Wake Forest, Gosh its a pretty nive place to live!

Posted 03-09-2009 at 08:59 PM by dansdrive

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Wake Forest, NC. located in Wake County NC. Some call it Wake's Forest of the Triangle....Ok maybe that's just me. But if you come from the North East, Wake Forest seems to fit. It has some rolling hills and many farming areas.

It has a small town feel but close to Raleigh, you could be down town Raleigh, depending on time of day in about 15 to 30 minutes. You can be at the Virginia border in less than an hour.

It has old Historical homes and some new subdivisions. It certainly worth a look see if your looking and seeing the area. It has transplants from New Jersey, New York, and many other NE State and Mid West and California and....well you get the idea people from all over this great country now calls Wake Forest home!

C'mon down, over, left, or right and check it out you may just like what you see. :D

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1. Thursday June 17, 2010 and its 55.9 degrees out. High today only to reach 71 with overcast. Warmth returns starting tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, will it be day 60 of the oil disaster in the Gulf? 60 days and no definitive data yet as to how much oil is flowing into the warm waters of the Gulf. How could that be? We sent man to the moon in 1969, we use remotely controlled robots to beam back pictures from Mars, we look at distance galaxies via the hobbled, ops scratch that Hubble telescope yet 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf we can't tell how much oil is gushing from the well. How is it we can drill that deep, add a large cap on top of the well to extract the oil and gas. We can send submarines down to turn values and beam back high def pictures yet we can't stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf nor can we accurately forecast how much is flowing from that "ONE" pipe. What am I missing? Is anyone in control of the situation? How many birds, fish, oysters, turtles, dolphins, and other crustaceans must die before this well gets capped and the Gulf can begin to heal. This is like watching a patient that had an appendage amputated lying in a field that you can't quite get to in order to stop the bleeding...........it is so very sad. Quote of the day from Jacques Cousteau: "However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day. I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat." Thursday June 17, 2010...DO you know when the oil will stop polluting the Gulf of Mexico?

   Posted 06-17-2010 at 06:44 AM by dansdrive

2. Friday June 18, 2010 and its 61.0 sunny degrees outside heading up to 85 hot sunny degrees. Breaking off the workday a little early today and heading out to fish a lake almost an hour north on my upstate NY home. I fished this lake once before and its a pretty lake with its shoreline dotted with cottages and year round homes. Its water is crystal clear and its fish are usually abundant. There is usually a number of skiers, jet skiers, fisherman, and just people taking their boats out on a nice pre summers day. As my assignment in upstate NY winds down seemingly faster than I can wind up a fish on my fishing pole reel I can't help to be melancholy about leaving upstate NY. For all the financial things wrong with living in upstate NY there is a real sense of community and friendship here among its people. Old world cultures still exist here, in its food, hospitality, and customs. Most people not only give you a wave when you walk by but actually want to engage you in conversation with a genuine caring tone. The people complain about their taxes and politicians as they do down south but most are committed to staying and living in the north no matter how bad things may get. The northeastern weather is not quite as bad as I remember it growing up. For my time here there has been more sun than clouds. The winter was not as cold as I remember and I know the summer heat will not be as prolonged as the southern heat that is awaiting us upon our return. The other thing I found that saddened me was the number of dwindling church congregations here in upstate NY. We tried to attend a number of old churches while we were here to see the old structures and attend mass. A number of them are going out of business if that is a term than can be used in a religious sense due to lack of attendees or priest. As I read about these old upstate towns and visit them the church was usually the center piece of the towns architecture and was one of the first building constructed back in the pre/post revolutionary days. Now as if there time has come and gone many are being emptied and sold or dismantled. Can our constitution not be far behind? But today is Friday and almost the longest day of the year so ENJOY today and the weekend. Enjoy Fathers day Dad's and spend the day with your FAMILY we are all counting on it! Quote of the day Abraham Lincoln: "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." Happy Friday!

   Posted 06-18-2010 at 07:59 AM by dansdrive

3. Monday June 21, 2010 at its 62.1 degrees outside. Sunny with a high of 81 degrees on tap. Was a glorious weekend. Sunny and warm all weekend. Friday afternoon headed out to a lake in upstate NY for some fishing. The little towns name where the lake can be found is called Eaton and the lake is called Eaton Brook. The water in Eaton Brook is as clear as it gets. The fishing is good because so many that fish it believe in the catch and release method. The little town of Eaton dates back to 1792. History has it a family from Vermont came to settle Eaton and after the first winter abandoned their dream due to the extreme cold that greeted them that winter. But the next year another family tried it and like tree sap to my cars finish, they stuck! Little by little more people came and a wood mill, grist mill and other stores and services opened up to the people settling in Eaton New York. Some of the original buildings still stand today. Driving to get there along the sparsely populated roadways of mostly farms with every so often a small town. I can only imagine what it was like for the families that came to Eaton from the New England Colonies. The hardships they must of endured to travel miles and miles on dirt roads and pathways. Encountering Indians and other travelers looking for their new places to settle into. To arrive at a destination that they may have heard about or by mire luck and consequence decided to call home. The back braking labor to clear a plot of land and build a home and enough land to plant a garden. To obtain a chicken here and a cow or two there. To barter for the basic essentials to keep their family feed and safe. Trying to do this before the brutally cold winter was upon them. All of this while still trying to keep up with the birth of their new country. Fortunately for us there are still homes like the ones found in Eaton New York to remind us of the past and the hardship our ancestors endured for us. So today we can enjoy fishing, boating, or water skiing on lakes like Eaton Brook. Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln: "We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts--not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Happy Monday!

