o O Oh Mah.... Gawd Tree

This is the story of a girl and her dream. People, I can't stress this enough... follow your dreams where ever they take you and make sure you sharpen your saw before you go. (Take that Mr. Covey... 7 habits and so forth... Habit 7 - Sharpen your saw... I'm sorry it still doesn't make sense to me... even after I sharpened the saw... we can address that some other time.. I happen to adore 7 habits.. it's a great book.. read it)

In the life of a simple tree hugging red head even the most basic task can become an adventure. Fellow treehuggers, fear not... I planted three trees in honor of my dream and I love my tree I have named him Big Bruce Spruce. He has brought joy, laughter and smiles to all who have gazed upon him or heard tell of how be came to be....

The following passages graphically depict a day at a tree farm and the aftermath of the falling of a tree. I have diverged from the normal tender story I love to tell and include words in this tale such as saw, chain saw and ropes and fishing line are referenced ... so if these words frighten or offend you please read no further. I can't bear you make you upset. :)

Warning, the story is about to begin...


and here we go...

Some friends and I went to a tree farm and hiked for 3 and half hours until I found what I perceived to be the prefect tree. *thinking back..... yeah I should have looked up* It took 20 minutes to saw it down with a hand saw... *sharpen the saw* The four of us could not lift it.. I estimated visually that it was maybe 10 feet tall... (I was off by 12++feet). I hiked back down the mountain and got into my brother's 4x4 Chevy truck, and even though I have a jeep I have used my 4 wheel drive maybe 3 times... I am not a great driver... but I was determined to get up the mountain to the tree. Well, after rounding up about 3 more strong men... my brother loaded the monster on the truck. (I am darn lucky I didn't get arrested.. the tree was easily 2 times wider than the truck and it hung out the backside of the truck by easily 6 to 10 feet. (a Clark Griswald tree to be sure.. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation).

Okay, a long and stressful, but delightfully humorous ride back to my Chalet in Jabumblebutt.. we quickly notice that the tree is 14 feet wide and will not fit through my front door.... so we take the sliding glass doors off and try to pull it through the front of the house. (Did I mention the tree cost me $20). we cracked the molding on the doors (rough estimate for repair is $100). Well after hours of struggling we surrendered for the night. The tree was stuck in the front of the house..jammed into my dinning room partially and outside on the deck. It snowed over night. In the morning, my neighbors came by and were staring in puzzlement at the crazy redhead with a giant spruce tree in the door. Well, I convinced one neighbor to round up his chain saw and cut half the tree off. Meanwhile my brother shows up with chain saws and ropes and finally we get the mega tree in the house.

I ran to the hardware store and bought an industrial strengthen tree stand..($100). We got the tree upright and everyone had hot cocoa and went home. My dogs were so interested in this tree that they decided to wrestle in it.. It fell over and crushed my island in my kitchen...($$$$).
Well, it's been two days now, and the tree is standing upright in my dinning room and partially into my living room. It's a beautiful tree... I have anchored with fishing line from the ceiling and from the loft.

If you would like to make a donation to the repair fund or have spare ornaments please contact me. :)

"Oh Christmas Tree…Oh holy fuckin’ Christmas Tree…Please don’t fall or you’ll surely crush me!
Oh Christmas Tree…Oh holy fuckin’ Christmas Tree…the forest gapes where I cut thee.
I don’t know why you caught my eye.
I was drunk with joy, or surely high.
Oh Christmas Tree…Oh holy fuckin’ Christmas Tree…
You fill my house…utterly. Completely." -R.E.

Thank you for a real good time, Uncle Steve and Aunt Nora!

Yeah, well even though you are Chris's Uncle and Aunt I still miss the two of you very much. This is an ode to you, or at least my story of how it all went down and I'm stickin' to it. Phew... Thank you, for all the saves baby!


All I rememeber is...
a Red tube we called "Radar"
A smoked cherry pie
B-52s and the Great Falls.. what a rush
(B-52s damn... rhed should never drink... what the hell is in that monster?)
Sake, Sake, Sake!
Bamboo, and Maui.. thai sauce on toasted coconuts


a frog we named Skipper


blackened hummus and smoked pineapples
The State Theatre and the 3am pick up... geez.. how did you always manage to find us?
Sleepy Hollow Drive
The V-dub
a talking meatball


the parking incident.


