snap this–

i have always been a big windows fan– i have every version since 1 and since it first showed that crumpled paper background with windows printed upon it and also the tilted chess board which always reminded me of "through the looking glass"– i am the type of fan that upon getting a new windows version on a new pc, i then uninstall it just to see how my older version works on the new machine– i have to admit, i loved the win 3.1 version and i am one of the few who liked vista but what would i know because i also liked windows me– in short i am a windows geek–

however, . . i also use linux and bsd extensively, and have been pondering a move to mac in the past year– i was fortunate to try the beta to windows 7 and primarily enjoyed the stripped down lighter feel but i am sure that is gone now in the full release– i was surprised when i saw a commercial tonight about windows 7 in which they highlighted a "new" feature called "snap"– i realized the decision for my next computer had been made– i was also further surprised as i realized that we obviously had pre-pre-beta versions on both our xp and vista machines as we already had the snap feature–

i know there is a lot of hype over this new windows os but really . . . snap???  that’s what microsoft has been working on for the past four years???  ridiculous–  if this is what people want then i would hate to see what they dislike–  moving and resizing a window with a mouse is obviously more then most can handle– 

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passing through

bear in laramie, wy

my brother sent me the following pics of a bear that someone caught on camera in laramie– someone obviously wasn’t wearing their bell–

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the gathering continues

like a bird on a wire . . .

. . . like a drunk in a midnight choir

i have tried in my own way to be free . . . .

leonard cohen

fall picture– morning at abbey lane

and the bears . . .

when i was a younger man i had the opportunity to experience the adirondack park in one of the many camping areas– i stayed a night in a pup tent at lewey lake– it was a memorable night because i was awake the entire night, frozen in terror as a black bear sniffed the outside of the tent and walked back and forth over my renault le-car where the food was–

i often recall this story while re-exploring the adirondacks and shared it with family this year while vacationing there– there was some good natured joking of my fear of bears and while at a nearby store in speculator called charlie john’s i picked up a “bear bell” which is basically a sleigh bell in a mesh sack with a magnet– the magnet keeps the bell from ringing when not in use– there was laughter about the bell and i saved it as a souvenir of the trip– last night my step-son joshua sent me the following–

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woodland creatures

for my grandson– hopefully it won’t traumatize him for life–
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phoenicia cont., ken lovelett

during our brief stay in phoenicia, alan, the proprietor of babytoes.com, who we met at 60 main a community store, was an unofficial gracious host for the town– he recommended wonderful eating establishments, like sweet sue’s, shared his time and humor with us and also introduced us to some wonderful people–

we had been to a garlic festival in saugerties, ny (another story in itself) and we returned to phoenicia where we were staying to end the night– we wanted to look at the stores again that we had seen earlier in the day and again we ran into alan who was standing outside his store at 60 main a community store–

now to be quite honest i am not sure if 60 main a community store represents all the individual stores that are in the immediate area or just alan’s store babytoes– however, they are all wonderful and have friendly staff– i personally liked the art gallery which first drew me in with it’s metal structure–

however, it was upon our return to the town when alan suggested that we come into his store because the maker of a drum that i had been admiring earlier was present and perhaps we could talk to him–

this was my introduction to ken lovelett– appearing to be a quiet man like myself, he began after brief introductions to explain the lap drum, some of his
other creations and his bellatope– i am normally slow to take to people yet his intensity in his profession really intriqued me and i felt as though i was talking with a long lost friend– he mentioned his various businesses, americanpercussion.com and sonartrecordingstudio.com and he talked some more about his personal experiences–

i began to find myself lost in the conversation just listening to him with my own mind running simultaneously and suddenly he was talking about a guitarist and he said the name mederick– i thought that i had misunderstood him but then he said the name mederick again– my jaw dropped and i asked him, are you talking about mederick bellaire? his jaw dropped also and we laughed for what were the chances that there were two medericks that played the guitar– i told ken that mederick was my first guitar teacher and that we used to go to see him play when i lived in rhode island– we talked about how we knew who and just enjoyed the serendipity of it all–

in all seriousness i could have sat and listened to ken talk all night and felt that i was truly sitting in the presence of someone whose mind was moving at an incredible pace–

in summation it was a memorable visit, we met some truly wonderful people and i know that phoenicia will be on our map from now on–

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sweet sue’s

sweet sue’s– my wife just asked “how are you going to explain that place?” well, like this–

if you are in phoenicia for breakfast and you have the time . . . go there!! ask no questions, be patient and as advised take one stack of pancakes and not any more– sit still and watch the entertainment–

we were lucky because when we walked in there was a table available right at the front door– the restaurant was packed and a hostess that reminded me of the host at the prancing pony in bree was in total control– it appeared that she knew who was where, who was waiting, who was content and who was not– i was amazed that such a busy restaurant was functioning as well as it was– kathleen attempted to ask her if in fact she was sue but either she didn’t hear or she was to preoccupied with the ten plus patrons that were waiting to be seated–

personally, i would stress if you are an impatient sort to whom breakfast is a mere routine and you are looking for a more quiet atmosphere . . . don’t go to sweet sue’s– but of course . . . you will miss the excellent food–

after kathleen and i entered sweet sue’s and got over the initial shock of so many people in what we were assuming was a somewhat small town, our attention was caught by the food orders that were going past us– our eyes popped out and we laughed knowing why alan at 60 main had stated one stack– sweet sue’s serves pancakes that are almost as large as a regular plate–

i ordered “the red monkey’s” which consisted of two large pancakes surrounding strawberries and bananas– excellent!

kathleen had lemon ricotta pancakes– buttermilk pancakes covered with pecan and huge raspberries that were blemish free–

we had noticed that the waitresses kept taking containers to the patrons and shortly into
breakfast we discovered why– although we thought we could finish breakfast neither of us got any further then half through– the waitresses knowingly brought containers without being asked–

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