"Guest Post" - Eight Years in the Making

I am publishing this post with permission of the author, Peggy Lee Hanson, who featured it on her blog several days ago (see credits below). Today is the 47th anniversary of the Great Northeast Blackout, during which my mother died, my own personal 9/11.

I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did.

I didn’t lose my job yesterday, it actually happened on 9-11

 

Have you seen the movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close about a young boy who lost his father in the Twin Towers on that fateful morning in September 2001? He’s trying to make sense of a senseless act.

While watching the movie, memories of that terrible and fateful day came flooding back to me. They were memories of how my boss (I was working for Northwest Airlines who merged with Delta a few years ago) didn’t believe me when I told her a plane had struck one of the towers; of how I walked into the video room and eventually into a coworker's cubicle who had a small-screen television on. Those huddled around watched in disbelief the second plane smash into the other tower. And then for the next five days, hearing the silence in the sky; no planes taking off or landing; no white trails of jets tracing lines in the blue sky above. It was a type of eerie or scary feeling that might occur around Halloween.

As I continued watching the Tom Hanks movie, the title of this post came barreling into my mind. I went to sleep with the words on my mind and I woke in the same manner. I couldn’t shake them, so it was time to get up and write down those words and thoughts to quiet the banging and get them out of my head.

I was amazed at the simple truth it carried; the job loss I experienced took eight years in the making!

But then, logic returned and I remembered that 9-11 wasn’t the beginning of the economic downtown; it was already happening earlier in the year; in fact, March 2001 had been when the first of the layoffs came, and they continued well after Northwest and Delta airlines officially merged in 2009.

My fate had been etched during those years; perhaps yours was too.

I am beginning to believe that events happen to put things right, to put us on our right path. That belief has helped me make sense of the things that don’t make sense, much like Oskar tried to do in the movie. He did lose something very close to him, but he also gained.

I stand with Oskar.

To your success,
PeggyLee

“My life story is the story of everyone I've ever met.” ~Jonathan Safran Foer

 

Want To Reprint this article? You may do so as long as you leave it intact and include this author information:
Peggy Lee Hanson, personal transition guide and mentor, is expert at compassionately helping those suffering loss of any proportion, especially through unemployment. Using proven strategies and support, she teaches how to move quickly and easily through current or impending life-changing moments so that you can have the life you are meant -- and deserve -- to live.
PeggyLee is a Speaker, Best-selling author on Amazon.com, Certified Dream Coach® & Group Leader®, Trained True Purpose Coach®, and CEO and Founder of MyDreamArchitect.com, a subsidiary of Personal Transition Guidance, LLC. Also, Peggy Lee has co-facilitated mastermind groups and appeared as a regular columnist for online communities. She is a member of Toastmasters International.
Follow her at PeggyLeeHanson on Twitter and Facebook. You may also subscribe to her blog and newsletter.

Pouring a Gas of Milk

NaNoWriMo Weekly check in #1.  The total word count as of bedtime last night is 13,728.  A whole lot to go.

I hope most of those sentences are more coherent than my "gas of water" gem.

One of the biggest challenges of the National Novel Writing Month (writing a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November) is keeping your ideas flowing.  It's supposed to be all about turning off your inner editor- you know, the inner editor that all bloggers have.  Write now, edit after November ends.

The second biggest challenge is staying coherent.  Hence the "gas of milk".

I meant to say "glass of milk".  To the NaNoWriMo word count, it doesn't matter. But to me, it does.

My third biggest challenge is shutting up the inner voice that keeps saying "no one is going to care about what you write. Boorrrrrrring! "

After reviewing the NaNoWriMo rules, I decided to turn this novel into a mental health project.  The flood our area survive last year has now been dwafted, big time, by Sandy.  I have friends and family on Long Island, New Jersey, and in NYC.  I'm not even sure all of them have power back. Did I happen to mention that, as I pre-write this post, it is snowing heavily down there? 

But there is something I have to get out of my system.

And so, I am writing the fictional memoir of someone who could be me in an alternate universe. In that universe, my Mom didn't die when I was 12.  She is alive, and 90 years old.  (I have a feeling I am channeling a friend and loyal Ramblin with AM blog reader.  Fear not, friend, she is not your Mom. She is my Mom, if she had lived to 90.).  In that universe, I have the daughter who, in this universe, I never had. (not that I have ever not loved my son.)  In that universe, I am working in a career I changed in "real life" years ago.  In that universe, I am a writer.  Come to think of it, I am one in this universe, too.

I'm working on a book, about something that happened in Binghamton in 1962.

There's one other thing.  In this universe, I was not here when the flood happened, when my neighborhood was evacuated.  My spouse and I were 7 hours away, on vacation.  You can check my blog, posts of September 7-September 11 to see what "really" happened. In this universe, anyway.

