Reuters reported yesterday on the latest results from the Reuters/Zogby poll. The headline reads, "Voters unhappy with Bush and Congress."
Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush's approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low.
I believe the poll. More than twice as many people approve of President Bush as approve of Congress. The results also express my own views. I'm about 24% in favor of what the President is doing, and as for Congress, well 11% approval is pushing it.
What's interesting is the way other media outlets are reporting the poll results. Media outlets that like to pretend to have the ability to be objective.
The Baltimore Sun's political blog has this headline: "Bush's approval at new low in Reuters: 24 percent." The results for Congress aren't mentioned until paragraph four.
CBS News has this headline: "Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low." Congress isn't mentioned at all.
USA Today has this headline: "Bush approval rating hits new low." Again, Congress isn't mentioned.
Even with polls so low, though, both the President and Congress seem to be on a collision course with rock-bottom. They're all still pursuing open borders, and Congress is still trying to give the victory to the Islamofascists. There's nowhere for them to go but further down.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Lopsided Universe
The Telegraph (UK) reported Monday that amateur astronomers are helping map the universe.
Professional astronomers had asked the public for assistance in mapping the night sky, and were stunned when they received millions of hits on their website within a few days, enabling them to classify galaxies in the universe at rocket speed.
The response has been so great that within a couple of months the Galaxy Zoo project has completed a preliminary analysis of the heavens which would normally take years.
The survey has revealed that the collections of millions of stars, dust, gas and planets in galaxies prefer to rotate anticlockwise from the viewpoint of an observer on Earth.
Traditionally astronomers have believed that galaxies would spin either clockwise or anti-clockwise in equal proportion. But these observations would seem to suggest that either a mysterious force is acting on them or that the universe is in some way lopsided.
This is great. I love it when new information blows science as we know it out of the water. It's like Copernicus. It's like Gallileo. It's like the apple on Newton's head.
If you want to help, you can sign up here.
Professional astronomers had asked the public for assistance in mapping the night sky, and were stunned when they received millions of hits on their website within a few days, enabling them to classify galaxies in the universe at rocket speed.
The response has been so great that within a couple of months the Galaxy Zoo project has completed a preliminary analysis of the heavens which would normally take years.
The survey has revealed that the collections of millions of stars, dust, gas and planets in galaxies prefer to rotate anticlockwise from the viewpoint of an observer on Earth.
Traditionally astronomers have believed that galaxies would spin either clockwise or anti-clockwise in equal proportion. But these observations would seem to suggest that either a mysterious force is acting on them or that the universe is in some way lopsided.
This is great. I love it when new information blows science as we know it out of the water. It's like Copernicus. It's like Gallileo. It's like the apple on Newton's head.
If you want to help, you can sign up here.
The Trip - Springfield
It's Springfield, Massachusetts, not any of the other Springfields.
We drove around yesterday afternoon to look at the historic and/or fancy houses in Springfield ("City of Homes"). We saw a bunch of them.
Victorians
Streets where they believe in front porches
And some serious ostentation
I love the brick, even on smaller houses, because we don't have any brick in California. Earthquakes would destroy it.
In nearby Longmeadow, which indeed has a long meadow, some of the houses date back to the colonial period. This one was built in 1765. We don't get that kind of age out West.
Today, it was back to Springfield for the Armory, a museum of the guns that were manufactured there for 174 years.
The historic weapons industry in Springfield was stopped in 1968 by Secretary of Defense Robert C. McNamara.
The innovations over the years at the Armory included the Springfield 1903 rifle and the M1 rifle, both put to longterm use.
They had a cool display of "Mishaps" with various rifles. These are two of them. The bottom one was hit by a large projectile and was found on a Civil War battlefield. The top gun was struck by lightning as a sentry carried it on a rainy night. The sentry survived.
A World War I era propaganda notice should be a reminder for the New York Times and its secret-publishing comerades-in-print. We are at war and the enemy is listening (and reading).
The Springfield Armory is great for people with a serious interest in weaponry, especially guns. It's OK for people like me, with a mild interest in them, though I found some displays pretty cool, like the lathe for making the wooden gun stocks, since it can recreate odd shapes. One visit was enough for me.
We drove around yesterday afternoon to look at the historic and/or fancy houses in Springfield ("City of Homes"). We saw a bunch of them.
Victorians
Streets where they believe in front porches
And some serious ostentation
I love the brick, even on smaller houses, because we don't have any brick in California. Earthquakes would destroy it.
In nearby Longmeadow, which indeed has a long meadow, some of the houses date back to the colonial period. This one was built in 1765. We don't get that kind of age out West.
Today, it was back to Springfield for the Armory, a museum of the guns that were manufactured there for 174 years.
The historic weapons industry in Springfield was stopped in 1968 by Secretary of Defense Robert C. McNamara.
The innovations over the years at the Armory included the Springfield 1903 rifle and the M1 rifle, both put to longterm use.
They had a cool display of "Mishaps" with various rifles. These are two of them. The bottom one was hit by a large projectile and was found on a Civil War battlefield. The top gun was struck by lightning as a sentry carried it on a rainy night. The sentry survived.
A World War I era propaganda notice should be a reminder for the New York Times and its secret-publishing comerades-in-print. We are at war and the enemy is listening (and reading).
The Springfield Armory is great for people with a serious interest in weaponry, especially guns. It's OK for people like me, with a mild interest in them, though I found some displays pretty cool, like the lathe for making the wooden gun stocks, since it can recreate odd shapes. One visit was enough for me.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Trip - USS Nautilus
After we left Mystic Seaport, we headed for Rhode Island, so my mom and I can put the Rhode Island sticker on our map of where we've gone. We didn't see much of it because of time constraints, but we did see some of it.
Then we went back to Groton, Connecticut, to see the USS Nautilus.
The Nautilus was the first nuclear-powered submarine, the first sub to travel under the North Pole, and the first sub to have a set of stairs instead of a metal ladder.
In front of the visitor center, they have two concentric circles that give the relative sizes of the first US Navy submarine and the recent Ohio class subs.
Inside the Nautilus, the technology looks dated. But it's pretty cool to see the the phone labeled, "FWD."
And this is the room where my dad would have worked. He was a Radioman on submarines.
We wandered around the visitor center, where we found the names and numbers of the three subs my dad served on. They had lots of submarine-related stuff on display, including the Polaris missile and a model of the first submarine used in combat (the Revolutionary War).
The sailboats came out while we were touring the sub. This was taken from inside the visitor center.
My brother said he saw a T-shirt the last time he was there that said, "There are two kinds of ships: Subs and Targets." But they didn't have it there this time. What a shame.
Then we went back to Groton, Connecticut, to see the USS Nautilus.
The Nautilus was the first nuclear-powered submarine, the first sub to travel under the North Pole, and the first sub to have a set of stairs instead of a metal ladder.
In front of the visitor center, they have two concentric circles that give the relative sizes of the first US Navy submarine and the recent Ohio class subs.
Inside the Nautilus, the technology looks dated. But it's pretty cool to see the the phone labeled, "FWD."
And this is the room where my dad would have worked. He was a Radioman on submarines.
We wandered around the visitor center, where we found the names and numbers of the three subs my dad served on. They had lots of submarine-related stuff on display, including the Polaris missile and a model of the first submarine used in combat (the Revolutionary War).
The sailboats came out while we were touring the sub. This was taken from inside the visitor center.
My brother said he saw a T-shirt the last time he was there that said, "There are two kinds of ships: Subs and Targets." But they didn't have it there this time. What a shame.
The Trip - Mystic Seaport
After yesterday's disappointment at a weekend-only attraction, we checked the internet first to be sure Mystic Seaport in Connecticut is open on weekdays in October. It is.
We had three places on our itinerary, but the main one was Mystic. So we headed out bright and early for the Connecticut coast, stopping in Groton to tour the USS Nautilus.
They had a gate blocking the entrance to the parking lot and a sign saying that Tuesday's hours are 1 - 4pm. We were there at 11am. So we went up the coast to Mystic.
Mystic Seaport includes the waterfront, where historical ships are docked, village shops that relate to the old seafaring days, and restoration work. They also have a planetarium, and an aquarium is nearby.
We started with the ships. They have whalers...
