oneida

We arrived in Oneida NY yesterday (Sunday) and owe a huge thank you to the library director from Oneida who recommended we stay at the Oneida Community mansion house. the place is amazing. Humongous and amazing. It was home to a group who sought utopia and lived in a communal kind of way here.
Our room is enormous and the furniture antique. Grounds are majestic also. Place has quite a history....they only have eight rooms they let out and there are permanent residents also, possibly descendants of the original families? Not sure...
http://www.oneidacommunity.org/facilities.html
have a look!!
The trip through NY state was speccie, the countryside is very rural and so much "jigsaw puzzle" scenery...you know, the stuff you usually see on jigsaw boxes...
The library staff are great, very accommodating and friendly; I went on two home visits today which were fun and interesting. They actually help the parents achieve their GED (high school certificate) through tutoring as well as encouraging family literacy through modelling reading and literacy related stuff with the kids. Very exciting.
I am spending all day cooped up with them (ha ha) going over the admin side of it all tomorrow. They have a history of successful grants to help keep the programs going, so it'll all be wonderful, and my suitcase will probably be overweight with more additions.
Prior to our stop in Oneida, we visited some other online friends in Scranton, PA. She a retired school teacher, he a retired electrician, and both lifelong Scranton residents, it was wonderful to spend time with them visiting their hometown and its sights.
We went to the steam train museum (yes Kat, I have lots of photos for you, I'll burn them to a CD there are so many. :) ) amongst other things....
and I got my hand slammed in the car door. OUCH...between hers and my "crap" eyesight, it was a disaster waiting to happen I guess; I left my hand on the pillar of the car door and it got shut. Lucky it was on the knuckles at the bottom of the fingers, which is fairly flexible; it bent completely back...I felt something heavy on my hand and looked over and calmly tried to open the door handle...I think she had locked the door from the inside, but her poor husband looked in and thought he was looking at my severed fingers sitting inside the door. Poor guy.
It's over 24 hours later and the middle knuckle is sore and ever so slightly swollen (I had to take the ring off that finger, but Annette et al. if you dare tell her I'll be very mean to you) so I'm pretty sure it's okay. Pretty sure, LOL.
So that's been the last few days of our trip.
I think Martin would move to Oneida tomorrow. You know the Oneida brand silverware? It's from here, but that's not why...the town itself is really pretty (though it's a pretty time of year) and the houses are architecturally different....I think Martin took about 100 photos of houses today, they are so nice, and while I was trying to video he kept pointing to houses on alternate sides of the road and I couldn't keep up. :)
And just so my kids aren't concerned, yes we have been eating healthy as well as junk food. I've hardly had any junk food unfortunately as i can't risk a migraine when I'm supposed to be researching...and everything is burger / sandwich based. So have been eating a fair amount of chili (NOM) and salads. Martin has actually been eating well too, so, dear children, it doesn't mean you can go on a junk food binge in sympathy....
Anyway I think his lordship wants to tell you something...so I guess I'll let him