oceans

i love swimming in the ocean. well its not really swimming what i do, its more like a pathetic dogpaddle that would embarrass most canines. but it is fun. i don't get to the ocean often enough. the season we call summer in the northeast part of the ol usa is rather.......short. winter turns to spring and before you know it , summer is half over. its not fair, surviving long periods of near total darkness [a slight exaggeration ] and freezing weather and then when it finally heats up....poof, the moment is over. but i do love strolling along the beach, especially early morn or sunset, scouring the sands, keeping a sharp eye for sand dollars, bits of shells or some well worn driftwood to claim. and digging my naked feet into wet sand.....its....heavenly. no doubt. if we climbed out of the primordial soup millions of years ago, and i suggest we did, then that might explain our fascination with all things ocean. for years we have explored the good earth and studied the stars in search of clues to help us understand how it all began. perhaps we should look a little closer, or deeper for answers. in the meantime i''ll be keeping an eye peeled for the perfect wave to ride or a quiet stretch of sand to reflect upon. to all you owls out there, enjoy the night and remember to give me a hoot sometime...heehee, bye 4 now, jc.........todays thought from one rita r.....if you add water and flour together, you get glue. add some sugar and eggs to that and you get a cake....what happened to the glue?

almost cut my hair

i used to have long hair. if you graduated high school any time in the 70's, yes 70's, you had long hair. all you have to do is look at yearbooks from that era. i know the whole hippie thing started in the sixties but you can't tell from a yearbook. but the seventies....that was a different story. everybody from the freaks to jocks[ thats the way we talked, really] grew their hair long and wild. it was before the big hair bands, the mousse, styling your locks. i think disco had a hand in this new look, damn disco. we, at least most of us, were anti fashion. we wore the same clothes, day after day, our hair just grew, anywhich way.salvation army was our old navy. madison avenue had co-opted the movement. they couldn't sell us anything, we weren't buying. of course we were naive to think it would last. it only took a generation or two to become slaves to the marketplace. now they have us, hooked on the latest, have to have it, sneakers that cost more than our old speakers, televisions that could pass for an suv and phones that become obsolete before we can figure out how to use them. i don't have alot of hair left, at least on my head, but i'm thinking of growing it again. maybe a moustache too! my own private protest. i know its like tilting at windmills. historically dissent has never been looked upon too positively. against the war? unamerican, demand clean air?, leftist wacko..expect honesty in politics? yah, right. ita okay though, i'd rather march to a different drummer than join their band....its probably disco anyways....what is so funny about peace, love and understanding anyways? i''ll ask my elvis, you can ask yours....jc

it is a small world

the world has definitely gotten smaller the last 30 years or so. here i'm blogging away, sending out my words of wisdom[?] to anybody or everybody. all you need is a computer and i swear there are more of those than automobiles in the world today. instantly i can read about other people and their lives and hopes and fears. and after reading for awhile you come to realize how alike the people of this planet really are. oh sure there are some crazies hell bent on destroying everything and some other folks who want to take every last dime for themselves but they are not the majority. most of this earth is made up of ordinary people doing the best they can to eke out an existence. they want to go to work, raise a family and leave the place a little better than they found it. this will, to move forward has sustained us for thousands of years and will continue despite our sometimes misguided ways. goverments and religion, armies and madmen have long tried to exstinguish the flame of hope, lets pray they never do.....jc

rain on me

its sunday afternoon, i just returned from a visit to the pinetree state and its raining. could be worse. the rain is melting what little snow we have. in maine, at least in my brother's yard, the snow is deep. they're expecting alot more over the evening well into monday. my brother lives in southern maine, not in the mountains to the west of him and with a whole lot of maine perched above him. but he does get more snow than he bargained for. and cold too!! when its 30 degrees down my way the temperture frequently dips to single digits or below. and he is only two and a half hours away. so i''ll take the rain. april showers do bring may flowers. theres nothing like watching flowers and trees silently explode into life as the earth slowly curves toward the sun. its magic....its springtime and i am looking forward to this year like no other. maybe its my age, maybe after seeing so many springs one realizes there might not be alot of springs left. so get out there and enjoy. its a cold and wet february day but magic is in the air. bye for now, jc

world at war

there doesn't seem like there will ever be peace, a period of time where the world was not at war. and maybe thats the way its supposed to be. think of it. almost from the start man has been killing, pillaging and just plain making war against their fellow man. i'm not sure when we started recording everything, written and oral, but the stories all seem about....war and conquest! maybe war is just a way to keep the world from overpopulation [like the automobile].sure mother nature takes its toll, earhquakes, floods, famine and disease do their part. but war, brutal, efficient and totally discriminating has killed.....i don't know. how can we tabulate the deaths. how many people have died since the beginning? how many were killed? are we violent by nature? necessity? is it a survival strategy? if we ever gave peace a chance, what would be the result? i want to know.......jc

