Maps And Legends; Part 2

I love maps.

I can look at any map, even if I have never been to that location, with interest, noting the strange place and street names. The names of lakes and rivers and mountains. The topography. I'll even happily pore over subway maps.

I love maps so much that I have in the past already blogged about them--a similar blog about local place names on my old blog at Yahoo 360, and a blog about the White Mountains area last summer.

So, here I go again.

I get to see a fairly wide variety of maps at my job.

People come in to frame maps often--some as a souvenir of a place they travelled to or grew up in. Some as part of their job(the more utilitarian topographical map, sometimes), and often old, valuable maps. One of the older maps we have framed(could only touch the thing with cotton gloves and very carefully)was a map in German from the late 1700's. It wasn't even called Germany or Deutschland then.

I remember one enormous(after it was fully unfolded) map of all of Italy, showing all it's roads and highways and being amazed at the windy, twisty roads. They obviously were ancient paths that followed the mountains, but on the map they looked so much like convoluted intestines! I think I would be terrified to drive on those roads.

On Saturday, someone brought in a map of the area I live in, to have it framed. After we decided how to frame it, and the customer gave us a deposit and left, I spent another 15 minutes at least, looking over the map. I don't know why, but it intrigues me to look at the places that are familiar and have travelled through in a different way--spread out and illustrated in a map. Many of the road's names and place names go back to the earliest days when this place was settled and reflect a rural, historic character.

Names like ...

*Hog House Road

*Beaver River Road

*Skunk Hill Road

*Cucumber Hill Road

*Foddering Farm Road

*Nooseneck Hill Road (kind of creepy)

*Quaker Lane

*Sweet Sawmill Road

*Old Coach Road

Others have the names of long gone citizens who at one time were worthy of having a road named after them(they probably created or owned the land the road went through):

*Widow Sweet's Road

*Pardon Joslin Road

*Henry Brown Road

*Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry Memorial Highway (there's a mouthful--usually called only Rte. 1)

There are the Native American (Narragansett Tribe)place and road names:

*Quonochontaug(better known as "Quonnie" Beach)

*Escoheag

*Saugatucket Road

*Usquepaugh Road

*Wawaloam Road

*Ninigret Pond

*Yawgoo Pond

Then there are the just plain strange names:

*Biscuit City Road

*King's Factory Road

*Punchbowl Trail

*Jingle Valley Road

*Money Swamp Pond(there MUST be some story behind that one)

Some road names I would never want to have printed on my address label:

*Devil's Foot Road

*Purgatory Road

*Hell Hollow Road

....and the worst one(still have never learned the story behind this one!)...

... *Small Pox Trail!

My favorite street name in this area, however(and it makes me smile any time anyone tells me they live there) is Easy Street.

A short curved, connecting lane in the village of Peace Dale. Doesn't that sound like a great place to live?

Anyone else have some interesting place or street names from where they live?

Sunday Stealing: The ABC Meme

Just getting this in before Sunday is over. Something new for me--Sunday Stealing! Go here, if you want to play along, too.

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A – An advantage you have – artistic talent ( especially when it comes to playing Pictionary)
B – Blue or brown eyes – Brown
C – Chore you hate – washing dishes by hand
D – Dad’s name – John
E – Essential start of your day – Cawfee, of course....
F – Favorite color – orange shades
G – Greatest thing you’ve ever done that made you feel really good – Um, let's keep that between me and Mr. F, okay? ;-)
H – Habit you have – leaving things until the last minute
I – Issue you hate that the world tries to make you pursue – fitting my square peg into the round hole(learning more and more as I age to totally ignore that, though)
J – Job title – I don't even have one, really. Glorified Artistic Retail Laborer? Muddled Mom? Dog Walker. Poop Picker-Upper?
K – Kohls or Target – Kohl's, simply because there is one near us now...
L – Living arrangements – "our house..is a very, very, fine house, with one dog in the yard, life used to be so hard.... until I got lucky and married my soulmate and now have a nice little family unit of my own and a roof over my head..."
M – Music you like – Melody Gardot
N - Nicknames – Teena Beena, Tee
O – Overnight hospital stay – three times
P – Pet Peeve – drivers in cars absentmindedly doing stupid things while talking on their cell phones
Q – Quote that you like most – "Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time." ~ Steven Wright (the brain behind my blog title "I was trying to daydream..." quote, too...)
R – Right or left handed – right
S – Siblings – younger than me
T – Time you wake up – 6:15 or so....
U – Underwear – under where?
V – Vegetable you dislike – beets
W – What makes you run late – my blog and your blog!
X – X-rays you’ve had –too many, and quite a few in just the last six months
Y – Yummy food you make – Chicken Pomodoro(with a nice creamy vodka sauce)
and lastly....

Z – Zoo animal – Slow Loris

There was a Loris shown recently on R's Cute Overload page-a-day calendar--can't get the pop-eyed little critter out of my head.

Another thing I can't get out of my head is that Michael Jackson song "Rock With You" that R downloaded from iTunes and played a short while ago in the living room, along with her version of Jackson-style dancing which didn't quite work being that she had sticky feet on our bare wood floors.

