Visiting Friends - Priceless

This must be my month to catch up with old friends. I met up with several on my trip, and some others coming back from the job fair on Sunday. And I came away from each thinking why didn’t I do that a long time ago? Why did I wait so long? Why don’t I just pick up the dang phone and talk to people? It’s not like I don’t think about them. Heck, we even email and talk on Facebook. But this was the first time I’d seen most of them in 20 or so years – let’s see, Annie it’s gotta be over 20 years, it was the year we went to Disney World when SETC auditions were in Orlando. Kelly, must be when her mom died, so that’s about 15 years. Mary Jane and Harry – wow, I can’t even remember when I saw them last, although her daughter and family did show up on mu porch a year ago summer and made me stand there trying to figure out who it was for a while. Johnna, only since Camp Katrina, in 2005, but still a while.
Admittedly, distance is a factor for some of them, they live in Florida and Mississippi and North Carolina. But the others are only a couple of hours up the road. Why don’t I take a day trip and have lunch? Not like I don’t drive places. Not like I’m not looking for road trips. Why didn’t I do this sooner, like many years ago, and many times since?
OK, so two of them, Claude and Shirley, it wasn’t a matter of visiting, two of them it was the first time I met them, even though I’ve known them for about ten years, online. And they live in Florida, too, so there’s the distance thing again. But gee, it was nice to actually meet them and sit in their nice little house, pet their dog, and just talk.
And to talk and talk and talk some more about old times and old friends and as much else under the sun as we could cram in with the 3 hours and 24 hours and few days I stayed with them – well, like the ad says: gas-haven’t added up yet, motels-haven’t added up yet, food- I travel fairly cheap, seeing the sights along the way-great, but visiting with people dear to me – priceless.
Here’s what I think – I have to get to do it again, and not so many years apart the next time – and do it with more people, too.

The condensed version of my vacation:

Monday, December 26: left late in the day and got to Wilkes-Barre, PA for the night
Tuesday, December 27: To Rickett’s Glen SP a little ways from Wilkes Barre, where I wanted to hike to see waterfalls, but only experienced ice climbers with equipment were allowed to do that, which left me out, so I went to the one fall I could walk to. Then to Woolrich and the outlet store.
Then to Shankesville to the Flight 93 Memorial, which is so simple and so eloquent, very moving. Quite a ride along Route 30 to get there, with lots of twists and turns and scenery. To Somerset, PA for the night.
Wednesday, December 28: To Fallingwaters, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house, did not go through the house itself, but walked the grounds and got good views of the outside. Then on to Kentucky, to Mt. Sterling for the night.
Thursday, December 29: Drove through the Red River Gorge scenic area in the Daniel Boone National Forest, seeing lots of great scenery and several arches-Kentucky has the largest amount of those in the east, who knew. A little hiking and a lot of getting out of the car to look at things. Also hiked up the trail to a Natural Bridge. To London, Kentucky for the night.
Friday, December 30: Across Kentucky and down around Nashville, TN, to the Natchez Trace. LOTS of stopping to look at all the things, scenic and historic. To Tupelo, MS.
Saturday, December 31: Continue south on the Trace, with more stops, scenery and history. Got off near Jackson, MS, and went over to Louisiana to Poverty Point, an historic Indian Mound site, just had enough time to drive quickly through it and look at the main parts, and climb the largest mound, built in about 1500 or so BC. Amazing. Then back to the Trace, to Rocky Springs campground for my New Year’s Eve.
Sunday, January 1, 2012: Finished the Trace, with stops at Rocky Springs to walk around the old town site, and then at Mount Locust to look at the house, which became the first stopover point on the Trace back in the early 1800’s. Then across MS to Tylertown and Merrywood to visit with Camp Katrina friends. Lovely place, with lots of all sorts of animals.
Monday, January 2: Loafed, drove around to Camp Katrina, into town and back to Merrywood, took a little walk, then rode around with Johnna and Susan to look at horses and property.
Tuesday, January 3: Went down to New Orleans, to meet another Camp Katrina friend and to see the Katrina Animals Memorial; drove through the French Quarter but didn’t stop, no parking and too many pba’s in town for the football game. Back to Merrywood.
Wednesday, January 4: More friends came over, went to Camp Katrina which I said didn’t look right there were no tents all over the place – many changes, still lots of animals. Nice visit and yummy supper.
Thursday, January 5: Left Merrywood and across MS into Alabama and then Florida, on the way to meet online friends Claude & Shirley. A few scenery viewing and photo stops, went to Destin to see the white sands, and then looking for miles for a campground, finally found one at Panama City.
Friday, January 6: foggy in the morning, and most of the way along the Gulf, did get some sightseeing in, and a nice ‘shore’ lunch. Then up in to the middle of the panhandle to Fort White.
Saturday, January 7: Went for a walk at a state park near their house, where a river ‘sinks’ down out of sight into the ground and reappears several miles down. Then visited, out for supper again, and visited some more.
Sunday, January 8: Left in late morning to go over to see Anne Somers in Fruitland Park, got there and sat and visited the afternoon and evening away.
Monday, January 9: Left Anne’s about noon, up through the Ocala NF towards Jacksonville, but then saw a sign for St. Augustine so cut over to see it, went to the fort and walked around looking at old buildings, very pretty. To Kingsland GA for the night.
Tuesday, January 10: Went out to Jekyll Island, very pretty, with huge old ‘cottages’ that are a testament to wealth. To St. George SC.
Wednesday, January 11: Stopped to see Kelly Casey, which was a delightful visit. Started to rain very hard after that, got to Emporia VA and quit for the night.
Thursday, January 12: Just drove all day to get home, got here about 8.

