|
Nine years ago October 16th was a Monday, my first day of work in the new job I'd moved to Rhode Island to take.
That's a bit backwards: I had searched for a job that would let me move
to Rhode Island or, at least, move closer to R.I. than living in upstate
New York -- for a while we were looking at the Amherst/Springfield area
of Massachusetts.
There was a director of computer services position open at a community
college not too far from there (actually, just across the border in Connecticut)
that I was seriously interested in (the salary was not very good at all
but the job seemed interesting) but they seemed to be tied up in bureaucracy
(and perhaps campus politics?) and while they were contemplating their
academic navels I kept searching and one day I found an interesting posting
on Monster.com for an experienced CICS/COBOL programmer who also had teaching experience to develop and teach computer courses for a small software company in Rhode Island.
Nine years -- time flies!
So... meanwhile... what's up with all of these pictures? |
 |
| Autumn colors along U.S. route 1 |
 |
| Driving up Rhode Island route 2 |
 |
| Hazardous waste drop-off |
|
RIRRC -- the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (the state agency charged with managing waste in an environmentally sound
manner) has periodic "Eco-Depot" days where they will set up
in different parts of the state to collect hazardous waste. This Saturday
they had a collection site in Charlestown, a neighboring township, so Nancy
and I brought over two cans of old oil-based paint, a can of deck stain,
and a container of weed killer. Thus, the above pictures are taken driving
west on U.S.1 and then north on South County Trail (R.I.2) and the third
picture shows a line of vehicles waiting to drop off their hazardous waste
behind the Charlestown Police Station/Town Hall. A simple procedure: when
you get to the head of the line, pop your trunk open (or drop the tailgate
on your pickup) and the workers will remove the waste, and then you drive
away.
Nancy and I then went to the near-by Charlestown beach area to look at
the ocean... |
 |
| It was fairly windy along the shore as perhaps you can see from looking
at the surf. |
 |
| The day kept switching from dark to sunny and back again. There were patches
of blue sky visible even when the sky above you was darkened with clouds
-- and masses of dark clouds even when you were in sunshine. |
 |
| The houses along the shore (most of them are vacation homes or summer rentals) appear cold and lonely -- there are months of cold winds ahead... but hurricane season is past and no storms hit R.I. this year. One of the years, however, another killer storm will hit. (There are emergency evacuation route signs in all of the coastal neighborhoods, showing the best route inland to escape a storm.) |
 |
I had seen a group of people in kayaks in one of the salt ponds on the
way to the beach -- I had planned to take some pictures on the way back
but they had paddled on out of sight (moral: take pictures as the opportunities
are available, don't wait until later, you may miss the shot).
We stopped at a roadside farm stand on the road back from the shore and
discovered a new apple -- the Melrose. It's a cross between a Red Delicious
and a Jonathan -- supposed to be good for eating and for baking. The guy
gave us one to try and the taste was good enough to prompt us to buy a
bag of them even though we had already bought a bag of Macouns. |
And we're almost home... that's the turnoff to our neighborhood just ahead
on the right.
We got to spend some more time together when we got home... eventually
I went off to the library, drop off books and pick out some new ones...
and made a very brief supermarket visit. Later in the afternoon I was sitting
in my den reading, planning to go for a run... and fell asleep reading...
|
 |
|
And that was Saturday at our house. Hope you had a good day too.
|
