A day full of emotions....

Leaving was not easy, one needs to get used to the idea and reality of going
the chronicle.
Routes of the day
from farmington:
CT10
Insterstate 84 W to Waterbury
Route 8 S to Bridgeport
Interstate 95 S to New York.

Then, a mess to enter New York

I had planned a route that would get me to southern Manhattan via Brooklyn Bridge, but there was no way that what I encountered in reality resembled what I had marked on map…. There are various problems,
1) I need more detailed maps for complicated areas
2) There are not many indication of the various directions, thus one has actually to know exactly what he is doing. Evidently many people solve this problem with the satellite.
3) On a motorways you get to a junction which you do not expect and are travelling in the traffic at 60 miles per hour, you cannot really stop, the names do not tell you anything, what you do, a) you just continue on your lane and hope it is right b) you make a choice following your instinct and pray it is right. You have 50% to get it right, but if you have to make it 3 times, your chances to get to the right place in the end are just 12,5%….

I got out of I 95 and asked people, got directed to the cross Bronx Highway, what a glourious name!!! This took me again to the 95, they told me I would see sign for Manhattan, and the various bridges, never saw one, when I saw a sign saying “last exit to New York” my instinct told me “it’s now or never old man” "or you’ll just miss it". I found myself at the very north of Manhattan, 181 st. Hit south, found Broadway and drove peacefully my little red car in the middle of yellow taxis till Bleckeer street.

Lunch was very agreeable, as it happen I found out that two people that I know in NY live in the same building! We go to lunch together. Lidia I have not seen for years, she now has a beautiful she-baby, Clara. Conversation goes random about our lives. to problems with teaching, careers, etc. Then the madness starts. I have left the car in the middle of NY with all my luggage inside?!!!! Visible???? Crazy man! They’ll break the window. And you want to travel cross country? Rush back to the car, only parking ticket! Good!!! ;) In any case after collective discussion, phone calls and various weighting of different options, one of my suitcases is taken to an UPS and sent to LA. The rest can more easily be kept away from people’s view. In the meantime, Lidia took some very nice picture of my car.

The afternoon drive is quite straightforward, I set off from NY with good directions and some fears of getting lost around Newark airport, but fond my way with relative ease, and some luck, through Holland Tunnel, back to the I 95 South. I have booked a motel just north of Baltimore in a small village, in Maryland, called Aberdeen. You know I like Scotland. Sounded nice.
I got there by 9 30 pm after an uneventful drive.

I do not look at coupé car the same way I did before...

This is the chronicle, I have to say that the day was full of emotions, leaving Farmington, and this double edged feeling of sadness and euphoria of being alone in an adventure on the road. Then the stress of driving in NY and the issue with the suitcases… a bit too much for the first day, I am a bit shaken. Now I am in this motorway motel, quite comfortable, having a bath, they even provide a small duck on top of the pile of towels!!! Little consolation after the giant Jacuzzi in Farmington. Time to bed folks!

go west!

At the back of the second picture, the house I stayed this last month, The Root House.
Charging was not too bad, the boot is low but enough to fit the two suitcases, and some other bags, have you seen how it opens!!!

temperature 0°

time 7 30 am

odometer: 121840 (doh!)

direction south, heading for New York.

song Go West! Village People What else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wc-AQJ2MYo

song 2 Vuelvo al sur, Astor Piazzolla

I am ready.... brrr

Last day in Farmington

At ten forty-five, this morning, for the usual friday collective coffee break with my colleague we took cakes and two bottles of wine for our wonderful librarian and staff of the LWL (Lewis Walpole Library). We both got little presents and I got good advice about my trip towards west. I realize I could spent more time researching in their collection. But I also need a clearer focus. At 5 pm I was at the AAA (one of the sound advices) and got from them tour guides and maps of the first days of my trips till Louisiana. I got them for free as member of ACI. Then I went to the Kosovar Auto Dealers and got new windshield wipers and a top up of the coolant. Finger crossed. This evening is raining and the temperature is very high, around 7°
Packing and planning are my duties for tonight. I've got an good idea of the first half of the trip. 1600 miles from Farmington Ct to New Orleans, via New York (lunch tomorrow and Brooklin Bridge) Charlottesville, (lunch sunday, with Taylor LWL former fellow) , Elvis' home in Menphis, and then south to New Orleans...

end of february list

Another month has elapsed, and I am packing, this is again a good opportunity to make a contribution to the future historian of everyday behaviour with list of variation in what I have collected and lost in the space of the past month. After the end of january list, now we have the end of february list.

New items:


A car (a mitsubishi eclipse, 2000, red, 121000 miles, four cilinder, 2 liters)
-a car insurance
-a US driving Licence
-a snow wiper

-a 9 cell battery for my new netbook (item was actually bought last month, but arrived in february)
-a new pair of soils for my mexican Chiapas EZLN boots (they (boots) sat in the shoe shop for a month but finally I got them back)
-an upgrade in my Netflix account, from 1 movie at a time, to 2.
-two slips to mend textile fabrics
-a new diaper baby cream ( I use it for my armpit when swimming)
new food items
-half bottle of olive oil, (a new bottle)
-half a pound of sugar
-spicy black tea and ginger tea
-5 onions
Items I receive from other people
-cookies from New Haven.
-a pound of dried chickpeas
-cookies of various kind
Other items received
-a folder of research notes and other material from Lewis Walpole Library
- two guides and four route maps of US states.

items consumed or lost

2 pairs of socks
2 deodorants

driving test and licence

This morning we set off with the dealer to the DMV for my test, they have been very kind in asssisting me in this, while their pards solve the payment details for later. I feel I spent as much time at DMV in february as I did in museums. Lots of waiting, then the officer takes me to my car. This is going to be the first time I drive my car, for the driving licence test, with the sergeant on my side. It rolls well, the brake pedal needs some centimeters to start working. The test actually lasts few minutes, he sees that I am a careful driver. Once out of the car, I tell the officers that the cars is mine just bought it, still have to pay for it, and I am there with the dealer. He laughs for a couple of minutes. Another 30 minutes waiting, and I get my Us driving licence.

a car odissey part 3, getting it, driving it

Last post I forgot to mention an important moment, getting the plates. Here, I mean in the US, plates do not belong to cars, but rather to people, thus you can have your plates and attach them to your cars, and when you change car you can shift the plates to your new vehicle. This of course change in different specific situations. As I never possessed a vehicle before in CT, I got new plates, which I will have to send back in an envelope to DMV CT when I will sell the car. When I saw my plates it was a moment of emotions, I really got a car. Now paying it. Wiring the money from italy takes too a week. Thus, thanks to the sound advice of a friend back in Italy, I call my bank and I have the limit on my credit card increased. However that was not sufficient because the kosovar dealers do not have a credit card machine..... This I could not believe, in the US! Another stereotype broken. So we go together to their bank where they take two thousands out of my credit card, the rest through the bancomat card in two days, I discovered that there are drive in Bank tellers, and why should I be so surprised?- the last few missing dollars I give them in euros. Finally I can get inside my car.
Inside is low, the automatic shift is well functioning, from the first to the second is a pleasure. The car is overall quite basic, no cruise control, no fancy stuff, a good sound of the autoradio that reads cds. Suspensions (springs?) are not exactly soft, but the car has 121000 miles, and one should not expect too much. Engine runs well. Breaks break.
First drive is to New Haven, for a dinner to colleagues. With 20 dollars I fill the tank. Drives fine.

...here it is....

Sunday at the Diner

It is a rainy/snowy sunday, perfect for staying home and making phone calls as I have today in my search for a flat or room in LA. On tv there is KILL BILL 1 and 2 thus not problems with entertaining and later on I am going to the pool. At noon however we went for lunch with Fraukje, my colleague here at Lewis Walpole Library. I knew this place in Plainville (where else?, I got my driving lessons and my car there), a small diner on the main road. Those places you see in movies where the waitress bring you coffe and asks if everything is allright.

We seat at the last table and order pankakes, omelettes, sausages, bacon and eggs. There is a small electronic jukebox at the table, I press random button and Celine Dion starts singing, terrible!

The food is very good, cholesterol for a month, and one has to learn how to order eggs, there are at least four ways in which they come. I had them "medium over". On the way home snow starts.

car odissey part 2 buying

And thus on a Friday morning I set for the dealer, around noon, the car is there, there is not the guy I spoke with but one of his brothers, new cars have arrived, but there is nothing in my price range, sorry. I'll get the Eclipse then. Ok says he. Standing around the car he tells me what is going to do to the car, oil, brakes, new tires, fixing the lock of the internal box, clean etc. Then we go inside to talk numbers. On top of the agreed price, there is a fee to be payed to the DMV of 125 $, then the sales tax, in Connecticut is not too bad, 6%, and then a handling fee to the dealer of 350$, no wonder I get new tires!!! I must have had a bad face at this last additional price, he lowered the selling price of 200 $ saying let's make this even between us. Over and all is more than 700 bucks on top of the selling price, not cheaper than in Europe I would say.
Next step is insurance, we need insurance for the sale to take place, for them to be able to go to DMV with the paperwork, I call the insurance, I had a quote already, and get it, . As we wait for the fax, I ask about their family, the father who speaks hardly any English is always in the store, not doing much, they are from Kosovo, came over the US around 2000. The date says much. Now I understand about the familiar accent and gestures, it is my Balkan friends from Florence, and especially Punky the soul of BarFiasco and toyota specialist. That early morning in a basement flat when, after a night spent in drinking and singing songs, I, the only "European" in the room was solemnly baptized Balkan by dripping rakia on my nape comes to my mind.
The faxed provisional insurance card is there, let's move on. When I take out my Italian driving licence, in the meantime a third brother has appeared, frowns appears. Connecticut laws only allows US driving licence holder to own a car. What? what ownership has to do with driving licence? They call DMV, I need to get a non-driver identification, in order to be able to buy the car, oh dear. New plan, I set off with the first brother, the one I originally talked to, to DMV. My Kosovar friend has to push around the first rank of desks to get to the sergeant, than we get the paper for a request of a CT identity card. Fortunately I have my SSN (social security number) with me, as they want that as proof of identification. They have already my case gone through immigration last week thus we do not wait too long. My misspelled name is called, I go to the counter, it is not me, somebody called David Lombardi, he shows up behind me. I go back to my seat. I ask my kosovar dealer about the emigration to the states. He comes up with a fascinating story about an entire family crossing borders on foot to Macedonia then Bulgaria, to avoid patrols and checkpoints, till Czech territory and then finally Germany. From there then to the US. He only went back once and found his wife there. His first son was recently born.
My name is called , we go and a conversation starts with the black guy at the counter it is about soccer, best Italian team, Juventus, Milan, the black guy is very disappointed by Juventus cheating, the Kosovar is more keen on German football, the conversation moves on, Matarazzi and Zidane, sympathies go to Matarazzi, The African American has a new topic, why on earth is American football called football if they do not ever touch it with their feet? Anyway he does not like it. My card appear, he shakes my hand, "welcome to America, sir". Back to the store, paperwork completed, I see they are working on the car, I have to go back.
It is four when I am back to the library, I check out my bank account to wire the money. The server is down for extraordinary maintenance. Forget about getting it done before Monday.

car odissey part 1 searching

These last days I have spend each afternoon after 4 in searching for the right car, but basically my budget was quite low. A number of dealers, the clean one with large stores along major routes dismissed me. They had hundreds of cars out there, but when I said that I was looking for something around the three thousands they looked up and then said that they did not have anything, or pointed to something around 4000. I reckoned I should explore the smaller dealer. Looking online I found that there were about 4 of them in Plainville, where I passed my driving course. I visited them, with no great results. The general answer was, we do not have that much, one asked me if I wanted a SUV, but I denied the possibility. Another, after listening to my story told me that it was not worth, then offered something at 1500, "but it runs funnily". They all told me to come back as they get new cars every day. "By the end of the week we have new cars coming" thus I thought that by the end of this week I might be able to get one. In the middle of all this, I had to think about road service. The AAA is the most famous US road service, there is a Branch just few miles down route 10 in a plaza, inside is full of gadgets, there is a shop, a road service section and an insurance area. The people at the road service are very nice, a lady explain me how to join and what the service are. Then it hits me. I am a member of the Italian Automobile Club ACI. I take my card out. There is a logo in it, "Show your card" it says. And it functions. I do not need new coverage, I am covered by my Italian club, Yuppieeee!!!!
Another dealer, this is a family one. Funny, familiar accent. They do not have anything, come back at the end , we are off to an auction and will bring more cars. We have only a Mitsubishi. I look at it, and walk away unconvinced. Yesterday, Thursday, I start the end of the week tour. Nothing has arrived for my price range. mmmmm, damn!!! Driving by I look at the Mitsubishi again. It is an Eclipse, sort of sport-looking, red. I stop and get its VIN. The Vehicle Identification Number allows you to access all records on a single vehicle. From revision, to accidents, to owners etc to mileage etc. You can access these information online by paying a small fee (25 $) to private companies. I check, the car is clean. In the meantime a thought has formed in my mind. This may not be a 1970s Dodge Challenger, the one I would dream of now, and which I could not afford anyway, but it is exactly

