Are We There Yet??

Focusing on Adjusting

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Trying to adjust to my new work schedule has me completely and totally discombobulated and barely able to remember what day it is but I'm pretty sure that once I get used to it, it's going to be just fine though I'm really not too sure about having "normal" weekends off. Not that having four-day weekends every week is exactly "normal" but hopefully you know what I mean! My new schedule has me working doubles on Tuesday and Thursday and day shift on Wednesday so it's really not bad at all, I just have to remember what day it is!

It was actually rather nice to come home at 3:00 p.m. yesterday and be able to fool around taking pictures of Tesla and catching up on a few things here and there. I'm not too sure how Tesla felt about the whole picture-taking thing but I figured that while I had my camera out to take a picture of the beautiful suncatcher that I got from Morgen last week ...

... that I'd take a couple of Tesla who first posed nicely on the windowsill as he took a break from watching squirrels run through the yard then ran off to the living room to try to relax on the couch before I came in and started bugging him in there! At least he was kind enough to smile big for the camera though!

The way I look at it, it sort of makes up for all those times he's come over and bugged me when I was on the computer ... sort of ... not really!

Anyway, off to work for 16 hours on this last day in May and then I start my weekend where I've got big things planned like a lot of writing for my project with the Hawthorne Hotel which should be launching soon and some cleaning while I've got only one kid in the house what with Jamie being off in Toronto visiting her friend for a couple of weeks. Sounds exciting, eh? No pun intended to my Canadian friends!

Memorial Day 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:35:00 +0000

"I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. We mourn for them as comrades who have departed, but we feel the glory of their dying and the glory of their achievement covers all our great country, and has set them in an imperishable roll of honor." — President Benjamin Harrison, May 30th, 1891

On this Memorial Day, fly your flags proudly as we remember those brave men and women who served to make and keep our nation free so that we can have flags and three-day weekends and all those things we generally take for granted. Whether they died on the battlefield or behind the lines or years later from the ravages of diseases brought on by war, we should always remember them and thank them for their service. I do.

Ah, So That's What Using a Different Camera Feels Like!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sun, 27 May 2012 15:24:00 +0000

Leaving my beloved Nikon in the car, yesterday I had the chance to fool around with a top-of-the-line, brand-spanking-new Olympus E-M5 OM-D Series Digital SLR Camera during the Essex Heritage Photo Safari that my friend Juli and I went on in Newburyport that was sponsored by Hunt's Camera and the Essex National Heritage Area. Even though the camera was very cool in many respects and had some very interesting on-board features such as Art Filter effects and a monitor that swivels both up and down so that you can change the perspective of your shot without having to kneel down or climb up on things along, with a very lightweight body and lens, I'm not really sure if it's a camera that I'd buy.

Part of me really liked it - especially my right arm due to the light weight! - and part of me wasn't so sure about it - some of which I'll chalk up to having spent so much time with my Nikon and not quite sure what to do with a smaller camera! The part of me that really wasn't sure about it though is the part that registers price being that the model that I was using was about $1,300 with just a 14-42 mm lens. Ouch! Amazing technology certainly does come with amazing price tags attached, huh?

Juli was using a version that was a slightly less-expensive Olympus (with a price tag of about $900) than the one that I had and she paid better attention to David Wells, the professional photographer who gave us a bit of advice and instruction before we ventured out into the pretty town of Newburyport to hunt for photographic opportunities, so I think that her photos were loads better than mine when it came to subject matter and composition ... well, except maybe for this one she sneakily took of me trying to figure out how to use my camera by the waterfront ...

or me still trying to figure out how to use the camera in a cheese and wine shop ...

but like these two that she shot when she wasn't taking pictures of me!

As for me, I was busy taking pictures of bottles of wine (if you look in the upper left you can see Juli taking that picture of me above) ...

... and shoes and accessories ...

... and candy ...

... and a hot dog sign ...

... and a steeple that I apparently got fixated on ...

... and a monument by the waterfront ...

... and some bicyclists ...

... and one I took of Juli on the waterfront probably right before she took the one of me!

As you can tell from some of the photos above, I did try out a few of the Art Effects that the camera offered and even though they were cool (I rather do like the "Key Lime" effect on the first steeple picture), I guess I'm just more of a traditionalist than artist when it comes to using a camera. That said, I had a great time and it was a lot of fun and I might actually have even learned a few things from David, our pro, even though I might not have applied them that well! Let's see what I can do with his tips and my trusty Nikon though!

Oh, and as for Newburyport itself - what a great place! I'll be heading back up that way again before too long as I continue my travels for that other project I keep alluding to so stayed tuned for more. Perhaps I can even talk Barb into taking a journey up there with me when she's up visiting her SisterDears in July - there's obviously wine to be found and I think she'd love the area! Speaking of Barb, I totally befuddled her with yesterday's post that contained no photos at all so I hope that today's post makes up for that!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

So here it is, the "first official weekend of summer" and I keep wondering how it got here so fast! But what else is new when it comes to time flying lately? I'd better not blink or next thing I know it's going to be the Fourth of July and then the "last official weekend of summer"!

I hope y'all have something fun planned for this weekend. As for me, you'll never guess where I am again! Yep, back in Salem but this time I'll be heading up to Newburyport to cheat on my Nikon with an Olympus for a little bit. Gasp! There's a good reason I'm leaving the Nikon in the car for awhile though, I'm going on a Photo Safari with my friend Juli which is sponsored by the Essex National Heritage Commission and a local camera shop. We get to take Olympus cameras and equipment out for a spin as well as get some photography tips from a guest photographer and keep the memory card with the pictures we take. Bonus - it's in the historic area of the town - who'd a thunk it?

I've heard all sorts of good things about Newburyport so I'm really looking forward to fooling around with another camera for awhile and seeing some more of Massachusetts and then spending a little more time in Salem afterward. I'll be heading home on Sunday, recharging for a bit, and then taking a drive across Connecticut on Monday for a family get-together at my cousin Dave's house. Whew! I should be good and tired just in time to go back to work on Tuesday where I start my new shift rotation and will now have Friday through Monday off instead of my current schedule of Wednesday through Saturday off. Still lots of time for wandering around!

So what have you got planned for the weekend other than remembering those brave men and women who gave us cause to have a holiday weekend to begin with?? Whatever it is, I hope it's fun and safe!

Five on Friday - The BeeGees Version

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

There sure have been a lot of losses in the music world lately with some real talent going up to join that big angelic choir in the sky. Last week Robin Gibb of the BeeGees passed away at the age of 62 which made me stop and think about some of my favorite songs that the band put out over the years. Even though a lot of people associate the BeeGees with the disco era, I was a fan long before John Travolta ever put on a white polyester suit and danced his way into movie stardom and most of my favorite songs from the Brothers Gibb are from their earlier music. For this week's Five on Friday meme hosted by Travis at Trav's Thoughts, I thought I'd share some of those favorites which take me way back to my teenage years and early heartbreak and music that spoke to my soul - little knowing that as I got older, it was going to speak even louder! Ah well, we live, we grow, and we learn though I'm still not sure how you mend a broken heart all these years later!

Working for the Weekend at the Inn Victoria

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sun, 20 May 2012 02:29:00 +0000

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, Jamie and I are spending this weekend in the charming town of Chester, Vermont where we are participating in the Second Annual Inn Victoria Work Weekend. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this year unlike last year when it rained for a good part of the time that we were here and even though yes, it's been a lot of work it's also been a lot of fun seeing familiar faces from last year and meeting new folks.

