Thursday, August 14th, 2008
All Winter, I say that I can’t wait for Summer. This is for obvious reasons. I always say that I can make it up to January 15 with Winter and then I’m done. If I can’t grow anything, I am not a happy camper.
This next paragraph really has nothing to do with this post. I just thought I would throw it in here.
Laura and I were eating dinner this evening when I noticed Finnegan Gordon Belle (Flipper Human the cat) laying on the chair next to us. Now, just to give a bit of background on this cat…he is grouchy when he sleeps. He really has no time or patience for people who get in the way of his “resting sessions.”
Well, after I finished slowly (repeatedly) placing my food in my mouth, I decided to walk over and pet the cat. I got a few good pets in. I thought this was nice. What did the cat do in return? He looked up at me, shifted his weight, sat up and bit my hand. Nuff said. I walked away and left him alone. Sure, when he wants to get picked up every other minute of the day, I accommodate him, but when I want to play, noooooo.
Here he is, the bum…
Man, you can almost see the attitude.
Ok, back to the post. If you haven’t noticed around the blogging world yet, things are a bit slow this Summer. I guess people are outside, enjoying the weather. I am sure all sorts of families are vacationing at the beach and places like that. Gee, even I got in the car a few times this season. Well, let’s just say all this enjoyment hasn’t really helped my reading habits. Blog reading I mean. Yes, it’s sad but true.
In my opinion, if you want to be one of these crazy bloggers, you have to write all the time. You have to wake up and want to bring the camera with you when you get your morning coffee. It truly is a disgusting way to live, but if you’ve ever written in a format like this, you’ll know what I am talking about.
The thing of it is…we computer people LOVE to read what you write. It doesn’t matter what it is. We just want to keep up with your lives. I should actually be writing this to myself because I have been slipping through the cracks lately. I mean, I have been cutting down some small trees on the side of the property, but I don’t think I can bring the camera every time, nor do I think people want to continuously read about it. I’m not even sure what I can take a picture of. I keep asking Laura if it looks any different than it did earlier and she just gives me a sad look and turns her face back and forth, saying…”no, my sweet prince, it doesn’t.”
I sometimes make the joke to Laura that people don’t need to call me to see how I am doing. All they need to do is read this silly thing. It’s kind of not fair because I do a lot of calling. Trust me, let’s not change this arrangement. I like you reading and I like doing the calling. Oftentimes, I feel more comfortable if things are on my terms.
I guess I get a little depressed when I see the internet get light for a while. I think overall traffic takes a hit during the Summer. I never thought I would see the day when I get excited at the prospect of a rainy day in September…when all the kids are back at school and college is in session. Ooohhh, look at all those users checking out my sites. The Christmas season is a whole other story.
It’s amazing. For all the cool things we do in the Summer, we really don’t feel like writing about many of them. Maybe it’s the sunshine. Maybe it’s the guilt of bringing the laptop out on the deck with us and writing, when we really should be looking at the squirrels. Perhaps that’s why some of the best authors like to go up to their chilly cabins to write and don’t do it on the beaches of Barbados. Really now, Barbados is no place to write. Maybe Vail…
My friends, the good news is there are new blogs being formed every day. Just yesterday, an old friend of mine showed interest in making a blog of his own. I hope he does because the world needs more smart writing. I am actually curious about what he has to say. I am sure there are other great blogs that have been started recently that I never knew about. Oh, it’s going to be fun because the blogging season is right around the corner.
So, for those people who have shown interest recently about blogging and why they should get into it, I will explain what I like about the whole thing. Basically, I think this is a place for people to get to know me. I really like the format and I feel comfortable sharing things here. I really don’t care if some trucker from India reads this thing every morning before he has his breakfast. If he finds me entertaining and gets a kick out of the projects that I do, then that’s cool. You know, I bet there are a few truckers who like to read my blog.
Also, I really like to take pictures. Here, I can post them and tell people all about what I was doing. Of course, if you haven’t noticed, I think the stuff I do is reeeeally important.
The best thing is when I help people. I know I have said this before, but when someone gets some use out of what I write, that makes it all worth while. You can imagine the blisters on my fingers from all this writing. Can you imagine that?
Well, it’s getting a bit late now and I fear that I am not making sense anymore. I just want to warn you that the camera comes back out tomorrow and I am going to be outside with it. I am going to take a picture of something and post it here. You just wait…
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day. We decided to hop in the car and drive out to Newport, RI for a quick visit.
I always think everything is so close to anywhere I am. When we are about halfway there, I realized that I am just an optomist. My butt starts to hurt and I feel like the rest of the population that understands the distance of things. I am not sure of the mileage, but I know the trip took about two and a half hours.
We took a bunch of backroads and then popped out on 95 North. I liked the backroads because it gives us a chance to see the world, off the highway. Plus, I think we have all seen enough highway.
After we got off 95, we went through this pretty cool town called Exeter. I remember this because there was a golf course and a huge plant nursery. I mean huge. The thing kept going. I am the kind of guy who would be on vacation and stop to have his pickup truck loaded up with mulch. Man oh man.
We went through a few more towns and then drove over the Jamestown Bridge. That bridge was pretty nice. When we landed on Conanicut Island, I noticed some pretty nice areas. I think we will stop on this island next time and spend some time in Jamestown. I have a feeling it is much less crowded than Newport.
