The canine world all under one roof/sectioned into galleries –all dog / dog lovers can browse many galleries/listening room of barks with cute yips, scary growls/ a whole wing devoted to breeds/display of evolution from wolves, with specific branches where you can trace your mutts pedigree/ /great Danes, chocolate labs, hairless and shaggy/ all shapes and colors/ don’t miss the performance room – for the drug sniffers and the security guys/ a room set aside for the famous – Toto; Rin-Tin-Tin; Lassie; RCA Victor dog who tips his head to listen/video’s of dogs in commercials/a visitor center to record your favorite dog storiy/ films; interactive exhibits/ it’s all here under one roof/ an extensive research library/ a huge gift shop with over 50 different treats and any accessory/a large book section /tips on showing for those who want their dog to win best in show/ best breeder/ best agility/ obedience demonstrations on the hour/ dog history section/ “ask the Vet” service/ dog art/ a display of stuffed dogs/ dog cemeteries and where to find them/ information desk/ daily lectures/ membership benefits/ no dogs allowed in the museum, leave yours at home please.
Author: Tom Stock Page 16 of 30
Tom Stock has been involved in the Long Island environmental and outdoor education community for decades.
He has published two books; THE NISSEQUOGUE RIVER: A JOURNEY and HIDDEN AGENDA; A POETRY JOURNEY. He has also published many essays and poems in such journals as the Long Island Forum and The Long Islander.
Nancy and I attended on Pier 54 in Manhattan. “This is a one-time event for us.” The $35 entrance fee suggested to me that THIS BETTER BE GOOD! “Just once to get an idea.” Nancy added. Up to this point, I haven’t paid much attention to dogs. In fact, I have tried to avoid them after the day I toured the Babylon Animal Shelter to consider becoming a volunteer. It only took an hour to decide that being in the same building with 24 of the fiercest looking pit bulls I’ve ever seen that I’d pass. Taking nature walks in Gardiners County Park close by was another reason. It is a popular dog walker’s park. As I pass leashed dogs or they pass me, I gave wide birth…pretending to be afraid. I was trying to tell adult humans that I wanted this park for nature, not dogs, forgetting that yes, dogs too are part of nature.
It did not take too long to see dogs in a new light. Here, they are the center of attention. The show layout was L-shaped. One leg was the bench area, the other the ring area. There’s also a gift shop and exhibition area, and food court.
The bench isles are the staging area where dogs, owners, and handlers get the dogs ready for competition. Dogs are groomed by teasing and combing, blow drying, cutting, talking to, patting, and penning. Some dogs are sleeping. Many are on small platforms with leashed necks so they can be attended to. The bench area is organized by breed. There are over 200 breeds and 3000 dogs. Each bench contains the paraphernalia necessary to make their dogs glamorous.
A pair of old fashioned (I prefer this to antique) snow shoes lay in the garage loft for 360 days. I acquired those 15 years ago in a trade. They have a hickory frame that is shaped like a droplet. They have gut webbing and leather bindings. I can reach them from the floor by grabbing the trail guides which help me stay on track when I’m walking.
An 11 inch snow yesterday woke them up. I have the 9 hole golf course ½ mile walk from the house. I was anxious to try the new bindings. I brought the old bindings to Angelo, my sweet 90 year old shoemaker and he made new ones for me. I strapped the shows onto my boots and looked out over a perfect unmarked snow that draped over gentle hills, filled sand traps, stopped at the edges of water hazards and hid the greens.
With full sun and enough wind to wisp snow off the surface and twirl it into little vortexes and gauze curtains. The white pines are magnificent and stand out as icons. On the edge of the fifth green, a mature willow tree is remarkable. This is paradise. Snow storms come as surprises, wonderful opportunities to connect with snow.
I intended to tramp a figure eight, and then repeat my tracks in the opposite direction to pack an 18 inch track that I can cross country ski later. I have to work fast. Snow doesn’t last. The first day on the ground is the best…dry and fluffy with lots of air. This is what I encountered as I stood on the edge of a grand white blanket.
In fact, don’t try this anyplace
Don’t put yourself in danger
You can’t imitate that you saw on TV
The person who says this knows something you don’t
Trust them
If you saw this on the stage in “real time”
Stay safe
Think before acting
This is for your own good
Take it from me, I tried this at home
Don’t you make the same mistake
It didn’t work
Something unexpected happened
I’ll never do stuff at home that is scary
That might explode
Try someplace else if you must
It’s OK to try things
That’s how you learn
Your home should not be a place for dangerous experiments
Which you have no idea what will happen
Your home is your safe haven
You should not be trying risky experiments
Google first, do your research,
Ask the person who did this in the first place
Use common sense
Know the difference
Between what you think will happen
And what might happen
Take care of yourself
If you’re not sure
You ought to read this poem first
Try this poem at home
When someone suggests “Don’t try this at home”
Take them seriously
They know what’s going to happen
You don’t
Listen. They are concerned for your welfare
They don’t want to be blamed if you try this at home
And it blows up in your face.
Just because they did it
Doesn’t mean you can
This is their save harmless clause
They are protecting themselves and you at the same time
You’re not a scientist
Rather to be safe than sorry
Ask advice from a friend first
Don’t take chances
This warning is to protect you
Don’t put your family at risk
If you must try, notify your doctor
Notify the police
Tell your neighbors
Tell your pharmacist
Tell your lawyer
Your neighbors too
Wear safety goggles
Check your smoke detector
Make sure you have good water pressure
Have a fire extinguisher at the ready
Take every precaution necessary
Ask yourself, “It this worth doing?”
Just because a magician
Shoves a sword down their throat
Doesn’t mean you have to
You might kill yourself
Read the manual
Follow the instructions
Know the consequences
Maybe leave home
Leave town
Leave the country
Go someplace isolated
Try this at your own risk
Yes, be daring
Yes be on the cutting edge
Yes you are taking your chances
Yes you are on the frontier of t Ruth
Yes you are on a journey into the unknown
But NO… don’t do it.
If you must
No explosions
No unidentified chemicals
Try the garage
Try a forest
Keep trying and don’t give up
There has to be another way
So YOU don’t have to say
Don’t try this at home
Have a plan B
1. Everything is made of invisible particles.
2. The elementary particles of matter –
“the seeds of the things” – are eternal.
3. The elementary particles are infinite in
number, but limited in shape and size.
4. All particles are in motion in an infinite void.
5. The universe has no creator or designer.
6. Everything comes into being as a result
of a swerve.
7. The swerve is the result of free will.
8. Nature ceaselessly experiments.
9. The universe was not created for or
about humans..
10. Human society began not in a Golden Age
of tranquility and plenty, but in a primitive
battle of survival.
11. There is no afterlife.
12. Death is nothing to us.
13. All organized religions are superstitious
delusions.
14. Religions are invariably cruel.
15. There are no angels, demons, or ghosts.
16. The highest goal of human life is the
enhancement of pleasure and the
reduction of pain.
17. The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain;
it is delusion.
18. Understanding the nature of things generates
deep wonder.
SWERVE:
‘”If all the individual particles, in their infinite numbers, fell through the void like raindrops, nothing would ever exist. But the particles do not move lockstep in a preordained single direction. Instead, “at absolutely unpredictable times and places, they deflect slightly from their straight course, to a degree that could be described as no more than a shift of movement.” p. 188
The slightest swerve sets in motion chain reactions. “Whatever exists in the universe exists because of these random collisions of minute particles.”
from: The Swerve; How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Your shredder broke down and you have some private papers that need to be destroyed. You tear the pieces as small as possible and drop them into trash like new-fallen snow. With no envelope opener, you tear open your mail. Excited children rip off wrapping from Christmas presents. Your want to save a recipe from the newspaper. On a public bulletin board, your tear off one of the advertising stubs. At the theatre, an usher tears your ticket. And on it goes
Since 2009, I have been placing benches in the Manorville Hills County Park. The objective is to build safe rustic-style benches and place them in appropriate spaces within this primitive setting. There are no benches, bathrooms, or security at the present..
John Burnley suggested the location for another bench. Mark Harrington and I met John in the parking lot off route 111. Mark and I unloaded the bench parts after driving east on Hot Water Street. We carried a plank, two legs, shovel, hammer and nails to the location. We used emergency access route #5 and hiked about 45 minutes to the site. John knew about this because he’d already visited it. He set up a beach chair and used the bucolic scene to do some writing. It is a hill with a bald and steep slope. A bald is an open place with few pitch pines no shrub layer, and a nice smooth carpet of pine needles. It is one of the many magical places that are quiet, peaceful, and beautiful in this park. The park is located in the core area of the NYS Pine Barrens Preserve. There are no structures at all.
