No Connection

   

  I'm not claiming there is any connection between these three photos, I just felt the urge to post them so they ended up together.

Not Abandoned

 

  A few years ago, there was a fire in this house and the elderly occupant was killed.  I don't know what kind of legal battle is going on to settle the estate, but no one is caring for any part of the property other than the driveway where neighbors park.  A local character who goes by Lopperman has cut the bushes back a few times, maybe even shoveled the rare snow off the walk.

  Since it's on his winter commute, he spent a Saturday morning recovering the sidewalk and cutting back the prickers and privet.

  Hopefully, it's in good enough shape that it will still be a full sidewalk through next summer, and maybe someone will get control of the property and start some regular maintenance.

  Ironically, while he was working, a neighbor got bent out of shape about a vehicle blocking a tiny portion of their driveway.  He still pulled out and back in five minutes later, announcing his departure and arrival with a 30-second blast of his horn.  He must have also called IPD because they showed up in minutes and ticketed the parked vehicle.  If only they could ticket people for blocked sidewalks.

  The Lopperman did his first community service many years ago when he cut back this massive arborvitae that had blocked the walk for so long there is still a patch next to the sidewalk where grass doesn't grow from people walking over it.  Last week, the property owners went all out and cut it down completely.  For the record: Lopperman is not anti-vegetation and isn't pleased by this.  He just wants it maintained.

Down at the Crick

 

Early in the summer, I saw from a distance a guy building this structure.  I never went to check it out to see what all he was up to.

 

  When I went down last week for a little gorge clean up, I found out he built that and much more.  The large rocks that get deposited on the floodplain were all collected into piles or used for walkways.  The invasive vegetation was all cut back, and the area turned into a sort of a park.  It's always been a hangout/living area for unhoused people, so I suspect someone spending their summer there might have done it but I don't know.  One thing I do know is that I collected the least amount of garbage ever, so that's good.

 

  They (he? she?) have also built and prepared to continue building stone walkways along the creek.  We'll see how long it takes the frequent high-water events to distribute the stones back into the stream.

Concert Venues

 

  

  Richie and Rosie played a gig at the pavilion in front of Greenstar.  It was built during GrassRoots set-up a few years ago.  This year we gussied up a tractor that is parked next to the pavilion and is popular for kids to play on while parents shop.  Many of us who were involved gathered after the concert.

  I also went to a house concert out in Caroline where the resident played with his band mates from Brooklyn.  The weather allowed them to play outside of a very cool house.

  Let's hear it for Porchfest!  It happened on a perfect Sunday afternoon this year and hundreds of musicians played from noon until 6 pm.  Some former and possibly future students sang at their church.

  Not just another Banjoe, that's one of Ithaca's most in-demand multi-instrumentalists, Joe Hayward.

    Susanna Lee and the Slizards are definitely a new-favorite band.  I hope to catch them around often.

  Gail gave me a heads-up about other favorite artists who have teamed up, Lydia Garrison and Nate Silas Richardson.  Thankfully, I was just a couple blocks away and made it for almost their whole set.  They both have great styles, Lydia on banjo and fiddle, Nate on guitar.  Here's a short clip of a fine tune Lydia wrote.

  Hang out with someone from Ithaca long enough, especially during Porchfest, and you'll hear about how it was conceived in this very neighborhood before it went viral around the world.  A bit of the origin story from one of the people who was there.

  The Fall Creek Brass Band has developed a tradition of closing out the day at Kurt's Porch in Thompson Park.

Lake Swim

 

 

  Gail met some friends for a lake swim at Salt Point in Lansing.  Roxy and I went along for the ride and to walk the tracks adjacent to the lake.  This area has a long history due to the presence of salt.  I wasn't aware of it until about 20-years-ago when it was an anarchy zone for lake access.  It's been spruced up by a dedicated group and is now a fine park with popular bird watching trails, picnic areas, and a small boat launch.

  

  The boat launch is also a popular entrance point for lots of swimmers.  Nice to see such a great crew about to head out.

    The abandoned tracks offer many excellent vantage points of the lake, swimmers, and the surrounding hills.  Might be an incredible rail trail someday.

Back to Work

 

 

  Near the end of the summer, I heard from HR at the school to let me know they wanted to interview me to teach again.  Though I taught in ENL last year, and that's what I expected for this year, the position listed on the interview invite led me to believe someone in HR has heard me play banjo.  Everything got straightened out, and I'm teaching ENL and co-teaching English 9 and 10 again.

  

  Construction on temporary classrooms for the tech classes isn't going quite to schedule.  They were supposed to be ready last spring, but it will be next winter before they are.  Wood Shop is now taught near the language rooms.  It will be fine.  I'm loving the teaching again, it's even better than last year so far.

Happy Wedding

 

 

Let's hear it for Nicole and Jason, who celebrated their wedding day over Labor Day Weekend.  It was a fine, outdoor ceremony that pushed the limits to how much time there was before a downpour arrived.  The procession, vows and Uncle Jim's officiating got everything done just as the rain started.  I'd like to also give a shout out for Michael Argento for taking great photos that I stole for this post.

 Great entrance by Joe with the rings.  The Pink Panther Theme was appropriate music to accompany him.

