Spring returned with a vengeance today. Windy, wet, and lukewarm. Seemed a good day to go river walking. Great sky, great new river art (about 20 new pieces) and the river, as always, was its disreputably majestic self.
Not often you see both eyes…
Today’s shot brought to you by Hallmark
Facing east
Welcome
“If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.”
I love NYC. I love being with my family. I love being with my friends. I love the pace and the hustle but occasionally, for my mental health, I love to be away, on my own, with no one to answer to, no musts, no shoulds, where no one knows me, and I can just be with me. I am an only child and I need that alone time to recharge. Luckily Katherine and Abigail understand this and appreciate it and realize that I am a better and healthier person when I get back. 4 or 5 days is usually best since the first night I can never sleep worrying about what I left behind. This time, I only have two nights but it will do.
I hopped in the Graciemobile late this AM and set out for Troy, the seat of government in Rensselaer County. It started to rain as soon as I left and has rained all day and evening but I don’t care. I haven’t been to Troy in a long time, not since my grandparents left when I was 4?, 6? something like that. It used to be one of the richest communities in New York and thus the US, but that was a long time ago.
I took the Palisades Parkway to 9W up until I was 10 miles from Kingston when I cut across to the New York State Thruway, buzzed through Albany and across the river to Troy. I am staying in a chain hotel. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly, the room is comfortable, but as I have discovered the walls are pretty thin. I now know that the people across the hall are going to visit Joan in Syracuse and I know Joan’s phone number. I know that the people next to me go to bed very early but they don’t sleep. They seem to like a little game of slap and tickle.
Tomorrow, I think I will head up Rt 4/32 and see where that leads me.
People always ask us, ‘Are things better or worse today?’ Well, some things are better and some things are worse…. But there are a lot of problems in the world today that no one dreamed of when we were young. For instance, this business about the environment. Why, clean water was just something you took for granted.
Sarah Delany and Elizabeth Delany, U.S. author.(1890) The Delany Sisters’ Book of Everyday Knowledge,
with Amy Hill Hearth
Is Better Than A Good Day At Work..or so the old saying goes…I assume this gentleman believes in that adage.
(as always click on the image for full size)
Of course Steinbeck‘s point of view was somewhat different…
“It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.”
Then there is the ecological point of view:
Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years. ~Charles Haas…
…which is why the Hudson around NYC is still catch and release.
I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains.
One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge,
but one misses a world of loveliness.
- Adeline Knapp
I begin a short road trip tomorrow. I do not know if I will have internet access each day. We shall see.
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends
ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when September ends
- Billie Joe Armstrong
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
Another beautiful mid-fall day…But an unusual evening as we went out on a Monday night date. This is something we just don’t do.
Very late to the party but finally saw Bridesmaids which we enjoyed. Then went to PDT a “speakeasy” that you reach through a phone booth in a small hotdog joint. Pick up the phone, dial and if they have seating they let you in. The back of the phone booth opens and in you go. Great original cocktails…
Lots of rain today. Torrential downpours, the sort of storm I associate with late September.
Usually the running/jogging population by the river and in the park at any giving time is approximately 60% women to 40% men. There were in general many fewer runners out today but of the thirty or so I saw in the while I was out only one was a woman.
I don’t know that this anecdotal observation means anything or is just a random accident of timing…but there it is.
This has been one wet month…although we have dispensed with the cold.
However it looks like the last two days of April will be dry.
Did you know that February 25th, 2011 was declared Friends Seminary Day by Mayor Bloomberg in honor of the School’s 225th anniversary? Well it was. Friends Seminary
Friday was wet. I was out on the river at the Boat Basin when the weather cleared a bit and the rain stopped.
and this amazing fog/cloud rolled in.
I thought I would walk up the river and shoot and if it did start to rain, I had my raincoat, an umbrella and waterproof shoes. At about 90th street the sky started getting really dark but, hey, I was only 12 blocks away from the 101st Street underpass and …I had my raincoat, an umbrella and waterproof shoes. At around 95th Street the wind started to blow hard (I found out later between 40 and 50mph) and I saw this…
and in about 30 seconds it started to rain…sideways …from the river. It turned out that my raincoat didn’t cover all of my legs and my boots while waterproof for puddles, snow, and regular rain had met their match. Luckily, it was blowing from only one direction and as long as I faced the umbrella straight into the wind it was able to protect the camera. When I finally got under the bridge I was totally soaked. It is now 24 hours later and my boots and raincoat are still wet through. But, my camera gear is all snug and dry so all is well.
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