Well, We Liked It!!!!!

It's a weird week around here. My sister and her kids left, my two close friends are on vacation with their families, and my other siblings all have plans for this week. Everyone is done with camp, and I'm just ready for lazy summer. Maybe I need more friends

Yesterday I had to drop something off in Passaic NJ, so instead of leaving my kids home with nothing to do but fight, I took them with me. Then I planned a small trip to a nearby town. I was very excited, because I found something that I had no idea existed!!! It's a waterfall in Patterson NJ. Think Beirut with a natural wonder smack in the middle. OK, that's a little harsh. Patterson isn't that bad, at least certain parts of it... It's more like East Baltimore, Newark, Detroit.

There's a nice downtown area, it's bustling and reminded me a lot of upper Manhattan. Before we drove around there, we went to the Great Falls. These falls had a lot to do with the industrialization of this area.

In 1791, Alexander Hamilton and a group of investors created the S.U.M., the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, to harness the tremendous power of the Passaic Great Falls. They hired Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the largest, most significant power system at that time, one that diverted water from the Passaic River above the falls to mills along its route. Hamilton envisioned an industrialized America and the creation of this raceway system was his ambitious example of how corporations could be organized to develop manufacturing on a large scale. Although the S.U.M failed to realize its manufacturing objectives, it did succeed in developing real estate and supplying power to the growing number of various industries that were building factories around the area of the Great Falls. The industries that ultimately emerged produced textile machinery, steam locomotives, silk weaving and dyeing, revolvers, aircraft engines, and various other products. (culled from various websites)

Now, the following is a statement made on various sites about the falls:

The Great Falls are the second-highest on the east coast (second only to Niagara). The Great Falls thunders over a rocky ledge, 70 feet deep, about 60 feet wide to a broad basin descending 20 feet through traprock and sandstone to the City of Paterson.

They're big and they're nice, but my friend is in the Finger Lakes, and went to a 250 foot falls yesterday, so I think it may be a boast about volume, more then about height.

Either way, if you can block out the blight just a few blocks away, there's an oasis of beauty in the middle of the urban landsscape.

I Can't Take The Pressure

We are at the point in the house right now where we NEED library books. Camp is over, and the cousins are leaving. School starts in three weeks.

I actually like this part of the summer (not the cousins leaving). There are no schedules, and my sister has a pool, so we're pretty set as far as enjoying the last waning days of August.

So now would really be a good time to go to the library, all the books have been returned...I hope. We are huge supporters of the library. I think if we stopped going, or just returned our books on time, they'd have to raise EVERYONES library tax by about 3%.

The problem is, I'm not really sure if all the books are back. I just need to go online and check my library account, but once I do that I'd actually have to FIND the book that's probably lost. Then I have to feign surprise when the librarian says "Please Return the Excretory System!!" On the top of her lungs.

Really, it depends which library we go to. One place is laid back and says "just return them, ok?" The other makes you feel really, really small, and maybe a little bit stupid. This is the same library that moved from a dinky little building with no PA system (the librarian would just shout "the library is closing in 10 minutes!), to a beautiful state of the art building...with almost no books. The shelves are more than half empty in the children's section, so I guess for aesthetic purposes they NEED the books returned.

Luckily, lots of my kids have library cards, so if we can't find the books, we find at least two "clean" cards and use those to take out books.

I've tried having a PLACE for the library books, didn't work. I've tried insisting that all books have a spot in the individual rooms, it didn't work either. I think what I need to do is put a note on the calendar two days before the books are due, the minute we get home from taking them out. That should work.

Either way, it just stresses me out!

Ole, Ole

As previously noted, Michigan sister is here. Week one was all swimming all the time. Apparently, week two is "do stuff week."

I love whatever we do, because she's here, and my kids get to hang out with her kids. Because we do stuff, other nieces and nephews hang out with us too, so it just becomes really nice for my kids.

Like today. We took our annual trip to a local lake. Some of the big kids, with jobs, did not come with us. Others are away at camp, so when I looked at our spot on the beach it looked a little sparse. That's probably why people felt they could actually sit near us, as opposed to in the past, with 15 plus kids digging and running around on the sand and in and out of the water people tended to shy away. Plus, I've been told that we are loud.

