New Arrival

Only two more days before I leave the Boston area behind for quite some time, but just this morning a pair of Tufted Titmice popped in to visit the feeders outside. Slowly, very slowly, new birds seem to be showing up and frequenting the backyard as their feeding spot. A few weeks back a handful of Northern Cardinals (a male is pictured above) discovered the newly purchased Cardinal feeder.

With Spring just around the corner I'm crossing my fingers that a new influx of Bluebirds, Robins, or Finches will stop by.

Time will tell...

Big Sky Country

A new destination. This time (starting Saturday) it's Montana until the end of April. 

Political work in the Rocky Mountains? It could be worse...

5 Years

Waiting for the new U2 album has been a long, occasionally-exciting, but mostly unpleasant experience. Finally, two mornings ago I woke up and signed onto my favorite fan forum and was delighted to hear the album had leaked. I sent an email to a fellow fan and got my hands on the eleven tracks of No Line on the Horizon within minutes. 

My play count for the new disk is now racing past 250, but the excitement of new music is fresh...and there are still two weeks left before the album hits the airwaves in full rotation. 

Sometimes patience pays off. Sometimes 5 years of waiting is well worth it.

What is it about the wilderness? The winter? America?

This morning I finished Through Howling Wilderness, a historical narrative of Benedict Arnold's winter trek up Maine's Kennebec River with a regiment of colonial militia. Scores died in the cold, inhospitable wilderness before they even entered Canada. It's hard to imagine any part of modern day America in which three weeks of walking would yield no traces of civilization; try a few hours.

It must have been the time I spent in the mountainous wilderness of Lesotho that made me appreciate these stories of geographical desolation. Since returning home in December I've been exciting myself with the prospect of a cross-country rail journey, a future journey up the Appalachian Trail, or a road trip up to Maine to visit some of the places Benedict Arnold's expedition passed through. After returning my library book I picked up Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution. Knox is famous for leading a grueling overland journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts in which his colonial forces dragged heavy cannons to aid the Siege of Boston.

From one adventure to the next, another story of the challenges of America's incredible geography and those who toiled across it.

Recovering to Rigoletto

The snow has been melting rapidly the past few days and the warm weather descending on Boston seems to promise a mild Spring ahead.

It's been a relaxing world to return to after traveling and the stress of some tedious medical tests. Aided by the live MET radio broadcast of Rigoletto tonight this recovery is all the more peaceful.

Surprising.

Results from 4 of the 8 mystery disposable cameras:

From 2002 to 2009.

Three states and South Africa.

From 5000 ft. up.

A grandfather who has since died.

Disposable Cameras

I had the 8 disposable cameras from my bedside table taken to CVS this afternoon. 

Some of the cameras look ancient—hopefully the pictures I get a peak at later this evening bring back some great memories I may have forgotten about. 

Down to the City

From Upstate to the city, it's time for a long weekend in New York!

The Heartiest Laugh

This is funny, right?

Waste?

The GOP has released their list of "wasteful" expenditures in the Obama administration's economic stimulus package. Read it HERE.

I gave them a look this morning and although I admit many of provisions the Republicans mention are a bit of a stretch (and rather "porky"), I was disappointed to see GOP leaders giving up some great measures of real economic stimulus in the name of partisan politics.

But take a look at some of the measures they selected:

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs.

Maybe it's just me, but I think having less waste sitting around, having an American automaker receive a bunch of orders, greater internet access for all Americans, thousands of construction jobs to turn old buildings "green" and clear forest brush, and kids having summer jobs are all good things...

...why don't the Senators and Congressmen voting against the stimulus see things the same way?

A Music Junkie's Best Friend: Making Music

There's been a guitar sitting around the house with two broken strings (a result of overly enthusiastic "air" guitaring a while back) for years. I decided to string it back together, fire up GarageBand, and see what I could do.

The result was...well, very little; I can only play one chord, and even that one's pretty shaky.

However, if there was ever a perfect way to transition away from Guitar Hero and towards actual music-making, this is it.

We'll see where it leads...