A few days at the lake house and summer arrives with a bang

VALOIS, New York, USA - The arrival of summer was heralded this past week by the simultaneous arrival of our amigos Steve and Pam from Sacramento. They came in for a few days visit on their way to Ohio.

Pam and Steve

And even though the visit was short, we packed in a lake trip on the Spirit of Louise, some wine tasting, a Savard's breakfast, several trips to Watkins Glen, hiking around the property and witnessing a couple of whopper thunderstorms.

We also went to Tina and Eric Hazlitt's beachside cabana for a glass (or two) of wine where Steve and Pam posed for the photo on the left, with Tina and Eric's sailboat in the background.

It looks like a postcard to me.

Pam and Steve are used to the more benign weather of Sacramento and the sudden shifts were sort of shocking. As they left this morning, a cold front roared down the lake and dropped the temperature at the lake house by about 10 degrees in about as many minutes.

Yes, there was plenty of rain in those clouds

Tuesday,  a thunderstorm rolled in just as I was taking a swim off the end of the dock of the Valois Point Yacht Club.

I waited about five minutes too long to grab my stuff and run up the hill.

Next up this week is a fundraiser for Kathleen Schamel's great motoring adventure across Europe to Mongolia as part of a charity for people in Asia and elsewhere.

She will be traveling as part of a road rally team. The rally cars, are, well, pretty small and the roads are, well, pretty non-existent in some of the places they need to traverse.

Still, she's game and the photos from the trip are going to be collector's items.

Here is the link to her team's website: Kathleen's Excellent Adventure

The fund raiser tomorrow will be at the Village Marina Bar and Grill, which, totally coincidentally, is owned by her parents, Mike and Karen Schamel, and run by her brother Mike. It also is being billed as a pre-game party to the three-day Phish concert that starts Friday at the Watkins Glen race track where about 40,000 Phish fans are expected to descend, en masse, for music, parties and, well, more parties.

And it's likely I will be among that throng, writing some short news articles for a local newspaper.

It won't be Woodstock Redux, but it should be interesting.

Carlos Santana at Woodstock - 1969

Why the weather is always a topic of conversation in New York

VALOIS, New York, USA - When Adm. Fox and I live in California, we barely ever mention the weather. Oh, maybe in late November or the first week in December, when we have the beginnings of sprinkles of rain, or a cold front (50 degrees, brrr!) blows in.

Ditto for Mexico, where the temperatures are, well, temperate for the months we hang out in Arroyo Seco and La Manzanilla.

And that's why we hang out there, among other reasons.

But here in upstate New York, the weather rules. I mean really rules.

Plans for a boat trip? A picnic? Anything outside? Better have alternate plans because the weather will not be what you expect.

Today the plan (Can you hear God laughing?) was to do a few typical Sunday morning things (big breakfast, get a Sunday newspaper...) and then take a boat ride on the Spirit of Louise pontoon craft.

The first half went off without a hitch, but the boat ride has been scuttled - for the moment - as a cold front has been marching down the lake on and off for several hours. If the sun breaks through the cloud cover, it will be glorious.

For now, glorious is not an appropriate descriptor for what it looks like outside our window.

The nice thing about this anything-can-happen weather cycle is that in casual conversation there is never a lack of common ground. Everyone is affected by the weather. And some people really like to complain about it. (Hmm, I would seem to fall into that category today.)

But as the saying goes around here: You don't like the weather? Wait 15 minutes.

And as I write this, it looks like the clouds are parting across the lake and that the sun is about to burst through the layers of gray that have plagued us all day.

I swear I can hear someone singing hallelujah.

A day at the NY Fire Academy: new meaning to the word HOT

MONTOUR FALLS, New York, USA - Tuesday morning I spent three very hot hours wandering about a fire demonstration area at the New York State Fire Academy. It was a training for 170  firefighters - and others - about how to deal with propane emergencies.

In some cases, the demos were about putting out a fire, in others, it was about how to burn off propane if a tank is leaking. Yup, can't let that stuff just fall on the ground.

And there were lots of demonstrations about the how to safely transfer propane from tank to tank with a minimum of problems.

