Year 2, Day 306: Expect the Unexpected

What a day!  Keturah, Justin, and I took a low key field trip to the Indiana Historical Society today.  We went there last year, so we thought we knew what to expect.  And it was a cheap one with me getting in free, and they only costed $3.50 each.  Well, first of all, someone else organized it. But their family came down with strep throat, so I volunteered to be the point person.  Then, several other families said they were sick or had other things to do and didn't respond with a "no" until late last night or early this morning.  The IHS was expecting a school group of 40 kids.  When all was said and down, only one other family showed up and they were 30 minutes late to boot.  There was a total of 8 of us.  TOTAL.  The IHS adjusting accordingly, and said that it was ok, but I'm betting they were a bit annoyed, too.  But, I put my feelings aside for a bit so we could enjoy our "tour."  Well, we had this tour guide, but all she did was make sure we stayed on a schedule.  She ushered us through the 3 "You Were There" rooms that we could have gone through ourselves later.  The exhibits themselves were great.  One was the same as last year, Eli Lilly's lab.  One of the new ones featured a letter that was written from a husband to a wife after the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War.  That was pretty neat.  The third one was Italian prisoners of war that were held at Camp Atterbury, IN, during WWII.  I loved that one!  But we didn't have time to read any of the storyboards for any of the exhibits.  We were told to go back later.

We did get to try our hand at artifact preservation, but again, it felt rushed.  We ate lunch by ourselves in the "lunch" room.  Then we went back upstairs to check out the research library and I asked a bunch of questions about what is stored there and how does one do research.  They have almost 200,000 photographs, personal letters, and documents from Indiana but only 60,000 of them have been digitized.  They hold some genalogical information, but in general, they send those requests over to the Indiana State Library which is across the street. What is interesting is that there is this research library, within a block of the state library and then a few blocks north is the Indianapolis Public Library.  3 big libraries in one area!  Crazy!  Finally, after the library, we walked down to the canal, which is something I never have done before.  We just went a little ways though.  And on our way back to the van, what did we discover at the top of a set of stairs?  The 9/11 Memorial that I have been dying to see and didn't know exactly where it was!  Oh did I take some moments to linger and you will see why below.

Meanwhile, at home, the ceiling in the kitchen was fixed, while Grandma and Abishai had another great day together.  I know both of them are loving that one on one time.  And I'm loving not having to chase a crazy toddler around, lol.  I couldn't do that in Canada! (Leave Abishai all the time).  Sweet!  Daddy, Grandpa, and Benaiah were all at church for the ReChurch conference I mentioned yesterday.  Benaiah was a video switcher, Jared manned the book table and attended some workshops, and Gary did his main thing, speaking as a main speaker and/or a speaker in the workshops.  I teased Keturah when we went to the church that it was "take your daughter to work day" (which is a real thing, btw), because I wanted to take the middle kids and show them what Dad really does at work or when he's away at conferences.  They weren't very interested, but I took them anyway because I love to see Jared in action.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.  We recovered from the frustrating morning and crazy afternoon, put back all the stuff in the kitchen and waited for Abishai to wake up so we could eat dinner.  Jared and Benaiah will be home any time now (it's 8:45pm).  The kids are watching some video for history on Greek Myths and Veggietales about the stories in the Bible we are working through (on separate DVDs of course).  Actually today, I was able to make a connection with the Italian guy and Mussolini and Rome (Italy), and Roman Catholics, and Ancient Rome - all things we've studied in history - all connected.  I didn't take a picture of it, but he was in a chapel that the POW's had made using scrap materials and working on their free time.  They were treated well in that prisoner camp and didn't mind it because they would rather be safe than fight in Northern Africa. A friend of mine that we saw there that volunteers said that they spend a lot of time researching their characters and learning authentic things like real Italian!  The POW taught us "Ciao" for "hello/good-bye" which I already knew because we had friends that were missionaries in Italy.  And that's why I could spell it without looking it up.  Justin thought it was spelled "chow."

One lonely tomato that just ripened on the vine while in our "greenhouse" aka sunroom!  There's still two more!  These plants started as seeds in April when they were planted.  Yes, that means they have lasted months!  They didn't produce a lot, but they did something!

A different actor protrayed Eli Lilly today.  He was excellent.  I wish we had had time to ask questions.  In fact, we should have gone back!

And here's Eli's assistant talking about how they make pills.  Eli Lilly was the one pharmacist to standardize medications so you got the same amount of medication each time.  His assistant showed us how they roll out the pills and cover them in sugar or cinnamon or cocoa or a combination of them.

Bad lighting, but she read the beginning of the letter, then it transitioned to a video on the big screen where you heard most of the rest of her letter like you were in her head while she was imagining it. Then when the video stopped, she read the last little bit of the closing.  She was the same actor who played in the Ball Company presentation a year ago.  Sweet older lady.

Fixing up some paper with tears in it.

First you cover this one kind of paper with wheat glue (definitely not something a person very sensitive to wheat should be handling without gloves) and then you put it on the tear.  I think it's paper pulp.

Then you put other papers underneath and over the wood pulp and smash it down.

Then you add some blotting paper and a weight.  You then peel everything off and let it air dry for a few hours.  The trick is to use a lot of glue.

The demonstrator quickly went through the steps in the process of cleaning up an old document.  They don't totally restore it, but get it to the point where it slows down the process of detoriation.  For example, this document had some mesh behind it, maybe when it was placed on a sign, so they had to wash the document (paper was made differently then and was more sturdy).  Then the edges are peeled back into place.

