TCC for 9/12/08

8/28/08


8/28/08


5/3/08

TCC for 8/15/08

8/1/08


7/30/08


8/6/08

TCC for 7/22/08

TCC for 4/7/08

The Caretaker's Concern 4/07/08
Ghetto temp. 49.5 F. and dropping slowly.
Island tmp. 50 F. Yesterday's L/H: 30ish/50ish F.
Current conditions: Mostly clear night, occasional wind gusts from the South East.

The Caretaker awoke this morning with the light of the Sun shining through the East window of the Ghetto. The average temperatures are high enough to allow for the window shutters to remain open throughout the day and night with an acceptable amount of heat loss, this is good. Looking out the window, prior to getting up, the Caretaker noticed a pile of branches with strings of webs glistening in the early morning sunlight, this work of spiders is another sign of Spring, this too is good.

Today was a day of rake and burn, much of the Caretaker's time was spent raking up branches and burning them. Throughout the morning there was little to no wind, with the Sun shining combined with the Caretaker's exertion he had to remove his under-layer of clothing, this was a first since last October. Throughout the entire winter here on the Island, long underwear day and night is an absolute necessity, a second skin of sorts. Well, maybe not a necessity, but who wants to be cold? The Caretaker hopes the current warming trend continues with little to no steps backward. A further sign of Spring is that the warmth of the Sun is pleasantly easier to feel.

As the afternoon rolled around the wind began to pick-up, two days in a row the wind has come directly from the East shore, the Caretaker can count on one hand how many times the wind comes from the East shore in a year, rare indeed. It has made for a marginally interesting ice-out so far, the wind has been pushing the ice in the exact wrong direction that the Caretaker would want it to go, at least for photography purposes, most all of the open water has now become ice covered thus preventing reflections. However, the current ice flow is perfect for the docks, they are well protected by the Island, not that this Ice would do any damage, it has thawed such that it is mostly just slush. If the Caretaker had himself a bunch of corn syrup, artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and whatever other toxins the industrial food complex uses to make slush drinks--if the Caretaker had all these he could probably get himself into the "Guinness Book of World Records" for having created the World's largest slushy drink. He would also probably get into the record books for having caused the largest fish die-off in Lake history. Good think the Caretaker doesn't have any ties to the industrial food complex.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 2/20/08

The Caretaker's Concern 2/20/08
Ghetto temp. 41 F. and rising.
Island tmp. 18 F. Yesterday's L/H: 19/ 26.
Current conditions: Crystal clear night, no wind.

The Caretaker went to the mainland this afternoon to run a few errands. Upon arriving at his car he reconnected the battery hoping it would not be dead, thankfully it wasn't and the car started right up and so he motored on down the road. He really had only one important errand and that was to drop off some photo-cards at a retailer. After doing that, and forgetting about the eclipse of the moon the Caretaker went on to do a few other errands. One of which was to try and locate a particular food thermos. So off he went a "hunting". His prey proved elusive. He knew he would probably stand a good chance of finding what he wanted at any of the box stores, but what if he didn't want to support them? Where would he go to find such an item? He thought about it for a while and other than the Hardware store he could think of no other stores outside of the box stores. This prompted the Caretaker to think about the time when there was no TargDeath, or WalMonster, etc. the Caretaker can remember a time when that was the case, at least where he grew up. Sporting goods stores perhaps? Not that it matters now, and not that the Caretaker has anything in particular against the box stores, however, if he can give his business to a local business owner he will. In the end, the Hardware store did not have the model he was looking for. This was mildly surprising because it is an excellent Hardware store, in most ways it is far superior to HomeDespot, etc. Anyway, the Caretaker went on to the local box stores, no luck there either. So the Caretaker gave up.

While walking to his car the Moon had come up over the Green Mountains in Vermont, it was a glorious Moonrise. The conditions were such that the Moon appeared to be some 5 times larger than it normally does. Dusk was just beginning to rise causing a three color pastel rainbow on the East horizon. Broad swaths of purple, pink, and blue, and rising through it was the huge face of the Moon in cool white, almost chrome. The Caretaker had wished he had his camera with him. However, his lack of camera did not prevent him from enjoying the Moonrise, he hopped in his car and drove down to the lower parking lot to get a better view. After a while it occurred to the Caretaker that tonight was the Eclipse. Not wasting any more time he headed back to the Island.

The Caretaker made it back in time to take a few photos of the Moon before the Eclipse began. It was a crystal clear night with little to no wind. The Moon was so bright that a flashlight was not needed to see one's way in the night, the light of the stars was mostly drowned out by the Moonlight leaving them barely visible. The ice was doing quite a bit of singing, keeping its own rhythm in pops and pings, booms and bangs, squeals and sighs. And then the Moon began to fade from view, certainly not a quick process but definitely a wondrous one. As Earth's shadow blocked out more and more of the Moonlight the stars became brighter and brighter. At total Eclipse the stars punched out of the sky.

