Old Friends

Waterford, NY
NoLL

As you know, we constantly meet new friends while cruising. Nothing however quite matches the pleasure of spending time with old friends. Here in the capital district, we have lots of old friends.

Our social weekend started on Friday. Pete and Mary Ellen met us in Waterford and invited us out to dinner at a restaurant in Troy. That made a very nice evening and it allowed us to catch up with their news.

Sunday, we picked up my sister Marilyn to spend the day with us. It has been 9 months since we saw her too. We took her to breakfast at a Friendly Restaurant in Glenville, NY where we have been taking our family for nearly 40 years. Our children even remember that restaurant from their early childhood.

Then we headed to West Charlton to meet with friends and former neighbors and to attend the Charlton Founders Day Parade. I even got to stop at the fire house and say hello to my fellow firemen as the prepared the fire trucks for the parade. We met with Bud and Nancy and Craig, and Maggie, and Louie, and many more. We also drove by our former house and were somewhat shocked at how many changes the new owners made.

In the evening we went to have dinner with our oldest and best friends, John and Mary Ann. It is always a great pleasure to see them and it has been two years since we saw them last. Also, John and Mari from West Charlton also came to dinner so it made a great evening.

Tonight, still at Waterford, we may have a visit from Beverly, a very dear former colleague and friend, as well as follow up visits from Pete, Mary Ellen, John and Mary Ann.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder which is what makes reunions particularly sweet. We've been having fun.

Hudson Pictures

Waterford, NY
42 47.16 N 073 40.69 W

Where are we now? Right next to this sign.



Below is a panorama of the anchorage at Middle Ground near Athens. We saw deer and fox and lots of geese here. A truly beautiful place to linger. Click on the image to see it full screen.


The Cheaspeake is famous for lovely shore side homes. But we think that the Hudson has the best ones. Unfortunately, the best estates, owned by Rockerfeller, Roosevelt, Vanderbilt, Carnegie etc. have all allowed trees to grow in front of them. They can't be seen much from the river, nor do they have river views for themselves.

Some of the homes on the banks of the Hudson are ostentatious, some are modest. The collage below shows some of the prettiest. Click on it to see it full screen. Note the picture left, bottom -- look in the center and you'll see a child's playhouse -- just charming.

The Intense Life

On The Hudson
No LL

I was sitting in the Athens Public Library yesterday, surfing the net and ordering varnishes for this summer's coming makover of Tarwathie's cosmetics. I plunked down my computer on a table next to some of the library's public computers. At 1430, a nice teen aged girl, perhaps 13 years old, came in and started using the computer next to me.

I wasn't trying to spy on the girl but I got a big education on how some young folks live in today's fast track anyhow.

The first thing that alerted me was the sound of the furious bursts of keyboard strokes as she typed. It sounded like she was trying for a record in speed typing.

Then I noticed that she was wearing earphones plugged in to an IPOD. Of course; I should have expected that.

The girl logged in to some kind of online gaming site. I thought, "Aha! That's how she'll spend her time." Wrong. She played the game for only 5 minutes. Then it was on to her Yahoo mail page.. Then she was looking at a list of the top 50 songs. Then to myspace. Then to movie listings. Then to a big list of I don't know what.

I forgot to mention that while all that was occurring, her phone vibrated every 15 seconds. Even though she was sitting 12 inches away from a sign saying NO CELL PHONES, she answered each buzz. 9 of the 10 buzzes she got were text messages. I was amazed as she read each and composed a reply in seemingly 10 seconds or less. Her speed with that phone's keyboard was amazing. One of her calls was a plain old fashioned voice call. That one took her 30 seconds to dispose of.

Whoops, now she's gone and a second girl, this one about 10 yeard old sat down. She's checking her myspace account. Two minutes on that, and now she's at Yahoo mail.

Of course I already knew that teenagers do all these things. The surprising part to this ancient old man was how speedily and intensely they do it. They act like people overdosed on caffeine, or like I used to act at work when I was in danger of missing an important deadline. How terrible stressful their lives must be.

I hesitate to make judgments because I grew up in a different era and because there are three generations between me and these young girls. Nevertheless, if I were their parents I'd be worried to death about these young people burning themselves out at much too young an age. I
would also fear that they could lose their ability to concentrate and listen
at school or to just sit back and enjoy single-tasking while reading a book.

Am I wrong?

Home Alone 1

Athens, NY
No LL

Twenty minutes ago I dropped Libby off in Hudson to catch her train to New York. Already I feel lonely on Tarwathie. Just kidding. I hope she has a wonderful power lunch in Manhattan.

This morning is exceptionally beautiful. I got up at six and took my coffee out on the deck. The wind is so still that the water reflects like a mirror, and with the sun just risen, the cirrus clouds high above look lovely. I took several pictures of the scene and the reflections on my camera.

I also saw for the first time a herd of whitetail deer on the island we've been anchoring near. It is the first time in several years that we've seen deer.

Also, when I pulled up at the public dock here in Athens, there was a pair of
geese strutting around with their dozen goslings. They look so cute, but they make such messes!

All and all, it makes for a glorious day to enjoy being home alone. I think I'll mosey on down to the Athens Stewarts store for coffee and a donut.

p.s. Libby and I read a fascinating true crime story yesterday in the Washington Post. It makes CSI sound like child's play. Read it yourself. Read here first. Read here second.

In Synch With The Geese

Athens, NY
No LL

When we meet people who ask about our cruising lives, I’m fond of comparing ourselves to the geese. “We’re like the geese,” I say, “we go south in the fall and north in the spring.” This year, I’m happy to say we are truly in synch with the geese.

Ever since we entered the Hudson Valley, we've been seeing and hearing numerous flights of geese. That too is a familiar sound. I remember well past October sailing vacations on Lake Champlain in which the sounds of the geese honking seemed louder than that of the wind howling. I also remember life in West Charlton. The trees around our house made it difficult to ever see the geese, but we heard them all the time in the spring and fall. Behind us were big corn fields where the geese were fond of spending the night. In case you don’t know, they honk all night long.

The geese’s schedule has them flying south past New York in October, and north again in late May. In the past four years, Tarwathie and crew have been in the mid-Atlantic states during those months; therefore not truly in synch with the geese.

Just a minute ago, a flight of geese passed Tarwathie particularly low and close, inspiring this blog article. When seen close up, one can see how they use the honks to coordinate their flying to maintain the V formation. Each goose uses sight to maintain his position in the V behind birds ahead of him, and sound to know how he’s positioned with respect to the other geese behind him. The V shape is never perfect, it contains wiggles and curves that constantly appear and are constantly corrected by the birds.

The geese also made Libby and I a bit jealous. They fly north, while Tarwathie sits here with her wings clipped. What I mean is that yesterday we took the mast down. A sailboat without her mast erected is a sadly neutered creature. Don’t worry Tarwathie, we’ll erect it again as soon as we get to Champlain.

Today is a day of not moving. We’re hanging out in the Athens/Hudson area today. Tomorrow, Libby is going to ride the train from Hudson to New York City to have lunch with our daughter in law Cathy and Cathy’s friend. How very cosmopolitan. I wonder if this ladies lunch will be reported in Vogue?