[ NOTE:  Most images below are web links to off-site related content ]

February 12, 2006

Hi! Welcome to my little piece of cyberspace, now amazingly in its fifth year.  When these web pages were first born, they were a grand experiment at a time, as there was not much out there in the Internet space. How much has changed in five years.  Nothing one can write today can feel very momentous in the world anymore -- then again, you are still here, reading.  So perhaps there is hope for us all out here in cyberspace.

Actually I recall that this writing first started long before that, a dark, dank November in 1999, squinting into a laptop, bouncing to and fro on a bus careening along dark Quebec highways. I was headed for Montreal, which should be no surprise to anyone who knows me.  I've been back there three times since -- including having major surgery in a small boxy white hospital just north of Centré Ville.  Montreal's always felt like a home away from home, and I'm sure to return many more times.  And I had my first serious visit to Toronto, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, B.C. as well.

All those original essays are still here among my web pages.  Vancouver, a sprawling, shiny-new city, more Asian than any North American city I've visited, had its colorful Granville Island, with its crowded, bustling market and lots of cool shops and galleries, just over the bridge -- and Stanley Park, a warm, tall, rich place, teeming with flowery beauty.  Nova Scotia was quaint and conservative, modest yet pretty -- and what a Northern Light show the St. Lawrence can put out in that part of the world!   On the other hand, Toronto, the magnificent, was huge and multifaceted and multicultural, while still hanging stubbornly onto its British roots -- well worth web content.  Montreal beckons the same with its French lineage, friendliness, cosmopolitan flair, ease of access and ease on the pocketbook.  You'll find fun little running essays recalling Canadian city tours I know you'll enjoy ... go backward one link and click on the Maple Leaf!   Oh, and Portland, Oregon  was nice to see again, and it's been too long since I've returned to the Pacific Northwest.

Buster and I also recently visited Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee and Arkansas -- the last state in the U.S. I had yet to see; Florida, twice; South Carolina and Georgia, twice; Louisiana  and Mississippi (thanks for the speeding ticket, guys!); and North Carolina and Virginia ... and we've wandered into Massachusetts and Vermont many times.  He and I climbed Mount Equinox, Gore and Buck and several other mountains in the Adirondacks ...

We even climbed Mt. Greylock several times, in all four seasons, from all four sides.  It's been mild and dry all over, including even the mountaintops -- but cold atop the highest peaks the last few trips up.  Snow finally softly descended on he and I  on the last, longest time up "Brontosaur."

I have to wake Buster up and tell him -- tomorrow we're headed over to the Appalachian Trail again, if it doesn't snow too hard tonight, and his now old legs can keep up ...

Again, for newcomers here, I live in Schenectady, certainly a strange in perhaps memorable name for a fairly debilitated city made weary by cutbacks over the past decades of manufacturing, most obviously the General Electric Company, which began its manufacturing life here.  Click the link to explore this gigantic company and its equally giant web site:

I've lived here most of my life, my best friend, Buster, nearly all of my 45 years.  For better or worse, I don't expect much of my hometown to change -- languishing from suburban flight, laced with crime, drugs, prostitution, you name it -- and run by an ineffective and depraved government.  But we do have two lovely historical districts, the Historic Stockade and the stately GE plot; and also the lovely Central Park. Our Union College, with its glorious, country club grounds, graduated President Chester Arthur and Jimmy Carter.  But don't expect anyone to hire you just because YOU happen to have a degree from there.  

Anyway, back to my story ... Buster used to have a sister, my little Bumpkin. Below are pictures of her . . . and also a picture of Buster and Bumpkin, below.  Little Bumpkin is no longer with us, a sort of sad story which I won't go into . . . 

I can still remember writing this paragraph, hoping the spell checker would cure all the misspellings after finishing writing this, the bus jolting and weaving (hence the now Web-tacky animated gif -- sorry about that).

Oh, and Schenectady, you might care to know, would be known by those proud of it as the "City that Lights and Hauls the World."   Indeed it still is, amazingly.  It is true that Thomas Alva Edison, one of America's greatest inventors, founded the first great manufacturing plant here that would become one of the worlds "greatest" corporations, GE. It was here, undisputedly, that the world's greatest machines to produce power were first created. Although GE's industrial and business base has shifted to Greenville, SC and Atlanta, the sprawling tarmac of this once proud plant still boasts the maintenance requirements of those great turbine generator sets across the world. There was often talk I heard of GE moving out of town, but I don't believe even THAT will ever happen. 

Click the icon at right to visit our fair city! --->

So, it would remain, more than a century later, Schenectady would still be the city that lights and hauls.  Yet like so many other formerly great industrial cities, it's now a mere shadow of its former manufacturing greatness. We are more likely to be the next great location for an award winning movie about legacy industrial pollution or something than the industries that put us "on the map."  Right now, GE has the Hudson River to clean up, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Guess Schenectady will have to wait.  Mmmm, well, it's been waiting now for more than 100 years ...

