Family Snowshoe Expedition

Note: This post features some photo and narrative content from a post previously (2/24/07) published on my other blog, My Runner's Feet. It does, however, inlcude more photos.

Weather Report: Cloudy, 22°F, 51% Humidity, Winds: From W @ 9 mph; feels like 12°F.

Anne, the boys, and I took advantage of the "nice" weather today to do some snowshoeing at Mendon Ponds Park. We are all fairly new (actually brand new) at snowshoeing, but are avid hikers, so getting used to the fotwear did not take long. The poem accompanying the pictures captures some of the crazy winter-walk spirit... that spirit which I like to think is that thing with which one is capable of becoming drunk...

"Drunken Winter" by Joseph Ceravolo

Oak oak! like like
it then
cold some wild paddle
so sky then;
flea you say
“geese geese” the boy
June of winter
of again
Oak sky

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River City Ride-Around 1

Driving through the city this afternoon, my wife Anne parked to walk and explore some different angles. The following poem by Pablo Medina, seems to me to capture the vibe I was going for. I like the way that the poet uses (I think) organic structures like hills and clouds, to describe the very inorganic reality of urban life. Oh, and I am not in New Jersey...

Cityscape 1
by Pablo Medina

Let the aroma of need
waft across the river to New Jersey:

all the snow and hills,
a sky that moves and moves.

I saw a rose in the clouds,
I saw happiness on fire.

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Note: This post features content which also appears on my other blog, My Runner's Feet.

Boring Committee Work Leads to Kewl Books!

Note: This post features some narrative content from a post which originally appeared (2/23/07) on my other blog, My Runner's Feet.

...Although I have been on vacation, and away from, school for the past seven days, some of my responsibilities back at work have not been far from my thoughts. (Well, my fleeting, "nothing to worry about" thoughts, anyway.) Yesterday morning, I took the opportunity to drop into school to complete one such "job": to verify a shipment of books I had received on behalf of the seventh grade Language Arts department, and divvy them up for distribution. "Seventh Grade Language Arts Department" sounds much more important than it really is--there are three teachers including myself!




...As I read through the titles I became very excited for my students, some of whom would have the opportunity to read them! ...Up until this point, the only "classroom libraries" teachers had were limited to what could be found at discount stores and/or purchased by the teacher with their own funds. Consequently, those folks who taught other disciplines, like Math or Science, had few options for students, many of whom would not bring their own things to read. But, now...


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Snow Day! (Updated)

Note: This post features content from a post which originally appeared (2/14/07) on my other blog, My Runner's Feet.

Gracie and I could only stay inside for so long today. After shoveling the driveway twice (with a third and fourth time likely for later), and picking up the kitchen, it was time to get out and about... at least for a short cruise...





















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Ambling Among Headstones

Note: This post features extended visual content from a post which originally appeared on my other blog, My Runner's Feet.

"So we go inside and we gravely read the stones,
all those people all those lives
where are they now?
With loves, and hates
and passions just like mine,
they were born
and then they lived, and then they died,
which seems so unfair,
and I want to cry."
~excerpted from Cemetery Gates by The Smiths

After dropping Anne off for an appointment today, I spent some time wandering around the northern-most point of the Mount Hope Cemetery looking for birds, stones and snapping some pics. Hopefully, dear reader, you haven't grown too tired of my winter pics, but being that it's my President's Week vacation from school, and I've got nothing but time and a digital camera, the forecast is calling for the occasional photo essay!

The Mt. Hope Cemetery is located in Rochester, New York, and was founded in 1838. It is the United States' first municipal Victorian cemetery. Quite a few significant figures in American history, especially civil rights', are buried here including Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas.

I always draw a solemn vibe from being in cemeteries, ambling through the snow among history--some stories which are well documented, due to fame of the characters, but all of which were relevant to someone...





















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A Snowy Walk Together

Note: This post features extended content which originally appeared in my other blog, My Runner's Feet.

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself."~Ruth Stout

Earlier this morning Anne and I walked to breakfast on the avenue. We were happy to be chaperoned, for a short time, by large fluffy snowflakes falling from the seemingly continuois grey skies. That doesn't however mean, we are carrying grey skies inside. Even after all the snow we have seen thus far this winter (and usually it doesn't really snow until late February or March) it is still a peaceful experience to observe, quietly chatting as we walk together...












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