Getting cold feet

 

I wanted to get my daughter into Willow Lake. She wanted to go down this morning. So we went but she put her foot into a hole and got her foot wet. Then later, we were navigating logs and she got her feet wet again. She said, "This is the worst day ever." I hate to hear such a bleak rewrite of the experience, but I know it's an emotional expression. She wasn't so devastated that she couldn't play in the park. 

There was a dog there, her owner had a collar remote in which she explained low voltage shocks don't really hurt, it's communication. The dog was a little wild, but the lady had a clicker and a communicating collar that you could up the voltage if you had to. She said she paid people to help train her. Seemed like she was addressing a special needs dog quite well. She let my daughter feed her some kibble. My daughter likes dogs, and even though she's been knocked down a few times she's still not scared.

There were ducks on the lake, and I love seeing the V of birds migrating south, but I don't think they're going too far south this winter, it's a pretty mild winter.

My daughter has a bag of chips in case she gets snacky 

Lake

 I might be moving in a couple months, so some last photos of Willow Lake.

Something ate a bird

 Something ate a bird

Can you see the plane taking off and banking?

Rainy day walk to Willow Lake, man made, feels like a pond to me, someone said a "city lake". There's a workout area just before the bridge over to Flushing Meadows Park, and the Pat Dolan Trail to Willow Lake. I tested out the exercise equipment, I'm going to have to start working out more. I want to live long for my children.

Thoreau died at age 44. He had TB and health challenges like Bronchitis challenged him, he was in decline. "His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."" (Wikipedia). That reminds me of the Leonard Cohen lyric, "When they said repent, I wondered what they mean." I wonder if he got that from Thoreau. 

Comparing yourself to others is the road to unhappiness, but I've lived a lot longer than Thoreau and I haven't really go much to show for it. Shifting to appreciation, his appreciation of nature is inspiring, his idea that you could live differently gives non-conformists like me courage. His desire to live his life is an inspiration. I think his civil disobedience is cool, but these days the wrong people pick up unrighteous causes and the wrong people are quoting Martin Luther King, whom we celebrated this week. I think our times are out of whack, and social media means everyone thinks they can blather on about things. Look at me here. 

The back is between two highways. I used to run along the Lake Shore park in Chicago when I visited my parents. Parks and highways go together in cities. I cross the Van Wyche to get to the path, the park. It's a pleasant walk from my daughter's school.

It wasn't much of a forest bath because it's not green, it's winter time, but it's still peaceful to see the ducks on the lake. I haven't been down to the lake in a while, but it was really nice in the rain today.

Wandervogel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandervogel

Just found out about it reading Gravity's Rainbow. Seems like an interesting movement. Kids wanted to get out into nature, have friends, and it wasn't parent driven. Cool. Abolished by Hitler.

website

Charlotte Alt

German History Museum

 

Middle of November

I thought the ash heap was over more towards Willow Lake, but now that they're building a NYCFC stadium in Willets Point, they're saying that is where the ash heap used to be. Ash Valley. Whatever corporation buys the naming rights to that stadium, I'm going to call it the Pigeon Coop. I was pretty intoxicated by the stadium news yesterday, and weirdly bored and impatient. It took them 10 years to find a sit for a potential stadium and it's going to take another year or more for plans, approvals, and remediation. Remediation is trying to clean up all the toxic waste. Not sure what they do there, except maybe push it into Flushing Bay. 

Walking in the woods or a swamp is good for the mind. Must have rained recently because it's pretty wet down by Willow Lake.

Who thought lawns were a good idea. Leaves should compost into the soil, but in modern times, you create a lot of noise pollution with leaf blowers, and then put all that good compost into plastic bags. 

It's the equivalent of a Taylor Swift ecological disaster (source: "Taylor Swift’s plane was identified by the report as the “biggest celebrity CO2e polluter this year so far,” racking up 170 flights since January with emissions totaling more than 8,293 metric tons."). She moves her family around like chess pieces with her private plane. What an ecological disaster. 

To say we're out of whack is to put it lightly. As the glaciers unfreeze, and old bacteria become revived, we're in for a multi-aspect shitstorm.

In this latest study, they found that average sperm counts all around the world had fallen by over 50 per cent over the past five decades.

"Data from 1973 to 2018 showed sperm counts dropped on average by 1.2 percent per year. Data from after the year 2000 showed a decline of more than 2.6 percent per year." (source) Nature is correcting herself.

I've got a potential backpacking trip to look forward to. 

Rules

 

Rules are needed. The wilderness is a place where teenagers go to party and there’s a lot of broken glass on the path into Willow Lake but if you can’t party in the woods where can you party? 

Saw that there is a rule that you can’t take unleashed animals and I thought that was interesting because I never saw a feral cat or a dog. I know they had them in the Rockaways until they killed someone, and they they hunted them all down.

The people that used to come up Willow creek, the original people who lived her were a branch of the Lenape, a branch of the Rockaway. They cultivated the three sisters, they hunted and fished. The Matinecocks were the ones in Flushing bay. 

Chief Sachem Tackapousha lived 1598 to1697, and he was the son of Sachem Mechoswodt. Mechoswodt, the chief sachem of Marossepinck, Sintsinck and its dependencies, signed a deed on January 15, 1639 with some early Dutch settlers that conveyed the entire western half of Long Island to the Dutch.

Swung by the library which is the other place you can go for free these days. Seems in New York City they want your money before he can use the bathroom. 

Opened the door when I was leaving my apartment building for a woman who lived downstairs. I like opening doors. Opening doors is kindness. I’m looking for even small ways to be kind to others. When I got to the library and open the door for a woman with a hijab, she declined to go in. I had to go in before her. I don’t mind it when people reject my politeness because you know I’m just trying to be polite and so if they don’t want it then they don’t want it, it’s not something I need.

Started reading Heavy by Kiese Laymon. He wanted to write an American memoir, but it turns out he has to write a black memoir. Life is filled with disappointments and contrary cultural forces, and gender, sex, sexuality, race, class and many more things factor into what you get. The question is still what do I want to invest my attention, empathy, willpower and discipline into.