Sunday, June 24, 2007
Yesterday I volunteered at the Kingston Library. They were starting up the summer reading program, with a story-telling magician, crafts, a speech by the mayor, and ice cream. Little kids. Looked like 9 or 10 and under, maybe. One of my adoptive pen-pal boys, from the picnic a few weeks ago, had brought his little sister, and I think he might have a crush on me. He and I did some intricate paper-folding.
I usually don't do too well in a room full of small children, too much random activity going on around me scatters my brain, but the pen-pal picnics and this program weren't too bad. They kept the kids organized and directed, so I was able to appreciate them.
I almost didn't find the library. I had the address, but as usual, few of the buildings on the street had visible numbers. It was a very residential street. I finally just parked well beyond the number I was looking for, and walked back up the street. Turns out it was a building I had rejected as obviously abandoned. It's a huge very old brick building, surrounded by blacktop and a high, badly rusted, bent and leaning chain link fence covered in weedy ivy. I believe it was once the Sojourner Truth School. Gates in the fence were all chained closed. Took me a while to find the one open gate, the one to the parking lot.
Inside the fence, the building is in good condition, and inside the building, it's nice. I'm glad. I hate to see old buildings torn down just because they're old. I do wish the city would do something about that fence, though. I guess they think they need it - I drove past the building today, and the gates to the parking lot were chained. High graffiti neighborhood, maybe?
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I bought a new flatbed scanner today. The old one is about 15 years old, I swear, and takes forever to do even a B&W prescan. I used to go make a cup of tea when I was scanning something, and would actually go to the print shop in the village if I needed more than two pages copied. I was never unhappy with the quality, just the time. Also, Jay had a habit of discarding directions (probably the ONLY paper he ever threw out, I guess he considered it insulting), so I never knew what half the options meant, and was afraid to change any settings. This one is fast, and I HAVE THE BOOK!
I'm happy. Gonna scan in lots and lots of old photos.
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Showing posts with label RSVP penpal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RSVP penpal. Show all posts
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Monday, June 04, 2007
1282 'Nother Pen-Pal Picnic
Monday, June 4, 2007
I went to another pen-pal picnic today. At last Friday's picnic, the organizer mentioned that something like fifteen of the forty-some senior pen pals wouldn't be able to make it to this group's picnic, mostly due to illness, so she needed volunteers to substitute. I volunteered.
Again, this is a program where elementary school kids and senior citizens write to each other over the school year, as part of the children's composition classes. Home addresses, photographs, and last names are not traded - all letters go through the program.
The kids are terribly disappointed when their pen pal doesn't show up at the picnic. They often have little handmade gifts for them, and are looking forward to finally meeting them. When the senior doesn't show, it's like a rejection. What bothers me is that the organizers don't screen the seniors. I think that the ability to attend the picnic should be a criteria. When you assign a kid a senior who's bedridden or house-bound, it's a boon to the senior, but guarantees disappointment to the child. It stinks. Just my opinion. There are several ways that could be handled better.
Anyway, I got assigned two nine-year-olds today, a sweet and pretty girl whose mouth runneth over (I not only know the sleeping arrangements in their house, and the names of her cats, but also the names of all ten kittens and who adopted each of them), and a boy who didn't stop running (thank goodness he was wearing a bright yellow shirt, so I could spot him).
It was 62 degrees and pouring cold rain the whole time. Luckily we had a huge tent canopy. Some of the kids had jackets, but my boy (and several others) was dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts. He wouldn't stay under the tent and kept running around in the rain. I quickly gave up trying to corral him, and just hoped the running would keep him warm.
The picnic was at the Snyder Estate, and we got to tour the Widow Jane Mine and learned about the local cement industry at the Cement Industry Museum, followed by the usual hot dogs, bagged carbohydrates, Koolaid, and ice cream.