As part of the demonstrations, the New York State Propane Gas Association (yup, NYPGA and they do play a lot of golf, too, I understand) hired a photo company to take pix of the goings on. They did so from an aerial camera, slung beneath a small blimp.

Very cool.

The temperature was in the 80s, with 95 percent humidity. And when they lit off the propane for the demonstrations? Add 20 degrees. Still, very interesting to see it. And I have a lot more respect for the power contained in that little propane tank I have attached to my barbecue.

The overall result (for me) was a story and photo(s) in the Elmira Star-Gazette this morning. Two photos ran in the print edition, but four more are up online.

LINK: Star-Gazette, Propane Safety class

And I put together a short video:

A cruise up and down Seneca Lake for Father's Day 2011

VALOIS, New York, USA - Father's Day dawned, well, a little chilly here in upstate New York, but by 2 p.m. it was definitely time to hit the water.

Brad Phillips toured by the Valois Point Yacht Club in his ski boat to give me the final push to put down my rake and other implements of destruction. (The warm, wet weather has turned the Valois property into an close approximation of a far-north rainforest. Thus even on Father's Day there was yard work to be done.)

One detail of fun work that didn't get done was launching the Red Rocket, now sitting on a trailer at the Fitch house. Maybe this week. Maybe.

Brad, sans Arnold the Wonder Dog, but with crew members

One chore was lifted - a gift for Father's Day - when Adm. Fox and Dustin took over the duties of lawn mowing the property. It was a nice present because even with them mowing, I still put in a solid two hours of weed whacking and moving debris around, especially in the area of the newly built hot tub deck.

Once aboard the Spirit of Louise, we headed south, past Cousin Roger Beardslee's dock. He and son Brett were out and about in Roger's sailboat. And just a mile or so past there we watched the Hazlitt clan boarding Eric's sailboat for a father's day cruise, too.

Eric and Tina heeling

There were three generations on Eric's boat: Eric's dad Jim, Eric and Eric's son Jason, who owns/runs the Hector Wine Company with his amigo Justin Boyette.

We saw Eric testing how far over he could get his boat to heel. Looked pretty far from distance.

We also made a stop and Karen and Mike Schamel's house, where Big Mike and son Mike were doing a passable imitation of what Dustin and I had been doing at Valois: working the yard, while the lake beckoned.

Their draft beer dispenser was working, too. Quite nicely, actually.

And we stopped at Sue and Gary Wolf's, too, where their dog didn't try to eat us for lunch (it was late) for the first time in any dock stop at their lakeside home. But now that I think about it, it was the first time we didn't have a dog with us, either.

This week is expected to be a blur with writing projects, the arrival Friday of Dr. Pam and her husband Steve and the construction of a new deck on the front of our N. Glen house in Watkins.

Home Depot is slated to arrive Wednesday and drop off enough cement and boards to build an entire casa in Mexico. Here, it's just enough for deck, thanks to the building codes.

The hot tub is in, the lake is warming up, a Father's Day sail maybe?

VALOIS, New York, USA - Eric and Tina Hazlitt's sailboat was launched Wednesday a sure sign that summer is here. The Red Rocket might make a splash this week, if the weather gods permit.

One of last year's boats

And then Saturday there will be the annual Cardboard Boat Race in the Village Marina Harbor. No entry this year from *subject2change media but perhaps next year we will get up the courage to get some cardboard and a half-dozen rolls of duct tape and make a vessel.
 
 But I will be there filming, for sure. And it is always a great time.

After two years of putting it off, I finally build a real deck for the Valois house hot tub. Three years running, I used a combination of plywood, shale and wood chips as the base.

Hot tub atop its new home

The combination was hard to keep level (READ: impossible). Plus, spiders, ants, and a variety of insects of totally indeterminate genus and specie would somehow find their way under the cover and be found doing the backstroke when Adm. Fox and I would uncover the softub for use.

During the day, it was just annoying. At night, it was occasionally a stinging experience.

