alive and still active

this has been a long neglected blog. I started using wordpress for posts, but I lost interest in that effort. This has been a good year for New York as Governor has decided that fracking won't be allowed, and a formal process will be followed by DEC to prohibit fracking until such a time that the safety is ensured. Looking out the window on a snowy day, I just see a large expanse of open space -- this is all ice -- clean water in Tupper Lake, NY. I would hate to think of what would happen to NY state if clean water was not available. We are lucky in this state as upstate NY is the watershed for the metropolitan area and can support the millions of people and industry in NY.

elephants slaughtered for ivory once again

20 millions dollars worth of tusks were seized this week in Vietnam. This represents 900 dead elephants.

Isn't this just as important as the pirates? Why is the media spending all there time reporting on pirates, when some of the biggest slaughter of African and Asian elephants is going on?

Isn't this newsworthy?
See the article here

relevant comments about binghamton from former mayor Juanita Crabb

So much has already been stated about the sad events of the last week. The Press and Sun Bulletin has done excellent reporting of the ceremonies and lives of the victims and families. Yesterday, there was a nice column in the opinion section by former Mayor Juanita Crabb.

You can find it on their website or find it stored here .

hemlock trees are in danger in central ny

The hemlock trees are in danger from an invasive species.

travelling back in time or trying to

I was vacationing in the adirondacks this month. I was contemplating the former vacationers of the early 1900's and their leisurely time spent in this part of the state. Yesterday, I went to Lake Lila, which is state land now, but was formerly owned Dr. Seward Webb as a private retreat. Most of the former buildings have been torn down. The only standing building is the old Nehasne Rail Road stop. Since Dr. Webb was in the Railroad business, he could bring his own railroad and create a station close to his summer great camp.

Adirondack Magazine did an article on Lake Lila and included pictures of the current station versus the old one. The pictures just looked wrong to me -- not the same building in the before and after. I have to dig out the issue and do my own comparison to see for myself.

binghamton winter reading list

I have not visited my blog pages in a long time. Now that January 1st has come and gone, I need to think about why I started this page in the first place. It was an exercise in writing when I began. I started it to write about the NYRI powerline issue in Central NY. Secondly, as a summer visitor to Tupper Lake, I wanted to illuminate my views on the Adirondack Resort LLC plans to develop a resort property at Big Tupper (Mount Morris).

Amazingly enough these projects have taken a very similar turn into a kind of limbo state. Both are stalled at state agencies and the stall is even similar. The lack of clear plans/and or environmental assessments cause state agencies to slow them down. The PSC is still waiting for questions and plans from NYRI. The APA is still investigating and questioning the plans of Michael Foxman. Both agencies are claiming they are not holding up the projects -- but they cannot approve until details emerge. They both need to nail down the details -- and maybe the agencies will want scale back.

It is interesting to note the similarities in these two proposals as they proceed through the processes that take them from paper to real life construction (or destruction).


In the doldrums of these two issues, I stopped writing. So maybe I should just write and bore others with the ho-hum details of what I have been doing. Maybe I should reveal details a little at a time... so I have more than one blog entry to write.


I have been reading some books. My reading list of late:

Currently:
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje - a novel that I am still reading. He is a wonderful writer. He wrote the English Patient, which for some reason I have never read.

Recently:
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies - a novel of World War II with the setting of Wales. Includes some thoughts about Welsh culture and has the wonderful idea of cynefin. This is the concept that sheep will die if they leave their known territory. Great book and highly recommended.

The March by E.L. Doctorow - a civil war novel that concentrates on General Shermans March through the South. Great book. Read it. Questions the reasons for the war on a personal level. The Welsh Girl asks some of the same questions in a different way.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick - excellent history of the population of New England, beginning with the Mayflower. It emphasizes the relation of the new settlers to the old settlers (the tribes). This is the history I should have learned in school. I want to read more history and this book was a good way to just get started.

On Chesil Beach: A Novel by Ian McEwan: If you want to read a long short story this is it. From the author of Atonement, which in my opinion was a better book. I liked this one and of course, dislike the ending. If this is made into a movie, it should be interesting how they will do the wedding night.

March by Geraldine Brooks -- another novel with the Civil War mixed with life in New England. I loved this book. At first it took me a little while to get involved with Mr. March (Little Women's patriarch) but afterall, I read this when looking for something light. It is not a light story. Try it.

To read:
1491
Baltimore Blues

My list is so long, and so little time. These two are sitting on my table so I think they might be next. But I will be returning to the Vestal library very soon to return my stack. I loved just picking out some random books and finding they are hidden jewels.

disgusted, down and out in upstate NY

I am not quite sure the real reasons I stopped posting here... the subject line may or may not be exaggerated. It is not complete.

So why have I stopped posting? Those of us that live in Central NY are saying just "why?". Why do we live here?

The year 2006 statistically meant that over 250,000 NY people left the state. Oh but from where, it is asked. The city of New York has been increasing in population, so it is not from there. The suburbs of NY are upbeat and although people are thinking the big real estate boomlet is over, they are reluctant to beat it out of town.

So where is the people drain and where are they going?

Central NY -->>>>>>>> North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia. Any state but NY and anyplace but central NY.


Goodbye NY.