peril on a hot spring evening

I decided to start posting again so I could keep my younger siblings who are not on Facebook updated on my life. If they are amused and informed, that is plenty enough for me!

Well, people who know me know that I love weather and temperatures- all types, all extremes and everything in between. I love winter and snow and cold, I love summer and heat, love rain, rainstorms, gray skies, and blue skies too, etc. etc. For me the temperature range is as follows:  Below 20 is cold... 20-30 is chilly... 30-40 is cool.... warm is 40-90, and then above 90 it starts getting hot. I used to say, "I'm not cold, I'm Scandinavian!"  Until it struck me that I was (unintentionally) lying over and over, whereupon I considered my German and English heritage and switched the saying to, "I'm not cold, I'm AngloSaxon!"  (this reverberated into many other areas such that, "I'm not hurt, I'm AngloSaxon!"  "That doesn't bother me, I'm AngloSaxon!" .... but I digress, I guess)

My bedroom is the room I can totally control in this house, I mean in this chicken coop, and so I like to keep my windows open as long throughout the year as I can, and enjoy as much of the natural outdoor seasonal temperature and fresh air as possible. They might  be closed November through February. This year, as has become the latest fashion, spring has been basically non-existent, so we suddenly had a week of 90-degree weather in May and even though I was ecstatic, I realized I would have to do something because it is always a bit harder to sleep in hot weather. 

And we don't have the air conditioner installed yet because we don't have a drill.... We found this out after opening the new window air conditioner and figuring out how to install it while I was busy and Stacey was tired, and after I had got a huge splinter in my toe running out barefoot to hold the air conditioner in place from the outside while we attempted to maneuver it into the correct position only to find that- the screw holes were missing! After that I sat on my floor trying to pry out the splinter with a needle while Stacey chatted with the neighbors to find out when someone could come drill. It has been a long time since splinter digging started drawing blood and wreaking throbabble pain and so I was quite relieved to get it out.

After the failed installation, I remembered the brilliant idea of last summer where I propped up my box fan on my window ledge and on the ironing board so it could suck all the cool air of the night into the room and blow it all over. Aaaaahh! I was very happy. I can't take total credit for this though, it was inspired by the basic science behind my dad's construction which involved a huge fan on the attic stairs doing the same thing. Ahh fans, so much nostalgia around them, don't you find? Anyway, I was very proud of my homemade air-cooler and took a picture. With my snazzy phone of course. Telling myself, "I wasn't born yesterday!" and giggling proudly. See below for the picture.

5 seconds later I took a step backward and happened to glance down and see a grass stem on the floor, which I poked, only to find it was my needle which I had almost stepped on.

Sharon returns

So if I start this blog up again... will anybody read? or are blogs a thing of the past?

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 5

Well, after that exciting 4^th of July night, after which we tumbled out of the subway and into bed well after midnight, we slept in. Until 9am, at which time Housekeeping knocked on our door. What?! We were too shocked to respond… I mean what hotel would send Housekeeping around at 9 in the morning ever, let alone the morning after a holiday?! Well, it was pretty much time to get up anyway. We had a full day of Freedom Trail ahead of us.

So the Freedom Trail in Boston is: Follow the Red Brick Road along the Boston streets to visit historic landmarks! I’m serious, it is a two-brick wide red line, if it’s not in bricks then it’s in red paint on the concrete. It is a very handy way to find your way around central Boston. We visited the Park Street Church and the graveyard and the King’s Chapel graveyard (oh I was so excited about 2 graveyards in a row, especially with their beautiful headstones which tended to be a skull-shaped face between wings) and King’s Chapel and the Old State House, where we got to have a nifty little tour that explains exactly what probably happened during the Boston Massacre. We did get a little distracted on the way… once we stopped at a used bookstore where I bought 3 or 4 books for under $10, and then by the time we got to Faneuil Hall, it was closed for the day and Quincy Market was just across, and in the paved courtyard between, there was a street show going on – basically a guy who could climb a ladder without propping it against anything. Pretty neat! Then I really wanted to see Quincy Market so we walked through the ground-level floor. It’s really neat. You have to go to one such to understand, but it’s a lot of little shops selling everything from seafood to chocolate to candles under a roof, but it feels kind of like an open-air market, with a roof. So when we saw the ice cream and frozen yogurt, we decided we should get some, since we didn’t feel like taking time out for supper yet. Oh my goodness, I could get bogged down in all these boring details, let me move on… So since the rest of the sites along the Freedom Trail were closed for the day, we walked back and walked around the parks and saw the Ducks and fed the ducks in the pond – I did that is, peanut butter crackers, I had 7 little ducklings trading water right next to the edge of the pond to get the crumbs. Such fun! :)

And then let’s see… we walked around for a while looking for supper, then we finally, at the end of our footlife, stumbled into Uburger and got ourselves burgers, and went home and plopped into bed- I mean went back to the hotel and plopped.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 4

And it was MONDAY! A big day! Time to leave Connecticut, and visit Rhode Island, and arrive in Boston and see the fireworks!

