Mr. B-G's Blog

A view of the southern Vermont sky in mid October.

Lie under the multitudes.

Or, as the kids say, “go touch grass.”

Last year I began seeking out camp sites where there was the least amount of light pollution within a 3-hour drive of my home in Western Massachusetts. I then used a moon phase map to identify nights when there was a New Moon, and began using Hipcamp (like Airbnb for tenting) to find sites that offered an unadorned view of the sky.

The effort has been worth it.

This October the stars literally aligned. We had a great spot. No moon. No cloud in sight. The result was stunning and stirring. Looking up, a foreign tableau of thousands upon thousands of glimmers and shimmers. Awing in the truest sense.

I’ve already got three sites reserved for New Moons happening in May, August, and October of next year. Perhaps on one of those nights you too will gaze upon a molasses sky and find wonder in the innumerable piercings.

Today we had a snow day. I got to catch up on some sleep, do some chores around the house, and take our dog for an extended woodland walk through the fresh snow. I was also able to take this picture and post it to the blog, two things (taking photos and writing in this space) I look forward to doing more of.

"Snow laurel" f/1.7, 1/250, ISO 100, 20mm

At this time one year ago, a freak snowstorm caused massive damage to Western Massachusetts, resulting in the loss of power for an entire week. We've been much more fortunate this time around, maintaining electricity (and Internet) during the brunt of Sandy's blow.

Strong winds downed trees and sent debris everywhere, yet the electricity still flowed even as gusts approached 60 mph. Well-deserved props to the folks at National Grid for keeping the juice on during the turbulence.

The jury's still out on if we'll have school tomorrow. A handful of districts have cancelled, while a number of others have signaled it's all systems go. With college recommendation letters, an upcoming workshop at the New England Association of Teachers of English conference this Friday, and pieces to still pick up after being out two days last week to attend the 30th Massachusetts Computer Using Educators conference, I could certainly use another day "off" to make headway.

In addition, on Tuesday (or Wednesday) I'll resume control of my three ninth grade college prep English classes, as my practicum student from a nearby university concluded her placement in my classroom last Friday. She did a wonderful job introducing the students to PVLEGS, the acronym developed by educator Eric Palmer to help students remember the keys to speaking effectively: poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed. After reading Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, the students gave speeches where they made connections between events in their lives and the book. My practicum student was able to explicitly show the students how the PVLEGS skills can really make a difference when it comes to speaking effectively, and the students bought in.

The image at the top of this post was obviously not taken today; it was snapped up at The Flume in Lincoln, NH, over Columbus Day weekend. Rather than post an image of destruction, I prefer to remember this month for the gorgeous foliage and temperate afternoons, not the carnage from Sandy.

My studies through Boise State University's EDTECH program have kept me quite busy as I've made progress on my Master of Educational Technology degree. The coursework requires reflection and journal writing, much of which I've done on a separate blog just for graduate school. I am halfway through one of the two final classes I need to complete before I earn my degree this May. Once my coursework concludes, I look forward to bringing my voice back to the blogosphere. In the meantime, I've still been active on my Twitter account, although I don't read nearly as many tweets from the folks I'm following as I'd like to. For my friends on the East Coast, I hope you stayed safe during Sandy's passing.

Thank you, summer, for lazy mornings of blueberry-strawberry smoothies and iced coffee on the porch.
Thank you for The Wire, all five seasons consumed in less than two weeks.
Thank you for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, allowing me to get lost in an alien world, save the galaxy from Saren and the collectors, and earn Paragon points.
Thank you for A Long Way Gone, The Kite Runner, Doing School, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and the first two books in the Tales of the Otori series.
Thank you for allowing me to catch up on my subscriptions to Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Men's Journal, English Journal, Wired, Maximum PC, Computer Power User, Backpacker, and Vanity Fair.
Thank you for time to reduce my stack of Boston Sunday Globes.
Thank you for hoops in the driveway.
Thanks for a family Red Sox game.
Thanks for inspiring me to tie up the running shoes and hit the pavement.
Thanks for four glorious days on Vermont's Long Trail.
Thank you for Camel's Hump - the view was spectacular.
Thank you for time with my wife.
Thank you for time with my sister.
Thank you for time with my parents.
Thank you for Good Harbor Beach, riding and diving into waves.
Thanks for lobster rolls and fresh clam chowder and baked scallops.
Thanks for time to pause.
Thanks for time to reflect.
Thanks for time to recharge.
Summer, you will be missed, but you've done your work, and I am grateful.
Thank you.

At the beginning of the month, my fiancee and I drove to Northampton, MA to catch Livingston Taylor at The Iron Horse. If the name sounds familiar, well, yeah, he's James's brother, and his live performances always rise the spirits.

