Escape

the only escape I can afford the time to make is to my back porch... and I don't know what I'd do without it...

not my pic, but I love it...

dinner... pizza!!!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Thoreau ... and, do no harm

Y'know, when I was growing up there was (and is) a reservoir on the border of Trumbull and Easton in Connecticut.  The lake is about 3 miles long and half a mile wide and has exactly two houses on it, both for rangers.  When I was small Karmafish, me and my buddies would go down there to fish.  The place was just gorgeous and because the lake was off-limits the fishing was absolutely terrific.  Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, East Chain Pickerels, and native brook trout in the stream feeding the mouth.

That spot will always remain for me a deeply special place.  I very much hope to return one day and sit by the mouth and think about all the changes that have taken place in my life since I used to fish there.

When the ranger arrives to boot me out of the area, and gives me a ticket, I will not argue or, as we used to, run away.  

I'll just smile and thank him for helping to keep the Easton Reservoir pristine.

{btw, the rangers used to chase us all the time.  That was half the fun!  And they could never catch us because how does a full grown man catch a 14 year old boy in the woods near his home?  We knew every tree and path... the rangers never stood a chance!}

:O)

Then there was a rock known as Balancing Rock, which the kids in the neighborhood, including ourselves, would climb up on and amuse ourselves.  There were other people's backyards to play in, and no body minded, either, in those days.  

Swimming at Lake Cochichuate, Walden Pond, and later, Valley Pond, which was a man-made pond that straddled the Lincoln/Weston border were also ways of escaping.  

Nowadays, there's lots of ways that I make escapes, although I never think of them that way.  I drive out to Concord Center on good weather weekends with my touring bike and ride around for an hour or two, strap my bike back onto the car's bike rack, and then head home.  Even here in the city, just simply going on long walks, is a form of escape, if one wants to call it that, because it gives me a break and exercise.  Bicycle riding here in town for various errands and appointments, (which is why I also have a mountain bike), is also a form of exercise, although it can get a bit hairy at times.  However, if I find that drivers are getting really uptight, I'll pull over, wait for a break in the traffic, and then resume riding.  I wear my helmet at all times, whether I ride out in the country or here in the city, because it's important to protect one's head in case of a fall.  

Here's another thing:  Many people scoff at the idea of wearing a helmet, and they think that that's only for children under 12, but, in reality, many older kids and adults, too, have not worn helmets while bicycling, taken really bad falls, and have either died, or have been permanently incapacitated for life in some way or other, either mentally and/or physically!  Not good, imho.  Frankly, I think that the people who scoff at that are either ignorant and short sighted, or willfully ignorant and mean-spirited, but that's my take on it.  I'll still wear my helmet, and to hell with what others think.

Dinner last night was a huge plate of seafood and vegetable tempura, at a fancy Japanese Restaurant, called Fugakura, right on Brookline's Beacon street, two blocks from the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where we took my mom for her birthday!  Excellent food, but, some of us were stuffed and couldn't finish our tempura!  It was worth it, though.  

Dinner tonight for me will be chili con carne with arborio rice, and milk.  

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

(this is not really my bath... but you get the idea)

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

Used to even sleep on 'em sometimes when I needed to get away from home for a while.  Well, not on the Conrail tracks but in the little wooded areas or massive abandoned industrial facilities surrounding and adjacent to the tracks.  I'm sure you realized what I meant.

;-P

Hmmm.  Other places back there were The Shore of course, I preferred Asbury in the late 90's when it was totally abandoned and ghostly.  I doubt there was ever any place in the world (or at least the US) quite like Asbury Park in those days, nor will there ever be again.  You just had to have been there on an 80 degree July day to know the eerie contrast between the absolute, total desolation and the natural beauty of the beach.  And then the buildings.  From bustling city and world-famous beach resort to "Sarajevo-by-the-Sea".  

Block after block after block of abandoned or burned-down buildings and rubble-filled fields, the emptiness of Cookman Ave, the Metropolitan Hotel, skeletons of half-built 14-story hotels and other highrises along the boardwalk, trees growing out of the roof of the Palace Amusements building, a retro-futuristic 1950's era Howard Johnson's restaurant on the boardwalk that was always empty but amazingly enough stayed open until just a few years ago.  And to top it all off Tillie's eyes may or may not have followed you when you walked around in those days...

The Pine Barrens was another place I liked to get away to when I had the chance (and when I had a car).  I'd drive all the way down the Parkway to 70, take it west and just pull over about halfway to Marlton.  There was a little tavern (always closed) that I'd hide the car behind at like 3 AM and just sit in the quiet, pitch-black woods until the sun came up.

Oh, now I'm getting all nostalgic!

These days, ummm, I like walking the Springwater Trail out in the 120's where not too many people roam except for on warm sunny days.  And Powell Butte (best views of the mountains anywhere in the City of Portland on a clear day!  Mount Hood is like rightthere!  You can also see St. Helens, Adams, Jefferson and Rainier from up there...), especially the quiet wooded section on the south side near the Springwater Trail.  And sometimes, believe it or not, I can even "get away" just by wandering around Downtown on a busy weekday.  I pick up moods from others...

My all-time favorite place (and time)?

Probably Asbury Park, 1998-ish.  I never took any pictures, and now that exists of it lies in my memory and of anyone else who was there.  I'm ecstatic that Asbury Park is finally coming back these days, yet at the same time I kick myself constantly for not having taken any pictures back then.  Here's a few good ones, though, to give you an idea.

Dinner?

Oh hell, I can't remember what I had yesterday, lol.

Tonight, I think I'm gonna do a carbonara-ish spaghetti thing.