My Hero

Today seemed like one of the longest days I have lived through since I can't remember when. It started out like most workdays do. I climbed out of bed and headed directly to the shower. Just as I entered the shower, I heard the phone ring. I could hear the blow dryer humming noisily in the other bathroom, so I knew my wife didn't hear it ringing. As I was soaking wet in the shower, there was nothing I could do except let it ring. I am not the most graceful human being, so at 6:30 am in a sleep haze, wet from the shower, attempting to make it to the phone before it stopped ringing would have been a disaster waiting to happen. I decided to let it go to voice mail.

5 minutes later, it rang again. I could hear that the blow dryer had stopped. Figuring it was my mother-in-law, I began to wonder what could have been so important. She would have waited for us to call back if it was something trivial. The phone stopped ringing after 2 rings this time, so I knew that my wife had answered it.

A minute later, the bathroom door popped open and in she came. When I pulled the shower curtain open, I could see her eyes were full of tears. She couldn't have stunned me more, if she had opened the door and belted me in the head with a brick, with what she told me next. "Zack was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday" My mind had instantly started spinning. It was as if I suddenly had amnesia. I remember that I asked her some question, but couldn't tell you what it was, or what the answer was. It is those split seconds in life that you realize that things are changed for ever. As if you are starting life over again, and don't know what the first step is. I honestly sat there in the shower thinking to myself, "Zack is dead, I am here in the shower and don't know what I am supposed to do next." I decided that finishing my shower was the only thing that I could do at that moment. I proceeded to absentmindedly squirt a good 4 ounces of shampoo into my palm before my mind caught up and told me to stop squeezing the bottle. I think I would have recovered quicker from the brick to the head.

Once finished with the shower, my body went into auto-pilot doing the morning ritual, while my mind worked on what "Zack is dead" meant. As the morning progressed, the gravity of the situation started pulling me down. I tend to withdraw when I am distressed. Knowing this, I try to conscientiously to be more open and talk about things.

My wife and I started calling the old crew that we still had numbers for. I called my friend Steve, who I hadn't talked to in a year. Steve, Zack and I were inseparable in high school and the years after as well. He hadn't heard the news yet, and sounded just as shocked when I told him. We talked for about ten minutes, and agreed to keep each other posted with whatever news we found out.

The rest of the day was an emotional roller coaster. I have to say I cried more by being touched by all of the good and heroic things that he did, than by hearing about his death. Zack had more heart than anyone I have had the privilege of knowing. He always followed his heart with every action he took. He was a live for the moment type of person, and I think that allowed him to get more out of life than those of us who have to make calculated, safe moves all of the time. He was always ready at a moments notice to go along with anything.

We planned to hike Mt. Chocorua in Tamworth one weekend day. It was an awesome day for a hike, sunny and clear and the temperature was just right. The mountain is just shy of 4000ft, and most of the trail is like a staircase. Neither of us were in the shape we were in during high school, when we used to hike every weekend. By the time we made it up, ate lunch, and headed back down, we were whipped. We both had bought new hiking boots the night before and didn't think of the consequences of breaking them in on a long hike. Luckily, at the bottom of the mountain is Lake Chocorua. The water was warm on that late summer's day, and our muscles thanked us for it. The feeling of near weightlessness granted by the water allowed our muscles to all relax at once.

Felling refreshed, we jumped back into the car and headed south on Route 16 back south. I lived in Concord at the time, so we were about an hour and a half away from home. I noticed a sign that said Portsmouth was X miles ahead. I said to Zack, "A fresh beer and and a big steak at the Portsmouth Brewery would be awesome right about now." I was basically just babbling, as I didn't have a dime to my name at that moment in time.

"YES! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE STEAK AND BEER. THAT IS SUCH AN AWESOME IDEA!!!", Zack said

"I was just kidding around Zack. I don't have any money for that.", I told him.

"I just got paid. I am buying you that steak. We are going to Portsmouth", Zack told me.

And that was that. The trip to Portsmouth was probably 80 miles round-trip out of the way, but that didn't matter. He had that on his mind now, and that is where we were going. That was just how he was too. He followed his heart, and always took care of his friends. When you think back on things, it is odd the parts that stick out. For some reason, I can remember clearly that the steak he ordered was supposed to come with "Texas Mopping Sauce". I don't know what that is, but he didn't get it. He finished his steak, then said to me, "Hey, I never got the Texas Mopping Sauce!" It was like a kid that choked down a box of awful cereal, only to realize that there was no prize at the bottom of the box. I offered to have the waitress bring him some, but he declined.

