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What you find below is the first incarnation of Felpin's Pond.This blog has now been replaced by something called New Felpin's Pond which has been hosted by Google Blogger since 2011. .
I started writing this older version of Felpin's Pond in 1999, whilst I was living in Marion, Massachusetts. I wrote these blog entries up till to 2011-and there are only a few rather bland entries per year. The most recent ones are listed first. Felpin's Pond was the successor, to a print zine I wrote called, Felpin's Journal. That little magazine lasted from 1990 to 1993. I changed the name from Felpin's Journal to Felpin's Pond when it became a weblog. .
First entry of 2011
Here once again at snowy Felpin's Pond, feeling rather empty..I always feel empty don't I, except when I have eaten.. Anyway a favorite singer of mune Gerry Rafferty died on January 4, 2011.
He died apparently from the ill effects of alcoholism--I had know idea....the baby finally went to sleep, always the last to go to
bed..... Jason was listening to light jazz prior to his falling asleep. He and his brother got Bey Blades from their
baby sitter for Christmas. What else was I going to say-they both again failed the Tom Brady question in the bed time
contest.-neither one of them knows who Tom Brady is.... but Jason knows who Deval Patrick is.... well good night, cruel
world.
Pond entries from 2010!
Halloween on Cape Cod!
Spent Halloween wondering around the world with the boys, who were playing Star Wars
people. Baby was Yoda!!
Spring on Cape Cod.
We have a very odd spring here in Cape Cod this year. It is odd only simply because we
had a Spring. The weather has been temperate, occasionally hot, but often a perfect 60 or 70 degrees. There has been some
rain but not too much rain. There have been numerous sunny days, and only on occasion cloudy days. This kind of faily good
spring is not the norm here on Cape Cod. The normal Spring, is usually rainy, and cloudy from March to June....
Former Boston Red Sox great Nomar Garciaperra retired yesterday. It seems like just yesterday
he was an exciting rookie of the year and Ted Williams' last protege.
In fact that was 13 years ago. Nomar became
the face of Red Sox, the embodiment of baseball work ethic, and really the living breathing soul of Red Sox nation. Sadly,
around 2003 his relationship with Red Sox management soured when he began looking for a contract for a value that probably
exceeded his true future worth. The Red Sox management made things worse by trying to sign Alex Rodriguez to replace Nomar,
A-Rod may have had better numbers, but he was the very anti-thesis of the baseball hero Nomar, and this less than classy move
soured Nomar's heart, so ultimately the Red Sox were forced to trade away Nomar and his souring attitude in the middle of
the 2004 season. This move proved to be a catalyst to the Red Sox remarkable championship season in 2004. But, as necessary
as the move was, it always seemed wrong to see Nomar playing anywhere but Boston, just as it had been when prior Red Sox legends
like Tiant, Fisk or Lynn left town. Nomar's later career was injury plagued elsewhere, and he was not quite the same player
as he had been with the Red Sox. Still, many Red Sox fans hoped perhaps he could retire with the Red Sox, and apparently,
he came to the same conclusion. He signed a one day minor league contract, with the Red Sox organization and then retired
the next day. Perhaps not as nice as seeing him on the field in Fenway one last time, but a gesture that closes a chapter
properly nevertheless.
POND entries from 2009!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah from Felpin's Pond,
Have a ride on a reindeer on us....
Happy Kwanzaa, as well.
As I am sure you know, Kwanzaa is a celebration of the great,
American figure skater, Michelle Kwan, who sadly never one a gold
medal. So raise up a glass of Kwanzaanog, curse Sarah Hughes, and do a triple salchow in Michelle's honor!
NOT AS GOOD AS I EXPECTED !
Been watching lots of DVD's at home recently, have seen a few movies
that I actually thought woud be better movies than they turned out to be. Among them-The Year of Living Dangerously, Fitzcarraldo, Star Trek (the reboot), and the Unbearable Lightness of Being,
Ponder the unponderable and then eat a pickle.
DID YOU KNOW THAT the Teletubbies TV show was filmed on a farm in Stratford-on-Avon
in England, and that the show is no longer being made, and thus teletubby land no longer exists. Very sad...la, la.
po...
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Do you ever have a day where nothing seems to go right and it seems that if you do anything it will go wrong!!!
STIMULI!
I must say I do not see the point in some of the pork barrel projects that the Democrats have crammed
into the so-called Stimulus bill, though I am happy to the get even oh so slight decrease in my taxes that also were part
of the bill.
AMAZING!
DID YOU know that February 2009 is the first month since February 1998 to only occupy only four calender weeks on a calender
page. Amazing isn't it ? This is because the month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. This only happens
every 11 years or so...
POND Entries from 2008
Another interesting trivial thing...Shatner is 79!
I always found it interesting that certain cast members of the original Star Trek, were of the same age, the late
James Doohan and the late Deforest Kelley were born in 1920, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Grace Lee Whitney
were all born in 1930. The other lady cast members Nicelle Nichols, the late Majel Barrett were
born in 1932.
Walter Koenig, and George Takei were born around 1937!
The end of ABBAMAIL!
I was saddened to see the closing in October 2008 of the legendary ABBA mailing list and website, ABBAMAIL . The owners
of the website, Graeme Read and Grant Whittingham
had not too long ago been sued by ABBA's label- Universal Music. The lawsuit was settled, but the whole affair left a
bad taste with the serious ABBA fan community who did not appreciate Universal 's pettyness, doubledealing, and greed.
Grant and Graeme must have finally come to the conclusion that they could not continue to spend a large
chunk of their lives promoting ABBA.
Whatever, the reason for their departure, Grant and Graeme are to be greatly commended for their tireless service to
ABBA fans.
Well, hmm... I wish my son would go to bed!
Summer is over here on Cape Cod. I'm not
a big summer person, I don't like the hot weather or the bugs, but I do like the sun. Spring/winter here is 6 months
of overcast.