About three weeks after the flood, a neighbor offhandedly said to me, "but you weren't here"  I don't think he meant anything by it, but it plunged me into a big bout of Survivors Guilt I've never mentioned in this blog until just now.

I have spent the last 14 months wondering what would have happened if we had been home when the flood came.  And now I know, because I am writing about it.

Fiction with a dash or two of fact. And a project that will put mental demons to rest, at last.  Liberation.  Freedom.

Free at last.

Thank you, NaNoWriMo.

Fall Fancies - It's Not Your Time!

What do you think about this?  It is November 7 in upstate New York.  Fall, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, had taken a cold, dreary turn earlier this week.  I took some pictures on Saturday (November 3) and to my surprise this is what I saw.in the Wegmans Johnson City, New York parking lot:

A blooming cherry tree!

Here's a closeup view...

Not exactly what you expect on a dreary fall day.

Meanwhile, a few miles away in Vestal, I saw this:

A forsythia.

This was back on 10-20, but this is not a reblooming iris.

And finally, to ring in our fall blooming season..

A Christmas Wreath! (Wegmans, Johnson City.)

Why not?

Voting in the Post Sandy World

Today, in the United States, it is election day.  We are electing a President, the House of Representatives, 1/3 of the Senate and also various local officials.

This is your choice today: vote or don't vote.  But for many in the Hurricane Sandy zone, voting is going to be just another burden on top of trying to get to work, trying to find a place with heat, and trying to find gas for your car or generator.

If you vote, you are joining people like my mother in law, who was away from her home for nearly a week due to Hurricane Sandy.  When I spoke to her Saturday, the thing uppermost on her mind was - not when her power would be restored (it was, shortly after I spoke to her) but if she would be able to vote.

I assured her she would, but to call her Board of Elections to find out if her polling place had changed.

People here in states that allow early voting were standing on long lines back in October to exercise their privlege.  People in Hurricane Sandy-affected areas today are going to go to a lot of trouble to vote.  A cousin who had to be out of town today voted by absentee ballot.


Haven't made up your mind yet?  Not an excuse.  My suggestion: don't vote based on one issue.  Examine your future carefully.  You are voting for both a future you can imagine and a future you can't.  A future that now includes the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and if we will learn our lesson.

Vote for the candidates that best express the future you dream of. 

Governors Cuomo and Christie (Democrat and Republican) have joined in a common effort to make voting easier for their citizens.  Quoting from a news report:

" Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to issue an executive order that will allow displaced voters to cast ballots by affidavit at any polling site they can reach Tuesday.
The order will permit voters to sign affidavits that they're legally registered to vote in the presidential and state races and cast ballots at any open polling site, even those outside their neighborhoods.
But they won't be able to vote for state legislative candidates unless the polling place is within the proper legislative district.
New Jersey is allowing voters to use provisional ballots at any polling site"

Decisions on the fly,to cope with the conditions we now face.  That is true leadership.  Look for that quality in your candidate.

So now, if you are in the United States, make your country proud. Get out and vote.  And, a special thanks if you were impacted by Sandy. You are participating in history. Be proud.

It does matter.

The New Normal- Why You Should Vote

Two weeks ago Saturday, I was partying with some of them at a 60th birthday party on the edge of New York City.  Today, they are recovering from a natural disaster, every one of them.

Two weeks ago, the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area could never dream what would happen next. They have collided with the New Normal.

I have other friends/family in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester County.  This is what happened, and why it is important to vote. 

I realize this happens to Florida and the Gulf Coast a lot more, but the extent of this storm was massive - the total area it covered was something not seen often in our lifetimes.  The nature of these storms is changing.  Less wind.  Larger area.

A cousin at the party had water in his house, his car is undriveable and possibly totalled, and he still did not have power as of when I heard of them last

Mother in law, didn't have power 5 days ago; she's home now but had to take refuge with first a family member and later a neighbor's daughter.

Husband's cousin-in-law (is there a better name for this relationship?), without power, expected restoration was November 4, let's hope so.  Her daughter, no power, expected restoration, November 9.  CIL's mother has Alzheimers, and can't understand what is going on.  Speaking of being in the sandwich generation...

Cousin in Brooklyn, without power 55 hours, has it back now but heating system isn't working.  Neighborhood 1/2 mile away is totally devastated.   Gas lines are two to three hours long in some neighborhoods as of yesterday.

New Jersey relatives were without power. One moved down to Florida several months ago and was very unhappy.  Turns out she made the right choice as her former home area is in ruins.


Brooklyn relative talks about New York Marathon and how they took generators that residents could use and used them for Marathon tents. He posted on Facebook explaining  how Midtown Manhattan got their cell phone service restored and the rest of the five boroughs got ignored.  A high school friend who is a runner got involved in the relief effort, and a "helping" marathon was held yesterday.

