Mama Peacock and family

Another "Phew!" day. Started out cloudy and humid so we took in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Had to see it in 3D because of the time slot we chose. It was fun and if you like Scrat I'm sure you'll get a kick out of his antics. When we left the theater it was bright and sunny and hot! Of course Puppy's Pop had to go flying at the Dog Track so I went for my walk. Bad idea. I can't get cooled off! But that's OK maybe I'll lose a few pounds.

Spent part of the day yesterday writing to my congressman, senators and president. I'm getting despondent over the mess they insist on making of our economic system, health care, judiciary and government in general. We definitely need term limits! They get so entrenched they have no clue how the rest of us live. I'm getting downright churlish! The Supreme Court should also have limits. I think some of them are already senile. I'm going to try to put in a link to the Thomas Paine video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA
This man has made other videos so check him out.

Quote of the day: "Other things being equal, that is the best government which most liberally lets its subject or citizen alone. -Through the whole range of authority he governs best who governs least. -A. Phelps

Palpable air day! Phew!

Antelope at the Bronx Zoo, so graceful, elegant and casual.

Unbelievable how miserable 80 degrees can be when you have 82 percent humidity! Good thing the sun decided not to come out. I'm going to get the air conditioning in the Saturn fixed this afternoon. That's a plus!

Yesterday's excursion to East Granby, CT was easy, fun and fast! The GPS finally caught up with me when I got on Route 6. It kept wanting me to go to Norwich and get on Route 2. It brought me right to my younger sister's doorstep. They have a nice one bedroom apartment in a really nice area. Their immediate backyard has beautiful red maples, lawn which abuts a wooded area so they have all sorts of rabbits and deer playing around. The birds are plentiful and she's even been able to plant some sunflowers and tomatoes. They're also on line and have all sorts of cable TV channels and time to relax. I had lunch with them and now that she's retired and has a home I'll be able to go visit regularly. I'm looking forward to seeing their grandkids. They were at Disney World for the week.

The newest of our home air conditioners crapped out on us. It was only 7 years old! Of course the warranty period was up 6 years ago! The old unit that we got from Uncle R was bought in 1988 and it's still going strong. Oh well, we bought a new one and perhaps we can get 7 years out of it; I'm sure it'll never last over 20!

Relaxing day

This croc was just hanging out. Nice smile!

The pretty stone church on the corner of Main St. and Church St. has been sold for $225,000. It's still going to be used as a church but the name seems to indicate that it will be a Spanish ministry. I'm glad that they're keeping up the property. Everything looks nice and inviting.

Some items I didn't mention from our little trip to the Foster Fair: a portable shingle mill, maple syrup being made, farmers' market, steam powered fire engine and peddle tractors for kids. Of course there were the usual midway rides, dunkin' booth, raffles, potters, wood carvers, stone carvers, basket weavers, chair caning, rug braiding. Last, and in my book least, were the booths where you could try your luck to win one of those mega-monster stuffed animals! Nope, Grampa wouldn't try to win me something!

Went to UCONN in Storrs yesterday with local niece who's in the nursing program. We had a nice walk from the lower part of the campus where I used to live at Sprague Hall to the wonderful new Book Store. On the way we also stopped for a bite at the new Student Union and went through Wilbur Cross with its gold dome. Wilbur Cross is no longer the library which is a shame. It's a beautiful building and I'm certain that they did not replicate the wood stacks in the new library. The new building no longer has nets around it to catch the falling bricks so that's a plus! The old library now houses student services but it looks as if only the main floor is being used. I was also pleased to see that ROTC now has a building rather than the old hangar that they used to use. It's one of the older structures but it is in a centralize location.

Well I'll be off soon to visit my younger sister. Trying out that GPS system!

Old Home Days, A Piece of Americana

Lazy Lion in the Bronx!

Grampa and I went to see and hear Pine Creek Bluegrass at the Foster Old Home Days: that's in Rhode Island. What a treat it was just to go the an old fashioned fair! We enjoyed it much more than the Brooklyn or Woodstock Fairs; it's just the perfect size. Pine Creek played for about an hour and a half and it was really excellent music. We were able to be right up there watching the musicians banter, play and sing. Every one of the musicians was superior. Grampa's friend, Freddy Ethridge played the guitar and of course there was a nice big bass, a fiddling lady who could really sing too, the banjo picker was from South Carolina and a mandolin. They don't have too much on their blog yet but if you want to check it out it's pinecreekblugrass.blogspot.com. The fair had all of the usual animals being judged, tractor pull, cow chip bingo, bingo, baking contests, flower arranging, gardening, 4-H everything! There were ladies spinning, knitting and selling their made in RI woolen blankets made from RI sheep, naturellement. We had some "chowda" before we left and talked with a few of Grampa's former flying buddies. All in all a spectacular day! Uncle R and T stopped by on their Harley as we were getting home from the Fair. He had to buy some slippers (you know, papattes!) just to be able to ride, still can't ride barefoot with those rough pegs! I told him he's got to get new pegs!

Time for the gorilla to whip out the best selling "Acting Stupidly!"

Got to play Batman and Robin almost all day yesterday! Only got two hours of sunshine in the evening so we played inside for a good part of the day. Grandson learned how to lasso a Rancor before he had to go home this morning. I'm sure we'll be practicing how to use a lariat when he comes next Friday!

This calls for a Celebration!

Well I did it! The Magellan Maestro 3250 came in yesterday and immediately proceeded to give me a headache. The warranty was only 90 days and the CD for the documentation didn't work! A call to Magellan in California got me my 1 year warranty but they had no more CDs so I was told to go on line for the information about the unit. (I didn't print it out because it was over 70 pages! ) I said my "Thank you's" and went to the Saturn to try it out with that nice new SD card with the 2009 maps. Oh, Oh! GPS system said that my SD card was not compatible! So, I emailed Magellan about the new problem but I received no return email help. Today I called again and was told that I had to download the latest version of the Maestro in order to be able to use the 2009 card. That young whippersnapper got me in touch with another whippersnapper and we did manage to download the newest version to my computer but not to the receiver because it needed a full charge, which it didn't have. So... 3 1/2 hours of charging in the car (no other way to charge it!) and I was able to download the latest version and put in the new maps and Voila! I have a neat little contraption. I've been playing with it. I can find the nearest gas station, restaurant, hospital etc. What a blast! I think I'll have to do some traveling to new places to see if I can use it properly. For $79 I got a steal! Thank you, Daughter!You may use it whenever you need it!

Time for a Mimosa Break!

Believe it or not it was so hard to get any pictures of the Mimosa that can even come close to showing how beautiful it is. I got Grampa to help because he has lots more patience than I!

On rainy Tuesday we went to see the new Harry Potter movie The Half Blood Prince. It was only OK. Certainly not as effective as the first two. I miss Richard Harris as Dumbledore. But it does make you look forward to the last set of movies. They'll make the last book into 2 movies. How clever!

I had never read Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Ubervilles. I've just finished reading it. I can imagine that it caused quite a stir when it was written. All I can say is she should have killed them both! I do enjoy reading the classics. The descriptions are powerful and evocative. Wish I could find some modern day authors that actually write poetic prose!