As a believer in science, I am eager to be vaccinated against the corona virus. I have taken every vaccination that has been available to me and I am one of the lucky people who have no bad reactions to shots. Therefore, I will contribute to herd immunity and make sure I take this vaccination. If it turns into an annual necessity such as is the case with a flu shot, I will take it too.
Pages
Monday, December 14, 2020
Monday, January 15, 2018
Oh, So Clever !
The collected works of Jacqueline Winspear is such a great companion for the cold, winter months. After a friend recommended the author, it has taken me three years to finally get interested.
I won't take time to review it, I would rather read the books than write reviews. Plenty of reviews are available online. To get to the bottom line, I highly recommend the series. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction will enjoy it.
The first book in the series is Maisie Dobbs. I was so intrigued, I quickly continued to the second book in the series titled Birds of a Feather.
While reading this volume, the reader discovers this odd piece of history:
http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfeather.htm
I am looking forward to the rest of the series. To date, there are fourteen books and I hope Jacqueline Winspear continues to follow the adventures of Maise Dobbs.
I won't take time to review it, I would rather read the books than write reviews. Plenty of reviews are available online. To get to the bottom line, I highly recommend the series. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction will enjoy it.
The first book in the series is Maisie Dobbs. I was so intrigued, I quickly continued to the second book in the series titled Birds of a Feather.
While reading this volume, the reader discovers this odd piece of history:
http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfeather.htm
I am looking forward to the rest of the series. To date, there are fourteen books and I hope Jacqueline Winspear continues to follow the adventures of Maise Dobbs.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Serendipity
My
part of the world has been obsessed for the month of September with the visit
of the Pope. Many hours were spent on
the local media talking about all the preparations and traffic plans. Now that
it has concluded, they have continued to talk about the recovery and how it
affected the region in the traffic, public transportation and local businesses.
It became known as "coping with the Pope." It was good to see that
people were willing to look at it with humor and interest even if they weren't
Roman Catholics. It was good also to see
that nothing undesirable happened and people were safe. Many positive things
occurred as a result, and there were warm, fuzzy stories that left people
feeling that it was worth the complications.
We
watched segments of the event on TV and we didn't even consider moving from the
couch to participate. We had already had our moment of Serendipity in April
2013 shortly after Pope Francis was elected and began his Papacy.
On
a Sunday morning, we were taking a tour in Rome
on April 21, 2013 and stopped at the Vatican. We went into St. Peter's
Square and it quickly filled because the Pope was due to speak. We could see
the window in the building where the banner was hanging and where he would
speak.
It
was a very crowded square and people had brought many very small children
because there was a celebration of youth on that day. Everyone seemed so
excited and they were very well behaved as a large crowd. When the Pope entered
the window, a cheer went up, then the crowd became very silent until he
finished speaking. He spoke to the crowd for about 15 minutes and we recorded a
movie of the event.
It was a very exciting day,
and not one we had planned. We just took a tour of Rome and that was where we happened to be at
the time the Pope spoke. We aren't Catholic, but it was very uplifting to see
so much good will among so many people. It was an orderly, respectful, well-behaved crowd. We were very fortunate to be there at exactly the time the event
occurred so it was a once in a lifetime experience. We enjoyed it even more
because we had not planned it. We were just in the moment going with the flow.
Labels:
Pope,
Rome,
serendipity
Thursday, February 26, 2015
High Roller
On our last trip to Las Vegas, we were eager to experience the world's tallest observation wheel. The trip on The Linq at the Quad takes 30 minutes and each pod can hold up to 40 people. There were only five in our pod on a Tuesday afternoon. We paid $25 each for the ride. It was a spectacular structure and I don't mind heights, but now that we have done that, I doubt that we will do it again for a long time. We saw it during the day, but I suppose night views are very different.
Each pod didn't seem large, but it could hold a lot of people. We were fortunate that we could move around and see each view in all directions. As we boarded, the wheel kept moving and we jumped on board through the open doors. I suppose they stop it if a handicapped person is boarding.
It seemed quite roomy inside the pod because we only had five people in our pod.
The view from the top of the circuit looking to the north at the hotels on the Strip.
The structure to hold the apparatus was every superlative I could remember.
Cars and buses on the ground seemed tiny.
The view to the South along The Strip.
Pictures taken through the pod glass often had reflections.
I like how they developed the new area that approaches the structure because it sits back from the main street, Las Vegas Strip. There are shops, restaurants, and hotel entrances along the two blocks that are pleasant to see as you walk toward the High Roller.
Each pod didn't seem large, but it could hold a lot of people. We were fortunate that we could move around and see each view in all directions. As we boarded, the wheel kept moving and we jumped on board through the open doors. I suppose they stop it if a handicapped person is boarding.
It seemed quite roomy inside the pod because we only had five people in our pod.
The view from the top of the circuit looking to the north at the hotels on the Strip.
The structure to hold the apparatus was every superlative I could remember.
Cars and buses on the ground seemed tiny.
The view to the South along The Strip.
Pictures taken through the pod glass often had reflections.
I like how they developed the new area that approaches the structure because it sits back from the main street, Las Vegas Strip. There are shops, restaurants, and hotel entrances along the two blocks that are pleasant to see as you walk toward the High Roller.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Pennies For............
