I spent the entire day from noon to 6 PM driving to New Haven, Connecticut — approximately 275 miles south — in order to visit Anna and Aaron during our long Teacher Convention weekend. It was awful from Massachusetts on. The rudeness, hostility, paranoia and anger everywhere emphasizes the tolerance and peace of Vermont. The filth, noise and pollution are also huge. I stopped in Wallingford, Connecticut to get a Coke and found the pay phone which I photographed and posted above.
I saw several animals that had been killed by cars on the highway: two skunks, a deer, a dog, a raccoon, a cat. But the saddest sight was when I drove by a coyote that had been killed and was lying on the shoulder of the highway. It's mate was sniffing the body and walking in circles around the dead coyote. It broke my heart.
Practical origins for this English nursery rhyme are based on weather predictions and how a red sky at night would indicate fair weather on the following day. In England the words refer to a shepherd who would say that a red sky in the morning was suggesting inclement weather to follow. In America the words relate to a sailor. It should be remembered that there were no weather forecasts, as such, in days gone by and one had to make one's own weather predictions. Those with the most knowledge and experience, such as Sailors and Shepherds, whose lives were dependant on the weather and were fully conversant with changing weather patterns indicated by a 'Red Sky at night'. The original origins of this Nursery Rhyme can be traced to the Bible: Matthew 16:2-3:
2 - He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, Itwill be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3 - And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Thank you, Mrs. Nesbitt, for the background information on this gem.
Weather systems typically move from west to east, and red clouds result when the sun shines on their undersides at either sunrise or sunset[9][10]. At these two times of day, the sun's light is passing at a very low angle through a great thickness of atmosphere, the result of which is the scattering out of most of the shorter wavelengths -- the greens, blues, and violets -- of the visible spectrum, and so sunlight is heavy at the red end of the spectrum. If the morning skies are red, it is due to the fact that clear skies to the east permit the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west. Conversely, in order to see red clouds in the evening, sunlight must have a clear path from the west in order to illuminate moisture-bearing clouds moving off to the east. There are many variations on this piece of lore, but they all carry the same message.
Zorro enjoying the warm sun at the edge of the woods on September 25.
Frosts are nightly now. The foliage is nearly gone. You can see deeper into the woods every day. The rain chills your bones. The furnace is on. The cats venture outside for an hour at the most, hiding in the tall grasses near the back door waiting for somebody to notice them. Or they stand on the picnic table under the front kitchen window and knock on the screen. They are sleeping inside, under the covers, every night. Enemies for life, Buddy and Charlie, are sleeping each on a separate side of me nightly, glaring at each other, sometimes growling, but abandoning their feud for now. Winter is coming.
That I Have Taped and Watched After Work for Twenty Years
Taylor Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS). She was thought to be dead, and was actually buried, but a long-lost love dug her up after the graveside service and revived her. He released her years later after her children had grown up.
Felicia Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS) from end-stage liver cancer. She died, was whisked off to a clinic for the rich and famous and brought back to life.
Sheila Carter on The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS): at least once. She may be dead now; but she may be Phyllis.
Macy Alexander on The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS). She has since died again; this time apparently she will stay dead. Only the good stay dead.
Paul Ryan on As the World Turns (CBS). He has died twice. Come back twice. It's getting tiring. I am considering offing him myself.
Simon Frasier on As the World Turns (CBS) (Katie's first husband) on As the World Turns (CBS).
James Stenbeck on As the World Turns (CBS): the resident evil-doer.
Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless (CBS): he fell into a raging river in a jeep when a bridge collapsed in Africa. He revived three years later.
Nick Newman on The Young and the Restless (CBS): the only known person to survive a 20,000 foot descent into Lake Michigan. Thought dead, the family held a funeral, but Nick showed up in the woods a month or three months or a year later. He doesn't remember the evil things he did before his death.
Roger Thorpe of Days of Our Lives (CBS): the King of Reincarnation (he has died three times and come back to life twice). I have dropped this soap. Two and a half hours of soaps (one and a half hours without commercials) a day are enough for one woman.
Can you think of any other reincarnations on these CBS soaps?
(In my defence, my soap habit began while nursing babies thirty years ago, sometimes two at a time. For hours and hours and hours and hours. Oh, you know what it's like!)
Miss a day? You can now watch full episodes of all CBS soaps, except B&B, online at CBS Daytime.
United States Presidents born in Vermont, Chester A. Arthur (1881, 21st President) and Calvin Coolidge (1923, 30th President)
With a population of fewer than 9,000 people, Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the U.S.
Vermont's state capitol building is one of only a few to have a gold dome. A statue of Ceres sits atop the dome.
1816 Was the Year Without a Summer: On the night of June 5th, tempertures dropped 50 degrees, and a wet snow fell the next day all over the state. On June 7th a blizzard struck northern Vermont, with several inches in the valleys and 12 inches in Craftsbury Common. Hard freezes continued through the 10th of June. July, August and September all experienced cold periods. The freak weather resulted in a loss of summer's crops.
