William D. Paine

October 2013 NWTA

Posted on 13 October 2013 by Bill Paine

New Brothers & Staff
NY/Metro-NJ October 2013 NWTA

What a wonderful group of men! Over the weekend of October 3-6, a staff of 36 men initiated 30 participants into a new way of being, the way of the New Warrior. I was privileged to be on the staff as a member of the Elder team.

This was our community’s first training at a new site, Surprise Lake Camp in Cold Spring, NY. We had reluctantly concluded that our old site, Camp Sunrise in Harriman State Park, was becoming too run down, so after a long search (there are not many suitable sites available) we decided to try SLC, a Jewish summer camp that offers facilities in the off-season for groups and events. Located in a valley between Breakneck Ridge and another ridge line north of the town of Cold Spring, the camp straddles a long narrow lake amid many groves of maples and other deciduous trees—there were very few pines of any type. The leaves were just beginning to turn, painting the landscape with beautiful red and orange highlights.

The site is not perfect. Being in a steep-sided valley, moving around the site meant climbing up and down steep hillsides—my legs and knees were not happy! Also, the site is not as private as Camp Sunrise—there’s a staff on site, and the potential for other groups to be present elsewhere on the grounds. None of these, to my mind, were insurmountable issues as long as we were cognizant of them. The spaces we were given exclusive use of were excellent, including a large gym-cum-playhouse we used as the “pit” and a lovely old high-ceiling dining/meeting area we used as the staff room. The sleeping quarters were much better then we’ve been used to at Camp Sunrise and included good solid camp bunks. We were even able to use an isolated section (a long climb uphill!) for the Brother Dance, an evolution that needs to be both outdoors and private.

But beyond all these site considerations, the important thing is that the training went off with hardly a hitch. The staff worked very well together—there was a lot of “lover” energy present, and a willingness to be flexible and let what happens happen. Staff men have been checking in on the list serve with what they’ve heard from the participants, and so far it’s been very positive—the new brothers felt cared for in our hands and seem to have got what they came to the weekend to get.

For me personally, I felt increasingly confident in my role as an elder on the weekend. Without going through a long explanation, I was in a role that gave me a special connection to one of the Co-Leaders (assistant leaders in MKP jargon); that connection made this weekend a particularly deep one for me. The head of my elder team, the Ritual Elder, is a man I deeply respect and admire, so I learned a lot about how to stand in that elder space, the King energy that blesses and commissions the deeds of the warrior.

This Wednesday evening (October 16), the new brothers and staff will be gathering again in Manhattan for a Homecoming Celebration. The new brothers will speak about their experience, and their friends and families will get an opportunity to remark on what changes they’ve seen in these men. We’ll also have some drumming and, of course, lots of food. Give me a call if you’d like to come!

Posted in ManKind Project | Tagged NWTA, Surprise Lake Camp | Leave a comment

Green Bay as of Mid-August

Posted on 15 September 2013 by Bill Paine

Although Andrew and I were not able to go up to the North Country over Labor Day weekend this year, Andrew and my mother went up earlier in August. My Aunt Jan (mom’s sister) rented a house in Saranac Lake to host a gathering of her kids and grandkids. Since Mark and his family are in Florida, and Bethany and her kids are in Alaska, getting all of them in one place is no easy feat; further, with Jan now living in Florida instead of nearby Garrison, NY, it’s even rarer for my mom to see her neice and nephew and all the grand-neice/nephews. Mom and Andrew stayed in Saranac Lake for a night, then drove over to Essex to stay with my great-Aunt Frisky for a few days.

While he was in Essex, Andrew went over to Green Bay to check the renovation progress. Originally, the Fritzes hoped to have Green Bay ready in time for their August vacation in Willsboro, but construction realities were such that the house was nowhere near ready by then—no big surprise to anyone who has ever been involved in such projects. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made since my last update, and Andrew generously provided me with a series of new photos to document it.