The educator in me roars to the forefront when my
grandchildren visit and I do my lesson plans to have activities for them,
hoping we can spend some memorable time together. Thanks to a very bright
lady's web site, I found an activity involving pennies.
We collect spare change in a plastic container in my kitchen,
so I separated the pennies into two groups--the shiny pennies, and the dark
pennies. I put them into different dishes and my granddaughter who is nine has
a great curiosity about stuff so I asked her how they were different. She
quickly saw that some were shiny, and some were dark. Then I asked her why they
were different but she didn't know. So I asked her if we could make them the
same. She thought that the dark pennies could be made shiny also.
I asked her how to make the dark pennies shiny and she said
we should wash them in soap and water which we did, but it didn't change the
pennies. I asked her if there might be other ways to change the pennies. Since
her mom cleans things with vinegar, she suggested vinegar. We tried vinegar and
nothing happened. She suggested that we separate them into two different dishes
and try different things on them and keep in mind what worked and what didn't.
According to my "lesson plan," salt should be added to the vinegar and
I asked her if that might work. She thought that would be a great idea so we
added salt to one container and let it soak several minutes. We had not
measured quantities in either dish. We let them soak and some pennies became
brighter, and some did not.
When I asked her why, the whole family got involved. My
hubby was a metallurgist in grad school, and told her about the metallic
content of pennies. My son was a chemist in grad school and looked online which
showed us how that the metallic content changed with different dates of production so she
started looking at the dates of all the pennies. He told her about the oxidation
process and why the Statue of Liberty is green. Her mom was a business major,
so she told her how much it costs to produce a penny and how it isn't worth
what it costs to make it. Her younger brother played with the shiny pennies and
counted them to be part of the event.
They had to go home before we finished the whole project,
and she asked me to leave the pennies separated into groups so we can analyze
the experiment and draw some conclusions. We will also go into some web sites that suggest other methods like Tabasco sauce, lemon, or coke for making pennies shiny and the chemistry gets really interesting when combined with a nail.
I had already printed some sheets
listing the Scientific Method for elementary school children so when she
returns, we will go through the process and she can see what we did and how to
present the results. I did not want to introduce the paper in the beginning, I
just wanted to get her involved in the process and analyze it later. She was
very good at suggesting variables and we will recap those details later. She
will be learning a new vocabulary based on a simple activity. She had a really
exciting experience, and I loved how the whole family got involved. I enjoy
working on these projects with her because she is so excited to explore new
experiences. I like to make learning fun for her and kitchen chemistry is cool.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Klutz of the Week
It has not been a good week
for my right hand. When I was sewing a new set of kitchen curtains, I had put
pins in a hem, and caught a finger with a pin--still gives me chills when I
think about it. I hate sticking myself with pins, but it happens when one has a
sewing project.
Next day, another finger got
a plastic cut like a paper cut, but it was from the sharp edge of a plastic
bubble form that fits over my calligraphy box. I don't think of my self as a
klutz, but stuff keeps happening. I always try to be careful, but I will have
to try harder.
I reached over my desk to pull
the cord to open the front curtain in my office this morning. My hand slipped
and I impaled my thumb on a sharpened pencil in one of those cups where you
store pens and pencils. The grandchildren like to use the electric sharpener to
sharpen pencils, so every pencil they could find now has a very sharp point.
I'm great with 20/20 hindsight. I took
them out of the cup and stored them in a desk drawer but too late to save my
thumb. I turn pens down with the points
at the bottom, but the pencils were sticking up--not a good plan.
As if that wasn't enough, I
returned from the gym and proceeded to make coffee in the coffee maker. I was washing
the carafe before putting water in it when I started to move it from the sink
to the counter top and caught the edge on the sink. It just popped a hole into
the bottom where the glass curved. It wasn't very thick glass for sure, and the
carafe is a pain to wash because the top doesn't detach. It fits against the
coffee basket so it depresses it enough that you can remove the carafe enough
to pour one cup of coffee before the whole carafe is full. I had another carafe
in the basement with a different coffee maker that I didn't like and it is kind
of similar, but not quite. It isn't quite as tall. It works, but I have to hold
it up about an inch to get it to depress the coffee basket enough to drip the
coffee. What a pain.
I will have to see if Mr.
Coffee sells a carafe replacement. I got it at Target and have to return
something else tomorrow. For that very reason, I refuse to pay tons for coffee
makers because it isn't the first carafe that has been broken in this house and
the carafe is the secret to their ability to sell so many coffee makers. They
make them with lids that attach to the carafe which makes it harder to wash
them and then they get broken more often. If you can't get a replacement, gee,
you have to buy another whole coffee maker. Also the carafe is different shapes
and sizes for all the coffee makers even if they are all 12 cup carafes. More
than anyone wants to know about coffee makers. I had three old ones in the
basement and not one had the same size carafe even though they all hold 12
cups. I gave one to Goodwill and it might have been one that would have
fit--can't win. I may have to just buy another coffee maker because the carafe
will cost as much as a new coffee maker. The coffee maker I was using is so new
I haven't even cleaned it with vinegar yet.
So I hope my right arm and
hand don't fall off from all my injuries. I often laugh at the Sunday column
that Lisa Scottoline writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer, because she finds a
lot of humor in all the crap that happens during her week, but I have a harder
time writing about it in the humorous way that she seems to write. I haven't
found the humor in it yet, but it must be there somewhere.
Labels:
accidents,
aging ungracefully,
klutz
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