Spending 11 weeks in France this winter.

Sanity in an Insane World

On this the 8th anniversary of the sad events in New York City, read this. Take a special note of the authors.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1227832.html

Summer is almost over. I've had one morning with the temperatures in the 30s. Lots of morning dew and I've seen the first chevron of geese heading south. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen hopefully before the first frost.

It was a very busy summer and I was blessed with lots of visitors. I discovered a few new hikes both hard and easy but all rewarding. My daughters and their families visited for the first time. My granddaughter saw her first river otters at the "Wild Center".

I made new friends when Carlos and family stayed here during Deb's Summer Music Workshop. I did my first fly fishing and, thanks to Tom my instructor, I caught a 15" brown trout on my first outing.

This was a really good summer!

I'll be teaching at a local community college starting Tuesday. I'm teaching 2 remedial math classes. I've been away from the classroom for a while and I'm looking forward to returning. This will make for a busy fall.

I'll expect and welcome more company as the leaves turn. Last year the reds and golds showed up on the mountain tops in the middle of September. By early October, the colors have moved down to my area. Peak "leaf peeping" is the from just before to just after Columbus Day.

Here's a picture from last year.

For those who love to read, here's an interesting article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/review/Straight-t.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Be well

Spring is here!

Spring has arrived to the North Country. A little lavender and white wild flower is surrounding the house. It grows in little clumps of about 10-15 blooms, each bloom 1/2" across. There are scores of clumps of these flower all over. Any ideas of their name?

And here's a mushroom I found behind the house. Is that a morel?

I discovered two wonderful easy walks through the nearby forest recently. They are both near the Wilmington Flume on Route 86. The first passes by a beaver dam and then goes along the banks of the West Branch of the AuSable River across from the Hungry Trout Restaurant. There are a whole series of easy trails in this area.

The other is on the other side of the river and downstream from the first. Here you get easy access to the water falls and flume.

Be well my friends!

Senator Jim Webb

Senator Webb has eloquently and thoughtfully expressed my thoughts on the use of "illegal" drugs and its criminalization.
Please take the time to read what he has to say:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/28/webb/index.html

Consider how much money is wasted and how many more lives are destroyed because of our drug policy.

Be well friends!

Spring is Here?

We've had almost a week of uninterrupted sunshine with overnight lows in the teens and daytime highs around 35º. So I'm still waiting for the real spring. To help things along, I bought a kayak today from EMS in Lake Placid. I had an email coupon for 25% off any full price item. I've had my eyes on this particular kayak for awhile. So with the inflatable kayak I already have, I'm ready for some outings this summer.

Deb and I had a WONDERFUL overnight in Brooklyn, NY a few weeks ago. I would highly recommend giving Brooklyn a try. Even if you don't usually like BIG cities, Brooklyn was fun. Lots of interesting streets, restaurants, antiques shops, and a great botanical garden. Hotels are at least $50/night less expensive. And you get to "Take the A Train" to get there from Penn Station. It's only 10 min. away.

Deb is doing a summer musical theater workshop in the Adirondacks from July 13-17. Two of her students are helping her with it, So they and their family will be here for the week. Their younger brother will be attending the workshop. I had the pleasure of traveling with their father on the choir Paris trip last Easter. It should be a fun week.

Other planned visitors this summer include (so far) more friends from Deb's choirs, Liesl & Bill; Kristin, Mike & Winnie(my grand-daughter); and my niece, Candy, with her 2 children. Their grandparents, my brother Larry and sister-in-law Grace will be with them. Her husband, Chet, is scheduled to return to Afghanistan in April. This will be his 2nd deployment there. He's also served in Iraq. When you see the impact this has on the families of servicemen and women, you get a really different perspective of the sacrifices they make for us.

I'll be teaching at Clinton Community College in the fall. I'm looking forward to getting back to the classroom. It's been a few years since I last taught. I'll be teaching 2 classes, one pre-algebra and one introductory algebra. They've said I could have as many as 3 classes a semester, if I wanted that many, for the forseeable future.

Be sure to check out Denise's blog for the status of her garden. I'm looking forward to eating lots of her fresh fruits and veggies this summer.

Be well my friends!

No Snow - Just Winter

There's no picture of a nice snowy scene this time. The storm that dumped plenty on the east coast from DC to Boston gave us about 1". It was too far east to give us significant snow.
Last week we had some temperatures in the 40s and most of the snow we did have melted except where the plows have piled it. Since those 2 warm days, it's been REALLY cold. Lows around 5º and highs in the low 20s. I like playing in the snow. But I must say, the cold without the snow is a real drag - what's the point. I'm looking forward to spring now.

You may remember that I did get 2 TV stations with the rabbit ears on my TV, NBC and FOX. The stations here decided to go ahead with the move to digital on February 17. They didn't wait for the new June date. The NBC affiliate has a new location for their digital transmitter. It's on Mt. Manfield, northeast of Burlington, VT. That's about 50 miles away instead of the 20 miles away for the old tower.

Well, now I get no TV at all. I'm not a big fan of network TV but it is nice to get a bit of local news and weather, the NBC Nightly News, and Jeopardy. My first try with an outside antenna was a bust. When we get a warm day, I'll try again with the new antenna but 5º is too cold to fool around with it.

I don't think a satellite dish will work either - too many trees to the southwest. Not sure what or if I'll do anything about TV.

The joke up here on Groundhog day is: So 6 more weeks of winter - not bad.

Be well friends.