#Traffic Light 13th Anniversary

[fukuokanodivision]

Traffic Light

Even 13 years later, everyone still wonders the same thing — What really was Traffic Light before they disappeared? “A band of 3 childhood friends” “1 of the most intriguing idol groups” “3 individual’s who’s status changed the music world forever” Believe it or not, the most hardcore fans or closest associates aren’t as close as they think to solving the mystery. Though being taken as official Chuohku hostages, it is still unclear exactly who these 3 masterminds behind Hypnosis Microphone Manipulation truly were before their surprising disappearance across Japan… So…Who really were they all those years ago? 1. Poltergeist

Alias: Poltergeist Real Name: Eko Seishin Age: 25 Position: Leader Of Traffic Light [Formerly] Affiliation(s): *Traffic Light *Lyte [Formerly] *Chuohku [Unwillingly] Profession: *Freelance Idol *Chuohku Agent Weapons: *Hypnosis Microphone *Kaleidoscopic Wristwatch Skills + Abilities: *Hypnosis Microphone Manipulation [Sonokinesis] *Genius Level Intellect *Musical Aptitude *Advanced Chuohku Expertise *Technology Welding *Absolute Hearing Bio: The frontman and initiator of Traffic Light, Eko turns out to be an element of surprise during this era. Whether it was the groups exhilarating performances down to his previous idol image, the idol always had something up his sleeve to kick things up a notch. Of course, was it his own idea for the beloved groups disbandment? Or…Perhaps it was something more…? “There’s no time to waste here, so let’s get this party started! Or as the blue light likes to say…It’s go time!” — Eko “Poltergeist” Seishin 2. Shade

Alias: Shade Real Name: Mai Yousei Age: 23 Position: 2nd Member Of Traffic Light [Formerly] Affiliation(s): *Traffic Light *NSDS [Occasionally] *Chuohku [Formerly] Profession: *Professional Dancer *Crossdresser Weapons: *Hypnosis Microphone *Spatiokinetic Brooch Skills + Abilities: *Hypnosis Microphone Manipulation [Telekinesis] *Seduction *Heightened Durability *Advanced Chuohku Expertise *Tactical Gender Intellect *Pisonics Bio: The rising talent and left hand of Traffic Light, Mai was aiming for their highest level around this time. Appearing to have the most fun with fans and putting in strong amounts of commitment into the group, they continued to put smiles on people’s faces every single time. However, why was their public behaviour “unnatural” according to fans? Does this call for another mystery…? “Red light means stop? Not in my presence does this apply, my dears. Don’t worry, I’ll show you what it means to don the colour of love…” — Mai “Shade” Yousei 3. Jinn

Alias: Jinn Real Name: Yuno Kamora Age: 27 Position: 3rd Member Of Traffic Light [Formerly] Afiliation(s): *Traffic Light *Kamora Family *Chuohku [Formerly] Profession: *Butler-for-hire *Writer Weapons: *Hypnosis Microphone *Auxiliary Bracer Skills + Abilities: *Hypnosis Microphone Manipulation [Flyrokinesis] *Acting Persona *Writers Craft *Advanced Chuohku Expertise *Perception Manipulation *Dynamism Bio: The anchor and right hand of Traffic Light, Yuno was an enigmatic figure throughout the groups run. From exciting his audience with his acting abilities to performances that blur the lines of fiction and reality so well, fans know that just watching him was a sight to behold. Although, did he seem worried as the group made their disbandment public? Or was it just speculation…? “The yellow light does indicate slowing down, all except on this stage. Brace yourselves, the show is only getting started~…” — Yuno “Jinn” Kamora

[travelingtheusa]

NEW YORK

18 Sep 2019 (Wed) – We spent the day getting ready for our move. We went food shopping and stopped in at Bagel Boss for lunch.  I don’t know how that place stays in business.  They are soooo slow.  It must be because they are the only bagel place around.  At 3 p.m.  I drove over to Travis & Sam’s to watch Lincoln.  Sam had work and Travis was taking the boys to karate.  We reviewed their finances and discussed options to resolve their issue.  In the meantime, Paul was watching Caiden back at the camper because Miranda and Kenny went to Meet the Teacher Night.

     It was quite cool this morning.  The heater is not working right.  It turns on and then shuts off.  This is an issue we will have to resolve before the weather gets colder.

 17 Sep 2019 (Tue) – It’s been a fairly busy week.  I attended a memorial service for a member of the American Legion Post on Thursday.  Gus Luhrs, past post and past division commander, passed away at the age of 86. He served 20 years in the Marine Corps and was in the Korea and Vietnam Wars.  He was the bartender at the post for many, many years.  I will miss him.

     We went to a dinner celebrating the 100th birthday of American Legion Post 411 on Friday the 13th.  It was held in the Marconi Lodge; not the post.  I guess they wanted to give everyone a chance to enjoy the celebration and not worry about set up and break down.  I was disappointed that few of the guys wore uniforms.  Not too long ago, everyone would have proudly worn their uniform.  The times, they are a-changing.  There were about 60 people at the event.  The food was ok but the company was great.  It was fun to see all our friends from the post.

     Caiden decided to skip church this Sunday.  Afterward, Paul and I went to the Bayside Clam Bar for lunch. The warm days are waning and I want to enjoy as much of the waterfront as possible before it gets too cold.

12 Sep 2019 (Thu) –I had lunch with my sister, Susan, today. We met at the Cheesecake Factory in Bay Shore and both enjoyed salads.  Later this evening, I attended a memorial service for an American Legion friend, Gus Luhrs.

 11 Sep 2019 (Wed) – Wow.  Things have been very, very busy.  We have spent time watching Caiden which takes full effort.  He likes to play pillow fights and pulls me into these all the time.  It’s either here in the camper or on the couch in his house.  

     I had lunch with my daughter, Gina, today.  We met at Cheesecake Factory and caught up on how things have been going since we last saw each other.

     Later today at 5:00 p.m., Paul and I went to a 9/11 memorial conducted by the Town of Islip next to Town Hall.  There were 15 fire departments represented there.  Lots of firemen and a bagpipe and drum band played songs that left you with a lump in your throat.  

 5 Sep 2019 (Thu) – We celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary yesterday.  We had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse.  We saw a posted sign that said they give a 20% military discount on Mondays.  We now have our new best eatery on Mondays!

    We had my brother, Dennis, and his lady, Denise, over for dinner on Tuesday (September 3).  I made chicken picata, potatoes, and green beans.  Everything came out perfect.  They stayed for two hours.  It was a very pleasant visit.

     Caiden started school yesterday (Noah started the day before on Tuesday and Hudson started on Wednesday).  We all walked Caiden down to the bus stop and waited over a half hour. The first days of school always sees the bus come late.  It was almost an hour late returning at day’s end; although there was a legitimate excuse – the town was out and picking up debris one block over and on our block. That held up traffic all over the area. Caiden seemed to enjoy himself on his first day.  His teacher’s name is Mr. Lolo.  Can’t wait to meet him.

1 Sep 2019 (Sun) – We took Caiden with us to church this morning. He was very fidgety and complained that it was boring.  Not sure how much longer he will go with us to church before he decides it’s not fun. We spoke with Pastor Doug and scheduled October 20 for Lincoln’s baptism.  

     After church, I let Caiden do some exploring and playing on the playground behind the building.  Then we went to the Clamside Bar & Grill at the East Islip Marina for lunch.  We all took a walk around the pier then returned home.

     Paul and I spent the afternoon doing yardwork.  As Paul cleared out some of the brush, I got a good look at the trees down on that back fence.  It looks like a much bigger area was crushed by our neighbor’s tree than it first looked like.  And he still hasn’t started clearing anything away.  I’m not sure what we are going to do about that.

     After naps, we sent out for pizza for dinner.  Hmmm Hmmm, good!

 30 Aug 2019 (Fri)

– Paul and I took Caiden to my sister Susan’s house today.  We spent the day swimming in the pool and visiting with Susan & Bill and Shay & Pat (her daughter and boyfriend).  The weather was lovely.

29 Aug 2019 (Thu) – Good news!  I had an appointment at Sloan Kettering this morning to find out the results of the PET and CT scans I had on Monday.  After only ten days on the chemo, the lymph nodes have already started to shrink.  My response to the therapy has been so good that I don’t have to come back for a month.  I thought I was going to have to go in every week for 5 or 6 weeks.  

     After the doctor, Paul and I went to Red Robin for lunch.  I had a margarita and cobb salad.  Paul had a beer and burger.  We were kind of giddy with relief and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Following lunch, we stopped at Shop Rite and picked up some groceries then returned home to continue the yard cleanup.

 28 Aug 2019 (Wed) – It was cool this morning.  We had to wear jackets when we walked Bonnie this morning. The summer is coming to a close. There’s a kind of sadness and yet a feeling of excitement as we build up to the holidays.  

     There is a spider that builds a web outside my bedroom window every night.  I first spotted her during that thunderstorm last week.  When the lightning flashed, she was illuminated on her web.  She seemed to be floating in midair.  She comes out every night and stays until early light the next morning.  I watched her this morning as the sun came up and she climbed up and away to her den for a well-deserved sleep.  She is an orb weaver and measures about an inch and a half in length.  What a beautiful specimen of the insect world!

 27 Aug 2019 (Tue) – We went to church on Sunday.  Caiden decided to take the day off so he did not go with us.  Everyone missed him.

     On Monday, I went to Sloan Kettering and had both a PET scan and a CT scan.  They sure keep those rooms cold.  Brrrrr!  Since I had some radiation, I couldn’t go near pregnant women or small children for 24 hours.   I had to wave across the room to Caiden rather than get my Caiden hug.  At 4:30 p.m. today, I was sure to get my big hug. And it came with a great big smile!

     This afternoon, we drove to the V.A. in Northport.  I wanted to establish myself as a cancer patient and see about getting medicine as we move around the country rather than having it mailed to me every three months.  The doctor referred me to hematology.  There was no answer at the department so I have to wait for a call back.  I got an appointment with Audiology for October. Ugh.  I hate the thought of being here that long.  But, unfortunately, I think I will be here.  The doctor wanted to schedule me for a mammogram but I said I’d go with my regular radiologist.  She did schedule me to come back for a pap smear but I think I’ll just see my own gynecologist instead.  She seemed to be somewhat flustered by me.  She wanted to do all this medical stuff and I kept turning it down.  She wasn’t sure what to do.  lol

24 Aug 2019 (Sat) – The air is full of the sound of generators, chain saws, and leaf blowers as everyone cleans up after the storm. Seems like there are tree removal and PSEG trucks all over the place.  A company has been working on removing the trees from the two neighbors on the south side. We think they took out 11 or 12 trees in total.  We finally got power back on around 2:30 p.m.

     We met with the counselor this morning.  Afterward, we drove to the Clamside Bar at the East Islip Marina and had a late breakfast.  It is nice to sit by the water and watch the boats come and go.  There weren’t many people out on the water considering that it was a beautiful, clear Saturday and summer is fast coming to an end.  You’d think everyone would want to be out getting in their last licks for the season.

     When we finished our meal, we went home and took Bonnie for a walk. Then we drove out to Mastic Beach and toured the William Floyd Estate.  What history exists in our own backyard!  William Floyd was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Nine generations of the family lived on the estate from 1718 until they gave it to the National Parks Department in 1976. They originally had 4,400 acres. Over the years, family inherited the property and divided it among heirs, with just 673 acres remaining on the estate today.  The Floyd family was much involved in politics and several prominent people visited the estate to include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. During the Civil War, the family fled to Connecticut while the British occupied Long Island.  The house was pretty much trashed when they returned after the war but the Floyds were able to restore it.  The estate began as a two-story, 6 room house.  Additions were made over the years until it ended with 25 rooms, 13 outbuildings, and a family cemetery.

 23 Aug 2019 (Fri) – Wow! We had a hum dinger of a thunderstorm blow through last night.  The phone pinged a warning that a severe storm was going to hit in 15 minutes and everyone should seek shelter on a lower level in the interior of the house. That was different.  I’ve gotten many storm warnings but never one that told me to get to the middle of the house.  They must have expected tornadoes although the warning did not say that.

     At about 9:45 p.m. it began to rain.  Shortly after, the wind picked up.  Then the skies opened up and the thunder and lightning started.  We lost power after about 15 minutes.  We sat and watched the transformer on the pole blow. Then another one blew down the block.

     Finally, the storm passed and we all walked outside to see what kind of damage had been left behind.  Kenny had gotten out of work just after the storm ended.  He reported having to take a crazy circuitous route to get home because of downed trees and wires.  There were trees down at either end of the block.  The next block had a tree land on a car.  Over on the main road (Saxon Ave), there were two trees down at opposite ends, thus closing off the road to through traffic.  People were trying to go down the block.  When they couldn’t get through, they turned and went down our block only to discover they couldn’t get through that way either.  Our neighbor in the back on the south side had five trees go down.  Two landed on our fence.  Another tree came down on our fence in back on the west side.  That tree was also from a neighbor’s yard.  All our trees stayed put for this storm.  lol.

     We had gone over Trap’s house earlier to help him with an electrical problem he is having at the house.  Paul and he worked for over an hour but couldn’t solve the problem.  Sam and I went food shopping with the baby while the two older boys stayed home.  We picked up pizza on the way back home and shared a meal with them before going home.  Luckily, we got home before the storm hit.

21 Aug 2019 (Wed) – The church had their annual outdoor service on Sunday.  We took Caiden with us.  I guess the outdoor setting was too much for him.  He wanted to go play and squirmed and fidgeted throughout the entire service. Afterward, there were all kinds of foods in a potluck meal.  Everything was very good.  I really enjoy those potlucks!

