Sunday, November 11th, 2007
We were going to go for a hike this afternoon, but I feared the ground would be swampy when we got to our destination. I wanted to hike down to a pond a few acres away. I think we’ll get to that another day, but for today, we stuck with our usual walk down the road.
I have to say, for all those people who put off hiking in the summer because it’s too hot, today was the day for you. Weather.com tells me it’s 44 degrees outside…perfect for walking or hiking. No sweating and no freezing. Just perfect.
In an unusual move, I thought I would bring the camera along. It’s nice and sunny, so I knew the photos would come out nicely. Wanna see a few?
This is a piece of property down the road that both Laura and I are very jealous of. I am not sure how many acres it is, but they have a pond, a grassy area, a main house and another house out back. They also have a table and chairs set up near the back of the pond. I would like to drink my morning coffee there.
Moving further along, there is a river that flows pretty much along the entire road. When Rob came up to visit a while ago, we looked for salamanders under the rocks in this river.
This is Laura’s favorite house on this road. It’s an old white farm-ish type house. It’s hard to see back there, but what I was trying to get a picture of was the nice driveway and Pacasandra planted off to the right.
I just had to grab this one on our way back. The sun was hitting it and the leaves were bright yellow. Also, this is a great stone house to look at.
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Oh yeah. Here it is…the moment you have all been waiting for…the funniest thing that ever happened in my life - #1.
What happened to number 3 and 2? Well, as you can clearly see, I have had a little trouble with motivation. I thought I would jump to number one and then follow up with the others later. Trust me, they are almost as funny.
You know the times when you just laugh and laugh? If it’s during dinner, you usually blow milk out of your nose. Yeah, I remember those times. They don’t roll around that often anymore, but when they do, they feel really good. If you get a stomach ache, even better.
Craig owns a tree service. He has probably run it for fifteen years. One of the main problems he has is finding good employees. Things are smoothing out now, but locating good workers has always been a tough hunt.
Early on, it was even harder. Sometimes a customer would call up and want a job done. Craig, being eager to please and equally as eager to make money, sometimes had some tough choices to make. Should he hire a full time professional, or…err…just get the job done. That’s where Rob and I came into play. Can you guess which choice we were? Yeah, we would bust on the scene and clean house.
Oh, how many times we have heard, “I will never work the two of you together again in my life.” Even that statement made me chuckle because I knew I would be standing in his driveway at 7AM the next morning, smelling the diesel burn, while his truck warmed up. In a few minutes Craig would walk out of the house and ask, “Where’s Robert?” I would say, “I don’t know.” “He’s in bed, that’s where he is. Let’s go get him,” Craig would say. I always knew Rob was awake and just running late, but I liked to make waves. For some twisted reason, I always got a kick out of watching Robert get yelled at by Craig. Craig was always yelling and Rob was always trying to explain his way out of it. I really wish you could meet these two guys.
This particular morning was a very nice one. It was summertime and it was a perfect day to work…warm enough in the morning, but cool enough not to sweat all that much. We had a small job to do in Westchester before lunch and then another one across from one of Westchester’s many reservoirs after.
There we were, sitting in Rob’s driveway, honking the horn. “This guy, I swear,” Craig said. “What’s up with Robert, anyway?” I was sitting there thinking to myself, “Why do you call him Robert?” A few moments passed and Rob flew out of the basement door and ran towards the truck. Craig couldn’t stay mad at Rob for too long. I’m not sure anyone can. I hopped out of the truck to give Rob the middle seat. He never complained because he knew how much I liked to sit near the window. Craig put the truck in reverse and we started heading toward Sunoco, down in town, for breakfast.
Craig always bought. He probably still does today. That’s just the way he rolls. I could win the lotto and Craig would still grab the check. This always happened, except for one time when Craig, Laura and I were in Vermont. Craig informed me that I was paying for dinner while he was in the middle of ordering another main course. He and Laura were drunk. She was trying to cut her pork chop, when it flung on the floor (carpet). Craig leaned over and picked it up. He put it on his plate and proceeded to eat it. That is another story for another time.
