Syracuse Series Summation

Revisiting Syracuse - mostly good, with a few disappointments, for mostly serenity, sprinkled with one sorry state (of affairs).

Eclipse aside, Syracuse fulfilled Papa Rooster's wish to revisit his past places - that being our first Stateside home and the start of our family's American journey. He is in that phase of his life (our trip to Vietnam last Fall was in part for the same purpose); I don't really believe it is his last time for doing anything, given how physically vigorous he is for his age, but, of course, actuarially, I know the statistics. I know how fortunate we are. So, we sought out the places in the old, grainy film photos carefully arranged in the old albums.

There were snowy '70s photos by Chittenango Falls. Happily, no snow the day before the eclipse. Indeed, a rainbow, and pleasantly, surprisingly accessible path to the falls from the parking lot for Mama Hen. This site aged well!

There were sunny summer '70s photos at Green Lake. Last Sunday, so many people were out enjoying sunshine, and new playgrounds on the shores, and modern wooden chaises by the lakeside. We partook with the masses, kicking back as Mama Hen and Papa Rooster walked to find their preferred picnic spot from decades ago.

I always associate Green Lake with one of the pivotal stories of our lives. Papa Rooster and Mama Hen arrived without credentials. She had a background in a different law system, in a language not spoken in her new homeland, and she had two children under 14 months when she left, with no grandparent support anywhere near - she was restricted by all the factors generally restricting women's professional advancement in that era, and more. So Papa Rooster's career was the one they would invest in. Without credentials, he began as a technician, making just below the salary level to qualify our family for some government assistance - carefully calibrated by our sponsors. But he and we had time to go to Green Lake regularly, to socialize with the few other Vietnamese families in the area, for him to play tennis almost every weekend. Life was secure and leisurely; he was content. But Mama Hen insisted that she had married a professional, that her girls would not grow up dependent on the whims of their father's parsimonious employer - she insisted that he return to school, qualify for his license. And that was why we moved away from Syracuse after a year and a half or so, to the nearest university participating in a special program to accepting "certified" (by the memory of former Vietnamese professors) refugee dentists without bachelor degrees into dental school.

And why we moved away from our Syracuse house - the one the landlady offered to sell for $8,000. The star attraction was supposed to be the old house in which we rented a lower level apartment. Not everything aged as gracefully as the parks we used to visit; the little house has seen better days. The neighborhood was always a more affordable part of town - that's how we landed there as penniless refugees, guided by our sponsors. But it wasn't quite as downtrodden as it appears today. The house used to be a blue-grey, with white trim; the landlady lived next door, keeping an eye on her investment and tenants. The house is now white, with red trim - like a faded celebrity using too much powder to hide blemishes, heavy makeup to distract. Except the smoke damage by the attic and plywood coverings to keep out squatters were hard to ignore. As we stood on the steps to take some photos, a fight spilled out from the convenience store next door, and we walked quickly back to the car (Mama Hen trying with her arthritic knee), all of us alert to the possibility of gun violence - another sign of modern times. We mourned a little for the loss of the humble, but solid, house of the old film photos. Papa Rooster mused a bit on whether our fates would have declined, like the house, had we stayed. But, of course, life isn't static - we would have acted seeing the decline around us; he would have moved us, Mama Hen would have insisted.

The current house appears last above, but it was the first place we visited - after trying some 'Cuse cuisine on arrival at the end of the long drive from New York City.

Since the old folks like what they like, we tracked down a Vietnamese place, set in some conjoined houses in a residential neighborhood - like going to someone's home for food, if they ran a restaurant out of their house. Back in the day when we lived in the city (before 'Lil Bro), they would have given anything for a Vietnamese eatery. They talked about driving an hour just to get to a supermarket that carried any Asian ingredients; Mama Hen described it as akin to the "International" aisle so ubiquitous today. She had to learn to prepare the dishes she longed for and to make do with what she found. Today's Syracuse, with its multiple Vietnamese options, and a Vietnamese Buddhist temple not far from where we ate, is a very different city from the one they settled into, aching for the lost country they fled abruptly. 2024 Syracuse is, in part, the result of a people who set down roots over the last 49 years.

Of course, we needed to sample the "local" dishes, too. The online guides and food shows listed riggies, so we got chicken, in addition to other pasta, at a fun space in a warehouse district. Many cities these days have reinvigorated themselves by repurposing their former industrial areas, and Syracuse has joined that trend. This was our last Syracuse meal, hoping to buy some time for the post-eclipse traffic to clear.

Clear roads were wishful thinking. Even taking the supposedly clearer road, we sat in stop and go traffic. It was my day to drive. And I got tired of not moving, and went rogue... onto small country lanes, heading in the general direction of west to east interstate 86 - I saw the alternative options on the GPS, fuzzy and faint compared to the interstates, repeatedly enlarging the electronic map on my phone while paralyzed among the exodus of vehicles. I knew there was a way, and just needed to GO. Perhaps middle of the night was not the most reassuring time for an uncharted adventure; granting fully that a blown tire or engine would have been a safety issue (one doesn't go knocking on rural doors for assistance in the middle of the night in hunting country). I nearly missed plowing down two raccoons. Happily, Papa Rooster fell asleep, or I would have HEARD it. Instead, Lil' Bro and Sissy navigated in highly agitated and moderately panicked tones; Mama Hen observing the route on her own phone, occasionally making factual statements of our status in quiet, matter of fact tones, resigned, staying informed. I don't know if we actually saved time on the small, winding roads - but I needed to try, and DO something, having cursorily assessed the manageable risks. I suppose I am my father's daughter - leading the family out of a tough spot. And the rest of the family fell into the roles we've had - cajoled along, in key supporting and partnering roles. We survived, came out... seven hours to get to Manhattan, compared to the four hours departing for Syracuse.