(what is up with VA traffic lights? You could understand, why I got out of the car)
giraffes? For some reason I recall giraffees.
my Rhinestone Tiara.. and the weber dance
moonshine and peanut butter (berkley coffee beans)
fog and the fire department.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving Darlings!

Rhedhead Loves the Solar Cellphone Charger

Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope for Flying Cars

Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope For Flying Cars

I forgive you

Your so vain, you probably think this post is about you. :)

You have created your own reality in your mind and universe has reflected it back to you like a mirror. I still choose joy and I promise... it will be mine.

I wish you all the joy and happiness that you seek. Follow your bliss, where ever it takes you and start to think for yourself.

I truly hope that our brief encounter will eventually remind you who you are... a joyful creator who deserves to be happy.

I forgive you.

A sign from the Universe

Some say my life is going to the dogs. :) That's okay, because my life has been filled with dogs... and dogs seem to like me, I think it is because I like to wear goofy hats.

Yeah, that's me in one of my favorite goofy hats. I think I got it at a drug store for $3.99. What a made in China bargin!

I'm just looking for a sign from the universe... Aren't we all? Some believe that the universe is made of the same stuff that our thoughts are made. Wow! Think about that for awhile. Things don't come into being until they are observed. Our observation colapses the wave function and makes things come into a solid state of being. Of all the potential versions of me that there possibly can be.. how then did I become a goofy hat wearing dog lover?

Masaru Emoto did a study with water, basically he exposed water to different thoughts and took pictures of the resulting crystals. Water that was exposed to the Chi of Love for example had beauitful crystal formations and water exposed to thoughts of hate were ugly and mishaped. Our body is 75% water... imagine what your thoughts are doing to you.

You are the universe! All the signs are contained within you. If you think thoughts of hate or failure... guess what.. that is what you will receive. If you think goofy hats and dogs.. that is what you get. So go ahead, dare to think up something wonderful.

No Rules/ No Limits.. What would you do with your life?

The clutter is gone, my mind is clear. I will invent happiness and share it with you.

I think most of us walk around this world and let things happen to us because we are contained by the limits of a box we put ourself in. I am here to tell you that there are no limits and no rules... and the box you are in... was created by you. You can be anything you want to be, and I want you to be the most wonderful version of you there is because there is enough joy and happiness in this world for everyone.

A friend of mine asked me once if there were no limits and no rules what would you do with your life? I didn't understand the question, I thought it was a trick or test my knowledge of right and wrong. I felt compeled to make sure the answer contained all the pre-programmed responses of the box I was in.

I invite y0u to tap into the energy you possess within your self and joyfully invent the world you want to live in. If something is wrong in your life.. set it free and let it be.. don't harm it or try to change it, it is what is, but you do not need to be burdened by it. Let it evaporate into nothing and use your blank canvas to envision the way it should be, and I promise it will come to you because you are inventing your world by the very thoughts you hold in your head.

Getting back to the question, what would I do if there were no limits and no rules.... the answer is have fun and find joy because even if I'm wrong does it really matter? If you have to think about that you are not living life in harmony with your true self.

I've found my voice. More thoughts to come, stay tuned.

..Life is but a dream... rolling down the trail

The rhed brain isn't quite the same as a normal brain I suppose. I was fully engaged in a beauitful dream sometime before morning and after 1am. I was at a concert and the crowd was alive with energy and a powerful skunky aroma filled my lungs. The familar scent kept getting stronger and and stronger and I began to feel a bit lightheaded. In my dream I was wearing my purple and green butterflies wings (which is the normal for me at a concert) and I was twirling to the music, feeling the wet grass blades between my toes.. inhaling the sharp skunky aroma..


I couldn't breath, each breath I took was harder and harder than the last. I pushed my sleeping mind awake and arose quickly to both of my dogs barking loudly and frantically at me... inches from my face on my chest. The smell was overpowering. I pushed the dogs off of me and they quickly jumped back on top of me and barked crazily at me. The smell.. dang I recognize that smell.. who is pulling tubes in my house?

