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noelfigart
noelfigartIn one of Edgar Pangborn's stories about a post-disaster northeastern US, the narrator observes that "I have never seen a bluebird", as an indicator of loss (due to nuclear and biological warfare) and climate change. I read that in my late teens and realized that neither had I: starlings have driven them out.
A couple of days ago,cattitude found in an online bird report a sighting of an Eastern bluebird in Inwood Hill Park, so we had to go look for it. This wasn't a very good morning for birding--gray enough that few birds were singing, and that it was hard to see more than silhouettes. We saw a fine woodpecker on a downed tree-trunk, plenty of chickadees, a bluejay or two (scarce now because of West Nile virus), cardinals, and eventually a flock of robins. Any other day, robins in late December would have been a pleasure; today we inspected them to make sure they weren't bluebirds (the species are related, and both have the orange breast), and went on. I realized that it had been too long since the two of us had gone up into the hills for birds--we've been alternately ill and recovering for enough of this Fall that we weren't going up there.
I have never seen a bluebird, but if the weather looks promising I may try again tomorrow morning, even knowing that the bird could easily be in Central Park, or New Jersey, by now.
Having not seen a bluebird, I went to the gym. My branch was open for four hours today, and the weight room was a lot more crowded than I'm used to seeing it in the mornings. Time being short, I settled for ten minutes of cardio for warm-up, instead of my usual half hour, andam now wondering if that's part of why I didn't do as well on the weights as last time. (Having looked at my records, I see that I did more on some machines, and less on others, than I did Tuesday.)
( the details )
That'll be the last gym workout of 2003.
I had lunch afterwards at Excellent Dumpling. As she was seating me, the waitress asked if I wanted "the same" and I said yes. I was inordinately pleased, not just at being remembered but at being remembered despite the change in hair color.
Then I went to the Virgin Megastore and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, when I called to activate it, I got a busy signal after pressing "2", and the Website doesn't respond. I'd like to get my number switched to the new phone before I leave for Montreal.
A couple of days ago,
cattitude found in an online bird report a sighting of an Eastern bluebird in Inwood Hill Park, so we had to go look for it. This wasn't a very good morning for birding--gray enough that few birds were singing, and that it was hard to see more than silhouettes. We saw a fine woodpecker on a downed tree-trunk, plenty of chickadees, a bluejay or two (scarce now because of West Nile virus), cardinals, and eventually a flock of robins. Any other day, robins in late December would have been a pleasure; today we inspected them to make sure they weren't bluebirds (the species are related, and both have the orange breast), and went on. I realized that it had been too long since the two of us had gone up into the hills for birds--we've been alternately ill and recovering for enough of this Fall that we weren't going up there.I have never seen a bluebird, but if the weather looks promising I may try again tomorrow morning, even knowing that the bird could easily be in Central Park, or New Jersey, by now.
Having not seen a bluebird, I went to the gym. My branch was open for four hours today, and the weight room was a lot more crowded than I'm used to seeing it in the mornings. Time being short, I settled for ten minutes of cardio for warm-up, instead of my usual half hour, and
( the details )
That'll be the last gym workout of 2003.
I had lunch afterwards at Excellent Dumpling. As she was seating me, the waitress asked if I wanted "the same" and I said yes. I was inordinately pleased, not just at being remembered but at being remembered despite the change in hair color.
Then I went to the Virgin Megastore and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, when I called to activate it, I got a busy signal after pressing "2", and the Website doesn't respond. I'd like to get my number switched to the new phone before I leave for Montreal.
In one of Edgar Pangborn's stories about a post-disaster northeastern US, the narrator observes that "I have never seen a bluebird", as an indicator of loss (due to nuclear and biological warfare) and climate change. I read that in my late teens and realized that neither had I: starlings have driven them out.
A couple of days ago,cattitude found in an online bird report a sighting of an Eastern bluebird in Inwood Hill Park, so we had to go look for it. This wasn't a very good morning for birding--gray enough that few birds were singing, and that it was hard to see more than silhouettes. We saw a fine woodpecker on a downed tree-trunk, plenty of chickadees, a bluejay or two (scarce now because of West Nile virus), cardinals, and eventually a flock of robins. Any other day, robins in late December would have been a pleasure; today we inspected them to make sure they weren't bluebirds (the species are related, and both have the orange breast), and went on. I realized that it had been too long since the two of us had gone up into the hills for birds--we've been alternately ill and recovering for enough of this Fall that we weren't going up there.
I have never seen a bluebird, but if the weather looks promising I may try again tomorrow morning, even knowing that the bird could easily be in Central Park, or New Jersey, by now.
Having not seen a bluebird, I went to the gym. My branch was open for four hours today, and the weight room was a lot more crowded than I'm used to seeing it in the mornings. Time being short, I settled for ten minutes of cardio for warm-up, instead of my usual half hour, andam now wondering if that's part of why I didn't do as well on the weights as last time. (Having looked at my records, I see that I did more on some machines, and less on others, than I did Tuesday.)
( the details )
That'll be the last gym workout of 2003.
I had lunch afterwards at Excellent Dumpling. As she was seating me, the waitress asked if I wanted "the same" and I said yes. I was inordinately pleased, not just at being remembered but at being remembered despite the change in hair color.
Then I went to the Virgin Megastore and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, when I called to activate it, I got a busy signal after pressing "2", and the Website doesn't respond. I'd like to get my number switched to the new phone before I leave for Montreal.
