D-Day

Tomorrow is D-Day... as in Departure Day.  My friend Frank will drive me tomorrow morning to Cleveland Airport where my flight to Houston leaves around 11 A.M.  I have a three-hour layover there, and then my flight to Mexico City arrives around 6 P.M.  For this one-way ticket I splurged and purchased a first-class fare.  That, combined with my Silver Premier Status with United, allows me to check three suitcases weighing up to 70 pounds each without charge.  I am taking advantage of that opportunity.  I am taking three suitcases (plus two carry-on items), although none of them weighs 70 pounds.  

Fortunately, I am not flying into Acapulco.  That city has been devastated by Hurricane Otis which in less than 24 hours escalated from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane.  There is not a lot of information as of yet since the city remains isolated.  I read that the highway into the city is impassable due to landslides.  Hopefully there will not be many casualties, but since this is the strongest storm to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast, I fear that the news will not be good.

As the storm moved inland over the rugged mountains, it quickly lost strength.  In Mexico City there is rain today, but, according to the weather forecast, the showers will end this evening.  When I arrive in Mexico City tomorrow, there is a probability of scattered thunderstorms, but most likely those are not the remnants of the dying hurricane, but just the typical late afternoon rain.

Made in China

 

Yesterday Frank and I drove to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  There we were met by my friends Gayle and Duffy to see a special exhibit called "China's Southern Paradise".  The show features more than 200 objects spanning millennia from the coastal region south of the Yangzi River, an area which has long been rich in trade, craftsmanship and artistic production.  Included are items from museums and private collections in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan.  Cleveland's own outstanding collection of Asian art is well represented.

Here are some of the objects in the exhibit...

Bull-shaped bronze lamp (AD 25 - 220)

Stoneware funerary urn (AD 265 - 316)

Gilt silver cosmetic jar (AD 850 - 900)

Stone chimera... a feline creature with wings and horns which guarded the entrance to tombs

(AD 220 - 539)

Detail from a handscroll (1090 - 1138)

Gilt bronze "Bodhisative", an enlightened being (AD 265 - 589)

Porcelain incense burner in the form of a duck (1100 - 1200)

Stoneware vase (1200s - 1300s)

Hanging scroll with Luohan... disciples of Buddha... receiving offerings

(1178 - 1200)

Celadon porcelain jar (1300s)

Wooden table screen with mother of pearl inlays (1400s - 1500s)

Detail from a handscroll (1368 - 1644)

Seated "Guanyin", the enlightened being of compassion (1573 - 1619)

Portrait of the Qing dynasty Emperor Hongli painted by a Jesuit missionary to China.

(1736 - 1770s)

It was great to make a final visit to our wonderful museum in company with my friends.

 

Empty House

Yesterday we drove back to my house to check and see that the liquidators had cleared out everything.  Except for a few things that the new owners had requested to be left behind, the house was empty.

I wasn't sure how I would react upon seeing my home of so many years empty.  It was a rather odd feeling, but no tears were shed.  Tomorrow the new owners will take possession of the house.

Autumn Leaves

Yesterday afternoon, Frank and I took a drive through the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks to look at the fall foliage.  Even though it was a cloudy day, the autumn colors were quite nice.

Here are a few photos...

More from the History Center

On Saturday we visited the Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society`.  The museum includes an early 20th century mansion known as the Hay-McKinney House.  

 

The garden courtyard of the mansion

The residence was built in 1908 for Clara Stone Hay, the widow of John Hay, the Secretary of State during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.  After the death of her husband, Clara decided to move back to her hometown of Cleveland to be closer to her sister Flora Mather.  However, Clara never made the move because her sister passed away in 1909.  The mansion sat empty until 1916 when it was bought by steel magnate Price McKinney.  The McKinney family inhabited the house until 1936 when it was sold to the Western Reserve Historical Society to become part of their museum.

Today, the mansion is furnished in period antiques.  

Beautiful decoration on the ceiling of one of the rooms

In some of the rooms there are mannequins dressed in clothing from that era.

The dining room

The servants' dining room

The kitchen

With this panel in the servants' quarters, the owners could call the help from different rooms of the house.

It reminded me of the opening credits of "Downton Abbey" in which you see a similar panel with which the owners could call the servants from the various rooms.

The Cleveland History Center is an interesting and worthwhile place to visit.

A Trip to the Museum

As I mentioned in my last post, on Friday I was going to sell my car and vacate the house before the liquidators came to clear it out.  For the remaining days before I fly to Mexico, I am staying in a hotel.  Since I have no transportation, my friend Frank is staying with me.

Saturday we drove to Cleveland to visit a museum which I have not seen in years and which Frank had never seen... the Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

  

As you enter from the parking lot, the first hall is devoted to the history of Cleveland.

Among the items on display there is a wooden model of Cleveland's iconic Terminal Tower.  When it was completed in 1927, it was the second tallest skyscraper in the world.

This statue of Superman is a reminder that the comic book character was created by Clevelanders Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

The Lunar Module Descent Engine used in the Apollo Moon Program was built in Cleveland by TRW, Inc.

One portion of the History Center is a museum unto itself... the Crawford Auto-Aviation Collection.  Although we think of Detroit as the center of the automotive industry, many of the early auto companies were based in Cleveland.

The collection was begun by Fred Crawford, a Cleveland industrialist.  He was notoriously frugal, and his first car was this 1924 Ford Model T.

This touring car was built by the Baker Electric Car Company of Cleveland and was the most technologically advanced car of its day.  One hundred years before the Prius, this car was a hybrid that combined a gasoline internal combustion engine with an electric drive.

This 1906 Imperial Runabout was also manufactured by Cleveland's Baker Company.

This car was made by the Peerless Motor Company, another Cleveland automaker.

A 1903 Model A Cadillac

A 1960 Ford Thunderbird in stainless steel

A 1930 Packard Sport Phaeton

There are a number of vintage aircraft in the collection.

Cleveland has a strong connection with aviation history because for twenty years, beginning in 1929, it was the home of the National Air Races.

The races came to an end in 1949 when a pilot lost control of his plane and crashed into a house in Berea, just a block from my (former) home.

The gondola of a Goodyear blimp, manufactured in nearby Akron, Ohio.

One of the highlights of the museum is the restored carousel which was a part of Cleveland's popular Euclid Beach Park from 1910 until the park's closure in 1969.  Visitors to the museum are allowed to ride the carousel.

I remember my mother telling me that her aunt and uncle lived on the east side of Cleveland near Euclid Beach Park, and that they would take her to the park when she was a girl.  I could not help but feel sentimental as I rode the carousel thinking that she had certainly riden it many decades ago.  

There will be more from this museum in my next post.