We saw the best and the worst of people, through the fingers of friends communicating on social media.  Facebook was essential.  Twitter was helpful.  Smart phones, when charging was available, useful.  iPads were better, for some reason.

So, dear reader, what have we learned, as a hurricane hit an area of the country that one would not normally hit?

We've learned that this isn't the first time New York City has been brought to its (figurative) knees by weather.  There was this little storm called The Blizzard of 1888. 

Partially because of the Blizzard, itself a superstorm, the subways were built, and powerlines in Manhattan were put under ground.  The system worked - until Monday.  Times have changed.

Now we have to rethink our cities near the coast.  Sandy showed us just how vulnerable we are.  Our lifelines of gasoline and cell phones were cut.  Storms aren't storms any more, they are super storms.  Perhaps weaker winds, but the storms now cover huge areas.  Imagine - this storm affected the weather in Chicago while it was tearing up New Jersey!

We must adapt or die. Maybe NOW we will no longer think our lives are "business as usual". Too many people have had their lives disrupted for too long.  Will we finally wake up and realize we must adapt to what is going on around us?  That we have to spend the money to rebuild and improve our infrastructure to cope with the changes in the weather?

We have mixed politics and meteorology too many times recently.  This must stop.  Hoping the affected people can get to a voting booth and express what they feel.

If we don't face the facts, our lifestyles won't be sustainable for very much longer.

My thoughts continue to go out to all those affected by Sandy.

And, the final lesson of the past week?  VOTE TOMORROW.  Even if you think it won't matter.  Even if you think your candidate will lose.  Haven't been paying attention? Pick up today's newspaper, if you can. You can read newspapers without power (at least during daytime hours.)

Exercise your right to vote tomorrow.  Or shut up for the next four years.

Civil War Sunday- The Weapon to End All Wars

I was torn between a famous military anniversary today and my visit Thursday to view the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.   I will go with this anniversary, and blog about the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation next week.

So, what is important about this day in history, 150 years ago?

On November 4, 1862, the Gatling Gun was patented.

This weapon became the Civil War version of a "weapon of mass destruction".  We know it today as the forerunner of the machine gun; as a rapid fire gun that was supposed to be such a terrible weapon that mankind would be convinced to give up war.  Or so the inventor, Dr. Richard Gatling, a North Carolina native, said.


At various gun demonstrations at the Antietam reenactment and the Antietam battlefield back in September, we saw how warfare was waged prior to the Gatling gun.  The typical Civil War soldier of 1862 used a single shot rifle, which was loaded by a complicated process including using paper based cartridges. The soldiers got quite good at it but it was still a relatively slow process, as this demonstration shows.

The Gatling gun patented was a 6 barrel gun, mounted on wheels, which could be loaded and fired quickly, and could be quickly reloaded and then replaced by the next barrel by use of a crank.

It could fire some 200 shots a minute.  Compared to the guns in the video above, this was a great leap forward in the technology of killing.

The irony is that the Gatling Gun was invented by a medical doctor, a doctor who was more interested in inventing than doctoring.

His agricultural background gave him the inspiration to create a rear loading device that would load cartridges at regular intervals, somewhat like an agricultural seeder.

Did the Gatling gun prove to be such a terrible weapon that the Civil War became the War to End All Wars?  Not exactly.  It actually didn't play much of a role in the Civil War at all.  And, it certainly did not end the horror of war.

But the design survived, was improved further in the years after the Civil War, and Gatling guns are used by the military even today.

Are you surprised by 150 year old technology still being used today?  Don't be.   You would be surprised to find out what else in your life is that old.

Next week - a timeless document.

Who Cares About an Elderly Woman with a Heart Condition?

NYSEG, doesn't, that's who.  And all those who have elderly parents in the Sandy Zone, or relatives with autism, should take note.

NYSEG is the electric utility that services counties directly to the north of New York City, especially northern Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess.  All of these counties were impacted by Hurricane Sandy.   Power outages are common with storms in this area, with NYSEG known to drag its feet.  Their response time to disasters is legendarily slow.  My mother in law lives in this area.  She has a 50-something son with autism.  I would not be able to calculate how much money my mother has saved the taxpayer with her efforts on behalf of her son.  MIL is an old time woman, sometimes stubborn to a fault, who believes in self-reliance.  She's a two time breast cancer survivor and suffered a stroke several years ago. She also has a problem with her heart.  To maintain her privacy, I will not elaborate further.

MIL, who was staying with family outside of NYSEG's service area (ironically, closer to the storm), knew her power had been out since Monday.  She heard on the news that NYSEG was giving priority in restoration to people with heart conditions.  She called"somebody".  To be fair I am not sure she called NYSEG, as I received this story third hand.

She was told, dear readers, to call the Red Cross.  Not NYSEG's problem, apparently,  No offer to give her street, which is usually one of the last to have power restored, any priority.