On the way back to Concord, his legs had turned to jelly from the hike and the long drive in a car with manual shift. I took over, and at that point my experience with a manual transmission was very limited. I felt bad for his clutch. As we got closer to Concord, I started to experience that awful thing that your body does when it knows you are close to your own toilet. It just wants to be home, so it starts putting on the pressure. We both had a huge laugh at this, because the closer we got to home, the worse I had to go, and the better my shifting got. Within 2 miles of my house, you would have thought I was an F1 driver the way I was shifting. Soiling myself was not the way I wanted to close that day.

So as I write, I realize that this could easily turn into a book. If I don't start to wrap this up, I will be writing 'til the wee hours of the morning.

Zack Tellier is my hero. He gave his life bravely, doing what he could to make a difference. He gave his life so that we could be here in comfort and safety. I cannot not thank him enough for what he has done for me in my life by being my friend. A day will not pass that I won't think of him and what he has given for all of us.


Article about Zack in the Union Leader

Thanks for the support!

This post is just a quick one to thank everyone for their ideas. I don't think the hard part is going to be the cleanup. It will be keeping it clean and getting the community involved to help. It is going to be a long slow process, but I think it is worth fighting for. I don't want my blog to become a forum for this, so this is the last you will hear of it until there is something big happening with it.

Thank you all again!

Day at the Park

Anyone who grew up on the west side of Manchester knows about Rock Rimmon. It is the place we were all told to stay away from when we were kids because "Bad People" hang out there. You can see how this would be true because of the fact that the back side of the rock ends at the Kimball Street Housing Projects.

It was Sunday morning, and the family and I decided to go to the playground at the school at the bottom of Rock Rimmon. It is called Northwest Elementary. There is also a pool and a park here that has a separate playground. We have been here before to play and it is an ok place.

Rock Rimmon overlooks the school and park. How bad could this place be on a Sunday morning, right? We decided to head over to the trail that goes up to the top of the rock. Going around the backside of the school/pool, we passed an area where someone had a little fire and a 30 pack of Bud Light a few nights before. I found this a little disturbing, as in a few years my kid would be going to that school if if he was to go to public school.

Next we passed through the sad little park, which you could have mistaken as a dump. There was trash all around the few pieces of playground equipment that was there. We decided to hurry the boy past this stuff and coax him to the head of the trail.

Now before I go any further with my story, let me explain Rock Rimmon a little better. It is a big rock face that you can walk up to the top of fairly easily in about 5 minutes. The rock face overlooks the park and the school. It is ~ 5 stories tall I would say. I know that some people use it for repelling and rock climbing, as there was a family there that day doing just that.

Ok, we are now at the trail head. The rocks on the ground near the entrance are large and misshapen and difficult to walk on. This mixed with the large amount of broken glass on the ground made for a situation where I was uncomfortable with my son walking on his own. I took him by the hand and lead him to smoother ground just inside the woods.

The amount of trash just past the trail head was unbelievable. It easily doubled, and in some spots tripled from what we had seen in the park. Lots of broken glass and random food garbage was strewn everywhere. I had never been to the top of the rock before, so we pushed on.

About 50 yards up the trail, we came upon something terribly disturbing. There in the middle of the trail was a small, used hypodermic needle. It absolutely blew my mind. Here in this park behind my ward's elementary school, some asshole was shooting IV drugs and leaving their paraphernalia behind for some kid to stick themselves on. It was a slap in the face by reality, waking me up to the times that we live in. Had my son been walking ten feet in front of us, he could have picked it up and stuck himself with it. I was totally disgusted.

We moved on past the needle up the trail, but the image of that needle was burning in my brain. I turned around and my wife was taking a picture of my son, who was doing something cute, like he always does. At that point, something clicked in my brain. I asked for the camera and told them to go ahead. I needed to make someone aware of what was going on here.

I went back and took several pictures of the needle lying there in the trail. After, I picked it up with some leaves and moved it to the side of the trail, which was the best I could do at the time. It was still visible, but out of the path where some child might stumble upon it.

