Yesterday after church, we went to the Blue Hill Cafe for brunch, with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. It is quite a drive over Peekamoose Mountain from West Shokan to Claryville (~25 miles), and we went a different way to get home, past Frost Valley, came out in Big Indian (~20 miles), then took old Route 28 and headed back to West Shokan (~18 miles). It's beautiful and much of it is remote (quite an understatement in both cases). It almost goes without saying that I am not a stranger to the woods and rural areas, but these roads travel through areas that are breathtaking -- almost harsh, raw, even brutal. And, there are signs of Irene's devastation, especially on the Shandaken end. I remarked, it's comforting to know that there are still not-so-distant places that are mostly untouched by suburban sprawl.

 West Shokan to Claryville

Claryville to Big Indian

  This part, Big Indian to West Shokan, near 28, is much more traveled

 Deer are hardly a rare sight, but it almost seemed as if you could reach out and pet her

Buttermilk Falls (on Peekamoose) -- way more spectacular in person

Added: here's a feel-good short film that gives me hope for places that have been touched by people.

For some reason our power was out for three hours yesterday. Not sure why, but we did have 3-4 brownouts during the height of the storm, so maybe they shut it down on purpose to make a repair. That was the extent of the impact on my house in Castleton. In Samsonville, still no power, and the pool cover was ripped off and is in the water. Seems obnoxious to complain when so many lost everything, or live in places where there are few resources to be self-sufficient. Halloween...I do have candy on hand, and I made an effort to make the porch semi-respectable, but so far no trick or treaters. [Later: they started coming soon after I wrote this.] [Still later: We had more kids this year than we've had in at least the past five. The groups were huge! I was afraid we would run out of candy -- but didn't quite. We shut the lights out at 8:30.]

I was thinking about TB/TC (my marvelous cat Teddy) because he came from south NJ, just about where the storm made landfall. I wonder how the couple is who gave him away. He spends many hours in the day time outside, weather permitting, and even sometimes when it is lightly raining. He LOVES it. It is another of the many ways he is similar to Edna. There was no keeping her inside, even though I did not want her to be an outdoor cat. She wasn't, did not spend nights out there, but she had to go outside or she became grouchy and she would do her best to slip outside when the door was opened. In her case, she jumped the fence and went wherever she wanted. That's the reason her being out made me nervous. But, no harm came to her, and she always came back when called. To say my house is a good place for cats is an understatement. The yard is one story below street level, it backs up a deep ravine that has a cemetery on the other side, and so Edna never went in the front of  the house near the road.

Teddy can't get out of the fence, both because he does not seem inclined to try, and because he was declawed when I adopted him. I believe cat declawing (like dog ear and tail docking) to be cruel animal abuse, and it is something I would never have done. My vet shares the philosophy and would not agree to do it. I think in Teddy's case it was especially mean, as it was done when he was an adult -- five years old, in fact. But I admit that his lack of claws means no jumping and escaping from the yard, and so I can let him stay out there as long as his heart desires without a bit of worry.

The Hudson flooded a bit, and the wind howled, but all my services stayed on. All of my family in the Catskills are without power, internet and telephone -- trees are down everywhere so it will probably take a long time to restore. (Don't get me started on how irritated this makes me since there is still no cell service in Samsonville! So no communication with my parents once again.) Bob's brother was evacuated in Hoboken, lost power and there is some water in his place. Out on Long Island, his father lost power for a while but it has already been restored. It's still rather windy, but I am on campus today. It seems quiet -- some students may be away, and others with no electricity may have opted to stay home, but otherwise, everything is operating normally. I see the media has stopped labeling it last week's "frankenstorm" in favor of "superstorm Sandy."

Sam was oblivious -- just wanted to play fetch (as usual), but Rosie and TB/TC were shaken by the wind noise. Or maybe they were just competing for the blanket...

This is more a windstorm than a flood for us, unlike Irene, but the Hudson is surging (allegedly, I did not walk down to check) because the Long Island Sound is backing up into it. Schools closed early so catechism was canceled, classes were also canceled (but i don't teach on Mondays anyway). So far I still have electricity and DSL. And telephone, because my "landline" is home phone connect, which uses the cell tower rather than wire. And, of course, my regular cell is working (mostly, I have an unrelated tech issue that will take a visit to the store to resolve since phone support couldn't figure it out). West Shokan, Olivebridge and Samsonville are without power, but I think the cable is still working, at least for now. I unplugged my femocell before we left last night, to protect it from a power surge. At $250, I didn't want to risk it. The night is still young, so stay tuned. Or not, if my power goes out!