I'm not a big fan of sentences that are not sentences
Barack does Biden!
Well that is a fairly good choice, I would probably have died if it was
that Kaine guy..
Well summer is over here in Cape Cod, this was a rather uninteresting summer
here. By that I mean, that I have had better summers. We didn't go anywhere this summer, didn't do much at all really.
We went to the county fair. My wife went to her pregenancy appointments.
My older son nearly drowned at camp. We went to the drive-in
theatre, and we faced broken appliances and tall grass at our new house. Oh, and My older son got a toad!
Is Barack Obama getting boring, or perhaps
we are just getting bored of him, it perhaps seems that way, people seem more interested in Sarah Palin. We now have
celebrity politics here in Celebrity Land USA
Summer 2008 in Cape Cod!
Well summer is almost here on Cape Cod, the seasonal people, and the tourists and the guest workers are all coming back,
and occasionally there is a little good weather, so that I can take my children out to the playground!!!
I seemed to be cursed with lawns and lawnmowers, every
lawnmower i get breaks and when they are working it is rainy, or snowing all the time!
Cape Cod is currently plagued
with a brood of seventeen year cicadas, oddly I haven't really seen that many of the pesky, crunchy creatures, but I you can
sure hear them, anytime you get near to a forest, they sound like a thousand car alarms, or some sort of alien invasion
I recently moved within in the same town, and my advice
to you would be to never move!
The end of time....oops not yet...
How about that Hillary Clinton, we almost couldn't rid of her, I must admit
I am skeptical of the people who keep saying she should get out, when she was in fact, running very close to Barack
Obama in terms of total popular votes. Indeed if the contest were run under the Republican rules she might have been the nominee
by now...!
John Mayer, Gwen Stafani, Maroon Five
Does anybody else find these musical acts annoying? I do! I can't think of any
songs I like by these artists, though I do like some of the work Gwen did with her group, No Doubt.
The great American actor, Charlton Heston died recently, and Chuck
was not a good friend of mine, but I did enjoy many of his movies, notably "The Three Musketeers", "Planet
of the Apes", and "El Cid".
Recently, I Saw "I Am Legend" a fairly good movie about a dog and his
friend, Will Smith, and their experiences with golf, mannequins, and fast cars!
The word is out is that TheTab Energy drink has been discontinued.
Recently, I saw Sam, the replacement for Greg, in the
Wiggles and I have to say he is not as good as Greg
You know I don't know why this sentence is here..
Welcome
to never so exciting Felpin's Pond! Where men swoon, dogs sing, angels cry and bats bat ! Where never is the number
more than you can count. Oh and Pluto and Sedna really should be planets....
Entries from 2008follow (in
backwards order) !
Love that Winter from Cape Cod!
Love the overcast skies, the rain and the cold, oops, I forgot it's supposed to be spring here....
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
I recently saw an interesting movie about the fight to free Ireland from the British, which i am not going to talk
about yet!
THE PATRIOTS
How about them New England Patriots-bad timing on the loss.
John McCain
Poor guy, he finally get close to be tthe Republican nominee and it becomes not worth having...
ROG-UGH!
The word is out that MLB Baseball legend Roger Clemens and at least 80 other playeras
are alleged to have bought and taken steriods and/or other
performance enhancing drugs. It's sad day for baseball.
new years....
i hate new years day!
\
Felpin's Pond 's journal entries from 2007 follow....
PATiENCE
Did I spell that correctly? Who knows... I find that I do not have a lot of patience to write. I used to have a little
more. At one point in the early 1990's I believed a little more in my writing, and had a different mindset about my writing
... Now,. I see my writing differently, and have to work at sitting down being patient and actually writing something., But
I am now finally again making more of an effort at actually to putting down more coherent thoughts here at Felpins Pond.
For the most part, most of my entries here at the pond between 2002 and 2006 were pretty darn meaningless, but for 2007 my
goal is for entries to actually mean something....on occasion...perhaps...
THE MENAGERIE
I saw the recent digital movie theatre presentation of "the Menagerie".
Flimed in 1964, and 1966, it's the only two part episode of the original Star Trek TV series...CBS Paramount recently,
has redoing been some of the special effects shots for the original shows, as well as remastering the prints and rerecording
the music.. I for one think, it's a cool idea, because after seeing these episodes 10 or 20 times , they are were finally
beginning to get a little stale.. Two problems with the showing, one was that it started right on time , unlike most
movies, and the show came out very dark at the particular theatre that i attended..
Cruelty
I recently watched a short film about vivisection it's about how we treat animals -and it was rather
bothersome how we treat are animals.
A trip to Planet nothing
Very little to see ....
Augh, the blank page-so scary, so easy to fill on the internet, and what if I don't fill it!
HALLOWEEN
Went to North Falmouth for Halloween with my family, it was pleasent..
My older son was Optimus Prime , and the little one was one the Ninja Turtles...
MY KATE BUSH FANTASY, rewritten again!
Strawberry Fields whatever,
look Kate when is your stuff going to come out on DVD!
East side /Story
I
was listening recently to Squeeze early 1980's album-East Side Story.
It's the one that has the song "Tempted" which for some reason continues to get played on the radio a lot. This
is a really enjoyable album.....
Like taxes and chicken
Ever wonder why this is called taxes and chicken.
TREELESS MOUNTAINS
Why is it sometime trees don't bother showing up at the top of certain mountains.
Apes!
I recently watched the Planet of the Apes movies, all five of them- ... The first movie is
still quite good, the second not as good as it seemed, the third not as good, the fourth somewhat daring, and the fifth
is still quite a mess. That's my story and I am sticking to it.
ROG-UGH!
The word is out that MLB Baseball legend Roger Clemens and at least 80 other playeras
are alleged to have bought and taken steriods and/or other
performance enhancing drugs. It's sad day for baseball
MY KATE BUSH FANTASY, rewritten
Strawberry Fields whenever..
