Scattered Thoughts . . .

Back a month ago, we went to one of Lukey's hockey games at Stowe Arena.  After hockey, we all went to a local Christmas Tree farm to cut Christmas trees and then went out to lunch.  I'll write more and share more photos of the tree farm and lunch but this long overdue blog entry is about Lukey's hockey game. Lukey was in goal for this particular game and he did a good job.  It is funny, it seems like every time I started recording video, Lukey let up a goal!  I did happen to capture a few good saves by him but the video is a bit misleading.  He actually did have a lot of saves...  far more than goals scored against him.  Most importantly, Lukey had a great time in goal! So, here are a few photos from the game. At the bottom of the page, there is a short video too... It is difficult to spot at first but, in this photo below, Lukey blocked the shot with his right leg pad...  the hockey puck is blurred because

While I was sitting on the couch this evening, some movement caught my eye out our living room window in the road right outside our house. As I looked more carefully out the window, I could have sworn I saw a good sized Black Bear. I wasn't completely sure it was a bear since I only saw the rear half of the bear before he disappeared in our neighbor's yard.  Since there are quite a few kids who wander around this trailer park throughout the evening and early nightfall, I wanted to make sure I was seeing things clearly so I jumped up and quickly headed outside. Within a few feet of the house, I stopped in my tracks as a rather  big Black Bear was slowly sauntering toward me. He also stopped, looked up at me, and then turned into our neighbor's yard across the street. It was clear he wanted to avoid human contact and that is a good thing but I still had some concerns about a bear wandering through the streets in our little neighborhood. We continued to watch for the bear

I really enjoy astronomy and viewing the night sky but, damn, I live in Waterbury.  Most of the state could be clear and sunny but if you drive down in between Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Resorts... down into Waterbury... we are almost always covered in clouds and, usually, there is some sort of precipitation falling from those clouds. This description of Waterbury reminds me of Harry Connick Jr's "Bluesville" in The Happy Elf.  The clear skies are rather brief. I honestly don't think that Seattle has anything on Waterbury as far as overcast and wet days go.  I've lived here for about 23 years now and my first few years made it obvious that Waterbury was aptly named 'Water'bury for a reason. I keep saying that I'm going to track and record climate conditions daily in Waterbury for a solid year just to see how it differs from the rest of Vermont and, especially, how it compares to Seattle. Naturally, I haven't done it yet. Perhaps I've been

Here is a short video of us waiting  for Amtrak's Vermonter  at the Waterbury train station before boarding for Lukey and Kenzie's first train trip... I will share another video and more photos soon...

Yesterday, we surprised the grandchildren with their first journey on Amtrak!  I'm completely worn out today so I'm only going to share a few photos and write a short preview of our day... Lukey and Kenzie have been itching for a train ride for years (especially on Amtrak) so we finally arranged schedules with Liza, Nan and Pop and threw together a trip on Amtrak so Lukey and Kenzie could finally get to experience a day trip on Amtrak. The kids didn't know anything about this trip until shortly before getting in the car to head to the train station so it was a complete surprise for them. By the time Nan and Pop arrived at the station to join us, both Kenzie and Lukey were very excited about this much anticipated journey. The plan was to board Amtrak in Waterbury heading south... find a place to stop to have lunch... then hop on the northbound Amtrak to head back to Waterbury.  We knew we would need a three to four hour layover to have time for lunch and unforeseen

I have been in the process of descriptively writing about some early morning kayaking I have done while at Lake Groton. It should be a really nice piece when I finally finish it. Because of that project, I have been skimming through my hard drives searching for the best photos I have shot from my kayak while the sun is rising and slowly burning off all the early morning fog. Occasionally, I come across an unrelated photo which captures my attention. This photo here was one such photo and understandingly diverted me from my original project. I'm sure that those of you from Waterbury recognize this cluttered but blurry background as  The Alchemist Pub & Brewery.  This photo was shot in May, 2011  before Tropical Storm Irene destroyed all of downtown Waterbury including this popular gathering place by submerging and swallowing our entire community and spitting out nothing but destruction, mold, mildew and tons upon tons of stinky, oil and sewage laden mud. My camera was new