Bob

   One of the joys of my job as an ENL teacher is the freedom to teach what I want.  I always make time for a couple lessons focused on Bob Dylan so the kids might "catch a spark".  I'll never forget Dora's response after listening to a duet with him and Joan Baez from 1965 when she exclaimed, "They're singing in English?"

  When I heard about the movie A Complete Unknown a few months before it came out, I found myself down the rabbit hole a few times in anticipation of the era the movie is about.  I still wasn't prepared for how much I enjoyed seeing it and had to see it twice over the Christmas break.  It's going to take awhile to emerge from this rabbit hole.  Then the director's cut will come out and it will start all over.

  Hard to say what my favorite scene was, kind of like naming my favorite Dylan song.  But this one stood out for a bunch of reasons: Dylan was starting to feel jaded and pressured to be who everyone wanted him to be.  They showed he was still able to sit down with Pete Seeger and enjoy singing a song together, even if it was in front of a bunch of record company execs and other rich people.  Timothee Chalamet and Ed Norton did great jobs singing and playing live to the camera (as does Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez) and in this scene they are playing Pete's guitar and banjo. 

  For anybody unfamiliar with Dylan and go to see/hear Timothee Chalamet, you're going to love the albums:

 

  There are a few books to read too.

New and Old Around Town

 

  

This is a familiar building in College Town to me.  I saw my first old time performances here when Mac and Marie would play at Cabbegetown Cafe.  The Four Seasons Korean BBQ has been there for over 20 years and it's been too long since I had the tofu bokum.  But in all that time going there, and walking past it and Fontana's across from it, I never noticed the brick work at the top until the other day when a railing for security during a roofing job appeared.

   The Breeze Apartments at the former Ithaca Gun location are well underway.  There's a project that only took 15 years to get started.

Some Siblings

  Pat sent me a picture of us with Janet and Mary Ellen.  That is so familiar, it seems like it could have been just a few years ago.

  The next, next generation are growing just as fast.  Declan and Dori are proving that.

  Brian and Brett sporting shirts honoring their grandfather who wrote a comic strip in the last century.  Sadly, Brett died in December, he was a good friend when we were growing up and I was fortunate to see him occasionally as we aged.

  And a couple sisters I was fortunate to know when they were in high school, Tin Cho on her first Christmas break from college and Nano still living in her parents basement. 

Merry Christmas

 

  We had a quiet Christmas on Columbia St.  The neighbors have a traditional open house and we went over for a couple hours.  I got a cookie from a student when her class decorated them.  And Santa switched up the mode of travel this year.

A Good Ski Run

 Winter made a timely entrance this year. Snow fell heavier than expected on Friday after school ended for 11 days and I made an effort to get out and ski at the break of winter on Saturday.  Timing is everything.

  The first ski of the season on South Hill revealed a surprising new development: someone (not me) has cleared the old rail bed behind the houses on Kendal Ave.  I haven't checked with the Town Parks Dept. yet, but it seems like large equipment was needed and they have it.  Maybe it was to increase access to college kids on Kendal to have a more direct route to Second Dam?

  She's still around.  Probably old enough to have a fawn this year.  About 1% of deer express the gene necessary for this.

  You've heard of ice wine and cider, now get ready for ice hot sauce.

  Took a drive to the Arboretum for a spin around the grounds, and then checked out the Dryden Rail Trail to Rt. 13 and saw signs of progress on the north side of the highway.  

  Since the snow was on the thin side, Gail wore her rock skis.

  My new coworker, Bailey, is a skier and lives near the Burns Rd. end of the Rec Way so we met there and I showed her some of the trails in the woods.  She survived.

 
  Alas, the snow melted and precipitation turned to rain.  I went out in it to tend to the trails that had some obstructions.

  Out in Caroline, Andy and I were able to cut a tree that fell across a trail.  He didn't think we could do it using my folding saw, but we got it done.  I've been told that Connie went by later and was able to get the trunk to stand up straighter.

Gone to the Dogs

 

 

Roxy had a good spin around the Secret Dog Park.  In addition to getting to run a bit, she feasted on several frozen watermelon rinds.

I approve of the new signs at Cornell Natural Areas.  No word on how enforcement is going and I haven't seen if any are available for Ithaca city natural areas.  I'll keep you posted.

A Bit of Snow

  The first snowstorm of the year hit just a bit outside of Ithaca.  We'd been so dry, getting a couple inches of rain was almost as good as 17'' of snow.  Andy's heart held up shoveling the weighty stuff.

  It was just a short walk up the hill to find some snow, though it was so wet, it was more like white rain.

  It took me just a little too long to get out there to ski.  Most of it had melted, but where there was still snow on the ground, the conditions were quite good.

