on the walking path

this is the view at the end of the trail that leads from the house to the water. this lighthouse, rebuilt and renovated, was originally commissioned in 1806 to guide sailors safely to shore. it's awe-inspiring to think that two hundred years ago, on a clear summer day much like this one, someone may have stood on this very spot to gaze across the channel at this same sight.

smart

finally.
and it's about time.

century camera

never have i seen up close a camera quite like this one. it was beautiful, all wood and shiny brass, with sections to open and knobs to adjust, sitting atop an elegant tripod with expandable wooden legs held taut by three brass chains. on the bench next to the camera, a box full of old film plates, framed in wood, and the bulb the photographer squeezed when he was ready to record his subject. studying the camera led me to wonder what sorts of pictures it had taken, what events it had seen, what formal portraits it had captured, and of whom, and for what long ago occasion.

old meets new

at one time, this was a window in this old house. now the window frame holds hanging pots in my kitchen. i removed it today to wash the wall behind it. when i rehung it, it looked a tad crooked so i went in search of a level to check. i had to laugh at this meeting of old and new. there's an app for everything!

labor day laundry

here it is, a day from labor day, and i still have not replaced my defunct clothes dryer, gone now for over ninety days. not a great clothesline day today so here i am at the laundromat, drying my clothes with quarters. i wonder if this may become the norm as i return to work - and i'm not looking forward to those prospects. when will i make the time in my busy life to do this? what will i give up? yet as i watch my wardrobe tumble, i reflect on times past, when there were no electric dryers and no laundromats and i wonder how families managed to clean clothes then. clearly, their laboring must have been very different from mine. i'll try to be mindful of that when i next feel like complaining about my situation. and i'm going to keep looking at dryer sales.

ebook

due to the heat wave that's upon us, i was looking today for a quiet indoor activity for the little girl. something she could sit in front of the fan and do. out of curiosity, i downloaded my first children's ebook to my ipad, then watched the little girl interact with it. this is the first time she's used my ipad and, with very little direction, she was able to figure out the interactive features of the story and work her way through the book. she even managed to find her way back to favorite pages and the accompanying activities. as an educator, it was amazing to watch. i truly regret that this photo is not a video. she was so engaged, so exuberant. and her laughter and excitement were contagious. now, tonight, i just can't stop puzzling over the educational merits of this sort of technology with young children.

score!

exciting news in sports this weekend (yay bruins! go red sox!) but this is my big score - a telescope purchased at a yard sale to benefit a town organization. it was priced high for a used telescope with no manual, and i passed on it at first. but as i meandered around looking at other things, someone announced that every thing was being discounted to 50%. i scuttled back and picked this up for $25. now, i just need to figure out how to use it! my summer project... look out, jupiter - here i come!

obviously NASA's, not mine!

toothbrush

the latest in toothbrush technology for the baby-toothed set. the little girl chose this one herself. the handle is shaped like a crayola crayon and there's a suction cup to make it stand on end. when a switch is turned, light flashes from within the plastic cylinder, a timer to let the the tooth brusher know how long to scrub. it's funny to watch the little girl brush her teeth in the dark, in the blue light, in the mirror. 

buy-buy

i hate to shop. i get confused and claustrophobic in stores, especially the big ones. i can never find what i want. and, in this neck of the woods, i have to drive too-long distances to purchase many of the things that i need.

ah, but online shopping - that's different! the ability to quickly find exactly the items i'm looking for, however obscure. so many choices. shopping in the daytime or nighttime, in pajamas or sweats. even coupons! but my favorite aspect of buying online is tracking the packages. seeing when my purchases leave the company, what cities and states they travel through in transit, what time they arrive and leave destinations, what day they'll be delivered to me - this is the part of the shopping experience that intrigues and fascinates me the most! perhaps all this speaks to my age, me a child of the sears-roebuck catalog. to be able to have such buying power amazes me still - and to have it work so well! the only drawback i see to online shopping is the yards and yards of bubble wrap that come in many packages. even though it's fun to pop, even though it's mostly air, it's still too much plastic for me. the only thing that's worse? styrofoam peanuts!

decisions, decisions

for years, i've waited for the iphone. when it was first released a few years back, i debated breaking my contract to switch carriers, but did not. due to poor reception in these parts, i need to stick with the carrier i have. and now, at last, they have the iphone! i was up this morning early and online, looking at prices, sizes, and delivery dates, dreaming. and that's when it occurred to me that i might want to wait...not be so hasty. my ipod touch is only two months old and it can do everything an iphone can do (except phone!) apple always rolls out its new iphone features in june. only four months away. so i wait. and agonize over my decision.

