Author: Greg

For some reason it has been very hard to get back to the computer to write anything. But it is always gratifying to look back and read old blogs. Today I just want to remind myself that it is almost more pleasurable to not eat when you aren’t really hungry. Especially if the waistline is expanding. Yesterday I dug dirt in my backyard for two hours, trying to level the yard so that I might build an earthship shed out of tires. I started digging a couple of months ago but then realized that I was taking the dirt from under an old wall that had fallen in the past and was at around a 45-degree angle. And the prior owner of the house had built a new wall on top of the falling old wall. And they had stuck a lot of dirt, bricks and gravel under the old wall to keep it from completely falling. When I realized what I was doing, digging out the old wall, I stopped. Because I realized that if I kept digging out the old wall, the newer block wall on top would fall down also and I would have two walls tumbled down into my garden. So I went up to Homer’s car service station and grabbed three used tires. He has lots of them. I put them on a dolly and wheeled them home. I laid three similarly sized tires under the old wall that I had partially dug out. I butted them right up against the old wall and filled them with gravel that I had sifted from the dirt I had dug out from under the old wall. I laid them side by side and leveled them with a five foot level. When I was satisfied with my work I went up to Homers and got three more similarly sized tires. I laid a fourth tire next to the first three, then filled it and leveled it. Next I started a second row of tires on top of the first row and skewed how I laid them like you would cement blocks. Only I had to put cardboard inside the bottoms of the second row of tires so when I went to fill them with dirt, the dirt would not fall out of the tires. Then I filled this second row of tires with dirt and butted them up against the old wall. The next day I went and got two more tires, laid them on the second row of the tire wall and stopped there. I figured that this wall could be the start of the left side of the “U” shaped shed I would build out of tires. Then I decided against building the earthship themed shed and would just leave the tire wall in place and I would have to cement over the tires with a cement mortar mix. I decided against the tire shed because I figured my neighbors would not like it. But If Armageddon does come I could continue on the tire structure and I have seven tires already pounded and leveled. Working hard like this I think is ingrained in our DNA. I feel so much more in control when I work my butt off. It does not really matter what I eat. Because I am so preoccupied with working that I usually just go with the healthy option of just filling my gas tank with oatmeal. Sometimes I will just take an empty vitamin bottle and fill it with a half cup of ground oatmeal and ground sunflower seeds. And I let myself get really hungry. Then I will take the bottle out of my pocket and just suck down a mouthful of this concoction. I will wash it down with some coffee or water. If I am really hungry I will eat the whole bottle. But if I am not so hungry, I might just take a mouthful at a time and put the bottle back into my pocket. Surprisingly, a single mouthful can stop the stomach from growling for an hour or more. This will depend on how much I ate for dinner the night before or how hard I have been working. Working hard puts me in a zone where I am almost indifferent to food. And that is where I want to be. I am in control of the food that I eat and how much. The food is not in control of me which is usually the case when I am driving around in my truck. I want to pull into every restaurant that I pass. I hate when the food is in control. And we are all so vulnerable in our cars because it is just too damn easy. Our bodies did not evolve to sit and not exert ourselves for long periods of time. Probably in the future we will have treadmills where the steering wheels of cars used to be. And we can get some exercise on the way to where we have to go. We will even have to ask ourselves if we need to even go anywhere if we keep busy enough to not want to eat. And I think we all want to be in the zone of not wanting to eat. It simply feels better. Then after finding something to distract us from eating we can actually enjoy eating instead of just eating because we are bored. Bring on the distractions!