  Surprisingly, enough snow fell out in the hills again the following week and Gail and I both got to enjoy some skiing when the conditions were much better.  On top of that, Andy and I made it all the way to the Summerland Farm Preserve and back before it warmed up too much to spoil the conditions.  Hoping this is an indication snow will be more present this winter compared to last.  It would be even better if it doesn't melt after a few days.

 
    A special highlight on top of skiing was the bird sightings.  On Saturday, we were all treated to seeing four short-eared owls fly out of some pine trees together.  I got a not-terrible picture of a single one.  Andy and I had an added treat when we heard a flock of 30+ sandhill cranes.  I'm not sure the picture qualifies as a not-terrible picture, but it was pretty cool to see and hear them.

 

Young Driver

 

  

  Karl sent a couple pics he took of me during a trip to Philadelphia sometime when I was a little younger.  As I recall, it was one of the times I rented a car and decided to pay the $10/day on insurance.

Locked In

 

  Last fall, I walked down Cascadilla Gorge on the day they locked the gates for the winter.  Fate was on my side this year and I happened to go down as the employee was walking up to lock the top gate.  What he and I soon learned, was the employee at the bottom locked us in.  

  Roxy was nonplussed when I assured her Gail would pass us food through the gate until spring.

Back at Home

   While I was away, I had my students do some writing about mountain climbing for the Friday Funny feature I include in their curriculum.  Nobody went for the low-hanging fruit to answer "You're almost there," but Nadim got bonus points for his one-word, incomplete sentence.

   In the Bad Timing Department (for me), an event at the State Theater promoting voting was organized by Natalie Merchant while I was out of town.  She forgot to check in with me.  Thankfully, lots of other locals were around to join her on stage, and our district did elect a (hopefully effective) progressive representative in the House.

This was the Friday Funny the week after the trip (several writing responses omitted):

”I guess that’s the basic difference between us, Mary Ann.  You come here because you love the outdoors, and I come here because I hate people.”

Why do you think I was sitting there?

 

And again from Nadim: You was sitting because you wanted to fly but you say oh not today 

 

 

More Mountain Time

  I had a good reason for a trip to the Adirondacks to get together with high school friends early in November.  I enhanced it by visiting Xiao as he winds down his time at college in Albany, and a few hours catching up with Mary Ann and Glenn when I spent a night at their house on Lake George.  I didn't see them in the morning as I got up early for a hike in the High Peaks.  I planned to go over the Three Brothers Trail for the views and thankfully was persuaded by hiking guru, Brad, to continue to Big Slide.  It seemed like the rain had passed just before I started and I was in for a sunny day with dramatic clouds changing constantly in the 40-50 mph winds.

  

  But I only got 20 minutes on top before the rain clouds returned.  I picked up all my stuff I had scattered around, covered up and headed down past the slides and ladders before they got too wet.

  When I got down lower the threat of rain was over and I was able to enjoy the excellent views from the open faces of the first two Brothers.  Like a lot of family dynamics, this is from the Second looking down on the First Brother.

 

  I met up with the group Friday evening.  Saturday, Howard and I found the snow-less ski route from the house we stayed at to the village of Lake Placid.  It was a new section for me on the Jackrabbit Trail.       In case you don't click on the link:

The trail is named in honor of Herman “Jack Rabbit” Johannsen, who was a legendary skiing pioneer both in the Adirondacks and, later, in Canada. There he constructed the famous Maple Leaf Trail and helped to start the 100 mile, two-day Canadian Ski Marathon. While living and vacationing in Lake Placid between 1916 and 1928, Johannsen laid out some of the original routes used by today’s trail. He was also famous for his one-day ascents of Marcy starting from Lake Placid—a round-trip of over 30 miles. “Jack Rabbit” died in 1987 in his native Norway at age 111, skiing nearly to the time of his death.

  Every time I go to Lake Placid, I found it incredible that the Olympics were held there.  Kind of a miracle.  Like me skiing when I'm 111.  Like anyone skiing in 2077.

  

 It's not quite a miracle to get a group to converge on the same trailhead after strolling the village and visiting a brewery (separately), but it was unexpected by some.  I pushed hard for a visit to the Mount Van Hoevenberg East Trail.  It is trail-building at it's finest, and though the clouds didn't clear out for the view of the High Peaks, it was a thrill for all of us, especially the three of us who made it to the top, to see snow.

 

  

  Hiking medalists.

  And the Ducking Out of Any Hiking medalists.

  Going for the Platinum Medal, I headed back out Sunday morning under the clearest, bluest skies of the weekend.  After a stop at the North Elba Cemetery for a clean shot of Whiteface, I stopped on Adirondack Loj Rd. for the views from the meadow before racing up to the Van Hoevenberg summit again.  Shazaam. 

  Thanks to the return to Eastern Standard Time, I was able to add a climb of Big Crow for one last view of the Great Range before heading back to the lowlands.  The shark fin sticking up on the right of the top picture is Big Slide.