Halloween

Tomorrow.  Halloween.  Was never one of my favorite holidays.  When I was a kid, we didn't have halloween in Germany.  And when I came to the States, I thought it was strange.   Of course I celebrated it with the kids, walked with them in the neighborhood, ate their candy, once they were asleep (like you didn't know!).  But I was never crazy about it. 

I love Thanksgiving!  I wish I could have it at my house every year, but I have to share.  And with some of the parents not being able to get around so well, my house is not the easiest to get in and out of.  And it's small. 
Twice we went to the Thanksgivings Day Parade in New York, it is easier to watch at home, though.  One year I went with my friend and her Dad and my kids opted to stay home and cook Thanksgiving Dinner.  No, they said, we'll stay home, you go and have a good time!

No clue where Thanksgiving will be this year.

I will be walking with the grandchildren and their parents tomorrow,going trick-or-treating, in a nice neighborhood with lots of houses close together, and every house will be decorated and have someone give out candy.  That part of it is fun.

On Sunday I will watch the kids again, their folks are going to see the President speak.  I have no clue where yet (and I'm not going, so no worries), and when.  They'll tell me when I will be getting the kids!

Exciting stuff.  I'll go next time for sure!

Daycare

Yesterday I picked Jackson  up at day care.  He was funny.  Gave me a big smile, but continued playing.  When I said 'let's go home', he answered 'mommy'.  No, I said, I'm taking you home.  Let's go!  I started to get his things together.  A little two-year old girl knew where his things were and pointed it out. 
Finally he was ready.  Off he went, when he is ready to go, he runs. 
We met his mother at Joann Fabric.  Where he loved it.  running up and down the shelves with the quilt material and pushing the signs in front of the shelves back and forth.  He could have done that for hours.

We had steak at the house, white acorn squash baked with butter and maple syrup, and rice with peas.  Delicious!  And I got a hug and a wet kiss when I left to go home.

Love letter to a newspaper

I have to share something:  I love the New York Times!  I love reading it on-line, I love that I don't have to recycle (which is the reason I gave up getting papers years ago), I love the way they write, I love their excellence in reporting, I love their photography - most of the time, I do wish they used more and bigger photos, but it's all right.  I love their editorials, I love the tech pages, I look forward every Sunday to the  weddings page with the high lighted story about the couple, which isn't always brand-new, sometimes with a long and twisted way to finding each other.

Newspapers are dying left and right.  I'm sort of surprised that the papers are complaining about their decline.  Isn't the drive to live more cleanly, use less resources, make everything more efficient?  Well, getting rid of all the printed matter, the trees being felled for paper, the ink, the delivery of paper, it all uses enormous resources.  And the Internet is faster and cleaner.  What's the problem? 
Like I said, I gave up newspapers years ago.  When I figured out that the one that the only one who recycles in a household is the housewife, and no one else bundled the papers, and lugged them out front, I had had it. 

Anyway, I should say, I like newspapers on-line.  Not the pick-up-in-your-driveway kind. 

And on top of the on-line papers is The New York Times

Industrial tour

I got home after a typical drive on the Merritt Parkway. It  was a fabulous weekend, I enjoyed my industrial tour immensely, and I would do it again at the drop of a hat.  This time I would be prepared for the length of the tour and bring a snack!

Really amazing, one forgets that New England isn't all maple syrup and colorful leaves and quaint little villages with white churches.  It has a hard and long history, with factories, child labor, long hours, craftsmen who knew how to make and fix machines, and the sort of first computer or forerunner of the computer with a binary code - anyone know without looking?

And I bet not a lot of people know that working with cotton is a really dirty job and that people got as sick from it as someone working in a mine, instead of black lung they ended up with white lung.
And we saw Eli Whitney's invention and could even try it out.

This is Teddy and Linda's house in CT

the Slater Mill, this is the building the museum houses the different machines

The Blackstone River with the dam, a steady power source

one of the thead machines a child would have worked on

Teddy and Miss Vickie

Teddy in the in the machinists room

one of the machines which made braid for shoe laces

Teddy next to the Slater Mill

More tomorrow!

Pawtucket

Rhode Island, is where we ended up.  At the cradle of the industrial revolution, for real. 
We chose to do the Black River Tour, which is a scenic route from Providence to - I forget, somewhere in Massachusetts.  We stopped in Pawtucket at the visitor's center, and never got any further.  The young lady who led our tour made it so interesting, and was so personally engaged in the subject, that our tour took 3 hours. 
We started at the Slater Mill in Pawtucket, with the little red house Mr. Slater first lived in when he moved from England to the States.  Typical colonial style house, with the herb garden, etc.  I got to try an old weaving loom, and I spun a few strands of linen.  She demonstrated how the linen/flax was grown, and then threshed to get to the silky strands.
We then moved right to the mill, with a water wheel, which was turned on, and sounded like church bell.
And then she was off - leading us through the exhibit, turning on machines, showing us samples, a just amazing and thorough tour.
And I will post pictures and tell more about it.
Now Linda is getting up, and we're getting ready for breakfast.

The day looks calm after yesterday's rain, and I'll have to grab the camera and take more photos of the lake.