Actually
very little to do, but suffer....though I have a number of things hanging over me,
there is still time ...I try to
imagine being in Ireland , or in Holland cos the overcast and clouds today remind of these places..I relish the thought of
actually one day being on vacation...Where would I be......
I am in Dublin on an island called Ireland's eye. Iam
to tired to climb to the top of the hill, and so I hang out around the Martello tower ruin..there is ledge on it....there
are birds, and noises, but I am not there-there are only so many memories recorded in my brain. My mind wanders- to times
of unquestionable loyality or a Strawberry festival.....and then my mind wanders to a place I never was...
Somewhere, somehow, I am lost elsewhere on a hill with green and golden grasses . It's a hill with a just a
few trees and the subdued light of our star coloring the hill
we are having lunch with Kate Bush..., we are eating strawberries,
Tab, wine and some cool sandwiches like those turkey sandwiches from Boston Markert. There are no ants. I have driven my mini
vehicle to meet up with Kate, My son, is playing in the field with my wife, who is painting the sun...We encountered Kate
at a shop in town, and she invited us to her farm for lunch....but all I could feel was the stress, the pain, the sense of
being uncomfortable, of not wanting to be where i was.... and of not knowing a time when i would want to be somewhere that
I was.....
SECOND CITY TV
I have been watching the DVD of
the fourth season of
SCTV.. Which was the first season of the 90 minute episodes shown on NBC TV network, here in
America.
Great comedy, better perhaps than I had remembered it being... So many memorable sketches.
Bob and
Doug McKenzie, Monster Chiller Horror Theatre, Bob Hope and Woody Allen together, The Man Who Would Be King of the Popes,
The Grapes Of Mud, and dozens of other classics....
A trip to Woods Hole
My two children and myself took a trolley trip to Woods Hole today..
Our town has a trolley service in the summer that travels the six miles between downtown
Falmouth and the small village of Woods Hole... the trolley is fun for the kids.. Sadly, this year, they blocked off the entrance
to the back porch of the trolley. When we got to Woods Hole , we had a picnic, and then walked over to the fabulous Woods
Hole playground. At the playground the kids played whilst I had conversation with a summer visitor named Albert. The
trolley ride back to Falmouth was crowded from all the people getting off the Ferry from Martha's Vineyard. The crowds were
a little scary for my two year old...
Like taxes and death...
Recently , I watched a Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate.
It struck me that it doesn't really matter who it is I might like. I might like Joe Biden for his experience or Barack Obama
for his charisma or John Edwards for his haircut or Bill Richardson for whatever it is one likes Bill Richardson for.... but
it ,just doesn't matter -the Bill & Hillary Clinton dynasty awaits us again like sunrise and sunset...It's
kind of scary really . I don't actually dislike Hillary as much as used too, and have no doubt she would be a competent president,
but I am just getting more than a little sick of the Bush/Clinton years...and of pay to play politics....
TREE MOUNTAIN
Well I was going to write something here about Arcosanti or Tree mountain, but
I am running out of time here at the library and I will have to finish this later.. ...Many days later.... Well Arcosanti
is a village in Arizona founded by the futurist architect Paulo Soleri . Although the overall idea was to build an entire
full siize city in one mega structure, due to lack of money, the village is more of an demonstration project of Soileri's
ideas that has built with the help of his students and his supporters.. Tree Mountain is a conceptual modern art project installed
by Agnes Denes. In a small town in Finland she has had planted a geometric pattern of 10,600 trees., on a manmade mountain.
.
A winter curse in the sign of Aquarius!
Ever heard of the"NASA's Winter Curse"? All of the major fatal accidents in the US Space Program
have occurred in the Winter and within 27 to the 32nd days of the calender year.
The crew of Apollo 1 Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died in a training pad
accident on 27 January 1967.
The Challenger crew of Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis,
Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, and Christa McAuliffe died after liftoff on 28 January, 1986
The Columbia crew of Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael
P. Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon died on their re-entry into the atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
Of course, that these accidents have occurred at the same time of the year is just a coincidence,
and there have many successful launches and flights under the Aquarius sign. I should
also note that there were a few other fatal accidents involving astronauts that have
occurred outside this window of time, but none of these occurred in spacecraft.
Welcome
to never so exciting Felpin's Pond! Where men swoon, dogs sing, angels cry and bats bat ! Where never is the number
more than you can count. Oh and Pluto and Sedna really should be planets....
Entries
from 2007 follow (in backwards order) !
SHINGLES
My niece and nephew came by to visit from out of state. The two of them, my older son and I went to
the Heights beach to go swimming -and I neglected to put sunblock on some parts of my my body-and I ended up getting
a bad sunburn. Two days later I came home with worst stinging feeling all through out my back-which didn't reelly dissipate
for five hours of so-it turned out I had the shingles again -it was aggravated by my sunburn. All in all, this
was one of the more painful experiences of my life.
Pickles
Ok this is not really about pickles it's about Kiwi.
Those Darned Brits and their fancy accents!
Recently I was watching THE QUEEN which featured a really cool deer,a whole boatload of flowers, lots of people saying
"Maam as in ham" , the guy who taught a pig to herd sheep and that British actress who usually strips down a lot in movies.
Despite all that it was an enjoyable movie....
My wife has been watching a lot of House,MD, starring Hugh Laurie. It's a well written, Fox network show about an amazing
team of doctors who can figure out any possible illness... Of course, the show is not very realistic, there never seem to
be any nurses around, and no doctor would spend as much billable time on one paitent as these people do ....
Since then I have watching some of Hugh Laurie's early work (The Black Adder, Jeeves and Wooster Erc.) on
British TV, and his style is somewhat different from House since he is doing comedy.
Argh! I am a pirate, too!
Recently I went to a memorial service for a 22 year old son
of a co-worker. I think that this is the youngest person, that I have been to a service for. Though, I did have a friend
named Rajesh who died at around that age, but when he died his parents neglected to tell
me, that he had died.