Yesterday I was on a roll catching groundhogs with my box trap.Since the trigger mechanism on the trap was not working too well.I had to figure out a way to make it more difficult for the groundhogs to obtain the food before escaping from the trap with the food. Since I discovered they liked Jimmy John’s day old bread.I just simply drove a 1/4 inch rebar stake through a piece of bread and surrounded the bread with a few more stakes making it almost impossible for them not to trigger the trap with their weight and dropping the door on the trap. This is the first time I trapped an adult groundhog with a baby one. I put the whole trap in the back of my truck and took them a couple of miles away to a wooded area. The next day I trapped just a baby. And took that one to a wooded area called Streets Run Road and released it. Today I caught another baby and my wife and I dropped it off at the community college that I attended many years ago, which is very spacious and surrounded by many trees and woods. So far I have painted all their tails with fluorescent orange paint in case they should manage to make their way back here to my garden where they ate all of my yellow squash. The paint will let me know that I already trapped them. I found out that they like bread when I left a couple of loaves in a bucket and they ate them. The young ones are pretty interesting; they have not learned yet to fear humans. And when I caught one of them eating the lettuce in my garden I threw a shoe at it and struck it on the back.It just completely panicked in an almost human way and its legs fell out from under it. And it just layed there for a while before it got up to run away. Up until that time I saw the babies running around carefree just like human kids but after the shoe incident they would walk around my garden real humbly with their heads down. Like the one I threw the shoe at must have communicated to the other babies to be careful around me. Everytime I carry the trap up to the street where my truck is parked I always get some kind of reaction from the neighbors or a car driving by will slow down to look.The groundhogs are a nuisance but most people do not want to harm them.

When I started working at my present job many moons ago, I got to know a laborer that was nicknamed Rocky. He was a big guy and I found out he lifted weights religiously. Somebody told me that he would go home after work and lift weights after knocking down and removing walls all day in the office buildings where I work. At the time I didn’t comprehend physically exerting yourself all day and then working out at night. It seemed crazy. But now I know this is what our bodies are programmed to do. People walked across America without much food to populate the country at the time. Now with unlimited inexpensive food, it’s possible to work for a long period of time, with the proper amount of sleep. I later found out that Rocky did some competitive power lifting. When the laborers were on the floors they would work like animals for long periods of time. And we would work alongside them rebuilding the a.c. pipes and valves. I got to know them all. Rocky told everybody a story one time about his father that was interesting. His father had a garden at the house where Rocky grew up. There was a guy in the neighborhood who would cut through Rocky’s yard and sometimes trample the garden. Rocky’s dad asked him to stop it. And one day the guy cut through the garden again, so his dad grabbed an axe ran out into the yard knocked the guy down and stood over him with the axe threatening him. Afterward, he didn’t really hurt him but he must of scared the shit out of him. Because he went to the police and filed a complaint. So a hearing was set-up at the local justice of the peace. Rocky’s dad told the kids in the family Rocky and his brother-I know I’ve always told you boys to tell the truth but today at the hearing you lie when the judge asks you what happened that day in the yard, when I threatened the neighbor. You tell the judge I did not have an axe that day. Truth and justice and obedience are complicated things. And in the time of conflict they really get complicated. What average person in the time of trouble would not break all of the religious commandments to save the people that they love….If we have learned anything from all the genocide and holocausts in our time maybe it is better to rise up and die fighting than to wait around and be slaughtered like farm animals. But education trains us to be obedient to authority even when those in charge have become lazy, corrupt and evil….

Last week I was running in Frick Park and it began to rain.And instead of turning around and running back home I just decided to keep on my normal loop to the other side of the park. Since all that I had on was a pair of shorts and tennis shoes I figured running in the rain isn’t much different than swimming. So the rain really started coming down, as they say raining cats and dogs. It got dark with clouds and then started lightning. Once I was drenched it was similar to swimming. I had to keep a certain pace to stay warm. If I ran too fast the wind chill cooled me uncomfortably down. And running too slow, I was not exerting myself enough and that also made me cool down. So I found a pace that would keep me comfortably warm. When I got down to the bottom of the park where the creek is, I was enjoying watching this small stream turn into a torrent or mini Colorado River. Lightning overhead with the rushing water next to me it was kind of a nice experience. I had to dodge some massive puddles. Running in the rain and swimming pulls the calories out of the body and I even think if you do either one long enough it feels like the stomach shrinks a little. I did see some hardcore mountain bikers on this run, but other than this, it was utter desolation. Getting away from everything and everyone. I think we all need this once and a while weather we know it or not. When I get the right amount of physical exertion followed by the right amount of sleep I can look up at an extraordinary world, especially if it is in a wide open space like a park or a body of water. Even some of the hills around here look like small mountains.You can feel and see a lot when you get your physical exertion under control.

