Patrick Egan's Blog, page 27
January 28, 2019
A Fair Swap: The Excursionist I
On Friday, February 1, Mariam and I will be exchanging this:
[The Hudson River on January 26, 2018]
for this:
[The Yorkshire Dales, England]
It’s a pretty fine change of scenery if I do say so myself.
Once upon a time, back in the day, I loved winter. How could one not love winter…when you’re twelve years old and you’re skating on the Brick Pond in Owego, NY? I had a toboggan, a sled and the ability to make a superb snow person. I owned a pair of old snowshoes with leather hide webbing. An Eddie Bauer Arctic Parka hung in my closet…and still does. I camped out in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks when it was -28℉. My ice skates, black and weathered, hung on the wall leading to our attic. Every time I would pass them, on a stifling day in August, I would think of the coming winter and the frozen pond only a few hundred feet from my front door.
I couldn’t wait.
Then in 1974, a personal tragedy visited me while hiking in the Adirondacks and winter became a little darker in my heart. I no longer saw the snow as pristine and pure and calming as I had for almost two decades of my life.
The years went by. I woke up one morning and looking into the mirror, I saw a middle-aged man looking back at me. The salt & pepper hair had gone mostly gray. My back hurts after shoveling. My skates no longer fit. my bones ache and my muscles get sore when I am forced out of our house to deal with a two-foot snowfall. Winter no longer holds a spell over me. I layer up with wool and fleece because I always feel chilled. I love to watch the snow fall slowly onto the lake near our house. I love to walk in the moonlight, feeling the peculiar crunch of the ground on cold nights. But where I’d really rather be is sitting near our wood stove and reading a Nordic Noir novel.
In the mid-1980’s, I spent a year in Dorset, England. It changed my life. Footpaths and pubs abound in the chalky hills of Thomas Hardy country. The mossy gravestones surround the mossy churches. And, the green is breathtaking. England may not have the twenty-eight shades of green that cover my beloved Ireland, but it’s a close second. Sometimes, at our home in the Adirondacks, I will gaze out of the large window that faces Rainbow Lake and see a monochromatic world. My eyes strain for some color. A last brown leaf on a dormant maple or even a patch of blue sky beyond the leaden skies. But no, it’s a world of white and gray. I yearn for a dandelion or a trillium…anything with color.
So, we’re off to spend the remainder of the winter in Dorset, hosted by friends I met in the 1980’s. We plan on doing a lot of walking, and I will carry an L.L Bean pole to lean on if my back begins to trouble me.
I guarantee that there will be a stone wall to sit on and rest. There will be a quiet pew in a forgotten little church in a out-of-the-way village where I can write in my journal.
Yes, I will sit in that quiet pew and think about trading white for green, mild days for thumb-numbing cold mornings and ice for muddy footpaths.
And, I shall have some peace there…without fleece, without down and without cares.
January 20, 2019
Another Adirondack Tragedy
BREAKING NEWS
REGULAR GUY GOES MISSING WHILE SHOVELING A PATH TO DRIVEWAY!
AVALANCHE SUSPECTED
[The Egan Cabin at Rainbow Lake at time of search. Aerial photo from Channel 7 News Drone7]
[Photo credit: Google search]
Rainbow Lake, NY (AP)
Only days after a lone ice fisherman had turned, basically into a snowman, another winter-related incident occurred on a lonely loop road in the town of Rainbow Lake. A regular average man (name is being withheld pending further investigation) vanished only yards away from his front deck while shoveling his way from his front door to the safety of his, as yet, unplowed driveway.
This following a major snowstorm that dumped nearly 20″ of snow the previous night.
This photo was taken by his wife shortly before the tragic event.
[Photo credit: Mariam Voutsis]
His wife spoke to state police Search & Rescue: “I don’t know. One minute he was there and the next minute, he wasn’t. I thought he wandered off to take some pictures for Facebook,” she said while taking another sip of her fresh cappuccino mocha.