As usual, Rob and I were standing at the counter ordering our bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. This guy at Sunoco always made the best sandwiches. This, of course, was before the time when the guy handed Rob and sandwich and informed him that the eggs were “a little gooey.” Rob didn’t like that very much and never ordered another sandwich from that gas station again. This morning was different. We ordered our sandwiches while Craig filled the tanks of the truck and chipper with fuel. What’s wrong with this picture…we order breakfast that Craig will pay for while he works…
Anyway, we hopped in the truck and started to eat. We slowly made a left turn out of the parking lot and headed down the road towards town. Craig always said he didn’t want a sandwich, but continuously asked Rob for a bite of his. This was during the era of “Mustache Craig” and one of the other reasons I liked to sit near the window. Rob would hand Craig his sandwich and I would watch Craig take a big, wet bite out of it and hand it back to Rob. I always watched Rob look at the sandwich…inspecting it to see if there were any mustache hairs in it. Poor Rob’s stomach is easily turned and I’m sure this would’ve been it for him.
I don’t remember the first job all that much. We probably did our thing and got in a fight. That was typical. Craig would scold us in the truck and express the importance of not yelling at any passing cars or people while there was a huge sign with his business name and phone number on the side of it. I guess he was right. We would go eat lunch at some deli and take a nap for a few minutes. The hardest thing was always trying to get up from laying on the ground under some apple tree on the deli’s property. I always dreaded what job was next.
I used to hate the days with two jobs. I wanted to go to one, get it done and leave. I wanted to go home, take a cool shower and then walk out in the road a few minutes later in my nice, clean jeans and no shirt. Craig would usually stumble out of his house a little while later and we would discuss current events. Rob? I am not sure we would see Rob again until the next morning.
We pulled straight in the driveway of the customer’s house, stopped and put the truck in reverse. We backed out to park on the side of the road.
I remember the job well. The house was big and beautiful…typical Northern Westchester. It was white with some stone work. The driveway was a straight incline, aimed directly at the house. There was a large oak tree in the front yard and across the street was a reservoir. Along the road was a row of tall pines. That was our job…to remove some of the pine trees. I am not sure why. Perhaps they were too tall? Blocking the view? Who knows… Yet, we were there to get the job done.
We worked for a few hours until the hard part of the job was completed. I really think we worked well during that portion of the day. There were no incidents. Craig would cut the brush from the tree while Rob and I would drag each branch to feed it to the chipper. It was grunt work…that was part of the problem with finding good employees.
When the big stuff was done, it was always time to clean up. This is what separates the men from the boys. Some companies come to your house, make a mess and leave it there. Real companies leave your place the way they found it, or better. We were a real company.
There were usually some tools we would use to clean up a property…rakes, a big barrel for sticks and a backpack blower. You know the kind of backpack blower I am talking about…it straps to your back and you hold the tube in your right hand and walk around like a tornado. They are pretty fun to operate.
Rob and I would usually race to get to the backpack blower. Whoever got to it first was the lucky one because they could just walk around blowing things off, while acting like some sort of a supervisor. The unlucky one would get stuck raking and filling that awful barrel with sticks and leaves. The heavy barrel had to be emptied in the back of the truck multiple times, which really sucked.
This particular day, I made it to the backpack blower first. Yes, I was the lucky one. Rob grudgingly grabbed the rake and barrel. We worked for about fifteen minutes. There wasn’t all too much to rake up, because the trees were right off the road. This put Rob in a good mood. I just walked around the whole time, happy as a woodpecker, blowing off the driveway and road. We were both eyeing one another, looking for a cue that our clean-up job was good enough.
One of the most annoying things about tree work is wood dust on your clothes and skin. The dust would get on you and make you very uncomfortable. It would make you itch and scratch. The wood dust, mixed with a good dose of body odor, wasn’t much fun. Rob and I, while working with Craig, had a long standing tradition of using the backpack blower to blow the dust off one another at the end of each job. Now, you have to remember that this backpack blower is very strong. If it is pointed at your face, it could make your skin ripple. This day was no different than any other, so I began to blow off Rob’s clothes and hair with the blower.