   Posted 06-21-2010 at 06:31 AM by dansdrive

4. Tuesday June 22, 2010 and its 63.0 degrees. Thunderstorms in the forecast for today on this second day of summer. Its also the 63rd day that oil is spewing in the Gulf of Mexico. Hoe much? Not truly known. For how much longer? Not really sure. Will all the oil lost into the Gulf be recovered? Not really sure. I remember growing up in Pennsylvania and our town being devastated by a major flood. All looked hopeless as the water rose and rose. There were major fires with whole blocks going up in flames. Boats going up and down our street where cars once did. When the water subsided there was mud everywhere, inches thick. Homes were stained by the water which was muddy and oil covered. Clean up took time. Front end loaders use to come on garbage day to pick up all the belongings people threw out that were water logged and full of mud from their homes. Piles would be 20 feet high in the middle of our streets for a couple of weeks and slowly the coty came back to life. Home by home and business by business things got rebuilt. Was the city better than ever? It depended on who you spoke to. For us kids it was just amazing to see this once in a lifetime event unfold before us. Before the city got it electric back on we use to have armed soldiers guarding our street corners each night making sure looters stayed away. It was a different time back than I guess as there were no looters. I remember people that were able to still live in their homes during this time would give the soldiers what they could to eat and thank them for watching out for our neighborhood. So I am confident once they can stop the leak of the unknown number of gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf each day they will be able to clean it up. It won't be overnight or a month or even a year but it will be cleaned up. Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Happy Tuesday.

   Posted 06-22-2010 at 06:42 AM by dansdrive

5. Wednesday June 23, 2010 and its 71.1 degrees heading up to a toasty 84 degrees under party sunny skies. This day in history filled with many note worthy events. A little New York history in the year of 1611, Henry Hudson set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery and never seen again. The Hudson river was named after this man! In 1683 Williams Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape indians in Pennsylvania; only treaty "not sworn to, nor broken. In 1776 Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to U.S. Congress. ...and as they say the rest is history! Quote of the day from William Penn: "A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it." Happy Wednesday and may evil never pierce your spirits armor!

   Posted 06-23-2010 at 07:50 AM by dansdrive

6. Thursday June 24, 2010 and its 73.0 degrees out motoring up to a projected high of 81 degrees. Nice! Reminds me of one of those early summer days when we were first out of school for our summer recess.... It meant sleeping in and not being woke up to get ready for school. It meant the windows were open and I could hear the sounds of the neighborhood kids out back in the row houses all outside playing and yelling. When I woke up I could look out my back window and see my elementary school high on a hill behind our house. Thinking not today, today vacation has begun. After getting up and doing some chores, there were always chores, weeding the garden, white washing the stones around my mothers flower garden, and various other ones it was time to hop on my 20 inch bicycle with the banana seat and blue tires and see what my friends were up to. Sometimes we clothes-pinned baseball cards to our bicycle wheels so we could sound like we were driving motor cycles around. We usually found things to do like sandlot baseball, tag, race each other on foot, and when the 4th of July came around it was firework time. When night fell it usually meant playing hide-N-seek or just sitting around talking. As the neighborhood gardens grew it also meant good eats! It was not uncommon for one of us to carry around the miniature Morton Salt shakers in our pockets. We would go tomato, green peppers, peach, plum, and pear searching. The salt was great on fresh vine picked tomatoes on a warm summer night. Those summers were special times not only in our lives but in the life of our nation. Vietnam was raging, civil rights were in the forefront of the news those days yet for us pre teens none of it really mattered. We were out of school for the year the world ahead of us was so far away it was like light years away. Yet as light travels with astounding speed so did the years of our childhood. Today looking back to those days makes me wonder if they will ever come back around again for future generations children? Quote of the day from Benjamin Rush: "By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime." Happy Thursday and how could Benjamin have know in the late 1700's?