     I really messed up today.  I was scheduled for a PET scan at Sloan Kettering this afternoon.  The test requires you to fast for six hours prior. I was watching Caiden and he asked for something to eat.  I got him a snack out of the refrigerator and without thinking, popped a piece of cheese in my mouth.  Yikes!  When I got to the cancer center, it turned out I was supposed to be there at 1:15, not 2:15 p.m.  Fortunately, the 2:15 appointment had shown up at 1:15 so they let me take the later appointment.  Unfortunately, I had eaten the cheese and couldn’t take the test.  I had to reschedule for next Monday.

     I started chemotherapy on Monday.  I am taking Ibrutinib once a day.  So far (knock on wood), I am not having any side effects.  Reading all the warnings, I have been fully expecting diarrhea and vomiting.  Maybe it will come after the chemical builds up in my body.  I have to admit that I am afraid of this drug.  It interferes with the production of white blood cells. This lowers my resistance to infection. I have to be careful about keeping my hands clean and avoiding sick people.  It is something I have to learn to live with since I now have to take this drug for the rest of my life.

     The saga with trying to get Miranda financial help goes on.  Social Services turned down her request for financial aid as well as food stamps.  The department has a requirement for certain categories of persons to be referred to New York State HQ for examination when applying for Medicaid.  We have to wait and see what happens there.

17 Aug 2019 (Sat) – We saw the counselor this morning.  She was empathetic to our situation and gave us some suggestions for dealing with our adult children and their issues.  Afterward, we drove to Bayside Clam Bar at the East Islip Marina for lunch.  It is a great time of year to sit down by the water and just enjoy the season.  All too soon, the cold weather will be upon us.  

     We stopped by the thrift shop at church and helped move tables and chairs from the storage area to the door.  Tomorrow will be our annual outdoor service and potluck. We were staging the items by the back door where they would be taken down to the yard.  Paul found a pair of super cool looking glasses for Caiden. They look like some kind of futuristic robot apparatus.  They have a battery pack and when you turn it on, blue lights come on either side of the glasses.  They also have a magnifying glass that folds out in front of the right lens.  He loved them!

 16 Aug 2019 (Fri) – It’s been a pretty quiet week.  I got my hair cut this morning.  It was good to see my hairdresser.  She moved down to the Carolinas years ago and comes up about every 3 or 4 weeks.  She said it was too hard to start a new following down south so she just continues coming back to New York to see her customers.  I am glad about that! She is the only one who can get my hair right.

     I went to visit my niece, Jennifer, and her new baby, Ava.  She delivered about a month ago.  My sister, Susan, and her other daughter, Sharon, joined me.  The baby is adorable.   Susan picked me up in her new red Tesla, of which she is very proud.  It rides pretty nice.

     Later at 5:30 pm, we went over Travis & Sam’s to watch the boys while they tore up the carpet in the upstairs hallway and put down new flooring. First we played outside.  Then we followed Noah and Hudson on their bicycles around the block (they rode; we walked).  Then we drove them to a nearby playground and let them play for a while. Interestingly, Noah pulled a book out of the book exchange and sat down on a bench to read while Hudson climbed all over the playset.  Two very different boys!

     Finally, we capped the night with a trip to Carvel.  The ice cream was delicious but needless to say, their parents weren’t too happy about all the energy they came home with after the sweet treats.  It is good to be the grandparent!  You can spoil the babies and not suffer the aftermath.  Sweet!

11 Aug 2019 (Sun) – We went to church this morning.  Caiden is spending the weekend with his other grandma so he wasn’t with us.  It seemed like everyone missed him.  Everybody we spoke with asked about him.  He is pretty popular.

     After church, Paul and other folks helped to unload furniture for the church’s garage sale in October.   I went down to the thrift shop and helped them sort baby clothes.  They got a donation with dozens of outfits. We put them in bundles of six and marked them at fifty cents for the bundle.  It must have been clothing from a store that closed.  There is no way they could have all come from one family. Many outfits were brand new, some with tags still attached.

     We went to Sagtikos Manor for a tour of the historical home.  The land was purchased from the Secatogue Indians in 1692 and a 4-room house was built in 1697.  The home was purchased by a wealthy family and over the years, more rooms were added until it now has 42 rooms.  It was fascinating to hear the history of the property.  The Gardiner family, one of the wealthiest in the area, owned the home in addition to Gardiner Island.  They also had several homes around the Island and in New York City. In 1963, the house was put into a foundation trust.  The property was sold to Suffolk County in 2003.  What used to be 1,400 acres is now just 10 acres of land.  There is a cemetery, a walled garden, a carriage house, and a buttery on the property.  British soldiers occupied the manor during the American Revolution. The newly elected president, George Washington, slept in the house during a tour of Long Island in 1790.  There were many delightful pictures and prints hanging on the walls.  The family kept everything and all the furnishings were from the period.  We really enjoyed the tour.  Here was something in our own backyard that we never explored.

10 Aug 2019 (Sat) – Caiden keeps us amused.  He is a charming, sweet soul.  I went over Trap’s house Friday night and got to read the boys bedtime stories.  It was fun. We went bowling with them on Wednesday. They are two very ener- getic boys! The night was quite interesting. Hudson and I had the same score for almost the entire game.  I pulled it out in the end and broke 100.  I think he got eighty something.  Pretty good for a 4-year old (or bad for a 67-year old).  :-}

     We’ve been keeping busy.  Paul went down to the church and power washed the fence in back and the front entry way. We will be having an outdoor service next Sunday and Pastor Doug wanted the area to look nice.  I helped out in the thrift shop for a couple of hours. There were a couple of boxes with baby clothes in them.  I took them for Lincoln.  

     I went down to Social Services with Miranda.  I am trying to get them some financial aid as well as food stamps and Medicaid.  It took over an hour just to fill out the application form! We left without seeing anyone after sitting for a couple of hours.  An agent called Miranda later and told her she did not qualify for financial aid. Her $160 a week disability check combined with her husband’s $177 weekly unemployment check is considered too much income.  WTH??? That comes to $1,348 a month.  Who can even find rent at that price?  Plus electric, car insurance, phone costs, education loans, etc., etc., etc.  The agent is sending forms to Miranda to fill out and submit.  DIDN’T WE JUST DO THAT???  Talk about aggravation and frustration!!!

6 Aug 2019 (Tue) – We brought the truck down to Safelite Glass today to have the windshield replaced.  We have had a ding in the passenger’s side since 2015 when we were in Alaska.   It often interfered with the pictures I tried to take through the front window.  This year, we got another ding in the driver’s side of the windshield.  It was time to replace it.  We dropped the truck off and walked up to Main Street. The café we were looking for was no longer there.  We wound up having bagels and coffee at a deli.

     At 3 p.m., I went in to relieve Miranda from childcare duties.  I took Caiden to the playground at the local elementary school playground.  He had a great time!  I told him he deserved an Italian custard at Rita’s.  When we drove there, we found the shop closed permanently! What a bummer.  So we drove a little further down the road and “settled” for Carvel ice cream. Caiden was not disappointed.

     We went to Cavanaugh’s Bar & Grill tonight.  We met Joan & Peter, Pat & Fred, Ginny & Milton, and Johanna & Thom at the bar.  The restaurant had a $14.99 special for a 20 oz. porterhouse steak.  It came with onion rings, baked potato, and a vegetable.  The food was very good.  It was a fun evening.

 4 Aug 2019 (Sun) – We gathered up Caiden and headed off to church this morning.  Paul’s sister and husband, Joan & Peter, showed up at church, too.  After service, we went to the Bayside Clam Bar at the East Islip Marina with cousins Lee & Donna and friends Fred & Pat.  It was a beautiful day on the bay.  I took Caiden down by the docks where we watched folks putting in and taking out boats and jet skis.  He was very impressed with the jet skis.

     After we dropped Caiden off back home, Paul & I drove to Willie’s Appliances, a scratch-and-dent retailer.  We bought a washing machine for the house.  The one in there now has gotten out of balance and dances all over the room during the spin cycle.  When we got home, Paul switched out the two washers.

3 Aug 2019 (Sat) – Yesterday, we took the three grandsons to my sister’s house to swim in the pool and lunch.  It was like trying to keep ferrets in an open-top box.  It couldn’t be done.  They were all over the place and not as obedient as we would have liked. Having additional adults to help out wasn’t enough.  At any rate, I believe the boys enjoyed the swim time and my sister really went out of her way to provide a varied menu for everyone.

      Today, we enjoyed an unplanned adventure.  While scanning Facebook, I came across a posting of a friend who plays in a band.  He advertised that they would be down at the East Islip Marina playing at the Bayside Clam Bar and Grill from 10 to 1.  We went there for lunch.  I had lobster roll and Paul had fried shrimp.  The music was delightful, the bay breeze was balmy, and the sky was blue. It was so nice to sit and listen to the 3-piece band play while watching watercraft (boats and ski jets) come and go.

31 July 2019 (Wed) – I almost wound up in the hospital today. I took a new supplement – a proteolytic enzyme.  Then I took the dog for a walk.  About ten minutes into the walk, the palms of my hands started itching.  At first, I thought it was one of those lucky itches.  You know, the kind where your palm itches and you’re going to come into money (or pay money)?  But then it got intense, almost burning.  My stomach started in next.  Although I got the heaves, nothing was coming up.  I barely made it back to the camper.  Then the vomiting and diarrhea started.  I was so weak, I could barely stand.  I lay there wishing Paul would come into the trailer so I could have him call an ambulance.  The vomiting finally subsided and I lay on the bed trying to recover.  Next, the bottom of my feet began to itch, then my whole body.  As I sat there trying to scratch everything at once, red blotches started breaking out on my legs.  At that point, Paul came into the trailer and realized I was having a severe allergic reaction.  He ran down to the drug store and picked up some benedryl.  That stuff is great!  It worked almost instantly.  For the rest of the night, I sat in the lounge chair nodding in and out.  It was one scary experience!

     We have been busy working around the house.  The men’s softball league at church had the last two games of the season on Monday and Tuesday.  We went down to watch.  Our team lost.

    Both Paul and I went for an annual physical. My appointment was on Monday.  It turned out to be a Medicare Wellness Check. I spent an hour and a half answering questions from a nurse who input everything into the computer.  I could have stayed home and put the information in the computer myself!  What a waste.  The nurse was very apologetic and said that Medicare does not allow for an annual physical exam.  If you want to see the doctor, it has to be scheduled as a follow up to a condition or an illness.  We went to the desk and changed Paul’s status for his checkup the next day.  I made an appointment to come back for an EKG.  I won’t get any bloodwork but Paul did. What a screwed up system!  I was very happy with my health insurance before they forced us to go on Medicare. I can’t imagine what will happen if everyone gets put on Medicare like the current presidential candidates are touting!

28 July 2019 (Sun) – We took Caiden to church with us this morning. Afterward, we stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast.  We couldn’t get any fries (they don’t cook them until noon), so we cut up a pancake and fed it to the gulls.  There has been a significant change in the kind of gulls prevalent on Long Island. There used to be black backed gulls all over the place.  Now we don’t see any.  There are laughing gulls flying around.  I wonder what happened to the gull population.

     When we returned home, we worked around the property.  Paul cleaned out the gutters on the house and garage.  I bundled up branches from the trees Paul trimmed or cut down.  It was so hot.  We were both drenched in sweat.

26 July 2019 (Fri) – We had dinner with my brother, Dennis, and his lady, Denise, at Chili’s Grill tonight.  Dennis is working as an usher at Island 16 and gave us two free tickets. We can’t use them on a Friday or Saturday and are restricted from going to a Disney movie during the first two weeks of a new release.  Otherwise, we can enjoy the movies for free.  That was a very nice gift.

     My sister’s daughter, Jennifer, delivered a baby girl on July 24.  Ava Shea checked in at 8.9 lbs.  I just love that name!

25 July 2019 (Thu) – We drove to Port Jefferson Station and had lunch with Travis and his family.  He gets an hour for lunch and works close enough that he can go home for his noon meal.  We shared McDonald’s while the boys showed off their pool and playing skills.

     At 6:00 p.m. a French bulldog came running into the yard barking and barking.  It wouldn’t let us touch it but it wouldn’t leave either.  The dog honed in on Kenny and when we all stepped away, it walked with Kenny into the backyard where he secured it.  Paul walked up and down the block looking for its owners (it had no collar), but couldn’t find any.  At 6:45 p.m., Miranda and I drove to Bohemia to Maguire’s Comedy Club to watch a comedy laugh-off.  My brother, Dennis, was performing and we went to support him.  We had dinner and drinks.  The food was excellent.  The comedy was hit or miss.  Apparently, comedy is not easy to do.  We left before the show was over at 9:45 p.m.

     When we got home, Paul told me that the woman across the street claimed the dog.  It is not chipped and they take the collar off when they put the dog in its crate. It somehow got out and they didn’t miss it for several hours.  Oh, well. It’s a happy ending any way.

 24 July 2019 (Wed) – It was a busy day today.  First destination was the TSA Pre-Check booth located in a Staples store.  I brought my birth certificate, marriage certificate, and driver’s license.  The clerk took my picture and fingerprints.   The charge was $85 but is good for five years.  What the pre-check does is to allow me to go through the security screening line at the airport without having to take my shoes and belt off, and to leave a laptop in its computer case.  Next, we’ll have to get Paul the pre-check.

     We then drove back to the camper to get Bonnie.  We took her to the vet to see if we could find something that can be done about her chronic diarrhea.  She has also been showing signs of arthritis in her paws.  The vet prescribed Tylan for the diarrhea and gabapentin for pain.  We’ll see if that helps.

     After dropping Bonnie off at the RV, we went to the dentist where I got my teeth cleaned.  Paul had been there on Monday.  He has a small cavity that will need filling.  My checkup was perfect!

