Wandering around....

This past weekend, I took my motorcycle for a ride, and I took my new camera with me. I decided that I needed some subjects that I haven't been looking at on a daily basis, and what a better way to find them than to get out and go for a ride! And for a ride I went.

On Saturday I headed south, it seemed like a great direction, and the weather was nice and hot, with loads of humidity, and south is into the hills where there is plenty of shade and trees and cool breezes coming out of the deep green forests. So as I was riding I was looking at various things that I thought might make some great pics, but

I wasn't really struck, until I decided that I wanted to get some pictures of the Genesee River. Not just any pictures though, I wanted to show the high water level from all the rain that we have had this year, and the beautiful vistas of the river gorge as it winds along its northbound path above the dam. The Mt. Morris Dam, is a great place to get some awesome pictures, and I was glad to have the equipment to give it a good shot. The day was pretty humid, so you can see the haze in the distance in the pictures. I walked along the hiking paths along the rim and snapped pics from various points along the way. Of all that I took, I think this is my favorite, but If I put more out there you may have a different favorite. I do have more of them posted in my Stone Indian Gallery. I took pictures all along my way that day, mostly in the dam area, but I did stop a few time along the way to take other pictures too. I won't bore you with all of them!

Then on Sunday, Yes indeed, I went riding again on another hot, steamy day. This time, I decided to go north, to the shores of Lake Ontario. I figured there should be a decent breeze, and the temp should be a little bit lower close to the water.

First stop on this trip was Point Breeze, I wanted to get some shots of the boats or the jetskis playing out on the water, but everyone was being responsible and playing nice. Fortunately I did see some interesting things to photograph. Since it was mid afternoon, the charter fishing boats were coming back into the harbor, and they come in from the lake at a pretty good clip. They turn into the channel and drop the throttle to run up the creek and they look a little bit like the S.S Minnow. Well, since it was a nice day, and I was looking to stretch my legs with the camera, I
headed out from there, and wandered on down the road a ways. As I was riding along with my eyes open for possibilities, I spotted this gem. If I had stopped immediately I may have gotten a better picture , but then again maybe not. I figure he was gonna be skittish no matter what I did. How close can you get to a Bald Eagle?

After that, I went on for a few more miles and hit Golden Hill State Park. I went to the boat launch first hoping again to find some jetski action to get pics of, but alas, the price of gas, or maybe the fact that I passed about 100 weddings and everyone was invited, there wasn't much in the way of jetskiers on the water. So, I headed over to the Lighthouse at the campground. The lighthouse at 30-mile Point is a great little place to visit, and I think that the next time I go, I will pay the dollar admission and take the tour of the lighthouse too!

After I left the lighthouse I went to visit my sister, and had the chance to get a few of my niece while she was painting her brother's bedroom, and also to get a pic of my nephew who is part ham and part camera-shy goofball. Getting a good pic of him isn't easy, but I managed to do it!

That was three days ago as I write this. Since then I have been playing with my camera in an earnest way, trying to find the sweet spot settings to get the pictures that I want the way that I want them. Some of my favorite subjects to shoot are clouds, and one of the problems I have had in the past is the lack of glass to truly capture the detail of the formations. Sometimes it's not about the detail, but simply showing the size in a setting that it can truly be appreciated. The ones in this picture popped up on Tuesday evening after the hot, sticky day built up enough atmospheric turbulence to build some thunderheads, and I was in a position to capture that view.
Today at lunchtime I noticed that the gladiolas in pop's garden were blooming quite nicely, and they have some great colors. I was messing with some personal settings and I wanted to see how they compared to the factory settings, and to do that I have to take a whole bunch of pictures, and I really liked this one, and figured it would be cool to share.

Have a great day!

Why are we so scared?

I recently read an article ( and when I say "recently" I mean in the last few months!) that broke down "freedom" by state. Using various legislative and social guideposts, the authors of the sited study, evaluated and graded the freedoms in each state. The conclusions were interesting to say the least, because what they found was that, in general, the states with the highest tax loads per capita had the least amount of personal freedom, and the states with the lowest tax loads had the most "perceived" freedom. Why, you may ask do I put the word "perceived" in quotes? Well, it is because, based on the study, most freedom is about perception,( ask your kids how free they feel when they are stuck in school) but when quantitatively measured, freedom has no meaning.

If a person has a job, and can feed their family and live a life that makes them happy, what freedom are they missing? If this person lives in country that is ruled by a military dictator, or by a democratically elected president makes no difference. If a different person has a job they can't stand, and makes barely enough money to live, and lives on the edge of financial ruin, never finding happiness in their entire life, are they ever truly free? Again, it makes no difference what system they live under.