I quickly caught up to my family to continue the hike. 20 feet from where I met back up with them, there was an empty pack of blunt wraps on the ground. Another Kodak moment and we were on our way. The rest of the hike up was uneventful, except for the beer cans and broken glass which seemed to be a common theme with this trail.

The view from the top of the Rock is absolutely gorgeous. You can clearly see all the way to the other side of the city. It is a shame that this place is as fouled as it is. The people who overtook this place came not for the beauty, but for a place to get drunk, high and laid in a place that would be to cumbersome and unsafe for the police to patrol. I suggest the hike to anyone, as it is well worth it. Just make sure you go in the morning to avoid trouble. Even a lunch up there would be safe I think.

The way down was more of the same. This time we had the joy of finding condom wrappers amongst the beer cans and rolling paper. At least the scumbags that were trashing my parks and schools had the courtesy of not reproducing. (I say mine because I am a tax paying land owner in Manchester, so I carry the burden of the city through my taxes.)

So, evidence in hand, I went home and put together a nice travelogue of my day's adventure and emailed it right off to my Alderman. I have never done such a thing before, so I had no expectation of what the response would be. I was pleasantly surprised when the next day I received a response from him, and the officer in charge of community projects at my local police station.

The email from my alderman was to inform me that the police had a department that handles this sort of thing, and that he was forwarding a copy of my email to them. The last sentence was a heartbreaker though. He told me that two months ago, CityYear(who I have volunteered with in the past on cleanup projects) had done a cleanup on this park. Two months was all it took for the filth to infiltrate the park again. Ouch...

The second email from the police department was very nice. They explained that they were well aware that Rock Rimmon has always been a problem. He said that they give that park as much attention as they can afford with the amount of officers they have. He also said they are constantly chasing people out of there who are having bonfires and partying. He told me that he had connections to organizations that helped with cleanups, and would provide any support he could if I wanted to organize a cleanup. I am very happy with this response. I think that it would be unfair for me to say, "This park needs a cleanup, so you go do it." We all need to take responsibility for our community. I have been stewing for a few days about what to do. A cleanup is much needed, but will it be pointless if no one can do the upkeep?

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. I want to take this treasure back for the community.

A picture of the park

The family and I went to the park last weekend in Hooksett. My Son calls it the "Rocket Park", as they have a large slide shaped like a rocket. He has a friend that lives near there and so this has become his favorite park.

There are some train tracks that run down by the river behind the park, so Mama and Baby decided to show them to me. I didn't know they existed there, so I was anxious to check them out. You can find neat crap sometimes down by the tracks.

As we approached the tracks, there was an odd black cable that was strung across the path up in the trees. Upon tracing them back, I discovered that they are old power lines. The pole in the picture above is what they were attached to. The hill in the back of the picture is the edge of some soccer fields on the outskirts of the park.

Seeing this photo while going through the pictures got me thinking. There has to be a lot of great old places to explore in New Hampshire. I am going to make that my new hobby. I will capture my explorations in photos so I can share with you all. If anyone has any suggestions of places to see, please let me know. I am thinking that one of my first stops is going to be an abandoned town that I read about. That will come in a few weeks after things dry up a little, as it is a hike through the woods.

"George and the Squirel played nut hockey 'til the sun went down."

Where did everyone go?

I have always had a deep interest in abandoned places. I am not sure where this stems from, but it is something that has been with me since I was a small child. I think that I like to look at places like this and imagine what they were like when they were still inhabited.

Growing up in my grandmothers house, I found interest in our attic. This used to be a room for my uncles when they were growing up. There were still Jefferson Airplane posters on the walls, and reel to reel tapes up there. It also happened to be a catch all for junk over the years. There was a stack of 78 rpm glass records up there that were interesting to look at, though I did not know the artists that recorded them. A nine year old boy growing up in the 80's would not have knowledge of music recorded in the 1940's.

It was a treasure trove up there, although I never took anything out of there. I would just go up there when I was bored and poke through the random items that were forgotten up there for 20+ years.

A short walk away was my great grandfather's house. This was a truly amazing place to me. It was built in the later half of the 1800's and was a farm when it was built. My great grandfather was up there all alone, as my great grandmother had died before I was born. I would go up and visit him from time to time. He had really neat things like an old stereoscope. For those of you who don't know what that is, think Viewmaster. He had great old slides of scenery and famous places. Most of the rooms in that very large house had gone untouched for years. It was built to hold a family, and all of the help that it took to run a good sized farm.