So in summation, the nature baths, the eclipse, the walking tour of 2024's downtown Syracuse, our marginally nerve racking (but somewhat exhilarating) successful extrication from eclipse exodus traffic - those washed away some of the pity I felt for the poor Syracuse house, and on balance made for a net positive trip down memory lane.

Total Eclipse

Experiencing 2024's total solar eclipse.

Shepherded the fam to Syracuse - to revisit old haunts, and, you may have heard, there was a little eclipse thing going on, and Syracuse was in the path of totality!

We watched it at the Museum of Science & Technology - MOST Syracuse - which hosted a fun viewing event on their lawn, with a fantastic eclipse playlist! Of course, there was "Total Eclipse of the Heart," but also notables like "Final Countdown" and "Ring of Fire." So fantastic to get to experience it with other people, and in such a happening part of the city!

We had hard to come by eclipse glasses courtesy of  Warby Parker and Nautilus Magazine, which organized a giveaway that I was lucky enough to win! (We supplemented with an old pair from the 2018 partial eclipse and a pair Sis recently got from the library.) First time for all of us to get to experience a total solar eclipse - and so meaningful to get to do it with octogenarian Papa Rooster and septuagenarian Mama Hen.

There were points at the beginning when the weather was clear, then clouds moved in intermittently. We still got to see some very clear views of the dark moon against the bright sun, and teeny slivers of crescent sun close to height of the eclipse. 

The clouds obscured the corona, but we (and the rest of the crowd) were pretty stoked to experience night in the middle of the afternoon! My night-friendly phone camera doesn't do justice to the 10/11pm level darkness we saw (look how bright the lights of the museum building appear! only possible in contrast to how dark it was out!), and the drop in temperature we felt with it, which brightened incredibly quickly once totality was over - figuratively and literally so COOL!

And then the light returned.

Was it a little disappointing that we didn't get to see the corona and diamond ring effect? Sure, a bit; you win some, you lose some, but we got a better feel for it than if we had stayed home for the mere partial eclipse. So, overall, a fantastic experience! I thought it was worth the day off and the long drives and expensive hotel, especially since none of us will likely be around in 2079 when the next one comes to town.

Quaking (in Her Roots)

Mother Nature shaking it all up - earthquake edition.

Mother Earth is just shaking it up all over the place today. The breaking news of the morning was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered in western New Jersey, felt up to 300 miles away, and definitely 45 miles from Tewksbury here in Yorkville. Working from home, the entire apartment vibrated and lightly rattled, visibly moving. It was evident pretty quickly that it was an earthquake (and I got confirmations back on Facebook right away). Then at 6pm, a 4.0 aftershock - felt that one distinctly, too.

Not my first rodeo. First one was a legit California one when I was in my teens, circa 1991, on a family trip, in a sleeping bag on my uncle's living room floor, the dining room chandelier swaying before us, as my cousin came from his room and stood under the door frame. My second was around 2011, the last big east coast one - I was on a recruiting trip and not far from the epicenter.

So this one, all told, was not so bad. Back in 2011, another California cousin shook her head at the New Yorkers streaming into the streets - exposing themselves to the risk of falling glass. I told her that, tremors being rare here, when our buildings shake, we worry a plane has flown into it. Today, safe in my apartment, I knew it wasn't a plane, at least - some psychological comfort courtesy of post-COVID work changes.

In the domestic plant world, Mother Nature shook up some of my expectations - life and renewal, where I thought there was failure and death. 

Out in the Jardin, three young upstarts are leafing out from the roots of what I thought were a dead tricolor peach tree. In the small rosemary pot, where the original rosemary finally succumbed, I stuck a twig - that looks like it has hope of leaf buds? It looks a bit like a miniature rose twig; but maybe it's a rosemary twig? Must try to label better. Anyway, will wait and see.

Indoors, the petulant Thai lime. I really was quite good about watering this Winter. But midway through, the leaves just started to shrivel. I kept with regular watering, and it seems to be growing new, fresh chartreuse. Thank goodness.

In the bathroom was the morning's first surprise - before the earthquake rolled in. The jasmine that came in for Winter, and originally up atop the medicine cabinet where it lacked light and was hard to water, had, I thought, dried up and died, the soil hydrophobic. I gave up watering regularly, but threw a few drops here and there. But that shoot! That is definitely life trying to assert itself - hooray!

Happy for roots to dig deep and Mother Nature to shake me up with happy surprises🌱.

(Co)existence

Conservation and conflicting conscience.

Earlier this week, I returned to Florida to meet with a client I traveled to see last year - a real estate developer of beautiful condominiums, in this case, situated by a conservation area.

The contrast of luxury, state of the art human residences set amid what would otherwise be the wild, natural home of birds and other untamed creatures is not lost on me at all. 

That this swampy land and water is so accessible adds invaluably to the appeal of the development - for me, anyway.

The buildings are done; if not by this client, other construction would rise on this site. We humans will want to live in pretty little palaces close to nature (or the "lite" version of nature that most of us crave). I feel some conflict. But I would not let the conservation area be lost for all the world; I enjoy it so. And I suppose that's always been the point of conservation - to highlight the treasures so we treasure them more, in hopes we leave the rest free.

Would it be compatible with human nature to just let it all be if we didn't already know firsthand the consequences of our darker inclinations toward greed and control and possession and subjugation? I don't know. Because the manifestation and consequences of all of those traits preceded all of us here today; I don't know that we could ever know if we could just BE and let be with what is around us. To some degree, our survival and progress depended on our not letting anything be, right?

But now that we know better, hopefully we will endeavor to do better.