I think everyone is extra apprehensive about "Frankenstorm" because of Hurricane Irene last August. Will Sandy + a nor'easter + an arctic blast be even worse? I am so glad we spent two weekends getting the Castleton yard in shape. Another half-hour or so of work, and there will be no hazards remaining. This weekend, we will have to tackle Samsonville. It isn't a big deal, only some lawn furniture on the deck and patio. (We closed the pool three weeks ago -- very late! But the weekend in September when it was on the agenda was the weekend my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and there was no way we were doing it until he was home after surgery.) We also have to hunt and gather survival supplies for next week: candles, lamp oil, etc. Kerosene? Will it be that cold? There is always the risk that it will be much ado about nothing -- but better safe than sorry. Not one to complain when they get it wrong and there was minimal impact: that's when to be relieved, who cares if I have extra candles. Much better outcome than the storm being worse than predicted.

Added: State of Emergency declared.

Did the storm tear the town apart or did people come together? It's an interesting question. I think it did both. Environmentally, there is no question: it did damage; it literally tore the town apart. Politically, it awakened dissent. Why is that a bad thing? I suppose it could be pessimistically charactized as "tearing the town apart," but pluralism is healthy and free speech is our birthright. Finally, a community of private citizens turned out; they came together and helped their neighbors without hesitation. The only bad thing I see was the storm damage itself.

This column is so true, and that point was driven home after Irene. And the older gentleman with the bamboo pole taking charge reminds me of my father, it's exactly what he would do. Except that it wouldn't be a can of bug spray, it would be a flaming rag drenched with accelerant! I wonder if that's what it was in this case, too, but John decided to avoid the angry sound off calls from people mouthing off about how dangerous that is. It's doubtful a can of bug spray would make a dent in a basketball sized hornet's nest. A torch would work like a charm...

Getting down to the wire on my fresh produce. Last night I put what might be the last cucumbers (have to check the garden today; rain and mosquitoes have been a barrier), and almost the last tomatoes into the salad. Also basil, parsley and chives but those are still going strong. Until frost, that is, although all but the basil can usually withstand it. I picked the eggplant and sauteed them -- plain with just olive oil and garlic, no Parmesan. They were too precious. Consumed the last zucchini a while ago, those plants were mostly devastated by Irene, unfortunately. The first produce is so eagerly anticipated, and the last is bittersweet. But "next spring, if I'm alive..." I'm going to plant purple rather than white eggplant, and I'm going to give them each an individual container.

It is really hard to accomplish anything! Now that I can read the Mark Twain book thanks to the Kindle, that's all I want to do. I have decided I am going to go back and re-read the first 270 pages that I had finished pre-Kindle. Just didn't appreciate it enough with its tiny font; it was tortuous, instead of a pleasure. (Tried for alliteration there and came up short.)

West Shokan got hit again! This link has my sister's photos. (An aside, why can't anyone spell our names? That's always been true of the surname, of course, but our first names as well. Maybe back in the '60s it was understandable - they were unusual names in the days of Kathy and Lisa. But today, in the era of Ailaisya and Mehkayhluh?) Anyway, between the rain, flooding and the mosquitos, this is not a nice fall. Sure my plants are all still alive -- and in some cases still producing, but it's hard to appreciate. Winter will be a welcome change.

Lost my driveway in Samsonville again. Sigh.

After missing out in May (because we got caught in a downpour, drenched, and had to go home) we finally made it to the Red Lion Inn yesterday! My research* is in Columbia County, so we were nearly there already. Not that Castleton is far from Stockbridge, it isn't at all. It was a great late lunch, and like a summer day. (Including the mosquitos. What's up with that? What a nightmare they are. Another gift from Irene! I want to weed whack, but it is impossible. A frost before this warmth would have zapped them, too bad it also would have ended the growing season.)

