Sarah was giving a workshop at Western Massachusetts Regional Library System (WMRLS) near Deerfield, MA today, so I had 3 hours to spend in the area. I went in search of a cup of coffee and almost immediately ran across the entrance to Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation. I had seen the observation tower and access road from the WMRLS parking lot and it looked like an interesting place to check out, so I went on up. Aside from a park maintenance person, I had the place to myself for an hour or so. I kept waiting for the clouds to lift so I could get some decent pictures, but they never did. So I took what shots I could. Nice place, though. Tables and BBQ pits are scattered around the tower at the top and there are several trails for those with more ambition than I.

We’ve covered a lot of sidewalk miles during our stay here in New Yawk and with that distance comes a wealth of knowledge and experience. Successfully navigating along crowded sidewalks requires keen observation, instant and correct classification of other sidewalkers, and the proper avoidance technique for any given classification. Otherwise you spend half your time bouncing off people or trolling along helplessly behind them. So in the interest of aiding future visitors to this fair city, I’ll impart some hard earned knowledge of the various classifications of sidewalkers.

1. The Tourist – Very common in Manhattan. Usually identified by the camera hanging around the neck, a distant look in the eye, and a tendency to be looking up at the tall buildings. The Tourist is apt to stop suddenly or change direction with little or no warning. Easily avoided by yelling, “Oh, look” and then scooting by them when they stop to look around.

2. The Zombie – While the Zombie can found almost anywhere in the city, it is seen with greater frequency in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. The Zombie usually plods along in a straight line with an unfocused and blank stare, a gaping and possibly drooling mouth, and a general disheveled appearance. Incidental contact with Zombies should be avoided at all costs. Simply step aside while they pass.

3. The Herd – Often, but not always, comprised of multiple Tourists, The Herd is upwards of four adult sidewalkers with large cabooses walking slowly and side-by-side. Herds will oftentimes span the entire girth of the sidewalk and create a backup of considerable numbers of other sidewalkers of all classifications. Should one become trapped behind a Herd, the best practice is to observe their movement for the slightest gap in their line and hustle through without looking back.

4. The Drifter – This commonly found sidewalker simply cannot walk in a straight line. They tend to drift at irregular intervals from left to right and back again. Successful avoidance requires a bit of observation to estimate the timing of the drift and quick action to pass while the Drifter is in mid-drift away from the side you are passing.

5. The Clogger – This arrogant beast trolls along looking for any existing bottleneck along a sidewalk and, upon finding one, will stop directly in the narrowest point, thereby completing the blockage. Cloggers can occasionally be forced out of their bottleneck by the pressure of the resulting sidewalker backup, or sometimes the pressure will force an opening in other parts of the existing bottleneck.

6. The Stringers – This group is similar in nature to The Herd, except they walk in a oblique line. Most often The Stringers are a cohesive unit such as a family or school group. Avoidance techniques are similar to those used for The Herd.

7. The Bull – This ornery critter is the one most likely to cause injury. The Bull is most often a large male who leans forward into his gait and lets gravity take its course. The Bull will change direction for no one and will not be slowed by downed sidewalkers. The Bull is to be avoided at all costs. Avoidance technique is similar to The Zombie, but must be taken with alacrity. A dangerous, but thankfully rare cross-breed is the Drifter/Bull. Be especially wary of these.

8. The Borg – Utmost caution is required upon encountering The Borg, or you will be assimilated. The Borg are easily indentified by the chintzy, plastic ear attachment used to communicate with other Borg. Female Borg are sometimes difficult to identify on sight due to the hiding of their implants by hair, but as one closes in, one can notice the Borg taking to no one in particular. Less advanced Borg can still be spotted holding older-style, clamshell communicators in front of their faces. The Borg are apt to stop suddenly when the conversation with other Borg becomes intense. This is your opportunity to pass. Listen closely for the rise in tone and you’ll be ready when the time comes to scoot by.

9. The Lost Model – Except in The Village, LMs are slightly built females wearing tight clothing of limited fabric and very high heeled shoes. Note that the non-female variety seen in The Village will be similarly dressed. LMs are looking for their catwalks and as such often exhibit either a confused, slightly scared look, or a perplexed/perturbed look. Even the slightest contact with an LM can cause breakage, crying, and condemnation. Walk softly around them.

10. The Lost Model Wannabe – Similar to the LM except of significantly larger build. Sightings of LMWs have been known to cause nightmares or hysterical laughter.

