Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We opened our presents thisw am - chrismas eve am , like we do every year.
, I got some great books and a usb backup hard-drive (1 month after my puter and 8 years of files blew up) ...I got Lori (and me ) the Wii and Wii Fit ... Wiiiiiii

We went to the gym this AM in anticipation of a weekend of holiday pigging out.

Going to Lori`s parents for xmas eve dinner , and Lori`s grandmas tomorrow am for xmas breakfast , we will then be shooting down to queens NY to see my Father and sister ...staying overnight , on the 26th hitting the Bronx Zoo. Winter is a great time for a zoo visit , no crowds and still plenty of animals to see. Polar bears , snow leopard , Siberian Tiger , Sea Lions and of course all the indoor ones , bats , birds , monkey house , reptiles etc;
Looking forward to see phil , karen and baby isabel before going out...Sat 26th late night , staying at the Marriot and cabbing it to Dugans to drink the night away with some division ave high school meets facebook reunion. Whatever , an excuse to drink with like-minded folks.
Sunday - expecting to be hungover , will either do the planned brunch or more likely grab a bagel and cream cheese to go.
Monday - Work a few days and Then NEW YEARS !!!!
If no cooler plans appear , will probably spend the evening in hartford for food , art , fireworks and then drinking and more midnight fireworks ... that weekend , planning on trying x-country skiing in farmington , ct and may shoot up to a localish ski mountain for an overnight.

Happy Holidays

god

Chimerical and empty being, your name alone has caused more blood to flow on the face of the earth than any political war ever will.
Return to the nothingness from which the mad hope and ridiculous fright of men dared call you forth to their misfortune. You only appeared as a torment for the human race.
What crimes would have been spared the world, if they had choked the first imbecile who thought of speaking of you.

Marquis De Sade

Thanksgiving Weekend

LOG

Saw my Dad and my sister this weekend , nice turkey dinner , nap and football ... Was sick most of the weekend but for the most part got by

Friday , we knew it was going to rain all day so we went to the casino. It was busier than I expected , I was looking forward to 5 or $10 min. blackjack tables with only a few people per ...no luck...packed with $25 min. Craps -- packed - Roulette - packed... played some machines and video poker which ate all the winnings from the Black Jack Video Dealer game. The black jack game is cool , 6 people sit down to a video screen that shows a smiling , busty , dealer who deals out cards on a digital screen in front of you .. you can then hit / stand / double etc ; Including surrender. Played $5 - $10 hands for an hour , came a head $50 ish ...fed it to the machines.
Sat- Real windy , pretty chilly , we changed hike plans to do a quick 2 mile walk at an old standby , laurel marsh in manchester ... found a geocache , and upon leaving we happened upon an open Chez Ben diner. This is a diner that serves french canadian staples such as meat or salmon pie, creton , and poutine , as well as solid breakfast fare. We thought it closed down due to the poor economy and the fact that there was a for sale sign and it was closed down.....for only three weeks as we came to find out...they went on vacation .....waitress said it was curious to her that business took so long to pick up upon their return ...well duhhhh!!!! It would`ve made some good business sense to put up a sign that they are on vacation from Day A to Day B.... Anyway , happy its open and enjoyed the creton and toast.
Hit the library and picked up like 20 books (lori gets a little nuts in there) and a few car audio lectures for me. DId some laying around and reading until:
We did birthday dinner with lori`s parents to celebrate both of the old peoples birthdays. Lori and her sisters chipped in and got their old man Rock Band II - the beatles for the WII.... He was psyched until he realized he was stuck assembling the bloody thing. We were supposed to go out with Fran and Charlie but they begged off , just as well coz I felt kinda crappy. It turned out that I was unable to sleep ALL NIGHT , possibly due to taking a late day Sudafed ....I ended up on the living room couch to avoid haunting Lori`s sleep with my coughing , sniffling , moaning , tossing and turning etc; I never slept more than an hour at a time. It was amazing that I was not too exhausted to start early Sunday AM with a hike.

Sunday ..went to granby to enders falls (the best falls in Ct IMHO) to retrieve the geocache that got denied due to its close proximity to another cache (which noone can find ,by the way) - saw some beautiful falls , deposited our travel bug into another cache and left for another 1 mile walk near old gate prison. There is a pond in the back ....we left the trail to stand near the water ...it looked peaceful ...thats when I noticed a head duck under the water and the ensuing circular wake was noticed by Lori , who missed the head.
5 breathless minutes later , a full head and behind of an otter in real shallow water near an earthen mound in the middle of the pond , Lori thought it was a beaver as the mound looked similar to an animal made structure but it was not. It was our first view of an otter. It was beautiful and brief.... he ducked below the waterline once again and disappeared , not to return to our sight.
Mostly uneventful weekend but we kept busy enough to avoid the depression that inflicts itself upon me when I don`t plan a good weekend. I need to work on this but the easy solution is to plan my weekends in advance.
We are headed back to NYC in a few weeks for a long weekend.