The service was held in a Youth Camp, at a campfire setting
with benches. One by one many of his friends got up and told stories about this fine young man
and they told us what a great friend he was, and how alive he was as a person.. Most of the stories were
funny, and for the first time at a funeral, I heard a few people use curse words and talk about poop.
The most memorable speaker was the young man's high school
sailing coach, who asked the mourners to voice in unison -"Argh! I am a pirate too!" This he asked to us do
whenever he felt emotional during his little talk.
The worst thing, of course, was seeing his family, up there together-his
four sisters, mom and dad facing this great loss.
They didn't have to talk to voice their love.
After the service, the young man's four sisters sailed
a small sailboat, out into the pond at this campground and distributed some his ashes in the water. The rest of his ashes
were to be dispersed later in his home state.
An interesting scene from Star Trek-The Next Generation-Where Silence Has Lease
Episode Written by Jack Soward.
Captain Picard is sitting quietly when he asked bt Data-"What is Death?".
Picard: Some see it as a changing into an indestructible form, forever unchanging. They believe that the
purpose of the entire universe is to then maintain that form in an earthlike garden which will give delight and pleasure through
all eternity. On the other hand, there are those that hold on to the idea of us blinking into nothingness (Picard snaps
his fingers), with all of our experiences and hopes and dreams merely a delusion.
Data: Which do you believe sir?
Picard: Considering the marvelous complexity of our universe, its
clockwork perfection, its balances of this against that... matter, energy, gravitation, time, dimension, I believe that our
existence must be more then either of these philosophies, that what we are goes beyond Euclidean or other "practical" measuring
systems, and that our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality
That was a rare cool scene from the generally mediocre first season of ST-NG
----
Randomness-George Harrison, R.E.M,John
McCain, etc..
Recently I was watching a tribute concert DVD, called The Concert for George... Which
of course, is a tribute to George Harrison..I always found George fascinating.....
I found the DVD to be quite enjoyable, the setting of London's Royal Albert Hall, proved to be a attractive and
stately venue, the guest artists were mostly people who have worked with George in the past such Eric
Clapton, Billy Preston, Jeff Lynne, and Monty Python. There were a few surprises for me-I ,for one I
had never heard of the British rocker, Joe Brown, who sung a few of the songs.... I had never seen before seen Ravi Shankar's
daughter, Anouska Shankar, the lovely sitar player, and no one had seen Ringo and Paul McCartney play together on stage in
a long time..
Have you ever thought that maybe that the song "Man on the Moon" might have been a better
song if it was about the space program and not about Andy Kaufman?
I had a dream that I was a professional baseball player who was about to be told that it was time
to retire... I am now older than most of the people that play baseball. For some reason, I could never really baseball well,
I was okay at football, soccer and track, but didn't have the hand/eye coordination to be a good baseball player.
In my dream, I was a mediocre baseball player, but of course, a mediocre professional player is
still in the top 1% of all people who play baseball.... I know there is point to this, and it goes something like this,
sometimes you get older, and you realize there certain things you could never do, and also things that you can no longer do....
I never understand why American conservatives hate John McCain so much,but they do, and
perhaps that's one of the many reasons people don't like Republicans as much in this country anymore.
... I had a dream that i was drinking Liptonice, the carbonated ice tea...I wondered
if it helped cause Global warming.
Today,
I went to the beach with my children. It's still winter here on the Cape, so it was unusual for it to actually be warmish
(50 degrees), sunny, not windy, and not icey. So we had a nice day...My youngest so threw pebbles into the water, my oldest
son talked to people and to dogs, and took his shoes off, I stared out onto the sound towards the Vineyard and enjoyed the shimmering water...
POND Entries from 2006
Christmas 2006 "Christmas time is here again!"
I am very cynical about Christmas - I am not sure why.I know I have to make
almost a conscious effort to enjoy X-mas. This Christmas so far I have enjoyed watching my wife decorate the tree, and
listening to Mariah Carey sing "All I want For Christmas For You" but I can't seem to get enthusiastic about
my children being spoiled at Christmas-maybe I am just a Scrooge!!!!
They should call Dancing With The Stars, "Dancing With The B-list" because every year about half of the "stars" that appear
on the show are people I have never heard of....
A little while ago I noticed that somebody had messed with ALPHA-BITS cereal...
Somebody decided that it had too much sugar, and decided to make ALPHA-BITTS instead with little or no sugar..They wanted
make the cereal comparable to Cheerios -that's what is said on the box... Well CHEERIOS taste pretty good without
sugar, and they also taste pretty good with a spponful of sugar...but these new alpha bits tasted horrible either way-and I
had to throw the whole box away... A few weeks later I noticed the cereal was totally discontinued from the
store....
It reminds me of the fate of the original Carnation Breakfast bars which were a very yummy
product found in American stores in the 1970's...
One day Carnation changed the recipe to make it more like a granola bar-and I
stopped buying them. The old bars never came back....
ok nothing here
I must admit I tend to be one of those people who are rather cynical about my country's September
11 fixation... ..it seems that this event , these lost lives, have had a far greater value and importance placed
on them than any other recent loss of life or event that has occured. But there were many heroes that day, including
the fire fighters, policeman and the passengers on United 93 who fought back... and one cannot but help but
admire those folks.
My four year old son loves the county fair. All year , he waits for it, dreams about it
sings about it....He wants me to drive by the fairgrounds every day....The fair is a little temporary world like
Brigadoon...Soon all the rides soon will be disassembled...and sent to some other fairground. All the food and vendor
carts will dissapear and only memories will remain till next year....
Time and Time again I look for time and find a clock that has a lock and A stock and a barrel of
monkees who are punkees, not Yankees, not spankees....
Do you ever wonder why it is you sometimes you can't think of something to say!
  I just figured out that people change as they get older!
The latest pictures of actor Richard Gere show him with white hair, and I was just getting used to him with grey
hair...