Why are people? Sigh....

So, I was just at the drug store making some more Christmas cards ( I know, making your own Christmas cards at the drug store - that's a whole 'nother thing), and hear a dog barking. Then while I'm paying for the cards, the woman with the dog, a mid-size poodle-y looking thing, comes in line behind me, so naturally I turn and hold my hand down towards the dog and she says 'Oh, no don't do that, h...e'll bark or . . . . He's not a friendly dog" and she picked it up. Now, call me kooky, but if I had a dog that wasn't friendly and might 'or . . . ' at people, I damn sure wouldn't bring it into a store where there are people, especially kids, who might not be cautious about reaching for a strange animal, and might get, I don't know, bit, 'or . . .' whatever. Get your dog socialized or don't bring it into places where people are, you MOron! And if it bites a kid and you get sued, you'll be all 'why are they doing that to ME?' No doubt a *&#%ing cidiot. Why are people? Sigh.

“Neighbors Helping Neighbors”

Went to a spaghetti supper tonight, a benefit at the firehouse, for a family in town. She’s battling breast cancer, and some friends got together and decided to help them out. The place was packed. Of course, having it two days after Thanksgiving, when everybody needs a break from turkey leftovers, didn’t hurt, but it sure did show the support that a town can give to its friends. Besides the supper, there was a silent auction, and a 50/50 drawing, the gallon jar for that was full and they’d run out of the printed tickets by the time we got ours. Three tables loaded with desserts, all donated. The woman thanked me for coming as we were leaving; I said “Good food, good friends, for good people” and gave her a hug. I’d be willing to bet that the show of support helps them as much as the money. Neighbors Helping Neighbors.
We do this. We rally with donations, like the one I made this morning to help with vet expenses for the dog that escaped a tragic fire a few days ago; her master and another dog did not escape. No, I don’t know them, but it doesn’t matter. People in the town they live in put together a car wash, to help the rest of the family with expenses, and I’m sure there will be more such events before it’s all done. Neighbors help neighbors.
It happens all over. Those not affected, no, even those who are affected get together and do what they can to help. I saw it at the pig roast up in Upper Jay last month, where area people came and ate and drank and visited and gave each other monetary and moral support. I saw it a couple of weeks later, when musicians gave their time and talent for a concert to raise money for HelpJayNY, to a packed house in the Indian Lake movie theatre. I saw it when I helped pack a truck of donated things to be sent to New York after 9/11, in the three truckloads of things collected in Chatham that we took to South Florida after Hurricane Andrew, in the dozens of people who descended on the Gulf areas to rescue animals after Hurricane Katrina, in the SUV load of donations our audience brought this summer for the troops overseas, and so many more examples throughout our country. Neighbors help neighbors, even when they are hundreds of miles away and we’ve never met them.
We got a bunch of help for the kids affected when our cast house burned in July – from patrons, from people who had been at the theatre in years past, from people who didn’t know them, but who wanted to help out. Also got so much support at our fund-raising Gala-wow!
Here’s what I think - we help, because we can, because we feel better for it, because it’s the right thing to do, and maybe also because we’re glad it’s not us – this time – but someday it might be and we hope that other neighbors will help neighbors. Go ahead, help your neighbor.