Slowly I began to see a small figure in the corner of the room and saw that I forgot to close the door last night before bed. It was a smelly little beast and I screamed so loud the poor little creature jumped nearly a foot off the ground and darted out the door. I quickly took a shower and spent all my lush soaps to try to remove the smell from my skin. "Happy Hippy" by Lush seemed to do the trick. :)

The story continues... the dogs were full of energy and needed to spend it, so even though it was two hours early...5am.. I ventured out for the morning dog walk.

We walked (ran) to the end of Azalea Trail and started to ascend Aspen when suddenly both dogs got very still and I could actually see the fur on their backs stand up. I noticed that there was a huge pile of trash in the middle of the road... (I thought to myself... why would someone dump trash in the middle of the road.) As I got closer the trash appeared to be moving... there was no turning back.... I was in the trash and suddenly a black bear rolled out a trash can that was in the middle of road.. he looked at me for a split second then darted out into the woods.... After my heart started beating again... I felt so alive. My life is a dream.. to anyone reading this, I hope your day is filled with magic and pleasant aromas...

The Donkey Dogs

Meet my new pups... Cassidy and Marley. They adopted me when I was delivering some dog food to a local dog rescue. They are a brother and sister donkey duo full of mischief and fun. I'm not quite sure what they are.. I believe they are a Golden/Shepherd mix.. they are hauntingly beautiful...

Goodbye lawn blanket, Hello cruel world

My mid-week sunny day morning started out like any other... I awoke to the gentle chirping of birds hurrying in to eat the sunflower seeds I put in the feeder the night before. The singing winged angels and smile bringers alike, know that they need to hurry in and fill their tummies before the little bushy tailed gray goober devils (squirels) swoop in from the nearby by trees and devour all the seedy goodness or the evil giggling masked critters (racoons) get their gnarly mitts all up in there and rip the roof off the son-o-bitch and all the seedy goodness hits the ground... only to bring the black and white smelly beasts (skunks) into the mix.... Yeah the universe seemed to be humming peacefully along and I was sure it was going to be a good day..

I stepped my sleepy eyed, red curled head out into the daylight.. happy to greet the morning with a big dumb grin on my face because today was going to be a special day, today I was going to put a bid on my dream house. Oh no.... that was not what the universe was going to deliver...no, the universe wanted to spill a tank of rotten karma on my dreams and snatch up all of my warm happiness and replace it with darkness.

As I approached my jeep I felt that weird feeling you get when you know something is slightly off center but your waking mind just isn't ready or capable of dealing with the vision your eyes were preceiving. Then the shock of it was like being sucked up by a gaint wave and carried under, only to resurface and grasp for air, than roll again... pure emotion. My sleeping bag was laying in the middle of the street.. it was intacted but covered in mud. My soft top was removed with a blade of some sort, I found pieces in the field, and by the creek bed later in the afternoon. The dash was nothing more than pieces of smashed plastic, looked like the work of an axe or sledge hammer. My Sirius radio...missing.. my yakstraps eight of them...missing..my collection of weird and unique cds..missing...my walkies talkies...missing...my lifejacket, helmet, paddling jacket, wetsuit, bathing suit, sprayskirt, paddling shorts..missing...my clothes..missing.. and most important... my dancing bear lawn blanket...missing. (most likey was used to port away all my belongings) All the items in my stolen inventory can be replaced, except my blanket... that was were Jake slept after a long hike on the AT and it has been to well over 100 concerts with me.

To whomever now possesses the last piece of my best friend (rest in peace sweet Jake), I hope it brings joy to your dark heart.

Part Dah .. Ohiopyle, Yough River Duckie Paddle

Jill and I finally got her moonshiney sleeping snore machine boyfriend, Dale, to arise and greet the morning with a hillbilly head banging headache. How was this accomplished? We began unstrapping the kayaks from the roof of the car, with all of grace and co-ordination of a 3 legged blind dog ... a group of onlookers soon began to watch our show and wagers were placed on the outcome. I kept looking at Jill and asking her why everybody was so drawn to watching us unload our boats. I took a swill of shine and worked on the yakstrap, trying to look hot and sexy for the group of whitewater rednecks when it happened...