11. The Swag Bagger – The Swag Bagger is most easily identifed by the “Hi, my name is…” badge affixed to their clothing or hanging around their necks and by the numerous bags of swag they’ve accumulated at whatever conference they happen to be attending. It is common for Swag Baggers to travel in Herds, thereby making them difficult to avoid. If you should find yourself between a Swag Bagger and a conference shuttle bus, leap out of the way as quickly as possible, even if it means diving into traffic on the street.

1. You can wear anything you want and no one will take notice. We had dinner last night down in The Village and saw so many truly bizarre people that after a bit, they began to look like the norm. This morning I saw a very old man riding a newish mountain bike beside the sidewalk of a very busy street. He was weaving in and out of taxi cabs and buses that were also weaving in and out of parked vehicles and pedestrians. I wouldn’t last 5 minutes on a bike here, yet this gentleman was successfully negotiating the obstacle course. Amazing. This city truly is a free for all.

2. I’ve been on subways in many cities, including several in Europe. All of them are better designed and easier to use than NYC’s subway system. Last night we took the subway back from The Village area to Columbus Circle. We only needed two passes, yet none of the machines we tried would take my credit card or dollar bills. We finally found a manned station. I told the attendant I needed two tickets and he took my money and gave me one subway card. No explanation. So we went over to the turnstyles and tried swiping the card, but it wouldn’t let us pass. Finally after swiping the card twice, I was able to pass through. Then I had to hand the pass back to Sarah and she had to swipe it twice. What’s wrong with tokens? Then began the fun of trying to figure out which trains to take. The map was easy enough to figure out, but trying to decide which train corresponded with what we saw on the map was not as easy. We made it back somehow, but I can see you’d have to live here awhile to really get to know this system.

3. The restaurants here are on a higher plane than in the Midwest. Simple neighborhood eateries have delicious food. You can hardly find a bad meal here (except maybe at our hotel).

4. Most signs warning of fines for driving offenses mean nothing. There are signs everywhere warning of hefty fines for honking horns, yet you stand there reading the sign while a symphony of honking horns plays around you. I was sitting in a stationary cab last night right in the middle of an intersection reading the sign warning drivers about blocking cross traffic. The lines on the street? They’re there for visitors. No one else pays any attention to them. And the shuttle bus drivers move through the tightest gaps in traffic with the grace of ballet dancers. I kept waiting for the crunch of metal, but we never hit a thing.

5. Tall buildings always appear a lot closer than they really are. I left the Javits Center yesterday around 1PM. The shuttle buses had stopped running and I had very little cash, so I had no choice but to walk back to the hotel. There’s a very distinctive building near our hotel and I could see it easily from the Javits Center. I thought, “that’s not so far.” Half an hour later I could still clearly see the distinctive building whenever I stopped to wipe the sweat off my forehead. On a cool day, it would have been a nice walk. In yesterday’s heat, not so much.

6. If you’re tired enough, you can sleep through anything. The first night here I may have slept 3 hours total. The rest of the night I was kept awake by the seemingly non-stop truck traffic on W. 57th St and by the near constant slamming of hotel room doors (why can’t someone invent a door that closes securely without slamming?) and by the ice machine that some fledgling architect thought would be ok to put right in the hallway outside our room. But after a busy day yesterday combined with a serious sleep deficit, I slept like the dead last night.

7. The price of bottled water fluctuates wildly with the location of the purchase. A small bottle at our hotel bar runs $4. It’s $3 at the convention center. At the Subway sandwich joint around the corner from our hotel, it’s $1.25. Sort of like shopping for the cheapest gasoline, which, btw, is not much higher here in the city that it is in our neck of the woods back home.

8. As I sit here looking out my hotel room window, I have to think that glass is the most common element in NYC. And I wonder how high up you have to get before you stop hearing traffic. I can tell you that 12th floor is not high enough.

We’re in NYC for Book Expo. It’s a really nice evening, so we went for a bit of a walk down to Lincoln Center and over to Central Park. Just across from Lincoln Center is an apartment building I lived in for a few months back in early ’87. Still looks the same. It’s the white and silvery one. We were up on the 5th floor if I remember right. Beautiful place overlooking Lincoln Center. At the time, the company  I worked for was paying $3200/month for the place. I can only imagine what it goes for now.

Tomorrow we’re off to Book Expo in New York City. Book Expo is where publishers show off all their new or upcoming publications. There are free books galore (although the price is sore feet, tired shoulders, lots of bumping into people, and shipping all the books home). It’s also a great place to people watch as you never know who you’ll bump into. Last year I couldn’t understand why someone would point a real video cam complete with bright lights at me, until I realized I was standing beside Steve Wozniak, who was about to promote his new book. Ex-cuuuuuuse me, please. It will also give us a chance to eat at some really good restaurants, including Mitali East, a to-die-for Indian place on 6th St. You’ll be reading about that and other delights on Greasy Spoons. 

Then it’s back to Sarah’s folks’ house in Newington, CT for a few nights, although Sarah has a speaking engagement at a library workshop in western MA on Tuesday.

Next Thursday it’s off to Albany, NY for the North American Conference of The Historical Novel Society. Sarah’s been the one of the planners of this conference as she was for the original conference, which was held two years ago in Salt Lake City.

Finally, we fly home the following Monday. I think I’ll need a week off to recuperate.  😛

Forty-five years ago EIU botany professor Wesley Whiteside bought 5 acres of land on the east side of Charleston, Illinois and saved the land from becoming a junkyard. Today it is a work of art. Professor Whiteside created an impressive wonderland of trees and plants that have been enjoyed by thousands of central Illinois residents for years during the annual Garden Ramble. It took us five years, but we finally made it to our first Ramble. I can see it becoming a tradition for us. The garden is incredible. So many different trees and plants everywhere you look. The few images below are merely a tiny sampling of the vast cornucopia of flora one sees during a visit. As I walked through the tour I couldn’t help thinking that some of the trees here have been in existence almost as long as I. This is truly a lifelong labor of love.

Put out a little birdseed and you never know what you’ll attract.

Although it wasn’t the best day for it, we decided to drive out to Monticello and walk around Allerton Park. With 1500 acres and 14 miles of trails, it’s a great place to spend an afternoon. We weren’t prepared for major hiking today, but we still had a pretty good walk. Two words of advice for anyone planning on walking around out there this time of year – insect repellent. We walked down by the river and I got attacked by some bloodthirsty mosquitos. While they were deciding whether to suck me dry right there or bring me back to the nest, we made our escape back to the car. Still, one made it into the car and valiantly tried to continue feeding before I squashed him like…well, like a bug.

Here’s a few pics of Allerton House and the surrounding area.

On the way back, we drove through Monticello and stopped for dinner at Montgomery’s on the Square. You can read about that over on Greasy Spoons.

No real subject tonight. Just some Friday evening rambling.

1. I joined the Mount Washington Observatory (MWO) Summit Club today. When I was a kid, my parents took us camping in NH several times each summer. I’ve been to the summit of Mt. Washington a couple of times, although I have to confess I drove up both times. I’ve enjoyed the MWO webcams for a couple of years now, so I figured it was my turn to give back. Money well spent.

2. This is not only Indy 500 weekend, it is also the weekend for the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco. Despite what you might hear in these parts about the Indy 500 being the greatest spectacle in racing, any racer worth his or her salt will tell you that the most prestigious race is the F1 GP in Monaco. And in true F1 style, the parties are in constant competition for the title of “the place to be.” This year it was apparently on the yacht (at 93 meters, really a ship) belonging to the owner of India’s Kingfisher Airlines (and, I believe, Kingfisher beer). This is a serious dingy.

3. Weird weather, eh? Yesterday it was hovering around 90, but was very dry. It was comfortable to be outside. Today it barely got into the 70’s, but late this afternoon it was sticky and felt tropical. I’ll take dry any day.

4. This weekend is the unofficial start of summer. Not as significant to me now as it used to be when I was a kid, because this was usually the weekend of our first camping trip of the season. We’d go up the NH for the weekend and it’d be chilly in the morning, warm or even hot in the afternoon, and cold enough at night to really enjoy the campfire. If we were really brave, we tempt fate by swimming at Sabbaday Falls. Sometimes it was so cold that your jaw muscles would instantly cramp when you hit the water. But the pool under the falls was crystal clear and so deep you couldn’t reach the bottom even if you jumped off the surrounding cliff. But you could clearly see the bottom like it was 4ft away. I miss those days, especially the smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the trees first thing in the morning.

Ninety years ago this Saturday the third deadliest tornado in Illinois history tore through Coles County, killing over 100 people. Witnesses described two boiling cloud masses coming together, but no funnel cloud. It’s thought that the accompanying wall cloud was too low and dense for the classic tornado funnel to be seen. The destruction wrought by this storm left no doubt there was a tornado, though. Here’s a section of the damage chart showing just Mattoon and Charleston.

The path shown below passes very near to our current home. The text of the report says the tornado passed a mile north of Eastern Illinois University, so that would put it on the north side of town, but the path below places it right along Rt 16. Either way, too close for comfort.  😯