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Some weekend activities -- 07/29/12




Saturday morning Nancy wanted to drive over to the Frosty Drew Nature Center at Ninigret Park (The nature center also has a small observatory.) They were having a lecture and slide show about the solar system and the universe and all that stuff. Well, it sounded interesting to me, so I rode along... and I was glad I did. The guest speaker who presented the lecture was Dr. Giovanni Fazio (a noted astrophysicist and senior physicist for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and astronomy lecturer at Harvard). It was a fascinating talk, both entertaining and informative. I thought I kept fairly up-to-date (at a layman's level) with the solar system and its neighborhood, but throughout his talk I kept learning new stuff. Very cool.

Ninigret Park, by the way, is a fascinating place itself. During World War II it was a Naval Air Station ("Atlantic Airport") as an auxiliary to Ouanset Naval Air Station. In recent years, the federal government unloaded the land and part of it has become a park and the rest has become a wild life refuge. The part provides fishing, recreation, camping, hiking, etc. -- plus the nature center and observatory -- and is also the home for music festivals, annual visits by the Big Apple Circus, and the annual Charlestown Seafood Festival, etc. (This year's Seafood Festival starts in just a few days. Yummy!)

In addition to the lecture, there was a large gathering of some kind going on ("Sea Star Marketplace") with arts and crafts and antiques -- along with suitable activities for kids...

And as we wandered about we came upon a young woman singer and guitar player -- Heather Maloney -- performing a series of songs she had composed and written herself.

Nancy and I both enjoyed her performance. She has a good voice and her performing talents are matched by her song writing talent.

She had two different CDs for sale. Nancy asked me which one I thought we should buy and I said that we should get them both... so we did.

Later in the afternoon, after Nancy and I got back home, Jill and I went out and walked a couple of miles around the neighborhood. Her legs and feet were too tired from Friday night's ten miles of running for her to want to run. However, she later went out for another walk. A thunderstorm moved in quickly and Nancy called Jill's cell phone to see if she would like a ride home. Jill was almost a mile away at that point, so she said yes. Nancy got to her just as it began to absolutely pour.

Today Jill and I walked over to the town track (about 3/4 of a mile from here) and did some walking there. Jill concentrated on walking and stretching. I alternated running (jogging) and walking. That was interesting: my running laps were done in 2:41 for the first one (then walk a lap), 2:19 for the second, (then walk), and 2:03 for the third. Jill and I walked a lap together and then another one (during which we jogged together for around half of the lap, but I didn't bother to time it). And then we walked back home. Thus, just a bit under four miles of mostly walking. (Later on I put in an hour or so of fighting weeds in the backyard.) Eventually I am going to get back into shape.






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