A shelter is not an option for her, because of her son with autism.  A shelter would be total sensory overload for him.  I don't know how he would react, but other adults with his conditions have been known to tantrum, which can be perceived by shelter workers unfamiliar with developmental disabilities as violent, dangerous behavior.  So, she will continue to seek shelter with friends/relatives who have had power restored. In a way, she is now homeless.  That is no way to treat an elderly woman. (If you are curious, she was offered shelter up here, 150 miles away, and turned it down.  But it is always an option.  So is a fully automatic generator, but she is a widow on Social Security, and we aren't floating in money, either.)

NYSEG's lack of service is not just my opinion. It is NY Governor Cuomo's opinion, too.  Quoting from a newspaper article provided by AP, "Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday threatened utility companies' rights to operate in the state if they don't immediately put power restoration work into highest gear."  He noted that Con Ed (NYC's utility) is hard at work.  Where was NYSEG?

The government in NY State holds utilities to certain standards of service.  At least they have to TRY.  Apparently, NYSEG was fast asleep - again.

I will get political for a moment.  Sometimes, you NEED government.  Sometimes situations are just too much for local governments to handle.  There are reasons why we as people have chosen the state form of government.  When it works for us, it works.  Curious, after this statement, some power started to be restored in the counties I've mentioned. 

Just coincidence, I'm sure.

My mother in law's neighborhood? They were assessed for power back on today at 11pm. Then it was changed to tomorrow at noon.  Now it is 11 pm tomorrow.  Do I hear Monday? Do I hear Tuesday?

(UPDATE 11-3 at 2:15pm. Estimate of power turnon in my MIL's neighborhood is now November 6-I must have jinxed her. )And, I confirmed she did talk to someone at NYSEG. She called a complaint number,was switched twice, and doesn't know who she talked to.  I am going to follow up.

Shame, Shame, Shame, NYSEG.

Knock Knock, Who's There?

Last Friday, we were in the middle of setting up arrangements for my mother in law and my disabled brother in law, 150 miles from us, to have a place to stay should the storm eventually to be known as Superstorm Sandy make her area lose power.

There was a soft knock on the door.  It was after dark, and I couldn't see anyone through the peephole - which turned out to be because a Halloween decoration was blocking the peephole. We normally don't have people knocking on our door at that hour. But my spouse peeked through a window, and opened the door to an older man standing on our porch.

It turned out that this man was running for county legislator.  And this short visit turned into about a 45 minute conversation with this local man, a retired business owner by the name of Ron Hebner. He was running for reelection.

He was targeting registered voters of the "party opposite" and that got my attention right away.

He wanted to know what was on our mind, and that was the possibility of our neighborhood flooding, just as it did last year. Turns out he lives in a neighborhood in Johnson City that was also hard hit.  He had 56 inches of water in his basement.  He told us various steps he was taking, since he's pretty sure it will happen again, and he wants to stay in his home.


He sat down and his passion was obvious as he explained what he did after he took office two years ago.  He was a good salesman, too.  He explained many things, including some of the interesting privileges that county officials get from their part time "public service".   He, incidentally, rejected every one of those privileges.

He told us he spends at least 6 hours a day knocking on doors.  He loves talking to people.  And, his literature includes his home phone number. "Call him anytime".

When is the last time something like this happened to you?

At least we will have an election Tuesday-unless New York State postpones the election because of the terrible damage downstate.

See You In December

Today, hopefully, as you read this, I am hard at work in a 30 day writing contest called NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.  50,000 words in 30 days.  Only crazy people do this, which is why I knew I had to sign up.

You "win" by writing a 50,000 work of fiction.  What you call a novel is up to you.  This works out to 1,667 words a day.  I am doing this as a "pantser" (by the seat of her pants) no plot, no characters, no nothing, watch me be a crazed woman.  Actually I sort of have a plot, which I am sure will last about 2 days before I find myself in a total, sweaty panic regretting that I even thought about trying this.

I'm very fortunate to have an empty nest, and a husband who does all the cooking - because he loves to cook. (No, ladies, he's been mine for 38 years plus, and you can't have him.)  But I also have a full time job, which involves things other than novel writing, and they sort of expect me to be there daily, pounding away at what they consider important.  And sometimes, it is just totally draining.

Which brings me to a dilemma.  I have this blog called "RamblinWithAM". I've also been posting daily on my blog since late April, 2011.  I've been able to do this through thick and thin. Fortunately, the thick hasn't been as thick as it could have been. 

I even fell flat on my face once - literally.  Not that I'm bragging....

But I can't do NaNoWriMo and this blog all all at the same time.  So....

I am writing some posts in advance.  And other days, you are going to get reruns.  Still other days, updates on my progress. (Right now I plan to do that every Thursday).

I still hope to be able to blog daily, somehow. 

And then, on December 1, you will have me back, hopefully, full time.