On the exterior, most of the shingling on the wings and the upstairs dormers has been completed. Instead of the former white paint scheme, the Fritzes are going with a very light yellow-beige; I haven’t heard if the shutters are being replaced, or, if so, if they will be green or some other color. The north (bedroom) wing looks rather bare without shutters, but the kitchen wing has more windows more closely spaced together, so shutters there might not work. Obviously, there’s no room for shutters on the upstairs dormer, except possibly at the center and either end.

At the southern (kitchen wing) end of the house, I’ve been told that the stairs you see in the picture at right are temporary and that the porch will be accessed only from within the house. The old circle driveway will be removed and turned into lawn, which should make the porch a very pleasant place to spend time. The new entrance (“back door”) to the house is around the corner to the left, where you can see a smaller entrance portico.

The interior is where you can see the most progress. Last time we had pictures, framing had been completed but little drywall had gone up, making it difficult (in a two-dimensional picture) to visualize the shape of the new rooms. Now, with the walls largely in place and with a sneak look at the blueprints, I’m able to say more about the new rooms and give you a better sense of where they are.

At left is the new entrance into the kitchen wing, taken facing west from in front of the “old” back door (which is now the entrance to the porch). I’m assuming that this space will be used as a mud room, perhaps with hooks for coats. I’m also guessing that the doorway visible to the right of the entrance is either a closet/storage space or a bathroom.

At right is a view down the kitchen wing hallway towards the doorway to the patio, taken from the same spot as the previous picture but looking north. The hallway walls end about two-thirds of the way down, opening into the new kitchen/family room at the right (through the columns) and the new dining room at the left. The doorway in the hall at the left is either a storage room or a bathroom. A new doorway onto the patio is at the end of the hall, and just to the left of that you can see new french doors opening from the dining room onto the patio.

The next photo shows the new dining room, viewed from the kitchen/family room looking west through some scaffolding. The french doors leading out to the patio are on the right side—assuming there are screen doors attached, these will make for a lovely dining experience when opened onto the patio in the evenings. I can also see how this will make for easy entertaining as guests move from cocktails on the patio to the meal inside, or manage a buffet with the food behind screen doors and seating on the patio.

Although I have pictures of the kitchen/family room space, aside from putting up dry-wall and some painting, the space remains essentially as seen in prior photographs. The new fireplace has been faced with stone and lined with brick, and looks a lot less stark as a result.

As previously described, the center section of the house has undergone major reconfiguration. A new hallway now traverses the west side (patio side) of the structure from the door to the bedroom wing to a new doorway leading into the kitchen wing. This hallway is really a “T” as it intersects with the original front hall at the patio doorway. The remainder of the former dining room, pictured at right looking west towards the new hallway, is a new library with a large angled fireplace in the south-west corner of the room. Judging from where the stone facing ends at the left side of the fireplace, I’m guessing there will be bookshelves built into that wall.

The remainder of the living room, now a den, is even smaller, since between the den and the transverse hallway is a small laundry room. The picture at left shows the fireplace, rebuilt but in the same location as the original living room fireplace, with a soon-to-be-installed mantlepiece. Although I cannot be sure of this, the mantlepiece appears to be the original one, which pleases me—the den’s fireplace will look essentially the same as the old living room fireplace, and with a comfy chair placed nearby I can still picture my dad there, an echo of the old house.

Upstairs, the addition of the walls now makes the new layout much clearer. This next picture shows a walk-in closet/dressing room in the space where the old bathroom used to be. You can see the original door to the attic above the bedroom wing. I’m told that the Fritzes will continue to use the cedar closet that my grandfather installed in that attic, which makes sense considering how well cedar protects clothing from moths and other creepy-crawlies.

Taken from about the same place, but turned to face east, this next picture shows the stairway leading down to the front hall in the center and the door to one of the two upstairs bedrooms at left; just visible is the entrance to the other bedroom at the extreme right edge of the photo. The Fritzes intend the upstairs to be their master suite, so I am guessing they follow the English custom of separate bedrooms for husband and wife—or, they may have decided to share the upstairs with a guest room.

Turning further to the right, facing south, is a view of the new upstairs bathroom. I had wondered if the old claw-foot tubs were being retained, and it looks like they are, at least in this location.