Hurricane Irene hits the Adirondacks

The river babbles behind us as we carry things to a storage container parked on the front lawn. Two months ago Hurricane Irene tore through the area with record-breaking rains that turned the now benign stream, about maybe 20 feet wide, into a raging torrent that leapt over it’s banks, surged across lawns and roads, through houses and businesses, tearing up trees, buildings, pavement and lives. Now the couple is moving memories to install a new heating system. “The neighbor’s barn was there”, she points to the corner of an ell on the back, the river side, of their old mountain farmhouse that has withstood many other storms in it’s almost 200 years. “It caught on our house and the water went under it”. The water dug a hole more than five feet deep under their house and tore out the foundation, went into the basement and destroyed the furnace and everything else there. “There were five brook trout on the floor”, she adds.
The course of the river changed, “it’s about 20 feet closer to our house now, and it just drops off, there used to be lawn there and a gentle slope down to the water”, I am shown. “I miss our lawn”. An old cedar tree was torn up by the roots when the water surged by, she had some of it pulled near the house to use the wood for something, she’s not sure what. The trunk is a good foot and a half thick.
They are just one of dozens of families whose lives were torn up by the roots when Hurricane Irene’s torrential rains hit the Adirondacks on August 28. The water came from the tops of the mountains in this High Peaks region, rushing to small streams and sometimes taking parts of the mountains with it. The small streams held what they could and the rest stormed of their banks onto fields, forest, lawns and roads. When the streams got to the Ausable River’s East Branch, which runs through the towns of Keene, Upper Jay and Jay it did the same thing.
Two branches of the Ausable River, West and East, flow through two valleys and meet at the village of Ausable Forks – where the water was up to the door handles of the pizza parlor, two blocks from either river. “It’s probably in Ausable Chasm” is a catch phrase about things that were washed away. It’s about 20 miles from Ausable Forks to the popular tourist spot where the river narrows and pours through deep rock walls before broadening out and finally dumping into Lake Champlain.
You first see some damage on Route 73, where pavement was torn up by what are usually tiny brooks you can step across; orange cones and new pavement now line the road. Then you notice the storage containers beside houses that are near a stream. Then, turning onto Route 9N and heading north, some houses are empty, some have piles of rubble outside: possessions and walls heaped together to be taken away. Near the house where I was helping several piles of trees, bushes, branches, boards and bicycles and more sit in the trees between the road and the river. She found her kayak under one of the piles, pulled it out and set it in the sun, undamaged.
On a side road I take photos of piles of trees and rocks, then notice that some of the rocks are black, look closer and see that some of those have yellow stripes on them - it’s not rocks, it’s pieces of pavement, torn up and left there by the water of a small brook as it raced past to join the bigger river and add to the woes downstream.
Along the road, which runs beside the river from Keene to Keesville, pieces of buildings, furniture, scraps of clothing and trees lie in fields, along the river bank, stuck in trees and on guard rails. Bridge abutments are scraped to the top by the debris pushed past. In Jay, the water was up to the bottom of the recently restored covered bridge, some 20 feet above the normal height of the river. An 8 foot high wall of 2 foot thick concrete blocks on the opposite side of the road from the river is marked about a foot from the bottom with ‘April, 2011’, showing the depth of the flooding then. Now added, at the top, with arrows pointing up, is “Hurricane Irene, August 28, 2011’. On the other side it says “Irene was here-don’t come back!’
Firehouses in Keene and Upper Jay are empty, with damage that might not be repairable. In Upper Jay, the fire chief gave the order to move the trucks just in time; the water was up to the doors as the volunteers drove them out. The hamlet’s library was flooded, the soccer and ball fields destroyed, a woman watched her livelihood float away as she stood downstream from her antique shop.
The once popular family attraction Land of Make Believe, no longer operating but with many of the memorable pieces still in place, is now bare, with piles of sand pushed from the road to open it to traffic standing in what once was a parking area filled with excited children. A pony kept there was swept away.
Near where one town road meets the highway, a three car garage blocked the view of the field behind it. Now you can see the whole field, there is no trace of the garage. You can also see a house in the middle of the field; it used to be beside the road, a hundred yards or so away.
Upper Jay is tiny, with just a few people and fewer businesses in the hamlet. One, a motel, opened for refugees until they could return to their houses, or make other arrangements if that was not an option. A woman tells me that she brought food from Lake Placid, 20 plus miles away, for them. “People in Lake Placid had no idea, we didn’t get this kind of damage”, she says, adding that some of the things that were sent were “Lake Placid people’s idea of what these folks needed – a chocolatier sent boxes of fancy chocolates” and she shakes her head.
People are picking up and putting their lives back together. Some may not be able to. The neighbor of the couple I was helping may not, their house has been condemned. Some say ‘well, they live in a flood plain, they should expect it’. You can’t expect a ‘500 year flood’, as this is being called. ‘They should move’, those same people say. To where? With what?
No, it wasn’t as big and bad as Katrina’s flooding of New Orleans. Or the tornadoes in the southeast, perhaps. Or maybe not event he scope of the destruction when the floods took out the towns in the Catskills. But for the people affected, it is. When it’s your disaster, it’s big. This is big, for that area.
To help: www.helpjayny.com

