Can you hear me now?

One thing that is glaringly apparent when I roam from My Wasp-y Old-New England Township is the amazing range of faces that adorn this planet.

My references here all come from magazines and TV and they are skewed at best. It is whatever hyped form of beauty that is currently being pushed down our gullets.

As we walked through the streets of NYC I was given a broader perspective. It was a veritable cornucopia of all that beauty can be.

I walked for three blocks focusing on nothing but everyone’s faces coming towards me. (Thanks go out to The Hubster for leading me and keeping me from crashing.) Each face so different in structure, features and colouring and each one held a strength and quiet beauty.

Young, old and everything in-between, I wished I had a camera inside my eyes so that I could snap each face that I looked into.

I keep my media horizons, mind and perspective current by subscribing to the electronic version of The New York Times. A breath of much needed fresh air considering I actually live a near hermit like existence in NH, rarely venturing outside my home more than twice a week and only for needed errands and supplies.

That’ll change as the weather warms, but even my walks take me in a loop around my rural end of the city opposite the hustle and flow of Main Street, which is no longer than one NYC block at best and a Tour de Boring at worst.


This is an insular place with lofty ideals and a city council of old self-importance that marks it’s territory in pissing matches while losing sight of what could be changes for the better.

Take our cell phone tower for instance. It’s there in the distance above town, shooting up from the highest hill sprouting those ridiculous fake evergreen branches that draw more attention than hide anything. For the last 7 years they have voted down any plan that would add another 10 feet in height to that pole that would allow all major cell phone carriers coverage up into this area.

There are tiny little Podunk villages all around Keene that have access to any and all cell phone carriers, but not us, no, that extra 10 feet which is nearly indiscernible from most perspectives has been deemed unsightly. So Keene remains a black hole of non-coverage.

Keene does however hold the Guinness Book Record for “Most Lit Jack O Lanterns in One Place” for 14 years running, so we do have that going for us.

I look forward to moving on from this place as each time I come back it feels like there’s a little less air available to breathe and my mind feels constricted.

Mind you, when we settle on our parcel of land in Orange/Ulster County, we will be building the picture of a proper mini-farm/estate, complete with horses, sheep, chickens and walking beef. There is nothing like the taste of organically raised, chicken, eggs, lamb, beef and veggies.

A beef for wine exchange has already been broached with a local winery and I look forward to bartering/exchanges with other local merchants and producers.

While that doesn’t sound anymore cosmopolitan then the life I now lead the Hubster and I also came to another realization while in NYC this past weekend; there is a loft purchase in our future and much more time to be spent in a city we love a little more with each successive visit.

Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Or in fact, your cell phone and use it too.



I mean besides the windbags who are running this town.

©2006 Dawn Marie Kelly, all rights reserved.