City Hopping

Spent the last two weekends in boston and nyc ... Visited Lori`s sister in Boston , hung out Friday and Sat night did some barhopping ...other than the 3mile drunken walk home it was a good time.
and on Sunday went to Salem... Next time we`ll go in September and do some of the halloween type stuff....we saw the house of gables ,kinda cool but expensive for a quick tour like that. a
last weekend went to NYC , stayed at the Grand Union Hotel Friday night , ate across the street at the Artisenal ...Fondue and Wine , and some more Wine.
SAt- Saw METALLICA at madison square garden.. A+ concert !!
Did some shopping on 5th ave...and then down St Marks just for the contrast...

went downtown and had a nice lunch in Little Italy on Sunday before heading home. We intended on hitting the tourist offices of Britain , Italy and France for our pending Europe trip but found out they are closed on the weekend ... DUH !!! Ya think I woulda looked up their hours. Oh well , gonna have to book a 3 day weekend in NYC to get that done... Whattya gonna do.

Fall Foliage in Bethel Me

bethel

Went up to bethel me for a long weekend , maybe the last good one this year. I decided to take a monday off in the middle of my ridiculously busy fall season instead of waiting for that tantrum day , my yearly fall implosions when I scream "I can`t take it anymore" , and throw an absolute fit mid-day at work and storming off for the remainder of the day , vowing never to return , only to return the next day. What a waste , I don`t even do anything fun when I skip out like that.
I figured scheduling that mental day in advance would prevent such wasted emotion and a waste of a perfectly good I QUIT for a day.

Fri night - drove up to Lincoln NH , stayed at the franconia notch motel , got stuck in accident traffic for an 1 1/2 ....which sucked ....but we survived and made good time ....12:30 am - went to bed , up early ... off HIKING
SAT - Drove up to crawford notch 16 and 302 and hit a couple of their roadside waterfalls , beautiful and lots of flow. Lots of beautiful foliage views throughout. We found a number of geocaches.. couldn`t find the crazy up the mountain geocache on one of the cascades. Ripley falls --- Did some hiking.
took route 2 to bethel , me Checked into the victoria inn , bed and breakfast . One of the few times we`ve returned to a particular bnb...coz the first time we had great conversations with the innkeeper who mixed her own tea and had tea service. This was a few years back and started me on enjoying tea. We actually just finished the last of the tea we bought from there and intended on buying more . This time There was no tea service nor was there any conversation with the innkeep. Kinda felt like a motel ...oh well.
We did have a ridiculously wonderful dinner there that night - see memory list
Sunday - Grafton notch tour , moose cave , mother walker falls , step falls - a mile and a half hike. Lake umbagog - wasn`t quite as cool as we thought it would be but the preserve area was closed. Will have to check it out again. Wonderful foliage trip though. I did catch a rainbow trout in one of the few access areas we found.
Sunday night - watched it snow like absolute nuts at the Pats game , was threatening to be icy snow by us but nothing came all weekend . WE lucked out coz the town is dead if our outdoorsy stuff was gonna be rained and iced out.
MOnday - drove down evans notch - hiked up a 1200 ft hill THe Roost - nice little hike there and then mostly did roadside stops at some unbelievable pull-off scenic bluffs. One view was of sheer cliff faces with ledges that peregrine falcons nest in. Another was of 6 separate mountain peeks , Evans notch , down 113 wasn`t on my small whole state maps but was just a wonderful drive. We stopped at the basin , a beautiful bowl area with a small lake and lots of colorful turning leaves. The pics we took cannot capture its beauty. No fish catch here.
Got home in time to catch monday night football kick-off.
Good weekend... back to work sucked but at least its a short week !!!



memory list

Rt 16 in the mountains ... Pma ... Near pinkham notch
ripley falls ....return to jackson maybe snowflake inn ... The trees that dropped leaves look wispy and soften the foliage mountain background
nice dinner ... I had choc port as my 1st cordial ... A bellini and a chateau bianca ...lori loved her pomegranate duck ... Billy joel , les miz amd elton john played by the pianist
caught a fishie ..rainbow trout at umbagog ....found some geocaches

beautiful blue trail near dunn falls but not quite unless wanna get wet ... Take appalachian white trail bext time.

scare crows made up as blue man group ...

Rock Spring Preserve in Scotland Ct

Sunday- mobile journal

SEE AMC's Best Day Hikes in Connecticut - Rock Spring Preserve or see bottom for description

appx 4 mile hike ... Found a geocache (see geocaching.com for explanation) called the Council of the pines where there were a few symmetrical rows of tall pine trees ....neat view especially the way the light came thru the trees .. we were expecting elves to emerge from this ordained to be sacred spot
wonderful trail but a bit overgrown ...avoid late summer early fall on a wet day...Our clothes were official dew collectors ... We could`ve squeezed life giving H20 to quench the thirst of an entire tribe out of our pants.

We had a nice picnic as the sun came out.. We took our blanket out and ate a nice salad with blue cheese and strawberries and some cheese and crackers . TIFLM...
So other than the creepy white fuzzy haired caterpillar that insisted on marching onto our blanket it was real nice.
We drove home up historic rt 169 admiring the changing leaves ....flew down RT 44 home , showered , changed and headed to Shea`s Bar and Grill 4 a beer and Jets football. Would have been the crowning moment of a great day had the Jets won..

<<>>

Its the Economy , Stupid.