the car I wanted when I was 1 years old age

my mother used to tell this story: 1 year old, I get a present, a red sporty toy car, one of those you push with one hand. I start to cry desperately because, allegedly I wanted to get in. It took few years (many) but I am finally able to do it.
The US may not be the land of opportunities they used to be, but is still America the land where dream, especially children ones, can be fullfilled!!!!

Physiology of Thaw

The great melting has started, fascinating! for about a week we have had daytime temperature above 0° and above all no snowing. As a result the snow has started melting away, and is greatly reduced everywhere.

In New Haven has almost completely disappeared, here in Farmington is still the dominant feature of the landscape. As much as I was enthralled by fresh snow covering the landscape with its sound-proofing veil, I am mesmerized by the process of melting , that is more complicated than one can think. First of all, few basic facts, known to everybody but to be reminded anyway, snow does not melt easily, it is not few hours at positive C° that will make snow melt away.

As fresh snow is lacking the result of few temperature excursion above melting point is that a icy layer get to be created both at the bottom and at the top of the snow. The behaviour of snow moulds depends on what sort of base they lay. Whether water is absorbed and other factors like colour, temperature, direct or indirect exposure to the sun or other sources of heat. . On cement for instance, water freezes and thus produces this ice area at the border, on top and likely at the bottom of snow piles. Another sign that the snow is melting is that the surface that was so smooth and regular starts to become uneaven with irregular patterns due to the repeated process of melting and freezing.

More outstandingly snow areas starts to recede at the borders, at the corners and around trees, thus uncovering whatever lies underneath, grass, mud, tar and so on. Around tree trunks a depression is created that slowly frees the wood from the white embrace.

In urban areas and along the roads the behaviour of snow thawing is altogether different seasons, celestial bodies and traditional imagery is not useful and we need to resort to other sorts of images to convey a fitting image. To keep roads and sidewalks free snow is piled up alongside often to waist height. After a week or so without new snow, unregarding of temperature change, snow along roads with decent traffic will become grey from the dirt spashed over by the wheels and exhausts passing by. They start to look like masses of translucid dust being deposited by giant snails in a colossal transmigration.

Larger piles look like they are ill or cancerous woulded creatures, or freakures. As if remnants of a failed alien invasion (don't they choose always small towns?), they lay there, like dying blobs, under the deadly sunrays, and humans, that only a week before walked shy and careful along the white space, like en endangered species in a conquered territory, throw litter empty bottles and sigarette butts onto them, as a final humiliation of the defeated enemy

Donuts

Finally yesterday I had my first donut. With my friends from New Haven we spent the day spent at the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford http://www.wadsworthatheneum.org/ , we imagined a small museum, and we found ourselves in a major one with huge three floors collection of both european and american paintings, forniture, objects, textiles. We thought we would spend one hour, but after 1 floor and 1/2 we decided we should give in, have lunch and continue our visit afterwards. Hartford is supposed to be a large city, but on saturday afternoon nobody was on the street and even the tourist information was closed. It is the capital city of Connecticut and there is a mix of architecture that makes the mind of an European spin. Modern towers erects themselves alongside the nineteenth century fake medieval, and by now I am used to this, but then, beyond a park one sees a sort of bavarian castle, with a golden dome, it is the capital building, whatever that may mean. If you go nearer it looks more like a 1930s building. Near it a gothic arc with with two conic elements on top is the Civil War Sailors' and Soldiers' memorial Arch. "Mah" one would say in italian.