The next picture shows the interior of the southern upstairs bedroom, looking south-east. The one feature of the remodeled house that continues to bother me is the new upstairs dormer on the road (east) side of the house. It just looks out of scale with the rest of the structure and has none of the charm of the three old dormers. However, from the inside, as this picture clearly shows, the new dormer does create a fantastic space with tons of light and great views over the fields towards the lake and the Vermont mountains. While I earnestly wish a different solution could have been found, I certainly understand why it was done and what the benefits are to the interior space.

The bedroom wing continues to be the least changed in general layout. A new jack-and-jill bathroom is shaping up between the two east (road side) bedrooms, and the two original bathrooms are being reconfigured to open directly into the west bedrooms and not the hall. The hallway alcove that contained doors to the patio, the guest bathroom, and the linen closet has been walled off, with most of the space going to an expansion of the guest bathroom (now the bathroom for the first of the west bedrooms). The former master bathroom no longer opens onto the hall, instead opening into the other west bedroom (ex-master bedroom). I’m not posting pictures of this as, except for some painting, there’s no real changes from the last set of photos.

My next trip to Willsboro will probably not be until one of the holiday long weekends in January or February. I would imagine by then the house will be essentially complete, and if I’m allowed to go in I’ll make sure to document the end results.

Posted in Family | Tagged Green Bay, Willsboro | Leave a comment

Selected to Staff October NWTA

Posted on 15 August 2013 by Bill Paine

Last week, I learned that I was selected to be on the staff of the Mankind Project NY Metro community’s fall New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA), scheduled for the weekend of October 4-6 this year. Staffing is a great privilege and for me a great joy as well; this will be my fifth, and my third as a “declared elder” in the community.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with MKP jargon, a declared elder simply means that I am (a) 50 or older and (b) have chosen to embrace an identity as an elder in the community. Elders, in addition to whatever other roles we choose within MKP, are expected to embody balanced King energy, the energy of blessing and discernment, wise leadership and counsel. On the NWTA weekends, we help support the rest of the staff and the weekend leaders by being aware of when one of them may be slipping into shadow or taking a “hit” emotionally.

If any of you would like to know more about MKP and the NWTA, please call me–it made (and continues to make) a big difference in my life, and I think it might do the same for you or a man you know.

Posted in ManKind Project | Tagged Elder, NWTA | Leave a comment

Green Bay Renovation Progress

Posted on 15 June 2013 by Bill Paine

Andrew and I were in Willsboro over the Memorial Day weekend to volunteer for and cheer on the participants of Camp Poko’s Patch Sprint adventure race. It was a wild and wet weekend with temperatures peaking in the low 40’s amid steady rains and drizzles. There was even a report of 3 feet of snow up on Whiteface Mountain! Full details of the race are found on the link above.

Our cousin Peter graciously provided us with accommodations at Red Farm, one of houses on the property, but being curious we wandered down to Green Bay to see how the renovations were progressing. The short answer is they are progressing a lot—there’s far more being done to the house than even my January explorations were suggesting. In fact, it’s barely recognizable as the same house.

As you can see from the first two pictures, there’s been some significant changes to the front of the house. Originally, there were brick and concrete walkways at the front of each wing—these have been completely removed (the stone-capped pillars and iron railings that decorated the front edge of the walkways having been removed not long after my father died). The bedroom wing’s window arrangement is the same with new efficient windows installed.

The kitchen wing’s windows are completely changed, along with the addition of a bay window, matching the interior redesign (discussed below). On both wings, the chimneys have been removed (along with the interior chimney stacks), while the chimneys on either end of the center section of the house have been widened. The chimney on the left, previously a faux chimney, is now a working one (see below).

The biggest change is to the second floor, where the three peaked-roof window dormers have been replaced with one long rectangular dormer covered in windows. I’m told that my cousins-in-law did not like how the entry structure around the front door looked, so what you see here is apparently going to be replaced with something else.