We drove to Newport and only turned around once on the way... I think just once. Newport was of course quite busy as it was a beautiful sunny day, much like it was when I was there one year ago. We drove to Bellevue Avenue to visit one of the mansions - the Breakers. Oh my goodness. It's so magnificent in there. It's kind of hard to imagine living there (well for simple little me anyway) but especially hard to think of the difference in standard of living between the rich and the poor, which I realize still exists, I guess it just doesn't permeate society as visibly. Oh but excuse me, all those huge mansions weren't mansions really, they were just summer cottages for the folks who owned them. Anyway, the tour was very nifty because they gave us a little ipod-thingy and earphones, which we carried around with us and pressed Play every room or so to keep following the tour and hear the descriptions. Keeps down the ruckus of a building being toured, that is for sure. I think the most amazing thing to me was that the Vanderbilts built their tubs out of 1 piece of solid marble, which made the tubs so cold that they had to be filled and emptied with hot water several times before they were actually warm enough to get in. Excuse me but I think that's kind of a dumb luxury, but anyway.

We walked along part of the Cliff Walk which runs along the coastline right behind the mansions. Beautiful of course! The best part is where the sidewalk turns into a Rock Walk, huge rocks that are flat on top that you can step or hop along as you wish. There was a horrid smell in the air that we think was the stinky seaweed washed up on the beach. I mean that it wasn't stinky to begin with but it probably got left way up on the beach and started to get over-sunned or something... We did however brave the stench (ok, it was a stench to us but probably not that bad) to walk right down to the water and stand on rocks where the waves splashed over our feet - oh! such fun! :)

And then we were very hungry so we drove off to find Panera Bread, which was easy, and then we drove around for 30 minutes looking for free parking then for cheap parking then just for how to get into the public parking period... ! Revived with food, we set off in the car to drive around the southern bay coastline on the Ocean Drive. It's beautiful, you must do it if you go to Newport. We would've gone out on the rocks again except for the smell and also our allotted time was almost up, it was time to head out to Boston.

So a couple hours later we arrived in Boston and found our hotel and found that the door closest to our hotel room can only be gone out, not back in, which was slightly inconvenient but we survived. After getting unpacked and resting up just enough for my pain pill to start killing the headache, we took the hotel shuttle bus to the subway station--

--here let me just pause and say that Stacey was the brains behind our trip and planned everything from the hotels to how we would get around each city and what we'd see, we would have been sitting in our hotel room trying to figure things out on Monday night if it weren't for her, three cheers for Stacey!--

--and hopped on the subway to downtown Boston, then we just followed the crowds to find the Esplanade where the Boston Pops was playing and the fireworks would be shot off! We couldn't see the Pops playing but we could hear them, the sound was broadcast all over the Esplanade area (which is basically the area all along the riverbanks, I believe...), it was incredible music, and then we had to figure out where to stand so we could see the fireworks. THAT was a job! Like before, we played Sheep and just followed the crowds to where they were clustered, it was a spot where we could see pretty well between the leaves of the trees along the riverbank. We had to stand waiting a while and I was about ready to give up and die and sit down, when suddenly, ka-BOOM, there they were! They were fantastic fireworks! There was music playing at the same time and most of the fireworks matched well with the music, quite mesmerizing... and then the finale was all the fireworks you can imagine in the sky at one time, ka-POP, ka-POP, KA-BOOM! all over the place!

Afterward we followed the crowd to the subway and Stacey and I just managed to squish onto the first (I think) train back... one more person got on after us and oh my goodness, that was a little closer quarters than I've ever stood to anyone and I won't go into more detail but it was definitely some kind of experience!

And we got home, I mean back to the hotel, after riding in the back of the hotel shuttle on the floor (!) and tumbled into bed and slept so hard, it was just wonderful... and that's what I'm going to do now, good-night.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 3

Sunday morning dawned. S & S slept late and had a relaxing morning (oh my goodness, skipping church - well to our credit, we had tried to find a church, but neither the Internet nor the phonebook had any hours listed, hence as we weren't sure when to show up...), then set off for Gillette Castle! A castle in Connecticut, how exciting. It was cloudy and looked like rain.

As usual with every time we've gotten in the car to go somewhere on this trip, we did take a wrong turn and had to turn around, but otherwise it was a lovely drive up windy Connecticut mountain roads past other roads with lovely names. One was called Petticoat Lane and I told Stacey I would be so happy if one of my brothers ended up living on a road like that.

Gillette Castle is not strictly a castle but rather the castle-like mansion of a gentleman named William Gillette. It has towers and practically almost has a moat (without any water though) and secret doors for dramatic entrances or quick get-aways - from guests. The castle itself was quite fascinating but more so was the man himself. He was an actor and a play writer. Upon being introduced to the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote the first adaptations for the stage, and acted the part of Holmes himself, and he gave Holmes those characteristic bits that we've come to expect in depictions of Sherlock Holes - the hunter's cap, the pipe, the violin, the "Elementary, my dear fellow" (which was replaced with "my dear Watson" later). Also I was very sad to find out that his wife died a few years after their marriage and he promised never to remarry. Sad on both counts, I feel so badly that he would make such a promise, though I'm sure it's very noble and splendid and all that.

After exploring the castle bottom to top (the required order) we ventured out to explore the grounds, and Stacey was in the process of getting us good and lost out on the trails, when the sprinkles of rain started to become more insistent and we started to walk at a more insistently rapid pace to our car, which we reached just before getting quite soaked... We finally decided that was enough outdoors exploring and headed out to see what other adventures we could find.

On the atlas Stacey had discovered the Mystic Aquarium listed near New London on the coast, so as I'd never been to an aquarium, we went! It was pretty fascinating. I touched a shark and a stingray. YIKES! About the hardest thing I have ever made myself do! I highly recommend it, it's an intense sort of adrenaline rush!