Here I am in the gift shop with my jazzy new shirt jacket that my sister made for my birthday

The timing was good, because Bob is having to deal with some BS (personally) and on the professional front, I just heard the PEF vote was no! I won't detail much on either one since it's neither my situation nor job - but the impacts of the latter would be a lot easier if he could target folks who deserve it rather than the newly hired taking the hit. On the former...well, suffice to say he's a lot better at handling it than I would be. So I'm glad we got to go before things on either front worsen for him.

* There was a kid there who distracted me so much -- he was wearing a green #7 Vick jersey! UGH. Are you kidding me? What kind of a lowlife would buy such a thing and send a boy to school wearing it?

And: It's Banned Books Week!  I'm not going to participate in the virtual read-out, but I am going to read lots of Mark Twain on my Kindle. I have one small issue with BBW; it should be "frequently challenged books week." I love alliteration more than the average person, but I find BBW gives students (and others) the wrong idea. They take it literally.

Yesterday in church there was more information promulgated about the upcoming changes in Mass, which will take place on November 27. Interesting to me that what we say now was written in 1973, a result of changing from Latin to the language of the people (of course in our case, that's English). The planned revisions have been in the works for nine years and are supposed to reflect improvements in translation.

Plus: The media has moved on (although the only major attention was local anyway), but the need for recovery help from Irene and Lee continues.

Consulting this afternoon, and this week, a major focus will be research and writing on the study. And securing a replacement grill for the car!

On facebook, I am a fan of several animal shelters, and recently, I also spent some time on petfinder, since my mother was "in the market" for a dog. I cannot believe the number of OLD animals that need to be re-homed. Who would give away a senior pet? A couple days ago, I got my haircut, and I noticed that my stylist had a flyer posted advertising a nine-year-old dog that was free to good home. I asked him about it. He said he didn't know the people, but a co-worker of his wife's was "downsizing;" the last kid had left for college and they were moving to a condo, and among the things they were shedding were their two dogs. He told me he had made it his mission to find new homes for them, and he'd already successfully placed the seven-year-old. This led to us exchanging how incredulous we are over such behavior, and how despicable such people are. (And people wonder why their adult children move far away from them and rarely visit. No mystery there!)

Speaking of facebook, full disclaimer is that I do appreciate it for the connections it has kept and made. I have a strict policy that I never friend or accept friend requests from current students. But what to do when someone I don't like sends a friend request? This has happened to me twice. Ignore is an option of course, but it still seems rude. It seems I have another moral dilemma, less important than yesterday's spider one.

I am still struggling with the laptop, but I made progress. Discovered what the problem is. It's bad, a rootkit virus. I am not giving up yet!* On a happier note, I solved the phone problem. They are giving me a "dry loop" for DSL, and a credit on the telephone back to February! So with the credit and a la carte DSL I won't have to pay anything for another two months. Yay!

From the "if we were real investors, we'd be trouble" file: about two weeks ago, we sold some collectible silver we had for a really, really, really long time. We knew the price was up, and it seemed like good timing. It had never been worth this much before, and for a significant period, it had been worth less than what we paid. We wound up making money on it, which was awesome. It paid for our Irene storm damage in Samsonville (lots of gravel). Was it ever good timing! Yesterday it went down 9 percent, and today it plummeted another 18 percent!

Finally: I received a link to this from Wooden Horse Publishing, in an email that warned and asked that recipients tell others: "Be careful if you write online and quote other sources, even in comments.  In a recent blog post we highlighted a company called Righthaven LLC - a business founded solely to monitor and sue small websites and blogs."

* Added: I think I fixed it! Cautiously optimistic. I have rebooted, and it's working! Now running another scan and preparing to create a restore point. Fingers crossed...if it's good to go at this point, it "only" took two days. However, no reformat/recovery needed. If I have indeed sorted it out, I will write more details and pointers, for the google searchers who land here in a panic, hoping to solve their terrible virus problem.

Computer Hell: I am in the middle of a computer nightmare with my laptop. It has a really, really bad virus. I have avast (fully up to date), windows firewall, as well as advanced windows care for malware - and still something got through, whether from the Internet or from a student assignment - I can't tell, could be either one. I spent all day yesterday on it and still can't fix it. I am at the point where I might have to reformat. I don't want to, and I will probably have to buy the recovery console CD (because naturally I can't find it)  but I don't have the time to continue with tweaks in the hope that one will work. Time to cut my losses. I can hardly think of anything else (except my final paragraph, that is).