On the property were several old barns and buildings. There was a collapsed silo with a small one room building attached. Inside that building was a machine, that to this day I have no idea what it did. It looked sort of like a washing machine, but that made no sense for it to be in there. There were also lots of neat bottles in there that I also do not know what they were for. I am guessing that all of this stuff had something to do with milk processing.

Up on the hill that the farm house was built, was a large stone structure in the middle of the field. It was square, about eight feet high, and fifteen feet square. It stepped in one foot, about half way up. The only entrance to this odd structure was a three foot square hole in the center of the roof, which was flat. You can imagine the ideas that a child's mind could think up as a purpose for this strange structure. Like a monolith, it jutted up from the horizon when I would stare out the back windows of my house.

Now I won't leave you in suspense of what this structure actually is. It used to have a regular roof on it, and was used as a water storage tank. There was a windmill down at the lake that would drive a pump. That pump would push the water up the hill and into the tank. From there it gravity fed to the house. It was pretty ingenious.

So this all brings me to my current interest. There are a bunch of wackos on the internet that think the same way as me!!! Can you imagine? I have found lots of great sites on abandoned asylums, ghost towns and other neat places. Some of them have pictures that are mind blowing. It is like they just all walked out and locked the doors. There are things still set up as if someone was still working there.

I am going to list a few of my favorite sites that I have found over the years. I hope you will find some interest in them as well.

www.kiddofspeed.com
I thought I would pu this one first, as we are two days away from the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. This website is done by a Russian girl that takes trips through the dead zone around Pripyat and the abandoned reactor. It is really interesting to see all of the Soviet era signs and pictures on the buildings. I just found this site the other day and really have enjoyed it.

www.mountainsanatorium.net/
This site is all about the Essex Mountain Sanitorium located in Verona, NJ. Actually, it was located there but has recently been demolished. The author of this site has some things they collected from the site before it was torn down and some good pics as well. This was one of the first sites that I found on the subject and continues to be one of my favorites. It looks creepy on the front page but is very interesting once you get into it.

www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com
A treasure in our own back yard. This is a site dedicated to the presevation of the Danvers State Insane Asylum in Danvers, MA. Danvers State Asylum had a movie filmed at it in the last few years called Session 9. I found it to be an interesting movie, worth a rental. The style of the building is called Kirkbride, named after the man who designed it. The shape of the building was supposed to promote healing. There were several built in this style, which from above looks like a giant bat. This site isn't as interesting as the previous two, but still is informational.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/mainpage.html
This page has a listing of several of the asylums in the US and their current state. It is a good launching point for finding other asylums.

http://rana--x.livejournal.com/
This is a blog from a girl named Rana-X. She has lots of great pictures of abandoned places around the US. I found this one recently and really like her pictures.

Check out these sites and see what you think. I am interested in the places, not for what they were, but why they were left the way they were.
Enjoy 'em

I am 8-bit. I got 16/16 on the 8-Bit Gamer test. Take the test!

Yeah, this is what my childhood was all about! I'll admit, I did have to cheat on one of them, because it came from a game I have never played. It is still fun for all of the old gamer geeks out there. Give it a try and let me know how you did.

Here is another one:

Have fun with these. I did.

I am finishing writing a piece that I have been working on for a week or so now. I am not sure how to classify it. Not quite a poem. Not a short story. Just a collection of thoughts, written as my brain interprets them and drips them out of the end of a pen on to the sheets of pressed paper pulp. I think I will be ready to share it soon. Maybe tomorrow...

My Motto:

"It's not a fault, it's a feature!"

Time For More Stories!

I added a link to my other site where I keep my stories. It is on the right hand side and is called "My Stories". I did it this way so the links don't get buried in old posts.

The newest post is "Masonry - Brought to Light" This was the second paper I had to write for English. The paper had to be on a Concept. The concept could be anything; we only had to be able to explain that concept. I picked Masonry because it is something that a lot of people have heard of, but don't have a clear idea of what it is. Most of what I know about Masonry I learned by word of mouth. That made it very easy to write this paper.

I earned an A on this paper, as well as the first one I did. If you have any questions, leave me a post and I would be happy to get back to you!

You stay classy New England...