Same day I had also found out that we had friends after all in Connecticut, which I'd forgotten! So we got directions on the phone and headed over to New Haven. It was very enjoyable to see Jon and Christine Potter again and they took us out for famous New Haven pizza (incredibly good, similar to NYC pizza but apparently with a flatter more-burnt crust), and took us on a little walking tour of Yale University and New Haven. We walked past 3 of the 4 secret society buildings. They don't have many windows or really look welcoming at all. In fact they're quite spooky to walk by at night. YIKES!

And after 3 towns in 1 day thus ended our tour of Connecticut which was quite a bit more extensive than we'd planned but very enjoyable.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 2

It was a long beautiful drive on Saturday, relatively uneventful. Our book-on-tape did quit working right at the most intriguing part in the story (where Darcy and Elizabeth are about to meet again), but, at that point we only had a couple more hours to go, no big deal.

But when we reached Berlin in Connecticut, the real fun began!

First, we got to our hotel and discovered that our room had just one bed, instead of the two beds clearly indicated on the reservation print-out. Oh well! They gave us a nice-sized cot to make amends (I'm sure I'll be sacked out on it shortly).

Next we got directions off the internet for a good place to eat, a Polish restaurant, and we had hopes of also finding a park in which to walk around after the long day of sitting. So we set off. We discovered very quickly that the roads here have long center rails which frequently block you from turning exactly where you need to, so you may need to drive a half-mile further and make a U-turn. You know these U-turns are legal once you get to a left turn lane that would take you straight into trees if you didn't use it for a U-turn. Also there are all kinds of street signs and only a few of them are the green ones up on the right-hand side or over the road. Some are white signs, some are white posts, and some are just plain non-existent. And the "No turn on red" signs are strategically placed down on the right where the driver can't possibly see them once he/she has pulled up to the light. But, I digress!! Back to the story.

So after looping around the same roads several times, we finally found our real road and headed happily down it. We went up and down it several times without discovering the Polish restaurant. Finally we found it - and discovered why no one had answered my phone call earlier to see if we needed a reservation - because it was closed tonight although neither the internet nor any signs on the restaurant indicated this at all. "But we're open tomorrow night" she assured us, so, we might try that tomorrow before leaving Connecticut.

Then we looped up and down the road looking for a park, but the only park was apparently a stadium park, not exactly what I'd envisioned, and a lot of the restaurant neighborhood felt inner-city anyway, so we didn't exactly feel like strolling around. I did realize later that we could have walked through the historic part of town. Note for next time!

Then we looped up and down the road looking for another restaurant, and finally Stacey saw a nice Italian one called P's (all names have been abbreviated to protect identity). It was very nice. They gave us a delightful green oil-based dipping sauce for the bread - I think it had garlic and green pepper seeds and green onions in it. Then we received our salads.

[intermission: Sharon visits the ladies' room and discovers that the toilet is not quite working, fixes it]

My salad had a little piece of plastic in it. I was momentarily shocked but got over it. Then we received our lovely plates of pasta. By this time we'd realized we weren't really hungry at all, but we managed to eat a little. It was definitely very yummy. Our waiter kindly offered to box up our food for us but we declined since we hadn't seen a fridge in our hotel room. I explained to him, "We don't have a refrigerator" but neglected to mention the hotel part. Hopefully he figured that out! He was a very good fellow. He even ran out after us with my sunglasses which I'd left on the seat. I suppose he never had such a pair of inexplicable blondes on his hands, poor guy!

We made it back to the hotel, to find a refrigerator.

I think that's all the failures I have to recount tonight - hotel failure, direction failure, park failure, 2 restaurant failures, appetite failure, etc. etc. ... but we did laugh LOTS! And we just can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Sharon's and Stacey's Great New England Adventure - Day 1

Friday morning dawned! It was the day to leave on the big trip East! Sharon and Stacey went to work that morning. They both pulled back into their drive at 12:30pm and loaded up the car and set out!

The first day's drive went well. Except for the fact that they missed one exit at Ft. Wayne and found themselves going back around the Loop headed West - that was clearly not right so they quickly corrected! At suppertime they arrived at their first destination, home of Hoyt family friends in Ohio. Had lots of yummy homemade food (including punch) and splendid company and laughter, especially when teaching their friends to play Dutch Blitz. Slept like logs and set out again the next day!

...to be continued...

The trip out East, Part 2

Let's see, where did we leave off? So I got to the hotel at 11:30pm. Took care of some business and made it to bed around 12:30am. Exhausted but could not sleep... I realized I had a long day of training the next day, and I would have to drive into downtown New York afterward, and here I was all very alone in a hotel room in New Jersey. But Calvin & Hobbes comics always save the day, I mean the night... I fell asleep reading them with the lamplight on full blast above me.

6:00am! Time to get up! Time to get ready! Time to eat breakfast and pack up all my stuff and - uh oh, I was supposed to be there in 15 minutes and I would still have to figure out the way and I just didn't think it was right to be late for something the company had paid me to attend, so I ran out the door without checking out of the hotel. It was gyp the hotel or gyp the trainers, what do you do? Hopefully it would be OK to come back and check out at 5pm.

Oops it was NOT as easy to get to the business destination as thought. Sure it was right down the street, but it was in a Center, which means you drive all over windy curvy roads past various Suites till you finally beyond all hope realize you're at your number. You get out and go in and go up the elevator in good faith, 'cause there aren't really any signs for the company you're looking for... <Bam> there it is on the glass door right in front of you. Yippee!