Here are a couple of photos of Sarah Hughes, the winner of the gold medal for figure skating at Salt Lake
City Winter Olympics...
The first shows her in 2002 and the second in 2005. Her hair color which was darker when she was her
in her teens was specially colored for the 2002 olympics.. At some point after the Olympics Sarah brought back the dark
hair and gained some weight so she no longer looks like a food starved waif..
What I can't figure out is why Lindsay Lohan looks so different from week to week- in the past few weeks I have
seen her on magazine covers of her which she has appeared as a blonde, with brown hair, and with dark
black hair... It has gotten to the point where I honestly did not believe it was Lindsay when I saw her on the most
recent cover of PREMIERE magazine ..... Oh well.....
|
| We couldn't afford a picture of Lindsay Lohan ! |
no no this is just meaningless...but was it really...
Blank bullets and bull headed bullies. and around we go....
You, yes ,you are the jesus of cool . You are !the buddah of breaddown
and the confuscious of confusion!
the next sentence comes soon!
walking through trash in the end times with bob barker barking orders and
in the end times with samson and the advice of request and wondering through the aerospace,random reoccurances in the back of night the dark of night, the forth of fight, and so
we wander off into the current events right on, right off, now don't think i am nut cos king tut has a big butt, really, it
was- it wasnt! Do this now or die trying, YES YOU ARE VERY TRYING !!!!!!!
Ho ho ho it's the world in a circle without a beginning
or the end, inspired and blue, and annoying glassses and various tears and the happy wayfaring wanderer who is a insider or
a outsider and random teetoatler with the toadlike creatures on the fourth of july
spastic spandex spanish speedskaters so seriously sought seeking
seismic in seattle-you know that movie with Meg Ryan, whatever happened to her?
POND Entries from 2005!
Christmas is over-always so stressful
getting to this point...
On the way to my Aunt's house's -there was accident on the highway-and my wife (who is a
nursing student) got out and was the first responder on the scene... She stabilized three people till the ambulances and fire
trucks came.
I was very impressed by her....
POTATO CHIP DREAMS
Here lost in today or potato chips or something...yes I am craving
potato chips and soda. I am craving a worry free day ...
I am craving a sunny day on a mountain.... I am craving a "Are You
Being Served Marathon"...I am craving a game of risk owith my wife....Yes, I want something!
KATE BUSH IS BACK WITH THE 2CD SET AERIAL
Dick Nixon was alive when she last released an album, and here she is back finally--though she'll go
back to her hermitage soon...
...Although Aerial is a double album it;s not exactly jam packed with songs...
Arty English songstress Kate Bush took for ever (12 years!) to release this, and while I miss her,
I was not expecting much,.cos her last album showed that she was finally slipping...
The first CD is called Part 1, "A Sea of Honey," has a nice variety of songs covering of songs topics
such as Elvis Presley worship ("King of the Mountain"), and math ("Pi") and Bush's own son ("Bertie"). Very odd indeed is
"Mrs. Bartolozzi" which has a chorus of the words "Washing machine, washing machine." !!!
The second CD is , a suite called "A Sky of Honey," is boring....Hey but I hey I am boring too, worms
bore, dogs snore...
MY KATE BUSH FANTASY
S trawberry Fields whenever..
A ctually very little to do, but suffer....though I have a number of things
hanging over me,
there is still time ...I try to imagine being in Ireland , or in Holland cos the overcast and clouds today remind of these
places..I relish the thought of actually one day being on vacation...
I am in Dublin on Ireland's eye. tired to tired to climb to the top of the hill, and so I hang out around the Martello
tower ruin..
there is ledge on it....there are birds, and noises, but I am not there-there are only so many memories recorded in my
brain. My mind wanders- to times of Unquestionable loyality or a Strawberry festival.....and then wander.Somewhere somehow
I am lost elsewhere on a hill with green and golden grasses . It's a hill with a just a few trees and the subdued light of
our star coloring the hill we are
having lunch with Kate Bush..., we are eating strawberries, Tab, wine and some cool sandwiches like those turkey sandwiches
from Boston Markert. There are no ants. I have driven my mini vehicle to meet up with Kate, My son, is playing in the field
with my wife, who is painting the sun...We encountered Kate at a shop in town, and she invited us to her farm for lunch....but
all I could feel was the stress, the pain, the sense of being uncomfortable, of not wanting to be where i was.... and of not
knowing a time when i would want to be somewhere that I was......
John's Europa 1986 & 1998 Travel Journals for two European trips...
To visit previous happenings at FELPIN'S POND click here...
What is this sentence doing here?
| The target island -Kahoolawe |
|
Here overlooking the east end of the pond where the old boathouse was , until the new boathouse was built,
over 100 years ago...
I am musing about Hawaii. I was surfing on the web to learn about Hawaii.. Sort of like traveling without
going on a plane.
I have never been to that part of the world. I was wondering about the four lesser known of Hawaii's
main eight islands . Places like Nihau, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe
Molokai has a former leper colony that is located in the smallest county in the US- Kalawao county..
Lanai used to be the world's largest Pineapple plantation, and was almost wholly ended by the Dole
Corporation. In recent years they stopped growing pineapples and instead have sold the lucrative real estate for vacation
homes.
Kahoolawe is a former bombing range for the US military and
Nihau is an island entirely owned by one family, and the people there live in the traditional
Hawaiian way without modern conveniences...
It 's interesting to me that so many of the Hawaiian islands are off limits...
Here musing cynical about the Katerina flood...
Apparently, after failing to build levees and housing sensibly, and failing to bring help soon enough,the various governments
"in charge" are now threatening to start throwing large sums of money at the problem...Reminds me of 9-11 when the overkill
of reaction led to spending large sums of money on anti-terrorism measures and wars...
I am Here having a lovely can of Tab, looking at the sunset on the pond pondering the meaning of life and
coming up with idea that it's all about making a lot of money, and a having nice car...well maybe not...
