Fun and Games Dept
Adirondacks.
Yesterday Earl and I decided to take a drive up into the Adirondacks. It’s fall foliage season in these parts and while it’s not quite peak season yet the colours are quite impressive. It wasn’t a long drive to our first stop, the hamlet of Old Forge.
An impressive display of colour in front of the old Howard Johnson’s in Old Forge.
Earl and I walked around town a bit, stopping at the various shops and admiring this and that. One of our stops included the “Life Is Good” store, which was quite busy.
Earl poses with a friend.
We also went to Old Forge Hardware which has much more than hardware, in fact, they bill themselves as the most general store in the Adirondacks. It’s here that I bought a new Whirley-Pop and some gourmet popcorn, as well as some treats for Tom. On our way out of the store I noticed some a wild selection of colours in the distance, so I had to snap a photo.
Colourful leaves in the background and by chance a hot biker in the foreground.
There were a lot of folks riding their bikes and dressed in full leather, if you happen to notice that sort of thing.
After Old Forge we headed north and drove through the Fulton Chain of Lakes and then headed further north into the more desolate area of the Adirondacks, winding our way through several hamlets and towns along the way.
Raquette Lake.
After driving north an hour or two we came across a sign that indicated we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so I turned left and made the 105 mile trek to Watertown. By then it was dark and rainy so we decided to catch a movie before heading home. We got to the theatre just in time to see “Fame”. I wouldn’t consider it a waste of money in any way but I felt like I was just skimming through a plot without any sort of depth at all. There were women in front of us who squealed before the show started that they were going to sing along with the soundtrack; it’s too bad there’s only one song from the original in the show and it doesn’t really lend itself to singing along. I’m glad they didn’t sing.
We got home around 12:30. All in all it was a good Jeep adventure.
Oh, naturally I took my obligatory 365 days photo along the way.
Earl runs the camera.
More pics from the trip are available here.
Gamble.
So I am currently sitting outside the gaming floor of the local casino, writing this blog entry on my iPhone. Earl is playing Let It Ride and is doing good thus far. He thinks I’m out of money, but I’m not. I still have more than half of what I budgeted for tonight in my pocket. I have this thing about losing money; I don’t like to do it. I am quite content just people watching and being amused by the intensity of some of the players. I make up stories in my head about people. Someday they might end up characters in a novel I write.
I have received several comments on my last entry about my HIV test. Some comments have been through e-mail and have had a common theme: the younger generation ain’t taking HIV as seriously as my generation did. I suppose it’s because HIV was fairly new when I became sexually active and I saw a quite a few of my friends die of AIDS. With the advancement of medicine it seems that younger folks just aren’t as concerned with the disease that ravaged our community back in the day. I sometimes wonder if there is misinformation or a dose of ignorance out there. I sometimes think that I could do more in helping educate folks; I suppose these two blog entries are a start.
Well enough of the heavy stuff for tonight. After all, I’m listening to bells and whistles of slot machines and hearing the occasional scream of a winner here and there. A gay couple just walked by and they were holding hands. That’s pretty remarkable for these parts. It makes me grin.
I should probably go check on the husbear. He’s one of the best card players I’ve ever seen. Maybe he’ll buy me something pretty. Heh.
Audio.
So a little research on YouTube turned up this video clip from a 1969 movie. Can you name the famous cartoon character who’s voice is in this scene? It’s best evident at 3:08 or so.
Snack.
Earl and I ran out to the local car dealership to put his work vehicle in for it’s routine maintenance. The weather was so balmy that I decided to pick him up in the Jeep. The Jeep is still in summer mode in that the sides and back are off and the doors have been removed. To make sure no autumn chill made the ride uncomfortable, I threw my sweatshirt on over the clothes I had changed into after work: the same comfortable t-shirt and jean shorts that I had worn during my sick day yesterday. Earl was dressed in similarly styled clothes: including a pair of cut off sweat pants and a t-shirt. He threw on a fleecy jackety thing to complete his ensemble.
After picking him up from the auto dealer I suggested we stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for a treat. After bombing around in the Jeep in relative darkness for a little bit, the bright lights of the store were a bit startling. I imagined that we looked like those folks you see in a 7-11 at 3:00 a.m. that are looking for a quart of Ben and Jerry’s and they’re not fussy about the flavour.
We opted for iced tea and a donut (so healthy) and sat down in the corner just to shoot the breeze a little bit. We discussed important issues like the complete reshooting of the varicose veins commercial they show prior to the main feature at the local theatre and the missing crew member at the Dunkin’ Donuts (who has a license plate that says his name is Beef Stew).
More importantly, we decided to sell the house and move into a trailer because we felt very dressed for the part.
Digs.
Yesterday when I was busy getting the cold that I now seem to be over, I put together my new desk. Earl and I have been arranging the furniture in the offices a little bit. This is the newest addition and it resides in my studio. I have plenty of room to be a geek now.
Lights.
I was out for a long drive (okay, a really long drive) when I tweeted the following1:
Yes, I saw a UFO tonight. It was a cone shape light, almost like someone was shining a flashlight in the air with a beam that appeared the come down a long way. The beam slowly split into two and then extinguished, leaving a luminous cloud behind. The cloud lingered around for about four minutes before dissipating.
There were hundreds of tweets appearing on Twitter around the same time I tweeted my sighting; folks from Maryland to Buffalo to New York to north of Boston had seen this thing. Folks had pulled over to the side of the road where I was driving and looking out the window.
NASA reports that they launched a rocket tonight: Night Time Artificial Cloud Study Using NASA Sounding Rocket. The launch was from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
I’m guessing that’s what I saw.
1 Yes, I pulled over to Tweet.
Heritage.
Today is my mandatory day off from work so I made a trip up to where I grew up and surprised my dad by joining him for lunch. He was busy at work at the family business; when I arrived my dad was eating lunch in the office with my uncle and my aunt. I grabbed a lunch special from the Chinese restaurant across the street and joined them. We talked about the usual stuff; what was going on with the family, the town gossip and the general state of affairs in the world.
Afterward Dad asked me to join him as he went up to the local tractor dealer. We checked out new lawn tractors that will probably double as a snow-blower for him. It was a good visit and I felt very grounded.
I took a picture with Dutchess, who lives with my aunt. She is eight years old and prior to living with my aunt she lived with my grandfather (until ’05). Dutchess spends her days at the lumber yard/hardware store. She is camera shy.
