My latest shot of Alder Brook, where I mark the change in landscape depending on seasons. It's on the way to Saranac Lake & Tupper Lake, so I don't see it all the time, but fairly often. Wish I knew the names of the mountains ...
I went to Saranac Lake Sat. evening, to calling hours for an elderly friend who died. She was a wonderful person, one of those "true ladies." Sort of a mentor to me, she was on the board of our library system when I arrived and for a few years after that. She ushered in the concept of term limits, which made her unpopular and also ended in her leaving the board because of the limit.
After the calling hours I went to Placid with a friend--actually went OUT. We visited & drank in a local bar/restaurant there. It was nice to be out & about, but everyone in bars these days is about 23. Yes, everyone is younger than they used to be.
Monday, March 28, 2011
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mar 2011 alder brook 007
Who wants to come in? (Tess)
Who doesn't care? (Chances)
This is the view through my front door for most of the weekend. It's not that there's anything interesting going on outside, Tess just likes watching me get up to let her in, then wait a few minutes to let her out again. They love having 2' deep snow that's crusty because they walk on top of it and are way tall, far above the rest of the world. All new smells & vistas.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Catching up
I had a good trip. Driving was easy, roads were clear and as soon as you hit Albany there's no more snow. Yippee. I got there Friday afternoon, early enough for a visit with Mark and Liza, and a nice dinner prepared by someone who wasn't me. A dinner that had 4 different things in it. Unheard of on Old Hawkeye Road. Saturday I took Liza to the dump, it's easier with 2 people but she didn't have that much stuff anyway. She's worried about leaving too much for her survivors to deal with when she dies, so she's always focused on what to get rid of. Books, that's her latest most pressing issue. She has a lot of books, and none of us would want most of them. I suggested she get some books together for our trip to the dump and she bravely did. 2 shopping bags full, which she wanted me to review before they hit the Rose Hill (Dump) Library. Good choices, said I.
Saturday night dinner was lobster, of course. It's so fresh and sweet in the winter, cold water I guess. I cooked the lobsters & clams--Liza always did that, but I think it's good if we do it now. She thought I was brave for dunking the lobsters in the boiling water. Certainly not my favorite part of a lobster dinner, but what must be done must be done.
Sunday was warm and nice. We spent the morning reading the newspapers, then Mark & I went for a beach walk with the dogs. It was Liza's birthday so we had a special breakfast. We all spent lots of time reading--it's so pleasant to sit in her living room, silent with all 3 of us reading something. The only issue is who gets the big couch--my dogs love that spot and sometimes a human wants to sit/lie down there too.
We went out for dinner Sunday night, to a new Italian restaurant. RI has as many Italian restaurants as Plattsburgh has Chinese restaurants, but this is a nice one. The chairs are really high, though, and neither Liza nor I could put our heels on the floor. Interesting sensation, looking down at your dinner, the way most people get to. Lots of times my chin just about rests on the table. Food was good, we all had politically incorrect veal.
I didn't give Liza much in the way of presents--books (oh no! more books!), flower seeds and planting supplies. Mark did better, got her a new log carrier, very fancy, plus the broom she'd asked for. Plus a gift card so she can buy some new summer clothes. She was pleased with it all. She had lots of phone calls on her birthday, which she really, really liked. She also got lots of money from people--2 big checks. "Happy Birthday to ME!," is what she said.
This weekend should be fairly quiet. Rush & Annie are coming so I'll see them; book group has been postponed until next Sunday so I don't have to hustle to clean. Like, it would kill me to clean ahead of time.
I got braces on my teeth today. Something I've always wanted. The idea of a nearly-60-year-old woman having braces is a bit absurd, but these are the nearly-invisible kind. They only have to be on for 6 months. Some think that's a long time, but I feel lucky there are these nifty new ones that don't take years to work. One person thinks I'm too old and that my teeth won't move. Another thinks I should be spending the money on a new well. Others think it's nice to do something that I really want to. Sitting in the dentist's chair for 1.5 hours this morning had me wondering why I was doing this, but the thought of having straight teeth that are neatly lined up is very appealing.