The deck is made of a pressure treated wood that is supposed to last, well, for a long time. All I know is the tub is a good six inches off the ground and while spiders, ants, and that variety of insects of totally indeterminate genus and specie might still want to see the soothing warm waters of the hot tub, they will have to work a little harder to do so.

Here's a video of last year's cardboard boat races in Watkins Glen.

A quiet night in Hector? Not at the Rasta Ranch Winery

HECTOR, New York, USA - Monday nights have traditionally been quiet in Valois and Hector, even in the summer.

Long summer weekends (that seem to start on Thursday evenings), can wear people out by Mondays.

But at the Rasta Ranch Winery, it seemed like a good idea to throw the doors open in the evenings for some music, wine and socializing.

And so it is that there are now Blues Mondays every week from 5-8 p.m. The time stretches a little longer if regular performer Brett Beardslee feels like winding up for a little longer.

Tonight Brett was on a roll, playing a lot of his own songs and keeping the crowd moving its feet.

Special guest Delta Mike Shaw was there, too, sitting in for a couple of songs.

Here's a brief video of tonight's music.

Awash in the news business - but the boats are launched for summer

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Admiral Fox and I arrived home safely from our Erie Canal jaunt, leaving the 72-foot motoryacht Ziggy in son Dustin and amiga Elizabeth's good hands at the port of Oswego, right at the outlet of the canal/river into the chilly waters of Lake Ontario.

That dynamic duo, plus a new captain hired by the boat's owner, took Ziggy the rest of the way to Michigan where the ship nows rests with its happy owner.

Almost the minute we returned, I had to complete a number of writing/video assignments for local newspapers, including a one-hour video shoot (and print version) about U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) visit to a local middle school to check on how well the federal dollars are being spent on a project to help children get access to wireless devices.

You might think the feds would be offering incentives to get kids off digital media, but that's another issue.

Here's the video:



I've also been chasing a local political/environmental struggle. A major propane supply and transit company, Inergy (of Kansas City, MO) wants to store 2 million gallons of liquid propane gas in salt caverns a few miles north of town. The critics of the project have a litany of potential safety and economic issues they believe disqualify Inergy from moving forward, even an inch.

Inergy is hanging tough and fighting back - it's a very lucrative deal/project if they can get past the state Department of Environmental Conservation (which deals with environmental issues) and the Town of Reading Planning Board, the ruling authority.

But here's the bummer. A pivotal meeting about the topic - by the very Town of Reading Planning Board - is the same night as a major brewfest here. And the brewfest is being held to raise money for the legal fund for the people fighting against the project. So, Brewfest or a community meeting?

Gawd.

Here's a link to the group opposing the project: GasFreeSeneca website.

 The best news off all is that the Spirit of Louise pontoon craft is in the water and is sitting at the Valois Point Yacht Club ready for service. The blue rowboat/launch is on shore and ready, too. The Red Rocket sailboat should hit the water this week, in plenty of time for my boat-partner Jennifer Fitch's arrival in a couple of weeks.

After launching the Spirit of Louise last week at Village Marina, we motored from Watkins Glen to the VPYC, taking a couple of hours to do so and making two stops along the shoreline: Mike & Karen Schamel's and Eric & Tina Hazlitt's. It was long, hot trip (temperatures in the 90s) but thanks to plenty of hydrating fluids (largely Labatt's Blue) we made the trip in fine shape.

I even jumped in the lake at the VPYC dock that day to celebrate the beginning of summer. Water temperature - 64 degrees, according to Eric Hazlitt.

It felt a little colder, but still, ahhhh.

That size lighthouse would look great on the shore at the VPYC

Heading north to Oswego and the blue waters of Lake Ontario

PHOENIXVILLE, New York, USA - The motoryacht Ziggy just transited lock No. 1 on the Oswego-Lake Ontario canal, with the goal of getting into Lake Ontario Wednesday morning.

The canal system is similar to the main channel of the Erie Canal, but the debris  (big logs, brush, old docks) have all but disappeared.

In fact, this canal seems to be mostly dotted with expensive homes,  fine boats and big expanses of forest.

Looking for some waterside property?

