Wordless Wednesday

This weekend's adventure...

This weekend is Peak Foliage for parts of the Central Adirondacks, so off I was to Bald Mountain, near Old Forge. In August, I learned that Adirondack trails described as "easy" may include any or all of the following: ladders of tree roots, sheer faces of rocks, peat bogs, rotting logs, and quicksand.

No quicksand today, but does THIS look like a trail to you?



I stood there for a good 20 minutes trying to scrounge up the guts to climb over the granite (20-ft drop to either side before the first row of trees...). During this time, I was passed by seasoned citizens, parents carrying toddlers, Japanese students yapping on their cell phones, frat boys drinking Heineken out of bottles, and a group of mentally disabled adults on an outing from a group home. Everyone's just skipping along like they can't slip and die, except the residents of the group home--they were picking their way across holding the hands of their aides (note to self: next time bring hand to hold). Hi, I'm from Iowa--quiet, flat, SAFE.

Eventually my fat flatlander butt made it all the way to the firetower at the summit (Ranger Gord not included), clinging to my hiking stick like it was guns or religion.

Learn how the firetower was built here. See vintage photos here.

See MY photos HERE, dammit, since I thought I was going to get myself killed making them. :P I think I've identified the Fulton Chain of Lakes properly in the photos...

Wish there would have been more places to pull off and take photos from the road; I have never seen so much red in the foliage. Moose River, on the way home, wasn't nearly as red.

I also saw a black squirrel in Old Forge. According to the lavishly illustrated "Squirrels of New York" pamphlet I picked up at the state fair from the New York State Department of Environmental Convservation ("George Pataki, Governor"--hey, kudos to someone for not wasting money on needless reprints), black squirrels are grey squirrels.

Bizarro World.

Wordless Wednesday

Watkins Glen.

Wordless Wednesday

(The water at Green Lake really is that color...as is Round Lake, which feeds into it.)

Wordless Wednesday

(I was in the Adirondacks over the weekend; still working on a post from my first trip to the region in August. Heh.)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

(Photo taken at Oriskany Battleground)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Metablogging

To quote Bob Uecker, I've been "longhand blogging"--keeping a paper journal--which kind of removes my need to bitch in length online when I have time/access. Sometimes I write "blog this!" at the top of the page, but hours or days later, I've lost interest.

I might also be a little depressed, between the fascism and the 800 miles from home and cat. And the tedium--the job is much less interesting than advertised. I've lost interest in food and fabric...I'm still trying to see as much new stuff as possible on weekends, but I'm tired of feeling like a cultural anthropologist every time I leave my apartment.

I'm still taking pictures, at least, even if I'm not uploading and annotating them like I used to.

Speaking of cultural anthropology, I'm not entirely sure what this sign from along the 1000 Islands Parkway in Ontario means--shape and color indicate warning, but it sure looks like an invitation to me... :)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Downtown Syracuse

Photowalk Saturday...started at the Erie Canal Museum, where I learned exciting stuff about Syracuse's place in history--the shot clock, traffic light, and Brannock Device were all invented here. Jokes aside, it's a lovely little museum--they have a nice exhibit of antique postcards of the canal, paintings by local artists, a replica barge, and a nice children's activity area.

Then a long walk around part of downtown (the parts not blocked off for the Blues Festival, which was fun until the thunderstorms), with some urban decay, some contemporary bizarro crap, and some fabulous preserved/restored Victorian building frosting, including gargoyles.

While researching some of the buildings, I came across the "Yestercuse" website, which chronicles how the 'cuse used to be a real city, and then it all went to hell starting in the 1960s, much like all the (one-party-controlled) high-tax government-strangled cities along the Great Lakes. Kind of confirming everything I've pieced together over the past three months:

Marvel at the glory that was Syracuse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mourn for the treasures lost over the decades to neglect, corruption, waste, incompetence and indifference.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless** Wednesday*

* I stole the concept of Wordless Wednesday from the textile arts blogs. I stopped reading them altogether when I realized there were only two on my list that didn't feature cartoony stitched shrines to Obama every entry...who needs that garbage?

**These words don't count.

P.S. to the Obamas

This is how you eat ice cream.




My thanks to nephew "Dewey" (of Huey, Dewey, and Louie) for the demonstration. :)

Happy Flag Day

Well, I'm useless in a Revolution...

Went to Fort Ontario today. When greeted at the entrance by an English sentry with a bayonet and informed the fort was under the control and protection of the King and all who enter it declare their loyalty to His Majesty by doing so, first thing out of my mouth was, "Uh...sure..." Hey, I'd just paid four New York-issued dollars to the guy at the ticket table...I did not, at least, sign a paper pledging my loyalty to the crown, despite being offered a photocopy of a schilling for doing so.

The laugh of the day came right before the "demonstration of battle" (not a re-enactment of a specific battle). When a member of the British 24th Regiment was exhorting the crowd gathered on the ramparts to cheer for the "good guys" shouted--"We're here to protect you! We're trying to save you from that Congress!" a older guy in a red-white-and-blue tie-dyed shirt with five-pointed stars yelled back "You're too late!" Cheering all around.

I will upload pictures later, but this is too good not to share immediately:



Heh!

I'm starting to like Lake Ontario

Today's shameful waste of energy on *gasp* non-essential travel: Chimney Bluffs State Park, which is like nowhere I've been before. (There's a freeze warning for SYR tonight; Al Gore and his disciples can kiss my fat white ass.)



The county roads between the lake and SYR look a lot like Wisconsin--tractors, spotted cows, rolling hills, farmhouses, yards full of broken appliances and vehicles on blocks, etc--except many of the buildings and Main Streets are 75-100 years older. Not surprising when you realize the landscape of both places was formed during the last glaciation. Wonder what it will look like around here during this next one...