A Year of No Resolutions

by Antonio Farias on January 1, 2012

New year, no resolutions, no to-do lists, just be present, karma will balance out the account in the end.  We’ve passed through the longest night, slowing ascending toward spring, eternal return, the promise of barefeet on green grass, trout courting mayflies, vegetable garden to plant, daughter to inspire, beehives stories piling up, and a dog I’ll need to make sure is waterproof before we take the kayaks out again. For now, the warm sun, a water dog, a child skipping rocks across a tranquil ocean are enough.

Walking along Hammonasset Beach on the 1st of the January does seem strange, but it’s the kind of strange I’ll take, knowing full well we’ll be buried soon enough in white powder.

“Is it because of global warming?” asks my daughter.

“Yes,” I say, trying hard not to smile at the guilty pleasure of 50 degrees and a mild breeze coming off the Sound.

 

Peak oil, 2012 apocalypse, total global economic collapse – for today, it can wait.  It’s 50 degrees as we pass total strangers, most with dogs, all exchanging knowing smiles.  Critical mass, the number of people in a nature setting required to tip the scale, where smiles and purposeful eye contact go away and we again pass each other like zombies.  I think it’s 50 per square mile – something I’ll be cataloging this year.

By 2pm an endless parade of cars has filled the parking lots, Disney families in tow for mandatory fun, children that don’t look happy, dogs that are as anti-social as their owners. The smiles are fading, time to go home.

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Down the grits and gravy byways…

by Antonio Farias on July 21, 2011

Photo Jun 16, 2011 3:22 PM

Heading south, we veered off the beaten path, down into western Virginia, ending up in Tennessee, at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains.  Lured by the promise of spotty cell service, long lazy mountains, few New Englanders (it’s been a long winter in the New England coop), and the possibility of wild trout in little ventured streams, we packed the magic bus with gear, bikes, food, and rolled out of Connecticut.

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We stayed at a bed & breakfast – probably the first Latinos to do so (no one on Radio Bemba could confirm staying in one but we haven’t googled it). In my family, the idea of staying in a  B&B sounds very strange – why would you want to stay in some strangers house when a perfectly good hotel is nearby?  Down in the western Virginia area, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, we stayed with Kevin & Sally Santmyer, who own the Cedar Post Inn.

We’re glad we got out of our comfort zone as the experience was rewarding, and that was largely due to the relaxed and unpretentious manner which which Sally and Kevin welcomed us into their home, not to mention the relaxing and incredibly modern  home, whose interior space reflected the wide open space surrounding their 65 acre farm (that and the great online reviews which erased any thoughts of banjoes).

Photo Jul 16, 2011 9:37 PM

Lina was the only one really nervous and that was due to a series of mystery books she had just finished reading, all of which took place in B&Bs and all of which has terrible endings for the guests – ghosts, vampires, wolves.  Needless to say, we survived, and Lina was relieved that the Santmyer’s are garlic farmers, which put the vampire threat to rest.

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Great food at Olde Liberty Station, though we regretted not being able to get into Millstone Tea Room – who would have thought you needed NYC level reservations in the middle of the country, 12 miles from the nearest town.  We’ll have to make a return trip through here some day.

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If you’re looking for a place far from the reach of cell towers and internet noise, this is the place.  We got an education in local politics, organic farming, recycling, and how art, intellect, compassion, and the creative spirit lives vibrantly in this part of the nation. As a child about my daughter’s age, I remember to this day the time my parents took us out to the Pennsylvania Amish country and the impact it had on me, leaving the concrete and steel of the city.  I wonder how this experience will imprint on my little girl, how it will remove certain barriers, make for a life with less boundaries.  That remains the dream of an anxious father.

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Machetes, baseball, jibaros, trout, and other signs of Spring

May 12, 2011

First crack of the bat, first trout pulled from the water, first visit to the ball park, the return of the birds – Spring of course is about rejuvenation, but this Spring feels exceptionally fresh and crisp after the long winter Connecticut went through this season.

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Zombie-Proofing in the Dead of New England Winter

January 31, 2011

Even though a Physicist friend of mine swears The Day After Tomorrow is pure fantasy and that the earth’s core cannot cool so rapidly as to plunge the planet into a sudden ice age, I need to hedge my bets, especially with the latest wave of snowpocalypse storms that have dumped more than 4 feet of snow in the past 30 days along the normally temperate Connecticut shoreline.

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Why Ecuador doesn’t have a Luge team, and other winter tales…

January 17, 2011

I live in New England, and therefore I expect snow, lots of it. It’s the reason I bought the Subaru Outback and not my inner car, the Aston Martin.

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Thanksgiving with a Puerto Rican flair

November 30, 2010

The Turkey looked just as plump, only it had a distinct redish tint that could only mean it was rubbed down with sazon.

The stuffing was packed in, only it had the wonderfully wafting aroma of heavily garlicked mofongo.

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Breakfast ala Isla del Encanto

November 24, 2010

As if waking to lapping waves and the rustling of palm trees along ancient mangrove forests with the occasional pelican fly-by were not enough, there’s the obligatory Ricomini tornillo y Yaucono cafe con leche breakfast. Fish are skittish, keep bumping the fly but but not biting. Bait fish are leaping out of the water so something [...]

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Off to la isla

November 22, 2010

JetBlue has gone upscale. Waiting at JFK for a midnight flight down to Puerto Rico and the new terminal looks world class. No x-ray machines or agents looking to touch your junk, just old school detectors and professional TSA agents doing it the old fashion way eyeballing folks. Napping cubes would be the killer option [...]

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Back to the trenches: LGBTQ and the resurgence of the culture wars

November 6, 2010

Back to the trenches: LGBTQ and the resurgence of the culture wars
As a diversity practitioner by trade, I find myself back in the trenches, in the midst of a resurgence of the old, ugly patterns of the 1980’s/1990’s culture wars, only this go around it’s sexual orientation.

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Columbus, Colonialism, and Car Repair

October 12, 2010

Columbus Day 2010. I can’t complain really since I have the day off. Raw time matters more every day, it’s the new gold. But ghost of California past and hyper navel gazing schooling still cause me to twitch. Indigenous People’s Day. Not much better.

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