Thursday, October 30, 2008

Studebaker Day

Sunday October 26th Pop, Sam, Henry and I went to Studebaker Day at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline. The video shows a panoramic view of the show in the late morning. More cars arrived as the day went on.

The weather was perfect, close to 70 degrees, and sunny. There was a DJ booth playing music from the late 50's through the 70's to bring back that old-time feeling. Ah, when was the last time you heard Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips? Count yourself fortunate if it has been a very long time.

There was also a hot dog/hamburger concession stand which supplied us men with manly foods.

Entry to the museum was included in the admission to the Studebaker event. The museum is the castle building in the back of some of the photos. The main floor is currently an exhibit on Italian design, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, and Maserati. The vehicles range from early 1900's to 1990. Also featured are Italian fashions and design for the same periods.

Henry skipped under the rope around the race car, announcing that he was going to sit in the driver's seat. We got him back on the safe side before the alarms went off, the security cage descended from the ceiling, and the museum goons arrived.

The lower floor of the museum houses a portion of the Anderson family collection of vehicles. The museum preserves the cars instead of restoring them, keeping them in the condition they were in when the Andersons last used them. The Studebakers were more pristine than these cars.

There is something fascinating in examining a 100 year old electric car that shows dents, scratches, and worn leather. Or their first car, an 1899 Winton, which has the tires worn off of it. BTW, the electric car could travel up to 100 miles on a charge at speeds of up to 30 mph. A hundred years and we haven't improved much!

The museum folks also thought of providing a play room for visiting kids, stocked with all things cars and trucks. Check out the big kid in the baseball cap playing in this photo.

Some more photos from the day, plus more on my Flickr pages.






Monday, October 20, 2008

T-Ball

Henry started T-ball on Saturday mornings last week. There are about 25 kids from 3 to 5 years old with a VAST range of experience. Henry had never played before, but he was definitely neither the worst nor the best. This week he was the loudest - and enthusiasm counts a lot.

He seems to have that jack-of-all trades skill set as you can see in this video.

He does his own hitting, fielding, and base running - all on the same play. He did the same thing this week, knocking the ball down the first-base line, chasing after it, and ending up in a pig-pile on the ball. He got the ball, gave it back to the coach, and then took his base.

Sam is finishing a course of erythromycin for conjunctivitis in one eye. As usual, it has not affected his happy demeanor at all. Yesterday during lunch he turned in his chair, waved at Henry and I and said "Hi". We waved back and said "Hi" and Sammy repeated it again! He has been extremely good at echoing and recalling tones and short music sequences (think Beethoven's 5th), but this is the first time I caught him repeating a word.

More photos and videos coming soon.