Recent Snowfall Totals

According to the NWS, the snowfall in the GNC on Saturday night into Sunday ranged from over 16 inches in Elka Park to about 4 inches in Cairo.  In my neck of the woods (literally, it is a neck of the woods), the actual total, measured by me with a yard stick stuck into the railing on the front deck, when it was all over was 8.75 inches.  But that was before I started talking about it.

When worried relatives called to check on the power situation, we minimized, "Oh - it was nothing.  Just a little over 6 inches - barely covered the driveway.  Nothing to worry about...we didn't even lose power."

But for friends calling from the Midwest, who always brag to me about how much snow they get and how rugged they are, I said, "Damn!  Pretty heavy snowstorm here for October.  Cold, windy -- I'd say we got about a foot, give or take an inch.  Was out shoveling by 7am so I could go out for some groceries.  Roads will be plowed soon, I guess", though the roads had been plowed hours ago.  We love our county plowmen.

Skier-friends starting checking in around noon, wondering if Hunter Mountain was opening for the weekend.  "Well, you can hike up and ski down if you like.  We got at least 14 inches - probably more at the summit.  Not too wet - not the usual Catskill Concrete. You can make some nice turns but bring your rock skis.  Fourteen inches of snow doesn't cover 15 inches of rock!"

The last person to call was a friend in the valley who wanted me to come down and help him move furniture.  "Gee, I'd love to, really, but we got over a foot-and-a-half of heavy, wet snow and the roads haven't been plowed or sanded yet.  Don't think I want to go down the mountain today - you know, there's still one lane out on 23A near Moore's Bridge. Sorry...why don't you call Jim from Palenville.  They hardly got any snow down there."

If you want a reliable weather report from a reliable source on the Mountaintop, you had better not call me.

First snow of the season.

Time to put away the shorts and sandals.

Variety in the GNC

Traveled round trip from the Mountaintop to Poughkeepsie train station at dusk last night, about 110 miles. Here is a list of what was dead at the road side, road middle and rest stop.

• rabbit
• squirrel
• porcupine
• skunk (unmistakable)
• deer, also later, fawn (cute, but dead nonetheless)
• unrecognizable varmint sort of like a beaver, but with a long, round tail
• cat (no collar)
• bird (species undetermined), pretty feathers, not far from cat
• chipmunk
• something larger than a chipmunk but looks like one (maybe just a really big chipmunk?)
• snake 
• human, perhaps (car on fire on thruway after multi-vehicle accident)
• twelve pack of Budweiser (missed the trash can at Truck Stop, NB past Exit 19)

Returned home by 9pm.  I'm sure the list would be much longer at 2am.  Suppose you could make stew.

To Shave or Not to Shave

When I showered this morning, I decided not to shave since I would be working outside around the house and probably wouldn't see anyone until dinner time, when I would shower again and shave then.

Ran into friend at the Post Office.  He hadn't shaved, nor had the guy in line behind me.  Took a phone call on the sidewalk outside the PO - next two guys to pass hadn't shaved, one heavily bearded, probably hasn't shaved in months.  Woman passed to collect her mail - couldn't tell if she had shaved. (I'm guessing not.)

Stopped at a retail store. Clerk needed a shave (and Proactiv).  State Trooper was getting coffee - he was sharp as a tack - pants perfectly creased, hair perfectly groomed, smelling of Stetson Cologne. Clean shaven like a barber did it ten minutes before with an old fashioned hand held straight blade and hot towel.

Checked emails and the internet for news.  Ashton Kutcher, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac Efron all unshaven for their paparazzi pixs.  Some with their dates on a night out, so it's not like they forget to shave.

In NYC, where I worked for all those years in those corporate skyscrapers, I scraped my face every day, without exception - Saturday and Sunday, too.Maybe skipped a day or two while on a Caribbean vacation, but day after day, year after year, never missed a day behind the razor.  As my career escalated, so did the razor: from one blade to quatro micro adjusting swivel four blade head self lubricating with titanium power vibrating handle.

Now in the GNC, its back to disposable Bics, when I bother to shave at all. Come to think of it,  I'll skip the dinner time shave today and see how I feel in the morning.

Not A Local Yet

Deli-going, in-a-hurry New Yorkers know quick-deli lingo because they are at the deli every morning on the way to the office.  New York delis are set up to get your order, get you served, get you paid and get you out in under one minute, two minutes tops if you have a complicated order.  No matter what the nationality of the counterman, every order has a short-cut name and a short-cut meaning that we all understand. For example, BLT down = bacon, lettuce, tomato on rye toast.  Who doesn't know Whiskey Jack, BWS (bagel with schmear of cream cheese) or that almost everything is to go almost all the time.

So, last night, in a pizza store in the GNC, in a hurry, late, car idling in the parking lot, I run in and order two plain slices with wings.  Guy says, "plain or spicy?".  Puzzled for a moment, I think he didn't hear me say "plain" because he was on his XBOX behind the counter when I ordered, so I say again, "plain".  He pauses the XBOX,  (I could see he was playing Halo from the disc box on the counter next to the unsold calzone), tosses the slices into the oven and retreats to the kitchen.

A few minutes go by, and out comes the guy with a plate of buffalo wings.  He adds the two slices from the oven to a tray with silverware and napkins and says, "That's $10.95".