It wrapped up sooner than I expected. I left around 4pm. We were done at 3:30 and they had found out I was driving to New York that night so they said, "Go now and you'll be good!" But I don't like to be rushed. So I asked my questions and said good-bye and left, and found my way back to the hotel. And discovered my room key no longer worked. Surprise! I guess not, I told them 1 night. Two can play at this game, I thought, carrying my sack of casual clothes... I stopped in the hotel's public restroom to change and then checked out.

Well it was now around 4:30pm and they had said, "If you wait till 4:30, don't even bother trying to drive out until 6:30, you'll be on the road forever." I thought about the drive ahead. I was quite tired. I decided to be cool and stop off at a bookstore in the hotel neighborhood, spent some happy time browsing, finally at 5pm I couldn't take it any more, I just wanted to leave and didn't care about the traffic, so I bought myself a water bottle and some chocolate and headed out.

Oh my goodness, it was time for the great drive to New York! I turned on the GPS and typed in the address-- uhh--- OOPS! OH MY GOODNESS, it's time for the great drive to New York with Google directions because the GPS cannot locate Ben and Franci's perfectly legitimate NY address! Oh boy, this will be fun! And in heavy evening rush hour traffic! Of course I totally trusted my Google directions, more than the GPS by this time.

And off on Highway 1! Which is probably the first highway ever in the U.S., don't you think? How historic!

To be continued...

The trip out East, Part 1

It's time to tell the tale of the Great Trip Out East!

Actually it's not that epic, but it was quite fun and exciting in its own way.

Upon finding out that I would get to attend training for work in New Jersey on a Thursday, I immediately started planning to spend the weekend. Then I discovered it would be Memorial Day weekend! 6 days of adventure, counting the time to travel and even the training! I was very nearly besides myself, especially with having cousins out in New York and Pennsylvania that I would get to visit.

At 10:00am on a Wednesday morning, I happily drove away from work and off to the airport. It started pouring screaming rain. I almost stopped but then it got better. Then I almost stopped again, but then I thought, "Nah."

At the airport, the storm rolled in again and flights were canceled or delayed due to lightning strikes on the runway. Mine was one of them. So instead of hopping up to Detroit and over to Newark, New Jersey, I got onto a flight via Cincinnati. I was very excited about this because I already knew Detroit like the back of my hand from two previous business trips, but not Cincinnati (I'm talking about the airports of course... not the cities).

Unfortunately the flight changes meant I lost my two window seats, but life went on.

I also thought there was going to be a meal on the Cincinnati-Newark flight and there turned out to be nothing. So I was getting quite hungry.

Arrived in Newark around 8:30, just before dark. Too bad, I had planned to be there by 5:30 and have plenty of time to find places in the daylight. But no matter! I was armed with Google maps for every route I had to take, and imagine my ecstasy when the Avis guy told me that I could have a GPS with my rental car! Ecstasy mixed with trepidation that is. I was on a mission and collected my baggage and the car and drove off with a thirsty throat and an empty stomach. Humm.

The Avis guy had set the first destination for me, so I followed it... at first I was bad at following a GPS. New cities are always a bit tricky to navigate, too many turns to fast, and I just didn't believe the GPS in time to make the turn. After a few "recalculatings" in which I was trying to stay alive in non-interstate traffic, I got safely onto the great 95 N-S. I think it's 95... right? I'm not bothering looking it up just for this story, I prefer to rely on my nimble memory!

Once on the interstate I breathed a huge sigh of relief, found a radio station I liked, stopped at the first travel plaza I came across in order to get a nice bottle of water and a cheeseburger and emergency snacks. I was not willing to sit around and eat, so hopped back on the road and attempted to tear my cheeseburger into bite-size pieces with my right hand while driving, and eat it of course (can't really bite off sandwiches due to my braces). It worked pretty well, I don't think I got any ketchup on the seat, but then it was dark. They could really make cheeseburgers less slippery!

That drive went fine except I passed highway 1 which I'd thought my Google map would send me off on. Eventually the GPS took me off the highway on all kinds of weird roads, I nearly panicked until I saw signs for Princeton, finally! (which was my destination) .... until I ended up a neighborhood and the GPS said I was at my destination. Phooey! I don't think so! Stupid GPS! So I set off to find highway 1 myself, and did it with no problem. Unfortunately I probably turned east onto the highway just east of my hotel, 'cause after going 10 miles east, I stopped at a gas station and gave the GPS another shot, as it was now 10:30 and I was extremely exhausted... This time it worked. I arrived at the hotel and a very nice man checked me in and I found my room and was promptly awed by its plushness... I decided I'd better get a Super 8 next time to recalibrate my hotel meter!

High time to pause the story, all this talk of hotels is making me sleepy.

(I apologize in advance, I'm not proofreading anything)

To be continued...

The Chicken and the Duck

The chicken and the duck stood by the road.

"What is that?" asked the chicken.

"It's a road," said the duck.

"Let's cross it!" exclaimed the chicken.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said the duck.

"Why not?" asked the chicken.

"Because you might die!" said the duck.

"How do you know?" asked the chicken.

"Because, haven't you heard the jokes?" replied the duck.

"No, what jokes?" asked the chicken.

"The ones that go, 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' " answered the duck.

"Really? There are jokes about me? Cool!" said the chicken.

"Yeah, they're usually pretty funny," remarked the duck.

"So what's the answer to the joke?" asked the chicken.

"It depends, there are a lot of variations," explained the duck.

"So what's one variation?" asked the chicken.

"Ok, here's the original: 'To get to the other side.' " answered the duck.

The chicken and the duck looked at the road.

"That's funny!" laughed the chicken.

"Yeah I know!" agreed the duck.

