NORTH

Last week The Husband took me on a trip.  We had planned for a couple of months after he told me to decide where I would like to go.  He said he would go anywhere I wanted.  Well, being the good wife I am, I felt I should choose somewhere he might enjoy as well so after much thought, I chose upstate New York and the Adirondacks, a place neither of us had explored.

We flew into Rochester and found a small airport.  I mean really small.  It was nice after the zoo in our own local airport.  We began driving toward the southern part of the Adirondacks to spend the night at the Herkimer Motel.  After getting a recommendation from the nice Northern motel attendants, we ate a nice supper, then came outside the restaurant to find the rain had begun.  The rain continued for a couple of days.  I'm not talking a little rain, but a lot of rain.

Many have asked about my pictures from the trip.  I seem to have this reputation among my friends that I can take good pictures.  I will say that I take a LOT of pictures and eventually get some keepers but really, I'm not a very scientific good photographer.  I do enjoy the effort, though.  Rain doesn't make for very good picture taking efforts.  In spite of the rain many days, I still got some I like so I will share.  You can learn about the trip as we go along.

As I said, we began the first two days with rain....and we actually ended the trip with rain....and had some rain in the middle, too....

We visited Lake Placid and spent a night there.  The 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid.  We took a wonderful tour at the Olympic Center.  Our tour guide was a gentleman who served on the Lake Placid Olympic committee from the beginning of the bidding process.  He had some wonderful inside stories for the two of us, the only two of us on the tour.  It turned into a private tour.  Nice.

The 1980 Olympics is the one where the USA beat Russia in ice hockey.  Who could forget that?  It was also the year Eric Heiden won the five gold medals in speed skating.  The hockey game somehow overshadowed the individual efforts of the five gold medalist in speed skating.  It should not have.  Eric Heiden also broke a world record and an Olympic record in addition to his five individual gold medals.  Quite a feat, I would say!

Here we are at the entrance to the hockey rink where the famed hockey game took place back in 1980.  Yes, I had on a long sleeved shirt, a fleece vest, AND a fleece jacket along with a scarf and gloves in my pocket.  It was cold...at one point 39 degrees with a windchill of 31 degrees.  Brrr.....

There was the 1932 figure skating rink where Sonja Henie won the women's figure skating medal.  Olympians still train there today.  The rink itself was quite smaller than the hockey one and had many, many fewer seats.

We saw the speed skating rink where Eric Heiden won his five gold medals.  It is immediately next door to the Olympic Center right in front of a building that looks very governmental.  Turned out that building is the high school there in Lake Placid.  It has been there for years and years.  The speed skating rink is still used today. 

After our tour ended we visited the museum housed on the lower level of the center.  While it was very small, there were many interesting things.  Here are a few....

We ate lunch, then drove out to the ski jump area which was actually closed for the day.  I was able to get some photos from across the street.  While it is localized in a very small area, it is very high as you can see from the pictures.

After that, we drove to the bobsled, luge, and cross country skiing areas.  Some young men were training on the bobsled for some tryouts that were coming up.  The Husband and I found a viewing area, listened for the starting horn and bobsled sounds and I got my camera ready.  The bobsleds were SOOOOO fast!  I actually had my camera ready about fourteen times before I got a bobsledder in the photo!  I have all fourteen pictures to prove it!   This area, too, is amazing.  The whole "Olympic" experience makes us look forward to the next Winter Olympics....kind of puts a different spin on watching.  Get it?  Skating...spin?  (Insert smile here.)

We found a lodge that made their own maple syrup and sold in their shop on the "honor system".

Unfortunately, Whiteface Mountain (the Olympic ski mountain) was closed also and with the clouds there, was fairly impossible to photograph so we drove on to Plattsburgh, an hour or so from the Canadian border.  (No, we did not go into Canada.  We are passport-less.  We stayed on our home turf).

The Husband's planned fishing day on the ever so large Lake Champlain was postponed for a day because of wind threats so we drove up to the border, took a look, then crossed into Vermont and drove a ways before taking the Lake Champlain ferry back into New York. 

