Ode to spring, or something like that...

"Hollo blog, how are ya?"

"Long time no write!"

"Yeah, that happens sometimes."

"...it's been a while as you know so bare with me..."

"Oh? So don't expect much?"

"Oh do shut up and let me get on with this!"

A-n-y-w-a-y...

~

Funny the things that make you write. Most times for me it is sparked by others writings; others shared experience. Today it was while I was reading a friends blog about her public life, public divorce, and guess what: lack of writing!

Funny when the Muse can strike you too. Today it was while defrosting a frozen pizza case! ...not exactly conducive to writing when you're on your knees inside a freezer, hands covered with gloves, spraying water over an ice encrusted coil with a door slamming in your ribs. Then you look up and see a price sticker for "Simply Inspired Pizza" and all you know is: "I have to get outa here and write something!" Anything, something, cause you know you've needed to write, ever since you read your friends blog this morning!

~

The thing that stuck with me (well, the things that stuck with me) and somehow sparked the muse (and this is why I'm still in the parking lot at work writing this on my iPhone) was how honestly she shared about the difficulties with "Divorce" and how well she's dealing with it. I'm sure it doesn't seem to her that she's dealing with it all that well; but having gone through something myself that was much more acrimonious; I feel I can see this as an outside observer. Personal experience it always more vivid so I deduce based solely from the point of view that she seems to me to be a lot stronger than I was at that stage by her writings. Everyone's experiences are valid to the individual as they say, and well, I'm impressed. There is a strength there that I suppose I had; because after all I transcended it somehow... but "Damn!" I don't remember being that composed!

Poetry and Faith or a combination of the two, coupled with the overwhelming desire to protect my kids were the stuff that kept me going. As much as I tried civility was a tuff go for a long time being the only practitioner of it (or so it seemed) in the relationship. Ugh!

~

I don't like to write about the bad stuff in my life so maybe that's why I haven't been here in a while. Who wants to hear me whine about this old people's disease. Do you really want to hear about my bile duct? No. That's because it has to do with: "bile" for God's sake! 

Ewww!

~

What REALLY made me want to write today though was her mention of somehow being stranded.

~

Friends of mine always long for the sea. They feel somehow washed up here. I think I remember having wanderlust in my youth; but never a longing for the sea. I'd been there often, got sunburned almost every time, and wasn't with the right person or something. Strange thing is I married an "Island Girl" from the BWI. She always felt the call of the sea too. Perhaps that dampened my enthusiasm. ...who knows... ?

~

I'm a freshwater Piscean if you will. I come alive in the creek beds. Walking along the banks, dipping my toes in the ripples, soothed by the sounds of a different surf. So I've never felt landlocked as long as there was a river or stream nearby.

My water runs down to the sea it doesn't come in from it. I always feel I am the beginning; that goes outward from place. I'm content (mostly) where I am watching as it moves to it's destination. It seems somehow constant to me. Comforting. Unlike the arrival of a wave from some far and distant shore. Coming as it were from the unknown and bringing with it the unknown. I know where the creek water starts. I know it as it passes over stones that I see everyday. Let it pass me by. Let it go out from here and find its way...

Like words, that flow when the muse strikes. In the car while reading or from a hose over coil. Freshwater Piscean; I like the sound of that.

obeeduid~

03/Feb/02

 

11/11/11 Today in our family history! Did I just hear my children yawn???

Today is a BIG day in our family history! What? What!! Did I just hear my children yawn??? Well, guess what, I'm gunna tell this story anyway and someday you will thank me for it when you can tell your own children.

Who am I kidding? If I know you as well as I think I do you'll look it up on the Internet and hand them the iPad and tell them to read it instead. Hmmm, maybe that's not a bad idea...

Alright, in that case I'll just write directly to them!

Dear future grandkids, this is your Gran-Pappy speaking and I just want you to know that this is a Big day in your family history!

...What? Was that a yawn?? No? No, I couldn't believe that you would find this as boring as your parents did when They were young!!!

NNNEVER! ;)

O.K., enough of this A-typical-Irish-tangent...

