I jumped the gun a little on announcing summer vacation. There was a committee report that I needed to submit on May 15. After that I was truly free. Even though I did not have classes to teach it still didn't feel like I was done with the school year. I doubt that my last work task had anything to do with it. Guess it doesn't really matter other than to say I was starting to get bored. That was bad given that I have the next three months off.
This week I did manage to sneak in a lot of reading time at my local Starbucks and catch a showing of The Avengers. Having seen the recent Marvel Comics movies (Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man I and II) I was expecting The Avengers to be good. It was definitely enjoyable. I still don't get Hulk. His movies looked awful so I stayed away and I wasn't impressed here either. Don't know, maybe I would feel different if I had exposure to the character beyond the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV show when I was a kid.
Friends from out of town were here at the end of the week. On Thursday we road tripped to
Wickenburg, AZ. What's in Wickenburg? For one, a telescope store. It's closed on Thursday so we could only peer in the windows. There is also the
Desert Caballeros Western Museum. Most of the museum was "eh" in my opinion. However they had scenes from Old Arizona set up in the basement. The scenes were replicas (as best as they could make) of life in Wickenburg around a hundred years ago. Some display areas were marked as "no photos", but it turns out that there are some photos of the town display on the museum's
website. Anyway, the scenes were from a store, a home, post office, saloon, and some other areas of town life. It was fun looking at what was for sale in the store. I saw many familiar products like Grape Nuts and Lea and Perrins sauce, among others. There was woman seated at an old Singer sewing machine. We had one of these at home when I was little, though my mother did not use it. There was also a little boy standing with his scooter that looked remarkably like the Razor scooters that kids ride around on today. The only real difference was the size of the wheels (and probably no plastic). What is old is new?
The home scenes were interesting, too. It struck me how little home furnishings have changed in nearly 100 years. Sure the materials and processes used to make things are different, but the shape and style of couches, chairs, tables, and beds haven't really changed. One big change is home entertainment. There was a record player (hand cranked) and paper books scattered about. No computers or iphones here. Other differences were the stove was wood or maybe coal fired and there was a pump for well water. Very different from today. I can't imagine having to maintain a stove for cooking or having to pump my own water. These are very foreign ideas to me. Dare I mention the lack of a water heater and shower?
The post office display had a stamp dispenser in it. Not very interesting except to note that the sales pitch was the stamps were sanitary. Yes, sanitary! What were other people doing with the stamps they sold that made them not sanitary? Okay, I don't want to know! Looking at the watch parts "across the street" was fun. I bet the watches in the display would work great if they were wound up. No batteries required!
When our walk through the museum was complete we had lunch at a place across the street (Jail Tree Sandwich Company) which is also right next to the Jail Tree. Yup, that was the town jail. No building was there, just the tree. Prisoners were just chained to the tree. I bet people were better behaved in the summer. Hot!
When we returned Thursday evening we had dinner at
San Tan Brewery. I've had their beer before, but this was the first time I've stepped foot in the brewery. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes doesn't sound all that excited until they are topped with a green chile gravy. Very yummy and very deadly I am sure. I tend to buy their Devil's Ale and finding Hop Shock a little too hoppy, I opted for the Gordo Stout which they do not bottle and sell in stores. That's disappointing because it was very, very tasty. I guess I can get a growler to go next time. We closed Thursday evening by bowling. Wow. I hadn't picked up a bowling ball in probably 15-20 years. I still stink so some things never change. At one point my score was 284. I'll leave it to you to figure out how many games that took.
Overall it was a fun day and evening.