23 July 2019 (Tue) - Well, the parents are back.  Whew!  What a week. There is a reason children are best raised by the young folks.  Our 5-year old grandson sure had us running around from dawn to dusk.  Caiden slept in the camper every other night, alternating with his bed in the house.  We went through an incredible heat wave and, at one point, we just stayed in the trailer all day and night.  Poor Bonnie had to be put out every time Caiden came in.  She does not like him and for some reason, she tries to go after him. That breaks my heart because if she ever does bite him, we’ll have to put her down.  

     Ok.  Some of the things we did over this past week.  I saw a doctor at Sloan Kettering in Manhattan.  The doctor said the disease is well advanced and I should have started two years ago when it was first discovered.  She described the same options that Dr. Ahmed in Texas offered – a pill for the rest of my life, an intravenous protocol as a temporary stopgap and going on the pill after a time, and a new treatment whose performance is not yet known.  I asked to have my case transferred to the satellite clinic on Long Island.  If I had to go into NYC, it would drive me crazy! I had to take a train and two subways to get to Dr. Noy’s office.  I don’t know how people can live like that – like cattle being pushed along by all the other bodies traveling underground.

     We took Caiden to the library where he had a great time playing with the toys.  We also went to playgrounds and chased each other around as his imagination conjured up monsters, pirates, and Darth Vadar from Star Wars.  We drove to Port Jefferson Station and picked up our other two grandsons and took all three boys to the movies to see Toy Story 4.  Poor Paul.  Each boy had to go to the bathroom twice.  Paul would take one while I watched the other two, then he would drop that one off and take the next one.  They all had to go in the middle of the movie, too.  While we enjoyed our time with the boys, we certainly won’t try doing that again unless there is at least one adult for each child and an extra grown up for back up.  The energy level is incredible.  It was like trying to keep ferrets in a box.  Can’t be done.  We took Caiden to visit my sister, Susan, in Hampton Bays.  He loved swimming in the pool.

     We were able to go to church last Sunday and this past Sunday. It was so good to see all our friends. The pastor announced our presence and the congregation clapped their greeting.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone.  

20 July 2019 - Haven’t forgotten you!  Just been super busy watching our grandchild while his parents are gone. My blog will be back in a few days.  Thanks for your patience!

12 July 2019 (Fri) – We got a call from our son at 1:30 p.m. that he had been scalded and needed to be picked up.  Apparently, he had tried to open the radiator cap while the car was still hot.  Our truck was in the shop to have the real pinion seal repaired so we borrowed Miranda’s car and drove to Commack to get him.  He had been drinking and refused to go to the clinic with us.  The car was towed away and Travis just walked away. We left and drove to the shop to pick up our truck.  I cooked dinner tonight.

 11 July 2019 (Thu) – We left West Point at 9:55 a.m.  Although the distance to Bay Shore was only 102 miles, it took us three hours with all the traffic on the road.  We pulled in around 1 p.m.  After set up, we visited with Miranda, Kenny, and Caiden.  Kenny drove Caiden and me to Lake Grove where we got their cell phone problems fixed.  We had pizza for dinner.  

 10 July 2019 (Wed) – It was a lot of driving around today with very little results.  First was the KOA in Plattekill.  We were looking for another campground besides the one we are at that is near West Point.  It was a very nice campground.  The manager said he could also coordinate bus tours into New York City as well as the surrounding area.  That peaked our interest!  We wanted to bring the group to the city but didn’t want the hassle of trying to shepherd 44 people around all the people and traffic.  

     We then drove to the U.S. Military Academy.  First stop was at Thayer Hotel Restaurant.  We went in and had lunch, then stopped by the check-in desk to ask for the group sales manager.  The coordinator came down to see us.  Although she wasn’t the one to coordinate our kind of group (she’s does weddings, birthdays, and celebrations), she gave us contact information for the other coordinator.

     We then drove off the base to the Visitor’s Center.  Although there was a tour desk in the center, they told us to go across the street to the Bus Tours Office.  We went over there and were given a website to check out.  It has the various tour options listed.  Then we drove back on base to the West Point Club. The woman we spoke with was on the verge of going to a meeting but gave us a website to check out for menus and various meal options.  We looked at some of the rooms available in the club.

      After wandering around the grounds for a bit and trying to look in some of the buildings (they were almost all locked), we headed back to the campground. So when we get internet again (the cell phone and wifi signal in this campground is almost nonexistent), I’ll have to investigate the options for touring the U.S. Military Academy.

 9 July 2019 (Tue) – We left Watkins Glen at 8:55 a.m. and drove to West Point, stopping for a quick bite to eat at Wendy’s.  We pulled into Round Pond Recreation Area at 2 p.m.  It is a military campground associated with West Point Military Academy.  We had thought it would be good to have the caravan stay here but this campground would not be good for our group.  It is a little too rustic for some folks, the sites are close in some quarters, and the campsites are spread out around a large pond.  In addition, the water and electric hookups are on the wrong side of our RV.  I’m not sure all campsites have that issue, but ours does.  There are no sewers but they do have a dump station.

     Once we were set up, we grabbed the laundry and threw it in the washers in the laundry room.  There were three machines in the room; one had a sticky note on it that said “Ate $2 July 9.”  I surmised that person lost $2 in the machine today.  So we didn’t use it.  

      After we put the laundry away, we took a walk with Bonnie around the lake.  It is very pretty here.  I love all the greenery.  We have been on the west coast for over a year and around desert and cacti.  I didn’t realize how much I missed the trees. It’s lovely.

 8 July 2019 (Mon) – We drove to Corning Glass Museum this morning. They have really expanded the museum since we were here 48 years ago on our honeymoon.  We spoke with the group sales coordinator and got the information for the museum, a tour, a glass making experience, and a catered meal. We then drove down the street to the Rockwell Museum.  Their tour takes 45 minutes to one hour.  We may leave this museum for folks to go to on their own.  We’ll see.

     We drove by a couple of campgrounds and gathered information on availability for group camping.  The town of Watkins Glen campground – Clute Memorial Park & Campground – looked very promising.  They are located across from the beach on Lake Seneca.

     We had lunch at Sorges Restaurant in Corning.  I had a cheeseburger wrap.  It was ok but nothing I would buy again.  We then drove around Lake Seneca, stopping at a couple of vineyards for tastings.  When we got back to the KOA, we went in and got contact information for the owner. We also picked up a few souvenirs for the grandkids.  It was a fruitful day.

7 July 2019 (Sun) – We packed up and left Bath at 10:15 and drove to the Watkins Glen KOA, which was only 40 miles away.  When we pulled in, we recognized that we had been here back in 2007 when we drove up to pick up our first fifth wheel RV.  The part they put us in at that time was brand new. They have added some other buildings and cabins since then.  They wouldn’t let us into the campground until 12 noon.  We had to keep ourselves busy for five minutes then passed through. The wifi in this park is non-existent. In addition, the cell phone does not work well either.  We must be a valley or something.

      After set up, we drove into the town of Watkins Glen.  It is very touristy.  Watkins Glen State Park was packed with people.  We stopped at CPT Bill’s Seneca Lake Cruises to get information.  There was a restaurant next door that is also owned by CPT Bill’s.  We stopped in there as well to find out about group meal options and costs.  After walking along the boardwalk of Seneca Lake, we drove up into the state park to look at the campground.  It was too tight with narrow turns and lots of trees.  It would not work for our group.

     We stopped for lunch at Nickel’s pit BBQ.  I got ribs and Paul got wings.  We didn’t care for either for the food.  It was overdusted with dry rub and actually seemed to be gritty.  After lunch, we drove to Watkins Glen International. It is a NASCAR race track.  In town, they painted the crosswalks in a checker flag pattern.  The street signs have race cars on them.  We had trouble finding an entrance into the park.  After driving around the place, we finally discovered an open gate.  The office was closed.  There were cars racing on the track – we could hear them. There is a campground at the track and we wanted to find out about it.  Finally, we discovered an employee who answered our questions.  He said they only allow camping during special events. Guess that won’t work for our group either.

 6 July 2019 (Sat) – We went into the campground office first thing this morning to get information about group reservations for the caravan. Then we drove to Letchworth State Park. Letchworth is called the Grand Canyon of the East.  It was over an hour away.  Although we thought it was such a great place when we came here 30 years ago, it didn’t look so great today.  You couldn’t really see the gorge or canyons or river because of all the trees.  I guess having just come back from seeing the national parks out west made us a little jaded.  

     We then stopped at a campground near Letchworth to check out the place for the caravan.  They didn’t have everything we wanted for the group so we won’t be camping there.  We had lunch at the Iris Glen Inn.  It was the house of Mr. Letchworth converted to a restaurant.  The upper falls were visible outside the window.  The food was good.  The drive back was under rainy skies.

5 July 2019 (Fri) – We packed up and left Lockport at 9:15 a.m.  We drove 12 miles to a nearby campground to dump the tanks.  The Elks Lodge recommended dumping at the nearby waste treatment plant but when we went to look at the site, it turned out you would just open the spigot over a grate that covers a collection tank.  The cover had bits of toilet paper and other debris on it.  Ugh!

     It was an easy drive to the KOA in Bath.  We stopped at a Pilot station and got lunch at Subway.  The campground is a little tight.  It is pretty big with over 200 campsites.  We are parked on the grass in a pull through. A couple used to be managers at the Watkins Glen KOA and bought this KOA in Hammondsport/Bath in February.  They were selling pulled pork sliders for dinner. The baked beans were too sweet, the cole slaw was bitter, and the pulled pork was very dry.

     After we got set up, we drove to the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum to gather information for the caravan.  We then drove down the road to Bully Hill Vineyards and enjoyed a small snack in the restaurant.  We sat out on the deck and watched a thunderstorm grumble and growl its way across the sky.  Down the road was the Finger Lakes Boating Museum.  Their complex used to belong to Taylor wines.  We were there about 8 years ago and had a wine tasting.  Since then, Coca-Cola had sold the wine division. Sales decreased and Taylor wines were sold to a couple of different owners until, today, only their dessert wines are being sold (Taylor Flagate and Port).  The Taylor Wines complex is now mostly closed with parts of it being sold off.  The boating museum owns one of the buildings and is in the process of buying another two of them.  It will be a pretty big museum in two years.

     We returned to the campground just before the skies opened up and the rains poured down.  Sheba spent several hours hiding in the closet.      

4 July 2019 (Thu-Independence Day) – It was a quiet day for us. We went over Kevin & Joy’s daughter’s home for a barbecue.  Their son-in-law, Justin, made a variety of delicious appetizers to nosh on before grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, and coonies.  Coonies are a popular barbecue food for the upstate folks.  It is a kind of mild flavored sausage.  That led to all of us talking about different foods peculiar to areas around the country.  It was a funny discussion.

3 July 2019 (Wed) – We went to two wineries this morning.  I found wines I liked (the Niagara wine has a wonderfully distinctive taste) but Paul did not find a good one.  We went to Tom’s Diner for lunch.  It was small but the service was good.  We both had salads that were huge!  At 4 p.m. we drove to Buffalo to visit a campground there. With all the information we are collecting, we are starting to form an idea of how we want the caravan to run in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area.  Since we are thinking about using a tour bus, we want to keep the cost of the campground down.  There are not many nice campgrounds in this area.  Just the two resorts on Grand Island with sites over $100 each.

     We met Kevin and Joy at Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  The food, as always, was great.  We enjoyed their company very much.  They invited us to join them at their daughter’s house tomorrow for a BBQ.

2 July 2019 (Tue) – We drove into Niagara Falls today.  The intent was to find a nice restaurant in which to have a dinner for the caravan.  It was incredibly crowded and there was construction that made navigation around the area difficult.  We got frustrated and finally gave up.  We drove into town and had lunch at the Pearl Street Grille & Brewery.  It was rated #1 of 234 restaurants in Niagara Falls by Trip Advisor.  I don’t know what criteria they used to rate these restaurants, but this was certainly NOT a #1.  There were six booths, two tables, and six chairs at a counter.  They served pub food.  I got Beef on a Weck.  We’ve seen that on several menus now and I decided to try it.  It turned out to be a roast beef sandwich where they dipped the roast beef in au jus then put it on the roll.  It only made the bread soggy (and I HATE wet bread).  The meat also had some grizzle in it.  Paul got a tuna melt and it came without any cheese.  We really didn’t feel the place deserved to be rated #1.

     After lunch, we stopped at the Underground Railroad Heritage Center.  They mentioned Harriet Tubman frequently but had very little about her in the center.  It was very small and basically boasted of how the folks in Niagara Falls helped escaped slaves cross over into Canada.

     We then drove to Youngstown to Old Fort Niagara.  The group tours manager was not in and the clerk gave us her contact information.  We have to call her tomorrow.  When we stepped out, we saw the Buffalo trolley shuttle.  It provides a shuttle from Niagara Falls to Buffalo with 14 stops along the way.  We asked about a tour and the bus driver gave us contact information.  We’ll have to contact that lady tomorrow, too.  

1 July 2019 (Mon) – We brought the truck to Ford to get it inspected this morning.  Kevin & Joy met us for breakfast at Bob Evans.  After breakfast, we went back to the campground where they are parked. After a brief visit, we returned to Ford to get the truck.  There were (supposedly) several lights out that they had to replace.  We paid $139.12 and went on our way.  We drove into Buffalo to the Buffalo Naval and Military Park on the Eric Canal.  They had three ships there: The USS Croaker (a submarine), the USS Sullivans (a destroyer), and the USS Little Rock (a missile cruiser).  There was also a small museum on the second floor of the visitor’s center and gift shop.  We spent three hours climbing up and down stairs as we explored the three ships. It was fun.

     We drove to the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery for a late lunch. The food was excellent.  On the way back to the Elks lodge, we stopped at Lockport Locks & Eric Canal Cruises.  They have a very nice program for lunch followed by a two-hour ride on the canal.  It will be a definite venue if we do the New York caravan in 2021.