Rob must’ve gotten drunk the night before, because he did something very odd. Right at the point when I was pretty much done cleaning him off, he bent over and looked right at me. He opened his mouth and told me to point the blower at his face, so the air would fill up his mouth and make his cheeks really big. I guess he wanted to act like a dog, hanging his face out the car window, while driving at 120 MPH. I didn’t really understand why he wanted me to do this, but who was I to argue with Rob, who was just trying to have a little fun at the end of a hard day’s work? The real question was why Rob would trust me to do this. Did he really think I was going to simply point the blower at his face and then walk away without doing anything else? To this day, I wonder what gave Rob the impression that I wouldn’t mess with him. Poor Rob.
I had a little stirring in my stomach as I raised the end of the blower tube up to Rob’s face. I just couldn’t believe that it was actually Rob’s idea for me to do what I was about to do. In neighboring towns, you couldn’t pay someone to let you do what I was doing.
I lowered the throttle and began to lift the tube to Rob’s face. He looked so eager. He thought he was a genius. He had such passion in his soul. His cheeks have never been as big as they were about to be. His eyes were wide. He was just thrilled. I raised the tube and pointed it right at Rob’s mouth. His cheeks immediately filled with air and expanded like a hot air balloon. YEAH, he was doing it…ROB WAS DOING IT!!! He was flying high, higher than he has ever flown. I raised the throttle to full speed and the force of air got much stronger. It was like a rush of water being forced out of a fire hose. If you put your finger right next to the stream of air, you would feel nothing. If you moved your finger a quarter of an inch towards the air flow, your finger would flip backwards. The end of the tube was about a foot away from Rob’s mouth. I am sure there has never been more air in anyone’s mouth in this part of the state. Rob’s cheeks were huge and his hair was blowing around like he just jumped out of an airplane at 30,000 feet.
Then I spit. Right in the air flow.
Yes, you read correctly. Maybe it was Rob’s nice parents who raised him to look at all the good in the world…to trust others. Why Rob didn’t think I was going to do this is probably best left for the great thinkers of our time.
Thwap…right to the back of poor Rob’s throat. We had been drinking sports drink throughout the entire day, so there was some good ammo.
I think I started giggling even before I let the beast out of my mouth. My knees were shaking from all the joy I was about to experience.
At the moment of impact, Rob’s head snapped upward and his eyes bulged at least a half inch larger than normal. His whole world came crashing down around him. I can only imagine the thoughts shooting around in Rob’s head at that moment…”What just happened? Where’s Craig? Who am I?” The molecules in Rob’s head were bouncing around in overdrive. Our eyes met and Rob’s look of question turned to horror as the whole idea of what just happened began to gel. A look of betrayal quickly took the place of horror.
I couldn’t believe I hit the target. The chances of this adventure actually being executed this perfectly in someone’s lifetime are statistically nonexistent. My lips began to quiver as every muscle in my body lost its strength. My legs slightly gave out as I burst into the heartiest laughter I have ever experienced. Rob began to run.
He followed his instincts. Earlier in the day, he noticed a hose attached to a spicket on the side of the house. He ran towards it with me in tow. I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t turn the throttle on the blower down. There I was, chasing Rob up the driveway with the backpack blower on full blast. The tube of the blower was whipping around like a garden hose turned to full with no one holding the end of it. It was like one of the snakes on Medusa’s head having a spasm. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. I almost didn’t make it.
I wanted to see what Rob was going to do with the water. How he kept from swallowing the whole run up the driveway, I don’t know. Rob grabbed the hose and turned it on. The angels were on Rob’s side that day because water started flowing out of the hose. Can you imagine if the hose didn’t work? Rob shoved the end of the hose into his mouth for a few minutes until there was nothing more he could do. I stood there laughing; now with the blower on idle. I turned it off and hovered over him, looking at a mere shell of what once was a strong and vibrant friend. His face was all wet and dripping with water. He was completely beaten down. Who knew that such a promising day could end like this? We walked back down to the truck.
