A walk in the woods

Two of the nicest people in the world are Marysia and Bill Walpole. Marysia and Wendell share the same exact birthdate. They figured out that there is a good chance they were born within the same hour. Every year around their birthday, Wendell and Marysia have a big happry birthday to us love fest. It's all very touching.

On a couple of occasions over the last few years Bill and Marysia have invited Wendell and I to go for a walk in a 80-acre wood that borders their property. The woods are called Evergreen Forest and Marysia played a big role in a recent campaign to keep the woods from being turned into softball fields and such. The gray area north of Sheffield Dr in this map shows you the location of these woods. If it wasn't for the sounds of vehicles on nearby Independence Death Race 2000 then you wouldn't even know you were in the big city.

Saturday Wendell took a phone call from the Walpoles inviting us to go for a stroll through the woods. We gladly accepted their invitation and got there about 3 pm. You can get to the woods from their back yard by climbing over s step ladder that they prop up against their five-foot-high chain link fence. There is a small glade opposite their yard before you get into the forest proper. There are trails all over the place and we took one heading northeast. Bill wanted to show us the Geo cache he had found a few months ago. The cache was under under a dead tree and covered over with sticks and leaves and near what is known as 'the big hole'. I found it by kicking stuff after Bill and Wendell had given up. Don't uderestimate the effectiveness of destruction when searching for treasure.

We then meandered over to the big hole which is just what the name implies, a big hole in the middle of the woods. According to Bill the hole was there when he was a kid and Bill is in his forties. No one seems to know how the hole got there but from what I have gathered from Bill he would rather not know how it got there. It is a childhood mystery that he doesn't need solved.

Saturday really was about the perfect day for a walk. It was slightly overcast with fast moving clouds which took turns covering and revealing the sun. As this went on during our walk the colors inside the forest changed constantly from a subdued murkiness to a slanting autumn gold. Walking with Bill and Marysia is nice because they both are very familiar with the plant life of the woods.

We spent about an hour strolling casually through the woods, often leaving the paths. I enjoyed leaving the paths the most. It had been a very long time since I had walked through a wooded area with no path. It felt good to push through tangled sapplings, to feel felled and rotting trees break apart beneath your feet and to just have to pay attention so you wouldn't get your eye poked out by a branch. If you live in Charlotte you ought to check the woods out someday soon before all the leaves are gone. You can park at Evergreen Cemetery which you can enter from Central Ave.

Oh no!

Bill Moyers scared the crap out of me with this essay.

Read on the bus: A story and essay out of 'Expanded Universe' by Robert Heinlein. I have been reading 'From here to Eternity' but it's too damn heavy to carry every day.
Listened to on duh bus: Waco Brothers, 'New Deal.'

Best movie ever?

Could this possibly have a shot at being the best movie ever made or the best movie ever?