Taxes that seem to go ever upward, with ever deepening cuts in the services offered, gives a feeling of the loss of freedom. When you can keep more of your wages, you feel like you have more freedom. When you are doing something that you enjoy, more than you're doing something that you don't, you feel free. Ask yourself, do you take a vacation to do stuff you hate? Of course not! Unless you're married and you take a vacation to catch up on the "Honey do.." list, then maybe you are doing stuff you don't like on vacation. See, you don't feel free then, do you?

In America, we spend so much of our time trying to meet our payments that we have lost view of what life is really about. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, were the golden trio described in our Declaration of Independence, but today we give them up for Work, Struggle and the pursuit of the next cool thing. Anybody who has lived a few years can tell you that the continuing struggle for money and belongings has sidetracked us from the real things in life, family, learning and living.

Living is one thing that the rest of the world seems to have on us. Especially the European countries. The European model has capitalism, with liberal amounts of socialism sprinkled in to make life livable for the masses, and not just for the lucky few. Health care is only one place where they have us beat. We have truly lost some greatness in our educational arenas, and our research capabilities too. Thanks very much to the odd religious nutcases who seem to get power, even when they are a minority. Long discussion for a different time.

Just as much, I pursue the dollars and the stuff. I have no time or money to do the things that I really want to do, so I compensate by getting stuff instead of going and seeing like I want to! Occasionally I have the luck and the time to get out of my small realm and see the broader world, and I always love those times. But they are far fewer that I would like, so in the middle times I amuse myself with what I think I want when I can't have what I really want. It is my freedom of choice and I use it rather unwisely!

On a lighter note.....55# gone. I have hit a plateau, but it might have to do with the hole in my back. Small surgical thing that needs to finish healing so I can get back into some more vigorous exercise. Sounds funny to say, but I miss it!

Riding...

I'm a rider, I ride a motorcycle and I love it. There are some very important things that one needs to remember when riding a motorcycle.

My first rule of riding is to be aware of what is going on around you. To survive on a motorcycle you must believe that you are invisible and nobody can see you. Expect them to pull out in front of you and make sure you are prepared. Expect them to turn without signals, and be prepared. They are in a tank, you are riding an eggshell. Who wins in the crash? The tank beats the eggshell every time.

Even when there is no law that tells you to wear a helmet, it's really a good idea, because eventually everyone goes down, and the helmet can be the difference between being a dude on crutches or being an organ donor. A good friend of mine ( who has gone down!) says all the time, "Dress for the crash, not for the ride." His point is that while 99% of the time you will probably have a normal day, a few idiots drive you nutty, but all in all there is no incidents, but that 1% of the time you will be very happy to have put on the helmet and long pants, gloves and long sleeves. Some people go all out with the leather and the pads, I'm not quite that bad. I do believe that you should never ride in shorts, take a stone thrown up from a tire in the side of the leg once or twice, or perhaps have your calf bump into a hot tranny, jug or pipe, and you will remember that skin is much more delicate than you can believe. Good shoes or boots are always the better choice over sandals. You laugh, I have seen knuckleheads riding in shorts and sandals! You never know when your gonna have to drop a foot to the road surface, it's not common, but a sandal or your bare foot is pretty useless at that point, a boot is always a better friction source. I am guilty of riding in short sleeves, but only for small rides, in general when I am riding for more than short run to town, I try to wear long sleeves, especially if I'm on a road trip. First of all the sunburn is killer. Secondly, it's just better protection for the skin, bees and hard-shelled bugs can actually draw blood. I have had it happen!

Keep the Bike in good repair. Cobbled brakes, cracked tires and oil leaks are not good. There is nothing worse than being out on the road away from your tools or your mechanic and having bike trouble. Ask me I know! Of all the problems I have ever had, only the dirty air filter was completely preventable. I have gotten bad gas, and had to have the carbs drained and cleaned, while on a road trip. I have blown a headlight out on the highway at dusk! I have fouled spark plugs and had speedometer and tach cables break. You can never prevent everything that can go wrong, but by taking care of your equipment you can minimize the things that do.

Enjoy the wind, and ride safe. If you don't ride, keep your eyes wide. Bikes are small and fast. Look twice and be sure that there is no bike coming before you pull out, Please! We will do our best, but we need you to look out for us too.

The Big Box Dilemma

Yep, The Big Box. You know what I mean, Wal-Mart, the store that so many people love to hate. It has become the symbol of the homogenization of American culture. 25 years ago it was McDonald's, before that? I really can't say because I only really began paying attention somewhere in my late teens. Howard Johnson's maybe? It really doesn't matter, I guess, the point is that sometimes the things that make our lives easier or more convenient, are the same things that we resent for taking away the individuality of the landscape.

It seems that no matter where we go in America these days there is a Wal-Mart, and more and more of them are billed as "Supercenters." But let's be real, just because you can buy food and drugs and clothes in the same store doesn't really make it a supercenter, because you can do the same at most Walgreens, Kenny Drugs, Rite-Aids and even grocery stores. The Marketing department of the Wal-Mart Company knows that by billing the store as a supercenter, it gets them more community support,( if they have any to start with, there is a serious backlash going on with Walmart) so even though it may not be a full supercenter they will still call it such. I live where I can drive to three different Wal-Mart "supercenters" in less than an hour. The smallest one is in my own hometown. It has all the bells and whistles to get the label, but the bells are much smaller, and the whistles are more like tweeters. Each one offers all the same services, but the population that each caters to is different so the stock reflects this. So does the size. The one in the college town is the biggest store I have been in to date. It is the newest incarnation in the same town, they pretty much outgrew the first one that was built 15 years ago. Now the old building sits empty waiting for a new tenant or someone to doze it over and build something new. This also is a common occurance when it comes to this megalithic retailer.

The dilemma is this, do you go to Wal-mart with it's low prices and continued market dominance, or do you patronize the little stores where you know the owners and have been shopping for years? Wal-Mart has what you need, and in the style you want and at a low price. The little store knows exaclty what you want, but doesn't have the style in stock, ( but can have it in a day or two) and the price is a couple dollars more. What do you do? America is a country that has no use for anything less than instant gratification, Wal-Mart wins, today. What happens tomorrow? Do you even bother looking at the little store? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. The more times you choose Wal-Mart the more you hurt the little store, and the more likely it is that they will go out of business. When they go out of business, the irony is that they will be shopping at Wal-Mart, because the low prices will be all that they can afford!

Now don't get me wrong, I am not a Wal-Mart basher in general. I shop there, for the exact reasons that I have specified above. Low prices and selection. When you have a company that can buy an entire production run of a product, you know they will have the lowest price on a product. In fact, they can pretty much control the market price on most things. They can undercut any local competitor and drive them out of business. Then they hire at least a portion of that competitors labor force to staff their ever bigger stores. Meanwhile they buy cheaper products made in foriegn factories, meaning that Unemployed Americans will continue to shop for the lowest prices thereby making them the winners again. How's that for dominating the market?

I love to travel and road trips are one of my favorite things to do. Generally due to time constraints I usually travel by Interstate Highway. It's a great way to get from city to city and to cover ground fast. Contrary to the popular belief when they were built, they really do provide some wondeful views and vistas. They cut through some of the most beautiful places in the country, and some of the most desolate as well. Anyone who has ever followed I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas knows that. Who hasn't stopped at the Mad Greeks in Baker, CA just because it is the biggest piece of civilization between them? When you drive through most suburbs these days, you can pretty much count on seeing the same string of franchise eateries, motels, stores, muffler shops, and auto parts stores. Whether you drive through Atlantic City, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio, Wichita, Kansas, Durango, Colorado, Flagstaff, Arizona , or any other city you can think of, you will find the line up of strip malls somewhere along the road into town. Sooner or later you will spot a Ken-tac-hut, next door to a Monro Muffler, across the street from an Applebee's that is across the parking lot from the IHOP. Down near the exit will be the Super 8 motel, next door to the Motel 6, the Red Roof Inn and the Holiday Inn Express. Of all that I have mentioned above only one is a single location, one-of-a-kind place, The Mad Greek's in Baker, CA. If you have ever been there you know what I am talking about. If you haven't I highly recommend it. When you get to these parts of any city, you literally could be in any city in the USA. Sure, if you are west of the Mississippi river you are much more liklely to find a Carl's Jr. or a Jack in The Box than a Hardee's, or a Sonic, but still and all, it is a pretty homogenous thing.

There is the benefit of knowing that you will always get the same product by the same name wherever you go in the country, but at the same time where is the adventure of the journey? What is the use of leaving home if you will only continue to visit the same places expecting the same services and products wherever you go? Isn't the point of traveling to be able to try new things and to have new experiences? To me, it is useless to travel if I will have the same thing in Utah and Colorado, and Kansas and Memphis and I can have in Rochester and Buffalo. When I am in Kansas City I want KC Barbecue, I'm going to Jack Stacks, when I am in Chicago I want Deep Dish Pizza. When I am in New Orleans I want crawdads and Jambalaya, I'm gonna find the place where the locals go for them. When I am in Texas, I want some Texas Beef, slow cooked over a mesquite flame. If I am in Maine I am gonna have Lobster at every meal, and shrimp and maybe even clams! But sad to say, when I need a new pair of pants, in Billings, Montana?

Yeah I'm going to look for a Wal-Mart. I can't help it, I know they will have what I want and in the size I need. I promise I won't buy a new pair of cowboy boots there or a hat, but for the pants and shirt, yeah I'm going there.

Pluses and minuses of everything. There is a benefit to knowing what you are gonna get sometimes, but other times there is a need for the adventure, and when you have a chance to have an adventure, don't waste it on a Big Box, adventure-ize yourself and maybe learn something about your own tastes. You never know when you will find something new that you really like.

take a tour with me...

What the future holds...

Today I was involved in a discussion about high speed rail. The subject came up because local politicians are trying to get a high speed rail line established in New York State that connects Albany to Buffalo with obvious stops in Rochester and Syracuse. One side of the argument is the standard, "it's a waste of money and we have cars..." , while the other side is , "The future is coming and even if you don't want to be part of it, it needs to be embraced." I am more on the side of the future.

Why do I believe in high speed rail? Mostly because I see it as a great economical way to travel. Most high speed trains are more electric than anything, so they are much more environmentally friendly. Secondly, I think that our future is going away from fossil fuels, and with the advent of fully electric cars I can see a great future where the 2 technologies will work together in a great symbiosis.

Of course I have no idea how the planners are thinking, but from what I know of electric cars today, they do have their limits as to the distance and speed. ( I'm sure that as they become more prevalent these limitations will be stretched , but still they will not be as infinite as the fossil fueled vehicles we use now.) Has anyone here not seen the "Smart Car"? Well they are pretty cool, and I see no reason why the future high speed rail trains can't be built in such a way that theses cars can be integrated into a train. Picture this: in the future we will get in our cars for the long trip to grandmas house, but instead of getting out on the interstate highway, we will drive to the nearby rail terminal. There we will buy a ticket just like now, but instead of unloading all of our junk and hauling it to the train, we will simply drive our smart car to the gate, (similar to how we do for ferries to cross lakes and other water bodies now. ) The train arrives at the station and the car drives itself into a berth ( it IS a smart car!) to ride to the station nearest to our destination. While on the train our batteries are being topped off, we are free to sight see as we ride along, all of our luggage untouched by anyone but us. Our seats are comfortable and to our liking and the sound system or video player plays what we wish to see or hear. When we arrive at our station we simply drive off the train and continue to our destination. This gives us the benefit of mass transit, and the freedom of our own vehicle.

If we wish to go on a sight seeing vacation, we follow a similar pattern, but we can disembark the train and re-board the next scheduled train to continue on our way.. Of course there will be some logistical problems occasionally, and there is no way to avoid it. Too many people and there will never be enough space for everyone all the time, but it will be a learning curve and it will get better as experience teaches us all how to use the system more efficiently.

It needs to start someplace, and sooner or later there will once again be mass transit for the most part. Perhaps it is still decades away, but it will happen. Of course population density makes these things much more prevalent in European and Asian countries like Germany, France and Japan, but in the last 40 years these countries have become the technology leaders in transportation technology. There has been talk for years of such high speed rail lines in places like California to connect San Diego and Los Angeles to San Francisco and Sacramento, or the east coast to connect Boston and New York City to Washington and Miami. Why not New York City to Cleveland via Philly and Pittsburgh? Or Cleveland to Nashville? Or any amazing city to any other! It makes a more sense than the airports and worries about rental cars. But this is just my thoughts. Nobody has set anything is stone yet. Coast to coast in 48 hours in your own car and not getting a single speeding ticket? How cool would that be? Take the express train, Indianapolis to Denver in a day, running at 300 mph across the open prairie! I have to quit here because other wise I could do this dreaming forever!

Embrace the future. There is no reason not to at least try!

Huh? What was that?

Ever talk to someone and wonder if they know how they sound? Do you hear your own accent? Does a Texan know he sounds like a Texan? You know the girls sound different from the guys, I don't know why, but they do. I have the opportunity to talk on the telephone to people from every corner of the country and it is funny how some have the quintessential regional accent, and then there are others who seem to have worked very hard to shed the accent, and yet it is still trickling out. Then there are the transplants who have their original accent but "tainted" by their new location.

A lot has been made about Madonna and her British accent, which she shouldn't have since she is from Detroit. What most people will never understand is that as a woman, a singer and a musician she was destined to pick up the British accent. It was completely unavoidable unless she refused to interact with the British people that she was living around. Why do I say this? Well, it has to do with my own experience, it seems to be a natural mechanism of women to adapt to their surroundings and part of that adaption is to absorb the local accent. I'm sure that there is an anthropological reason such as the need to find a mate or some such, and it makes sense. By blending in with the local population it makes the task of fitting in and finding a mate much easier. There are those accents that may never be lost such as the Bronx, or the real deep southern drawl. And sometimes a national accent such as German or Russian may be very hard to shake, but if the ear is good then it is very likely that the accent will be pretty near indiscernible after some practice. A great example of this is The model Heidi Klum, I was recently listening to her give an interview, and although she learned English later in her life, she has nearly no accent to her English. Most people would not be able to hear even the slightest lilt to her English, but to those of us with a good ear can still pick it out.

Musicians and Singers are great at picking up an accent and blending in to a new area. I always wondered why I had the ability to pick up an accent, and then while talking to some other friends of mine who happened to be musicians they made the point that having an ear for music makes it easier to hear lots of other things. Consider that half of the British singers sound American when they sing, it's because they were influenced by so many of the old blues masters who were American. From New Orleans, to Memphis to Chicago the Blues brought American music to the world and the influence gave so many singers an American accent, at least when they sang.

Since I have been studying languages I have found that if I can listen to a native speaker, I can blend right in with the rest of the natives, at least when I speak! I try very hard to learn as much as I can from Native speakers of what ever language I am studying, when I was learning Spanish I listened to Colombians, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, when I wanted to study French I listened to the French Exchange student in my school, when I study Russian I listen to the Ukrainians that I know, because that's the accent that I want when I speak Russian. I will worry about Ukrainian later.

One thing I have learned while studying languages is that the more you learn, the easier it gets, and the more you want to learn. I agree with the idea that if you are going to live in America you should be able to speak English. I don't think that one need to be fluent the second they set foot on the ground, but at least make the effort to learn and understand. My belief also is the reason that I study languages, because I also believe that if I wish to visit someplace in the world I should be able to speak that language. Maybe not fluently, but at least enough to be able to go grocery shopping and to get around the city without getting myself in a pickle. They say that Americans are often treated rudely in foreign countries, but I think it is not because they are American, but because most Americans don't make any effort to learn about where they are going. When Americans encounter foreigners who have no English skills, all too often they treat them with the same rudeness. It only takes a little effort to learn a few key phrases in a different language, and just the fact that you are trying makes all the difference. When I was in Ukraine, and looking for a store, I asked for directions, first in my terrible Russian, and then the person I was asking realized that I spoke English and they wanted to practice English! So we made a little team for a few hours, I would practice my Russian, and they would practice their English. It was a great exchange and later I found that as long as I tried the Russian first, I got smiles and all the help I could ever need when I needed it. Sometimes I would resort to sign language, but more times than not whomever I was talking to would know enough English to understand my Russian and I was happy to be understood.

Learn a language. It's fun and you may find out that you need to learn better English. It's amazing how many English words come from Other languages and how much we already know from our own mongrel mess of a language. I once read that a child is born with the capacity to understand and emulate as many as 500 different sounds, and as they develop their language skills they lose those that they have no use for. A child will learn what it hears. Let them listen to the Foreign TV stations , rather than plonking them in front of the cartoons that you understand. Expose them to as many languages as you can. it's good for them, and you may be surprised at how much and how fast they learn.

I wish I had that chance when I was a child.

Am I a Hypocrite?

It's not really reality TV, but it might actually be my 15 minutes. OK, so here's the story, this week there was a story all over the news about "The Best Job In The World", and for some people it really is exactly that, the best job in the world. I'm one of those people. It is a chance at a 6 month contract to live and work on an Island above the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The key here is this, the job requires that the person who gets the job be a decent photographer, film maker, and writer. Basically you need to be a communicator, who can sell your experiences to others and get them as excited as you about the stuff that you see and do. The job is public relations and marketing, with some ham and fluff thrown in to make it interesting.

There is provided living space where the candidate will live and "work" because there are certain set duties, two of which are to produce a weekly or bi-weekly blog about the experiences exploring the islands and the Reef. It requires some swimming and lots of outdoor savvy. There will be many public appearances and media relations are involved, but the main idea is to be a tourist for the length of the contract and write about it with pictures and videos. They will provide all the needed equipment and electronics, as well as a fairly open itinerary of activities.

Who is "they"? "They" are Tourism Queensland, and the job is a brand new created position the brainchild of their marketing department. They made a good move because the idea of this job has really caught fire, as of today there has been well over 2 million hits on their website since Wednesday when it first made national news here in the United States. It has actually been advertised in job listings world wide for almost 2 weeks, and most people thought that it was a hoax. But it is real.

So where is my hypocrisy , you ask? I have applied for this job! I didn't do it because it's a way to get famous, but rather because it may actually be a way into what I have long wanted to do, and that is to be some sort of travel writer. I have wanted for many years to be able to travel and to take pictures and videos and to share this with anyone who is interested. To get paid for it is the dream part. In the last 30 years of my life I have been a photographer, in the last 20 years of my life I have been a DJ and an MC, and in the last 10 years I have been working in video. I have been a writer is some way, shape, or form for at least 30 years if not more. It is as if my entire life experience has been guiding me towards this cusp in time. Just in the last 2 weeks I have actually said out loud that if given the chance I would love to be a travel writer. I have thought this for years, but only now have I actually given voice to this dream. It is almost like fate was waiting for me to say it out loud. I guess that the job requires a little measure of fame to get people interested in what I will be photographing and writing about, so this may be my hypocrisy.

The pay is not in the millions by any means, but it is sufficient to make me happy. It could be a doorway to a future, or it could end up being once in a lifetime chance to live out a dream, either way I look forward to doing this job. I just can't imagine that the universe would create this opportunity and put in in front of me , then yank it away like Lucy with the football. Every person that I know personally that I have talked to about this, agrees that there could be no better candidate for this position than me. So I will be keeping a positive thought, and when the time comes I will put the links up here so that anyone who is interested in supporting me will be able to give me some points and support. I hate to think of all the disappointed people when I get the job, but I think I will still be able to sleep at night! LOL

Odd friends...

Not really "odd" As in Strange, but rather, odd as in Odds and ends. This is not to say that they are by any means the last friends or the ones that you don't know what to do with, but more the ones that seem to have the most interesting stories either in the meeting or the living with.

There are all kinds of friends in our worlds, we have Old friends that we have known since childhood, the ones who know some of our deep dark secrets, the ones that we may not want knocking on the door if we run for political office, the ones who know what we looked like before the Nose Job! We have Work friends, whom we only know from work, it is lucky if we actually know their last name let alone how to reach them outside of the workplace. Yet we seem to know everything else about them, family's troubles, vacation plans, how much they pay or receive in child support, way more than we really should for someone we only know in one sphere of our lives. There are our Bar friends and our Team friends, and College friends, Military friends and even the Friend of a Friend friends, but then there are those rare people that we meet in some unexpected and often odd way, perhaps you shared a room in a hospital, or your children did. Maybe you met by accident, literally, when you backed into each other at the super market. But the ones that I am actually referring to are probably the newest odd friend out there, the Online Friends. These are people that you have met through no particular effort to make friends but rather through a shared interest in something that you found online. Many people will go the rest of their lives only ever knowing these friends by their avatars and their Messenger Id's or AIM names, or Skype, Google, ICQ or who knows what else. You may know their email address and never know their home address, or perhaps you have exchange paper christmas cards and not just ecards. Maybe you have been brave and sent them actual pictures, or if they were local you met at a bar or a restaurant. You find out that not only do you share the interest that you have already shared, but a whole slew of others too. We never know what will bring us together whether it will be a common singer, and interest in a particular artist, A comic strip, or knitting with hand-spun angora yarn. Who knows what you have in common with your online friends, but they are your friends and they are often only your friends, not anyone else in your family, or for that matter anyone else you know. They are better than an imaginary friend, but just as much yours alone.

Life can give you some interesting twists if you are willing to explore beyond the end of your front porch. A little over 11 years ago, not too long after I began in earnest to look around the internet and discover the new world that was there for me, I began to make some of my very first online friends. It happened quite by accident, I was looking for information in the best way available at the time, I was posting to an online message board looking for tour information for my then current favorite singer/songwriter Fiona Apple. After I posted my question, I came back the next day and found this laundry list of subjects under discussion and some I felt the need to enter my own opinion about, so I did. Well, I never did get the information I was originally looking for, but I ended up with this core group of people who all basically felt the same way about most subjects and had a lot of interesting things to say. The funny thing was that at the time this group ranged in age from 16 to 53 ( I'm guessing here at the 53, but the neighborhood is close!). It was about 10 people and there was at least one family connection in the group. We were scattered across the country from Maine to California, Oregon to Florida, as well as a few scattered through the midwest. Over a couple of years we kept in contact and had lots of interesting discussions and arguments. We always defended each other and had a blast learning new and interesting things about who we were, where we lived and what we did. When the youngest of the crew were old enough to do so we planned a meeting. We decided that a cool summer vacation would be the best way to do this and since the biggest concentration were on the west coast, that was where we would meet. And we did just that, we traveled across the country in our chosen chariots and we congregated in Los Angeles, California in July of 2000.