On the way to New Haven a long-awaited American experience, stopping at a Dunkin' Donuts. Sugar flour and fat in a round shape, I should have gone bare chested to the counter drooling like Homer Simpson, but he eats them at home. I even bought a six pack for my colleague at farmington who leaves tomorrow morning. I look pretty happy. There are other images of the donut experience added to the slideshow.

DMV

today I went to pass the knowledge test for the driving licence; the nearer DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles, is in New Britain , 10 minutes by car from Farmington, they open at 8 I was there at 7 45, with a little crowd of 20 people. Yesterday it was closed all day for the anticipation of some sort of public holiday, Washington Birthday that is next Monday (the third of February), thus I am entitled to presume that today there is a bit more people than the usual. It is a fine morning but a chill wind is blowing and everybody is shivering. There is not a cue in the English sense of the term but people gather in a sort of sequential way respecting more or less their position. The lady near me interrupts her conversation with her friend with a series of "cogno, cogno cogno, cogno..." each time that a chilly gust of wind caresses our backs. At 8 02 the building opens, the crowd has in the meantime grown to the hundredth. Get the number and wait for it on the screen. As proofs of residence I've got two netflix envelope and one from the driving school. They are accepted. My requests remains for a while there, checking the immigration status, they explain me, finally after about 1 hour I get called and brought before the computer, 25 question I am allowed 5 mistakes. Difficult to fail. Next riddle to be solved... find a car to pass the driving test ....

d(r)iving deeper in US

as part of the requirements for a new driving licence, the state of Connecticut asks anyone unregarding of their experience to take an 8 hours course of theory of safe driving. Thus I spent yesterday and today, saturday and sunday 9 am to 1 pm sitting in this driving school in the nearby small town of Plainville to get this certificate. We were six "pupils" all male, starting from the back rows these were : 2 teenagers brought by their mothers, one round and with acne wearing a black sweater with stars and skulls, the other long and fair-skinned had a sort of pine-nut face, a 19th years old guy looking older and very crossed, The a guy in his late forties, a second hand car dealer,who had lost his licence because of drunkness at the wheel, and had then taken another two years because of being found driving, then a 26 years old, latino looking guy with his entire body -as we learned- covered in tattoes and who in the past stole cars, lastly in the second row, your affectionate friend. The school itself was unpretentious to say the least, like the guy running it, who started the first class with a daring statement, "you wouldn't want to be here, I would not want to be here, thus let's take this easy". What followed was a mix of videos, tips about the test and lots of casual conversation about cars and cops. The instructor was really taking it easy, for instance the same second he distributed one test he would start a casual conversation affecting everybody's attention. In terms of road regulations, difference are of course scarses, some however are worth a note. Pedestrians have always the right of way. Not just on crosswalk but always. What is the rationale? I speculate that this comes from two things, first not many people walk , second those who walk are mostly adoloscents old enough to go on their own and not old enough to have access to a car. The second difference is again about children, schoolbuses have lights to signal you to stop.
The two adolescents at coffee break would reappear with a obscene quantity of crisps and pop corn to be consumed in the second haf of class. The best line of the weekend however belongs to the tatooed car thief! On the second daywhen the instructor said that in Febraury there is not much queueing and that we all could be all driving next week, he commented
"oh, my Mum will be so happy"!!!!
isn't life wonderful?

coffe breaks

The Lewis Walpole Library (the picture is actually of the Root House the other 18th century house of the complex, the one reserved to fellows and researchers) is a sort of alpha and omega of the collectors world, its name comes from the name of Horace Walpole, on of the great British collectors on first half of the 18th century and Wilmhart Sheldon Lewis an American collector passionately in love with Walpole's collection or Walpoliana. The beginning and the end of the great age of collecting? The library was his house a 18th century (what else?) house. In 1928 He and his wife (It's her in the portrait over the fireplace, she was the one with big money) built another wing, or annex, a large beautiful room, that was then calle the New Library, and has kept its name even after that another building has been recently added to house the modern library. Books have been moved and now the New Library is a place for meeting and coffee breaks.

