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The small town christmas in bl*ssburg event was very successful. I scored this cute record bowl, maple cotton candy, regular maple candy, fudge in a cookie cutter, and some cute ornaments. I really wanted these cool lights but didn't have sufficient cash.

I could put it on my card... But at $1.35/draft, it seems silly.

We built a little ice rink today for our super cute Christmas festival
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My brother and Shane put down the underlayer


The top layer is white plastic that gets lubed up to skate on. Shane picked it up in Cheektowaga on Wednesday.


Tonya was extremely persistent in getting this project together - she got to be the first skater. She and her husband Tom had their first date ice skating.



I skated and it started snowing - it was really a fun moment. (photo by Julie)


Mataya & Liam skated


Mataya climbed a tree


More pix tomorrow after the event!

By far my favorite shot of the day - Myra Kreger is the chief of the (all volunteer) ambulance company and she was tickled to show off the new ambulance they just bought. Her mom taught me to sew as a kid - I have very special memories of Peg's house.





I took this shot at 8:16am and am posting it just as proof of awakeness. I am rarely awake at that uncivilized time of day and I had forgotten how beautiful the light can be as it's peeking over the mountain.


The mayor has a new little scooter thingy that I got to ride around the parking lot for a minute.


My brother also took it for a spin.


Mayor and one of the county commissioners.


The fire & ambulance department just bought a new "Jaws of Life" set. They cost $40,000. The department donated their old set to an even smaller fire department in the west side of the county.


The department gave a demonstration and demolished this car in under 30 minutes.




The Masonic lodge gave the department a check for $1,500 and had an open house in their secret space above the auto parts store. It's the first time I've been in there since I was a very young child. My grandmother and uncle lived across the hall from the lodge room (the baby is my uncle's grandchild). I really liked the lighting and casual pile of top hats.



My littlest cousin.


and his grandmother



Sue participated in the hot dog eating contest with one of her sons, sold out of all the yummy egg rolls, noodles and fried rice that she made, and then won the pie-baking contest!







My friend Jennie's daughter Skye grumpily showing me her new tattoo. Sometimes Jennie makes me wish I was a good girl...


Patrick (one of the folks who lost his house in the fire I wrote about in June) ate 15 hot dogs to be the new champion.



Part of the crowd watching the hot dog eating contest.




More pix here

My reporter pal Jason took this video of the jaws of life demo:

My hometown fall festival is tomorrow noon to 5. Hot dog contest registration is at 1:30, eating starts at 2. Be there!

Here it is! It's so goofy!

Jill & I have almost finished our save our schools youtube video. It has super low production values, and is kind of an analog take on the story of stuff videos. When it's done, I'll post it. Featuring my hand and Jill's voice, drawings and toys. This is what happens when a pre-k teacher and a lawyer get together!

The past 48 hrs have been illustrative of my crazy life:

Yesterday, Tioga County Bar Association lunch at a country club - iceberg lettuce in the only salad available, then a trip up to Morris Run (pronounced Mor'shrun, where I lived till I was 13) to get A's gifted car from the mechanic, someone I went to school with. A significant number of twenties changed hands and A now has a functional, registered and inspected vehicle that gets more than 11 mpg. To the office where Nisha and I watched the chickens and I fixed up Jill's new laptop. Back to the country club for dinner with the lawyers - feeling rather sophisticated in comparison, except for the commercial litigator from Pittsburgh who at one point had a DAILY commute between Pittsburgh and LA. More freakin' iceberg lettuce, this time with an icky raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Then pasta primavera with icky soggy veggies. I should prolly be grateful they weren't from a can? Back to A's house - he made me actual food. Today, I drove back to Buffalo after 9 days in PA, longest I've been there in four years. Kaydara for dinner - super yummy! - and then a bike ride to Silo City.

I have a bipolar life.

Birdland Road


A weekend of forest wandering, moon watching, sleeping, and reading dragon stories, I'm starting to unwind and reflect.

I have been kicking myself since Friday night that I didn't bring my camera. I still took a ton of shots with my phone anyway. I skimmed it down to this set - some are pretty awful shots but I wanted to illustrate the story.

Friday night, A and I went to Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County, PA. Map. What a gorgeous night. It was a blue moon and right after the death of Neil Armstrong, so they played a discovery channel video of the Apollo 11 mission. I can't find a link to it. All those white men smoking cigarettes in the control room. The incredible bravery to have your life depending on the equivalent computing power of the phone in your pocket. Actually my phone might be able to calculate trajectories on the fly and their computer couldn't. Neil Armstrong had 17 seconds of fuel left when he landed the Eagle. The astronauts had instruction manuals that they read while performing tasks.

The park educator had three telescopes set up, he guided at one, and volunteers worked the others. There were only about 25 people there, so we got to ask him good questions and learn neat stuff and look at the moon as much as we wanted. I definitely want to go back on a weeknight new moon with my camera. I want to take shots like these.

Saturday afternoon we traveled down the Pine Creek Gorge, one of my favorite routes. As cranky as I was from being in the truck so long and not having eaten, it actually made the whole trip worth it to see that moonrise from the top of a mountain.


Sunday we went to Loyalsock State Forest. Of course gas drilling threatens or has harmed all these places. This Saturday there's a protest at Rock Run by the Responsible Drilling Alliance's Keep It Wild campaign. The river cuts through the bedrock and has made fantastic sculptures. There are few small stones or pebbles. (I have a lovely chapter from the Tao Te Ching in mind but my Ursula K. LeGuin version is in Buffalo.)

I love this keyhole.

Looking upstream

Looking downstream from same spot.


We then traveled the road up to the McIntyre Wild Area and on the direction of a pair of old men who gave us some history of the town that had been there, we walked to the Bandstand Rock, where you can see for miles across and down the valley. The old men told us that a brass band would play up there for holidays and could be heard down in the valley. We just missed seeing the sunset - clouds rolled in during the 10 minute walk. As we were driving back down the mountain, we saw the men pulled over so we thanked them for the directions and they told us more history about the cemetery and one of the other creeks. And then they handed us Christian literature. :-p

Cloudy sunset with windmills - across the valley


Valley views - looking southish down PA Route 14

I got on my stomach and wiggled out to the edge of the cliff to take a shot directly down. It's far and kept making my tummy flip. I couldn't get anything for perspective unfortunately.



Big foot little foot


I spent Monday reading dragon stories and cuddling with Nisha.


My camera is moving to Tioga County.

A client had eight garbage bags full of cotton candy in his office today. A friend had told him she had about five bags leftover from an event she had planned... He thought she meant five single serving bags. Oops.