"So how is that going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

"What?" asked the duck.

"How is crossing the road to get to the other side going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"Well, the joke is asking why the chicken crossed the road, in the past," answered the duck.

"So it's a historical joke, how is that fatal?" asked the chicken.

"Because it's in the past, and it never says the chicken got to the other side," explained the duck.

The chicken looked at the road.

"But that's not the point of the joke," said the chicken.

"What's the point?" asked the duck.

"The point is the reason why the chicken crossed the road," said the chicken.

"I know," said the duck.

"So how is that going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

"What?" asked the duck.

"How is my reason for crossing the road going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"Because the reason goes in the obituary," said the duck.

"Whose obituary?" asked the chicken.

"The chicken's," answered the duck.

"The chicken died?" gasped the chicken.

"Yes," said the duck.

"How did the chicken die again?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"I don't know, probably a car hit it," said the duck.

The chicken looked at the duck.

"Well, that's easy. I'll just look both ways," said the chicken.

"Are you going to cross the road?" asked the duck.

"Yes!" replied the chicken.

"Wait!" said the duck.

"What?" asked the chicken.

"Why?" asked the duck.

"Why what?" asked the chicken.

"Why are you going to cross the road?" asked the duck.

The chicken looked at the road.

"Well if I don't tell you, maybe I won't die," said the chicken.

The duck looked at the chicken.

The chicken looked at the road.

The chicken looked both ways.

The chicken stepped into the road.

......

Back

So: if I resurrect this blog, do you think anyone will read it?

The answer is: Ha! Who cares? It's enough just having a green place to write!

Phone Talk

---I almost forgot to put this on the blog! from several weeks ago---

I just love conference calls, because they mean talking to people, and people are so much fun! This afternoon I had a nice conversation with New Jersey, here is how it started...

Sharon: Hi!

NJ 1: Hello Sharon, how are you?

Sharon: Good, how are you guys doing?

NJ 1: Good! How are you on this Friday afternoon?

Sharon: I'm good, hey guess what?! It's snowing here!

NJ:

NJ 1: It's snowing? Sharon, where are you located?

Sharon: In northern Indiana.

NJ 1: Oh!

NJ 2: Actually I think there is one county in New Jersey that has a chance of getting snow tonight.

Sharon: Ohh, how exciting for you guys.

NJ:

NJ 2: Not really!

NJ 1: Sharon, do you like the snow?

Sharon: Oh yes, I love snow, I love driving in it!

NJ:

NJ 2: Definitely not my favorite part! It shouldn't be snowing for another month and a half - there should be a regulation for it.

NJ 1: I like snow on Christmas, for the holidays.

Wrists are precious

The title is the moral of the story. I believe in starting with the moral.

We went to our big Hoyt reunion in Texas. When we have our reunions in Texas, we usually hang out at the big church gym. When we hang out at the gym, we do fun things like line tag and dancing and volleyball and relay races. It was Monday morning, first official day of the reunion, high time for relay races.

Relays - not just for running! We usually run the first one just to warm up. Then it's hopping, skipping, chicken walk, bear crawl, crab walk, leapfrog -- any momentum movement you can imagine, we do. You always get lots of laughs and great pictures and find all kinds of new muscles to be sore.

Well, we got through all the relays and the very last one was running again. Our teams were pretty closely matched (about 15 cousins on each side). So I gave it my all for my team! I sprinted down the track and tore back as fast as I could. We had been clearing the wall for incoming runners, so I figured, "Hey, I'm not slowing down, I'm gonna hit that wall running". The only problems with this plan: 1) the wall was 3 feet from the end of the track; 2) I didn't take physics. Mad dash! - throw out hands with wrists at 90 degree angles - SMACK. OUCH.

Thankfully, the left wrist was severely injured but the right only mildly sprained. Useable enough to get through the week. It was a very restful week. Did still manage to play Hunt the Gray Wolf and dance a little with my gentle cousins. Drove home - very proud of that.

In Texas the clinic x-rayed and said it was a possible fracture, treat it like one. I was hoping for closure in Indiana, homeland of orthopaedic doctors, but no such luck. But they did assure me I couldn't move the bone or break it worse (I guess barring throwing myself down on cement). So instead of a cast I opted for this nifty black splint. It's so much fun to wear that it's almost worth everything endured up to this point. You should get one and try it! But don't mess with your wrists to do it, please. Wrists are precious. You have no idea until you lose them.

Walking giggles

OK, a new post has been requested. Till I get a real one, here's what happened the other week when I was out on a walk:

[As Sharon walks past guy biking who stopped to take a drink...]

Guy: Hi, want a drink?
Sharon: No thank you.
Guy: I have clean lips, believe it or not.
Sharon: I believe you.

[... keeps walking, finally gets far enough to laugh convulsively]

Knock-Knock Joke... Not

This is a joke between Sharon (Company Director) and IDOR (Indiana Department Of Revenue).

Sharon: Knock knock.

IDOR: Who's there?

Sharon: Business owner.

IDOR: Business owner who?

Sharon: Business owner Sharon who wants to pay her company's June estimated taxes, please.

IDOR: Nice try. Sorry, not funny enough to let you in. [displays Error 404]

Sharon: Hey! You're not supposed to reject Line 5 of a knock-knock joke!

IDOR: Too bad, you already lost the joke, because you have the wrong site.

Sharon: But this was the first search result from Google!

IDOR: Well Google forgot to update.

Sharon: [mutters to herself] OK fine, let's see where I can get by smart-typing a URL into Chrome.