... fishing boats...
... and a host of others of all sizes.
The schooner, the L.A. Dunton, was under repair, with four people scraping the hull.
And the whaler was getting some help in the rigging.
We learned that I had got things wrong when I was writing my post on Minuteman National Historic Park. The soldier-historian had told us about the economic difficulties of having British soldiers moonlighting in the Boston area for low pay. He talked about "Rope..." something, which none of us could remember correctly, so I left that detail out of my post. But on the map of Mystic Seaport, there was a long building labeled, "Rope Walk," and that's exactly what the soldier had said.
We made sure to visit it to see what it was and why having cut-rate British labor might cause trouble in Boston.
A Rope Walk is a building where rope is made. For a seaport like Boston, rope walks must have employed a lot of men, so the job losses would have put a lot of families in dires straits and contributed to anti-British hostility.
The original rope walk building in Mystic was about 1000 feet long, but it had been shortened to about a third or fourth the sized for tourists.
They showed the process, from the spinning of the yarns, to the forming of the strands by twisting together the yarns, to the laying and twisting of the strands to make a rope.
We walked around the water's edge, admiring the ships and boats from dockside.
A sparkle of sunlight on the water...
A reflection...
And we boarded the larger boats to see the kind of life--and woodwork--that is no longer part of our era.
After the waterfront, we looked inside the craftsmen's shops.
In the bay window of the apothecary shop, these carafes caught the sunlight.
Scooter came with us. Pets are allowed on a leash, but not in the buildings or on the ships. So when my brother and I were indoors or aboard ship, Scooter and my mom got to rest while they waited for us.
We had three places on our itinerary, but the main one was Mystic. So we headed out bright and early for the Connecticut coast, stopping in Groton to tour the USS Nautilus.
They had a gate blocking the entrance to the parking lot and a sign saying that Tuesday's hours are 1 - 4pm. We were there at 11am. So we went up the coast to Mystic.
Mystic Seaport includes the waterfront, where historical ships are docked, village shops that relate to the old seafaring days, and restoration work. They also have a planetarium, and an aquarium is nearby.
We started with the ships. They have whalers...
... fishing boats...
... and a host of others of all sizes.
The schooner, the L.A. Dunton, was under repair, with four people scraping the hull.
And the whaler was getting some help in the rigging.
We learned that I had got things wrong when I was writing my post on Minuteman National Historic Park. The soldier-historian had told us about the economic difficulties of having British soldiers moonlighting in the Boston area for low pay. He talked about "Rope..." something, which none of us could remember correctly, so I left that detail out of my post. But on the map of Mystic Seaport, there was a long building labeled, "Rope Walk," and that's exactly what the soldier had said.
We made sure to visit it to see what it was and why having cut-rate British labor might cause trouble in Boston.
A Rope Walk is a building where rope is made. For a seaport like Boston, rope walks must have employed a lot of men, so the job losses would have put a lot of families in dires straits and contributed to anti-British hostility.
The original rope walk building in Mystic was about 1000 feet long, but it had been shortened to about a third or fourth the sized for tourists.
They showed the process, from the spinning of the yarns, to the forming of the strands by twisting together the yarns, to the laying and twisting of the strands to make a rope.
We walked around the water's edge, admiring the ships and boats from dockside.
A sparkle of sunlight on the water...
A reflection...
And we boarded the larger boats to see the kind of life--and woodwork--that is no longer part of our era.
After the waterfront, we looked inside the craftsmen's shops.
In the bay window of the apothecary shop, these carafes caught the sunlight.
Scooter came with us. Pets are allowed on a leash, but not in the buildings or on the ships. So when my brother and I were indoors or aboard ship, Scooter and my mom got to rest while they waited for us.
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Trip - Corn Maze
The day started out with promise.
We went to Trader Joe's, because my sister-in-law needed some of their special items, and I figured I'd pick up a couple extra boxes of my favorite tea of theirs.
When we got to the tea aisle, I couldn't find my tea. I asked one of the workers, and she went to check with He Who Knows. She came back bearing bad news: No, it wasn't out of stock. It's been discontinued!
Lost! My Precious lost!
