Stuff to See!

Trips to Chambersburg

I've been there four times now since Spring came. There is some appeal to this small town in south central Pennsylvania. Home of custom butchering and the Famous Hot Weiner Lunch, not to mention (I think) the home of Revolutionary War heroine Molly Pitcher (she'd deliver water to thirsty soldiers if I recall correctly). Nice little town. My friend Jacquie lives there and hates it.
Having lived in a relatively large city, or around one, all of my life, I find smaller towns a little disconcerting. I'm not sure how many people live there (I'm guessing 50,000 or so, but I'm almost certainly wrong), but things seem less hell-bent. I strolled through the projects and felt safer than I do in some parts of my hometown. Jacquie says they're the cleanest projects she's ever seen. I suppose she's right.
In terms of local attractions...well, there's certainly some stuff for the history buff. Downtown Chambersburg has loads of references to events which occurred long before my time. I didn't catch much of that, mostly because (1) I was visiting a long lost friend and (2) Gettysburg, an eminently more storied burg, is 25-30 miles to the east. On the whole, I've been to worse places. It seems peaceful, maybe a trifle boring unless you're an avid fisherman. The main excitement in town is a 24-hour Walmart Supercenter down the way on US 30. And a Hardees arsonist.
About 15 minutes down the street from the aforementioned bastion of our crumbling civilization is a rather nice state park. I don't remember the name of it for certain, but I think it has something to do with Caledonia (not the island off the coast of Australia, that's New Caledonia). This park was wild.
For one thing, I've always loved communing with nature, as hokey as that sounds. There's something about the feel of grass and dirt under my shoes that makes me feel a little less like an alien on this planet. Proximity to hunters only makes that feeling stronger, although I wasn't shot at this time. Too bad. The sun, the trees, the...things with legs who crawl upon the mud, I love it and I regret not spending more time out in the wilderness, although the effect was muted somewhat because I could still see cars driving by to the south.
For another thing, apparently this park played a role during the Civil War. I saw some fortifications erected by one side or the other during that bloody period, archaic and obscure to those who see them today. Like this dilapidated (literally) stone stair passage. On top of a stone bridge in the same location you can just barely see Jacquie. Neat stuff.
Go on, do it again.
Like my beloved Baltimore, this park saw some action from Hurricane Isabel in September 2003. All sorts of trees were knocked about or blown into each other, or split down the middle, or otherwise mangled by that wicked storm. For kicks, I snapped the underside of a really big overturned tree. It was really neat to see something 30 times older than myself thrown down in ruin by the elements.
I have no idea what the hell this is Was is an accident of nature (like mankind)? Or was it constructed by the hand of man? I'll never know and neither will you. Ha!!!
So naturally I come to thinking: do I want to live in a place like this? A sleepy little town with nothing in particular, not even a nuclear power plant, but relative peace and quiet. It's not totally idyllic, as the teenagers who aren't busy trying to get laid at Walmart will routinely go cruising around downtown looking for nothing in particular. Plus you could easily end up eating this regularly.
Or do I prefer to stay around a larger burg? With a baseball team.
Which reminds me, the Orioles are off to a decent start, although there are signs that the team may be coming back to earth. The starting pitching is inexperienced and pitching like it, mixing gems with crap with alarming regularity. The bullpen, a good one if used properly, is showing signs of wear from picking up the inconsistent starting rotation. The lineup is hitting pretty much about what one would expect, which has a lot to do with the winning record we have so far. The defense, though...
I'm not talking so much about Melvin Mora. He's picking up pretty well at the hot corner, despite some early gaffes. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like the O's are a lot more error prone than I remember in years gone by. I've been to two games already (both wins, including a stellar 88-pitch complete game by Ponson), but I must have seen around 8 or 10 defensive miscues. Ponson would have had a shutout if consecutive misplays on 5-3 and 4-6 exchanges hadn't occurred.
And then there's a maddening tendency, at least recently, to leave men on base. All teams leave men on base. All teams miss opportunities. The Orioles are no better or worse than any other average team in this regard. It just irks me, that's all.
Anyway, enough complaining. It's enough to see that they seem to be competitive right now. I don't think they'll contend for a playoff spot, at least until next year when the pitching may solidify. But a winning season is at least within the realm of possibility. I'll live with that.