Happy Halloween! We started our Halloween early as you can see. Last night, at the suggestion of a couple that we know that operates a store in our area mall, we went to a nearby church to take Kaleya trunk-or-treating. The church has been doing this for several years and it was a lot of fun. They put on a short play, provided food, and then kids go from car to car to collect candy from people who decorate their trunks. There were probably around 100 cars there – it was insane!
So, Kaleya already has a pumpkin full of candy. We are still planning to take her out Halloween night too though, so I’m not sure what we will do with all of that candy. More pictures here.
October is full of birthdays around here! My grandmother’s birthday was yesterday, today is my sister Kelli’s birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLI! Sunday was my nephew’s birthday and tomorrow is Kalonji’s step-sister’s birthday. I’m going to be birthdayed out pretty soon!
Today is Kaleya’s 3rd birthday (well, the day’s almost over now…) and I’m sure she had fun! She had some cake and ice cream with her friends at the babysitter’s and I was able to get a short video clip of her blowing out her candle and some play activity.
When she woke up this morning, I gave her one of her presents and she continued to get them throughout the day. If you’re interested in pictures, they are here. The first several pictures are from Sunday, but you’ll recognize the ones from today when you get to them.
This map (which I found from an online exhibit from the National Library of Medicine), is of Nashville in 1873 that shows a Cholera outbreak. Why do I post this? Because today I had a history lesson on Cholera in Nashville.
Today, a group of coworkers and I went to Traveller’s Rest, a plantation/museum here in town that was the home of Judge John Overton, a prominent figure in Nashville history. His home was also a base of operations during the last campaigns around the Battle of Nashville. I won’t go into the history of the battle, but I learned quite a bit about that today as well.
The reason for our visit was to see the Disease & Medicine exhibit they are currently hosting. Our library helped provide some of the information for the exhibit, so we received a few free passes. The group of us that went won them as a result of a drawing.
It was quite interesting. Apparently, cholera outbreaks in Nashville were very common throughout the entire 19th century and at one point, Nashville was the most dangerous city to live in because of these outbreaks. More dangerous than Calcutta, more dangerous than NYC. The outbreaks were so bad b/c of the very rapid growth of Nashville during this time which resulted in thousands of people living in very close quarters, disposal of wastes into alleyways, and germs being absorbed into the ground and eventually tainting the city’s water supply – the Cumberland River. Because medicine did not really understand bacteria at the time, it would just continue. The cure for cholera is rehydration but of course they were rehydrating with tainted water. Not good.
Overall, I’m glad I went. While I was there, they had a book in the gift shop that I almost purchased, but decided to hold off. It was a book that had many images representative of the history of blacks in Nashville. My interests in Nashville history are growing and I even found a connection with someone whom I’m helping in her genealogy research of ancestors from Nashville.
You may be losing me as an avid customer! I have now converted two of my blogs over to WordPress b/c it’s just easier to use than blogger. I am also becoming quickly addicted to Zoho for their Word-like and Excel-like program. Come on Google – you can do better!
I have posted before about how much I am into Google, but I find that they need to do more to keep up with some of the competitors!
Okay – that was a random post, but I felt like saying something. I need to go to bed, it’s after midnight and I have to get up at 6am.
Tomorrow night I am going to my first ever hockey game – it is the opening night for the Nashville Predators. I know absolutely nothing about hockey, so hopefully I will have learned a lot by the end of the game tomorrow night.
My cousin had her second child today – a girl named Jamieson. I can’t wait to see pictures, but now my mother and her brother have grandchildren with October birthdays!
In other news, we are all moved in now. Getting settled and putting everything away is another story.
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