Bicycle rides in and around Burlington don’t require off road searches for places to pee. Most parks have pissoires, clean, very clean pissoires. This one at Oakledge Park allows bathers a chance to shower and change at Blanchard Beach.
Category: burlington
Burlington Street People
Paul tells me he had another life. We have all had another life, at least those of us who tried and failed. He says he was a photographer. Where his work hangs or sits, who knows? He told me yesterday, as he sat on the pavement outside Rite Aid in the rain asking for change that his wife died unexpectedly. BFP called Paul and his friends aggressive panhandlers. Clearly, the business groups don’t want him or his kind around. They removed the bench from the College Street bus stop. Allegedly, Paul moved it back. Got to have some place to sit, eh.
I watched the police action that took one of his friends off the street. No idea what was going on. At least the guy in custody didn’t have to deal with the weather. Paul looked like he had enough, as he walked away freely. I gave him a couple of bucks and some change.
Quake
Hard to believe, but we felt the effects of an earthquake in Burlington just after 1:00pm. At first, we didn’t know what it was. The doors rattled. The glasses clinked. The ceiling creaked. Had one when we lived in Manchester in 2002. Lasted for 20 seconds. No apparent damage here, but 5.0 can put a charge in ya. They say it came from Ontario. A few weeks ago, they sent us smoke from forest fires. So much for our friendly neighbors from the North.
Skate 6/20/10
Fundraiser for new Skate park near the Moran building. DJ from90.1. Sponsored by the usual suspects like JDK and Burton, the skaters competed in varying age groups for glory and gifts. Price Chopper donated hot dogs. Some company sent that caffeinated green juice which in my era was called “pea juice,” albeit without the kick. The teachers at school and counselors at camp served it in those paper cups that looked like a pleated skirt.
Lizz Winstead
Not funny enough. Dated. Lazy. Feminist slant without explaining where it was coming from or why. She had some ready to do local humor from the stupid runoff elections that were recently voted down to the farmers market, which she says she is a fan of, which was packed with girls covered with ink on Saturday morning, and didn’t touch it. Just the same bull about how cool Burlington purports to be which it isn’t, though it isn’t bad, so long as you don’t really ask what is going on.
Sitting on College
She says she has no home.
Humble Phil
The Humbling didn’t take too much time to read. It lasts only 140 pages, small ones with big print, thanks be to the publisher who should have put it out in magazine form, possibly in Playboy, with graphics, either ink or photographic of the sex scenes. No more perfect book of recent vintage which would have benefited by images, which as they say can take the place of words. No need here to show my love for or my knowledge of Phil’s work; suffice it to say I have been with him from book one, including his short stories. After reading this book yesterday afternoon in under two hours, some of which I spent ogling at boats and babes, while sitting at the Burlington Boathouse, I can say that Simon Axler does not enter into the main argument, unless it, somehow distends to a discussion of the oldest person to have sex with a woman who left lesbianism to have an affair with a man twenty-five years his junior in which she made him her woman, picked up a drunk chick at a bar for a threesome, and then left him. When he killed himself at the end of the story, if you can call it that because it has a beginning, middle and an end, the book ended. Just in time to go for a walk.
Rolling Rolling Rolling
Said he was here for a doctor’s appointment. Wanted me to call his daughter in Wescott to tell her she had made a mistake.
Cherry Street Bus Station, Burlington VT
Late night. Buses still running. People wait. Light rain. Damp. Quiet. Where do they go?
Dog Bites Girl
The best camera to have is the one with you when something happens. And you always have to be ready to shoot. Didn’t do so well here as far as taking the gritty, emotional shots but, at least I got a few shots which show part of the story.
On May 26, Sharon and I went for a ride on the bikepath. We went North to the Colchester and then went back past the Boathouse to Oakledge Park, a distance of 12 miles or so. A seriously glorious day for a ride to nowhere in particular, we were just breathing deeply, singing, smiling, just loving the fact we were out and on our bikes.