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Save the Bay -- 11/24/09 |
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I drove up to Providence this morning for a meeting of the Bay Colonies chapter (i.e., Rhode Island and a some neighboring parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts) of the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development). (And, believe me, that drive up I-95 during the later part of the morning rush hour certainly made me greatly appreciative of working from home!) The meeting was held in a meeting room at the headquarters of Save the Bay -- that boomerang shaped building that you can see in this GoogleMaps satellite picture...
The Save the Bay building is built over a former garbage dump. The land has been reclaimed, the ground tested for toxins (it is safe, but they have added piping to bleed off methane gas and then sealed the ground), a breakwater built to protect the shore from storm erosion and the shore has been planted with various native plant species that prevent erosion. The building (which contains administrative offices and laboratory space, plus two classrooms and a meeting room that can be rented -- which is what the ASTD does) has solar panels on the south side of its roof and the north side has roof plantings, plus there is an earthen berm on the north side of the building (which shelters the building from wind) that is also planted, which eases rain and snow runoff to minimize erosion.
Today was a very cloudy day with occasional rain and some fog on the bay. No pleasure boats out on the water today, just commercial shipping.
I snapped these pictures and then headed back home after the meeting. I passed a Dunking Donuts on the way and stopped to grab a coffee and a donut to keep me company on my trip (about 32 miles, perhaps 40 minutes to get home compared to probably 50 minutes to get there earlier in the morning). So there I am driving home, enjoying my coffee and donut, when suddenly I realize that there is something hard in my donut... oops... it's a tooth. At first I thought it was the front tooth I've been worried about (a quick summary: this year the crown broke, had a temporary crown put it, temporary crown broke, had permanent new crown put in, the pin holding it in place broke, had temporary crown put it, had new permanent crown put in, the permanent crown has shifted, I have an appointment in early January to have it replaced by an implant -- but I keep worrying that it will break off before then) but it turned out to be a lower left molar. That was just a crown that came off and I saw my dentist this afternoon and he cemented it back into place. I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow (Wednesday) to get some cooking done for Wednesday night when we will have a bunch of people (mostly family) over for food and drink and socializing. Although the past two Thanksgiving gatherings were at Nancy's sister Sue's house in Connecticut, Sue has finally recovered her sanity and this year we will again be renting the parish hall at Nancy's church. [Note to newer readers: Nancy is from a ten child family and counting her mother there are four generations attending (that is, we have nieces and nephews who are adults with children), so even though not everyone is able to be here every year, it is quite easy to have a lot of people show up.]
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