IN.GOV: [puts up fancy graphic] This is our official Indiana Government site, wasn't it worth the detour to see our beauty?

Sharon: Look at you, aren't you gorgeous. Let's try "Taxes and Finance".

IDOR: Oh. You found us. As you can see by the fancy graphic that is still on the screen, this is the new improved Indiana DOR site.

Sharon: Now what on earth was the estimated payment under... let's try "Individual Income Tax Return Filing Options".

IDOR: See, now the fancy graphic is gone, but you can tell you're still on our new site, because that URL which you actually had mostly right, now has a nifty random number tacked on the end.

Sharon: [ignoring IDOR] Humm... "I-File" -- nope, that's the annual shebang filing... "Federal/State Electronic Filing Program" -- nope, that's for tax professionals...
"How do Hoosiers feel about electronic filing?" -- well, I would say they despise the system right now...

IDOR: You're pathetic. Can't even navigate our "fast, friendly and free online filing tool."

Sharon: Oh go away... maybe I'll go away... wait a minute, "Information for Business Taxpayers", obviously.

IDOR: Sure. Here are 20 options.

Sharon: Thanks, except none of them are right.

IDOR: That's OK. I've got all night for you to search me.

Sharon: You jerk. Fine. I'm just going to use the Search tool then. [types] "estimated taxes"

IDOR: Wait. No. That's too easy.

Sharon: Let's see, how about "ePay DOR" --> "Individual Tax" --> "Individual Estimated Payment".... I win.

IDOR: Not yet. I still have more dead-end options.

Sharon: Too late. I see it - "Begin using ePay". I win!

IDOR: Just wait till we finish remodeling our site and get the new doors on. Then we can have another Knock-Knock joke.

Sharon: I can't wait. At least I win till September.

A Midwesterner in Massachusetts, Part 2

Back to Massachusetts for Part 2...

We nearly forgot about lunch! I stepped out of the tourist shop to find Panera Bread waiting for me. It was a clear sign from God, and it was way past time to eat. I got a sandwich with turkey, cheese and avocado. No no wait, it was artichoke. I knew it was something exotic and green. Very yummy, of course it was huge so I ate half of it and bagged the rest for supper.

Back at the free parking lot, I looked for a way out and was dismayed to find the exit passed by a toll gate. Except, there was no one in the booth and no gate lowered. So I crept up (in the Toyota I mean), looked around for cops, finally convinced myself that the sign had, indeed, said "Free Parking", and pulled out as unobtrusively as possibly. At that moment, I swear a warning beeping started. It wasn't coming from the toll gate, but I got out of there quick. Within range of the speed limit of course.

The scenic drive was a slow start. There were LOTS of pedestrians walking Thames Street. I was a little sorry to be in the car at first, but it was sunny, I rolled the window down, and the breezy breezes beckoned from places away by the bay.

Once you get to the edge of Newport, you turn right, onto Wellington Avenue, past Newport Harbor and onto the little peninsula that juts out into Narragansett Bay. This is the Scenic Ocean Drive. (So it's not quite the ocean... ) You wend your way along the loveliest windy roads through beautiful hills and slopes and orchards and wall-circled properties. For about the second time in my life I was driving under the speed limit and content to do so, trying to take everything in.

When you get around to the southern tip of the peninsula (farthest from town) you suddenly find that you are driving right next to the bay! And suddenly there are lots of cars parked up to your left, and people out on the wall or down by the bay or flying kites, and you'd gladly join them, but for the life of you, you seem to have missed the only entrance to the parking area and you drive on and on for a half-mile of torture till finally there's one last entrance to parking before it ENDS, forever. Whew that was close.

There were really-truly rocks down by the water! There was some sign warning people about climbing on the rocks but plenty of people were down there, so I set right out to explore. I think maybe I clambered out a little farther than the other people. Found out pretty quick that wave-splashed licheny rocks are awfully slippery. When you get down into a crevice among the rocks where you can't see anyone else, and a big wave comes sloshing in - wheee! - it feels like being in Neverland! Which part of the Peter Pan story, I'm not sure.

Got my fill of staring at the bay, of clambering over big rocks, little rocks, flat ones and slidey ones piled in some kind of beach. And then I stooped down and saw that a lot of those little rocks were actually shells! Immediately filled my pockets for the kids back home.

Quite a few people were flying kites in the open field behind the parking area. One of the kites was incredible. It was like a two-winged bird, and the kite-flyer had two handholds on separate strings they could use to pull it down one way, then another, only it looked more like a roller coaster ride because the wind was so strong that the kite tugged back for every tug of theirs, they could lean back at a 45-degree angle!

On with the drive. Wellington Avenue had long since turned into Halidon Avenue, into Harrison Avenue, into Ridge Road, into... humm... maybe after that they ran out of Avenue names and just call it Scenic Ocean Drive. Once you get to the southeast corner of the peninsula, you start passing some very decided mansions and their fine lawns. For a minute I tried imagining I lived here, that this was my neighborhood, and some afternoon I might run out to see my friends up at one of the other mansions.

If you go to Newport, you have to go on the Cliff Walk. This is on the east side of the peninsula. You turn off the Scenic Ocean Drive onto Bellevue Avenue. I'm pretty sure this is a famous street. Anyway, it would be incredible to walk down. Tree-lined, side-walked, huge-mansioned avenue. Well, at some point, when it feels right, or maybe when you see the sign for the Forty Steps, turn right AGAIN and cut straight back till you see open sky between the trees. Park somewhere along the street and walk down till you see the bay. The Forty Steps are a steep rock stairway down to a ledge overlooking the bay. I forget their significance. Or you can head off in either direction on the Cliff Walk - yes, it's a walkway along the "cliff", bay on one side and mansions on the other. So lovely. You can get your lungs very full of fresh, open-water air. And you may very well pass people talking in French or German or British English or some other language...

My goodness, this is sounding way too much like a tourist guidebook. Let's get back to the story.

It was now approaching 5 p.m. and someone was getting very decently worn out, and decided to start the hour's trek to Raynham and the hotel. First she had to get out of Newport. This was not easy. Tourist towns are never easy. And frankly, Eastern roads are royally difficult. I think I gave the Eastern drivers a couple of good surprises: "But how does she not realize that the left lane is allowed to become a turn-only lane with absolutely no warning? Don't they drive by sheer Road Instinct in other parts of the country?" Yes, it was very fun. Somehow, eventually, I escaped Newport.

I know I'm not the most brilliant with directions, but this time my sense of time and space got way off. Once back in Providence, I knew I had about 45 minutes to drive to Raynham. But by the time I thought I had navigated the first half of Mapquest directions and had 10 miles left, I was just leaving Providence. Mapquest told me about 10 times to take this or that slight turn onto this or that street... finally I realized this just meant "Stay on 44 East" and after that it was a piece of cake.

How lovely to reach the hotel and crash! The hotel was way too easy to find. Next thing to right off the highway.

I guess most hotel rooms have two beds, but I just could not believe it when I stepped into the room and realized this was all for me. Yikes. I was ecstatic to find that my room did, indeed, have an iron and an ironing board!

I went to scope out the neighborhood. WalMart was right across from the hotel. The DePuy facility was down the very same drive as the hotel and WalMart. This all sounds delightfully handy, except, here's the quaint part: this drive was divided. So the only way I could get to WalMart was to... well, to be honest, I no longer remember what convoluted turns and turn-arounds I had to do. I do recall that the very last day, when I returned to the hotel before heading out, I suddenly figured out how to do it, and wanted to beat the steering wheel and scream with laughter, or maybe hysteria. But, at least driving to DePuy in the morning would be easy.

Lights out on Part 2, as Sharon happily irons out her travel-wrinkled clothes for the big day tomorrow.

A Midwesterner in Massachusetts, Part 1

First of all, that's how you spell Massachusetts.

Secondly, I promise I'll finish this story. But you know I can't sit down and type up the whole story at one sitting.... that's something a brilliant writer would do, not me.

Once upon a Friday, at work, they asked me how I felt about travelling. Duh... Would I like to take a business trip? Heck yes! However, I did try to talk them out of it. I didn't feel the trip was necessary. But no such success. There you go, Sharon , off to Raynham Massachusetts with you!

So, one week later, I went home on a Friday, to pack on a Saturday, and leave early Sunday morning. With business planned for Monday through Wednesday, I figured I could sightsee on Sunday without adding an extra hotel night.

Sunday morning, out the door at 5 a.m. I was scared stiff my car would break down on the way. Not because there was much chance, just because I couldn't help thinking about that slim chance. You know, for my brother's first flight, I drove him to the airport (4 hours into my 8-hour drive), except we developed a flat tire on the way and he barely walked into O'Hare as they were boarding his flight. Needless to say, it was a slight nightmare, one that sticks with you for future travels. But no such excitement this time. I reached the airport, only turned around twice before getting into the right parking lot, locked and left my car without even kissing it goodbye.

I ask you, is there anything more fun for a little blond girl, than hopping on a flight with your black coat and laptop bag, just like the businessmen. Which reminds me that I didn't see many businesswomen travelling. Actually, come to think of it -- none at all! What's up with that?

Fort Wayne to Detroit is barely a half-hour flight. No sooner are you settled in a horizontal flight pattern, than they're beeping at you to prepare for landing.

When we flew into Providence, Rhode Island, I was exhausted, awfully hungry and quite thirsty. But the first thing to do was pick up that rental car. I had told them I drive a Honda Civic and they said they had a comparable car, a mid-size. The rental guy points it out to me with some difficulty - it's that white one 4 cars down. WHAT??! What is this huge white space shuttle? So that's a Toyota Matrix, huh? So maybe it wasn't so huge, but felt like it after my no-frills Civic. Everything became all right when I turned the key in the ignition and felt it glide smoothly and silently under me, out of the lot... I suddenly thrilled and realized it was going to be an incredibly fun business trip.

Right out of the Providence airport, you jump onto Interstate 95 and head out of Providence. North takes you to Massachusetts and Boston. South takes you to New York... eventually... and Newport. I headed south because my Raynham colleagues had recommended Newport for a day's visit. All I knew about Newport was that it was supposed to be a scenic city out by the ocean, and home to some of those fantastically rich mansions.

Unfortunately, 95 got me out of town so fast that there was no place to get a drink or some food. These small trials are nothing to a dedicated traveler. Make the most of every moment, get on your road, and trust that you'll find something on the way, hopefully before you pass out. Also, it's easy to forget about food and drink when you're driving down a beautiful curvy highway on a sunny day and start seeing signs for all those towns you only read about in your early American history textbooks.

Beautiful huge bridges! I crossed one and started seeing signs for Jamestown. Then I saw there was a toll bridge on the road to Newport. Recalling that I had no cash on me (dumb), I delayed that problem and headed down the road to historic Jamestown. Very delightful to drive into town, past the harbor, along the quaint roads! Very delightful, but I finally realized that there was no back road to Newport, given that it was across the bay... the road to my planned Sunday sightseeing lay over that huge toll bridge.