rhythm of the rhyme

i like a simple rhyme. its not considered poetry by some folks, its too , well, simple. so i won't call it a poem. but i do like rhyme. the crazy old lady of amherst, emily dickinson, wrote some wonderful verse. she could spin magic, with just a few words, about snow falling on trees or thoughts about birds. see, its fun and easy. ten years ago or more i was standing on short sands, a lovely little beach in york maine. digging my feet into the cold, wet sand and gazing out on the horizon i couldn't help but think.......a little slice of ocean, a little spit of sea, as i watch the waves roll in i see eternity. i'd like to think emily would have been proud. if anybody out there would like to add some prose of their own or maybe just an old fave, feel free. the world needs more rhyme and flowers and laughter, more sunshine and definitely more miss dickinson.......goodnight all, jc.......and pumpkins in fall, asleep in the field, blissfully unaware of the pleasure they wield......i can't resist...heehee

dancing with the stars

what is out there? i mean up, way up and beyond. are there other earths? how far has anybody actually traveled? we see with the naked eye the sun and moon, thousands of twinkling stars and constellations with ancient names. we have satellite images of distant planets, rocks from the moon, dust from mars, at least i think we do. but what lays beyond? heaven? hell? a cosmic pinball machine? does anybody really know? are we supposed to know? as a child i always wondered what would happen if you could travel beyond. once you get past our galaxy, our solar system....then what? an identical one? a parallel one? a thousand light years ahead or behind? what does one find in infinity? questions like these have been around since man first gazed at the stars and tried to put some meaning to it all. who knows why we continue to dance with the stars? and to wonder? jc, lost in space

wow

wow, two readers liked my idea of extra pounds magically disappearing once spring rolled around. i may be on to something. there are a million or so blogs crisscrossing the universe right now so i can accept not being visited more often. after all there no pictures orother gadgets attached to my blog, only words. and unless i'm selling something fantastic or arrange the alphabet in a more pleasing manner than i currently do my readership will remain countable as the fingers on one hand....with a few left over. sooooooooo, here goes.....''the first and only all powerful, miracle breakthrough, earth shattering chocolate splurge diet'', GUARANTEED to blow your mind, take inches off your hips, be the envy of your neighborhood and reduce global warming. and the best part? its free. now you are probably kicking yourself right about now asking how is all that possible ........its only chocolate? my advice to you...try some, just a nibble at first.mmmmmmm...tastes good doesn't it? no need to thank me, just enjoy......jc...ps. and tell your blogger friends you read it here first

its a lovely day

it is a lovely day....for anything. the possibilties are endless. the sun is slowly starting to warm things up. a bit too slowly for some but you can't rush nature. it has its own rhythm and though it occasionally it does get out of whack it is remarkabley consistent too! our bodies are also in tuned with nature. we too sometimes feel out of whack. we store a little, well sometimes alot of extra weight during cold months. it fuels us for the long, dark periods that make up winter in the hinterlands.of course as everybody knows those pesky extra pounds magically melt off as soon as springtime beckons....heehee!!! so go ahead and splurge today, have some chocolate candies from a loved one. perhaps some fine dining later tonight. its valentines day, show how much you love somebody special. its only one day......the other 364 days or so are negotiable. take good care and enjoy. and please remember, a healthy mind, a healthy body, a healthy earth......jc

where we live

just reading some comments on majority of two, a wonderful blog by the way. everybody seems to have a connection to where they are from. it doesn't have to be some exotic locale or storied city.[of course it could be] it does seem to be about where we were born. we might move away at an early age or we might die there but there is something familar, something thats hard to put a finger on. the earliest images of life seem to be implanted, hardwired almost into our very being. a very talented man, rod sterlng of twilight zone fame called it a geographic womb, somewhere you felt...safe.i was born in the small massachusett town of medway, my family living there at the time. but my earliest recollections are of southville, where we moved when i was almost three. thats where i started school. south union, a four story brick building on a hill that still brings back certain memories. its an art center now, i actually walked its worn hallways 15 years or so ago. to me it was the center of everything. the house we lived in from 1959 to 1967 is still standing. it was in need of alot of care , almost in disrepair. i was very happy to see somsbody buy it in the late nineties and fix it up. i never wanted to leave that house but i have also never set foot into it since i left. someday i would like to own that house, return to southville. its where i belong, its where i was happy. i left too much behind........bye for now, jc

a whimper or a bang?

