How much fun and excitement can you fit into one day? Bill stayed up too late last night and could not get up this morning. So, I decided to go for a 10 minute walk around the driveways that connect this apartment block with the one next door. Boy, was it cold? Yes, it was really cold – 18 degrees. However, I made it through the 10 minutes and came in for breakfast. We raced over to the Archives and managed to snag one of the remaining parking places. The Legislature is in session and so all the parking spots are pretty much taken up. This is so because they reserve so many of them for the people who are legislators. This particular legislative session is noteworthy because they have seated a member of a Maine Indian tribe – can’t remember which one – but it was a notable event and a picture of it was in the daily paper last week. The legislators have their own special automobile tags – they are a pretty blue with the crest of Maine and some numbers. I guess the numbers have significance but I did not ask what they were.
We seem to have fallen into a rhythm with the digitizing these books that are only written on the even numbered pages. It seemed to go quickly this morning. At lunch I gave a slide show of the DVD that Bobbie sent me of their travels this past year. Anthony was not interested but Anne loved it. She expressed interest in losing weight and was concerned over the medication she is taking. I had two copies of the 2011 Weight Watchers program so I put it all together and took it to her. When we left this afternoon, she was reading through some of it. I hope that she can follow it and that it will help her lose some of the weight she has put on. On the desk there was a picture of the staff from 10 years ago and they were not too easy to recognize. Ann was much slimmer and Nina had very short hair and was somewhat plump. There were many faces x’d out due to them retiring or being let go. So what we have right now is a skeleton crew but they seem to keep the place going pretty well.
About mid afternoon the fire alarm went off. Boy was that loud. We had to leave the building quickly and that meant going out the door that has the big warning sign on it “DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR – AN ALARM WILL SOUND”. Well, the fire alarm was sounding pretty loud and long for us to leave the building and I could not see how much more noise could have possibly been made if we opened this door with the big sign on it. We had to gather in the parking lot, but Anne let us get into her car and it has heated seats – Woohoo! Was that wonderful or what? A few minutes after we got outside, the fire engines came tearing up the parking lot, sirens and lights – the full treatment. They even brought the hook and ladder truck – that did not make sense to me since the building is low – it is three floors to be sure but that is at street level. The first floor is in the basement and then sandwiched in between that is Anthony’s domain on the second floor. Anne said she wondered how much money it cost the city etc. for the fire engines to show up for the ‘fire in the Archive building’. I said to Anne, “Well, will the firemen go into the building with their Axes in hand?” She could not see how that would happen but it did………..there they went, full gear and an axe in each fireman’s hand. I said to her that in the children’s books that I read to the kids long ago, the firemen always had an axe to go chop down burning doors etc. – and where was the smoke? Firemen always go into burning buildings with loads of smoke. But there was no smoke and perhaps no fire either – it was just a precautionary measure. The only other time I have ever had to evacuate a building was in Cheney Washington when Bill was there for speech therapy. The Japanese students had burned some oil when they were cooking in the dorm and set off the fire alarm. That was very loud too and we all scrambled out of the building. I grabbed my computer and my purse….two of the most irreplaceable things in my material possessions.
When we went back into the Archives building, after the fire alarm, we found that the computer was not working well and we could not focus the camera. Had to consult the book of instructions to see if we could find how to fix it; got it working well again and then found that the court record books were out of order. The numbers jumped from 63 to 65. Went to ask Jeff if there was a number 64 book but he went down stairs and came back saying no, that the numbers were all there in the Knox County court records. That means that we only have 3 more books to work with in Knox county. We found that there are messages for us from SLC on the internet, but once again we cannot access them. One day, perhaps right before we leave to go home, we will figure out how to access these messages. They are the ones that tell us how many of our folders passed and we hope that they all passed. We have a pile of books in our room – either for rework or for take back to the ‘dungeon’ down stairs….so we wait with baited breath to hear the fate of our handwork.
We were asked by the elders to help teach a lesson to Meredith. She is soon to be baptized but she has problems with the Word of Wisdom. I guess she has some dietary issues that she does not see any way around them. The elders asked Bill and I to share our experiences with her regarding the Word of Wisdom and its dietary requirements, and the law of Tithing and Fast Offering. She did not comment either way with either of these comments. She is a hard person to read, but at least this lesson she talked rather than just sit there and scowl.
The buzz in the office this afternoon is the incoming storm. It is one of the fabled Nor’ Easters of Maine. We may just get a smattering of snow or we may be waist deep in snow tomorrow – depends on who you are talking to. The ones who want to scare the daylights out of us folks from Arizona are the ones who say it will be loads of snow or the skeptics of Maine who say – probably only a dusting. We will wait and see what happens. Snow is able to be traveled in, it is the icy rain that is reported to be following this snowstorm that can cause havoc here in the North East.
Because Meredith got to the church 30 minutes late for her appointment, we were behind time when we left to come home. Made a quick bowl of hot soup for Bill to eat but his companion came early for them to go Home teaching. It has really been a long day to say the least.
My visiting teaching Companion has asked that we go visiting tomorrow night, but she said that if it was snowing that we would not go. To visit the sister in this neighborhood would be ok, but one lives in Hallowell on that steep hill and I do not relish going to visit her in the snow and ice.
At the Verizon store we learned about Pandora – it is an application that delivers music. As I sit here typing I am listening to Il Divo radio – a collection of easy listening music. Since I am home alone tonight it is wonderful to have some music to listen to and keep me company.
Sara told me in a phone call about Lyla’s reaction to seeing the collection of stuff that Grandpa Ray (partner of grandma Deb) has accumulated in his front yard. While they were still in the car, Lyla looked at the collection and said, ”What’s that junk? This not Grandma’s house”. I wonder if she thought she was coming to visit us here in Maine or to the Arizona house. I doubt if she will remember the Arizona house because she was only 18months old at that visit. I do miss my grandchildren very much.
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