A Weekend Upstate

So posting pictures is fun. Makes the blog a little more interesting. Though it would be nice if there were some way to upload in bulk with the Hello client. If any one knows how to do this, let me know. In the meantime, when I have the energy to load up a bunch of pics, I'll post some more.

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty good. Wrote a song an entry 'bout it. Like to hear read it? Here it goes.

Drove upstate with Dad and Brother Friday night. Dad somehow has a knack for making what should amount to a two-and-a-half hour drive turn into four hours at least. Not sure how he does it, but each and every time I drive up with him it takes forever. So we got up there Friday night in time to go to bed. Not that going to bed early is a bad thing.

Saturday I started off the morning splitting wood. A couple of big branches had to come off a tree, which left us with lots of fire wood potential. The tree guys don't seem to have a concept of how big a fireplace log should be, so there was lots of splitting to do. I have to say, once I took a few swings with the axe, I really got the hang of it. Not bad for a bookish city-kid. A lot of the logs went sp-lit with just one swing. I was kind of wishing Girlfriend had been there to see her Grizzly Adams in action. Oh so manly.

Once the wood was split and piled, I got to work with Dad and Brother removing the ten or so piles of leaves and other fallen tree produce. We used every instrument imaginable. Rakes, pitchforks, blowers, shovels, hands, etc... Hard work, but we got it done. Then Brother and I set about moving all the wood I had split into a nice pile in the broken down shed. We worked well together, so it went pretty quickly. And we had a good time talking and catching up as we worked.

Got cleaned up and rested a bit, then went out for some dinner. There is a good local Italian place up there that Dad likes. We split some really good calamari, and then each had some parmagiana. Brother had chicken while Dad and I each had veal. It was quite good.

Sunday was another working day. Helped Dad install a fence-post on which he had mounted a bell that he got at some auction. Like a mini Liberty Bell. He's calling it the dinner bell. He dug a nice hole, then we mixed some cement and installed the post. Came out pretty well, and he was happy. After that we did some weed-whacking. Those little motherfuckers sprout like you wouldn't believe. When the work was done, Brother felt like going for a run. I can't keep up with him (he runs semi-regularly, and I eat take-out semi-regularly) so I rode a bike along side him. It was fun until I got chased by a dog. It wasn't a big dog, but it was fast as hell and barking like crazy. I was just glad it was interested in me on the bike, and seemingly unaware of Brother running behind me. So I pedaled away from it, and its owners called it back. We had a good laugh at that one.

Dad drove us each back to our apartments before he headed home. I was looking to get back relatively early because Girlfriend was actually in NYC for the weekend. She was hanging out with her college friends from LA and Baltimore, and was planning to stay until this morning. So I got to spend some time with her, which is always nice. We caught up, watched the Sopranos (kick ass episode) and got some sleep. Good times.