Ah summeer yes meer approacheth at the Pond of the Felpins'ssssdpsps
---and life is just as meaningless as it ever was.....
HELLO LOST SOULS, LOST FOALS, LOST COALS, Well it ryhmes at least, kinda , sorta , maybe....
Look look into the endless forest find your dreams or simply lose your mittens....! But please don't forget
the hot chocolate!
January 5th 2005.. The Greetings of the Winter Chickedee
Well, hard as it may
to believe, winter continues here at Felpin's Pond-the
pond is not frozen over as of yet, the temperatures have been jumping
around
too much....This morning I even heard a chickedee singing, perhaps he just
wanted to let people know
he was still around...I offered him a glass of Tab
, but apparently this bird doesn't speak English, so instead I
threw the
remains of a donut in his general direction...I knew the product of a donut
merchant was probably not
worthy of this tuneful chickedee ,but I hated to
see the last ginger bread donut of the season go to waste....
'
i!
| Have a Coke and a smile |
|
POND ENTRIES FROM 2004 follow---
Snowducks and Chocolata!
Well it snowed here at Felpin's Pond's but the winter brings some nice
sunsets and we still get deliveries of Coke, Tab and Fanta Grape to all the folks here at the Pond! I nurse a mug of
hot chocolata , as I glance out onto Felpin's Pond from the East porch of the Summer House.. Small geese are circling
around the the old boat house in search of their hopes , dreams and breakfast. My chocolata looks back at me in wonder.
Why
are we here, I ask myself-not really expecting an answer-I suppose I
don't ask that question as much as I did when I was
young....I think I did actually did expect an answer when I was young. The geese fly off but a fleet, a flock , a gaggle
nay a google of ducks swim toward the old boat house, I am surprised they are out in the snow maybe they aresnowducks... the
might snowducks
I was almost lost in the snowduck moment, but the telephone rings and some annoying caller leaves
their message on my automated answerer....and the peaceful moment is gone....
| Dave Benway's New Album |
|
| Chairs courtesy of Ikea! |
"Not trying to be mass sensation just trying to live up to the allegations...."
Well the decoration in brown
is actually the cover of a CD by D.Benway.... THE CD IS CALLED SONGS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
D.
Benway is actually DAVE Benway, and he is the former leader of the punk band WHAT. Here on his first solo album he takes a
lot of interesting and refreshing turns ...Ah to actually be creative...Dave hails from Kingston, Massachusetts. He is a great
songwriter and interesting guy! His album was brought to the Pond by the fine folks at Afflicted Records...
NOVEMBER 4th 2004 A RED AMERICA
Calm reflections upon the 2004 USA Presidential
election.... Ah calm, calm
like a soothing glass of Tab...
Ah, Four more years of George Dubya Bush... Don't really
like the guy, but
it often seems that the American public likes to pick guys I don't much
like....Senator Kerry seems
in many ways the taller guy , but the fact of
the matter is people from the south, the mountain states, and the American
heartland
tend not to vote for Massachusetts liberals....even tall ones with
rich wives. George W. Bush's performance as President
has been quite
mediocre, but he does have strong convictions which at the end of the day,
tends to make one a
good leader.
Some voters put a surprising level of an importance on Bush stands on
certain social issues. Abortion,
gun rights, the rights of the criminally
rich to keep their money, Gay marriage etc.
Various states, had referendums
to ban gay marriage and this brought the
religious right to the polls... The USA ,as a whole, is perhaps
understandably
, not ready for gay marriage. But fifty years from now ,
observers will probably think heterosexuals of the
early 21st century
preety bigoted for not allowing their gay and lesbian sisters and brothers
to not enjoy the same
rights they have. History will probably judge George
Bush poorly for playing politics with the civil rights of gay and
lesbians.......
The war in Iraq has troubled many people, Republicans and Democrats alike,,
since it has gone poorly, and
more and more seems like a war that was not
in the best interest of the American people. But, John Kerry did not make a
very
persuasive case that he could improve the situation in Iraq, and that
may be in the final analysis what kept George
Dubya Bush in office...
Satisfy your thirst with a nice warm glass of Sprite!
Thoughts on Waiting for Winter here at Felpin's Pond in the fabulous
USA! November 2004
Well it's almost winter at Felpin's Pond. The colorless meaty vegatation is starting to assume it's fallish winter
colors. I see a fast duck and slow deer...And my mind wanders And so I wander through the universe on a blue covered rock
in search of a dream or at least at very least we hope to find our shoes...or at least the end of our sentence ....
.....Pookie, I want to tell a story about a Pooh named Boo! and the day that he met
Maisy who was a duck who lived with a buck named chuck ,they lived very well on a government subsidy-the end....
GOOD AFTERNOON FROM CAPE COD. I AM HERE TODAY ON MISSION FROM WIFE TO ACHIEVE THE TOTAL NUTTINESS OF FRUITY PEBBLES AND THE UTTER GRATENESS OF ASHLEE SIMPSON AND BART SIMPSON AND WELL YOU GET THE GENERAL IDEA!!!!!
NOVEMBER 2 2004 A BLUE AMERICAWell the folks here at Felpin's Pond
are all hot and bothered about very little at all cos it's damn cold here-especially in my socks....
September 9, 2004....Well it's nearly a 50 degrees outside. Of course, where iit is really cold is in is inside
my shoes I have no heating in my shoes. I am Wondering aimlessly through a DVD of the first classic season of Battlestar
Galatica. The third episode reminds me of Finnigan's Wake. My dog is doing
doing errands. Ah my life is
fascinating.... well maybe it is not!!! Tthey should bring back those old non granola bar versions of the Chocolate Chip Carnation
Breakfast Bars!!!
Or MAYBE SO!!!!!Maybe not
AUGUSTA 2004 -Yes Augustam not August !!!!
The dog days are here... Have a hot dog!