Phone Hell: Landlines in Samsonville were down for 18 days from Irene, and finally got repaired last week. Then they went out again two days ago. So once again my parents had no phone. Tech support said it would be October 1 before they would be fixed! However "someone with juice" intervened and service was restored yesterday. Yay! In Castleton, I use Home Phone Connect - which is from the wireless division. (Actually I use it in Samsonville too, with a network extender.) Works like a charm. But, since I have DSL, I need a landline. So that telephone is exclusively a fax line. Turns out it has never worked - since it was installed in February. DSL works great, but no voice. Technician came out last week and is stumped. Why should I pay for the phone part when it doesn't work? So once the computer issues are solved, that is my next battle.

Alternative Transportation: Bob is traveling and this is a campus day, so that means I have to hitch a ride somehow. CDTA canceled bus service to Castleton about two years ago (except for a senior bus on Wednesdays - now I may be 50 but I have not yet received my AARP solicitation and besides...). So this means taxi to downtown and then bus to campus. This morning I feared I'd have to cancel class since I could not find a cab willing to make the trip to the hinterlands! I finally did - crisis averted. Then the bus ride up Washington Avenue was interesting. To say the least. I used to do some of my best writing on mass transit, and I remembered why.

Arachnophobia: All summer there has been a spider living between the bathroom window and the screen. I don't routinely kill stuff, so I have tolerated its presence and the web behind the glass. I remind myself that they are good bugs for pest control. A couple of weeks ago, when it was getting cold, I thought, that spider will soon freeze once the season changes, and I sadly remembered the story of Charlotte. Well, a couple of days ago, the spider somehow slipped between the window and the molding and relocated itself to the inside of the bathroom window. It hangs out on its web, not too far from the bathtub, towels, and toilet. I can't have a spider right there - somewhat because it is a strange thing to let go in the house but mostly because as a survivor of a Brown Recluse bite, it is hard for me to put the fear out of my mind. I know it is just a common spider, not a poisonous one, but it is quite large and very fast, and besides, I don't want the dogs or cat to get bitten. But, I can't help but think that it is smart, with a strong survival instinct, to slip inside before the frost comes. Bob told me he will squash it one day when I am not around. I know he will, and one part of me can't wait, but another hates to have that happen. I suppose he could catch and release it (he might if I asked him to do that instead) but then, it will just die outside in the cold anyway. Tonight in class we began the discussion of moral questions - and so this is my own personal moral dilemma.

Rain, rain, go away. Hey! A sunny day!! Yay!!!

Saving this here for later use in class.

Here's the tee shirt photo I promised back here. Funny to remember. We had a bar in the kitchen at that time, and the stairs were badly in need of painting. This photo must be from around ~1989-90. I really liked making silk screens, as you can see. I had seven designs. That is made more impressive when you understand that I only had two screens, so I had to scrub my design off the screen to make a new style. For two color designs (which I only did once), I had to paint both screens. Also, I did not have other equipment, so I had to do the placement of the design on the shirt "by eye."

Clockwise from top, there is the no nutrasweet design from Summer Party II; the yellow shirt was for Summer Party III (1987); then Ceilings and Walls, a shirt for a painting and wallpapering business we had; then the tie dye is Boiceville Tent Sale (1989); followed by the pink shirt, which was my copy of the Woodstock logo; in the middle is Ashokan Reservoir; and then at top under the no nutrasweet shirt was Summer Party IV (1988).

They held up really well, I remember people had the no nutrasweet design from Summer Party II for years. I still have at least one of each, and in several cases I have a bunch left. (Can you hear that? Somewhere the minimalist blogger from the TU is crying out in horror.) Still have the screens and all the other materials too. Maybe I should scrub the screens one more time and make an upstate pride shirt? Not like the tacky one described in the linked post! Something handmade, hippyish and personal. And handed out for free to my friends and family who weathered the recent storms.

After I went to work for System, I switched from being about a lot of things, to being about one thing.* I mostly stopped writing, stopped doing creative projects. I still had a garden in the summer, but nothing like now. I razor focused on analysis, databases, management. Stockings and suits. I'm glad I have gradually rediscovered my creative side in the 13 years since.

