So much has been going on… both joyful and sorrowful. Births, deaths, weddings… funerals. Quite the emotional landscape.
A walk down by the Shade River
Foto by Jorma Kaukonen
I was going to go on about this and that, but on second thought I had a great day. I drove our daughter to school… and we talked. I dropped her off and she told me shoe loved me. I came home and spent some time in the woods. It was lovely… now it’s raining and it is truly all good.
My highway to the stars
Foto by Jorma Kaukonen
Life is going on… and I am still here to enjoy it!
Cant wait to see my H.T family Saturday .Hope all is well .Peace & love
@Jorma
Thank you! I figured there was some reason 🙂 Either way I will always enjoy reading this and looking at your pics!
@Richard
I actually played my vinyl copy of “double dose” on sunday….been about 25 years since I spun that platter (CD took over vinyl for a minute there dontcha know)…had to jam the side with “Funky #7″…Tuna at it’s rampage finest right there. I forgot how flimsy all the Grunt records vinyl was…almost like a flexi-disc. Never mind that, the album stands up….even with the edits and atrocious recording on the acoustic side..STILL holding out for an expanded/unedited box set of the 2 shows they recorded the album…complete with miniature Jack Casady platform shoes and wah-wah pedal!
A man can dream, right?
Just got back to South Florida from Dead &Co Halloween show. Did my favorite walk in the Parks, Bryant Park (Winter Market open for business) up 5th Ave. to Central Park, sit by the Duck Pond and wander over to Tavern on the Green for some coffee and a cookie. Almost got barricaded in as they set-up the finish line for the NYC marathon. Brilliant colors,with a nip in the air. Cant wait for NYE Tuna show at Parker Playhouse. Everybody enjoy your Fall strolls in the park/woods
Just sittin hear listening to Double Dose on vinyl..One of my favs since it was done in my era of seeing HT in the mid to late 70s at the Palladium in NYC and local area..Looking to the 2 shows at Town Hall in NYC at end of the month…Cant wait!!!
No ticks today. Just a beautiful autumn day here in NJ. Sunshine, bright orange and yellow colors on the trees with a cool breeze blowing.
@carey georgas
Andy K, keep spreading the news. Lyme disease and the co-infections are a bitch.
Plum Island off coast of Ct… Gov’t/military lab research…some say biological warfare. Plum Island near Lyme Connecticut… Bing or google that one. Actually use ecosia.org…. search engine that goes against Big Brother and plants trees to boot….purportedly.
The name for Lyme disease came….because it broke out near Lyme Ct.
I like the woods too, but I agree w/ Andy it is not like it was years ago… Wonder what the surfers are feeling about surfing near Fukishima, Japan with all that radiation in the water.
If the thunder don’t get you, the lightening will.. Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, prepare to meet your creator, and definitely protect children from tick bites.
I was hit w bartonella….good doctor out here in NY burned it out w certain roots, herbs… makes sense, something good from the earth helped subjugate it….Need to have a strong immune system because some say the lyme disease and its co infections, never really leave the body. My Dr has a gift…used applied kinesiology to determine what I needed to attack this thing. Woad, Merinda, other.
Be careful with the dog coming in and out of the house…. They bring the ticks in….ticks can last for years in the house, make it into your bed…and then bite you on the tail and you will never know it….unreasonable exhaustion and aches and pains are a sign of Lyme disease.
Psalm 6:2
Thank God for life. Help as many people as you can, and ask for wisdom. A priest informed me that the only money you take with you is the money you have given away….
@AndyK
Amen brother
@Ed
One day reasonable background checks on gun buyers will be enacted and loopholes closed.
May we all live to see that day!
@Richard
My favorite album!
@carey georgas
Very true Carey. I have a house in Columbia County NY, which may be ground zero for Lyme’s disease. Have a son-in-law who is now blind after contracting Lyme’s 20 years ago in Orange County NY.
Myself, I got ehrlichiosis a few years back – fortunately responded well to antibiotics. My friend and his wife contracted babesiosis a few years ago and still have symptoms. Unfortunately, tick borne diseases are too often not recognized/reported. Moreover, they are spreading fast. Warmer winters in the northeast have contributed to this. Glad they haven’t reached the Lone Star State.
I suppose my attitude towards ticks could be construed as cavalier. Out of 30,000 cases of Lyme’s nationally, only 31 were reported in Texas. The vast majority were from Pennsylvania northwards. My perception would be different were my location changed yonder way.
When my daughter moved to NJ I looked up where in NJ is bad for ticks.Well turns out the whole Northeast is bad..Be careful all…
@Greg martelli
I had to alter a step once to keep from stepping on the back of a 6’ eastern timber rattler. It wasn’t coiled and ready to strike like the moccasin was, though. It had crawled out from under a cabin I had on the Neches river, right off the porch in the grass. If it hadn’t been late fall, he might have gotten me. He coiled up as I started screaming expletives and hopping like a nervous bird. Didn’t have a gun with me. All I
could think to do was drive my pickup over him. That fu**ed him up, but didn’t kill him. I got the tire back on him and started flailing at him with a shovel. Finally got his head off. Normally, I don’t kill them, but he was too close to the house.
Deer , Ticks and mice…….
Pine Barrens……an absolutely lovely part of New Jersey.
Had a close relative in Ct die from Lyme disease.
Been in the woods and fields my entire life ,and today.
Have had 3- real time rattler and copperhead events ,a timber rattler sunning and indistinguishable from forest duf,at 18” ,and a dog sustained a copperhead bite on the nose that was getting out of rain and high water on mud porch door threshold.
