Fun and Games Dept

So we were on our way to Hillside Campgrounds this past Friday when Earl said to me, “Since it looks like you’re going to be working in a week or so, why don’t you take a couple of days next week and go for a little road trip?”

Holy crap.

He knows that I’ve been wanting to take a trip in the Acura and just explore some area of the country that I’ve never been before. I have to admit the thought is quite tempting, though I am a little sad that he can’t join me for the fun. When I mentioned this to him, he reminded me that I would probably drive 15 to 20 hours in one shot and he wouldn’t enjoy that long of a ride.

So I’m leaving tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. I’m just going to drive. I’ll post late tomorrow night and then we’ll both know where I ended up for the night.

Earl and I are back from the “True Colors” concert at Bank of America Pavilion in Boston this evening. Completely wiped out from the experience, we’re settled into our hotel for the evening. I’ll have a full report tomorrow.

One thing that blew my mind: I ran into a very close friend from high school. We have not seen each other in 20 years. I’m giddy beyond belief.

Earl and I are settled into the Sheraton in Newton, Mass. for the night. If you’re driving eastbound on the Mass Pike, be sure to wave because we’re in the hotel room that’s situated over the roadway.

We’re getting ready to head to the “Bank of America Pavilion” to see “True Colors”, featuring Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Deborah Harry, Dresden Dolls, Gossip and Margaret Cho.

I think it’s going to be a great night.

It seems like this patio project has been going on and on. How long ago was it when we ripped the deck off the back of the house? How long ago did we plan to do this project? Well it looks like tomorrow everything will be said and done.

The patio has been in nearly a month. The furniture has been assembled and installed for three weeks. Today the we met the landscaping contractor at the local garden store and picked out the plants. This evening we arranged them. Tomorrow, they get planted and the mound of dirt finally gets seeded in hopes of becoming a lawn soon.

All of this can only mean one thing. The Promised Patio Party is finally coming to fruition. Prep your calendars and watch this space for further details.

Today Earl and I had my dad and his wife and my sister over for a get together on our new patio. Dad is going to be out of town next week for Father’s Day so we decided to celebrate a week early. This is the first time that we’ve had company on the patio and we were a little hesitant since we don’t have a lawn or landscaping installed yet. The contractor has left several mounds of dirt and promises to be here the first part of the week, but whether that really happens remains to be seen.

Even though I now do the majority of the cooking in our merry little household, when it comes to entertaining company Earl takes control of the kitchen and I just clean up behind him and stay out of his way. Here he’s getting the spare ribs ready for the picnic.

Since we weren’t serving tuna fish or kibble for the get together, Tom had to eat his regular food in his bowl. I kept him company and chatted with him so he didn’t feel left out.

And I took this shot by standing on one of the mounds of dirt that is destined to become beautiful landscaping. By taking the picture from this angle, one can’t notice the “Yucca Flats After The Blast” motif we have going on directly behind me.

All in all it was a good day.

Earl and I are installed on site 70 for our first weekend at Hillside Campground in northern Pennsylvania. We always enjoy our Hillside experiences and this weekend is no exception. Earl is currently in the master suite (the larger bed of the camper) taking his first of several naps today as we were up rather late last night. I have no internet access so I’m typing this entry with the intent to upload it a little later once I’m in wi-fi range. I think we’re in one of the few sites in the campground that doesn’t have internet access. Maybe I’ll sit at someone’s picnic table in a little bit and borrow a little bit of their broadband.

One of the interesting aspects of this weekend is that the local power company is turning off power to all of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania tonight at 10 p.m. for a “major upgrade”. The power is scheduled to be off until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. Since this is a gay campground, this power interruption poses a problem as there will be no juice to run the disco at the rec hall tonight. One musn’t fear, however, because the owners have contracted out for a generator to run the sound equipment. People will be stumbling around in the middle of the woods in pitch blackness and peeing on random trees as there will be no lights or running water but by god we’ll still have the disco. We do have our priorities around here.

Our friends Sean and Jeffrey from Albany are here with their friends Don and George, so the six of us hung out together last night at the bonfire. Good times were had by all. It’s Sean and Jeffrey’s first time at Hillside. We’ve already planned on having them join us later in the season as we’ve scheduled several visits for this summer. They’re good guys and we don’t see them nearly enough, which is usually the case for us since we rarely see Steve and Tim in Buffalo these days as well.

We’ve been invited to a cocktail party scheduled for this evening hosted by our online friends Brad and Brian from New Jersey and then we’re having supper with 1st Earl.

Such the social butterflies. Even in the dark.