Walmart

my first visit to Walmart, I had a precise idea, drive on route 6 till you find it. My mission to buy patches to repair my raincoat I teared falling on ice about a week ago. I thought it would be so big I would not miss it and instead I missed it. After about half an hour driving southwest, the third Dunkin' Donuts, a Burger King and one McDonald, I made an U-turn and then I found it, it is relatively close to where I live. It must not be a giant one, I would say the size of a big European one, like a Carrefour in France. This is just an overview, I was tired after swimming and searching, and did not want to be too analytical.
Anyway just right after the entrance there is a Subway, which is a cheap version of fast food, then starts the clothing section. basically you have to put together, a large clothing supermarket, with a children toys shop, a pharmacy, a warehouse of house equipment, car and other toys for men and women, a gardening section, the food area is small, just to get together a quick meal. Prices are low, but now I do not remember them, I had a look in the men section. There are very few long socks, the majority of more elegant socks seems to be just at calf level. You find nylon socks for men, I remember I first saw them in Spain, they have them here too, knee-lenght only blue one made in china. The underpants section is dominated by boxers, for about 70 % then very large slip high on the waist. Funny colours on offer, red or bright blue, as if superman had gone schizophrenic.
I could not resist looking if the weapon section was present, the one that shocked European public opinion. Near the fishing section there is a section with some toy guns, in the section nearby three male adolescents with their hood on are talking in a section nearby, a little shiver runs on my back, a father and a son are nearby, the son, about 13 years old is looking at gun's padded covers, the father seems a little embarrassed at the son's enthusiasm. I peek further, there are some kit for simple guns, no serious weapon, nothing like in Micheal Moore, no automatic guns. I am thinking of heading away when a male shop-assistant asks me if I am finding what I was looking for... I answer that actually I am looking for those patches to be used instead of sewing, near the sewing machine maybe? he looks at me strangely, the combination of question and accent must be at least puzzling but possibly self annulling . I tour another while, find the sewing machines, mission accomplished. I can go back home.

a bit colder please

- 17 c° uau!! I think I have never seen the thermometer that low! Yet the sun is out and it looks beautiful. I was actually feeling cold yesterday walking to the dray laundry, but thought I was just tired and that it would be around -8 or so. The lady in the launderette, as soon as I opened my mouth, started to speak me in spanish.
I got a first answer about the issue in my previous post. Schools close, so that parents that live far, where road condition gets very bad, can get home. On another tone, I discovered that there is a Wall Mart quite close, thus soon I will have this ultimate American experience. Maybe tonight after the pool.

how do parents cope?

Over lunch break, I met with the housekeeper, he really seems out of a novel, tall and slim, he told me the funny anecdotes of the other fellows, like cooking a steak and the fire alarm going off. It is snowing intensely, today we expect 3 inches of snow. Nonetheless I was surprised to see broadcasted the announcement of early closing of the school because of that. 3 inches of snow are sufficient for school to close? in New England, not in Egypt. Besides, how do parents cope with that? This opens a number of interesting questions....

first day of routine

Last night has snowed, not much but this morning a new layer of snow has covered walkways and cars. Yesterday first workday in farmington. The Lewis Walpole Library was renovated recently with the building of a new section with a modern reading room, the customers today are the three fellows, none else; however, the doors are locked and you can ring to entry. Both at the entrance door and at for the reading room. Apart from that, we have our kitchenette with coffee maker and a beautiful other room, called by its old name the new library, where to sit and chat or read something else. The reading room is very comfortable, the table is designed for people who work on books and not computers, however there are retractable panel that you can use for your laptop. The staff is helpful and knowledgeble to say the least of it. It is cold in there, at lunchtime I had to come back and add a couple of layers under my shirt and sweater. I spent the mornng studying the card catalogues and their mutual relationship and with the online catalogue and digitalized image catalogue. You can do a lot between 8 30 and 4 30, and when you are done, you are weary, yet there is still lots of time before you. if you do not have to drive home, you can just collapse on the sofa, I resisted the temptation and went swimming, relaxed in the giant jacuzzi, then bought some stuff at the supermarket, cooked dinner, black long rice and asparagus, and watched a classic soviet movie I received through Netflix in the morning: Ballad of a soldier, a 1959 war drama, very romantic, tearful, and intense. Exactly what I needed. Then I went online and saw Little Britain, series 2 episode 6, excellent episode, to end the day with a laughter. I think I will cook dinner for my flatmates one of this days, maybe wednesday.