It's hot, it 's hot I am going to melt like whipping
cream and savage spotted
wayward tigers , smells like hope like string cheese , like fiberglass ,like
sponges...
Ah for the blues of winter and of St.Louis!!!!
October 12,2004
I went out to dinner with my agent a
few nights back. He wanted to get a dinner so we went to the Snipppy's restaurant on the Firth of Forth .
In the restaurant lobby there were a couple of large cardboards signs with photos of Paris Hilton and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I really don't know why.... . Very sad!
What
follows are some thrilling bits from the first few episodes of Felpin's Pond (July 11, 1999 -MARCH 2000)
Flipping Felpin's Festive Pond
(sorry ran out of alliteration)
It's Getting Better (It can't get any worse)
I found myself trying to sing the blues Wednesday night. I don't know any blues songs ,but I was
deeply depressed about
something, and it got
to the point where the only way thing I could
do was sing, What came out of my mouth was startling
., I think ,I for the first time at least partly understood, what the blues are about .
Pain can be so real, so uncontrollable,
that you have to reach into another part of your being just find a way to channel all that negative energy into something
you have control of.
I sang in a really low gutteral but resonant l voice, but it came out not sounding like my voice at all. I sounded like
a very bad Bessie Smith imitator,but it made feel better to hear such a totally different voice.
Do I like Saturdays?
I am not a fan of Saturdays. I wish I were because, the the popular view is that Saturdays
are a good thing. I often
wish I held the popular
view of things because then I wouldn't seem
so cynical to people.
I have always worked in Retail stores, so
that skews my view a little since I often
work on Saturday and get my days
off
on weekdays.
I think I prefer Thursdays & Fridays, to Saturdays. The anticipation of the weekend
is often a better feeling than
actually experiencing
the weekend itself.
Televsion shows are usually quite horrid on
Saturday. All the usual weekday programming
is jettsioned. Saturday prime
time viewing
is lowest on Saturday, as a result network
programmers seldom placetheir best
shows on Saturday.
Post offices and many other places of
businesses like doctors offices are often
closed or closed early on Saturday.
It also said by people who work during the
week that the weather is always the worst
on Saturday.
But back to cynicism. Is it satisfying to be a
cynic? Generally not, unless your a witty
lovable cynic., most cynics
are not.
Oh well.
Faith is telling yourself it's Ok to be miserable (LOL)
"Holding onto Faith can be quite a struggle" John
thought as he mused pointlessly whilst looking at
the blue-page
builder screen.
"I'm not sure I believe that God wants
me to be happy"-John thought.
Perhaps, John was nowhere near having the depth of faith that he was seeking.
"It's a fight" he thought.
"Does God
really intend me to be happy" .
Perhaps happiness is not all that God intended
us to experience out of life. With a
sigh, John thought " I must preservere, I will perservere!
I just wish I didn't have to sing a happy song
to brighten
my sour mood so much.
I left my tooth in New Bedford
I Had one of my back teeth taken out today.
This tooth has already had two root canals'
done on it. I hate driving
into New Bedford
for anything ,but it was a such a nice day that
even New Bedford looked nice.
The procedure was done in what looked like
a Victorian Mansion that had been tastefully
renovated. The top of tooth
is gone. So
the oral surgeon didn't have a easy time
getting it out. IT came out in two pieces.
It broke during the
pulling. The removal
of the first piece was painful, the second
piece just took a long, long time, he had to
loosen
it, I was afraid he was going to have
to cut it out. Thankfully he didnt have to operate.
Now I have this big blood-
filled hole in my gums.
______________________________________.
Joe's Garden at Felpin's Pond
Drought has struck the garden, so there doesn't
seem to be much of anything growing!
Valkommen-come sit a spell!
SWIMMING AT SILVERSHELL AT SIX or SEVEN
I went over to Silver Shell Beach to get in some
much neglected swimming. The beach is only
two blocks down the
road from where I live but
I think I have only swam there about 8 times in 3 years.
I do go walking to it frequently
in the winter-
but a walk is a slightly more spur of the moment
thing then a swim. Ah but I digress from the point
of
this whole document. They call each of the
items on this page documents. They call
Alabama the Crimson tide...oops
this isnt
a Steely Dan song.
Anyway, I went swimming after the lifeguards
had left for the day. I expected the water to
be cold but it was
fine. It was such a joy to
swim with the sun setting onto the water.
There were people there-Marion types walking
on
the beach, one or two even swimming.
What's a Marion type you ask. They are people
who live in Marion . Wareham types
are people
who live in Wareham and well so on....
Only Marion residents are alllowed to visit
Marions' vast group
of beaches.
As I was leaving the Marion police came by-to
patrol the beach seeking out residents of other
towns or non-citizens
such as dogs .Dogs are
not allowed on the beach in the summer.
The police guy shouted at a miscreant owner
to get
his black dog off the beach. The owner
shouted back to him "Even now?" referring to
thet time of day (not the Barry
Manilow album).. The dog owner was perfectly
pleasent but he didnt exactly rush to remove
his dog from the beach and
I overheard the
dog owner whining when the police officer
finally left after having waited the five minutes
for
dog to leave...
Well I also will leave for the moment....
More from Joe's Garden at Felpin's Pond
Out of the way or perhaps kind of in the way is
Joe's Garden at Felpin's Pond..Here's the news..
IMPORTANT MESSAGE!
WATER RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN LIFTED
HERE EAST OF THE PECOS-feel free to have
that extra
glass of ice water!
That was the message from town hall-but our
Zuccinni was already in advanced state of
being not very advanced!
Oops nothing here
No really nothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THIS IS A LARGE NOT VERY NECESSARY HEADLINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listen to the frogs !
Listen to the crickets!
Go inside and watch the tube!
De-cats-ember 1999
Some Cats East of the Pecos!
CATS CATS CATS
We are trying to avoid putting up Holiday decorations here at Felpin's Pond so instead
we offer for your edification
-lots and lots and lots and lots and lots lots and lots of cats!!!!