Back to me, if you'll allow ... as I mentioned, I received an MBA from Union College.  If nothing else, I'm sure Union has earned the most "Well-Manicured College in America" distinction.  My accounting degree from the University of Albany School of Business, but it was an excellent university and cost a fraction what you'll shell out to attend Union College -- and the University of Albany IT departments are outstanding.  (My undergraduate was a Journalism / Public Relations degree from WVU -- more on that later ...)  Here are the links:

Now, Mr. Buster Bagospots (or just Buster, or just Bingo, or his latest hypocorism, Stinky) and I live in the upstairs of a house on Phoenix Avenue.  Buster -- I'm sure you've guessed -- is my Dalmatian dog, really my best friend. Most weeks in the year we walk, run, hike together, many miles a week usually, but much less now that he's aged a great deal.  Buster is always by my side -- only except when I run races.  Locally, I've done the great Boilermaker three times, the Stockade-athon three, and many others.  And I ran my first marathon in 2000, the beautiful, flat and pleasant Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon (still grueling  for my tendonitis plagued body, thank you very much!).  The image at right  represents our area running club -- click it and learn more about our area races, runs and other exciting stuff!

I've had so many glorious runs, usually through my city, and through many, many other places too, along bike trails and woodsy roads.   I hope you like the running essays I've included here, at least as much as I had writing them.  

I moved in my house about two years ago -- how time has already flown.  The two family A-Frame "Queen Anne" (quite a humble version) was built in 1903, one of hundreds of similar homes built all over this once very hard-working manufacturing city.  This place, the house and our block and neighborhood, is, well, homely, and modest.  The neighbors are  insular and brusque, and the hordes of kids are very self-absorbed and obstreperous at times (what a racket -- especially just after school lets out ... ).

   I have for the most part kept to myself, but not always.  Halloween is typically a pretty generous time for a child of any age to visit my house!  Just look at the lovely pumpkins I carved last year -- and the next day, the kids next door got a pumpkin full of leftover candy.  Did they thank me?  Are you kidding?  Well, I'm sure they ate it, anyway ... click my spooky picture and learn how to carve these babies yourself!  Despite all that, I really do enjoy living here, most days anyway.

The hard-working plant workers of a half century ago -- those who lived in the old houses like mine -- are gone, save for the few older people that still live around here.  Most of my neighbors are hard-working transients; everyone keeps very much to themselves.  Despite the occasional skulking, spooky newcomer ambling by, the regular kids keep the feeling of the neighborhood alive, a feeling of sweetness and innocence in the air, despite the usual mischief and horseplay.  But there is always a sense of constant change.  As I watch the wind and the weather blow out of the West and down our short, leafy street, there's no telling who will be walking by or moving in. 

I guess you could say we're all interesting people in one way or another.  More often than not,  my nieces and nephews are much better behaved.  My three brothers together have seven children:  John and Gail have three, Bill (49), two (Chandler and Malcolm -- as interesting two names you'll ever encounter side-by-side!  That's my photo of them, below); and Bob, two.  I don't see them at all these days ...
Cute, huh?  I just KNEW you'd say that!  Click the family album below (yes, yes, it's a family album!!) for some interesting family photos from long ago...

Still here? Ok, reminisce with me, and read the rest of my essay, written back during that cold, dark, snowy November ...

November, 2000

The crown of Montreal rises off to the right, as we cross the mighty St. Lawrence ... tall buildings search out with their rotating lights, here, a big city - but with its age-old culture with us once again, visited by a slivery smile of a setting moon winking down on the city's own smiling, sparkling glow ...

Well, it won't be long that I'll be trudging toward my hotel and then chasing down a drink or two before bed.  Why not visit Montreal yourself -- it's certainly among my most favorite cities!  Check out the two sites below ... Well, more tomorrow!

[ One day later ...] 

Well, I'm back in my little home.  As you snoop around, you'll soon find some cool pictures and little stories about my most recent wanderings through Europe. The perfect hiatus for a dismal November day, the likes of which we're having now. The rains will be moving in tonight to brighten up our day ... November is my FAVORITE month, can you tell?

Where was I ... did I mention my family was originally from West Virginia?  Most Americans sort of think of West Virginia as another planet, kind of screwed into the center of North America somehow.  Well, it's certainly very rural, very hilly, very beautiful overall.