At the rear of the house, the patio has been removed—I’m assuming that some kind of replacement will be installed, but I don’t know what that will look like at this point. You can also see from the picture at the right that the doors that opened from the dining room onto the patio have been restored as windows matching the living room windows on the left (but, see below for interior changes!).

As with the front of the house, the second floor dormers have been replaced with one long dormer, which with the one on the road side have greatly increased the amount of usable space on the second floor.

In the next picture, you can see the stairway leading down to the basement. While located in the same place as the old exterior basement entrance, this has been rebuilt and the covering shed structure removed. From what I’m told, the space above the stairway, where the gun room and maid’s room used to be, is going to be the new dining room, although with the open plan of the new kitchen it may or may not be a separately enclosed space.

The new “rear” entrance to the house, which will most likely be daily main entrance, is located to the right of the new dining area, occupying the corner where the old back storage room was (for continuity, the ladder at the right of the picture above continues into the picture at right). The doorway opens into a hallway (and mudroom, probably) extending to the porch door (where the old back door was). Part of the new back porch is visible to the right. While not readily apparent from this photo, the steps and landing leading up to the new back door are build over what used to be the “L” at the back of the basement workshop, where the generator and the well/water tank were located. This area has been walled off and back-filled.

At left you can see the big changes made in the kitchen wing. This picture was taken from approximately where the old back sitting room was located. The pantry has been removed, and the ceiling now extends up into what was the attic to create a vaulted ceiling look. The entire area comprising the old kitchen, the sitting room, the bathroom, the pantry and the stairway to the basement is now one open space (the basement stairway has been re-located to the old front-hall closet space). A new large fireplace has been added into what was the wall between the pantry and the dining room, and the old doorway to the dining room (the white patch to the right of the fireplace) has been replaced by a doorway to the left of the fireplace. To the left of this picture, the space between the old back door (now the door onto the new porch) and the patio door continues to be a hallway of sorts, although with just the studs and various temporary supports in place it’s difficult to envision it all.

For the most part, the changes in the kitchen wing did not come as any big surprise (although the new fireplace did!). The changes in the center section, however, did surprise me. The new doorway from the kitchen into the center section doesn’t lead into a dining room, but into a newly created hallway that runs across the entire rear of the center section, from the new doorway to the bedroom wing doorway. This new hallway takes up part of the former dining room, the front hall and the former living room. The picture at right is taken from the front hall, standing in front of the patio door and looking towards the bedroom wing. Through the studs, you can see the living room fireplace, which has been rebuilt in roughly the same location.

At left is the former dining room, taken from just in front of the doorway to the front hall. Just out of frame to the left is the now blocked-up doorway to the former pantry, and the new corner-oriented fireplace is sitting roughly where the sideboard used to be. I can only guess at what this room’s purpose will be, but it should make for a very nice library, a more formal living room (I assume the “family room” will be in the kitchen with the great fireplace), or some other such use. There appears to be an entrance leading into the new rear hallway as well as the prior and still extant entrance into the front hall.

Where the living room used be is now also a smaller space with the aforementioned hallway and some intervening rooms (closet and powder room?) reducing the over all size to a little over half the dimensions. In the picture at right, the fireplace is still in the original location and the window at its right is located where the bookcase used to be. As with the former dining room space, it’s not clear what this room will be used for—the only entrance is from the front hall.

Upstairs, as mentioned above, the front and rear long dormers have created a much larger space. I’ve heard rumors that the upstairs will be the new master suite, but of course with only the studding in place I can’t be sure what the configuration will be. The picture at left gives you an idea of how much room has been created (the stairwell helps with scale).

Of all the changes to Green Bay, the modifications to the upstairs are the only ones I really don’t like. I fully understand the desire to create more usable space up there—the former configuration of the dormers and walls was inefficient. I can also understand the desire for lots of windows on the front side of the house to look out on the great views of the lake and the Vermont mountains. The long rectangular dormer filled with windows, however, simply looks ugly from the road side of the house. It doesn’t fit the style of an old brick farmhouse and makes the entire thing too rectilinear. The long dormer on the rear of the house works—the one on the front doesn’t. But, I’m not living there anymore and I’m not paying the bills, so I don’t get a vote.

