Jay Gaulard Blog

Bull’s Bridge River Rapids in Kent, CT

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

As promised, I am posting some (well all) of the videos we took the other day when we were in Kent, CT.

I would say there are eight videos in all. I am posting them as I upload them, but as you might guess, YouTube takes a while to upload, especially when the videos range from 30MB - 130MB. In the videos, the cool part is how much water is going down the river. We have had a bunch of rain, so that really took its toll. Also, the weather was great, so there was some company during our hike.

Enjoy the videos.

Fife’n Drum and Bull’s Bridge, Kent, CT

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I know that I have told you in the past how much Laura and I like to eat lunch at the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT every Easter. We have been doing it now for about four years. It usually is a very good time. Well, unfortunately, yesterday was our last visit to this restaurant.

I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and not too much like a restaurant critic. Let’s just say that it seems like there is some new management and a new chef at this place.

The wait was very long during each portion of our two course Easter lunch and the food was amateur at best. It seemed like the dish washing dude was back there cooking too. I swear it seemed like there were parts of my dishes that were from a can. To me, “warm potatoes” does not mean potato salad that tasted like it was straight from Costco. A vegetarian dish does not mean boiled vegetables. Oh well, there’s $80 down the drain. We didn’t even stay for dessert…my favorite part. We just left the money on the table and left. During the last 20 minute wait to have our plates cleared from the table, three different waiters walked by and looked at us at least seven times. We kept wondering if our waiter had gone home. Well, as it turns out, as we were leaving, Laura caught sight of this guy eating at the bar. What the hell? If you can’t tell, I am a little annoyed. To think, I still left a tip…A TIP. I didn’t have the patience to wait for any change. I swear, if we had stayed any longer, they would’ve started vacuuming the floor while people were still eating. Yes, we will have to find a new place to eat on Easter.

To simmer down, we went on our traditional hike at Bull’s Bridge. I have a few posts about our previous hikes. It’s a really neat place.

Since we have been down the same trail so many times, I thought it would be a good idea to check out the top part of the trails. Laura might have been a little disappointed because she wanted to go on a real hike. I will have to make it up to her. We took lots of pictures and video. I will upload the video today and post it here.

This is a photo of the front of the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT. I don’t even know why I am showing this. Perhaps someone from the restaurant will read this post and mail me a refund check.

This is the monument in Kent, CT.

These are two shots of Bull’s Bridge itself. We got lucky with very good weather.

These are all shots of the river. The water was rushing very fast, due to all the rain we have been getting. We didn’t see any kayakers like we have in previous years. Maybe the water was going too fast. I sure wouldn’t get in there.

Yesterday Was a Winter Day

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Yesterday was one of those Winter days you could do without. It was snowing a tad bit in the morning, but by the afternoon, the snow was flying directly sideways. Well, eventually it hit the ground. I think we had a whiteout here.

On the news this morning, I heard there was a car pileup in Scranton and Rochester due to the wind and snow. I stayed up way too late last night listening to the wind. I hate this type of weather.

I took a picture of the trees in the back of the house. You can tell which way the wind was blowing because one side of each tree is completely covered while the other side has no snow at all on it.

It’s 3 Degrees Outside

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

Yes, that’s right, it’s 3 degrees outside. I am not sure I can tell the difference between 10 degrees and 3 degrees, or minus 30 degrees for that matter.

I just got back inside. I had to bring the big garbage can in and adjust the recyclable cans, because the garbage guys knocked one of them over. I sure hope it’s recyclable week.

One reason I hate the cold is because I freeze fast. I have a little problem with not dressing for the weather. I tell myself that I will be out there for just a second and then I go outside. Of course, it’s miserable. I have been doing this all my life. Now, I am trying to dress for the occasion. When I went outside this morning, I got all suited up and wore gloves. I felt good…the only thing that got cold were my fingertips because gloves suck in the cold. When I wear my snowboarding mittens, I am nice and toasty. In mittens, you can make a fist to keep warm. I think dressing warmly will make a big difference in the winter.

It’s supposed to warm up for the rest of the week, starting tomorrow. Because of that, my mother doesn’t have to worry anymore. She knows how much I like to run around in the buff. They have colonies for that kind of person, right?

The Ice Has Turned into Harder Ice

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

I went outside last night to chisel out the cars. They were covered with ice. I got on all my old snowboarding gear…jacket, snowpants, mittens, etc… I was as warm as a bedbug on the floor of an overheating pickup truck.

I started up both cars and let them run for a good long time. I didn’t think I was going to get them uncovered. Then, I saw a little speck of water and I had hope. After a while, I had thawed both cars out completely. I had to use a pick ax to move the cars out of their initial parking spots. I was even sweating a little bit.

