Just realized that I haven't been posting much here of late. On the other hand, I have been entering pictures and thoughts and links at FaceBook regularly (several times a week).

The huge advantage of FaceBook (in my opinion) is that so many more people are connected there and respond (with their real names, too (GASP!)), so that, instead of the relatively lonely monologue that this thing has turned into, there are always several ongoing dialogues (or trialogues (or n-alogues)).

Another advantage is that I am now in regular communication with friends spanning all the way back to High School (Class of '62) and relatives that I never knew I had until this year - again, all using their real names. I got to spend some fun time with several members of my "new" extended family on my last trip to Indiana in May and FaceBook was one of the modes that facilitated it all.

The disadvantage (particularly for folks, like me, that don't do too much self-editing) is that, in most cases, your "thoughts" are limited to fairly short blurbs, which seem (to me) to lead to fairly superficial statements (and, in many cases, the statements are just cryptical teasers that seem to cry out for the "Are you all right?" reply/stroke).

Anyhow, because of the limited number of characters (as in ASCII, not personalities) allowed at FaceBook, I've found myself having to make two, three or more "entries" to just get whatever it is that I need to out of my system before I flush with the "share with others" button. My guess is that longer blurbs (such as this one) don't get read much anymore as folks are looking for the shorter (superficial?) "tweet."

At any rate, I have days when I just want to shut down all my accounts (including email)(particularly when I find people "borrowing" my photographs for their own use/gain). Then I could just spend the rest of my Life playing Spider Solitaire on my new laptop.

There are other times, on the other hand, that I consider posting to FaceBook AND LiveJournal (particularly when I am suffering from acute verbal diarrhea). Then there are other times I think about just posting here again, where I can be (relatively) alone with my (not so concise) thoughts.

Anyhow, well ... let's just leave it at "anyhow" for now.

D.

I joined up FaceBook and am amassing friends at an alarming rate.

I haven't yet figured out the real-life impact of this virtual community. Someone, please, explain to me what it's all about?

Well, in Southeastern Connecticut, today was beautiful. I had hoped to bike 25 miles today, but, since I haven't been on the saddle since early December, I found that the saddle did not cooperate with my Gluteus Maximuses (Maximi?), so I ended up riding only 12 miles. Still, it was really great to be back on the bike, breathing relatively warm, fresh air as I explored the local roads.

On the return leg of my trip, I went past Odetah Campgrounds in Bozrah, Ct. I had read on the web that they now had three Colorado yurts that they rent out as cabins during the summer. Today, as I was passing by, I saw some cars and a truck there, so I decided to pedal up there to ask if I could walk by the yurts to just see what they looked like.

A bunch of friends and I built a tipi a decade or two ago (see earlier post here), but I've also been very interested in yurts, particularly the last five years or so. Done a whole lot of reading about them and surfing the web yearning at some of the pictures that I've found. My choir director has one in his back yard in which he frequently sleeps.

Anyhow, today I couldn't find a soul at the campground, so I just decided to explore for myself and, voila, just past the swimming pool, there were all three of the yurts. I walked around them and peeked in one of the doors. Maybe I should just order one of them (Colorado Yurts? or Pacific Yurts(?) or some other company(?)) and get it out of my system (being realistic, I don't think I'd ever actually get around to building one from scratch). If I got one, after I erected it and moved a few of my cherished possessions into it, I'd have my sons come and torch my old house with its lifetime accumulation of clutter/memories therein.

On my refrigerator door, the old kids' magnets spell out, among many other bon mots, "Simplify!" (though my youngest son, realizing my true nature added beneath "Complicate!").

Here's a small picture from the Camp Odetah website.


Here are a couple of other random images from google:

(Picture from treehugger.com)

(Picture from http://herrdramaturg.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/yurt_night-2.jpg)

Went for a 25 mile bicycle ride today - first in 3 months - it was wonderful to be back in the saddle again!

Clear skies, however, went south for tonight's anticipated alignment of the crescent Moon (Selene), Venus and Jupiter (a classic menage a trois, if ever there was one). Just before my giving up on seeing them, I went outside for one last try. To my delight, the clouds had momentarily parted and there they were in all their astronomical glory. Luckily for me, the planets hadn't quite hit the horizon, yet, but just after this picture they disappeared.

I grabbed my digital camera, the nifty portable "monkey tripod" that my son bought me and "wrapped" it around the back of a dining room chair as a makeshift tripod and shot this somewhat overexposed and just a tiny bit shaky picture (I was sitting on the chair to give it mass, but I guess I wasn't as immobile as I was trying to be (3 or 4 glasses of wine, by that point)) ... anyhow, it was truly a beautiful sight and this photo is only an approximation of a breath-taking moment. This particular syzygy won't happen again until 2052, long after I'm gone:



(I've promised to post my other RABRAI photos here, but I've reneged on that so many, many times ... maybe, since I started riding my bike again, I'll get them up here later this week(?))