Right after that short trip driving through Conanicut Island, we (paid the toll and) started up the Newport Bridge. It was a pretty steep bridge and I thought of my mother silently hating it if she was in the car with us. She never liked bridges. A few moments later, we landed on Newport.
For this trip, we had a goal…I wanted to see the ocean. Every once in a while, I need to smell the salt water. With this in mind, we turned down Americas Cup Avenue, onto Thames Street and headed straight South to Wellington Avenue. From there, we somehow got onto Ocean Avenue and stopped at Brenton Point State Park.
This was a pretty cool park right on the Southern tip of Newport. There were lots of people doing all sorts of things. We also noticed that it is a pretty cool area to retire to. The only problem with the whole place is all the tourists, like us.
After we hung out at the park for a while, we traveled back up North and ate at a little pizza place. That was pretty good. A few hours in Newport and we were good to go. We left for the trip home.
I took a bunch of pictures and will show some of them below. I am kind of tired, so I am not going to include captions. These were basically taken from the Newport Bridge and heading down to Brenton Point State Park, and back up. Enjoy…
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Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
As I mentioned in the post below, we took a quick cruise out to Narragansett, RI on Memorial Day. We didn’t stay very long, but long enough for me to grab a few pictures.
I have been to Point Judith in the past…it’s the place you need to get on the ferry to go to Block Island. It’s a really cool “vacationy” area. The next time we go, I am going to dig for clams in the shallow water. I think there are crabs too, it my memory serves me correctly.
This time, we visited the Lighthouse at Point Judith. Now, the lighthouse was ok, but what I really like is the way people were just chillin’ out enjoying themselves. There were people sitting in their lawnchairs, reading. I am always envious of these people because they are able to do that. I can’t seem to sit still long enough to do anything. Oh well, I guess that makes me me.
Here are those photos I was talking about.
Now, I am aware that these photos arent of anything in particular. I thought people might get a kick out of them. If you are anything like me, you enjoy real life pictures of just the area.
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Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
On Memorial Day, we took a cruise out to Point Judith, RI (above). I took some photos of that, but wanted to post some pretty funny pictures here in this post really fast.
For some reason, these are funny. They are of the entrance of Fisherman’s Memorial State Park in Rhode Island. It’s out near Point Judith. The reason it’s funny is because we went camping here when we were kids. I remember something about that little house in the front. I can’t seem to remember what though. It was part of some joke or something. Something with my brother, Jeff. I know this means nothing to most of you, but perhaps my family can fill me in.
Here, take a look…
This place is really cool. I remember there was a little ranger’s office with a bunch of fish tanks. Also, right in the back of this campground/park, you can roll up your pants and go clamming. My friend Craig says that he goes clamming with a bottle of hot sauce. He just grabs a clam from the sand, opens it, sprinkles some hot sauce on it and sucks it down. Can you imagine being that clam just out for a tan one day? Holy cow.
There is a lot to do around this area and it’s a great place for a vacation. It’s very “beachy.”
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Monday, September 4th, 2006
If you have ever wanted to visit one of those real “No shoes” beach towns, you know the ones where people think of nothing more than eating ice cream and chilling out, then Block Island, RI is your place.
How is it that I have been living in NY for 32 of the 33 years I have been alive and never visited this little paradise that is only 3 hours away? Let’s just say, I am glad Laura pushed me into going. It was kind of difficult for me to pull away from my work, but I had my sister, Steph, handle things while I was gone.
There are a few ways to Block Island, either by small plane (hmmm…inspiration), the Block Island Ferry from New London, CT or Point Judith, RI. We decided that we would take the shorter and less expnsive ($15 round trip instead of the $30 round trip) ferry from Point Judith.
Now, you have to remember that this little vacation was only for a few days, but I haven’t been away for quite a few years, so I was very excited. The minute we reached Point Judith, I was just giddy. I hopped out of the car and called my mother asking her if we have ever been camping here, because the entrance to a campground we passed on the way in looked very familiar. She said yes, so that brought up a lot of memories of running around ankle deep in water looking for clams. We made it to the ferry and jumped on for our 55 minute trip. I really didn’t know what we would find.
The minute you see the port for Block Island, you just want to jump off the boat. You see people all over the place and really cool looking historic Bed & Breakfasts. People are riding bicycles and scooters up and down the roads. It really is a great vacation spot. I guess that’s why people like islands, because they are cut off from the rest of the world.
So we got off the ferry and walked up the road. Laura wanted to show me this great hotel she had discovered with her friend Jade on a previous trip here. On our way up the road, we passed an awesome farm and some great gardens that gave us lots of good ideas.
We finally made it to The Spring House Hotel. Now this was something. They had a large front porch were people were eating lunch and had a really interesting inside. We walked through and could sense the age by the uneven floors with carpeting over the original wood. I can only imagine how many families have had great vacations here. Their website says that important people have stayed here, such as Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain and Billy Joel. They have even hosted weddings for the Kennedys. This was my kind of place.
As we walked through, we came to the back patio, where there was a great view of the road heading south towards the cliffs.
I think maybe next summer we will stay at The Spring House. After a bunch of walking around taking tons of pictures, we had a great lunch/dinner at one of the hotels near the water. A nice ending to a perfect late July day.
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