Elizabethtown has a few contradictions. It’s a college town, but one that’s fairly conservative. There are always new shops popping up, but they rarely stay. It’s surrounded by farmland, but the main employers are factories and warehouses.
There is a small artistic presence here, and there was even a mural campaign that happened before I moved here. You can see the fading remnants on a barn and two downtown buildings I pass all the time (there are more, but I rarely go by them.)
That’s why this mural is such a surprise. It’s actually behind one of the buildings with the conservative mural on it. I love it and I finally got a chance to stop and snap a few pics of it. Hopefully it will stay a while.
As may remember, I am a member of the Yellow Breeches Chapter of the PA Guild of Craftsmen (truth be told, I’m the Vice President of the chapter.) Every month we have meetings where we go over Chapter business, talk about upcoming events, and there is always a program of some sort. We’ve had show & tell, presentations by local arts venues and groups, and last night we had a fun make and take.
Our little maker’s kit
Ann Boncal and Connie Hollenbaugh gave a presentation on chain maille (Ann did most of the talking and Connie put the kits together for us.) Then after finding out a bit about the history of it, we got to try our hand at making a bracelet. It was an easy chain, but it created a cool spiral and it was fun to work on something short and sweet.
Close-up in process shot
I got to go around the room and check out how everybody was doing and even though the majority of members there hadn’t done this before (and don’t even work in metal) everyone made great progress and had fun.
Finished product (I finished it up at home, about 1/2 of it got finished at the meeting)
If you live in/grow up around Central Pennsylvania, the anagram TMI doesn’t mean “Too Much Information,” it means “Three Mile Island.” Yes, THAT Three Mile Island. In fact, it’s about 4 driving miles from my house. I can see it’s steam rising when I stand on my street in front of where I live.
There’s something you should know about me… I’ve always been a bit scared of nuclear power. I think it’s a product of growing up during the cold war, and well, you know, TMI.
So imagine my reaction when I got a postcard in the mail saying that TMI was having a Community Day where I could TOUR THE ISLAND. Of course I had to face my fears and say “sign me up!” My husband said it was like the Peterman Reality Tour from Seinfeld and that I should bring him back a fun size Snickers. The funny thing is, they really did have fun size candy bars…
It was actually a pretty great tour. Most of the island is left pretty wild and we saw deer, two ospreys, two bald eagles, some egrets, herons, and a cormorant. Plus I sat in the parking lot of Reactor 2 and didn’t freak out or start to glow or anything. And inside they had employees and people from the NRC there to talk about it. I saw what the private security were equipped to do, what the rods look like (in replica, of course) and even got a bag of swag. All in all a pretty great event.
PS: We couldn’t take photos near the working Reactor Due to security issues. Also, I didn’t see Wolverine fighting Deadpool either.
Elizabethtown has a few contradictions. It’s a college town, but one that’s fairly conservative. There are always new shops popping up, but they rarely stay. It’s surrounded by farmland, but the main employers are factories and warehouses.
Hammermarks 