though, it was my day off and it wasn't raining for a change!

I asked my cousin to do the driving so that I could possibly take some pictures along the way and she graciously acquiesced so off we went in search of an apple orchard, some photo opportunities, and lunch!

After plugging our destination in to the cousin's handy-dandy GPS unit, we drove up Route 169 to Route 44 and then over to Route 198 to Eastford and Buell's Orchard where I bought a nice bag of Cortland apples to make some pies, etc. I didn't really need that many apples and, as it was way too cold to even think about going out and picking our own, I didn't mind buying the pre-bagged ones in the least. A purist I'm not!

From Buell's we made our way over to Route 171 and headed north towards Bigelow Hollow State Park, a place I had heard of but never been to. The picture above is Bigelow Pond not too far from the entrance of the park while the one below is Mashapaug Pond, located at the northern end of the park. The name 'Mashapaug' is Nipmuck Indian for "Great Pond" so it seems kind of redundant to me that it's called Mashapaug Pond as technically that makes it "Great Pond Pond"!

Bigelow Hollow is located in the Nipmuck Forest, one of the largest unbroken forest areas in Eastern Connecticut and the second oldest state forest with the first parcel being acquired in 1905. Bigelow Hollow and the Nipmuck Forest currently total over 9,000 acres and provide beautiful hiking trails as well as picnic areas.

Not having a picnic lunch with us but definitely thinking it was well past time for some sustenance, we then headed up to Union - the smallest town in Connecticut - and the famous Traveler Restaurant (though truth be told, I had never heard of the place!). The thing that makes the Traveler unique is that in addition to a good meal, every diner at the Traveler can pick a free book from the many volumes that adorn the restaurant. Apparently the original owner came up with the idea back in 1984 as a way to thin out his own book collection and the current owners kept up the tradition.

According to the back of the menu, the Traveler gives away approximately 100,000 books a year - books that have been donated by libraries or picked up at auctions or flea markets or even perhaps left on the front step. In the basement of the restaurant you can find The Book Cellar with approximately 20,000 used books that are for sale. All in all, it was the ideal place for my cousin the librarian to have lunch! Funny thing is, neither of us left with a book!

Following lunch and a look through The Book Cellar we hit the road again and headed back down Route 171 towards South Woodstock. Along the way we made a brief stop at the small Union Cemetery so that I could take a couple of pictures. After all, you know me and cemeteries!

The sun had managed to peek through a couple of times during the course of our day as you can see from the blue sky above the cemetery but it wasn't quite able to stay out for too long. It was starting to get a bit overcast again as we turned from Route 171 onto Route 198 in Eastford and then cut across Old Colony Road to Schoolhouse Road where we stopped briefly to take the picture below.

As I walked around trying to get the right angle and my cousin waited in the car, I was rather surprised when a gentleman in a pick-up truck slowed down to ask if we were okay and not having any car problems. I thought it was awful nice of him and it just goes to show that there is still kindness in strangers. It's sad that even living in a not-so-big city like Norwich I can get jaded to that fact.

We drove around a bit more through Pomfret and Woodstock - home to such celebrities as Brian Dennehy, Renée Zellweger, and Carrol Spinney (think Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch) - but it just seemed to be getting cloudier and colder so even though I would have loved to have seen more of The Quiet Corner we decided to call it a day around 4:00 and made our way back down Route 169 to Canterbury.

Honestly, though, there were some truly beautiful areas that I would love to explore further but one of the places that I don't think I'll be getting to is the abandoned settlement of Bara-Hack which is located in the woods of Pomfret and reputed to be haunted.

Sometimes referred to as "the village of ghostly voices", people have reported hearing children laughing, dogs barking, mothers calling, wagons rumbling, and other unexplained noises. The story goes that the area was first settled by two Welsh families back in 1790 but was abandoned after the Civil War for one reason or another. All that remains now are just stone foundations, cellar holes, and a graveyard in the woods. Even the official website has disappeared as the land is privately owned and the owners don't want a bunch of wanna-be-ghosthunters trespassing out in their woods. I can't say that I blame them and I sure the heck wouldn't want to go out there at night but I bet there'd be some cool pictures during the day of the ruins and such. Too bad the owners no longer give permission for people to be there, I'd like it just for the history.