Of that core group I still have contact with three of them regularly and one or two sporadically. One of them turned out to be my mental twin. we have the same ideas at the same time from the same stimulis. It' is rather disconcerting at the beginning , because you are never ready for someone to throw your own thoughts at you as fast as they are coming into your own head!! Thanks Johnny! We stayed mainly at the apartment of one member all congregated in a four room two bedroom, two bath apartment on Shenandoah. But we also invaded the home of another set of friends too. These were Johnny's Mom and Step-dad, Mummy and Scotty. Two of the coolest people on the planet. Knowing us from only the internet and our words on the screen, they opened their house to us (and especially me, I will elaborate later) and we had a great time. And these three people are still in my life to this day. Why do I say they opened there house especially to me? Because they decided to take some long deserved vacation time from their jobs and show me California on a motorcycle!

It had long been my dream to ride the Pacific Coast Highway. Now I would truly like to ride it from San Diego to Vancouver, but I knew that this would be way more than I could do in one little vacation, so I decided to follow the advice of the natives that I knew and they showed me The best part of the road. We took a 5 day 1300 mile journey through California. On the first day we left Orange County and headed north, getting on PCH in San Luis Obispo and riding that twisting, turning, beautiful two lane blacktop all the way to Monterrey. The next day we looked around and eventually headed inland to visit Yosemite National park. 2 days later we toured through Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks. Then we did some real highway riding and I got to travel through the Grapevine. I saw Bakersfield, and Big Sur, Carmel, and Hurst Castle, Morrow Bay, Whales and Dolphins. Grants Grove, Old Dome, Bald Dome, Tioga trail, and who knows what else. The journey itself would make a nice book, but there are loads of pictures to prove it!! And two of my favorite people in the world as accomplices and witnesses! LOL I rode a motorcycle through rush hour traffic in Los Angeles, California and survived! It was cool.

Then there are the Surprise friends that you meet online. Maybe you meet them in a chat room, or a a discussion group, but it is a place where you truly don't expect to find them. I have one of those too, and I met her in person that same summer. As I recall it all started over a discussion of firearms and who should and shouldn't have them. Being the radical that I am, I truly believe that all law abiding citizens should have and be trained in the use of weapons. Since the criminals have them it's only right that we do to. Anyway she agreed with me. And it turned out that she even backed up this statement by being married to a Police! Imagine that!! So we double teamed the opposition and beat them into submission that day. And as we laughed about it afterward we talked about other things too. A few days later I found her in the chats again and we talked some more, finding commonalities in tastes and humor, we discussed anything and everything that could possibly come up between two adults. The anonymity of the chat persona probably made us both bolder than we might normally be, but it became a regular thing that we would get together online and share the daily stories and the trials of our lives. She with her 2 kids and her awesomely cool, Policeman Husband, me with my big dreams and always trying to do something that I probably should but always manage to survive and thrive from. She was going to Paramedic school I was working nights in a factory, but while our worlds were a million miles apart, our minds were running parallel rails, we had tons to talk about and laugh about. She was cool out there in the Midwest, telling me about her great weather, while I was freezing my butt off here in western NY. She was looking out for Tornadoes while I was enjoying spring breezes. She was suffering through a drought while I was wishing it would stop raining. She went to school and raised her kids, I went to work and tried my hand at new things all the time, looking for my passion so that I could eventually pursue it for profit, and not feel trapped in a job I hated. Pretty soon I was planning a trip that could easily take me through her city, would it be okay if I stopped in and met her in person? Sure why not! So when the big day finally arrived, it was funny, after all the talking and discussion online, when we were actually together in the same room it took a little while for the words to start flowing the same as they did online. But eventually they did flow and the laughter and smiles came out free and easy, and I found out that I had met a person who was also just like me, but not me . I had me a second twin that made us triplets!!