Montpelier Vermont, is the only state capital without a McDonalds
Meet Daisy, Anna (daughter) and Aaron's Chihuahua. Daisy loves to swim in salt water now that the three of them live on Long Island Sound in New Haven, Connecticut. Daisy plays in seaweed after her swim. Daisy gets a lot of baths now.
Hello, It is with great pleasure as a proud poppa to introduce you to Eva Grace. She came into this world today at 12:04pm. She is 8.5lbs 8oz and is 20 1/2 inches in length. She is a beautiful delicate girl with a full hear of dark hair. She is a joy to mom and dad, both of whom made it through with flying colors. Updates will be on The BenSpark. Also I have a dial up connection at the hospital so updates will be infrequent. I will respond to all e-mails when I get back intot he 21st century. :-)
Her photo is up and she's gorgeous!! (I hope he forgives me for making his e-mail public!)
Amy takes her dogs to Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury. This is a free, 300 acre dog park created by artist Stephen Huneck. There is the mountain, fields, forest, ponds, a dog chapel and a store that sells Huneck's art.
Sophie saw me while she was drinking in the pond and immediately began to swim to me. The further she swam, the more horrified she looked. But she made it safely to me and drenched me in water when she shook off. Sophie is the baddest dog, yet my favorite. She is so full of life and love.
You can see the entire photowalk in my Flickr set here, or in my web gallery, here.
On Saturday, I went to explore the Barton Village Cemetery in the middle of Barton Village on top of a high hill. If you wish to see all the photos in this set, please go to my web gallery or to my Flickr set.
During this photowalk, I again explored the lower beaver dam on May Brook, the century and a half old reservoir, and the old waterworks. Below I quote from Darlene Young's book A History of Barton Vermont:
Barton residents wanted a public water system for a number of compelling reasons. First and foremost, waterworks meant increased fire protection, making it possible to play hydrants throughout the village. Secondly, waterworks would supply an adequate amount of pure water to homes. And thirdly, a system of waterworks was a significant mark of a progressive village. Barton aspired to follow the lead of Newport and St. Johnsbury, which had already installed waterworks.
The talk in favor of a waterworks for Barton began in earnest in 1885. The village had improved its fire protection with a new fire engine and was building a series of cisterns for water storage. But many in the village saw the cisterns as only a temporary solution. The Orleans County Monitor pointed out that a system of waterworks would fill the need for fire protection as well as domestic use.
The trustees called a village meeting to consider the question of waterworks. The voters established a committee to investigate the feasibility and cost of a water system. The committee presented several options for supplying water to the village from Crystal Lake, estimating the cost at around $8,500. But voters rejected the proposal.
For the next few years, discussion of the question continued without any resolution. In 1886, the Legislature authorized the establishment of a system of waterworks for Barton. In 1888, the Legislature amended the water charter to permit the raising of $20,000 in bonds for the construction of the water system. Despite this, Barton voters took no immediate action.
In 1889, the village began looking at other water supplies besides Crystal Lake. Joel Foster of Montpelier, an engineer and veteran waterworks builder, cam to Barton several times to study the possibilities. Foster considered using a number of water sources: Roaring Brook, Parker Pond, and May Pond.
At a special village meeting held in July 1889, the first question put to the voters was a simple resolution. The resolution expressing the need for waterworks passed on a voice vote. The second article, "To see if the village would vote to erect a system of waterworks," brought a lengthy discussion. Foster explained the different routes and methods of bringing the water to the village. He estimated the cost at approximately $17,000. When debate ended, the voters, by a margin of 70 to 42, decided to use May Pond as their water source. They also approved a bond for $16,000.
Work began almost at once. Workmen built a stone dam at the reservoir, dug ditches, and laid the cast iron pipe to homes and businesses during the fall of 1889. Just before winter set in the village completed the mains and water began to flow.
Infinity, fractal patterns in the Kalahari, the problems with calculators, T3 conferences (an idea that I always suspected!), college math instruction, the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic in sixth grade (I've done that!), the crossing number inequality (I have to do that), gifted and talented education (I went from Connecticut, where GAT was important, to Vermont, where GAT is ignored), a LOLCat?, NCLB assessments (my post!), polyhedra paper folding (a blogging friend), Diophantine equations and the products of digits (I participated!), another Pythagorean Theorem proof (got to check out that one), why is the US outta TIMSSA (we all know, right?), and many many other wonderful topics.
The Outdoors Club from Lake Region High School was learning how to climb rocks on a road cut in Orleans, Vermont at the intersection of Routes 5 and 58 on September 25, 2007. I was given permission to photograph and I was very careful to not get any faces. The entire set of photos can be seen in my web gallery here or in my Flickr set here.
On September 23, I went to the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Coolidge was the 30th president. You can find visitor information here. There was a Cheese and Harvest Festival going on, so it was crowded but fun. I posted a slideshow of the photos here. If you wish to view the individual photos and read the detailed comments, go to my web album here or to my Flickr set here.
I must return as soon as I can to view the cemetary and the Coolidge gravesite.
quizzes
Photohunt
