History Hound Travels

Do you recognize these artifacts? These are oil lamps from ancient times. Not quite what you think of when someone says lighting fixtures is it? Oil lamos work by partially submerging a wick into a pool of oil (umm, d’uh). You light the wick, and as it burns, it draws oil up from the resevoir. You refill the lamp via the larger hole in it, and you can use many different types of oil in it, but olive oil was the most popular choice in ancient times. The light from an olive oil lamp is brighter than that from a candle.

These days, it costs less than a dime a day to burn an electric light bulb, and olive oil is selling for about $8 a quart. I’m sure thankful for ol’ Ben Franklin, aren’t you? Thanks to him, burning the midnight oil is a lot cheaper than it was back in ancient times. Guess that’s why they went to bed early, huh?

You know I love my home. I moved away for 15 years, and all I wanted to do was get back. Of course, it changed a lot while I was away, and it is still changing today. That’s the nature of things, I guess. Nonetheless, the day I loaded my stuff on those moving trucks was a happy one for me.

So, now that I am here, and have been here for almost 8 years…. why haven’t I been places and done things? The only touristy thing I have done since I came home was to visit a couple of local wineries with my cousin! And that was this month, ROFL!!

We went to Bannerman’s Vineyard and also LuMills.

We had a real good time, and made tentative plans to isit more local wineries after football season. We’ll keep you posted.

I think it time to talk about a detail I usually overlook when I talk about going hither and yon, but it’s kind of important. Since I don’t want to mention it post after post, I’ll just take one short post to remind you to look into travel insurance before you go anywhere, and then we can get bag to fun stuff, like planning adventures, checking out cool destinations, and learning about the folks who’ve gone before us. So! Go take care of business, and meet me back here tomorrow, ok?

If I could go to New York City, I’d like to go at Christmastime (and I just might, in 2009, but that is several posts for several other days). I’d like to shop in Manhattan, drink tea in Greenwich Village, and walk down Wall Street. I;d like to visit Ellis Island and climg the Statue of Liberty. I’d like to see Rockefeller Center with the giant Christmas Tree and the people skating on the plaza. I’d like to be kissed in Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve. (That last might be a problem, since my husband won’t be going with me.)

I would also enjoy just riding around and seeing the sights. We could use an outfit like charter bus nyc and take the driver’s recommendation on where to get off and walk around a bit, because I also want to see the things that the people who live there find cool. It’s not as much fun for me to play tourist if I only do the tourist things, yk?

Last time I headed out on an adventure, I asked for tips on what to see and do, so I;d like to do that again. Tell me what you’d not miss in NYC. And also in Orlando, where I will be in just three short weeks!

Did you know that I look up some incredibly weird stuff on wikipedia? Well, I do, but that is not today’s topic, LOL. I just wanted to put in a plug for wikipedia, because it is an awesome resource. Today, I looked up, as the title suggests, acne. I’d thought that acne might be a relatively recent problem, given that it is often exacerbated by stress, and we are seeing an increase in the stress levels of teens.

The truth is: yes and no. There is apparently evidence that some early pharoahs suffered acne, and the very word comes from the Ancient Greek for point or peak. I guess that means that folks have been looking for the best acne treatment cream for thousands of years, huh?