~

On this day: November 11th 1859; our forefather Robert Gilmour stepped off of the ship "Empire State" onto the docks at Castle Garden in Manhattan N.Y.C. We assume he was met by his cousins the Glenn's (his mother's family) and began his life as a Cooper in a shop in lower Manhattan in the area known as "Five Points." Ever see that movie "The Gangs of New York"??? Yep; dem's are our people!!!

~

On this day: November 11th 1918; Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, became an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

On this day we remember all our our forefathers who served and/ or fought and died for our country. Most importantly we remember James Gilmour the brother of Robert Gilmour who died in the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in 1862 during the Peninsula campaign. If you haven't seen or read his letter's or my transcriptions of them yet: Kick your parents in the A** for me in abstentia!!!!!!

~

Last but not least...

On this day: November 11th 1925; your forefather (Me Da) James Gilmour O'Brien was born in Brooklyn N.Y. and because it was Veterans Day he always had his Birthday off! This was pretty HUGE to me as you might expect 'cause without him there would be no me. No me; no you! :)

~

Every year I try to commemorate this day in some special way. This year I have written a poem for my Dad. I found this picture the other day and the truth is I never thought about him as a young man. We all are at one time, but thats not how I personally knew him: so although I realize he like I and perhaps you; was once young and handsome and maybe even "Cool!" I never imagined him that way. Until now:

Hey Dad, is that you?

I'm almost as old
as you were when you retired.

In this picture
you're as old as I was back then.

That was a different time
and Retirement
is a long way off
for me.

Were you really
this young?
This Cool?
Was I ever cool?

You must have been
lest I would not now
be walking
in your footsteps.

Soon
I will be
the age you were
when you died.

With luck
I'll enter those woods
Where your footprints
stopped

I'll continue
onward
tread those steps
you never walked.

With faith, I will
break new ground
look ahead
and not turn back.

~

Happy 86th Birthday Da! :')

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

A Journal of Hurricane Irene and it's aftermath in Clarksville N.Y.

I started out the day (yesterday) wondering if the new sump pump was going to last...

Devin came home from a double shift so I let him sleep for a few hours while I monitored things. Then the power went out. The pump has a battery backup so I didn't bother waking him until it looked like the pump was incapable of keeping up. It turns out the battery only runs the first pump and moves a minimal amount of water so I gave in and woke him up.




We jury rigged power to his truck and he went out looking for an alternate power supply.

~

Meanwhile I sat and stewed 'cause I was without Internet or him or Sarah.

When he finally got back we assembled the Generator he bought for a price I will not discuss here. ("...Last one in Albany County...")



While it started to remove water (...which by then was halfway up the water tank and boiler...) we headed out for more gasoline.













As we were crossing the bridge at the end of Sligerlands Ave. Just up the street we saw rescue workers preparing an attempt to help someone who apparently got to close to the overflowing creek. ("...if you weren't with me I would stop and help but I know you would worry about me...")

~




We drove backroads through Onesquethaw and Glenmont to the Walmart's. Devin drives like rescue personal so I spent much of the ride with my eyes closed. We drove through water, around downed trees eventually making it the Walmart's unscathed.




~

We got backup gas cans and filled up across the street and headed back in due time. Along the way back we slowed for some pics and video.




This is the Selkirk Train-yards.




This is along Rt 296

The battery on my good camera died so I had to resort to using my phone. Once back in Clarksville we turned up the street to "Jake Moons" for a look at where the creek crosses Delaware Turnpike. The quality is not much but the damage was nasty. :(



Mill Road, or whats left of it... Across from Jake Moon's Restaurant on Delaware Turnpike (Rt 442)




The same location looking up the hill in the direction of Stovepipe RD.
This Video, 'though poor quality phone video should put these two pics into perspective:

(...as they say: "Dramatic Video!" It was actually worse earlier when I tried to go this way and it was washing across the road. Alas I lacked my brain at that point and forgot I had my phone with me! Duh!

I'm posting these now after sending them to my iMac when I got online finally) I couldn't seem to get the iPad to recognize the phone card. :(

~

I am right now keeping myself busy waiting for the water in the basement to subside while Devin is out "Playing with the Fire Department". (...Doing "Pump-outs" emptying neighbors cellars...)



That is the assembly manual for that new sump pump with a battery backup. ("...Irony...")

