Bridget Kelly, that was a lovely video you recorded for John Ulrich's memorial.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
California
California
San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Chino, Napa Valley
I have been to California a lot. I have friends in San Francisco, San Jose and in San Diego and I have visited both of them on numerous occasions. Here's what I like at California:
- the redwood trees
- the palm trees
- the sea lions
- the SF street trolleys
- Chinatown
- the beaches
- the Rose Bowl Parade
- the close proximity to the Mexico border
- a ride down the Pacific Coast
- the town of Carmel
- the roaring waves of the Pacific Ocean
- my friends
- great restaurants in SF
- the Crooked Street
- the Fisherman's Wharf
- The San Diego Zoo and the Butterfly exhibit in particular
- In and Out Burger
- the Mexican food
- the diversity of cultures
- the housing architecture of SF
- the pleasant climate
- the hot springs and mud baths in the north
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Texas
Texas
1996- Dallas- I took a group of students to a National Scholastic Scrimmage Competition and I have never felt so intellectually inferior as I did during this competition. I sat in the audience the whole time. The contestant would be asked a specific question and I could not even identify what subject category this question covered. I felt stupid.
2010- Austin- I took my 12 year old nephew to the Alamo. We were in New Mexico and I wanted to drive to California but he asked if we could go to Texas to see the Alamo. He told he he wanted to go there all his life. So we took a left and drove 8 more hours and went to see the place that was so damn intriguing to him. After 1/2 hour, he had seen all he wanted to see and he was content to check this off his bucket list.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Celtic Coulors Music Festival
Celtic Clours Music Festival
Cape Brenton, Nova Scocia, Canada
October 13-19 2019
I have been aware fo this festival for 8 or 9 years and I finally got here. I went with 5 other people. We left from Philly, flew to Halifax, rented a car and drove 4 hours to Cape Brenton. The festival was booked throughout the island which meant that we had to drive two three hours to each event. Everything we heard was fantastic but we didnt hear enough music for my taste. I wanted to be in a small fishing village and wander from bar to bar to listen to the talent of the locals.
13Th- SU- Canada- we drove up to Newark and took a plane to Halifax. There are 6 of us. We rented two cars and drove to Cape Benton. We will be here for 6 days for the Celtic Colors International Music Festival. It should be great fun. I got a text from Debbie S. A woman in my apartment killed herself last night. She didn't seem tortured to me. But some people are masters at masking their problems.
14- M- Canada- Cape Brenton- Happy Thanksgiving in Canada. We explored all damn day today. I don't know how many miles we traveled but we were gone 12 hours today. We started at the Gaelic University and listened to some great musicians play. Then we headed up the highway and stopped at one artisan store after another. We had panedkeok for lunch. It's a dutch crepe and mine had apples, back and lots of ginger. We made it all the way up to Neil's Harbor and through the national park. The leaves were stunning as they were at the peak of their fall foliage and i took hundreds of photos. I bought a handmade glass bead pin. On the way home, we took a ferry across a canal and the ride lasted about a minute. We ended the day at some dive bar and had great fun with the locals.
16- W- Canada- It was a beautiful, beautiful fall day. The sun was intensely bright. It was windy and a bit chilly. We made our way to a peak of the island to see the bluffs and the cliffs of the ocean. We attempted to do other things today but we got lost which annoyed the hell out of us. We stopped at a famous pub for dinner and then we went to the local theatre for another performance, Close the The Floor. This performance was better than last night's show. There was one duo of an other woman in an apron and jeans. She played the fiddle and jigged as well. And she had a younger partner who could really dance. He was so intriguing, it was almost magical. He places sand on the stage floor which created an alluring, organic sound to his footwork.
17- TH- Canada- We went to the Big Spruce Brewery and I loved every moment of our time here. The beer was great. The crowd was great fun and the music was wild. It was a small place and every inch was packed with people who wanted nothing more than to be here. We wore our ANTI-TRUMP TEE SHIRTS and several people wanted to take our photos. We were celebrities. Unfortunately, I got sick on the way to the next brewery, Breton Brewery. I am having a problem with my liver and I sometimes can't process alcohol. This was one of those days.But I felt better by the time we got to our evening performance: Women of Song. All of the performers were outstanding but the last woman, the tall old woman, Laura Smith, brought the house down. She closed with her rendition of My Bonny, a song that never interested me. OMG, she was great. On the way back to our airBnB, I got car sick. The day beat me up a little bit but it was still a great day.18- F- Canada- We got up too early for my taste and made our way back to Halifax. It took forever to get here. While the others went shopping for the afternoon, I stayed in my hotel room and did nothing. We met up for dinner at the Gahan Brewery. The beers were great and the food was wonderful and it was a perfect way to end our trip.
19- SA- Canada/PA- we traveled all damn day and it was good to get home. I came home to the funeral reception to the woman who killed herself earlier this week. Apparently, she shot herself and people heard the gun shot but didn't investigate what happened. she was found the next day. It must have been awful around there this week. I am back to the reality of life.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Pocono Wildlife Rehab Center
Pocono Wildlife Rehab Center
Cherry Valley, PA
I hired a teacher to teach biology at my high school. I was the assistant principal at the time. It was 1989. This woman had just started a wildlife rehab center on her own. She paid for everything, out of her own, damn pocket. In the 30 years that she has been doing this work of mercy, she has grown in facility, skills, reputation and generosity. This facility is huge. And she still does everything for FREE. She gets grants now and she fund raises and she begs for donations and gifts and volunteer time. But she has saved thousands of animals from squirrels, rabbit, birds, bear, deer, fox, wolves, etc, She is remarkable. I am afraid of these animals and she embraces them, restores them and releases them back in to the wild.
