Wanderings

Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science,
the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.
- Ray Bradbury
November 18th, 2012

LORE vol. 2, no. 2

Lore Magazine has been released. My story is in this issue.

Lore 2.2 is available at CreateSpace.com

LORE vol. 2, no. 2
(November 2012)
TWELVE INCREDIBLE NEW TALES!
Featuring:
“Enshrined” Bridget Coila
“Finny Moon” Keith P.Graham
“Congregate” Steve Rasnic Tem
“One in a Billion” Colin Heintze
“Asylum” Stephen Mark Rainey
“The House of Dreams” Nyki Blatchley
“Electric Souls on a Starless Planet” J.P. Boyd
“Lost in Darkness” Jeremy Harper
“Melbourn’s Storm” Nickolas Furr
“Can Spring Be Far Behind?” Jeff Samson
“Tumor is the Night” Corey Mariani
“Nzambe” Denise Dumars

cover artwork by Christopher Allen
- 167 pages -

via Lore.






November 18th, 2012

Beekeeping the old way – journalpatriot: News: everett “ebb” barnette, brushy mountain road, honeybees, bee gums, black gum trees

I have been looking around in the storm damage for an old hollow log for use as a beehive. I’d like to try one.

Beekeeping the old way – journalpatriot: News: everett “ebb” barnette, brushy mountain road, honeybees, bee gums, black gum trees.






November 7th, 2012

After Sandy

I forgot to update this, but we got lights back on Friday night at 9:30pm. We were in the middle of watching a movie on the laptop when the lights came back on.

Erica and I lost lost the lights about 9:30 on Sunday night. I went over to my Brother’s house and got my Generator so we had light for a few hours each evening. We tried to conserve gas by running the generator just long enough to cool the freezer and charge the cell phones and my laptop.

Before the lights went out, I had downloaded some movies that I wanted to watch, and a few TV shows that we had missed so we could catch up. It was nice watching TV on the laptop. Each charge was good for 4 hours and it turns out we had just enough charge and enough canned video to watch each night.

We used the Jotul wood stove to heat the house every night so the house was warm. It was not a terrible experience. Sitting in near darkness for a few hours before going to bed actually helped me to sleep at night.

The yard did not do well. A very large and very old Silver Maple broke in half and fell on the chicken run, barely missing the coop. There was minor damage to the coop. When we came out in the morning, the chickens were all loose, but the racoons did not eat them in the night. The chickens seem oblivious to their near death experience, event though the chicken coop must have been rocked nearly off its foundations.

A very large White Pine came down in the back and fell on one of the bee hives, smashing it to tooth picks. I repackaged the bees in a new hive, but I am not sure they will make it through the winter. They were exposed to the cold and rain for quite a while.

We hired the guy who provides our firewood to come and cut up the silver maple. We have quite a bit of wood for about the same price as cord of wood, so it was a good investment.

I missed three days of work, so my paycheck was a little short. Other than that, we were inconvenienced, but did not suffer at all compared to many many other folks who lost everything in the storm.

We had Omelets a few nights, and since we rarely eat eggs, it was an opportunity to enjoy our own fresh eggs (delicious) and live off of the land.

Perhaps it was just good luck, but we were well prepared for the storm and weathered it as just a slight annoyance. Next time, I will have more gas, more batteries, and more movies ready. I am going to try to get a “Whole House” hookup for our generator to make it easier to use. It’s nice to be part of civilization again, though.






November 1st, 2012

Still no lights

Just heard om the radio that it will be a week or ten days of darkness.






November 1st, 2012

We Survived Sandy

I made it into work today so I can post here. Still in the dark ages at home. I will post the videos and pictures when the lights come back.






October 29th, 2012

Testing WordPress App

Testing out if I can post from my cell phone. This is tedious. My fingers are too big.






October 29th, 2012

TZ Bridge Closed

I received this email alert:

UPDATE TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE CLOSED TO ALL TRAFFIC

DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER THE TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE CLOSED TO ALL TRAFFIC UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
03:46:56PM 10/29/12

It is a good thing that I did not go to work today. Right about now I’d be heading north through Westchester hoping that the Bear Mountain Bridge was still open. If that was not open, I’d have had to go up to Newburgh.






October 29th, 2012

Something Blew

I went over to Larry’s today to get the generator. On the way, Old Mill Road in front of the dam was closed. Larry and I walked down the road on the way back and found that a pipe had burst somewhere in United Water’s property and there was a gusher of water shooting up about 50 feet. Very impressive.






October 28th, 2012

Larry’s Cat in the Woods

Near the house where I grew up is a woods. I consider these my woods, although I haven’t been there in years. Behind the houses and across the street is an area of steep rocky ground that has no road access so it is has been left wild. It is about 5 acres of trees and cliffs and paths made by the deer. This was my playground growing up. I don’t know if the kids still play “army” back there or build clubhouses in the trees, but I remember the place well.

My brother’s cats still like to wander back there, and Larry followed one the other day. The picture below is “October” and he is checking out some territory North and a little East of the house I grew up in. Larry takes a nice picture.