The bedroom wing is still recognizable as it was; the construction going on there is solely to provide each bedroom with “en suite” bathroom access. The guest bathroom now has a door leading directly into the guest bedroom, and it appears that the bathroom is being extended in length to encompass what used to be the linen closet and the small section of hallway where the patio door was (that door has been blocked up). Between Molly’s room and the dressing room, the old fireplaces, chimney and closets have been removed and replaced by back-to-back closets and a shared bathroom. A doorway has also been cut from the master bedroom into the master bathroom—it’s not clear if the original bathroom door into the hallway will be retained or not.

There’s obviously a lot more work to be done. Jan and his family hope to be able to use the house this August, but personally I think that’s optimistic. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to seeing more progress when I go up to Willsboro at the end of June.

Posted in Family | Tagged Green Bay, Memorial Day, Willsboro | Leave a comment

Live Your Life

Posted on 15 March 2013 by Bill Paine

I recently finished a great book called Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior, by Rorke Denver and Ellis Henican. LCDR Denver is a US Navy SEAL, most recently assigned as the head of SEAL training. He’s also one of the stars of the movie Act of Valor, playing a character largely based on himself.

SEALs are a breed apart, consummate warriors and arguably the elite of the elite among special forces operators. Commander Denver’s book is largely autobiographical, using his own career and experiences beginning with Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, through combat in Iraq and other murkier parts of the world, and recurring stints in charge of various aspects of SEAL training, to illustrate how SEALs are made and what makes them so unique. It is a thoroughly fascinating book and I highly recommend it.

In one chapter dedicated to family life in the “teams,” LCDR Denver talks about the ever-present reality that SEALs say good-bye to their families and may not ever return. Some men write “death letters” to be opened and read by their families if that happens; Act of Valor ends on a moving example of this, and although Denver himself says he’s never written one of these, he talks about what he might say if he did. Prominent in his thinking is a poem attributed to Tecumseh, a Shawnee warrior and leader of a First Nations confederation that fought against the United States in the Old Northwest Territories before and during the War of 1812. The poem is also used in Act of Valor. I quote here the full version:

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Spirituality | Tagged Act of Valor, Book review, Navy SEALs, Tecumseh | Leave a comment

RIP Old Laptop

Posted on 17 February 2013 by Bill Paine

My trusty old laptop finally bit the dust this past week when its keyboard decided to go crazy. At first, it just refused to work, and then it started randomly typing characters—not fun, and definitely not conducive to orderly work flow. So, reluctantly and wondering just how I could afford it, I went shopping for a new laptop.

As things turned out, I found a pretty good deal on Newegg.com, an online computer equipment emporium, where they offer zero interest financing as long as the balance is paid off within 12 months. That really took some of the heat off my cash-flow worries. I ended up with a relatively high-end machine, a Toshiba Qosmio X875. It had all the features I needed (plus a lot I really don’t need but are fun to have!) at a reasonable price compared to similarly featured machines. I ordered it on Tuesday afternoon and received it Wednesday afternoon—because the warehouse is in New Jersey, I could get next-day delivery for $19 and change, only a few dollars more than regular shipping.

So there I was, sitting with a brand new computer. First, I had to figure out Windows 8, which involved unlearning a lot of muscle memory on where to find certain functions and tasks and retraining myself on the new interface. That’s an ongoing issue. Next, I needed to recover all my documents and files, a task made infinitely easier by Carbonite, an on-the-fly backup service I’ve been using for several years now. Carbonite took about 30-plus hours to download the files, and by-and-large managed to put them in logical places on the new machine. It took some tweaking to get my email archives restored, and there are still a few files scattered around in odd places, but everything I really need is right where I want it.

I’m still getting used to the new machine, but one thing I’ve really noticed is how much faster it is than my old one. I forgot how quickly computing power increases, even over a relatively short period of time. My old laptop was about five years old, which is ancient in the world of computers—I’ve gone from driving a Yugo to a Ferrari. Zoom!

