Scenic: Adirondack Ponds and Wetlands

Photo SlideShow - Plants and Animals: Adirondack Ponds and Wetlands

La Rosa Espinosa

Tu amor es una rosa,
Fragante y dulce,
Pétalos suaves calentado por el sol.
Pero es una rosa con espinas,
Afilada como una fría noche de invierno.
Tu abrazo es como esperar que la cuchillada.

Nunca más!
Mi corazón que ha atravesado por última vez.


Feliz día de San Valentín,
Perra con el corazón frío.

Mall wha?

I'm having a hard time coming to grips with a global society centered around shopping malls. They espouse and promote global consumerism. Meanwhile, poverty reigns the world over.

I can't reconcile in my mind the amount of retail shops along any miracle mile, within any regional mall, and cumulatively around the world with the population of the city, region, nation and globe.

I am dismayed that growth, not only in wealthy nations but in developing nations as well, requires near rampant consumerism and consumer spending.

It's a dog's world

What do dogs think of people, when we speak to them, or when we look into each others eyes? What is the bond of dog to man?

Although we consider our pets as family members, I don't much go for the "pack" theory. Surely they know we aren't like them. And surely, too, the connection shared is not an anthropomorphic illusion, but a connection of heart & soul at some level.

Last night, I looked into the eyes of my old dog, Bruiser, who is approaching 14 years of age as well as death. He was particularly lame, tripping on falling while trying to step onto his cushioned bed. And in his eyes, cloudy and pale with age, I saw deep weariness.

On the other end of the spectrum, I was eye to eye with young Sadie as I went down the stairs to the woodstove, and again when I climbed back up. And I saw youthful exuberance.

And, in both sets of eyes, I saw love.

Dogs, humble servants, dispensing agape - sounds like they are better Christians than most of their human companions.

Reflections on the VW Bug - Greatest Car Ever

We called them Beetles, or more often, a Bug. I know I really miss the real beetles (greatest car Everrrr!). So many memories. It was one of my first cars, and in the end I drove 3 or 4, although I may have only owned 1 or 2 outright. When I was a tween, my mom drove a '69 Beetle and it had the coolest back bumper. The stock bumper was cooler than anything you might fabricate. It was tubular, man. As a newbie driver (newbie LEGAL driver, since I started sneaking a bug out onto the back roads of Gilmanton NH at 14), I wrapped one around a tree, which moved the passenger front tire back several feet. While I sustained a sprained wrist and bloody nose, it was my parent's car (oops). I custom painted one lime green with long, black "eyes" on front hood (they came with two long indents in hood, for support I guess, seperated by 3 or 4 inch band of metal). My best bud Sheldon had an international orange Carmen Gia, the only thing as cool (maybe cooler, Buddy) as my lime green bug. For whatever reason, most of my beetles were green and two were lime green, including the one I painted myself. My last bug was fuel-injected and I replaced the injectors myself. 

On all the bugs, you had to have a learned touch to route the foil & cardboard pipes inside engine compartment without crushing or destroying ends to get heat. Great in the snow, great on gas, made a wonderfully unmistakeable put-put sort of sound like no other engine on planet (I'd love an mp3 of THAT!).

I taught at least one of my older sisters to drive stick in a bug. Like a Sensei , I worked them through progressively harder steps. They were ready to solo when they could stop on a steep hill, and take off from that position. Made the mistake of putting my gf in drivers seat once - she had never driven stick and she just took right off - at least until she needed to shift into second! Very drunk from Oktober Fest had to direct my designated driver so we could get home and she had never driven stick. My last bug was retired when the under-front got so rusted that no one would fix it for me.

I think I'm going to go out and find me one to fix up.

Free Range Chicken performance

Here is a rough video of me performing Free Range Chicken!

Free Range Chicken

Free Range Chicken
(words & music copyright Michael R. Martin)
I'll record it soon - it only sound like I'm saying dirty words when I sing it

Out in the Road see the free range chickens
Clucking and picking, scratching and scritching
Can't catch a bug then they're out of luck,
but I'd rather be a chicken than a duck

In the tall grass see the buffalo toad
Hopping and blinking and sitting kinda low
Can't catch a worm and she's out of luck
but I'd rather be a toad than a duck

     What in the heck do I have against ducks?
     I'll tell you right now I don't give a cluck
     Snapping turtle gonna snap you right up
     So I'd rather be a snapper than a duck

Down bu the lake see the big bull frog
Resting his legs on a hollow log
Can't catch a fly then he's out of luck
But I'd rather be a frog than a duck

Down on the farm see a horse and cow
I think you know where I'm going by now
Can't eat some grass then they're out of luck
But I'd rather be a grazer than a duck


     What in the heck do I have against ducks?
     I'll tell you right now I don't give a cluck
     Largemouth bass gonna eat you right up
     So I'd rather be a bass than a duck

     What in the heck do I have against ducks?
     I'll tell you right now I don't give a cluck
     Outboard motor gonna chew you right up
     So I'd rather be a motor than a duck