A boat I don't want to see, Irish music & the Wooly Bear Forecast

Jarrett over at the Good Old Boat Redwing blog emailed me and Tugster Will the other day.

He was curious to know if either of us had spotted a certain unusual new boat out on the Hudson.

My answer was:

"Holy cow, no! Don't think I want to either, I go out on the water to get AWAY from all the BS on shore, don't want it coming after me out there! Ick!"

Port or starboard, don't care...please, oh please, keep that thing away from Jamaica Bay!

And now I must go find Moonstruck DennisG's wooly bear forecast. I'm semi caught up at work for the first time in months (UNBELIEVABLE, I must have forgotten something), and with a lot of people being out for various reasons I was able to get out of work in time (and with enough energy) to get in both a good walk and a visit to my fave Irish music session (the Tuesday night one at Dempsey's Pub, where us non-prodigy type Irish musicians are welcome*) and dang, it was FANTASTIC to actually go out & unwind after work with a cheeseburger, a couple of pints & some good tunes and old friends I haven't seen in months - but dang, it's COLD here. Somebody told me it was snowing in Jersey. I believe that.

Wooly bear caterpillar never lies, said Moonstruck DennisG. Oh please, wooly bear, have mercy! I'm not ready for winter.

*p.s. - the Dempsey's gang loved this review. My friend John, who runs the session, has worked his tail off making this session the friendliest one in town (with the help of a strong core of people who've been attending for years). It's really something special, striking a balance between keeping it open to musicians of many levels, while making sure that the stronger musicians who really help drive the tunes & keep things together have fun. It took a while to find that balance, but the setup that goes on now works great - first couple of hours it's a round robin & everybody takes turns starting if they want to, which means everybody gets to play something as part of the group (quite a different experience than playing by yourself at home), even if they're fresh from their first classes at the Irish Arts Center & only know one or two tunes well enough to start. Later, it loosens up & the better musicians really get to cut loose & have some fun. I haven't heard about anything else quite like it in NY. Guess my long-delayed return there has got me all warm & fuzzy, but seriously, it's quite cool.

pps: And speaking of fuzzy - I found the Wooly Bear forecast: Wooly Bear extended weather forcast. Large black ring - warm Nov/Dec. Small orange ring - cold Jan and large black end ring - warm Feb and March. Wooly Bear never lies. And Wooly Bear has nothing to say about October. Oh well.