An investment manager friend told me that no matter what he does with his clients money , he is always wrong. In our down economy , if he decides to pull 50 percent out of the market and the market does drop: Well he didn`t pull enough out. If it rises , he took out too much. "I wish I had a crystal ball" , wails my friend.
I started thinking about this and decided that he was wrong. A crystal ball would be very bad for the investors !
Sure , it might start off all grand and wonderful , but eventually exuberance will outweigh common sense. (Can you say irrational exuberance) The proprietor of said ball will inevitably get greedy. He may start pulling family and friends in , or selling off safe assets ,or borrowing to invest in the crystal ball infused scheme.
The market will rise in the areas of all the good bets , investors without a ball will inevitably notice how well some stocks are doing and continue to drive up the price creating a bubble. This bubble will burst. Ball holders may anticipate this and pull out in time , but at what expense to the market and the economy and other investors. Eventually that crystal ball will only tell you not to invest in the market that the ball ironically destroyed. Thats NOT a boon for investors.
And how long do you think this crystal ball would remain secret. Come on , Iran can`t even keep nuclear secrets and they are VERY secretive. Iraq couldn`t keep its secrets about hidden weapons of massive destruction......oh wait ...bad example. Obama couldn`t keep the secret that he thinks Kenye West is a jackass despite his abuse of official power attempting to censor the press. "Come on guys , cut the president some slack and don`t print that , I have a lot on my plate today"
So we know that eventually the crystal ball will no longer be secret. The powerful will find a way to benefit at the expense of everyone else , outrageous bonuses will be handed out right after the layoff announcements. Unemployment, High gas prices , queues for bread etc ; will ensue.
Then the chinese will figure out how to reverse engineer it and sell it on the black market. It will be about this time that the burst bubble will become a supernova sucking everything in causing chaos and anarchy and religious fanaticism. The apocalypse is here.
Stupid idea , that crystal ball.

No-one Knows the News

The news , an always horrific relection of our society , can no longer be viewed passively.

What I don`t mean by that statement ; the state of our society the news depicts should prompt aggressive action to repair our society , though it definitely should.

I mean that , on all sides , there is a clear bias in the news. It is sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle , but everpresently causes news watching to be an Active and Aggressive game of deciphering the truth.

The Summer of `09

It was a good summer. Kept active and in good spirits throughout. Looked at one of my OLD kasualkb`s logs that described a summer that didn`t go quite as well or feel quite as fulfilling. It was short though , must say that. Crazy year between the economy and the weather.

You may be thinking that its only September 2nd , summer is NOT OVER !!!

Well , its been 50 degrees at night and not much warmer in the am`s .... Kids are back in school as evidenced by their inconveniencing me during my am commute. Work is picking up and there are pockets of time where 4 or 5 phone lines are ringing at once with demanding customers. I expect to be pretty miserable pretty soon.
I did book our last summer trip this labor day weekend. We are going to the Catskills. Going to kayak the Bashurkill lake and hike a half-dozen waterfalls in the area and do a bit of fishing in the creeks near Ashokan resevoir.

Maybe this Fall won`t be so bad .....

Rantings

Song of Happiness IV

I must shed this skin of scorn
Tear free this garment of
isolation

the wordless tongue idles in its spittle
the soundless struggles of my
solitude

Scratched and raw from this journey
the sloughed skin leaves its scabs
exposed

Wrench this insanity from my mind
spill these foul seeds , ungrown and
vulnerable

Musings

When traveling to an out of the way area , I always seem to find the locals to be hickish: Almost caricatures , with their bulbous features and blank-faced looks. When catching their eye , one sees only shallow and boorish thoughts , or if they are relatively astute or innocently moral , Sincere Vacancy.

Hows the Weather ?

Its what you talk about with your neighbors or your less intimate co-workers. Well , this year , I think we all actually have had a real reason to talk about it with anyone who will listen. What freakin` crazy weather! ...we barely had a summer and then when summer hit , we have florida-like thunderstorms every night that I get out of work. In Wethersfield Conn. there was even a tornado.. a freaken TORNADO!!!! , in CT !!!

Early spring , when it was more like late winter or fall weather ,it rained every freakin weakend , and now it rains every evening just when I get out of work . Did I mention that already ?
I only wrote this to chronicle this years wacky weather for future contemplation when Global Warming turns the midwest into a desert.

Maine

We went to Hallowell Maine , stayed at the MAPLE HILL FARM BED & BREAKFAST INN ...A great place to stay , great Innkeeper Scott went out of his way to make our stay enjoyable.

Sat , we kinda got rained out , we stayed at a cheap motel in Lewiston Maine on friday night , and on sat made our way towards Augusta. In between the drizzle , we hit Pine tree Aboretum and did a nice walk appx 1.25 mile thru beautiful trails with marked foliage exhibits, including rock gardens , lilacs , rhodendrum , numberous stree species , due to the rain we had to avoid stepping on the hundreds and hundreds of snails underfoot.

We did another 2 miles at Kennebec river trail , walking along a rail trail next to the river.

We then check in to our bed and breakfast , waved to the chickens and cows as we rolled up the driveway -
On the property is a mile or so walk thru the woods and fields to Jimmys Pond , which I intended to kayak this weekend. We made it about 3/4 of the way , GPS in hand tracking every move , until it got too mucky and mosquito infested , so we had to turn around. We then drove to Jimmys Pond and confirmed that this will make for a great kayak trip thru remote and quiet pond areas. We added a few more bug bites during this visit as well.