I don't have internet now so I will not be posting this for some time. More than likely the net will not be back up till tomorrow but this is keeping me occupied and keeping my mind off the cost of the new Water Heater and Boiler I am going to have to buy. Ugh! :(

~

The wind keeps picking up and the trees are not handling it well. We shall see what the next few hours bring. Hopefully less than the previous hours have wrought.

~

Checked on the basement. Down to about six inches left. I managed to run a power cord to the fridge for the time being so the food in the freezer is safe. I suppose I could light stove with a match for cooking but I'm eating things that require no cooking for the now. We may need the propane later so I'll get by with peanut butter on a roll. As long as we have the Generator there doesn't seem to be a rush.

~

The Generator has been running through the night and there still is no power in the 'Ville. The Cellar is sumped and the pump is keeping up.

We are only using 14% of the Generators power so I plugged in the T.V. to catch the news. It seems that a neighbor drowned on Slingerlands St. near the bridge when she was looking at the flood waters. No word yet on if they managed to recover the body. :(

~

Devin came home around midnight and I slept most of the night on the couch. Sarah stayed in Voorheesville overnight. I managed to contact my siblings before bed and they are all alive and "relatively" unaffected.

I had to live in "The Hinterlands" :')

~

Morning. 30/Aug/11 ...it's a beautiful day! Sunny and in the 70's...




Generator still generating, Pump still running, water still coming in, and no power yet. But my feet are dry!




Devin and I waded in several times between shutting things off, trying to collect floating debris and restating the pumps yesterday.







The plan for today is to trace wires and mark them on the panel which the previous owner never got around to doing. If the power comes on I might never know otherwise as I have shut off the Main Breaker since we are unsure as to what breakers go to the Water Heater and The Boiler.

If I get the chance later I will run down to the store for supplies and try to post this from the parking lot on free wi-fi.

Down into the hole once more!

~

The Power is back on as you can see. I am using my iMac to repost this with video. Needed a break so I figured I would do this and dry out for a bit... Gotta get back to work around here now though! ...and maybe run out to the store. Which road I will take remains to be seen. :')

~

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

Shunpiker.

Some time back I wrote a blog about Avon N.Y. Which included a poem about my childhood there. It was written in Ullans and featured the Cannons in the village square prominently as a motif entitled "What if the Beave were an Ulster Scot". That blog was reprinted by bIRD in his magazine Rootdrinker. Through that poem and the life it took on I met the Poet John Roche.

bIRD, suggested back then that we should go to Avon and we planned on it. Something came up I can't now remember and he went without me. They did a reading at the Cannons in the village square.

Since then we have had a running joke about how the bIRD sole my childhood...

~

A week or so ago we all piled into the bIRD Mobile and cruised up the Northway to see John as the featured poet at Cafe Lena. We met at the Parting Glass as is our want and then strolled down the streets of Saratoga to the reading. It was a wonderful night of poetry and John was at his best!

I came home with John's collection of poems entitled "On Conesus" which I consumed rather rapidly as it also figures prominently in the mythos of my childhood. Over the course of the immediate ensuing days I conceived another poem sparked by my memories.

The following is the result:

~

*Shunpiker:

I am getting into a car
in my mind



I am getting into a surf green
1962 Impala in my mind

I am driving down route 20
in my mind

I am leaving the home
of adulthood

I am driving down the road
of youth
in my mind







Sitting, not driving actually
in the back seat of my fathers
Surf Green '62 Impala

With my family
all of them
alive and in the bosom
of the retinue of love




We are sharing Neco Wafers
and giving all the licorice ones
to my sister

We are passing
the Tepee Giftshoppe
where we never stop



We are entering
Cherry Valley
my baby brother sleeping

We are coming up
on the first
Burma Shave sign

We take turns reading
each sign
as they arrive
and pass by
the car window:

"Don't lose" my father starts
"your head" my brother reads
"To gain a minute" my other brother says
"You need your head" my sister intones
"You're brains are in it" I blurt from memory
for I cannot yet read

BURMA SHAVE! We all shout
Mom joining in




We are passing
the Petrified Creatures Museum
a tourist attraction my father says:
"...is not worth the money
it would cost
the seven of us to get in."