The other came out from under a shed on Cumberland island with a squirrel in its mouth that it quickly disgorged to get defensive.
It’s a hat band on a cowboy hat now (Eastern diamond back)
I live in a wooded area in South Jersey. A couple of miles from the Leeds house The real Jersey Devil. We have ticks all over the place. Permethrin is the best use for repelling ticks. You spray your clothes with it or buy pretreated clothes. Used by most hunters the North East & US Military.
Treated properly it should last 6 weeks or washings.
@John B
Pine barrens, perhaps?
New Jersey@John B
The Garden State in both cases.@carey georgas
Ok I am going to merge all these great posts..I now have 3 grandchildren in NJ close to a wooded area and we do worry about ticks,as I tell them I love them while I check for ticks….
Now retired and am sitting and listening to Americas Choice on my brand new turntable I got today..That album was my first choice to listen on my new gear..Cant beat the sound of vinyl..Except you have to get up to turn it over..Ha Ha
Be safe and enjoy all..Peace and Love…
@John B
What part of the country that Lyme tick find you?
Ahh the sond of your child telling you they love you, now that my kids are grown, I miss it. I too am retired now and looking at the 1st post in this string fired me up to get my old guitar out of the attic, restring it and now see if I can pick up a few lessons, Jorma was always my guitar hero, I used to love watching him live and the way he picked. I don’t have the disposable income now to catch every show but here and there. Your hiking pictures remind me of the old railroad bed near me here in CT, tracks taken out in the early 40s but you can still find old RR spikes, the old blue-green glass insulators for the old telephone/electrical lines. My dog and I love walking it! Especially this time of year with the leaves changing.
I contracted Lyme disease back in the very early eighties.Though It wasn’t from the tick we pulled outta my ass ; that was 5 or 6 years ago. No sir ; the tick that gave me the Lyme I never saw and I suffered greatly from it………always take precautions. Just sayin………
You’re still here to enjoy it. Damn right. Enjoy every second. Father time is still undefeated.
Hi Jorma,
Hope all is well. I have been missing FPR since April workshop with GE. I enjoy reading your blog and have a suggestion: any way to make it so one can click on your photos and have them open up enlarged? You have such great pictures but unless I’m missing something, there’s not a way to make them bigger like on so many other sites.
Phil
Thanks Phil… all is indeed well. I have to shrink the fotos when I load them on the site or they would take up too much bandwidth. That said, I’ll see if there’s a way we can make them enlargeable.
@AndyK
If you’re worried about your safety, the woods might be a better bet than the streets.
About 30,000 cases of Lyme Disease are reported annually to eh Centers for Disease Control.
That’s fewer than one-third the number of Americans who are shot by guns each year.
Found a tick on my ass once and I hadn’t even been in the woods. Just an itch and when I dropped my drawers, my friend saw that it was a tick. I hate those things and the thought of it feasting away unsettled me. With a pair of tweezers and a steady hand my friend Judi removed it in what we later referred to as “The delicate operation…….”
Nice woods shots
@AndyK
I dunno, Andy. I been going in the woods since I was about six years old, and pickin’ ticks that long, too. Never got sick from one. I have to believe tick diseases have existed longer than me. Maybe incessantly instant media exposure make anecdotal examples look like the norm. At any rate, I refuse to let fear of something like that affect a carefree romp in the woods. I figure I got a better chance of being snakebit than tick-infected. Just use common sense. I’ve done a cursory tick check for long as I remember, and always kept one eye on the ground for Mr. No-shoulders. Came within 3 ft. of a moccasin bite once. Saw up close why they’re called cottonmouths. Anyways, the days of carefree in the woods ain’t gone for me!
Enjoy the woods – but be careful with ticks!
Too many serious illnesses.
Gone are the days when we could be carefree in our walks through the woods. Now we must do a tick check afterward. Sad but true.
You just can’t beat a walk in the woods, and some great music when you get back home. Best thing about retirement: you have time to “actively” listen to music – you can just sit back and soak it in, not merely have it playing while you’re doing something else.
And for anyone who hasn’t listened to The Typewriter Tape in a while, I promise it will make you smile.
Nothing like your child or grandchild saying I love you, makes all your cares just melt away. I never forget that it works the other way for them as well, a simple I love you can work miracles.
With all it’s sorrows and joys life is good. When I was out your way a couple weeks ago I took a walk down where Smiles had cleared the trails too. What a beautiful place! So peaceful. You’re a lucky man. But I guess you knew that already. Peace, H.
@carey georgas
Good for you Carey! In the 70’s, I said “if I ever learn to play guitar, I want play like Jorma”. He’s the source.
Playing music is so good for the soul. And there’s nothing like playing the music you love.
Keep at it!
Nothing better than from someone you love hearing them say I Love You!
Nothing calms the storms of life like a quiet walk along the river.
I gotsta do a little proselytizing here. I sold my business back in June, and upon retiring gave thought to taking up a new hobby. I reckoned if I stayed with golf, the rest of my days would be spent trying to figure out how to keep from getting worse. Why not try something new? That way, every day from here on out I could look forward to being better than the day before. That line of reasoning led me to the guitar. I bought one, started lessons, and been playing at least an hour a day ever since. I’m here to tell you, it’s been a great adventure. Don’t think it’s ever too late to start something new (taking in to account physical demands, of course). For a long time I told myself I’d waited too long to try and become a guitar player. I was just excusing myself for not setting aside the time it takes to learn anything new. Now that I got the time, I see that very clearly. So, for any of you at or near this station in life, I wholly recommend trying something new, or something you thought you’d missed the boat on or would never do. It has been most rewarding for me.