Saturday.....

Paul wanted to try a new restaurant today. When he was telling one of our neighbors about Lenny & Joe's, he told Paul about the Maine Fish Market Restaurant in E. Windsor, CT. We tried it for lunch today. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful! We both had fried scallops again, but this was more of a whole meal; salad, bread, potato or rice, vegetable. REALLY, really good!

After that we were going to go to Mark's tennis match but we had some time to kill so we drove by Paul's old work, Combustion Engineering, aka ABB, aka Alstom. The main building was completely gone, torn down.



By the sounds of it they are still doing environmental cleanup there (they used to build nuclear boilers).



After that we met Mark, Janelle, and Mason at the Enfield Tennis Club. Mark belongs to a league and this is their home court. He had a 2-hour tennis match (that he won by the way).





On the second floor there is a long room with windows on both sides where you can watch the games going on. There is a smaller room with a kids' tennis court set up, another room with toddler toys in it. In the main room there are lots of tables and chairs, a ping pong table, crayons, games, etc. Mason really liked the little tennis court. After some members of Mark's league finished on their court there was some time left and they said that Mason could play on it. He looked so tiny out there.







P.S. Some more post offices -

E. Windsor, CT


Conway, MA (from a previous ride)

Old Combustion Engineering offices

Today we took a ride to the Connecticut shore. On the way we drove by the old Combusion Engineering offices in East Granby where Paul worked years ago. Now it is called Center Shops.




I had taken pictures of the first place that he worked at, the main site in Windsor here and here.

I had also taken this picture of the place in Bloomfield where he worked for awhile.



Today I realized that I had never taken a picture of the offices in East Granby, CT.

It was a strip mall that Combusion took over. The inside was all open with offices in the whole building. After Combustion left, they went back to a strip mall.

End of an Era, Combustion Engineering

Today we had an appointment in Connecticut and on the way home we drove by Paul's old work. He got laid off from Combustion Engineering/Alstom after 31 years in 2003.

He had heard that they were going to tear down the old buildings. Today we saw that they had started.

It's had to tell from this picture, but there were guys in asbestos suits working on the outside of the building. The reason they kept the big site so long is because of nuclear contammination that needed to be cleaned up.



The remnants of the company are now in two rented buildings, one of which is a building that they rented for overflow space many years ago.



They also rent this building.





This was the "main site" where Paul worked when he first got his job there in 1972.




I remember the first time he took me down there to see where he would be working. It seemed so far away from where we lived (about 25 minutes). We took his parents there one Sunday afternoon. There is a pond behind the building with ducks. We brought bread and fed the ducks (and, yes, I am pregnant - about 7 months. The day we found out I was pregnant was the same day he found out he had this job).



Kind of sad; the real end of an era now that the main building will be gone.

291/365 - CE belt buckle

Paul has worn this belt buckle since 1980. He got it on a business trip to Dallas, Tx working for Combustion Engineering. He saw an employee wearing one like it at a business meeting and told him he liked his belt buckle. The regional director disappeared for a few minutes and when he came back he tossed the belt buckle across the table to Paul. He has worn it ever since. Today he retired it, and I thought it's story deserved to be told.

P.S. When I asked him why he decided to stop wearing it, I thought the answer would be more memorable. He just said, "It adds too much weight to my shorts."

248/365 - Combustion Engineering

Paul and I took a ride to LL Bean in South Windsor, CT after work today. We went down the back way and drove right past Combustion Engineering (later called ABB and Alstom). I decided that it deserved a picture, after all, Paul worked there from right out of college in 1972, until he got laid off in 2003; 31 years! He worked at quite a few sites, but this was the main site in Windsor, CT and the last place that he worked.