...all the more change for trinkets
in the amusement park
at long Point
on Conesus lake






I sleep
we nap on and off
Dad leads a round of
"The Bear Went Over
The Mountain."
as the Finger Lakes pass by

We are in Avon now
and the last landmark is sighted!

The White Horse
there it stands
at the gas station
a sentry guarding childhood








Now we pass the Avon Inn
burned down for the 3rd time
since it's historic beginning

Now Lacy Street
where I was born
and just for fun
once around the Village Circle
where the Civil War
Cannons rest
past the Barbershop
around the sleeping dog
in the road



Then back up the hill
and into the Mulvaney's driveway
right across the street
from the old homestead

Hugs, laughter, and the sound
of Mr Mulvaney's laugh
Mrs Mulvaney's smile


Into the car again
That Surf Green
'62 Chevy Impala




Into the car in my mind
Into the car
and we cross the road
driving slowly
under the umbrella
of trees lining Lacy street
past the old home
for old times sake





the end of the road
the school
the football field
a path no longer open

Back
Back out to Rt 20
then backtrack
to Rochester Road
turning south

We have the key
We have the key to Mulvaney's Cottage

the journey over
the summer about to begin!

Down
down memories road
down the road to the lake
onto Pebble Beach Road

We pull in
We pile out










I smell the water
I hear the boats
I feel the pebbles
teasing and arguing
with my feet









I know
I will fall sleep
content
to the sound of
"Skee-ball
Try your luck!
...only 10¢ a ball!"

surrounded
by trinkets,
bubblegum
shells
and odd shaped rocks

I hear the boats
I know I will wake to fog
and the sound of trolling fishermen

the smell of bacon
and mother
drinking coffee

waiting for the men
to return with Perch
fried up for breakfast

we will all be there
alive
and in the bosom
of family.








obeedúid~
07-12/Aug/11






*Shunpiker: one who avoids the turnpikes and highways preferring instead to take the slower backroads for the sheer pleasure and relaxation of it.

~

Then something unexpected happened!

We did a reading at the Pine Hollow Arboretum this past Friday the 12th of august. I opened with the preceding poem. It took on a life of it's own!

A retired couple who are sailing around the world in their yacht came to do the tour of the Arboretum and stayed for the poetry reading as well. Their boat I was told was parked somewhere exotic like the Caribbean and they came to Slingerlands N.Y. to visit by some other form of travel.

After the reading, they came up to me and very enthusiastically told me how much they like my poem! ...it seems they lived in Avon for many years and knew the places I was reminiscing about!

That blew me away, but it doesn't end there... The next day at work I was telling a coworker about it and he stopped me short. "Avon?" he said. "This is the second time this week I ever heard of this place! Just the other day I was talking to a family friend and I asked her where she was. She said she was staying with some family in a place called Avon N.Y.! That's amazing obee!"

~

The plan at this moment is for bIRD and I to attempt another trip this fall. This time I will make it! ...if I don't go sooner before the end of the summer. ...somehow, I feel I am being called. YAH THINK!?!?

~

P.S.:
Just in case you think I'm making this up, while I was checking the spelling for Mulvaney I googled the name. Guess what! There is a book available on google books Written by the eldest Mulvaney a contemporary of my eldest brother containing their family tree compete with pictures of their parents whom I mention in the poem. I have found more photos from those summers on the lake not included here with both families swimming and picnicking at the lake. If I ever manage to get in contact with the family I'll have to share those too.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

I saw the face of God today!

Say what you will. Some things you just have to take on faith alone. This story is one of them. I am not making this up but I have no proof. Well, there was at least one witness to the initial moments of what transpired; but the "ah-ha" was between me a God alone.

~

I was feeling down. Not my normally "life-is-always-good-self" if you will. All the crazy *#@! going down with the Re-model at work has been weighing heavy. I have been telling my subordinates at work that when all is said and done we are going to be "SO MUCH BETTER!" when everything is finished. Well, to put it as plainly as I can, we are not even on the blueprints; we never were. The Maintenance Department is only a necessary evil. We don't make $$$ and we are a loss from the get go. So: "We don't get nothing."

