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Recent Posts
- Progress Pondcast Episode 22 With Bill Hangley Jr, on DOGE and U.S. Alliance With Russia
- Day 37: The Last Bulwarks Protecting the Merit-Based Civil Service
- Day 36: German Conservatives Win, Denounce American Conservatives
- Day 33: Trump and Putin Pursue a Deal on Ukraine
- Day 32: If Putin Worse Than Jeffrey Dahmer, Then Why Is It Okay to Ally With Him?
Good morning Andi.
Glad you’re back and gald you made it home safely.
Me, too.
Oops, I posted to soon.
Are you saying below that beige isn’t your favorite color, or that those airport seats aren’t as comfortable as a recliner? 🙂
No, I posted too slow (no more wifi, the only downside to being home).
Unfortunately, airports take their seat design from churches rather than synagogues.
I guess airports go by the assumption that there’s never any late/cancelled flights, so the seating is only for a few minutes. Did you have to wait long?
I had to wait 2 and half hours but I was able to get united to re-route me so I ended up on a usairways flight that was going directly from boston to indianapolis so I ended up arriving home just a little later than I would have if the united flights had been on time. (And if I hadn’t bullied United into making the change, I would have been stuck in Chicago because my connection was only 40 minutes late.)
Well if you had been stuck in Chicago, you at least knew of some good places to go. 🙂
and so nice to not be seeing the inside of beige conference room or an airport.
Morning!
Sorry to hear about your crappy flights and confrence room. I’m sure you’re glad to be hoome with Jim and the dogs again.
Morning CG.
and just waiting to fully wake up so I can let the dogs “drag” me off for a walk in the woods.
Trigger says you’re hot to trot… and he would know.
Even though he is beige.
Hi Nag. Nice picture of Trigger.
I was so hot to trot, I went for a three hour walk in the woods and just got back.
* In absentia today but I saw her in the other pic you posted.
Hey, andi! Good to here that you finally managed to get home. Nice job making United use some common sense. Airlines act more like cattle carriers everyday. If you ever get stuck around here, feel free to give us a buzz and we’ll rescue you from airport hell.
Thanks for the offer — I’ve spent many hours in Detroit Metro and loved none of them (ah for the good old days of detroit city airport where you could fly in and out for a few bucks with no hassle.
Anytime. I think you’ve got our cell numbers from the Chicago trip.
Hey Teach, thanks for the mail. You should have a reply by now.
O, my Gawd. Lovely image, Andi. Congratulations on making it back home to your wonderful woodland nest.
Came across something in a local NewAge rag that you might appreciate, actually. Mind, this is out there for free public consumption — it ain’t specialized reading:
‘Course, your sig quote basically says it all for me.
Hope everyone’s enjoying a laid-back, lovely Saturday.
.. that it’s difficult to type properly when one’s sweaty elbows are stuck to the upholstery.
Yeah, I’m happy to be home — though I was in Massachusetts where the fall colors were coming on very nicely.
I certainly agree with that quote and have a book rec for you on that subject — ‘Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder’ by Richard Louv.
Are you any closer to curing your nature-deficit?
Nope, I’m not. This is an open-ended situation, considering my mom’s a new widow. A delicate situation, in which I’m basically her only support re insurance, depression etc.
Thanks for the rec! Here’s one for you: The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology, by Theodore Roszak.
Glad to hear you caught sight of that New England autumn on your travels. I understand the colors are well past peak in the Catskills; they’re experiencing the first hard frost there. Very early.
Gaia is not happy with us at all.
I was born in the big, wicked city of Philadelphia, and grew up finding my way around, not by North and South, or sunrise and sunset, but by numbered streets, house numbers, bus and train lines, and major avenues and boulevards. Nature was there, but as a backdrop. And then, as I began to hit my moody years, and I began to seek comfort in solitude, I discovered that if I packed a lunch and rode my bike way out toward Cheltenham, I could stop and wander in Tacony Creek Park or Burlholme Park. I spent many peaceful summer days that way. In the late ’60’s, peaceful summer days were hard to come by.
So I am of two minds. I still love wandering among the vibrating crowds and swirling possibilities of downtown in big cities, but the Muir Trail in California, with its powerful stillness that brought about the slow awakening of my addled senses to its subtle sounds, its rings of overtowering redwoods, the small, golden marmot resting on a boulder by a creek splashing down the mountainside, the tiny, red ice plants clinging to a bit of earth collected between the boulders, makes a convincing argument for the need of people to experience the natural landscape and their place in it.
Wow — those are some beautifully discriptive words, Teach! It’s pretty clear that you’re able to fully appreciate the joys of diverse environments!
IMHO the problem is a ‘shutting down’ of one’s ability to simply enjoy one’s experience, regardless of environment. I think an overwhelming amount of time spent in more stressful environments lessen the ability to do that. As far as I can tell, balance between stressful & peaceful environments is the key; the imbalance is the problem.
