Finding things to do that kill the days is becoming increasingly difficult. Since the blackout of mid-December, our days are filled with a lot of sitting around, peevishly staring at each other while being stuck in the house, with not a whole lot that we can do. Even once we got electricity back, we didn't have phone or internet and then, even with the start of school, more days have been cancelled than have taken place. One of my courses, offered on MW, should have met eight times by now, but we have only met three. We are supposed to be starting chapter 5 of our text and have not even gotten to chapter 2! And, with 5-10 more inches of snow (followed by icy rain) forecast for the next few days I will be amazed if we meet on Monday. This is true for Thomas and Frederick as well. At first cancelling school days seemed like a good idea, but the thrill is gone. (And for Frederick, who gets in about a day and a half per week of school, "tedious" is an understatement.) So, yesterday, while Frederick was out of school but Thomas was in (and therefore needed to be picked up) I took Frederick to the Sloane Museum while Simon made the nearly 90 mile round trip journey to get Thomas. Frederick was very excited about going until we got to the room that housed the dinosaur display until last week and saw nothing but an empty space. "The dinosaurs are GONE!" he exclaimed. But around the corner there was a poxy space exhibit set up. Not as good, but ok. Here kids could stand behind space suit cut outs for a photo op. So we did that.
Most of the exhibits amounted to nothing more than tvs with a stand in front with buttons on them. Push a button and a 2 minute "educational" film is shown. None of the films were about planets or suns, but were all about major NASA accomplishments. (Did NASA finance this whole thing in hopes of getting more federal financial support by lobbying directly to kids? They did that when I was in school, sending astronauts around to middle schools across the country to give talks about being in space, space suits and the nearly completed space shuttle program. They needed funding to complete the space shuttle program and someone came up with the idea that, if you make kids love it, their parents will vote for it. A girl in my class (I can't remember her name but I did go to her birthday party) got to try on a real space suit. She said later that it was excruciatingly uncomfortable and heavy.) The screen Frederick was most interested in was about sattelites--man made, not natural ones. I was bored to tears but he really, really loved hearing an animatronic voice describe the hoped-for accomplishments of Voyager, Stardust, Magellon, Gallileo I and II....The sad part was that each one spoke of all that will be accomplished once they set finally get to that magical year 2005! I guess this exhibit is at the tail end of a really, REALLY long museum exhibit tour which Flint couldn't afford ten years ago but, now that it is hopelessly out of date, can finally pay for.
Since we are well in the Endless Winter (I think I really understand the Nordic notion of the end of the world: this is it, just more and more snow and ice and we will never have a Spring again) I am sure we will be back to learn more about the history of GM and of the amazing SPACE program (of 10 years ago).
Most of the exhibits amounted to nothing more than tvs with a stand in front with buttons on them. Push a button and a 2 minute "educational" film is shown. None of the films were about planets or suns, but were all about major NASA accomplishments. (Did NASA finance this whole thing in hopes of getting more federal financial support by lobbying directly to kids? They did that when I was in school, sending astronauts around to middle schools across the country to give talks about being in space, space suits and the nearly completed space shuttle program. They needed funding to complete the space shuttle program and someone came up with the idea that, if you make kids love it, their parents will vote for it. A girl in my class (I can't remember her name but I did go to her birthday party) got to try on a real space suit. She said later that it was excruciatingly uncomfortable and heavy.) The screen Frederick was most interested in was about sattelites--man made, not natural ones. I was bored to tears but he really, really loved hearing an animatronic voice describe the hoped-for accomplishments of Voyager, Stardust, Magellon, Gallileo I and II....The sad part was that each one spoke of all that will be accomplished once they set finally get to that magical year 2005! I guess this exhibit is at the tail end of a really, REALLY long museum exhibit tour which Flint couldn't afford ten years ago but, now that it is hopelessly out of date, can finally pay for.
Since we are well in the Endless Winter (I think I really understand the Nordic notion of the end of the world: this is it, just more and more snow and ice and we will never have a Spring again) I am sure we will be back to learn more about the history of GM and of the amazing SPACE program (of 10 years ago).
1 comment:
Explain!
xM
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