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A 9-11 Ceremony

Our local fire department, like others across the country, had a small ceremony this morning to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9-11. A flag hung from the extended ladder, black cloth draped the windshield of a pumper, and turnout gear stood in front of it: empty coat, boots, bunker pants and helmet to signify the gear not to be worn again by those gone.
Some of the firefighters spoke; where they were, what they were doing – just as most of us are remembering the same things about that day. One woman told of fears that a cousin who worked in the towers was lost and the elation when he was finally able to call two days later to tell them he had gone out of the office for coffee – his co-workers perished. A fireman talked about how one plane made it’s turn over our county, how comment was made about the plane flying so low and slow, how unusual that was – not knowing how much more unusual that flight was going to become. A man now a state trooper told how the day created his job, because the State Police forces were increased. Several remembered going to an annual weekend fire school and how every person there jammed an auditorium on Friday night for a memorial service.
One just waved his hand, indicating he had no words to say, and a tear fell from his cheek.
There will be many more ceremonies, one is scheduled this evening at the county 9-11 memorial. There will be many more tears, as more memories are shared.
As we did ten years ago, our country and our people cry, and continue. It would be unfair to those who gave their lives to do otherwise.

September 11 - Ten Years later

I put on the t-shirt I got on the Comfort, the one that says “Terrorists may crumble buildings, but they can’t touch my patriotism. In memory of those who paid for freedom with the ultimate price. September 11, 2001. God Bless America still the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
I’ll go to the firehouse for an impromptu, short ceremony there, then later read a message, updated from when I first wrote it ten years ago for the truck company newsletter, before our matinee performance.
As everyone, I will have my moment to remember, what I was doing, what I thought and felt and did that day. I will make a moment for those lost, for those still being lost as a result of the attacks in 2001. I will take a moment to be thankful for our American life.
Here’s what I think: We should all do this, not just today, but every day.
My reading:
“Everyone in our country, and beyond, was affected by the tragic events in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania ten years ago today.
I went to New York as a member of an Emergency Medical Services Task Force, went to the scene and saw the destruction that was left of the World Trade Center and saw the desolation on the faces of those going to dig in the rubble, some for their friends and co-workers, some just to help. I stood crying at the ‘wall of tears’, where the pictures and messages from people looking for their loved ones were beyond heartbreaking. I heard the thanks of countless people, strangers, in a city that before was known for its cold, self-centered personality – thanks just because we were there, had come to help and support them.
I can only say that if those who perpetrated and carried out this horrendous crime against humanity thought they were going to bring the United States of America and its people to their knees by these actions, well, they did.
They brought us to our knees to unite in prayer for the victims and their loved ones, and then to add a prayer for the strength and the wisdom and courage to do what must be done next. Then, we stood up with more patriotism and determination than ever and with the resolve that they would not win, that we would keep our life and our freedom and our country and our spirit.
And we did and we can continue to do so.
We can get down on our knees once again and say a prayer for the victims and their families and friends.
We can say “Thank you” and “God Bless You” and “God Be With You” when we see a fire truck or an ambulance or a police car go by, in memory of the brave men and women who ran towards, not away from, the carnage at the World Trade Center and who died doing their job.
We can say a prayer and a “Thank you” for those people who were on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, those people who may have averted another incident with even more deaths and destruction.
We can show our patriotism - wave a flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Star Spangled Banner, not just today when the memory is being celebrated, but tomorrow and the day after and the week and the month and the year after tomorrow.
We can teach a child to respect our country and its government and its flag.
We can say “our knees, my butt – this is America”, and do everything in our power to keep our country moving and growing and going strong, as we did after this tragedy and as people have throughout every day of its existence.
Please join us in a moment of silence in remembrance.”