Enter The Kasual Kafe

01/01/10

2010-01-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Jan 1st , 2010 - the beginning of next decade of ALL of OUR lives ..

I have to say , 2010 has not started off with a bang. New Years Eve plans were underwhelming , I wimped out on booking a long ski weekend due to cost and fear of missing out on something cool happening locally (bad call) -
Lori and I went to Hartford for "first night hartford" where there was supposed to be art , entertainment and Happenings to keep us occupied before and after the 6pm fireworks at the park ...we then intended on drinking and eating our way thru hartford until midnight fireworks.
The entertainment at the the state house and the Wadsworth and the Hartford Public library were all kind of hokey and crowded and confusing ...we went to a regular bar coz the cool eats places were closed(tapas on ann , closed , Koji Yakitori -not open yet) , hiked on down to the bushnell , near the soldiers arch and saw some surprisingly good fireworks...that cheered us up and we sped off in the wet and the cold to Agave for some margaritas and made-in-front-of-you guacomole.... a few more margaritas ...some ceviche ....and suddenly its almost 7:30 pm -- only 4+ hours to kill....
So we went home. We picked up some Plum wine and cinnamon ....Lori made a nice crab dip ....and we drank and ate and entertained eachother until 11 ish when we turned on Dick Clarks New Years Eve party. It seemed to Lori and I that Dick Clark looks really creepy , and drugged sounding , he speaks but his face doesn`t move right. I think he is kept in a hyperbaric chamber year-round and only re-animated during New Years specials. I then googled him and found out he had a stroke a few years back , so yeah ...i`m a big Dick for making fun of him...

This AM , slept in a bit and then headed out to Gay City Park in Hebron ct - (yeah , I know ...the park was named in a different time for a man named John Gay...)
We had a quick 2 mile hike ....felt good as we got back to the car until Lori noticed the glass on the ground next to it. The passenger side window was broken in and her pocketbook stolen. THey didn`t touch my wallet , the gps , nor the xm-radio so that was good but Lori`s drivers license , credit and debit cards , some gift cards , and misc. but very important to here pocketbook things and stuff are gone. We cancelled all cards , put credit watches on our names , lined up a glass guy for my car and then we went out and stuffed our faces full of food at little marks bbq ...I haven`t had French fries in over a year (intentionally) and planned on having my 1st plate of fries at this Canadian diner Chez Ben that serves poutine. Unfortunately they are renovating so I had to settle for loaded Tater Tots ... I still reserve my right to have poutine before I resume my dietary ban of all things fried and frenched.
Earlier , I felt like the whole decade was ruined but It is possible that I am being melodramatic. I am confident that there will be many better days than today and a few worse ones over the course of this next decade. That can be said for ALL of US.
I wish any unfortunate soul , who felt obliged to plow through this particularly uninteresting and slightly depressing log , a very happy new year , and better luck than we have thus far experienced.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-12-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T20:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T19:04:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-03T17:54:00.001-07:00

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 ?

2009-07-29T19:04:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-14T16:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-14T16:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

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 !!!

2009-04-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

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.