Banff Mountain Film Festival

Last night Linda and I met our daughter, Stephanie, and her fiance, Matt, at the Allen Theater in Playhouse Square for the Cleveland stop of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Before the films, there was a wonderful array of light food and sponsor exhibits in the rotunda. I have missed this touring event in the past but this experience has me hooked. I will try to make it an annual event. The films are all outdoor settings with focus on adventure sports, often less than ten minutes long, but the best was a feature about a former mountain runner turned wildlife biologist who set out to encounter coastal wolves in British Columbia. The visuals were stunning. The only downside is that the Allen does not have a big screen. On the other hand, the theater is beautiful, comfortable and huge. The place was pretty packed which surprised me in that this was the second night. The crowd was enthusiastic and raucous at times which is fitting. Outdoor culture is alive and well in NE Ohio.

Snug at Smuggs

Seems silly in a way that I fled the beginning of Ohio spring to return to winter here at Smugglers' Notch in Vermont for two and a half days of skiiing. (The picture of purple crocuses was taken in the front yard and edited in on Monday after my return). The map is the Smuggs Trail Map. The mountain has great conditions considering it's early April. There is a little sleet here at the base but a few hundred feet up it will be all snow. Yesterday I had some great runs and am about ready to head out for some fun right now. Last evening the local news we listened to was a Montreal station. Made me want to plan a trip there some time soon. These trips have me missing my wife and dog! I have a WiFi hookup connection here and heard from the guy with a ruler in the grad office that my thesis only needed one tiny formatting change. That was good news. Upload the electronic copy next week and then on to the defense. Now for some fun.

snow (thesis) madness

The first picture is out a back window. The second is out the front door. The drive is in there somewhere between the trees. Snowbound is a great way to try and finish the thesis. Got up at 6 and started writing. The MFA thesis is due this week. My stories are in the can (figure of speech) but I am trying to close out my novella. More writing, some shoveling, more writing. Trouble is, I keep thinking of that Stephen King novel that was made into a movie starring a guy named Jack.
"All work and no play makes Rick a dull boy. All work and no play makes Rick a dull boy . . . . . "

Family

A family is a thing that evolves. I'll start with the losing part. I try to conjure images of of time spent with my grandparents, now gone, and it is easy as some of those times, so rich and vivid, fuel my aspiration to create space in my life for events that replicate the good feelings. I have written of the loss of a Brother and will some day write of the loss of my Dad and another Brother. Actually, I have written of those losses but have not found a way or reason to share it yet. But a wonderful thing about family is that, if you are lucky, it is a living thing that changes and grows. Here is a picture of part of my evolving family. You see my daughter, Stephanie, sustainability professional, and her high energy fiance, Matt. He's a social worker and a martial arts expert. I like that combination. He makes a living providing assistance to folks who have been swatted down by the system and/or their own dysfunctional decisions but also has the competence to fend off a gratuitous attack. People are safer when he's around. You also see Casey, our Benji-looking mutt, who has the amazing skill and talent necessary to train a couple of adults, me and my wife, Linda, to look after his every need. He's a good dog and his pack instincts make him an integral part of the family. Whenever we bring him along to a family event, he races around the array of humans to greet those he knows and to test the bonding possibilities of the less familiar. There's a lesson there. He recognizes the immense value of a pack (family).

Too Soon to Think Spring

I have a mantra that one should wait until March 1 to start yearning for spring weather here in Northeast Ohio. Any long stretch of springlike weather before then is perverse I have learned causing buds to sprout and then freeze. Warm days in March are gifts to be appreciated and savored because they are invariably followed by revisits of winter. However, in this post-postmodern, global-warmed early 21st century such sentiments are probably ephemeral. Who knows how the carbon load is changing the seasonal cycle. It's bound to be chaotic. But there's nothing wrong with musing over memories of what the warm weather brings around here. Each spring, we have anticipated a doe showing her fawn the way to the salt lick in our myrtle patch. Imagine our spring delight when last year, a relatively small, probably yearling, female brought triplets out of the woods ( 12% occurrence). This picture was a little later in the summer. We were amazed but gratified that this mom was able to feed and protect all three.

Hoodoos

I love these rock formations in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. I'm not sure why they're called hoodoos but the term seems perfect. I'm now exactly half a year's rotation from the trip that included this hike and it's time to finish the story that I started then, a novella. It's funny to think that I was carrying pieces of the story under my hat then that had not yet found the page. The trip was actually an MFA workshop with five other writers and a professor. You can see things in and among those hoodoos. Click on the picture to blow it up and take a good look. What do you see?

Just Like Las Vegas

The current stock market volatility (roller coaster style) is cyclical (but unpredictable) and it feeds media frenzy in the same manner as a hurricane, earthquake or tsunami. My demographic puts me in the class of an investor somewhat reliant in the future on the integrity of a system that has some loathsome aspects. Many of the decisions that affect the direction of the market are made by Wall Street professionals whose goals are extremely short term. What profit can be turned today? What scheme will result in a big return for those closest to the deal? The long horizon of the rest of "us" is not primary. Many folks who don't even think about the stock market are affected by it. Teachers and professors count on pensions that are in large part tied into the stock market. As to the individual investor, in order to outpace inflation, one just about has to have some savings invested in equities (stocks). Relatively safe money market funds do not beat inflation. The tragedy of these big drops is that tons of folks who can least afford losses panic and cash out rather than gritting their teeth to wait for the next up cycle. If an investor has a diversified portfolio and can resist the urge to try and time the market fluctuations, patience is the primary strategy. For those inclined toward Vegas type thrills, timing the highs and lows provides the same kind of rush and, often, the same result at the end of the day. Busted!