I knew the sound was not a good sound... oh no.. not at all.. instead the sound was hollow and loud, like a gaint log cracking an egg... but of course it took awhile for my brain to put all the pieces together. I remembered back to my freshman Physics class, my whiskey drunk professor who would intergrate an equation for "shits and giggles" ah but that's a story in and of itself.. the tales of Dr. K... Physics Rule Number 1) Every action has an equal and opossite reaction.

Well, the action of removing my kayak caused the other two boats to also come loose and in fact roll off the top of the car... like gaint yellow and orange plastic torpedoes and crash loudly and ... most likely painfully.... on the once pleasantly sleeping Dale... awake with a hillbilly crushing headache.

Humbly, humbly sorry..Sir. ..humbly sorry. :)

.... Gap in story.... we all decided we would like to go to Ohiopyle and paddle the Yough. Since I had never paddled the Lower Yough before Jill offered to rent a duckie and the two of us would paddle the loop and decide if we wanted to get our boats and paddle the entire trail.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/Parks/maps/ohiopyle_rapids.pdf

Entrance Rapid was not to bad, Dale scouted ahead in his kayak and instructed us to go river right and take the straight line ... avoiding Bryson's hole... yep we missed it and paddled straight through the hole.. what a rush! It's always fun to put in and paddle up to the first rapid which was a class vi rapid. We ferried across the river and stared at cumcumber. Dale went first, hit the line prefectly and caught a big wave at the end. Jill and I lined up the duckie as Dale waited at the bottom of Cumcumber Rapid. Paddle hard! We started to loose the line and Jill started getting nervous, her paddle hit me in back of my head several times.. I dug down deep and we barely missed the gaint rock to our left. We hit the bottom of the fall and a massive wave engulfed our boat... yeeeee...... holding breathe.... haw! ahahahaHA, neither of us went for a swim. A few of our friends were catching some rays on the shore and could not believe it when they saw Jill and I come over the rapid in the duckie.

The rest of the loop rapids were class iii, so Jill and I had no problem until we got to Railroad. As reccomended we set up our line to paddle River left... I don't remember exactly how it happened but we hit a rock and both of us were propelled from the boat at the top of the rapid, Jill first... like a shotgun over my head and then the duckie just dumped the rhedhead into the drink. I found that in a situation were you are liberated from your boat... the best thing to do is go with the flow. I let the current pull me through the rest of the rapid like an old rag and at the bottom I swam hard to catch the boat. Luckily some resting paddlers were around the bend at the take out and they saved the boat. Phew....

We carried the duckie back to the outfitter... on our heads through the half mile, up hill, rocky trail, barefooted of course.. across the brigde through traffic and back to the rental company. Then we got our boats and paddled the whole river trail! I only had to swim once.

So Chris, by now you know what item malfunctioned in my borrowed inventory, but for purposes of fulfillment to that one reader, thanks mom, I will explain.....

After a day of fun paddling we went to "Paddler" a fun little Pub in Ohiopyle and tossed back a few Old Leg Humpers and had some really tasty treats...I had a Portabella mushroom salad and it was awesome. Anyway, we found an awesome place to camp on a local paddlers property and headed out to set up our campsite.

The place was creepy... a cross between Texas Chainsaw Masacre and the Blair Witch... and it was getting cold. I started setting up my tent, when some local redneck jumped out of one of the abandoned buses that littered the hillside. "Any of ya'll got a cigarette." I jumped out of my skin, and as I did I let out an ear pinching scream which woke up the birds and they began screaming... and in the process I snapped the pole to Chris's tent. yikes... sorry.

Country Road, take me home....

..to the place I belong.. West Virginia. I almost
aborted the road trip to the Cheat Festival this year when I saw the price of gas. jeezzzzz, yikes. I started unloading my boat from my jeep when Dale and Jill showed up. Disclaimer: We do not promote drinking and driving...ever..Dale has a tea in his hand.

