Yet another weblog by Thom Forbes, this one with no boundaries — like recovery, animals, obituaries, poker, softball, Hastings trailways or prostate cancer — and no fear of the occasional flummadiddle.
Hike at Blue Mountain Reservation
Bruce, Paco, Oliver and I took a 6.7-mile hike around the perimeter of Blue Mountain Reserve in Peekskill on an unseasonably warm day Monday. The Westchester park is known as one of the premier mountain biking areas in the region but we only saw one cyclist on this weekday morning jaunt.
So what exactly do we do as we trek through the woods? Well, if we were expending any money, it would certainly be as legitimately deductible as a lunch at the Four Seasons, I submit, and offer this video as proof…
It's All Happening at the ...
Bronx Zoo, of course. The ladies had to work the day after Thanksgiving, and Lili Simone's day care provider, Lynda, took the day off. I decided to call upon our four-legged friends to help me keep LS entertained; she was, perhaps, even more taken by the hordes of people milling about on a very nice, late autumn day. I do know this: It is a day I shall never forget.
It's Beautiful, But Enough Already!
I can't resist a morning walk around town, and a hot chai at The Station Cafe, after a snowfall like last night's. It had stopped when I got up at 5:15 but I figure about 8 - 10 inches fell on top of yesterday morning's storm. All these shots were taken in Fulton Park, a.k.a The Library Park, on Maple Ave.
Snow on the River
I would have loved to have shot the sunrise bouncing off the Palisades this morning but I was on a deadline as the day crawled in. After I'd dug Deirdre out of the driveway and shoveled the sidewalk, however, I headed down to my favorite haunts on the river. Only one set of footprints had preceded me in into MacEachron Park about 8:30. It was glorious, as it always is, whether it's pack with people or there's nothing but light and wind.
Get Well, Harmon
Prompted to upgrade my Facebook profile this morning, I did so, and found myself in a section that asked things like what sports I played, what teams I followed, and who my heroes are. I filled out what I played and skipped the rest, except for heroes. There's really only one. Harmon Killebrew.
How a boy living in the Bronx got so enamored of an Idaho farm boy playing for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins is no doubt an essay in itself. But I was very sorry to see this story about Harmon's esophageal cancer…
Bentley 18, Cortland 17
The bad news: Cortland failed to advance in the regional club rugby playoffs after beating RPI last week to take the Division II New York State Championship. The good news: No need to travel to Bowdoin, Somewhere, Maine, USA, for the next round.
Cortland came back from a 15 - 5 deficit in the waning minutes of the game but failed on a very tough conversion that would have given them a one-point victory instead of a one-point defeat. It was an incredible year -- a 9 - 1 record for a team that was coached entirely by students this season.
…
Forbes on the Assist
Forbes to Jumanji
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Preparing to Engage
You Can't Do This in Soccer
Okay, it's not Cousy to Russell, Magic to Kareem, Frazier to Reed, West to Chamberlain, Parker to Duncan, MJ to MJ or, as the ageless Robert "Solid" Gold would have it, Gold to Roth. But Forbes to Jumanji has a nice ring to it, no?
Keep your eye on No. 8, Duncan Forbes (left and in larger format here), as he picks up a loose ball, deviously sprawls to the ground and squirts it out to Jumanji, who scores en route to Cortland's 50 - 9 thrashing of the Le Moyne Koonducks (you can't make this stuff up) last Saturday.
…
Ah, Spring
Right Here, Right Now
Perfect (even if the Yanks lose)
Geese and Goslings; Tug and Barge
Sunset, 5/14/10 (expanded view)
American Incongruity
An express train
raced through today
with the names
of dead luminaries
painted on the sides
of its passenger cars.
P.T. Barnum
was hitched to
Sojourner Truth.
5/15/10
It's not that nothing has happened since my last post in January. I did earn my certification as a personal trainer from NASM. I am in the process of building Recovering Your Body as a website, a business with a mission (or is it a mission as a business?), and a column for a new magazine for people in recovery, Renew. I am talking with some extraordinary people — partners and colleagues and people who are just helping me out — in the process of doing so. I'll be writing more about all this as things develop over the summer. …
At Play At Work
I have been maneuvering my career into a converging direction with much of the rest of my life for several months now. The first public manifestation of this is a Twitter feed, playgruntlaugh, which I launched yesterday. It will reflect my love of playing games, working out, cooking healthy foods, eating well, and having fun. A website and community will follow by spring.
Becoming and staying fit demands desire and discipline. That's the grunt part. But it need not be — it should not be — drudgery. …
Respite in Costa Rica
Deirdre and I hadn't hopped on a plane — just the two of us — and gotten away from it all since before Carrick was born more than 25 years ago. But Deirdre was in desperate need of a vacation and the ship she'd identified for a cruise out of New York Harbor was given a so-so review from a trusted friend. "Find something," was her command just before Thanksgiving.
