My pitas page

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(November 7, 2010) Yes, I'm back again, older and presumably wiser. Happened to notice this old file folder while looking for something else and wondered whether this could possibly still be online. Apparently, the site doesn't need careful tending in order to survive. But I do . . . ! Yesterday I went off to the recycling center in Syracuse with the APC uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that I bought with my first computer nearly eleven years ago. The battery has long been dead, and several years ago I found it to be either not-replaceable or too damned expensive, I don't recall which. Meantime, I've experienced several unexpected interruptions without losing anything important that I was working on and evidently without losses in the system. So, I'm now hooked up to a switchable power strip sans battery, which is effectively what I've had for several years. Joan had an extra one on hand, so with the loan I didn't even have to buy one. With a li'l bit o' luck . . . The old UPS was the last remaining part of the original computer, as I replaced the cathode-ray monitor recently, too, using the flat screen that came with my second DELL desktop computer. Got tired of Linda scolding me for keeping it "new-in-box" for several years. It may be easier to read and certainly takes up less room. I've had a second computer since last winter - a SONY laptop. However, I haven't used it much, not being particularly impressed by or fond of Windows7. Thought I might be happy to use its Blu-ray readiness, along with Joan's bigger flatscreen TV, but that has proven problematical. Not sure whether I've now got a reliable procedure for working the two together. I think it may only be a matter of time when the old DVDs will be mainly replaced by Blu-ray and its high-definition capability. And, I still have to import some protection from McAfee and also network the two computers so that I can access the files in the old desktop from the laptop. I remain apprehensive about attempting such things - a little over my head, I fear. That's how things are here. Enjoying a ninth year at my independent living home in McHarrieTowne/Baldwinsville, NY.

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(March 12, 2007) I can't believe that I'm still registered here - after all this time, and both a different email address and a new computer. Some things you can't lose no matter what you do . . . like a bad reputation! Anyway, to document the passage of time, I was first here in January of 2001, returning a year later, and then again in the summer of 2002 after I had moved !! And just maybe I'll be back again.

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My move to a new home completed, I've returned to see if perchance my "gray-notes" are still here online. And I note with some surprise that indeed they are. Recently, I've seen articles in two different newspapers (Ithaca Journal and Syracuse Post-Standard, I think) on blogging, so I was reminded that I had made a faint effort at it, going way back to January '01. So, maybe I'll give it another try - to keep my hand in - if I can summon the necessary interrest and incentive. Since it's almost a given that no one but me will ever read it, it becomes like a diary in that respect. Altho I'm very comfortable in my new diggins and glad to have accomplished as much down-sizing of possessions as I have, the old place remains unsold; and that is much on my mind. Then there are the more manageable problems of what to do with my canoe and my second car, those to be taken care of before snow flies, I hope. Since it was 84 F yesterday - just one degree short of the record for the date - that doesn't seem an imminent threat. But, we've been fooled before.

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9:30 am, Feb. 12, 2002: Returning after a year's absence, I'm surprised (and gratified) to find my several entries of January '01 still available here. How will I acquire the considerable discipline of regular visits and entries, especially with all this extra busyness attendant on preparing for my move ? I see, too, that there is a separate place for a more strictly daily entry in "diaryland". But I never did that very well on paper . . . Winter continues to play hide-and-seek here. Yesterday we awoke to 4" of new snow on ground that has remained bare most of the winter so far. And last evening it was already down to +2°F by 8 pm. I thought it would finally dip below zero, but instead it warmed up overnight to nearly 20° by morning. Haven't been XC-skiing for two weeks again, and that was but the fourth outing of the season. Well, back to numerous tasks; hoping to return with more worthy observations soon.

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Wed. Jan 24, 01 1:45pm: A week ago I was listening to classical guitar - certainly one of my favorites - on FM radio when an intriguing anecdote was related about the famous Romero family of guitar-players. Pepe Romero related that his father, Celedonio, when thinking of his wife, played a particular piece - Serenata Espagnol, I think - that was either his favorite or hers (hey, I don't have photographic memory, especially when listening to the oft-times excessively long naratives about the musicians inserted in the these programs). And he played the same piece whether he was pleased or peeved with her !! I've been struggling with the significance of that ever since, wondering whether in any sense that could be true of me. How do we deal with our interactions with that special person in times of particular note ? Clearly, our feelings and the consequences must loom large, coloring the moment with one hue or another. But the same piece . . . !?