I went to one of my favorite bars last night in the East End of Pittsburgh, and had a pitcher of Straub Beer. It is located sort of in an alley. I like alleys because you can see some of the most interesting things there, houses being buildt and even people look different from the alley. It is easier to move around there because there are hardly any cars. Alleys give you the true look at restaurants. Short order cooks and garbage can be art from this vantage point. And where my bar is located there are a lot of basement apartments , another thing I find very interesting. Living underground, it’s quiet and more climate controlled. When I was growing up alleys were the domain of all the kids. Some of us would fight, smoke, drink and eat there and sometimes sleep. If you don’t want to be seen, the alley is the place to be. When I was a paperboy I always used them for short cuts. I think my job as a paperboy was the best job that I ever had. I don’t think I have ever felt control like I had as a paperboy. I actually had two paper routes. I delivered papers in the morning and in the evening. The money poured as I was living at home and had no expenses. I had like 70 morning customers and over 100 evening papers to deliver. I walked over half of Dormont Borough where I lived. I was up with the milkmen. Since I always had money I always ate good. I went to all the local restaurants and dive places to eat. All night diners, malt shops and bars, anyplace that served food.

Ever since my uncle got me a deal on a Nikon camera many moons ago I always see photos when I am walking. And I never bother to carry the camera anymore but I need to record what I have seen. It is easier for me to write about it than to carry the camera. Last week I was walking up Fifth Avenue and there was a parking attendant sitting in the middle of the parking lot on a Friday evening without too many cars in the parking lot. And he gave me some kind of abstract nod. He was mirroring my own expression I think. Behind him was a sixty story building under construction. He didn’t realize that he was in the forefront of this massive structure. He was sitting on a battered barcalounger that might have had wheels on it. It was just another picture that I never took, except for the one that is in my mind. Since that day I have walked nearer to that building and I saw the crane at the very top of the building with the cable stretched from the very top of the building all the way down to about the third floor, pulling up a rectangular palate of something flat. That cargo was swaying slightly in the air above all the commuters heading to their destinations. It was quite a site as I was standing on the sidewalk almost directly under it looking straight up. And most people were walking past me looking down at their phones …

It has been almost a year now since Captain Bill retired at work. I spent nearly my whole adult life working with him and a number of other men. And a lot of those other men are retired as well. Captain Bill is/was 6’5” inches tall and is a Vietnam vet. Like all tall people he had some issues that go with that characteristic. A lot of people challenged him because he was big. Some bosses even became obsessed with him. He learned to take it all in stride. And like Sigmund Freud he saw most human motivation based on sex. Only his was the street version of it. One old timer that liked to eat so much, Freud might have said that he had an oral fixation. Bill said that food was like pussy for that guy. And through all the layoffs we always seemed to work together a lot. Picket lines, chillers, a.c. units, boilers, snow tractors, river dives, commodes, urinals, cast iron pipe, copper pipe, cast steel, welding, burning, electrical wiring, pneumatic controls, diesel engines, gas engines, snow blowers, roof leaks, chemical treatments, floods, blizzards, glycol a.c. units, weather masters, chemical feed pumps, dry wall, concrete anchors, heat load, cooling load, broken pipes, eddy currents, phantom electrical waves, harmonics, pneumatic controls, air compressors, insulation, horse power, chemical feeds, river water in the power plant, another ass beating on the picket line, bosses come and go and we stay. Bosses come, I go to Mellon Bank for two years. During another lay-off, I work at Benedum center for a while, learning about bromide absorbent chillers which use steam to cool. Bruce Springsteen plays at the Benedum and I get to watch the show from the back of the stage. I find it strange to have to work around actors and musicians, running designated circuits with the electrician for the caterers, flooded ejector pumps, float on water softener explodes, condensate lines rot out, drain in boiler room sprouts leaks, epoxy and duct tape to the rescue, impellers have to be reground on chill water pumps to fit back in housing of pump, river rises to 36 feet floods condensate pit in 5 minutes because nobody shut off vent valve, motors have to be pulled out and sent to a place to bake out the water in them. Tony Lamorte retires and gets Tit slapped at his retirement party by a woman we all paid $100 bucks for that looked like