Hallowell happened to have a parade and block party of sorts , as well as fireworks which we enjoyed after a thai-sushi dinner at Cafe Bangcock...Good food , horrible service.

Sunday - Togus Pond - Incredible day of Kayaking - we did about 4 hours here , also tracked via gps and saved - We saw a few BALD EAGLES flying overhead, incredibly beautiful birds , We spied them with our binoculars to confirm identity. I also saw what I believe to have been a mink , sunning himself on an exposed rock ....startled by my sudden appearance , scooted and dove into the water. That was my first water mammal sighting.

Later , we hit Lake St George Park and did some sunning , swimming and reading.

Sunday night , went to a irish bar/restaurant , downtown hallowell for a few drinks and a pretty good meal. Lori actually had a beer sampler and of course , Shepherds Pie.
Monday , early morning after another great breakfast , we checked out and ...we kayaked jimmys pond , about an hour and half ...went all the way thru to little jimmys and thru a stream to a portage area to get to hutchinson pond. We werent feeling Portage today as I had us lined up to go to the beach. Another day of no fish catching for me but we did see a fellow fisherman catch what looked to me like a pickerel ...I told them that the knowledge that they confirmed that there were fish in these waters didn`t necessarily please me.
I took us down some scenic roads along the river towards the shoreline. We went to Popham beach in Bath , Me ...Low tide had exposed 1/4 mile of beach on all sides. Maine beaches are wierd...there was water on multiple sides of us...we climbed the rock jetty mountains for a beautiful view... walking along the water , really really cold water (yes I went in ...It was invigorating though it left you breathless) we saw birds dive bombing into the water for fish...It was very cool to watch...I still haven`t figured out what type of birds they were but they were much cooler than sea gulls.
A nice drive home ...perfect driving weather and here I am , typing my journal.

Geocaching.com

We did some kayaking at mansfield hollow state park... beautiful area for kayaking , undeveloped shorelines like a small marsh yet as large as a big open lake. Just Beautiful.
I bought a delorme gps (more will be written about this inside kafe) and used it to track our paddling and attempted my first Geocache find which took me off the water and up into the woods , limping around with my banged up ankle (more on this too) I was also attempting to fish .... all this activity had Lori a bit beshmuggled (yeah I made it up but I`m sure you can ascertain its meaning) At one point , upon leaving the boat , the lure caught onto the back of my shirt and I was unable to remove , Lori had to paddle to shore and rescue my shirt , dangling from the rod and lure as I had whipped it off and started climbing up a hill in search of my cache.
See geocaching.com to get a grasp on what I am talking about.
Anyway , couldn`t find the cache , my gps had me pointed back into the water for it so something wasn`t right.

The next day , did much better and found 3 geocaches.....(more to come)

cuecat scanner and good reads

I bought a cuecat scanner off amazon , so I can scan the books that I own (probably over 1000) only 1/3 of which I have read, and enter them into goodreads. Goodreads is an online social book cataloguing site where one can post books they read , would like to read , own etc; the cuecat isn`t a super smooth scanner but it does its job and for 12 bucks or so , has kept me entertained and helped me organize.
I want to catalog the books I own and haven`t read because with the volume of books I own , I find myself holding a book in my hand wondering if I already own it or have the author or its sitting in my to trade pile... I`m documenting this to remind myself that I must complete this project

If you want to know what a cuecat is - see wikipedia article - cuecat

Check out my books on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/Kasualkafe

Today we kayaked the best water yet ...Grafton Pond ..was beautiful ... I caught a few sunfish and saw a loon ...

Yesterday we hiked pillsbury state park ...2.8 miles.... we kayaked there and our first portaged from one pond to another..

Maybe the dumbing down trend can be reversed

The downfall of the US economy`s paper industries may be a good thing in the long run. We don`t make anything anymore , and in the services or high-tech fields , we are being beat out by foreign companies. We produce nothing of value , instead we have created industries that take slices out of anything of potential value .
F-I-RE - Financial , Insurance and Real Estate have all taken a hit . I`d like to include Lawyers , another group that generally eats up value.
Finally , advertising and marketing and PR has taken its hits as well , as returns on these products have dropped , many business and industries are in the process of restructuring or folding. Well , thats good too. It seems that most companies , instead of producing a better product , would rather spend the money creating better marketing that convinces the consumer its products are the best they can be.

Many well schooled people are out of work and are looking at new ways to make close to the kind of money those industries offered them. Many are looking into entrepreneurial paths , hopefully to spark the next good idea that can increase our standards of living which has been in decline despite steady technological advances.
The internet serves up all kinds of HOT JOBS lists and at the top of all these lists are specialists in Science , Engineers of all kinds , Bio-Tech , and anything in the health industry.
There are many students in top colleges , rethinking their transfers to high finance and other such dying industries and returning to the core studies of math and science that produce the leaders of fields that may be able to solve some of our most problematic issues such as our crumbling infrastructure , health care , global warming , energy dependence. Maybe , the next generation can lead America back to the top in manufacturing and services.
Or maybe the decline and fall is inevitable.

