Reporting in

[rolanni]

The most eventful thing (besides, yanno, Steve being given an All Clear) about yesterday's excursion were the two traffic accidents we came upon apparently only minutes after their execution -- one on the China Road as we were going to the hospital -- looked like somebody got broadsided coming out of Mickey D's. Cop-lights and a wrecker in evidence. We made a left onto Cushman Road, and avoided the mess.

Coming home, in the dark and the rain, with the temps hovering around 36F/2C, just past the Really Bad Curve where the rocks and the trees conspire for black ice in August, a car had gone off the road and was some distance -- actually, a surprisingly long distance -- into the blessedly empty field. Several cars and trucks had pulled over to help, creating a confusion of flash- and headlights. We eased through that and so to home.

A random standout observation is how often, yesterday particularly and recently in general, one or both of us in conversation with a third party has had to say, "It was the 50s (or 60s); that's what they did then." I feel like a time traveler in my own life.

Yesterday's other big event was the arrival of the rolling bag. Yes, I have bowed to necessity -- and the rodents chewing the muscle of my right arm -- and gotten a bag on wheels to replace the current canvas bag and mini-backpack arrangement. The wheels will do me no good in the snow, of course, but we're not there yet. *thinks* Maybe I can affix tiny skis, when the time comes.

Today, I'm back at the day-job, in Wait Mode. Tomorrow, Hexapuma has an appointment at the vet for his shots.

The thrills, they never stop. . .

Comments

[craig trader (from livejournal.com)]

Hmmm ... clip-on luggage skis would be useful in more places than just Maine, as long as they were easy to add and remove, and didn't take up much space when not in use. Unfortunately ... they'd have to be stored in the bag; if they were clipped to the outside of the bag, the luggage gorillas would just knock them off while throwing your bags around. Worse, TSA would probably consider them to be weapons ... never mind.

[readinggeek451]

Shouldn't be too hard to just build them in to the bottom (or one side), I would think. Metal would work, right? Or do they have to be wood? Just add a pair of parallel strips running the length of the bottom, curving up slightly around the adjacent side...this could work!

[craig trader (from livejournal.com)]

What they need is enough surface area to distribute the weight of the bag enough such that it doesn't sink into the snow (presumably ice and slush are not target problem areas). The skis will need to pivot so that the bag may be pulled efficiently, and the pivot point needs to connected be at the center of area of the skis, for even weight distribution.

Too bad LJ doesn't have whiteboard capabilities, because this REALLY needs a picture...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a clamshell toboggan on one face of the bag.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"It was the 50s (or 60s); that's what they did then."

It's when you say "that's what /we/ did then" that age really hits...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that . . .

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

I was trying to convey to someone not long ago what it felt like having the family gather to decide which room in the basement would serve as a fallout shelter in case the US needed to attack the Russian missiles.

There was some reason I needed stay with my aunt *in the city* for several days and got to walk around a neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore-- almost every house had lights on in the basement, and people were schlepping home huge amounts of sugar, flour, toilet paper ... and guns. Both my older brother and I got rechecks on all the rifles and guns in the house, and on how many bullets to save out, just in case. Oh, we had a such a lovely decade, the sixties ...

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't have that problem or worry even though we are about the same age. The elementary school that I attended in Florida was within 5 miles of an AFB and I LIVED near the back end of that base. (McCoy AFB, now Orlando International Airport) I just remember lots and lots of take-offs by very large planes (B-52s, I think).

I guess they figured "duck and cover" REALLY was not going to work for us.....

Susan

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

And fun when you find things from that time. Friends bought a house here in Lansing and the funny falling down shed in the back yard was really the entrance to a fall out shelter. It took a bit to fill it in.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

In the UK we just had the IRA putting bombs on train stations and in schools around that time. And hoaxers saying that they had tip-offs about bombs. We weren't bothered by the nuclear threat, the country is small enough that if it ever happened the chance of any of us living through the result was pretty small (and we had nowhere to dig basements anyway).

Oh, and we had the unions striking causing power cuts through the winter.

But we also had Bewitched, and Star Trek, and Doctor Who. It wasn't all bad...