First, closing on the condo is tomorrow. Moving will be an incredible hassle. I am already sick and tired of packing. I called the gas company and discovered I will have to call again to get the service turned off at my current place. The electric company's major obstacle was a voice activated menu which, of course, didn't actually have options for what I was trying to do. I did the phone company on-line, which took me two attempts and additional frustration because it turns out you can't deactivate service at your current address after you activate it at your new address. Their default is basically that you don't have phone service for a week. I suppose they assume everybody has a cell phone, but it's just bloody stupid.
The Red Sox are not helping the stress level in my life one bit. Friday night was excellent, but last night was a roller coaster. I had high hopes in the bottom of the 10th, but, no, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez had to suddenly become mere mortals. The worst part of the whole thing was how absurdly late the game went. If my guys are going to lose horribly, they should do it well before midnight. And what earthly reason is there for a Saturday game to be played at night in the first place?
I spent today doing a Volksmarch in St. Mary's City. The weather was perfect for walking and more than half the route was on trails through the woods, which always makes for a pleasant autumn walk. Most of the historic buildings are closed on Sundays in October, however, so the historic part was pretty much limited to reading the interpretive signs and looking at the outsides of the restored structures. The signs did answer the main question any halfway sane visitor to St. Mary's City has - namely, what city? There were never more than a couple of hundred people, apparently. See, despite being the original capital of Maryland, it was really nothing more than a market town / administrative center for the tobacco plantations. And the town was a Catholic stronghold, so was pretty much abandoned when the Protestants took over Maryland (along with England under William and Mary). Nowadays, there is some development in surrounding towns, e.g. housing projects in Leonardtown, but Southern Maryland is still fairly rural. All of which means that St. Mary's City is a city only to archaeologists.
Finally, I'm still working on the Labrador travelogue, but I got around to finishing writing up my trip in July to Missouri and Illinois.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel