Watch Family Retreat Weekend 2005 -- New York State

[ur-bane]

Just don't get too discouraged by the neighborhood.
New York tax dollars are better spent on political perks rather than revitalizing poor neighborhoods.

I hate the Yankees too, but the tradition housed in the stadium can actually be felt when walking through the gates. A "must see" for a true baseball fan who will be in the NY area.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Is there a compiled list of who will be going to this gathering?

[Fist and Faith]

Alas, I'm a Yankees fan who hates the Yankees. I grew up on them - Nettles, Munson, Mercer, Guidry, Sparky - and I can't not love them. But I hate the business machine these days. Bring some kids up through your system, stick with them, win or lose, and have some damned fun! I couldn't care less if they win or lose, even though part of me always roots for them.

And I'd like to point out that the last post I made in the Sports forum was that I was going to root for the Red Sox. Several months later, they won for the first time in 4,000 years. To all you Sox fans, you're welcome.

*sigh*

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

I never travel anywhere, and if I -was- going to, this is probably what I would want to do.

Because I like people more than I like sightseeing or most activities, and this would be traveling to meet interesting people. That's so much more appealing than traveling to see stuff for me!

[Fist and Faith]

I'm hoping anyone will want to go to the Blue Hole. It's 40 miles away, in the mountains. An extremely cold mountain stream opens up at one point to an 18' deep (the one time we measured it) pool of blue, crystal-clear water. Maybe as big around as one or two big swimming pools. My favorite place on the planet. There's usually a few other people wandering in and out while I'm there. Almost nobody stays in the water for long, because it's so cold. (There's shrinkage, guys.) There's a couple places to jump off of the rocks from several feet high. I jump in a few times, go down to the bottom for fun, and get out. Each time I do it, it takes a little longer to warm up. Probably no more rope swing, because the trees with them have fallen in or been cut down.

It makes me think of Le Guin's The Word of Unbinding:

The water ran timelessly from its clear spring. He lay on the sand of the pool’s bottom letting running water, stronger than any spell of healing, sooth his wound and with its coolness wash away the bleaker cold that had entered him.

And Elton John's (Bernie Taupin's, I suppose):

Where the red sun sinks in the hills of gold, and the healing waters run

It's also got plenty of flat ground for a picinc.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Sounds great as long as it's really warm outside... I think I'm going to take some initiative here, and request the time off work immediately. What was going on with the following week? My normal days off are tuesday and thursday, so if I'm taking off the weekend, I might as well take off the monday if I'm getting the tuesday for free, as long as something's still going to be going on.

[Fist and Faith]

(Every stinkin' page change! )

I'm on vacation Aug 8-12, and duchess will still be around. Anybody else? No specific plans for me. I'll have my kids with me Monday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, because their mother works, so no strip clubs. Other than that... Hey, Magic tournaments Wed at 6pm!

Sounds great as long as it's really warm outside...

A friend and I once went on John Lennon's birthday - Oct 9. The autumn air felt so warm when we got out of that water that we didn't even use towels. But that was my younger days. I was probably your age.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

I'm about to go look at another page on this thread... knowing full well that I shall be unable to return to this one!! ;p

[dlbpharmd]

(There's shrinkage, guys.)

Do they know about shrinkage?

I'm still tentative - just found out my wife has to have surgery, and that's put all of my summer plans - including our vacation to the beach - on hold.

[Furls Fire]

Your wife has been added to my prayers, Don. Hope it is nothing too serious.

Russ has the time off, (it's pretty easy since he's the boss). So..we will be there barring any...well you all know.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Can't even begin to express how excited I am about this all of a sudden.
Five days away from work in a row.

I don't even know what that's like!
If none of you guys gets into a car accident at any time we're there, I should be able to spend a week without hearing about a single car accident.

.....
joy.

[duchess of malfi]

dlb -- I hope everything works out with your wife's health. That is much more important than coming to join us for the weekend, though I will be sad if you can't come!!

The same, of course, goes for Furlsy!

And hopefully there will be more get-togethers in the future where we can all meet.

Jem, you would be a most welcome addition to the weekend.

The Yankees cap night is August 10, the Wednesday. Tuesday is free luggage tag night.
Here is a link to their schedule:
newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sche ... m=8&y=2005

The Blue Hole place sounds great, Fist!

Jem, the following week we had talked of maybe visiting NYC a day or two, going to a baseball game, my hub has his heart set on going to the Delaware Water Gap National Park, and it sounds like a nice dip and picnic at Fisty's spot up in the mountains.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Well, I don't really go for the sporting events, but that's fine because I only requested off through tuesday, and I can drive home tuesday...
This'll be my first on-my-own vacation away from family. Wunderbar!

[duchess of malfi]

Maybe on Monday we could go to the Blue Hole or to the Water Gap for fun and a picnic, then. Or perhaps we could go on the tour Fist promised me of his favorite comic book and collectable card stores.

We haven't really decided what we will be doing on any given day yet. Among other things it will depend on the weather, and who all is coming and what their interests are.

[Fist and Faith]

Jem, I'm not much into baseball. In fact, I HATE when it's on tv, because it means I can't watch whatever good show would have been on. But I'm telling you, going to a stadium, screaming your lungs out, doing the stupid wave and other park-group things, paying $5 for a hot dog... It just doesn't get any better!!!!! No better place to do primal screams!

But no problem for us to do that when you're gone. I'll bet you like duchess' idea of the comic/card stores.

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Well...I mean, I do my best primal screams during a thunderstorm at the beach, but I guess that could work. Either way, the days inconvenient, and I'm not exactly the best in large crowds. People distract me a lot...
Comic books? Collectible card games? What are these things of which you speak? They are alien to me...

[Fist and Faith]

As if!!!

[dlbpharmd]

Thanks everyone. I'll keep you posted.

[Fist and Faith]

What's up, Jem?


I haven't heard anything in a while, dlb. Is your wife ok?

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

Curse you Faith! Shall I keep chasing you about this board?! At work we have something called 'earned time benefit' and it's a time bank that all of our time off comes out of, regardless of reason. My mom had a surgery and I had to use some of my time, which is in low amounts because of my awful attendence... but I'm not out of the game yet.