With that exception, though, don't be surprised if you end up reading more posts in the future from areas that aren't too far from my own backyard.

Tracking Down More Than I Bargained For

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Those of you who are regular readers may remember this past April when I decided to go Tracking the Taft Tunnel in my neighboring town of Lisbon - the town that lays claim to the "first railroad tunnel in America". As I mentioned in my previous post -

"The Lisbon railroad tunnel, which is officially named the Taft Tunnel, was originally built by the Norwich and Worcester Railroad in 1837. There is some debate as to whether or not it's actually the very first railroad tunnel in America but it is most definitely the oldest railroad tunnel in America still in use in its original form as the tunnel and tracks are still used by the Providence and Worcester Railroad."

Ever since that first visit back in April, I'd been wanting to go back out to the tunnel and as yesterday was a beautiful autumn day with no rain in sight for a change, I decided it would be a good time to head back over. I wanted to see if maybe there was some good foliage to be found along the river near the tunnel and figured I didn't have too much more time before all the leaves were on the ground and the only foliage would be of the raking-and-bagging variety!

I parked by the side of Route 12, looked a little nervously at the "No Trespassing" sign, and after only a slight bit of hesitation began the short hike through the woods out to the railroad tracks. Once I got to the tracks I took a left and walked down to the tunnel, keeping an ear out for any approaching trains.

The tunnel looked pretty much like it did when I last saw it in April - which is probably also pretty much like it looked in 1837! The only difference was that there wasn't a lot of standing water at the north end of the tunnel like there was back in April which meant I could walk the 300 feet to the other end and get some pictures there.

With my friend Kevin's words of "you didn't walk all the way through last time because you were scared" ringing in my head - along with what I'm pretty sure was the sound of my heartbeat ringing through my ears - I started through the tunnel while all the time really, really, really hoping that a train wasn't going to pick that time to come down the tracks. Even though the tunnel is 23 feet wide, I didn't relish the thought of pressing myself against the side of the rock wall in abject terror while a train rumbled past.

As I got closer to the north end, the floor of the tunnel got mushier and some of the railroad ties were loose beneath my feet but I made it all the way through to the other side just in time to hear a rumbling that I knew was not coming from the river.

Oh good Lord, a train was coming! I quickly found a small area less than ten feet from the tracks that looked like the best place to be out of the way and sat down on a small rock just in time to see Engine 4001 come around the bend.

Now let me tell you, I like trains and I've taken more than a few pictures of them in the past but sitting less than 10 feet away from one by the side of the tracks is a bit - shall we say - disconcerting. If I'd thought my heart was beating in my ears earlier, that was nothing compared to the noise I was hearing now! Luckily I remembered to take a couple of pictures of the train entering the tunnel though I wasn't sure how well they were going to turn out as I felt like I was shaking so bad!

Finally the end of the train came into view - another engine moving backwards rather than a caboose as I guess trains just don't do cabooses anymore - or at least the Providence & Worcester trains don't seem to.

After the engine disappeared through the tunnel and the ground stopped shaking and the rumbling faded away, I shakily got to my feet and alternately thanked God many times over that I hadn't still been in the tunnel when the train came through while telling myself I was too old for this sort of thing! Still, I couldn't wait to tell Kevin the story later at work; he's a major railroad fan so I knew he'd appreciate the tale as well as maybe be a little jealous!

After taking a couple pictures of the north entry of the tunnel I began my trek back through to the other side a lot more relaxed than I was when I went through the first time as I was quite confident that another train wouldn't be coming through anytime soon. I didn't linger too long, though, just in case one of the engineers had spotted me by the side of the tracks and decided to call in some form of law enforcement. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to have come out of the woods and found a State Trooper waiting for me by my car but luckily that wasn't the case - whew!

As I sat in the car for a few moments before turning towards home, the blogger in me kicked in as I thought "This is going to make a great post! I hope the pictures came out okay!"

