Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Friday, August 25, 2017
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Monday, August 21, 2017
AN HONEST-TO-GOODNESS BEAST OF BUCKINGHAM!
2.3 Mile Walk at Buckingham Pond
Monday, August 21, 2017
I had originally planned to run tonight but as the day progressed I decided a rest day was in order instead, so I popped over to Buckingham Pond. The geese have moved on, and surprisingly there are only a few small groups of ducks there - and of course the Buckingham Beast turned out to be Chester the cat, But it's still one of my favorite places to walk close to home.
And tonight there was a definite payoff - as I was walking up the path between the pond and the overflow basin, a grey fox dashed across the path - a genuine Buckingham Beast! Hopefully he's just passing through and will avoid being spotted by too many people, since he'd probably be misidentified as a coyote and send people into a panic.
JMH
2.3 Mile Walk at Buckingham Pond
Monday, August 21, 2017
I had originally planned to run tonight but as the day progressed I decided a rest day was in order instead, so I popped over to Buckingham Pond. The geese have moved on, and surprisingly there are only a few small groups of ducks there - and of course the Buckingham Beast turned out to be Chester the cat, But it's still one of my favorite places to walk close to home.
And tonight there was a definite payoff - as I was walking up the path between the pond and the overflow basin, a grey fox dashed across the path - a genuine Buckingham Beast! Hopefully he's just passing through and will avoid being spotted by too many people, since he'd probably be misidentified as a coyote and send people into a panic.
JMH
Sunday, August 20, 2017
The Beast of Buckingham (Pond)
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Yesterday I received an alert from the Albany Police Department, warning that they'd responded to a call that morning about a possible wild animal sighting at Buckingham Pond. A version of the following was attached, and the email noted that they hadn't found anything but urged people to be cautious.
I'm sure part of the worry here is due to the recent rabid coyote attack about an hour north of here. But this picture is almost useless... other than showing some kind of cat, there's no information about what this might be. What size was it? Housecat? Lion? More information is needed!
Today I went looking for more detail and found out that the cat in question was the size of a large housecat, maybe a bobcat. Sorry, that's not a bobcat - they don't have long tails. Once the size is given, it's clearly a housecat of some sort.
And today, the mystery was solved when a local resident contacted the news and told them the wild animal in question is her cat Chester - who will be confined indoors for a while until the worry over the Beast of Buckingham dies down and he's less likely to be taken out by some yoyo who thinks he's saving the neighborhood from a vicious critter.
Watch your back Chester...
JMH
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Yesterday I received an alert from the Albany Police Department, warning that they'd responded to a call that morning about a possible wild animal sighting at Buckingham Pond. A version of the following was attached, and the email noted that they hadn't found anything but urged people to be cautious.
I'm sure part of the worry here is due to the recent rabid coyote attack about an hour north of here. But this picture is almost useless... other than showing some kind of cat, there's no information about what this might be. What size was it? Housecat? Lion? More information is needed!
Today I went looking for more detail and found out that the cat in question was the size of a large housecat, maybe a bobcat. Sorry, that's not a bobcat - they don't have long tails. Once the size is given, it's clearly a housecat of some sort.
And today, the mystery was solved when a local resident contacted the news and told them the wild animal in question is her cat Chester - who will be confined indoors for a while until the worry over the Beast of Buckingham dies down and he's less likely to be taken out by some yoyo who thinks he's saving the neighborhood from a vicious critter.
Watch your back Chester...
JMH
Saturday, August 19, 2017
3.5 Mile Run at Vino & The Beasts Finger Lakes
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Last year a group of Ann's friends did the Vino & the Beasts obstacle race outside of Geneva NY, and Ann went along to take pictures and cheer them on. And then somehow they convinced her to sign up for this year's race - apparently they got significant discounts for signing up right after the 2016 race... I know the price was up to $80 for people signing up over the last week, for a little over a 5k including a bunch of obstacles. Oh, and a bunch of wine and beer tastings at the vineyard afterwards (hence the title VINO & the Beasts, and I suspect a lot of the appeal of this particular race series.)
I went along this year to take pictures, not sure how much access I'd get to the course. Well, it turned out I had complete access - I ran and walked everywhere Ann's group did (well, the portion of her group that was at the back of their heat, with her) without doing any of the obstacles, since I had a camera in hand and I also hadn't paid any fees or signed any waivers.
I would classify the course as an easy 3.5 mile trail run... mowed paths, dirt doubletrack, and so on. The obstacles ranged from stuff as simple as barriers to climb over or under, to several involving cargo nets (both vertical and horizontal), a huge inflatable slide, a crawl through muddy water, and a swim through a 15 ft deep mucky pond. Ann made it through all of them, though she did say that swimming with shoes on was very difficult.
I had a couple of people comment that they'd hate to have to run the course to take pictures - all I can say was that it was a lot less boring than standing around waiting for people to show up wherever I was. And I got in part of today's run in the bargain.
One comment was made that maybe I should have gotten a finisher's medal since I did the whole distance - except of course I didn't pay the fee, and I didn't do any of the obstacles. And I've got to admit, since the wine offers no additional appeal to me - I'm not feeling any inclination to do the race officially. It was fun to be out there supporting Ann (especially knowing I could cover the distance with no difficulty) but nothing grabbed me about today and left me saying "I've have got to do one of those..."
JMH
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Last year a group of Ann's friends did the Vino & the Beasts obstacle race outside of Geneva NY, and Ann went along to take pictures and cheer them on. And then somehow they convinced her to sign up for this year's race - apparently they got significant discounts for signing up right after the 2016 race... I know the price was up to $80 for people signing up over the last week, for a little over a 5k including a bunch of obstacles. Oh, and a bunch of wine and beer tastings at the vineyard afterwards (hence the title VINO & the Beasts, and I suspect a lot of the appeal of this particular race series.)
I went along this year to take pictures, not sure how much access I'd get to the course. Well, it turned out I had complete access - I ran and walked everywhere Ann's group did (well, the portion of her group that was at the back of their heat, with her) without doing any of the obstacles, since I had a camera in hand and I also hadn't paid any fees or signed any waivers.
I would classify the course as an easy 3.5 mile trail run... mowed paths, dirt doubletrack, and so on. The obstacles ranged from stuff as simple as barriers to climb over or under, to several involving cargo nets (both vertical and horizontal), a huge inflatable slide, a crawl through muddy water, and a swim through a 15 ft deep mucky pond. Ann made it through all of them, though she did say that swimming with shoes on was very difficult.
I had a couple of people comment that they'd hate to have to run the course to take pictures - all I can say was that it was a lot less boring than standing around waiting for people to show up wherever I was. And I got in part of today's run in the bargain.
One comment was made that maybe I should have gotten a finisher's medal since I did the whole distance - except of course I didn't pay the fee, and I didn't do any of the obstacles. And I've got to admit, since the wine offers no additional appeal to me - I'm not feeling any inclination to do the race officially. It was fun to be out there supporting Ann (especially knowing I could cover the distance with no difficulty) but nothing grabbed me about today and left me saying "I've have got to do one of those..."
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Friday, August 11, 2017
Monday, August 07, 2017
Sunday, August 06, 2017
Friday, August 04, 2017
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