Perhaps the most amazing part so far has been the weather. It's gorgeous. The temperatures are in the 80s, very light winds, and about as nice as it ever gets in New York in the summer. And the water temperature in the canal is in the 70s - not that it looks particularly inviting for a swim.

Tonight's goal is to be at a marina within easy reach of Lake Ontario. Then Wednesday we will make a jump through Lake Ontario to the Welland Canal so we can get into Lake Erie.

Tiki Bar on the canal

Brother Dan Schwartz - who drove us to St. Johnsville where Admiral Fox and I jumped aboard the boat -  did another trip Monday to bring us our passports. Part of this journey takes us through Canadian waters and we were going to have to hide in the engine room if we didn't have our papers.

That didn't sound very inviting,  though the engine room on this yacht is the size of my office in Watkins Glen.

Adm. Fox and Captain Elizabeth went provisioning this morning and came back with sufficient supplies to get us to Bay City, Michigan (the end of our journey). In fact, the hard part is staying away from the goodies.

Five more locks to before Oswego... Hmmm... How many more chocolate-chip and oatmeal raisin cookies will be eaten by then?

Scenic spot to watch the boats go by

Aboard the motoryacht Ziggy in the Erie Canal

ST. JOHNSVILLE, New York, USA - Admiral Fox and I jumped aboard the motoryacht Ziggy this afternoon. We are crew  and will  help move the vessel from here in Central New York to Bay City, Michigan.

It might be called Brrr City, Michigan, too.

It's our first trip on the canal, and on this rig, we have air conditioning, a full refrigerator, and Internet access. Yup, we have Internet access, which is how this is being posted.


We arrived an hour or so before Ziggy made it here - thanks to Brother Dan's assistance driving us from Valois.

Dan drove his Prius as we chased along the canal until we landed here in St. Johnsville, a wide spot in the canal, but with a very nice sidetie for the boat.

A few hours later - and one injector repair completed - we are ready to rock 'n roll tomorrow morning for a run to Brewerton, where we have reservations for the night and Captain Elizabeth takes control.

The Ziggy is a 72-foot Hatteras and is quite well appointed. It's one of bigger boats to arrive here in awhile, the harbormaster told us.

And the cost for overnight here? $1 per foot... which includes power and water.

Valois Point Yacht Club opens, can summer be far behind?

VALOIS, Hector Township, New York, USA - The answer to that headline is yes, it can be far behind, as June sometimes can be a frosty time here at Latitude 42.

But at least for this past Saturday, and parts of today (Monday) it seems like there will be a summer, the lake water will recede far enough to launch all my various vessels and we will be able to swim off the end of the VPYC dock and float around in inner tubes.

That last one might be a little while coming. The lake temperature has barely crested 50 degrees, I'm told.

Erik and Tina Hazlitt cruise into the VPYC

The reopening of the VPYC became official Saturday at about 7 p.m. with the arrival - by boat - of Eric and Tina Hazlitt in their Feathercraft aluminum skiff. The boat is a sistership to the Feathercraft I had when I was 10-years-old.

Their vessel is a little more upscale than the boat I piloted: they have a steering wheel and remote controls.

But still, it was amazing to see a circa 1957 aluminum boat still out there on the waterways. Maybe I should be looking for one of those instead of a Glaspar G-3 to add to our powerboat fleet.

Last week, Admiral Fox and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary with a trip to nearby Canandaigua, where she played her fiddle with a group of musicians. We stayed at the Miami Motel. The only thing particularly Miami about it was the name, and perhaps the in-room jacuzzi tub in the corner.

Captain and Admiral at Two Goats Brewery

We did have dinner in town at a waterfront pub before the music started. I had a 22-ounce Brooklyn ale - a damn fine beer, with, of course, an equally fine name.

The Miami Motel trip was actually the day before our anniversary. The day of, we made our way to Two Goats Brewery in Hector (a few miles south of the Valois Point Yacht Club) where Cousin Brett Beardslee was playing.

