Category Archives: Outside

Find a Grave

Given that the Vatican recently extended the plenary indulgence for visiting a grave during the Octave of All Saints to all of November, I thought it opportune to bring back this retropost. (What’s a retropost? Read the italicized paragraph at the end. It’s the one before where I ask you at the end of every post to please buy my books.)

I discovered through a conversation on Facebook an interesting site called: Find A Grave. Millions of cemetery records and photos of gravesites (tombstones) are listed there. There is also a search function where you can locate specific records.

I already found someone who’s grave I had searched for a few years ago. An old and dear friend of my family. My parents tended his grave for several years after his death in 1980, and the last time I was ever there was with my Mom in 1996. After she died in 2005, I went on a major nostalgia/sentimental binge and tried to locate his grave. I couldn’t. I went to every cemetery in the immediate vicinity of my old hometown, looking at a photo of my Dad kneeling at the grave, trying to match that image with the landscape. Nope. I don’t know how I forgot, but he was buried in a cemetery a few miles south of town. I found him! 🙂

NOTE: This is a “retropost,” a post from an old blog I wrote on “The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven (& Purgatory) and Hell” that I shuttered a few years ago. Individual posts are being transferred to either In Exile or Sober Catholic, whichever seemed appropriate. Some are backdated, others postdated, in case you’re confused as to why you never saw a particular post if you’re a diligent reader. The process should be completed by the end of 2020, and all posts finally “will to have been published” (tense of future past 😉 ) by the Easter 2021.

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Squirrel Death Scene

My wife and I recently went on a 1,250 mile (roundtrip) vacation. It was in multiple stages; first up was Schroon Lake in the eastern Adirondack Mountains followed the next day by a road trip across Vermont and New Hampshire which ended at the Atlantic seacoast in York, Maine. And then the return trip with a stopover at one of the world’s best used bookstores, Berry Hill Bookshop in Deansboro, NY.

Am I going to blog about that? Will I be spending copious amounts of digital ink writing about the Adirondacks and how much I have loved them since childhood? Or about the quaint rural scenery crossing Vermont? Or how New Hampshire seemed to be not much different from central or western New York? How about the majesty of the Atlantic storm swells crashing against the rocks by the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine? Or my wife’s ecstatic happiness over finally seeing an ocean for the first time in her life? Nope! None of that! What am I, a travel writer? (Actually, maybe later I will. 😉 )

No. What I am going to blog about is a mysterious and gruesome death scene we saw while driving up the on-ramp of Exit 12 for the I-89 Southbound interstate in New Hampshire.

Squirrels. Dozens of them; nay, make that hundreds of dead squirrels littering the on-ramp and its shoulders. If that wasn’t enough, the carnage extended for quite a distance along the right two lanes of I-89 Southbound.

Neither of us could figure out what had happened. What could have caused such a monstrous scene? I wish I had photos. Despite have two pretty good cameras, both were not considered we never thought of them. Besides, at highway speeds we couldn’t have gotten decent pictures anyway.

For all intents and purposes it looked like the aftermath of a Great Squirrel War and these were the unfortunates who lost their lives in whatever cause they believed in. Or some public mass execution of squirrel criminals by the local squirrel authorities.

Who can say, but we had never seen such a thing ever before.

NOTE: despite the somewhat humorous tone of this piece, it did happen. We really did see hundreds of dead squirrels lining the roadway.

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The lot up the road

I live in a rural area; the road we live on is zoned “agricultural.” There are a number of houses along it, but all are pretty widely-spaced apart. During the early morning when the weather is nice I like to go for walks up the road with a Rosary in hand and pray while strolling. I say “up the road” as there is a rise in the grade to crest the top (the road climbs over a hill). Soon after starting out from the end of our driveway there is a pleasant pastoral vista of an empty field “up the road” backed by a long row of evergreens and other trees. (For some crazy reason, I get an almost irresistible urge to grab a copy of Grit magazine and start reading.)

firstshot”

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The other day when I was driving home from somewhere I saw to my dismay a sign posted along the roadside by this vacant field, “SOLD: nameofhousingdeveloper and phonenumber.”

