I am so in the mood.

I've been using the turn-table a lot lately and I can't get used to the fact that I can't dance (flail my body from side to side while jumping up and down) in the vicinity of said turn-table. More than 15 years of listening to CD's has spoiled me a little I guess. Duncan has this great collection of albums from his days in radio and I've just been discovering them one at a time. Let the music play...

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After more than 600 miles of road trip this weekend, we're kinda tuckered. Binghamton, "The Carousel Capital of the World", Syracuse, Endicott, Cobleskill, Oneonta, and Johnson City, "Home of the Square Deal", are just a few of the places along the way.

Above are some abandoned trains we found in the middle of nowhere.

So long Fay Wray. You'll always live here.

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I used to chase down the ice cream man with a vengeance when I was a kid. He comes by here every evening and it's easy to tell when he's coming because the music always precedes him by several blocks. The kids still flock to him even though he only has prepackaged popsicles, fudgesicles, nutty buddies, crunch bars, push-ups, and things like that. All are smaller by the way. I remember soft-serve on a cone dipped in chocolate, still my preference at the Dairy Queen or Jumpin' Jacks. Jumpin' Jacks doesn't do the dip though and that's just sacrilege. The ice cream man in Troy was arrested yesterday for sexually abusing a nine year old girl. "Mr. Ding-A-Ling" as he is called took the girl for a five or ten minute ride and kissed the girl and touched her in the wrong way. He told her not to tell and not to tell the boys they passed without stopping why they didn't stop. He has also taken other kids on rides before even though that is totally against the rules...and why would anyone name their ice cream truck Mr. Ding-A-Ling.

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Today was meant to be spent in New York City, not sitting in a train station half way between Albany and New York. Everything started out routinely enough when the train left perfectly on time. The tracks run right beside The Hudson River so it's a beautiful ride. About half way there, we stopped at the Rhinecliff station only to be told the tracks had washed out ahead so we could proceed no further. Because these trains can only go 10 MPH in reverse, we had to wait several hours for them to find two engines, one to pull another to our train and tow it in the opposite direction. We were pulled home going backwards.

I fed Kaleb and gave her her pills this morning as usual. Our neighbor was going to feed her, let her out, and give her her other pill in the afternoon, around 5pm or so because we were supposed to get home late. Kaleb loves him so she'll do what he wants. When we got home, I went to tell him that he wouldn't have to do it. Turns out he had already taken her for a walk around 11:00 and he noticed her bowl was empty so he fed her. She ate it so fast he decided to feed her again. This is a dog that would probably eat 25 pounds of food before she slowed down and she's already begging for treats from him when we walk over there. I think she got about 4 or 5.

Scantily clad boys constantly running by the house, an advantage of living two blocks from a college.

Yuck!

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Michael Phelps shows a lot of dignity by bowing out of the butterfly leg of the relay race in order to give his teammate Ian Crocker a chance at a gold medal. After all the bad press the athletes have received this year, especially for drug use, it's nice to see these young people going out of the way trying not to be pompous and arrogant as many have in some of the recent Olympics. Most have thought of nothing else for the last 15 years and have worked extremely hard to get where they are today. Some have worked longer. You go girl.

The tracks have been repaired. Tomorrow we try again.

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We did make it to NYC today with the rain slowing us down only a little bit. The agenda for today was SOHO, Chelsea, Tribeca, Greenwich Village and The West Village along with Central Park. It was kind of inspiring to visit The Oscar Wilde Bookstore, the world's first gay book shop and The Stonewall Bar, home of the Stonewall riots. Finding good cheap places to eat in The Village and SOHO also was a sweet kiss on the deal. It poured down once so we stood in the window of a pet shop and watched the puppies for a while and when it was still sunny, we watched to dogs at the Washington Park dog park play. As most dogs frolicked, one medium sized dog went to take a poopy, a bigger dog came over and peed on him.

I've always thought Strawberry Fields of Central Park inspired The Beetles' "Strawberry Fields". There is a memorial there for John Lennon  built in 1981 but the area was named Strawberry Fields after he was killed, not before. I don't know where I got that from. I also picked up a real paper edition of The Onion, who knew?

I also restrained myself when a guy on the train on the way home called his little kid an asshole and basically talked to him like a dog the whole way home. One day, he'll get his comeuppance.

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Last night was pretty active. First I had to get up and pee in the middle of the night. I hate when that happens. Second, I seem to remember Kaleb throwing up but I haven't been able to find anything, and third, the strangest dream I've had in a long long time. Will today be equally strange? We'll see.

While we were out of town Saturday, the lady a couple of houses away took care of Kaleb since we'd be gone all day. Instead of coming down here, she asked that we bring her up there and just hang with her and her dogs. Keep in mind, this is the lady who has been dealing Kaleb treats much the way a drug dealer deals heroine. She has to have her fix. When she went to let the dogs out, she opened the front door instead of the back. Kaleb trotted her butt down the street and sat on our back porch and wasn't going back. Miss Peggy, (her pusher) in the rain had to come down here and carry her back.

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I had no idea Laura Branigan died Thursday. I'm sad because it's the end of an era of some sorts. It involved a lady named Mary and a lady named Gloria. When Mary yelled for Gloria, it was a must to break out in the song "Gloria"...That may have been better left unsaid. Just ask in person.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of bad car wrecks around here lately. I've been pretty fortunate when it comes to such things in my life. I've never been hurt in a car accident and never really had too much damage to my car either. One of my good friends was hit by a drunk driver in high school and hurt pretty badly so I guess I thought about such things at an earlier age than most.

The Travers race is a BIG deal up here. There is this rich old lady who is somewhat of an icon who talks just like one of the rich snooty women on The Flintstones. Everyone loves her and she is Mrs. Saratoga Racetrack. Her horse won yesterday and part of the interview in the POURING rain by a local sports guy went something like this.

Sports Guy: So how do you feel today?
Ms. Whitney: This is the happiest I've been since my wedding day.
Sports Guy: But did you get this wet on your wedding day?

Duncan and I fell on the floor laughing! Great minds think alike.

...and why are the freaking mosquitoes eating me alive today?

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