Benjamin Harrison Home

http://www.presidentbenjaminharrison.org/

We visited the Benjamin Harrison Home this month. Tour cost is $8 / adult, $7 if you are a Triple A member. Tour is approximately an hour and 45 minutes.

Interesting factoids:

1. Benjamin Harrison and William Henry Harrison are the only grandson / grandfather Presidential combo

2. William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia 30 days into his time as President. He wanted to prove he was not too old to be Pres, so he did not wear a coat to his inaugaration (on a cold, rainy day) and gave a 2 hour speech. This really does bring up the question - did he actually have good enough judgement to be President? Perhaps the country was given a break? Ironically, Benjamin Harrison also died of pneumonia.

3. Benjamin Harrison is the guy who had electricity put into The White House. However - he was nervous about it, so he had the servants actually flip the switches to turn lights on and off. Nice.

4. He was a progressive person. Went straight from chamberpots to indoor plumbing (skipping the outhouse option) in the house here in Indianapolis.

5. Benjamin's first wife (Caroline???) was a very good painter and started the tradition of designing the Presidential china pattern. Hers / the Harrison's china had a pattern of ears of corn around the outer rim. Not for Indiana though - the ears of corn represent the economy of the time (agrarian).

Check it out !

September Volunteer Work:

Indianapolis International Film Festival.

Needs work. Small. Lots of "gritty" films.

August

Hey Everybody,
So August was pretty lame. Okay, what I really mean, is that I was pretty lame in August. Did not get any volunteer work done. Ridiculous. Not one day or even a part of a day doing any kind of volunteer work. I am not proud of myself for that.

And only did two new - and minor - things this month

1. Paul and I saw the International Space Station fly over. I know - that is some super passive activity. In fact, it really does not qualify as doing something new, but it was new to me / to us. And truth be told, it was kinda cool to know that we were watching it fly by. It came from the west and was headed east / northeast. It had flashing white light(s) - but no red ones, which is really the only way I think you can tell it apart from an airplane at night - which is the way we were viewing it.

2. I learned how to preserve the harvest. My wonderful Mom (Jan) came over and patiently and lovingly taught me how to make / can pickles. We made Bread & Butter pickles. What I've eaten so far were quite good, so if anyone wants the recipe, let me know. Heck - if anyone wants to learn how to can pickles, let me know and I will try to come teach you.

Much more fun and interesting things coming up in September and October.

Peace out.