Fun and Games Dept

157.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

As I arrived at the house during my lunch hour the weather radio was blaring out a severe thunderstorm warning. This is always a good thing in my world. Well, not always, as thunderstorms make work a little more stressful but nevertheless here it is my lunch hour and there’s a lot of racket coming from the sky.

w00t!

Tom likes to wait just inside the door during a storm. He’s not a fan of the sound of thunder.

I am in bachelor mode tonight as Earl is in New Castle, Pa. for work. I think I’m going to switch to the Jeep for the afternoon and go storm chasing after work.

Southwick Beach State Park., originally uploaded by iMachias.

The fourth of July is usually celebrated on a sultry, warm, summer day at a picnic with family and friends. Many times this celebration is in the backyard or perhaps at the local state park. Independence Day brings to mind thoughts of pitchers of lemonade, the smells and sizzles of the barbecue grill and the spectacle of fireworks against the night sky.

The weather this summer has been a little dicey thus far. Despite the holiday, today was no exception to the rule as Mother Nature granted us a day typical of the end of mid part of May with temperatures in the upper 60s, a smattering of showers and a good stiff breeze.

So naturally as we were out on a random drive we made the last minute decision to go to the beach.

We ended up at Southwick Beach State Park. Earl and I have been here many, many times, continuing the tradition my family had during my childhood years. I love Southwicks. It is my favourite state park in the entire state. It’s like going to the ocean. All that’s missing is the salt.

Wikipedia has a fine entry about Southwicks and the neighboring Lakeview Wildlife Management Area.

The wind was very strong. The waves were high, loud and menacing. The beach was closed to swimmers. There were two family reunions in progress, well away from the sandblasting of the wind coming over the sandy beach. Earl, Jamie and I (it was Jamie’s inaugural visit to Southwick) walked a mile or so up the beach into the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area. Once we crossed the dunes into the marsh area the wind was gone and the temperature went up several degrees. We relaxed as we walked the nature trails along the marsh and took several photos (which are available here.)

After an hour or so at the beach we made our way up to nearby Watertown, where we went to the movies to see Ice Age 3. It was a good way to escape reality. We all enjoyed the movie.

Afterwards we took the back roads home, driving along my beloved NY Route 177.

Today it was all about relaxation. Mission accomplished.

The Maple Ridge Wind Farm outside of Lowville, New York is the largest wind farm in New York State. It is made up of 195 wind turbines and is located on the Tug Hill between 1600-1800 feet above sea level. The location takes advantage of the winds from Lake Ontario.

Maple Ridge accounts for three-quarters of all wind power generated in New York State.

This photo is taken along my favourite road to drive in the state, NY Route 177 in the Town of Harrisburg.

So I am sitting at the local Panera grabbing a bite to eat whilst running a bunch of errands. I always wait until the last minute to get running errands done and over with when it’s a bachelor week; I don’t know why I wait until the last minute, but I do. That’s not my usual style.

I just spoke with Earl and he was near Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia as he makes his way up I-81 on his way home. He said he waved to Thom, who lives in that general area.

In keeping within the spirit of eating healthy, I am having a turkey sandwich with not much in the way of mayo on it for supper. I noticed the sandwich is quite dry. Turns out the kitchen receipt was wedged in the sandwich. Thermal paper needs salt.

The work week has been flying by; I am surprised by this as I am really looking forward to our weekend in Toronto for gay pride. The weekend holds a few adventures and I’m looking forward to it all.

143.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

So today I am writing from the Park and Ride along the Erie Canal during my lunch hour. For some reason I thought that there were picnic tables down here but they are none, so I am eating my lunch in the car and enjoying the sun. I’m actually sweltering a bit, which is a considerable change of pace versus what it was like last week. I didn’t bring a hat so I have to sit in the car to keep my head from getting burned.

I’m blogging on my computer using my iPhone 3G as an internet tether for the first time and it is working beautifully. Let’s hear it for accessing features before they are ready.

Earl is on his way to Tennessee for business meetings so I am in bachelor mode until Thursday night. I kicked off the frivolity last night by mowing the lawn and then mowing the neighbors’ lawn as a reward for us not getting their mail for the first time in five years. I think they may have finally changed their address or perhaps all of their subscriptions expired.

Work is going good today and I’m in a chipper mood. I have been cleaning up various aspects of my life lately, including eliminating various causes of stress and canceling appointments or commitments that I didn’t really need or want but felt obligated to do. I got my teeth cleaned yesterday, too, and that’s put a bigger smile on my face. My teeth don’t look any different but the hygienist was surprisingly complimentary on the state of my mouth and this made me feel better about myself. I have a second appointment in a couple of weeks for the buffing and polishing as yesterday was this whole deep cleaning them I had never had done before. It hurt a little bit but I feel the better for it today.

Ever since the drive home from Toronto a couple of weeks ago I have been on a more intensive self-discovery path than I have been for the past several years. I’m scratching to see what lies beneath a few facets of my brain and liking what I find.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you’d think that by (almost) age 41 I’d have this life thing figured out by now. At least the journey is something I truly enjoy once again.

NY Route 177., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Today I joined my dad and my stepmom for dinner to celebrate Father’s Day. Dad picked the restaurant, we went to the Brew Pub in historic Sackets Harbor. A microbrewery, the Brew Pub offers some great beers along with a delicious menu selection. If you’re in the area I highly recommend it.