“Oh, I see you like a sprinkle of cinnamon in your coffee,” said the Trooper. “What else can you tell us?”
“Sometimes I don’t use cinnamon, I just take it neat.”
“No, I meant about your husband, ma’am.”
“Well, he kept complaining about how he had no place to put the new fallen snow.” The Trooper looked out at the piles of newly fallen snow. The tiny crystals twinkled in a sun that was struggling to break through the cloudy sky, as gray as a wet sidewalk in Schenectady. “He spoke to me through a crack in the front door. He told me that every time he would heave a shovel-full of snow onto this giant pile on the deck, much of it would slide back, forcing him to shovel the same place all over again. Poor guy. He has a bad back, you know?”
“It’s unfortunate but most men his age have back problems. Does it affect his golf game at all? I’m looking for suggestions to lower my handicap.”
“Oh, heavens, we gave that up years ago. Those little white balls kept getting lost in the snow.”
“You can paint them red, ma’am. Besides golf is a summer game.”
The wife looked out over the mound in the driveway (which was her Honda CRV, she hoped) and pondered this comment. “Summer? like in the season?”
“Yes, ma’am. The time when people swim, fish, take walks, go camping, sit on the beach…things like that.”
“Really?”
“Well, the search dogs are getting a little tired. They don’t like deep snow. I best be calling off the search for now.”
The Trooper surveyed the yard and the front deck.
“Sorry to have to say this ma’am, but from the looks of this accumulation, we may not have any luck in locating your husband until late-May at the earliest.”
“I’ll probably be in New York City then, so here’s my contact number. Don’t hesitate to call if you find something.”
“Rest assured. And thanks for the cappuccino.”
“No problem.”
[Happier days at Rainbow Lake. Photo taken by Pat Willis]
January 16, 2019
The Ring
My left hand is ringless. The wedding band lies on a tray on the dresser in our bedroom, along with assorted jewelry. Is this the sign of a marriage gone south? Hardly. The only thing that would be going south right now is my wife and I. Because outside the wind howls and the temperature is dropping like the broken seeds of the sunflower mixture in our bird feeder. Mariam reports from the kitchen that it is currently 14.2℉. By 2:00 am, when I make my first trip to the bathroom (it’s a prostate thing), it’ll be -6℉. It’ll bottom out at -12℉ in the wee hours.
So, what’s the deal with the ring? In truth, I’m losing weight and a few weeks ago I tested the ring by lightly shaking my hand on the bed cover. It slipped off. I had a little clamp thing on it to keep is snug and safe on my ring finger but it broke. For now it will rest, in security, on our dresser.
I have rarely taken it off in our 25+ years of marriage. Why should I? If I were out to ‘get lucky’ at the local pub…and I slid it off my finger, it would leave a white, unweathered ‘ring’ on the finger in question. That would a dead give away for any twenty-something who had mistaken me for George Clooney (refer to my Facebook profile photo).
And I would never do such a thing anyway. I can barely comprehend life without her. She gets frustrated on her computer, but she’ll sit in my office for hours and we will read aloud the drafts of a novel I would be working on. (A novel that will sell approximately 43 copies.) Mariam will drop anything to help me with something that is beyond my ability. She saved my life by locating the best hematologist in New York City, in 2003 when I was diagnosed with a rare leukemia. She slept on a cot while I went through ten days of chemo. She stayed on the phone (while she was working at Mount Sinai) for hours until we secured tickets to see the Rolling Stones. She never denies my need to see Bob Dylan whenever he plays near us. She lets me roam at will in a Barnes & Nobel…and even tells me which credit card to use.
[Mariam in 2017]
Twenty-two years ago, when I turned fifty, she asked me what I wanted. I humbly suggested a 28″ sailboat or a 1952 MG TD (with wire wheels). That’s when I think she started secretly stashing away money for one or the other.
We’ve traveled a great deal, especially since she finally retired after over fifty years in health care. We’ve been to Paris, London, Belgium, Alaska, Istanbul, Ireland, Germany and countless other places. And, we’re about to spend the winter in England and returning home aboard the Queen Mary 2., for the second time.