Sometimes a background, acid free paper is placed behind the document for sturdiness after it has dried.  Then it can be archived.  It took 6 weeks for this document to be cleaned up.  It's slow, meticulous work.  Definitely not something the younger generation(s) are good at, and I'm including myself here, too.

Working on a document!

Ooooo, microscope scanners!  You can see how the peach skin we see with the naked eye is really pixelated when printed for this Green Lantern comic book page.

You were supposed to keep the microscope on the paper, but it was cool to see how the weave n Keturah's cotton knit shirt because it looks like someone knitted it!

There weren't that many interactive elements, but this one you could touch different sections of the screen and it would tell you about famous Hoosiers (Indiana people) or businesses or stories in all aspects of life like cultural arts or economics or politics, or even more recent events like horse shows!

The atrium.  It's really a hidden gem within the city.

I didn't take as many pictures today because I was trying not to disturb the actors and I felt so pressed for time.  But I managed to take one of these time pieces!

The canal goes through part of downtown Indianapolis.  I'm pretty sure it was connected at some point with the bigger White River, but I don't think it is now.  It's a pretty dirty canal with a few fish in it.  And the city dyes it green for St. Patrick's Day.  People come down here to feed the ducks, walk, take a run, pedal a pedal boat, ride on a gondola in the summer, etc.  It's pretty neat and I had never actually been done here before!

This interesting mural had bees painted on it!  You don't normally see bees in paintings of flowers.

Big fat fish.

The bridges and backdrops are pretty, no doubt.

Big monstrosity of a hotel in the background, the Marriot, across from the convention center and near Lucas Oil Stadium.  It's always busy down there.  Tons of conferences.  But the state capitol building and other big buildings are only a block to the east.  Indianapolis is just a smaller sized version of the biggest cities.  A bit more manageable though.  Manchester, NH, where I grew up, never felt like a city you could walk around downtown in because the Merrimack River cuts right through it.  And the riverbanks are lined with big mill and warehouse buildings.  There's maybe one big park in the middle.  Granted, Indianapolis is a city of 1 million and Manchester is city of 150,000.

Downstream towards the zoo.

Upstream back towards the Indiana Historical Society.

Justin wanted to cross the bridge to find out if there was a big fish or shark or something on the other side of the canal.  He was quite disappointed when he found out it was just a sewer drain.

Ta da! First trip to the canal.

Lots of fat ducks because people feed them.

Going up the staircase and BAM! the 9/11 Memorial was off to our right.  I was going up the stairs so we could get a picture of the front of the IHS building.  You should have seen how excited I was to just happen upon the memorial!

IHS

I remember when they discussed and brought these steel beams from the twin towers into town.  It was a big deal and I think I remember them having to do it with care and reverence as it is a memorial.

The young ones don't appreciate it as much as I do, but they tried.

The beams that were there on that fateful day.  Yes, just steel and concrete, but over 3,000 lives were lost.  We were all pretty shaken up ourselves.  Just a few blocks over, Jared was working in the city county building and they put that on lock down for a while.  Then they were told to go home.  Days, and weeks, and months, of clean up, and waiting with bated breathe to see if any more survivors were rescued.  New words like "terrorism" and Jihad started to be common.  I will never forget.

Beautiful memorial.  Simple, but powerful.  They also had 4 stone with a brief sentence about when and where each plane went down.

Charred remains, twisted metal.

Wow, melted metal from the fires.

Wow.

The pillars in the front there are what talk about the planes.

If only we could be one nation again.  Why can't we remember how we rallied 16 years ago?  Now we fight over whether or not to stand for the National Anthem or who could use what bathroom or the idiocy of the people in the oval office.  Come on.  One nation, under God, indivisible, and liberty and justice for all.

Chilling after another field trip day.  Oh, and she had to change her shirt this morning because she had bright neon writing and something else on her shirt that severely clashed with her pants.  The brighter and more colorful, the better.

"I missed you."  Abishai came over to me several times to hug me and say "I miss you."  We'll be home together tomorrow and then split up again for Bible Bowl competition on Saturday.

Early morning reading.

Fall colors on our street.

It's Thursday, garbage truck day!  And the garbage man honked his horn at us!  Nice young dude.

Ooooo, something different for the kids that like stickers/painting!

All the stickers are numbered and you still have to use your fine motor skills to get them in the right spots.

Stickers!  Just a different sort of gift idea than the typical stuffed animals and toys that the kids were looking at elsewhere in the IHS store.

Running up the ramp to go find Daddy at ReChurch.  All was quiet because they were in a main session.

My artist hard at work.

No, don't take my picture!  Yes, I will take your picture, honey, in your natural habitat doing your thing.  Gotta document EVERYTHING, you know?  (This is all sarcastic btw).

I told them, "Pretend that you have had to spend the whole day at the conference and you are completely bored."  Nailed it!

A full vendor hall (minus the crowds that are still in session.

Meanwhile, back at ye old homestead, this happened.  They didn't tear out the ceiling, but repaired it and other holes in the kitchen.

Pretty professional with the drape clothes and painters' tape.  But let me tell you, the fumes from this stuff is intoxicating.  I even ran the fan and opened windows for several hours!  At least the counters were mostly clean.  The roofers came back and fixed the roof they just did last week because the boss man said it wasn't done.

I'll take some better photos tomorrow.  It does look pretty but I don't care either way if the ceiling as a pattern to it or not.  This old lady of a house is getting so many makeovers, she will be unrecognizable soon!

 Well, kids are tucked in and I'm on my way there soon.  Good night.