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged Laptop, Windows 8 | Leave a comment

Green Bay Renovations

Posted on 4 February 2013 by Bill Paine

As usual, I went up to Willsboro over the MLK holiday long weekend, leaving Friday 18 January and returning Monday 21 January. This was the first time I’ve been up since we moved out of Green Bay, so going up there definitely brought up mixed feelings. Originally, both Andrew and I planned to go up, and our cousin Peter had generously offered us rooms at his house Red Farm. Andrew, however, could not break free from some other commitment, so I went up solo and stayed with our friend John Rayburn at his newly renovated/winterized house Birchcliff out on Willsboro Point—John has cats, and even though they were not there for this trip, Andrew’s allergies would have made staying there difficult for him if he’d come along.

John and I had a great weekend, very relaxed and comfortable with our usual mix of music, cigars and hockey. We put in the obligatory appearance at the North End Tavern, and I helped John entertain friends by cooking diner Saturday evening (Garlic & Oil Pasta).

While up there, I drove over to River Road to check out Green Bay. I knew that Jan Fritze, the cousin who took over the house, had extensive renovation plans (long overdue!) and that work was due to begin this past fall, but I had only second-hand information on what those plans were and what timeline was involved. I’d heard that the kitchen wing was slated for a complete makeover, changing it into a more open-plan modern family kitchen design, and that the upstairs was due for major reconfiguration to create more usable space up there. I’d also heard that plans were in place to make bathrooms in the bedroom wing directly accessible from the bedrooms, but I had no information on what that might entail.

In fact, there’s much more renovation work going on than I thought. The first space I entered was the kitchen wing, and as you can see from these pictures the entire interior has been deconstructed down to the studs. This first picture shows the view from what was the doorway to the dining room—the white chimney is where the stove stood, with the kitchen parlor behind it. To the right of the chimney you can see the stairs leading down the the basement, in front of which you can make out an “L” shaped strip of the old maroon linoleum kitchen flooring. In the foreground are some studs that mark where the wall between the kitchen and the pantry stood.

This next picture shows a view from the same vantage point, but turned towards the right to look down what had been the pantry hallway. At the end of the hall you can see one of the (I think) temporary stud walls (the newer, brighter wood) which I suspect were added to give structural support before removing the old stud-walls and opening up the space. The temporary wall is located inside what had been the gun room; the little maids room was centered on the second window from the right.

This last look at the kitchen wing is taken standing in front of the door that leads from the old pantry out to the terrace, looking down the old hallway towards the back door. Some of the temporary walls are more clearly visible, continuing down through the maids room and the “put” room.

All of the deconstruction in the kitchen wing came as no surprise given what I knew of the planned renovations, but I was really bemused when I stepped into the dining room. It also was stripped down to the substructure, which on reflection would make sense if infrastructure improvements like new wiring, plumbing, heating/cooling and so forth are also being done. What was intriguing, however, was what I saw under the supports for plaster lathe work.

This first picture is a bit dim due to the strong light coming in from outside, but you can see that the lathe supports were added on top of pre-existing wallpapered plaster, which itself had been placed directly on the interior of the house’s brick walls. My guess is that the old plaster and wallpaper were there before the wings were added in the early part of the 20th century.

This next picture is a close-up of the old wallpaper. You can clearly see how lathe supports for later plastering were added on top of it, and an even later addition of an electrical fixture. I suspect this latter item dates from when my Grandfather purchased the house and re-did much of the wiring.

I was also fascinated by the interior bricks exposed. The central brick section of the house is the oldest part, possibly dating back as early as the 1840’s, with the wings being added in the 19-teens or 1920’s. Obviously there were a lot of changes made to the original brick structure when the wings were added. This next picture, of the south wall of the dining room (about where the sideboard stood), shows evidence of what may have been an old door or window that was bricked up when the wings were added. I also suspect that a hearth and chimney stood along that wall, although my best guess, based on structure visible in the basement, is that they were located more-or-less where the doorway to the pantry is located now.