We are once again staying in the Prince Alfred room just like last year but this year there's a big new change to the room - a second bed! So, Jamie has been happily ensconced in her own feel-like-you're-sleeping-on-a-cloud 1600-threat count triple-sheeted bed while I've been enjoying my own also. Sweet!

The food has been absolutely delicious - just like last year. Breakfast this morning was fresh strawberries served with light brown sugar and a dollop of sour cream (that made a delicious almost caramel-like sauce when mixed together) followed by Eggs Benedict with asparagus and tomato served on a puff pastry, plenty of bacon, and coffee that actually tasted as good as it smelled!

While I spent the day painting doors and trim inside the house, Jamie was kept quite busy outside doing some gardening as well as painting the inn's sign and giving it a fresh rejuvenated look.

Following a busy day with a break for delicious burgers and pasta salad for lunch, we worked until about 5:00 and then cleaned up in time for dinner with these fellas accompanied by delicious steaks followed by a wonderful rhubarb-strawberry crisp with homemade whipped cream! No picture of that I'm afraid, I ate it too quickly!

After a busy day of painting and other tasks and eating like royalty, Jamie took off to soak in the hot tub for a bit while I enjoyed the wonderful soaking tub in the our bathroom.

I have to say, working for these kind of "wages" isn't bad at all and I've been very proud of Jamie as she really pitched in and did her share and then some working just as hard as everyone else and doing a great job. This might not be too many teenager's idea of a "fun" weekend but we've sure been enjoying it and now we can say that we've finally had honest-to-goodness struggle-to-get-it-out-of-the-shell lobster. Good thing there were people here to give lessons on that!

We've got another day of work ahead of us tomorrow with no doubt more good food in store before heading back to Connecticut where I will definitely miss that soaking tub, the 1600-thread count sheets, and having someone else cook for me but probably not the paintbrush that had me thinking I was channeling my inner Barb all day!

Five on Friday - The ABBA Version

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I've been kind of sporadic in not just blogging lately but also in remembering to play along with Travis' Five on Friday meme but having gotten stuck in a continuous loop of old ABBA songs last night while taking care of some other things I decided I just had to share my ear-worm with everyone else this week! I started out listening to some vintage Donna Summer in tribute to her passing and somehow ended up reliving some of my 70s days and listening to my favorite Swedish singing group!

Now that I've hopefully got you singing along with "Mama Mia" and "SOS", Jamie and I are off to Vermont to spend a fun work-filled weekend at the Inn Victoria and I'm quite looking forward to seeing everyone from last year, cleaning a couple of chandeliers, and eating lobster among other things! That might not be some folks' idea of a great weekend but that's because they've never gone to Chester, Vermont and met Dan & Penny & Jess or stayed at their beautiful inn otherwise it would be!

Everyone have a great weekend no matter what it may find you doing!

A Recap of My Last Batch of Days Off With a Warning: Delicious Food Pictures Included!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Are we really in the middle of May already? How on earth did that happen? And why have I only written one whole post for the entire month so far? Why, you'd think I've been busy or something! Of course, if you did think that then you'd be thinking right as it seems to me that life has been a bit more busy than usual though thankfully mostly in a good sort of way.

Before I get to me, though, just a quick update on my mom ... she's doing very, very well and will hopefully be able to go home sometime early this week. She was moved from the hospital to a nursing home last Tuesday for some rehab in order to make sure that her right leg was working properly and that her balance wasn't off and to tweak a few other little things here and there that one doesn't even think about for the most part. When I stopped in to visit her Saturday evening being that I would be working all day on Mother's Day, she said that she thought things were going really well and that she'd been practicing walking with a cane and chewing her food and fun things like that. Her therapists all think she's doing wonderfully well so I'm hoping for a trip home soon for her and then progressing on to that "you'll never even know you had a stroke" that her doctor at the hospital promised her would happen. And I am ever mindful and thankful that it could have been so much worse of a stroke than it was as well as very thankful for all of the good thoughts and prayers that you folks sent her way. I've got no doubt that they all helped tremendously!

Now, as for myself, this week was another quick trip up to Salem to touch base with some folks at the Hawthorne Hotel regarding a project that I'm working on for them. Hopefully I'll be able to say more about it soon as we're getting close to I guess what you could call a "launch date". I just need to finish a few things here and there but so far it's been a lot of fun - though a lot of work - and has given me all sorts of reasons to go up to the North Shore and explore new places while also spending some time with Juli and her husband Walt who are just two of the nicest people ever. Add on the fact that Juli really knows the area and she has pointed me in the direction of some very cool places to explore.

For this last trip I took Amanda with me being that Jamie and I will be heading to Vermont on Friday for the Annual Work Weekend at the Inn Victoria which we are both totally looking forward to. On this trip I figured that Amanda would be able to meet up with some of her friends from up around Boston while it gave Jamie some nice quiet time to enjoy herself at home as I traipsed around the North Shore with my Nikon in hand. A win-win for everyone!

During this visit to Salem, Amanda and I stayed in a lovely room on the second floor of the Fidelia Bridges Guest House which is part of the Hawthorne Hotel and which you may remember me telling you about before when Jamie and I stayed there last April. Formerly known as the Suzannah Flint House, the 1807 guest house is now named for one of the few successful female artists in the 19th and early 20th century.

Fidelia Bridges, born in the house in 1834 to a sea captain and his wife and who later moved to Philadelphia and studied painting for three years under William Trost Richards, was an oil painter who later took up watercolor painting with her work consisting mainly of very detailed pictures of flowers, birds, and plants in their natural surroundings. Most notably, Ms. Bridges was the only woman of six men in the group of notable 19th century artists in the American Watercolor Society before her death in 1923 in Canaan, Connecticut. For examples of some of her works, click here.

The room we stayed in is called the Red and Gold Room and it's easy to see why! My back thoroughly enjoyed the very comfortable queen-size bed while Amanda, after initial doubt, was very comfortable on the fold-out twin sleeper that the love seat becomes at night. It was so comfortable she was rather hoping we could sneak it out to the car and bring it home with us but that obviously wasn't going to happen!

One of the most interesting features of the room - aside from the really comfortable bedding! - is the fireplace which Juli told me is one that was quite possibly designed and built by Samuel McIntyre - a Salem native who was one of the earliest American architects specializing in the Federal style. McIntyre built almost exclusively in New England and Salem has a very large historic district named for him which contains 407 buildings and is the largest collection of pre-1900 domestic structures in all of America. Having the chance to stay in a room with a possible McIntyre piece may seem geeky to some but I thought it was pretty darned cool!

When I wasn't oohing and aahing over the fireplace in our room, I was spending some time up the road from Salem in Gloucester while Amanda was spending the day with her friends. While there I took an awful lot of pictures - go figure! - including the ones below:

I spent several hours in different parts of Gloucester - and I could have happily spent several more just sitting and watching the waves crash on the rocks - before I met up with Juli and Walt for dinner at a little Mexican restaurant in downtown Gloucester called Jalapeno's where the food was más excelente!

Juli told me that she and Walt had been eating at Jalapeno's for about 13 years going there maybe 6 or 7 times a year and that even though all of the food is good, nine times out of ten she'll order the same thing so I followed her lead on the soup and we split an entree before the three of us shared a dessert.

