Chicago River

In the comments on this post I mentioned Chicago.
I knew one day I would have a use for this picture:



Union Station is out of the picture to the left - it's the main train terminal where you come into the city. I'm not sure which street this is, but it's one of the bridges that cross the Chicago River and into the main part of downtown (to the right in the picture) - walking toward Lake Michigan.

Writing that -'the main part of downtown'- almost makes me laugh now, but it didn't back when I actually went downtown. The parts of town -the blocks and various neighborhoods- are like a West Virginian's knowledge of the names of the ridges and back roads. The same, but very, very different.

And, too, I have to point out the significance of 'I'm not sure which street this is.' I don't know because they all look the same to me. I know how cliche that sounds and I'm sure if someone from Chicago read this it would make them as mad as someone saying that all our hills look the same, but, for me, it's true. I found my way around by keeping Lake Michigan to the East in my brain and figuring out which east/west street I had to be on in order to make it back to Union Station (yes, they have names, but I can't remember them right now). Even when driving, if I kept Lake Michigan in my brain, I could find my way around. Mostly.
The kids used to only-half-jokingly ask, "Do you know where we're going, Mom?" I'd answer with a direction: north, south, east, west and they'd groan and crack jokes about being lost and never finding our way back to the house. But, really, if I could keep the map in my head, I was usually fine. I eventually got to know the main north-south and east-west roads and I was fine. Or as fine as I ever got in Chicago.
What I missed were the hills. Here, nestled in the hills, the directions are still there, but more important as directionals are the ridge lines and contours of the land. I never got used to the flat, square grid layout of Chicago.
[PC took this picture sometime in the past year when he was in Chicago on business (I haven't been there since we moved back here).]

I took a land management class while we lived there and one of the things that we studied was the history of the Chicago River. That's what this post was originally supposed to be about, but I kind of wandered off course, huh? Well, I'm running out of time this morning, but I'll get back to the Chicago River and my reasons for taking the class sometime soon....

Daytripping - Raccoon Creek State Park, Pennsylvania

Before I tell you about my trip, I want to insert some gratitude for my wee little gas sipper:


I get about 34mpg just zipping back and forth to town, but on the highway it easily gets 40mpg. I've always thought tiny 4-cylinder engines were smart, but now that gas prices are so high more people understand why I like it so much.
Alright, I'm done talking about gas prices. For now. But, yes, I plan to revisit the subject...


Raccoon Creek State Park is located in Pennsylvania just to the east of the northernmost tip of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. And, being as close as it is to West Virginia, it is beautiful.



So what did it take to get me to go? To get me to leave West Virginia, even for such a short time? To take me away from my writing, my coffee house construction, my kids, my daily chaos routine?



Part of it was the lure of a walk in the woods, but there's no need to go anywhere for that. I am very blessed with plenty of woods and plenty of walking space right here at home. Plenty of that West Virginia beauty, too.



Really, the reason I went? Friends. Good old friends.
They drove down from Ohio and Raccoon Creek State Park is just about exactly the halfway point (now that we know this, we should get together more often).
And it was worth the trip.

Walking up a hill, Nancy spotted this:


And from the back side of the tree it looked like this:

I wonder how many years it's been there?








It was just enough further north that jack-in-the-pulpit still sat in his pulpit:




All those beautiful pictures of green and now I have to throw this one in:


I've never seen a giant M&M vending machine.
Maybe I'm just not paying attention.

Thanks, Lisa and Nancy, for being my friends and loving a walk in the woods as much as I do.

Insects, Sunshine, & Baldness

• It's apparent that I'll have to specify 'fiction' when I post it. 'Roach Motel' was mistaken by at least several people as a real report on how my day was going. Most were able to figure it out before they got too far, but one was a new reader. I hope I didn't scare her away.
• I am thankful that roaches are not on my daily to-do list. Neither is vacuuming, although it probably should be. However, I am certain that there are other people out there, like the young woman in the flash, who are not so fortunate.
• You'll notice that I edited the 'Roach Motel' post title to include 'Flash Fiction.' I figured it couldn't hurt.
• Speaking of insects: they're back. It was warm enough to sit outside yesterday evening and the insects thought it was warm enough, too. I will gladly take a few gnats and mosquitoes to go along with this gorgeous weather.
• For the second time in a week I took advantage of the warm temperatures and gentle sunshine to take a walk in a place that I don't normally go. And for the second time in a week I did not bring my camera. Be assured that I saw many beautiful things: a hillside draped in the soft comfort of Virginia Bluebells, Spring Beauties, Violets, a bumblebee, two deer grazing quietly just up the hill from where I walked, and, unfortunately, plenty of Garlic Mustard -both 1st and 2nd year plants- and Japanese Knotweed already much higher than any Pokeweed I've yet to see this year.
• My comfrey is up in the garden. It's the first robust sign I've seen from out there so far this year - myself included.
• Yes. I have been very lazy and late with the spring gardening.
• The strawberries survived. We will have fresh strawberries come June.
• Maisie is bald. Yep. You read that right. My big hairy dog got shaved down to nubblies. I will take pictures. (Ha! No more shedding this spring!)

