Today Sweet Hubby and I went to the Communications Museum, sometimes known as the phone museum. This specialty collection of old telecommunication equipment is open to the public only on Sundays for a few hours every week. It's run by knowledgeable volunteers who take small groups through the 3-story building, explaining the complex wiring and cabling and gauges and switchboards and old telephone models that fill the space. It's a messy place, apparently still evolving. It was like walking through a scene from the movie "Brazil". I'm in awe of those who are able to make sense of it all.
I don't have any particular affection for the history of telecommunication, but I do have a particular connection to this museum. A friend of mine is one of the docents, and years ago he hired me to record some of the narrative material that used to be used on the tours. Now the tours are led by humans, because they are able to answer the many questions we visitors have during the tour.
I was surprised that SH wanted to come with me because it meant forestalling our usual Sunday paper-and-pastries ritual (he reads the paper, I do the puzzles, we both eat the pastries). I think he was originally just coming along in solidarity so that we would have more of the day together, but it turned out he was much more interested than I in the information and demonstrations presented. That shouldn't have been a surprise, given that he has a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering. He speaks the same language the docents spoke, if in a slightly different dialect. I had had only about one hour of sleep last night, and we hadn't eaten anything before arriving at the museum, so my energy flagged noticeably about an hour into the 2 1/2 hour tour, while SH remained curious and engaged. Still, I'm really glad we went, as it had been on my Someday list for quite a while.
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