*A wake up call my sister said to me years ago. Eternally thankful.

Blackboard has been troublesome all week (slow to the point of unusable) but today it is OK. As a result I was able to work out a solution to a problem I was having with groups and surveys, and not a moment too soon. There definitely is a learning curve with this upgrade. So glad I did the pilot over the summer!

My parents' phone is still down -- and my friend's power is still out. Here is a really interesting article about the storm and here is wonderful compilation of pictures and explanations (although I was the contributor, not the photographer, for the three shots attributed to me).

Added: Picked lots of stuff in the garden. The rain has done some damage, but all in all it has been a good year. And, the Castleton Village Wide Garage Sale is tomorrow, September 10m starting at 9:00 a.m. Looks like it has not been canceled, as so many other activities have been recently.

Long day. Mostly good. Except, more rain, and more flooding -- people are hurting. Here's another idea for how you can easily help.

A mixed bag of stuff. First, two unrelated designs I want to comment upon:

I think this is a worthy idea, and I understand why they wanted to include the various elements, but the design is awful! I feel almost guilty saying it, but it is so ugly.

But at least it isn't oddly jarring...

Like this, which has a nice design, aside from the "Upstate American" part. I'm an Upstate New Yorker, capisce? If "American" is to be modified - then I'm a Northeastern American. I guess they chose the label because ignoring the meaning, to the ears it "sounds" better. But I would have either left the slogan off - the design is sufficient - or just used "Upstate." Maybe all lower case. As it is, it doesn't work.

What's worse, it is not at all transparent and seems like someone trying to capitalize on tragedy. How do we know how much is being donated? Who is running this operation? Where is the money going exactly?

I hope it is simply a clumsy mistake by well-intended people. I do like the idea of upstate pride especially in the wake of this tragedy and the logo itself is fine, but it just feels wrong. If it is on the level and they don't intend to profit, why not make this a donation in itself and not try to cover the costs of production? Just give out the tee-shirts as incentives for people to donate to real charities who are helping with the recovery.

That segues to the weather: the fire siren went off today a couple of times. It is becoming a very familiar sound. The Hudson has flooded Main Street again. On facebook, there are reports of flooding, advised evacuations and school closings. Olive Day is canceled in West Shokan - it was scheduled for Saturday. My parents still have no telephone. Stop raining already!

And finally, the semester: Had an unhappy experience in my evening class last night. Very few people had done the reading so discussion was not productive - a variety of excuses including "I don't have the book yet" then when I said both articles are on blackboard "I didn't know" or "I thought it was due next week" and finally when I said I told them about ten times last week: "I wasn't paying attention." But, on the flip side, three students waited for me after class to thank me for calling the slackers out on it, instead of allowing them to take advantage of the few students who were prepared.

That class followed an afternoon class where Blackboard 9.1 wouldn't load the log on page, I called for help, wound up rebooting, was able to log on but it was so slow I couldn't use any document including my powerpoint. I got through class without that crutch, of course, but the dry erase marker I had with me was almost out of ink - made putting anything on the whiteboard a challenge. I told the students, this is a good example for why you have to have alternative strategies in mind when developing a lesson plan. Things don't always go the way you intend!

Then, today, Blackboard was incredibly slow again from home - I rebooted, it gave me an error message when I tried to log on, and I could not hold the real-time chat I had scheduled, or get any of the work done I had planned. Wednesdays are "online class days" so this is not good!

Added: More details here. I'm going with good intentions, but painfully tacky. Donate to something on this list instead.

Still Later: I had a spell where I made silk screened tee-shirts. Eventually, I will dig out a picture of some of my creations, scan and post it here. Gave them out as party favors. Thinking about the clever idea above with bad timing/execution, I came up with a much better phrase: Upstate New York: Resourceful and Resilient.

My sister's power was finally restored yesterday, yay!

Sophie watched me so sadly as I left today. She hates when the semester resumes and I am not home all the time. Poor Licious.

Added: classes remain smaller than usual. Not complaining - it makes for a better teaching and learning environment, but the analyst in me is saying that we reached the point with tuition where demand was impacted. Of course, Irene may be an issue as well. A student confided in me today that she lost everything in the flood of the Schenectady Stockade and is wearing borrowed clothes.