The good thing about Rob is that he never stays mad for very long. We probably made up within minutes and things probably returned to normal. I am not sure if he is aware of the gift he gave me that day…the gift of experiencing the absolute, number one, funniest thing that ever happened in my short stay on this planet.
Now that the job was complete, we walked over to Craig and asked him if he needed us to work the next day. Craig replied, “I will never work the two of you together again in my life.”
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
This is getting pretty bad. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I noticed there was snow on the ground and immediately thought about writing a blog post about it. Yes, I probably should pursue therapy.
In any event, yes, it did snow last night. It was the first snow of the season for us in this part of New York. It actually hasn’t been cold really and there are still leaves on the trees…green ones on some. That strikes me as weird. Laura keeps telling me they are on the trees until after Thanksgiving. It’s nice to have a little brain so closeby.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, there was more snow on the ground. I guess some of it melted. I have to say, the sight of snow does give you a nice feeling. With all the Christmas commercials on TV these days, it is starting to feel like the season. Also, just a word of warning, these are the days that I start dreaming. These are the days of reflection on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I probably think this way because snow calms me down and gives me some breathing room.
We have had the pellet stove burning for most of the month of November and some of October. I am so happy we got this stove. It’s clean and very easy to operate. Gone are the days of splitting wood, dust and a mess in the house. I don’t think I will ever forget all the bark in the living room when I was a kid. I did like burning it though.
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Well, Laura did anyway.
She was letting Holly, the dog, back inside this evening, (which is now dark by the way) when she heard something in the leaves. She told me about it and grabbed the flashlight. I told her I was going to go out the front door and we would surround whoever was out there. Somehow, Laura ended up going out the front door with me. I don’t think she heard me. So much for surrounding the enemy. Either way, we walked out onto the front porch and saw their eyes sparkle in the moonlight…two hungry deer.
I ran out on the lawn and watched (and heard) them run away into the neighbor’s yard across the street. That’ll teach ‘em. Yeah, right. I walked downstairs and grabbed my big sprayer full of deer spray and had my way with all the trees on the property. Now, the whole place stinks to high heaven.
Tomorrow, I will wrap the trees with fencing.
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
I know, I know, I complain about the same thing every year.
I kept forgetting to spray my three new crabapple trees with the Liquid Fence deer repellent spray. I sprayed them before, but it seems like every time I do, there are heavy rain showers. Even though the spray claims to stay on in the rain, everyone knows that is just a dream. By the way, if you are going to buy this spray, purchase the concentrated bottle. It goes a much longer way than the other pre-mixed stuff.
So, the deer have been nibbling on the end tree. I thought the other two trees were a different breed that the deer weren’t interested in, because they weren’t touched. Well, this morning, I noticed that the trees were bare. When I say bare, I mean the wood was eaten too. The damn deer even broke a few branches to get to the leaves at top.
I love animals, but at this point and want to strangle these deer. Today I am going to the Depot to get some of that see-through black deer fencing. I will take a picture for you.
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Saturday, October 6th, 2007
It has been a very dry Autumn. It has rained only once in as long as I can remember. My memory isn’t that great though. The one time it did rain was a heavy downpour for a few minutes. You know, the kind of rain that rolls right off the hard dirt?
I have been out watering each night, trying to keep my young trees from drooping. I like them fresh looking. Now, if I can just keep those annoying hungry deer away from the bottom branches, I will be set.
Anyway, I wanted to show you a nice Red Maple in the front yard. It’s strange…usually, the leaves just change color and drop. This year, because it’s so dry, some leaves actually are getting crunchy right on the branches and then dropping. Weird. It better rain soon. Here is the photo…
The leaves around here are very pretty right now. I would say they are in the first half. I have seen very few trees with all their leaves down.
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Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
I thought it might be a good idea to give some mad props to my sister, Laurie. True, she is not part of the “Young Astronauts” program, but she’s ok anyway.
