Brain Drain

Today I did not get lost at all. I wanted to go to this arboretum. I didn't know I had to buy tickets on line first so I only got to walk around the outside. The outside was amazing but I would have preferred the inside today because it is cold and rainy. I laughed when I saw a memorial bench that read "This is for Joan who loved to garden and for Jim who brought her the dirt."

I arrived at 11. The next tour started at 11:30. I showed him my national park pass and he said to hang on to it because a replacement card would cost $80 dollars!

I was the only one to take the 11:30 tour. The guide said most of the visitors lately are from Minnesota and Texas. This was the room where Teddy Roosevelt was inaugurated. I saw video of him describing the day and the room and the events leading up to McKinley's death. I liked Teddy Roosevelt even though he was pugnacious about the Spanish American war. I don't understand why we had to remember the Alamo!

The cowardly assassin was a twenty something year old anarchist from Detroit who lost his job.

The anarchist wanted to start a new world order. Later he got the electric chair.

The World's Fair was going on at the time. McKinley thought  he would be safe at the Temple of Music.

After his death Congress started a new agency called the Secret Service.

After taking the oath of office Roosevelt was silent for two minutes. Then he sat down at this very desk and wrote, with a pencil, words to the newspaper that would comfort the nation.

The speeches I heard were all about this great nation and all the wonderful resources. We were never going to run out of wood or iron or clean water or clean air. I also think J.P. Morgan and Astor and Vanderbilt were crooks for keeping all that money and treating their employees so shabbily.

I am so glad I came here. This museum is also a voting location. New Yorkers vote today. That is why I could hardly get down the sidewalk to find a place for lunch. Protestors were blocking the sidewalk with a rain shelter. I heard angry voices. I was filmed on one man's phone as I tried to get through the throng. Both sides say the other side are crooked. On the drive home I drove along the shore of Lake Erie. I entered a state park near Hamburg and I saw the governor's name on the state park sign. I forgot all about Chris Cuomo leaving office. I think focusing on navigation has drained my brain completely.