new learning

spending several days at my favorite professional conference, one i haven't attended in two years. there is just so much to take in, so much new to learn. it's energizing though, as i sit here in stocking feet with room service, reviewing the events of the day and wondering what wonders tomorrow may bring...

homework

so in the midst of all this blog of note hubbub, i began a new graduate class. this course is totally online - no face-to-face meetings, no gatherings on campus, no study groups at the local pub. still though, we participants need to know one other. so for the first week's assignment, as part of our getting to know you introductions, we are to describe ourselves to the online group - from our pet's point of view. i'm having a bit of difficulty getting started on this because any pet that i've had has thought i was simply wonderful. don't you think a pet's point of view is undeniably biased? better to have asked for a description from a pest's point of view - then it might be easier to get to the truth.

wonderstruck

the subtitle of this blog reminds that i post about "things that make an impression on me...for whatever reason". what's impressed me today is the number of people who have visited this blog through blog of note and the distances from which they have viewed it. in the last 43 minutes alone, five hundred viewers have dropped in to serendipitous. visitors come from above and below the equator, from lands i'd need a map to locate, and from places where it's already tomorrow. all these stops into my little corner of the blogosphere serve to demonstrate just how big the world really is - and how very small it has become.

thank you for your visits and your comments. i'm glad you like this place.

for the birds

on the right, the new christmas birdfeeder. tonight it was filled with seed for the second time this week, so someone is dining there! my gift-giving friend insists this bird feeder is squirrel-proof. after only a week, i remain skeptical and will believe it when i see it - perhaps this weekend!

me knee

always, i am astonished by medical technology. then, maybe it just doesn't take much to impress me. here's my knee, in what appears to be not-too-bad shape. how cool is it that doctors can see inside our bodies? that i can see inside me? and now you can too?

a whole new perspective

what is this flower? a mammoth sunflower? a daisy? nay, it's chamomile, the most diminutive little flower ever, no bigger in diameter than the nail on my pinkie. here's another shot of it in a wee little windowsill vase. this tiny flower appears ginormous and detailed because i took the shot with my brand new new macro lens! if you click on the photo to make it bigger, which i hope you always do anyway, you will see the intricate sunflower-like pattern in the center of the flower. you may also notice two inchworms dancing on the flower's head. amazing!

i'm going to need a lot of practice and experience - but oh, the things you and i are going to see through this lens...!

alpha baby

babysitting with the little girl often includes a brief stint at the computer, learning to touch the keys gently and one at a time, and being rewarded with a brilliant shape or corresponding letter or number on the screen. the program's voice identifies the symbol shown and the little girl parrots the responses and counts the number of letters she sees. she sustains for longer than i expect she should, given her age, and i sometimes wonder about that. but then she calls out "two yellow moons!" - and she's right - and i figure it probably can't hurt.

kindle envy

tonight i was online investigating audiobooks for children when, at the amazon site, i again read about kindles. i have looked at these and wondered about them - how it would feel in the hand, what a page would look like, how cool it would it be to try one of these, should i consider buying one? i had been rolling these kindle notions around in my head when, wonder of wonders, i got an email from a contact saying she had just purchased one! not unlike the free samples i try at her house, now i'll be able to try out her kindle. see? life is indeed serendipitous.

montage o' fern

into the woods once more today, not so much for the ferns fotos but for content for this technological toy i have been meaning to try. interesting effect, taking all those photos and making it into one - and this is the first time i have ever uploaded a blog photo in "large" size as opposed to small (usually) and medium (from time to time). tech toy aside, i was pretty happy with the fern fotos, taken with the cheesy macro while holding the camera in front of the subject and blindly shooting - with no idea whether things were focused or even framed well.

helvetica

looking at techno-friends, i see some of them as real geeks but have never particularly thought of myself as one. but i wonder now, because in a few minutes, our local pbs station is airing a mini-documentary that i've been dying to see. it's called helvetica and it's about typeface. yes, fonts.  the impact they have on advertising. the way they've affected business. their place in our culture. i can't wait. 

now here's a quiz for you: what font are you? take it - it's fun! then leave a comment and let me know what font you are. btw, i'm times new roman.