June 1st update

So far the spring has been cool , took our kayaks this past weekend to Cedar Lake near the cockaponsett forest . Beautiful little lake , worth doing again. We did an uneventful 1 mile in 1 mile out hike in the cockaponsett forest. There are much cooler trails but I didn`t have maps for the area I went in , need to go back there with the Ct walk book East and do those trails.

Sunday , checked out Gardner Lake , was a bit windy and some boat traffic , Not sure Lori and I are ready for that lake , maybe later in the summer when its warmer and we have a few more trips under our belt , we went to Lake hayward nearby , a nice area but almost every parcel of land is owned and a house blots the landscape.

A few weekends prior we went to Squantz pond in New Fairfield , it was beautiful water. The park was filled with a lot of punks who were loud and obnoxious so we simply went straight to the water. Saw some turtles and an egret and explored lots of undeveloped shoreline and coves. Everything was wonderful until I lost my fishing rod while changing the lure. That sucked and ruined my life ...
O.k it didn`t ruin my life , but it did suck a lot ....

I got a tow hitch put on our new Subaru forester and picked up a bike rack , Lori and I have biked the rails to trails by our house a few times. Lori is not exactly a well seasoned bicyclist but she is picking up and eventually I`ll get her on some more interesting terrain.

Tonight we did a quick 1 hour kayak at Bolton notch park down the road from our house , its kinda cool to do that after work while the sun is setting and just floating in the water with no one else in it but a few fisherman on the side , jealous of our mobility as I snag fish after fish from pockets they cannot reach.
I didn`t actually catch fish , but that thought made me smile as the work day melted away. Beautiful.

Life is but a Memory

Memory is an imperfect thing
Flitting careless on Wispy Wings

a-morphous shadow,
camouflaged truth

Flirting among imperfect scenes
Memory Makes Distorted Dreams

A-Brightness beclouds,
retrospective lies

Memory is a wonderful dream
Fairy Fables of Familiar themes

Kettletown Park and Southford Falls - Ct

May 9th - beautiful day -- Lori and did 1.25 mile at soutford falls - southbury ct area ,pretty waterfall.
then we went to kettletown park in southbury ,ct and did 2 1/4 mile loop - the millers loop that has a little outshoot (take the blue orange trail) for a nice vista over Lake Zoar.
We then took our Kayaks out for an hour or so... active day ...fun!!!

See Kettletown Park
and Soutford Falls

A Poem of Joy - By Kevin Beary

It might itself appear
Time is not on our side
The message still unclear

Our Fear of Genocide
Of shadows and of death
Fill the voids with unrest

Finality its breath
Empty of common quests
Death reverts to shadow

Hiding that, can be seen
Inspires all that's hollow
Trading us in between

To follow light blindly
And believe in a cloud
Its will is unkindly

The hope shatters aloud
Not till our blood flows free
Will faith end misery

To reveal the secrets hidden in this poem click Here

I think we can officially say its SPRING !!!

It went from 40`s to 80`s even hitting 92 on Saturday. Everyone was out taking advantage of it. I believe that every person in New York and New England who was affected by seasonal disorder has been cured today.
I updated the Connecticut page with this weekends historic activities.

Reminder to Self

I have been cycling back and forth a bit of late and felt I need to remind myself of some bits of wisdom to obtain happiness and reach contentment. I logged most of this info on http://www.kasualkafe.com/articles/happiness.htm

Present Moment Awareness -
( my catchphrase to remind me to make sure that when a good moment is here that I immerse myself in it fully and appreciate it for what it is , etch it into your memory to comfort you in time of need)

Make peace with imperfection

Allow yourself to be bored

Look for the positive , ignore the negative

Money is not Happiness , the lack of it is not Unhappiness-
Want what you have and you will have what you want.

Just bought my Subaru Forester XT

Just Traded in my wrx for a Subaru Forester XT , picking it up on Tuesday .. SWEET !!! Next week , picking up my his and her kayaks , loading up my new turbo engined all-wheel drive small SUV with all my weekend fun gear ....fishing rods, tackle (salt and fresh), beach chairs , , picnic blankets and towels, various footballs , basketball , frisbees and what not , raquetball set , hiking bag packed with more hiking essentials than I ever will require, extra clothes should the urge to swim or hit a nice dinner or go dancing come upon us, camp chairs , tent , blow up raft , books to read , my kindle e-book reader , MP3 player , palm pilot phone , sattelite radio , GPS , - can`t forget the kayak gear , bicicyles , surf half-board and beach bag and beach umbrella ....
My book bag includes my waterfall guide books , state parks and forest books , my lake and pond fishing compendium , Connecticut walk books with full topographical maps and trail guides , various new england area books filled with attractions , restaurants etc; Maps of every new england state and New york , various delorme atlas gazetteers of all new england states showing every trail and pond and river and waterway along with GPS coordinates.