Tortilla Sopa - Julienne-cut tortillas in a light chicken broth with shredded cheese and avocado; it had just enough of a bite to make it perfect!

Steak Gaonera - Charcoal-grilled steak, pan baked with Chihuahua and Monterrey Jack Cheese, topped with chilled guacamole. Oh my gosh, looking at this picture just makes my mouth water something awful remembering how delicious this was!

A side of vegetables and rice with our steak was a very nice accompaniment; I thought the rice was done to perfection and probably the best Mexican-style rice I've had on the East Coast.

And to finish off the meal, the most delicious chocolate mousse ever served in a fried tortilla bowl! I wish I'd had more room at the end of the meal to eat even just another spoonful or two but alas - no way Jose!

Everything was really, really good and it was easy to see and taste why Juli orders the same thing most of the time! The guacamole was so good that I would have been happy just eating a bucket of it and maybe a few chips as it was just that good! As I was looking around the room I have to admit that everything I saw the servers bring out and put on other diners' tables looked awfully darned good, too! Jalapeno's is definitely a place I'd love to go back to sometime! Why, oh why, can't Connecticut get decent Mexican food like Massachusetts?!?

After dinner I climbed in the car to make the drive back over to Salem from Cape Ann and being that the clouds were providing such a lovely show in front of the windshield, I decided to snap a few pictures from the driver's seat of the road and scenery ahead of me. I should probably point out that I don't hold the viewfinder up to my eye when taking these shots but simply put the camera on the steering wheel and hope for the best as I do try to be safe when doing this sort of thing - and I never do it when there's a lot of traffic. Fortunately for me, the drive on Route 128 south from Gloucester to Salem wasn't bad at all Friday evening - it was actually very, very pleasant which isn't something I normally say about driving on the North Shore!

This last shot I took while I was waiting for the light to change on the bridge between Salem and Beverly so I was at a complete stop. The sky was definitely more dramatic in person but being that you weren't there with me, this is the best I can do to share!

As you can probably tell, it was a another very nice visit to Salem and the surrounding area and a lovely way to spend some days off - even though I was sort of "working" at the same time but work that's a lot more fun than dispatching ambulances! Now if I could just somehow finagle making a living out of staying in beautiful accommodations, taking pictures, eating good food, and wandering around Massachusetts I'd be one very happy woman!

Time Flies Whether You're Having Fun or Not!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Quick update over here being that I have managed to go another week without posting anything. First off - happy May! Hard to believe that we're into May already but indeed we are and I hope that whatever your May flowers bring it's not a boatload of Pilgrims! I've been working on some posts for a travel blog project that I'm doing in conjunction with the Hawthorne Hotel so I've had lots of Pilgrims on the brain lately myself as I research and write about Provincetown on Cape Cod; I can only imagine how many more Pilgrims I have on the brain once I get to Plymouth!

Anyhow, as vague as that is, suffice it to say I've been busy with that project as well as dealing with some cervical issues that have cropped up and given me a royal pain in the neck (not to mention some numbness and tingling in places I'd rather not have - my right hand for example). While I'm trying to work through that inconvenience, my mother is working through the effects of the stroke that she had this past Thursday which most definitely caused pretty much everything else to come to a screeching halt. Fortunately for me, the ambulance ended up bringing her to to the hospital right down the road from me rather than the one she normally goes to which is 40 miles in the other direction. Having her close by has been good.

As of my last visit to see her yesterday, mom's looking a lot better as well as speaking better (not as much hesitation) and the movement in her right arm and leg are continuing to improve. Today we find out if she'll be going to rehab at a nursing home for a little while or not and which one it would be. Obviously this wasn't something that any of us had planned for as I can't think of a single person in my family who has ever had a stroke before and truthfully, even though I know my mom is getting up there in years (she'll be 78 in June), I never think of her as being that old. Not that you can't have a stroke at any age of course but obviously age played into it with my mom. That and the history of high blood pressure and high cholesterol and diabetes - all of which were under control with medication but apparently some of the medications she was on weren't ones that should have been mixed.

My Dad always said that doctors don't really know much about drug interactions and he was right. If you're on a combination of medications and don't use the same pharmacy for all of them (because of her Tricare for Life benefits my Mom gets some of her meds at the Navy Base pharmacy and some through Express Scripts) be sure to let each pharmacy know all of the medications that you've been prescribed as unlike doctors, pharmacists DO know what drugs play well with each other and if they don't, he/she will be sure to let you know so that you can get your doctor to look for an alternate.

Anyhow, that's things here for the most part. Being busy and adjusting priorities ... no wonder it's already into the second week of May and I hadn't really noticed!

Lighthouses ... I Love 'Em and I Found 'Em!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:53:00 +0000

It seems to drive the girls crazy but whenever I'm in an area where there might be a lighthouse or two, I've got to go find it! And find some I did last week on our mini-holiday to Cape Cod!

Please join me over on the The Distracted Wanderer as I go Wandering By Some of Cape Cod's Historic Lighthouses, Part One.

Oh, and if all of a sudden you're craving potato chips, that's probably because Nauset Light is the official logo of Cape Cod Potato Chips and you may have seen the lighthouse above pictured on its bags in your local grocery store! Mmmm, salt and vinegar chips ...

Back to Reality Once Again

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:18:00 +0000

As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end" so here we are, back in Connecticut from our mini-holiday to Cape Cod where I took in some beautiful views, hunted down quite a few lighthouses, enjoyed some tasty seafood, and took a lot more pictures to add to my collection! Before I get too caught back up in "real life", I thought I'd share a few pictorial moments from the last two days. Oh, and I am happy to report that even though they didn't get along as well as I might have liked (in other words, no sniping!), the girls restrained from any sort of bloodshed and even civilly talked to each other from time to time. I keep waiting for that "someday they'll be good friends" thing to happen but to be honest, I'm not holding my breath! Anyway, pictures ...

This is Highland Lighthouse which also is known as Cape Cod Light on the nautical charts for the region; it's located in North Truro just a bit before Provincetown and the current structure was built in 1857 making it Cape Cod's oldest lighthouse. I had been wanting to go see it for several years and I finally got the chance - huzzah!

Speaking of huzzah, I had Amanda snap a picture of me waving at Claire over in England as I had promised her on Facebook that I would. She was supposed to go stand on a high monument somewhere and wave back but I wasn't wearing my glasses so I might not have seen her!

After walking down to the National Seashore near Provincetown, I asked Jamie to try to replicate my friend Callie's pose from several years ago. Close but no Callie I'm afraid!

After walking around Provincetown a bit, the girls and I had lunch at The Lobster Pot on the waterfront. Amanda decided that she just had to have some calamari which she declared to be very tasty. We all ordered some sort of seafood and it was all quite delicious.

On the way back to our hotel in Hyannis, I made a quick stop at Marconi Beach in Wellfleet as it was the beach that I had taken the girls to many, many years ago on their only other trip to the Cape when we went with their two cousins and my sister-in-law. I had remembered it as being beautiful and I wasn't wrong!

And the final picture of the day, I took this one as Jamie and I were walking back to the car as I liked the way the sun was glowing off of the not-wooden boardwalk and giving it a different sort of light.

All in all, it was a great trip and as soon as soon as I can get my act together, I'll be sharing some pictures and history of all of the lighthouses that I was fortunate enough to see over on The Distracted Wanderer. Just give me some time as sadly, it's back to work tomorrow where I'll have to put in some time if I am going to be able to afford some more wanderings in the future!