...I was beginning to feel I had outright lied to them.

Don't get me wrong; things are better: but only marginally. We used to work in a hallway and had to deal with people walking through us and our workspace like we were not even there. Now... We have been pushed into a corner. Literally. There is no place for us or our equipment and sometimes it feels like no-one cares.

Alright; there it is. This is how I got there. Why I was discouraged. You get the picture and I need not whine any more than I already have.

Now for that moment with the universe...

~

I was in the new entranceway earlier in the day and noticed a distressed Darning-needle fly in through the open doors.




(Call it a Dragonfly if you like, but my Nana always referred to to them as Darning-needles. ...after Hans Christian Anderson perhaps; for that would be my guess anyway.)

So there I was; when a bug fearing female employee from another department saw it as well and said: "Kill that bug before it gets in the store!"

(Obviously she doesn't know me very well!)

...I shooed it outside instead and went back to work.

~

Later, an hour or so, I was on my rounds again when my manager pointed to the very same creature, fluttering about the front-end near the cash registers; bouncing off the big plate glass windows.

I followed her slowly, cupped my hands, gently scooped her up and walked outside. She peeked between my thumb and forefinger but did not seem to mind my protective confinement.

Soon I was rounding the edge of the storefronts and walking along the building towards the woods.

As I approached the trees I slowly opened my palms. She just sat there and didn't move! Then for some reason only the universe knows; I began stroking her wings with my index finger. She sat down in my palm and relaxed! I stroked her again and said "Hello." in a whisper of amazement....

She tilted her head to the right and peered at me knowingly. If I didn't know any better I would swear she winked! Then she arose ever so slowly, until about my eye level; turned: and flew off into the wood.

I watched as she went, a little stunned: but suddenly at peace with my world.

Evil knows evil. Goodness recognizes itself. Can you look into the face of God? Obviously I think so... (It helps of course to at least be open to the possibility...)

Oh, and when he/she looks at you, you might want to be looking back.

Life IS good!

Sometimes you simply have to look into the face of God; know what you're looking at: and remember!

;')

obeedúid~
10/Jun/11



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

Why Adults do the Pee Pee Dance sometimes too....

...terminus ad quem?

One of the few things I miss about where we used to live was the proximity to work. We were 1/8 of a mile away and were able to sleep in until the very last minute and still make it to work if we wanted to.

Being miles away and close to half an hour ride from home has forced us to readjust to a number of things. Like making a list and planning a route to save gas, setting the second alarm, NOT hitting the snooze button, and remembering to make a pit-stop before leaving to or from work!

~

So it was on Thursday when I was working feverishly to whittle down the to-do list, and managing to get everything but the outdoor stuff that I should have done first, that I came to installing the new front door lock.

My mind was fried; the Tub and the many many trips to and from the Hardware Store for various parts had taken it's toll. Well, despite my male propensity to NOT READ THE INSTRUCTIONS unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY DAMNIT! I completed the final assembly around 9:30-10:00.

Then, in a moment of lucidity I took the old colored key cover that is supposed to remind you that that is the key you are looking for and placed it on the new key for my own benefit intending to make things easy for myself.

~

Fast forward to Friday afternoon now. I have been drinking coffee and soda all day to stay awake because as exhausted as I was when I went to bed I stayed up long into the night reading "The Steward of Christendom" by Sebastian Berry.

As I approached the house I realized that I had forgotten to take my own advice about making a pit-stop before leaving from work.

BAM! I whipped the car into the driveway, slammed the shift into park, grabbed all my garb and groceries, hopped out of the door flipping it closed with the back of my leg, blew through the porch door dropping everything on the floor and fumbled for my keys doing the Pee-Pee dance!!!

What!? Where's the key? What did I do with it? How could I have left it in the house! Maybe it's at work!? Why isn't Sarah home yet?!!! Oh Crap! Why do I do these things to myself!

Maybe I can get in through a window on the back porch! Sh*t! Open the door, run across the yard, stumble up the back steps, NOPE! The door is locked like it should be. Push up the window, getting it started with my car key, (BRILLIANT!) ...fall through the window cracking the the sill on the way in... Across the distance in a blink I realize I also remembered to put the hook & eye on AND lock the other two locks!

