There is a reservoir system near my uncle’s house that has an old dam that has been bypassed in the watershed. You can see the wall of the original dam in the 3rd photo here. It’s getting taken over by trees on the downstream side. Upstream it appears to have filled in for the most part. The factory that originally used the dam is long gone, with not a trace left, other than this dam ands sluice way that has two waterfalls.
Look at that baby’s blue eyes! I wonder where he gets them from!
We got to see lots of people we hadn’t seen in a while. I made them endure getting some off the cuff group photos done. Mary acted as my assistant by jumping up and down and acting goofy for most of the porch shots. She got busted by some neighbors that laughed at her antics and then agreed to take the photo at the end with the fat guy in the red shirt. We had a blast with all the relatives.
We went to Providence RI for the Waterfire event. It was interesting, and kind of strange. Some of my random thoughts and impressions: Providence spent around 140 million bucks to rearrange and resurrect some rivers in downtown to set up the waterfire shows. Massive building downtown has also occurred so I guess it was worth spending public funds to “fix” the river(s). The start of the event has some boats moving upstream carrying lots of folks dressed in black, while Lord of the Ringsish (there I go makin up words again) sounding music is played. It has a medevil, evil tone to it… kind of strange. The music kind of changes and the boats light the braziers up and down the river. The smoke fills the air with a smell that is a cross between wood and kerosene, though it’s not overwhelming. The heat from the fires is noticable on the riverwalk area, even in the summer.
The event draws it’s share of what I’ll call ‘unusual’ folks. I saw a pair of men, dressed as vampires that were apparently a couple… I wasn’t quick enough on the draw to ask to take their picture. I suppose if they were really vampires I wouldn’t have seen anyting in the photos! It wasn’t clear to me why there were Venetian style gondoliers boating people around, but… whatever. Some young ladies on shore had gotten into some adult beverages and started singing “O Solo mio” with gusto if not talent when one of the gondolas passed.
I liked the Waterfire.