 Can we agree he's worth another look?

Hanging out during the reception.

New, old, and honorary McMahons

 The sun came back out for some photo ops on the lawn.

Un P'tit du Piseco

 

 

On the way home from our bike trip, Gail and I stopped to visit with Ann and Chips for a few days in Piseco.  I stopped in for lunch on my way to the High Peaks when Kristi, Geoff and the boys were visiting from California, but since Gail was in her final week at her job, she wasn't able to get there.  It was good to really catch up.  We helped Ann with a challenging jigsaw puzzle, and assisted Chips as he put away a few things before they head back to California for the winter.  We were especially relieved to hear that though we came home with COVID, we didn't pass it along to them.

 

We managed to do a nice hike on the Northville-Placid Trail that passes through Piseco.  We walked from their house to the Hamilton Lake Stream Lean-to and back.  This was pretty much the exact path of a tornado earlier in the summer so there was lots of scrambling over, under, and around blowdowns.  The lean-to dates back to the early 70's and is still in fine shape.

Un P'tit Bike Trip

 

Gail and I hadn't taken a bike trip in several years, and at least one of us was anxious to get back to it.  Even with a fancy, new bike, I wasn't too enthused about spending a few days on roads with distracted drivers, broken glass and chunks of sharp metal.  Gail suggested Le P'tit Train du Nord through the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec.  We planned a trip for the summer of 2023 that combined the rail trail with a few days of road riding, but wildfires put us off from that idea.  This year we got there and scaled the plan down to only riding the trail; roughly 200 km.
 

 

No camping gear to carry, essentially no hills, only about 3-4 hours of riding a day?  We mostly sat around and played the banjo I brought along.

 We even took advantage of the shuttle that takes riders from a suburb north of Montreal to the northwest end of the trail.  Unlike many of the lazy people we met that day, we carried our gear rather than have the shuttle take it to where we stayed each night.  All we had was a change of clothes and a banjo.

 Within a few minutes, we had left behind the small town of Mont-Laurier and were in the mostly boreal forests of Quebec.  We didn't see any moose.

 Our first night, we stayed at an inn on Grand lac-Nominingue.  They served an exquisite dinner, likewise for breakfast, and had kayaks to use on the lake and a hot tub to ease our weary muscles from riding nearly 40 (flat) miles.  That was about 30 miles farther than I'd ridden all summer.

 The next day, we encountered some of the damage we'd been notified about from flooding when the remnants of Hurricane Debby passed through the area.  At first, we just had to ride carefully over some gravel and debris, or get off and walk through it, but then we got to the major issue where the trail was completely washed away.  Some people got around it and were able to carry their bikes over another, smaller washout, but we took advantage of the free offer from the shuttle service to carry us around to the other side.

 

 

 Soon enough, we were on a brand-new, paved surface.  We were also approaching the busiest section of the trail near Mont-Tremblant.  It's an area with a fancy ski resort that we knew nothing about except there might be some decent hiking so we planned a day off from riding there and would stay two nights.  As we approached the metropolis, there was significantly more traffic, enough to necessitate a center stripe to keep people on their own side to avoid collisions.  This log was an obvious problem, and I couldn't understand why someone had gone to the trouble to cut it, but still leave the rest blocking half of the trail.

 I thought of a solution.

 In addition to carrying a small banjo, I was carrying a 40'' bow saw for just such an issue.  Not.  The tree was on the trail right next to one of the many golf courses in the area, and the maintenance garage happened to be right there, so I went over and helped myself to the bow saw.  Now that I'm a convert to folding saws, I'm amazed I ever got anything done with these contraptions, but I got the tree off the trail before 6:30 am and before anyone else came along that morning.

As I said, Gail and I hadn't heard of Mont-Tremblant before this trip, and neither of us had ever been to a major ski resort.  I've never been to Disney World before, but I suspect there are a few similarities.  We had to ride a gondola for 30 seconds over much of the "village" to get to the bottom of the ski slopes (and zip lines, and bungee jumping, and multiple other gondolas to the top of the mountain) where the hiking trail began.

 The trail was more challenging than expected (at least for me), and pretty busy with more than just us taking it instead of the ski lift to the top.

 Since it was a hot, muggy day, we took advantage of the large restaurant/food court and ate our lunch inside for the AC.  There was a bit of smoke from western wildfires, but the view was still pretty impressive.  The area at the top was a bit like Mt. Washington: a circus.  It looks like they do weddings up there.  We hiked back down rather than take the zip line or gondola.

 One feature Gail was looking forward to on the whole trip was an abundance of French (Canadian) pastry shops.  We ate really well, especially at the B&Bs we stayed at, but never quite found the pastry shop until the last morning.  Her heart was all aflutter.

 The last few kilometers, the trail followed the Riviere du Nord and snaked its way around some hills.

 And our car was still right where we left it, fully charged and ready for the trip home.

With one quick stop in Montreal.  Well, about 45 minutes of mid-day traffic to get to the Sans Gluten Bakery.  Let me tell you, it is/was worth it.  I'd do the whole bike trip to go back there again, but I think Gail has her sights on another Canadian rail trail on Prince Edward Island.  Maybe they have gluten free pastry shops.