So now the four boxes we have in the motorhome will be all we're ever going to have. I'm so distraught.
But I bought a box of Chevalier Noir cookies to share with everyone, and a container of chocolate-covered fruit for my mom and me to have for our evening treat, now that Monica's chocolates are gone.
When my niece and nephew got home from school, we drove over to the farmer's market where they have a corn maze. My mom and I had seen some mazes up in Maine, but we've been saving ourselves for this planned family visit. At the farmer's market, they had a sign that said, "Corn Maze, Saturday & Sunday, 10 - 4." Naturally, we were there on a Monday.
The lady told us we couldn't even go look at the maze, because you have to take a hay ride (included in the maze price) to get there, and the hay ride people only work on the weekends.
So I took pictures of their pumpkins and acorn squash as a consolation prize.
On the way home, my sister-in-law drove to a house where a friend of hers lived for a short time when they were in junior high. The house had once been part of the Underground Railroad during our country's addiction to slavery, and the friend showed my sister-in-law the false back wall in her closet and down the stairs behind it that led out to the back yard.
As you can see, the house is for sale. Pretty cool.
We went to Trader Joe's, because my sister-in-law needed some of their special items, and I figured I'd pick up a couple extra boxes of my favorite tea of theirs.
When we got to the tea aisle, I couldn't find my tea. I asked one of the workers, and she went to check with He Who Knows. She came back bearing bad news: No, it wasn't out of stock. It's been discontinued!
Lost! My Precious lost!
So now the four boxes we have in the motorhome will be all we're ever going to have. I'm so distraught.
But I bought a box of Chevalier Noir cookies to share with everyone, and a container of chocolate-covered fruit for my mom and me to have for our evening treat, now that Monica's chocolates are gone.
When my niece and nephew got home from school, we drove over to the farmer's market where they have a corn maze. My mom and I had seen some mazes up in Maine, but we've been saving ourselves for this planned family visit. At the farmer's market, they had a sign that said, "Corn Maze, Saturday & Sunday, 10 - 4." Naturally, we were there on a Monday.
The lady told us we couldn't even go look at the maze, because you have to take a hay ride (included in the maze price) to get there, and the hay ride people only work on the weekends.
So I took pictures of their pumpkins and acorn squash as a consolation prize.
On the way home, my sister-in-law drove to a house where a friend of hers lived for a short time when they were in junior high. The house had once been part of the Underground Railroad during our country's addiction to slavery, and the friend showed my sister-in-law the false back wall in her closet and down the stairs behind it that led out to the back yard.
As you can see, the house is for sale. Pretty cool.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The Trip - Old Sturbridge Village
We went to Old Sturbridge Village, a pretend 1830s New England village, much like Conner Prairie in Indiana. We were greeted by this guy on the way in.
OSV is divided into two main areas: the craftsmen's rough-hewn buildings...
...and the nicer buildings in the village.
We started with the craftsmen, getting to the grist mill in time for a demo, when they ground up dried corn and oats to make feed for the animals, using a water wheel to turn the grinding stones. But I didn't get good photos of that.
Next to the grist mill, and also using the water from the mill pond, was the carding mill, where mechanized wool-carding machines ran on water power. A box sits near the window, with wool and a set of hand carders for visitors to try for themselves. After trying it, we can appreciate the joys of automation.
At the Village, as in much of Massachusetts around Springfield, autumn still hasn't decided if it wants to come. A few trees have turned colors, but even more are still green.
After the carding mill, we visited the blacksmith. There were two smithies, pulling on the bellows once in a while to heat the flames and shaping hooks on the anvil.
On the way to the village from the blacksmith, we passed a young woman boiling down apple cider to make molasses. As she watched over the two cast-iron pots hanging above wood fires, she kept busy knitting a sock. A woman's work is never done.
In the village, we passed the church and turned toward the general store, where a gentleman sat outside on a bench playing a lively tune on a pipe. Besides in the gift shop, his was the only music we heard.
The leaves that had fallen from the trees hadn't been raked up, and a few groups of children were playing in them. This baby was learning about leaves for the first time.
