So this is pretty silly, but still it’s the first thing that’s come online here at Amherst that I’ve had a direct hand in – a webcam we’ve setup to show the reconstruction of a collection of fossilized remains the college owns which will be on display in the new Earth Sciences building. We’re also capturing 4 frames per second so that we can build a time lapse movie of the reconstruction once they’ve finished. I’ll post a link to that once it’s finished. The reconstruction itself is only going to take 3-4 days, and in their first day there’s already a good bit of progress.

This post is for my friends who love bikes. My brother just bought his heart’s desire after talking about it off and on for what seems like forever. I won’t spoil the surprise by saying what it was he got aside from noting that it’s an excellent motorcycle, though I will warn Andrew – you’d best not click through the link to the photos since you might burst into tears, lamenting your long lost love.

Anyway check out my brother looking like a motorcycle geek on his site – warning, he’s using flash.

ok so, snatching a few minutes after a late lunch here to post since I’ve been ignoring my site. I’m busy as sin, there’s a lot on my plate and not a lot of time to get to it all here at the new job, and then on the weekends I have to head back to NY to deal with my responsibilities with the cottage and house per my old lease. A few quick things by way of an update on what’s going on with me:

I’m finally somewhat moved in and unpacked, including actual furniture. Dave’s guest accommodations are back in business after several years off. Want to come visit beautiful western Mass, sample the local restaurant scene, or go hiking in Vermont? I’m taking reservations now.

There’s actually something better than Trader Joe’s: Whole Foods. Their website sucks and doesn’t do the store justice, but they have a real full line butcher shop the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was like 10 years old, a superb sea food department, a bulk foods section which takes up the equivalent of an entire aisle in a large grocery store, excellent takeout (indian, vegetarian, gourmet deli styles are all available), tons of organic produce, a huge wine and beer selection (and I’m not talking coors and schlitz here) and gourmet foods from all kinds of cultures. It’s absolutely fantastic. The downside is my weekly food bill has gone up more than $60 a week because of my shopping there, but man am I eating well.

Amherst has $2 breakfast and $3 lunch for staff. I can’t feed myself for even close to that. The food’s not quite as good as it was at Bowdoin, but it’s decent, and they have broccoli every day instead of only occasionally. Lots of food service lunches for me as a result.

I’m only 5.5 miles from campus, the weather’s warming up, and there’s a bike trail between me and there. I’ll be biking to work shortly, and walking sometimes.

I was really worried about heating the new house. Based on current gas prices it looks like it will run me $3-500 during January/February, but this is without me doing anything about the un insulated windows (no storms, no nothing). This is actually better than I expected and only a little more than I was spending in NY in my three room cottage, and now I have a 6 room house with 9.5′ ceilings.

I love the new house. It sucks to be on a major road again but I’m right next to a bike path and having 20+ acres behind the house to run around on with Soolin is great. Plus have I mentioned elbow room? ELBOW ROOM! And comfortable furniture. And hardwood floors which are MUCH easier to clean Soolin detritus off of.

That’s it for now. I’ve one more post I’ll make today. I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with getting myself back onto a regular posting schedule. Over lunch at my desk isn’t cutting it now since I’m usually off at the cafeteria.

My Cousin Lea pointed me at the obituary that was printed in the local paper for my Grandmother. If you’re interested you can find it by searching the obituaries at poststar.com. I’m going to reprint it below for posterity’s sake, since newspapers have terrible issues with maintaining access to online content in the long term (I should know, I worked for them for ~6-7 years, and by way of example, try looking at the aforementioned poststar.com for content that’s as old as, say, this website, which has more than 6 years worth of stuff tucked into it).

== original obituary ===

LAKE LUZERNE — Laura B. Yule, age 82, of Allison Drive, died Wednesday morning, March 1, 2006, at Glens Falls Hospital.

Born on July 24, 1923, in Stamford, Conn., she was the daughter of Oliver and Wilma (Traub) Hoyt.

She was the wife of the late Arthur Yule, whom she married Dec. 25, 1942.

Laura moved from Long Island to Lake Luzerne in 1992.

She enjoyed reading, gardening, needlepoint, European travel and was a history buff.

Laura is survived by her four children: Jeffrey Yule and his wife, Veronica, of Syosset, N.Y., Candace Hamilton of Northport, N.Y., Jonathan Yule of Lake Luzerne, and Melissa Simon and her husband, Dan, of Lake Luzerne; 10 grandchildren: Scott Yule and his wife, Jenny, Justin Yule and his wife, Mimi, Lynette Yule, Susan Foreman and husband, Jack, David Hamilton, Kirsten Weck and heer husband, Brian, Jesse Hamilton, Lindsey Hamilton, Lea Simon and Christine Simon; four great-grandchildren: Nadine Foreman, Sabrina Foreman, JT Yule and Isabella Weck; one sister, Madelon VanSteenbergen and her husband, Paul, of Guilford, Conn.; one brother, Leonard Hoyt of Bethel, Conn.; and several nieces and nephews.

At Laura’s request, there are no funeral services or calling hours scheduled.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Laura’s memory to the Double H Hole in the Woods Ranch, 97 Hidden Valley Road, Lake Luzerne, NY 12846.

Arrangements are under the direction of Brewer Funeral Home, Inc., 24 Church St., Lake Luzerne.
Published in the Post-Star from 3/2/2006 – 3/3/2006.