It has been too long since my Dad and I have had the chance to talk at any great length; since I was heading home after dinner we took two separate cars to the restaurant and Dad rode along with me. We caught up on family stuff, reminisced about various things and just had a nice conversation. I really enjoyed the ride and the time together.

Since I planned on heading home after dinner I took the opportunity to take a more direct route instead of backtracking by way of my Dad’s to get home. This route involved taking NY Route 177. Route 177 is my favourite rural route of all time to drive on.

As a driving enthusiast I am quite aware that there are posted speed limits in the United States. Route 177 is a road that begs you to defy these speed limits, well at least in the summer, and the weather was perfect for me to oblige.

I always seem to drive Route 177 from west to east. It’s approximately 25 miles long, and save for slowing down to 40 MPH for the tiny hamlet of Barnes Corners, Route 177 is otherwise an open, relatively straight road that passes through lots and lots of farm land as it makes it’s way over the Tug Hill. I was not the only driver that was exceeding the speed limit. I was, however, very in tune with my car, the road, the fields I was passing through and I had an incredible feeling of being centered.

Many meditate to find their center. I drive.

Today I decided to spruce up the wardrobe just a little bit and make like it’s summertime by purchasing a couple of pairs of shorts. I was recently accused of wearing too many variations on the camo shorts so I decided to go for something different. At first I considered something in a plaid, but I stopped wearing plaid years ago when I sat on someone’s old couch and disappeared from view, prompting others to think I had become a floating head (damn that trendy jumpsuit) so I moseyed on over to the local Army and Navy store and took a look at “work shorts”. Don’t think skorts because they’re not and luckily they are not slanged down to worts.

Anyways, I hate shopping. When I was being built for this life they left out the shopping option when they installed the gay gene. Whilst I enjoy people watching very much, I like it for just that: my sitting back and watching people go by. I don’t want to actively participate in the mayhem associated with shopping, I actually want someone to shop for me (hence the aforementioned plaid incident in the early 1990s).

The first order of business was to find a Father’s Day card. The small section in the card shop was jammed with people pawing and grabbing at the cards with one particular woman yakking on the cheap flip phone wedged between her head and shoulder as she went on and on about some sort of work-related business that she was going to take care of on Monday whilst reading touching cards to express her love for her father. Not only was she very loud but she was separating the cards from the envelopes and putting things back in a generally disorganised fashion. The anal retentive side of me kicked in and I subsequently kicked her (um, accidently) and stepped on the back of her left shoe. She didn’t notice until she tried to turn and walk away.

Mission accomplished (selecting the card, not terrorising Miss AT&T), I finally got to the Army Navy store and made my way through the Carhartt section. Wearing Carhartt clothing is a badge of honour for my rural side of the family and something that I quite frankly enjoy. I like the feel of this particular brand of clothing and the practicality of it, hence the aforementioned work shorts.

I ended up purchasing three pairs in muted colours (but not all the same colour). As I stood in line at register 2, the kind cashier kept trying to direct me to other registers, even though there were others behind me. “You can go through register 3! Register 1 is open! You can even check out at the service desk!” Apparently I am scary but I stood my ground and made my way through register 2.

One thing that I have noticed whilst being out in public lately is that there are a lot of screaming kids on the street. Now I don’t mind that kids are out and about, after all it’s their world too and they need the interaction for proper socialisation, but lately there’s a lot of unhappy kids in a set radius around me. A meal at the diner was interrupted by a kid who propelled himself through the diner by latching onto the legs of the other customers. There were three kids screaming in various departments of the Army Navy store. I suspect they were trying to out scream each other as they shared their dismay with the situation.

I know how they felt.

139.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Tonight Earl and Jamie came up with the idea of going bowling. And not just any kind of bowling, but Cosmic Bowling, complete with capital letters. We invited our friend Tony to join us.

Here’s the thing. I haven’t been bowling since 1979, efforts on the Wii notwithstanding. It has been 30 years since I was last seen in a bowling alley, more specifically the Strike ‘n Spare in Mattydale (outside of Syracuse); my Uncle Gary took my sister and I along with our cousins Jean and Heather for a Saturday afternoon.

I have two traumas associated with bowling. The first is that I come from a family of good bowlers; both Grandma and Grandpa City (and all of their siblings and relatives) were in bowling leagues. Grandma always watched bowling on Saturday mornings and early afternoons; she would often remark that I should become a pro-bowler if I really intended on making it in life. So I always feel some of lineage commitment pressure when I am handed a bowling ball.

My second trauma is that I broke two lanes that day 30 years ago when I was at Strike ‘n Spare because I had a habit of not waiting for the pinsetter to do it’s thing and would end up chucking the ball into the little rail thing that tells you not to bowl. I think there was a reason that Uncle Gary never took us bowling again.

So while tonight’s bowling adventure was fun, I have to admit that I really, really suck at it. I think I bowled a 49 in the first game and a 50 in the second. Earl was giving me pointers such as start with your right foot, don’t hop and for god’s sake don’t throw the ball like a shotput again! I seem to have this roundhouse approach to my bowling stance and tend the launch the ball like a backhanded frisbee throw. At least the little extra hop I used to do when I was a kid is gone. A bonus of the evening was that my ball didn’t jump lanes and usually ended up in the general vicinity of the pins.

After a post-game snack at the Denny’s where people are routinely shot or stabbed, I am pleased to say that I had a really good time with the guys tonight. I’m actually looking forward to going bowling again some time and maybe even knocking down a few of the pins.