30 June 2019 (Sun) – We drove to several campgrounds today to check space availability and options.  Of the four we stopped at, two are possibilities.  One charges $102 per night and the other charges $113.  Yeow! That’s a lot of money.  There’s a possibility we can negotiate prices at one of them because we have to call back to speak with the owner.  

     We also stopped at the Niagara Power Plant to see about a tour.  The manager was out and will be in tomorrow afternoon.  We’ll have to call back.  

     We stopped at a restaurant on Lake Ontario for lunch.  We sat up on the second floor out on the deck.  It was too windy to put the umbrella up but there was a brisk wind blowing that kept the sun from feeling too hot.  As we were eating, there was a sudden CRACK and a tree across the street split.  A large trunk with wide spread branches came crashing down.  How it avoided hitting the power line next to it or the cars parked in front of it, is beyond me.  There was a guy walking his dog in front of that tree not two minutes before.  The angels were watching over everybody.

29 June 2019 (Sat) – We left Youngstown at 8:45 a.m.  Although the sky got cloudy, the rain held off.  The drive took us through Pennsylvania into New York.  We stopped at a travel center when we crossed into New York.  It was crazy!  The place was so crowded.  There was only one facility on the west side of the thruway.  Those on the eastbound side had to cross an overhead bridge.  We each got a slice of pizza.

     We arrived in Lockport at 1:30 p.m.  We are staying in an Elks Lodge in the back parking lot.  After set up, we went in and paid for our site.  At 3:30 p.m., Kevin & Joy, a couple who was on our Utah caravan, met us and we all went to an early dinner.  The food and company was good.  After we returned to the lodge, Paul and I went food shopping to pick up groceries and to Pet Smart for Bonnie’s food.  When we got back, we looked through brochures for activities in the area.

[rose-savestheday]

SOOOO, as promised, CHERIK PROMPTSSSS. Wow I know writing is hard but this is pretty exhausting. Though I’ve been more productive in the past 2 days than I’ve been for 4 months so I’ll take it as good sign ;) I really don’t know what I was doing and this is my first official fanfic, ever. I hope it doesn’t come out so bad?

This is for @deadritualz ;)

——-

The air is chilly up here on the rooftop.

Erik drops the black duffle bag next to his chosen spot. The chunk falls with a soft thud, leaving no audible trace of what hidden inside. He crouches down and unzips the bag. It’s a regular companion he has gotten since the very first days he embarked on this road. The polyester surface is well-worn, threadbare at the corner at the bottom, and he might have subconsciously scraped off the coat of sacramento paint on the zip somewhere along the line.

Still, he doesn’t plan on getting a new one at all, the old fellow cuts it just fine. Besides, he prefers to keep this job just where it is and only where it is.

He takes out the wooden box and clicks it open. Another gust of wind skates on his back.

The rifle fits neatly into the velvet-covered mould. Remington 700 CDL FS, limited edition. Sleek walnut stock, stainless-steel bar, graceful fluted barrel, low recoil at 400 yards, insane accuracy without the need of follow-up shots if the user has mastered it the level of Erik’s. He lifts the rifle out carefully and fits it in the holder. Quite the work of art, really.

27 floors to the ground, the clamour of traffic melts into a perpetual white noise with occasional screeches. Up here, the city can almost pass for a constellation, vivid with white and yellow and blue beams. In this sleep-deprived New York with too many lives and too much noise and too many secrets, Erik can find it in his heart to paint black the grey that marks his conscience every time he has a job.

He has been doing this for 3 years. It starts off with hunting down his parents’ murderers, when the flame of the memory of his mother’s red cloak on fire still burned bright and he was still too scarred from the venomous heat (sometimes it wakes him up in the middle of the night, the scent of burnt flesh, piled high and unremarkable). When he has dived too deep to retreat though, Earth is graced by too many scums - which didn’t come as a surprise at any rate, just a fact in poor lighting. The decision wrecked him initially, but Emma found him and gave him the (will) power to let his flame consume every one of them.

(“We need men like you,” the blonde woman sat across the table, gracefully wrapped her manicured fingers around the glass, “And you need us.”)

Erik does ponder the authenticity of the information on his targets. Most of the time. It seems there is someone more powerful behind Emma, standing in the dark and pulling strings. Though he keeps his suspicion to himself. In for a penny, in for a pound.

That does not mean it’s not gnawing at times.

He takes out the binoculars and directs his vision at the opposite building. 13th floor, glass wall, there is some sort of anniversary celebration inside. The place is crawling with aristocrats, rich noble fools in their expensive designer clothes exchange pleasantries. He skims pass the crowd of faces to find his target.

Registered.

Charles Francis Xavier, Genetic professor at Oxford at the age of 24, published a number of papers well-known in his field, old money, ardent pacifist, runs a school for children of special backgrounds, stuck in a wheelchair after a hit-and-run. Erik can’t possibly think of anything a man of such prestige could have done to have someone hire a professional assassin to shoot him in the head, 27 yards away in the cold of July, amidst what appears to be an important milestone of his life.

But to live is to expect the unexpected.

He zooms in again to get a clear vision of his target. The photograph he was given was flattering enough (Xavier during a lecture, hands clapped loosely, body leaning languidly against the frame of the wheelchair, blue eyes intent). The man looks much younger in real life. He makes small talks with every group, selling smiles and gaining laughs.

Erik patiently waits until Xavier excuses from the chitchat. It didn’t take long. He wheels himself near the wine table and reaches for water instead. He drinks up the glass in one gulp. From Erik’s limited point of view, he doesn’t seem to take much interest in any of this.

Erik puts the binoculars down. Xavier is vulnerable. Time is due. He gets on his chest, one hand on the pistol grip, the other supporting the forestock. He presses his cheek firmly into the stock, the wax feels cool under his skin. He has done this a million times already, one clean shot, the bullet pierces through the skull and before the victim can even registers the pain, they are already dead. It’s a mercy he grants occasionally.

He zeroes the scope at Xavier’s forehead. Clear vision. One clean shot. He has done this a million times. One clean shot and Xavier is due to God’s hand. This is bound to be a piece of cake.

His thumb is on the trigger. Press, not pull, he learns that from experiences. Keep pressing until the trigger meets the rear, and let yourself be surprised when the rifle fires.

Air is running low in his lungs, he can hear his own heartbeat keep itself composed, around him winds seem to stifle, the traffic below pours into a thick stream of metal.

One clean shot.

And then Xavier’s eyes flicker directly to his.

There is a moment when everything ceases to be. An intangible current shoots through his whole body. Erik’s chest tightens a tad. His mouth goes dry, the trigger feels alien under his thumb.

The winds somehow feel colder now.

“Fuck,” Erik closes his eyes shut and curses under his breath. He opens them again and zeroes the scope. Xavier is still at the window. He is talking to someone, beaming as amiable as always. It’s now or never. The little moment of distraction is far from a challenge. Erik never fails his missions.

His thumb traces back to the trigger again like an old friend. One clean shot. He reminds himself. Then Xavier and all his past, his memories, will become history.

Not for the first time, he wonders how the Xaviers will cope with the loss. Charles Xavier has a little sister.

“Bad timing,” he hisses at his conscience. Erik had a family once.

He breathes in again.

One clean shot.

His thumb keeps on pressing a little further. Further. Further.

He feels the heavy resistance. Erik almost wants to let go.

The report is raucous next to his ears. In the opposite building, Xavier’s eyes go wide with pain and astonishment.

Erik looks up sepulchrally. He almost wanted to let go.

Behind the glass wall of floor 13, the man in the wheelchair slouches under the weight of his own body. The blue suit is soaked with blood from his abdomen. There is a doctor in the room, Xavier’s holding his wound amidst the chaos.

One clean shot. In the head.

Erik never failed his missions.

He stays still for a moment before packing up. The crowd on the 13th floor is a dark haze in his sight. He absentmindedly wonders if Xavier is ever going to give lectures again.

The door to the rooftop shuts close flatly. The air is chilly up here.

[ecotone99]

Dunes to Destinations: 100 Years on the L Taraval

Dunes to Destinations: 100 Years on the L Taraval By Jeremy Menzies

Tomorrow, April 12, 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of service on the L Taraval Line! The establishment of the L paved the way for development of the Parkside and southwest corner of the Sunset District but like many transit lines in San Francisco, its history is a bit more complex than simply laying down tracks and running streetcars. To celebrate this centennial, here is a brief look back at the history of one of Muni's oldest rail lines.

A Destination in the Dunes

The story of the L goes back to the early days of the 20th century and the first streetcar line to serve the fledgling Parkside neighborhood along Taraval Street between 19th and 33rd Avenues. The predecessor to the L was built by the Parkside Transit Company and operated by the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR). It ran down 20th Ave. from Lincoln Way, ending at Taraval and 33rd to connect the sparsely populated area with downtown-bound streetcars on Lincoln. Unfortunately for Parkside residents, this route to downtown was circuitous and infrequent and they quickly lobbied for a better alternative.

This shot on 20th Avenue from 1914 gives some idea of just how undeveloped the Sunset area was around the time that the L was being built. The streetcar line pictured here was one of the earliest routes to serve the developing Parkside District.

An Open Opportunity

Following the opening of the Twin Peaks Tunnel and K Ingleside service in 1918, a real opportunity opened up for improved transit service to the areas west of Twin Peaks. The tunnel provided a much more direct route to downtown than had previously been available, cutting travel time significantly. The City recognized this opportunity and quickly set about making plans for the L. By the end of 1918, construction on the L began after an agreement had been reached for Muni to share tracks on Taraval between 20th and 33rd Avenues with URR's Parkside shuttle line.

An outbound L streetcar enters the Twin Peaks Tunnel at its eastern portal on Market and Castro Streets in this 1935 shot. The tunnel cut travel time to downtown significantly, helping spark greater development west of Twin Peaks via Muni's streetcar lines.

Birth of the L

After just a short construction period, service on the L began on April 12, 1919, marking the birth of Muni's 13th streetcar line. At this time, Muni ran small "dinky" streetcars on the L as a shuttle from West Portal and Ulloa to Taraval and 33rd due to low ridership in the sparsely populated region. Passengers headed downtown would have transferred at West Portal to the K Ingleside.

One of Muni's streamlined "Magic Carpet" cars heads outbound on the L in this 1940 photo, taken around Taraval and 24th Ave.

Bay to Breakers

Four years after start of service, the L saw its first major growth spurt in 1923 when tracks were laid all the way to Taraval and 48th Avenue. That same year, Muni expanded service to the Ferry Building via the Twin Peaks Tunnel and Market Street and began using full-sized streetcars to carry more passengers to and from the developing outside lands. For the first time, residents of the southwest corner of the city had a direct rail connection from the waters of the Bay to the breakers of the Pacific Ocean.

This 1925 photo was likely taken to promote the extension of the L to 48th Avenue. The bus pictured is from Muni's #2 Ocean bus line, which ran north to south between Cabrillo and Sloat.

Expansions and Attractions

A little over a decade after the L Taraval's extension to Ocean Beach, the line saw yet another expansion of service in 1937 when tracks were laid to its present-day terminal at Wawona Street and 46th Avenue. Funded by the Works Progress Administration, this extension brought Muni riders to two of the Outer Sunset's most desirable destinations- the Fleishacker Pool and San Francisco Zoo. Despite the draw of the Zoo, Pool and low real estate costs, this area would remain largely undeveloped for at least another decade.

An overhead line crew installs new power lines to extend the L to the Fleischacker Pool and Zoo in this 1937 shot. As late at the early '50s, many sandy lots stood empty at the outer fringes of the L.

In the intervening years, the L has transitioned from streetcars to light rail vehicles as part of the Muni Metro system redesign but not much else has happened until recently. In its 100th year, the L is looking at another round of renewal and improvement. Work is slated to begin on the L Taraval Improvement Project later this year and includes replacement of worn tracks and pavement, landscaping, new traffic signals to improve traffic flow and safety improvements for all the residents who use Taraval Street. Stay tuned to SFMTA.com/Taraval for all the project details.

Looking for more history about the L and the area it serves? Check out some of our historic photos online, or the photo exhibit we've put together that will be displayed at Andytown Coffee Roasters on Taraval and 40th as well as at the Zoo on April 20th. And don't miss these great podcasts put out by Western Neighborhoods Project: #245 L Taraval, #79 Parkside District, and #14 San Francisco Zoo.

Published April 11, 2019 at 09:53PM http://bit.ly/2GiYYLW via Blogger http://bit.ly/2v0HYDO

[love-quicklymysticalstudent-blr]

Dunes to Destinations: 100 Years on the L Taraval

Dunes to Destinations: 100 Years on the L Taraval By Jeremy Menzies

Tomorrow, April 12, 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of service on the L Taraval Line! The establishment of the L paved the way for development of the Parkside and southwest corner of the Sunset District but like many transit lines in San Francisco, its history is a bit more complex than simply laying down tracks and running streetcars. To celebrate this centennial, here is a brief look back at the history of one of Muni's oldest rail lines.

A Destination in the Dunes

The story of the L goes back to the early days of the 20th century and the first streetcar line to serve the fledgling Parkside neighborhood along Taraval Street between 19th and 33rd Avenues. The predecessor to the L was built by the Parkside Transit Company and operated by the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR). It ran down 20th Ave. from Lincoln Way, ending at Taraval and 33rd to connect the sparsely populated area with downtown-bound streetcars on Lincoln. Unfortunately for Parkside residents, this route to downtown was circuitous and infrequent and they quickly lobbied for a better alternative.

This shot on 20th Avenue from 1914 gives some idea of just how undeveloped the Sunset area was around the time that the L was being built. The streetcar line pictured here was one of the earliest routes to serve the developing Parkside District.

An Open Opportunity

Following the opening of the Twin Peaks Tunnel and K Ingleside service in 1918, a real opportunity opened up for improved transit service to the areas west of Twin Peaks. The tunnel provided a much more direct route to downtown than had previously been available, cutting travel time significantly. The City recognized this opportunity and quickly set about making plans for the L. By the end of 1918, construction on the L began after an agreement had been reached for Muni to share tracks on Taraval between 20th and 33rd Avenues with URR's Parkside shuttle line.