Before we got to the ferry, the rain began yet again...and you can tell from these Vermont flags that the wind blew as well.  Brrr....

On the fishing trip, The Husband and his guide caught many smallmouth bass fish, a kind of fish he had never caught before.  Imagine that...with all his fishing experience and skills.  I was happy he had a fun day and success.  I spent a little shopping time, then a little motel resting time and had a fun time as well.

As we headed out to Cooperstown the next day, we saw many beautiful sights of color, water, and mountains....all with a blue sky! 

We saw loons, ducks, and beaver areas.

At Cooperstown,  we ate a supper of New York Style Pizza. Our meal the next day at a very small diner consisted of hamburgers--one a VERY jumbo burger.  Guess who ordered such?

We enjoyed seeing the sights of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The most memorable things I saw there were these....one is made out of baseball cards--front and back, the other two statues made completely out of wood.  AMAZING talent for sure.  

We visited the Farmers' Museum. 

I took a picture of this pig pen to remind us all the horrible shape the prodigal son got in before coming back home to his father....

It was their last open day of the year so they were giving free carousel rides.  The carousel was unique and had different animals and paintings of New York places.

Our trip neared it's end as we headed back toward the airport, stopping in Auburn (not of orange "War Eagle" fame) NY to spend the night.  That route showed us much beautiful farmland amidst more rainy skies. 

The next morning as we carried on toward the airport, we also had time to go north of the airport and get a glimpse of the windy Lake Ontario before returning our rented car and checking in.  It was REALLY cold there by that large body of water.

We arrived at the Rochester airport to more rain.  The landing at the airport back at home happened on the second try as wind was a factor.  Turbulence in the air is not my idea of a good time.  I don't like those kind of landings at all but all turned out well. 

The trip gave me many more photos.  Leaves were two weeks past their peak but still this beautiful....

For now, that's all folks!  Hope you enjoyed the "journal".

ROYALTY

I went to the dentist for my regular six month cleaning a couple or so weeks ago.  I thought all was well until the dentist took a good look and noticed that a molar was cracked down the middle.  I asked him if he could just pull it....assured him I wouldn't miss it but he, being the knowledgeable dentist he was, suggested that it would not be good at all to pull it.  It would have to be crowned.  Ah, a crown....royalty.   I have to trust him.  He's my long-time dentist.   So I left the chair, went to the clerk's window, and made appointments for the two trip crown procedure.

I am familiar with crowns.  Back when I was fresh out of high school in the early/mid 70's, I had a job as the front desk person at a local doctor's office.  I brought home a check for $60-$80 after taxes each week.  During that time, I had to have two crowns--one in an upper molar and one in a lower molar.   Those crowns cost me $350 each and while my new crown now will be way over what the two of those cost together back then, it was hard to pay back them with my small pay check.  But alas, I did it.  I say all of that to say that these crowns are still alive and well after all these years.  I did pull one out one Saturday morning with a Tootsie Roll.  I called the dentist's office I have now and the elder doctor was in, told me to come on it, and he cemented the crown back in.  At that time he remarked how nice and good those were to last so long and how they will probably last many more years.   I hope he was right.

Now that I've rambled that story, I will say I spent over one hour in The Dentist's chair yesterday with his hands and his assistant's hands in my open mouth.  It was NOT fun.  It took six to seven hours to get the feeling back.  And if you have had this numbing experience in your dentist's office, you will understand how aggravating that can be.  Then last night I bit the inside of my cheek because of the odd feeling and this morning I have a blister on my bottom lip from the constant tool laying there on it while the dentist did his chipping and drilling.  The Assistant, too, had to have been tired as she had my mouth full with her stuff to hold my tongue and keep it from flipping around.  I have a very active tongue when I am in the dentist's office.  It has a mind of it's own.  Kind of like the Bible speaks of the tongue being such....well, maybe not exactly like that but you get my point.

