Yet more traveling

[eseme]

So, before my semi-yearly Christmas post I must make what is the second (and hopefully final) installment in the Eseme Had a Job Interview series. As usual, there will be very little information on the interview itself, as I don't want to jinx that.

Wacky travel hijinks follow.


The first half of the journey was uneventful. So uneventful that I noted to lissa_dora and her Dragon that "The trip back is going to have to be pretty exciting or my recap will be very short. The most interesting thing I saw was just down the road." And while this was a true statement, it was an ill-advised one.

The Tacky House was just that, a demonstration of how people with little taste and a lot of lawn space can really let the world know how much they love Christmas (using a lot of electricity). This one was a bit nicer than the Tacky House in my area, as the owners were old-school and used hundreds of those little plastic statues that light up (the collection had to have been amassed over decades). The Tacky House here in Maine has gone from excessive lights to excessive lights with about six of those annoying inflatable things.

But as tacky as the house was, I should never have said that. Anyone hearing me make such obviously prophetic statements should interrupt me or something. *sigh*

Things got more exciting nearly immediately, when lissa_dora's windshield was nearly broken by a huge chunk of ice flying off the roof of the SUV in front of us. We survived and made it to excellent Indian food.

The Dragon turns out to watch Wired Science, which is a sure sign of intelligence and coolness in a person. For those not in the know, it is a program on PBS on Wednesday nights. The people who bring you Wired Magazine now have an hour long TV show which lets you know about all the cool and geeky things happening in the world today. It's really neat. This week's episode included segments on how NASA didn't have a librarian in the 60's and is now in massive trouble trying to get to the moon again with very little documentation of the previous effort, and on how those Captcha's ("Type the phrase you see above to prove you are not a Spambot") can be used to help OCR (digitize) old books.

I had breakfast at the Ithaca Coffee Company, which has had the brilliant idea of making steamers out of eggnog for the holidays. Hot steamed eggnog is the best way to start the morning. Combined with a hot croissant and lemon curd, and I was in epicurean heaven.

I arrived in the village for my interview early, so I planned to have lunch at the local diner. Small towns have diners, yes? I drove down the main street. Pizza. A restaurant that didn't look open. I was fast approaching what looked to be the end of Main Street, and no diner... until I spotted it. Yes! Trackside Dining was, indeed, right next to the train tracks. The sign advertised "Fresh People, Friendly Food." This was a bit odd, but I decided I could put up with such people, and food should be friendly. Tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot tea, and a nice slice of carrot cake are indeed friendly. Plus I got to watch a train go by. I was left with a good impression of the town.

The neatest part of the interview is something I just have to share. Most people do not get the joke right away, but I have faith in my clever readers. The library has a very interesting program, called Tea and Stories. Someone reads a short story. Others have tea and some knit. It is a great idea for a small library, as any sort of book club is a problem, owing to the fact that the library will not be big enough to have more than two copies of any given book. A short story reading is a much better idea. And many of their readers are sharing their own work. The reader is given a mug after the event. The director wanted to show me the mugs.

"I know you'll like these"

I look at the mug.

One side says "tea"

The other side says "641.3372"

*blink*

"Wow! That's so cool! Where did you get these?" *I must have one*

"Here, you can have this one. No really, take it."

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! This is the best mug!

I also got food. The library's staff room had a table covered with food. And I mean covered. The staff brought in food, and apparently some of the community members brought food too. The director insisted I take some with me, pointing out that I wouldn't even make a dent in the selection. And indeed, one care package later and the table still looked full. "There, now you'll have provisions if you hit a blizzard."

I called my mother to let her know I was on the way. While New York got light snow that was practically rain, Maine got another ten inches of snow, on top of the ten inches we'd gotten the previous Sunday. Joy. I am not allowed to make statements about my journeys getting more exciting. Ever.

The worst of the snow turned out to be over, but there was still light snow and a lot of spray on the highways making visibility very bad. I drove slowly to make sure the snow would have ended by the time I hit Maine and the roads were cleared. What should have been a 6.5 hour drive was about 8.5 hours. This was no fun.

The only interesting thing to see was a town in Massachusetts that was glowing. No really, there was a very bright white light ahead of me on the right side of the road. Possibly aliens abducting people? I muttered "Why are you glowing... *reads sign* Amesbury?" It turned out to be a rather boring looking sports complex. No UFOs.

And now it has rained a lot, but there was so much snow that we'll probably still have a white Christmas.