I actually hate the beach. I don't know if it's this particular beach, or just beaches in general, but I'm inclined to the former. This beach is kinda dinky, very small, and the shells smell. Really bad. BUT, because it's a very small beach, and kinda dinky, it's perfect for us. There's room to spread out because it's not that popular. It's small enough that the bathrooms are just steps away. Really?, At this point? It's our beach. We have our spot and our routine. So much so, that even in the parking lot, we have our place. The parking lot is built as a "U" but really a "U" on its side. When you drive in the spaces begin immediately and continue along the one way road, until it curves, and then they continue again, until you're back at the entrance, but in a different lane. So we pulled in, and there was a garbage truck a few feet down blocking the road. I did not know how I'd get around it so that I could park in the bottom half of the sideways U, where we always park. I had a cousin in the car with me, who has never been to this lake. I said "hmm, how'm I going to do this, I guess I'll have to go the wrong way on the lower roadway to get to a spot." (basically make a quick left and a quick right to go the wrong way on the one way road)

She said "Why don't you just park here?" As she pointed to a spot on the upper roadway as soon as you drive in. I looked at her like she was crazy and said "we don't park THERE!"

I made my move, and pulled up to the vicinity of where we like to park, and my eight year old shouted "Hey those people took our spot!" Mind you, we go there once- maximum twice a year, but someone had "taken our spot." Luckily, there were two spots a few cars over, and we pulled in. Later, when I told my sister of the cousin's suggestion that we park in the other area, she looked at me funny and said "we don't park THERE!"

The point is, the kids love this beach, they know the routine, and they feel comfortable there. I guess they haven't sat on a nice white sand beach without goose poop and stinging flies to know that this one is not as great as they think. Maybe my issue with this beach is the stuff. The other beaches I've been to have been while I'm on vacation. If I'm on vacation at a beach, it's usually fronting the hotel. All I need to bring with me is a water bottle, a book, and some sunscreen. No chairs, no towels, no sandwiches, no changes of clothing, no umbrellas, no diapers, no pack and plays, no strollers, no extra t shirts and no sand toys. On vacation we don't have to deal with the sand. Here we do. In the car, and in the house. So I really don't know how I'd feel about those vacation beaches, if I had to do all this to use them.

I marvel at the other people who seem to come to THIS beach with nothing but a small handbag, and maybe a chair. It could be because we are so many people that we seem to have a lot of stuff, and we come here loaded to the gills. It's gotten easier since the kids can all carry things on their own, (and want to) but man we bring a lot with us.

They really had a blast. The Cheese Eater was running back and forth in the water, playing ring -around- the- Rosie, while the others were building their epic castles with moats and aqueducts.

At one point we saw a woman come to the beach with two little kids and a nanny, who from far looked like our aunt. And it was her!!! She was looking for a different beach, but happened upon this one instead. (Of all the sand bars, in all the metro area....)

One of my kids who is not a big fan of the beach, but came anyway,sat in one of the chairs 95% of the time. This evening she told me she had a great time, even though she "didn't really do anything."

I had a great time too, the best part? My soggy, sandy tuna sandwich!!

At Least we All Like It

Doing nothing is apparently more tiring than I thought.

I am exhausted. Last weekend we had a family Bar Mitzvah, which was just everything you'd expect or want it to be. It was so warm, and beautiful, and welcoming, and just plain nice to be with so many people we love.

But SINCE then....the sister I went to visit in Michigan in December, is here. That means lots of swimming, and lots of Tuna Fish. That sounds odd, but when I think of these particular days of summer, that's what I think of. Very Mayonnaisey tuna on bread (we might go to the lake on Monday, so stayed tuned for tales of SANDY tuna on soggy bread...I actually love it that way. So much so, that if I have time I will put a fresh tuna sandwich in the fridge with something heavy on it, just to help aid the sog...)

It also means many days where I don't accomplish that much, because, well, she's here! Why would I do X, Y or Z, when we could be hanging out. So we do. And swim. And eat tuna. But I said that already. Sorry, lack of sleep is getting to me.