Attila the Hun. Computers come in and displace some union jobs. Computers also create some nonunion jobs. I could see from the start that computers will create a class of people with little social skills and a fear of getting dirty. They are under the illusion that sitting in front of a computer screen gives them control over everything. Flat tires on the snow tractors, replace bearings on the snow tractors shaft for brush snow removal linkage, replace fuse on 3 phase starter box of Channel Two’s condensate pump. The news goes off the air for a short while, Channel Two refuses to put chlorine in their river water and fresh water clams are polluting the main power plants river water, pressure regulators need replaced, have to thread ¾” inch pipe to install chemical feeds on boilers, have to cut and thread 1 ¼” inch pipe for new boiler feed pumps, have to change oil on air compressors on fire pump dry systems, replace packing on diesel fire pumps, welded hydraulic pump onto gravely tractor for snow removal, every winter river water temperature drops into the low 30’s and we can shut the air conditioning off and cool all the computer banks in the complex with cold river water. Very green application for a power plant built in the 1950’s, put new starter on the gator, government work rebuilding an outboard motor on the fishing boat, welding condensate lines, have to relearn how to calibrate thermostats for comfort air, replace 150 bathroom faucets, have to deal with phony businessmen who think cutting jobs saves the company money. The chaos that follows working with new bosses. Continue studying dentistry in the boiler room, do a few root canals and crowns, thinking about doing brain surgery, sex change operations are proposed (Bill Shea) was the first to propose this on some of our co-workers. If we can’t do it in Local 95 maybe it cannot be done…space travel might be next. Captain Bill have a good retirement I’ll see you up on Lake Erie. You never flinched even when the bloodsuckers tried to fire us. So when you’re on your boat on Lake Erie pulling in those 8 pound walleyes, when the wind flares up, I know we can count on you shaking up your fishing buddies when you jump off the boat nude into a 10 foot swell to clean off the sides of the boat. Semper-fi bro….

Presque Isle, that is what the French call ‘almost’ an island. A piece of land that jets out from the mainland but does not quite form an island. This almost an island has become part of our travel routine every summer. The engineers have made rock piles all around this piece of land to prevent the island from washing away. And it seems to be working. When I sit on the beach it is hard to tell the difference between this only ‘sea shore’ in the state of Pennsylvania and the southernmost island in the U.S., Key West, Florida. They are both surrounded by a huge body of water and have sandy beaches. The invasive species of trees in Key West that compete with the palm trees must have originated in the Presque Isle region. Besides the oak, maple and acacia trees growing out of the sand on this beach 100 miles north of Pittsburgh there is another tree that grows in Key West and is just as successful growing in both places. This tree has what looks like grey bark and heart shaped leaves. This tree is so prolific that in Key West they have to bull doze and burn them to give the palm trees a chance to grow. In Presque Isle they make for good shade on the beach to rest under between swims. Lake Erie is so big that you can’t see Canada from shore you have to take a boat ride a long way out before you can see that big country. Swimming in Presque Isle is different too because the lake is fresh water and you are not as buoyant swimming here as you are in the ocean. The waves on this lake can be just as big as on the ocean. Every year we wonder why we don’t get up here more often. The dead walleye that wash up on shore are picked at by the sea gulls. This is one of the few places in the world where they did not allow any development of hotels and restaurants. There are no buildings, it is a natural paradise. Birds and small ponds are plentiful on this ‘almost’ an island. All the hotels, bars and restaurants are in the town of Erie which is not far away. The visitors here are all mostly from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Quebec. Where in Key West there are people from all over the world. Of all the things I own the one thing that I have gotten the most use out of is my scuba mask. I have worn that thing in a lot of lakes and oceans. The lake water is good for what ills your skin might have, rashes and what not. The fresh water hydrates the skin unlike salt water that tends to dry it out. Since they did not put any buildings here you can walk the whole beach. There is also a huge bay on the mainland side of the (island) that is very calm and many people sail there. A lot of people fish from shore on the bay side too. On the mainland we stopped by the campground where my buddy Captain Bill whiles away the days between his fish charters on the lake. His place is high up and you can really get a feel for how big the lake is by