An outbound L streetcar enters the Twin Peaks Tunnel at its eastern portal on Market and Castro Streets in this 1935 shot. The tunnel cut travel time to downtown significantly, helping spark greater development west of Twin Peaks via Muni's streetcar lines.

Birth of the L

After just a short construction period, service on the L began on April 12, 1919, marking the birth of Muni's 13th streetcar line. At this time, Muni ran small "dinky" streetcars on the L as a shuttle from West Portal and Ulloa to Taraval and 33rd due to low ridership in the sparsely populated region. Passengers headed downtown would have transferred at West Portal to the K Ingleside.

One of Muni's streamlined "Magic Carpet" cars heads outbound on the L in this 1940 photo, taken around Taraval and 24th Ave.

Bay to Breakers

Four years after start of service, the L saw its first major growth spurt in 1923 when tracks were laid all the way to Taraval and 48th Avenue. That same year, Muni expanded service to the Ferry Building via the Twin Peaks Tunnel and Market Street and began using full-sized streetcars to carry more passengers to and from the developing outside lands. For the first time, residents of the southwest corner of the city had a direct rail connection from the waters of the Bay to the breakers of the Pacific Ocean.

This 1925 photo was likely taken to promote the extension of the L to 48th Avenue. The bus pictured is from Muni's #2 Ocean bus line, which ran north to south between Cabrillo and Sloat.

Expansions and Attractions

A little over a decade after the L Taraval's extension to Ocean Beach, the line saw yet another expansion of service in 1937 when tracks were laid to its present-day terminal at Wawona Street and 46th Avenue. Funded by the Works Progress Administration, this extension brought Muni riders to two of the Outer Sunset's most desirable destinations- the Fleishacker Pool and San Francisco Zoo. Despite the draw of the Zoo, Pool and low real estate costs, this area would remain largely undeveloped for at least another decade.

An overhead line crew installs new power lines to extend the L to the Fleischacker Pool and Zoo in this 1937 shot. As late at the early '50s, many sandy lots stood empty at the outer fringes of the L.

In the intervening years, the L has transitioned from streetcars to light rail vehicles as part of the Muni Metro system redesign but not much else has happened until recently. In its 100th year, the L is looking at another round of renewal and improvement. Work is slated to begin on the L Taraval Improvement Project later this year and includes replacement of worn tracks and pavement, landscaping, new traffic signals to improve traffic flow and safety improvements for all the residents who use Taraval Street. Stay tuned to SFMTA.com/Taraval for all the project details.

Looking for more history about the L and the area it serves? Check out some of our historic photos online, or the photo exhibit we've put together that will be displayed at Andytown Coffee Roasters on Taraval and 40th as well as at the Zoo on April 20th. And don't miss these great podcasts put out by Western Neighborhoods Project: #245 L Taraval, #79 Parkside District, and #14 San Francisco Zoo.

Published April 11, 2019 at 09:53PM http://bit.ly/2GiYYLW via Blogger http://bit.ly/2KwgaSc

[alternative-eyes]

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cY_v2VPvkHQ/VQMzsHZVLzI/AAAAAAAAa9I/YJ8auAooWnM/s400/The%2BPhoenix%2BLights%2B.png

     The huge mass – at least a mile wide – approached from the North West. I could land on it with my 727. We began to eliminate possibilities. What ever it was seemed to be following the Tonto One arrival, the standard jet arrival routing for instrument traffic into PHX on an approximate heading of 120°. I estimated its altitude to be 10,000 feet. No C-130’s, it wasn’t a formation of jets – too slow for either of them. Helicopters? Not that either – no “wop-wop,” no sound. None. Cessna’s wired with weird lights? Its happened, but that wasn’t the case on March 13th.

By Captain Trig Johnston The UFO Chronicles © 2006-2019

After a few minutes of observation we concluded that this was one object. There was zero movement between its massive forward-facing amber lights. I should have counted the lights, should have run for a camera and called my friend Bob Mohan, a local talk radio guy. The craft had intercepted Scottsdale Road, and made a right turn to approximately 180º following it south. It was headed right for Mo’s house.

[...] Continue Reading ► See Also: Kingman Witness Breaks Silence! – EXCLUSIVE | 19th Anniversary of The Phoenix Lights The Massive UFO Flyover of Arizona – Phoenix Lights 19th Anniversary Phoenix Lights 19th Anniversary: Vintage Interview with Tim Ley, Mike Fortson, Frances Barwood and Richard Motzer | VIDEO THE PHOENIX LIGHTS: THE (ORIGINAL) REAL INVESTIGATION | 19th Anniversary of The Phoenix Lights Original, Eyewitness Account of The 'Phoenix Lights,’ by Mike Fortson | 19th Anniversary Kingman Witness Breaks Silence! – EXCLUSIVE | 18th Anniversary of The Phoenix Lights Phoenix Lights Phenomenon –18 Years Ago, Today | VIDEO Veteran Airline Pilot – Eyewitness To The Phoenix Lights | 18th Anniversary The Arizona UFO Controversy | 18th Anniversary of The Phoenix Lights Phoenix Lights: Vintage Interview with Tim Ley, Mike Fortson, Frances Barwood and Richard Motzer The Phoenix Lights: After 12 Years, Original Photographic Expert, Jim Dilettoso Reverses Position - Says Famed Video 'Could Be Flares!' The Non-Investigation of the Phoenix Lights - My View (Redux) | 17th Anniversary of The Phoenix Lights

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Enormous UFO Reported By Veteran Airline Pilot – Phoenix Lights 22nd Anniversary http://www.theufochronicles.com/2019/03/enormous-ufo-reported-by-veteran-Airline-Pilot-Phoenix-Lights-22nd-Anniversary.html

[tauers-go-dutch]

Molly does Europe

A guest column by Molly herself

There’s a hokey quote that gets circulated on Facebook about how you can go long periods of time without seeing your best friends, and when you do see them again, it’s as if no time has passed. During my trip to Europe to visit Mariah and Ryan, I found this to be true, hokey or not. Mariah did me the honor of asking me to write a guest column on this travel blog about my whirlwind trip through four countries in 10 days, so everyone’s about to find out how wordy I get when I’m not confined by news writing. (Fans of the Oxford comma, deal with it.)

Amsterdam or “This cookie just ruined every other cookie for me.”

In Amsterdam there are the most delicious cookies. They’re from a little store that does just one thing: Makes delectable dark chocolate cookies filled with a molten white chocolate center. Mariah and I ate those cookies while crossing a canal after having cappuccinos to help me with the jet lag, and I’m pretty sure I felt the ground move, that’s how good they were.

(I have to note here that my mom’s chocolate chip are still better, though.)

Why in the world bitterballen are such a big deal and Van Stapele cookies are not is beyond me.

Bitterballen are fried gravy balls, and are a national food in The Netherlands. They’re, well, an edible thing. I ate one in spite of my life-long hatred of gravy and was unimpressed. I was not disgusted either, so I guess that’s something, but that could have been because they come with mustard, which is one of my favorite things. But hey, more for Ryan that way.

We went next door to Brouwerij ‘Tij, which is located inside one of Holland’s trademark windmills and brews some pretty good beer. While there, Mariah and Ryan regaled me with tales of their lives in Amsterdam and we did our best to get caught up on everything that has happened since August.

Beyond the culinary delights and not-so-delights, we filled our initial time in Amsterdam with museums and other sight-seeing. We visited the Anne Frank house, which was a sobering experience and dredged up memories of reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a teenager. We walked through the rooms where she and her family and the other refugees lived and were eventually betrayed and hauled off to concentration camps.

We also paid a visit to the Van Gogh museum, absent from which was Starry Night because of “some damn Rockefeller,” who put it in the Met in NYC instead, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

Stroopwafel as big as your face

Brouwerij ‘t IJ

Paris or “There’s that church you wanted to see.”

Our first stop after our hotel in Paris was a nearby restaurant with a good Bordeaux and better ravioli, because why not eat Italian in France? Snails are gross. We followed that with crepes for dessert and then arrived at the Louvre to get a look at ole Mona Lisa.

I confirmed my suspicions that I prefer Van Gogh to da Vinci.

We made our way along the Champs Elysees and had some dinner before starting our trek to the Eiffel Tower, which was lengthy. Along the way, we found a memorial to Princess Diana on top of the overpass where the car accident that killed her occurred. Unexpected but kind of interesting.

We finally got to the tower and realized we’d need to wait longer than we expected to catch the big light show they do there after dark. So we waited and turned down about a dozen guys who wanted to sell us wine and roses in the meantime.

When the lights came on though, it was worth the wait. The tower is always lit up after dark, but every hour they really put their backs into it and turn on a mass of dancing lights that make the whole thing glitter for a full minute. It’s stunning and you can’t take your eyes away from it. Nor should you.

The next day we headed to Laduree for brunch. They served us scrambled eggs that were delicious but inexplicably compacted into a hockey-puck shape, albeit larger. We ordered macarons and went on our way to Montparnasse Tower, a 59-story office building that is located in an area that is definitely not zoned for that.

Because it’s the only building of that height in the area, the views of the city from Montparnasse are incredible, so they turned the top three floors into a visitors’ center. You ride the elevator up and then climb three flights of stairs to get a 360-degree view of the city from the roof. Then you go back down three flights of stairs and eat an eclair where it isn’t quite so windy but you can still see out the windows.

From there we went to Notre Dame, or “that church I wanted to see,” which contained exactly zero hunchbacks performing heroic acts.

What it did contain, though, was architecture from the 12th century and stained glass windows that are incredibly vivid, as are the relief portraits of various scenes from the Bible that line the interior of the cathedral.

At this point, we decided we had really not eaten enough cheese for being in France, so we fixed that by visiting a cheese shop for dinner. We grabbed dessert from a bakery and retreated to our hotel.

During our last hours in Paris, we climbed Montmarte to Sacre Coeur, another cathedral, stopping for more crepes along the way. We did some shopping and then headed for the train.

Aboard the train to Paris

Brussels or “Wow. Wow. Wow!”

I probably could have sat in Grand Place eating truffles for my whole visit to Brussels and been happy.

We rounded the corner into the square, which is 360 degrees of intricately constructed buildings, built in the 10th through 13th centuries. As expression goes, I’m much better at sarcasm, incredulity and snark than I am at excitement and wonderment. Exclaiming aloud about cool stuff just isn’t something that comes naturally to me.

But this place got three (maybe even four) consecutive “wows” out of me. And that’s a lot for me; I think Mariah would back me up on that. (Editor’s note: It’s true.) 

Fortunately it was early enough that there weren’t many tourists present, because I would have run right into them with my head craned up toward the sky.

We ate some brunch and then bought chocolate, obviously. We went to see Mannekin Pis, or the fountain featuring a peeing boy. They dress him up in different outfits and people take pictures. That day he was dressed like a firefighter because we were in Brussels on the one-year anniversary of the bombing at the train station there.

Aside from chocolate, Belgium is famous for its beer, so we had some of that as well, at Delirium and at Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, which specializes in lambics and krieks, which are some of my favorites.

And aside from chocolate and beer, Belgium is famous for frites and waffles, so naturally we had those too, and jumped on a train back to Amsterdam.

Grand Place

Mannekin Pis dressed to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Brussels terrorist attack at the train station and airport

Amsterdam again or “Is this a tin can?”

We spent a day in between trips in Amsterdam, during which Mariah cooked up a delicious Dutch pancake for me. Later we met Ryan and his colleagues at a speakeasy where they were hosting a guest bartender from Switzerland. We ordered drinks. Mariah got a pretty pink one in a cut-glass champagne flute. Mine came in a tin can. An actual tin can, and it had a rosemary sprig in it that that looked like a tree. In spite of looking like it came from the garbage, it was quite tasty. Good job, Swiss bartender.

Berlin or “We’re back in East Berlin, there’s Ampelmann.”

What Berlin lacks in aesthetics (in my opinion and relatively speaking after Paris and Brussels), it makes up for in history, depressing as it may be, and the best food I had on the whole trip, except maybe those cookies in Amsterdam.

Mariah and I got to Berlin ahead of Ryan, and made use of the time by going to Charlottenburg Palace, which was built by the final few generations of the monarchy there. The exterior of the building was covered by construction scaffolding, which was a bummer, but the interior has been restored after sustaining a lot of damage during WWII.

The surrounding gardens are probably a lot prettier later in the spring, but still made for a nice stroll in late March.

The next day we took a walking tour of Berlin that started at Brandenburg Gate (site of Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech, and a slew of other important events) and led us through some of the most historically and culturally significant parts of central Berlin.

We visited the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is a large piece of land with huge gray stones of varying size set so that people can walk among them. The guide explained that visitors are encouraged to walk through it and get lost a little bit, as it is intended to be disorienting and something of a sensory-deprivation experience. The stones get taller as the ground slopes down, so you can’t see over the top, creating a maze of sorts.

We also stopped at the site of the headquarters of the Gestapo and SS, which has been torn down and is a vacant parcel that will never be developed, some remnants of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, as well as some non-war-related sites including churches and concert halls.

You can tell if you’re in former East Berlin or not by looking at the pedestrian traffic lights. In East Berlin, the little red and green guys who tell you if you can cross or not have a distinctive shape and have been dubbed “Ampelmann.” He has his own tourist shops and is kind of a big deal, apparently.

The most memorable part of the tour, though, occurred when our tour guide took us to a parking lot at an apartment complex. Yeah, you read that right. We were standing on some grass that hadn’t started to grow properly yet this year.

He then told us that we were standing above the remnants of the bunker where Hitler shot himself as Soviet troops closed in on him, bringing an end to WWII. After his body was removed and cremated, the remains were scattered into a moving river and the bunker was imploded and paved over. Now it’s just a parking lot, and that grassy spot is where residents of that complex take their dogs to do their business.