Yes, R is fascinated with the life, music and demise of poor Michael Jackson and is interested in learning anything she can about him and I think she watched his videos over and over on Saturday because they were shown all day long on TV. (she was already a fan, after we gave her the 25th anniversary "Thriller" album last year)

She has invited a friend over tomorrow so they can watch a taped Michael Jackson special together. This is the friend who told R today on the phone that Jackson "was hot when he was black." Loved that!

Blah

This has been pretty much our weather forecast(below, and from today's Yahoo/Weather Channel site) for the last four weeks, and here we go again! Another week of gloom. It doesn't even feel or look like summer here. It feels like we have entered some alternate universe , where every morning starts off grey and gloomy and pretty much stays that way.
Yesterday was a shocker, though. It began and stayed mostly dry and sunny and pleasant--like a normal June day. Of course, this would have to be the one Saturday I worked. I got home then, after 5:00(it was busy at the shop, so at least it went by fast and I didn't even have a chance to look out the window and feel bad by seeing the sunshine), sat outside in the late afternoon sun with a glass of iced tea, and then about 20 minutes later, a cold fog rolled in and it was like that for the rest of the day. And here it is, my one weekend day off, and whaddaya know? It is completely cloudy yet again. So DEpressing.

Detailed Local Forecast:

Today: Cloudy skies with a few showers this afternoon. High 69F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

Tonight: Cloudy with a few showers. Low near 60F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

Tomorrow: A few showers early, followed by isolated thunderstorms later in the day. High 74F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

Tomorrow night: A few clouds from time to time. Low around 60F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy with a stray thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low 60s.

Wednesday: Scattered thunderstorms possible. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 60s.

Thursday: Scattered thunderstorms possible. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.

The thing that makes this worse is that ever since we got this new computer(don't know if I blogged about this much, but our old home PC died last weekend, and J promptly went and found one super cheap-used-on Craig's List the next day), I can't set the weather on my Yahoo homepage to my own location.

Instead it insists on mocking me by always showing me the always bright and sunny weather news from Sunnyvale, California(Yahoo's headquarters?), and I haven't been able to change it to my town as a default location for some odd reason.

We have plans for a little drive up to Trader Joe's in the afternoon, at least. We need to restock our fridge and cabinets, and at least food shopping there is fun and little different.

Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974

"Still scary after all these years..."

I had this site in my massive Favorites list on the old computer, and always meant to share this wickedly funny site here and just thought of doing it today. It was easy enough finding it again(makes me think I shouldn't bother with a Favorites list because I save everything and then eventually forget about it, anyway).

I guarantee you that you will laugh hysterically at these unappetizing photos of "diet foods" from the 70's and the accompanying commentary from the astute Wendy McClure(who even published a book based on this collection of vintage Weight Watcher;s recipe cards). I have scrolled through these a few times now, and it still brings tears to my eyes from laughing so hard.

So, take the tour, won't you? You won't regret it(and will be thankful that these kinds of nasty food concoctions are a thing of the past)

Treasured Tuesday

As Mr. F 's last day of school is tomorrow and R's is Thursday, this was my last Tuesday off (my day off always, during the work week) that I had to myself (until after Labor day, that is...).

In spite of the continuing oppressive gloom(lights on again in the house because it is so dark all day long!)and woke up yet again with a dull headache because of the low pressure, I have had a pretty good day-slightly indulgent and slow and easy-going--just how I like my days off to myself.
While I never got far with my intended project of cleaning up the desk and all my "piles" in the spare room, I did....

do two loads of laundry,

walked the dog twice(once in the mist and once under almost sunny skies),

got over to the vet's to buy a five month supply of heart worm tabs for the dog,

scooted into the market for eggs and dog kibble and plum tomatoes,

and prepared a meal of slow-cooked chicken thighs in the Crock Pot for tacos.

The indulgence part was ...

catching up with some blogs this morning,

roaming the aisles of Job Lot(where you can always find something you didn't know you needed at a good price),

and having a nice lunch of lobster bisque (although it would have been perfect with oyster crackers which we didn't have , and would have been better without the stale Ritz crackers I DID have in the cupboard) once I got home. I found these "Bar Harbor" brand from Maine cans of prepared Lobster Bisque and Crab Bisque at Job Lot. See? I didn't know before I went in there that I wanted- needed-cans of prepared creamy seafood soups.

My other indulgences--really only having to talk to the dog all day,

sipping a relaxed cup of tea and just staring out the window,

and having NPR radio on all day in the house as I putzed around.

From here on in for the summer with the "other" people around, there will be other noises and voices, so most likely I can't have that(NPR)on all day and be alone with my own interrupted thoughts.
Not that I mind having those "other" favorite people around--it is entirely different, though, when they are home every day. And, me being an introvert and perfectly happy being on my own and in my own brain , this is entirely normal to me, to feel this way.

At any rate, R is home now, and I will sit down and have a cup of tea and a few Almond Cinnamon cookies with her now.