Just need to remember to stock up the vinyl cooler bag full of food and drink and POW ~~~ Instant weekend warrior ...
- need to pick up this years state park sticker and I`m all SET for that too!!!
I`ve had a Subaru wrx for over 7 yrs , a 2002 then a 2006 , I don`t like trucks , really coz of gas mileage and their just all over the place and slow and clunky and have only good handling in 4 wheel and crappy any other time. The 2009 Forester with the turbo engine is faster than the 2002 wrx I had , with all-wheel drive it handles like a car , has plenty of storage room especially with the backseats flattened yet is smaller than most SUV`s making it easy for kayak removal and better driving feel.
I sound like a commercial but I`m PSYCHED!!! to pick it up ...just in time for spring baby .... I`ve been cooped up all winter with the last month and half of driving the crappy chevy malibu rental while waiting for my car to be fixed. I dind`t want to take this car that lost traction in the rain back upstate to winter fun after an accident in my AWD wrx .......so I only skiid once this year , the worst winter season ever and we only snow shoed out of state like 2x ... Next year ...I swear I`m gonna get at least a half dozen trips in during the winter. . I mean winter sucks but it can be suffered if I get in some fun weekends skiing , snoe-shoeing , and next year we will definitely try cross-country skiing. The day of the accident (which is detailed in a previous blog) was a day we wimped out on our 1st attempt of x-country. See where that got us ? Next year -NO WIMPIN OUT ...I don`t care if its an effin blizzard ... WE DOIN IT !!
I think it was a great idea and time to trade in. We are a week or 2 away from REAL SPRING , not this 60 degree one day , 35 the next crap we`ve been dealing with. I was 20,000 over mileage on a lease , was out of warranty , would`ve need brakes by the end of the year , and even though the car looked mint ..it felt like it ran rougher and louder than before ....better off trading it in ....besides , eventually I won`t need such a fast car , even though the truck is fast ....its baby steps toward the more sensible vehicles someone pushing 40 should drive .... HELL NO I WONT GO !!! 224 HorsePower BABY !!!!

Trapped Soul

The Man
In the tapestry
Screams
Lost Breath
Caught in his throat
Frozen , Timeless
A thread
it hangs ..
Longer and L o n g e r
The unraveling of a man
continues
throughout the years
His old soul
grows cold
the thread is
heaped
upon the dusty floor
Free !!!

Obama surprises me again.

I`m just as angry as the next guy ,over AIG paying off the execs with bailout money whilst they lay off the average joe. BUT... I was amazed that the congress voted on passing a punitive tax rate of %90 on those bonuses. If this passed , what other knee-jerk angry reactions can congress enact ? I was further worried that it would be tied in to something O`Bama did want to sign.
I was thankful to read the following

--President Obama, said we cannot "govern out of anger" just because of public outrage ; he does not like the idea of "passing laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals" or using the tax code to punish people.

"Let's see if there are ways of doing this that are both legal, that are constitutional, that uphold our basic principles of fairness, but don't hamper us from getting the banking system back on track," Obama said on CBS' "60 Minutes."--

This is just one of a few times , I had heard the government was going to do "this crazy thing or enact that crazy idea" and Pres. Obama eventually sets the record straight by retorting with common sense. I don`t agree with everything the government is doing but just when I start doubting , Pres. Obama reminds me why I voted for him.

Happy St Paddys Day !!!

St. Paddys day is here .I`ll be going to work but
...I felt I should acknowledge my Irishness ...Born Kevin Patrick Beary I must give a nod to the Saint that inspired my middle initial. Thinking of myself as Irish (which is rare that I do so) makes me think of my grandfather (may he rest in peace) playing some old Clancy Bro`s records ...we would eat corned beef with cabbage and real mashed potatoes. He would also have us eat Irish Soda Bread with a THICK slab of butter on it. That was Irish to me...the drinkers in my family had long hung up their tankards by this time due to necessity.

I also must proclaim aloud my intention to renew my New Years vows ...March 15th - I will again 6/15 and 9/15th - I believe thusfar I have been successful having lost 18 pounds and continuing to work out. I intend to continue going to the gym 3-4 x a week and continuing our active weekends filled with hikes and walks.
Hopefully my 6/15th post will show my continued resolve.

I got my Amazon Kindle !!

I just received my Kindle and already have about 50 books , mostly free from various free-book sites such as manybooks.com and feedbooks and so forth. What is a kindle you say . Just go to Amazon and you`ll find out all you need to know about this coolest gadget of all gadgets. It is an e-book reader that can purchase and download books thru its own fast and FREE 3G internet service. It can easily hold 1500 books or more. An entire library in your hand. You need to see the screen to see why IPOD or Palm readers just will not cut it. I love the Kindle !!!!

UR by Stephen King

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
My first kindle book that I read thru. Stephen King writes a novella starring the KINDLE> At first the novel feels a bit contrived but he does turn it into a story. Its a quick read ...I paid $4 to download it ...it was mostly worth it for the novelty of it but I can`t say it was a bad story. He does reference a bit of History , American lit and such which I found interesting.

Kasualkafe.com


View all my reviews.