They have a plastic cow that lets kids (or adults, if they can get in during a lull in the youngsters) try their hand at milking. But even plastic cows have their limits. One of these lads shouted, "Hey! They turned off the cow!"
We saw more things than I have time for telling, and I took more pictures than I have room for showing. On a beautiful fall day, we learned quite a bit, laughed even more, and had a great time together in the past.
OSV is divided into two main areas: the craftsmen's rough-hewn buildings...
...and the nicer buildings in the village.
We started with the craftsmen, getting to the grist mill in time for a demo, when they ground up dried corn and oats to make feed for the animals, using a water wheel to turn the grinding stones. But I didn't get good photos of that.
Next to the grist mill, and also using the water from the mill pond, was the carding mill, where mechanized wool-carding machines ran on water power. A box sits near the window, with wool and a set of hand carders for visitors to try for themselves. After trying it, we can appreciate the joys of automation.
At the Village, as in much of Massachusetts around Springfield, autumn still hasn't decided if it wants to come. A few trees have turned colors, but even more are still green.
After the carding mill, we visited the blacksmith. There were two smithies, pulling on the bellows once in a while to heat the flames and shaping hooks on the anvil.
On the way to the village from the blacksmith, we passed a young woman boiling down apple cider to make molasses. As she watched over the two cast-iron pots hanging above wood fires, she kept busy knitting a sock. A woman's work is never done.
In the village, we passed the church and turned toward the general store, where a gentleman sat outside on a bench playing a lively tune on a pipe. Besides in the gift shop, his was the only music we heard.
The leaves that had fallen from the trees hadn't been raked up, and a few groups of children were playing in them. This baby was learning about leaves for the first time.
They have a plastic cow that lets kids (or adults, if they can get in during a lull in the youngsters) try their hand at milking. But even plastic cows have their limits. One of these lads shouted, "Hey! They turned off the cow!"
We saw more things than I have time for telling, and I took more pictures than I have room for showing. On a beautiful fall day, we learned quite a bit, laughed even more, and had a great time together in the past.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
The Trip - Minuteman National Historic Park
We're at my brother's house in Massachusetts. We got here a day earlier than we expected--Thursday instead of Friday--and we spent Friday doing laundry and going to Costco and Target.
Today we went to Minuteman National Historic Park in Concord, Massachusetts, where the British Army and Colonialists first fired on each other, on April 19, 1775. This is the Muster Field, where 400 Colonialist soldiers gathered in a council of war and determined to defend the town against the British. They were not to fire unless the British fired first.
Here, at the North Bridge where the British waited, the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired. The original bridge was taken down in 1788. This bridge was built in 2005, the fifth bridge at this spot.
This soldier was near the North Bridge, discussing the events of the times and offering different perspectives on the legends we all remember from our US History classes.
He talked about the Quartering Act, which provided the inspiration for the Constitution's Third Amendment, saying the Act prohibited troops from being quartered in occupied homes. And Wikipedia agrees with him. But he also pointed out that if a military leader had to choose between 1) obeying the law and letting his troops freeze to death in an unheated barn, and 2) disobeying the law to keep his men warm by quartering them in an occupied house, he'd probably choose option 2. And that choice would make a lot of colonists angry.
He also discussed the economic realities of the time. He explained that for some businesses, the British troops were moonlighting at jobs for lower pay than the colonists, causing the business owners to fire the colonists in favor of cheaper British-soldier labor. Because a large contingent of British troops was quartered around Boston, this problem stirred up even more anger in the area.
Our soldier-informer was very knowledgeable and eager for a give-and-take with us. We all enjoyed the conversation and were glad we had come on a weekend, when he was there.
Around the Park, we found the Old Manse, the Visitor Center, and the pitiful remains of a vegetable garden.
Scooter came too, but he wasn't as interested in the history as we were.
Today we went to Minuteman National Historic Park in Concord, Massachusetts, where the British Army and Colonialists first fired on each other, on April 19, 1775. This is the Muster Field, where 400 Colonialist soldiers gathered in a council of war and determined to defend the town against the British. They were not to fire unless the British fired first.
Here, at the North Bridge where the British waited, the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired. The original bridge was taken down in 1788. This bridge was built in 2005, the fifth bridge at this spot.
