Rebecca needs a GPS, but will she ever buy one?
Well, I learned two important lessons about driving this weekend. One: I will never again visit the local state park after dark. I drove out there last night for a stargazing event. The astronomy society set up several huuuuge telescopes (some of them were taller than me) and pointed out different things in the night sky. I saw the dumbbell nebula and several stars that looked like single silver stars to the naked eye, but were actually multicolored starbursts through a telescope. I also went through the whole thing without ever breaking into "Stars" from Les Miserables, and I'm really impressed with myself for that. It was neat, but I'm not sure it was worth the drive. Narrow, winding roads through the forest in the pitch-dark are not my idea of fun. Ugh!
The second lesson was to never venture into the eastern part of my city without very good directions. We live in the western side of it, and since everything we need is so close by, we haven't ventured outside of our area much since we moved here. But this morning, I woke up early (on my day off! ugh!) and drove out to the Jewish cemetery for a memorial service. It was so cool. Three different volunteers from our temple stood at the gravesites of three early members and portrayed them talking about their lives. There was a fighter pilot who died in the Pacific in World War II, the first female factory-owner in the state (she made hats), and an activist who fought for school integration. I've always loved visiting cemeteries and wondering about the people whose gravesites I see, so I loved it.
The only downside to the event was the weather. It was early morning, but already so hot that I was in awe of the actors in their period costumes in the sun. I was just in jeans and a t-shirt and sweat was dripping off me! And it took me forever to get back home, because following my directions there in reverse was not a bright idea. I was lost for so long that I worried Muse Watson would run out of gas!
I definitely want to make another visit to that cemetery when the weather's a little cooler, though. It was one of the biggest and prettiest I've ever seen! I read an epitaph on one grave there that really struck me; it would be so fitting for Grandma: "If every soul whom she had done some act of kindness could come by her grave and lay a blossom there, then she would sleep beneath a wilderness of flowers."
The second lesson was to never venture into the eastern part of my city without very good directions. We live in the western side of it, and since everything we need is so close by, we haven't ventured outside of our area much since we moved here. But this morning, I woke up early (on my day off! ugh!) and drove out to the Jewish cemetery for a memorial service. It was so cool. Three different volunteers from our temple stood at the gravesites of three early members and portrayed them talking about their lives. There was a fighter pilot who died in the Pacific in World War II, the first female factory-owner in the state (she made hats), and an activist who fought for school integration. I've always loved visiting cemeteries and wondering about the people whose gravesites I see, so I loved it.
The only downside to the event was the weather. It was early morning, but already so hot that I was in awe of the actors in their period costumes in the sun. I was just in jeans and a t-shirt and sweat was dripping off me! And it took me forever to get back home, because following my directions there in reverse was not a bright idea. I was lost for so long that I worried Muse Watson would run out of gas!
I definitely want to make another visit to that cemetery when the weather's a little cooler, though. It was one of the biggest and prettiest I've ever seen! I read an epitaph on one grave there that really struck me; it would be so fitting for Grandma: "If every soul whom she had done some act of kindness could come by her grave and lay a blossom there, then she would sleep beneath a wilderness of flowers."