A nice little hiking trail

Never knew it was there behind busy hartford tpke in manchester ct
see the Kafe`s Connecticut page - 2/20th for info on the trail

Crashed up the REX

Went to the white mountains in New Hampshire last weekend for a 3 day snow filled adventure. It was an adventure. Day one , did some wonderful snow shoeing in Franconia Notch State Park , saw the flume - a frozen waterfall and gorge crevice - very cool. Drove down scenic Kancamagus highway and hit some trails there including another frozen waterfall - sabbaday falls. Stayed at Woodstock inn which owns a few old houses around itself- we stayed in the building across the street. It was nice ...nothing to jump for joy about. After a long day of snow shoeing - we looked forward to the health club they advertised that was within walking distance with gym equip. , pool , and hot tub. It turns out that the walking distance health club is no longer available but we were given a pass and parking certificate for the gym at Loon mountain (10 min drive) - We were given pretty inept directions , pulled onto the roadway for the mountain resort (jam-packed to all hell at 4ish with people leaving en-mass) and promptly got lost within this mass. Despite all the people leaving , the area that we believe the gym was at was completely full. All parking under garage required one to pull in , drive to the rear , realize that there are no spots , and then perform a 12 point turn in order to turn around unless you decided to slam the car in reverse around corners at breakneck speeds in frustration as was performed by myself during the 3rd or 4th attempt. I promptly screamed and cursed and tore off thru parking lots , and slammed on brakes and then slammed on gas pedal and then yelled and screamed at Lori , and cursed the witch at Woodstock inn who provided us with improper info. Went back to room , took a nap , felt better and ate a nice dinner at the Woodstock brewery. We were on diets up until this time so having a steak dinner was quite a heady experience.
After our excellent breakfast (included) we headed up north to Bretton Woods , New Hampshire for some cross country skiing. It was about 40 degrees and raining , much warmer than the previous day , but the rain was supposed to stop. As we got near Mount Washington the weather changed to ice and sleet and finally snow. As we entered bretton woods nordic center , right across from the beautiful Mount Washington Hotel , we plunged into a blizzard , high winds and driving snow. Having never cross country ski`d before , and with the winds causing the pelting snow down every nook and cranny of our outfits , we decided that this was not the day for beginners to learn to x-c ski. Yes, we wimped out.
We headed back to the hotel. My intention was to attempt going to the gym again after securing explicit directions from the inn owner. The blizzard did not relent and soon the highways were covered with slick icy snow , unmolested by plow or sand , as the storm came quick and heavy.
Apparently one can get whiplash driving at speed of only 15-20 MPH despite having 3 car lengths notice and attempted avoidance of instantaneously non-moving vehicles in front of us. We ended up the 3rd car in a 4 car pile up. There was a 5th car , we found out later , that caused this episode by sliding into a guard rail in a one lane area of the highway causing car #1 to slam on brakes to avoid hitting him , cars #2 to promptly crash into him , whilst I hit my brakes , downshifted , released brake and attempted to slide my way around car #3 ....unsucessfully ...causing # 3 car to slam into # 2 car whilst # 4 car crashed into my side. You may have noted that I said it was a 4 car pile up , that 5th vehicle drove away unscathed and unidentified. Did you catch all that ?
Everyone was o.k , Lori and I didn`t know there were any physical issues until much later and we have since recovered. Just had some stiff and uncomfortable neck issues for a few days. Front left corner of car and hood simply crumpled , battery fell out ...side doors were pushed in ...i`m guessing not totaled but the subaru WRX is Effed up. A few $60 cab rides , a partially paid rental that I can`t return in ct but must return either in NH or upstate mass (I thought enterprise was nationwide ...guess not) and a ruined weekend later , we made it home. I have no status on the car as yet as the insurance company dropped the ball on having the adjuster out to look at it. I just know its gonna cost me money. The accident is not my fault but I have a feeling its going to cost me my 1000 dollar deductible on collision. I am hoping it will be totaled so I can get a Subaru Forester (so I can put kayaks on it). Then I won`t have to drive back up to NH to get my repaired but value-diminished WRX. I expect to get screwed on this as well. I`m hoping this is one of the few times my negativity is unwarranted and inaccurate.

Politics is Frustration

We have the best political system in the world , but when you watch the wheels turn it can seem the most ridiculous and ineffectual mechanism of governing.
Obamas message of forgetting politics and getting things done was a great campaign speech but it doesn`t happen in reality. In truth 40-48 percent of government want HIM TO FAIL.. Limbaugh even said it out loud on the radio. They are rooting against America`s success. It is better for their ideology for us to suffer so they can regain power. Thats what our political system is made up of. Its kinda crazy.
It is more important for congressman to make a personal statement then to assist in creating good legislation. The republicans are going to lose their case with the stimulus and instead of working on a plan they all can live with they are simply going to go on record as opposing some aspect of it. 8 yrs ago , it was the other side hoping Bush would fail.
There is no alternative governmental system that I prefer , ours is the best system in the world , its just that even as the best , on a scale of 1-10 , it tops out as maybe a Six...
I am not exactly sure where I stand on the massive government intervention of the last year but do believe some form of stimulus is a good thing right now and just hope the ugly back and forth we see on the News will eventually bear fruit for the good of America.

cradle of filth

We went and saw cradle of filth

Its a black metal goth band that we saw at Ozzfest a few years back and loved. They are also played on XM radio a bit and we were kinda psyched to go see them , enough to drive to the Paladium in Worcester.

Now , I`ve always known that the majority of young adults in Worcester are drunken idiots , I still am always surprised at their proliferance , year after year , churning out new ones to mingle with the older drunken idiots generally found in Worcester. This show was especially filled with a multi-variety of drunken , stumbling , slurring morons. Not that we are unused to seeing a few at the many concerts we`ve been in , it just seems there are always so much more of them here , and so much drunker . There was just one such punk , who while we watched the concert from a raised platform toward the back , sat at loris feet , and promptly puked on himself.
After his escort we went on to enjoy the show until .....