After two tall glasses of Blue Point, I was about ready to do some singing myself. Probably just as good my ukulele was home safe in its case. Otherwise, there might have been a reprise of Rodney Carrington's 'Dancing With A Man,' a standard played by The Four Headlamps when we can get the band together. (LINK: The Four Headlamps sing "Dancin With a Man'

Rasta Ranch on NY State Highway 414

Brett's tunes at Two Goats were much easier to listen to.

Late this afternoon, Brett will be playing again, this time at Rasta Ranch Vineyards and Winery, perched partway between the VPYC and Two Goats Brewery.

(Is there a theme going on here?)

Brett and his wife Jesse decided that Monday nights needed some livening up in this slice of upstate New York, and so they talked Jesse's parents into opening the winery from 5-8 p.m. for music and wine.

Adm. Fox and are will likely head up there and check things out.

Here's a short promo video I posted on Facebook today, to shake out some of the locals to come hear Brett tonight.

You Google, I Google - but why are the results sooooo different?

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - The chatter around Facebook and in various publications for the past few weeks has been about how the Internet might not be connecting us all (remember the Global Village?), but in fact might be isolating.

This TED talk (Technology, Entertainment & Design) gets at that point very well.

And for those people concerned about privacy issues, the impact of media, and, well, the big D - democracy, you should watch this piece all the way through.

Then go buy a newspaper out a newspaper rack.

This video reminds that Mexico has a bureaucracy to behold

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - An amiga in Mexico sent along the video below, a showdown between someone trying to file papers and a Mexican bureaucrat intent on not letting that happen.

It's called various things in Mexico. I used to call it the Mexican Merry Go Round. But if it was you trying to renew a visa, pay your taxes, pay a traffic fine, or simply even send money somewhere, it wasn't a fun ride.

Unfortunately, it's a little too common - especially in the Mexican court system.

But that rant will come at another time.

Just enjoy this piece.

With all the rain, comes near-record lake levels - hoo-boy!!!!

SENECA LAKE, New York, USA - The sun finally came out yesterday, but the creeks are still sending water into Seneca Lake at alarming levels.

And all the neighboring lakes and rivers are filled to overflowing, too.

But maybe it means we will have a better boating season.

Maybe.

Here's a short video with pix of the high water around Hector and in Watkins Glen.

Plenty of water in Seneca Lake for boating this year - plenty

VALOIS, New York, USA - The daily rains (even if only for an hour or two) have been adding up since I arrived April 2.

The creeks and streams have kept flowing (great for trout fishing, of course) and even the secondary springs are pouring out enough water to give most California water officials wet dreams.

The Valois Point YC rowboats are safe, unless it keeps raining

But a by-product of all of this precipitation has been that the level of Seneca Lake has been inching up - higher for this time of the year than normal. Way higher, it seems. When I arrived, I thought the lake was out-of-control high. It was six inches lower then.

Lots of water is a good thing, in one way. It means our waterfront might be really clean, as the high water could be carrying off all the debris and sending it to some other person's lakefront. Or, I suppose, it could be dumping it squarely on our little stretch of the lake where I will have to rake it up and burn it - if it ever dries out.

All of the lakes in Central New York are filled to overflowing. Nearby Cayuga Lake (which has the city of Ithaca at its southern end) actually has a flood warning all along the shore. Many of the lake house there are built closer than Seneca.

And the rivers?

Well, the kayaking right now would be whitewater work in many places. Hmmm, whitewater might not be the right term. Brownwater rafting would be closer, given that the streams and rivers are as muddy as an upstate New York kindergartener's boots.

Lots of dock repairs when the water recedes - if the docks are still there

Rain or shine, boaters are getting their rigs ready for the water, no matter how high the lake level is. At the marina in Watkins Glen, dozens of sailboats are already uncovered, masts rigged for sailing and probably in the next few weeks, the slips will fill up.

So when is the first sailboat race?

This morning a well-maintained old woodie was being launched by Guy Schamel at the marina. The water in the launch channel was so high it could have almost been slid off a trailer.

It didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the owner though.

No sailing today, but soon

Valois Point Yacht Club dock

In 15 minutes, expect a dramatic weather change, unless it's earlier...

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - The old joke (which isn't really a joke at all) is that if you don't like the weather around here, just wait 15 minutes for it to change.

