Refreshing, Rain, Races

Hi!

A few things I've noticed this week.

PAUL NEWMAN passed away this weekend. Of all his many movies, I think I only saw "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting" (both with younger Robert Redford, so I think that's actually why I watched those...). But the truly memorable part of this man's life is just now coming through the articles and postings, now that he's gone. Every article and quote from people who knew him talks about how generous and humble and sincere he was. Glowing reports from his 5 daughters, and he had the same wife for 50 years.(Ok, it was his second wife. But they stayed together 50 years.) His salad dressing line(there are other foods they make, too, but the salad dressing is what I buy) has been around for years, and guess what: all procedes from sales go to charity. Paul Newman has donated over $250 million to charities.

It is so refreshing to read that kind of report on "normal life" of a celebrity. It seems like he was a really good person, an example that we non-celebrities could follow.

RAIN, rain, rain! I don't even think this weekend is rain from a hurricane or tropical storm. It's just a lot of RAIN.
(Clipart photo, BTW) It' makes you appreciate umbrellas, I suppose! Or not. Many people just don't notice it, or seem to...while we are fumbling with our umbrellas at the front entrance of Home Depot to leave, other people just walk right out into it, to their car. What's a little rain? This is why New England is so green.

LEAVES are just barely starting to change colors. You'll see green, green, then all of a sudden there's a tree or group of trees that are mostly vibrant RED or YELLOW. This is just a ClipArt photo from Microsoft Word.Soon, I'll take some pictures of fall leaves HERE, when they change colors a little more, and when the sun comes out again!

CROSS-COUNTRY. David has been practicing and running in cross-country meets with the middle school here. Having never been involved in this sport, these meets are new to me! Here is the overview: they map out the route they will run, around school buildings, around soccer fields, through streets of the surrounding neighborhood, for 1.6 miles. They start and finish at the same line. When the bus brings the other school team, they all walk the course so they know where to go (whether the kids pay attention or not, is up to them...once or twice, I have seen a couple of kids start to loop the wrong direction around the field, then a bystander notices, and turns them around the right way).

Boys and girls run separately. They alternate who goes first each meet. Everybody starts the race at the same time. They space themselves out pretty quickly, the faster ones take off and they all run at their own pace for the rest of the race. Here is one of David at the start line, with all the other boys from both teams:

David has done really well in the first 2 meets. He came in 8th place (out of 44--7th and 8th grade boys)for the first meet, and 6th place for the 2nd meet last week. There's another one scheduled for tomorrow, at a different middle school.

Have a glorious week! Love, Kari

Visiting Plymouth

Hi!

A few weeks ago we went to Plymouth, Massachusetts, about an hour from here. They have homes from the 1600's, memorial statues and parks, and a replica of the Mayflower!
They call this replica the Mayflower II, and it was built in 1957 in Plymouth, ENGLAND (did you know there was a Plymouth, England?).
Then they actually sailed this ship, the same route as the original, from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts! Fantastic. We walked around the ship and talked to a crew member, learning about life on the ship.

I especially liked this leather pitcher: it's pliable, like leather shoes--you can bend it in or out, but it's watertight!

Then there is FOOD on the ship. When you haven't seen land for weeks, food on a ship in the 17th century could be decent or tolerable, or it could be downright nightmarish. Here is what I found to be a literary masterpiece: one sailor's journal entry depicting nightmarish ship food. (click on it to enlarge...)We also walked to Plymouth Rock, which is just that: a rock! It's in a cage to protect it from overly-zealous tourists, I am sure. This cage is also under construction...of course! Here is Frank, filming through the scaffolding.

Etched upon this rock is the year "1620," but in general the rock itself is rather anti-climactic. One gentleman recorded: Following our afternoon full of history and lots of walking, the kids were ready for...of course, races rolling down the hill? (There weren't THAT many cars...)

All in all, a lovely day.

9/11 a Week Late

Hello--

I couldn't miss the chance to post a 9/11 blog, a week late. I found out that the people here feel an especially close connection to the tragedies of that day, because the flights that crashed into the Twin Towers departed from Boston that morning 7 years ago. Previously, I had not paid attention to this fact.

Until we move into our house (we have another month in this apartment: mid-October), I drive the kids to and from school each day. The schools are 2 small towns over from our apartment, about 20 minutes each way. Timing is a little off, though: Kara's Elementary School starts a full hour after the Middle School! This gives us some "together time" in between. Daily we drive past a big park in Weston, the small town before "our town," Wayland.

Weston put up flags in the park, one for each person who died on September 11, 2001. Kara and I walked through the park and counted flags, the length and width of the rectangle, a couple of days ago. 3000 flags. Here are a few shots I took on Monday.





(Here's an unplanned irony that I just noticed: I didn't even ask Kara to wear her flag shirt, but she wore it that morning! Very appropriate.)

It was a beautiful display.

Kara's Summer Camp

Hi!

(We received our drivers' licenses in the mail today. Frank's first comment upon studying mine: "Whose signature is this? I can't even read it...") Sigh...

I haven't put any scrapbook pages together for a long time. In July, Kara attended a Horse Camp with her friend Lizzie. They had such a good time! Even though they looked little up on the big horses, they quickly learned and enjoyed learning the horses' names, and then riding, feeding, and grooming them. They even got to give the horses baths! Can you think of a better way for an 8-year-old to spend a week?