This soldier was near the North Bridge, discussing the events of the times and offering different perspectives on the legends we all remember from our US History classes.
He talked about the Quartering Act, which provided the inspiration for the Constitution's Third Amendment, saying the Act prohibited troops from being quartered in occupied homes. And Wikipedia agrees with him. But he also pointed out that if a military leader had to choose between 1) obeying the law and letting his troops freeze to death in an unheated barn, and 2) disobeying the law to keep his men warm by quartering them in an occupied house, he'd probably choose option 2. And that choice would make a lot of colonists angry.
He also discussed the economic realities of the time. He explained that for some businesses, the British troops were moonlighting at jobs for lower pay than the colonists, causing the business owners to fire the colonists in favor of cheaper British-soldier labor. Because a large contingent of British troops was quartered around Boston, this problem stirred up even more anger in the area.
Our soldier-informer was very knowledgeable and eager for a give-and-take with us. We all enjoyed the conversation and were glad we had come on a weekend, when he was there.
Around the Park, we found the Old Manse, the Visitor Center, and the pitiful remains of a vegetable garden.
Scooter came too, but he wasn't as interested in the history as we were.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Trip - Maine's South Coast
Yesterday, after a lazy day of blogging in my pajamas, I got dressed and we drove off to the mall for the bookstore and for Target. The man at the RV Park office had given me directions that became less and less clear the farther we went, but we finally found Target and then came back to the bookstore.
A while ago, I had picked up College Algebra Demystified, because my friend the astrophysics major told me that I'll do much better in my coming Chemistry class if I know Algebra. She said Trig will help me with Physics. Well, the last college Math class I took was 33 years ago, when I was a senior in high school and took Calculus at the University because our high school didn't offer it. But I don't remember it anymore. Or Trig. Or Algebra. Not well enough, anyway.
So I started the College Algebra book, and the first section was on quadratic equations with a useful tip on how to solve them. But it used words that I had to look up, because I didn't even remember what they meant after all this time. Simple concepts (or, they used to be) like, quadratic equation and coefficient. And after I looked them up, I realized I needed to start with something a lot more basic than College Algebra.
We had tried, farther up the coast, to get to a bookstore, but the only one in that town was a used bookstore, where I picked up an old Algebra & Trigonometry textbook and started working on that. But that one proved just as frustrating as College Algebra Demystified, because it didn't have any of the helpful hints that a teacher would give you, and the answers in the back only gave the answers for the odd-numbered exercises and didn't show how they arrived at those answers.
Yesterday's trip to the big bookstore was to get Algebra Demystified, which it turns out starts with fractions, even though those aren't really part of Algebra. But the book explains that the principles for multiplying and adding, etc., fractions will help when you're doing Algebra with fractions. So I started it last night, and I get it so far, and I'm finally feeling optimistic about being able to brush up on my Math before I have to take Chemistry and Physics.
That was yesterday. Today we had plans. We drove to my nephew's Navy base to pick him up at lunchtime. He had received permission to have the afternoon off to spend with us. When we got near the base, we called to let him know we were there. He had told us there was a small parking lot over to the side just before the main gate, so we parked there to wait for him.
He was still in his barracks room and had to walk across the base to the front gate, so our wait took a while. I noticed a sign mounted on the chain-link fence around the base that looked something like this:
There were some Navy guys inspecting commercial trucks in front of our parking spot, and I got out and asked one of them if I could take a picture of just the No Photography sign, and he said, No. He was nice about it and suggested finding a picture on the internet, so I said OK and put my camera away. And we waited some more.
Then after a while, another of the truck inspectors looked at me and made one of those hand-arm motions that traffic cops make to tell you it's time to make your left turn. So I rolled down my window, and he told me I was on government property. I told him we were waiting for my nephew, and he asked if my nephew was on his way and I said yes. Then he said I can't take any pictures. I told him I wasn't, that I had put my camera away, and they all left us alone after that.
When my nephew arrived, he didn't mind that we weren't doing anything really exciting. He was just glad to not be working and to be hanging out with Grandma and Aunt SkyePuppy and Scooter.