   Posted 06-24-2010 at 08:04 AM by dansdrive

7. Friday June 25, 2010 and its 64.4 degrees out and sunny. The humidity has evaporated away like the morning dew on the lawn when the sun rises up high in the sky. Speaking of weather it looks like a tropical storm or possible hurricane will make its way into the Gulf of Mexico or maybe its new name will be the Gulf of Oil. What will a Hurricane type storm in the Gulf mean? It will mean the oil recovery work will have to stop while the Hurricane or Tropical Storm passes. Will mean no more cap on the well during this period. It will mean somewhere along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas a storm surge will hit. This surge will not only be a wall of water but a wall of oil. How big and how far inland the storm surge travels will determine how big a disaster the oil will create. Imagine ones home or summer home flooded which is bad enough but with oil too! Eventually the water level goes down and things start to dry out. But when everything in the waters path if coated with oil residue or puddles of oil, or globs of oil sludge ....how does that get cleaned up? The devastation of this catastrophe has only just begun I'm afraid. Day 66 and oil is spewing as it was in day 1, how much per day depends on who's data you believe. Its lots and lots, its to much, its more than any fish or mammal or man or women should ever have to endure. Please stop the leak. Please stop the oil from entering the Gulf of Mexico. Please, please, please!!!!! Quote of the day from Patrick Henry: "The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them." Happy Friday!

   Posted 06-25-2010 at 08:09 AM by dansdrive

8. June 28, 2010 and its 75.2 degrees outside. Big cooling trend heading our way. By Wednesday high only to be 71 degrees. Nice. Speaking of nice attended a high school graduation over the weekend. Their dreams came true for so many kids and their parents. This particular class has 100% of their graduates moving onto college somewhere. Pretty amazing statistics. Schools mentioned were top Ivory League schools to the local Community college. As I sat and listened to the commencement speeches I could not help but reflect back to my High School and College commencement speeches. The job market was wide open back than. My possibilities were only limited by what I wanted to do and where I wanted to live. Companies were hiring, good paying jobs with good benefits. Ones where we did not have to contribute anything to Health care or retirement 401k's were not even thought of back then. Company retirement started at 30 years of service. Retirement and full medical coverage for you and your spouse for life. Life! But over the years things changed. Jobs moved somewhere other than here. Greed grew and flourished and consumed all in its path. Cut backs became the norm while expansion and prosperity seemed to be oceans away. I also thought back about the Vietnam War being over by the time I graduated High School. Some of my classmates went into the military right after high school and a number of them are now retired from the military ready to start their second careers. So as I watch the faces of these young men and women I see a lot of hope and happiness, hope for a better tomorrow and happiness for their accomplishments. Their journey will be quite different than their parents and grand parents maybe closer to their great-grandparents but they will make it. They have to as we are all counting on them and cheering them on! Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln: "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Happy Monday and make this day one, of your future successes!

   Posted 06-28-2010 at 10:22 AM by dansdrive

9. Tuesday June 29, 2010 and its 64.9 sunny degrees out. Few storms went through the area last night to cool things off. Nice that the temperature has cooled down but New York States budget temperature is still in the red. Not sure where this will end up for the people of New York State but at the moment its not good. The state legislature over rode the Governors budget and added back in millions of dollars of spending. Now the governor vetoed the spending increases. The governor also sometime ago said he would effectively shut the government down by midnight June 28 if a budget was not passed. As if this morning the government is still operating so no shut down. Not sure how this will play out but certainly seems to be a real mess. And mess is what they have in the Gulf of Mexico. I would like to see a image other than what they constantly show on the TV news outlets. All they ever show is the well head and the oil/gas gushing out of it. Why not show where the oil/gas is going above the well head. The well head is over 5000 feet below the surface, is the oil going straight up or does it peel off based on the Gulf's currents. I assume the gas goes fairly straight up to the surface but don't know never really seen any pictures from the robotic subs down at the well head. Just seems like everyone involved can do a better job in reporting to the American people what is really going on with the oil. While I am on the subject of messes it reminds me of a real mess we found ourselves in as kids during the after math of the great flood that hit our hometown. It was several days after the water receded back within the river banks. We were out walking and we came across spool and spools of giant string but in this case it was more like heavy fishing line. There was a factory that made it near by and somehow these spools ended up in a field. At this time the out city was being patrolled by National guardsmen in jeeps and truck. It was also around the 4th of July and we have ample supply of fireworks in our pockets.... So what do you do with giant spools of fishing line? You fish! But for what? Simple: Cars. We thought it would be neat to tie one end of the fishing line to a telephone pole and hold onto the spool in our hands. Well actually we placed a stick in the spool to act as an axial. The plan was we would hold onto the stick while the fishing line would be peeled off the roll. Great plan and we did have some success with it. The first car that went by caught the line around the wiper blades and was going down the road. It peeled line off so fast the stick that went through the spool got hot and started to smoke and than the line broke. The second time we did it the person holding the stick dropped it and the spool rolled on the ground and went under some parked cars......here is where things got messy! As we crawled around underneath the cars trying to locate the spool a army truck pulled up and several large guys got out yelling at us to get out from under the cars. There was about four of five of us really scared kids. The Army guys thought we were looting the vehicles. They were yelling at us and said they were going to take us is as looters. Needless to say we were pretty scared at that moment and than one of the dumbest things I ever uttered came out of my mouth. I said search us we don't have anything, we were not stealing from the cars. Little did I remember or even contemplate that we had our pockets stuffed with firecrackers, M80's, Ashcans (M80 smaller cousin), and some bottle rockets. YIKES! Fortunately, for us they just wanted to scare us more than anything and on that account they did their job to perfection! We never again went car fishing but we sure did enjoy using our fireworks!!!! Quote of the day from Alexander Hamilton: It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust (the office of President) was to be confided.... Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.... The process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.... It will not be too strong to say that there be constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters preeminent for ability and virtue...." Happy Tuesday!

