What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Well, here it is September, and I didn't post all last month. This was partly due to an "upgrade" in technology that resulted in lack of internet access up at our cabin in the Adirondacks, where I ordinarily have lots of time to blog.

What happened is, we had been using Verizon's "MiFi" device to get internet access, which it accomplished fairly well, albeit somewhat slowly. Lo and behold, when July rolled around, I found I was due for an upgrade on the device, so I ordered a new MiFi that worked for not just 3G, but 4G, which we have in our area of New Jersey. I carefully asked the Verizon representative whether it would still work in non-3G areas, e.g., our cabin, and he assured me it would. So I ordered it and we took it up to the cabin and guess what? The old one worked MUCH better. The new one has only enough energy to pull in the New York Times on my Kindle, which is, of course, black-and-white, mostly text. When it comes to Blogger or Facebook, with all the graphics, forget about it. It just times out.

So we ordered a little antenna for it and an adaptor cord that connects to the MiFi. It improved access slightly, but still not enough. So we ordered a BIG antenna, which is supposed to work particularly on the 800 mhz wavelength that we have at the cabin. Guess what? It needed an adaptor to attach to the other adaptor that attaches to the MiFi. So we ordered that and it has arrived. I'm hoping that on our next trip we will be back to getting internet at the cabin and all will be well. We did manage to get down to the laundromat to do some laundry a couple of times and used their wifi, but that is not a long-term solution!

For anyone who wondered how we made out during Hurricane Irene (or I should say Tropical Storm Irene by the time it hit New Jersey), we were remarkably lucky. At home we just had a few downed branches and local flooding. Our basement remained blessedly dry and our power did not go out. Our friends in the next town did have water in their basement and lost power for 3 days. So we just got lucky. We were equally lucky up at our cabin, where the devastation that hit Vermont and farther up in the Adirondacks apparently skipped our area nearly entirely.

Anyway, now that I'm back here and it is the first week of school, I thought I would write the kind of essay teachers always used to make us write during the first week of school: "What I Did On My Summer Vacation." Since I am not trying to get into college, I don't have anything really impressive to tell you about, such as working in Guatemala or Somalia building homes or designing clean water systems for a village; or some kind of great internship at a prestigious company that would give me a leg up on the competition to get into an Ivy League school, as kids nowadays have to do. In fact, my summer was much more like what my summers were like in my youth when I used to read a lot, play Monopoly with my friends and hang out at the town pool. (None of which would have helped me get into college, but thankfully standards were lower then).

So. During August we basically relaxed a lot at the cabin on the weekends, went to Lake George for a dip, read a lot, and walked the dogs. The biggest summer events were attending the Washington County, NY Fair, and car shows. We actually went to two: the first was a general antique/custom car show held in Ticonderoga, NY, in their attractive town park by the waterfall where the waters of Lake George tumble into the LaChute River on their way to Lake Champlain. The other was held here in New Jersey at the Parsippany Hilton and was a Saab Owners Convention. We had never been to one, since they've usually been held in Minnesota or some other faraway place, but since it was right in New Jersey, how could we resist?

Here are some scenes from the Ticonderoga show:

A '57 Chevy I believe...not the classic with the "rocket launchers" in front; it's a lesser model but quite nice.
I liked this Jaguar...
Nice Mercury.
Great Corvette.
Chevy Nova. I think a friend of mine had this same model.
An Oldsmobile that is an ode to chrome.
T-Bird.
Another Nova.
A hot rod.
Two vintage Saabs at the Saab convention. The one on the right is similar to our '85 but is a few years older.
Another view....
Another Saab arriving at the show (we attended on its first day so not everyone was there yet).

Some oldies that are still goodies.

An old Saab station wagon!
Another vintage Saab. I don't know my years very well, it is probably early '70s.
A snazzy Saab Sonnet from the late '60s or so. They were the sporty Saab style.
That's me in the passenger seat, getting a ride in a '73 Sonnet. You can't tell but I'm wearing a Saab visor that I bought as a souvenir.
I also had a ride in this one. They were offering free rides in vintage Saabs as well as in some new ones. I still like the old ones best so didn't bother riding in the new ones.
This one and the next are both nice Sonnets, different years.

One last vintage beauty...

As for the County Fair, we went on a perfectly beautiful late August day and saw nearly all the sights. There were horses...
Dog agility contests...
Prizes for canned goods...
and arts and crafts...
We saw goats...
And sheep...

Roosters and chickens...
Some ducks...
and pigs...
and lots of cows. This one doesn't want to go where this little girl is trying to make it go!



And of course, lots of food and carnival rides!


Last, but certainly not least, we enjoyed the scenic beauty around us, and did some relaxing on our deck at the cabin!





I'll be back soon with, hopefully, a post that actually talks about issues...politics...the President...the Economy...or some other weighty combination of all of these. I am still in summer brain mode and have to confess I did not even watch the debate among the eight Republicans who want to be president. All but two make me want to run screaming or slit my wrists at the idea of them possibly winning. Romney and Huntsman are equally Republican but not quite as crazy. However, I have not really studied their beliefs or ideas, and that opinion may change radically once I do!

Hope you enjoyed your summer. I am already starting my Seasonal Affective Disorder a little early - must be all this rain. I can't believe it's September already. Where did this year go?