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View from a recent trip to the Saranac Lake library. This is Frankin Falls (next view is Union Falls). They're two bodies of water created by damming the Saranac River. The land around them is owned by timber companies so isn't developed. People lease lots and build camps on them, it's pretty expensive now, so there aren't many camps on the lakes. Plus Union Falls has a 10 hp limit, so no jet skis. It's not clear water, though, murky because it's a river. Silver Lake has both of these beat. Except for motorboats and jet skis.
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My mother's backyard. It may not look inviting, but compared to the thigh-high snow-covered yard I have, it's gorgeous. That's the dogwood tree I got married next to. My (crazy)(but now dead) aunt thought the tree was a tad different. It was planted as a tribute to my father when he died, but not ON the day he died. My aunt said she liked picturing me getting married under the tree that was planted on the day her brother died. We would have had to lie down to get under the tree, even now, and that was more than 20 years ago.
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This is really typical of RI woods in spring (early spring). Lots of fog/mist deep into the woods. We rarely have this effect here, and I miss it.
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We like to pretend this is our house. Mark & I walk to the end of the beach with the dogs, and this house is one at the end. It's a very nice house and we try to guess how many bathrooms, where the kitchen is, etc. each time we're there. He always suggests that we rent it some summer.
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The ocean, of course. The waves are brown because they're filled with sand. Which will fill up the beach, we hope, so there will be a nice, wide beach for us this summer.
Mark is the Beach King. One year he bought each of us a beach chair (a must-have on RI beaches), with tags on each with our initials. They're pretty, very summery green, white and blue. White frames. We love them, and take them to the beach every t;ime we go. Some people put their chairs right in the water, at the edge. I've been known to do that, but I grew out of that habit I think.
Mark feels strongly that you should never crowd the people around you--leaving a polite amount of space between sites is crucial. He's right, of course, we've listened to far too many details of peoples' lives, marraiges, divorces, whining children, etc. Almost never is there a radio being played--this is the Town Beach, very family-oriented. Orientated, as some like to say. Anyway, last summer Mark was able to go to the beach every day and often scoped out a spot for us. We lay our towels (or, in his case, a big comforter) stretched out all around the chairs to mark our territory. It was a good beach summer, except for that yucky red seaweed that kept appearing. Weater was perfect, though. Water good temp. It was all good.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
The big snow
We had a big storm. duh, like who didn't. I can't complain about how much snow we have--my Midwestern friends wouldn't appreciate that. It started snowing on Sunday, snowed all day yesterday. We ended up with 27" of new snow. This makes the snow almost waist-deep for me. Which wouldn't be a problem except that my plow man couldn't plow to the house because he'd been stuck too many times at other places. So I have to slog through the snow, with my ashtmatic wheeze, to get to my car at the end of thte driveway. I won't even talk about what getting wood from the shed entails.
The ladder in the picture is about 5' high.
We were closed yesterday so I pretended to be productive but then gave up on the whole idea. I did the dishes and wached old Sopranos shows. A total waste.
I felt redeemed, however, because on Sunday I moved a trunk downstairs to the living room. It was full--no, really, full, of photos. Documenting the last 26 years. I know I've always liked taking pictures, but why do I have a picture of each Chistmas tree, sans label telling me what year it was? I threw those out. There were an historic number of photos of ex-husband, which I did NOT keep. I made a huge pile to send to his parents--there are lots of pictures of their grandchildren as babies, etc. Plus J's brother & sister. Had to tactfully exclude any shots that had ANY image of brother's ex-wife The Evil One. I love hearing 2 sides of a marriage split--no, wait, were these people married to EACH OTHER? Or are they talking about 2 different marriages? I know J's memories of our marriage and my memories are different--I have lots of good memories, he (apparently) doesn't. Who cares. I'm also ever so much happier & peaceful living alone. ahhhh...solitude. Nothing like it.