   Posted 06-29-2010 at 09:06 AM by dansdrive

10. Wednesday, June 30, 2010 and its 53.1 sunny degrees out. Just a picture perfect day with temps climbing to 75 degrees and low humidity. Nice way to end the month of June. ....End the month of June!? YIKES! That means I enter the month where I head back south. Assignment is nearing an end. Where did the time go? It went in the countless trips around upstate NY and Northeastern PA. It went helping a friend here and a family member there. It went reading about this great nation back when it was being forged from the irons chains of England. It went walking paths around lakes and ponds casting my line out for the one that got away! It went in the scenic boat rides around some upstate NY lakes casting my line out to try my luck but knowing I have been extremely lucky to rediscover the beauty of upstate New York and its historic value to out nation. It went following the ebbs and flow of the upstate New York economy and its reflection on its people. So I look forward to flipping the calendar to July and packing up my things for the big trip back home. But before that happens there will be more to see and explore in the few remaining weeks I have left in upstate New York. As I had written about before there is great pride in the people of upstate New York, there is still deep heritages and customs among them, and their is also deep sadness about the area and the lack of good paying private sector jobs. This area was once the shoe capital of the world and was an industrial staple for the fledgling US. Over the coarse of a few decades of the late 19th century it converted itself from a shoe capital to a computer maker and flight simulation mecca of sorts. It was a place to raise a family as it had good schools that were weaved into the strong moral fabric of its communities and families. It took old world customs and pride and built a strong stable community within it. So my time has slipped away and my assignment is coming to an end but I feel I am a richer person for the opportunity to live in upstate New York. Quote of the day from Henry Hudson: "This land may be profitable to those that will adventure it. " Happy Wednesday and Henry's word were true back in the 1600's when he landed in New York as they are today. Profit in spirit more than monetarily I suppose.

    Posted 06-30-2010 at 08:02 AM by dansdrive

11. July 1, 2010 and its 52.0 sunny degrees out and for July 1st that "Brisk Baby".....heard that somewhere before. But its July and temps here are suppose to really heat up this weekend into the 90's. ...and that "when its hot, hot, hot! But its July the the forth of July weekend is almost upon us. Growing up we never went to our cities firework display we could see it from our neighborhood and that was good enough for us. The flash of multi color lights would rise high over the silhouettes of the city buildings. Each exploding in its own shape and size. We could sit leaning against a home or building and watch the show. As we got older we would set our own firecrackers and M80's off and bottle rockets. Finding fireworks as a kid was never hard. They typically found us....... But I remember one time when we were teenagers and working we bought some larger fireworks. This was also the time we would go camping for the first two weeks in July to a private lake where there was basically no one around. This seemed like the perfect place to have or own fireworks display. We had stacks of firecrackers, which were referred to as 'bricks', we had a gross of bottle rockets which was something like 360 and several dozen M80's. We also had the mother of all fireworks. This thing had it own base and a cardboard cylindar that stood 6 inches high off the base and a diameter of 2 inches. We were not sure what it did, was suppose to loft the firework into the air and explode into many colors. Sounded neat. So all weekend we lite our fireworks and had let's say a blast! Then came the 4th. My uncle who camped with us always had his radio going and I remember listening to the Philadelphia Phillies game on the radio, it was a double header that day. Those were the days of By Saam, Harry Kalas, and Richie Ashburn as the voice of the Philadelphia Phillie's. I will never forget listening to the radio that day when the Phillie's catcher Tim McCarver hit a grand slam home run and passed one of his team mates while running the bases and was called out! Not sure why I remember that but just do. Anyway back to the firework or all fireworks story. There was a time we did think we got had on this large firework, we thought it was a fake as we never seen one this big before. But as night descended on that forth of July we were almost out of fireworks. So it was tme to set our mega firework into place on the dirt road by our campground. This particular weekend no one else was camping which for a 4th of July weekend was odd. We waited for it to be good and dark, We heard no other fireworks than our own that day being we were so secluded on thast private lake. Nearest town was miles away with a few homes scatted along the paved road into the camp ground. For over a mile into the campground the road was dirt. So it was time to light the fuse and see what this thing would do. The night was picture perfect, it was a warm July day and by night fall the sky was bright with stars with little to no clouds. Because we had no ground lighting from any towns near us the sky would almost come alive at night. Stars, countless numbers of them were bright and lite up the sky. Really cool. But what happened next was utterly amazing. We lite the fuse and ran like the wind back to our camp area. In about 10 seconds this fireball lifted out of the cardboard cylinder and headed into the star filled sky. Not even sure how high it got but was above the tree line and KABOOM! A very large red fire ball exploded above our heads and the sounded rumbled through the valley the lake was located in. This mother of all fireworks was the loudest thing I ever heard. It lite up the entire area we camped at, for about a second night became day and we actually felt the ground shake below us. Holy mother of Mount Carmel this thing was the real deal. I remember my Dad saying where in the world did you get that thing? WOW! Now for the rest of the story. Within a half an hour or so of this big boom we saw a faint light walking down to our camp. The light was getting brighter and brighter and it was someone walking behind that light. As our campground around this private lake had a locked gate about a 1/2 mile up the dirt entrance road. Some one either walked or had the key to get into the lake we were at. Anyway, this person approached us as we sat around the camp fire talking about this amazing firework we had just released. This person was the local sheriff who said he got a call about an explosion up in this area. We were amazed that someone would walk a 1/2 mile into the dark to see what was going on. The sheriff was great about it as we told him we were shooting off some fireworks for the 4th. All he said was be careful and Happy Forth of July. And that we did........... Quote of the day by Walt Whitman: "The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people. "[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]Happy Thursday and let your patriotism shine from sea to shinning sea this weekend![SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

