Journeying Down From Hermit's Mountain.

Relationships are funny. Not in a ha ha kind of way. More like a, where did that come from, oh wait,when was it not this way? I had been single so long, I decided that was my normal state. Most dates were ho hum at best and with a personality, like mine, I clobbered most takers who dared enter the fantasy realm of, 'Reed's Brain'. So, I write this blog from a slightly different perspective.

I met somebody or more correctly, somebody has made their way into my life. We've only been dating for a month but the month has been a whirlwind. Our first date felt strangely comfortable. Only the second, first date, I had been on, that went so well. Most first dates started with me toning my personality dial down to 5, in hopes of luring some poor defenseless victim into the lull of normality. That strategy failed miserably. The second dates progressed in utter crash and burn style as I steamrolled forward and set the personality dial to 10 then 12. Realizing most women fold under that type of mental and intellectual assault, I would withdraw, if they did not, and head for the cover of hermit's mountain.

Back to our first date. The day was so busy, I had no time to prepare mentally or fashionably for the date. I showed up, empty handed, in shorts and a shirt wearing my personality, dial set to 12. Something strange happened. She was not only keeping up but joining in. Wait! No one had ever joined in. What was wrong with this woman? We laughed and talked for hours. A patron at the restaurant/bar even came up to us and commented on how good of a time we were having and the volume of our laughter. We laughed some more and at the end of the date I stole a kiss. I say stole because I didn't think she was going to offer. I caught her mid word and as shocked as she was receiving the kiss, I was, at the actual kiss. She kissed me back and we left with the usual, 'had a good time', pleasantries.

The second date, usually my crash and burner, went even better. The stage where I would normally give or get the, 'It's been nice speech', was replaced by a walk on the boardwalk. The date was perfect except for an uncharacteristic shyness, that hit me. I wanted to hold hands and kiss at sunset but as sunset approached, I found myself freezing at each opportunity. The date still ended well and as I explained to her, my boardwalk dilemma, she smiled and suggest a redo of the date the following evening. The following evening we held hands and kissed as the sun set over the ocean. It was an amazing moment and her appreciation of it made me realize how much of a keeper she was.

This was just the beginning of our journey. Will I write more, in the future, about it? Probably not, I try to keep personal details out of the blog. This is just a quick reference entry. One we can hopefully look back on and laugh about, somewhere down the road.

Creative Thursday - A Dragonfly Among the Butterflies

Creative Thursday - Visiting a Mexican Sunlower.

Creative Thursday - Carolina Locust

Creative Thursday - Using the new tripod / long exposures at night.

Creative Thursday - The Mystic

Creative Thursday - Old Man By The Sea

Elizabeth's Birthday at Turtle Back Zoo (aka Why I Should Expletive Run Things.).

On Elizabeth's birthday, the kids and I decided to do something fun. We looked into several attractions and decided to go to Turtle Back Zoo. After reading a great blog about Wallabies HERE, Lizzy could not wait to go and see them. We got to the zoo around 1:00p.m. Upon arrival we found out that The Treetop Adventure Course had been reopened that week. We started our way around the zoo. After seeing a large portion, we decided to save the Wallabies, wolves and big cats for after lunch. The food was absolutely horrendous, my grilled sandwich was, board of health violation, cold.  f you plan on going there, bring your own food.

After lunch, we stopped by the groundhog exhibit and walked through the butterfly garden. On the way to the Wallabies,we came across the Tree Top Adventure. Lizzy's eyes lit up at the adventure course, way up in the trees. As we entered, Emily and I decided to just do the zip-line but Lizzy, could not get it out of her head to do the entire adult course. Here is where I get proud of Lizzy. At 11 she conquers every fear. There is nothing that she can't do and do well.

We all got our harnesses on and Lizzy headed for the course, while Emily and I headed for the zip line. The zip-line(singular) was short and didn't compare to the zip-line park we went to in Cancun. We were done in about five minutes, so decided to sit at the only, somewhat, shady spot, at a picnic table with an umbrella. Now somewhere in this story, I forgot to mention that on the day we went, it was 88 degrees. Why does that little factoid become important? Because after an hour and a half of Lizzy being on the tree top adventure and Emily and I waiting for her, we were all dieing of thirst. Well, the zoo portion of the park had close, so no refreshments from there. At Tree Top Adventure, there were no vending machines or refreshments. In fact, according to one pleasant and sympathetic employee, the nearest form of hydration was past the end on the parking lot.

After seeing a water machine, just ten feet behind a locked gate, I lost it. Parched and pissed off, with consciousness waning, I called the zoo customer service number and left a message. The message went something like this...