They were these 3 incredibly moronic fans hovering behind us. More moronic than the usual fare. These 3 all shared the same brain cell and weren`t even bright enough to know they should fight for it. Our ape ancestors would be ashamed to call them biolgoically superior descendants. One gets used to a few yells , and hell yeahs at concerts ....after a few of those , you kinda tune it out and go enjoy the show. But it was difficult to ignore their horrifically ignorant , or obvious , or moronic remarks screamed at the top of their lungs. To give the exact details of these utterances would probably do you damage so I shall spare of such horror , but you must understand my point. I cannot begin to explain the unintelligible conversations they were having with eachother ...Looking at them did not dispel the perception one iota , they were fat , open mouthed breathing , drippy lipped slurring and seemed to be semi-retarded ...actually thats an insult to the mentally challenged. They were DUMB> Really , really dumb .... Have I made my point ridiculously clear. Well , If THEY read this rant , it would not penetrate their minds as to how dumb I proclaim them to be.

Sorry , I might have gone a little overboard on that little shpiel , HELL NO I DIDN`T..

Anyway , the show was good but not great. The sound was so-so and the lead singers mic was just not loud enough .. you couldn`t hear his yells and growls and the keyboard chics haunting voice didn`t sound as good live .... There wasn`t much theatrics like the ozzfest show which had half-naked hotty chics climbing 15 foot curtains and doing kinda strip pole stunts with them. They did have really sick looking videos and artwork depicting all sorts of depraved acts upon the curtain screen behind the band. We apparently most like their newer stuff that has more baroque orchestral sounds and keyboard with the chic backup singing to go along with the crunchy ....

First Ski weekend of the year

Feel free not to read the following because it is not interesting but I felt I must journal this episode as to remember it in the future.

Went to Stratton Mountain ,vt for the weekend and stayed at the inn on the mountain. Planned on Lori to take ski lessons but we didn`t make it in time coz it takes over an hour to get rentals ...sux
I had a relatively nice day of skiing despite the frigid temps , except towards the last hour plus of trying to get off one side of the mountain back to the main lodge , only to find myself back on a trail leading to that same wrong side of the mountain. With no exaggeration , I spent 1 hour out of 1 hour and 7 minutes either on a lift in 17 degrees weather or on a quad burning connector green trail ,skate-skiing so as to avoid an absolute standstill...
We also wimped out on the x-country ski lessons I planned on , sunday , as it was snowing and windy , and my all wheel drive subaru almost didn`t make it out of the inn`s parking lot. Took three attempts to get up the icy hill... We ended up doing some snow shoeing instead at Fort Dummer state park in brattleboro , vt and had a nice lunch in greenfield , mass ...a quaint college town that may or may not have a college.
We even hit the gym that sunday evening when we got home , and I did 24 laps in the pool (brando told me I should swim and he was right) which is probably the most swimming i`ve done since I was a kid (I passed a lifeguard test as a young punk but never bothered lifeguard-ering) - So despite not eating all that wonderful (we did pack some good for us food but had difficulty with dinner options) I lost another pound ... I`m officially 5 pounds lighter than when we started dieting , Jan 5th. Lori , complainedly , only managed to avoid gaining weight over the weekend weighing in at .......____(yeah right , she`d kill me)

Fat til the Fifth !!!

Lori and I during the holidays have decided that we werent going to make our selves crazy worrying about calorie intake. We have been going to the gym relatively regularly , but have not been eating consistently well. So , Lori came up with FAT TIL CHRISTMAS !!! Woohoo , all worries are tossed out the window , anytime we considered skipping ...say ...french fries with a burger we yell Fat til Christmas , and doggone it ...order them damn fries.
Its such a liberating feeling to relieve oneself of the guilt associated with naughty food choices. Simply exclaim our Mantra , sometimes very loudly and in a high pitched voice , FAT TIL XMAS !!!! and order away , or submerge it in oil , or bathe it in butter , or smother it with sausage gravey ... woohooo Fat til hmmmm.....
We realized that it is still holiday season after xmas , after all Lori and I are off work most of new years week... fat til xmas will not work. There is still a week of holiday before the obligatory new years resolutions. Aha !!!
FAT TIL NEW YEARS !!! - heee haww !!!
And Fat til new years became the new thought of the day , the new style , the new fit (or not so fit). Fat til New Years lasted until ...about ....New Years.
Now.... Hungover , with more Vacation time til we have to get back to full work weeks ,starting on Monday , Jan 5th....We realized that another change must be implemented , one that truly fulfils our goals and expresses our deepest feelings. .
FAT TIL THE FIFTH --- Yes , thats it , we do not need to deny ourselves in the face of a FAT breakfast following a night of drinking. AFter all , how can one diet when hung over. Need to eat those queasies away. So Fat til the fifth it is.
We did consider FAT til February but felt that may be pushing it. As it is ,it is feasible that we will for all that be Fat til February despite our fortuitous attempts of
de-fat-ifying from the Fifth Forward.