    Posted 07-01-2010 at 07:10 AM by dansdrive

12. Friday July 2, 2010 and its 61 sunny degrees outside in route to a perfect high of 76 degrees. Absolutely glorious 4th of July weekend weather wise on tap to hoot about! Our nation will be 234 years old and how how far we have come. The further away from 1776 we get the further we get from the spirit and principles it was founded upon. It took a revolution to break the chains of a foreign King from guiding us and a Civil war to break the chains of slavery. We grew as peoples as one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We started poor and with nothing and created one of the greatest nations on earth, not by chance, not by lack of education, not by lack of caring peoples. It was done by hard work and dedication. It was done by people failing over and over again so many could succeed. Our nation grew in all directions, Northward, Southward, Eastward, and mostly Westward. With the growth came opportunity and setbacks. But the beacon was always there illuminating and guiding our forefathers spirits and desires. The beacon was the Constitution the stone tablets of our Founding Fathers time. Here were common sense words crafted by a few and adopted by many. Common sense in there readings and understandings. Not constantly challenging what they meant or did not mean. They were followed as written based on what the founders meant them to be not what someone thought they should mean. Where have we gone in 234 years? Our forefathers set out to make a better tomorrow and accomplished it, they gave us the script to follow but an edit here and and removal there and an addition over there and what have we accomplished? What great accomplishments will we leave our future American generations? Yes it is the 4th of July weekend and much celebration is to be had but maybe just maybe we will all find the time to reflect on what it is we as a people are all about and what we as a people and our legacy will be all about? Quote of the day from the Declaration of Independence 1776: " When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. " Happy Friday and may your 4th of July weekend be safe and inspiring!

    Posted 07-02-2010 at 07:54 AM by dansdrive

13. Tuesday July 6, 2010 and its 75.0 degrees out tracking up to a high of 94 degrees today. Summer time is here in upstate NY. Was a glorious weekend. Got some traveling and fishing in. Finally got up to one of those sightseeing boat tours of Skaneateles Lake of which I spoke about in a previous post. It is a beautiful lake and the town of Skaneateles is a must see for those that like small old towns. The narrarated 50 minute boat tour leaves the pier at Skaneateles and heads south on the lake. There are many beautiful old majestic homes on the lake and some new homes as well. Each with a story of their past that the tour guide who is also Captain of the tour boat explains so well. From the early 1800's era to today. One in particular was a multi building estate that was a Doctors who was traveling though the area in route to open up a practice in Buffalo NY and had to stop over in the town of Skaneateles and just fell in love with it and stayed. Never did make it to Buffalo in the early 1800's and as they say the rest is history. The other notable thing was the lake water itself is so very clear. My gosh you could see right to the bottom of the lake. Awesome place to visit and explore! Also, got to travel to another fishing lake over the weekend. Canadargo Lake located between Albany and Syracuse NY area. The drive there was fantastic through more small late 1700's and early 1800's towns and villages. Still dominated with farms, in fact this weekend almost all the farms were busy making their first hay cuts for the season and rolling and bailing the hay. Others were busy sending bail after bail up to the lofts of the barns for their live stocks winter feed. Richfield Springs where once the "Great White Sulphur Springs" - the purest mineral water in the world - brought gentlemen and gentlewomen by the train load, still offers ideal vacationing today, is the town closest to Lake Canadargo. The town is dotted with old Victorian homes acting as their sentinels to an era long gone. But the past is not far away as they still have a sulfur water fountain in the towns spring park. This sulfur water is what brought the early travels to Richfield Springs. Just a really cool place to visit. By the way the fishing was outstanding as well! Pretty, pretty, pretty lake! Did manage to get back into town just ahead of the local fireworks on Sunday night. Actually were able to set out a lawn chain on the front lawn of the house we rent and sit back and watch the fireworks explode in colorful beauty just over a tree line. Turns out the towns fireworks are in a park very near our rental. They were really cool and I could not help but think back to the time our great nation was born and the exuberance those fireworks represented. Freedom, self government, by the people and for the people. Free to be who we want to be, free to do what we want to do, free to help everyone and anyone to be better people, free to worship the God we want to worship, free to be a people amongst individual persons! A-W-E-S-O-M-E just to be an American. Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln: "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him." Happy Tuesday and I think ole Abe summed it up best!