It was chilling to say the least, standing there. The tour guide explained that officials at the time wanted to make sure that no one would ever have a place to go to pay respects or otherwise honor Hitler.

However, a nearby sign indicating what happened there means that theoretically there could be a gathering in that parking lot if someone wanted. Or across the street on the SS headquarters site. But I guess they did the best they could in trying to erase the evil that occurred without turning a blind eye and pretending it didn’t happen. It would be a hard line to walk.

After all of that, we needed a pick-me-up, so we ducked into a Bavarian restaurant for helles and hefeweizens, as well as spatzle and strudel.

We visited the DDR (Deutsche Democratic Republic) Museum, which is focused on life in East Berlin during the 28 years that the Berlin Wall divided the city. Hint: Communism is unpleasant.

That night and the next day were mainly wandering around the city and Mauer Park, where big markets are set up every Sunday and bands play for passersby.

We closed out Berlin with lunch and ice cream, both of which we had outside because it was unseasonably warm.

Inside Charlottenburg Palace

Brandenburg Gate

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of the Holocaust

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall Memorial

The East Berlin Stadium (Not the Berlin Wall) 

Amsterdam again or “You have packed one Molly’s worth of beer.”

My final experience in Europe was a sitcom-worthy jaunt through Amsterdam with my luggage and the suitcase full of Belgian beer I agreed to escort home for Ryan. He painstakingly packed it the night before and had to help me get it to the airport because it weighed as much as, if not more than, me. But he’ll have a respectable stock of Cantillon when they come back to the states. (Come back soon!)

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily express those of the main Tauers Go Dutch author. However, mostly they do. It’s why we’re best friends. Tot Ziens! 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.10

1041 – The adoptive son of Empress Zoë of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V. 1317 – The "Nyköping Banquet" - King Birger of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers Valdemar, Duke of Finland and Eric, Duke of Södermanland, who were subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle. 1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice. 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate. 1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII. 1652 – Defeat at the Battle of Dungeness causes the Commonwealth of England to reform its navy. 1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter 1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley. 1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published. 1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length. 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state. 1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy. 1861 – Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance. 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia. 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria. 1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published. 1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance. 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict. 1901 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. 1902 – The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt. 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize. 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected. 1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy. 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication. 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya. 1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon. 1942 – World War II: Government of Poland in exile send Raczyński's Note (the first official report on the Holocaust) to 26 governments who signed the Declaration by United Nations. 1948 – The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations. 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan. 1953 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in literature. 1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah. 1963 – An assassination attempt on the British High Commissioner in Aden kills two people and wounds dozens more. 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo. 1978 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested. 1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín. 1984 – United Nations General Assembly recognizes the Convention against Torture. 1989 – Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union. 1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages. 1994 – Rwandan genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, recommends that UNAMIR stand down. 1995 – The Israeli army withdraws from Nablus pursuant to the terms of Oslo Accord. 1996 – The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela. 2014 – Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein was killed after the suppression of a demonstration by Israeli forces in the village (Turmus'ayya) in Ramallah. 2016 – Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others. 2017 – ISIL is defeated in Iraq.

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Note: I can't help thinking how easy it would have been to deal with the audit if my accountant lived here instead of Florida.   (Longish story here.)  The exchange of emails regarding this were never without their little confusions.  Our face time was to an appointment when he came to New York during tax season.  Yesterday I discovered I made a mistake in the figures I gave him.  This has never happened before and it took me a long time to discover my error.  Dammit.

Note: That's twice in two weeks I have heard "It was a dark and stormy night" attributed to Snoopy.  But WE know it is the opening line of the novel "Paul Clifford" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.  There is even a "bad writing" contest in which the contestants must open with the line.  I have a Bulwer-Lytton memory from childhood.  I had discovered Classics Illustrated and among them was "The Last Days of Pompeii."  I remember that it was a quick read, nothing else.  But I was a Classics Illustrated fan not trying any of the real books until years later. I recall an interview with Charles Schulz in which he was asked how he felt about the theft of his material (Snoopy dolls produced in China, etc.).  He replied: (I think, a variation on something in Aristotle)  It is a better to be stolen from than to have to steal.  I doubt that his having borrowed the famous phrase was upsetting to the Bulwer-Lytton society. 

Friday, July 13, 2018

Note: Fred and Betty Eckler observed their 50th wedding anniversary. 

Friday the 13th. 

I go to find pipe cleaners at the little store on Seventh Avenue. Surprised that it is still there.  So many places have disappeared.  It is filled with vaping paraphernalia.  Ye gods, what next.

A first.  Little Jenna (nine years old with her own phone) texts me.

Note: This is the anniversary of the blackout of '77.  I was in the pit at the Metropolitan Opera House, playing for the National Ballet of Canada.  We were thirty minutes into their production of "La Fille Mal Gardee."  It was believed, until we got the announcement, that the power would soon come back on.  In the Stygian darkness of the pit our harpist, Bob Barlow, played an appropriate medley:  "Dancing in the Dark,"  "If Everyone Lit Just One Little Candle,"  "Moonlight Becomes You," etc.  But with the announcement that the entire city was without light we were told to leave.  Outside there was chaos.  A drunk was standing in the middle of Amsterdam Avenue, having a good time pretending to direct traffic. 

[jurassicparkpodcast]

Jurassic 25: A Celebration - From Victoria's Cantina

“An adventure 65 million years in the making.”  The year was 1993.  8 year-old me, who had already been obsessed with dinosaurs at that point, caught wind of a TV spot that contained that simple tagline.  I distinctly recall seeing the herd of Gallimimus flocking, and it excited me in a way no other movie commercial had.  The movie was called Jurassic Park, and it was the movie to see that summer.  Thankfully, my wish came true.  It was a hot day in Fort Worth, Texas, when my father, uncle, brother and I went to see it at a theater in a local mall.  The moment the film began, I was mesmerized.  The way it began with such an intense scene of a man being violently attacked by what was obviously some sort of monstrous dinosaur truly set the mood.  But this was not a scary movie.  Sure, it had terrifying moments.  (I still recall the shot of the Tyrannosaurus Rex breaking through the glass to attack Lex and Tim scaring the living daylights out of me.)  But there were warm, touching moments, such as when our heroes are taken to see a dinosaur for the first time.  Or when everyone suddenly abandons their Jungle Explorers to get up close and personal with a sick Triceratops.  Indeed, for an 8 year-old dinosaur-crazed kid, this movie was nothing short of a great adventure.  And it was one that would stay with me into adulthood.

Fast-forward 25 years to 2018.  In April, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that it would be hosting the Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Celebration.  Originally set to span two days on May 11th and 12th (May 13th was added due to the high demand for tickets), it would celebrate a quarter-century of one of the biggest film franchises in cinema history.  Being somewhat local in San Diego, I knew this was an event I could not miss.  I convinced my husband that this was something we absolutely had to do.  (If visiting Kualoa Ranch and hunting for Jurassic Park filming locations across Hawai’i in 2016 did not affirm my fandom to him, what would?)  We booked our tickets and made plans to drive up to Hollywood on Friday, May 11th.  While I do visit Disneyland periodically, I had not been to Universal Studios Hollywood in 8 years.  I did get the chance to visit Universal Studios Japan last year, but I always feel that despite the grandeur of their newer iterations, theme parks just do not hold up to their original locations.  (And surely, the same is often true when we speak of our favorite film series.)   After surviving the always chaotic Los Angeles traffic, my excitement heightened as we parked in Jurassic Parking and made off towards Universal CityWalk.  According to our tickets, we would not be let into the event until 5:30 PM.  Since we were a bit early, we bided our time at CityWalk and admired the beautiful Jurassic Park Jeep Wranglers and Jungle Explorer that sat adjacent to the CityWalk AMC movie theater.  It was a cool evening, and my hair decided early on that the intermittent drizzle would become its greatest foe.  What was nice about this event was that the park did not close until 7 PM.  So we made use of this precious time to wait a ridiculously short 10 minutes for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  After admiring the recently opened The Simpsons area, we followed the signage leading our way to the Jurassic Park event and rode the Starway down to the Lower Lot.  When we arrived, we were instantly thrown into Jurassic mode. 

Universal used the Jurassic Park: The Ride area to stage the Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Celebration.  Along with the ride itself, the celebration included a main stage, an activity area, the Raptor Encounter experience, restaurants, shops, and multiple bars that were set up to meet the needs of alcohol-deprived fans.  The queue of Jurassic Park: The Ride contained prop displays such as Claire’s outfit and a gyrosphere from Jurassic World.  There was also a Mattel Jurassic World toy display.  The activity center featured face painting and caricatures.  The main stage would be where Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow would be moderating a panel with special guests a little later.  Shops such as Jurassic Outfitters were filled with merchandise, some of which was created for the 25th Anniversary Celebration.  Mattel toys were priced double their MSRP.  You could get a Super Colossal T-Rex for the “special” price of $90.  (Markups on merchandise are not uncommon at theme parks, but such drastic premiums came across like gouging.)  And as an added bonus, Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers: The Ride were open for fans attending the exclusive event.  Both were walk-ons for the entire night, which again, is just unheard of.  Around 7:15 PM, the D.J. put his beats on pause as Velociraptor Zulu and Velociraptor Blue made their way out to taunt the crowd awaiting the panel.  This was a confusing moment, as many fans who had already gathered in front of the stage for the panel were asked to disburse so that the raptors could do their thing.  The “show” included several ACU soldiers who were working to steady the two raptors and contain them.  It really lacked any choreography or plot and came across as very disorganized.  I got the impression that most fans could have done without it; especially since it disrupted most everyone who had already claimed a spot for the panel.  Moments later, the emcee welcomed Colin Trevorow to the stage.  The Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom co-writer spoke a bit about his fandom and then promptly welcomed three Hollywood veterans who were involved with the production of Jurassic Park.  They included assistant director John Kretchmer, cinematographer Dean Cundey, and visual effects artist Dennis Muren.  The three esteemed guests shared stories about working on Jurassic Park and why it remains such a beloved film.  For me, the panel was the biggest highlight of the evening.  And what was quite great about it was that each night of the celebration would feature different guests.  (Saturday attendees got to hear from Laura Dern, while Sunday guests got a nice dose of Jeff Goldblum!)  When the panel concluded, the D.J. cranked the music back up.  But his performance was again paused for the costume contest and trivia game.  Of course, another highlight of the evening was the IMAX showing of Jurassic Park at the CityWalk AMC theater.  It contained the opening sequence to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which was met with a rave response from fans.  And of course, there is nothing like seeing one of your favorite films on the big screen.  While all of these activities were fantastic, I would be remiss if I did not mention how special it was interacting with so many Jurassic Park fans face-to-face.  Seeing their enthusiasm for the franchise, with their faces lighting up as they discussed their favorite characters and dinosaurs and memories, truly left an impression.  It was truly special to connect with like-minded Jurassic Park fans, and it was tremendously special to meet former online friends who I can now simply refer to as friends. 

On the whole, Universal did a remarkable job organizing this special event for the Jurassic Park fans who had traveled not only from within California, but also from other states and even other countries.  There was abundant signage throughout the park for fans to find their way to the event.  The fact that the Upper Lot was available for attendees for an hour and a half was a huge plus that made the event all the more enjoyable.  The exhibits, activities, and games added an extra layer of interactivity that gave fans an ample number of things to do.  The Raptor Encounter special show was quite disorganized and seemed more of a nuisance than a contributing element to the experience, but it was countered with a great panel and a tram ride through part of the backlot towards the movie theater.  And then when you factor the showing of Jurassic Park with a preview of Fallen Kingdom, you truly feel like the $69 paid for the event was quite a bargain.  What’s more is that through my observations, I noticed fans of all demographics enjoying the event.  I also got the sense that attendees were happy and having a great time, and it was certainly nice to see Universal commemorating the anniversary of one of its biggest films.  With the first two events selling out, I have to wonder if Universal will hold similar events in the future not only for Jurassic, but also for other established franchises like Harry Potter or Back to the Future.  I know more than a few fans who would wholeheartedly welcome a Jurassic Park 30th anniversary party in 5 years. 

In 2018, I am enormously excited.  Not only is Universal celebrating the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite films, but they are also releasing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom this summer.  Mattel is putting out some of the finest Jurassic Park toys of all time and truly delivering on the promise of what a great toy line should be.  Indeed, it is perhaps the best time to be a Jurassic fan.  Somewhere inside 33 year-old me, 8 year-old me is smiling and enjoying every minute of it. 

Victoria B.

Please find Victoria's Cantina on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram! Don't miss our special episode focusing on the Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Celebration at Universal Studios in the player below. Also find a few more photos in the gallery below:

[markburkeyphotography]

Meghalaya 2017 Expedition Week 2

Sunday 12th February Sielkan-Pielkleing Pouk Through trip A day off from expedition caving to do the most sporting through trip and difficult photo shoot I have done to date. A dozen of us would be on the trip with half of us heading down the fallen tree trunks to start the through trip from the bamboo lake, whilst the rest of the group headed for the main Sielkan entrance. The majority of this trip is swimming in the vast streamway, only broken by frequent impressive gour pools, before jumping from them back in to the streamway to continue. The only respite from this is near the resurgence where large breakdown chamber is found before returning to the water to exit the cave. Oana, our resident bat expert came along as she had offered the challenge of trying to capture one of the largest roosts in India with an estimated half a million bats. This proved a real challenge, not only because there were just 3 of us to try and make this happen with limited amounts of lighting gear, but the entire time we were setting up and shooting we were being covered in Bat pee and guano! The entire experience was just awesome and only marred during the 2 hour trek back to camp by Chris Smart miss-footing and face planting a rock. Fortunately although he lost half his front tooth, the nerve was not exposed and he hadn't caught any soft flesh, so aside from spoiling his good looks he was OK.

