Saturday morning

56 degrees; blue sky with some puffy clouds.

SOME FUN STUFF!

--- TODAY ---

• Benefit Pancake Breakfast for Pvt. Steven Smith 7:00 to 11:00 at the Kelley-Phillips American Legion Post #569 in Oriskany Falls.
• Benefit Softball Tournament for Pvt. Steven Smith at Waterville Firemen's Field.
• Back to School crafts at the Waterville Public Library at 11:00 A.M.
• Farmers Market on the Village Green in Hamilton. 8:00 - 11:00
• WCS Boys' Varsity Football vs. Cooperstown 6:00 P.M. @ Utica Proctor Stadium
  

If you didn't get tickets for the Historical Society Dinner on Sunday...........

Waterville Historical Society Announces
SRO TICKETS AVAILABLE
for "SRO Players'" melodramatic presentations and
Musical Entertainments by the Historical Caroleers
which will take place at approximately 6:00 P.M.
on Sunday
in the St. Bernard's Church Social Hall.

Chairs available, for those who prefer not to stand.
Suggested donation: $5.00

April 29

June 11

September 8

Coming soon to Main Street!

Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for lift-off later this morning.

Baseball fans will have to wait until later in the day to see if their team can get off the ground.



Have a Good Day!

Friday afternoon

It looks as if everything that needed "smoothing" has been smoothed: parking lanes on W. Main Street and even the entrance/exit driveways at Nice 'n Easy and the highway shoulders in Sangerfield. Above: today; below: April 29.



The Hydroseed truck has been around, making turquoise splashes here and there, and the Water Truck followed, giving new sod a good drenching. (Have you ever seen so many people so eager to mow their lawns as the folks on Sanger Avenue?)

Elmwood Avenue, where a new sidewalk is being installed, was difficult to drive through, today, but should be just fine over the weekend.


Finally, a sign of progress in front of the Woodman-Getman Law Offices where a set of steps is being installed in the pavers to help people climb the slope. Originally, there were supposed to be TWO such stairways, with railings: do you suppose plans have changed?






And "finally" - someone has changed the signboard in the Park! (It's not impossible, after all!)

And a final ponder for the day: if you are approaching the center of the village from the Fire House and want to turn in to Green Acres Plaza, how do you do it? Temporary arrows have been painted in turning lanes and it looked to me as if the way IN to the Post Office, Home Shoppe or Ecco Video was through the old "exit" on White Street and the way OUT was next to Belfield Insurance. Once again, we'll wait 'til the traffic signal is fully operational to see what's what.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A.M. Update

Motoring through town, Mr. Meszler took time to telephone the Blogger to say, "The Lights are blinking!" He was referring, of course, to the brand new traffic signal right in the middle of the village. A Power Line crew was on site and, perhaps, later today, actual Red, Yellow AND Green lights will be put into operation. We're looking forward to it.

By the time I got uptown, the paving of the parking lane on the South side of W. Main Street was nearly complete. The retaining walls, out near Sangerfield, are growing, and if you have occassion to ride up Sanger Hill you'll be amazed at the grand cleaning-out of side ditches that the Township Highway crew has done!

Tickets to the Historical Society's 40th Anniversary Celebratory Dinner with Theatrics are completely SOLD OUT. While the caterer may not be offering any ham on the dinner menu, entertainment by the "Standing Room Only" Players will provide plenty and there have been requests for SRO (Standing Room Only) tickets. If they become available, I'll let you know, right away!!

Friday!

52.5 degrees at 5:00 A.M. and still VERY dark out!

Don't forget to take out the GARBAGE!

The "Smile for the Day" will be on YOUR face and will brighten the morning when you compare these two photographs: the upper taken on June 22nd, and the lower on September 6th. (Click photos to enlarge!)





So much paving was done, yesterday, that I don't know how much is left for today. At around 4:00 P.M. the ride from Sangerfield to the Fire House was SM-O-O-O-O-TH, all the way. It was smooth around the Park; smooth merging onto Stafford Avenue and Putnam Street and Babbott Avenue. The White Street corner was being paved as was the top of Buell Avenue.

If there is any paving left to be done, today, it will probably be the parking lanes on W. Main Street.

And, at any rate, the weather will be good.

Neither the Yankees nor the Redsox played, last night, but this evening NY will be at Baltimore at 7:05 and Boston in KC at 7:05.



Don't forget that some first-rate sporting events can be seen close-by: WCS Sports.

And for those readers who are planning 'way ahead, tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Utica Auditorium on February 8, 2007, go on sale today!

OR - plan around events on the Broadway Theater League schedule or that of the Great Artists Series. The first performance is on September 29th: don't wait!

Where was that great "Welcome!" sign with the schoolbus on it? At the Truitt residence on Babbott Avenue!
Also on Babbott, a magnificent hydrangea, showing a perfect Fall tinge of pink.



Can anyone tell me the real name of this "bamboo"? It can be a terrible nuisance, but when it finally blooms, it really is quite pretty.


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Thursday Add-ons and Updates

I asked Tim Francisco just how many of the "High Peaks" - those Adirondack mountains whose summits are 4,000 feet or more above sea level - he'd climbed and he said "21!" (Only 25 to go!)


These photographs don't need any cut lines, do they!








The focus of paving operations is at the corner of Main Street, Putnam St. and N. and S. Stafford Avenue.



The "parking lane" on the N. side of E. Main Street was being paved and a similar stretch on W. Main Street was blocked off, presumably for the same reason.



