wood collection

Is it sculpture? or an installation?

According to The Mother Earth News the stacking of wood is a science.

I consider it an Art.

"A woodpile is a public thing — as much of a "statement" as your garden or your mailbox or the vehicle you park out front."

local scenes

One of the Connecticut River's Cruise Line ships at night; berthed serenely at the Tylerville boat launch site. Taken during the flooding stages of Hurricane Irene.

video distractions

Well, lights are truing back on in the town where I live. I wrote the corporate office at Connecticut Light and Power (online, now that I am so able) to recount how obtuse it seemed for them to "offer" internet up to date reports on the power outages to those of us off the grid since last weekend. Anyway, in deference to actually being able to post entries on the blog from the convenience of home, a few videos:

Snap - I've Got The Power


M.A.R.S. - Pump Up The Volume


One Night in Bangkok

And Now Back to Our Regular Programming

Hurricane Irene - local power outages

Can somebody tell me what is wrong with the following statement:

Anyone still without power will be able to log onto CL&P’s website today and find out when the electricity is projected to be restored to their area of the state.

A direct quote from CL&P President Jeff Butler. Fine advice, but completely impractical, when one can't access anything electrical or electronic at all.

     For a perspective on how extensive the power loss damage has been, Governor Dannel Malloy said ""There are more people working on energy issues in this state than on any time in our history, on an event that was almost twice as severe as [Hurricane] Gloria".
     For a perspective on what could have happened to us in Connecicut, a glimpse of the picture on the left, taken by my friend Dave Howe, who was in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There is a dog in the picture looking for dead bodies under the debris. In contrast, we are mostly without lights and cable tv and running water for a few days. In short, we have been inconvenienced !

     Nevertheless, on a personal level, people are distraught and frustrated. East Haddam's First Selectman, Mark Walter, on the East Haddam PATCH news site, is noted as saying:

"Now in the fourth full day without electricity, and most [people] without cell phone service or Internet access [or even land lines - I might add], residents’ nerves here are fraying. They’re anxious", Walter said, "because they’re not able to connect with others in the world, and [people are] getting little information about when the power will come back."

     Waxing philosophical, the power/cable/internet outage frustrations - to me - show how many people run lives that are not reality based, but television-channel-changing time based. Pretty damned sad.
     Lest you think I'm being too churlish, I, too remain without power from the grid.
     I find it troubling and disturbing when folks who opt to live in rural, forested areas, get angry at officials - government or industry - because they never properly prepared themselves for emergencies borne from what are actually relatively short-lasting disasters.
     When living in the country, it makes sense to have a pantry full of food, most canned, some frozen. You ought to have plently to eat, even if the power goes out for a week. It is better planning to have a gas stove than an electric one, since the cooking burners can still be lit with a match.
     For that matter, if an emergency generator is on hand - an item that typically costs less than a laptop computer or an I-Phone, - then you have electricity to run essentials, like the fridge, freezer and a water pump. [And yes, I do have a generator, which has been working since late Sunday afternoon]
     You don't need a lot of lighting, and you definitely don't need immediate television or internet access during the disaster. You won't have it anyway.
     Personally, I DO miss a flush toilet, a bath or shower to soak in or under. As for my not having an operating water pump [hence no flushing toilet], I have only myself to blame for not hooking up the generator to a reverse power switch in the house. So after being hit with one of the most tempestuous wind storms to hit the area in decades, I'm not about to complain after only four days, when things have yet been restored to "normal" from the passing of Hurricane Irene.
     Most anyone who knows me is aware that I generally don't usually have a problem yelling at officials. But under the circumstances, I find it is a bit much - presumptious, self-centered, short-sighted and stupid, actually - to scream at politicians or corporate execs for one's own failure to prepare in advance. In this situation, the execs and the politicians deserve a break.
     Folks who fail to plan for emergencies should, instead, be yelling at themselves.

Posted from a location more than 20 miles from home.

UPDATE: At approximately 2000 hours, in zone 5 GMT, the section of town I live in regained electrical grid power connections. I was able to watch it light up as I drove home from work

hurricane irene

Shedding some light on the subject.

The homestead remains without on-the-grid power since Saturday night. After driving through town it seems pretty obvious that our area won't get lights on before the weekend, if not longer. Smashed transformers, trees and limbs still resting - with some delicacy - atop power lines, and roads that even today aren't really passable.

Our town was hit badly with regard to power and internet outages. Right now I right this some twenty miles from home, and not at a private site. Fortunately, I don't know of any hurricane related fatalities in my town, though I known the same can't be said of other places, especially in Vermont and the Carolinas.

Now that I am briefly online, I find it ironically amusing that the CL+P website, the state website, and others, blithely recommend that people check other websites, FaceBook and Twitter for repair updates. Given that I know I won't have any electric, or cable or digital satellite service, much less land line and cell phone reception, I find it a grim twist of unintended humor. Perhaps the corporate execs should get out of their (presumably) still well lit and phone linked work sites and find out what the rest of us are doing.