Well, I should back up a little bit, this trip was going to be my Birthday trip and I was really looking forward to paddling with my room mate on the Cheat River, however Chris had to attend a beer tasting event in Philly and then attend the "Goat Races" at Sly Fox. So the night before the tasting Chris yells up to my room in the attic, "hey Donkey... I left you a flask of moonshine, my headlamp, and use my tent ...because yours is a piece crap oh and enjoy the show, remember Paddle hard!" So I was pretty depressed to be traveling to West Virginia without my friend and my dog.


Dale and Jill have been paddling for at least 15 years and I was so happy they allowed me to tag along, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. :) As we drove further and further south the scenery became greener and greener and I was really chewing on the beauty. We held our breath as we drove straight through the Blue Mountain Tunnel , Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel, Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel and the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel . I am not sure I am impressed with drilling a tunnel straight through such amazing
creations, but driving straight through probably shaved 10 hours from the trip. We stopped at Little Sandy's Resturaunt to use the restrooms and get some snacks, I bought an awesome Hillbilly Calender and I can't wait to use it. Of course we had to peak out and check the water levels and Big Sandy was calling to us to go for a paddle but we wanted to get to the festival and start partying with old friends.

Teeter's campground was hopping mad crazy, with some crazy boaters and fellow fun lovers. Dale spotted Dave and his crew and we set up camp. The rain started to come down. I took out the flask of moonshine I was hiding in my pocket and passed it around. Funny how people light up in wonderment when they see a redheaded lady pulling a slivery flask from her back pocket with the word "Booger" proudly engraved across the front of it. Before long we were all in a good place and throwing back my homemade hummus and nine pepper salsa...Chris if your reading this...this really helped promote... not only the moonshine but the Sunshine Pils as well as the remains of the Nugget Nectar and the Steam beer. :) You are welcome brotha... I say that because I have some sad news to report at the end of my story about a certain peice of equipment you lent me. :(

Information: Cheat River from Albright to Jenkinsburg Bridge
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2347/

West Virginia is known for her coalmines and beautitful country roads that could have come straight out of a dream. Muddy Creek, which enters the Cheat River at the site of the festival in Albright West Virginia has an unearthy orange flow from all the old coalmines that were flooded and abandoned many years ago. I will not pretend to understand the chemical reaction, but the sulfur from the coal is turned into the mix or agent which acts to seal the creek floor bed preventing any wild life to live in the creek.
The Cheat Festival rasies money to help clean the river. Come out and support it next year! While your at it, go paddle the Cheat this summer and make a donation to the Friends of the Cheat or find out how you can volunteer.

The rain slowed and we headed into the festival and browsed around and spotted some old friends and drank moonshine and listened to some great bluegrass music. The Floor Walkers were pretty good, but I was told to hold my enegry for the last band..Stewed Mulligan and I am so glad I did. WOW! I have a new favorite band. Actually, Jill and I were playing around with Chris's headlamp and trying to figure out how to work it and dance with it on our head without blinding anyone when the band announced that the soundman had a malfunction and if anyone had one of those slick headlamps for the soundman to borrow that would be awesome. Jill and I just looked at each other and she took the headlamp from my hand even before I could make the descision and ran it to the stage. (I got the headlamp back so this is not the sad part of the story yet) Well, Stewed Mulligan blew me away. I am still speakless after seeing the Stews do Fiddlesticks. All I can say is wow Wow WOW! I have never seen anything so intense in all my life, it was the first time for me to see a fiddle player..playing his fiddle and the drummer... drumming on the fiddle at the same time! Oh mah Gawd! Awesome! Check them out, buy a CD or two... http://www.stewedmulligan.com/ The night was pure joy and pure magic. People were carrying their kayaks above their heads and moving through the audience. The sight of it is burned forever into my brain. It looked like the kayaks were moving through rapids and every now and then it would tip... Ah..it was beautiful.


I was starting to feel a little lightheaded after that. I retrived Chris's Headlamp and Dale said he wanted to take the flask of moonshine to the band because it was someone's birthday in the band and all she wanted was a sip of moonshine...

