Unease is permeating my world right now ...
Here in the Greater Chicagoland area, we're experiencing a thaw of the mounds of snow that blanket the sidewalks, streets and green spaces. We were hoping for a nice, slow, languid thaw, but instead, it appears that there will be thunderstorms and lightning tomorrow, dumping about an inch of rain throughout the morning which, added to the feet of accumulated snow, are setting the stage for Thawpocalypse: flooded rivers, streets, homes and basements. In the 10 years we've lived here, we've dealt with four floods, lost thousands of dollars worth of personal property, and have become more and more wary of the area - and have talked of moving with increased frequency. Not that we want to, but we just may have to, to preserve our collective sanity.
And now the troubling news out of Western Pennsylvania: Conneaut Lake Park (which I visited three times during the writing of my book, and slowly fell in lvoe with) will be sold in September in a tax sale. Many factors (summed up very nicely in this wonderful article by Susan Glaser of Cleveland's Plain Dealer:
http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2013/09/charming_conneaut_lake_park_st.html ) have led to this, none simple to comprehend or easy to remedy.
The park's future is truly in a state of suspended animation. Should we fans of CLP prepare ourselves for the worst, taking our emotional easily-damaged properties off the floor, steeling ourselves for the flood? Or will the tax sale be a huge blessing in disguise? Will a caring party, wishing to keep the park and its history alive, purchase it and restore it to its former glory?
I'm still working on that Powerball win. And I know exactly what I'll be doing with a portion of it.
Until then, I've got photo albums to move to higher, safer spaces. And I've also got a park to visit this season, to pay it its due, no matter how the outcome of the sale unfolds.
So, as part of a trip my hubby and I recently took to Southern California, while Chicago was swallowed up in yet another polar vortex, we decided to visit Disneyland - as one does. And, after receiving my wonderful 23-month calendar from D23 and knowing I'd soon be receiving my next D23 issue that was all about "It's a Small World" at the 1964-65 World's Fair, I decided to hold our Disney Day under the lens of the art of the magnificent Mary Blair, the Disney artist who was Walt's favorite, the woman who was responsible for the concept art for "Cinderella", "Peter Pan", and "Alice in Wonderland", and the driving force behind the ride, "It's a Small World", celebrating its 50th anniversary this year,. Little did I know I'd embark on quite an interesting journey. You see, the aforementioned ride was closed for refurbishment, as was the Alice ride. The two bastions of Blairness, the places where one can actually ride through Mary's Wonderful World, were closed to us. Let the pouting begin: It was quite interesting to be encountered by a variety of folks, middle-aged, teens, college-aged, all asking us (while I was taking photos of the IASW ride area), "Man! I love this ride! When will it be running?" "Is the ride closed for just an hour or so?" "I came all the way here today to visit the ride. Bummer." Perhaps it was the way I was outfitted with Blair, but lots of folks asked me if I knew what was up. What I learned was that the ride was being refurbed to meet all OSHA standards, would be up again in early April, then down again to complete the facelift, re-opening in time for its 50th birthday celebration. 
https://d23.com/visit-disney-at-the-1964-65-worlds-fair-in-the-spring-issue-of-disney-twenty-three/?CMP=EMC-eml&att=20140213_D23_FanFare