    Posted 07-06-2010 at 07:39 AM by dansdrive

14. Wednesday July 7, 2010 and its 73.0 degrees outside. Heading on up to 93 today. Almost a mirror image of yesterday. Dog days of summer are here as I only have to look at my Lab to see that when she comes in from the outside. The dog days of summer also reminds me of a close encounter we had growing up with a man and his hatchet! Our neighborhood growing up had small street and lots of alleyways. My best friend growing up lived on an alley and in fact the only house on his alley block was his. He lived behind the row houses I spoke about in an earlier post. Well across the alley from his house was a couple of garages separated by a space no more than six feet wide. In front of that space was an old wooden fence about five or six feet high. One of the garages facing the alley belonged to a home on the street my friends alley went into. In that house on the corner of the alley and the adjacent street lived an old lady who took in boarders. Back than it was not uncommon for people to take in boarders to help pay their monthly household expenses. Something not many would even think about doing today. Anyway, this particular home had two older gentleman boarders. One walked with cane and generally did not like kids at least that is what we had come to know through direct experience. The other guy never spoke much and just seemed strange to us kids. We basically avoided him and he likewise seem to do the same to us. One day while shooting hoops in front of my friends house on the garage next to the grumpy guys one in an old non net basket one of us sent the ball over the fence in between the two garages. UGHHH! Now someone had to climb the fence and go get the ball, but who? No one elver wanted to go into that yard for anything... So a couple of said we would go together, up and over the fence into this small section of yard between the garages. Well the fence was old and wooded and seemed really high to us but up and over we went. The ball had gone down the side of the garage and around the back of the garage and into the yards of the old guys house. So we crept down along the garages and turned the corner. As we approached the back of the garage in the yard next to where we were at there was a dog absolutely barking his head off at us. Thank goodness there was a fence but the dogs ire got the attention of the old gentleman who's yard we were in. As we grabbed for our ball out the back door came this old guy wheeling a small hatchet at us yelling in some foreign language. Needless to say we all took one look at him and booked back double time between the garages and as superman took one leap up an over the fence faster than Bolton's 100 meter dash in the last Olympics! That guy did what he wanted to and that was to scare the; I never want to go in that yard again, ever! Old man 1 kids 0. We never did have a problem with that gentleman again and we never went or even thought about going in that yard ever again. As for the old guy that chased us that day we never really had anymore encounters with him. He avoided us and we avoided him. But I do know that I had a many a spooky walks at night heading home through that alley after that. Quote of the day from Thomas Paine: "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, some say, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, He reigns above." Happy Wednesday!

    Posted 07-07-2010 at 06:28 AM by dansdrive

15. Thursday July 8, 2010 and its 73.9 degrees out. Another day the temps are to top 90 degrees. According to the local weather person this is the first time since 2002 that temps been over 90 degrees for four consecutive days. But its really been bearable here, not so for Baltimore and New York city. Washington too! Funny how as an adult you feel temperature extremes but as a child you could care less. As long as there was something to do as a kid it did not matter how cold or hot it was outside. Growing up none of us had air conditioners in our homes. Central Air was for the rich people. We had good old fashion fans. When we wanted to cool off we went to the local public pool. A badge sewn into our bathing suits got us in for the season. Only problem was the pool was about 7 city blocks and a giant hill away! So when one got there they were sweating profusely and before one could jump in the pool they had to shower off in what seemed like cold Rocky Mountain spring water. Dang that was some cold water! But then it was off into the pool, usually crowed to the max. By the time I hit the sixth grade my parents bought our first above ground pool. That was nice! No more walking 7 blocks, no more fridge t showers to swim, no more elbow to elbow with kids I did not even know. But a many a year it was, walking up to the public pool. Those 7 blocks were pretty much all up hill too! We were no more than 7 or 8 years old walking ourselves to the pool. We crossed one area that had a large wall and a staircase of maybe 50 steps. The wall and staircase was built by the WPA during the depression. Those of a certain age will remember the WPA and the public works they did in their communities. Anyway, one summer day when we were coming back from the pool one of those afternoon thunder storms whipped up. As we got to the top of that big staircase we could over look the downtown area. We could hear thunder and see some bolts of lightening. Off in a distance in the downtown area was a large building, which was the telephone company building and it had a large antenna on the top of it. Well as we looked down over the city we saw a giant lightning bolt hit that antenna and it seemed to stay there for what seemed to be a minute. It was pretty cool to see. Never seen lightning actually hit anything before that. Was always one of those moments you never forget plus it gave us all a lot to talk about and write about on what we did or seen over our summer vacation that year! Quote of the day from Benjamin Franklin in 1722: " I have from my Youth been indefatigable studious to gain and treasure up in my Mind all useful and desirable Knowledge, especially such as tends to improve the Mind, and enlarge the Understanding." Happy Thursday and ole Ben was really onto something here.

