Labor Day & Hospitals

We had a nice Labor Day weekend with Tom & Darlene joining us for a cookout on Sunday.  They live in Annapolis, MD and made the long 2 hour drive up to the cabin for my great hamburgers.  Some people are easy to please.  They stayed until almost 1130pm and made the long drive back in the rain and bad weather.  

Last night we drove to Cassie's in-laws in Mt. Airy, MD to spend the night with them since we were taking Cassie to the Univ of MD Medical Center for a procedure.  Mt. Airy is about 35 miles from the hospital and saved us an hour driving time in the morning.  We got up at 430am in order to make the drive to the hospital.  The doctor just came out and said she was finished with the procedure and all is well.  Now the fun starts for Cassie with the pain medicine and such.

The pictures below and to the left are of the Emerson Bromo Seltzer tower in downtown Baltimore.  The waiting room at the hospital overlooks the tower.  If you look closely you can see Bromo Seltzer written around the clock numbers. 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower

The Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower was erected in 1911 at the corner of Eutaw and Lombard Streets in Baltimore, Maryland. It was designed by Joseph Evans Sperry and was constructed by Bromo-Seltzer inventor "Captain" Isaac E. Emerson. It was the tallest building in Baltimore from 1911 until 1923. The design of the tower along with the original factory building at its base was inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, which was seen by Emerson during a tour of Europe in 1900. Systems engineering for the building's original design was completed by Henry Adams. The factory was demolished in 1969 and replaced with a firehouse.

The building's most distinctive feature are the four clock faces adorning the tower's 15th floor on the North, South, East and West sides. Installed by the Seth Thomas Clock Company at an original cost of $3,965 US, they are made of translucent white glass and feature the letters B-R-O-M-O S-E-L-T-Z-E-R, with the Roman numerals being less prominent. The dials, which are illuminated at night with mercury-vapor lamps, are 24 feet (7.3 metres) in diameter, and the minute and hour hands approximately 12 and 10 feet (3.7 and 3.0 metres) in length respectively. Originally driven by weights, the moving parts are now electrically powered
From street-level to rooftop, the tower stands 288.7 feet (88.0 metres) high and was originally adorned with a 51 foot (15.5 metre) tall Bromo-Seltzer bottle,^] glowing blue and rotating. Weighing 20 tons (18.1 tonnes), it was lined with 314 incandescent light bulbs and topped with a crown. The bottle was removed in 1936 because of structural concerns.
The tower was virtually abandoned in 2002, but in early 2007 the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts began renovations to transform the building into 33 artists' studios. The Baltimore Fire Department's John F. Steadman Fire Station, which opened in 1973 and is situated at the tower's base, houses BCFD Hazmat 1, Airflex 1, Medic1, Medic 23, MAC23, Engine 23, Rescue 1, and formerly Truck 2.

I hope we can stay awake for the 1 1/2 hour drive back to their home.  To say we are sleepy is an understatement.  At least we didn't have to contend with the Indy Car road race held this past weekend in Baltimore.  They say the traffic was terrible around the race area.  We got here in the dark this morning so we didn't see any evidence of the race.  I wonder who won?   

Note: Reader Al said that Will Power won the race in Baltimore.  Now the question is:  Who is Will Power???  
William Steven Power (born 1 March 1981 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian motorsport driver, who currently competes in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Power

Day at the Doctors

Gerry and I both had appointments at our Ear, Nose & Throat Dr today. She was going in for her 6 month checkup and I went for a hearing test. I failed. She did well

We had an exciting ride down to the Dr including a super rain storm. When we went up the hills on I-70 we were hydro planing quite a lot. I slowed down considerably and that helped, but everyone else was driving like it was a dry road. We ran in the rainstorm for almost 20 miles before we got out of it. Since the Dr.s office is about 85 miles from the cabin the rain delay slowed us down a lot.

Once we got out of the rain, we were stopped for 10 minutes by two huge tractor trailer trucks hauling I beams for the Cross County Connector highway being constructed. They must really have to plan a lot in detail in order to transport these beams from the foundry to the job site since they are so long and tall. See for yourself. I don't know how they managed to navigate the road they come from since there is a small rotary in the middle of the road about 1/2 mile from this intersection. It would be interesting to see them place these huge I beams in place over the highways they cross. I imagine one would have to stay up late at night to see that. Humm, maybe we can do that since we stay up so late anyway.













Then it was on to the road to the Dr where we ran into a long line at a construction site for the new road. Wow, what else could go wrong. We finally made it to the appointments, however we were a few minutes late.

We made a quick run to the local wine shop and picked up some supplies for Gerry and then met old friends Diane and John for an early dinner at the Olive Garden in Laurel, MD. We hadn't seen them since last year but John and I talk on the phone on a regular basis so we didn't have to spend all the time on catch up chatting. We enjoyed the meal there and headed back to the cabin.

About a mile down the road we ran into a detour and it being rush hour, it was a mess. I had the GPS with me so we plotted another route through alleys and side streets and got around the mess.

On the way back we called bil Tom to check on the status of their dog who underwent surgery yesterday. She came through the surgery minus a part of her jawbone and three teeth, but seems to be on the road to recovery. Hope all goes well with her recovery.

The ride home was uneventful and we had time to photograph an old spring house along the side of the road near Smithsburg, MD. I would like to go back and get some more photos of it in good light since the late shadows hide the pond.