Rats. Someone is going to build a house (or houses?) there.

While I don’t begrudge or hold a resentment against anyone from wanting to build a home along a nice, quiet, rural street, I couldn’t help but feel that “I wish they picked somewhere else!”

I stood there with Rosary in hand pondering the scene in my pajamas. Yes, I go for walks along the street in the morning still dressed in my jam-jams. As I said, it’s a rural street, hardly anyone else is around. So there I am, Rosary in my right hand, slippers on feet, floppy gray socks, plaid pajama bottoms and baseball-sleeved shirt with coffee stains on front, and faded thin bathrobe wafting a little in the breeze, the rare vehicle taking wide berths around me (despite my being along the shoulder of the roadside-there are no sidewalks, either.)

Where was I? Oh, yes, pondering the scene. So I’m staring vacantly across the road at the sweet empty field of various grasses and weedy flowers and I’m trying to get all spiritual about it as I want to write a blog post about something, anything. And something did develop in my consciousness.

fourth

Someone’s going to build a house there. Maybe more than one. That land has been there for like, millions of years and probably no one has ever lived there before, (population density being on the profoundly low side prior to European colonization of North America). Given the perpetually uncertain future, who knows how long the presumed housing will last and if anyone will replace it centuries hence? So, for uncounted eons no one’s ever lived on that spot until a year or so from now.

We are not here, then we are here, then we are not here, again. The land remains. No wonder some misguided people worship the created instead of the Creator. And it is a wonder that while in the “we are here” phase, some other people, also misguided, confuse “ownership” with a moral absolute to do whatever they wish with the land they own. I am by no means denigrating the private ownership of land; on the contrary, that concept is the bulwark of freedom and autonomy. But we should be cognizant that the things we “own” are far more ancient than we are, and others will come after us and may wish to enjoy the land, too.

We “own” the land but should be mindful that it is more like “held in trust” for future people. What does that have to do with someone possibly building a house on that lot? Probably nothing, really. People come and people go, their dwellings, too. The land remains. And my brain takes off and arrives at conclusions unknown from the starting ponder.

Although my walk was this morning, it didn’t occur to me to take a camera, hence the late afternoon photos.

fifth

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

hugelkultur

This sounds rather unorthodox to me even though it’s been done for thousands of years and it is just laying a bunch of sticks, branches, logs and other wood-like things on the ground, burying it somewhat with compost, soil and dirt, and then planting vegetables on top.

What is this? It’s “hugelkultur” and links to articles on it have been showing up in my Facebook feed quite a lot these past few weeks and so I’m thinking that Someone is suggesting for whatever reason known only to Him that should I try it. Or it is Springtime and many of my friends are open to innovative gardening methods and it is the workings of probability and coincidence. Or both.

I’d never heard of hugelkultur prior to this month. The following article is a popular reference, quoted and propagated (a gardening term! HA!) by others, complete with images depicting the progression of the hugelkultur plot through the years: hugelkultur: the ultimate raised garden beds from RichSoil.

The next picture is NOT of my hugelkutur plot, it is courtesy of Grow Your Own Fruits and Vegetables UK but it most closely resembles what mine might look like if I tried and didn’t horribly mess it up. It looks very successful, is relatively modest and quite do-able. (I did a Google Images search for “hugelkultur.”)

Photo0669

A Facebook friend mentioned a story of a Zimbabwe man who was banished to live on an almost barren hilltop by Robert Mugabe. He had to either farm it or starve. He hugelkutured and lived.

Here’s another blogger’s hugelkultur efforts, with good lessons: Slowlyspreadingandsinking

I love the quote from the Rich Soil article above: “It’s a german word and some people can say it all german-ish. I’m an american doofus, so I say “hoogle culture”. I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling. Hugal, hoogal, huegal, hugel …. And I really like saying it out loud: “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” – it could be a chant or something.”

That inspired me to go around for a while just saying “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” I thought, “This is another way for me to be annoying around the house,” until my wife essentially ignored it. No fun being annoying if the effort is wasted. 😉

We do have tons of wood lying about the land. We had a rougher than usual Winter this past year (sorry I didn’t document it here) and there’s plenty of material about. You do have to be careful as to what kinds of wood that you use; some woods consume a lot of nitrogen while decomposing. Nitrogen is necessary for many plants and vegetables

Like I said earlier regarding the vegetable garden that’s planned, I …may…post…a photographic record of my hugelkultur patch.

hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Foray into mundanity!

Well, today was the first day that I was able to get outside and do something besides shovel snow. I wish I had been documenting the lousy Winter we in western NY have been having. You all missed out on a lot of serious whining and complaining.

I had intended to dig the veggie garden over but was unable to as it was too water-saturated from snowmelt and recent rains. So that may be a while. I did attempt to figure out the garden’s new dimensions (I’m expanding it a bit (to 30′ x 21.5′ from the 25′ x 20′). At least I got outside and quite dirty! I’m a firm believer in “going outside to ‘get outside’ yourself.” Admittedly that is much easier when the temps are very warm.

I may… keep a photographic record… of the plot.

…

St. Anthony took me very seriously when he helped me find my Mom’s Rosaries. Extremely sentimental, I had misplaced them, I knew not where. No clue. Asked St. Tony for help. Usually this comes… after a while. He likes to meander with me. This time, however, within like a minute or two I got a hint to “Check in that thing.”

And that’s where they were. (“That thing” being a mug I retired from coffee and tea use.) There’s a chance I might have placed the Rosaries in it some time ago during a desk reorganizing, but it would be against my typical considerations to put these valuable beads there. It might have been in an atypical moment, however. Thus, a low probability that I would have placed that mug on my search list. No proof of anything miraculous or supernatural, I’m just happy I found them.

These were Rosaries that she had been given by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA) at my Baptism. The story she and Dad told was that the nuns had looked me over (I was all of 10 days old) and prophesied that I’d become the first American Pope.

Scary thought, that one.

(In an attempt to get this blog more operational, I may have a few ‘personal,’ ‘reflective’, or ‘mundane’ posts through each week. Hence, ‘Foray into mundanity’ as the title for this post…

I’ll try to NOT BE narcissistic. I doubt that’ll be a worry as I’m not that interesting.)

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Lacunae

Sometimes it is within the lacunae of the day, or of one’s life, that you discover meaning.

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Sometimes I get overly excited about an article that comes across my social media feeds. The one in the attached link at the end is one of them.

Normally when I share something online, I quote some interesting snippets. But not this one, please READ THE WHOLE article.

It would appeal to people highly critical of the “modern world,” and about how things are done and what that’s done to us.

Also, if you grokked “Small is Beautiful,” by E.F. Schumacher, you’ll dig this piece.

Against Productivity

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Five AM should not exist

I awakened at 5AM this morning, a few hours before I normally have to (and on my day off, to boot!) so I can drive a ways past the village to get blood drawn and urine collected for testing. Had to switch to a new doctor for a few resentful reasons that won’t be explicated here. So the bleedin’ and the peein’ was requested at my physical a few weeks ago.

Five ante meridian does not exist on my homeworld. Denizens of my planet need sunlight to awaken, otherwise we are foggy of brain and need mass quantities of coffee later. So foggy was I that I almost opened MS Word instead of LibreOffice to write this post’s draft.

The world looks almost post-apocalyptic that early in the morning, when all is dark and sentients are missing. There are all these buildings standing about, but few humans anywhere. Those that are about, all look, well… as if they have agendas that differ from the norm.

I’m back home after a nap, and as I’m too blurry-brained to be able to do my Morning Prayers (not even the Rosary) all I’ve been capable of is to fly through StumbleUpon sites. I picked my “Fantasy Books” and “Fantasy Art” categories as I’ve reading “The Lord of the Rings” again.

This post is an attempt to get over my typical “blogger’s block;” that feeling that if I haven’t blogged in quite some time, I can’t again, ever. It’s usually cured by forcing myself to write about something, anything, and then the block is broken.

I sincerely wish to blog most every day, across my three blogs (see feed links in the sidebar). But I’ve been saying that since I started blogging in 2007. {{{sigh}}} Perhaps someday.

Off to pray.

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The gardening season is finally here!

Spent a good part of yesterday and today digging in the field off our driveway to put in a vegetable garden. Much nicer soil than where the garden used to be. Nice, dark, rich-looking with plenty of wigglies in it. Wet, too. Veggies should do well.

The old garden had too much clay soil and things didn’t grow well. After 3 seasons, it was time for a change.

As it was still snowing just a few weeks ago, and there was a frost advisory early last week, this weekend’s developments are welcome. Long-term weather shows NO danger of frost. Finally! Going outside is safe! 😉

I found cheap fencing today, so the original 15′ x 25′ will be expanded to be 25′ x 25′ . Some old fencing may be employed to expand on that, or may be for a smaller garden for other stuff.

I may just be tempted, for “accountability” sake, to post photos and updates throught the year. I had planned on doing that these past few years, but the results weren’t impressive.

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Mad Robin (with updates!)

NOTE: All of the posts in August 2012 on Paul Sofranko Dot Net will be reposts from an earlier attempt at a general writing blog. New material will start appearing in September. These first few days are just “moving in” and “setting up”. However, this particular post on the robin I almost didn’t bother carrying over as it is dated (it was originally posted in March 2012). But I changed my mind as it’s funny. UPDATE: the robin in question never really bothered Rose again. There ended up being 3 nests about the house, and the various robin families raised at least 3 broods.)

I am outdoors. It is near 11AM and I am sitting on a patio chair situated outside our bedroom window. I am doing this because my wife Rose had insomnia last night, and just after she had gotten to sleep at 7AM she was awakened by a robin hurtling itself constantly at our bedroom window. And so I am out here, in the great outdoors, defending my wife and home against a wild robin.

Rose has a history with robins. In 2010 she placed a ladder up against the side of the house right near one of their nests so she can take photos of their newborn. The robins took issue with this and dive-bombed her. They haven’t forgotten as they have maintained this attitude towards her ever since. I am not making this up, they do seem to be rather attitudinal when she is about outside and this morning is no different (in spite of the fact that our bedroom is inside the house, as is traditional for humans).

They have apparently discovered behind which window we sleep, and are escalating their vendetta against my lovely bride. (It focuses its attack on the window overlooking Rose’s side of the bed.)

It will be an interesting Spring/Summer.

As a side note, I do love the fact that I can just go outside and blather away online on my MacBook. The novelty of portable computing is still with me. I don’t care if that sounds archaic in this mobile society with smartphones everywhere and laptops and tablets taking over from the desktop. This is freakin’ kewl. To be outside in the trees with a laptop, the contrast between nature and technology is nice. Reminds me of MSNBC in the 1990’s, with their high-tech computers everywhere on wood (probably oak) desks.

All I need now is for a robin to poop on my MacBook.

UPDATE: The robin attacked again this morning. (Thursday the 8th) I never noticed as I slept through it. It also helped that the attack did not last long. Rose placed a stuffed bear in the window. The robin fled. So, our bedroom is guarded by a bear. 🙂

UPDATE 2: It is now Monday, and no robin has disturbed us since Saturday. There are 2 stuffed teddy bears, and a flattened aluminum turkey roaster thing duct-taped to the window. Apparently it is enough to convince the idiot robin to not try and attack the window.

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)