The Portland, Maine, area has four lighthouses that we wanted to look at. I had copied down the directions from the Old Orchard Beach website's Things To See and Do page, so we could visit the lighthouses from north to south and then hit Kennebunkport, if we still had time, and look at all the rich people's mansions on Ocean Avenue.
But we've noticed something about Maine (besides the glaring lack of moose). Their roads are badly labeled. Very badly. The numbered Routes don't tell you very often that you're still on the right one. And a lot of the junctions just have a sign with the Route number and a two-sided arrow, but no indication whether you should make a right or a left turn for the direction you want to go. So we picked the wrong direction several times and had to turn around again.
And a lot of the streets don't even have the name on them anywhere. You just have to know that this is Spring Street, because it's the one with the light over by the mall. And too many of the streets that do have their name on a sign in the right place all have the same name: Dead End.
We found the Cape Elizabeth lighthouses at Two Lights State Park, but there was no access to either one. So we could only look at them from afar, more afar from the second one than the first. Here's the first;
And the second:
I found the lighthouses less interesting than other things at the park. These chairs were just beyond a fence marked, "Private Property." What a nice place that would be to spend a summer.
At the little shop, which advertised ice cream novelties even though they were sold out, there was a table out front with baskets of different kinds of sea shells.
From Cape Elizabeth we went on to the Portland Head Lighthouse. It's on the property of Fort Williams Park, so you can get up close to it.
I'm not sure what this little round window is for. When I went to the museum in the attached building, the door was locked. They closed at 4:00, and it was 4:02.
In the park, the old Battery and other battlements are available for climbing and playing.
But we headed off for lighthouse number 3, the Wood Island Lighthouse. Unfortunately, Maine's total disregard for labeling routes and streets, along with some unclear directions from the Old Orchard Beach website ("Take 9 through downtown" -- Which way??? Which downtown???), left us driving through multiple quaint downtowns that were all closed for the season, searching for Route 208. We got to the coast near what should have been a lighthouse as dusk was approaching, only to find a curving stretch of coastline full of large homes by the beach and nothing tall enough to hold a Fresnel lens.
With no more time left in the day for lighthouse-finding, we stopped for pizza at a place that's open year-round, and then we took my nephew back to base, where the truck inspectors had stopped for the day and there was nobody to tell us to get off government property.
But we had forgotten one thing when we had prepared for our visit with my nephew. We didn't bring the address of our RV Park with us, or the directory book with the directions. Without an address, Gina couldn't get us back, so we had to fly without instruments, so to speak.
Our lazy day yesterday that took us to the mall was what saved us. The mall was right by the interstate, and we knew how to get back to our campsite from the mall (mostly--there was always that one turn that we seemed to miss that made us have to turn around). The interstate had signs telling us which exit to take for the mall, and then there were signs from there directing us back the the RV Park. Thank God I wanted that Algebra book!
A while ago, I had picked up College Algebra Demystified, because my friend the astrophysics major told me that I'll do much better in my coming Chemistry class if I know Algebra. She said Trig will help me with Physics. Well, the last college Math class I took was 33 years ago, when I was a senior in high school and took Calculus at the University because our high school didn't offer it. But I don't remember it anymore. Or Trig. Or Algebra. Not well enough, anyway.
So I started the College Algebra book, and the first section was on quadratic equations with a useful tip on how to solve them. But it used words that I had to look up, because I didn't even remember what they meant after all this time. Simple concepts (or, they used to be) like, quadratic equation and coefficient. And after I looked them up, I realized I needed to start with something a lot more basic than College Algebra.
We had tried, farther up the coast, to get to a bookstore, but the only one in that town was a used bookstore, where I picked up an old Algebra & Trigonometry textbook and started working on that. But that one proved just as frustrating as College Algebra Demystified, because it didn't have any of the helpful hints that a teacher would give you, and the answers in the back only gave the answers for the odd-numbered exercises and didn't show how they arrived at those answers.
Yesterday's trip to the big bookstore was to get Algebra Demystified, which it turns out starts with fractions, even though those aren't really part of Algebra. But the book explains that the principles for multiplying and adding, etc., fractions will help when you're doing Algebra with fractions. So I started it last night, and I get it so far, and I'm finally feeling optimistic about being able to brush up on my Math before I have to take Chemistry and Physics.
