"Nothing is forever except change." It seems an appropriate way to start my first post of 2008, not just because of the new year but because of all the changes around me.
Just as I was getting sentimental about my odd little ski chalet apartment in the woods, thinking about how I’ll miss watching the deer and heron and Wiley’s feline friend Dash, I got new neighbors.
I have the end unit, and for two months the unit next to mine has been vacant, ever since the little old lady who lived there for 28 years moved into a senior home around Halloween. She was a generally very quiet neighbor, and friendly but not too friendly, but she was an insomniac who often watched "Law and Order" at all hours of the night. She was also mostly deaf, so she had the tv on loud. Not a big deal, but every now then the "CHU-CHUNG!" would startle me out of sleep. Anyway, she had already left by the time I was doing the hellish 0200 breads class, so I was able to enjoy two months of quiet just when I needed it most.
Now, as if Fortuna is saying "it’s time to move on, Pirate," my new neighbors are a young couple whose hobbies are having their friends over to drink, arguing and having loud sex. They’re also not particularly friendly, though they did fawn over Wiley when he ran up to them hoping to score some of the pizza they were bringing home. When they choose to play beer pong or recreate their favorite moment from Jenna Jamison’s screen career, I retaliate with either bagpipe music or Jocelyn Pook, a sort-of New Agey world music chick really into harmonic minor scales, Gregorian chants and traditional Middle Eastern music. I happen to like her stuff a lot, which shocks many people, but she is definitely an acquired taste. In any case, if I needed a sign that the time has come to set sail for a new adventure, there you have it.
Tomorrow morning I leave for part one of my job safari... two different possibilities in two different states, very different situations. I’ve never "staged" before, the industry term for basically an in-kitchen audition for the job, so I’m a little anxious about what to pack (do I bring my entire 50 pound baking kit and look like a dork and crowd the kitchen or do I just take the essentials and then look like a dork asking to borrow stuff from others?), what to expect, and so on. I come back briefly and then next week leave for another potential job in yet another state. All three potential jobs interest me and could be great... or horrific. All three are also as different in particulars as they are in geographic location. We’ll see.
But before I take flight to the west, I just wanted to post a few random observations/experiences that I’ve been meaning to share:
– Both my local Starbucks had a CD retail display with the sign "Music to Make the Season Merry." Beside the sign in both stores, a Nirvana album was the displayed item. Baristas with an ironic sense of humor or mere chance?
– My favorite moment, hands down, of watching the extended version DVD of The Two Towers with "Actors’ Commentary" is when the army of the Haunted Mansion... uh, I mean the Dead Dudes, are swarming through Minas Tirith and wiping out the orc army. Bernard Hill (Theoden) says ever so drily "Hmm. Reminds me of the stuff you pour down the toilet to get out the lime scales." It was a beautiful moment.
– And finally, a mystery solved!! Sort of. One of my favorite places to walk Wiley is a nearby state park that’s home to a Gilded Age mansion but also a lot of odd old stone walls and ruined outbuildings, as well as a seriously creepy monument, shown below. It’s in the middle of the woods. Some playground. (In case you can't read it, it says "This Playground was given to the People of Staatsburg in memory of Lewis Gordon Norrie and His Happy Youth, Dec 25, 1901 Sept 23, 1923."
From the front of the monument stretches a dead and overgrown tree-lined road leading to... The Building (below, glimpsed through trees)
It’s a very sinister place, set on a ridge, with no windows on the bottom floor and only a shabby little entrance. For a long time I puzzled over it... the line of trees connecting the monument and building led me to the conclusion that it must be where they kept Norrie after he went mad or grew an extra limb or whatever. It’s a good mile-plus from there to any other building of consequence and, while high on a ridge over the Hudson, is not easily accessible from the water.
I did some research. No one at the mansion proper would admit knowing about the building (see! It must be where they kept the Norrie ManBeast!), but finally I found a trail hiking site online that listed it as a disused well house that once supplied water to several other outbuildings in the area which no longer exist.
Oh, of course... but wait... It’s on what appears to be a ridge of solid rock, while there are wet draws all over the area, one of which would make, one would think, a much better well site. And that still doesn’t explain need for the grandiose "European castle-like" architecture (as described on the site), nor its location relative to the Norrie monument. I still think there’s more to the story, but for now enjoy the creepy photos.
And, oh yeah, here’s the White Tree of Gondor:
And no photos from a walkies excursion would be complete without Wiley hearing the call of the wild:
Happy 2008, everyone!
1 comment:
This is so Lovecraft. I wonder what unspeakable things took place there.
Unfortunately I am working alone tonight and am now creeped out!
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