Here are a couple of pages for Kara's book. She has this great "toothless grin" right now--the two top front baby teeth are out and the permanent ones are not quite in yet. You can click on the pages to enlarge.


(Paper by Lisa Carter, www.digitalscrapbookplace.com;silver embellishments by Jessica Alger, flowers by FafBr, www.godigitalscrapbooking.com;rubber bands by Amy Martin, www.the-lilypad.com)

It's Friday, whatever that means for you--have a great weekend! Kari

RMV Twilight Zone

RMV -- Registrar of Motor Vehicles. In California they call it the DMV. This blog is about our painful visit to the RMV yesterday! I just don't remember these kinds of lines in CA. Of course, we pick the one day of the week they stay open late, to 7 p.m., to accomodate those who come in after work. Another day of the week, mid-day, would probably have been a better choice.

Weeks ago, I studied the list of about 25 pieces of identification we had to present, to receive our new Massachusetts drivers licences and register the cars. I have with me every official document imaginable to declare that we exist! Also the Solid Gold Form, which my insurance company had to send me, stamped and dated, with a time limit of 21 days to get it all taken care of. "DON'T make any mistakes on THIS FORM, she had warned me. ONLY black ink, and NO cross-out lines." The pressure is killing me...

Before this evening's episode, I had already had a day that was TOO LONG. Dragging and crabby, I pick up Frank from work to go to the RMV. Mapquest gave me the address and directions, but it did not tell me this place happened to be in a MALL. We drive back and forth, searching for nonexistent numbers above doors on the street we KNOW it's on! The joys of being new to the area. Enough Prologue.

Synopsis of the evening: after finally discovering the hidden offices, for TWO HOURS we stand in line. I am incredulous. First, we stand in a line to give us forms to fill out. After the forms are completed, we stand in that SAME line again, to get a number to then stand in the dreaded ROOM LINE.

Just what, pray tell, is a "Room Line?" Well it's not exactly a line, but it's a room full of people who stare blankly at computer screens mounted from the ceiling. Do these computer screens give us up-to-the-minute news about important issues? The environment? Oil sources? Religion? Politics? even the weather?

Oh, no, no...the people in this crowded room stare at screens that display...numbers. Is it the stock market? The price of eggs in China? Not exactly. These numbers coincide with numbers these people are holding. Each person looks at his own number, then back at the screen, then back at his own number. He or she breathlessly anticipates the alignment of the stars that will signal the time when the computer screen will show the SAME number as the number in his or her hand.

The numbers creep upward at the awe-inspiring speed of a bored sloth. I look around and see people dozing off. Expressions are glazed. Occasionally, the number changes and one person in the crowd stirs. It is their turn. We should only be so lucky.

The UNlucky ones, however, go to The Mean Lady. She usually tells them, after they have waited one to two hours, that they must leave and come back another time, since they do not have the proper forms. Worse yet, they come to her window with a credit card only, and they get The Lecture. She turns from one lady and addresses the crowd:

"LISTEN, PLEASE. WE ONLY TAKE CASH AND CHECKS IN THIS LINE. IF YOU DON'T HAVE EITHER OF THOSE, PLEASE GO OVER TO TARGET TO THEIR ATM MACHINE."

She can't save this lecture until the Guilty Lady is walking to Target and out of earshot, of course. She lectures the entire crowd with the Guilty Lady right at her window. "THIS LADY," she might as well be saying, "IS PARTICULARLY DENSE. EVERYONE STARE AT HER BECAUSE SHE HAS JUST WASTED ALL OF OUR TIME."

Whew--our time finally comes, and we avoid the Mean Lady. Instead, I get Mr. Sarcasm, in a slightly friendly sort of way...it could have been worse. After our marathon standing contest, Mr. Sarcasm has me hand over all my documents, and sign the little signature piece--this will record my signature for my license.

I write on it, and immediately it makes little scribbly marks. "Do it again, and don't press so hard," Mr. Sarcasm says. I know it's broken. We can't do anything about that." I sign again. This time he tells me, "That looks like a kindergartener signature." (I didn't make that up--he REALLY said that.) AAArrgghh! Ok, one more try: I'm more than a little tired at this point so I tell him to accept that one. (Too bad I didn't really LOOK at it. Now my permanent signature really DOES looks like a kindergartener signature.)

The rest of the evening is just as insulting. I can't quite read all the letters in the vision test and so I have to use my glasses. Now my license is "restricted." Sigh...

Then, he makes me GIVE UP my California driver's license. "In California," I tell him, "they just punch a hole in your old one, and let you keep it." Then I get Lecture Number 458:

Mr. Sarcasm: "Do you want me to tell you why it costs $90?"
Me: "...OK..."
Mr. S: "$46 for the license, $20 for the Road Test, $24 for the Written Test."
Me: "So I'm PAYING for them, but I don't actually have to TAKE those tests?"
Mr. S: "Yes. Do you want me to schedule you a Road Test and a Written Test?"

(Frank interjects at this point of the story: "See, he was just telling you that if you wanted to keep your old California license so badly, you could come back and take those tests..."

Well, nobody likes a smart-aleck, okay...:)

Me: "No, Thank you."

Somehow, we survive the experience...? The cars are registered. We have MA drivers' licences. (Not that you can read my signature or anything. That part is COMPLETELY beside the point.)

Have a great weekend! Love, Kari