That was yesterday. Today we had plans. We drove to my nephew's Navy base to pick him up at lunchtime. He had received permission to have the afternoon off to spend with us. When we got near the base, we called to let him know we were there. He had told us there was a small parking lot over to the side just before the main gate, so we parked there to wait for him.
He was still in his barracks room and had to walk across the base to the front gate, so our wait took a while. I noticed a sign mounted on the chain-link fence around the base that looked something like this:
There were some Navy guys inspecting commercial trucks in front of our parking spot, and I got out and asked one of them if I could take a picture of just the No Photography sign, and he said, No. He was nice about it and suggested finding a picture on the internet, so I said OK and put my camera away. And we waited some more.
Then after a while, another of the truck inspectors looked at me and made one of those hand-arm motions that traffic cops make to tell you it's time to make your left turn. So I rolled down my window, and he told me I was on government property. I told him we were waiting for my nephew, and he asked if my nephew was on his way and I said yes. Then he said I can't take any pictures. I told him I wasn't, that I had put my camera away, and they all left us alone after that.
When my nephew arrived, he didn't mind that we weren't doing anything really exciting. He was just glad to not be working and to be hanging out with Grandma and Aunt SkyePuppy and Scooter.
The Portland, Maine, area has four lighthouses that we wanted to look at. I had copied down the directions from the Old Orchard Beach website's Things To See and Do page, so we could visit the lighthouses from north to south and then hit Kennebunkport, if we still had time, and look at all the rich people's mansions on Ocean Avenue.
But we've noticed something about Maine (besides the glaring lack of moose). Their roads are badly labeled. Very badly. The numbered Routes don't tell you very often that you're still on the right one. And a lot of the junctions just have a sign with the Route number and a two-sided arrow, but no indication whether you should make a right or a left turn for the direction you want to go. So we picked the wrong direction several times and had to turn around again.
And a lot of the streets don't even have the name on them anywhere. You just have to know that this is Spring Street, because it's the one with the light over by the mall. And too many of the streets that do have their name on a sign in the right place all have the same name: Dead End.
We found the Cape Elizabeth lighthouses at Two Lights State Park, but there was no access to either one. So we could only look at them from afar, more afar from the second one than the first. Here's the first;
And the second:
I found the lighthouses less interesting than other things at the park. These chairs were just beyond a fence marked, "Private Property." What a nice place that would be to spend a summer.
At the little shop, which advertised ice cream novelties even though they were sold out, there was a table out front with baskets of different kinds of sea shells.
From Cape Elizabeth we went on to the Portland Head Lighthouse. It's on the property of Fort Williams Park, so you can get up close to it.
I'm not sure what this little round window is for. When I went to the museum in the attached building, the door was locked. They closed at 4:00, and it was 4:02.
In the park, the old Battery and other battlements are available for climbing and playing.
But we headed off for lighthouse number 3, the Wood Island Lighthouse. Unfortunately, Maine's total disregard for labeling routes and streets, along with some unclear directions from the Old Orchard Beach website ("Take 9 through downtown" -- Which way??? Which downtown???), left us driving through multiple quaint downtowns that were all closed for the season, searching for Route 208. We got to the coast near what should have been a lighthouse as dusk was approaching, only to find a curving stretch of coastline full of large homes by the beach and nothing tall enough to hold a Fresnel lens.
With no more time left in the day for lighthouse-finding, we stopped for pizza at a place that's open year-round, and then we took my nephew back to base, where the truck inspectors had stopped for the day and there was nobody to tell us to get off government property.
But we had forgotten one thing when we had prepared for our visit with my nephew. We didn't bring the address of our RV Park with us, or the directory book with the directions. Without an address, Gina couldn't get us back, so we had to fly without instruments, so to speak.
Our lazy day yesterday that took us to the mall was what saved us. The mall was right by the interstate, and we knew how to get back to our campsite from the mall (mostly--there was always that one turn that we seemed to miss that made us have to turn around). The interstate had signs telling us which exit to take for the mall, and then there were signs from there directing us back the the RV Park. Thank God I wanted that Algebra book!
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