She is my wife and my best (and sometimes I feel my only) friend.
So, why this post? Why now? It’s not her birthday nor our anniversary. It’s not Mother’s Day. It’s just another day I wake next to my wife and feel that I could write a simple blog to brighten her day. In the middle of a snowy and cold winter, she needs a lift.
After she reads this (which she will proof) I’m counting on her being a tiny bit happier. So, now is the time to quietly mention the sailboat and the MG.
[In Istanbul. Circa: late 1990’s]
December 28, 2018
The Holiday Card
[What follows is pure fiction. It is a short story that I hope you will enjoy. It’s not funny, but it’s what I wanted to write. Please don’t read anything into this post.]
It was during a brief April thaw, when a chance breeze blew the snow and a few minutes of sunlight melted the white crystals. That was the moment I saw it. I picked it up and slapped it against my thigh. I could read my name on the envelope. I could read the return address in the upper left corner.
It was too late. Things would never be the same now…never.
It’s a fairly well-known fact that men do not bond easily with each other. We have trouble sharing. True friends are hard to find and keep when you pass your fifties. Friendships that last into ones seventies are indeed rare. The thread that holds these long relationships are usually rooted in childhood. If you’re lucky, one or two childhood buddies will grow old with you. Such was the case of the one-time friend whose holiday card I held in my right hand.
We met in elementary school. Played in each others back yards. Entered into adolescence together. In high school we traded secrets about girls…those mysterious beings that we thought constantly about. We talked about first kisses and puzzled over the best way to find and unlock those strange bra hooks.
We had our first legal beers together. We played high school sports together. We went on camping trips together.
We were the best of friends. As the years passed, other playmates drifted into different social circles. But we stayed close. We celebrated our jobs, listened to the same music and showered affection on each others children.
My friend and I went through divorces, sat in empty bars, looked at younger women and talked to each other and into our pints of beer.
When our retirements approached, things began to change. He called less. I emailed less. Our visits to each others homes became more and more infrequent.
We were growing apart, something that seemed to me to be the opposite of what life would be like after retirement. The phone calls went unanswered and the postcards stopped arriving.
In the late fall, I became quite annoyed by being ignored. I unfriended him on Facebook. I deleted his email address. I stopped making meaningless phone calls.
I decided to put the issue to a test. I sent him a holiday card. If he sent one back, then I knew something of our friendship would survive. If I got nothing, I knew that for some reason, he did not want to be a part of my life.
So, I waited.
A few holiday cards arrived but never did much to fill our mailbox. Facebook and email greetings were slowly out pacing the USPS.
On Christmas Eve, I picked up the mail. I placed the few cards on our bed. There was nothing from him. I knew then that our life-long friendship had come to a slow and sad end. It would be a lie to say that I did not weep a little over a friendship that had lasted for over sixty years. Men do have emotions.
* * *
It was in early March that I found myself browsing the internet. I came to a Facebook page devoted to people in our class who had passed away.
I felt the blood drain from my face and I went numb when I read that my friend had died of a massive coronary a week earlier.
Then came the April thaw. I had pulled the envelope from the snow and placed it on the top of our mica lamp to dry out. When I felt it time, I sliced it open. It was a holiday card from my friend…apologizing for not returning my calls. I knew then that the card arrived before Christmas, but as I struggled to get out of my car, trying to avoid the unplowed snow, the card had slipped from the rest of the mail. That afternoon, the snow-covered card was concealed…until April.
“Let’s meet up in the summer and take a hike,” he had written.
So, now I feel I know the real essence of loneliness. I have no true male friends up here in the North Country. My wife has always been and still is my best friend…but I don’t have a buddy. A guy to shoot a game of pool with at the local Irish Pub, a friend to bounce writing ideas off, a pal to sit on our deck (or his) and sip a cold beer. We wouldn’t even have to say anything. After all, its common knowledge that men don’t bond easily. We have trouble sharing our personal thoughts orally, but we know each other’s minds. Or so I thought.