Jill and I navigated back to the fire and our band of crazy people were already making seriously good campfire music. .."I'm lost and I can't find my way back home." I was so happy and my body still didn't make contact with the River yet. I finally felt the urge to make my way back to the tent, I did and tried to sleep with all the craziness around me but it was imposible. From about 3am to 5am some really terrible drummer started drumming loudly and poorly. Several tired kayakers and fun lovers alike tried to make him stop but he was so lost that he only continued drumming louder and louder with each passing minute.


We all suffered because of it. I didn't sleep and really wanted to get my boat down to the river, but everyone was tired for lack of good sleep. Jill and I decided to hike down to the first rapid and see what the river was saying first thing in the morning. The yellow trail on the edge of Teeter's were Muddy Creek makes its entracnce into the Cheat is were we set out. The trail was alive with brilliant spring colors..greens and purples...just beauitful.

It was sad to see plastic and metal drums still litering the trails, but it will take time to put nature back the way it was intended or nature may just act out on her own and take care of it for us.

The shore line of the Cheat across from the yellow trail looked like millions of pumpkins stacked up by a pumpkin farmer. I tried to get a photo but it was impossible to navigate the brush in cowboy boots. :( I really need a new pair of Chacos..... anyway, we needed to do some rock climbing to get to the first rapid so I left my shoes on the trail and pointed the toes in the direction Jill and I were headed.

We sat at the first rapid and wished we brought our boats. We began to realize that we should head back to camp if we wanted to do some boating. We ran back to camp, Dale was still passed out. He finally woke up and we all decided we wanted to paddle the Yough instead...
I will have to continue the story in my next blog...

2007 Cheat River Festival

I'm packing up my stuff and getting ready for the festival.
YeeeHaw!

http://cheat.org/festival/

Earth day (Sherman's Creek, Blain PA)

Never trust a brewer with a bottle of liquid in hand. Ha...yeah. Arriving home on Friday last, April 20th, I was expecting to sit back and chill out before heading out into the heart of Dutch Country for a "Fishing Derby" that we had planned to kayak through. I know that sounds a little evil at first, but the clear bottle of liquid and a crazy rant about the two party system that turns the wheels makes me want to turn everything green. Wake up people! No actual fishermen or fisherwomen were injuried during the adventure, a few stock fish (rainbow trout) may still be swimming today and I think that is a good thing.


My roommate greets me on Friday with a great big stupid grin and a gallon bottle of water. I thought that was weird at first since we have well water. Alas my brain was not operating at full speed and it didn't register until much later, what secret powers where luring inside the clear liquid. I knew something was not in step with the bounds of normal reality but the gears that turn my brain were muddied by the media bombardment of guns and death. Chris put one ice-cube in the "drinking jar" and pours enough liquid to cover 1/4 of the ice-cube. Waves the hand and signals for me to try the sad excuse of a glass of water. "Well that isn't going to do anything to quench my thrist, is there some sort of special magic in the water?".... Chris replies in the slick pimping voice..."Don't be a girl, take a drink." Being a redhead it is in my blood to react as I did...I always pony up to that sort of talk. The instant I brought the glass to my mouth I could smell the shiney goodness inside. The smooth after taste and hardcore kick of love in the guts. We dubbed it Uncle Jesse's Bionic Tonic.


Well after a few swills of UJ's Bionic Tonic, the kayak mission was aborted and we all decided to set-up camp and hike the Tuscarora Trail intead and pull as many trout from the creek as possible.

I had forgotten that such beauitful places still exist on the planet. I remember driving through farmlands with my family on vacation when I was a little girl. It was pleasing to my senses to once again evoke the images of my childhood. Acre after acre of untamed natural beauty. A few farms dotted the landscape but it was not unpleasant to behold them once again.

Blain, is a prefect name for such a pleasant little town. We stopped to feed Josh and Karen's dogs Copper and Porter. Porter is a black lab and Copper is a Chocolate lab. I hadn't seen Copper before and the sight of him brought an instant flood of tears to my eyes. It was like seeing an angel sent by God to remind me that I need adopt a new dog. Luckily Chris brought the flask of UJ's bionic tonic and the tears quickly dried up and were replaced by laughter. Thanks for the visit Jake, I needed to see you again.


It turns out the creek was too shallow to paddle, not enough rainfall. Instead most of us donned fishing gear and put on a show. I just hiked along the banks and watched the magic happen.