Last night Earl and I went to the first night of a summer tradition, “Saranac Thursday.” Many upstate New York cities have social gatherings on Thursday night; Syracuse has something at Clinton Square, Buffalo has something on Main Street, here in Utica it’s at the local brewery.

Saranac Thursday attracts a thousand people or so for cheap beer, food and live music. It gives us a chance to hang out with good friends and to see people from different parts of our life (old jobs, new jobs, school, servers at restaurants, etc.) all in one place. I was never one for Saranac Thursday a couple of years ago, now I look forward to it. It runs every Thursday night from 4:00 to 8:00 starting the first Thursday after Memorial Day. If you’re still in the mood to party afterwards, there’s a good variety of clubs to choose from on neighboring Varick Street.

Since we had a long drive ahead of us and we were out kind of late last night, we decided to bow out of this afternoon’s GB:NYC4 festivities and opted to hit the road after breakfast this morning.

After going to bed at nearly 3 a.m., the Universe felt that I didn’t really need that much sleep. At 5 a.m. the hotel front desk called to let us know that the bus for Newark Airport was waiting for us. I replied with a “That’s nice.” and hung up. Vexed by my ambivalence, the hotel decided to continue the merriment by firing off the fire alarms at 9:30 a.m. I yelled, cussed and told Earl to tell the front desk to get a helicopter to pick me up on the roof if it really was an emergency. Of course there was no emergency.

Frustrated and blurry-eyed, I stumbled through a shower, snored through breakfast and then woke up just in time to see that there was a computer show going on at the convention center next to the hotel.

Now that’s the proper way to wake a geek.

Here’s a shot of the Manhattan skyline from our hotel room.

Here’s a photo I took in Central Park yesterday. I don’t know the name of the area but I thought it was rather scenic.

I mentioned yesterday that we joined bears and bloggers on “Bear Hill”, overlooking the roller skating area, so that we could watch the skaters, listen to some disco music, enjoy the sunshine and hang out with everyone. Earl and I loved the experience and wished we lived closer to New York so we could do it more often. Here’s a shot of my favorite skater, “Roller Grandma”, she has great style and presence. Her routine with a man and a Segueway is unmatched. Rumor has it she’s 71 years old.

This is John, otherwise known as Bardvern. He joined us from New Haven, Connecticut. He’s a really nice guy, we chatted like a couple of bearish geeks.

After the afternoon in Central Park, we zipped back to Secaucus to switch to our “night gear” and then zipped back through the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan. We parked in Chelsea and took the train to Times Square. I just took random pictures, not even paying attention to where I was pointing when I clicked, here’s a couple of the shots:

It seems like every time we go to Manhattan we eat at Stage Deli. Last night was no exception.

After supper we took the train into The Village and just walked around, drinking in the vibe. After that we headed back to Chelsea and went to The Eagle, not before we stopped back at the Jeep so Earl could switch from “night gear” to “late night gear”.

He likes it when I’m snapping photos with the flash and he’s half naked in the middle of Chelsea.

Today has been one of them days where you think you’re accomplishing things but then you look around and it seems like nothing has been done.

We started the morning fairly early. At 8 a.m. on the dot, a contractor arrived to give us the quote for the new patio we’re having put in. The back deck is gone and we’ve opted for a stamped concrete patio; the contractor gave us two bits of good news: 1. It will be done within two weeks, 2: the price is very reasonable.

Yay! Where do we sign on the dotted line?

With that accomplished, we had hoped to clean up what was left of the deck but April showers prevailed. So I suggested “Plan B”. In an effort to save money, Earl and I have been talking about dropping DirecTV and going with a traditional antenna instead. Several of the stations in the area are now broadcasting HDTV digitally over-the-air, so I figured between these feeds and the AppleTV, we’d be fine with our entertainment fill. Off to Radio Shack we went, where we picked out a moderately priced antenna that could be mounted on the side of the house without looking like we were trying to pick up secret conversations from Telstar.

Just for kicks I installed the antenna in a makeshift arrangement in an effort to confirm that we’d be getting a decent signal. I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry before calling DirecTV and telling them to pull our plug.

That’s when Earl realized that we weren’t going to get ESPN, Discovery, Lifetime, Logo, et. al. anymore.

I think he paled.

So the antenna went back in the box and is destined to be returned and DirecTV will continue to tap our wallets for something that was free back in the day.

After our little Telstar drama, Earl and I made supper together, which was an enjoyable experience. After our delicious meal, he said he’d help with loading the dishwasher, where I was presented with this (images are clickable in this new blog format):

He’s such a kidder.