But what men can do is sit, side by side, just sharing a beer and assuming we know what the other is thinking.
There is a large blank space in my life now. My wife has to be two people. The woman I married over twenty-five years ago and a mate that I have been close to for six decades. It’s going to be a big job for her, but she’s more than up to the task. The presence of my wife makes these things more tolerable but not less painful.
Me? I can stare at our campfire and remember details of the adventures with my friend. I can watch the ripples on the lake and remember my friend. I can look to the far range of the High Peaks and remember the trails, snow-covered, rain-soaked and sweltering in the August heat…that I hiked with my friend.
Or, on a cold night like this, when the temperature outside is in single digits, our fire-place is crackling and warming our house and my wife is reading quietly beside me on her Kindle, I can sit mutely staring at the flames, throw on another log, watch the flames leap even higher. I am thinking of the holiday card. As the flames rise to the top of the wood stove, the loneliness for this old guy gets deeper.
[Photo is mine]
December 21, 2018
Far North Gift Distribution In Doubt As Trumps Imposes Tariffs On S. Clause LLC
[A US Army drone photo of the CEO of S.Clause,LLC in action.
Source: Google search, Golden Hill Studio.]
Washington, DC
A traditional world-wide gift distribution (known legally as S. Clause LLC) is in danger of being shut down on the evening of December 24 after President Trump declared it would hurt major American private business, notably Amazon, Google and even the government-run USPS.
“This tariff, it’s a good tariff, will help American workers, good people, I know a few, fine people, will have more money in their pockets to do their shopping at Sears and Wanamakers, fine American-run companies.”
When a reporter informed the President that both Sears and Wanamaker are either already closed or slated to shut down in the near future, the President shrugged and said that the Chinese, Japan and Argentina were responsible.
He made further remarks: “These goods entering the American market from a crappy third-world country that is no bigger that a large factory and an attached cottage. This gives them an unfair advantage. They don’t even pay taxes.”
Another reporter from the New York Times stood and asked about the President’s own taxes. He was ushered out of the briefing room by Sarah Saunders.
The President continued: “And what are these goods that are being delivered for free to the children? Toys. Not good. Kids don’t need those evil objects. When I was a boy, I was happy to play with a cardboard box, sometimes for hours. Good thing. Wonderful memories. With this tariff, I will make American cardboard boxes great again. Good thing.”
Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos stepped up to the bank of microphones. “There have been no studies that show toys make children any happier or more educated then, say, cardboard boxes.”
[Official White House photo of Mr. Trump signing the tariff order.
Source: Getty Images.]
December 17, 2018
Coal For Christmas
[Watercolor sketch by Paul Egan. Date unknown.]
[Note to my readers: If you think you’ve read this blog before, don’t think you’re getting senile. It’s perhaps the fourth or fifth time I’ve posted it. It’s my version of a pure Christmas Story. I’ve tweaked the story several times to try to make the narrative better, clearer and more truthful. As the years pass, I hope these newer memories are adding reality and not just wishes. This is not a made-up story by me. It really happened].
It’s another year and another chance for me to share this holiday memory. Happy Holidays to you all!
I am a grandfather now, feeling every ache in my joints and every sadness of my seventy-first year. The stories that my father told me about his father have taken on new meanings. I’m the old one now. I am the carrier of the family history. When a recollection of a family event comes to mind, be it a birthday party, a funeral, a wedding or a birth, I get my journal and I write with haste, in case I might forget something or get a name wrong or a date incorrect. Or, forget the event entirely.
This is especially true when the snow falls and the Christmas tree decorations are brought down from wherever they live during the summer to brighten the dark and endless winter evenings. It is a time to recall and celebrate the memory of those who have passed on. It’s time to think again about my family and how they lived their lives so many decades ago. It’s time for a Christmas story.