So all of this leads me to this, Sometimes it is these odd friends that give us the most pleasure, even though it is rare that we get to actually see them, and we may go weeks and months with nary a word, but when we connect, we seem to fill in the blanks quickly and succinctly. Sometimes we stay in touch constantly, with big letters and awesome pictures and video. But it seems that these Odd friends are truly the best friends that we end up with, because we don't have the opportunities to screw it up, by getting drunk and doing something stupid and irredeemable, or borrowing money and never paying it back. There are a million things that break up friendships, but the Odd friends have some insulation from us and our wanton ways, and so they can last, and because they have been so much like us for so long it is pretty much a given that they will remain on our wavelength barring electro-shock therapy.

So heres to my Odd friends, some of my best friends in the world: Lynn, Renny, Mummy and Scotty. I love you guys and hope that you are my Odd Friends for many years to come!!

Where have I been...

I like to travel, and the truth is that it doesn't matter to me most of the time the destination, as much as I enjoy the journey. Occasionally the destination is more important than the journey, and sometimes they are equally important to me. One of my favorite places in the world is Odessa, Ukraine. I have been there twice now and I hope to someday be able to live there at least for a year or two. The city completely fascinates me, both because of its' history and its' people, especially the ladies! (see above^^^) Now in the process of traveling to Ukraine I have had the privilege to spend a couple of nights in Vienna, Austria. That is a cool place too, let me tell ya! It is a mish-mash of old and new, and in at least one case Ancient! There is a little ice cream shop there that has the best vanilla custard I have EVER tasted. My first time in Ukraine I also had a chance to visit Kharkov, as well, plus even though I never left the airport, I also bounced through Kiev. That pretty much covers my European experience thus far.

Now, when it comes to the USA I have been LOTS of places. When I was a kid we used to go to visit my mom's family in Pennsylvania. That's the beginnings of my wanderlust. But I have found that no matter where I go, I am like a big yo-yo , and I have to come home to upstate New York . Home is where I have to go, it may not be where I want to be every day and all the time, but it is where I have to be at least for a little while. So when I was old enough to drive, I began to explore, first my region, then soon my state. When I was old enough to drive out of state I was off and running! First time I drove an interstate on my own, I missed an exit and ended up lost in downtown Syracuse with my little sister in the passenger seat, and the gas gauge just about bouncing on E. But it was a learning experience and I have taken a lot from it. And now when I get lost in any city in the world, I simply take my time and find my way out. Then I have a reference point from which to start when I go there again. at least in an American city I can generally read the signs and get a fix on where I am, My Russian isn't the greatest yet so when I am lost in Ukraine it's really and adventure!!

So here I am stuck in school and wanting to GO someplace, my senior year took forever because all I wanted to do was get out! Well It took me all summer after graduation, but I eventually had what I wanted and I took off for what I expected were greener pastures. I was south-bound and looking for glory. Having grown up in snow country I was looking for a warm winter in South Florida. Well it lasted for a couple of months, then I just knew that life was getting in the way of living and I headed for home. It was expensive to live down there and I wasn't making the money that I had hope to be making working in the business that I knew well, instead I was a shop monkey working in a metal-fab shop. It was work, but not what I wanted to be doing. So back to NY. So I have basically lived in NY since, but I have been all over this country in the mean time. I love Maine. I have driven across the US all the way to the Pacific Ocean once, and as far as Colorado one other time. Colorado is WAY cool, too cool for one post. Same for Maine and California and Tennessee. Yes indeed, I have had my adventures in TN! I have been around Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas. Toured Indianapolis, Indiana. Driven through Nashville in the afternoon rush hour, visited Lynchburg and the great Jack Daniels Distillery. I do have a favorite place in TN but it's not so much the place as the people who live there in Li'l ol' Bean Station! I have driven through some of the biggies, Washington DC, Charlotte, NC, Richmond, VA, Bristol, TN, Daytona FL, Miami, FL, Tallahassee, FL. Been through Mongomery, Alabama and Louiseville Kentucky, not to mention Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Hey, I drove I-70 from Columbus to Grand Junction 4 times! I have been to the Mad Greek's in Baker CA. I have spent time on the 405 in LA, and I have been in morning rushhour traffic in Orange county CA, on a motorcycle. For some of you that's an everyday occurence, but for this country boy from NY that was a true experience. two of the sweetest people in the world were kind enough to ride motorcycle with me along the Pacific Coast Highway from San Luis Obispo to Monterey. I have been to Memphis and walked along Beal Street with two of the most important people in my life. Saw the original Memphis Belle but never did see Graceland though.

I haven't been every where I want to go yet, but I have been lots of places and many that I haven't even listed here yet. Someday maybe I will be able to sit down in my favorite chair and just happily relive the memories, but I still have MANY left to make, so I will think about my next trip, when I have the money! right now I will look at the globe and decide where I want to go!