All in all, I'd have to say that yesterday's trip to the Taft Tunnel was quite the adventure but I honestly don't think I'm going to be doing that again anytime soon - no matter how pretty the foliage on the north side ended up being! Unless, of course someone else wants to go with me next time!

"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Two weeks ago today myself, Amanda, and her friend Darci spent the day touring one of my very favorite places in the country - the Gettysburg National Military Park. As I've previously mentioned, I've been to Gettysburg a pretty good number of times but no matter how many times I go I am in awe of the history that occurred in the fields and streets of this small town in Pennsylvania. It's been called hallowed ground on more than on occasion and it most certainly is that.

The girls and I spent the night at the Quality Inn which is located adjacent to a house that was built in 1833 and owned by the noted statesman Thaddeus Stevens at the time of the Civil War. During the three days of battle from July 1st to 3rd 1863, the house was used as the personal headquarters of the South's most beloved general - Robert E. Lee. In addition, the Lutheran Theological Seminary, site of some of the fighting on the first day of the battle, is in very close proximity to the hotel with beautiful vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. It's a lovely place and one that I had always wanted to stay at in spite of my status as a Yankee! Miss Bee would be happy to know that I have always thought of General Lee as a mighty fine military leader as well as a Southern gentleman and he has my utmost respect and admiration no matter the poor decisions he made at Gettysburg.

Following breakfast at our hotel, I decided that the best course of action for the girls to see as much of the battlefield as possible - as well as understand what went on there - was to buy a CD of the auto tour that told the story of the Battle of Gettysburg while it covered the more prominent areas. As many times as I've been to Gettysburg, I'm pretty sure I've not seen every area there is to see so I knew there was no way we were going to do more than scratch the surface with the amount of time that we had available to us but I wanted Amanda and Darci to perhaps have some understanding and appreciation for the battle that occurred and the lives that were lost in Gettysburg.

We spent probably close to 3-1/2 to 4 hours touring the battlefield if you count all of the stops for pictures and a closer look at some of the major points of interest like Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the State of Pennsylvania Monument, the State of Virginia Monument, and - one of my personal favorites - the monument for Lieutenant General James Longstreet.

It was once said that "Longstreet ... was the finest corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia; in fact, he was arguably the best corps commander in the conflict on either side" - an assessment that I wholeheartedly agree with. General Lee's "Old War Horse" is another Southern General that I greatly admire and whom I think got a pretty raw deal from his fellow Southerners when he dared to say that General Lee made the wrong call at choosing to go ahead with his attack on the third day of Gettysburg.

Probably because of that, it wasn't until July 3rd, 1998 that General Longstreet was finally given a monument at Gettysburg located in a grove of trees in Pitzer Woods behind what would have been the Southern lines in the area of Seminary Ridge. Unlike most monuments to generals where the general is depicted on his horse on a large stone base, Longstreet’s monument shows him at ground level on a disproportionately small version of his favorite horse, Hero. As one of the very last monuments to be placed at Gettysburg, the monument's size and placement is indicative of the continuing controversy surrounding him. Longstreet is actually kind of hard to find if you aren't looking for him but I always like to stop by and pay my respects to "Old Pete" when I'm at Gettysburg. This trip was no exception.

Gettysburg National Military Park began in 1895 with 800-acres but today it is close to 6,000 acres and receives more visitors each year - over two million - than there are residents of Nebraska. With 26 miles of roadway and more than 1,400 markers, monuments, and memorials there's a lot to see and do at Gettysburg but I just wish that people wouldn't treat it as some sort of "fun" family tourist destination because it isn't. A major battle occurred there and lots and lots of lives were lost; sons and fathers and brothers and uncles and cousins and husbands - men who would never see their homes and loved ones again. Men who fought and died for a cause that they believed in and whose spirits may still linger somewhere in Gettysburg.

Nothing gets my goat more than to see unsupervised children climbing on the monuments and cannons or scrabbling up and down the rocks of Devil's Den without any thought to the reason that those monuments and cannon are there or the blood that flowed over the rocks and into the fields.