Fifteen minutes might be an understatement.

Saturday, the day started with torrential downpours on and off for the entire morning, then cleared off with gusty 25-knot southerly winds by 1 p.m., and at about 3 p.m. the wind dropped to zero and the temperatures shot up to the mid 70s. By sunset we had rain again, of course.

Unwelcome Easter guest

Despite the wacky weather shifts (at least wacky from a California and Mexican perspective) the living is great here and spring is everywhere. I can almost hear the grass growing outside the window.

The other sign of spring has been the return of the songbirds, who are soooo cute, I put out several bird feeders to draw them closer to the casa. Or at least I thought I was putting out bird feeders. They apparently double as squirrel feeders, too, though I have started mounting an offense to keep the feeders for the birds and not lunch counters for rodents.

At the lake house in Valois, we stopped feeding the squirrels corn last summer. The little buggers started coming up on porch and attempted to chew their way through the screens into the house to get at the corn I had stored there.

Squirrel stew, anyone?

Jason Hazlitt

That almost-in-jest comment would not have been particularly welcome at the Humane Society benefit Adm. Fox and I attended two nights ago at The Hector Wine Company, owned by Jason Hazlitt (LINK: Hector Wine Company website). The winery opened its doors for a huge party that filled the new winery to overflowing.

Cousin Brett Beardslee, just back from a long winter's vacation wrestling alligators in Florida, provided the musical entertainment and ended up calling the numbers for raffle winners. He was sporting a skin color that is pretty rare around this part of New York in April, unless people frequent the tanning salons around town.

A lot of excellent Hector Wine Company wine was consumed that night by a lively crowd during a four-hour event that raised about $3,000.

Here's a short video of the benefit:



The church bells have been ringing here all morning, signaling the start of Easter services at the many churches just down the hill from our house on North Glen Avenue.

Many of our neighbors could be seen hustling out the door and into their cars today, obvious from their attire that they were heading for some religious services somewhere. Adm. Fox and I didn't go to any formal services today - my late mother's comments about 'Christmas and Easter Catholics' ringing through my head quite loudly from when I was a teenager. The only time our Catholic Church in Lakewood, New York was filled were those two holy days.

Mary Sullivan Crouch's resting place

But Adm. Fox and I did take a fairly major hike from our new house, up alongside the creek known as 'Watkins Glen' to St. Mary's Cemetery near the top of the ridge. Our late friend Mary Sullivan Crouch was buried there last August. Two years ago Mary took us up to the cemetery to show us the plot where she would be buried. She and I were distantly related (my maternal grandmother was a Sullivan from Geneva) and Mary suggested that I might want to start looking into getting a plot near the family.

I thought about that today, as I was standing in front of her tombstone. I just got my AARP card in the mail, though. Let's not rush things.

Adm. Fox and I are actually living in the house where Mary resided the last few years of her life. It was owned by her brother Bill (who passed away two years before Mary). When Mary died last summer, the estate put it up for sale and after some deliberations this fall, we decided to make the house (and Watkins Glen) our new home base.

It has a one-bedroom apartment attached where Mary lived, which has been taken over by Adm. Fox as an office and music room. When Adm. Fox heads to her office/music room, she says, "I'm going to Mary's."

It made sense to buy the house, plus, I had already bought Mary's 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis from her when she gave up driving a few months before she passed away.

Casa Fitz/Fox in Watkins Glen, New York

We affectionately refer to the car as The Merc which, the other day, I got going just a little over 110 mph on a back country road, trying to blow the carbon out of the exhaust system.

That's my story, officer, and I'm sticking to it.

Oh, and yes, I was playing 'Hot Rod Lincoln' by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen on the radio when I 'hit top end...'

LINK: Hot Rod Lincoln video

A new movie on the top of the must-see list: GasHole

"GasHole" Trailer

GasHole | Myspace Video

A rainy Saturday with the movie, The Magnificent Seven

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - The movie The Magnificent Seven, with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, James Coburn and raft of other stars, was the perfect film for a rainy Saturday.

Released in 1960, the movie holds up as well as any western, and better than most.

Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner

Based on the Japanese movie, The Seven Samuri, it tells the tale of six American gunslingers (and one young Mexican gunhand) hired by poor farmers to go to a Mexican village to rid the village of a bandit named Calvera (played by Eli Wallach) who rides in from time to time with his 40 Mexican gunmen.

It's a classic tale of a bully getting a much deserved drubbing at the hands of a band of avengers.

In one scene, Eli Wallach tells Yul Brynner that he can rob the village at will because "if God didn't want them to be sheared, he would not have made them sheep."

Indeed.

The story underscores the timeless lesson that anyone who pays attention to history knows - men with guns rule. And if one group happens to be better with guns, well, they get to rule, it seems.

Of course, it isn't easy for the Magnificent Seven to rid the village of Calvera.

Charles Bronson guards the village

After an initial skirmish, Calvera and his men come back - when Yul Brynner and his crew have left the village to do some reconnaisance. Calvera sneaks in takes over the village with the help of some villagers more afraid of the Mexican bandit than anything. When Brynner and crew return they are held at gunpoint. But instead of killing Yul and crew, Calvera let's them go.

Big mistake on Calvera's part, but necessary for the plot.

And the denouement?

After being forced to leave, the Magnificent Seven are left miles from the Mexican village, their guns tossed on the ground, with the smart thing to do to ride on and let the villagers suffer the consequences of their betrayal.

But these seven aren't smart, just principled - and proud - like  James Coburn's character Britt.

Indeed.

Rainy day of not, The Magnificent Seven is well worth watching again if you have viewed this classic.  Maybe I'll take a look at it for a second time today, actually.

The Magnificent Seven

Back in the USSA; getting ready for summer at Seneca Lake

WATKINS GLEN, NY, USA - It was a shorter-than-normal season in Mexico this year, prompted in part by the domestic situation of son Dustin, but also because Admiral Fox and I in December purchased a home here, just a few blocks from Seneca Lake and within walking distance of town.

The pier at Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake

Watkins Glen - yes, that Watkins Glen with the NASCAR race track - has grown up in the last decade and has excellent restaurants, a nice marina and waterfront area, good shopping, all kinds of medical services and several good bars.

Several.

And, perhaps as a sign the place has come of age, this July there will be a Phish concert held at the racetrack that has the entire area buzzing, mostly about the commercial possibilities brought into town by the arrival of probably 75,000 people.

Go Phish, right?

The house has a good view of Seneca Lake

Our new house is a rock-solid brick place with one of those huge, East Coast basements that is as large as the rest of the house.

Adm. Fox has already claimed part of the basement for a music studio. I'm lobbying for making it into a den for videos, too. There's enough space for both and to build a bar in one portion.

A bar? Hmmmm....

I already commandeered one of the bedrooms for an office, where I am decorating it in early 'Chuck' decor (LINK: TV Series Chuck). Does anyone know where I can get an original poster of the movie TRON?

I arrived a few days before Adm. Fox and had a chance to equip the house. It came fully furnished (gracias Dios!) but without normal accoutrements like dishes and linens and all the other items you need to live in a house.

One of the flock

I discovered that nearby Montour Falls (home of the Harvest Cafe, another great place to eat LINK: Harvest Cafe) has a Dollar Store ensconced on the edge of town where the prices put the Watkins' WalMart to shame.

Oh! And no pink flamingos came with the house either. I remedied that immediately and we now have a growing flock. Whether the birds will go south with us next winter when we return to Arroyo Seco in Mexico is in question.

The early arrival here in the north means that, well, we are freezing are butts off (it was 85 degrees when I left Mexico, 35 when I arrived at the Syracuse, NY airport). But more importantly, we will be able to open up the lake house in Valois earlier and do projects that are best completed before the growing season.

I have at least a half dozen trees that need to be trimmed, the path to the lake needs to be rebuilt (again...) and the raspberry vines need to be trimmed back to near the ground .

Most summers, by the time we have arrived, everything has been growing for months and we are confronted with a jungle of new growth, high grass and, of course, poison ivy creeping around.

LINK: The Coasters sing 'Poison Ivy...'