just wondering how the world will end. will it be an astroid smashing us to smithereens? [quite possible] or perhaps a foolish human error, somebody pressing a button followed by alot of people pressing buttons [equally possible] or maybe we''ll just keep on reproducing until we exhaust all of our natural resources and slowly peter out as a race. the mayans, a long gone people actually predicted a date for our demise. december 21st, 2012. that was the last day of their calender. maybe the guy who made the calendar just didn't go to work the next day and it slipped his mind. this little planet of ours has a strange and violent history. how it manages to keep its orbit, so precise, so in tune with everything else out there is truly miraculous. i'm not sure whats in store, i think smarter folks than me have studied long and hard and their guess is as good as the next person's. anybody out there want to throw their hat into the ring? me, i''ll just keep on spinning with the rest of you and hope gravity's hold on us lasts for awhile longer....jc

georgia on my mind

georgia, the last state in the way of our destination. we were dropped off on the outskirts of augusta. it was around 3 that afternoon but it was along time ago so don't hold me to it. we thought about checking into a motel so i went into the nearest one to inquire about their rates. they were very reasonable but our funds were limited so we went on our way. lets hitch for awhile and see what happens. route one leaving augusta is a lonely road and i suspect even now, thirty five years after the fact it would still a quiet backwater. one ride from a , well....i think he was a redneck farmer type didn't get us too far but the next ride would be interesting. i think he said his name was allan and he only dropped us a little further down the road, a small patch of cotton field called wadley. he let us out and said if we didn't get a ride we could stop over to his place, a sprawling, somewhat rundown farm just down the road a bit. after standing along the road with no traffic whatsoever passing by and the pitter patter of rain beginning to fall we decided to take him up on his offer. well allan wasn't home at the time but a friend welcomed us in , gave us each a beer and said al would be back shortly. in one room, actually a double size room stood a pingpong table and nothing else. we played a few games, had a few beers and really took to the place. allan, the owner, was in his late 20's, early 30's and farmed soybeans for a living. the farmhouse used to be an orphanage and that reason alone saved it from being razed on sherman's march to the sea. the civil war had been over for more than 100 years at the time but the south hadn't forgotten, nor will they ever. another product they grew, very locally we were told was soon produced and we sat around that evening catching a good buzz and playing some more pong. a very nice evening indeed. that night we met a few more friends of theirs including one annalee the brazier queen. a very cute young lady who apparently had driven her car through the plate glass window of the local brazier burger, thus earning her the nickname and some infamy along the way. all in all one of the highlights of the trip. we hated to leave but florida beckoned and we still had to find our friends. next stop, waycross or bust....jc

just walking

i was going to write more about the trip south today but i''ll save that for another blog. today i went for a nice walk through town. it's forty something degrees with a nice breeze, a great day to poke around. water is everywhere today. the streets have little rivers running along their sides and i like the sound as the water falls into the drain. even though the temps will fall again tomorrow days like today always raise your spirit. spring will be arriving soon and all around rebirth will begin. time to shed the heavy layers and get out in the world. i''ll be watching for more signs and just enjoying it all, taking in what nature offers. it's better than television, it's free, ii's even good for you. now as long as the goverment doesn't get their hands on it......i'm off again. see ya around town, jc

forever young

these days i'm trying to remember, thirty something years later always take on an almost mythic sheen. in the telling and retelling even the most common everyday occurence takes on an added importance. we were all of ninrteen that year, one year removed from highschool, with no plans, no money but charged with dreams of better things. from my present life nineteen doesn't seem that far away but i know it is. on the third day of our trip, october 3rd to be exact, we cruised through the carolinas, stopping in batesburg, a small south carolina outpost to wet our whistle. phil, our current chauffer, since picking us up one day earlier, seemed in no hurry to finish his trip and we were just there for the ride. we stopped at a small, kinda rundown looking establishment and went inside to enjoy a cold one. there was a lone pool table in the back and me and mr. stu decided to play a game or two. as i was racking the table a young lady came out to us wearing a t-shirt and panties and asked if we had any quarters for the jukebox. we smiled and said sure. we had heard about southern hospitality and reckoned this was it. i'm younger than stu, about a month so when he got shot down while ordering a beer and i didn't, well i had to laugh. we went out to the front of the bar after he kicked my ass in pool and saw the young lady who had inquried about quarters dancing on the bar. a thousand miles from home and we were in a strip bar. heehawwww. we didn;t stay long, money was tight but i couldn't help but notice six or seven little shacks, no bigger than some doghouses iv'e seen, about fifty yards behind the bar. yes, this was a brothel, deep in the heart of dixie. a very conservative dixie. we took off that afternoon

