Dryden Is Home

BJ Hill, the road, 8 pairs of shoes, 4000 miles, 3 journals, 1 trip

This weekend American Public Media's Weekend America covered my friend BJ Hill's walk across the United States. I walked with BJ last month (also last week/last year) and wrote about the walking here:
http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2009/01/bj-and-the-walk.html

Photos from the day here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157611932587945/

Check out the report here:

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/10/walk_across_america/

Or listen embedded here (this embed tool has the hour cued up to BJ Hill's segment):

BJ and the walk

IMG_4141
Originally uploaded by dmakar

I've posted some photos to my flickr account from my walk yesterday with BJ Hill, of walk across America 2008 fame.

We started walking in Lake Mohegan and finished just east of Jefferson Valley in Baldwin Place (A little southwest of Mahopac). It was a 6 mile day and I think our total number of entries in the book was 8 or 9.

One couple (pictured here) had seen BJ on the news the night before and then saw us walking and pulled over. Here we are at a somewhat busy intersection (rt. 6 and rt. 6N).

A complete set of photos is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157611932587945/

  
Happy 2009!

One of my favorite daily bloggers

Gary and Penny
Originally uploaded by dmakar

I wanted to give a quick shout out to local Dryden/Etna/Ithaca blogger Gary from Potter's Blog. Gary's been blogging for probably just about a year and a half now (since a little after he moved to Dryden - must be the water). He's posted thousands of posts, and usually posts 4 or 5 times a day.

I try to check in on him a couple of times a week to see what new wonders he's bringing to the world. From pigs to worms to fine art, he's building and creating every day.

Check out his pottery, his music selections, his dogs and cats, and his life at:
http://grpottersblog.blogspot.com/

Women Swimmin' Divin' In'

Women Swimmin' Divin' In'
Originally uploaded by dmakar

Saturday morning I arose from my slumber at the awful hour of 4:45 to support a terrific cause. I packed up the car - canoe already on top and scooted down 79 towards Ithaca to pickup my canoe's co-pilot, my friend Dirk at his house at 5:35am.

We arrived at the Ithaca Yacht club around 5:55 and were paddling east to the eastshore of the lake by about 6:10. The first women jumped from the M/V Manhattan to make the 1.2 mile swim at about 6:50 and we were off with our "pod" - pink cap pod number 7 at about 7:10am.

We (and about 5 other boaters - both canoe and kayaks) paddled along side 10 women swimming west in our pod. I think we arrived at the yacht club (this time by boat) at around 8am.

I've included a lot of pictures on my flickr account. Please take a look.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157601368454866/

This is a town where...we hold meetings in public!

The Ithaca Journal used their Daily Opinion column from their editor to comment on government meetings - Dryden government meetings to be exact. Some highlights (read the entire editorial):

-About a week ago, we saw a rare occurrence in Tompkins County. A town board — in this case Dryden — broke from its routine and held a regularly-scheduled meeting away from Dryden Town Hall.

-Last Wednesday, Dryden met at the Varna Volunteer Fire Company. It was the first of at least a few meetings the board will have in different parts of the town (the largest town in Tompkins County). In April, David Makar proposed that the town board should meet at one of the town's four community centers or four fire stations every other month.

-Hopefully, the Dryden Town Board is successful in its pursuit, and other boards — school boards included — follow. It may increase interest in government affairs and allow more community members access to their elected officials.

One of the Varna Volunteer Fire Company members that attended told me later that he had to step outside during part of the meeting - he was number 57 in a room that had the legal fire capacity of 56. He was keeping track and stepped out as others came in.

I was really happy to see a good turn out from the local media, not for me personally, but so that people that couldn't attend the meeting could find out about it from other sources. The Ithaca Journal, Tompkins Weekly, The Dryden Courier and WHCU all had reporters listening and staying late to ask questions after the meeting. There were public hearings, department reports, committee reports and resolution review and passing. I felt good having public participation and it reminded me of the annual town meetings that are held each spring in Berlin, Massachusetts where I grew up. These meetings become informative and educational, but also social and community building. Perhaps the more we understand about actions, the better we can respond to those actions.

I hope that we can continue these public meetings in community centers and fire departments in 2008.

Inspiring Story of the Day

Its Saturday, and here's a little inspirational story for you.