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Tues. Jan 16 10:30am EST: What concerns me this morning is the reason I spent Sunday afternoon on a wooded and snow-covered hilltop, albeit a pleasant three hours. It has to do with the familiar conflict between enjoying the natural world unspoiled and using its resources to support human life and enterprise. As Trail Chair for the local chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, I oversee the maintenance of 28 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail, extending several hundred miles through the Southern Tier of New York State. Gary, the steward for that particular six-mile part of the Trail, and I flagged a half-mile reroute within the State Forest. This was made necessary by the recent intrusion of a gas-drilling access road, crossing and coincident for a ways with the Trail's location on an old woods road - an easy, very appropriate and commonly-used alternative to clearing a new path through the woods. We were at first quite taken aback by this new develop-ment, though accustomed to having the Trail disrupted by the harvest of trees on State land. The few other gas wells scattered about in the south-central Finger Lakes - an area more noted in recent years for its burgeoning wine production - are about to be augmented by further tapping of the Trenton-Black River gas-bearing dolomite formations 10,000 ft underground. This is occasioned both by new discovery technology and by the recent doubling of natural gas prices. The State of New York, through its Dept. of Environmental Conservation, is only too happy to realize added monetary return from its State Forests, probably on a grander scale than that obtained from logging leases. As taxpayers we should be happy, too . . . no ? Well, up to a point, unless you have a stake in some recreational element that is shunted aside. "Hey, we were here first . . . !", one is moved to shout. Of course, this sort of conflict is both widespread and, to almost everyone in the world, very local. My plea is that both considerations be given their due

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Sunday, Jan. 14, 10:18 EST: Don't know what happened to that 7:02 PST entry; it hasn't come up, except in the member log.

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Sunday, Jan.14 9:30 am EST: Last evening, early, I was listening to Garrison Kieler's Prairie Home Companion on the radio - a regular Saturday evening entertainment - when I became aware of the single bright "star" visible through one of the big, uncurtained windows in my great room. Of course, it was the planet Venus, so very bright and high in the southwest after sunset. Just now it is catching up with Earth in its smaller, inner orbit and, though only visible as a diminishing crescent - like the waning moon - the nearer it gets, the brighter. It must be near its brightest now, soon to diminish as the visible sliver we see illuminated by the sun grows smaller. Venus, the brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon, easily outshines the planets Jupiter and Saturn, which are with us all night long, rising in the east at sunset and setting at dawn. If you are blessed with reasonably dark surroundings, look for them high in the southern sky at bedtime. I live in the dark countryside, where I'm treated to these sights anytime the sky is clear. I love it . . .

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Friday, 01-12-01: A first-thing-in-the-morning task - and privilege - is to tend to the bird-feeder. Since I don't arise until dawn, they are waiting for me, unless I've thought to leave an extra portion at dusk. Lately, the mourning dove contingent has grown from a pair to eight or more, and they put a serious dent in the supply. Because of their hovering/fluttering approach to a soft landing, a protective roof over the platform-feeder (an old nursery flat, in use for 25 years or more) might reduce their intrusion, as well as keep off the rain and snow. Smaller birds are able to dart in and out of small openings, and the nuthatches and woodpeckers are as likely to land on the supporting pole and then climb up into the tray. But I do like to watch them all - maybe a dozen species attending. Sometimes I go out to feed them before breakfast so that I can watch them from the table - and not feel guilty. And my cat-companion, Tatou watches, too, from the glass door to the deck, or from just outside on the bench. Getting on and pretty heavy, he's no longer a threat to them.

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Thurs., 01-11-01: Mid-morning musings - the sun is shining brightly on the still freshly-white cover of snow, and I'm feeling my periodic need for the solitude of the snowy woods. Question is - will it get a little too warm so that the snow sticks to my no-wax skis, and do I really want to drive 50 miles to where the snow is deep enough - in the hilly state forest east of Ithaca, NY ? Well, I'll probably be sorry if I don't use the opportunity. It's so good when I'm out there, with hardly a sound besides the muted swish of skis on snow. To each, his very own fix . . .

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Wisdom or Trivia - it's your call (I have some difficulty with the difference). Anyway, this is all new to me, so let's see where it goes ?!