Crowne
Plaza Hotel parking lot
Saturday,
20 October 2018
 |
| today's route |
Dexter’s
evaluation
We
had an appointment this morning at K9 Training with Courtney, who I
hoped would give me insight into how to deal with Dexter’s lack of
socialization skills. She did.
In the space of only an hour, I explained all that had been happening with Dexter over the 2+ years I've had him and what little I knew of his 1st years of life. Courtney told me it sounded to
her like Dexter had not had the happy early life I’d imagined,
given his joyful personality. She said his joy was likely congenital
but his behavior indicated some early troubles. She said he may
never be comfortable in very large groups of dogs, as most day care
facilities use, that he would always be far more successful at those
that kept group size down to 8 or fewer. Which would explain why he
did so well at Taurus Day Care in Austin after he’d had troubles at
the previous day care.
She
suggested I bring him back for one actual training session before I
leave the state, which I’m happy to do. She also gave me the
contact information for a day care in Connecticut where she thinks
he’d be successful. And she suggested a new walking harness for
Dexter that she thought would help me control him better – a kind I
haven’t seen before. It’s available online, and when I explained
that online ordering doesn’t really work for my situation, she
ordered one for me, which I can pick up at our next session.
She
gave me more hope than I’ve had lately. I talked to the
facility in Connecticut and made arrangements to go by on Nov. 1 so
we can see if it’ll work out. And when I use the regular harness
on our walks, I’m impatient to see if the new one will help more. My arms and shoulders still ache from being wrenched a month ago, and
all the home solutions I’ve tried are only mildly helpful because
the dogs keep pulling on them every time we walk. Oh well. Hope is
the Rhode Island state motto.
Nooseneck
Hill Road
My
mother’s mother died before I was born and my grandfather remarried
a widow who lived nearby and he moved to her home on Nooseneck Hill
Road. We visited there when I was about 6 years old and, in the odd
way kids do, I still retain a few very clear memories of that visit. Both my grandfather and my step-grandmother Mildred (we called her
Grandmother) were very nice, calm, sweet-natured people so it was a
happy visit for me.
About
10 years ago when Momma and I were here to see Aunt Alice, we drove
down Nooseneck Hill Road looking for the house. It no longer
existed, but we found it just the same – found the land and part of
the foundation. Today I
went back to look for it again.
It’s
lucky that road is only about 5 miles long or so, because I had to
drive it several times to find the place. But I was pretty sure I’d
found it and got out to check.
This was the approach, and I really thought this was
the place. But when I walked around a bit, all I could see were
fairly young trees where I expected to see foundation.
Then
over in a clearing on the left I saw what looked like a cemetery and
I suddenly thought I must be in the wrong place, because there had
been no cemetery on that land before. This is what I saw.
I started going back to the RV, sure I was trespassing because I knew nothing of a William Harrington, when I started remembering that Grandfather hadn’t owned this land, Mildred had. Mildred had 2 children by her first marriage, Susan and Billy. Billy! Aha! When I was 6 they seemed almost grown up, but if Billy was William and born in 1939 as the marker said, that would make him about 16 back then which would be about right. I never knew Mildred’s previous name but surely this had to be right. Billy grew up to be William.
And
the marker said he’d only died three years ago, which is why
Momma and I hadn’t seen anything before. There was another sign,
very hard to read now but what I could make out was sweet.
I
got the dogs and we walked around for a bit, but that grass was high
and thick, and I’m sure there were little critters living in there
(based on the dogs’ reactions) so decided not to disturb them any
more.
When
I saw it with Momma I wished I had enough money to buy the land and
build another house there. I don’t know why no one’s ever built
there again - there may be problems with water and sewage, but there
are several houses just across the road.
In
fact, my grandparents used to live in one of them. To afford to send
Uncle Tom to college, the family moved from their very comfortable
house in East Greenwich over to a house with no indoor plumbing in
West Greenwich. I guess my grandmother was very ambitious for my
uncle, and he was grateful his whole life for the sacrifices that
enabled him to have an interesting and productive life.
Well,
I feel confident the house has indoor plumbing now and it looks
really quite nice. There was someone working in the yard there and I
didn’t really want to just stop and take a photo without explaining
myself, and I was too intent on checking out the land across the road
to take the time for it. Maybe I’ll go back before I leave RI.
A
short way farther down the road I came to the Mildred Lineham
Elementary School, named for Grandmother. I remember my Aunt Alice
was furious that it was named for Mildred and not for my birth
grandmother Helen, who also taught there. But I think Momma told me
the administration building was named for Helen, which seems pretty
good to me.
Parking
Lot
Back
in our corner of the parking lot, we had a visitor this evening: the
hotel security guard. He wanted to know why I was there, said nobody
at the front desk knew anything about me. I was so very thankful I’d
asked permission yesterday – I had almost not bothered since
there’d been no trouble before, but now I was able to describe the
woman I’d talked to and what she’d said, and I guess he decided
it would have been an odd lie for me to make up. And we talked for a while about
the RV – he wanted to see inside – and my travels.
He said he had noticed me when I was there the previous weekend, and I explained
the campground was too full on weekends to have room for me – all
these recreational campers out there, and I’m living
there. He was very nice about it but it left me with a very
unsettled feeling.
I
still have next weekend without reservations, and then the campground
closes entirely October 31, so I’ll have to find someplace to stay
on Halloween, of all nights. I think the campground I stayed in for
the first couple of weeks has closed for the season so I can’t go
back there. Maybe I’ll try to find an open slot at the Fishermen’s
campground for next weekend so I’d be asking for the parking lot only
one more night.
This
has made me realize I need to get started looking for someplace in
Connecticut – so many campgrounds up here close no later than
November 1.
PS: formatting note
When I preview this post, it appears to use 2 or 3 different size fonts, and I have no idea what causes that or how to fix it. It only seems to happen when I write first in LibreOffice and then paste it into Blogger, but it doesn't always happen. I've tried highlighting the whole post and clicking on the correct font size, and that makes no difference at all. Hope it's not too distracting to read.
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