Well, I thought, let's give it a try. Maybe it's not one of those ridiculously expensive Eastern tolls, and my $1.something will somehow be enough to get me across, and then I'm not sure how I'll get back but we'll figure that out later.

Well it was not cheap, it was $5, which I most certainly did not have, not even in quarters, and no, the lady said they didn't take credit cards. But she did tell me that since I had a rental, there was an automatic EZ-pass option which I could use, might just cost me a couple extra bucks when I returned the car. This was a timely surprise! I zipped on over the huge bridge over the bay to Newport.

First gas station I saw, stopped, got two bottles, water and Cappucino to stay alive.

After some twisty driving which left me a little perplexed regarding how the city planner had done his job... I finally ended up at the Visiting Center and found free parking and decided I'd be a regular tourist and ask what to see. There were lots of lovely streets and shops to stroll around and see, but let's face it, that's more fun with company than by oneself.

Never feel bad about asking questions, especially in a new town. I hit the jackpot - got a map, was told that having a car was perfect, was instructed how I could drive all around the edge of town jutting into the bay to see the scenic parts, and there would be places to get out and go down by the shore! Yippee!! For a Midwestern girl, one of the highest joys of a trip East is to see Water.

So I had a plan, water, caffeine, and now it was time to stroll around on a hunt for food. First I felt impelled to visit a tourist shop: Only in Rhode Island. I looked through a book with pictures of the Newport mansions. Yikes. First you feel awe, then you feel a sudden brief intense bent toward communism, then you wonder what kinds of people live in mansions like that, and does it change their personality or character or morals or worldview at all?

And that's all for today's storytelling.

Another Let's-pretend-we're-IT Night

Ha ha ha ha! I figured it out all by myself. How to take a horizontal full-size picture and edit it to exactly the desired size for a blog profile photo, and all without leaving any annoying black, gray, or white stretches where it was "re-sized".

It's these little joys that make you fall asleep with a smile on your face!

About a screw or two

I'd like to introduce a new acronym, by way of a brief boring story. The acronym is NVCAA, and it stands for Not Very Cute At All. Now, to illustrate this acronym's use... if there's one thing about my Civic that's just Not Very Cute At All, it would be the air filter screws. Here's the story.

My car needed a new air filter. So, one day when I finally remembered, I stopped by NAPA and picked up a nice dandy new one.

Now after my dad's demo, I knew that changing the air filter would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, if you work during winter, there's usually not much light left outside work hours to do your car maintenance. So that's when you borrow a friend's handy lantern and handy screwdriver set, go out in the cold wind and pop your hood to do the job in the dark. By the way, this screwdriver is one of those one-size-fits-all - one "driver" with a nice selection of screw "heads" you can pop in, depending on what type you need. This is an important detail in the story, so please take note.

I got two screws nicely loosened, only to find that the third was, yes, nicely rusted and the screwhead rapidly losing its distinct insignia. So I screwed 'em all back down with rapidly numbing fingers.

At my dad's suggestion, next day after work I bought some WD-40. Yes, I did find it all by myself in WalMart, thanks for asking!

Enter Saturday. Sharon applies WD-40 before taking a walk. Returns from walk to happily set about unscrewing all three screws, including the third now de-rusted one, which doesn't take to the screwdriver well but cooperates with pliers.

Time to pull off the air filter, except, it doesn't pull off. Darkness is now descending. Thoroughly puzzled, I dash off to fetch the lantern and discover a fourth screw, and yep, this one is nicely rusted too. Dash off to fetch the WD-40. Apply liberally. Sigh. Remove all the tools, take a last look around to make sure I've got 'em all before dumping the hood. Oh wait! Maybe I should screw down the air filter again, since I'm obviously not going to get this done today. So I twist 'n screw down two of them. I reposition for the third, only to find that the eject-able Phillips screw head has quite disappeared, without even a clatter. I hunt around, no success. Find the next-sized Phillips and finish the job.

Sunday morning dawns very wet and muddy, and daylight does not reveal the missing screwdriver head. And so, I drove off to church, wondering if that piece of metal was sitting under my hood somewhere - if it would melt, or maybe get lodged in the engine and explode my car. Unlikely, but these are the things that keep me up at night and keep me alert on the road.

To be continued... But hopefully that's enough to illustrate why air filter screws are NVCAA.

How did it come to this?

How did the world move on from blogging? That is, blogging in the sense of individuals blogging as a means of communicating to their family and friends.

The only ones who have survived are the entertaining writers, like my mother. Her blog will never die as long as the Internet lasts to host it!

And the only other ones are the stubborn ones, like me, who don't necessarily write anything worth keeping a blog for sharing, but who hang onto their blogs just the same, maybe because they're second-oldest children and they have that instinct to... umm... to be stubborn.

Facebook versus blogs. Humm. I refuse to say anything that people will shoot down with sniper fire. Facebook is a different landscape than blogging. It seems much more adapted to communication. You can post your immediate thought... you can ask a friend a question... you can invite people here or send them to read that... you can have the nearest thing to a live chat that isn't. A blog is more static. Where you think about what you want to say, you say as little or as much as you like, but regardless, you're making a post out of it, a post that will sit there for at least a day if not for weeks (that's for you blogging slackers) before it gets replaced by anything else. It doesn't zoom down a home page till it's buried beneath a kajillion other thoughts within two hours.

Well, I need to go do the dishes. Some things in life haven't changed hardly one degree in one hundred years.