East of the village, on Elmwood Avenue, prep work continues and some of the new sidewalk has already been poured.




The retaining walls that are being installed in front of a few residences south of the village are certainly impressive!






And on Sanger Avenue, a reminder that although many parents hope that their children will manage to get through the First Day of School unscathed, other parents have other things on their minds. And we'll keep their children in our thoughts, too.

Thursday Morning

RECYCLEABLES, today!

56 degrees, and it's going to be a "partly-" to "mostly-sunny" First Day of School!



Late yesterday, Park Place and the stretch of Madison Street from Sanger Avenue to Park Place received final layers of blacktop, so school buses shouldn't have any problem there, but there there may be other slow-downs to watch out for, this morning: paving the "milled" connections between any of Route 12 and side streets ESPECIALLY at Putnam and Stafford, and then at White, Babbott, Rt. 315, etc.

On Elmwood, the bed for the new sidewalk has been dug and paving forms are being put in place.

As of yesterday afternoon, there were still alot of construction-type vehicles directly in front of the highschool - some from a landscaping company whose personnel were working on the very attractive new "memorial garden."





A hundred years ago, when students left home on the First Day of School and came to this schoolhouse, built in 1872, they certainly had no worries about school buses or paving!


The Weather Channel is keeping an eye on Hurricane Florence. At this point, there doesn't seem to be danger of her actually coming ashore, but I certainly would like to be back on the East Coast to see the surf she'll be bringing next week!






Folks in Boston feel as if they've already been swept out to sea with the Sox who sink lower and lower and are now 9 GB in the MLB Standings.

Tim Francisco, of ProActive Physical Therapy & Pretzel Works (private joke!) has sent some great JPEGS of his recent treks up North to "bag" yet more "High Peaks."

Here he is with his sister, Becky, a few weeks ago on "Algonquin;"



... and last weekend with a couple of buddies on "Street."



He took a picture of Bottle Gentian, growing beside the trail, and asks WHAT is this piece of equipment? (Nothing I'd want to carry uphill, for sure!)






Thanks, Tim!

Wednesday, later on

All Smooth! New Stripes! It's a little confusing in the middle of the village, right now, with arrowless turning lanes, but - as soon as the new traffic signal is put into operation - all should become clear. (We hope!)

The best part is that all of those catch basin drains that used to stick up above the road surface, threatening tires, are now just a tad below that surface and now it's all a smooth ride.


New lines have also been painted at the White Street crosswalk in front of the Historical Society and in the village parking lot off of White Street and in the Library Parking lot.




Also at the library, extending plantings with nice Fall "Mums."



(Click to enlarge Photographs.)


Bev Heidel Bartlett who lives in Pratts Hollow (please see archived post 8/27 "100 miles later..") wrote to Katie Peck, "The church is the one we go to, our youngest son was married there. The hotel (that must be 'Coonrod's?') is still open on occasion, it looks much better inside, so they tell me. I haven't been inside in many years. My daughter, Mary Lou and her husband go there once in a whlie, he has a blues band that plays several times a year. The guy that owns it is a NY lottery winner( they say he won several million) and he only opens when he feels like it.Years ago Pratts Hollow had several industries, and lots more residents, now it's just a sleepy little town, but I like it here."

Gayle (Donovan) Ladd from Martinsburg, West Virginia, writes: "I havn't lived in Waterville for 30 years and SO enjoy (the Blog.) Thanks for taking such wonderful pictures - it's nice to see the old town and keep up on what is going on."

And a friend of Bob Harding's E-mailed him from one of the Carolinas and said, "Check out that blog!" (He did; he likes it!)

Wed. A. M.

It's one of those "Monday Holiday" weeks that throws everything off: today is "Big Trash" Day, and the Village Board Meeting (which would have taken place on Monday night) will take place at 7:00 this evening at the Municipal Hall.

Tomorrow, of course, is The Big Day! The First Day of School and the Yellow Buses will roll!

We got back from a long weekend away around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Driving North from Sangerfield, we slowed down to admire a curved driveway entrance in the new retaining wall.....



.....and then were brought to a complete standstill by paving operations! (Yea!)



It's the Final Surface Layer of Blacktop! Work began at around 6:00 yesterday morning, we're told, and it looks as if both North and Southbound lanes have been paved although parking lanes in the Business District have not, nor have the "milled" sections of adjoining streets/avenues.



The Weather Channel Forecast calls for some rain, today, but if it's not too much, TIOGA should be able to accomplish a great deal more work or - at the very least - subject matter for new photographs!




We had been in Danvers, Massachusetts, at an annual gathering of the Griffin Clan - the children, grandchildren, spouses, etc., etc. of four Griffin siblings, of which Dick's mother was one, who now number several score and have a grand time whenever they get together! One of the Griffin ancestral trees is the family "Towne" - noteworthy because two daughters of that family, Mary Towne Esty and Rebecca Towne Nurse, were hung as witches in Salem in 1692!



We always visit the Rebecca Nurse House - a beautifully preserved historic site - and check on the Hop Yard, there!



Sunday was a gray and gloomy day, in Salem and Danvers, made worse by the painful way in which the Agassi Era ended and the sorry state that the Boston RedSox were in.

Monday was better, 'tho --- the sun shone and the RedSox won! We went to nearby Gloucester to admire a number of three- and four-masted schooners called "Tall Ships," and then on to little old Rockport, home of "Motif #1," where streets are narrow and tiny old buildings are nearly covered with flowers and all are crowded with tourists.

























(Click to enlarge Snapz and Photographs.)

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