waterunderthebridge

i watch the water flowing by and wonder where it goes, does it rise to the heavens and then return in measured, steady flows? six hours in six hours out the tides are keeping time, sometimes savage as a bullet, sometimes gentle as a rhyme. water is essential, it keeps us all alive, so i search the perfect pool and take an awkward dive and hold my breath and watch the bubbles arrive............june is here, yeahhhhhh...jack c

to the cape

today is sunday, the 24th day of may. monday is memorial day. summer is creeping closer day by day. i'm off to the cape later to try my hand at striper fishing. every year from roughly may to october striped bass cruise the coastal waters of new england in search of a good meal. and i'm in search too!!i''ll be fishing near the railroad bridge tonight[ an elevated structure that rises and lowers when a train passes. it's quite a feat if you see it first hand.] the canal is an amazing piece of work that slices through a long stretch of the cape making it an island instead of a peninsula, which it once was. a great place to walk, ride your bike, rollerblade and watch all manner of ships pass. it's a wonderful place to relax and take in the great outdoors. only an hour away [massachusetts not being one of the larger states, but we don't mind] it is an easy day trip. traffic can be brutal but where isn't it? cars seem to have clogged most known roads and a few others less known. can't live with em, can't live without em......so true. i would like to have seen the cape, the old cape, about 100 years ago. long stretches of sand, little fishing villages and green everywhere.....almost heaven. well thats my blog for today, if the fishing goes well there will be an update. till then, enjoy this day and every day....jack c

sunstruck

i've noticed my blogging frequency, and others, seems to have dropped in relation to the weather. in january it was easy to plop myself down every night in front of the old keyboard and blog to my hearts delight. but now it is spring and the warm air has drawn me outside to bask in its glow. just sitting on the porch, glass of wine in hand and watching the birds flutter about is wonderful. spring is a renewal, an awakening sort of. the world is green today and all manner of wildlife is taking advantage. i threw some bread out to the street yesterday and in no time at all a half dozen sparrows and a lone starling descended to spar over the crumbs. its also fishing season, the stripers having made their way up the coast to spend the summer fattening up and hoping to avoid the barbed hook of the angler. i love the ocean and i'm drawn to it too. the waters are still cold and i'm not ready to take the plunge but just going down to the shore puts a smile on my face. memorial day is coming up [its crazy how fast a year passes as you get ....older] so i''ll have an extra day off from work. that's always a good thing. well i guess i''ll see ya around, hope all is well in your neck of the woods. enjoy the day wherever you are...jack c

mothersday

today, sunday the 10th of may, with a cool breeze whipping through my windows, is mothers day. i'm off to york, maine to meet various brothers and sisters, along with mom to enjoy the brunch at york harbor inn. moms getting along in age, something you don't realize until your birthdays start adding up. i've never really been that close to my mother, her and dad divorcing when i was 15 or so. me and my younger brother stayed with dad while my little sister went with mom. the older kids were on their own. she stayed in touch over the years, finally settling in maine. time has caught up with her now as nagging ailments have dogged her for the last ten years or so. but she's stubborn and really doesn't listen to most of the family. today will be bittersweet, a time to reflect on the family as a whole. there will be flowers and cards and laughs, always laughs. its easier to laugh than cry. every family is different but some truths are universal. it takes years to figure this thing called life out and then its over. they say youth is wasted on the young and i'm beginning to believe that......take good care everybody and have a lovely sunday, jc

may 4th 1970

this is not an easy post to write. thirtynine years ago tomorrow, may 4th four students were gunned down at kent state university in ohio. it's an incident that should not be forgotten. america was at war with itself in the late sixties, early seventies. all across the land college students were protesting the highly unpopular vietnam war. it was a generation thing. our parents, the greatest generation could not understand their own kids. we, later dubbed the boomers, could not understand the world we were facing. then it happened. kent state. they're killing us. tin soldiers and nixon coming....four dead in ohio. words to angry song released just after kent state. i was 13 that spring, still in eighth grade. i saw the picture.....yes the famous picture of a 14 year old runaway with her arms spread, kneeling beside a fallen student. who fired the rounds? who ordered live ammunition? it was a crazy situation all the way around. national guardsmen, most only a few years older than the students had been called in by the governor of ohio. student protesters had burned down the rotc building the night before. all across the land students were decrying the expansion of the vietnam war. nixon had secretly ordered bombings in neighboring laos. when word leaked out everything fell apart. classes were letting out that day and students were passing through and wondering what all the commotion going on was. then the shots rang out. then jeffery miller, allison krause, william schroeder and sandra scheuer lay dead on the ground. they had nothing to do with the protests, nothing to do with anything. just college students passing between classes. then they were dead. its been almost forty years since that day in may, a day we should never forget. they would have been 58 ,59 years old this year. probably have their kids in college. every year for awhile there were rememberences held. it was a dark chapter in american history. it gets less coverage every year, its too hard to remember for some folks. i remember though, i still get angry, i still cry when reading accounts of that day. this country we live in is still divided, still haunted. say a prayer tomorrow, for the families and friends of jeffery, allison. william and sandy. we can't forget.......jack c