Monday 13th Sielkan Pouk - Perfect Passage Today we would head in as part of Georg Baeumler's survey team to take a look at a question mark at the far end of perfect passage. Georg would be keen to grab a couple of photographs here as he was part of the team who discovered this stunning part of the cave. Again this would require a swim in following the through trip route, but we were soon climbing out over massive breakdown and in to some beautifully decorated passage. On we continued as the passage size shrank until we were eventually crawling down the question mark to be surveyed. Oana had joined us as Georg had described seeing prints in the calcite and mud at the far end of the passage. These did indeed turn out to be bear prints! Georg and Alexandra continued on, too small for a larger group to survey ahead and so Oana and I grabbed a couple of photographs as we retraced our steps. An hour later we were re-joined by Georg and a grey looking Alex. The sickness bug had struck again and come on without warning. We kept close for support as we begun to exit. It had taken a couple of hours on the way in but would take us over 3 hours to get back to camp with Alexandra being very ill most of the way.

Tuesday 14th Back to Krem Sakwa

Monday night would become my turn to come down with the bug, though I didn't get hit anywhere near as hard by it as others had. I had spent much of the night ill, but come morning my stomach had settled down but I felt very weak.

I had urged Chris Howes and Judith to go and photo the upstream sections we had discovered earlier in the week and they had not only done so, but reported back that they had pushed on and discovered stunning cascades and beautifully formed stream passage. Having seen Chris's photographs and knowing this could be my last chance to visit this cave, and since Mark Tringam's team was missing Yorkshire Dave (again a casualty of the sickness bug) I volunteered myself.

I knew the cave pretty well by now so told the others as I wasn't going to be up to full caving speed I would get a head start and leave camp an hour before them.

Finding the walk in a lot tougher than my previous trips I admitted to myself that I wasn't going to be able to haul in my usual 10kg of camera gear and left it where I met the streamway.

My caving speed was around halved as I picked my way along and I was glad I had grabbed a life jacket for the 60m swim.

After an hour and a half I reached the cascade I had seen in Chris's photographs. Climbing to the top I laid down under a survey point and drifted off to sleep.

I had no idea how long I had dozed but was surprised the others hadn't caught me up. I waited a another quarter of an hour and then headed back down stream to check on them.

After an hour I saw headlamps ahead. They had ticked off a couple of loose ends on the way in and taken longer than expected.

I was pretty knackered by the time we got back to the top of the cascades, but as surveying isn't a fast job I found myself more than able to do my job.

After just over 300m we approached a roar of water and rounded a corner to find a water filled chamber with 6m waterfall entering. This reminded me of top waterfall in OFD and would be just as impossible to climb without gear and so spelled the end of the days surveying.

Mark Tringham took video as we exited which meant I could keep up with them on the way out and the guys kindly allowed me a couple of shots of the downstream section before we exited the cave.

Wednesday 15th Krem Um Sngad Khaddum (Dirty Bat Cave) Another big walk in, we split the journey with a visit to Paradise Pool for a quick dip before continuing on. Marcel had visited with a team the day before but been turned around by a climb down that would require at least a hand line. Chris and I had joined as there were fruit bats at the entrance and we wanted to try and get a shot of them flying out as we entered. We approached quietly but found that there were very few bats around and were disappointed we would not get the chance for the shot. Chris photographed the entrance passage to the climb and I continued on with the survey team in my normal capacity of Ferret. We were soon at what was beginning to look like the end of the cave and the others went ahead surveying toward a daylight shaft whilst I photographed the huntsman spiders in the lower section. Whilst doing this I was sure I could hear the roar of a water and ducked under a shelf to squeeze through in to a large draughting rift passage. I headed on and turned a corner expecting to find a waterfall or streamway and came face to face with thousands of fruit bats. Oana would later identify these as Eonycteris spelaea, unique to this species is the clap of their wings, thought to be used as a type of echo location. I  looked up to find tens of thousands of red eyes peering back from the ceiling. After heading back to let the others know I headed back to the chamber, but this time there were far fewer bats as most had exited another daylight shaft at the corner of the chamber, the draught had gone and it was strangely quiet. What I had mistaken for the roar of water had actually been the sound of bat wings! Before all the bats disappeared I managed to convince the others to let me grab a quick shot before taking over the disto and continuing the surveying down in to flat out crawls filled with debris and spiders. We lost one and then another of the survey team as the going became less pleasant and at the point at which we were going to call it a day Paul found a single lead. He and I pushed through in to small inlet passage and determined that it wasn't going to stop any time soon before we headed back to join the others for the long walk back to camp.

Thursday 16th Krem Rupa This would be our last day before breaking camp for the half way stage and we were to survey a lead in what had been described as one of the prettiest cave finds of the expedition. We were soon making our way in past pretty passage to a lovely gour section named Fairy Pool. Here Diego and Chris had taken photos of the entrance series and a ladder had been rigged to bypass the delicate area from traffic. Our survey area would be very different from the formations of the entrance section. We surveyed through huge rift passage and after a couple of hours reached a massive boulder choke which completely filled the passage. There were no further leads on our section and so we re-grouped with the other survey team before heading back to camp for beer and festivities before breaking camp.

Friday 17th would be spent travelling back just outside Shillong where Saturday 18th there was a party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the expedition itself. With relatively few hangovers Sunday 19th would be another travel day to Mawsynram where the expedition had hired a sports hall for the group. This was something of a culture shock after having been camping in the jungle, but the caving would prove no less exhilarating!

[fukuokanodivision]

Happy Anniversary Traffic Light/OverDrive! Feel free to ask the 3 members of Fukuoka Division’s OverDrive [or myself] anything! Whether it’s questions, inquiries or anything else! Let’s say it’s their way as a thank you for your support across the community!

While on the subject of anniversaries, Traffic Light [despite their disbandment] is celebrating their 13th! So, feel free to ask them anything alongside Fukuoka’s 2nd team!

It’s been quite the journey inside a community such as this one, for both my beloved characters and myself. Being new to all this stuff and shenanigans and displaying these guys apart of the HypMic community, I’ve had a ton of fun with taking part over this past year. Thank you, fellow HYPSTERS, for everything! Here’s to more anniversaries to come! 🩵 [Technically it’s 1 day early, but we don’t talk about that…] [Will be extended till the 5th as compensation]

[eyesonworldcultures]

The World’s Strangest Christmas Trees

The Legoland Christmas Tree in Carlsbad, California

The Sand Tree in West Palm Beach, Florida

Weighing in at nearly 600 tons, Sandi is the world’s largest Christmas tree made entirely from sand. Sculpted by Team Sandtastic—an internationally renowned sand-sculpting team—Sandi climbs nearly 35 feet high on the West Palm Beach Waterfront and steals the show during the city’s month-long Holiday in Paradise celebration. 

The Traffic Light Tree in London, England

Created in 1998 by French sculptor Pierre Vivant, the “Traffic Light Tree” originally stood on a roundabout near London’s Canary Wharf, but has since been relocated to a different roundabout near Billingsgate Market. The tree stands more than 26-feet-tall and incorporates 75 sets of computer-operated traffic lights. 

“The sculpture imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London Plane Trees,” Vivant said, “while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflects the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial, and commercial activities.”

So maybe it’s not technically a Christmas tree. But with all those lights (and critique of consumer culture), it may be hard to tell the difference.

The Largest Human Christmas Tree in Chengannur, India

According to Guinness World Records, the largest human Christmas tree in the world was assembled on December 19, 2015, in Chengannur, India. Some 4,030 participants—most of them local school children—sported green, red, or brown hats and shirts, depending on which part of the tree they represented. The previous record was set in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 2014, with 2,945 volunteers and government employees.

The Tumbleweed Tree in Chandler, Arizona

Since 1957, the city of Chandler has crafted a Christmas tree from what was once its most plentiful natural resource: the tumbleweed. Today, Chandler is hardly the isolated community it was 60 years ago (in fact, it’s now a suburb of Phoenix) and the tumbleweeds don’t tumble like they used to. Parks employees keep their eyes peeled for months each year, hoping to gather the nearly 1,000 tumbleweeds necessary to veil the 25-foot-tall wire frame. Once the tumbleweeds are attached, the city sprays the tree with 25 gallons of white paint, 20 gallons of flame retardant, and 65 pounds of glitter. The entire thing is then adorned with 1,200 holiday lights.

The Ski Tree in Telluride, Colorado

Created in 2013 by local metal artist Anton Viditz-Ward, in collaboration with a slew of community organizations, the world’s first and only “Ski Tree” in Telluride stands 17-feet tall. It’s composed entirely of donated skis, and topped with a starburst of ski poles. The installation is “a celebration of snowsports and what makes Telluride funky,” according to the official Ski Tree Facebook page. Each year, the tree lighting is followed by a ceremonial ski burn that pays homage to the Norse God Ullr, Patron Saint of Skiers.

The Traffic Tree in Berlin, Germany

Towering at nearly 40-feet-tall and belching fire every 30 minutes, this dystopian twist on the holiday tradition earned the honorable title of “Germany’s Ugliest Christmas Tree” by German tabloid Bild when it was first displayed in 2011. Artist Thomas Plattner, who specializes in found objects, built the “Traffic Tree” from scrap metal and junkyard paraphernalia. It’s a reflection, he told The Local, of “the throwaway nature of our society.”

The Holographic Christmas Tree in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Installed in December 2013 in the atrium at the Rijksmuseum, this 24-foot-tall shape-shifting Christmas tree isn’t a physical tree at all: it’s a hologram. Designed in part by Beambrothers, a company specializing in “high end projection,” the holographic Christmas tree played on loop above visitors’ heads, rotating 360 degrees, changing colors and shaking loose in the wind.

The Poinsettia Christmas Tree in Omaha, Nebraska

Every year since 2001, Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha has displayed a 20-foot-tall poinsettia tree lit up for the Christmas season. In early July, gardeners plant more than 5,000 poinsettia cuttings from 25 separate cultivars in their greenhouse gardens in preparation for their holiday show. The tree itself is composed of 720 potted poinsettias, which are replaced halfway through the show to maintain the tree’s texture, color, and bloom. To add to the holiday spirit, model trains circle the display on 300 feet of track, snaking through dozens of miniature Omaha-area landmarks.

The Deer Horn Tree in Junction, Texas

In a county thick with whitetail deer, why not build a 12-foot-tall antler tree outside the wild game processing plant? The antlers were first assembled on the lawn of Kimble Processing in 1968. Around the holidays, the tree is adorned with ornaments, topped with a star, and bathed in floodlight. As of press time, Rudolf could not be reached for comment.

The Lobster Trap Christmas Tree in Rockland, Maine

This year marks the 13th-anniversary of the famous Lobster Trap Christmas Tree in downtown Rockland. Constructed by more than 30 volunteers from various community organizations, the 40-foot-tall tree features no less than 154 lobster traps and bursts with hometown pride.

“We brag that our Lobster Trap Tree is the largest one in the world,” Gordon Page, Sr., executive director of Rockland Main Street, Inc., told Travel + Leisure, “determined by a special hyperbolic measuring device designed specifically for this purpose.”

Hawaii’s Christmas Banyan Tree in Lahaina

Lahaina’s banyan tree was planted in 1873 to commemorate the first anniversary of Christian missionaries’ presence on the Hawaiian island. Only eight feet tall when it was brought from India, the tree now measures almost an acre wide and has a dozen primary trunks. Thousands of lights are used to decorate the historic tree every Christmas.

[gettinghungary]

A Walk in the Park -Margaret Island  (Margit Sziget)

It seems trite to say that Margit Sziget, or Margaret Island, is the Central Park of Budapest, but literally, it is centrally located in the Danube River between Buda and Pest. It was at one time a hunting ground for the rich and known as the Island of Rabbits in the 13th Century. Before that, it was the summer home of a Roman commander from Aquincum, the area of Budapest once occupied by the Romans.  The island only became usable by the public about 100 years ago. Now, the island offers a reprieve from the busy-ness of the city, a variety of ways to decompress. From numerous spas and swimming facilities, to natural walkways and open green spaces, tennis courts, sports complex as well as an open-air theater, statues, rose, rock and Japanese gardens with a thermal spring running through it that fills the area with steam in winter, the island is even reminiscent of Saratoga Springs.  In addition to the above, there is a petting zoo and a “singing fountain” –a very popular source of relaxation and entertainment with both classical and popular music synced with water sprays that are programmed to match the music.  

Extra benches and new landscaping makes the fountain more accessible to more people, who sit or dance or relax nearby.  At night, colorful lights are added to the mix of synchronized fountains and musical entertainment.I was looking for a walk in nature and a drink at a café with a pastry or small bite to eat.  I took the Hev to Margit Bridge from Batthyany Ter, because of events that caused the Buda-side tram to be not running.  The 4 and 6 trams run across the bridge and stop in the middle at the entrance ramp from the Bridge to the Island.  I walked past the swimming pool being set up for the FINA World Aquatic Championship competition there.  

I stopped to take a photo of the beautiful Centennial sculpture and flower garden, which I found out was commissioned in 1973 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the merging of Buda and Pest into one city. 

Just past that sculpture the musical fountain was calling to me with the Dire Straits song, “Money for Nothing”  I wasn’t the only one getting into the music, and I did a short video of some girls moving to the music (see earlier post on this blog), and saw some young boys lip syncing to a later song.I moved on in search of a café that I knew I had enjoyed a few years ago, but was disappointed to see that it was under heavy construction for a remodel.  

