Earl and I went to Pinnacle State Park today. We played around with the movie feature on the digital camera, click the picture below to download the 34MB file. You probably need Quicktime.
J.P.
A Proper Spring Meal.
With spring in full bloom in Upstate New York, Earl and I decided we needed to put the top down on the Jeep and go for a ride to enjoy the weather.
For those not aware of proper etiquette, it is very important to kick off roadwarrior season with a stop at A&W for curbside service. While we once had a wide selection of A&W restaurants to choose from, today we have only one in Upstate New York and that is in the fine city of Cortland. I think one of the reasons that I love the midwest so much is due to the fact that this type of A&W seem to have withstood the test of time in that area, where here many of these fine restaurants were ripped down and replaced with an indigestable Taco Bell.
For those of you unfamiliar with A&W, here’s a quick refresher: A&W is a fast food restaurant chain and some of them still offer curb side service. (We don’t consider the A&Ws that are mashed in with KFC or Taco Bell ‘real’ A&Ws, though they do serve the wonderful root beer.) They serve burgers, hot dogs, chicken dinners and have the usual assortment of fries and onion rings. They also have wonderful root beer and drinks come in a glass mug that you better not steal (it’s not nice). You park the car under the canopy alongside the other cars but be sure to stay in it. Then make your selection from the menu next to your car, press the button and then, with the utmost courtesy reminiscent of days gone by, you place your order over an intercom speaker to the friendly clerk in the restaurant, who then sends a car hop out to the car with a tray full of your food. (By the way, they’re open in the winter, where there’s a year ’round dining room – to order inside, you park at a booth, make your selection, then lift the phone and place your order to the same clerk.) They usually hang the tray on your car window so that you can dispense the food to the proper people in the car. When you’re done with your meal, you press the little “I’m done” button on the menu board and a car hop comes out and takes the tray away. You then say “Thank you” and they say “Thank you” too.
A&W is the bees knees of fast food and that’s all there is to it. Sonic may try to come close, but they really don’t. They’re too modern.
I really want to build an A&W in our area. Actually, I’d like to build several of them. We just have to win the lottery to do it.
The Second Day.
They say the second day of exercise is the hardest. The first day you’re all jazzed up and ready to go, lofty goals and big dreams first and foremost in your thoughts.
The second day, however, you’re flooded with the soreness of your muscles, the lingering memories of yesterday’s sweat and a small sense of “why am I doing this again?”
I consider the second day of cycling the hardest to conquer, and I am pleased to say that I did so with ease today. I took a 40 minute ride through several of the local villages, clocking in around 11 miles on this ride.
I’m happy with my progress and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s journey.
Movies.
Earl and I went to the movies tonight. We haven’t been to the movies in quite a while because, well, we haven’t really seen any movies advertised that really tickled our fancy. Couple the lack of interest with the recent rudeness of the general public in a movie theatre and it’s easy to see why we haven’t made the effort.
Eager to bask in the second day of sunlight in these parts, we went for a ride in the Jeep, passing through the local resort area on our way home (many camps and the amusement park on Oneida Lake are still closed for the season). We ended up in the city of Rome, where we stopped at the locally owned theatre and took in the showing of “Blades of Glory”.
I wasn’t prepared to enjoy this movie. I’m not a Will Farrell fan. However, I was pleasantly surprised. While I wasn’t rolling through the aisles complaining about the stitch in my side from all the laughter, I was amused during the movie and actually enjoyed the experience.
I took a picture of one of the massive auditoriums in the megamovieplex we go to.
I don’t know if “Blades of Glory” is destined to be some sort of Rocky Horror type show, but apparently two of the people behind us thought it should be because they shouted out lines and interacted with the screen as if Magenta and Columbia were doing the Time Warp. We didn’t mind though, it kind of contributed to the experience in an absurd sort of way.
On a health note, I went on my first real bike ride of the year. I’m still glowing from the adventure. I look forward to taking another ride tomorrow.
Sunlight.
The day didn’t start as well as I had hoped it would. I awoke late, realizing that Earl was out of town on business. Luckily, he called me to wish me a good morning. He asked if he had woke me up. Of course I lied. Hearing his voice from two states away put the day back on track.
The sky was full of sunshine. The thermometer showed 50 degrees as of 9 a.m. I decided to shuck the boots for the day and went with sandals instead. I’m not hypertrendy as I’m not wearing socks with my sandals, but I feel übercool wearing jeans and sandals. I don’t know why.
My one class today went well. Today’s lecture was in my Sociology class. Classmates were awake and actually participating in the discussion. There wasn’t any of that awkward silence that comes about when no one has completed the assigned reading and the professor is desperately trying to engage someone, anyone, in the topic at hand (I usually start saying things to try to spark my peers – it occasionally works.) At the end of class my professor announced that we would (finally!) be getting our papers back. We had to write a paper back in early March. It counted for a quarter of our grade for the semester.
