Julie Pecenco’s Life in the Little City

When I was creating my Christmas wish list for my family last fall, I decided that I wanted a basketball. The one I’d had since high school had long since gone on to a new home in a major decluttering, which made sense at the time, since I never used it. But recently, I decided that it would be fun to shoot some hoops again, which required a basketball. I didn’t receive one for Christmas, but I was at Target last week, and decided to buy myself one. None were specifically labeled as women’s size, but the “intermediate” seemed about right, so I came home with a new basketball. And a Rubik’s Cube. But that’s another post.

Today was an errand running day, and as those errands involved things like picking up our sewing machine from the repair guy, and exchanging a 20 lb propane tank, walking was really out of the question. So I had to spend my Earth Day driving around town, and not enjoying the day on a walk. I still wanted to enjoy the day and get some exercise, and since one of my errands took me practically into Oneonta’s Neahwa Park, I decided it was the perfect time to try out my basketball.

Back in the day, I was a jock. Mind you, I wasn’t always very good, and my grades were generally far better than my athletic achievements, but I was a jock… In my own head, at least. Over the years, I played soccer (lots of soccer,) field hockey, basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse. Asthma, problematic knees, and life after school have long since brought me to individual (and for me, non-competitive) sports. I last played basketball my junior year of high school, which was 19 years ago (is that possible?) and it’s probably been at least a decade since I shot baskets. I was also not just a bench warmer on our (admittedly talented) varsity team, but the last one off the bench. So, it was not surprise that when I first started shooting today, not one shot went into the hoop. But as I got a groove, a few started going in, and I was eventually shooting about 1-in-3. Hey, I got a workout, and I had fun. In the end, that’s what matters.

The real trick was taking photos of myself playing basketball. I love my D200.

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After a snowy winter (for this part of the state, anyway) spring was much anticipated. Spring has finally arrived, leaving us talking about the weather yet again, because this spring has been unseasonably warm. For the past week and a half or so, the weather has been summer-like. It has been sunny every day, with temperatures significantly above normal. Emerging from a wretched cold and winter at the same time has left me energized and enthusiastic about the many projects and plans I have for the next few months. With the weather as beautiful as it has been, I don’t have to convince myself to go out for a walk; I’m looking for excuses to walk. Today I walked the three or so miles to the dentist, had my teeth cleaned, stopped at the library, and walk back home. It felt great (so I guess I’ve finally kicked that cold.)

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- William Wordsworth

With the warm weather have come the outward signs of spring. The grass is greening quickly, the trees are just beginning to bud, and the daffodils have burst forth in great profusion. Seeing my neighbor’s garden the other day, I was put into mind of the famous Wordsworth poem, Daffodils. Many years ago, before going down a very different technical path, I was leaning towards a writing career. In addition to writing poetry, I memorized a bit for the personal enjoyment of it. One such bit was the last stanza of Daffodils, and twenty years later, it’s still stuck in my head. In spring, when my mood emerges from the still of winter just as the buds emerge from dormant branches, my heart does indeed “with pleasure fill” and I dance with the daffodils.

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Technically, it is two days early for Passover, but tonight Leah and I attended the annual Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta Passover Seder. Being Italian American and having been raised Catholic, this was only my second seder, the first a moving event put together for a group of us in the dorm by a college friend way back in my freshman year of college. The UU seder was almost entirely in English, oddly, but some of the Jewish members of the congregation contributed some Hebrew versions of the prayers to the events. As with nearly every event at our church, it was filled with laughter and fellowship, and plenty of good food. And unlike Easter this year, this holiday came in the midst of delightful spring weather, with temperatures in the seventies and bright sunshine.

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It’s April, and Earth Day is just around the corner. TLC, which I happen to be watching at the moment, is doing a “Green Week.” In general, I try to think about the environmental impact of my actions. (Though it can often be contradictory with what works best from a technological perspective.) There’s much more that we could be doing, but we try. We’ve been using compact fluorescent bulbs for years, and I diligently sort our recyclables. One of the greenest things I do is to try to walk places instead of driving. The beauty of living in a small city is that so many things are within walking distance of my house. Both the post office and my bank are easy walks, so much of my day-to-day business travel can be conducted on foot. It gets me outside for much needed sunlight and exercise, and the car stays in the driveway.

Today I needed to go to the post office to send out some prints (and my tax returns – yikes! I cut it close this year.) Unlike the walk to the bank or the library, which heads into the City of Oneonta, the post office is in West Oneonta, the other direction, along rural roads. Every time I take the walk, I see all of the trash along the side of the road, and think that I should bring a bag and clean up some of it. Alas, I remember the mail, but forget the bag. Today, however, I happened to have carried the prints in a plastic bag, so after mailing them, I had an empty bag. On the way home, I decided to fill it up with bottles. On this first trip, I decided to stick with returnable deposit containers, and make a little money in the process. I filled my bag, and my free hand, before having to stop from lack of additional carrying capacity. I ended up with about thirty cans and bottles, which will net me a whopping $1.50 or so. Every little bit counts, however, both on the financial impact and the environmental impact.

In the end, I not only ran my necessary errands, but got some exercise, made some pocket change, and cleaned up a tiny little bit of my world. I’ll wait to pat myself on the back until I clean up the recyclables and trash for which I won’t get paid.

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The solstices and equinoxes mean one thing – another event of the World Wide Panorama. The theme this time was Beginnings, which is appropriate for the vernal equinox. It might have been snowing at the time, but spring is clearly on the way (this past week has been delightful.) My interpretation of the theme was to include my nieces, both as subjects and in helping me shoot the panorama. Molly has been interested in photography since she was old enough to press the shutter button, and she and I made a panorama together last summer. We shot two panoramas when I was visiting at Easter, and I chose the second one, which we created on Easter Sunday, as my submission. Using the camera’s IR remote, each of the girls took three of the six images around that went into the panorama. I added the zenith (top) and nadir (bottom) and did the stitching and post processing, of course.

Until I work out the coding for launching full screen Flash panoramas from the blog, I’ll just present this small embedded one. You can see it fullscreen at the WWP. Visit my page at the WWP to see all of my submissions over the past few years.

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