Like the dining room, the living room has also been stripped down to the lathe supports, with evidence of older plaster and wallpaper behind them. The central hallway hasn’t been touched (you can see the back of the hallway’s plaster lathes), but I’m intrigued by the wide boards used in the wall between the living room and the hallway, visible in the right of this picture taken from the doorway to the bedroom wing.

At one time, the living room must have been two separate rooms. In this picture, you can clearly see a change in the structure three-quarters of the way along the wall between the living room and the hallway—that structure also looks newer, so I wonder if the hallway originally did not pass all the way from the front to the rear of the house. In addition to the structure change, the pattern of the old wallpaper also changes in the rear quarter of the room.

Upstairs, I was not at all surprised to see a more complete deconstruction given what I’d heard about Jan’s plan to expand the space up there. This view, taken from the head of the stairs, shows the upstairs hallway and hallway dormer, the door opening for the upstairs bedroom, and part of the bedroom beyond. What did surprise me was looking at the upstairs bathroom. I knew that the floor of the bathroom had been raised in order to make room for plumbing underneath. You can see this elevation difference in the picture at right, taken while standing on the stairs and looking towards the bathroom and the little storage room. In the process of creating the raised floor, however, the builders had to also move the wall behind where the bath-tub used to be further out to leave enough room under the slope of the roof. Behind the newer wall you can see remnants of the old wall, also with wallpaper over plaster. The picture at left gives a clearer view of the old wall, but you have to look carefully to realize it’s located a good 6 inches or more behind the visible studs. I considered exploring the attic to see if the ceder closet was still intact, but as you can see I was not at all sanguine about footing—you’re looking down into the living room!

The only solid information I had concerning plans for the bedroom wing was that some form of access was planned between the guest bedroom and the guest bathroom located next to it. I suspect that an entrance will be cut through the old linen closet into the bedroom, but aside from a gutted linen closet I didn’t see any evidence of construction/deconstruction in the bedroom itself. Across the hall, however I was really surprised to see the wall removed between “Molly’s room” and the dressing room. Essentially, the closets for both rooms have been removed, and I wonder if Jan plans to put a bathroom in there to give those rooms direct access to one.

My next trip to Willsboro will probably be over Memorial Day weekend for the Poko Patch Sprint. I’m eager to see what’s been done at Green Bay in the meantime.

Posted in Family, Friends | Tagged Green Bay, Willsboro | Leave a comment

“Superstorm” Sandy

Posted on 3 November 2012 by Bill Paine

First, let me reassure everyone that I and everyone in my immediate family came through Hurricane Sandy with no serious problems. My building is well outside any flood zones, and we never lost power during or after the storm. There are a few downed trees and branches throughout the neighborhood, but none that threatened me or mine. My mother’s building in Manhattan is also not in a flood zone and also never lost power.

The biggest challenge post-storm has been getting around the city. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the NYC subway system took it on the chin, with most of the tunnels connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn and Queens (especially those in downtown Manhattan) completely flooded out—some completely filled with sea-water up to the ceilings. De-watering efforts have been continuous and spectacular, but the loss of power in lower Manhattan meant that even with tunnels pumped out, trains had no juice to run. As of Friday (Nov 2), limited service was running on a few subway lines north of 34th Street—including, thankfully, the F train which runs out to my neighborhood and which uses a tunnel from Queens to Manhattan that escaped any flooding.

Meanwhile, surface bus service was re-started the day after the storm. As you can imagine, the buses have been packed with long lines on the major routes that parallel suspended subway lines. Add to this a very heavy increase in automobile traffic as commuters took to the roads due to suspended commuter rail services, and you can imagine the horrible gridlock that ensued. Traffic has eased somewhat thanks to HOV3+ restrictions placed on most of the major bridges and tunnels (those that weren’t flooded out anyway), but that adds yet another complication to getting around.

But all of this is really a minor inconvenience in relation to the devastation visited on other areas of the city, especially Staten Island and the Rockaways. I’m fortunate to have suffered no loss of life, health or property, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have, and still are, suffering so terribly.