Greetings from Cape Cod!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:21:00 +0000

Wonder of wonders we actually managed to leave Norwich on time yesterday and with only one slightly wrong turn in Providence after being cut off by a guy in a pick-up truck who was paying more attention to his cell phone than his merging abilities, we made it out to Cape Cod shortly after 12:00. Before heading out to the mid-Cape and Hyannis where our hotel is, I took a detour down Route 28 South in the direction of Falmouth and a lighthouse that I had been wanting to take a picture of.

Looking very much like your quintessential New England lighthouse, the current Nobska Light has been a beacon to sailors since 1876 when it replaced the original "Nobsque Light", a stone cottage with a light tower on top that had stood in the same place since 1828.

After getting probably more pictures of the lighthouse than I really needed (though really, can there be too many lighthouse pictures? I think not!) we continued our journey to Hyannis passing by the Cape Cod Canal and eventually over the Sagamore Bridge.

As you can see from the picture that Amanda took from the passenger seat, they were doing some construction on the bridge but traffic wasn't too bad.

Once we got into Hyannis, I spent a little time driving around trying to find the lighthouse that sits at the entrance to Hyannis Harbor but as it's on private property it appeared to be nowhere to be found so instead Amanda shot a picture of several ferries passing each other going in and out of the harbor.

From there we set the GPS in the direction of our hotel which just happened to be across the street from an IHOP so guess where we went for lunch? Amanda thought the Red Velvet pancakes were so good, she tried to steal Jamie's in addition to having her own!

The Days Inn that we're staying at is nice though certainly no Hawthorne Hotel but a couple things it has going for it is that it's located right next to the Cape Cod Mall and a really nice Barnes & Noble plus it has an indoor pool that the girls took advantage of while I did some picture editing from a lounge chair nearby. As Amanda would probably throw a fit if I posted a picture of her in a swimming pool (whether you can see her or not!), I've purposely blurred this shot a bit. Hopefully that meets with her approval! Oh, and just as a side note - the girls had a good time and didn't even try to drown each other once!

Today we're heading out to Provincetown and I've got a list of places to see based partially on the magazine that we picked up in the hotel lobby that Jamie is holding, partially on some research I did prior to us heading out this way, and partially on memories of the one and only time I've been out to the furthest most part of the Cape.

Even though it's a bit cloudy out and definitely somewhat breezy, it looks like the overnight rain has stopped so I'm hoping for a good day to do some wandering. I'll let you know how that works out; in the meantime though there's a free breakfast to be had at the hotel before we set out for the day! Mmmmm ... coffee and juice and stuff!

Catching Up ... Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:29:00 +0000

Wow, I did it again and missed another whole week in between posts! Ooops ... I've had good reason, though, as last week I was as busy as that little fella in the picture above as I worked a whole bunch of days in a row to make up for the time that I had taken off to wander around Cape Ann and Concord/Lexington in Massachusetts and tossed in an overtime shift for good measure while I was at it. I had two day shifts that were bracketed on each end with double shifts so it made for a long work week but it was worth it to have had six days in a row off previous to that in spite of the fact that I hate getting up early!

Saturday found me up early yet again as I had a table at the Canterbury Historical Society's Annual Indoor Tag Sale and yet again it was worth it as I made about $80 selling stuff that I hadn't even looked at in years and totally forgot I had until I dug it out for the sale. My goal was to a) make back the $10 that I paid for the table and b) not bring back a carload of stuff - goals that were quite nicely accomplished! Having just one table at a tag sale is so much easier than doing an entire tag sale at one's own home; hopefully I can join in again next year!

Sunday it was back to work followed by grocery shopping on Monday before work (there really WAS nothing to eat in the house this time!) and then another double on Tuesday before my short work week ended and I got to sleep in this morning before finally catching up on a bit of blog reading. As I was so far behind in that, I used the option to mark everything as read that was over a day old (I don't recall that Google Reader had that option before but it's great!). I just hope that I didn't miss any major news anywhere - if I did, please let me know!

I was going to spend my next four days off just hanging around the house and catching up on things but then the thought dawned on me last night that perhaps this would be the perfect chance to go spend a few days out on Cape Cod before tourist season begins and I don't want to go anywhere near the place as it's too crowded and the cost of lodging skyrockets. Provincetown is on my list of places that I need to cover for my project with the Hawthorne Hotel plus there are lots of lighthouses out there that I just need to photograph! The plan is to take the girls along with me and then keep my fingers crossed that they get along for the trip otherwise I may be just leaving them out on the Cape! I made sure to book a hotel in Hyannis that has an indoor pool, free WiFi, free breakfast, and as a bonus it's within walking distance of the Cape Cod Mall so if that doesn't keep them happy, I don't know what will.

I'm hoping that while Jamie and I attempt to climb the Pilgrim's Monument in Provincetown so that I can get some pictures, that Amanda will look around at some of the many art galleries that are there and get some inspiration for new artwork. I'm not even going to ask her if she wants to do the monument with us as she's got a bit of a fear of heights - something I used to have but have surprisingly gotten over as I've gotten older. Must be that whole "I need to take pictures!" thing that supersedes that whole "it's too high!" thing! I've only been to P'Town once so I'm looking forward to the trip as well as lunch at The Lobster Pot which I seem to recall as being very, very good!

So, I guess I'll go make a list of places that I want to wander to and then think about tossing some clothes in a suitcase! Hope your Wednesday and the rest of the week is wonderful!

The Weekend in Review - Kinda, Sorta!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:39:00 +0000

Whoa ... I haven't put up a new post over here in ages ... look at all of those cobwebs! I guess it just goes to show how much more relaxed I am about blogging than I was when I first started and simply HAD to have a new post up everyday. Of course back then I also used to be part of the Norwich Bulletin blogs but they have long since dumped me in favor of blogs written by their own staff members which never get any comments that I can see. Oh well ... their loss!

Anyway, if you're wondering what I've been up to that I haven't had any time to do a new blog post in quite some time, it's been basically just a busy week and a half between work, battling a combination cold/allergy/mild flu, editing wedding pictures, and spending the last four days up in the Salem, Massachusetts area working on a project with the Hawthorne Hotel that requires me to go visit historic places and take lots of pictures - oh darn the luck on that last one, huh??

I just got home a couple of hours ago from what was a great weekend that started out with me being invited to attend a Press Preview Event at the Peabody Essex Museum on Thursday evening (you can read about that over at The Distracted Wanderer) before spending most of Friday exploring the Town of Rockport on the tip of Cape Ann and then catching some of Salem's 375th First Muster on Saturday prior to heading down to the Minute Man National Historic Park in Lexington and Concord to join in with hundreds of other people as they celebrated Patriots Day Weekend. On Sunday I went back out to Rockport to explore Halibut Point State Park which I had missed on Friday and then today I swung back by the Old North Bridge in Concord to get some additional photos at the bridge and State Park Visitors Center before making the drive home in record heat. Whew!

In between all of that, I was staying at the home of Walter and Juli, friends in Salem who are two of the most gracious folks ever, who provided me with a comfortable room, unlimited internet access, some of the best food that I ever eaten including a German dish made with pinkelwurst which was absolutely delicious, several adult beverages that made the visit even that much more enjoyable, and phenomenal company. Really now, is it any wonder I love going to the North Shore??