A couple of days ago,
cattitude found in an online bird report a sighting of an Eastern bluebird in Inwood Hill Park, so we had to go look for it. This wasn't a very good morning for birding--gray enough that few birds were singing, and that it was hard to see more than silhouettes. We saw a fine woodpecker on a downed tree-trunk, plenty of chickadees, a bluejay or two (scarce now because of West Nile virus), cardinals, and eventually a flock of robins. Any other day, robins in late December would have been a pleasure; today we inspected them to make sure they weren't bluebirds (the species are related, and both have the orange breast), and went on. I realized that it had been too long since the two of us had gone up into the hills for birds--we've been alternately ill and recovering for enough of this Fall that we weren't going up there.I have never seen a bluebird, but if the weather looks promising I may try again tomorrow morning, even knowing that the bird could easily be in Central Park, or New Jersey, by now.
Having not seen a bluebird, I went to the gym. My branch was open for four hours today, and the weight room was a lot more crowded than I'm used to seeing it in the mornings. Time being short, I settled for ten minutes of cardio for warm-up, instead of my usual half hour, and
( the details )
That'll be the last gym workout of 2003.
I had lunch afterwards at Excellent Dumpling. As she was seating me, the waitress asked if I wanted "the same" and I said yes. I was inordinately pleased, not just at being remembered but at being remembered despite the change in hair color.
Then I went to the Virgin Megastore and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, when I called to activate it, I got a busy signal after pressing "2", and the Website doesn't respond. I'd like to get my number switched to the new phone before I leave for Montreal.
It was kind of Heather to invite me to her Chanukah party, and the latkes were fine, but celebrating Chanukah feels weird now.
In my family, it was a two-part celebration: we had the menorah, maybe a few games of dreidel, gifts when we were small, and Chanukah gelt on any scale (varying over time) from a few chocolate coins to ridiculously generous checks from my grandparents. And it was my grandfather's birthday. I don't know exactly when Salomon Kanner was born, except that it was close enough to Chanukah that it made sense to celebrate then. Usually his daughters--that's my mother and aunts--bought him gifts, including clothing. I think he just didn't like to shop, which makes sense to me, so this meant he had new shirts, sweaters, and such. Or maybe it's that he'd reached the point where anything he wanted and that any of us could plausibly afford, he already had, so the only things it made sense to buy were replacements for what got used up or worn out.
My grandfather died at the age of 97, in 1996, so it's been a few years since we had what I think of as a proper Chanukah gathering. I'm not at all an observant Jew, and the part of the holiday symbolism that made sense to me was lights at the dark point of the year, not the associated historical story. But mostly it was a combination of seeing the family--we were all in the New York area then--and Grandpa's birthday.
In my family, it was a two-part celebration: we had the menorah, maybe a few games of dreidel, gifts when we were small, and Chanukah gelt on any scale (varying over time) from a few chocolate coins to ridiculously generous checks from my grandparents. And it was my grandfather's birthday. I don't know exactly when Salomon Kanner was born, except that it was close enough to Chanukah that it made sense to celebrate then. Usually his daughters--that's my mother and aunts--bought him gifts, including clothing. I think he just didn't like to shop, which makes sense to me, so this meant he had new shirts, sweaters, and such. Or maybe it's that he'd reached the point where anything he wanted and that any of us could plausibly afford, he already had, so the only things it made sense to buy were replacements for what got used up or worn out.
My grandfather died at the age of 97, in 1996, so it's been a few years since we had what I think of as a proper Chanukah gathering. I'm not at all an observant Jew, and the part of the holiday symbolism that made sense to me was lights at the dark point of the year, not the associated historical story. But mostly it was a combination of seeing the family--we were all in the New York area then--and Grandpa's birthday.
It was kind of Heather to invite me to her Chanukah party, and the latkes were fine, but celebrating Chanukah feels weird now.
In my family, it was a two-part celebration: we had the menorah, maybe a few games of dreidel, gifts when we were small, and Chanukah gelt on any scale (varying over time) from a few chocolate coins to ridiculously generous checks from my grandparents. And it was my grandfather's birthday. I don't know exactly when Salomon Kanner was born, except that it was close enough to Chanukah that it made sense to celebrate then. Usually his daughters--that's my mother and aunts--bought him gifts, including clothing. I think he just didn't like to shop, which makes sense to me, so this meant he had new shirts, sweaters, and such. Or maybe it's that he'd reached the point where anything he wanted and that any of us could plausibly afford, he already had, so the only things it made sense to buy were replacements for what got used up or worn out.
My grandfather died at the age of 97, in 1996, so it's been a few years since we had what I think of as a proper Chanukah gathering. I'm not at all an observant Jew, and the part of the holiday symbolism that made sense to me was lights at the dark point of the year, not the associated historical story. But mostly it was a combination of seeing the family--we were all in the New York area then--and Grandpa's birthday.
In my family, it was a two-part celebration: we had the menorah, maybe a few games of dreidel, gifts when we were small, and Chanukah gelt on any scale (varying over time) from a few chocolate coins to ridiculously generous checks from my grandparents. And it was my grandfather's birthday. I don't know exactly when Salomon Kanner was born, except that it was close enough to Chanukah that it made sense to celebrate then. Usually his daughters--that's my mother and aunts--bought him gifts, including clothing. I think he just didn't like to shop, which makes sense to me, so this meant he had new shirts, sweaters, and such. Or maybe it's that he'd reached the point where anything he wanted and that any of us could plausibly afford, he already had, so the only things it made sense to buy were replacements for what got used up or worn out.
My grandfather died at the age of 97, in 1996, so it's been a few years since we had what I think of as a proper Chanukah gathering. I'm not at all an observant Jew, and the part of the holiday symbolism that made sense to me was lights at the dark point of the year, not the associated historical story. But mostly it was a combination of seeing the family--we were all in the New York area then--and Grandpa's birthday.
.