TCC for 10/30/08

The Caretaker's Concern 10/30/08
Happy Cabbage Night to all those who celebrate.
Lake Temp. 52.5 F
Ghetto temp. 40 F.
Island tmp. 40 F. Yesterday's L/H: 37/36 F. (The morning was warmer than the evening.)
Current conditions: Stars are out but not brilliantly so, thin clouds here and there throughout the night sky with mild haze. Gentle breeze from the North, North West, mostly calm. The Caretaker was off Island for most of the day so he can't tell you how the day went here on the Island, but when he left there was a mild breeze from the North, some clouds with sun, getting progressively sunnier.

10/30/08


10/30/08


10/30/08


The Caretaker had much to do on the mainland today so he got up early and got himself off the Island without even having breakfast, although, he did have his morning dose of wheat grass juice. He took the past six months off from wheat grass farming and he did rather miss the juice, so he decided it was time to get back on the tractor and start sewing seed again. His first crop came in rather nicely, his second crop still needs some time before he can harvest, he tried something different this time around, the Caretaker is not so sure that this new method is working out the way he would like. He may just have to lay in a third crop now to hedge against the possibility that the second planting won't harvest well. Talk about boring, unless of course you juice your own wheat grass, but even then, how many out there bother with it? Probably not many.

While down in the local consumer center, otherwise known as Queensbury, N.Y. the Caretaker saw two rather interesting sights, one more so than the other. Just now the Caretaker realized something else about Queensbury, it is just like a town down by where the Caretaker grew up, the town is Paramus, N.J. The Caretaker lived two towns away. Both Paramus and Queensbury have no "village center", there is no walking around town, both are dominated by shopping centers and malls. Rather convenient when you need stuff, not so convenient when you need a community, not that neither of these towns lack a sense of community, at least not that the Caretaker is aware of, but there is not main-drag to walk down, at least this Caretaker wouldn't want to walk down. For Queensbury it is basically route 9 and route 246 (or is it 243?), which isn't too terrible, the Caretaker has done it out of necessity but he would prefer to not make a habit of it, you're basically walking alongside traffic going 30 to 50 mph. In Paramus it is routes 17 and 4, these are major highways, the Caretaker has walked part of 17 once, a long time ago, he would prefer to never have to do it again, and route 4? You only walk that road if you have a death wish, on both thoroughfares the traffic goes from 40 to 80 mph. The Caretaker's opinion: poor community development, lacks pedestrian space. Although both Queensbury and Paramus each have a great pedestrian path that links to parks and is closed to automobile traffic, a lot of towns don't have such communal amenities. The Caretaker's heart goes out to those whose towns lack pedestrian paths and/or parks, if you've never had such things then you are probably not missing it, but still, it must be hard to go without such things, especially for the elderly or those who have small children.

While driving South on route 9 towards the hardware store in Queensbury, N.Y. (which happens to be one of the greater hardware stores in the country, so sad that they are a dying breed), off to the East, over in Vermont, upon the Green Mountians, the Caretaker noticed they were white with snow cover, brilliant in the light of the sun. In the immediate foreground to the Caretaker were trees with Autumn colored leaves, uncloaked of snow, Autumn here, Winter there. The contrast of the two seasons made for a rather wonderful sight. The views of the Green Mountains from both this spot on Route 9 and the East parking lots of Aviation Mall are rather splendid, the foreground scenery works well to couch this part of the Green Mountain Range. Now that the Caretaker remembers it, there is also a pretty nice view of the Green Mountains from the old dump in the town of Fort Ann(?), well, where ever the old Canal Path Locks are, the ones in immediate succession, where the defunct dump is, the one that some crazy developer seems to be building on, sure it's a great view, but do you want your home on top of decades of trash?

The other interesting sight, which is actually an understatement, this other sight down in Queensbury was probably one of the coolest sights the Caretaker's seen in Nature second only to a Luna Moth in the wild. After the Caretaker left his favorite tea shop in the whole wide world, he stopped in at the tool rental place to fill up a few propane tanks (yes the Caretaker would like to use as little fuel as possible this season but eventually it is going to get too cold even for him, so, better to have than have not when the time comes for turning on the heat. What was I saying about the Caretaker?) Oh yes, so he's driving down route 246, West, heading back towards the Northway, when he notices up in the sky something he had never seen before, it was so impressive he had to pull over to the side of the road so he could view it better. The Caretaker was wearing his usual sunglasses which have gray lenses, they serve to raise the contrast of everything he sees, making things more vivid, as far as the Caretaker knows these glasses do not fabricate sights out of thin air, but he must say that when he took his sunglasses off at this time what he saw with them on he could not see with them off. At the time he was of the opinion that with his sunglasses off he couldn't see this rare thing of beauty because of the glare from the sun. Basically you had to look directly at the sun while holding up your hand blocking it out. Later on down the road, while heading North on the Northway at one point while observing this phenomenon, he took off his sunglasses again and at this point in time he was able to view it with his naked eyes, but much of the brilliancy that was seen through his sunglasses was not seen without them. Because of this the Caretaker expects that few if anyone noticed this rare thing of beauty. The Caretaker's heart goes out to all of those who have never seen such a thing in Nature, and it's probably true that to have always gone without probably means little has been missed, but still it must be hard, especially for the elderly, and those with small children.

You know, the Caretaker has been toying with the idea of switching to the First person.
--The Caretaker