Ken and the Chipmunk

And I don't mean Alvin.  Here is a story about Ken, who embodies the good men/human beings on this planet.  He spent many hours on planning and creating our first garden, and this month many hours cleaning it up and tearing it down.  Because we live in a deer neighborhood, we put a soft mesh fence around the garden during the build-up phase.  In the tear-down phase, Ken took down the soft mesh and put it in a heap in back of the shed.  On another day of garden clean up, he was in the vicinity of the heaped up mesh and found a chipmunk struggling mightily.  Yikes!  He went in the house and found his most sturdy gloves and a scissors and worked for 20 minutes on cutting this little creature out of the mesh.  I wasn't home, so am repeating what he told me.  He held the chipmunk in his hand, putting it on its back, and cut the mesh that had enfolded it.  He said once it was on its back, it did not struggle much.  Was it a boy chipmunk or a girl chipmunk, I asked?  I didn't notice, he replied.  Did it try to bite you?  No, but it kicked a lot until I got it on its back.  Was it grateful?  Who knows?  Will it come back and save you some day in the future?  Maybe.  So add this sobriquet to Ken's long list:  chipmunk saver.  

College Football in the Hudson Valley

While Michigan was losing to Toledo yesterday, we were at Michie (pronounced Mikey) Stadium at the US Military Academy at West Point watching Army beat Eastern Michigan University on a shining, sunny day.  It was Army's homecoming, and I have to admit I was rooting for Army.  After all, teams deserve to win their homecoming, and oh, the pageantry of it all.  I think the Catholics and the military come from the same school of over-the-top ceremony and tradition.  It's in my blood and it moves me every time.  What the Army homecoming game had:  4 cadets parachuting onto the center of the field from very high in the sky from a Black Hawk helicopter; said helicopter often hovered above the field, inviting the not-sold-out crowd to admire it (Ken thought it had these hovering capabilities for other reasons).  It had a band.  It had cheerleaders.  A whole platoon (? right term?) of cadets, cheering and whooping, formed an avenue for the players to flood onto the field.  It had canons - yep, lots of explosions from them (it?).  The canon boomed for every point scored.  It boomed when the quarters ended.  It boomed when the game ended.  The Army fight song rang from the 40,000 seat stadium, which is perched high above the Hudson River and the campus.  The Army varsity song (think 'hurrah for the yellow and blue') made me cry as well.  The game has the Star Spangled Banner, sung by an a cappella group of USMA alumni.  Of course, this is one of few places in America where the words to the SSB mean something.  I have been to the USMA campus 8 times since moving to New York:  2 conferences, 3 football games, 2 college fairs and 1 band concert, all in the post 9/11 world; all when we are at war.  There are surely cadets on campus on my previous visits who are now war casualties.  The cheerleaders, band members and football players we saw yesterday may be in Iraq or Afghanistan next year.  They may come back from those wars minus limbs or with serious psychological issues.  It is sobering and sad and tragic.  It all looks exactly like a college like EMU or Michigan, but it is not.  

I do not want to end this post on that note.  We had a lovely time, especially as the last two games we went to were in pouring rain.  Last year, Tom and Barbara were here and we saw Rutgers beat Army, and I mean, it was pouring!  

Today is a birthday party, a hike around Lake Minnewaska, one more day of dealing with tomatoes and prep for the week to come.  I'll be in Rochester Thursday and Friday and Ken will be in Queens and Long Island Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Until the next post, be well...

Woodstock Film Fest & other weekend news

We are so lucky to be living in a culturally rich area and to have the energy and the wherewithal to take advantage of it.  I went today to the Woodstock Film Festival with colleague Sally Cross and her husband Mark.  We saw a panel about 'films that matter; do films matter?' with John Sayles, Haskell Wexler, Morgan Spurlock and Pamela Yates.  Very interesting and impressive.  Haskell Wexler is a FAMOUS cinematographer and director who has worked with John Sayles a number of times.  We went on to see "The Secret of Roan Inish," which is a Sayles/Wexler film.  More in a bit about the film.  Morgan Spurlock was very articulate and intelligent.  I have not seen either of his movies, but would gladly do so after having seen him.  Pamela Yates is a director of documentaries and has been doing so for 25 years.  They talked interestingly about being both in the film industry and outside of it.  Pamela Yates is the only one to have a career outside of the commercial industry, but the others have reaped many awards and rewards, all the while maintaining a distance.  I would have liked to hear more about how they do that.  "The Secret of Roan Inish" was very beautiful and lyrical and made me cry, but then I'm easy that way.  John Sayles talked about his movie "Silver City," which had a limited distribution schedule.  I would recommend that we all go out and buy/rent it today.  Sounds close to home re our current political situation.  I'm going to end this session to make dinner.