Imagine my relief when I discovered that I got a “98” and an “Outstanding!”. I hate to brag, but I was so relieved that I did this well that I almost teared up right there in class. I never felt comfortable with the paper as I didn’t know if I had a handle on the topic (we had to write a critique of a sociology journal article – I tend to stray into all opinion territory, which you may find hard to believe.) Must be I didn’t stray as far as I thought.
When I came out of class the recent change in weather hit me like a delightfully welcomed hammer. It felt like spring. The air smelled like spring. The sun shined brightly and the sounds of music were coming from another hall on campus, not to be drowned out by the songs of birds hanging out in the many trees around the quad.
So now I’m sitting on the front porch, drinking in the sunshine, watching the planes land at the local airstrip and just enjoying the sounds of nature and rumbling man made flying machinery.
I noticed our little lilac tree is the first in the yard to start showing buds. Hibernation is definitely behind us.
Hello, world!
RIP Kitty Carlisle Hart.
Kitty Carlisle Hart, well-known as a panelist on the game show “To Tell The Truth”, passed on last night. She was 96.
Still touring and performing right up until the end of her life, Kitty was an accomplished performer on the stage, both as an opera singer and actor. She also was the only person to appear on *all* incarnations of “To Tell The Truth”, her last appearance on that show was at age 92.
Here’s a link to the best remembered version of the theme song for “To Tell The Truth”.
Technology.
I am sitting in lovely Syracuse, N.Y. in the food court at Carousel Center as I type this blog entry. I had no intention of coming here today, but I’ve been riding around in the car and decided that this was as good a place as any to stop for a bit.
I’ve been riding around because I’ve decided to take a new approach to my vidcasts. I have retitled the feature “Let’s Go For A Ride”, and I videotape them as I’m driving. I’ve done two so far and as soon as I get my YouTube channel set up properly I’ll be sure to post the link so the curious can indulge themselves.
Carousel Center has high hopes of becoming the largest mall in the United States soon. For the past ten years or so the developer has wanted to turn this into “DestiNY USA”, which would be a huge tourist attraction with hotels, an expanded mall, an indoor park and many other visitor friendly attractions. They’ve also mentioned developing a monorail system through the city of Syracuse to go hand in hand with this venture. So far a few symbolic beams of steel have been pounded in the ground as the developer and the local politicians fight back and forth about tax benefits and other assorted widths of red tape. I’m not as informed on the topic as I’d like to be, but I’d really like to see something positive happen in this area and I can’t help but think that this venture would be a positive thing for all involved. But what do I know, I’m just a college student with a big mouth and a blog.
One little delight I hadn’t planned on was the new Chicken Salad Frescata sandwich at Wendy’s. I usually don’t equate “yummy” and “Wendy’s” together, but I found this sandwich to be quite enjoyable. I highly recommend it.
Numb.
The tragedy at Virginia Tech has constantly been on my mind since seeing the news reports yesterday. At first my thoughts were “my God, I can not believe that happened, and I really can not believe that it happened on a college campus.” It was not shortly after my initial shock that I realized that I am a full-time college student that spends a considerable amount of time on campus.
Each of my instructors have reminded us at the beginning of class this week that professional counselors are available 24/7 on campus. There was a gathering at the performance hall to remember those that were killed and to host an open forum for a discussion about campus safety. We’ve actually had two tragedies here, in that a city police officer was fatally shot on Thursday after pulling a car over in a routine stop. City of Utica Police Officer Thomas Lindsey was 32 years old and a 2001 graduate of Mohawk Valley Community College. A police officer, shot dead, simply because he was serving his community and had pulled car over.
When does this all stop? What purpose is served by giving the general public free access to any type of weapon including machine guns? I am not talking about the type of guns sportsmen use when they’re out in the woods doing their thing. Most hunters use their guns responsibly (Dick Cheney not withstanding). I’m talking about semi-automatic guns that can be reloaded faster than it takes to open a can of pop and almost always end up in the hands of madmen.
I feel an incredible rant bubbling inside of me. It has not come to a boil yet and there’s no steam coming out of my ears, but it’s there and it’s building.
I guess the world is really disappointing me these days. Actually, it’s not the world that’s disappointing me. It’s a chunk of the human race.
It Still Fits.
In between homework assignments, class and watching news coverage today, I worked on the little “Alumni Band Project” I started a month ago. I have this crazy notion of gathering a bunch of my high school alumni together and forming a marching band for the village parade (we call it a ‘Field Days’ in these parts).
Part of the activities included putting an informational website together, pricing fabric for homemade colorguard banners, searching for sheet music and printing flyers to be included with the alumni newsletter.
Just for kicks I dug out my old “band jacket” that I got when I was a sophomore in high school.
It still fits!!
Stunned.
As many as 32 dead from a shooting at Virginia Tech this morning. I’d say more, but I’m speechless.
Speechless and stunned.