Me, I was born/raised in NYC & thought it was the very end of the earth for most of my adult life. Enjoyed it enormously. Mind you, my first living space as an adult cost me $80 a month ..
🙂
I bet the same place is $80 a day now.
Balance is the key, I agree. It’s taken me many years to see “balance” as something worthwhile. I still find it hard to attain. I’m temperamentally inclined to excess. I once ridiculed the concept, as I once ridiculed “contentment” as appropriate only for cows.
The winds that caused the travel problems at O’Hare took down most of the leaves that had already turned here so that there is a rather heavy covering of leaf litter and the trees are either almost bare of leaves or still green.
You’re making me weep, darling. That one’s a stunner!
(The pic, not the branch — I hope.)
I hate making you weep — it wouldn’t be so bad if you had some end in sight. But it’s good of you to take care of your mother. (I’d don’t suppose she’d like to live in the catskills in a dome with no electricity?)
(Thanks for the book rec — and I just checked and it’s at the local library.)
Miami Beach mom in the wilderness? Now you’re really making me weep — with laughter.
‘Fraid not!
In any case, my plans for northern settlement are in for total realignment anyway. Results of the horrific June floods were truly traumatizing for me & I tend to believe that these ‘historic’ weather events may be the Catskills’ ‘new normal’. I mean, two ’60 year floods’ in two consecutive years? Additionally, folks in the poorest mountain townships are still tracking down FEMA ..
I may look for another spot, to the west, away from the mountain streams. We’ll see.
As always, I thank you for your good thoughts!
If my good thoughts really worked, you wouldn’t need them — maybe I can find a way to borrow Family Man’s alchemical talents and turn them to getting you back into the woods.
Gotta go to the grocery. Hope to talk to you later.
Coming home from Santa Cruz a couple of weeks ago, we drove along Highway 9 — I saw so many cute little houses in the woods (and Santa Cruz Metro actually has a bus line that runs along Highway 9, so they’re transit accessible!) that I told the spouse I wanted to move over there after he retired. “Rains too much” was his reply. Sigh…
Good morning (for at least another 20 or so minutes — moving a little slow here, spouse came to bed late (he fell asleep on the couch, loooong story there). I at least got the bed made before I got on the computer, so that’s a major accomplishment for me!
Need to get my spud butt moving around here shortly — got a lot of projects, need to decide which to tackle first…
Hmm — country cabins on a bus line? Sounds ideal to me!
The issue for me this past summer in the Catskills, regarding rain/flooding, was that I became homeless due to the floods’ destruction. Ergo, I’d guess I’m a bit more skittish as to global-warming-type precipitation than most folks would be. Plus, if you have paved roads there’s definitely less to worry about.
In any case, I wish you a productive day, Cali! Me, I’m about to measure for some window shades. Gotta do it when Mom’s out, or I could fall through the glass & kill myself. Thank God she never saw me doing real house construction!
Clearly everyone is off doing chores by now – as I’d be, if I didn’t need a head transplant (horrible, !#!%$ cold). However, even if everyone is gone, I have to say those woodsy pictures of yours, Andi, are most beautiful. I’d love to be outside and I’m so envious of having woods right at the door.
Weekends were always “head for the hills” time in my childhood. Living on the flatland of the Mississippi River delta seemed unnatural to my Ozarks born father, and he’d scoop us up and go to the woods at the drop of a hat. I’d love to be on Current River today, seeing the leaves turn at this moment.
I do believe that children (and grown children) suffer from a disconnect with nature. Any trip through a modern new suburb looks like life on the moon. West of us, they recently scrapped off a really nice second growth forest, slapped up houses, covered the ground with turf, and planted small but fast growing mountain ash trees. Looks like astroturf with plastic plants mounted through the fabric.
Just dropped in to lurk, and it looks like no one is around, which is usually the case by the time I check in. I’m suffering with a bad case of CTS so I can’t participate much anymore.
Anyhoo…
I agree about nature… it always amazes me when I see architecture without one single green living thing. Seems like it’s for creatures from some other planet. I grew up in the Catskills, which is the only good thing I can say about my childhood, but I found so much healing in the beauty of nature, I think that’s how I survived.
Hi, mythmother. I have cts also, waxing and waning, but not keeping me off of the computer too much – thus far. My sympathies to you. My one brush with really bad symptoms a few months ago (no sensation in much of one hand, on top of ongoing rheumatic ick) was so frustrating that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep on with my work.
When I was a kid, I found a very small woods where I would go and walk and sit just to get out of the house. It did preserve my sanity, definitely!
I am sorry you can’t participate more, it’s a loss for us (speaking selfishly, of course, sorry!).
but now it looks like everybody else is gone.
Anyway, I do love living in the woods. I can bitch and moan over dial-up but I wouldn’t trade a connection speed an order of magnitude better for living here.