I was raised in the post-war years. My parents were not saying anything original when they would tell me, or my brothers, that we had to be good…very good, or Santa would not leave us any brightly wrapped present, red-ribboned and as big a box as a little boy could hold. No, Santa would not leave such a wondrous thing. But he wasn’t so vengeful to leave nothing in our stocking. No, if (as my parents said) we were bad little boys, he would leave a lump of coal. You deserved nothing more.
My father grew up poor. Not the kind of poor where he would walk barefoot through ten inches of snow to attend school or go from house to house asking for bread. It was just the kind of poor that would keep his father only one step ahead of the rent collector. His parents provided the best they could, but, by his own admission, he was raised in the poverty that was common in rural America in the 1920’s. My grandfather and my grandmother should be telling this story. Instead, it came to me from my own dad and it was usually told to his four sons around the time it came to bundle up and go out to find and cut a Christmas tree. I heard this story more than once when it was cold and snowy in the 1950’s. When we had a house in Owego, NY and we had plenty of space for a large tree in the living room. And we had plenty of fist-sized chunks of coal in the cellar. In the years when my father was a child, the winters were probably much colder and the snow so much deeper. And the coal so much more dear.
It was northeastern Pennsylvania. It was coal country and my grandfather was Irish. Two generations went down into the mines. Down they would go, every day before dawn, only to resurface again long after the sun had set. On his only day off, Sunday, he would sleep the sleep of bones that were weary beyond words.
Because of some misguided decision on his part, my grandfather was demoted from mine foreman to a more obscure job somewhere else at the pit. Later in life, he fell on even harder times and became depressed about his inability to keep his family, two boys and two girls, comfortable and warm. It all came crashing down, literally, when their simple farmhouse burned to the foundation. After seeing his family safely out, the only item my grandfather could salvage was a Hoover. My father could describe in minute detail how he stood next to his dad and watched him physically shrink, slump and then become quiet. He never broke the silence after that and died in a hospital while staring mutely at a wall.
But all this happened years after that special Christmas Eve that took place in my father’s boyhood.
It was in the early 1920’s. The four children were asleep in a remote farmhouse my grandparents rented. Sometime after midnight, my father woke up to a silence that was unusual and worrisome. It was too quiet. It was too chilly. There were no thoughts of Santa Claus in my father’s mind that night. The reality of their lives erased those kinds of dreams from his childhood hopes. There was no fireplace for Santa to slide down.
In the corner of the small living room stood a stunted Christmas tree. There were a few bulbs on the branches. My father never spoke about whether there was a string of bright lights, but my suspicions were that there were no bright red, green and white bulbs. I hope I’m wrong about that part of the story.
He pulled on a heavy shirt and pushed his cold, bare feet into an old pair of his father’s cold boots that were five sizes too large. He then went down stairs to the kitchen where he knew his parents would be sitting up and keeping warm beside the coal stove. But the room was empty and the coal fire was burning low. The only light was from a single electric bulb, hanging from the ceiling on a thin chain. My father noticed the steam of his breath each time he exhaled. He called out.
“Mom? Dad?”
He heard nothing. Shuffling over to the door, he cracked it open to a numbing flow of frigid air. In the fresh snow there were two sets of footprints leading down the steps and then behind the house. He draped a heavier coat over his shoulders and began to follow the prints. They led across a small pasture and through a gate. From there the trail went up a low hill and faded from his sight. He followed the trail. Looking down at the footprints he noticed that they were slowly being covered by the wind driving the snow into the impressions. A child’s fear swept over him. Were the young kids being abandoned? It was a common occurrence in the pre-Depression years of rural America.
In his young and innocent mind, he prayed that the hard times hadn’t become that hard. But deep within, he knew of his parents unconditional love and concern. He knew he and his brother and sisters were cherished.
He caught his fears before they had a chance to surface. His parents were on a midnight walk, that’s all.
At the top of the hill, he saw a faint light from a lantern coming from a hole near the side of the next slope. He slowed his pace and went to the edge of the pit not knowing what he would see.