We selected a spot to put the bench, dug two holes, set the legs in, back filled, lined up the seat, and nailed it to the posts. I brought a map of the trails and a contour map of the area. I thought I knew where this place was. I showed John on the Eastport USGS topographic map. I concluded that the steep valley was right next to a deep kettle hole. “No” said John. He pointed to an area north of my prediction. I agreed with John because while were there because I heard Long Island Expressway passing traffic. It was farther north from Hot Water Street than I thought.
As we left, Mark tied a blue hanker chief to a tree trunk to mark the place. We will call this place Burnley Hill and Burnley Bench. Since John hikes in this park very often, he is a valuable resource for other locations.
These rustic benches are meant to allow hikers to take a break and rest. Undeveloped County Parks need help. The park does some maintenance. It is used by mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hikers. The current program is there is no accurate map and none available for first-time visitors. The more hikers, the more eyes to see illegal ATV’s, dumping, excessive erosion, vandalism, and even fire.
Diane Ives invited me to help her pick up litter along the edge of a parking lot fence at the Copaigue LIRR station.
It’s pretty easy to dump garbage here because the location doesn’t have security cameras and the fence makes it easy to go undetected. Commuters are on the go to the extent that come of them eat meals in their car. Take out meals means junk in station cars. Some are careful and clean out the accumulation of paper and Styrofoam cups, foil wrap, paper plates, plastic and aluminum cans, straws, cigarette packs, candy wrappers, glass bottles, on and on and on. Dining room cars don’t have waiters to clear the table. It is too easy to just open the door, shuffle the garbage out and let the wind carry to the chain link fence.
Long yellow necks
Reach high above
Rooftops and skyscrapers
They are cranes, not birds
Lifting buckets of concrete,
Iron, and building materials
They eat the sky
Dominating the cityscape
They roost and puff their chests
Saying “No space left down there”
Up in the operaters box
A tiny figure in a yellow cab
Pulls levers to hoist tons
To add floors to the sky
To build the bones
Of superstructures
Cells for corporate dealings
White men sitting behind empty
Shiny, reflective desks
With no way to expand horizontal
It’s now vertical
Tourists chant “look how tall!”
More square footage
To create shadows even at noon
They puncture clouds
Aim for the stratosphere
Their mating call …lift lift, lift
Until every square inch is filled
Tom Stock January 24, 2017
I love spinach and grow it. A pile of steamed spinach with pat of butter sends me into convulsions.
I never seem to be able to plant enough spinach seeds. Once harvested, a huge number of leaves are necessary for a good sized portion.
I plant spinach twice a year, spring and fall. Spinach bolts in hot weather. It is a cold weather crop. But, I can carry this to the extreme and grow and harvest in winter as well.
The spring crop is slow to start. This is because it puts most of its energy into growing deep taproots. It relies on a water supply below the ground surface.
I like the Cookabura variety because it is savoyed. Savoy means crinkly leaves. The spinach leaves have texture which is gone after ten minutes of steaming. IRThis is because spinach is 85% water. It takes a lot of plants to supply enough for my wife and I. each plant has a rosette of leaves. I always clip (don’t pluck) the two biggest leaves which allows for more growth. I can harvest leaves for two months in spring, and again two months in fall.
I start in spring when the soil is loose and cold. As the seeds sprout and growth starts, the progress slowly speeds up. Being impatient, I inspect my spinach every day and water and weed. I like Johnny’s Seed Company. There are ten varieties to choose from.
I protect the plants in winter by putting mini-greenhouses over the plants. Any clear plastic container works. I cut the bottoms off quart seltzer bottles and pop them over the plants.
Today, January 15th 2017, I harvested enough leaves for two small portions. Growth is slow but none of the plants have died despite sub freezing temperatures. Although it is considered a tender leaf crop, my spinach, with their life-saving bubble green houses will produce all winter long. Although considered an annual, my spinach keeps on going. It is my vitamin A and C. it is loaded with minerals. The best way to absorb its minerals is by juicing. Once I’ve harvested, I have lots of recipes to choose from. But, for me, steaming for ten minutes and boom on the plate, over my taste buds and into Tom’s tummy.