    Posted 07-08-2010 at 07:16 AM by dansdrive

16. Friday July 9, 2010 and its 72.0 degrees out. High today to be 87 degrees so the string of days over 90 degrees should be broken. No calling it 'Fry-day' ......Bummer! These warm summer night reminds me back when I was a teenager and rode my bike(s) everywhere. I use to rebuild 10 speed bikes that I would find in the trash or someone gave me. I would disassemble them and sand and paint them and put them all back together. I had several bikes that I redid. Anyway back to the story. Summer nights after hanging out with friends all day and before it was time to call it a night I use to ride from our neighborhood down to the center of town. We had a square in the center of the city I grew up in. One could enter the square from streets that lead into each corner of the square. At night people use to cruise the square with their hot cars to show them off. I use to peddle my way down there which was only about a 1.5 miles from my home. Sit on a bench and watch all the cars go by. There was some really neat ones too. We even had ones that were precursors to Monster trucks. One was an old Chevy Corvair on a truck body with four large tires under it. Just something you did not see back than. Almost any car one could think of use to circle that square. Kids yellinging from inside the cars to each other, some reving up and spinning of tires going on between cars. Basically people just having a good time! I often dreamed of having a nice car to cruise the square but it never happened. It was just me and one of my many bikes I rode on those days watching the world as I knew it back than going by! Not sure they even do this anymore. I have long left the town I grew up in and crime has gotten very bad in my old home town but there was a time in the late 1970's where kids got to be kids and act like kids of the 1950's in their Hot Rods and car creations. Just cruzin around the square for all to see and hear! Quote of the day by John Adams: "Society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases" Happy Friday and John hit the bulls-eye with the quote above........but in 2010 where are we as a society?

    Posted 07-09-2010 at 06:58 AM by dansdrive

17. Monday July 12, 2010 and its 84.0 degrees outside. High today to be 86 so we are almost there. Time today flew by faster than a dollar in a gamblers pocket. Kind of like the entire weekend. Before I knew it I was back deeply in Monday's workload. The day we leave upstate NY is rapidly approaching. It will be right in the midst of the dog days of summer. Which reminds me of my teens. Being a fisherman and growing up near a lot of lakes and a river there were always places to go fish. Summer in my teens always meant working. Being a laborer for an electrician meant steady work after school and through the summer months. Days were long and hot so when work ended especially on a Friday night we would head for the river. Our fishing poles were always in the car and at the ready. One never knew when a chance to fish would present itself. Well on this one Friday hot summers day we stopped to grab a Pizza Pie, and some large baking patatoes, some drinks and headed to a place along the river to camp out. It was a good half and hour drive so we would get there about six thirty or seven in the evening. Flip on a pair of cutoffs and head for the water. We would wade in with our poles and try our luck. Small mouth bass was the fish of choice for us. This one day we were about half way in the middle of the river when I took a step further and out of the blue well green water a fish came up next to me and smacked me square on the face. My cousin stated laughing and laughed so hard he almost fell in. I have never had this happen before. A fish jumped and actually hit me right in the face! WOW! We caught a few nice bass until the sun started to drop over the hill. Then we would head down to a spot below the rapids and set up for night fishing. This consisted of gathering up some drift wood for a fire. Our Coleman lanterns, our fishing poles, and our bait. Oh yea and the potatoes for baking. We lite the fire got it good and hot and dropped the potatoes directly into the hot amber's. Toss our lines out and waited. At dark we would usually get a wave of large carp come through and give us a great fight and then behind them almost like clock work the channel catfish would bite. This pattern would repeat itself methodically about every two hours. Most nights we were the only ones in this camping area and there is nothing more relaxing than sitting next to a camp fire watching the world go by discussing subject that really only would of made sense to sixteen and seventeen year olds. Than one by one we would pull the now blackened potatoes from the fire and add a little salt and enjoy! Man it just doesn't get better than that. Well on occasion we would latch onto a large channel cat and have a real blast trying to pull it in or maybe better said having him play us. Because it was very dark outside the bounds of the lantern light it was never easy trying to see what we caught. As these fish would come to shore where they wanted to come to shore which was usually up or down river from where we hooked them. Than by two or three A.M. we would retire back to the car and sleep till morning. On a few occasions we would forget that we left the car radio on all night and awake to a dead battery....but one way of another someone would finally come by and jump our battery and away we would go until the next time! Quote of the day by Thomas Jefferson in 1787: "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." Happy Monday and we passed the pile up point Jefferson was referring to.......perhaps.