Anyway, I threw out a huge pile of pictures, made a small pile for Jenica, kept a huge pile (to do what with? wallpaper the bedroom?) and made a big pile for J's family. Like, pictures of his dog from 1984, when Dave was a puppy, before we had him destroyed because he bit someone. Lots of pictures of now-dead dogs. And places we used to live. And chickens, lots of pictures of chickens. It was amazing to me that I wasn't the least bit emotional going through those. Just a chronicle of my life, nothing more. No big trauma in sorting through them. Life is good, no?
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No, Chances doesn't have giant dandruff flakes. That's what she looked like after about 2 minutes outside.
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Here's what it looks like in front of the house--deck railing, big hump is the snow, up around my waist.
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Here's what it looks like if you turn to the left--the sea of snow is my driveway.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
National hero
WASHINGTON – Turns out it really does take a rocket scientist to beat Watson, the "Jeopardy"-winning computer.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey — a five-time champion during the trivia show's original run 35 years ago — topped the IBM computer Monday night in a "Jeopardy"-style match of congressmen vs. machine held at a Washington hotel.
Though Holt isn't the first human to beat Watson, the victory adds to the 62-year-old Democrat's already-impressive resume: a former State Department arms control expert and ex-leader of the federal Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
"I wonder if Watson wasn't having a low-voltage night, because I certainly didn't expect to score higher than the computer," he told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.
He built a lead in categories including "Presidential Rhyme Time," in which the correct response to "Herbert's military strategy" was "Hoover's maneuvers." The congressman also correctly identified hippophobia as the fear of horses.
Watson beat him to the buzzer with "love" when prompted on what Ambrose Bierce described as "a temporary insanity curable by marriage."
Holt played the first round along with Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. At the end of the round, Holt had earned $8,600 to Watson's $6,200.
But the computer ultimately triumphed in later rounds against the other representatives: Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Jared Polis, D-Colo. Watson amassed a combined $40,300 to the humans' $30,000.
Watson, designed specifically to excel at the type of answers-and-questions format used on "Jeopardy," took 25 IBM scientists four years to create.
Humans have beat Watson before, including sparring matches with various players held in the fall to prepare for a televised match with top human "Jeopardy" champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter; and during rehearsals, when Jennings won at least once.
Holt received a round of applause Tuesday at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee for besting the computer. He thanked the crowd and gave a shout-out to "neuron-based thinking, instead of semi-conductor thinking."
Holt said it was fun to beat the heralded computer. But he also said it's important that Americans realize how crucial math and science education is to the nation's future.
"I jumped at the chance to do this, not only because it would be fun, but as a way to highlight our national need to invest in research and science education," he told the AP. "It's something I've been talking about for decades."
The match shows "that so many people are interested not so much in Watson but what the possibilities here are," said IBM spokeswoman Lia P. Davis.
"That said, Watson still won the match," she said. "So I think we can all be proud of that. It demonstrates that humans are very smart and computers are very smart."
Holt has a doctorate in physics from New York University and was elected to Congress in 1998.
Great to have smart friends--from NPR
By: Jenny Marder
Two weeks after IBM's computer Watson trounced Jeopardy! masterminds Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, Rep. Rush Holt dealt the upstart trivia champion computer a defeat on Monday.
The New Jersey Democrat beat the scrappy computer $8,600 to $6,200, though no money was exchanged in the mock match.
Holt, a five-time Jeopardy! champion, had a leg up on other contestants and a home-court advantage -- the match was on Capitol Hill. And being a nuclear physicist couldn't have hurt.
Earlier, Watson defeated Holt's fellow members of Congress: Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Jared Polis, D-Colo., Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y.
Himes and Polis tweeted as the match unfolded and their chances of winning fell into a tailspin.