Snowy Pictures

My camera uses 'AA' batteries, but my camera is on the fritz. I'm using PC's and the battery is a little box thing slightly bigger than the memory card that you take out and put into a niche in it's charge box that plugs into the wall. Complicated. But at least it works. And I suppose there is much to be said for rechargeable batteries.

Anyway, the battery is charged and here are the pictures -as promised, starting with scenery:

Of course, Maisie came with me:

The wind just about cleaned this hill:

Maisie being her regular goofy, frolicking self:

The temperature barely made it into the 20s today, but the forecast is saying 40 degrees tomorrow and 50 by Sunday. I'm sure the kitchen floor will progress nicely from wading pool to mud bog.

Holy Crap. (or Power & Rape)

As most of you who read this blog already know, I live in rural West Virginia.

It is a fact that West Virginia has been plundered for our rich natural resources -particularly coal and natural gas- for generations.
It is also a fact that most of the income from these resources are funneled out of our state because, among other reasons, the people who can afford to extract these minerals do not live here and do not care diddly-squat about what happens in (or to) these beautiful mountains once they've made their monetary gains. This was, in large part, true with the hardwood raping clear cutting that decimated our forests around the turn of the 20th century. It has been, and continues to be, true -repeatedly- with coal mining and natural gas exploration.

I will spare you my tirade of sick and disgustingly true facts related to mineral right acquisition, coal camp living conditions, environmental destruction, and political thievery. If I were to go in that direction we could be here all day just to harangue the injustices of the past.

That was not my intent.

My intent is to point out that the rape continues.

Here in Taylor County, a large coal mine is slated to start production as soon as next year. This is an entirely new endeavor and it's huge. The mine entrance will be less than 5 miles away from our home and the underground long-wall mining will come as close as a quarter mile from us. We are lucky. Many, many of our friends and neighbors will be undermined. Historically, coal mines have not been found to be financially liable (or liable at all, for that matter) for property destruction - including homes, businesses, water wells, acid mine drainage and resulting contamination, etc.
This time it's supposed to be different. At least that's what they're (politicians and coal company) saying. And although everyone WANTS to believe the sincerity of this assurance, it's impossible to prove their legitimacy until after the damage has already been done, documented, and compensation requested. Only then will we know for sure if the coal company will (or will be forced to) take responsibility for whatever destruction that has resulted from their activities. There are a whole slew of legal issues that come into account here and, though I drift even further from the intent of this post, I will add that our state representatives have passed laws that make it easy for out-of-state companies to come in, destroy, pay off politicians, take the money and run.

Money talks and bullshit walks.

There's a gazillion things wrong with this whole set-up (but don't label me as anti-mine, because I'm not -though that belongs to a different discussion altogether), but -again- I need to steer back towards my point:
Because the mine is so close, the new activity is hard to miss: the logging, the road improvements, the bridge building, survey crews, etc. As a part of the increased activity, I've been seeing dozens of large red trucks. Some are tankers, some are cargo haulers, some are drilling rigs, some are unidentifiable. But the one thing that all these large red trucks have in common is the 'Halliburton' logo (that, and they all drive too fast on these winding one-and-a-half-lane country roads, but that, too, belongs to a different discussion).

Being nosy inquisitive like I am, and having a high-speed internet addiction like I do, I googled it.

Halliburton is a multi-national corporation that specializes in "Oilfield Technologies and Services." So, yeah, that makes sense, but I didn't have the sense to stop at that reassurance.

I kept looking:

Halliburton offers this uplifting word on Sustainability:

"As a public company with more than 45,000 employees and operations in more than 70 countries,our No. 1 priority is to offer competitive, safe and superior quality products and services. And as global corporate citizens we understand that the sustainability of our business also depends on how we interact with our world. As the search for new sources of energy takes us to many different places around the world, every action is guided by our vision:
"To be welcomed as a good corporate neighbor in our communities; to do no harm to the environment; to provide demonstrable social and economic benefits through sustainable relationships, sustainable technology and sustainable sourcing; and to validate our progress through transparency and reporting."

Oh, good. It's a good company that believes in safety, protection of the environment, and maintaining good relationships through disclosure and, I'm assuming, integrity.

Well, that sounds good, right?

Right. And sometimes I'm a gullible idiot.

This is information taken from the Halliburton Wikipedia entry:

During the 2000 Presidential election, Dick Cheney retired from the company with a severance package worth $34 -get this!- MILLION dollars.

WTF?

A severance package for retiring? That's only one of many, many things wrong with that statement. And I suppose if you already know that you'll end up as vice president even before the election you can afford to retire. Oh, yeah, with that kind of jack-pot, it wouldn't really matter, would it?

And $34 MILLION? Doesn't that imply some sort of really deep connection? Or maybe it was just a friendly gesture with absolutely no implication of anything -then OR in the future.

It gets worse.

Here's a short list; just a beginning, really:

• The War Tapes: a documentary of the war in Iraq with film footage shot by US soldiers. Halliburton is notable here because, according to Wikipedia, they are mentioned to be charging the US $28 for each disposable plate that is used to serve meals to our soldiers.
• There were hearings on Halliburton and clean water supplies for our troops (failure to provide) by the Democratic Policy Committee. Here's the same thing, but another hearing from another date.
• Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. A documentary film detailing the screwed-up-ness of private companies profiting from the war effort. Details the notorious security firm Blackwater, but touches also on Halliburton. I'm sure that any relationship between these decisions to privatize many of these services and the contracts that are awarded to companies with ties to some of our most powerful political figures are pure coincidence.
• Here's a news item from CBS from today, "Halliburton Under Fire Over Rape Charge."
• And from here's a quote from a Halliburton article over at CorpWatch: "This company truly has a guardian angel: former Halliburton CEO and now Vice President Dick Cheney who looks out for its interests from the White House. The result? $8 billion in contracts “rebuilding” Iraq in 2004." BILLION? Did you say $8 BILLION (I'm yelling louder here than I did for 'Million.' Can you tell?)
• Here's Mother Jones on "The World According to Halliburton"
• Halliburton has been so dirty and crooked that they have their very own Watchdog group: Halliburton Watch.

This picture came from the Halliburtonwatch.org site. I think it speaks for itself.

Now why do you suppose the federal government has been pushing for petroleum and natural gas exploration? The gullible idiot part of me wants to believe in the fairy tale of political and personal altruism, but the rest of me knows better.

West Virginians, beware!
We have rapists in our backyard.
Again.

Be Still

With the weather cooling off for the first time this fall -and seeing as how I am trying to regularly add more content to this blog as well as to my other blog and to my web site- I rememberd this:

This was published last year in the Mountain Statesman, our local Grafton, WV newspaper.

“It’s gonna be a hard winter,” my grandmother would’ve said. A firm nod of her head and a sagacity underlined with wrinkles would have left little room for doubt.
Unfortunately, my grandmother is no longer with us, but her insight and wisdom live on…
Yesterday, while walking the Woodland Trail here at Tygart Lake State Park, I slowed my usual frenzied pace and breathed in the ever-so-slight fall crispness that comes this time of year. The air was still quite warm, but the underlying sweet-tangy aroma of the mountains preparing to burst into color reminded me that winter is not far off. With the thought of cold weather approaching, I found a cold, flat rock to sit on, sunshine dappling my hiking boots. And then, I did what my grandmother told me, a fidgety child, to do: Be Still.
The pleasure of sitting quietly in the woods can only be outdone with the awareness that comes with stillness: the loudness of acorns and hickory nuts falling through the tree canopy and thumping when they hit the forest floor; the softness of two deer feeding, making their way up the hill toward me; the call of a bird I can’t identify. I see a little spotted toad hopping toward a hollow in the base of a massive oak. Miniscule mushrooms and hundreds of early-dropped maple seed ‘helicopters’. There are thousands of hickory nuts and as many acorns, most still with their little hats on.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to spend time in the woods this summer, you’ll have noticed the abundance of tree fruit this year. This is the indicator that my grandmother would have used as proof of the hard winter to come. Botanists call this larger-than-normal production ‘mast’. It happens every three to five years, but this year is a particularly heavy year. With all the research and scientific data, still no one is quite sure why this happens. For a year like this, when all fruit production is elevated, the most popular theory is based on the measured rainfall of the few years previous: the precipitation of a couple of ‘wet’ years is able to support the growth of heavy foliage and therefore the extra energy needed for fruit production. Another idea, based on a mast of one or several, but not all, types of fruit, theorizes that the cyclic production of fruit encourages squirrels and other animals to diversify their food sources.
My camera flash startles the deer, now only 50 feet distant. Their tails rise like truce flags as they turn away, down the mountainside. I stand to stretch, watching them disappear. Whatever the reasons, mast ensures a plentiful food supply for over-wintering wildlife and the uneaten –or undigested- excess will guarantee a high germination rate, perpetuating the cycle. No matter how you choose to look at it, plenty of food is essential for a hard winter. As I begin my descent, I realize that Grandma was right about a lot of things; I’ll be interested to see if she’s as right about the hard winter coming as she has proved to be about the importance of stillness.