This bunch of kids seemed much younger, less sophisticated, than Friday's group. Their conversation and the way they related to each other seemed more naive. Friday's kids were from a school in the city (the very small city) of Kingston. These kids were from a village a few miles south of Kingston.
There was one girl who blew my mind, though. I have to wonder if her mother saw her go out the door. She was wearing a strappy top with sequins across the top and three tiers of long fringe, more suitable to clubbing than a school picnic. And lipstick. She's nine!
Oh, well. I guess every class has one.
.
I went to another pen-pal picnic today. At last Friday's picnic, the organizer mentioned that something like fifteen of the forty-some senior pen pals wouldn't be able to make it to this group's picnic, mostly due to illness, so she needed volunteers to substitute. I volunteered.
Again, this is a program where elementary school kids and senior citizens write to each other over the school year, as part of the children's composition classes. Home addresses, photographs, and last names are not traded - all letters go through the program.
The kids are terribly disappointed when their pen pal doesn't show up at the picnic. They often have little handmade gifts for them, and are looking forward to finally meeting them. When the senior doesn't show, it's like a rejection. What bothers me is that the organizers don't screen the seniors. I think that the ability to attend the picnic should be a criteria. When you assign a kid a senior who's bedridden or house-bound, it's a boon to the senior, but guarantees disappointment to the child. It stinks. Just my opinion. There are several ways that could be handled better.
Anyway, I got assigned two nine-year-olds today, a sweet and pretty girl whose mouth runneth over (I not only know the sleeping arrangements in their house, and the names of her cats, but also the names of all ten kittens and who adopted each of them), and a boy who didn't stop running (thank goodness he was wearing a bright yellow shirt, so I could spot him).
It was 62 degrees and pouring cold rain the whole time. Luckily we had a huge tent canopy. Some of the kids had jackets, but my boy (and several others) was dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts. He wouldn't stay under the tent and kept running around in the rain. I quickly gave up trying to corral him, and just hoped the running would keep him warm.
The picnic was at the Snyder Estate, and we got to tour the Widow Jane Mine and learned about the local cement industry at the Cement Industry Museum, followed by the usual hot dogs, bagged carbohydrates, Koolaid, and ice cream.
This bunch of kids seemed much younger, less sophisticated, than Friday's group. Their conversation and the way they related to each other seemed more naive. Friday's kids were from a school in the city (the very small city) of Kingston. These kids were from a village a few miles south of Kingston.
There was one girl who blew my mind, though. I have to wonder if her mother saw her go out the door. She was wearing a strappy top with sequins across the top and three tiers of long fringe, more suitable to clubbing than a school picnic. And lipstick. She's nine!
Oh, well. I guess every class has one.
.
Friday, June 01, 2007
1277 PenPal Picnic; Headboard
Friday, June 1, 2007
[Edit - Oops. Changed "May" to "June" above. Ignore.]
I went to dinner with FirstWoman and then Mensa games night last night. I learned yet again that high scores on IQ tests do not correlate with common sense.
When I got home about 11 pm I found a phone message from Roman, saying that he had a favor to ask of me. I called him back, and it turned out that he had found a secondhand headboard he liked, and wondered if I could help him get it home with my minivan. His original idea had been the back seat of his car, but it didn't fit.
Told him I had a picnic to attend Friday morning, but could head over his way early afternoon.
This morning I went to the RSVP Pen-Pals Picnic and got to meet the kid I've been corresponding with all school year. The senior pen-pals of several of the children were unable to make it to the picnic. That's terribly disappointing for the kids. Like a rejection. So I started picking up extra kids, and they invited more to share "their" senior, and I ended up with a small herd. Again, like last year, I had a ball. They're all such good kids. And I'm more active than most of the other seniors, so can I get down in there and dirty. I had a bunch of boys on the beach teaching me how to skip stones (I still can't do it, my rocks sink like, well, rocks), and they taught me the meaning of all the dirty words carved into the picnic tables. In exchange, I taught them about poison ivy.
