Foliage

The autumn colors came in perfectly this year in time for the three-day Columbus Holiday weekend. Reports came in about the 'bang-up' business, and resorts being very happy and busy. The gas prices are making people who come from the NY and NJ areas stay closer to home, come to the Poconos, and enjoy the warm, beautiful weather we had this year.

I truly hope people took the time and rode around to view our foliage. There are places even on the major interstate highways where you drive around a bend and are literally awe-struck with the beauty. The colors intertwine before you like a patchwork quilt; a heavy, sturdy quilt that is full and warm and bright. The evergreen trees serve as the counterpoint to the reds, golds and oranges perfectly stitched by Mother Nature. I take pictures, but something about the here-and-now, real-time sense cannot be captured by film or digital images. There is a feeling, a smell, a grandeur that can only be experienced in person.

The people who live here all year do seem to appreciate this time. Locals remark to each other that they try to find the time in everyday life to enjoy our leaves. But there is a time limit on the beauty, a profound concept. Today, many of the leaves have fallen off the trees, still pretty on the ground, but not as grand. We had our warm spell of 70 degree weather - a short burst of steam, if you will - but now the crispness is coming back (okay, crisp is another way of saying cold!). The leaves crunch under the feet and probably need to be raked. I am going to wait; after all, the winds we will be getting soon usually take care of that. Not sure where the leaves end up, but I imagine there is one family who feels as if with all the leaves landed on their lawn. They are probably not too wrong.

Crime is Relative

It is inherently peaceful in the Poconos, at least our part in the northern tier, but we are seeing an increase in crime in the more tourist-oriented areas. Still, the amount of crime is relative, based on the reporting we see and hear on the local news. In the "If it bleeds, It leads" journalism, murders and fires lead the newscasts. However, in comparison the sheer number of reports, we still are feeling pretty safe.

Our local cable allows us access to the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia broadcasts; and we still watch those in order to maintain our perspective. Which leads me to a recent couple of crimes lately that hit too close to home. There was a murder in one of the towns on the other side of the lake and the murderer has not been found yet. And there was the child pornography ring that was found working out of our town. This says to me that there are many places to hide up here and we live out in those woods!

Being a large place with a relatively small full-time population, differences are noted immediately. After all, not to make a characterisation, but there is a large contingent of hunters up here; in other words, people who make it a point to notice the things around them. I believe that is why the fugitives who try to 'hide' up here in plain sight tend to be noticed and reported, such as the terrorists who were in training up here to attack Ft Dix in NJ. However, a source of concern is the increase in gang activity. The gang graffiti symbols are prevalent in the areas young people congregate, marking territory. It scares me that kids still think it is a cool thing - to be in a gang - when their parents moved to the Poconos to get their kids away from the violence. Pity.

So do we feel safe? Relatively, as we still have our defences up from all the years we spend in the metropolitan area. We still lock our doors whenever we walk outside, still look immediately whenever one of our motion-sensor lights go on (just the fact that we felt we needed to add those on the house is a clue to our mentality), still eyeball the parking lot when we bring our purchases to the car. We still behave defensively, but it is getting relaxed and we are becoming more open. I still want to hold on to some of the defensiveness, but I feel safe leaving stuff outside that would have gotten lifted where we lived in NJ.

Last Weekend of Summer

Autumn is arriving with a vengeance. It is the last weekend of summer and the overnight temperatures have gone down to 30 already. But it is a wonderful crisp cool that makes sleeping so enjoyable.

I love this time of year up here as much, if not more than the after-season at the Jersey Shore. It is always quiet up here, but I have noticed even less traffic than before. What I am seeing more of now is motorcycles - I guess to get in their last ride and enjoy the foliage.

A dear friend of ours lent us her beach house this week. It was nice to get re-connected to the shore, but I found it to be noisy, as the houses are close together, and not as cool as I have become used to up here. Still, it was nice to sit on the beach, watch the seagulls and boats and feel the cool water on our toes. But I have to say, I became a little homesick. Still, if someone walked up to me and said here is a beach house, on the water, with plenty of space between you and your neighbors, would I say no? I would say, "thank you very much" and "how much are the taxes?"

This is also the best time of year to do those home maintenance things that you didn't do during the summer because it was too hot, or you were too busy. Life slows down more this time of year, so somehow you find you have the time to do those things like caulking, landscaping, painting, etc. We are now getting bids on our new boiler for the heat - that should be fun! Strange people coming into the house to pass judgement on our heating system and to recommend various ways to take our money. Yippee!

Wildlife

Let me start by saying that while we have had close encounters with wildlife, we have not had direct encounters. I am afraid that if some of our friends read about the wildlife here in the Poconos, they will never come to visit. I want to reassure them, but also to state that we are in the mountains! I am pleased that humankind has not destroyed all the natural wildness in the world.

It is still a little unnerving when you have encounters with wildlife, especially if you were raised in the city, like my husband, or in the tourist area of the Jersey Shore, as I was. Wildlife to us very often consisted of an occasional bunny, squirrel, bird, or drunken person. But now, living surrounded by forest areas with trees over 200 years old, we see flora and fauna that we used to see on TV documentaries. We have a nesting pair of eagles in one of our trees! How cool is that!

Deer are a way of life around here. They prance about our property and set off our motion sensored lights regularly. The previous owner 'caged' his prize bushes and flowers to prevent deer from eating them; we took the fencing down and while the deer eat some of our rhododendron bushes and hedges, the plants seem to be okay. My husband hit deer with the car one foggy night last year - the deer was fine, our front end was a mess! Part of living up here, I guess.

Our real first encounter was with a bear. We had come up to our cabin (before we bought the house) on New Year's Eve and we saw evidence that bear had been in the area. Since we did not see him/her/it, we figured get inside and just keep an eye out if we go outside. Later that night, around 8 PM we heard a scratching on our sliding glass door. I asked my husband to look and he said "What if it is the bear?" Well, I speculated that it would not expect to find anyone 'home,' so we would scare it more than it would scare us (Yeah, right!) So he got the flashlight and a broom (I guess so he could sweep it to death) and looked out the patio door where the scratching was coming from. "I don't see anything." But there was a little white paw near the bottom of the door. "Look down." There, outside the door, in 20 degree below zero wind chill, was a gold cat! As my husband opened the door to look closer, the cat walked right in, went into the guest bedroom, onto the bed and made himself at home - happy, purring and treading! The cat we had brought up with us for the weekend gave this intruder the usual greeting - growl, hiss,fitt, all the cat-anger noises!

Now what? This little cat was obviously well fed, used to people - he had to belong to somebody. So we boxed him up and my husband rode around the area to see if anyone had lost a cat. After 2 hours and subjecting this poor cat to inspection by numerous people, he brought the feline home. We named him Little Bear. And we did see the real bear a couple of weeks later - glad we didn't let him in!

We do get mice in the winter in the house - brave little souls with all the cats around. We discovered that our girl cats are much better mousers - the boys just like to watch. There is a comment there, but I will not make it.

Just this week we had another wildlife encounter. We were keeping our extra catfood in a locker outside and it was broken into. Okay, we should have known better, 20/20 hindsight and all, but we usually only do that in the summer. In the winter, we keep the locked container in our garage, and all bagged groceries in canisters or the refrigerator because of the mice. But whatever broke into this locker this week took about 9 pounds of catfood, bag and all. Maybe it was another bear?

Experience vs. Expertise

Do It Yourself is all the rage now, between HGTV, DIY Network, PBS shows such as Hometime and This Old House. I find the information very useful, but it frightens my husband when I watch them. He is always afraid that I will get 'ideas' - and I do - but he means big ideas. Okay, I admit it, I am addicted to home improvement!

My feeling has always been that it does not hurt to try to do something as long as you have the ability and the funds to get started. I also believe the planning what to do and thinking it through before you start are even more important than 'just doing it.' How are you going to get experience unless you research how something is done and then try? We will never be experts, but we have enough knowledge to determine our limitations - sometimes.

I do pity my poor husband. He will come home from work and I will start to regale him with the information I have found out about how we can do...oh, it does not matter what. He is tired and I know whatever I told him will be quickly forgotten. But he agrees to - whatever - and then when we have the time and I bring it up, I can easily say "I told you about this the other night." I am not playing him, really, but I get excited about the project and the outcome so I tell him as soon as I see him that day. I just have to remember to tell him again in the morning!

You see, this is the influence of my father again. He taught me a lot about how to fix things, especially after my older brothers entered the armed forces and he needed help around the house. "I'm a girl" meant nothing to him, because we could not afford to hire anyone to fix stuff and if he needed someone to carry, hold, lift - and I was it! I grew to find the process of building/repairing things fascinating, which was a good thing, because I was not going to get out of it! Besides, the boys found the work fun, so there must be something to it.

I think I started as a 4 year old, holding a hammer and threatening a nail. My father probably figured it kept me busy and out of his way. Imagine. One day he was on the roof, repairing or re-shingling or whatever - and I thought I could help, so I climbed the ladder! Four years old! My father saw me standing on the roof, so he put me by the chimney, the safest place he could find, and yelled at me not to move until he could get me down. As he went over to the other side of the roof to secure his tools, etc., I saw my mother coming outside to hang clothes. "Hi, Mom," I shouted down to her. I did not know my mother knew those words! My father brought me down, but boy, did she curse him out for having me up there. (I learned later that my mother had a deathly fear of heights.) I kept saying I was only trying to help.

So home improvement means we do the improving, hands on, all that stuff. With limits, like certain electrical, heavy stuff like heaters, some plumbing. Over-our-head means that a project takes longer than one day. My Poor Husband!

Connections

While I had mentioned that we had a vacation 'cabin' up here near Lake Wallenpaupack, I guess the real reason we ended up settling here was a connection to my father. My father was a 'coal jockey,' which meant that he would transport coal from the mines up here near Scranton, etc. to the supply yard in central NJ. He did this from the early 50's through the early 60's, which is when the coal industry started to fall out of favor due to issues like pollution, price, safety, etc. He would drive the three hours each way, sometimes two hauls per day, so a total of 12 hours daily on the road.

Amazingly, to me, he never tired of the beauty of the area and he would bring the family up here occasionally after he stopped 'jockeying coal' to show us the little areas that he found fascinating. I remember he stopped by the side of the road somewhere up here so we could taste the water coming out of a rock on the side of the mountain near the Delaware Water Gap. Being a little girl, I just did not see the attraction to water coming from a rock! But, my mom held me so I would not fall while I worked my way down to the side of the road to cup some water in my hands and drank this miracle. You know what - it tasted like water! Did not understand until years later that it was important that it was clean water, coming out of rock. Nowadays, that is probably bottled and people pay big bucks for 'natural, mineral' water.

So I guess that somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to understand what he found so fascinating up here. I know we did not have much money when I was growing up; in fact, our family was on 'public assistance' (welfare) while he was working for the coal industry, so I guess he was not paid very well. But gas was cheap and it did not cost anything to go and look at something, so we would take rides as a one-day getaway. Mom and Dad in the front, three kids in the back, three hour drive - oh, what fun! And Dad had a good reach, so we learned how to maneuver to avoid the inevitable swipe that came after the "shut-up." No seat belts, so sliding was an art on the wool bench seats.

Years later, it became a tradition for my husband and I to take a day trip up to the Gap for my birthday in October at the peak of autumn foliage. Moving up here just seemed right.

Holidays

Living with someone who works in the 'service industry' often means that you do not get to celebrate holidays with that person, as those are the days when employees are needed most at work. This means holidays like Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc. have to celebrated on alternate days. That is okay, as we are not big on the 'big day' celebrations and the togetherness can be celebrated on another day - besides, most of the stuff you need for commemorating a holiday go on sale the day after!

This year something different occurred. Somehow my husband had the 4th of July evening off - the planets must have misaligned or something. We did not know what to do, so we thought we could go out to dinner. You would think people who work in restaurants would figure out that you need a reservation! Okay, so we'll get some 'to - go' food and picnic out by Lake Wallenpaupack and watch the fireworks.

A note here - I have not gone to see fireworks since I was a kid at the Jersey Shore, so I forgot how crowded the area gets prior to the display. These crowds were professionals! They must have been camped out at the lake all day! And park - where? People were parking practically on the road, not next to the road. Then my husband and I remembered why we never go out on the holiday, besides having to work. The crowds and the yelling and the general mayhem is very stress inducing. We looked at each other and I said that there are the fireworks from DC and NYC and Boston being broadcast this evening and he said, lovingly, "get the heck out of here!"

On a positive note, in spite of the gas prices and the food prices and the economy, the fact that there were crowds at the lake was good to see. Maybe the advertising to the NYC market about the Poconos being close by has worked. At least some of the local businesses should be happy.

We enjoyed our meal at home, set off some sparklers, and watched fireworks on TV. Togetherness...