Talking to Myself Again

Sierra Club Potluck and Emergency Room Visit

mood: nervous
music: Gypsy Guerrilla Band - Seneca/June Apple

(No, it wasn't food poisoning.)

Last night was the Fall Potluck of the Sangamon Valley Group, the local group of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. Dawn and I have both sent money to the national organization in years past, but I've been wanting to get involved with the local chapter. This seemed like a good opportunity, since we could bring along Lando rather that trying to find a babysitter.

The event started off a bit slowly. We went to the council ring nearest to the Lincoln Memorial Gardens Nature Center and found that we were the first ones there. However, there was a pile of firewood and a jug of water nearby for the campfire, so we figured we were at the right spot. Lando climbed up on the stone ledge and began walking/running around it, as he does whenever we come to a circle. (It seems likely he'll run track, unless he decides that ovals don't count.) Eventually, of course, he fell of of the stone ledge and onto the stone floor of the circle. Ouch! However, he caught himself pretty well and was okay.

A few minutes later, just as the first people started showing up, he tripped while running and sprawled onto the rock floor. Double ouch! This time it was several minutes before he finally calmed down.

There were a few problems with the evening. First, it was dark and cold. Second, nobody had brought matches with which to start the campfire! Someone eventually located an ancient book of matches in their car, and they managed to get the campfire going in just one try, so we finally had a bit of heat and light!

Eventually about 10 people showed up. Sustainable Springfield was putting on an event that same evening (a "tour of the first US Green Building Council Certified Silver LEED building in Springfield"), so it is likely that some people were there who would otherwise have been at the potluck.

Dawn had made broccoli cheese casserole and caramel brownies, both of which are excellent! We had a good time chatting with the Sierra Club members, talking about (among other things) "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and the Illinois Clean Car Bill. I bought a 2008 Sierra Club desk calendar (I'm always blown away by the photography in their calendars) and grabbed a membership form. (I also did the photography geek thing and took a group photo, which I'll try to post soon.)

Update: Here's a photo of the group:

When we got home about 8:30 or so, Dawn looked at Lando and saw that he had a huge bump on his forehead! Apparently, when he tripped and fell that second time, his head thumped pretty hard on the stone floor of the circle. We hadn't noticed it because it was so dark out there. That had been 2 hours earlier and he still had a big lump, so we decided to take him to the emergency room, just to be safe.

Lando went to the ER 3 times in his first 14 months of life, but we had managed to go 20 months without a repeat visit, so I guess we were due.

Lando was very good during the various examinations at the ER. He let them take his temperature with a thermometer in his mouth (hurray!). He let them check his pulse and blood pressure. He let the doctor look in his mouth, nose, and ears. He was perfect while they were examining him.

It was during the waiting time that he ran around like a madman! It was way past his bedtime, and when he gets tired, he gets hyper.

Eventually a doctor examined him and asked whether he had blacked out or vomited, etc. He said that the only way they could do a CAT scan would be by sedating Lando. Since he didn't show any signs of serious injury, it wasn't worth the risk of sedating him. The doctor said just to partially wake him at some point in the middle of night. If we could do that, then that would mean he was fine.

As a result, we got home well after 11:00 PM and Lando didn't go to sleep until well after midnight. Zzz.... Dawn checked on him about 3:30 AM and he was fine. Unfortunately he didn't sleep in this morning, waking up about 7:30. Zzz....

Goodbye Summer! Fall is Here

music: Clandestine - Miner's Lullaby

Well, the nice weather seems to have ended. Today was cold and rainy. Tomorrow is forecast to be cold and rainy. Wednesday is forecast to be cold and rainy. Thursday is forecast to be cold and rainy. Friday... well, you get the idea.

Actually, I just checked weather.com and they're forecasting no rain for tomorrow. That would be nice, because tomorrow evening we're planning on going to the Fall Potluck & Hike of the Sangamon Valley Group, the local chapter of the Sierra Club. We've never attended a meeting of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, but this seems like a particularly good opportunity to go, since we could bring along a 2-year-old without causing too much disruption, which means that we won't have to get a babysitter. Assuming that it doesn't get rained out, there will be a potluck picnic, hike, and campfire at the Lincoln Memorial Garden & Nature Center. (Incidentally, that's where Dawn & I were married back in September 2000, although it was at a different fire ring.)

Houses and Trains and Bears! Oh My! (And Tornadoes!)