and headed into georgia. we had no idea how are fellow traveling companions were doing. these were the days before cell phones, text messaging and all the other modern conveniences. yes,these were the days we remember.how did we ever survive? more, more, more...jc

south we go

waking up round three, though i don't recall ever sleeping, we realized we had camped out on a traffic island. the first day of travel had got us to new jersey, not great but we had survived. i say that because later that day while thumbing on the turnpike a pair of nj's finest stopped and asked for id......in case we were later found dumped on the side of the road. a charming thought but not one that had entered our minds. i used to recall every ride, from start to finish but time has slowly melted a few details. but i do know, just outside of washington, northern virginia to be exact, a red car with a confederate star license plate pulled over late that afternoon and as we ran to catch up with it i remember thinking this could be interesting. and interesting it was, turns out the driver, a man named phil, was from our home state. he was driving his sisters's car to alabama and he didn't mind the company. even though he was a complete stranger we felt safe, we settled in for a long ride, georgia as it turned out. day two had gone swimmingly and now we prepared for the deep south......to be cont. next;batesburg and beyond

florida again

34 years ago a small band of like minded friends pulled up stakes and headed south. we really didn't plan too well, we weren't sure what we would find or even if we would return. my traveling companion was the inscrutable stu. besides thumbing up and down 109, the main drag in our burg, we had no real experience with the great wide world. the first few rides got us down to the nutmeg state and then the thought of passing through the world's greatest city drew the first [of many] pangs of fear. driving through would have been scary enough but standing on the interstate somewhere in the bronx was something else. we weren't welcome and the citizens of this fabled borough let us know. luckily a grizzled cop stopped by and yelled at us to get outta town any way but the method we had chosen. we hopped a train and headed to jersey relieved to be going but not sure what lay ahead. this is probably not the most politically correct thing to say but as we rode silently out of the city, we stuck out like two snowballs in a coal bin. i wondered what they thought, two white kids, dressed like lumberjacks, clutching backpacks and staring at the floor, what the hell are these two doing here. the florda sign i carried, homemade the night before probably brought amusement but nobody was laughing. i kept tapping stu on the arm and asking when are we going to get off this train. soon we glided into new jersey, departed and made our way off into the night. the country was big and we had along way to go. the road is a different place, removed from the comforts of home, an ever changing experience that can tire you out. now we had to find somewhere to stretch out, if just for a few hours........cont.

time off today

its monday, the second day of february and thats all about the reason i need to take the day off. i did go out to watch the super bowl with some friends and i did indulge in some drinking of alcohol, but not very much. i've found as i have gotten older my intake of such substances, whether legal or illegal [my favorites...] has slowly but not alltogether [see my red wine blog] diminshed. its just that i get a certain amount of flex time off during the year and i decided to well.....flex. its good for the mind and body. i'm about to throw a roaster chicken in the oven and open a bottle of red. sounds good, doesn't it? i sent out my taxes today and since i make a wage that would make me a rich man in some impoverished backwater, it should have been easy........should have. the forms i got from both state and federal would not have been any easier to decipher if written in mandarin or perhaps one of the so called dead languages. are they out of their freakin minds? has anybody at the treasury or department of income actually read these things. i'm not asking them to understand these forms, just read them. maybe its their little joke, a way to keep us in control. the revolution will never make it past the first few paragraphs, no way, no how. we''ll be left dazed and wandering around in circles, scratching our heads and mumbling about tenninety nines and railroad exemptions. they''ll pick us off easy with helicopters and riot squads. no, before anything happens in this land of ours[ and it is ours] we''ll have to figure out the tax stuff.page by page......till then, i'm winging it, peace jc

nd day of februarynd

birds in winter

just out feeding the birds. i'm not sure why all birds don't fly south for the winter, it seems like the right thing to do. survival for any creature in colder climes must be tricky. finding enough food and water, on a daily basis and then heading back to nests or some other refuge must take alot out of animals. try staying outside for even a couple of hours on a brutally cold day and i think you''ll have some appreciation for what animals go through. it ain't easy. thats why i like to spread a little birdseed around this time of year. its enjoyable to watch the action as all sorts of birds who don't make the trek south vie for the precious foodstuffs. squirrels, crows , bluejays and a variety of small birds gather together and alternate between eating whatever they find and flying off to nearby trees and bushes so larger predators don't swoop in for a quick snack. birds are interesting creatures, evolved over a long period of time and i hope to keep watching them. their survival is a good way to measure ours. be good and stay warm, jc