The last time the Caretaker had seen a total eclipse of the moon was some 8 or 9 years ago while he was living on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Hopefully it won't be another 8 years or so for him to see his next eclipse. He tried photographing the Eclipse, but he was not too successful, the lack of light poses a bit of a problem. Duh.

--The Caretaker

TCC 2/19/08

The Caretaker's Concern 2/19/08
Ghetto temp. 51 F. and rising slowly
Island tmp. 26 F. Yesterday's L/H: ?/45 F. Caretaker missed the low.
Current conditions: Mostly clear, occasional clouds, occasional wind from the West.

The day started out well enough for the Caretaker, then it went South, then it got weird, then it got good, and then it got quiet. The Caretaker had to go to the big city of Albany to drop off a ton images at the photo printer he uses for prints to be made so he can fill out his portfolio. After that he was to meet up with S. for lunch at Justin's. The Caretaker had dropped a memory card in S.'s car the last time he was down in Albany, luckily S. found it. The Caretaker also had to give S. a belated birthday gift for L. and so lunch at Justin's is where the exchange would take place. After lunch the Caretaker would head back North, take care of a few errands and then return to the Island. At least that was the plan for the day.

The Caretaker woke up very early, took a shower, got his things together and skied over to the mainland, reattached his car battery and bumped on down the road. In less then 10 seconds of turning onto the main road a police officer drove by in the opposite direction. Just before the officer passed a piece of ice from the Caretaker's windshield flew off towards the path of the officer's car. The officer passed without incident. However, the Caretaker expected the officer to turn around, so the Caretaker didn't go racing down the road and sure enough, in a few minutes the officer was behind the Caretaker with his lights flashing. The Caretaker pulled over. The Caretaker is not omniscient.

This piece of ice that flew off of the Caretaker's windshield was placed there strategically, the intent was to cover up the car's out of date inspection sticker. However, as stated above, it probably worked the exact opposite and ended up drawing attention to the out of date inspection sticker rather than concealing it. The Caretaker was hoping to pull off the Albany trip and then take care of his car's inspection problem. In the end the officer was kind enough to let the Caretaker go without giving him a ticket. The Caretaker then decided that perhaps it would be best to pop into the closest garage, have the car go through inspection, (knowing it will fail), get a failed inspection sticker and then continue on down to Albany. The Caretaker was born an raised in New Jersey, he has only been a legal resident of New York for three years, this is the first time he has had to deal with his car not passing inspection. After the car went through inspection the Caretaker learned that unlike New Jersey, New York state no longer issues failed inspection stickers, instead they just scrape your old inspection sticker leaving you with nothing.

Ha-ha.

Ah, but it gets better, the Caretaker expected his car to fail inspection because his exterior door handle does not work. After learning that his out of date inspection sticker had been removed, leaving him with nothing, the Caretaker was informed that his car would have passed inspection if only the door handle was broken. Apparently working door handles are not a part of the safety inspection, which would have been great if that was all that was wrong with the Caretaker's car. Instead the mechanic produced a list of some 6 items that needed to be repaired before the car could pass inspection--none of which could be accomplished in a short period of time. So the Caretaker paid his 10 bucks, said thank you and went on his way. He figured that if he got pulled over again on his way to Albany he would show the officer the paperwork on why his car failed and that he just learned of it today, blah, blah, blah. Luckily the Caretaker never got pulled over again this day. This might have been in part because after meeting with S. for lunch he drove straight back to the Island foregoing his other errands.

After the Caretaker dropped off the images at the printer, he decided he would stop in at a repair shop that specialized in German cars, the shop is behind the Honest Weight Food Co-op, so after looking into the Car he would be able to pick up a few things from the Co-op. En route, just after passing the Armory on Lark street the Caretaker saw a collection of police cars parked at the side of the road. Behind him an officer had his lights on to pass, the Caretaker pulled over, while stopped two or three more police cars came whipping around corners all converging at this one spot. The Caretaker was quite sure that there would not be this much show of force just because he was driving with no inspection sticker, so when it looked safe to pass he pulled around the collection of police cars to continue on his way. While passing he noticed that three or four police officers were in the middle of subduing a man. Two of the officers had the man's arms behind his back seemingly trying to work him to the ground. Then the Caretaker heard a loud buzzing sound, immediately followed by loud painful screams from the man. The Caretaker quickly realized that while driving by in his car he saw a man get tazered by the police. It neither looked nor sounded like fun. The Caretaker then brought his attention back to driving. Going down the road, life became surreal. Stunned, he kept going straight. It never occurred to him to turn around and watch the rest of the events unfold on these mean streets of Albany.

Lunch went well. It was good to see S. and some of his friends. After lunch the Caretaker drove back to the Island. After disconnecting the battery of his car he skied back to the Island. It was nightfall by this time and the moon had risen. The Caretaker dropped off his gear in the Ghetto and headed out on to the ice with his camera and tripod. It was mostly a quiet night but the ice was a bit unsettled. There was one crack that buckled his knees. This made the Caretaker smile at his insignificance.

--The Caretaker