Sunday in Omaha

Like many cities, downtown Omaha is pretty dead on Sunday. But the tourists were still around the Old Market when I drove by on my way to Union Station. Union Pacific stopped passenger service to Omaha in 1971 and donated the building to the city. A few years later the Western Heritage Museum opened in the space. More recently, the station went through a massive renovation, and it is beautiful! Lots of sculptures in the waiting room: people waiting, talking, buying tickets, etc. The museum is now a Smithsonian Affiliate and has 3 terrific temporary exhibits:

• Windows on the West: Views from the American Frontier. A cross-section of paintings during the expansion of the west, from mid-19th century up to about 1930, including 3 lithographs by Karl Bodmer from the trip I described yesterday.
• The Signers. Short bios of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, grouped by State, along with their signatures on a variety of other documents. (The youngest signer, at 26, was Edward Rutledge from South Carolina.) Most of the documents come from the museum's own collection; facsimiles of a handful were provided by the Library of Congress. I didn't know how much many of these signers suffered because of their rebellion. Some were captured by the British or had their estates vandalised and burned to the ground. And many suffered financially; some even dying in debtor's prison.
  
• Samuel Colt: Arms, Art and Invention. Colt was supposedly inspired by a ship's wheel, as a 16-year-old sailor, to invent a revolver cylinder that would automatically rotate as the hammer was cocked. He was also a genius at self-promotion. He commissioned artist George Catlin to create a series of paintings showing himself using a Colt firearm. Colt travelled extensively around the world, presenting gifts to officials and royalty, to get them to use his guns. The North bought thousands during the Civil War. On exhibit are many of the gifts he received in return, and much else besides firearms. This exhibit was organized by the Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford, where his plant was located. His widow donated her collections to the Athaneum.
  

I own 2 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock, so I thought my first trip to Omaha would be to the Big Shindig Warren puts on for the annual stockholders meeting. We just got back to DC from Durham at the time of this year's meeting, so that will have to wait for another year.

All day today the local NPR station has been play programs relating to the 40th anniversary of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Before going out today, I watched the last few games of Sharapova vs. Schnyder at the French Open. I was really rooting for Patty, but Sharapova always hangs in there. I've seen almost none of the tennis because the broadcasts are in the afternoon when I am out running around.

Gas across the street is $2.99, the first I've seen under $3.

The weather forecasts seem to change hourly, but they usually involve "scattered" or "isolated thunderstorms." Such was the case today, but it was mostly sunny all day. I went out to the car for something a few hours after I got back from dinner, and saw it had rained a little in that time. I am concerned that the weather be good when Mother lands in Omaha on Monday afternoon. Most of the time, the forecast for Tuesday, when we start off, is for "sunny."

I usually travel like a gypsy, with things just thrown around in the car. But it's even worse this time, because when I went east last November, I took everything I thought I might possibly need for 8 months, including lots of paperwork and books. I read few of the books, as we had a terrific library nearby in Durham. I've shipped home most of the books, but everything else seems to have been breeding like crazy. And even though I've also shipped home 3 big boxes of other stuff, the car is like Fibber McGee's closet. I don't dare move anything. It's all in there, but where? My current task is to make room for my mother and her luggage. Right now, there is room for her OR her luggage, but by the time she gets here, I am confident there will be space for both.