Liv's a good musician. He has a number of fun, quirky, folksy tunes, and also reaches deep for nostalgia-evoking ballads. He strums guitar and plays piano and an occasional banjo. Liv introduces most songs with an autobiographical story. He's honest, sincere, and projects a sense of love for his audience.

I've been going to the Iron Horse to see Liv perform each January since my undergraduate days at UMass Amherst in the 90's. The tradition started with a handful of friends. As my buddies moved away, I began checking out the annual show with whomever I was dating at the time. For the past two years, the lucky gal has been my fiancee Mary Kate, but truth be told, I'm really the lucky one.

I think traditions are important, be they Sunday rituals in the fall and winter involving a certain undefeated football team, daily routines of exercising, listening to music, or playing a game, or yearly events like catching a musician or getting away to a favorite spot.

For the past three years, Mary Kate and I have trekked north to Vermont's Inn at Long Trail for a weekend getaway inside one of the inn's fireplace suites. This past September, my friends and I ventured to Burlington, VT for a weekend of camping, cliff jumping, and revelry in the city's pedestrian-friendly downtown.

We even managed to catch a show at Nectar's, the venue where PHISH first performed before they made it big. We've already talked about going back this year.

I find that as I get older and time becomes scarce, I need to schedule almost all my activities in advance. Once it's on the calendar, it becomes "real," and demands to be taken seriously.

This isn't to say I can't roll on the spur-of-the-moment, it's just that as I've aged I've come to rely on schedules to bring order to my life.

While out for a ride on my scooter this afternoon, I happened upon the above rainbow. As I sat in traffic waiting for the light to change, I took a moment to observe those around me. Many stood mesmerized by the natural light display. Some snapped photos with cellphones. It seemed that for the 60 seconds I waited at the light, all was well with the world.

My concerns - be they personal, professional, or worldly - ceased to exist. The apartment to clean, the essays to read, and student recommendation letters to write were forgotten. The heinous conflict in the Middle East and constant news reports about the destruction of the environment and the downward spiral of our country were temporarily out of mind.

Panning my head I saw happy couples sipping lattes at a local cafe and college students walking aimlessly down the sidewalk, all soaking in the colorful arc from above. I thought about civilizations that existed before science, and wondered what justification tribal leaders gave for such a brilliant phenomenon.

When the traffic light changed I pulled the throttle and accelerated through the intersection, another moment of my life gone, another experience relegated to memory.

In 11 hours I'll be walking on the Appalachian Trail somewhere in the southwestern corner of Massachusetts. I won't be home until July 7th.

I'm bringing my digital camera, and plan to post pictures and highlights of the hike when I return.

Catch y'all on the flip side.

Thanks to this helpful post from Paul Stamatiou, and this post from Tips For New Bloggers, I was able to crop a picture I shot from the Appalachian Trail of clouds floating above the Blue Ridge Mountains and paste it into my header as a background image.

The key was sizing the image correctly. To fit it inside the header boarders, I cropped the picture to 640 x 140, with a resolution of 180 pixels.

With only one week of school left, I will soon be able to dedicate more time to improving both the aesthetics and content of this blog. One of the things I'd like to do is upload the 12 or so newspaper columns I wrote about my attempted thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2001. When all was said and done, I hiked for three months and traversed 1,000 miles.

I have about 1,000 to go. Last summer I hiked 45 miles in Massachusetts and Vermont. This summer a friend and I will be doing another 70 in Mass. It is my hope that I can continue to log 50 to 100 miles each summer for the next 10-15 years, and finish the trail by the time I'm in my (gulp) early 40s.

OK. So we've got the cold weather. Where's the snow?

Since the Patriots gave away the AFC Championship Game to the Indianapolis Colts two weeks ago, I lost a significant source of my extrinsic excitement. There are few things I enjoy more than sitting back on the couch, firing up my HD flat screen, cranking the 5.1 Dolby surround sound, and letting my spirits rise and fall with the weekly fate of Bill Belichick's gridiron boys.

The Pats are done, the Celtics are bottom-dwellers, and the Bruins irreverent. There's still three months to go until Red Sox opening day.

Aside from the Sopranos' final season (eight episodes slated to begin in March), there's not much else in the realm of high-definition entertainment worth getting excited about.

So I now turn toward the skies.

Please, Mother Nature, give me some powder upon which I may tread...

...through valley and field, stream and pond, I yearn for the crunch of white and the calm of crisp cold.

Listen to the chirp and rustle, the little scuttle, of birds and beavers, fox and otter. Behold the glimmer of the orb, undying, strengthening...

...in the blink of an eye the ground shall thaw and green things grow. Rain will yield the sun's full fury. We shall soon be scorched and forced to shelter in the very waters we now walk.

But as it is still cold, I seek a sojourn. 'Tis a placid white, a calming balm, that I do summon. My eyes are open. I await.