In the meantime I am telling you about NaNoWriMo because then the guilt monkees will come after me every time I flag in my writing.

Wish me luck!

Fall Fancies - The Post Sandy Halloweeen

In the wake of Frankenstorm here in the Binghamton, NY area, I wanted to share some pictures of Halloween decorations with you that I took prior to Frankenstorm/Superstorm Sandy.  But first...

My friends/family in NYC are checking in little by little. They have power (except maybe for one) although I'm not sure if one had to evacuate (I'm assuming he did.)  Co-workers have family in NYC too so we've all been a bit on edge.

We were fortunate to have been minimally affected. After last year's floods from Tropical Storm Lee, our area was on edge, too.  Now, though, we can relax and be grateful we weren't near the coast, or in the mountains of West Virginia, or on the Tennessee/North Carolina line where we drove last month.  (Yes, you can get snow from a hurricane).  Meanwhile this was our world last week....

On the West Side of Binghamton, one of the most unusual lawn decorations I've ever seen.

Another house, decorated for fall, also on the West Side of Binghamton.

On the Vestal Rail Trail, in Vestal, NY.

I had featured this pumpkin previously, but I like it so much that I am posting it again.

And finally, in Yonkers, NY, just north of NYC,another city hit by the hurricane.  (I can only hope it still looks like this now, in the wake of the storm.)

Not everyone decorates for Halloween - I personally prefer to decorate for fall, with scarecrows, leaf garlands, and even multicolored corn.  But these are definitely Fall Fancies.

Finally:  with my participation in the writing competition NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow (which will take a tremendous toll on my writing energy), this will probably be the last "new" Fall Fancy of the season.  I may use Wednesdays as a weekly check in on my NaNoWriMo progress, to keep me going out of shame.

What is your favorite way to decorate for Halloween, if you participate in this holiday?

Under the Full Moon, the Real Boo

Who needs a fake Halloween haunted event when Nature gives you the Real Boo?

(Witch decoration on Vestal Rail Trail, Vestal, NY courtesy of AM)


My home neighborhood, where I spent part of my babyhood (Arverne,in the Rockaways section of New York City) is flooded.  Rockaway Beach is flooded.  Power shut off in parts of Lower Manhattan.  13 feet of water at the Battery. Subways in danger of flooding.  Reading Twitter, some massive transformer explosion, huge green flash and East Village goes dark. But first some one tweeted a photo, with cars floating down the street under an eerie yellow glow.

The Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, that I blogged about several times in September, is flooding.  High tide came - under a full moon.  Could you make this up?

And then there is The Crane. The huge crane dangling in midtown Manhattan, looking like something melted it.  As of this writing, it's still there.

I'm crying out to NYC friends on Facebook:  are you there? One responds, sending me a map where I can check out power outages.  Looking at this, I think a cousin has lost power and he later posts on Facebook that he, indeed, has lost power.  Someone in Bensonhurst (a neighborhood in Brooklyn) says the downed power lines are putting out quite the fireworks show.

The Daily News (one of NYC's papers) is flooding.  So much for The News.

A cousin in Harrisburg, PA lost power for a while and has water in his basement.

We made the right call in insisting my elderly mother in law and her disabled son, who live in the metro area, stay with a relative.  Power is out where my mother in law lives now, and, knowing their electric utility, it could take days to be restored.  Normally, she doesn't flood and didn't flood during Irene. Let's hope she doesn't now, either.

State of emergency here in Johnson City NY, 150 long miles away from NYC.  But, the weather here is actually less dire than first predicted.  We lucked out.  Hope I'm not too premature in saying that.

I'm prewriting this so I can post immediately upon waking up today, or in case my power is out.  I won't know what I will be waking up to.

To all my readers in the path of Sandy...I hope dawn finds you safe and undamaged.  I know what the family of NYC residents will do.  You will all unite and get things done.  NYC residents are proud, and are survivors.

You will survive.  And I will be with you in spirit.

From the Rear

Saturday we decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to own a kerosene heater., with Sandy bearing down on us  We have natural gas heat, and no secondary method of heating (i.e. a wood stove or fireplace). We didn't realize we would end up on TV.

We had looked the night before on Amazon to get some ideas, but we decided we really needed a bunch of customer service.  There is a local hardware store just a few miles from us where we have experienced the best customer service time and time again.  So we headed out, hoping they weren't sold out.  The "they", by the way, is Kovarik True Value Hardware and I would love to give them a shout out.


The first thing we saw was a display generator with a "sold" sign on it. The second thing we saw was, two news people.  A young woman, and a young man.  The young man was holding a large camera on his shoulder.  That sure got our attention.  But we went over (first things first) to one of their customer service people, got our questions about kerosene heaters answered, and then he had to help someone else while we made up our minds.   So at that point the newswoman noticed us.

The woman asked if we would like to be interviewed, and my spouse volunteered.

