NBNC to SBNY 2016

Another May and I become a Person Perched on Passenger Seat (PPOPS)! Funny the things that go through the mind when watching black asphalt, steel guardrails, and a hundred different colors of green passing by in landscape.

We begin our journey to upstate New York once again level down at Mayfair Campground on site 18, near Sylvan Beach, to spend time with Dave’s aging and ailing parents and do what we can for the next five months to help the. And once again we will visit with family and friends and re-connect with our childhood and young adult memories.

Kamikaze squirrels : You gotta wonder…how can a squirrel be so clever as to be able to raid your ‘squirrel-proof’ birdfeeder by figuring it out for a day or two and be agile and flexible enough to cross power lines across a span of highway; but to make it across a two-lane road the critter becomes terrified of making literally a life or death decision, and with the number of cadavers on the side of the road the decision was made just a nano-second too late. Have you ever watched as a squirrel plays kamikaze on the road? I wonder what goes through their little brain? Do I move? Do I stay motionless and then I won’t get hurt? And in a nano-second the lil’ varmint darts the opposite way and becomes squirrel-kill.  It’s fascinating to watch the squirrel in the middle of the road and take a guess at which way it will go. Do you ever wonder what you would do if you were the squirrel? If it goes the wrong way, or runs across the road in front of oncoming traffic, are you now thinking, “No! Not that way”!  but then you find yourself rooting for him to make it safely holding your breath while watching this rodent, and the last thing you do is look in the rearview mirror to see if the varmint survived. You give the squirrel a second more of acknowledgment and carry on. Kamikaze squirrels-they keep us alert.

In 1979 AC/DC released a now familiar song, “Highway to Hell”. Although the lyrics seem to refer to someone who is free and non-committal, the refrain continues to loop through the mind while traveling the highways of the country.  Go ahead, you know the tune, hum  along.  Even though major construction seems to be on every interstate in every state, the roads seem to remain the same. It is sad that our government has allowed our infrastructure to decline to such a level that it would cost over a trillion dollars to make our country’s roads and bridges safe for us to journey over, under and through.  In the meantime, we inch along through 20-30 mile construction zones, where the lanes are so constricted you dare not blink to avoid veering; congested traffic becomes more jammed if a convoy of truckers become clogged-up, and the usual I’m-more-important-than-you driver who drives irresponsibly and inattentively. And no matter the size of the vehicle you are handling, the time of day you are driving or the north-south-east-or west course you are on, we all endure and learn patience and serenity to get us where we are going, safely and sanely.

It is farming 101 when we travel northbound during mid-Spring. In North Carolina corn has grown to near-knee height, the chartreuse tobacco leaves are the size of collard greens, and sweet potatoes and peanuts have been freshly hilled.  Driving through Virginia and Pennsylvania scents of freshly mown meadows offering the first hay cuttings of the season, waiting to be baled.  Nearing the rural areas of upstate NY corn and soy beans are just cresting their little heads above the dirt clods.  In a few weeks, it will be strawberry season here; we anticipate nice, juicy red nuggets of yummieness.

Clark Family Rural Cemetery Oswego NY

This first weekend in NY we are remembering, with pride, those in the military who died while serving their country; the early observances were for those who died during the Civil War. As a kid, I remember this as Decoration Day, and going to the Rural Cemetery in Oswego with our grandmother, and visiting graves and poking flags in the ground. Those many decades ago I did not appreciate the significance of these gestures of my grandmother. I thought it was boring and we were not allowed to run or giggle in the cemetery. My grandmother was quite the patriotic old gal. Her name was Anna, her father and grandfather were soldiers in the Civil War; her uncle died at Harrison’s Landing after being injured in Gettysburg; her great grandfather and great uncles were patriots during the Revolutionary War. Anna, who would stand if she heard the Battle Hymn of the Republic on tv, was president of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Elmira Spencer Tent.  Now, since researching our families and learning of all that our ancestors survived as well as contributed, I am humbled that my greats and great greats, etc., served their young country with such patriotism and honor.

LIFE IS SHORT: ENJOY THE RIDE

As always, these writings will continue, perhaps a paragraph, perhaps a chapter; but either way, check in and catch up.