The picnic was over at 1:30, and I headed over to Roman's, got there about 2:20, and we went to pick up the headboard. It's an old-fashioned "bookcase" style, queensize, and there's a second mirrored piece that fits on top. He took a lot of kidding from me about that part ("ceiling next?"). It's a good thing he asked me to help, 'cause that muttha was HEAVY! He'd never have been able to get it into the house and behind the bed alone.
We finished all that about 4:30, and he suggested dinner, but I thought 4:30 was a bit too early. I know he rents movies a lot, so I asked if he had any he hadn't watched yet, maybe we could watch a movie then have dinner, but he didn't have any, but the library is just around the corner, so we could go pick something out. Ok. But then he got a call from a client, so I washed dishes while he was on the phone, then we took his laptop to the library with us so we could use the WiFi so I could show him some videos I'd found, then etc. etc., and by the time we picked out a movie, it was 6:30.
So we went directly from the library to the diner on Main in Pok, across from Uno's. It's one of those Greek diners with the monster menus, but the food was unexpectedly good. Terrific, even.
Then we went back and watched the movie. "Broken Flowers". We chose that one because we didn't know anything about it except that Bill Murray was praised for it. Watched it. Still don't know anything about it. We were sitting on the sofa (a respectable 18 inches apart and no touching) and we both kept nodding off, but the movie was very strange. One of those things you have to think about.
And now I'm home.
.
[Edit - Oops. Changed "May" to "June" above. Ignore.]
I went to dinner with FirstWoman and then Mensa games night last night. I learned yet again that high scores on IQ tests do not correlate with common sense.
When I got home about 11 pm I found a phone message from Roman, saying that he had a favor to ask of me. I called him back, and it turned out that he had found a secondhand headboard he liked, and wondered if I could help him get it home with my minivan. His original idea had been the back seat of his car, but it didn't fit.
Told him I had a picnic to attend Friday morning, but could head over his way early afternoon.
This morning I went to the RSVP Pen-Pals Picnic and got to meet the kid I've been corresponding with all school year. The senior pen-pals of several of the children were unable to make it to the picnic. That's terribly disappointing for the kids. Like a rejection. So I started picking up extra kids, and they invited more to share "their" senior, and I ended up with a small herd. Again, like last year, I had a ball. They're all such good kids. And I'm more active than most of the other seniors, so can I get down in there and dirty. I had a bunch of boys on the beach teaching me how to skip stones (I still can't do it, my rocks sink like, well, rocks), and they taught me the meaning of all the dirty words carved into the picnic tables. In exchange, I taught them about poison ivy.
The picnic was over at 1:30, and I headed over to Roman's, got there about 2:20, and we went to pick up the headboard. It's an old-fashioned "bookcase" style, queensize, and there's a second mirrored piece that fits on top. He took a lot of kidding from me about that part ("ceiling next?"). It's a good thing he asked me to help, 'cause that muttha was HEAVY! He'd never have been able to get it into the house and behind the bed alone.
We finished all that about 4:30, and he suggested dinner, but I thought 4:30 was a bit too early. I know he rents movies a lot, so I asked if he had any he hadn't watched yet, maybe we could watch a movie then have dinner, but he didn't have any, but the library is just around the corner, so we could go pick something out. Ok. But then he got a call from a client, so I washed dishes while he was on the phone, then we took his laptop to the library with us so we could use the WiFi so I could show him some videos I'd found, then etc. etc., and by the time we picked out a movie, it was 6:30.
So we went directly from the library to the diner on Main in Pok, across from Uno's. It's one of those Greek diners with the monster menus, but the food was unexpectedly good. Terrific, even.
Then we went back and watched the movie. "Broken Flowers". We chose that one because we didn't know anything about it except that Bill Murray was praised for it. Watched it. Still don't know anything about it. We were sitting on the sofa (a respectable 18 inches apart and no touching) and we both kept nodding off, but the movie was very strange. One of those things you have to think about.
And now I'm home.
.
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