"For two plain slices?"

"And the wings."

"Wings?"

"You ordered two slices and wings, didn't you?"  He looks at me like I have a third eye growing between my eyebrows.

"No, I didn't order wings."

"Bullshit," he says, politely, "I axed you plain or spicy and you sez plain. Wings is $6.95"

In NYC, there are at least three or four expressions for "to go".  When ordering, you can say "to travel" or "put wheels on it" or "make it roll" or "with wings".  Everybody knows a BWS with wings means a bagel with a schmear to go.  "With wings" means "to fly" as in, "I'm outta here, gotta fly."

But not in the GNC.  In the GNC, "with wings" means "I would like an order of chicken wings along with my  two plain slices of pizza."  The question "plain or spicy?" refers to the sauce that is dripping off the bony appendages when they are served to you.  "Plain" is a barbeque-y sauce, while "spicy" is a more Mexican lather.

When I am truly a local, I will know not to use my NYC deli lingo in the GNC.  Until then, I will end up with a half-dozen chicken wings drowning in Kraft  hickory smoked flavor on a tray instead of two plain cheese slices wrapped in aluminum, ready to be heated when I get home.









 

We Could Have Been in Alaska!

It's a beautiful Fall day in the GNC - colors are bright, air is crisp and moving, the waters of the Schoharie are running clear again - and so I am walking my dogs around Dolan's Lake in Hunter, NY.  One dog is deaf and one is blind, but they know this walk well and help each other as they pant, sniff and pee on the grass perimeter of the lake.

"Lake" is a kind word for this body of water.  It's a pond really if it's anything, a strip of water in a man-made cavity split off from the Schoharie so the local kids have a swimming hole on hot summer days.  Swimming hole is a more accurate description than lake or pond.

So, there I was walking the dogs around the swimming hole on this fine Fall day.  There is a jogger going by one way, a guy doing ski prep exercises against a tree, a couple walking their Lab in the other direction.  We're all minding our own business, sharing the precious privacy early in the morning, before cars, motorcycles and RVs of all shapes and sizes start arriving for Oktoberfest.

WHAM!  WHOOSH! SPLASH! an Eagle with the wingspan of a Concorde dive bombs this little nothing of a swimming hole, fully submerging itself in the shallow water and then WHAM!  WHOOSH! SPLASH! it surfaces ten yards from where it entered and takes off into the quiet sky with a flapping fish in its claws.  The jogger, exerciser, dog walkers and I stared silently at the event, all of us with the same thoughts I'm sure: so accurate was its dive, so powerful was its grip, so steep was the inclination of its flight, so elegant the act!  As it flew away with the struggling trout in its talons, we exhaled together.

I mentioned this is a small swimming hole?  You could swim across in six strokes and you could touch bottom whenever you want to? That there is an electric sub-station on the banks and a picnic pavilion next to the sub-station, and that it is near the parking lot where the Beer Drinkers congregate before and after their chugging?

None of that mattered to the eagle.

Household Expenses

I love my spot in the Catskills - breathtaking views of mountains peaks, fresh air moved constantly by stiff breezes, a stream nearby that provides a soothing background hum for a good night's sleep, enough stars on a clear night to fill the telescope lens to overflowing.  My dogs don't need a leash, my clothes don't need a dry cleaner and my shoes don't need to be shined on the way to the office for a staff meeting.  In the GNC, well worn, muddy boots are a badge of honor.

When I first moved here, I bought into the promise of a low cost of living - independence, as much "off the grid" as possible, low taxes and a homestead. This part of the GNC promise has not turned out as promoted.  There are plenty of expenses that brochures, government officials and friends who came before don't tell you about when they are trying to convince you to join them "upstate" full-time.  Here is a list of ten of them, right off the top of my head:

1. removal of dead trees that can fall onto the house or on a power line, causing power failure or fire
2. pump out the septic tank before it backs up into the house, causing bad, bad, bad ramifications
3. remove 50 year old insulation from attic; replace with new, high efficiency insulation
4. remove pests from attic who liked the old insulation - ants, raccoon, spiders, wasps,  mice, unknown insect species
5. install kitchen renovations - counter tops without pot holes, base cove, faucets that don't drip
6. install heavy duty shelves in garage to provide storage for all the heavy duty equipment I have purchased, such as:
7. snow blower, leaf blower, lawn mower, weed whacker, chain saw, kerosene stove for emergency heat when pellet stove and electric baseboard heat are inoperable due to power failure;
8. pellets for stove, cords of wood for fireplace, propane, kerosene
9. hurricane preparation and recovery equipment: perforated pipe, dehumidifiers, sheet rock, bleach
10. purchase and spread one ton of  Item 4 for driveway, annually. Cover it with ice-melting-salt in winter and weed killer in summer.

All my years in NYC, I never incurred even one of those expense items.  I did call the roach exterminator a few times, but the building always paid for it.

I could list a few more items, but the contractor just arrived to replace the well pump, so I've got to go. For readers in the city, a well pump pumps water from your private well to a pressure tank in your basement where it is held before it enters the water heater, which heats and stores it for when you want a hot shower.  This is one of the things the Superintendent in your high-rise knows about.  You could live your entire life in NYC and never see one.  But in the GNC, they come in several sizes.