viewing it from this high point. We usually eat light during the day and hit one of restaurants in the evening for dinner in the town near the lake. We try to walk to the restaurant to walk off some of the calories from eating the walleye and lake perch that is on all of the menus. I did notice at one restaurant that they are able to sell the farm raised salmon cheaper than the locally caught fish. The local fish is really unique here because you cannot buy it away from the lake even in Pittsburgh. You have to eat it to appreciate it. So on any given day after coffee you can rollerblade, bike or hike the entire ‘almost’ island paradise. And then swim until the water takes your soul. When my body hits the water I no longer have any desire for anything. I no longer want to figure out how the world works or what I need to do to get what I need or want. The water takes me to a place where I blow the wad I let it all go. I let the fish teach me how to live. I think this a simple physiological reaction from being in cool water, you are expending so many calories the blood sugar drops and you feel euphoric. Lack of calories in the body is linked to ecstasy. And the after affects last so much longer than anything else even long after you get out of the water. Even drinking beer in this state takes on a whole new meaning. The alcohol goes straight out of the pores and you get a different kind of buzz. I know that I have written about this before but I am trying to figure out what is going on internally and physiologically from this. It is almost Zen like when the body exerts itself to a certain point that you take on an intense focus and outlook. It is very similar to building something. When you finally decide to build that wall or replace the furnace in the house. It is going to require a pretty big commitment on the body and mind. Especially if you want to get done in a reasonable amount of time.

The annual trip down to the Florida Keys. The temperature down there is so nice this time of the year that if it is better than this any where in the world, I don’t want it. The same goes for the physical beauty of the place.This time we stayed right in the middle of the Keys, Marathon. And like every vacation it becomes an experiment in how far I can stretch the limits away from the routine of the work world the rest of the year. In typical Keys fashion the guy who rented us the bikes did not even make us sign anything. So right away after the two hour flight down to Miami and the shuttle ride south, we got on the rented bikes and headed out to the beach. The sun felt great since it has pretty much has disappeared in Pittsburgh. We found a deserted part of the beach and I jumped in the ocean in my camouflaged underwear. Did not think to unpack the shorty wet suit that I brought down for the colder water temperature this time of the year. The water was around 75 degrees. The air temperature was almost 80. It was cold getting in but it felt good after a while. This beach has choral outgrowths right up onto the beach. The islands are all ancient choral rock. Every trip I go on I make a note to invent a waterproof money belt that won’t let the money and i.d. cards get wet. Everything that I have bought in dive shops and from travel companies always leaks and I always end up having to dry the money out on the bed with a towel. And I remember traveling overseas I would always have to cut the swimming short because I never had a way to keep my passport dry. So now I have decided that I am going to invent a pair of shorts that are money-theft proof and waterproof. The only thing that I found that doesn’t leak are those little plastic film canisters. I am going to sew them into a pair of shorts like an ammo belt. I have some other ideas about how to keep a passport dry. Everyone thinks that if you stay at a decent hotel you should be able to leave valuables in the room. But experience has taught me that I trust no one when it comes to money. So the money got wet again. I found out that one hour and twenty minutes in 75 degree water even with a small 2 mm wet suit on makes you euphoric especially if you did a lot of biking and/or hiking before the swim. The water pulls the calories out of the body and you start to feel extremely joyful. This I think comes from exhausting all the carbohydrates from the body. Hunger can be such a strange thing when you are into the routine of the work-world but when you get into your own time food seems to be less important. And when you get into the water you forget about the pangs. Sometimes people sitting on the beach remind me of people sitting in traffic. Just waiting for their next feeding. The wet suit also makes you really buoyant and you can float on the surface without any effort at all. You can almost fall asleep, but you have to be careful not to float out to where the fishing boats are flying by. After that initial swim without the wet suit, it made me appreciate the black rubber thermal properties in subsequent swims. I always swim with a snorkel and mask so that I can see everything under me. Crabs, lobster, fish are always around in the Keys. It makes the swimming