http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/averageguyramblings/ Just my thoughts people, Love 'em or Leave 'em en-us Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:46:05 GMT CakePHP http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/averageguyramblings/adventures-in-naples/ Last week, my wife and daughter came in to have lunch with me in Naples. So we got our lunch and it was a beautiful day so we decided to eat at Grime's Glen. For those of you that don't know Grime's Glen it is a great little place inside the village that is on Naples Creek. You can hike up the trail and eventually through the creek bed to a few waterfalls. It is just absolutely great. But anyway we finish our lunch and we decided to take a walk up the path as far as it would take us without getting too wet. Now this is where the adventure starts.We had hiked about halfway down the path and were about to turn around because time was getting short, when we noticed two crows. These two crows caught our attention because they were being more obnoxious than they normally are. As we were watching them, they were flying at each other and chasing each other and then one of them dropped something very small from it's claws. Well whatever they dropped they were now taking turns dive bombing it. So I got closer to see what they were messing with and to my surprise I saw the smallest duckling I had ever seen. So with that my wife got upset and turned to me and said that we had to save this duck. I started jogging towards the crows to make them take off and they obliged me with a few ear screeching caw caws and took off.So now this poor little duck gets caught up in the swift water of Naples Creek and starts being washed down the creek. So to be my wife's hero I know what I have to do, so I start sprinting down the trail to get in front of the duck. I finally managed to get in front of it just as it is making its way to the shallows. However just as I am getting there another crow spotted it and was slowly advancing towards it. So I scare that crow away and after a minute of corraling I hand this tiny little duck in my hands.Instantly my wife named him Henry. So now I am holding Henry and looking around for a mother duck or any other ducklings and there was none. Just Henry. He was extremely small, breathing heavy from the ordeal and looked very "new", like maybe a day or two old. So now I have Henry and I don't know what to do with him. I didn't want to turn him loose because he looked too small to make it on his own, but I also didn't want to interfere with nature by keeping him and turning him into a pet. Finally after some thought I decided I would take Henry back to work and call the DEC. We wrapped him up in a little blanket, and I took him back to work with me.When I got back to work, I looked Henry over again and he wasn't really moving and his breathing had slowed down, so I got a little worried that he wasn't going to make it. I grabbed a box in my office and set him in it with the blanket and slightly closed the lid. Then I started my calls. I called every DEC office I could and eventually got to talk to someone after about an hour of calling around. They gave me the name of a wildlife rehabilitator, but the nearest one was in Seneca Falls. Luckily for me I live in The 'Loo and it was just a little past my house to the rehabilitator.So now I had a place for Henry if he did survive his ordeal. So I checked on him to see how he was doing and to my surprise he almost jumped out of the box and gave a few little peeps. He was going to be fine. So at the end of the day, Henry made the long ride home with me and is being rehabilitated back to his natural surroundings.That ends our adventure.Just a couple of pictures, to verify that my adventures were not made up:On another quick note, you would think a place as rural as Naples would have a wildlife rehabilitator, wouldn't you????? Wed, May 28th 2008, 08:36 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/averageguyramblings/compliments-to-abigail-s-restaurant-in-waterloo/ I just wanted to pass on my compliments to the entire staff at Abigail's Restaurant in Waterloo. This past weekend, my wife and I went to Abigail's for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We have always like the atmosphere at Abigail's but this last time was just above and beyond.For dinner, my wife ordered the Haddock and I had the Chicken Picatta. My wife's haddock was one of the largest pieces I have seen and done to perfection and my Chiken Picatta was the best I have had anywhere in the state. On top of that the service was outstanding. Our waitress was attentive and very friendly. She provided just enough friendly service to enhance our meal without being intrusive. I wish I had gotten her name, but I am sure she knows who she is. The whole experience was just refreshing and enjoyable. So,everyone who works at Abigail's you have my compliments. Thank youfor a wonderful evening. Fri, Mar 14th 2008, 11:07 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/averageguyramblings/wishing-for-simpler-times/ Do you ever wish for simpler times? I know I do, but not in the way you might think. I wish for the days of when men were men and old school family values and how they molded us as kids. Somewhere along the way we men have lost our way, maybe it is due to the age of instant gratification or maybe it is just evolution, hell I don't know what it is. But we have lost our way.... Now don't get me wrong there are still those of us out there that live with honor and respect and work hard for our families and pass on these values to our children, I am just saying that we are the minority and if we don't make a change soon, we will be extinct.I think the one thing that drives home the cultural shift we are seeing is all of these school shootings. I know that the VT and NIU shootings are still fresh in our minds, but what really scares me are the other shootings that are happening in grade schools. I was reading the news about an 8th grader that got into and argument with another 8th grader, then he came in with a gun walked up behind the other student and shot him in the back of the head. Now that is just crazy and it is happening more and more frequently. Back in my day that would have never happened, we as boys were taught by our fathers and grandfathers about solving our problems with words first and fists second. We never would have thought about using a gun or knife, because if we did we knew that we would be held accountable for our actions, not just with the police but with our fathers. If we got caught doing something like that we would have never had made it to jail, because our fathers would have killed us first and if they didn't they would make us wish they had and then they would drive us to jail and disown us at the door. In my day if you had a problem with a kid, you had a good old fashioned fist fight. Sure you might get a black eye, broken nose or a knocked out tooth, but you lived. Win or lose you still went home at the end of the day and 9 times out of 10 that solved the whole argument. You and the kid you fought got over it and it was done or you did your best to avoid and ignore each other. But now that doesn't happen, now the kids come back with a group of kids to jump you and put you in ICU or they come back with a knife or a gun and try to kill you. These kids are punks, and they haven't the faintest idea of what respect or self respect is. The problem is these kids are scared to take an ass whippin', they care more about what people are going to say about them if they lose. Growing up in my neighborhood, there were always a lot of fights and I was in my fair share. I won some and got my ass handed to me in others, but I learned that I could hold my own in life and learned a lot of lessons the hard way. But now that is all lost on kids, they live in a fantasy world where there is no such thing as accountability or punishment. They live in a land of the "time-out", instead the land of a swift hand across the ass to guide you. I am not here to debate child raising and corporal punishment, I am just saying that it works. I don't agree with child abuse and there are people that go too far and they should be punished, but I believe that spanking is a necessary evil in a child's life and it works better to show them right from wrong. The men of old knew this and that was why they used it. They guided us and showed us the way with a hard hand and I for one am thankful for it.So, like I said people these are just my thoughts, but hell what do I know, I am just some guy from Upsate. Sun, Feb 17th 2008, 07:22 GMT