Ants on Airplanes - Biomass of Barrancles - Caterpillar Collections - Drumming on Doors

I went over to the Dublin Store – they make their own jerky. Even have giraffe. The pheasant is to die for. Melts in your mouth, Tom said. Go up 37 to the sign that says Dublin Store and turn left. That sounds easy, I say. Now I’ll tell you the short cut. Takes off 15 miles on a round trip. Three lefts and a right and you can’t miss it, he tells me. Take first the left out of camp on 37 – a dirt road, which is James Road if I am not mistaken. Then left at the first paved road and a right in Irons at Jenny’s café. Can’t miss it.

Across the country’s plains / sealed boxcars are carrying names : // … The name Nathan beats the wall with his fist, / the name Isaac sings a mad hymn // That’s-a-fact,.The rail and the wheel / That’s-a-fact. A forest, no fields. / That’s-a-fact. And their silence no more, / That’s-a-fact, drums on my silent door  – Wislawa Szymborska – Poem s New and Collected, 1957-1997, 1998 p16

A car drives by and then stops in front of my truck

An old man with a white beard. His wife is fat

            She has her right arm hanging out the

            Rolled down passenger window

As they drive off I hear him say: “Show Me”

            Referring to my license plate

Campgrounds are on the itinerary for all

            The locals. Let’s take a drive. See what’s

            Goin' on down at the tenting grounds

I’m the highlight of their day. How sad. Or at least

            My truck is – from so far away. He waved

            As they left. I'm Glad to have made their day

The other day we were talking about shoe trees

            Another country phenomena

You don’t find them along the freeways

            Mostly its only a pair of old tennis shoes

            Thrown over a telephone line. But that is

Changing with cellular telephone usage

The trees will still be there even when there are no
            More shoes

I prefer not to say we are killing other people. I prefer to say we are servicing the target – US Army Captain

The sun was shining and it began to rain. It does that around here, someone said. A camper had locked her keys in the trunk of her car. No one knew how to contact a locksmith. It remains cool. A jet passes overhead. In northern Ontario one only hears props. There are no contrails in the sky. I had thought that the Adirondacks was a National Forest. On the map it was colored green. I didn’t get a Senior discount. If fact I had to pay extra for being from out-of-state.

You cannot stir things apart – Tom Stoppard – Arcadia

Our secrets are our strengths

So long as the remain secret

But we must not keep

            These secrets from ourselves

Our strengths are our secrets

One wonders what will become of him, / Since he does in fact seem to be. // And so far, as being goes, he really tries quiet hard…. / Poor little beggar. / A human if ever we saw one – Wislawa Szymborska – Poem s New and Collected, 1957-1997, 1998 p107

Tomorrow it is on to Canada – a brisk wind is blowing off of the lake with cresting white waves washing ashore. Having a campsite with a waterfront exposure is not always a great idea. I find myself spending a lot of time inside the tent. The campground host comes by and says that I shall have to move. Someone else has reserved this site for tonight. But it is not marked “Reservable” I said. I had been careful to avoid the reservable sites. They got the computer all fouled up he said. More likely he hadn’t bothered to make the signage changes that the concessionaire had specified - they make most of their money off of reservations - most campsites are reservable.  He helped me move, but I would have been better off had he not. He was not very bright but he came cheep. He managed to drag the top of my tent and rip the rain fly. And when backing out of the site I managed to hit a site post and dent the tailgate of the truck.. I put an old rain fly under the tent’s original rain fly. It rained in the night. I had gone down to the beach and watched a glorious sunset over the Lake Superior

One inhabits, with a full heart, an empty world - Francois Rene de Chateaubriand – Genie de Christiarisme

Just spotted a weasel (a martin maybe). So did the dog. That thing will tear you apart, dog. He lopped right though our camp site. The lopping gait of a weasel – front paws then back paws, sort of like a caterpillar on speed. It has to have a very supple back bone I thought. One could probably tie it in a knot - if it could caught.  It was about the size of a squirrel.

A terrorist is someone with a bomb but no airplane – John LaCarre – Absolute Friends

Only 18% of Americans believe that environmental protection reduces economic growth and cost jobs

Fossil fuels are the consequences of relatively minor “failures” – Wes Jackson – Becoming Native to This Place, 1994 p84

61% on non-elderly Americans got their healthcare coverage thought employers in 2009, down from 69% in 2000. A McKensey study claims that 30% of employers might stop offering healthcare coverage once state insurance exchanges begin operation

If it is lack of culture that is original, then it is lack of culture one should embrace – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p101

I’m such an old man

I left my fly unzipped

            Without  noticing

Noting to worry about
Nothing is going
             To escape
Move on people, nothing
             To see here
Never mind, its just 
              An old man

If he ever owned anything, he has lost it, / and having lost it doesn’t want it back. ‘ He’s still owed soldier’s pay for the conquest of Gaul - / but he’s got over that, it doesn’t matter – Wislawa Szymborska – Poem s New and Collected, 1957-1997, 1998 p35

Ants account for about a third of all animal biomass

Your deep thighs, / heavy with white, / wade toward me - / and the mind thins in a / wave that / floods the edge of Time – Yvor Winters – The Collected Poems of, 1978 p46