My mother, Pauline, was from Morgantown, home of yet another alma mater, West Virginia University, home of the Mountaineers.  Click below left to go there.  My father, John, who died in 1991, was from Parkersburg, WV.  Below right was a friend of mine standing in front of one of West Virginia's landmark structures, the bridge over the New River Gorge ... Start at the School of Journalism where I studied public relations, offshoot web site of www.wvu.edu: 

Well, It's turned out to be a lovely fall here, some warm days, some cool, lots of lovely, shadowy sun with only a few rainy days (like today) to sulk about, overall.  My friends and I have made lots of forages into Vermont to visit the road bends and church steeples and the lovely white-pillared inns.  Here are my more favorite Vermont sites ...

http://www.scenesofvermont.com/
http://www.discover-vermont.com/
http://www.virtualvermont.com/
http://www.vtchamber.com/


I love to hike and ski the Vermont wilderness and the glorious Green Mountains. I love to ski Stowe and Smuggler's Notch, and hike the Long Trail outside Bennington and Rutland ... and I've hiked Stratton (please, the NONCOMMERCIAL SIDE!) a couple of times too.  Here are a few specific areas of Vermont I'm sure you'd enjoy visiting  ...

http://www.smugnotch.com/index.htm
http://www.thisisvermont.com/
http://www.stowe.com/

Vermont is a little touristy, but then there's Mr. "Live Free Or Die," the less tidy, more hearty New Hampshire just next door, with its weather-exposed Presidential Mountain faces jutting high above tree line, into the highest Alpine reaches ... and people have died of exposure in the Summer! I've walked into more than my share of rushing clouds atop Mt. Jeff, Adams and the biggee, Mount Washington, which I feel everyone should visit -- at least on the web ...

Check out my photo / essay page on this site ... and also visit:   http://www.mountwashington.org/   This site is always good for a few beautiful good photos -- and, who knows, maybe a brief respite from the fog, a glorious Web cam vista of the Mt. Washington Valleys below ... don't forget Hampton Beach -- I call it the K-Mart of beaches -- has an ambiance all to itself, as does the quirky land-locked Lakes Region. Here, have a couple more links while I'm at it:

http://www.independencemuseum.org/aim_exeter.htm
http://www.laconia-weirs.org/  
http://www.meredithcc.org/
http://www.plymouthnh.org/
http://www.hamptonbeach.com/

Also close by is the quaint little village of Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and much more; the splendid little villages and lopey mountains in Massachusetts, the Berkshires, lie just to our east. I have an essay on the Berkshires on my site, and will have some great winter photos of Cooperstown here -- just as soon as I get them developed!

Boston is a mere three-hour drive from here, very painless to get to (if you were so inclined; Boston and the shores of Eastern Massachusetts are so crowded and expensive these days); New York the city is about 160 miles distance. To visit there is just like visiting any gigantic city, except that remember - the metro New York area is frighteningly huge. You could drive from one end of the "metro areas" in New York state, to / through Long Island or to / through New Jersey or to / through Connecticut and, well, never leave "The City" - you'd be driving literally for hours and, of course, count on a traffic tie-up or two SOMEWHERE.

So, call it what real New Yorkers call it. The City. To visit, be sure to get the layout of the subway, the tricks of the tunnels and bridges going in and out of Manhattan Island (GW to the West Side Highway is my preference; or the "684 Speedway" to "The Hutch," to the Cross County, down to the West Side). The train is always the best bet, however; a lot of New Yorkers don't even own cars, a completely absurd concept elsewhere in America.

Start at Amtrak:   http://www.amtrak.com/

Or for subways and New York City regional trains and buses, visit the MTA for maps, schedules and more: http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/

And don't forget New Jersey PATH train and other commuter services;
find them here:  http://www.nj.com/njtransit/

And yes, bring lots of cash when you visit New York (or more preferably, cash equivalents only useful by you) -- it's almost as expensive as London these days. When I visit New York, NY, I always feel like people constantly have their hands on my money. Usually that's only my own hand fumbling to pay for some overpriced thing. Oh, and just like in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome, Vienna, Florence ... the museums of the New World are just as spectacular.

Please check out my links page and bookmark this page too -- I'll be sure to have lots of new interesting stuff for you to read about. Why, just yesterday, for example, I was pouring my FAMOUS gingersnap and gardenia candles; the day before it was banana candles (made with real bananas), lemon / lime herbal candles, and all kinds of my aromatic glycerin soaps, like pomegranate and kiwi ... this place is really starting to smell really weird. I even had a candle made with citronella and pepperoni, another with coffee beans, another with pickles. No fooling, they don't smell all that bad.

Toward the weekend the cool, fair weather promises return. There were new sections of the bike path our marathon travailed, the leaves at that time were in absolutely glorious condition, I'd say.  Parts of the trail were like running through a church nave, with bright yellow ceiling-arch boughs soaring overhead. Well, of course, the darkening skies of November have since arrived, but ...

... the wondrous holidays are just around the corner! (Click the tree I decorated -- and learn all about Christmas trees!)

Christmas decorating -- especially our glorious, shining tree (right) is one of my favorite things to do, besides skiing, hiking and snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, while trying to keep up my runs ... and my indoor holiday projects too ... as usual, the holidays promise to be as busy as ever! 

Keep dreaming of bright, sparkling-crisp snow -- happy ski trails just ahead!

And as for you people down around the Equator, and down under toward Australia and New Zealand - eat your heart out!  Bye!

-- Julie Moran

Oh yes ... last but not least  ... check out ...	Email me! (julie.moran@explorewithjulie.com)
	Or take me home ...