Needless to say, I have lots and lots of pictures to cull through and history to research but I also have to go back to work tomorrow to start making up for the extra time I just took off. Rats! Ah well, all good things must come to an end, right? In the meantime though, here are some images from this past weekend which was a lot of fun even if I am plum' wore out and am planning on an early bedtime tonight! Maybe one or two of the pictures below will have you thinking about spending some time in Massachusetts soon yourself!

The bar in the Tavern at the Hawthorne Hotel with its new bar stools that are about as comfortable as you can get - the perfect place to sit and enjoy one of their Cocktails of the Week!

My "official name tag" from Thursday evening's Press Preview at the PEM. The young man who handed it to me really made my night when he said that he reads my blog and thinks it's wonderful. Sweet!

I took this shot from the windows in the East India Marine Hall at the PEM while waiting for the press event to start and decided I quite liked the lighting.

Friday found me in Rockport on a gorgeous day so I just had to snap a few images of Motif #1 like any good tourist would!

This house in Rockport really caught my eye not just for the color but also for its architectural features, I'd love to live in one just like it someday!

Part of the parade heading onto the Common at Salem's 375th First Muster on Saturday morning.

Don't these two bikes look great?!? Loved 'em!

Later in the day I was in Lexington where I thought I had stepped onto the set of "The Patriot"!

I know I'm an American but I have to admit, the British uniforms are so much cooler than the Colonials!

Back out on Cape Ann I snapped this shot in Gloucester near Wharf #7 and the Gloucester House where I had lunch - fried shrimp to be exact and it was quite good!

A visitor to Halibut Point State Park apparently decided that the sign didn't apply to him but I guess I can't fault him for wanting to sit and enjoy the gorgeous view of the Atlantic.

There's just something about a lone seagull circling through the sky.

This is an old granite quarry at Halibut Point State Park and it was quite beautiful and amazing, too.

Back in Concord on Monday I took a quick shot of the Old North Bridge and some of its visitors.

This chandelier is inside the National Park Visitors Center at the Old North Bridge.

And finally, just a reminder that even though it was over 95 degrees today, it's still Spring and some of the plants are just starting to bud - honest!

Yesterday's Distracted Wanderings

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:17:00 +0000

I hopped in the car and took a drive over to the Town of Windham yesterday - home of four giant frogs that sit on spools ...

... and stood at the spot where I climbed on a bus to head off to Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base almost 36 years ago ...

... which is on Main Street in Willimantic and just down the road from this very
colorful clock ...

... which is across the street from this awesome new cupcakery where I wandered in to meet the owners and bring home some cupcakey goodness.
You can read all about the sweet new business at Wandering Over to Windham In Search of "A Cupcake For Later" on Main Street.
Good thing they weren't there back in 1976, I might have been late getting on that bus!

Five on Friday - The Dan Seals Version

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Reaching into the past a bit for Travis' Five on Friday meme this week, I thought I'd feature five songs from a man whose voice I always liked regardless of whether he was singing as the "England Dan" half of the soft rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley who were around from 1976 to 1980 or as himself when he launched a solo career in country music that netted him eleven Number One singles on the country charts. Not a bad accomplishment for a guy who always sounded more soft rock than he did country in my own humble opinion!

Sadly, Dan Seals contracted Mantle Cell Lymphoma which is one of the rarest of the non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas and died at the age of 61 following radiation treatments and a stem cell transplant. Though his time here on earth ended much too soon, Dan left behind some great music for people to continue to enjoy and I hope you'll do just that with the five songs below!

This, That, and The Other Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I seem to not be doing a very good job of managing my time once again so I've been very discombobulated when it comes to writing posts on a regular basis. Not that I worry about it very much like I used to back in the "heyday of blogging" when I darn near panicked if I didn't have a new post up every day. As much as I miss the old days of blogging and getting a good number of comments on a post, I sure don't miss that feeling of pressure and am now quite comfortable if I only get a new post up a couple of times a week and if I only get a few comments here and there well, that's okay also as I know that people lead busy lives.

Speaking of busy lives, this upcoming weekend is going to be a very busy one for me. I should probably point out that by "weekend" I mean batch of days off as I don't have normal weekends like other people but I do have regularly scheduled days off. After tomorrow's 16-hour shift I'm off for four days but Wednesday is going to be busy with a memorial mass for a friend's father followed by a visit with my mom before I come home to a lot of last minute stuff before I drive both girls up to the Boston area on Thursday where they will be going for Anime Boston. Jamie is going with friends from Franklin, Massachusetts so I'll drop her off first and then continue to take Amanda and a friend or two of hers to Quincy where they will meet up with more friends before heading into Boston on Friday. Truthfully I will be quite glad when this "con" is over as all of the preparations that both girls have been doing have been driving me nuts. Amanda is going to be selling things in Artist Alley so send good thoughts her way that her drawings and charms and other things are a hit!

Hopefully I'll get some stuff done around the house on Friday as Saturday I'll be heading to a small town north of here to do the photography at the wedding of a co-worker. My fingers are crossed for good weather as we're hoping to do pictures outside in a park in between the wedding service and the reception. This is only going to be my second full wedding so I sure hope I do a good job, the thought of messing up someone's pictures on their special day makes me a bit nervous! Afterward I'm sure I'll come home and try to do some photo-editing before I call it a day and get some sleep before Easter Sunday's 16-hour shift.

After working my way through Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I've got a couple days to fall back and regroup before I head north on Friday for Salem where I'l l be spending the weekend at a friend's house and doing a lot of running around in the Lexington/Concord area. Monday is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts when they celebrate the first battle of the American Revolution - which was actually April 19th but you know how the government loves to turn things into three-day weekends! - and they do their celebrations up big. I'll be visiting Concord and Lexington both to try to get some pictures of the various activities and re-enactments that will be going on. In between I'm looking forward to visiting with Walt and Juli again as well as meeting up with Rhonda whom I met when we were both judges at the Hawthorne Hotel Halloween Ball as she'll be up from New Jersey that weekend, too.

And in between all that I'm working on a post for The Distracted Wanderer about some of the local history here in Norwich for which I went out and took a lot of pictures last week. The picture at the top of this post was part of that photo jaunt and is from the Colonial Cemetery and Old Burying Ground. I shot it really quick as I was walking past to get to a historic home that I wanted to take some photos of but I liked the way it came out so thought I'd share it here. And I'm sure that me posting a picture of an old cemetery comes as no surprise to anyone, right?

So, that's my upcoming schedule - how are things looking in your part of the world?

The View From The Ivory Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The dispatch center that I work in is situated in a room that the road crews refer to as "The Ivory Tower" due to the fact that a) the building is white and b) the room is semi-circular in design. Makes sense, right? Even though we don't have windows that open, we do have a very big floor-to-ceiling window that looks out over the City of Norwich and sometimes affords us some pretty nice views.

I was clearing out files on myiPhone and it turns out that I had quite a few pictures that I'd taken from the window at work so not having too many other ideas for a blog post today I thought I'd go ahead and post the pictures that I had. Why not, right?