more interesting. They are having a great year on stone crabs this year and they were on all the restaurant menus. I read that the fisherman only pull the claws off where most of the meat is at, and throw the crabs back in the water where they will regrow their claws. That is what I like about Marathon. There are a lot of fisherman here and a fair-sized commercial industry. Not as touristy as Key West. If you walk back into the streets you will find workers assembling crab and lobster traps with air nail guns. And other workers processing fish in warehouses. Since we never stayed here before we ended up exploring all the new territory. It seems like when I get down here I can live on sunshine alone. I can go a long time without food and water, while hiking, biking or swimming. This used to lead to a lot of arguments with Laura but since she started carrying water bottles and energy bars that eliminated any problems. At some point after you have used up all your food reserves the metabolism changes and you go into what I call overdrive. And by the time you do get around to eating and drinking you pretty much can eat and drink as much as you want because your stomach is not going to be able to hold enough food to replenish what you have used up. And the rest of the day and evening you are kind of in a endorphin glow. And it does not matter how old you are it feels the same in your teens, twenties thirties, forties, etc… Later in the week we bicycled to Pigeon Key. The old railroad bridge converted into a road takes you there. It was the place where hundreds of workers built the railroad that opened up the Keys. This little island still has the houses that the workers used. The converted bridge is a nice bike ride or walk above the ocean. We ran into the German people we met at the restaurant the night before. This is always a good thing because that is part of the reason for traveling because you always meet new like-minded people. It seems like when you break your routine, it is invigorating. More swimming, more hiking, more fishing by the time you drink a margarita the booze in the drink goes straight out your pores and it’s like drinking lemonade… Our hotel was right in line with the Marathon airport and one day there was a Canadian cargo plane circling around there all day. This plane had four props and they were flying really low. They were doing some kind of maneuvers dropping objects to people on the airstrip. It was interesting to watch. This continued all day. Even out at the beach I watched the plane circling the town. This is the kind of wide bodied plane that can transport tanks and jeeps. Later in the week we biked out to the airport and looked into a flight to the Bahamas. There was nobody in the airport except a couple car rental people. The walls were all painted white and there were a lot of windows making it very bright inside. Something that I like in a building or house, brightness. I think it makes you feel better. There is also a lot of very small aircraft at this airport. Makes you want to fly especially because of the flatness of the terrain. But I’m not sure flying is a good idea on a part-time basis. At least in a boat if the motor conks out you can still float. Gravity is too unforgiving. In this town you get to see your share of planes and boats of all types… One day we went to breakfast at a Cuban restaurant and behind the restaurant was what looked like the working class section of the town. It was mostly trailers and it was pretty ingenious the way the people living there put additions onto their homes. It was a nice contrast to some of the huge structures that were on the waterfront.

I got up a little late for work this morning and I decided to run down the street to catch the bus. There is a Russian lady that I normally stand at the bus stop with that always wears fashionable clothes from Russia, furry hats and coats.And as I was running past her house I yelled to her that the bus was coming. She started running right along with me in her fashionable shoes.We both kind of sprinted down the rest of the street.Then when we got there the bus did not come for another five minutes. So we started talking and she gave me another short lesson on the Russian language.She has been teaching me her language at the bus stop for some time. It makes waiting for the bus in the winter a little easier. And this past winter has been a brutal one. The wind always seems to blow hard down Greenfield Avenue. The Russian lady and my wife and I stand in the dark almost every morning. My wife normally just listens to the Russian lady. But I tend to do most of the talking with her. She even got mad at me because she thought I wasn’t given her enough time to talk. But I think this is natural when we are speaking in English. Since I am more fluent in English, the Russian lessons get reversed and I am then teaching English. I no longer am interested in speaking foreign languages. I am more interested in how to acquire another language. And what I have learned next to taking language classes, probably watching movies with foreign subtitles is the next best strategy to learn a language.