I had a wonderful time at the party Friday night! Thank you so much, (e:pmt)!!!! I had so much fun meeting everyone! Especially (e:tinypliny) :-)

I love the video (e:james) posted at (e:james,46428) Here's a happy shiny one for contrast:

I went home a couple weeks ago. (Thanks, (e:janelle), for watching China Cat Sunflower!) It felt so good to be there! Hanging out with Jill & Kelly (and Nisha) at the office,



with Uncle Dudley at her house,



with A and the kids,



and J&R, and my favorite plumber (picture not appropriate!)...

Then trying to keep the town grocery store owners happy with appropriately responsive property management, meeting with clients... folks who love and appreciate me, in stark contrast to my loneliness and isolation here ((e:strip) helps and I know it takes time to establish friendships, I'm just whining a little). I had my puppy with me the whole weekend!

I took some time away from friends & family to visit one of my favorite spots, a swimming hole called Pirate's Rock. I doubt there were ever pirates on the Tioga River. Nisha fell in the creek (that's pronounced "crick," btw) and had trouble getting out. My goal is to help her be an ATP (all-terrain poodle) and help her feel confident in and near the water so I made her get out by herself. Last summer she swam all the way across!



It was just slightly too late in the day to get sunlight sparkling on the water but the trees were just about peak color. (I'm not particularly happy with the photos, I was having a bad camera day, I guess.)








At the deepest point of the swimming hole, the water is usually slightly over my head. At this point it's at least 3.5', but you can't tell from looking at it.




The next day, also gorgeous and sunny, I went up to the highway (US Route 15) and took pictures from the side of the road.


Overlooking the town "recreation complex" as I refer to it in grant applications, locally known as Island Park. (Not really an island, what's up with these misleading placenames?) It has the high school football field, tennis courts, basketball court, baseball, softball & Little League fields, playgrounds, pavilions and the swimming pool. The football booster club installed lighting to have night games in 1997 ($250,000) and in 2002, I think, new bleachers (another $250,000!). The pool will be undergoing renovation/rehabilitation next year ($600,000 with about $300,000 in state & federal grants).



I just happened to catch a beautiful moonrise.



Here's looking at the mountain ridges south of town.



The middle of this picture is the former borough hall, in use from 1900 to 1999, when it was abandoned by the borough. My friend Brendyn bought it for $1,111.11 and rehabbed it with two retail units downstairs and four amazing apartments upstairs. His mom made stained glass windows for the top of the arched windows and over the big main doorway that used to be where the firetrucks were kept. Both the houses I lived in during the past 5.5 years are in the picture, too!



Nisha really wanted to come back with me and I was very sad to have to leave her in Tioga County.

This video is just too cute - Ron Howard, Andy Griffith and Fonzie endorse Obama...





or



(thanks to WharfRat )

I really want to write a big long post about the constitutional history of voting rights, how those issues played out in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections and how they are playing out this year. Unfortunately, all I have time for is this little note saying I -want- to, because I need to read for school instead of having interesting (e:strip) political conversations. It's very frustrating that there's no real writing in school, only a big fat final exam in each class. Yep, one test. Completely anonymous so in-class participation doesn't count. The classes are 85 people anyway - twice the size of my high school graduating class. Bleh.

So, in lieu of interesting constitutional discussion, here's an awesome, heartbreaking video about voter suppression in Ohio in 2004.