An Afternoon Neighborhood Drama

I'd torn a calf muscle and was spending much time in bed. On a recent Sunday afternoon, I was resting comfortably in my upstairs bedroom when I heard a loud explosion and saw the telephone/electric wires outside my window bouncing and stretching wildly. A moment later, my electricity went out and I saw smoke filling the air. I hobbled downstairs and found that something had happened on the pole above this neighbor's white pickup truck:

In fact, it had left burn marks all over the hood of his brand new, expensive vehicle:

On the concrete below the pole was a smoking blob of..........something. Looking really closely, we thought we saw feathers. Perhaps a bird was electrocuted?:

And overhead, it appeared that one electric line was attached by a mere thread:

An hour or so later, our electricity went out again. But then a National Grid truck arrived to fix the problem. The workman insisted that the smoking blob was all plastic, not a bird. Well, that was our small neighborhood excitement for the weekend. We take our drama where we can find it:

A Most Glorious Magnolia

After one of the longest, coldest, snowiest winters of all times, spring is arriving rather late in upstate New York. But I knew it had officially arrived when I began seeing flowering trees lining the streets:

But the most spectacular of all are the large flowered Magnolia trees. And of those trees, there is one in particular which is my favorite:

I stopped the other day to take some pictures and got several thumbs up from passersby. Clearly, this is one of their favorite trees also:

I moved in for a few close-ups, something I'd never done before:

The flowers were as lovely up close as they were from across the street. I didn't, however, notice any fragrance:

Some varieties of Magnolia have prettier colored flowers, but none have as many flowers or such shapely forms:

Another close-up:

Blossoms spilling over the rail fence:

Of course I had to leave and be on my way, but I took one last photo:

Rowing On The Hudson River

You may recall that I posted about Albany's rowing crew practicing on the Hudson River several weeks ago. They were near the opposite shore the day I took those videos. But I saw them recently on the Rensselaer (eastern) shore of the Hudson River and grabbed my camera for a couple of quick videos.

I was on my way home from work and so were lots of other people. The road noise is therefore rather loud and the wind noise is added on top of it, so don't set your speakers too high.

The first rowing shell had only two people in it and led the way:


Not too far behind them came three more vessels, two rowing shells and a motorboat. The man in the motorboat was not barking instructions as far as I could tell, but having general friendly conversations with the rowers:

Morning View - Albany Across The River

Each sunny morning I have a wonderful view of the city of Albany from my bedroom window. It sits just across the Hudson River from my city of Rensselaer. I opened a bedroom window to snap a photo earlier, when the sun was just rising. The photos were all tinged with a lovely golden and pinkish glow but also grainy and not very focused. So I waited a bit and tried again after the sun was more fully risen. Here's the view to the southwest:

And to the northwest lies the industrial part of north Albany. Nipper, the giant RCA dog is just behind one of those trees. I tried to position myself so the photo would show him more plainly but the tree was always in the way:

Random Shots From Home

It's a rare happenstance that I should find all five of my cats in one location, so when I entered the room one morning and found them all lounging about within mere feet of each other, I quickly grabbed the camera:

On the cat tree from top to bottom are Georgette, Draco and Rocky. The black cat on the left is Snoozey and the spotted cat on the dog bed is Bramble. Within my cat family are several somewhat troubled relationships, so I found it heartening that they found this moment to all get along:

And on that same day, I drove down my road, crossing the bridge over the railroad tracks and stopped to take this photo. It is the city of Albany directly across the Hudson River:

The Amtrak Station is just behind me, but this is their administrative office and repair facility. Again, you can see the city of Albany across the Hudson River in the background (notice the building which appears both in this photo and the one above):

More Albany Kitch And Skyline

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday, the first one in many months. I'd begun my afternoon by heading out to the gym but decided to first drive over to Albany and photograph Nipper, the giant RCA dog on top of a building. Then I intended to drive to the gym but got distracted by the Miss Albany Diner and the giant dancers statue near the Palace Theater (see the previous several posts). Well, this time I really meant it - I was going to the gym! But then, on a ramp over the Hudson River, I spotted the life-sized U-Haul truck on top of a storage building. Well, it was Sunday and there wasn't much traffic, so I stopped on the road and took a picture of it:

And a closer view over the guard rails:

And as long as I was stopped, I turned my camera back toward the city of Albany for a quick shot of the Empire State Plaza. That oval shaped building is, for obvious reasons, called "The Egg" and is a performance space with several theaters inside. The roadway on which I'm stopped is high above the Hudson River:

I decided to hurry and get moving again before I caused an accident or got a ticket. I crossed the river and and was getting off the exit ramp on the Rensselaer side when I saw the flying U-Haul truck and had to stop for one more snapshot:

I finally did make it to the gym and, on my home, stopped one more time in the road to get a photograph of the Albany skyline across the river:

The Corning Preserve Trail, Part 2

I was hiking on the Corning Preserve Trail which traverses north and south between the western shore of the Hudson River and downtown Albany. I had my four youngest dogs with me and clearly they were having a wonderful time:

The trail was difficult to walk, pock-marked with foot prints which had softened in the sun and then re-frozen. Beneath it all was water which soaked quickly through the shoes I thought were waterproof. So we didn't go far and soon turned back toward the car. But when I saw footprints heading from the trail down through the snow towards the riverbank, I just had to explore. It led us down along a little feeder stream where we could see the downtown railroad bridge in the distance:

The two Papillon puppies, Clover and Daphne, were having a grand time and were light enough to float right over the crusted snow:

For Seamus it was more difficult. He, like me, kept sinking in the snow:

Fergus is perfectly designed as a snow dog. He has a thick, waterproof woolly coat and lots of energy. He and Daphne were great playmates:

Clover insisted on stopping to watch the Mallards. Seamus didn't much care, but I think that Clover would have trekked down there to see them if I'd have let her:

As we got near the parking area, the two pups ran ahead:

The parking area is beneath this elevated highway (Rt 787) and protected from the rain and snow:

The railroad bridge appears to be very old and spans the river between Rensselaer and Albany. Instead of one section raising when a tall ship passes, it pivots and turns sideways. It's quite a sight to see. I walked across this bridge once and found it a bit intimidating with big spaces between the timbers and a much bigger distance down to the water below than you would think looking at this photo:

I put the dogs back in the car and snapped this final photo of some of Albany's buildings nearby. It had been a brief excursion but much needed. I can hardly wait for the snow to melt so that we can get back out into the forests and mountains:

The Corning Preserve Trail, Part 1

Our temperatures had reached a relatively balmy 30 degrees and I was getting cabin fever. I knew the hiking trails had several feet of snow on them, but perhaps the paved city trail along the river would be plowed. So I loaded the four younger dogs into the car and headed across the river. I found the trail unplowed, but passable. So we set off on a snowy adventure along the Hudson River on The Corning Preserve Trail:

Having been photographing Albany from the eastern side of the river just that same morning, it seemed odd to be doing the reverse. But this is the city of Rensselaer (in Rensselaer County) on the eastern shore of the Hudson River as seen from the city of Albany on the western shore. You may notice that road climbing steeply up the hill out of the river valley. I travel that road to and from work every day and it's quite hazardous after a snowfall:

The Corning Preserve Trail is quite narrow at the beginning, squeezed between a multi-lane highway and the Hudson River. It soon widens into a park, but we had some awkward walking through crusty slush before we got that far:

That green square is the top of a sort of lighthouse/warning buoy alerting ships to a rocky peninsula:

Once we left the parking lot, I let the dogs off of their leashes. This made them very happy:

We passed a quiet, unfrozen inlet filled with Mallards:

And a closer view of the ducks. I think there were other species also, but I couldn't see them very well and my identification skills are rusty anyway. But most of them were Mallards:

The quiet inlet seemed to be a continuation of another stream feeding the Hudson River and it curled to the right and around a rocky peninsula before it joined the bigger river:

But the dogs saw none of this. For them it was play time. Even Seamus roused himself into a frolicking mood:

When we arrived at the spot where the park widens out, we all stopped for a look around. That's the I-90 bridge off in the distance on the right. It's just about one mile north of my house and of where we were on the trail. I'll post more tomorrow:

Hometown Memorial Day Parade - Part 3

This is part 3 and the last of the Memorial Day parade posts. The parade took place on Sunday, May 30th, in Rensselaer, New York, the traditional home of the song, "Yankee Doodle." The parade was a genuine piece of small town Americana and brought tears to many eyes:

Many, perhaps most of the floats, bands and marchers were unknown to me. But the traditions, the color, the enthusiasm, the patriotism, the heartfelt emotions were all a real part of Memorial Day parades all over the country:
This was apparently a drum corps from Rensselaer Middle High School with cheerleaders. I don't know why there were no brass instruments:


On and on the marchers and floats kept coming:

If you click to enlarge this, you'll see that one of these marchers is a man in a dog costume. I have no idea why but I liked it anyway:

This was a marching band which brought back lots of memories from my days as a trombonist in my high school band:



The firetrucks were at the end of the parade and represented the cities/towns of Rensselaer, East Greenbush, Clinton Heights and Defreetsville, New York:

They were apparently arranged by color - first the red ones, then the yellow ones:

As the last of the firetrucks passed by me, I turned and looked back up the street toward my house. That man in the red plaid shirt and baseball cap is my next-door neighbor who has had a heart transplant and was released from the hospital just yesterday. He was happier to be home and prouder of his country than just about anybody:

But the groups of friends, relatives and neighbors stayed around and, in some instances, turned the parade gathering into a party:

and this is Lexy, my neighbor's dog. She is so happy to finally have him home again that she was beside herself. Man and dog reunited, a happy day for both of them and a good day for a hometown Memorial Day parade: