Yeah, Almost

I was looking through some old pictures earlier today and came across these two.  Had to chuckle.  I can look back at it now and be entertained but at the time it was kind of irritating.  This happened about 15 years ago.  Where we used to live was on the main drag out of town, just where the road curved.  Down the road from us were two bars.  So as you might imagine, sometimes the people driving passed our house really shouldn't have been behind the wheel.  That gentle little curve in the road was just too much for some people.

So when we moved into our house it had a nice little foot bridge that went across the drainage ditch to where our mailbox was.  Then one day while we were away someone came barreling up the road and didn't make the nice, gentle curve.  Instead they went into our ditch and took out our little foot bridge and mailbox.  Yeah, that was kind of irritating.  This is Maulbeere and Himbeere standing on what's left of the bridge.  The rest of it is laying where it landed.

Well, we were able to find out who they were (which was a lot of work - I was amazed at how hard the police made me work to get a copy of the report) and contact their insurance company - fortunately they had insurance.  We made a claim for the bridge and got enough to replace it.  So I rough drew out a plan for the new bridge, which I wanted to be a little longer and sturdier, figured out what wood I needed and then spent a Saturday and, with lots of help from the little people, built the new bridge.  Here is Schwatrzbeere standing on the new bridge.

I thought it turned out really well.  And it definitely was sturdier than the old one.  We got to enjoy it for a year or two before someone took it out again.  As a testament to how much sturdier the new bridge was, getting hit didn't scatter the new one out near as much as the old one had been scattered.  But it was still damaged enough that it was beyond repair.  This time I just made the claim and pocketed the money but didn't rebuild the bridge.  I just moved the mailbox so it was next to the driveway.  Aw, well.  It was a nice little bridge but I figured if people were going to keep running into it I wasn't going to keep rebuilding it.

Life at a Slower Pace

I remember a trip to a family reunion when I was a kid that my grandmother went to with us. This was her side of the family so we were going back to the area of her childhood home. And it was in the opposite end of the state we lived in so it was pretty much an all day ride in the car. And except for that last 50 or so miles the whole trip was freeway. This was a trip she'd made numerous times in her life, she was very familiar with the trip. This was in the late 60’s when we made the trip in several hours. At one point in the trip she lamented how the freeway had changed the trip so much, you no longer really got to see much of the ride because the freeway took you around all the interesting little towns whereas before the freeway had been built you went through each little town and got to see what each town was like and what was going on there. And even before that, back when she was younger and would make the trip by horse and buggy, the trip was much, much slower - then you really got a good look at each town and all the scenery, at a slow, easy pace so you could really get a good look at everything all along the way. She then proceeded to name each and every community along the way, tiny towns and big cities; she named them all without missing any. I was pretty impressed.

Anyway, I was thinking earlier that riding my bike around town was in some ways a similar situation. My bike riding takes me around at a slower pace than when I'm in a car and it takes me to places in town that I would never see in a car, some you can't really get to by car. So the experience is significantly different from traveling by car. 

I often find myself, as I'm driving around town, thinking, “I've been here with my bike!” or “I ought to come here on my bike.” Or I'll find myself pouring over maps of my community and its trails, thinking about where to go next on my bike.

 This year we had a couple weeks of halcyon days early on where I was able to get out and get several rides in but then the weather turned cold and wet again as winter struggled to hang on. I'm looking forward to the weather getting better, more bike friendly again so I can get back out on my bike.

Its nice to be out and about.

Scientific Fun

The other day there was a science fair in town so we decided to go.  Actually, we had other plans for the day but the weather didn't cooperate so we found ourselves looking for alternatives at the last minute because we wanted to do something but that's another story.  As it went, we ended up at the science fair, which turned out to be a very fun time indeed!

The whole thing was held in one of the local museums so there were plenty of exhibits that were long-term displays.  They were cool.  Often such displays get old and dusty looking but many of the displays at this museum were fresh and clean, that was nice.

But in addition to the normal displays, they had brought in some additional activities, many of which were hands-on activities the kids could get their hands in on and have fun with.

One of the one's I thought was the coolest was a dynamic topographical map activity.  They had sand under a computer that must have used ultrasound to detect the shape of the sand in the box and then project topographical lines onto it, as well as colors as the elevations changed.  At "sea level" the color changed to blue that moved like water.  But if you stuck your hand out over the sand it did something similar to represent the water in clouds.  Incredible!

They had sandbox toys the kids could play around with to change the shape of the sand piles with and watch the colors and lines react to what they did.  We spent a fair amount of time at that one - the kids loved it.  It was also very entertaining for the adults.

They had the obligatory dinosaur bones and skeletons on display.  One they had hooked up to a recording of what someone imagined a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have sounded like - the kids had fun playing that recording over and over again.  And the lower jaw moved up and down like it would have in life.  That was another favorite.

They even had hands on things for the littlest kids.  This little munchkin had a lot of fun with the puzzle.  We had to keep an eye on her as she kept making a break for the hall with puzzle pieces.  I think they were all there when we left that area  . . . ?

That same display presented a certain challenge for some of the adults present as well.

Rock displays, another hands on activity.

Fascinated as much by the hole as by the rock the hole allowed you to touch.

In another part of the science fair they had animals that the kids could touch, including a well supervised snapping turtle.  Pretty fearsome looking creatures.

There were snakes, lizards and turtles that the kids could touch and pet. That was popular, the kids visited that one and then came back to it later.  They had several different kinds of snakes, lizards and turtles, all available for well supervised touching.

And what kids activity would be complete without face painting?

They picked their own design and colors.  Though, being primarily a reptile display, the options tended to be reptiles.

But that was perfectly okay with the kids!

They each got to pick their own painting and were quite happy to wear them the rest of the day!  And the people doing the painting were really good with the kids, as well.

In fact, all the people hosting, supervising, and explaining everything were really good with the kids.  I didn't see a single one that looked like they would have rather been someplace else.

And when it was all done we hit our favorite ice cream place for a cool treat, even though it was only about 35 degrees out.

It was a very fun way to spend a couple of hours with the kids!  We may have to do something like this again!