Laurie took some very nice photos of the dogwood trees in her front yard. I thought they were good enough to publish on one of the hottest sites on the world wide web. Here they are, let me know if you think she has a future in this stuff.
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
This morning’s drive was a mixed bag…sunny in some parts and foggy in the rest. I thought I got some really cool shots of the fog, but they ended up to be just gray.
If I was able to stop on the side of the road today, I think I would have been able to get some really interesting photos. There was cool fog mixed with the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge and some clouds were hanging about half way up Mount Beacon. Since I was on the highway, I thought I would look like a herb pulling over to take pictures. Also, I probably would’ve been killed by that one 85 pound woman driving that huge Suburban all alone. I thought it was a bus.
Anyway, to the pictures. One of them actually has some leaf change…
Ok, this isn’t the one with the leaf change. It’s a pretty picture of a field. Remember, this isn’t too easy to do while driving. I think whoever was driving behind me probably thought I was drunk.
Here is another good shot of some trees.
This is the one with some color change. Right in the center of the photo, you will notice a little something peeking out. Actually, there was some action today, but I didn’t get too much of it. I will have to make more of an effort next time.
I thought this was pretty neat. I was sitting on Rt.208 in Montgomery, waiting to turn left to get on Interstate 84, when I looked to the left. Up on the wires were some birds. Since it was cloudy, I was able to get a nice pic right into the sun.
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Saturday, September 15th, 2007
What a weird feeling I had all day. The temperature feels like it’s around 60 degrees and it’s quite breezy. It feels like the seasons are changing. I am sure there will be some more annoyingly hot days, but I think it’s here.
It’s nice, but it’s not. It’s nice because something new is around the corner. As everyone always says, “I get to wear all my really cool sweaters again.” The only problem with me saying that is the only cool sweaters I have are the same cool sweaters I had last year…and the year before. Still, I get to wear them. It’s not nice because I am going to have to wait until the Spring until I get to see all my trees grow again. Sounds strange, I know.
I say that I don’t ask for much, but I actually ask for quite a bit.
I was driving to work the other morning when I just happened to look to the right. I was on Interstate 84, heading East towards Newburgh. When I looked, I noticed the most beautiful piece of land. There was a field and a lake, with the mountains in the background. That’s when I told myself that I don’t ask for much. All I wanted to do was walk around that field with a nice hot cup of coffee. That’s really all I wanted to do. Then I started thinking about how maybe that’s all anyone really wants to do. When people go on vacation, they sit on the beach or go to the mountains. They like to take it easy and enjoy the beauty. Well, that’s what I want for my whole life. It’s probably unrealistic to think that I will be happy taking it easy, when my personality type is ambitious. Oh well, we shall see.
So, I was thinking, even since Laurie wrote the comment wanting to see some photos of the Autumn up here in New York, perhaps I would just walk around and take random shots of whatever. I mean, sometimes those are the best types of pictures to look at. What’s nice about the end of summer is just what my Uncle Bob said; the way the sunlight hits you just a little bit differently than before. It’s quite noticeable.
Here we go…
This is the front yard. Not much of a leaf color change there yet.
Just a weird shot of the driveway, my car and the road in front of the house.
This is the side of the house. I am not sure that my rock walls get enough attention. So many times, when I walk up and down that beautiful stairway, I tell myself, “Self, you really had no idea what you were doing, but it still came out A OK.” I mean really, when does anyone really ever teach you how to build a rock wall and a stair case made out of 6×6s?
I took this picture when I was driving through Walden, NY the other morning on my way to work. As you may have been able to notice, it was spur of the moment. Please don’t try to change me.
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Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
Rob gave me a call yesterday to let me know that he was heading over to Craig’s yard to install some electrical stuff. He said that he would be there, along with Craig and another dude, Greg. Craig and Greg were going to be pulling a Cummins engine out of a Mack truck to put it into an International truck. Rob wanted me to stop over so we could all hang out. We haven’t done that in about 100 years.
I had some stuff to do this morning, but I was thinking that I wanted to go. Laura had to work and then head of to a party for her sister. I really needed to get off my butt, because as one gets old, one gets lazy. One also needs to see his old friends once in a while.
I did some work on my sites earlier in the morning and had to wait a long time for a few CDs to burn. For some reason, with this new Windows Vista, burning CDs takes F O R E V E R. While one of the CDs was burning, I trimmed a few branches off the trees in the front, near the driveway so the carpenter’s trailer can get through. He is starting the back deck on Monday. I finally took a shower and got out of the house at about 1PM.
I showed up in the yard (by yard, I mean truck yard) and Rob looked at me twice as I was walking in. He looked away twice too. I knew he didn’t recognize me because I was wearing my sunglasses. I am also much better looking than what he probably expected. On the third look, he finally broke a smile and came over to greet me with a hug. I then heard Craig cacklin about something and then he came over to say hi, and I think he may have tried to give me a hug too, I don’t remember.
I walked over to see what Rob was doing and saw the nice big setup he was making for Craig. Rob was a true professional. I helped out a bit, so now I think I am an electrician. Actually, I have always wanted to know how to do what he was doing, so it was quite fun. I like electrical work and know quite a bit about it because I took some classes in it back in the day.
To the left of Rob, were Mardo and his wife (Craig’s helpers) painting Craig’s new (old) bulldozer. If you like blue, this is the bulldozer for you. I never really was into bulldozers very much, but then again, I work with computers. Perhaps one day I will get into bulldozing things. I think I would like to tell people that in bars…”Hey Jay, what do you do for a living?” “I drive a bulldozer, so you BETTER WATCH OUT!!!” Sucka. My father likes machinery like that. That might explain his own bulldozer.
Ok, I wanted to see what was going on over with the other guys. They were taking an engine out of the International because the piston sleeve was cracked. Apparently, diesel powered trucks need some additive in the anit-freeze, or else it will create tiny air bubles, which can pit the outside of the piston sleeve. In this case, I am assuming the correct amount of additive wasn’t added, somewhere along the way, and pitted the sleeve to weaken it enough to crack. Craig picked up the sleeve to show me first hand. I asked why he didn’t just replace the sleeve and he told me because it was about $1000. He got a good deal on a freshly rebuilt engine, so it was worth it to do the swap. Question: Who the heck finds a Mack truck with a rebuilt engine in it for you to use? Oh, who the heck knows. How does Craig find anything he finds. I suppose if you were in the business of talking, like he is, you would find an engine as well.
That’s Rob in front of the Mack truck, that the engine is coming out of. I wanted the dog on the hood, but Craig wouldn’t give it to me. Nice guy, huh?
This is the International that the engine is going in to. Mardo did a nice job of cleaning it and painting the engine compartment black.
After Craig and Greg took all the bolts out of the brackets holding the radiator in as well as the ones holding the cooling fan on, they lifted the radiator out. If helps when you have a huge excavator helping you. I could’ve used one of them back when I was a kid, changing engines in my 1979 Camaro. Noooo, I was stuck with my hands and a tree branch. Hey, it worked.
Ok, here are some mad props to Craig. He insisted that I take pictures of some of his trucks. I think there are about 8 of them, but I didn’t take pictures of all of them. He wanted me to get the CV Trees on the doors, but I am not that good of a listener. Here goes…
That’s a pretty nice bucket truck. These trucks are a big step up from back when Rob and I used to work with Craig doing tree work. I would guess that lifting huge logs with a crane is more efficient than with your hands. It also saves a lot of time. Also, man would I have liked to have a bucket truck to save the pain of climbing those trees.
I get the strangest feeling every time I go back to visit Brewster, NY. It’s like the sun is always going down there. Rob and I went to Home Depot for some parts and it seemed like everyone was looking at me. I really don’t think I am that funny looking. Rob says it is because everyone is in a rush, but I am not sure. I grew up in Brewster, so it may just be a slightly noticeably different culture over there, compared to where we live now. The first indicator is the way people drive, but I’ll save that for another post.
Anyway, it was a good visit and it was nice to see everyone again.
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