I'm not complaining mind you; after all I consider myself only inconvenienced, but it's a bit obtuse to suggest one goes online to find out what is going on to get online services restored.

FULL DISCLOSURE TIME: I am one of the few in my area to actually have some electricity, thanks to a most efficient, if modestly powered, generator. So the contents of the freezer and fridge are safe, though there is certainly no need to turn on the TV set or computer. Instead, I am reading Norman Mailer on Picasso, and actually talking to people that stop by.

an image miscellaney

Chinese take-out gumball machine

The spout for window washing fluid

Storm drain

Heavy duty fan

redneck riviera

As an FYI, there were at least two closed circuit security cameras on this place looking out at the road. Given the amount of traffic that probably goes past this parcel, that is probably a good idea.

gay history

[SOURCE: Wikipedia.org]

Rudolph Brazda, born in Germany in 1913 died earlier this month in Alsace. He is believed to be the last German "pink triangle" survivor of Buchenwald. The pink triangle (German: Rosa Winkel) was one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, used to identify male prisoners who were sent there because of their homosexuality.

Every prisoner had to wear a downward-pointing triangle on his or her jacket, the color was to categorise a person by one's "kind".



After the camps were liberated at the end of the Second World War, many of the pink triangle prisoners were often simply re-imprisoned by the Allied-established Federal Republic of Germany. An openly gay man named Heinz Dörmer, for instance, served 20 years total, first in a Nazi concentration camp and then in the jails of the new Republic. In fact, the Nazi amendments to Paragraph 175, which turned homosexuality from a minor offense into a felony, remained intact in both East and West Germany after the war for a further 24 years.

living with cancer

When we try to make sense of things that are
not for us to understand
the result can be confusion
and longing for clarity
         when there is none.

Who sits in the dark
awaiting our entry?
         although we each have guesses
     no one of us really knows
for sure.

Is it G*D
         ...or Jesus
         Gautama Buddha
         Deganawida
For whom we wait ? ? ?
     All one and the same some say
     For they are all prophets and gods in different tongues

Heavy can be the heart burdened with
     the certainty of illness
     and the uncertainty of time of passing

To some extent
it is the physical suffering we experience
     ~ and that we cannot bear ~
     while still in this realm
     more than the fear of passing

And yet
     it is not out of order
     to wallow in aweful wonder
as to whether or not
our beliefs of the post-physical
     might not be exactly as we might hope.

Go strong.
Be with those passing.
And remain constant
     while without fear.

fern workshop

Grape fern: Botyrichium dissectum, of the family of Succulent ferns.
On the left - with the sporing body - a fertile fern, the right a sterile fern.
 




















Bracken Fern: Pteridium aquilinum, of the genus Pteridium.


Oak Fern: Gymnocarpium dryopteris, of the family Polypodiaceae. Found in a peat-filled bog.

poem - the barrenness of dawn

I am summoned to see someone immediately!
He is angry for being inconvenienced
                        and      demands
                                             swift resolution.
Through a third party he is told I will not see or speak with him until tomorrow.
He walked away content.


In a dream
I am served another Summons.
It seems I've been in receipt of a series of pleasant distractions
               whilst asleep
I’m told: I ought to have known that these distractions came with a fee

I become distraught
               not knowing in what manner
               nor what medium
I am to pay for these fleeting pleasures.
The process server smiles.
               "You'll figure it out"


Next to me
   a large cat
   rests contented
   Bathing while abed.

a visit to the VA

     It only took two months for the gasto-enterologist to apologize to my friend for tearing the lining the wall of his espohogaus. He was, during the meeting with him, increasingly distraught. After we had left, he noted that the very least the doc could have done was to have apologized while he remained at the hospital, especially since he remained there an extra couple of weeks because of the tear.
     Most (but not all) of the clinicans who saw him today were reluctant to provide encouragement or support. Instead it was "...why did you let them remove your feeder tube?" or "Oh, don't listen to <>u>that hospital. They are far too experimental." {NOTE: he had called Cancer Centers of America who gave him some ideas for a proccedure that might be able to open the esophagus stricture somewhat].
     The plus side is that NO cancer cells were observed, and his bloodwork is pretty darned good, and his weight is 15 pounds greater than when he'd been discharged mid-April.
     Next week, a tentaive expansion of the esophogeal stricture again... together with anticipated difficuties with getting anesthesia due to constricted blood veins.
     That, and dealing with an insensitive, uncaring and probably incompetent case worker at the Medicaid office that "manages" his outpatient payment authorizations. I am being MORE than gracious at not mentioning the New Britain CT DSS case worker by name. I KNOW she messes up other clients accounts as well, so it is, um, nothing personal.
     More to follow.

New collage works

Adirondack reverie (c.2011)

A bit about the technical end:
Each collage is “built” by laying the items down atop a larger surface until I get an assortment of items that look interesting together.

That’s the easy part!

The finished array is photographed, and the objects removed,
Then I figure out how to put them back together while making it appear as if the objects are just floating atop one another.