I would go in to her class to observe her teaching and she would have bald eagles and ground hogs and other animals that the students could see first hand. One time a parent came in to my office to see me and she informed me that she saw a car in the faculty parking lot that had a deer in the back seat. I had to explain to her that this was Kathy's car and that deer was on a strict medicine administration schedule. Kathy ran out in between classes and tended to this deer. And when it was better, she released it back in the woods where it probably was hunted a few weeks later.
I went to visit her a few weeks back. A wolf had just arrived. She took me in to the pen with him. And then it dawned on me that I was in a pen with a wild wolf. I got out as quickly as possible. But she stayed in there for a few minutes and played with him as if he was a young puppy. "Isn't he beautiful?", she asked me. I was too afraid to notice his beauty.
Some people in my world are more generous than others.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Utah
Utah
Spring 2009
I went to Utah during spring break. I went with my niece who was a freshman in high school. My sister didn't want her to sit around all week by herself so she asked if Lauren could join me. When Lauren asked her mother what we were going to do in Utah, my sister answered, "whatever the hell Bridget wants to do."
And we did. We started in Salt Lake City and drove through Park City and went swimming in a cave. We snorkeled in some dirty, claustrophobic tunnels on a farm. We went to Arches National Park and took a jeep ride up some of those steep rocks. We explored Moab. I drove us six hours to see the salt flats which were still under water. And we went back to Salt Lake City and took a tour of the Moron church.
We had lots of fun together.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Arkansas
Arkansas
Little Rock
Central High School
Little Rock
Central High School
December 2010
I visited here in 2010 with my nephew, Jameson. I've wanted to come here for a number of years to see Central High School, the site of so much controversy in the fight fro civil rights. I wasn't sure Jameson was old enough or ready to handle this difficult topic. He was only twelve and had lived a sheltered, white life. But he got it. He didn't say a lot but when he reflected on the visit, he got it.
We went right to Central High School in Little Rock. The school is still standing as it had in the 1950's. The front facade is exactly the same. The old gas station, where the national Guard parked their vehicles for weeks, sits right across the street. On the other corner is a museum. The young, black students who walked in to this hateful school in 1957 have been interviewed and they tell their stories as I stare out a window with full view of the front entrance of the school. As they talk, I can see where they walked, where the haters stood, where the National Guard intervened.
I am stunned at the courage of these young children. They are only 14 or 15 years old and they are alone. Their parents are not with them. One victim recalls her fears and she looks in to a crowd for some support. She sees a woman, about her mother's age and gestures to this woman who spits on her face. A grown woman spit on a child's face.
I don't have that much courage.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Delaware
Delaware
The State That Started A Nation
Home of Tax Free Shopping
- I go to Delaware all of the time. It is so close to my home and there are no taxes on anything I buy. So I buy all of my big ticket items there.
- There is a liquor store in Wilmington that is larger than a grocery store and it has such a huge beer section that I could spend hours in there, just wandering around. I love this store.
- My good friends, Jaye and Dom live in Wilmington.
- In 1973, I went to Brandywine Junior College in Wilmington. I went there for one year and then transferred to Drexel University in Philadelphia.
- Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth is one of my favorite breweries. I also really like Twin Lakes Brewery.
- I go to Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge every year to watch the Snow Geese migration. They travel in packs of 100,000 and to see them in flight is magnificent and frightening at the same time.
- I love to go to the Grand Opera House. It's a wonderful venue with a wide range of entertainment.
- I grew up going to the New Jersey beaches but I am starting to really enjoy the Delaware beaches as well.
- The Delaware History Museum has an interesting exhibit on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's . Growing up, I missed that Wilmington had so many racial problems.
- My friend owns the Delaware Growler which has 50 beers on tap at all times. Sometimes I think I would like to work there and other times I am glad I don't. All that access to all that beer could kill me.
- New Castle is a sweet, historical town and a great place to spend the afternoon.
- I am affiliated with a group of Delawareans who run a Wellness Program in Jacmel, Haiti, During the summer of 2013, I ran their summer program in Haiti. I really enjoyed this gig.
- My favorite restaurant is Harry's On The Riverfront. They serve great, great seafood. One time, I went in there with friends and we ran up a food bill of $320 and a wine bill of $320. That was a fun night.
- My sister and her family lived in Delaware for about 15 years.
- Joe Biden came in to Harry's while I was there. This was in 2006 so he was still a senator then.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Oktoberfest
Facebook Posting
Oktoberfest
Munich, Germany
September 17, 2016
"Finished for the night!"
BW: Yes, just like I did in England ages ago, with a Guinness mug. They EXPECT you to steal them, lolol.
BW: Wait, there's beer left!!!!
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Bees
Bees
Bees have just been declared the most important beings on earth. We are running out of bees and there is great potential to see how much we depend on them if the situation gets any worse.
I'm intrigued by bees. Sometimes I think I would like to have bee boxes. I'm not interested in the honey but I am interested in helping them thrive.
I've been bitten by bees a couple of times. Once, a bee got caught between my cheek and my eye glasses and chewed me up a little. It stung but I survived. And the puffiness subsided after a few days.
I got bitten in the finger and my finger swelled up to the size of a pickle. Not knowing what to do, I took a photo of my finger and put it on Facebook, asking for advise. I got lots of suggestions of home remedies. And I panicked when my medical doctor friend wrote, GET TO A MEDICAL FACILITY NOW!!!. By the time she posted this, I had started medicating myself and the swelling had gone down so she reminded this mandate. And I am fine.
Maybe I'll just keep a garden on my balcony and leave the bees alone.
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