Luna the cat
I am sitting here wondering what's going on with Luna!
Luna is
my wife's cat. Luna is a sweet and gentle cat normally but in the past two weeks she has become almost
feral. Often now , if you get near to her she will start hissing,
and getting viiolent -it's very disturbing! HISSSSS!!!!
Lost Ideas from Planet Cat
A friend of mine,Scott Glenwood has often told me that he sometimes wished he carried a tape recorder around with him so
that
he could save all those good ideas he found
that he would come up with. (gosh that's a lot of he's!)
Scott Glenwood finds it annoying that he tends to forget these ideas. When he first started saying this I would tell him
one of the few things I learned from Bjorn Ulvaeus. Bjorn (of the group ABBA) would say that when writing songs that he and
his partner did not find it necessary to record the music that they were writing. They wouldn't write down the notes (they
didn't know how to write musical notation) or even make demos. Bjorn says that if the stuff was good that they would remember
it. That made some sense to me,-after all you would think a really good idea will stay with you.
However, as I have gotten older , my short term
memory has gotten worse, and so I have begun to agree with Scott that
even a good idea will often dissapear if you dont make note of them the
minute you think of them.
I can think of a few times this past week that
I had some fairly interesting ideas ,but most
of these ideas I have
gone a missing.
The only recent idea I could retain was rather
weird - I thought about wriitng a sci-fi story
about
a planet of friendly cannibals. Augh!
ARE THERE ANY Cats East of the Pecos!
Meow
Meow?
WHAT ABOUT BATS? HATS?
11-11-99
I moved to where I currently live on 11-11-96. It hardly seems like three years....
Speaking of date's Friday's date
is special
to wit..
19/11/1999 is an odd day (with all digits being odd). We won't see another odd day until 1/1/3111. The next even day will
be 2/2/2000, the first since 28/08/888.
That surprises that we go so long between
such days.!!!!
Calm thoughts...
What thoughts calm you? I was trying to conjure
up thoughts of things that calm me, but perhaps
I am not calm very
often...
Petting a cat is almost guaranteed to calm me. guaranteed.
Hmm...but I can't think of anything else that calms me!
There was something in the air that night...
To visit previous exciting episodes of Felpin's Pond just click below where it says next page !!!!مممم!!
Or simply
click your fingers and turn into a
piece of pumpernickel bread! Try it, it's fun!
What in the world is Felpin's Pind?
Felpin's Pind? Felpin's Pin? Felpuns Pons..
. Well a particulary duil time here at Felpin's
Pond . No , we don't
call it a Pind.It's a Pond
...My my no reallly dull around here. Yup ,yup dullsville.......................................burp...............................................................................drool
.......................................oh I let my finger fall sleep,.
Anyway, Felpin's Pond is a state of mind,
a mindless state, a state of grace, it's as
stately as stately Wayne
Mansion, and
as real as Wayne's World! The residents
of Felpin's Pond spend their days mulling
the state of the world
. Indeedy-do!
This heading has no purpose and it's not a porpoise, purposely,since being
a porpoise would
serve no purpose!
Here have some pepper.
Why do have the feeling that this is filler?
Why do have a feeling that a filling is filler.
Why do feel that the
pepper jar is full.
Because this is filler and I have had my fill.
Candles on the water, New Years 2000
Happy New Year from Marion, Massachusetts. Marion is a little town on the Southern shore of Massachusetts it's not far
from Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. I went to the beach to greet the New Year. Marion's beach is on Sippican harbour which
isn't far from Buzzards Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
I was nearly alone, but not totally. In a couple of houses near the beach I could hear revelers. And of course, there
were lights (about 20 or so ) along the horizon. I wanted simply to look at the stars and the water, as the New Year came
upon me, but I could hear the revelers counting down
the seconds as the new year came upon us in the distant house.
Eventually, about twenty minutes after Midnight a group of about 20 people came walking down to the beach with candles
.Eventually they walked over to the water with their candles.
They placed three candles in lantern bags that they floated out onto the water.
The group then proceeded to float 9 or so other candles (not in lantern bags) out into the water. After a couple of minutes
the three lantern candles started to form a line as they headed out into the harbor.
the other nine candles stayed closer
to shore. Within a couple of minutes the candles had a formed a pattern. The candles formed a peace
sign. It was so incredible.
Peace and Happy New Year,
John Bernhardt
Today's thoughts
Thoughts on a not rainy day.
It was not raining on that not rainy day.
It was not snowing on that very white day.
There
were no bird songs when i heard the chirping. There was just something.
Something that couldn't be grasped.
It couldnt
be smelled.
Perhaps it could be felt.
Perhaps in the sunlight or the sound
of those non chirping birds ,
or that
non rainy day something
could be felt.
"Chirp, Chirp" said the occasional bird.
Was that supposed to be a poem or what?
On looking out at stars
Most nights I find myself summoned for my
evening walk by my good friend,Tawny.
Tawny claws at the door hoping
that I will join him for a walk. I feel on occasion the obligation to
accede to this urgent request.
We don't walk very far, we never leave the cosy confines of Pawkechatt Way. Tawny will stop
walking and flip over
on his back in the way that
cats do. Tawny will claw at fences or find a bird
to look at, or climb on a rock or sit
next to me on
a stone bench in the driveway. When I am not
occupied with Tawny I look out into the stars
seeking
out spirits in the night. Or I muse
about the ridiculous vastness of the universe.
Or I simply moan to myself about
how blurry
the stars are . I wonder if cats ever look at the
stars .
Or simply click your fingers and turn into a
piece of pumpernickel bread! Try it, it's fun!
TO GO ELSEWHERE CLICK BELOW....
Or simply click your fingers and turn into a
piece of pumpernickel bread! Try
it, it's fun!
You are now leaving the jurisdiction
of FELPIN''S POND.
Go in peace!
Not valid where prohibited by law.
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