Pee-Pee dance is now Prancing with the **STARS** as I fly out the back door, down the steps and RUN FOR THE WOODS whipping my head back and forth to see if the neighbors are watching???

Twenty feet into the now bare and leafless woods I find a suitably large enough tree to hide me from at least three posable pairs of prying eyes and form icicles on a large oak tree that Deut frequents.

... Ahhhhhhh....

~

Strolling back to the house as nonchalantly as I can so as to appear to have a "meant to do that" air about me I pull out my keys one last time muttering to myself: "Whatever did I do with that key? If I didn't drop my phone in the woods maybe I can call Sarah and wait for her on the porch while I listen to the dog wine from the other side of the door..."

WHAT! Wait a minute! THAT'S NOT THE OLD KEY ON MY RING! It's the new one I put on with the old cover so I wouldn't sabotage myself!!!

DAH!

Yup... Sometimes Adults do the the Pee-Pee Dance too.

~

Yeah, I just wrote this in the parking lot after work...

The mOOn is FULL...

Maybe I better make a pit-stop... Ya think???


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

Location: 5 Maple Road,Voorheesville,United States

Bennett Hill Envisioning

On November 11th; a day of much importance in my mythology, (Veterans Day, My Dads Birthday and the day on which my progenitors progenitor arrived in this country 150 years ago) we hiked Bennett's Hill.

Every night on the way home as I round corners I can see it coming closer as I pursue home.

It has been calling to me since we moved in...

Meadowbrook Farm Dairy at the base of the trail.

It was a lovely sunny fall day, bIRD and I hadn't been out hiking in some time, and I needed break from worrying the house.

Trailhead leading up the Southern face.

I couldn't find my blue Hiking pack as it is in a box among boxes still and subsequently I had no camera. bIRD loaned me his so I could take a few views along the way...

~

When we attained the summit plateau I pulled out my iPad to see what things looked like in Hybrid & Terrain mode on Googlemaps. We were having trouble locating the wetland indicated on the map from Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy.

Terrain view. Highest point is measured 1135 ft.+/-

We took what we thought was a trail that lead there but in fact it was a deer trail. I turned back to the main trail and bIRD traipsed on into the brush with a general direction. I found it easily enough using the iPad and soon I was alone in stand of pine trees.

Hybrid View.

I called out to bIRD that I had found it and began moving in his direction based on the sound of his voice. Looking up into the sun through the trees and towards him I thought I spied a small 6" American flag in a tree waving with the wind. Keeping my eyes steady I began to walk towards it. Checking my footing; I glanced down and when I looked up again it was gone.

DAMN!

I walked to where I thought I had seen it.

NOTHING...

IT WAS THERE I SWARE!

Then, in the quiet of the forest I realized it may have been a vision. iPad in hand; I quickly brought up my writing program and began to type...

~




Hilltop Visionation:

I saw your colors America
Waving from a treetop
On Bennett's Hill

As I stood alone
In a grove of white-pines
Searching for wetland
Blinded by your sunlight

Crashing through the trees

We walked a false trail America
Circling the summit of our dreams
Taking pictures along the way

Listen to your trains
Blowing the distance
Calling us home to yesterdays


Shaman with treemask speaks
Through wood

"Lost one
Follow the oak
Don't forget to tie your shoe"



Switchback
down your spine

Into shade
your shalier side

Birch
Littering your cliff
Sloping
Down
Sharply

To moss
Covered lowlands of my America

Here

The trail less clearly marked

We search

Make our way to the
indefinite future
Drink
then onwards



Find our own sacred springs

Encourage flow

Drink


Say prayer of rest.

obeedúid~
11/nov/10

~

bIRDS vision happen thusly:

Portrait of the bIRD facing west.

