My computer and I have become quite good friends. In fact, I often wonder when I will hear it complain about being hauled daily to the Archives building, left running all day connected to the State of Maine internet connection and consulted often starting on Wednesday for evidence of our folder results. From time to time Sara calls us on Skype while we are at work. Oh, yes, at home we have the Hot Spot connection to the internet, but a 10 minute Skype call on the computer using the Hot Spot just kills the amount of time we have left to send emails etc. while at home. Skype usage, and also when I load lots of pictures, the hot spot time gets chewed up. It takes only a little time for the 2 g to get used up. Therefore, when Sara wants to talk to us, she uses Skype from her computer because she has internet but does not have long distance on her phone. We have to keep in contact so that Bill and I can see the Grandchildren. I cannot believe how much they have grown.
Last night we saw that Sara was on line, so we thought we could spend some Skype time at home so that we could check in. Oliver and Lyla were playing “Sumaaaa”. They had each stuffed a small quilt, that I had made for them , inside their pajamas and they had very fat tummies, just like Sumo wrestlers. They were attacking each other but the really fat tummies just caused them to bounce off each other and land in a heap on the floor. One or two times Oliver managed to avoid this situation and he and Lyla would end up on the floor wrestling. I never cease to be amazed at the creative games these two little kids invent to keep themselves busy and keep us in stitches watching them. Whether it be sliding (read that bumping quickly) down the stairs in a sleeping bag (which abused sleeping bag was not good for anything after they played this game for days on end during the winter when they could not go out), Trying to beat the Futon Mattress fold back (Oliver made the goal, Lyla missed and ended up with stitches in the back of her head because she cracked her head on the railing),playing the ‘What” game, or this new one of Sumaaaaa. I found out about the ‘what’ game on Skype a few days ago. It had few rules, but they are tricky. The child will call your name and you answer “What” and that makes you “IT”. Your job then is to try to make someone else say “what” and then they are “IT”. When I go to visit the game we play is ‘chick chick’ and I have not had a visit there until we do play ‘chick chick’.
Games and children go together. As we were leaving the Archives building today, the museum staff was covering the tables that were set up in the foyer in readiness for tomorrow’s activities for children from the community. This week has been winter holidays for the children and the Museum has hosted loads of hands on activities for the small fry. They even have chairs set up in the foyer of the Archives where a lecture is to be given to the older children regarding the Civil War. There are many maps on the walls of the Archives showing significant battle’s that took place in Maine and also the various cemeteries that dot the landscape. They tell me that we are to get a greeter for the front foyer – a life sized cardbpard cutout of a civil war soldier. (I hope that he is clean and has not just crawled out of a muddy foxhole).
Today at lunch time, we had a pizza party. Nina is retiring and so they ordered in 4 VERY LARGE pizza’s and 3 x2Liter bottles of soda. It was really quite nice. Anne ordered in the cake and it had the most wonderful frosting on it. I am glad I only had one small piece – to have eaten more would have been a gastronomic disaster for me – the pizza was bad enough. Then to top it off I had bought some Lobster Bisque at the supermarket just so we could try it, and now with all that grease, my tummy is not having such a great evening. Guess I will have to throttle back greatly to prevent the ‘fat lady at the circus’ syndrome from settling back into my life.
Yesterday we were called by our supervisor telling us that a new camera is on its way. We hope that it works better than the one we have had since arriving at the archives. Our instruction was to “overnight it back” but today is Friday and FedEX does not deliver on Saturdays and besides, the Church Office building does not work on Saturdays – so we just sent it off with the billable stamp same as we send the shuttle. The new camera is somewhat more streamlined than the old one and seems to run a lot quieter than the old one. We used it all day today and there were NO BLACK SCREENS!
Each weekend we have to do laundry – that is a given. As I was loading the washers this evening, the room was very warm because the boiler is also in that room inside a chain link cage that is securely padlocked. Well, they have to do that because of the copper piping that is used to convey the hot water throughout the building. Thieves are always on the lookout for copper piping to steal it and turn it into cash. In Phoenix, just before we left, some thieves got into a parochial school and tore out all the copper piping they could find and did thousands of dollars worth of damage in the process. Copper brings a high price these days, so to not make it easy for thieves, there is a heavy gauge framework with the chain link fencing securely bolted to it from floor to ceiling. I guess the landlord wants to discourage thieves by making it very hard for them to get to the pipes. I think that if a homeless person knew about this room, he/she would be very warm all winter (if they were allowed to stay) because the boiler goes day and night to heat the building and this laundry room is very warm all the time.
It was easy to do the laundry today because there was no one else using the machines and I was able to take my time to sort the clothes and do the wash. After I got the clothes out of the dryer, I had time and room to fold the stuff and carry it back upstairs in an orderly fashion – not like the utterly chaotic condition of the hampers when I took them down there. When there are other folks down in the laundry room also trying to do their laundry it can become instantly cluttered with hampers and clothes and people.
Add to tonight’s foray into the land of tumbling clothes and hotter than hot dryers, the fact that the snow is coming down with a vengeance. When I first took the clothes down to do laundry, the snow was like fairy glitter just floating down by the parking lot security lamp. When I went back to get my finished laundry, the flakes were large, aggressive and intent on invading my laundry hampers with the dry, folded clothes in them. How do you yell at a snowflake so that it will not take up residence in your laundry hamper and dry clothes? On the other hand, these flakes are so big and fluffy and dense that it would be easy to catch one on your tongue – a favorite pastime of little children on snow days.
One blessing that should be heralded here is – TOMORROW IS SATURDAY AND WE DO NOT HAVE TO DRIVE TO THE ARCHIVES TO GO TO WORK IN THE SNOW…………………..YAY!
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