Odds and Ends

The Winter Olympics begin today, and like the code in yesterday’s picture of a 1900 Ivory Soap advertisement, the American luger Chris Mazdzer always displays his own secret message for why we should watch the Winter Olympics, particularly the luge. Chris actually lives about 75 miles west of me in Saranac Lake, NY, which always seems to be the coldest place on our weather maps here. I like Mazdzer and he seems like a pretty nice guy. I’ll probably also watch some of the figure skating, but I’ve never found the Winter Olympics to be as interesting as the Summer Olympics. The athletes wear too many clothes, although if they all wore skintight body suits like Mazdzer, who needs to see someone in a Speedo!

In other news, I’ve viewed four different apartments in the last week. None of them were suitable. One was rented just before I saw it but the landlord showed it to me anyway. I viewed two different ones on Tuesday. One was in a terrible neighborhood and the other was in a seemingly better neighborhood, but the rooms were so tiny. Neither of those two apartments were in great shape either. Although I was told they’d look better with a fresh coat of paint and a deep cleaning, you just can’t put lipstick on a pig and expect it to win the Miss America Pageant. The one I viewed yesterday was on the third floor of a house that had been split into apartments (most apartments in Vermont are like this). The outside stairs leading to the apartment were not in great condition; they did not feel completely safe. The apartment itself was huge: two bedrooms, two baths, a nice sized kitchen, and living room. However, there were just too many issues to make me want to pay the rent they were asking. So, the search continues.

In better news, it looks like the installation of the new exhibit is running ahead of schedule. I suspect we will largely be finished today and ready for our soft opening tomorrow, that is if the 6-18 inches of snow (I know that a wide range but we are on the border of the line between 12-18 inches and 6-12 inches) we are expecting today and tomorrow don’t derail us from finishing it in time for the official opening. Because of COVID, we will not be having our usual opening reception, though I’m hoping we will have one in the summer for the local community. I’ve had a vision for this exhibit in my mind for months, and it’s so gratifying to see it in reality almost exactly as I pictured it. I know the saying goes, “Pride goeth before the fall,” but I am very proud of this exhibit. I think it looks good and is very calming and soothing, which not many of our exhibits are. In fact, we’ve never had one quite like this one, and I am proud of it. I hope our visitors will enjoy it and learn from it.