6-9-2011 @ 5:45 PM - there was a bit of a storm moving in when I took this one

10-18-2011 @ 6:55 AM - looking towards the Laurel Hill section of the city over the harbor

11-15-2011 @ 6:38 AM - another sunrise over Laurel Hill

11-28-2011 @ 4:36 PM - evening starts to fall over downtown Norwich

11-28-11 @ 4:30 PM - meanwhile on the other side of the building, the sky was golden as seen from my boss' window

12-27-2011 @ 6:52 AM - early morning in downtown

1-22-12 @ 7:50 AM - one of our few snow storms of the season; those snow-covered cars are at the Police Department

2-24-12 @ 7:43 AM - another rare storm and of course I'm working again!

3-29-12 @ 5:57 PM - the marina on a quiet March evening

Even if you don't have the view that we do from dispatch, wherever you may be today may your view be a spectacular one!

Five on Friday - The Working Version

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Arriving home late from work last night after 16 hours of overtime at the dispatch console, it dawned on me that I had yet to pick a theme for this week's edition of Travis' Five on Friday meme. As I kicked off my uniform boots the inspiration came to me - how about songs about working? Brilliant! A quick trip to Playlist.com and here you have it - five songs about working in one way or another with my personal favorite being "Money, Money, Money" by Abba followed closely by Kris Allen's "She Works Hard For the Money" - naturally! What's your favorite this week?

A Distracted Wandering Through Yosemite National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

It took me awhile - awhile being almost two months in this case - but I finally managed to get my post written about my impromptu trip to Yosemite with Katharine when I was in California this past February. If you've got a moment, stop by The Distracted Wanderer and take a visit with us.

And The Walls Come Tumbling Down ...

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:01:00 +0000

This past Saturday I went over to visit a friend who lives in the Laurel Hill section of Norwich not too far from the house where I lived for nine years before moving to my current humble abode three years ago. After being given the Five Cent Tour of her house and enjoying a glass of wine, she asked if I wanted to take a ride over to the former Norwich State Hospital grounds and get some pictures before the old buildings were gone completely. Having taken lots of pictures of the abandoned property in the past, I said "absolutely!" and off we went.

For those who aren't familiar with Norwich State Hospital just a quick bit of history for you from an old blog post of mine: The Norwich Hospital for the Insane opened in October of 1904 with one building on a parcel of land on the Thames River just south of Norwich. Renamed as Norwich State Hospital in 1926, by 1959 it sprawled over 900 acres with an average daily population of over 2,700 patients and close to 1,500 employees, over 800 of them being nurses. The peak of the hospital’s use was in 1955, when 3,186 patients were living on premises. In October of 1996, the Norwich State Hospital closed its doors and for the longest time no one was sure what was going to become of the property that the State of Connecticut left in such a hurry that they left behind furniture and paperwork and a lot of asbestos among other things.

The Town of Preston eventually took possession of the property and then the fight was on to try to decide what to do with it. Ideas came and ideas went and the once-beautiful buildings sat there neglected and rotting as it became a popular place for people to try to do some ghost-hunting in. As a matter of fact, the Ghost Hunters themselves came to town a couple of years ago and had the chance to film there. Personally, I think they did an absolutely horrible job with the show that they ended up airing as I think they could have done so much more but what do I know? I'm simply an amateur photographer and historian and love old architecture.

Anyhow, Preston has been working on cleaning up the grounds and tearing down a lot of the buildings and the place looks quite a bit different when I was there taking pictures in October of 2008 as I stayed on the legal side of the "No Trespassing" signs. I thought I'd post a couple pictures from then along with a similar picture of what it looks like now. Granted, I wasn't in the same place for the photos but I think it gives you a good idea of how much brush came down along with some of the buildings, too.

This is the former Administration Building with the Salmon Building (the male forensic unit) to the right. As you can see, things were a bit overgrown.

This is the current view of the former Administration Building with the the brush gone as well as parts of the Salmon Building which is in the process of being torn down. The Awl Building (the female forensic unit) to the right is coming down next. I've been told that there are plans to preserve the Administration Building and I sure hope so, they don't build them like that anymore and it would break my heart to see it subjected to a wrecking ball.

The Lippett Building was where lobotomies were performed back in the early days of mental health care when doctors were essentially grasping at straws as they tried to figure out how to care for the mentally ill.

The Lippett Building as it stands today with most of its vegetation cut down. Surprisingly it's not behind the chain link fence that so much of the rest of the grounds are but it's also slated for destruction soon.

So ... things are definitely changing down at the former NSH grounds but I've got to wonder what exactly it is that Preston hopes to change them to? It's really too bad that the state left the place in such a shambles as it would have been nice to see history - even the not-so-nice history of early mental health care in our country - preserved so that future generations could have seen how far we've come. Plus I'd be willing to bet that lots of people would have been happy to pay for a ticket to tour the grounds but alas, it's all just coming down in yet another attempt to bury the past and cover it with the future. What a shame.

Two For Tea

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

First off, please allow me to say that this post is in no way a compensated endorsement or advertisement for Adagio Teas; the thoughts expressed herein are strictly my own based on the fact that I love sharing great companies with terrific customer service with others who enjoy those same sorts of things, too!

I first heard about Adagio when Amanda received a gift from a friend in the form of a bag of peppermint tea that she absolutely loved. She had apparently mentioned to her friend that she liked peppermint tea and lo and behold, a box arrived on the doorstep! Isn't it great to have friends like that? Amanda always raved about what a great tasting tea it was but not being a big fan of peppermint, I probably wasn't paying real close attention to be perfectly honest!

Recently though I paid more attention when Caitlyn, my first cousin once removed who loves all things British and who is a major - and I do mean major! - Doctor Who and Sherlock fan, was offering her friends on Facebook $5 gift certificates for Adagio Teas where she had purchased the Watson Blend that she said was positively wonderful. Having become a bit of a fan of the show myself and fallen quite in love with Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) and Martin Freeman (John Watson) then boo-hoo'd quite a bit during Season 2's finale (The Reichenbach Fall), I decided that I simply had to try a cup of Watson myself and took Caitso up on her offer of a gift certificate.

Adagio offers all sorts of teas from black to chai to flavored to oolong to roibos and lots of others in between along with all sorts of blends that folks have put together. Additionally, should you not find a blend that you're looking for or that suits your fancy, you can create your own signature blend and if it turns out to be really good, others may very well order it and make it one of their favorites, too!

It was through the "create your own blend" that the Watson Blend was born having been thought up by a gal named Cara Mcgee. I have no idea who Cara is but I can tell you that she definitely knows how to blend her teas as in addition to ordering a bag of Watson Blend, I also purchased a bag of Tardis Blend as Amanda owns a Tardis mug that I got her when she was attending Montserrat and what better thing to drink from a Tardis mug than a Tardis Blend of tea?

I placed my order late Wednesday night for the two bags of tea shown above and had them in my possession Friday afternoon along with a nifty little gadget that I ordered called an "ingenuiTEA" which translated certainly must mean "brilliant device in which to brew your tea and not have to worry about spitting out leaves whilst drinking it" because that's exactly what it is!

Rather than fumble around trying to explain it myself, allow me to quote the Adagio Teas website as to what exactly an ingenuiTEA is/does:

"The most convenient teapot you will find anywhere - we guarantee it. When tea is ready, simply place it atop your cup. This will cause a valve at the bottom to release: crystal-clear tea flows down, while the mesh filter retains all the leaves with one of the best infusers on the market. Super easy to clean and dishwasher safe. You will wonder how you got along without one."

