click, quick!

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Every so often I see something with that upsweeping bold cursive type, like Coca-Cola uses, and I remember a detail of our somewhat-recent trip to Look Park in Northampton. As we were coming into town past a cemetery, I idly eyed the stones as we went by. One of them, instead of the usual sober chiseling of the name, had exactly that sort of lettering. Of course, my camera was in my hand, but I had switched it off a moment before, so on the way back, I was watching like a hawk for the stone to come into view again. When we got to it, I carefully judged the moment, clicked the shutter, and was rewarded with the response, "Oh, did you say 'click'? I thought you said, uhmm, 'crick.'"

But it's not going anywhere. On some other trip, I'll get it. This isn't like the memorable shot-that-got-away of the truck sitting in the setting -- just framed, nothing else -- of a future garage, where the truck won't ever be there again, and they finish the garage, and that's that. The stone will be there.

It's kind of a cool idea, actually. Instead of a name on your stone, you put a logo. I'll have to think about it.
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can't... resist...

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Today, I have something for everyone! Do you like Peter Cook? Check! Do you like Dudley Moore? Gotcha! Do you like Gerry Anderson productions like Thunderbirds and Stingray? Yo! Do you dislike Gerry Anderson productions like Thunderbirds and Stingray? F.A.B.!

Here are Peter and Dudley demolishing the franchise:
SUPERTHUNDERSTINGCAR IS GO!!

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Thanks to Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew.
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water week

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Sarah and I went out today for the biscuit. Today it was an actual biscuit, at an actual McDonald's, just like old times, because the plan wouldn't include the Children's Museum, and I wanted Sarah to have the chance to clamber and slide in the Play Place. Which she did, once, but then she decided it was too hot. After some determined bugs got their footy-prints all over my scrambled eggs, she decided we should go eat inside, so that was it for the play area.

Next we went to Phase Two of the morning, a 4-H horse show at the Big E (exposition grounds). There was somebody exercising a horse in a fenced area outside the barn, and Sarah would have been content to stand around and watch that for a while, but I assured her there were more horses to be seen. First we went into the barn, but that wasn't really a place to view horses so much as it was a place to get run down by horses (possibly), so we went back out and headed over to the arena. There were more people practicing with their horses, and once more, Sarah would have been content to stand in the shade and watch that, but I pulled her along inside the arena.

Here we watched people and horses for a while, walking forward and backward, trotting a little, and having judgment passed on them by four guys with clipboards, wearing cowboy hats. The small audience, clustered mostly near the end where the horses came and went, clapped for individual contestants. I took some pictures. Sarah took some pictures. After a while, it was time to go.

We crossed the parking lot and I saw Storrowton Village, a collection of colonial- and revolutionary-era buildings saved from various places and turned into an appealing tourist attraction (a while before Colonial Williamsburg, I believe). Since I had the camera in my hand, it seemed like the place to go take some pictures. I showed Sarah the herb garden, where they probably plucked savories for meals in the tavern (which are pretty good). The herbs were identified with small signs, and there was a sundial (with a sign next to it that said "thyme") that was a few minutes slow. We took some pictures, then went home for lunch.

After lunch, Cathy took Sarah upstairs for a while and tried to get her to take a nap. After that, they went out and bought a present for Molly, who we met at the picnic at Look Park a couple of weeks back. Then Cathy went upstairs and rested while Sarah and I went out into the back yard in swimsuits to run through the sprinkler. We've done this about five times so far this week. Two of those times were rather short, as it was windy and not warm enough to compensate for it. One time it was raining and we stayed in. Today was a little breezy, but warm enough that I didn't mind a whole lot. We used the new back-and-forth sprinkler I picked up at Home Depot for this purpose, and also, for the first time, tried the more energetic round-and-round sprinkler that we already had. I got wet enough that after a while, the cold water didn't bother me a bit. A good time was had by all. Then Sarah urgently had to go inside, so that was it for that.
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meanwhile

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It's been one of those weeks where I've actually been doing stuff at a sufficiently vertiginous pace that I haven't remembered to sit down and write it all down.

I did mention that I went to Mittineague Park, but I didn't say much about it. I was Googling local stuff, looking for more information about Memorial Pool (and bathhouse) over on the other side of the big cemetery, and I happened upon an informative page that was part of a local history walking tour. Or maybe it was the driving tour. Anyway, I leapt into action, reading all the stops of all three tours (two walking, one driving) in a thrilling evening session on the computer, and at the end of it all, I not only knew some stuff about the pool (including the fact they plan to have it open next year, maybe), but I also knew a bunch of other local history trivia. The pond by Memorial Pool used to be the city water supply, known as The Res, and it was bigger and had imported white sand beaches before it all got knocked out by a flood. Before Memorial Pool, the city pool was in Mittineague Park -- right by home!

I read as much as I could find online, preparatory to searching for the old pool's remnants and the stone bridge. I was going to ride my bike over, but chickened out on that, not wanting to do my searching-around-lost bit on a bike in warm weather. It's just as well, because I traversed the length of the park, then found a map on the kiosk at the far end (the main entrance) which was upside down and thus somewhat confusing, but which clearly showed the location of the stone bridge, so I drove back to the closed gate there and walked on in with the camera.

It was a very short distance in, and it was pretty neat. The stone bridge is in fine shape, and upstream of it you can see that one wall of the pool is perfectly intact. Maybe it's all there ever was, or maybe there was another wall. I don't know offhand if the pool had a cement bottom or if they just dived into the stream to swim. There were notches in the bridge where some kind of downstream gates would have kept kids from plunging over the falls all the time (I expect). I walked around, snapping away, then followed the old road on out, coming out behind some houses, then returned to the car somewhat enlightened.

When I drove out, I turned into the houses between the near end of the park and the river, and found that I could get to the stone bridge area with even less walking. Just ride my bike over, lock it to the railing with the "No Parking" signs, and walk down a few yards. That's probably how the kids with the spray paint and beer cans get down there.

The next day, I was at the home of the president of Friends of the Library here, putting the finishing touches on some flyers I'm doing for the group's upcoming wine tasting event in October. She treated me to lunch, and she and her husband and I talked about local history and stuff. I had several relevant facts handy, thanks to my research sessions. I also learned that a former owner of our house was big into local history and used to give tours at the Josiah Day house on Elm Street. She (the pres, not the former owner) knows lots of folks in town, and suggested I might want to volunteer for the historical commission, which would be some fun, use some of my abilities, and maybe help me network some. She knows theatre people around here, so I asked her to let me know if auditions come up for anything. I'll be doing more design stuff for the library, including the newsletter, and I'll also be playing piano at the wine tasting. Note to self: print up some new business cards!

In the course of the conversations, I also learned that the neat-looking brick house we pass on the way to Westfield used to be a school, and that the man who lived there constructed replicas of many local historical buildings, including that one. These can be found in a historical room below the library, and she told me who I could ask to borrow the key. Neither she nor her husband, however, knew if the Mittineague Post Office was still standing somewhere, or where it had been. Something to look forward to, perhaps.

Anyway, it was a good week for me, I think. In addition to all that, I have been continuing to pursue the piano thing, and have followed up some promising leads. If I can get some freelance design stuff going in addition to that, I could make enough money that I wouldn't have to do a nine-to-five job, at least for a while. That, in turn, could give me enough free time that I could pursue some theatre stuff (if I can ever get into the auditions!). So, I'm feeling... well, I'll put that in the "mood" box.
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