So, having heard many positive things about vacations to Costa Rica over the years, I googled same, found JD's Watersports, liked the activities and prices and, within a day or so, had customized a seven-night package, including the auto rental and vouchers for most of the attractions. …
Anthony's Nose
Backyard View & Labyrinth
The blue in the middle is the Hudson.
Deirdre and I looked at a house in Garrison a couple of weeks ago that, quite literally, had too much going for it. Its bones date back to the 1880s, when it reportedly was an inn lodging folks doing business at a nearby copper mine, now long defunct. About 15 years ago, more than 2,500 square feet of space was added to it. The new area is a three-season art studio/gallery, but most of that additional space will need finishing once the art is gone. Things like wallboard, doors, ceilings, furniture and heating apparatus (oy!). …
Put Your Mind Where Your Body Is
If I weren't so absent-minded, I probably would have made a good absent-minded professor. It's not that I would not have completed my dissertation like so many others. I would not have figured out what field it should be in in the first place (although quite a few would have been eliminated by natural selection).
But I digress. Which is the point.
My thoughts tend to wander; My attention is easily nabbed; I am frequently accused by my family of leaving "ummms" in the air; and many a story I tell begins about the third paragraph because I forget that you, the listener, haven't been in my head for the set-up grafs.
…
Spillage Or, A 'X@fS Nuts!' Situation Ain't Necessarily All That Bad Or, Brian Murphy For Hire For Interior Painting This Winter
In Progress
Contact Brian here. Some trim work remains , as does work on the back and other side, but the house has been rejuvenated and will be completed within the month.
We are painting the house. Well, that's a gross misuse of the royal "we." We are actually paying to have the house painted. Brian Murphy, one of our daughter's friends, is doing the job, and he's doing it quite well. Neighbors ooh and ahh. He's too modest to say "thank you." Instead he tells them that "Mr. and Mrs. Forbes picked nice colors."
I basically have one task beside paying Brian's quite reasonable fee and occasionally reminding him that winter is fast approaching and he need not obsess too much that the trim be absolutely perfect. …
On a Soldier's Suicide
Deirdre had a moving letter about a young soldier's suicide published in the Journal News yesterday. Here it is for when the link disappears behind a pay-only archive:
U.S. soldier's death strikes a chord
Sometimes I turn the page in the newspaper without reading past the headline. But today, something compelled me to read about Army Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm, 19, of Plymouth, Ohio. Maybe his unusual name intrigued me. Maybe it was his age, a year younger than my only son, who I just watched play rugby for his college team, so alive and vital.
The Hudson
The river has been my soulmate for neatly 50 years. To celebrate it, I've created a new section on the site at http://tforbes.com/the_hudson/.
Harlem Valley Rail Trail
Deirdre and I took a leisurely 16-mile bike ride on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail from Millerton to Amenia Station in Dutchess County and back last Sunday, October 11. It had been about a decade since we'd last ridden together, as Deirdre pointed out as she was trying to put on a rather dysfunctional helmet at the trailhead before we set out. A fellow who heard her later passed us near Amenia Station and shouted, "Not bad for 10 years."
Truth is, neither of us had probably ever biked 16 miles -- and even if that's the point where serious bikers are just getting started, and even it was flat and paved and free of vehicles, and even if we were a bit saddle sore at the end, it's nice to be setting new standards to top in our 57th year.
…The High Line
Instead of heading north we drove into the city for our Sunday excursion this week. Mike and Rebecca Barrett joined us on a trek of the first section of the High Line, the vertical park that opened in June running from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. Eventually, it will go to 34th St. No dogs allowed -- "at present," as Deirdre hopefully read on a sign -- so Sadie stayed home. But the park was so packed that I'd think that dogs yipping, smelling and snarling at each other would make for a lot of canine chaos.
…May There Always Be News Wars
Elizabeth Williamson had a good piece in the Wall Street Journal Friday about the newspaper war on Martha's Vineyard between the fabled Gazette and the townie's TImes.
Twenty-five years ago, Deirdre and I went to the Vineyard to interview the Gazette's Henry Beetle Hough, one of my heroes. There was another weekly newspaper competing with it at the time, and the Times was about to be launched. I covered the newspaper "war" in a sidebar.
As I wrote in a comment to Williamson's story, "We can only hope that someone will be writing about the conflict between at least two sources of news on the island — indeed, anywhere — 25 years from now."
Rockefeller State Park Preserve
I played a doubleheader yesterday, came home, showered, and then clipped a pedometer I've been wearing for the past week to my shorts. I've now officially declare my nerdish experiment complete: It looks like I walk about two miles a day, not including exercise like softball or racquetball, which doubles the distance or more.
Yesterday, I took 13,429 strides, which are 26 inches, for a total distance of 349,154 inches, or a little more than 5.5 miles, excluding the softball games. That included a great stroll around a small section of the 1,233-acre …