He knew this pit from summertime games, but it was a place to be avoided in the winter. The walls were steep and it would be easy to slip in the snow and fall the ten or more feet to an icy bottom. The children never went into the field with the pit after the autumn leaves fell.
He dropped to his knees and peered over the edge.
At the bottom of the hole were his parents, picking fist-sized lumps of coal from a seam that was exposed on the inside of the pit. At their feet was a tin bucket that was nearly full with chunks of black rock. They looked up, quite surprised, and saw my father standing a few feet above them. They looked back at each other with a sadness that was heart-breaking. They certainly didn’t want to be caught doing this in front of one of the kids, not on Christmas Eve. After glancing at each other once, they looked up at my dad.
“Boy,” my grandfather said, “The stove is empty. Come on down and help us get a few more lumps, will ya?”
My father was helped down the ladder and after only a few minutes his hands were black from the coal. The bucket was filled. They helped each other out of the pit and walked back to the house together. My father and his father carried the bucket between them.
In a very short time the coal stove was warming up again. My father sat up with his parents until they finished their coffee and the house had warmed a few degrees. Dad kissed his mother and father and went upstairs to bed. He fell asleep (he always would say) with a smile on his face.
The Christmas morning that followed a few hours later was in a warm living room. My dad never spoke anything to his siblings about the previous night.
Twenty some years after the midnight trip to the coal-pit, my parents and my two older brothers moved to Owego, New York. I was born two years later, in 1947.
When I was a young boy, my father took me aside one Christmas Eve. I had not been a very good boy that day, and I was afraid. Neither of my parents, however, had mentioned the threat that would be used to punish a child if you were naughty and not nice. That dreaded lump of coal in the stocking that was tacked to the mantle over the little-used fireplace. My fears left me. Dad’s voice was warm and full of understanding.
“Pat,” he said, “if anyone tells you that you will get a lump of coal in your stocking if you’re not a good boy. Tell them: “I hope so.”
“Then wish them a very Merry Christmas.”
December 8, 2018
For Me? It Was a Hard Days Night
[image error]
[Source: Google search.]
There were no classes scheduled for that Monday. It was parent/teacher conference day at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. I was assigned to meet the parents of my students in an office close to the front entrance. I sat at the head of a large conference table made of a dark wood. Mahogany? Perhaps.
The parents were on a set schedule. I had a list of those in line waiting to discuss their sons/daughters academic performance. I didn’t have a lot to say to many of the fathers, mothers and couples that sat down, each at their appropriate time, since 99.9% of my students (grade range was from 9th to 12th) were serious about their work, were not discipline problems and were polite to me as their teacher. The most critical remark I made most of the afternoon was: “Your child needs to raise their hand more often”.
Sometime in mid-afternoon something in the air changed.
[Meanwhile, in New York City, a young man was hanging out near the entrance of the Dakota Building on Central Park West and 72nd Street.]
The door opened and a man and woman walked in and took a seat. The man’s head was covered by a fair-sized bandage. The couple held hands. The husband spoke first.
“I hate to waste your time, Mr. Egan, but I’m not really concerned very much right now about my daughter’s behavior in your class.”
I stared at him and waited.
“Four days ago I was caught in a fire at the Stouffer’s Inn where a conference for the Stouffer Company was being held. I’m sure you read about it. Twenty-six of my fellow employees were killed. I ran out of the building and into the arms of firemen. The guy behind me didn’t make it.”
I noticed the couple’s hands tightened their grip.
“I am more thankful for being alive and ready to celebrate the holidays as a family than I am about my wonderful daughter. No offense, Mr. Egan, but I have more important issues to deal with right now.”
I was speechless. “Your daughter is a great student. I’m so very sorry about…”, I couldn’t finish my sentence. The couple rose from their seats. We shook hands and they were gone. I sat in silence hoping the next set of parents would be late.
After the conferences were over, a small group of teachers gathered at the front door. Someone suggested we go to a restaurant/bar to have a drink. I followed.