“Hello, I realize you are at home sitting on your fat expletive drinking a tall cold one but the people at your expletive Tree Top Adventure are expletive dieing of expletive thirst. I brought my daughter here for her 11^th birthday and we remarked on how well the animals were taken care of and how unbelievably nice your employees are. Unfortunately the expletive management is so expletive incompetent that they didn't expletive care about the expletive silly humans who pay for their expletive zoo and expletive salaries. I've been watching my daughter on the expletive course for over an expletive hour and am so expletive thirsty it is expletive ridiculous. My 11 year old will be completing the course in a little while and be expletive dehydrated. Not that you expletive realized it may get over 80 expletive degrees in the expletive summer after expletive being here for expletive 50 expletive years or even expletive care because you expletive close the expletive park and have no expletive form of expletive hydration. You know you could move the expletive soda machine ten feet and it would expletive be reachable from expletive outside of the expletive gate. I'm calling to offer my management consulting services, so you can expletive fire your expletive overpaid expletive management and make your expletive zoo a great place to bring an expletive family instead of having them expletive pay extra to be tortured in the expletive heat. You'd probably make a lot more expletive money if you just left the expletive gift shop open for the expletive hour or so.  It would have expletive more than paid for it's expletive self for an expletive month in just expletive drinks and the expletive, expletive I would have bought there today.  Also, I plan to call the expletive board of health about the expletive food in your expletive cafeteria. Everyone there was expletive complaining about how expletive cold the expletive hamburgers, expletive hot dogs and expletive sandwiches expletive were. My name is Reed XXXX and my phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

I walked back to the picnic area hoping I would feel better but my throat was now so dry, I could barely speak. Emily was on a chair looking at her phone. I plopped into the chair next to hers and twenty minutes later Lizzy came down the pathway to us flush and exhausted looking. “Daddy, I'm dieing! I need something to drink before I zip-line.”. As calmly as I could I said, “Sweety, the management of this park is too stupid to have refreshments out here. They should all be fired but thanks to the fact that we are in an Essex County facility and the corrupt politicians probably hired the incompetent jack asses to begin with, good luck.”. Lizzy saw the angst on my face and decided to make her way to the zip-line.

We slowly made it back to the car. I literally could not walk straight from sitting in the heat and not having any form of hydration. We grabbed all the water in the car and drank it. My stomach ached as I tore apart the back of the Escape looking for Gatorade, I had stashed for just such a circumstance. Lizzy and I each drank a large bottle while Emily sipped on hers. Stomach still aching but thoughts getting back to normal, we drove home.

I have not received a call back from customer service and would like to say, that we would never go back again. In reality, we'd never go to the Tree Top Adventure again. The zoo part was really nice though and due to our own bad planning, we did not get to see the Wallabies, wolves or big cats.

Butterfly shorts are the latest craze, with real butterflies.

It's Alive!

About a week after the 'Death Row For Orchids', post, I went to Aldi and shockingly, they had orchids. The kids and I looked through all of the potential victims and settled on a traditional looking white and purple orchid. It still had some buds, so we figured, it at least had a chance. I'm happy to report, it is still alive. I guess the orchids from Trader Joe's don't like my house. Too often, we look to ourselves for the reason why things happen in our environment when really, we have very little to do with it.

Creative Thursday - Butterflies

An A-mazing Saturday.

Went to the Sussex Sunflower Maze with a photography group on Saturday. I carpooled with another member of the group and we arrived at around 11:40a.m.. The day was perfect and we all fanned out amongst the amazing field of golden flowers on solid hairy green stalks. The flowers weren't as tall as they could have been, but that did not detract from their beauty. The insects that visited the flowers and field buzzed or hopped around and posed for random vacation shots.

The photography group was about ten people strong and though, spread out, we all had the same goal. Take great shots in the maze and of the surrounding farms. It was a new experience for me. I am so used to packing up my gear and taking short trips with the girls or alone, that being around real photographers made me try to, 'bring up my game'.

I kept alert and planned my shots carefully. Not having a tripod, I had to use my flash, more often than I liked.

The group met up for lunch and we stopped at a roadside cafe style restaurant. When lunch was done we traveled down the main road looking for unique farms and scenery to shoot. Four of us joined together and we ended up at a farm called the castle. The castle was a unique structure. Outside, and away from the building, were four run down silos. The building itself was a burned out, decrepit piece of interesting architecture with an all rock silo attached. In it's hay day (pardon the pun), it must have been a bustling dairy farm.