And indeed they are quite right, the gadget is absolutely brilliant and makes a truly wonderful cuppa tea! Or cups of tea depending on a) how big of a cup you like and b) what size ingenuiTEA you buy as they are available in both 16-ounce and 32-ounce sizes. I got the 16-ounce one myself as I figured there was no sense in going too crazy!

For my first try using my new gadget I decided to give the Watson Blend a go and after dropping a few teaspoons of leaves into the bottom of the ingenuiTEA and then filling it with boiling water, I closed the lid and then stood back and watched as leaves of Cinnamon, Irish Breakfast, and Earl Grey Green steeped together to make one very aromatic cup of comfort. Four to five minutes later I took one sip and knew that Caitso was right - Watson was delicious!

Amanda, of course, was anxious to try the Tardis Blend which was described as "tasting bigger inside the cup" which if you're not a Doctor Who fan and know nothing about the Tardis you won't get but trust me, to a Whovian it makes perfect sense! Made with Earl Grey Bravo, Blackberry, and Vanilla tea leaves, the Tardis Blend smells quite wonderful as soon as you open the bag and apparently tastes even better after it has brewed. However, when asked if she could tell me what the blend tastes like, the best Amanda could tell me was that "It smells really sweet but it isn't but it's really hard to describe which is fitting for a tea called Tardis and I really, really like it."

No doubt drinking a Tardis Blend from a Tardis mug adds to the whole tea-drinking experience!

The collage of pictures above is my attempt to show you how the ingenuiTEA works as well as proof that it works on square mugs just as well as round ones should you happen to own your own Tardis mug! As it turns out, the 16-ounce size was absolutely perfect as it gives Amanda a full cup of tea with each brewing - which of course means she doesn't have to share the leftover tea with me as there is none left over! It's almost like the ingenuiTEA was custom-built for the Tardis mug! Brilliant!

Oh, and when I received my order in an extremely fast manner, in addition to my tea and other things that I had ordered there was a lovely little note inside, too:

It's little things like that which make me think that a company has learned the fine art of customer appreciation and isn't afraid to practice it and that makes it a company that will get my return business again and again. The very reasonable shipping cost of a flat $3.75 for UPS Ground is pretty darned good, too and not cost prohibitive like a lot of other mail order places these days. Trust me, I will be ordering from Adagio Teas again, especially considering that the Mycroft Blend has been calling my name!

So, if I've sold you on a good company with a great product and excellent customer service and you've decided you'd like to give Adagio Teas a try yourself, I'd be happy to email you a $5 gift certificate good for your first purchase. Just leave me a comment saying you'd like one and if I've got your email address I'll send it right out; if I don't have your e-address, feel free to send it via the secure link in the right column up near the top of this blog and I'll make sure you get a gift certificate so that you too can enjoy a nice cuppa fresh and delicious tea whether you have a Tardis mug or not!

Who Are the People In Your Neighborhood?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

It was a gorgeous day yesterday so rather than spend it in the house, I decided that the Nikon and I were in need of a bit of fresh air and sunshine so we set out to take a walk around part of our neighborhood. I had wanted to get some pictures of the local magnolia tree while it was still in bloom and before all of its pretty petals were lying all over the sidewalk.

There we go - a semi-nice shot of the neighbor's tree!

From there I decided to head my feet in the direction of Yantic Cemetery which is just a short stroll in the opposite direction of the Dogwood and see how things were looking over there. As many times as I've walked around the cemetery, I still always find gravestones that I'd not noticed before and wonder about the lives of the people who are buried beneath them. As close as they are to my house, I've come to think of them as my very quiet neighbors.

This elaborately carved stone belongs to Austin Bliss and his wife Elizabeth Beckwith who was almost 4-1/2 years Austin's senior; obviously Austin liked older women! They both died on January 13th, 1892 though I have no idea how. Did they die in an accident or a fire or perhaps from some illness? I guess the one good thing about dying on the same day is that neither had to mourn the loss of the other.

This stone marks the grave of Caleb B. Rogers and his three wives - Harriet S. who died in 1847, Iduella T. who passed in 1849, and Eleanora H. who actually outlived Caleb by four years and died in 1875. I wonder how Eleanora felt about sharing the stone with the two wives that had died before her and being at the bottom of the list? Considering she outlived all of them, I'm thinking she didn't feel too badly about it!

Looking more like a church steeple than a gravestone, this is the Morgan Family plot. As cool of a grave markers as it is, it's not the only steeplesque onee though as there's another one right near it.

The other steeple-like stone belongs to the Williams Family but it doesn't say much more than that. Apparently they are neighbors who like to keep to themselves!

The Emmons Family obviously believed in the old adage "Good fences make good neighbors" even though I'm afraid their iron fence is starting to fall apart after all these years!

Meet the Carter Family - Sarah Elizabeth Davis who was the wife of Joseph Carter and her children, Sarah Elizabeth Carter who passed in 1901, Joseph Witter Carter who died in 1921, Josie Davis Carter who met her demise in 1935, and Hattie Louisa Carter who lived until 1944. I'm not exactly sure where Joseph Carter himself is buried though it seems odd that he's not with the rest of the family. One of the things I like about these stones, other than that there is an identical one for each member of the family, is that they all say "At Rest" at the very bottom of the inscription. I think it's a lovely sentiment.

Father, mother, and daughter share the Sheffield Family stone and what caught my eye here is mom's name - Adeliza Jayne. I think that's quite the lovely name even if it is a bit old-fashioned!

Not too far from the Sheffields are the Benjamins - Sidney Benjamin and I'm going to guess his wife Elizabeth who remarried after Benjamin's death as her name is listed as Elizabeth B. Benjamin Colyer. Benjamin was a member of the Connecticut Volunteers serving in Company C, Regiment 21 during the Civil War. Based on his date of death - May 7th, 1863 - I'm going to guess that he died during the war though I've obviously got no idea as to where and how.

Another family with ties to the Civil War are the McDavid Brothers whose stone is pictured above. James S. McDavid died on August 23rd, 1864 at the age of 17 years and 9 months while his brother George H. died on March 27th, 1871 when he was only 22 years and 5 months. As James was the older brother by 2 years, I'm going to guess that the flag at the grave is for him and tha he died as a result of the war at a very young age.

Corporal George W. Swain was a member of the Second Connecticut Infantry, Company B, and it looks like he's another neighbor who fought in the Civil War and never made it home alive again. Again, I wish there were more information on his stone but it's standard military issue and tells no tales I'm afraid.

Finally, this last stone belongs to the Jennings Family and upon closer inspection, it seems to tell a pretty sad story.

On one side of the stone is the inscription for William Jennings who was a member of the Connecticut Volunteers, Company K, 12th Regiment. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia on October 19th, 1864 and on November 9th of that same year, he died as a Prisoner of War at Salesbury Prison in North Carolina. He was 39 years old.

Depending on when William marched off to battle he either left no wife waiting at home and worrying about him or she passed on shortly after he left as his bride, Annie Coleman, died herself on December 16th, 1862 at the age of 33.

And just to make this marker even sadder, on the opposite side of his father's is the inscription for John Arhur Jennings who died on July 15th, 1857 at the age of 2 years and 28 days. They say that there is no greater loss than that of a child but when William Jennings answered the call to duty and fought with the Connecticut Volunteers, he was a man who had already lost his son and his wife both. I wonder if there was anyone to write him letters from home telling him that they missed him and wished him a safe return or if he was a man alone in the world? Did he join the war because he was a man with a broken heart or did he learn of Annie's passing in some distant camp far from his beloved? No doubt as he lay dying at the Confederate Prison in North Carolina, his thoughts were that he would be joining Annie and John Arthur soon and I'm sure that brought him a certain measure of comfort and peace. Or at least that's the story that I'm telling myself as to believe anything else would just really be too sad.