On September 18, 2008, I finally broke the 45 mile per hour threshold on my bicycle. I've been trying to do this my whole life!

Now I can slow down, right? (Hmmm ... 46 miles per hour is only 0.4 mph away (oh, and then there's that Golden 50 mph tempting me, too!)).

I promise (if only to myself) to post the rest of my RAGBRAI pictures (previous post) real soon ... if only to close the door on that great week.

(Photo from http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c294/quiknick311/)

The Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa starts in two days!

I'm just about to go to sleep at my old homestead in Indiana. I plan to wake up in about 5 hours and drive the rest of the way to Iowa, meeting my brother from Arizona (who is on the road, as I type) hopefully around noon tomorrow. Saturday, we go to the starting point (rear wheels of our bicycles in the Missouri River) and then, early Sunday morning, we start the actual (i.e., hard) riding from Missouri Valley with over 10,000 other cyclists. After riding for seven days (60-80 miles a day) and camping out on school football fields and town parks every night, and being hosted by towns putting on beer gardens and concerts and great company of new friends, we end (again, "hopefully?") with our front wheels in the Mississippi at Le Clair, Iowa on the following Sunday.

If I get a chance and can figure out the technology, I'll try to update this with news of our progress and (just maybe) a few pictures. Wish us luck! It should be great, great fun and my brother and I are both stoked about riding along together.

UPDATE - JULY 28, 2008

We did it! Even though there were a few really rough days when I wanted to throw my bike in a ditch, it was quite moving to actually end up with all those other people with our wheels in the Mississippi River.

I just now got back to Connecticut after driving the 1300+ miles in two days and I will post a few pictures and tell a few stories in the next day or so.

Going without the Internets and email and such for (what is it now?) about a week and a half was interesting, because I didn't miss it at all!

I just got back home yesterday after six days of camping at Hopeville Pond in Connecticut.



My campsite at night. I've been staying at this particular campsite
(E11 - right on the water) now for, oh, about 15 years or so.

For several decades now, my Unitarian Universalist congregation has been camping on the weekend before Memorial Day. I, myself, however, have been going out earlier and earlier (Wednesday) and returning on Monday after the weekend to bookend my wonderful time with friends with a bit of solitude and peace (I also get to have the whole campground practically to myself for a couple of days).

( 11 more pictures of the All Souls campout )

We're IN!

For years now, my older brother (Arizona) and I (Connecticut) have been talking about doing a long bike ride together. Today the RAGBRAI lottery was held to select 10,000 bicyclists to ride across Iowa for seven days in July (60-100 miles a day) and we were selected.


(Photo from http://www.overlandtouring.com/)

You start with your rear wheel in the Missouri River and end with your front wheel in the Mississippi. We camp at school football fields and such (and it sounds like there is a bit of partying that goes on each night, too). You eat at food stands set up by every boy scout troop and church and civic group along the whole route. There's about 22,000 cumulative feet in climbs (Iowa is not flat ... who'd of thunk it, huh?), but I sense that Connecticut just might be a bit hillier (average distance between hills here is about 200 feet). Iowa heat and humidity in late July might be a concern, but there don't seem to be very many "serious" bikers on this; most seem to have big grins on their faces (in spite of their hangovers).

Now, I need to start some "serious" training. I did a 40-mile ride last Thursday (felt fine for first 30 miles, but couldn't walk a straight line after the last ten), but have kissed off until today (a week later). Being accepted means I need to start riding just about every day with a goal of doing two 60-mile rides on two consecutive days.

If you want to read more about this, read RAGBRAI Guide for Virgins.

We're psyched for this; it will be great to ride ... it will be great to be with my brother again!

See you on the road!

This picture reminds me of the high-school girl who organized a protest in Norwich, CT three and a half months before the invasion. I was impressed by her resolve and courage, and, being retired with "nothing better to do," I drove through the snow storm as soon as I read about her plans in the morning paper. There were just a few of us there, but her youthful indignation was the catalyst that got me out of my own indulgent and slothful "retirement rocking chair" and out on to the streets.