So, those of you who know who I am, if you go on the WBNG website and look for my last name, you will find a link. Spouse's interview was cut (I think we were lucky we got on at all) and two small portions were used

My role was (figures) being photographed from the rear.

Have you ever been interviewed on the news?

Civil War Sunday - The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

Many people are not aware that the "Emancipation Proclamation" that was effective on January 1, 1863, was preceded by a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, in the wake of the Union victory at Antietam (near Sharpsburg, MD).

On November 1 and November 2, a museum in Binghamton will feature, from a traveling exhibit, the only copy of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in Lincoln's own handwriting.

Quoting from the article:

" Lincoln’s handwritten Preliminary Proclamation, issued one hundred fifty years ago in the midst of the Civil War, is the only surviving copy of this document in Lincoln’s own handwriting. Lincoln donated it to the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which raffled the document at an Albany Army Relief Association Fair in 1864. It was later purchased by the New York State Legislature."

A chance to view history.  Will anyone come out?

A few weeks ago, this exhibit was in Syracuse.  I was told there were 3 hour waits.

Will I brave the crowds? That depends on the weather.  Between now and November 1, we will go through what the media is calling Frankenstorm.  I hope I can get to see it.  Besides being able to view Lee's "lost order" back in September, this would be a great thrill for me and other lovers of history.

This is the full text, if anyone is interested, courtesy of History.net.  I will blog later, this year, about the Emancipation Proclamation itself, which is a document misunderstood by many.

Incidentally, William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, and the man responsible for the purchase of the territory that became Alaska from Russia, was also a governor of New York and both a New York State Senator and a State Senator.  I plan to blog about him at a future date, also.

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862

By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States, and each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that relation is, or may be, suspended or disturbed.
That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent, or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there, will be continued.
That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States,including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
That the executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States, and part of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof shall, on that day be, in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto, at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.
That attention is hereby called to an Act of Congress entitled "An Act to make an additional Article of War" approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figure following:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:
"Article-All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.
"Sec.2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage."
Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:
"Sec.9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on (or) being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude and not again held as slaves.
"Sec.10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the presen t rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service."
And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act, and sections above recited.
And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States, and their respective States, and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
[Signed:] By the President, Abraham Lincoln,
[Signed:] William H. Seward, Secretary of State

Sustainable Saturday - The Calm Before the Storm

Part of "sustainable" living is attempting to live within the rhythms of nature.  This is a trick our local government hasn't learned yet.

With climate change, or whatever you want to call it, we now face record, fierce storms that are larger than anything we experienced when we were younger.

The Saturday Otsiningo Park Farmers Market near Binghamton will go on today as scheduled - Frankenstorm has not moved in yet on us here in upstate NY.  (I will announce some news about the market later in this post.) But before the storm comes a calm, and I want to share the last bit of upstate NY fall with you before the hurricane moves in.

The last of the trees are starting to turn now. This red maple in Binghamton, NY is a contrast to the bare tree it stands next to.  Actually, with the oncoming Hurricane Sandy, it is well that these trees shed their leaves now.

Nearby, a red bush blooms (picture taken earlier this week).  These bushes have been so red this year, they practically glow.

So, with the beauty of fall about ready to end with a fierce storm, it is time to announce that our Regional Farmers Market is going to be a reality by next year.  It is official.

Construction will begin next January, with a building on the edge of the park that used to be a rest area building (the rest stop closed back in the 1990's) being remodeled.  And at long last, we will have a year round farmers market.  Not very big compared to, say, Asheville, North Carolina, but it's a start.  I'm sure the building will have to be expanded and that will happen come spring, when the ground defrosts.

So what is the problem?  Speaking of potential heavy rains and flooding....

Otsiningo Park is situated along the Chenango River and has flooded several times over the years. The area where the building is has not flooded in the 25 plus years I've lived in this area but the park is closed whenever it floods and if the park is closed, you won't be able to get to the market.

There must be a reason why this park is a park and is not part of the residential neighborhood it adjoins.  So maybe local government had a good reason back when not to develop the area.  Maybe today's local government should give that some thought.

If we gave the increasingly likelihood of flooding in our area some thought, we might want to rethink some things, including putting a year round venue inside this park. Or, if they want to go ahead, make sure the design is in harmony with the fact that the park may flood.  And that our climate is changing.

I'll sure be curious to see, come January, what the design will be like.

In the meantime, I will enjoy this calm before the storm.  And, apart from a bit of anxiety over the coming storm - I can't wait to have a year round farmers market.

Why should Asheville have all the fun?

Will I Let NaNoWriMo Eat My Soul?

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The name glides from the keyboard smooth as silk.  NaNoWriMo. 

One month, 50,000. words, fiction.  Write till you drop.  Generate record profits for the coffee industry. Hopefully, get something out of a month of sheer terror that can be refined into a novel.  People have written novels and gotten them published. 