October cat in the Woods

October cat in the Woods






October 25th, 2012

Buy Windows 8

If you are interested in the latest greatest, you may want to download and install Windows 8. You can get the upgrade for $40. You would need a fast processor, 20 gigs free space on your disk, a DirectX 9 graphics processor, a display that can handle 1366×768 pixels, and at least 2 gigs of ram. (It sounds daunting, but most PCs sold in the last couple of years can meet the minimum.)

There is superstition that Even number Microsoft Operation systems versions are buggy. I remember reinstalling DOS 3.31 after DOS 4.0 screwed up my system. Windows 98 was famously buggy where most version of XP were stable. Nobody liked Vista, but I’ve been using Windows 7 on a few machines and find it tolerable, even if it is over protective.

Will Windows 8 break the curse, or will we have to wait for 8.1?

Buy Windows – Microsoft Windows.






October 24th, 2012

Curiosity Rover Creepy Picture

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity used its laser and spectrometers to examine what chemical elements are in a drift of Martian sand. It took a before and after photo. The image, converted to an animated GIF looks like Mars has a creepy eye that winks at us. (Or creepy lips throwing us kisses.)

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil.






October 19th, 2012

A Pitch For: Nyack the Movie

I saw this on the Nyack Facebook page.

A Pitch for: Nyack The Movie!!!!!!

Here are some suggestions. Pick the ones you like. I was trying to have a little fun, why don’t you see what you can do with it. Post your additions.

Anne Marie Knieriem Stader (Annie), Nyack HS Class of ‘68

Director
1. Spike Lee
2. Gary Marshall
3. John Hughes
4. Woody Allen
5. John Waters
6. Jonathan Demme (Native Nyacker)
7. Steven Spielberg

Soundtrack mainly composed of
1. Four Seasons
2. Patti LaBelle
3. Simon & Garfunkle
4. Curtis Mayfield
5. Beatles
6. Happy Days (Helene Curtis)

Who Would Play Helen Hayes
1. Merle Streep
2. Dustin Hoffman
3. Rosie O’Donnell
4. Cicely Tyson
5. Dakota Fanning
6. Robin Willaims (Helene Curtis)

Who Wrote the Book
1. Harold Robbins
2. Phillip Roth
3. Kurt Vonnegut
4. Harper Lee
5. Thornton Wilder
6. Lenord Nemoy (Helene Curtis)

What Role Will You Play?
1. Narrator
2. Mr. Ardavani
3. One of the hippie hill kids
4. Mr. Traverson
5. That lady on your street who knows everybody’s business.

As a Production of
1. HBO
2. AMC
3. IFC
4. 20th Century Fox
5. PBS
6. Nick at Nite (Helene Curtis)

Who Will Play the Librarian
1. Lily Tomlin
2. Rene Zellweiger
3. The Crypt Keeper
4. Merle Streep
5. Marlee Matlin
6. Sally Field (Helene Curtis)

The Major Crime is
1. Stealing nail polish from Woolworths
2. Smoking in the Boys Room
3. Crossing against the light
4. Not paying your library fines
5. Pulling False Alarms
6. Stealing Someones BoyToy (Helene Curtis)

Food Served at the Afterparty
1. Luleich Crumb Buns
2. Paones Meatball Sandwiches
3. Hot fudge sundaes from the Wooden Indian/Traversons
4. Clams from the Hilltop
5. Food from one of Kenny’s,, “Doc Ace” block parties
6. Honey Hams Buffets (Helene Curtis)

Theme Song
1. Dancing in the Streets
2. The Kids are Alright
3. Downtown
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Yesterday
6. Cheers theme song (Helene Curtis)

Format Shot In
1. Cinerama
2. Black & White
3. Claymation
4. 3D
5. Flip Cam
6. Musical (Helene Curtis)

Title of the Movie
1. Town Without McDonalds
2. Lots of O’Briens
3. First Exit Off The Bridge
4. The Day the Engine Died
5. Sleds Along the Hudson
6. Any Which Way But Out






October 11th, 2012

VisitNH : Foliage Tracker

I have not gone anywhere in quite a while. Erica and I used to escape on Sundays. In the Summer we went to flea markets and in the Fall we went to Apple Country. Now we stay home and watch the chickens.

I miss my Fall fresh apple pie and hand picked apples. The interactive map of New Hampshire in the link below made me think of past years enjoying the fall colors up and down the Hudson Valley.

VisitNH : Foliage Tracker.






October 10th, 2012

Tree down, Chickens escape

A dead tree on the border of our property fell down. This tree had been hit by lighting years ago and the bottom 30 feet has been rotting away ever since. It fell, barely missing the new tool shed and taking out Erica’s roses.

It took down the new fence that I put up to keep the chickens in the yard. It did not take long for the chickens to figure it out and make their move. They crossed into the neighbor’s yard and ran down near the road where they stopped traffic. They crossed over into the next neighbor’s yard digging up grass and foundation planting leaving a path of destruction.

I got home and cut away the bottom of the tree and cleared some room to put in a new section of fence.

Here are some pictures that Erica took.