( Here's the old Norwich Bulletin article that I just now found in the detritus of my hard drive. )

Our First Earth Day Maypole (40 ribbons - over 30 feet tall)



New London Earth Day is no more. Over the past several years, we did a few good things (three successful Earth Day celebrations, advocating for preservation of city parks, organizing a public forum and high-level press conference to oppose the Broadwater Liquified Natural Gas barge in Long Island Sound and proposing the creation of a New London Sustainable Community Initiative committee to the City Council. When the Council approved our proposal, we then recruited qualified New London residents to be members of this important citizen task force. The City Council has officially appointed our candidates and they are now working to make New London, CT a more environmentally sustainable community.

After our small committee (at last count we numbered only six) did all the hard work of getting this initiative off the ground, somehow our sails were left luffing in the wind and we all eventually moved on to other things. The wake for this organization will be joyously celebrated at some local pub in the near future for all past members of New London Earth Day.

Today, in Hartford, CT, there were a few rallies to protest the war in Iraq. All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation (of which I am a member) bussed about 60 members to this event to join a total of about 200 from all across Connecticut. Here (and behind the cut) are a few pictures that I took.

It rained. Here is my waterlogged poster.

( and here are 19 more photos: )

Wednesday night's lunar eclipse (lousy photo, but, well, it was beautiful ... you should have been there)



Tomorrow (today? Thursday!) night, I get to substitute for a flutist in a concert given by a small (about 30 players) local orchestra. I'm really looking forward to it!

Honestly, this is a true story!



It's an understatement to say that I like kites. The walls of my home are covered with all kinds, from antique, hand-painted Japanese fighter kites and bamboo/tissue Indian fighter kites, to various large cloth mandalas and old stick/paper dime-store kites (remember dime stores?).

I have bunches of discontinued mylar and aluminum rod Vic's fighter kites, along with some very cool, two-string acrobatic kites that (I swear) can break the speed of sound just before they auger into the ground at the end of a not-so-successful power-dive (one of which is affectionately called "The Killer" ... it actually broke a friend's arm about a hundred years ago).

But, you know(?), in a way, my favorite kite of all time has been the Fantazma Gordo made by Gayla. You could buy these at any grocery/drug/gasoline/toy/department store back in the seventies (and maybe into the nineties ... I don't recall seeing them anywhere recently). They were all plastic, very cheap, ready-to-fly (string included) and they were just great if you wanted to just fly your hopes high on the spur of a moment.

They would launch from your hand in the slightest of breezes (you wouldn't even need to get out of your lawn chair) and they would fly almost straight up above your head. You could reel them in right back into your hand (again, never needing to leave your lawn chair).

( click here for my Unbelievable, but True Fantazma Gordo Story )

It's been two years since the last Winter Solstice celebration and this one was very windy and rainy, but, still, more than sixty people came together to share food, company, singing and yet another bonfire (though only about twenty people came outside into the tempest to stand around the fire).

The drums and other instruments stayed inside (though the bagpiper played under a distant porch and one (of two) basoonist(s) joined me in several pennywhistle duets at the fire).


The Fire Starts

( More pictures behind the cut )

(Photo from http://www.scultura-italiana.com)
Click on picture to hear just one of Beethoven's most beautiful pieces
(If you're on modem, you may want to skip this)

Lately, for some reason, I haven't been listening to much classical music. Instead, I've been grooving alot on the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, the Stones (particularly Exile on Main St.) and Lynyrd Skynyrd. All of them are wonderful and make me feel good, driving down the road, singing along and grinnin' like a frog eating onions.

But, here it is, December 16th and I started my annual Beethoven marathon yesterday, listening to the first seventeen of his thirty-two piano sonatas, and today I've finally worked my way through his symphonies and am just now listening to his final ninth symphony. Tomorrow, I'll finish the piano sonatas and wrap it up with his Missa Solemnis.

Guess what? As great as Lynyrd Skynyrd is, none of that rock stuff comes close to Beethoven. Who'da thunk it, anyhow?

If I get his complete string quartets in the next year, my marathon will have to start a week or so earlier.

Lately, for some reason, I've been thinking alot about Mary Ruth Gunn.



I'm only guessing, but, I think this picture was taken sometime around 1992 (my beard was alot fuller and a whole lot browner back then).

Mary Ruth was one of my first real friends. She was much older than I and I got to know her when she started to accompany my flute solos in high school. We would practice at her house and then go down into the basement and shoot pool and talk and talk and laugh and tease each other and so on. But, in hindsight, I realized that Mary Ruth was being my first real mentor in Life. She would engage my mind by steering conversations into areas of philosophy or life situations; she would lend me books, saying "You really should read this, Douglas!" (I still have a never-returned copy of G.K. Chesterton that she lent to me).

( Long, long memories of Mary Ruth and a very important letter from her (1965) )