Truth be told, I got a little miffed at Amanda and Darci when they both broke into a major case of the giggles when we were at the Eternal Peace Light but I guess maybe that's just because I'm a stickler for the solemnity of the area. I know I need to relax but I guess I just feel that most people don't understand what happened at Gettysburg; I guess I feel like it would be the equivalent of laughing at the beaches of Normandy - at least for me anyway. I'm not saying that children should never go to Gettysburg but if you bring them there, you need to tell them what happened there and keep them in check. That said, though, I'll get off of my soapbox now.

Anyhow, I could go on and on about Gettysburg for a lot longer but I'll spare everyone the history and end this with a video of some more pictures of the battlefield and these rather sobering statistics:

At the end of the three-day battle, the 95,000 Union troops under General George Meade and 75,000 troops of General Robert E. Lee that met at Gettysburg had suffered 57,225 casualties – the largest number of any battle in the American Civil War. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, and 5,369 captured or missing) while the Confederate casualties were more difficult to estimate. The most definitive work on the battle, Regimental Strength and Losses by John W. Busey and Dr. David Martin, cite 23,231 casualties (4,708 killed, 12,683 wounded, and 5,830 captured or missing).

Like I said, it is very hallowed ground; very hallowed ground indeed.

Stopping by Butts Bridge

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Plans for my day off yesterday included an excursion with my cousin Amy to parts of the "Quiet Corner" of Connecticut, or "The Last Green Valley" as it has also been called, in search of some foliage pictures. The area - over 1,080 square miles - lies within a Congressionally designated National Heritage Corridor along the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers and represents the remaining substantial greenbelt within the urban and suburban sprawl between Washington and Boston.

I had my fingers crossed that the weather was going to be nice for a change but alas, it was pretty darned chilly, windy, and overcast for most of the day though the sun did try to poke its head out a time or two while we were driving the back roads of Woodstock, Eastford, and Union. Before we got that far, though, I made a brief stop on my way to my cousin's house for some pictures along the banks of the Quinebaug River in Canterbury near Butts Bridge.

The current Butts Bridge was built in 1937 following several other bridges that had been built near the same spot starting way back in 1728 by two gentlemen from Plainfield, Canterbury's neighboring town to the east. That bridge was swept away in a freshet (a sudden overflow of a stream resulting from a heavy rain or a thaw) and in 1733 another bridge was built in the same place by Samuel Butts, a Canterbury resident. Several years later, that bridge was swept away by ice.

A third bridge was built in the same spot but it, too, was damaged in the Great Flood of 1867. In the picure above you can see a bit of the old abutments that are still standing just north of the current bridge. For all that the Quinebaug doesn't look like a mighty river, it has certainly done more than its fair share of damage and claimed a good number of lives over the years, too.

Despite the fact that we have had rain hand-over-fist this year, the waters of the Quinebaug are currently very low. When I took these pictures yesterday, I was standing along a bank that had been underwater in July when I took pictures in the same area. Click here for one of those pictures if you'd like to see the difference.

Butts Bridge was last renovated in 1988 and even though it looks like it could use a new coat of paint, I kind of like the rusted areas - it seems to add more character to what could be considered a rather ordinary bridge if one didn't have a slight inkling of what it took for a bridge to finally withstand the waters of the Quinebaug River in this area.

Even though I'm still working on my Gettysburg post (heard that one before, right?), I'll try to get some pictures of our drive yesterday posted soon, too. After all, just because you aren't in New England doens't mean you can't enjoy some of the New England foliage, right?!?

Looking at the Sky on Friday

mouseski58@yahoo.com (Linda) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Fridays are skies day and that works out great when I'm juggling time and not doing such a great job which is truly the case today! Still, I've got a day off and I'm going to try to make the best of it and that does not include sitting home on the computer! So what better than a nice quick post courtesy of a nice meme by one of my nice blogging friends?

Tisha's Looking at the Sky on Friday is a great way to share some of our skyward photos like this picture that Amanda took outside of Kutztown, Pennsylvania last Tuesday while we were driving from the Dutch Country up to visit Mark & Lisa. Despite the clouds, it sure was pretty!

Here's wishing everyone a very pretty Friday wherever you are and whatever you're doing. As for me - I'm going to pick some apples, take some pictures, and hang out with my cousin. Sounds pretty good to me!