So those are just a few of my quiet neighbors who reside - nay repose - down the road from me. As you can tell, I have a soft spot in my heart for those who served and fought during America's Civil War and I only wish that I knew more of their stories as even though what simply remains now are inscribed pieces of stone, at one time those whose names are etched upon them were living and breathing people that had families and friends and neighbors of their own.

Five on Friday - The Linkin Park Version

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

For this week's Five on Friday - hosted for the past two+ years by Travis - I'm using five songs from the band Linkin Park, an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California that was formed in 1996. The band has sold over 50 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards - one in 2002 for their song "Crawling" which was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance and then again in 2006 for "Numb/Encore" (with Jay-Z) as Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Personally I like "Numb" just as it is minus the rapping part but whaddyawant, I'm old! That's not to say that there isn't some rap out there that I like but sometimes I just find the language a little too offensive even in this day and age.

I Could Use Your Opinions on a Dilemma Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:29:00 +0000

For the past few days I've been trying to decide whether to place a phone call or not and not having been able to make up my own mind, I thought I'd see what public opinion thinks. So ... here's my dilemma and I could really use your thoughts on this.

Back on March 7th I wrote and submitted an entry for "What's Your Connecticut Story?" which is being put on by Visit Connecticut , the official website for the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. You may remember all that from the post that I wrote here but if you're new to the blog, the gist of all this is that the contest is asking people to submit and share their favorite people, places, and experiences that make Connecticut special in a short story which I did when I wrote about my grandfather, my cousin, and a really fantastic rollercoaster at Lake Compounce. Once you submit your story, if you want to win the Grand Prize you need people to vote for it and so I have made sure that I've asked every day via Facebook and Twitter and word-of-mouth and email and all other methods of ~~nagging~~ cajoling possible to get people to register and vote which they've done.

When I first started the contest, the only way for people to be able to vote was to go to Visit Connecticut's website, register with a user name, wait for a verification email, and then go back to the website once it was received so that users could then log-in and vote. Once you went through the process you could vote once per day. There were a few hoops to jump through but people were nice enough to do it and I was getting a very respectable 20 to 30 votes per day and within about five days I moved into the lead. "Yay me!" - right?

So, what's the problem you ask? Well, on March 14th I noticed that there was a third place story that had literally come out of nowhere and was gaining ground fast on my own story. The story had originally been posted on February 22nd but I hadn't noticed it as it had been pretty far in the back of the pack but I sure noticed when all of a sudden it was gaining on my story and just two short days later it had caught up and passed my story by. On Facebook I lamented that perhaps I should have written about a deli rather than my grandfather and was a bit discouraged but then I decided that I wasn't going to go down without a fight so I mustered the troops and got friends to get their friends and family members to vote.

On Sunday evening, the 18th, I had finally gained some ground and caught back up to the first place story but just as I moved into first place again, I watched in amazement as all of a sudden my story had dropped back 5 ... 10 ... 15 ... 20 votes again all in the space of ten minutes! Now, I know you're going to think that I'm a bit obsessed but the reason I know this happened is because I kept hitting the refresh key and watching my story fall farther and farther behind in votes with each click. What in the blue hell was going on?!?

As I sat there trying to figure out what the heck had happened so quickly, another co-worker came in and offered to sign up and vote. When he signed up though, instead of a message being sent to his email for validation, he was able to just click on a story and vote once he had a user name and password - no validation was required. Huh? When had that changed? So then we tried something else and another co-worker registered to vote but he deliberately put in a made-up email address and sure enough, he was granted access to vote - with an email address that didn't even exist! I should mention that he didn't use the made-up name to vote as that wouldn't have been fair but it sure made us all wonder what the heck was going on and why the registration process had changed from needing a validated email address to be able to vote to just faking it and gaining access.

Feeling frustrated but resolved that I wasn't going to just throw up my hands and give up, when I woke up Monday morning I once again implored everyone on Facebook and Twitter to please vote to try to close the 20-vote gap and friends and family answered the call and voted throughout the day and we rallied to within just a few votes of the lead but then just like before, something happened and the lead story took off and gained a 28-vote lead between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m. Once again I thought it was downright odd and like something was really wrong but what was I going to be able to do about it?

Again last night, during the same time frame as Sunday evening, the lead story started racking up vote after vote until they were now 38 votes ahead. When I woke up this morning, in spite of the fact that some of my co-workers who do the overnight shift voted, I was a big 40 votes behind. Still not quite ready to admit defeat yet but seeing the Grand Prize getting further and further out of reach, I once again put a call out for votes before going into work for the day and even though the call was answered and it was a great response, as of this writing I am now still 37 votes behind again.

At this point all I can think is that something is going on in Westport and that somehow, this story that sat practically unnoticed since February 22nd either miraculously found a major following that casts huge amounts of votes each day - sometimes all at the same time - or that they found a way to manipulate the system and are cheating. Of course, I can't prove any of that and that is what has kept me from picking up the phone, calling the Department of Tourism and asking them what the heck is going on?? I came very close to doing so on Monday but then decided not to as I didn't want to come across like sour grapes that I was no longer in the lead as I'm sure that's how they would have taken it because again, I have no proof that anything shady is going on - just a very strong suspicion.

In my gut it sure feels like something is not right and I have become quite depressed about the whole thing. I entered this contest thinking that it was a great way to promote the State of Connecticut with the spirit of the contest being one of state or hometown pride but after reading a lot of the other entries it seems like it's become more a great way for people to ask for vacations (like this story here) or promote their own businesses (like this story here) and there was even one person who had submitted twelve different stories with links to her photo galleries which was clearly in violation of the rules that state there can only be one entry per person and that there should be no weblinks in the story either (though lots of stories contain them). I've noticed that her stories are gone - as they should be - but so should the ones that contain weblinks as they are in clear violation of the rules.

My complaint though isn't with them though other than the fact that they aren't following the rules (what can I say? I'm a rule stickler!) but with a story that I am now 53 votes behind as it managed to accumulate another 16 votes between this paragraph and the one above when I was 37 votes behind. (I spent a little more time doing screen refreshing and counted one more vote with every two refreshes until they were 53 ahead.)

So here's my dilemma - what do I do about this? Is there anything that I can do about this? Do I call the folks running the contest and ask if there is a way that they can investigate the voting without sounding like I'm whining because I'm in second place or do I just walk away and try not to let it bother me that someone possibly found a way around the system in order to win the Grand Prize?

This contest goes on until May 25th which is a darned long time for me to fret over this so I need to make up my mind and either admit defeat or try to do something about it but I just don't know if anyone is going to believe me when I tell them that I feel like something is rotten in Westport being that I have no proof other than what I just related here. At this point it's not just about losing the Grand Prize though that would have been nice - it's about fairness as I don't mind losing as long as I lose fair and square. I just don't like feeling like I - and the rest of the people who entered this contest as well as the State of Connecticut which the contest was promoting - were cheated. But right now, that's exactly how I feel and it's leaving a very sour taste in my mouth.