That’s the hard part of making the collage.

The base of a work might be drilled and bolted from the back. Choosing the right glues and epoxies have to be considered. Some won’t help to hold different surfaces together. Some glues have properties that don’t look good when hardened. Even figuring how to keep pieces fixed together while a fixative sets can be daunting. And, there are times, I make no attempt to disguise how a work has been put together. The things holding things together become part of the finished project.

For more information about collage, and collage artists, check out the website: http://www.collageart.org/

at the New Britain Library - large work

Montreal Streetscape (c. 2010)

Tiger out of the Cage (c. 2011)

Tucson (c.2009)

at the New Britain Library - medium sized work

19 (c. 2010)

Come Clean (c. 2010)

Oracle (c.2009)

Turkey Bearing Arms (c.2011)

At the New Britain Library - small works

Justice (c. 2005)

Lug (c. 2009)

Hot Stuff (c. 2011)

The exhibit is down (as of Saturday). Looking for a new space to show my work..

nighttime blizzard beauty

Activites / Cancellations

The Annual Moodus Sportsmen's Club Tri-Lakes Ice Fishing Derby ~ which would have taken place tomorrow, January 30th ~ has been CANCELED due to lack of access to lakes AND uncertain conditions of ice underneath.

Believe me, we at the club are as disappointed as you [more, probably].

critical thinking ~ science under attack

distractions ~ Jail House Rock

DON'T COME A KNOCKIN' IF THE JAIL CELL'S ROCKIN'
"#47 said to number #3, you're the cutest jailbird I ever did see, I sure would be delighted with your company,
come on and do the jailhouse rock with me!"

THANKS TO: Billy Miller

education ~ re-assessing how we learn

hypocrisy ~ Hurt wants HIS medical benefits

Newly-elected Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA) campaigned for Congress on a promise to repeal health reform. This week, Hurt granted ThinkProgress a short interview outside of the Capitol, where he doubled down on his pledge to remove health reform. However, Hurt said he would not opt-out of the government health care granted to him and his staff as a member of Congress.

distractions - Baz Lurhmann

Wear Sunscreen

For More Baz Lurhmann videos: go here

weather ~ the cold

My friend Audrey, in Alaska, text-messages me about the temperature. When she got to the library, she sent me this image, of an acquaintance, Barb Tharp, who wanted everyone to know just how nippy it was at the end of November 2010. The caption read "Not too cold for an Alaskan"

So here is the picture:

Separate from this, Audry has also discovered a cat meowling at night outside her door, living outside at temps similar to those shown in Barb's picture.

Only last night, New Year's, as the Aurora Borealis provided a dramatic light display overhead [I wasn't there, I'll take her word for it], did this chilly almost frozen cat allow Audrey to pet him [or her, I'm not certain which - but Audrey's dubbed him "Walter Coldcat"]. So if you happen to be in Delta Junction Alaska, and looking for a lost cat. Let me know, I'll tell Audrey.

---

IMAGE CREDIT: Barbara Tharp, 2010. Published on 3 December 2010, in the online version of Delta News Web

reminiscence ~ brithdays

"Do you remember the day you were born?" My father was fond of asking me every year. He also long maintained ~ with me at least ~ that I was prematurely born, but I get ahead of myself.
     I was born on New Year's Eve. But it was the events that preceded the actual time of birth that my Dad was constantly asking if I remembered. Over the years, eventually, since he told the tale so frequently, it was easy able to say yes, I did remember the day I was born. It was his version, but, what the hey... who's looking too closely?
     Anyway... My parents were at my grandparents house, getting ready for a New Year's Eve party. My Grandmother [we called her "Happy Day"] had washed and waxed the kitchen floor earlier and placed old newspapers all over the floor to keep dirt and grime from outdoors off the tile.
     My dad decided to play with a cake mom had made, "I'm gonna eat this all myself" grabbed it off the table and got mom and began running about the house - the women chasing after him in pursuit.
     It wasn't a big house, kind of like the one here [only in winter, with snow on the ground] and so my dad ran out the back door into the yard, standing there in his shirtsleeves, waiting for them to follow.
     They didn't.
     It being pretty cold out, he went back in, and found my mom splay-legged on the floor, having slipped and fallen on the newly waxed, news-papered floor. Happy Day was standing over her, exclaiming "Oh my God! Her water's broke!" and it was off to the hospital, where, an hour and 14 minutes before midnight, I provided my dad a tax deduction for the year.
     As for the other part of the story, I was born earlier than expected... but we're talking a number of days not, as Dad insinuated, that I was, according to the marriage date, a miraculously born - and surviving - 5 month old pre-me; a seven pound, three ounce pre-me at that [that's about 3.2 kg].
     By the time he got around to telling me otherwise, I had already figured out the math.
     Dad's gone now. Has been for over a decade. I'd love to have him here now, to correct any errors in the tale telling. Happy birthday to me, a day late. I do remember the day I was born though I don't remember if Dad got to eat the cake.