Fall in New Paltz NY

This fall we spent a weekend in New Paltz NY. After attending a Tai Chi workshop, I joined Valorie to enjoy the town of New Paltz and environs. We stayed at Moondance Ridge B&B, a fantastic little inn on grounds that were landscaped with a very environmentally conscious design. Here is Valorie in the labyrinth:

The grounds are certified as a Wildlife Habitat with the majority of plantings being white spruce which have a life span of 400 to 800 years.

Skiing Telluride Opening Day

This year's Rocky Mountain weather worked hand-in-hand with our travel plans made in May allowing us to ski Telluride on opening day. This year's snow conditions at Telluride were perfect on our first full day in Colorado, Thanksgiving, which happened to be the opening day for this season's Telluride skiing.

Joe on Telluride slopes opening day

Do you see the Telluride airstrip in the upper right?

October 2013 Morning Glories in Princeton NJ

Happy Thanksgiving! Wow - winter temperatures are definitely here. Last month we still had beautiful morning glories along our front steps:

Summer Week on Long Beach Island

This summer we spent a week in the borough of Barnegat Light on LBI. Barnegat light seemed to be affected by Sandy the least of all towns on LBI. It probably is at least partly because of the dunes that they have developed between the ocean and the borough. This is a natural protection from wind and ocean. Some family from the Baltimore-Washington area came to visit. You see some of us here:

Both Joe and Kristina refreshed our wind surfing skills:

America's Phone Companies should Maintain Reliable, Affordable Basic Phone Service

Some local phone companies are making an effort to avoid providing traditional basic phone service to all service areas. Not having traditional wired service can be a problem during a disaster when many buildings are without power and cell phone towers are either out of service or overwhelmed with calls. A more detailed discussion is presented in "No Second Class Services at the Jersey Shore" and "AARP, Consumer Groups Fighting to Protect Landline Telephone Service".

There are many competitive services available which you can find at "Local and Long Distance Phone Service Options". Many of these phone service options are very appropriate for certain situations, however, many of them require that you have a source of power at your location. Plan ahead for power outages and cell tower outages. One approach is to install a generator and/or a UPS so that you still have power even if the utility company is not supplying power to your location. This approach is being taken by many who experienced many days of no power after Sandy.

This morning's visitor

While watering some trees planted this spring, I heard a movement nearby, looked up, and saw:

Visitors to Princeton

Today, there are a lot of visitors to Princeton for University Reunions. We have our own visitors. You may see a hint of them in this window box that is just beside our front door.
For a closer view, see the closeups on Flickr.

Irene feeds Sandy

It's now the 13th year of this century. Already this century New Jersey has experienced two major hurricanes. Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. After Irene struck, President Obama declared all 21 counties of New Jersey to be a Disaster Area. It was the worst storm in the history of PSE&G, our utility company.

Then, in 2012, Sandy struck. Sandy had the largest diameter ever recorded of any Atlantic hurricane. It impacted twice as many PSE&G customers as Irene. Hopefully, this sequence of worsening disasters doesn't continue in 2013 and the rest of this century.

Here I am sawing Irene droppings into kindling. I used remnants of Hurricane Irene to feed the fire that warmed is in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy while we were without the electric power which is necessary to run modern heating systems.