Writers hanging around writers, both in cyberspace and (in various cities) physically, urging each other on, sounded great. Sounded scary. So why did I keep thinking about it  Like a throbbing tooth that you just must nudge with your tongue, NaNoWriMo worked its way into my mind. 

At first I said to myself, I'm not going to do it.  Actually it isn't the 50,000 words in 30 days thing that terrifies me.  It's the fiction thing.  I don't do fiction.  Well, I haven't done fiction since, oh, I was a 12 year old writing the timeless novel "Birdmen of Zuma" about canary men with super powers, living in - where else? - the Canary Islands.  Timeless as in "You've Never Seen it At Your Local Bookstore and You Should Thank Me Daily For That." (I even have a timeless friend and blog reader who remembers me pounding out that novel, day after day, after school, on her mother's typewriter.)

I thank those writers who gave me encouragement, with a special shout out to the author Jo Michaels, after I blogged about possibly doing NaNoWriMo.  I pondered and made excuses in my head.  Excuses, I do very well.  Fiction, I don't do well at all.  I even looked at the rules and it said FICTION. You know, character development and plot. I prefer to tell stories about what is or what was, in "real life".

I decided to lurk around the public parts of the NaNoWriMo website. And when I started to dig into the forums, an amazing thing happened.  I was back in the book What Color is Your Parachute, in the cocktail party exercise I blogged about last week.

This exercise involves imagining you are in a cocktail party, where people have gathered in the corners.  Historians in one corner. Mathematicians in another.  Artists in another. Mechanics in another, and so forth.  You can hang out in any corner you want, regardless of if you have the skills or the experience, and listen to the conversations. The corner you end up wanting to be in gives you clues as to what your chosen career should involve.

While in those forums, I found my corner. I'm a writer, after all.

How can I resist forums with names like "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul"? "The Plot Bunny Day Care Center"? and "What Your English Teacher Lied About"? These people are my kind of crazy.

So now, all I have to do is find a way I can disguise non fiction as fiction,  and come up with (I guess) a title, all in the next 5 days. And register, before Frankenstorm comes and we lose our power.

Novels have power to change the world.  As someone who started out college out majoring in history, I should know that.  Maybe, just maybe, if I write about the right thing, the novel (as Jo Michaels pointed out to me) will write itself.



For now, I still ponder.

Anyone else in upstate NY thinking about NaNoWriMo?

Frankenstorm?

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  Frankenstorm is coming to the Northeast United States.

It's not a trick or treat.  It isn't make believe spooky, like the picture above.

My spouse, who is an amateur meteorologist, has been tracking this storm via the Weather Channel for the past 3 days.  Now, we are told computer models are saying there is a 90% chance of the East Coast being hit by this "hybrid" storm.  I'm watching the CBS Evening News right now and it's starting to sound pretty dire.

It's been a little more than 13 months since my neighborhood,and other neighborhoods, of the Twin Tiers of New York were hit by the 1-2 punch of Tropical Storm Irene and Tropical Storm Lee and flooded.  A number of houses in my neighborhood, and others, may never be lived in again.  So I do have an idea of what flooding will be lik.

And that was in September and not at the end of October.  No cold air in the wings, no possibility of snow right around the corner.

My elderly mother in law, further south, and closer to the coast, lost power for five days thanks to Irene.  Family members had taken her up here (to another relative, but with us helping out) but, with the chance of flooding, I don't think we dare to do that, but where my mother in law lives


So - we are far from panicking but it is time to make some preparations, and phone calls.

Are you in the potential path of this storm?  Are you making preparations?

Fall Fancies - The Cruelest Month

Fall color has reached its peak here in upstate NY.  In areas, the trees are bare.  Almost all trees that still have leaves are showing some degree of color. 

October can be the cruelest month.  Don't be fooled by those bright yellow or red leaves lighting up the hills.  Don't be surprised when they fall from the trees in showers of debris needing to be raked up.  Don't be misled by fall flowers.  These are the colors of impending death.  You can feel the chill in the air. You can see the weakening daylight.  You can be chilled to the bone.  You know you are seeing the death of summer.

Soon, we will be slipping on ice.  Soon, we will be shoveling snow.  But until then, let us hold onto these last memories of the growing season.

A tree in Endicott, NY near the George F. Johnson Library.

A wildflower clings to life in Yonkers, NY, just north of New York City.

A mystery flower (anyone know what this is?) sends up its final blooms in the Cross County shopping center in Yonkers.

And, in a bed in the Cross County center, flowering cabbages rule along with sedum.

So many people I know love the four seasons.  And indeed, I drink the cider of fall.  I eat the apples.  I drink the first soups of the cold weather season.  But I still think that fall is the cruelest month, because I know what comes next.

The Great Sleep.  Winter.