The lake house in Valois - sans foliage

This fall we will return to California for our last semester of teaching at California State University, Sacramento.  It's been a great run in California, but after December, perhaps, we will be splitting our time between Seneca Lake (and Watkins Glen) and Arroyo Seco.

Or some other place, I suppose. We are subject-to-change, after all.

But for today (so far), I am holed up in my office (dubbed a 'man cave' by amiga Tina Hazlitt), organizing the place, searching online for Tron posters, and cruising Craigslist for a skiboat so we can zip from here up the lake to Valois quickly.

Summer is just around the corner after all. Really...

To Barra de Navidad for a croissant - and to find the miracle store

BARRA DE NAVIDAD, Jalisco, Mexico - Admiral Fox, amiga Kathleen Schamel and I left our outpost in Arroyo Seco (and the hotel on the beach) to roar into Barra de Navidad Saturday for a look at the city. We also wanted to pick up a few things to take back to the USSA when we return later this spring.

Kathleen's last visit to Barra was about 6 years go when she was crewing aboard our sailboat Sabbatical and we were cruising the coast from Puerto Vallarta to Zihuatenjeo.

Of course, on Saturday we stopped at the French Baker on the street next to the bay first, for a croissant or two and some hot tea.

Inside the Milagro store

There were not a lot of tourists in town - or at least up early (11 a.m.). There were quite a few spring break folks about town though, obvious by their bathing attire (or lack of it) and the sweating bottles of Corona they clutched so close.

One stop for me was the Milagro Store - yes, a store that sells various religious items as well as other stuff. I bought a couple of things for our new house in New York and hope that the milagro will be that we get to see our granddaughter here in Mexico sometime soon.

In our travels, we also picked up amiga Laura McCartney who walks with her pooch Mia around Barra every day. At least every day when she isn't out in Arroyo Seco staying at the hotel.

She, the Admiral and Kathleen were checking out the Bob Marley store when I caught up with them, aprés my croissant. A Bob Marley store? I am not kidding. It's a store that seems devoted to all things hippie and equally devoted to Bob Marley.

Three amigas

Fifteen minutes inside of it, and I was considering getting some dreadlocks. Considering.

Barra is a great place to do such browsing but when lunchtime arrived, we were near crisis. Should we eat at Mexico Lindo (our favorite in Barra) or trek back over the mountain to La Manzanilla for lunch at Palapa Joe's.

Palapa Joe's won out fairly easily and we had a great lunch there, sitting at the new bar (new this season). Adm. Fox and I had hamburguesas de pollo, of course. It was a bean and cheese burrito for Kathleen.

When we parked in La Manzanilla, we noticed that a pickup truck was parked nearly in front of Palapa Joe's, advertising a competitor's restaurant on the jardin. The sign wasn't enough to tempt us to divert from our path, however.

And as a bonus for our good choice of luncheon spot, we were able to have key lime pie for dessert - the last slice of piece.

Palapa Joe's never disappoints.

Outside Palapa Joe's in La Manzanilla

Irish music, Irish food and then Mexican pesos all - for an ambulance

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - A fund raiser the day before St. Patrick's Day in La Manzanilla brought out a good-sized crowd to eat Irish stew, soda bread, drink Guinness - and listen to some fine Irish music.

The money raised is to go towards the ambulance and emergency services in La Manzanilla.

Mike and Myranda

The event was held in the rooftop palapa of Richard and Nansee, a wonderful setting for, well, just about anything. The last time I was on that rooftop, I was trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to learn the tango.

Wednesday night, I didn't give the Irish Jig a try, though my feet were tapping all through it.

The music was provided by Myranda and Mike (the Celtic Duo) with Admiral Fox joining in on her fiddle.

Myranda did a fine job playing and singing (barely a dry eye in the palapa when she finished singing "Oh Danny Boy..."). She also gave a demonstration of just how the Irish Jig is done - and then got a half dozen people up on their feet to try it out. The video below highlights some of that action.

How much money was raised?

Ask Dan tonight at Palapa Joes if he shows up with his harmonica to play some music with the Lizards.