One of the ironies of having an online journal is that, when my life is busy, I have no time to write about it; and when I have time to write, it's probably because there's not much going on in my life! That's just my way of saying, "Yes, I'm way behind on posting anything here." So let's start getting caught up!

Bears! (and Other Animals)

On Wednesday, March 1, we went to Henson Robinson Zoo. I had taken the afternoon off to babysit Lando while Dawn went to the doctor, and since the weather was nice, we decided to go to the zoo after he woke up from his nap. It was very nice weather, but unfortunately we failed to take into account the fact that, during the winter, the zoo closes at 4:00 on weekdays. It was 3:30 when we got there. Oops! Oh well, we figured Lando probably wouldn't put up with much more than that, so we went in anyway.

Orlando didn't pay too much attention to most of the animals, but he did find the monkeys quite interesting -- and vice versa, as you can see.

There was one unexpected benefit of showing up late -- a backstage pass to see the bears! When we got to the bears' exhibit, they were gone -- one of the zookeepers had just put them inside for the evening. She saw us, called us over, and let us into the building where the bears stay at night (at least during cold weather).

Mandy

She had just fed them, and we were close enough we could have reached out and touched the bears (if we were stupid enough to do so)! I asked whether they had been named and was told that the female is named Mandy, while the male is named Booboo -- at which point I said, "I'm so sorry, Booboo."

Booboo

One advantage of going to the zoo during cool weather is that many of the animals that are normally lethargic during the hot weather are quite active. The wolves, cougars, and even the wolverine were all out and running around. The wolverine in particular was extremely suspicious of me (or of my camera). He would stop and look at me; I would raise my camera; he would run away; I would lower my camera; he would come back; we'd repeat our dance all over again. Here's the best picture I got:

More zoo pictures are available in the photo gallery.

Houses!

On Saturday, March 4, we went to the Greater Springfield Home and Builders Show, held each year at this time in the Prairie Capital Convention Center. This is not to be confused with the Home Expo Building and Remodeling Show, held each year at this time in the Orr Building at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The former has apparently been running for 27 years. The latter started up a few years ago, operated by the Springfield Area Home Builders Association. (The SAHBA also does the Showcase of Homes each year in early summer. This year they'll be showing homes in Centennial Park Place June 16-25.) A few years ago they held their shows on the same weekend, in a spirit of cooperation. Nah, they didn't even try to claim that -- each show just ignored the existence of the other one. Luckily, the last couple of years they've run on different weekends. This year the Home Expo was held on February 24-26, while the Home and Builders Show was held on March 3-5. We had too much going on the first weekend, so we skipped that show and made it to the second one instead.

We were hoping that we would buy a house last Spring. Between being tired from having a new baby and Dawn not having a job, that plan got pushed back. We're now hoping that maybe we can buy a house this Fall, but.... Well, we'll see.

Trains!

On Sunday, March 5, we went to the Train Fair in the Illinois Building at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. When we were getting ready to go to this show, I was thinking that it seemed like the wrong time of the year. We went to last year's show, and it didn't seem like it had been a year ago. Plus I was thinking that last year's show had been held in the Orr Building, which is larger.

Sure enough, it turns out that this was a different train show than the one we had attended before. The other, called the Great Western and Atlantic Train Show, is held in early October and is larger. The Train Fair is much smaller and features more swap meet type stuff. In other words, it's a train show for model railroad enthusiasts by model railroad enthusiasts -- specifically, the Springfield Model Railroad Club.

Orlando, as expected, was fascinated by much of what he saw, although I think he found the little train that you could ride on to be the most interesting part, by far.

In addition to buying some train-themed T-shirts (one can never have too many T-shirts, apparently), I did make one purchase at the Train Fair. One of the tables had some old train magazines for sale. On top of the stack was a a manual for an old HO scale car racing set. I did a double-take when I saw it, because I recognized it!

The "Aurora Model Motoring Service Manual for Thunderjet 500 D.C. Motor Sets" was, as best as I can tell, the exact same racing set that I had when I was growing up. It even included the tiny folded insert that explained how to oil your racecar's motor! I quickly paid $3 to own a copy of a manual to a racing set that I know longer own.

Isn't nostalgia wonderful?

More train fair photos are in the photo gallery (and more will be added soon).

That's all for now! (Oh, the tornadoes? I'll talk about those later. The short version is we're fine and the house is undamaged.)