Welcome to The Traveler.

 This is my very first weblog outside of any social media.

As the name suggests, there will be stories about our travels, vacations and explorations…but my goal is to use clever and engaging prose to describe the journey that is life itself, and any bit of wisdom gained from such journeys.

So…our bags our packed and ready to go. Into the Blogosphere!

I’ll begin with my unsuccessful attempt to start this blog seven weeks ago, on December 3rd, 2022. Here’s what I put down on my notepad that day:

It’s a rainy Saturday in early December.  Seemed like as good a day as any for my blog to be born.

But instead, I am locked out of the Hastings Public Library.

I’ll explain.

My plan today was to plug my sweet blue Subaru Crosstrek into the Charge Point we have here in a parking lot in the center of Hastings, sit in the warm quiet atmosphere of the library and set up my very first Blogspot web journal called “The Traveler”.

I succeeded in getting my hybrid car plugged in. There is but one Charge Point here in town which two cars can plug into, but that thing is in high demand from all the Teslas around this neighborhood. Availability at this thing is more precious than an ingot of pure gold. So when I saw the one available plug in space, I went straight for it.

Unfortunately, this was at 1:50 PM, and I had forgotten that this library closes at 2:00 PM on Saturdays. 

Whoops.

I was politely shooed outside. Which I was fine with. I went to sit one on of the little cast-iron park chairs on the front patio.  There had been heavy rain at noon on this day, but it had stopped, and the 57 degree air was a bit breezy but mild enough that my winter coat kept me comfortable.

I was forced to gather up my iPad and recalculate today’s plans. Obviously I wasn’t going to unplug the car…not until at least one hour’s worth of charge got in the EV.  Still, these outdoor conditions were not ideal for my setting up on Blogspot.  So I would just set my wristwatch timer for another 30 minutes, write down whatever’s on my mind onto the notepad, and then head back home.

By this time, the nice librarian ladies were exiting the building and locking the doors. One took notice of me.

“Ma’am?  The library in Dobbs Ferry is open until five today, if you’d like to do your work there.”

“Oh, I uh…yeah…just that I’m charging the phone…”

Damn! Wrong word.

“Uh….I’m charging my CAR, I mean. I want to give it at least half an hour and then I’ll get going.”

“Oh, well, I don’t know much about car charging…but there’s a table further back this way next to the doors, you see? There you’ll be out of the rain.”

As if on cue, a damp mist began covering my screen. I was very grateful to her for pointing out where else I could sit.  I thanked her and relocated my “work”.

That was all I managed to write outside the library in early December.

Now it is January 22nd, 2023. The Lunar New Year of the Rabbit!  I’m not sure what significance I can attach to the rabbit; I suppose my hopping from home to the public library (Sunday hours from 1:00 to 5:00 PM!) and foraging whatever I can from the photo library is close enough to an analogy.

That’s my dispatch from the Hudson Valley.  As winter becomes spring, my photos will look a lot more colorful.