    Posted 07-12-2010 at 01:32 PM by dansdrive

18. Tuesday July 13, 2010 and its 70.0 degrees outside. heading up to 78 today.....and as the song goes, "That's alright with me!". Speaking of Songs and summer we all remember songs that were just it for us growing up. Here are some of the ones I remember growing up hearing over the many summers. Oh Ho Ho its Magic by Pilot. Hooked on a feeling by Blue Swede Rocket Man, Benny & the Jets, Lucie in the sky with diamonds all by Elton John. Taking it to the streets by the Doobie Brothers. Entire Rumors 8-track by Fleetwood Mac Entire Boston 8-track by Boston ...and all time favorite for a summer. Schools Out by Alice Cooper! 4-ever! Honorable mention 38 Special, Chuck Mangione, Chuck-a-con. I can remember a number of those songs playing on my cousins 1944 Willy's Jeep that I talked about in an earlier post as we wound our way up a mountainside that over looked the valley our town was in. We took some old logging roads, we made our own roads, we crossed a creek in route to the top of this mountain. Once there we overlooked the town and it was really neat! Our ego's were a bit tarnished when we got there and saw some of the rocks were spray painted showing that someone else was here before us. Our Magellan moment was sprayed away by the explorers of the area before us. But we sat and over looked our town and wondered where would we be in 10 years from than or 20 years. We never dreamed where we are today! Life is a series of short progressions some lasting longer than others. Its how one progresses through life is what makes it all worth it! Quote of the day from Samuel Adams: "If taxes are laid upon us without our having a legal representation where they are laid, we are reduced from the character of free subjects to the state of tributary slaves." Happy Tuesday and think of the last set of taxes (fees) instituted by local, state, and federal government to solve budgetary shortfalls, have we really been legally represented in those new and additional taxes?

    Posted 07-13-2010 at 07:56 AM by dansdrive

19. Wednesday July 14, 2010 and its 68.0 degrees outside with showers in the forecast and a projected high of 83 degrees. In fact it is raining as I sit here and look out the window. Speaking of looking out a window reminds me of looking out the car window at the Drive-In. Growing up our area had no less than five Drive-Ins to chose from. With double features night and the corny concession stand food and drink advertisements between movies or during intermission. Never did sneak into a Drive-In via the truck but knew some friends that did that. Most the Drive-Ins were typical with the playground set up under the screen so parents could watch their kids while they watched the movie. Movies that ran in them were usually B grade movies, the real good movies or first run movies were in theaters. But there was always something special about watching a movie on the big screen outside on a summer night. I never owned a convertible so never got the experience of watching a movie with the top down. Nor did I ever drive off with the speaker still in the car window. But I do remember times the film malfunctioned and the screen went blank and the car horns would start to blow and things were thrown out of the cars toward the black screens. Brought excitement to a usually boring movie. I also can say I went to many a Drive-In movies and never remember seeing the entire movie! So today when teens say they have nothing to do they are right from the standpoint of not having Drive-In movies to go to. They miss out on the ingenuity required to sneak into the Drive-In. They miss out on watching movies outdoors with friends going from car to car trying to find the cars with just the girls in it! They miss out on a slice of America that has left us all. I would never trade the old Drive-Ins times we had with the modern technology kids have today in texting, tweeting, or surfing the internet. There is nothing that can replace face to face communications with someone you don't even know. Quote of the day by Joseph Story in 1833: " A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained." Happy Wednesday, hump day, day to remember yesterday to help propel you into tomorrow!

    Posted 07-14-2010 at 07:21 AM by dansdrive

20. Thursday July 15, 2010 and its 66.9 degrees out and heading up to 88 sunny hot humid degrees today! It is the middle of July and is my 200th post to this blog. In other words 40 weeks worth of blogs give or take a day or two. Its my Journal of sorts documenting my time spent here in upstate New York while talking about life growing up in the 1970's. In actuality I have been on assignment here in upstate New York about 47 weeks. Came in summer and will leave in summer. In a year so much has changed and so little has changed. The state was broke when I arrived and is still broke when I will leave. Taxes and fees have gone up on many things yet the state is still broke. Upstate New York towns and villages look pretty much the way they did 150 years ago. The buildings and land are still about the same while the way of life and of those that inhabit the towns and villages are far from the way it use to be. But I would digress to talk about all the wrongs of upstate New York or simply the state of New York and I will not do that. I tried to use this blog to identify the good parts of upstate New York, its old towns and villages that are so much the fabric of this great country that its rich history and customs still survive today as markers to the future generations. From the old farms that stated before and after the Revolutionary War that still stand today as testament to the early settlers that started them and passed them down through the generation of Americans that came after them. All with a simple dream or maybe better said as a hope that there offspring would have it better than they did. That their offspring would have the freedom of life, liberty, and to pursue their own personal happiness. For many many years that is exactly what happened. These early settlers built a nation from the rubble of war. They built a government that would endure the test of time and people. They instilled values and morals based on what was right and not what was easy. They built friendships and bonds with their neighbors that help them through the tough times, like the cold upstate New York winters, or the droughts, or even the floods along the many streams and rivers that flow through this region. They raised generations of proud American citizens, who ran businesses and worked hard to make America grow. They had famous writers who came to love the upstate New york area. My time here in upstate is growing short and it will be time to pack up and leave this beautiful part of America but I will only leave the physical part of it as I will have the rest of my life's memories of my time spent in upstate New York! Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln in 1863: "We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." Happy Thursday and old honest Abe was on to something here.

    Posted 07-15-2010 at 07:16 AM by dansdrive

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