Posted in Family | Tagged Flood, Hurricane Sandy, New York City | Leave a comment

Banking Blues

Posted on 9 September 2012 by Bill Paine

Ever since I stopped working at HSBC, I’ve wanted to extract myself from banking with them, but with a mortgage, credit card, checking, overdraft LOC, and other banking products all interlocked, I was afraid moving to a new bank would be too much of a hassle—and I was afraid that a new bank wouldn’t be able to replicate the automatic payments, overdraft protections and other features I had come to rely on. Besides, I continued to have free checking, courtesy of having a mortgage with HSBC, so there wasn’t a real incentive to move other than a general dislike of the institution.

And then HSBC finally got me mad. Like many of the large banks, they’ve decided to start charging a fee ($2.00 per transaction!) for using any ATM other than their own. No warning, no notice—the fee just started showing up in my account. This wouldn’t be a major issue if HSBC had branches on every corner, but they do not, and seldom do I find myself near a branch when I want to withdraw cash. Adding insult to injury, banks charge non-customers a fee to use their ATMs and bodega ATMs charge everyone. These fees can be anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00, so using my local bodega’s ATM now costs me $3.75 ($1.75 machine fee and $2.00 HSBC fee). Insert paint-stripping expletive here.

Meanwhile, I have been doing business with USAA ever since I insured my first car with them in 1981. Originally founded as a mutual auto insurance company for current and former military officers, USAA now offers a full range of financial services to all ranks of current and former military members, spouses and children. Among the expanded services is banking through their USAA Federal Savings Bank affiliate.

So I gave USAA a call. A very helpful customer service rep—based in San Antonio and not some call center half-way around the globe—directed me to the USAA web site, where I already had a user ID to service my auto insurance and a former brokerage account. Within minutes I was able to open a new checking account, establish a credit card, hook up overdraft protection, and set up automatic payment of the credit card balance. All my fears were for naught.

And here’s the really good news. Being an online bank with no bricks-and-mortar branches, USAA doesn’t charge me to use any ATM, and they refund monthly the fees that the ATMs themselves charge (up to a limit, but the limit is well above my typical usage). They have a great web site with bill pay and all the latest online banking tools, and I can make deposits using a phone app or by going into most UPS Stores—or by conventional mail if I’m feeling really old-school.

Bank accounts are a commodity these days, so if a bank is foolish enough to piss off its customers it is now very easy for those angry consumers to find somebody else to do business with. You have been warned.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged Bank, HSBC, USAA | Leave a comment

Don’t Wait

Posted on 30 July 2012 by Bill Paine

A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him. —Ezra Pound

William Wilberforce (Photo credit: Hull City Council)

Today, the Episcopal Church commemorates William Wilberforce (1759-1833), an English politician dedicated to abolishing slavery. Introducing a motion in Parliament to abolish slavery in 1788 with an impassioned three-hour oration (it was nevertheless defeated), Wilberforce re-introduced the same motion every year until finally, only four days before his death, the motion was adopted in July of 1833. A year later, over 800,000 slaves throughout the British Empire were set free.

The United States, as we all know, waited another 30 years before President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of a bloody civil war fought, among other reasons, over the issue of slavery.

Legalized chattel slavery is a thing of the past, thank God, although its horrible legacy still echoes through history to the present day. Yet, slavery as a state of mind continues very much in evidence, both for those who would enslave and those who would be enslaved. These two are often the same person, for we are capable all too often of enslaving ourselves to unquestioning acceptance of what is instead of freeing ourselves to imagine what might be.

Consider Ezra Pound’s quote above. My greatest weakness is a predilection for passivity in the face of challenges, for withdrawal in the face of disappointment. I avoid failure by enslaving myself to it—by accepting the results of failure without even attempting success. I wait for others to set me free, and yet there are no others capable of doing so. There is no Wilberforce that can break chains I myself have forged. I must be my own Wilberforce and set myself free, even if it takes a lifetime to achieve it.

Posted in Spirituality | Tagged Episcopal Church, Slavery, William Wilberforce | Leave a comment