There are some ugly rumors going around about my reasons for leaving Skidmore and taking a new position at Amherst, and enough is enough. I’d like to state for the record that the fact that there’s a Trader Joes in Amherst MA had no impact on my decision to move to the region.

(but I’m pretty damned psyched about it)

😉

In a sad and odd bit of synchronicity, Grannie, my last remaining grandparent, passed away around the same time I was driving out of Saratoga Springs last week. She was in her 80’s and had been increasingly ill over the last several months, so this was not really unexpected, but we were all hoping she might rally. It’s pretty scary to see how quickly things can go south in the elderly – I used to joke about Grannie being built like a tank, and it was only a few months ago that she and I drove down to New York together. She was in great shape at the time, still completely on top of her game mentally and no signs of infirmity physically – in fact she spent a week in august with my mother during that trip working on an elaborate backyard garden they were giving to my sister as a wedding gift. Given how badly things can go towards the end of life (Grannies’ mother, for example, spent somewhere around 10 years institutionalized with alzheimer’s) I think Grannies’ passing came pretty close to the best that one could hope for compared to the horrors one can end up with, and I’m glad for her in that regard.

Grannie was my first child care after my sister and I emerged from the hazy wilds of Canada and my mother’s stewardship, and she had a profound impact on my early upbringing. She was a pretty strict task master and didn’t have much patience for my nonsense, but she was not an unkind woman and she had a great sense of humor and liked to laugh. I can’t recall her ever having to physically correct me, despite her being from a generation where that was common. With Grannie it was the sharp tongue and an assurance that my folks would hear about whatever I’d done (and given that my dad had few compunctions about physical correction back then, this was something to be concerned about ;-).

She loved to garden and each of her houses (3 of which I can remember fairly clearly and 1 I’m a little hazy on) were surrounded by elaborate and carefully tended gardens, including her last house. When I was a kid monkeying in and about those gardens was cause for trouble and so of course it was something I liked to do, little imp that I was.

Grannie was equally interested in interior decorating and she spent tons of time on projects. If I had to characterize her tastes I think (not being a student of design, mind you) that I’d say Quaker was her cup of tea – she favored somewhat austere, uncluttered rooms and simple furniture.

Grannie was an avid reader and I discovered to my pleasant surprise that we shared some common tastes – she read a lot of history and was also fond of some of the historical fiction I also enjoy and we had read quite a bit of the same stuff. She was also pretty interested in politics and spent a lot of her time watching cspan. She was a liberal and had nothing good to say about the Bush regime.

My grandfather died while I was in High School and Grannie spent roughly 20 years as a widow. My uncle John lived with her for a good bit of that time, both while she was still on Long Island and then after she moved upstate to be close to my Aunt Melissa’s family. For a lot of those years she took care of children, both the various progeny of her extended family, and (I’m pretty sure) kids she took care of just because she enjoyed children (and possibly for the income too, I’m not really sure about that). While I lament the fact that my grandfather passed relatively early compared to Grannie, I also think it was one of the cooler aspects of her life – she basically got to be her own gal and pursue her interests for 20 years of her life. Not many of us can say that, and if she missed Arthur in the beginning, certainly by the time I got out of college she seemed to be enjoying herself.

One of the coolest things about moving to Saratoga Springs a couple of years ago was reconnecting with family I hadn’t seen much (if anything) of in years. I’m not much of a socializer so it wasn’t like I spent a ton of time hanging around with Grannie, but I did get to go on a couple of long car rides to NY with her, including one where it was just the two of us and she related a bunch of stories from her early life at my prodding. This was stuff I had never known and I’m glad now that I got to spend that time with her before she passed.

One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life was during the funeral of my Grandfather Fisher shortly after I graduated from college. I was the only young male in that branch of the family (my mother’s family had only girls, and they in turn had only girls aside from me) and so it passed to me to stand with my Grandmother when they closed the casket. To say she was distraught is to do the word a disservice – my Grandmother Fisher had known my Grandfather since she was in elementary school, and they had been married for over 50 years. She did not want them to close the casket and she was close to losing it, and I sat there trying to think how to help her walk away from that. What I ended up saying was that as hard as it was to accept it, he really wasn’t gone, that Dick lived on in our memories and in the stories we’d tell of him and the smile and impish sense of humor that we’d remember. I don’t flatter myself so much to think that what I was saying to her at the time was what helped her turn her back on his remains – if anything it had more to do with a soothing voice and an offer of comfort – but I’m not a religious guy and I really do believe that, and I’ve tried ever since to make sure I try and honor that by telling my favorite stories to people I know of the loved ones and friends I’ve lost over the years. This post is my first pass on doing that now for Grannie. I have a few others socked away that I’ll relate on here as time passes.

I’m ashamed to observe that I have no pictures of Grannie in my gallery – I actually did have quite a few, but they were all from a visit Lisa, Samantha and I made to Long Island some years ago when Grannie happened to be there visiting my mom, and I ditched the Lisa galleries some time after we split up. The Grannie pictures went with them. I’ll dig through my archives and get some posted over the next few days.

Just a brief post here to announce I’m back, settled somewhat comfortably in my turn of the century farmhouse in western MA, with internet access and having started the new job. So far all is well, mostly fantastic in fact. Almost all my stuff is still packed up, and I have no furniture to speak of yet beyond my computer desks and a futon mattress I bought when I got here, but I’m really happy to have elbow room again and Soolin loves the endless acres of farmland back behind our house. I’ll begin posting again regularly over the next several days. In the meantime, there’s the first photo of the new place.