An oversight

When we went to the fair grounds tonight to pick up our photos, I found out that I had won an honorable mention for the picture of my cat, Samwise. My husband also won another 3rd place ribbon. For some reason, the ribbons didn't get on our photos when they displayed them.

So I was able to take home a ribbon after all!

Rainy weekend

It has been rainy here all weekend. Some big Nor'easter hit our area and flood warnings are in effect all over. Despite the rain, we got up early this morning to go to the fair for a little while. Most of the parking lots were closed due to the mud, but we found one paved lot that they opened the last minute. There were not many people there his morning, which was kind of nice as we didn't have to fight the crowds or wait in line for anything.

So as far as my photos go, I didn't win any ribbons. But that is OK, so many of the photos were taken by professional photographers so it was hard to compete with them. But I thought mine stood up well with them. My husband won one blue ribbon for a photo and one blue ribbon for his acrylic painting, so he was happy.

We had time to look at our favorite exhibits, have a Gyro for lunch, and then make it back to the shuttle bus before it poured. Although it was very soggy, it was warm out so it wasn't so bad walking around.

It has been a lazy afternoon. I watched Michael Moore's free down load movie, Slacker Uprising. I thought it was very inspirational.

I finally finished reading Barbara Walter's book, Audition. It is very long, almost 600 pages, but enjoyable. So much history between all the historical events and presidents that she has covered in her career as well as just her history in the news business. It was a good read.

I was so sorry to read that Paul Newman passed away, it brought tears to my eyes. He lives in our state, and he just seemed to be a really good guy. My cousin who used to teach race car driving knew him from the car races. It is good his daughter is involved in his food company which produces so many organic products and donates the money to The Hole in the Wall Gang camp. Paul founded the camp for children who are fighting cancer.

Traditions

This VT scene I took driving by in the car

Hildene

Elaine's Window

Our Cat, Samwise

I spoke with my youngest son today. He is all settled in at college. There is no cell phone service up there and he is hardly ever in his dorm so we have only been communicating through e-mail. He had to take a run into the city and he was able to get service and call me at work. It was so great to hear his voice, and also the excitement in his voice about all that was going on up at school.

One thing touched me in particular. He said that he missed our family gatherings on Sundays when we all go to my parent's house for Sunday dinner and my mother's homemade tomato sauce and pasta . So he got a group of his friends together and told them about our family tradition and now every Sunday they meet at different friends houses off of campus and cook sauce and pasta. All of his friends thought it was a very cool tradition and they are all enjoying cooking and having Sunday dinner together. I loved hearing that!

This weekend is the big agricultural fair in CT. It has become a tradition over the years that we go on Friday night. My husband usually enters a painting and photography and usually wins some ribbons. This year I decided to enter some photos. I know that I probably won't win ribbons, but it will be fun to have my photos displayed.

My favorite photo is the one of my mother's pasta in her 60 year old pasta bowl. When we brought our photos in the pasta photo was the one that caught a couple of people's eyes right off of the bat. One of the guys came over to me and told me that the lighting was really good in the picture. I was so excited. So I thought it would be fun to post the photos I entered into the contest. Wish me luck!

Reunion

My dad has been doing well with his recovery and they are just starting to phase out all of the at home services. I heard that he has been sneaking into his garden lately and picking vegetables. He isn't supposed to be doing that as he is very unsteady on his feet and he could fall ( which happened before) and break bones. But he is tired of sitting in the chair all day long and wants to feel useful. Who can blame him?

Today it was my aunt's 90th birthday and she and my dad are the only two left out of the 5 siblings. My aunt is recovering from a serious stroke, and dad saw her last summer, but it has been a while. So it was a great day to see them reunited for the afternoon. Everyone was hoping he would feel up to going and that my aunt would be well enough to attend her own birthday party, but they both made it.

Although my aunt has lost her speech for the most part, it was obvious that she recognized all of us and by the radiant smile on her face. She looked better than she has in ages and it seemed that having this party to look forward to and having the love of all of the family there energized her and lifted her spirits up.

There was lots of picture taking today, but my favorite is the one above. Just a baby brother brother with his older sister.

Seven years ago on 9/11 I was at work in my boss's office and we were looking for some files when another staff person came in and told us that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. As most people we thought that it was a plane that went off course. Then we heard about the second plane...

One of the high school teachers had put a TV on in her classroom and they all were watching it. The teachers of the younger kids did not put on a TV nor even tell them what was going on. We sheltered those children from the information so that they would not be filled with anxiety.

As the morning unfolded, I didn't quite know what to do. I tried to sit at my desk and work, but I could not concentrate. I would get up from time to time to and go into the high school class to watch TV, but one of the boys in the class was uncomfortable watching the coverage. I had him come and sit with me in my office and I tried to reassure him that we would all be fine, and that no matter what happened, we were all in this together. I found that a comforting thought for myself . We are not too far away from a submarine base in our state as well as some other choice targets. Everyone was scared.

Then the telephones started to ring and ring and ring. Frantic parents were leaving work to come and pick up their children and wanted them ready as soon as they arrived. Some parents just called to talk and speculate. Everyone was calling. Relatives of staff members calling to see if we all were aware of what was going on or wanting to just talk about what was happening. I don't think I ever took more calls in one day. The phone was ringing non-stop, all lines.

At some point the coverage became too much to bear, so the teacher turned off the TV. In hind sight it probably wasn't a good idea to put on the TV, but who knew what was going to happen?

One of our students had been ill first thing in the morning before anything happened. He had been waiting for his dad to come get him. What we didn't realize is that his dad owned a company that was based in the Twin Towers. When he finally made it to the school to pick him up, we found out that he lost every single one of his employees. I will never forget the look on that man's face.

I had another student whose dad worked in another building right next to the twin towers, the mom wanted to tell her son that his dad was OK, so I had to pull him out of class and fill him in on what had happened before he talked to his mom. She was afraid he would hear about the attack on the bus and wanted him to know straight from her that his dad was fine.

Although many parents came to pick up their children before the end of the day, we did not call for an early dismissal. We tried to keep the rest of the day normal for the kids. When the buses came, we went and talked to all the bus drivers and asked them if they would consider keeping their radios turned off so that the little kids did not have to hear any of the news on their way home. They all seemed fine with that, but who knows if they followed through.

We had to deal with a lot of children who suffered a great deal of trauma for months after that day. Many of our kids had family members who were traveling back and forth to ground zero to help with the rescue efforts and they were terrified that another attack would happen and their family members would be in harm's way.

We had our moments of silence this morning at school at the time the first plane hit, but other than that, no one talked about it.

Baby talk

So did it bother any other folks out there that Sarah Palin had her 4 month old baby up so late at the RNC? I felt sorry for the little guy; the noise, the lights, the crowd. He needed to be home tucked into his crib instead of having to tolerate all that sensory stimulation, and being passed off from one to the other.

I know that the above has nothing to do with her qualifications to be the VP, that is another post. I am just saying that it was hard to watch the baby being paraded about. A real advocate for special needs children puts the child first.