The World on the Edge of Forever

The world was about to end.  We understood on that at some level, that afternoon in October of 1962 when we walked home from school.  We said goodbye to each other, that afternoon, saying "See you tomorrow - if there is a tomorrow."

We didn't know why we were saying that.

We didn't know what the world ending meant.

We didn't know that our world was teetering on the edge of forever. Thankfully, that knowledge was left to our parents, and the other adults of our world.  You know, those adults who were supposed to keep us children safe.

We didn't know that our President, that handsome President Kennedy, had appeared on TV on Monday, October 22, 1962.  Headlines in newspapers warned that the speech would be of the highest national urgency.

Our young President, in office for less than two years, told the American people that the Soviets had set up nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, less than 100 miles from the Florida Keys.

For the next week, the world held its collective breath while the two nuclear superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, manuvered, finally realizing they had to back off from the brink. They found a way.

Some historians consider October, 1962, the most dangerous month in the history of the world.

My spouse has memories of walking home from school, to eat lunch (this was common back then), and hearing sirens go off.  He and his friends, in a panic, ran towards their homes as fast as they could.

I don't know if my fellow bloggers, some  of which barely remember the Soviet Union, can imagine what those days in October were like.

50 years ago, the world was a very different place.  We should never forget that, for the Cuban Missile Crisis has lessons to teach us today.

Nostalgia sometimes isn't pleasant. 

Sometimes, you don't want to remember.

Yonkers Before the Zombies

The world is supposed to end in December of 2012. 

 What better time to release what was going to be the zombie film of all time, World War Z?  Based on the book by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks's son, not that it should matter but sometimes it does), I was so looking forward to this. (The film, which Brad Pitt was supposed to star in, is now delayed into 2013, if it ever gets released at all. What a (not) surprise!)

You see, I am secretly into zombie lit.  Not all of it but it does fit into the dystopian future literature I...er, feed upon.

I was so looking forward to seeing the Battle of Yonkers.  Yonkers is a city in New York State that borders New York City on its north.  In World War Z, after New York City falls to the zombies, the U.S. Army makes a stand in Yonkers.  I'll leave it to your imagination how the battle ends.

Yonkers isn't worried, by the way.  They are too busy decorating for Halloween.  I should know - I visited Yonkers a couple of days ago.

On our way to a party yesterday, we passed a house that was incredibly decorated for zo....I mean, Halloween.

It was located on Kimball Avenue, in walking distance of the Cross County shopping center.

After the party, we went back.  It was getting dark, and floodlights had been turned on.

You can't see it in the photos but there was even an animated "dead" figure trying to crawl along the ground.  Not exactly a zombie, but it could have been.

Finally, it got too dark, and we left the house to its fate.

No one ever decorated for Halloween when I was growing up.  Now, it's getting to be almost as big a decorating holiday as Christmas has become.  And zombies are massively popular now, for reasons I could spend an entire week blogging about.

So Yonkers waits.  Patiently waits, for the zombies to come.

Brad, eat your heart out.

Civil War Sunday-"Happy" 151st

Today is the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Ball's Bluff (Battle of Leesburg) in Virginia.

We've been commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War for about a year and a half now, so it is well we take a look back.

In October of 1861, things were still somewhat disorganized - the first major battle (First Manassas) having been fought only three months before.

By October of 1862, two of the bloodiest battles of the war had been fought -Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) in April 1862 and Antietam in September, 1862.  So Ball's Bluff by then was probably just a footnote. A sad footnote, true, featuring Union dependence on a map drawn without a steep bluff overlooking the Potomac that would be a prominent part of the battle.  A battle that took the life of a standing U.S. Senator; a man who Abraham Lincoln named a son after.  A battle that never should have happened (not that any battle ever "should have happened"). 

Ball's Bluff was also a battle that pointed out the importance of rivers in fighting the Civil War.  So many times we live near rivers with no clue as to why people, back in the "old days", settled near rivers.

Rivers weren't just for pretty or for recreation.  For so much of our history, and the history of mankind, rivers were our main highways, our water supply, and sometimes even the fertilization of our fields through flooding.

To the citizens of Civil War Virgina, the Potomac was a lot more than the river that George Washington made famous.

The Mississippi would become a major object of battle and control in the West.  As I blogged about last Sunday, too many of us think of the Civil War as a war fought on land, and fought only in the Eastern states.

But there's more.

Ball's Bluff, like so many Civil War battles, sat neglected and endangered for many, many years.  Developers almost got it in the 1980's but failed.  Gradually the park is growing in size.  A 150th anniversary reenactment was held last October, one I had hoped to visit but the September flooding of my area and my neighborhood forced us to change our plans.  Still, like so many Civil War battlefields, it is located in a residential neighborhood, from what I understand.

So I will wish Ball's Bluff a "happy" 151st.  May it continue to grow, and may I manage to visit it one day.