Today, I went outside to try to fix up the driveway a bit for the tile dude. He is going to need some space to work out there. He needs to cut some boards and mix some thinset. It should be interesting. I got a nice area cleared out down to the gravel. The sidewalk is still about three inches higher than normal, but I threw some driveway gravel on it for traction. It was pretty warm today, so some of the mess melted. The sun does a good job of hitting the dark gravel and melting whatever is around it. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 45 degrees, so the ice should melt even more.

I tried my old driving back and fourth along the driveway trick. It didn’t work out too well. I almost got stuck once and then the car just drove on top of the ice. That didn’t do too much good.

This afternoon, I had to run out to the store. I backed up all the way to the street. I made the mistake of stopping while half way out into the road. I gave it some gas and felt the car sink into the ice/snow. I had to get out of the car and bolt downstairs for that damn pick ax again. I got the car out quickly, but it would’ve been embarrassing to be “that guy” to the cars driving by. Luckily none did.

Windy in the Northeast

Monday, December 17th, 2007

There was supposed to be a big wind/snow storm over the weekend here in New York. We heard sleet hitting the windows Saturday night and woke up Sunday to see a nice layer of hard sleet/freezing rain on the already existing snow. This is the kind of snow you can walk on top of. It pretty much sleeted all Sunday. There was supposed to be heavy winds all Sunday into Monday.

Well, it was very quiet all Sunday. I was hoping that the wind missed us. I really hate wind. Of all things, I hate the wind.

About 7PM or 8PM last night, I felt a gust hit the house. I wasn’t happy about this. I looked out the window and noticed everything flying around. Good thing I brought the recycling cans inside the night before. I felt a few more strong gusts, so I looked out the back door onto the porch. I noticed that the tent (set up in the summer and never taken down) was upside down on the table. I thought the tent legs were going to put holes in the screening from tumbling around all night, so I went outside to take it down.

When I went outside, I felt like I was in a vacuum. There was strong wind coming from all directions. It had to be over 50MPH. I thought for sure that the huge oak tree in the back yard was going to take me out. I started taking the tent down. Someone call the “Guinness Book of World Records” for the least amount of time anyone has used to disassemble a tent. I was like Laurel and Hardy in fast motion. You should have seen me scurrying around pulling the tent poles out and folding them up. I got everything apart and threw it in the dining room. There was no time to drink wine, so that wasn’t even on my mind. Well, I guess I thought of it, but there were more pressing issues.

Laura got out of the shower and looked very relaxed. I was sitting there with my clothes all messed up and my hair standing on end. The tent was thrown on the floor. It was like one of those moments…when one person has no idea what the other person was just doing.

A Nice Day For An Autumn Walk

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.

The First Snow in Our Little New York

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.

New York’s First Frost

Monday, October 29th, 2007

Well, there may have been frost already in New York somewhere. This was our first frost, anyway.

I was looking at the weather forecast yesterday on Weather.com and there was a “Severe Weather Alert” for our town. I was wondering what it was…a hurricane, a tornado…a flood? No, it was a freezing alert telling people to bring their plants in. How nice of them. I wouldn’t say that the first frost is severe, but perhaps for gardeners it is.

I kind of like it. Around this time every year, I think of moving up to the middle of nowhere in Vermont. Poor Laura has to hear about my dreams of being a mountian man or a yuppie couple out of a L.L. Bean catalog. I don’t quite know why I would want to move where it’s colder than it is here. Maybe it’s because there is sort of a tranquility with the cold. People move slower and are less rude. When there is a snow storm, it seems like we are all on the same side. To me, that’s nice. It certainly is better than giving each other the finger as we drive around in the warm weather. Well, now that I think about it, I could probably give someone the finger in a snowstorm.

In other news, we are now almost at the end of Clergy Appreciation Month. I didn’t even know it was Clergy Appreciation Month. I had to hear it on the radio this morning. It would be nice if someone told me something once in a while.

You may have noticed in the past few years that there are holidays sprouting up all over the place. You can search your country’s holidays here. Basically, every day is a holiday. If you don’t see one on the previous website link, they just missed it, that’s all. I am thinking that some of these holidays are people and organizations just trying to promote themselves. If it sticks, it sticks. If not, then oh well.

I am declaring this decade dedicated to Jay.

The Orange Sky Before the Storm

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

…except the storm never happened.

Yesterday, Laura and I were getting ready to go for a walk. When we exited the house in an orderly fashion, we noticed something very peculiar above us. The sky was completely orange. This was very strange and kind of caught us off guard. I ran back inside to grab the camera. I had to get this on film…or whatever digital cameras catch things on.

Isn’t that weird?

We walked almost to the end of our road and saw a bolt of lightening. I turned around and Laura followed. People have been getting hit by lightening lately and I am trying to not be one of them. I really don’t want Laura to be one of them either.

We made it home with only a few drops of rain, but nothing more. We heard thunder, but apparently the storm traveled to the West of us, over the ridge.