I saw a sign on a fence that said something about Hippie Island, and when I looked to my right and saw the 1960s swirl of colors, I thought it was some kind of amusement park, because it had that carnivalesque look to it—kind of like a bumper car ride, or something similar.  So I went a bit further and sat on a bench to decide what I wanted to do and to watch the people going by.  A lot of pedal-powered vehicles went by, and some motorized rides, as well as scooters, and skateboarders.  A group of kids started a game with a ball in the open grass in front of me, and lots of people walked by with towels and swimming stuff on the way to and from the Uszoda (swimming pool).  Hunger got the best of me and instead of continuing to walk further along into the Island, toward or past the beautiful octagonal Art Nouveau water tower built in 1911, I headed back toward the ramp to the bridge.  The Water Tower is something I enjoy seeing, but I decided to pass this time—and when I get back there, will add a photo here.

Hippie Island

Walking back to the Margaret Bridge, I took a look toward Hippie Island, and saw that people were sitting inside. The construction work being done on the other café made me think nothing else would be open in that area, but I headed over there to check it out.  I’m glad I did.  It was a big open deck with shady trees and canopies and lots of tables going all the way to the edge of the river overlooking the Pest side, north of the Parliament.  A glass wall separated the restaurant from the outer walkway and cushioned jogging path but it was a lovely view of passing boats and people walking by.  The wine list was short, but had really nice quality brands and varietals, and the foods were really interesting.  I chose a guacamole platter with a small salad and some toasted bread (isn’t avocado on toast a thing in the U.S.?)   Another great aspect was the rock and roll music playing that I actually enjoyed listening to.  I’m not normally one who likes music with my dining unless it is ambient “dinner” music. The side wall was filled with photos of 1970s musicians, and a lot of shots of the traffic heading to Woodstock.  To see upstate NY (my home state) in a restaurant, with music playing from your own teenage years, and food and wine that you love, makes any less-than-perfect service (which there was) less frustrating.  The problem was that the table area was so large and the number of servers was limited, and a large family arrived that needed extra servers, so getting simple things like a napkin and fork, as well as refills of my wine and water took longer than I liked.  But Hippie Island is a place I would definitely go to again, and I would take into account the service challenges.  

I went home happily full of guacamole and wine and a head full of memorable tunes. Soon I will try to get to the rest of the island for a few more photos.  

[ecotone99]

[MF] Wrinkles, Cheese, and Her

​

In the early hour, the frost is still thriving in the shadows of the trees, hidden from the dawn, in the vacant park. The bench gradually grows warmer from my weight upon it in the brisk Autumn morning. No voices, no obtrusive sounds penetrate my ears. Only the sound of distant traffic, and the occasional flutter of wings. For the first time in a long while, I get to sit and embrace the silence without worrying about work and responsibilities.

It’s been two months. I sit and try and remember every feature of her face. Every curve, every dimple, every blemish. She always told me not to frown too much, or my face would wrinkle before I was even thirty-five. She was seventy-eight and still so full of life. When I first met her in Maple Leaf Retirement Home, I thought we would never get along. Being hired immediately after graduation, I was excited to finally move onto real life- no more classes and reports. I could finally help keep the elderly healthy, it’s what I had wanted to do since I was a child. That was until June 6th, 2014; the day I met her.

Beverly Jane Edith Williams was a dainty seventy-five year old with dyed red hair and thin eyebrows that always seemed to be drawn on in a scowl. She only liked to eat green foods on Thursday’s, and meat on Saturday’s. No food could be touching and forks had to be three pronged. Long crew neck t-shirts must have had one sleeve folded across the top and one underneath the bottom. So precise that Beverly Jane was.

Widowed, but no next of kin, no relatives currently living. Her lonesome life was all laid out in front of me in her file. She would have killed me if she knew I read through it. “That’s an invasion of privacy,” she’d say, “You’re probably some Russian spy our government doesn’t know about. Those politicians are some lazy bastards, I tell ya.”

Corrupted by her own insecurities, she pushed everyone away in an attempt to keep herself safe. She shared her secrets with me one day when I shared mine. It had been my first midnight shift, which was stressful enough, and my long-term boyfriend had dumped me for my best friend.

“Two birds with one stone.”

I had asked what she had meant by that.

“You’ll have people come into your life and make it seem like they are going to be there for the rest of time. They’ll take and take all they can, until you have nothing left to give. Then when they realize they have no more use for you, they leave. You’re better off without both the lover and best friend in the end. They were never real, they never cared. Instead of finding one out now and another later, you got them both out of them way right off the bat.”

​

“I guess you speak from experience.”

“Now listen here, dear. You may’ve just shared something personal with me, but it’s not like I wanted you to. You should expect nothing from me in return.” Her soft advice was now replaced with a stern order. “Now get out of my room and wipe those tears. I can’t stand to see them slide down your face any longer.”

As I had been drying my face and reapplying makeup, another nurse had knocked on the bathroom door.

“Emily, the patient in room 237 has requested you visit her immediately.”

I had re entered her room with a fake smile plastered onto my face.

“Did you need something, Ms. Williams? I was told you called for me.”

“Yes, I did.” Silence.

“Ms. Williams?”

“Just call me Beverly. And get over here and sit your ass down.”

“What is it?”

“Just don’t speak. Let me talk.” I signaled for her to continue along. “My daddy left for the Korean War when I was nine years old in ‘50. I had an older sister, Meredith, and a pet dog, Rufus. After he left, Mama told us that we might not see him again, that something might happen and we would lose our Papa. Only nine years old, I refused to believe I could live without my hero, my first love, my father. She paused, reminiscing in only what I could guess were memories of her dad. I knew she was finally opening up to me, so I sat and waited for a few minutes for her to start again. “You know, I can’t believe I’m actually saying any of this to you. I ain’t ever told anybody about my childhood.” Another pause. “Meredith had lost her right leg, and eventually her life from Polio in ‘53, only a year after the news of my father’s death had reached home. Rufus ran away, probably with some bitch he found in the neighborhood, when I was fourteen. Get it, cause female dogs are called bitches? She let out a soft chuckle, and I couldn’t help but grin. After another moment of her collecting her thoughts, she resumed. When I was sixteen, mom started to have strange men over at the house every night. I’d hear her sobs through the walls after they left each morning. It soon seemed like there was never a moment she was sober, so I left. I got on a train and headed to Chicago, in hopes of finding work, but unexpectedly, I found love instead. My sweet Richard Wayne. He worked as a mailman for the small town I had moved to, and I’ve never seen a man look so sexy in a uniform.” She gave me a sly wink. “Oh you should’ve seen him, Emily. I don’t think anyone else could have been in love like I was. And believe it or not, I was the one that made the first move. After meeting his lovely mother and sister, he had proposed to me May 5th, 1961, the night the first American man landed on the moon. We wed September 13th the same year and life was perfect. We moved in together, and each got a job at the local university, Rich being a janitor and me a secretary. 1964 rolled along and Richard had decided to enlist for the army to fight in the Vietnam War. With much hesitation from me, I had finally agreed to support him. I kissed him on the doorstep of our house, and that was the last time I really saw my husband. He returned in ‘68, but he wasn’t the same. Only now do I know he had PTSD. He was there, but the spark behind his eyes and the genuinity behind his voice was gone, he was monotonous. We still loved each other until death did us part in 2012, when he died of a heart attack in the middle of the night. After I had no one else, I decided I didn’t want to be alone and I came here, to Maple Leaf.”

After laying everything out there in front of each other, exposing our weak spots, we both gained more respect for one another. We became each other’s best friends. I helped her get around when she couldn’t walk, she comforted me when I had no one else to turn to. We stayed up through the nights just talking and sharing jokes. We calmed each other down when her roommate, Diane, stole her last piece of cornbread, or when my co worker, Janice, filed the wrong charts and blamed me for it.

We threw our own 2016 New Years party in room 237, drinking sparkling grape juice and eating cheese cubes. As the ball dropped and the shouting of numbers began, I felt a smooth hand clasp around mine, and as I looked over to her face, silhouetted by the light of the TV, she only wore a content smile as she kept her eyes focused ahead, and in that moment, I never felt like I had left home for college, or work. I didn’t feel like I had no one left to care about me, I no longer felt like I was alone. She had become my home in only three years time. Whenever I was with her was when I was most comfortable living in this boring, lonely life.

But she started to get sick.

Fluid filled her lungs and it was no longer green foods on Thursday’s, and meat on Saturday’s. It became pleurodesis* on Monday’s and 100 mg of Furosemide**. No more smooth laughs, only wheezing breaths. Just like her husband returning from war, she was never the same.

September 13th, 2017, what would have been her and Richard’s 56th year anniversary, was the last time Beverly Jane Edith Williams took an agonizing breath.

I thought I could move on, that I could just find another patient to connect with, but everyone had a part of them that reminded me of her.

So as I sit on this park bench, in the middle of November, not caring that I had quit my job not even 24 hours prior, I reach up to my face and smooth it out.

“You’re going to get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that.” Well, Bev, I can’t seem to do much else these days.

*Pleurodesis- Operation in removing fluid from the lungs by draining it.

**Furosemide- medication used in treating Pleural Effusion (Fluid buildup on the lungs.)

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[fukuokanodivision]

UNITED EMCEEZ — Enter The Hexagon — [Traffic Light/OverDrive Ver]

Bring The Beat!

[Poltergeist & Aoi-] Attention please! [Shade & Shuiro-] We are the UNITED EMCEEZ! [Jinn & Kiiro-] Listen to us now! [Traffic Light/OverDrive-] Let’s go! (Enter the hexagon!) [Poltergeist-] I’m not good enough? Save your energy. Perfection only appends my inferiority! Chuohku’s “rising star” to uplift their nation They will only fall under my damnation (Pawa-Hara’s!) I’m the blue light in Fukuoka’s show Stop or slow? My colour says go Wether it’s the forsaken or lovely lady threat Mr. Poltergeist is coming to collect your debt! [Aoi-] Yo, pass the mic! Aoi is now here My skill and experience? You’re nowhere near Chuohku’s ladies, a man on their side Too late, I’ve betrayed their useless pride! Veteran divisions up on the high class Kiss your feet? Kiss my own ass! Acting superior and running your mouth? I’ll punish you all, your plans are going south [Poltergeist-] “Best Band” Traffic Light? You've crossed the wrong lane! [Aoi-] Fukuoka’s OverDrive? The power of mic is your bane! [Poltergeist-] Best believe, at the end, we’ll seize the day [Poltergeist & Aoi-] We’re not stopping now, we’re still on our way!

[All-] Go louder, UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Poltergeist-] We do our best and get through every day Who’s gonna go and show the results tonight? [All-] We are UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Aoi-] All eyes on me, you’ll forget to blink Raise your hands higher and higher! [Poltergeist & Aoi-] Enter the hexagon! [Shade-] We’ll build the greatest that is now! [Shuiro-] I won’t wait; I’ll create my own miracle! [Jinn-] Get ready! Our time is now! [Kiiro-] We’re reaching for the rap games pinnacle! [Shade-] Boy or girl, no bounds apply! Just a sexual body left to die Momma ran away from the ladies clasp The power I hold will destroy their grasp In Fukuoka, I’m it’s red light Stop? You can’t run from my fight! Weak and scrawny? Look who’s laughing now You’re all my puppets, so take your final bow! [Shuiro-] MC Shuiro bringing the house down! I’m no princess, I don’t need a crown Growing up and gaining intuition This team is my own revolution! No gender can't lead? Wrong answer I’m stronger than men on the average banner! OverDrive isn’t the 2nd place team Because we’re always 1st prize, surpassing our dream [Shade-] Change up our Traffic Light? Watch your lovely head! [Shuiro-] In the way of OverDrive? You’re always good as dead! [Shade-] I’ve come too far to give up at the end of the day! [Shade & Shuiro-] We’re not stopping now, we’re still on our way! [All-] Go louder, UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Shade-] We do our best and get through every day Who’s gonna go and show the results tonight? [All-] We are UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Shuiro-] All eyes on me, you’ll forget to blink Raise your hands higher and higher! [Jinn-] Back to my past on an empty street Father behind bars, backlash on repeat Taking care of the children and less of myself I won’t let them turn into my stories shelf Fukuoka’s yellow light coming through Slowing down? That only applies to you! A battle to decide the best I am Kamora, this is no test! [Kiiro-] Nothing special, the support card Protecting the team and my own guard What story is that? Not a bestseller Tiny tales need a proper storyteller! I’m an unaware drunkard in their eyes A outsider only to easily despise So guess what? Watch your back Lay a finger on my team and your secrets will crack! [Jinn-] Gold won’t last forever, but it’s Traffic Light for life! [Kiiro-] My villainy is seen through OverDrives suffered strife! [Jinn-]

I’ll fight with all my might to see a brand new day! [Jinn & Kiiro-] We’re not stopping now, we’re still on our way! [All-] Go louder, UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Jinn-] We do our best and get through every day! Who’s gonna go and show the results tonight? [All-] We are UNITED EMCEEZ The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Kiiro-] All eyes on me, you’ll forget to blink Raise your hands higher and higher! [Poltergeist & Aoi-] Look up at this hexagon in the night sky [Shade & Shuiro-] Always go where the light leads you to [Jinn & Kiiro-] Our future can be changed in the blink of an eye [Poltergeist-] Now welcome to the new world! Poltergeist! [Shade-] Shade! [Jinn-] Jinn! [Traffic Light-] Traffic Light! [Aoi-] Aoi! [Shuiro-] Shuiro! [Kiiro-] Kiiro! [OverDrive-] OverDrive! [All-] Go louder, UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Aoi-] We do our best and get through every day! Who’s gonna go and show the results tonight? [All-] We are UNITED EMCEEZ! The words that were scattered will link up into breakbeats! [Shuiro-] All eyes on me, you’ll forget to blink Raise your hands higher and higher! [Kiiro-] Enter the hexagon! [Aoi & Shuiro-] We’ll build the greatest that is now! [Jinn-] I won’t wait; I’ll create my own miracle! [Shade-] Get ready! Our time is now! [Poltergeist-] We’re reaching for the rap games pinnacle!