The Dentist did make a statement yesterday that has to be true since he's a dentist and knows these things.  The point of this post is to tell all of you, my faithful blog readers, this fact.  Some may find it unbelievable but I assure you that it's true.  The Dentist said so.  He said that I have a very small mouth.  Me.  A VERY SMALL MOUTH.  So there....I knew you would all want to know that.  The Husband was told as well, but is a bit of an unbeliever.  I choose to agree with the dentist.   So there. I KNEW you would all want to know.

Have a good day.....

HANDSHAKES

It's been a while, hasn't it?  I'm ready to get back to my regular blogging.  I've missed it but life has somewhat overtaken me with distractions and other business.

My post today is really nothing mind-boggling nor intensely deep, just a simple observation and reminder.

Many people take pride in their handshakes.  Handshakes are a form of trust in a "deal", a form or friendship, a form of fellowship, and a form of goodwill.    You've heard it said that a firm handshake is a sign of strength of purpose.  Or maybe you haven't heard that.  You might have even heard that a handshake like a wet dishrag is a sign of weakness.   Don't you believe it.

I'm on this subject because at a revival meeting last night during "fellowship" time, I was greeted by a gentlemen who had one of those firm handshakes.  Oouuuccchhhhh!!!!!!  With my badly arthritic hand I've had for the past few months, it's about took me down.  I kid you not.  It was all I could do to not visibly cry nor verbally scream.  Instead, I gave one of those half smile things and inwardly cringed and felt sick.  By the time I got home and still this morning, I have major swelling in that hand and much pain.

I guess the point of my post is to remind folks, especially male folks, to shake gently, especially with a girl.  Especially with an older girl.  Just in case she is an arthritic older girl.  She won't mind a wet dishrag handshake.  At all.

WEATHER

The weather is changing these days.  The long hot days of summer are becoming fewer and farther between.  Ahead are the cooler, crisper days of fall.  As most of you regular blog readers know, Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons with Fall ahead of the pack by a stretch.

Lately rain has come to my yard, sometimes even coming as massive downpours for short times but enough to really make big puddles in my yard.  I recall that one day a few days ago was actually the five or six year anniversary of the massive flood we experienced here in our county.  I recall firstly that my bank flooded and my safe deposit box that sat on the next to the last row from the bottom was flooded along with many others.  What a mess!  Yes, I have one now that is eye level.  I recall on that scary day standing in my office watching as the creek down the road overflowed it's banks.   Scary but amazing at the force as I watched the large ice machine from the store there float across the then muddy water covered road over to our land.  That was one heavy machine floating along as if it was a float on the ocean.  I remember that finding a route safe to get to my house was a challenge that day and I held my breath as policemen would direct cars one by one through the water to be sure each got through safely.   It was an occasion I don't want to ever experience again.

I look forward as the weather begins to cool down, the skies seem clearer and bluer, and the leaves begin to turn.  Seasons change and bring us many different times of refreshing.  Fall with the crisp beauty.  Winter with times of cold and wishes of spring.  Spring with the singing of birds and clear skies and warmer temperatures after the bitter cold, dreary winter.  And my least favorite, Summer, brings the heat and wishes for cooler fall.  Sounds like a vicious cycle, doesn't it?  Just kidding...

As I think of these times of weather seasons, it's a lot like that with life, isn't it?  Seasons of joy when all is beautiful, happy, and filled with delight.  Seasons of change that many people would prefer to not have.  Seasons of physical sickness (or worse) with health that we don't understand.  Seasons of bodily change that comes with the aging process.  Painful seasons of loss.   Seasons of gain.  Seasons of disappointment.  Seasons of satisfaction.  Seasons of despair.  Seasons of thankfulness.  Seasons of spiritual renewal.

One thing we can be sure of through all the seasons of our life is just as our world's seasons are controlled by a higher power, so are our lives.  We can be assured that through all the seasons of our lives, our Lord is constant and true.  And that gives us all great hope that "It is well", no matter what our circumstances may be.  As the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 tells there is "to every thing there is a season and  a time to every purpose under heaven".  That should give us all assurance of the best kind.  If we had no cold or rain, we wouldn't appreciate the sunshine or the rainbow.  Some day I just need reminding of that.

So bring on the fall leaves, cooler weather, and pumpkins!  I'm ready.....