We sat with our beers watching some kind of comedy show. I wasn’t laughing. Suddenly, the TV was switched off and the lights came on. The manager came out and said that the bar just received a bomb threat and that we would all have to leave.
[The guy was still standing near the main entrance of the Dakota on 72nd Street.]
Most of the teachers drove away leaving three of the science teachers in the parking lot. Two of the teachers shared a small house beside a lake just north of Ridgefield. One of them suggested that we drive to their house and have one more beer.
I remember sitting on the sofa. One of teachers was stretched out on a Lazy-Boy chair. My other friend, Jeff, was in the kitchen rummaging the fridge for two beers. The TV was on.
Whatever show was being aired, it was interrupted by a “news bulletin”. The man was standing in a Manhattan street with his hand-held microphone. What he said next made me stand up.
“Jeff,” I said, “come here quick!”
Jeff came in the room. The other teacher sat up in the Lazy-Boy.
The reporter said: “It’s official. It’s now been confirmed that John Lennon is dead. According to NYPD, he was shot by a young man who had been waiting for John and his wife Yoko Ono to arrive in their limo. All this happened just a short time ago here.” He pointed to the archway of the Dakota entrance. The camera followed his arm.
My friend Jeff visibly paled. I felt nauseous. We watched for a few minutes and I left.
Never have I felt the sorrow that hung in my heart as I slowly drove home that wretched night.
[image error]
[Source: Google search.]
December 6, 2018
Like Living in a Holiday Greeting Card
[Photo is mine.]
Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.
–Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
I’ve never lived inside a greeting card before. You’d have to be really really thin, like Wiley C. Cayote after being flattened by a road paver. Never fear. My readers know that and that the title of this post is metaphorical. Having said that, I will admit that I could drop a few pounds.
So, consider the lead photograph at the top of your screen. Doesn’t our house look like a Disney version of Santa’s Workshop? It looks so cozy inside and it is. Outside, it looks like a winter wonderland…snowy and frozen.
Many of my friends from back in the day will read this blog in Florida and say: “Beautiful, but no thanks.” Others may look at the picture and say: “How cozy. How peaceful.”
[My photo.]
I used to love winter when I was growing up in Owego, NY. We had a toboggan, sleds, skates and shovels to pile the snow and make a ‘snow fort’. My views have changed since 1958. Consider this:
I have to get from the front door to the car in the driveway which means I have to shovel a path, clean the snow off the car and hope the battery isn’t dead. Then I look and see that the county plow has piled the road snow at the head of the driveway. We have a guy (last name is Winter by the way) who plows our driveway but to do so properly, the car needs to be moved. Can you see a problem in this situation? I can.
Now, for reasons I won’t get into here, we have two cars. My car is in the garage. Protected. But how do I get to said garage? I have to shovel a path from our porch to the back door. I need this path because every two weeks the recycling and garbage has to be brought to the large plastic buckets in the garage. Once these are filled, I have to shovel a short path so I can haul the bins to the roadside. Mr. Winter may have had a chance to clear that space from the garage door to the road. Sometimes he doesn’t have that chance…so I have to shovel.
The other day I brought up the idea of getting a snow-blower. They cost about $700 for a proper one that ‘drives itself’. I told my wife that we’d save on Mr. Winter’s plowing. We’d have the thing paid off in two to three winters. She said we’d still have to keep him on our payroll because when we’re away for the winter, the driveway needs to be plowed. It’s an insurance thing.
“But I have a bad back,” I told my wife.
“Then I’ll shovel,” she replied.
“Not with your dicey shoulder,” I retorted.
We’re at the classic snow-blower stalemate.
[A beautiful landscape. Photo is mine.]
So, what is the situation now? Well, I need one of those patches for my lower back after I shovel even a few yards. I possess five buckets of ice-melting stuff on hand as well as three cans of de-icer, three shovels, a child’s plastic sled to haul our groceries from wherever I can park the car to the front door.
You can see the front door in the top photograph. The one that looks so cozy and inviting. But there’s not many people on our road to invite to our cozy home. They’ve all gone south for the winter. Like the hummingbirds, geese and other seventy-something-year-old folks.
We will be spending the majority of this winter in England. We have a great place to stay at the home of long-time friends. But, last year they had a freak cold snap and several inches of snow fell in North Dorset.
I wonder if I can use an English shovel. They drive on the left…maybe there’s a shoveling etiquette?
If you get a holiday card from your son or ex-wife who now live in Tucson, savor the photo of the lovely, dry, snowless desert.
[Source: The New Yorker. Dec. 10, 2018. Artist is Peter Kuper.]
December 4, 2018
Bob Takes A Bow
[Source: Google search.]
“I’ve got nothing more to live up to.”
–Dylan
This is not going to be the usual Bob Dylan fan blog. I’ve something special to relate. More on that later.
I’m sitting in what is usually the warmest room in our home, the dining room. It must be the two sets of floorboard heaters if I were asked why I’m not wearing a fleece vest while I try to put together this post. The fact that my hands are as dry as the sands of the Kalahari doesn’t make typing very easy, but if I load up on hand lotion, the keyboard can get pretty gummy, if you get my drift.
When I finish this, I’m heading downstairs to the ‘family room’ where the wood stove is located. No TV tonight. Just a time of quiet (well, maybe I’ll take Alexa with me) reading and flame watching. It’s expected to fall to 8 F later but I’ll be prepared. Unlike six nights ago when I sat in Loge 4, Row D, Seat 34 of the Beacon Theater in New York City.
I was there for what is likely my twentieth Bob Dylan concert. Most of my readers already know that I am a consummate Dylan fan. I don’t follow him around like a few friends did with the Grateful Dead…traveling from city to city. No. I catch him when he performs at a location near me.
The very best concert of his that I have ever seen was back in the day (1973 or 1974) when he was touring with The Band. They played Nassau Coliseum. It was my first big-time rock concert. He commanded the stage.
Now a days, however, he can’t fill arenas so he plays smaller venues. The Beacon Theater is a beautiful space and with a little help with a pair of opera glasses, you can see his expressions…which are few.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Bob has been criticised for his ‘lack of attention to his audience’. It’s all true. He says nothing to the crowd, only a few words to his band and then leaves to roaring applause. Some fans are annoyed by this and feel slighted. I don’t. I feel that Dylan has more than given of himself. I mean, how much energy does it take to sing “Blowin’ in the Wind” for 9,700 times? I couldn’t do it.
But at the end of the show on November 29, six nights ago, he did something I had not witnessed in decades. After his last encore, before leaving the stage…Dylan stood before his band and bowed to the audience.
He’s no Mick Jagger or Tony Bennett, but considering my love for his poetry, music and his constant presence on the road (The Never Ending Tour), I’m pleased with small gestures.
Dylan doesn’t need the spotlight.
Now I have to go and start a fire.
[Photo is mine.]
November 21, 2018
Trying To See Orting Through The Eyes Of Elias
[Elias and Erin nap. Erin has a cold.]
Behind my back, twenty-three miles east south-east, sits Mount Rainier. The second day we were here, the sun set into the Pacific Ocean and bathed Rainier in the most spectacular alpen-glow I’ve seen in years. We had a few days of clear weather. Today, it is rainy and cloudy. Kind of the usual for this time of year.
This is the view that my grandson, Elias has grown up with.
[Mariam, Erin and Elias.]
Yesterday, Mariam, Erin, Elias and I made the walk to the Kindergarten, where Elias is taught by Mrs. Misner helped by Miss Jo.
I walk behind the three of them…Elian, his grandma and his mom. I feel old, achy. Like a grandfather. We walk slowly back to home.
[Clam Guns. I never knew such things existed]
I ask to stop and visit the local sporting goods store. I needed shoelaces.
I always follow behind on the walk back home.
[Elias escapes the car seat after a shopping visit with his dad, Bob.}
[And of course, Rainier}