Additional information about Sherman's Creek
http://www.shermanscreek.org/

The Tuscarora Trail was originally created as a new route for the Appalachian Trail. It first departs the Appalachian Trail at the top of Blue Mountain in Deans Gap..
http://www.pagreenways.org/db-Greenwaydetails.asp?GW_ID=68

More information about the watershed
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/watermgt/wc/Subjects/WSNoteBks/ws07a.htm

Condoguinet Creek First Paddle in my new boat

The Condoguinet is a beauitful rolling waterway that makes its way from Horse Valley, Franklin County PA , (Kittatinny Mountain elevation 1,680 feet) and twists and turns its way through my backyard the Cumberland Valley. The lovely creek finally empties into the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, PA the state capital.

http://www.ccpa.net/cumberland/lib/cumberland/ccpc/watertrailguide/conodoguinet_guide_final.pdf

At the end of last season I bought a brand new kayak and Thursday morning, after enduring the worst musical event of my life (Lucinda Williams, more on that later) Chris and I headed out to Silver Springs and went for a leisure paddle. The dagger mamba turns on a dime and rolls even quicker. Not good in the shallow waters near Silver Springs. I am just glad to that I saved my boat and myself. Minor bruises and a lot of blood, but the boat handles awesome. I'll wait for the river to be a little more forgiving before I paddle the new boat again. :)

Happy Earth Day! Go Clean a River

I feel that cabin fever beginning to fall away from my aura. The gentle sound of a small running stream in my front yard has me longing to get out and paddle. I'm taking ol' blue to the local pool and I'm going to practice rolling my kayak this weekend. I am so happy that spring has finally arrived. Hurray Spring! I hope I can inspire some friends to Clean a River and pull tires with me. Get out and clean a river.

My Clock is out of Alignment

Maybe it's just me but I feel like my clock is out of alignment. Being a tree hugging dirt worshipper I am always looking for ways to conserve energy but daylight saving time 3 weeks early has put me 1 hour out of alignment with the space time continum.

The world seems slightly out of focus, I never know what time it really is, it feels like 5 o'clock but the computer says it is 6o'clock... wait this clock won't update is it 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock or 7o'clock? I don't know ... my clock is out of alignment.

The universe has gotten quiter, as if it is moving on borrowed time. I went into a meeting today at work and sat in the conference room for a good 25 minutes, turns out I was there for 1 hour and 25 minutes. I showed up a hour late because my Lotus notes calendar has some crazy bug, brought on by trying to move daylight savings time ahead by 3 weeks. Don't we trust the tides to guide us, are we so advanced that we now can alter time, 3 weeks early? How much energy are we saving, will I get a refund check?

My Blasted Irish Roots

As I sit here getting ready to celebrate my Irish roots in honor of St. Patrick, (thanks for chasing all the blasted snakes out of the motherland!), I find meself pondering where all my creative, craziness, and wanderlust came from. Carbombs and Guiness tonight, a toast to chasing the snakes out of Ireland... Kiss me I'm Irish.

Ah yes, I used to love to sit and listen to dad's mother talk.. Grandma Joyce.. what a pistol. She was so Irish, when she spit it was green. (Thinking back on things, that was probably not to healthy) She was a wee bit of woman, nearly 5 feet tall when she wasn't hunched over her balcony, spitting down at the blasted youngsters who would mock her for thinking she could beam down the sun with her blasted mood rock. I sometimes thought she actually could, beam down the sun... sometimes when the light hit the colorful mood rock.. a briliant light display occured and yes, maybe...

Her favorite word was -blasted. She could spin a colorful web of blasted babbel so strange that one had to stop and listen just to make sure the universe was still there. She was my first introduction to real life engineer.. she truly thought different.

I remember many summer nights, I would see her outside in her blasted garden.. dancing and singing some blasted Irish song, happy that she finally beamed the blasted sun down... I give her credit, whenever she spun a crazy yarn, she always made it manifest and it always made me feel like anything is possible. She after all was capable of beaming down the sun, once a day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, where ever your blasted spirit is grandma.. give 'em hell!