~

LOGGERHEAD RISES FROM A SWAMP

hollow log fits neatly over my head
tube view of mountain brush
chill leaf fall clean sky
red-tailed hawk makes one sweep, not interested,
drifts towards escarpment uplift
visions not solutions
keep hitting small branches
legs abandoned to willywaw
grounded sense of terrain
swing turn small circle view
loggerhead mask separates me from any path
only shows ahead, steps toward familiar
shadow-side of the mountain
shadows hide secrets just don’t know them yet
under the floor the child was pleased the father said earth
inside tunnel dark come lighter
not estranged from outside
there is no future, there is no past, there is only now
tribal dancers, generations, all pick up shared rhythm
dance in uneven light, rattles reflect fire
from a sacred spring: roots, broad leaf, tall stem, full blossom flower…
water worn patterns on stone are also life forms
dead oak leaves over deep humus my foot sinks in
mushrooms climb stairs on hill-facing side of old stump
crow caws constant all the way across farm fields to another hill
make moan mock googa-booga noise to attract attention


Logger-headed.
Alan Casline
November 11, 2010
morning hike of Bennett Hill

~

WARNING! No Kinnikinnick was inhaled or consumed in the creation of this chronicle of what transpired in poetical form. Some poetic license and minor revisions have taken place since the event.

~

BUT SERIOUSLY NOW:

Here is a map obtained from the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy site at: http://www.mohawkhudson.org/preserves/Bennett.htm



We took the Green trail up to the Yellow. There are more switchbacks than indicated and I would rate this part of the trail at 2.5 to 3 Geezers. The loop around the top plateau is fairly flat with enjoyable views. The best views being from the northernmost part of the loop. Then we took the Red trail where it breaks off of the yellow and drops sharply down in a Northeasterly direction. The steep grade here is rated at 5 Geezers. Slippery and smooth going up or down. We went down slowly and carefully.

Having attained the base of the Red trail at it's most northernly point; the trail became poorly marked. We wandered around for a bit until we found a downed Birch with a marker on it. (...A poor choice of tree to mark as they fall frequently and rot quickly...) With no real marker, and rather than resort to the iPad, we simply relied on common sense and followed the base of the Mountain. As it it possible to hike the trail and avoid going on the Red trail my overall Geezer Rating is 3.5 Somewhere between Hard and Difficult. 3 if you avoid the Red trail, 4 if you take the Red trail down and 5 perhaps if you scale the Red trail up.

Overall Geezer Rating 3.5

There are a number of springs on the southern face and that is what lead us to seek out the wetland on the top. When we found it we were a bit disappointed as it was choked with scrub. We identified a number of species of Pine. White and Pitch being the most prevalent.




Views from the Northern edge gave us spectacular sights of the Valley looking directly towards my new home and beyond to my old home.
Hence the poetic reference. We did actually hear trains but they could very well have come from Selkirk which is also visible from the Northeast side through the treeline.





This trail is popular, I can only assume that this comes from it's easy accessibility and the range of terrain for hikers of differing skill levels. Many people brought along their dogs. They seemed to have the most fun jumping in the water and bounding threw the underbrush. From my experience this is a jewel right under your nose. Check it out with the family or perhaps a second date for a good day hike!

~

Having written this as a poetic experiment; I am also attempting another. As the content seems to contain elements of more than one of my blogs I have decided to test out a new feature with the Updated version of this App and post it simultaneously to "Glebe Homie" and "Helder~Hiking Adventures!"

I can't say that I will ever have need of this feature in the future but it's nice to know I can do it if I want.

:&)

~

11/11/10- 11/14/10

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

At what point do I Freakout?

This new house has been serendipitous to the weird from the start.
(see previous Blogposts/FB notes)



From the feeling I first had when I walked in the door to recently finding out that there was a Honey Factory on or about where my house now stands. (...Devin's hobby and pastime...)

To today at work when I found out from a previous employee, who used to work in the Deli and lives in Clarksville, that NOT ONLY is my neighbors wife named Sarah (the same as my daughter!) but their oldest son is named Devin!!! (the same as my son!)

Cue the creepy music AGAIN!

Am I the only person this kind of stuff happens to? Or do I pay attention to things others in their ordinary everyday quest for normalcy miss???

~

If, when I finally find out the original owners name, it turns out to be O'Brien... (as there was a Smith O'Brien who once lived in Clarksville) ...well, that's when I'm gonna really flip!

Until then I'll just have to continue living in the "Twilight Zone".

Do-do-do-do do-do-do-do... Dah dah dah da DUNT!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~

Location:Coventry Ct,Voorheesville,United States