One of the photographers and I decide to venture through the tall grass and to an opening in the now dying structure. Walking through garbage, we found the inside of the building was filled with chain-ups, piping, cleaning channels and troughs. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed under foliage that invaded the floor above. We explored further and the other photographer found the door to the stone silo. Inside the silo was magical. A plant had grown up the far wall into a tree like aberration. Looking up, I felt like the boy who fell down the well, Sadly, Lassie had probably died years ago.

Returning to the, once, working part of the dairy, my mind struggled to reconstruct the past. As the visions slowly dissipated, the reality became sullen. A piece of amazing architecture; a piece of amazing history; a piece of America was dying slowly and no one was there to save or protect it from the inevitability of obsolescence.

Exiting the old building, my heart screamed, “Where are the keepers of Americana? Where are those government farm subsidies. Where are the mom and pop farmers that got up with sunrise and worked until sunset feeding our nation with not only food, but with pride?”. In the rattling of empty silos, and bustling of overgrowth, the answer was carried back, “Industrial food suppliers were the fire burning down the amazing structure once known as the farming industry.”

We made our way back to the cars and drove farther seeing farm casualties along the way. Even the next farm would have looked abandoned, if not for a couple of horses and a cow, out in an overgrown field. Some newer farm equipment looked out of place against the backdrop of broken unpainted wood and slanting foundations.

The day ended with a car show. The last of the group to leave stopped for a bite and some refreshments. We laughed and talked until it was time to head back towards home.

Seeing the other photographers pictures was interesting. There were so many great shots. Some very unique and others, slight variations on a theme. The experience was a learning one for me. I learned a lot about style, technique and some of my photographic inadequacies. I made friends and will be going on more of these group trips, as they become available. It was a day I learned a lot and any day you can say that about is a great day.

Making History On The Navesink.

I spend a lot of time road tripping to local 'attractions' in N.J.. This past weekend, the kids and I went to Twin Lights Lighthouse in the Highlands. Yes, I'm sure I have more blogs about it, we go there often. This blog is not so much about our trip as it is about 'The Pledge of Allegiance.'. Bet you didn't see that coming.

It turns out the dedication of our nations pledge was done at the Twin Lights, in 1893. Naval vessels from all over the world awaited off shore. For the occasion a large flag was hoisted 135 feet up into the air on a flagpole dubbed the, 'Liberty Pole'. In reverence, the words, “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”, were spoken, for the first time, as our nations official pledge.

It was no mistake having it at the lighthouse overlooking the Navesink. The Twin Lights are on the highest point of land on the Atlantic Coast. This made them the first sight to greet weary travelers looking for a new start, in a land of opportunity, as they approached New York Harbor and Ellis Island.

I love finding little historical factoids out about places. Living in NJ, it's not hard. You can't travel far without finding a location where something historical has happened.

Creative Thursday - 'Life On The Edge' and 'Solitary'.

Life On The Edge

Solitary

Snagging Memories.

A couple of weeks ago we went fishing on a party boat for fluke. I'm not big on fishing for fluke, they are not a real challenging fish. I do like fishing for Blues but the crowd I was with wanted to go fluke fishing, so up at 5a.m. to drop my eldest daughter at my moms and pick up my nephew. My eldest daughter has an irrational fear of party boats and today was not the day to deal with that, so she opted out. We got on the boat at 6:30a.m. and secured a position and poles. A friend and his daughter met us there. The five of us were eager to go fishing. Lizzy had never fished on a party boat before.

The glass like calm of the water was amazing. Even in motion,the boat was no more unsteady than a car on an average road. As the boat approached the first spot, we baited our hooks and dropped them deep to the bottom of the dark green unknown. After a few nibbles on our bait my friends daughter struck first blood and brought up a small flounder. Not a keeper but a promising sign. Next my buddy struck, then Lizzy, then my nephew. The only thing I brought up was a hook that had the small bait minnow adeptly removed by a fish, that got a free meal. My friends daughter had several more strikes. Right before poles up, the first mate put a skate on his head and used it as a hat.

We went farther out. The water was deeper and darker. My friend, his daughter and Lizzy had several more strikes but no keepers. While they were catching fish, I was feeding them, one minnow at a time. Finally,I got a strike. As the fluke came up, the first mate measured it, not a keeper. Another skate was caught and when the first mate asked my nephew if he would wear it as a hat. He agreed. I started taking pictures. Lizzy also agreed to wear the fish. While taking her picture, the first mate manned my pole. He handed it back to me and said, “Here's your pole, there is one on the line.”. I reeled the fish up and sure enough, the only keeper we had.

The whole day was filled with laughter, fun and fish on the line. We may not have caught many keepers that day but we snagged a lot of memories.